As you may have seen in an earlier post, the extreme weather of spring and summer 2018 meant a tough year for farmers and wildlife alike, notably for our birds. Territory holdings and breeding success suffered for many species across the farm and now we can only hope to support as many birds as possible through the winter for a successful season next summer. However, the endless sunshine didn’t bring doom and gloom for everyone. For our pollinators the scorching summer sun brought great joy and a record year for us.

At Hope Farm, it’s not just our birds that we monitor to the national gold label standard. We also monitor our butterflies under the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. The surveys take place every week from April to September along three transects, and this year’s butterfly index was a record high…

Click here to read the rest of the article.: The Butterflies and the Bees – Hope Farm 2018 – Farming – Farming – The RSPB Community