Butterflies in Britain and Beyond

When did counting butterflies start? In 2010. Last year, 2015, more than 52,000 people took part in the butterfly count.

I did the bird count in previous years. This year is my first attempt at spotting butterflies.  It's fun and educational. You are helping provide a comparison of one area with another and one year with the next and one kind of butterfly with another. Some are increasing and others are declining.

If you sit in one place, such as in a garden, the same as with bird counting, you are asked to count more than one unless you see them at the same time, to be sure you are not counting the same one again and again. However, if you are walking along a country path you can count each sight.

Counting on You to Count Butterflies
You can count butterflies for fifteen minutes in your garden or out walking in Britain, at home or on holiday. The posters which you can download are available in English, Welsh and for Scotland and Ireland.

Butterflies in Britain
Butterflies  are counted in summer because that is when the adult butterflies are easier to see. What use are butterflies and caterpillars? Some of the caterpillars are eaten by bats and birds such as tits and form part of the food chain. Butterflies are delicate and short-lived so they are quick indicators of decline in wildlife caused by bad weather or pesticides. Meadow Brown butterflies produce antibiotics.

Butterflies Worldwide
Other butterfly attractions include:
1 Valley of butterflies in Rhodes.
2 Monarch roost in Mexico.

Identifying Butterflies
The identification guide for butterflies helps you by allowing you to pick colours and patterns to aid your search.
http://butterfly-conservation.org/50/identify-a-butterfly.html

The Butterfly conservation website includes an online shop selling colourful tops and caps, a scarf, mugs, and pop up butterfly greetings cards, lots of different butterfly motifs.
http://butterfly-conservation.myshopify.com/collections/all?page=1

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

The Butterfly Count in Britain - learn the butterflies, use the ap

I am on the mailing list of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and they emailed me about the Butterfly Count. I had previously done the bird count which takes place over a weekend in February. That required you to sit watching and counting birds. I did it from behind a window looking out onto a garden in London. You could also do it in a public park. I have done it two or three years running. I like downloading or being posted a paper printed out of the birds to identify in colour.

The butterfly count is far less exacting, taking only 15 minutes of your time. It doesn't have to be over the two days of the weekend. You can do it on one of several days. You can download the pictures of the butterflies.

The first time I tried to print it off, I forgot to change from grayscale printing.

The butterflies listed are:
Large White
Small White
Green-veined White
Brimstone (yellow)
Marbled White

Large Skipper
Gatekeeper
Meadow Brown
Ringlet
Speckled Wood

Comma
Painted Lady
Small Tortoiseshell
Red Admiral
Peacock

Common Blue
Holly Blue
Small Copper
Silver Y Moth
Six Spot Burnet Moth

More details from their website. You can also get the ap for a mobile phone.

When you have noted the numbers in the white box you submit your sightings to
www.bigbutterflycount.org

If you are not in Britain on the right dates, you could also try it out another time or another country for your own entertainment of your children's education. Events are being organised around the country, and you can download the recipe and visuals for making butterfly cakes.

Butterfly cakes
The butterfly cakes are cute, clever, and easy. You make up a cake mixture, pop it into circular moulds and cook it in muffin tins or fairy cake moulds. After the cake has cooked and been allowed to cool so it sets, you cut it. Cut off the top in a disc and divide in half into two semi-circles. Scoop out a hollow in the top of each small cake and fill it with buttercream of something to anchor your butterfly wings. Set up the two half circles with the outside upwards to look like the wings of a butterfly.

Once you have got the idea, you will probably have lots more creative thoughts.

The counting dates are 15 July to the 7th of August 2016

http://www.bigbutterflycount.org/content/images/CountTogetherPage/fairycakes.pdf

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.