Like so much of our wildlife, butterflies are struggling in the UK. That we know this is largely down to
one of the longest running citizen science monitoring schemes running anywhere in the world. The
UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme is approaching its 50th birthday and records the trends in 58 of
those 59 species. It is organised by Butterfly Conservation, who have their base in Dorset (one of the
best places in the UK for butterflies, with all of those chalk specialists like Small Blue, Silver-studded
Blue, Chalkhill Blue and Adonis Blues (as you can see, the Blues like chalk!)). As well as the UKBMS,
Butterfly Conservation have their own version of ‘Bird Garden Birdwatch’, the Big Butterfly Count.

https://bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org/

The Big Butterfly Count runs from 12th July to 4th August and is open to anyone, no matter your skill
level. The goal is simple; count the number of butterflies you see in a 15 minute period at a site of
your choosing (including when on a walk). You don’t have to be able to identify all the UK species, as
the survey focuses on ‘Wider Countryside’ species. So if for you, a hairstreak is something you put on
your head and a fritillary is just a plant and not an insect, then don’t worry – the survey is focussed
on more common species like whites, browns and the big showy Red Admiral, Peacock and Comma.
You can submit as many counts as you want during the 3 weeks. All of this can be done in a really
user friendly mobile app.

James Heywood

Comma butterfly, taken by James Heywood