July's meeting coincided with the big butterfly count we visited Canvey Wick Nature Reserve on Canvey Island in order to count the butterflies there. Canvey Wick is on the old site of an oil refinery and is the home of a quite rare brown banded carder bee. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see this little bee.

The previous day the weather was hot and sunny and there were plenty of butterflies around, however on the day of the walk the weather was decidedly average with temperatures only in the mid teens and a very cloudy sky. The result was that there were very few butterflies to be seen, although a small white, a meadow brown and a gatekeeper were spotted.