Yahoo News Big Butterfly Count: what species to spot and how to help save Britain's butterflies
That glorious time of year is upon us where you can take one step out of the back door and immerse yourself in the world of butterflies. They drift among the summer blooms: wings as delicate as lace and patterned with the precision and brilliance only nature can conjure.
My lavender patch teems with small whites, dotted with two beauty spots like grand 18thcentury dames. The occasional holly blue also flits lazily across the lawn.
If I move too close to try and see precisely how the butterflies slurp up nectar through their tongues, they rise up and flutter around my head like confetti. ‘Stay near - me do not take thy flight,’ implored William Wordsworth in one of the versions of his poem, To A Butterfly. ‘A little longer stay in sight’.
This weekend marks the beginning of the Big Butterfly Count: a three-week nationwide survey where members of the public are urged to spend 15 minutes helping record 17 different species of our most common butterflies in whatever location they wish.
Since being launched in 2010 the survey has become the largest of its kind in the world. While ostensibly intended to record the health of the nation’s butterflies – themselves powerful biodiversity indicators – it also provides a chance to spend some time reconnecting with the everyday, often overlooked, nature all around us.
As Sir David Attenborough, the president of charity Butterfly Conservation which organises the survey, said today: “spending time with nature offers us all precious breathing space away from the stresses and strains of modern life, it enables us to experience joy and wonder, to slow down and to appreciate the wildlife that lives side by side with us.”
The veteran broadcaster said he has been privileged to travel the world recording nature’s most awe-inspiring spectacles, yet simply sitting in his Richmond back garden watching the red admirals or peacocks has provided some of his most “memorable experiences” of the natural world.
The extreme weather this year adds an extra sense of urgency to the count. While the scorching summer of 2018 has so far meant butterflies are flourishing, there are fears that should the drought continue it could lead to a catastrophic decline in populations next year as the greenery on which their caterpillars feed will wither away.
While the past 40 years have witnessed a general decline of 46 per cent of Britain’s most common butterfly species; following intense periods of drought such as in 1976 or 1995 the numbers have plummeted even more dramatically the following summer.
According to Richard Fox, associate director of recording and research at Butterfly Conservation, the best way to encourage butterflies in your garden is to allow herbs to flower as they provide wonderful sources of nectar. He also suggests making space to allow butterflies to breed by leaving a patch of grass to grow long and wild in the summer months.
Aside from that, though, all you need to do this weekend is stop, sit, and watch…
Five species to look out for
Red Admiral
A large dark butterfly with a broad crimson stripe across its wing and marbled white tips. Red admiral numbers have increased threefold since 2015 and last year recorded its best big butterfly count ever with more than 73,000 seen. Previously just a summer migrant to the UK, our run of recent mild winters (excluding this year’s big freeze) has meant the butterfly is choosing to overwinter in Britain.
Where to spot?
Nectaring on garden buddleias or flowering ivy and on rotting fruit.
Comma
An orange and brown speckled butterfly most easily identifiable by its distinctive ragged-edge wings designed to allow hibernating adults to conceal themselves among dead leaves.
The species has a flexible life cycle, which allows it to capitalize on favourable weather conditions. Following a calamitous decline in the 20thcentury is now widespread and expanding northwards. Since the 1970s the comma has spread north by 250 miles.
Where to spot?
Open woodland, wood edges and patches of scrubland.
Gatekeeper
Of ruddy golden hues with a little black spot in the corner of each wing, the gatekeeper is also known as the hedge brown. Easy to spot as spends much of its time basking with its wings open to better soak up the warmth. Although still one of our most abundant butterflies its numbers have still fallen 44 per cent since 1970.
Where to spot?
clumps of flowers grow in gateways and along hedgerows and field edges. Favourite nectar sources include Wild Marjoram, Common Fleabane, ragworts, and Bramble
Holly blue
The Holly Blue is easily identified in early spring, as it emerges well before other blue butterflies. It tends to fly high around bushes and trees, whereas other grassland blues usually stay near ground level.
Where to spot?
Gardens and urban areas.
Peacock
Perhaps our most spectacular butterfly, it takes its name from wings designed in a kaleidoscopic pattern of eyespots designed to scare off predators – blue tits are a particular menace.
Where to spot?
The peacock's strong flight and nomadic instincts lead it to range widely through the countryside, often finding its preferred habitats in the shelter of woodland clearings, rides, and edges.
