We hope you are all sending in at least one record for the national Big Butterfly Count, but we need your help filling White Holes in Dorset too.

For full details of what to do for the Big Butterfly Count, see our earlier news item. You have until Sunday 6 August to spend 15 minutes looking for butterflies at a set location.

In Dorset, we need you to help us fill what we call White Holes. The map of Dorset is divided into kilometre squares and our dream would be to have sightings from all of them. There is a map on this website showing you where no sightings have been received, leaving the unfilled squares as ‘White Holes’.

We are in the penultimate year of a five-year recording cycle, so we need a good push before the end of the butterfly season.

Small Copper. Photo: Sharon Towning

At the beginning of 2023 we had 666 White Holes, but this has been reduced (as of the end of July) to 567, so 99 White Holes have been filled this year, 59 of which were done in July! An excellent effort, and we send our thanks to all of you who helped.

To find out more, visit our White Holes page. For help with identification, see our detailed Species Pages, which tell you when and where each species is usually seen as well as giving help with telling them apart.