Help us count our butterflies
Butterflies are extremely valuable indicators of the state of the environment, which is one of the reasons why the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) records data on over 3,000 sites in the UK a year.
- The UK has 59 species of butterflies – 57 resident species of butterflies and two regular migrants – the Painted Lady and Clouded Yellow.
- Five species of butterfly have become extinct in the last 150 years.
- The State of the UK’s Butterflies 2022 report found that 80% of butterfly species in the UK have decreased in either abundance, distribution, or both since 1976.
We're planning to help this citizen science project by establishing a new site in Boston Spa so that our sightings can be added to the national database.
This will involve a team of volunteers taking it in turn to walk a short set route each week from April to September, recording butterfly sightings along the way.
If you love seeing butterflies, please consider joining the team.
Don’t worry if you are not confident with your butterfly identification skills - you could use the opportunity to learn from our more experienced leaders for your first couple of outings.
We walk a set route, which is quite short. It’s in two parts:
- the first round the outer path of the Stables Lane park, and
- the second part starting in St Mary’s churchyard and walking on to the Church Fields wildflower meadow.
If you’d like to see what it’s all about first before committing yourself, you’re very welcome to come along and observe as we do the walk. We’ll send out a reminder a bit nearer the time.
You can find more information about how the scheme works by visiting the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme website ukbms.org. It’s an excellent website, which even has an interactive map where you can find other sites, and see which butterflies have been sighted there.
There’s also lots of information about butterflies on the Butterfly Conservation website butterfly-conservation.org
If you'd like to get involved in this exciting, new citizen science community project, please let us know so that we can keep you up to date, as we plan this initiative. Contact janetheath351@gmail.com
Perhaps some of hbe local schools might be interested too?
Great idea to get children involved in environmental projects. Not sure how it would work with school timetables. DBS checks would probably also be needed unless the teachers are committed to the project, learning how to ID and are prepared to take children independently.