A gatekeeper butterfly I saw recently on a coastal walk in New Quay
Butterfly Conservation are currently holding a nationwide survey called The Big Butterfly Count which requires you to go outside for 15 minutes and count how many butterflies you see. The survey is being held until the 10th of August so you still have time to grab a cuppa and count some butterflies in your garden!
Butterflies are good biodiversity indicators, which means that the populations of them can determine the health of the environment. If butterflies are declining, it’s a sign that other wildlife species may be threatened too.
Small Tortoise Shell. Usually you shouldn’t try to pick up butterflies, but this one was trapped in my bedroom and we picked it up to take it outside.
There are two ways to submit your sightings: through the website where there is also a handy identification chart or you could download their Android or iOS app for free, handy for when you want to count butterflies on the go. There is no limit to how many butterfly counts you do, or where you can do them, the more the merrier!
If you go out to do your butterfly count and you don’t see any butterflies, it’s important to submit your results anyway. For more success in seeing a butterfly you may want to choose to sit near some flowers on a sunny day! If you’re struggling to ID a butterfly, try to take a picture of it, if there is a bird I don’t recognise I’ll take a few pictures to ID later with my wildlife book by my side. If you’re struggling to ID it still then feel free to send it my way by posting the picture to our facebook page or sending me a tweet!
For more information on how to find wildlife, my friend Ellie has done a fab post on watching wildlife, butterflies in particular, which you can read here
What butterflies did you see on your count? Did you notice any other interesting wildlife during the count? Please let us know in the comments! I will share my butterfly count results in the near future!
Danni
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J & D Science 