Butterfly Conservation is again running the Big Butterfly Count: an easy way for you to help our butterflies by spending just 15 minutes recording them. Running from 12 July to 4 August the Big Butterfly Count asks you to go into your garden or another outdoor space on a sunny day and record what butterflies you see. You can do as many counts as you want in different locations.

We are suggesting you double your help by doing at least one count within an area of Dorset where we are short of butterfly records – places we call “White Holes”. Go to the White Holes page on our website and you can find a map which shows you the under-recorded areas – they show up best on the “Basic” view, but put the “Satellite” view on to see the roads.

Small Tortoiseshell. Photo: Warren Port

Don’t worry if you can’t get to a White Hole – recording anywhere is very helpful to us.

There is plenty of help about how to do the count and identify butterflies on the Big Butterfly Count website, including a link to an app if you want to record on your phone.