Improving butterfly records in the historic Wychwood Forest area

TVERC Recorders’ Fund grant of £1,290 awarded in 2021

Butterfly records are almost non-existent in the historic Wychwood Forest area so, to address this, the Wychwood Forest Trust partnered with Butterfly Conservation’s Upper Thames Branch to train 50 local volunteer ‘butterfly champions’ in butterfly recording and encourage them to record butterflies throughout the 2022 recording season across the Wychwood area.

Thanks to the grant, volunteers were given expert training sessions across the historic Wychwood Forest area. During the engaging field sessions they gained confidence in identifying butterflies, were taught how to use butterfly nets as well as Butterfly Conservation’s iRecord Butterflies app and website, and learned the importance of recording.  

Over the years our grants have added valuable new records for moths to the county’s database so we look forward to hearing how these new ‘butterfly champions’ got on with their surveys in the coming years.