The total number of butterflies seen in 2016 was 867, which is almost exactly a third of the previous year's total.  This was not down to a lack of effort, as this year a walk was completed on each of the 26 weeks from the beginning of April to the end of September (24 by me, and two by Alan Hollands, who covered a cool, wet fortnight in June).  On three walks (one in late April, and two in mid-June) no butterflies at all were recorded.  Again, 22 different species were seen, with new records of Green Hairstreak (5 individuals seen over 3 weeks in May), and Painted Lady (one turning up in mid September), compensating for the lack of White Admiral and Clouded Yellow, both of which had only been seen once in 2015.

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Gatekeeper was again the most numerous, with a total of 303 individuals seen, but this was only 26% of the 2015 total.  Meadow Brown (101) was the only other species to reach three figures, and only 24% of last year's total.  All three of the White species (Large White, Small White and Green-veined White) showed increases over the previous year, as did Red Admiral (up 257% from 7 seen in 2015 to 25 in 2016).  The largest decline was in Small Heath, down by 88% from 101 seen in 2015, to only 12 sightings in 2016.  There were also significant declines in Ringlet, Large Skipper and Speckled Wood, all of which declined to less than a quarter of the sightings in the previous year.   Eleven species (half of all those seen) showed a drop in number of more than 50% compared to the previous year.  

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September 2016 was a better month than in 2015, with warm and dry weather allowing for a late surge in Red Admiral, Comma and Small Copper.