Butterfly Junction is a patch of scrubland on an abandoned industrial site close to the Create Centre and Ashton Avenue bridge. The site is an excellent habitat for wildlife because of its relatively undisturbed location.
At first, FrANC members carried out an annual winter management programme to protect the area for butterfly and day moth breeding by clearing rubbish, cutting back brambles and other vegetation that threaten to shade the grassy area.
More recently, a year-round monthly community gardening session has been set up to enhance both Butterfly Junction and other nearby wasteland.
FrANC members and others have been monitoring the area for butterflies and day moths for several years and often take part in the nationwide annual Big Butterfly Count during a three-week period each summer in July/August.
When FrANC first started noting the different species of butterflies and day moths there were more than twenty. In common with much of the rest of the UK, there has sadly been a sharp decline in both species and numbers in recent years.
Read our Butterfly Junction Management Brief (pdf) produced by Wessex Ecological Conservancy.
Species
Marbled white, ringlet and skippers breed here on grasses – as does the common blue butterfly, probably on bird’s-foot trefoil.
Others such as gatekeepers, small tortoiseshell, red admiral and peacock regularly pass through the site to feed or rest.
See our Butterfly list and the results from our Big Butterfly Count 2017 (pdfs).
Important butterfly food grasses such as cock’s foot, red fescue, and yorkshire fog have been found on the site, as well as seven species identified as ‘Avon Notable’.
They are blue fleabane, rat’s tail fescue, ferngrass, flattened meadow grass, sea-couch, small toadflax and great lettuce.
Our Leaflets & Books page includes a leaflet about Butterfly Junction and other leaflets published by Butterfly Conservation to aid butterfly identification during the annual Big Butterfly Count, together with a FrANC Survey Form for recording observations.
All are available to download by clicking the images below.
