Big Butterfly Count

Big Butterfly Count – 19^th July to 11^th August 2019

This is a national count – look at  www.bigbutterflycount.org  for details and to see how you can take part. The site has a helpful chart of some of the butterflies you might see.

It is particularly important at the moment when numbers of some butterfly species are changing greatly from year to year.

Chris Packham has been talking in the media in the last week about the Painted Lady.  These butterflies fly up from Morocco in the summer to Europe and sometimes to the UK. We have seen a few in Abington this year; the last time we had a Painted Lady year was 2009 when there were millions in the UK and hundreds in Abington, especially on the Roman Road.  So that is one species that you should be looking out for.

Another species that you should look for is the Marbled White.  This was very scarce in Cambridgeshire 10-20 years ago but we are seeing it a bit more now in Abington.  In the last 10 years we saw none or only one from 2011 to 2015, but this July we have seen 10 already in 6 different places.  Please look out for it in your gardens and wherever you walk in the village.

Please report all the butterflies that you see in Abington, particularly as part of the national count, to me – I keep a record of all the Abington butterflies reported during the whole year. These reports are published in the Abington Naturewatch Record at the end of each year.

Jennifer Hirsh

Contact for butterflies, bees and other insects

Email: Jennifer@hirsh.com