Friday 17 July 2015

The Big Butterfly Count

The Big Butterfly Count starts today and between now and 9 August, offers nature lovers in the UK the opportunity to count and study butterflies and day flying moths. The information gathered will then be used to help conserve these insects.

To take part, count butterflies for 15 minutes during bright (preferably sunny) weather between now and 9 August. If you're counting from a fixed position, you need to count the maximum number of each species that you see at a single time - so you don’t count the same butterfly more than once. If you're counting butterflies seen on a walk, then total up the number of each butterfly species that you see during the 15 minutes. Then you fill in your sightings on the website here.

So, it's all very simple and Crafty Green Boyfriend and I hoped to see butterflies on our lunchtime walk round Corstorphine Hill. However, for most of the walk it was overcast and windy and only towards the end of the walk did the sun come out. We saw one butterfly, probably a ringlet, as it fluttered between the foxgloves.

It hasn't been a good year for butterflies so far, other than ringlets (the photo below shows a ringlet we saw on Corstorphine Hill last Friday, when several of them were fluttering around in the sunshine).

 We will be keeping our eyes open over the next couple of weeks!

6 comments:

eileeninmd said...

Sounds like a fun event, I like to go out in my yard to watch the butterflies on my flowers. I hope you have a great count for the new couple of weeks. Have a happy weekend!

Lynn said...

That's a lovely idea! I haven't seen very many butterflies around here either.

Lowcarb team member said...

Pleased to see this has been quite widely 'advertised' spoken about on the various news channels, so it should be well supported.

Hope you have a lovely weekend.

All the best Jan

Anonymous said...

that sounds worthwhile though difficult - best of luck counting butterflies

RG said...

A great event! Our Red Admiral has been flitting about all day - but I am not in the UK.

Little Miss Titch said...

I try to encourage them in my garden,no chemicals used,xx Rachel