Butterfly Conservation, whose strapline is ‘Saving butterflies, moths and our environment’, are organising a Big Butterfly Count.  This is going to take place between 24th July and 1st August and they would like as many people as possible to take part.  Here’s some information about it.

The survey is being launched during 2010 to mark the International Year of Biodiversity. Butterflies react very quickly to changes in their environment which makes them excellent biodiversity indicators. Butterfly declines are an early warning for other wildlife losses.  That’s why counting butterflies can be described as taking the pulse of nature.

The count will also identify trends in species that will help us plan how to protect butterflies from extinction as well as understand the effect of climate change on wildlife. 

So, please log on to the www.bigbutterflycount.org site and see how to take part.  

Simply count butterflies for 15 minutes during bright (preferably sunny) weather sometime between 24th July to 1st August. They have chosen this time of year because most butterflies are at the adult stage of their lifecycle, so more likely to be seen.  Records are welcome from anywhere: from parks and gardens, to fields and forests. 

There’s a butterfly chart you can download as a pdf and an inter-active chart on their site showing photographs of butterflies for you to record your sightings.  If you have children, this would be a great activity for them during the holidays. 

You might also like to consider adding more plants attractive to butterflies to your garden.  In addition to the well known ones such as Buddleia and Sedum, there are many native wild flowers featured on our website (www.reallywildflowers.co.uk) to choose from – ones such as Garlic Mustard and Birdsfoot Trefoil which are not only nectar plants but also caterpillar food plants.  If you are staying at home this summer, you could buy one of the Butterfly Meadow Collections now and grow them on in 3″ pots to plant out in the autumn.  Do remember to water regularly until they are established.

Really Wild Flowers 

(Thanks to P. Llewellyn of www.ukwildflowers.com for the photo of the Small Tortoiseshell butterfly.)

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Tags: conservation

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 at 10:38 am and is filed under Energy and Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.