Date: 21 July 2026
Location: Tice’s Meadow & Runfold Ridge
Duration: 3.5 Hours
Habitat: Meadow, grassland, scrub and wetland margins
Species encountered: Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus), Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui), Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus), Hummingbird Hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum), Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius), Wasp Spider (Argiope bruennichi), Ruddy Darter (Sympetrum sanguineum), orb-weaver spiders and crab spiders.
Field Notes
Today I joined a group of five to complete the full 1,700 m butterfly transect across Tice’s Meadow and Runfold Ridge. We were experiencing another spell of warm weather, and butterfly activity remained good along the route. Walking through the different habitats also made it noticeable how the species and level of activity changed as the vegetation and surrounding habitat changed.
One of the standout moments for me was seeing a Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) settled with its wings fully open. I had not appreciated before just how vivid the blue of the upper wings can be. They can be surprisingly easy to overlook when they are moving quickly through the vegetation, but seeing one settled in the sunshine gave me the chance to properly appreciate its colour and markings.
I am also starting to notice far more invertebrates beyond the butterflies during these surveys, particularly spiders. Along the transect there were orb webs suspended between grass stems, small crab spiders waiting on flowers and several other spiders tucked amongst the vegetation.
The more time I spend surveying, the more I find myself looking beyond the species I am specifically there to record. Paying closer attention to the smaller details is beginning to reveal much more of what is happening within the habitat, and each visit seems to add something new to what I notice and recognise in the field.
Photographs
Badger Ecology 