This year’s Big Butterfly Count starts on Friday 14 July!  It only calls for you to choose a place to spot butterflies and watch it for 15 minutes, after which you send in your sightings, so everyone can do it. You can watch in your garden, or a local park, or go out into the countryside; you can even do it more than once (at different locations).

To get ready, go to the Big Butterfly Count site. There’s plenty of help available, with a downloadable identification chart, or there’s a free app to help you identify and record the butterflies you spot.

Red Admiral ab ocellata. Photo: Mark Pike

You can do your count at any time between Friday 14 July and Sunday 6 August. This is a national initiative, so you need to report you sightings via the Big Butterfly Count website, not this one.

It was a bad year for butterflies last year with the drought, so we particularly need to know how they are doing this year.