Reserve a sunny spot in your garden for the BIG BUTTERFLY COUNT this summer and enjoy its many flutterly fabulous benefits Oriental poppy ‘Prince of Orange’
OUTDOOR LIVING
Speaking of the joy of watching these winged wonders in support of the world’s biggest butterfly survey, Sir David Attenborough says it best: “A few precious moments spent watching a stunning red admiral or peacock butterfly feeding amongst the flowers in my garden never fails to bring me great pleasure.
“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.”
While the main aim of the annual nationwide event led by UK wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation
(butterfly-conservation.org;) is to help monitor what’s going on in the butterfly world, as well as look at the bigger picture of what the results tell us about environmental change, there are plenty of other reasons to take part too.
Not only is it a lovely way to spend time in the garden, research has shown that watching and counting butterflies can reduce anxiety and enhance wellbeing. Feeling connected with nature also makes us even more motivated to help it by making our gardens more wildlife-friendly. Win! Win! Win!
Now is the time to get your garden prepped for their arrival, which gets underway in spring, so come peak butterfly season in the (hopefully) warmdry weeks of July and August, you can just sit back and enjoy the show….
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
Simply pick a day (or days) between July 12 and August 4 to spend just 15 minutes counting the numbers of butterflies and day-flying moths you see fluttering past you. You can take part in the Big Butterfly Count sitting in your garden with a cup of tea, or while out on a walk:
● Sign up at bigbutterflycount.butterflyconservation.org;
● Download the handy butterfly ID chart, or get the app
● Do your count
● Log your results – you’ll be sent all the details of how to do that
WHY THE COUNT MATTERS
It’s important to count butterflies because they react swiftly to environmental conditions, from temperature change to the biodiversity of our plant life. Over time, declining numbers of a particular species tell us that important transformations are taking place in the natural world, e.g as a response to a reduction of habitat or increasing temperatures forcing them further north.
Their colour and visibility mean it’s easier to count butterflies than beetles or bugs, so they act as a generic marker for the insect world. If they are declining, it suggests that other species of insect m
