Wider Countryside Butterfly Scheme (WCBS)

UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme

Description

The Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey is part of the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS). The WCBS is a standarised monitoring scheme for monitoring widespread butterflies in the UK. It is based on sampling along transects within 1km squares selected at random across the UK (stratified by BTO or BC regional networks). Additional UKBMS data from traditional fixed transect sites, often called 'Pollard Walks' is available within a separate dataset – see https://registry.nbnatlas.org/public/show/dr1206.

The surveys are undertaken by volunteers and other recorders, who contribute their data free of charge. Where you use the information you must acknowledge the UKBMS using the following attribution statement: Contains UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) data © copyright and database right Butterfly Conservation, the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, British Trust for Ornithology, and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

Geographic Description

UK.

Purpose

As part of a national monitoring programme for butterflies.

Data quality

Confidence in the data is good. Automatic rules are used to classify some records as 'assumed correct'; other records are reviewed by expert verifiers.

Methods

In the WCBS, BC recorders are allocated randomly selected 1km squares within the county in which they live, whilst BTO recorders are given the opportunity to survey their existing Breeding Bird Survey squares. Both sets of surveyors are asked to survey these squares at least twice over the July and August period with visits spaced ten days apart. Optional visits are encouraged, especially in the spring to sample Orange-tip and for the first generation of bivoltine species. On each visit, recorders survey two parallel 1km survey lines evenly spaced ca300m apart. Along the survey lines, recorders count butterflies (and optionally day-flying moths and dragonflies) using the same time of day, recording width and weather condition criteria used in transect monitoring. Due to the low level of sampling effort (and unlike conventional transects), WCBS data is not used to derive local measures of butterfly abundance.

Citation

Contains UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) data © copyright and database right Butterfly Conservation, the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, British Trust for Ornithology, and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee

Digitised records