Sunny days like today are perfect for heading out into your garden or park, and butterfly spotting.
Above: Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) on buddleia (Crewkerne 2013)
The spectacular summer last year saw a dramatic rise in many species of butterfly, including a significant recovery of Small Tortoiseshell, to almost 4 times the population of the previous year (recorded in the Big Butterfly Count 2012). Peacock butterflies increased by an amazing 3500% on the previous year. Will this summer see comparable numbers?
This is something that you can really help to assess, with this Big Butterfly Count 19th of July-10th of August 2014.
Why is this survey important? Well, because butterflies react so quickly to any changes in their environment, they are extremely good biodiversity indicators and help to assess the overall health of our environment.
By participating in this nationwide survey, run by the charity Butterfly Conservation, in association with Marks & Spencer, you can help build up a picture of butterfly numbers, and environmental health.
How can I take part? It's really simple. Firstly download the identification chart which gives you a list of butterflies with corresponding pictures.
Give yourself 15 minutes when it's sunny, in the garden or park and start counting butterflies. Binoculars are useful if you have them, but not necessary. Count the maximum number of each species that you can see at a single time — for instance if you see four Small Tortoiseshell then record that as four. If you have certain butterfly attracting plants, such as buddleia, then you may be very busy, as butterflies are known to swarm on these! Read more about attracting butterflies to your garden.
Then submit your sightings online at http://www.bigbutterflycount.org/ or by using the app which you can download for your smartphone.
It's that easy! So start butterfly spotting and see what you can find!
For more information about the survey please visit The Big Butterfly Count.
Above: Peacock (Nymphalis io) butterfly on buddleia (Crewkerne 2013)
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