4Bs Butterfly Count : Is it a great summer for butterflies or are we just returning to normal?11/8/2025 Early profusion of butterflies A number of people commented in the 4Bs nature group that this is a good year for butterflies. The spring and early summer hot dry sunny weather brought out sightings of clouds of white butterflies in May and June. But butterfly sitings were less frequent in July as more unsettled, cooler, cloudy and wetter weather become the norm. The early summer profusion is in stark contrast to the summer of 2024 the second worst for common butterflies since scientific records began in 1976. We won’t know whether it has been a good year for butterflies until the results from the Big Butterfly Count are published. But our small 4Bs sample will at least provide a pointer to the national picture.  4Bs Butterfly Populations are Recovering in 2025 The annual Big Butterfly Count finished on August 10th. 78 counts were made within the 4Bs area and 910 butterflies were observed during the 15 minute counts. Very few counts observed no butterflies, although on cloudy cooler and windy days you would be hard pressed to find a butterfly in the air. On sunny days counts were typically in double figures with 3 to 5 species being spotted during a 15 minute period and the average of all counts in the 4Bs was 11.7 butterflies per count. This is similar to the overall national average of 10.3 and considerably higher than the all time low of 7 per count in 2024, due to the poor spring weather. Our most abundant butterflies were 1) Large White 2) Meadow Brown 3) Small White 4) Gatekeeper 5) Common Blue. This compares to the national survey where the most abundant butterflies were 1) Large White 2) Small White 3) Gatekeeper 4) Red Admiral 5) Meadow Brown Our Large and Smal White butterflies have done particularly well this year compared to last year where the Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper butterflies were the most abundant. So has it been a good year for butterflies?
One thing is certain - its been a lot better than last year. While the average of 11 per count in 2025 is considerably higher than average of 7 per count in 2024 its broadly in line with the average of 12 butterflies (including day-flying moths) per 15-minute count in 2023. So this year we might claim that our butterfly populations have recovered to 2023 levels. Towards a sustained revovery? For butterflies to really flourish we need a series of back-to-back,climatically favourable years Then flying insect numbers really boom. This happened in the late 1940s and again in 1974, 1975, 1976 as well as 1982, 1983, 1984 and, to a lesser extent, 1994, 1995, 1996. This century, we’ve experienced scattered decent butterfly summers – 2003, 2006, 2009, 2013 and 2018 – but no consolidation of good years. The fluctuations of global heating will probably thwart a run of truly brilliant butterfly summers but here’s hoping 2025 is start of a series of good summers which will enable a more sustained rcovery. Source Butterfly watch: A very good summer for butterflies or a return to average Guardian News Paper Patrick Barkham Norman Jackson is the 4Bs Biodiversity Initiative Team leader
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Its the first time we have tried to do an evening event, but judging by feedback from the 16 participants, it was a great success. Brockham Quarry Nature Reserve, is one of the jewels in the 4Bs biodiversity crown. 90 years ago it was a busy and noisy industrial site, now its a peaceful haven for wildlife. It teaches us a lesson in how, given time, nature reclaims even the most damaged environments. We are grateful to local ecologist Paul Rictchie for his excellent guided tour and Paul shares some of his thoughts in the rest of this post. Paul's Notes These notes reflect the main topics we considered on our guided walk of the quarry. At the end of the notes you will find a short movie I made with the 4Bs Biodiversity team about the wildlife habitats in the quarry. We talk about biodiversity - but what do we mean? Biodiversity is the variety of life, including species, habitats, ecological processes the natural environment around us. Historically in the UK we tended to conserve species (Giant Panda, Blue Whale etc) until we realised that without the right habitats these species will not survive. Our focus then shifted to managing habitats or homes of species. More recently nature conservation is concerned with whole ecological systems - how biodiversity works in an area because of the interaction and interdependencies of all organisms and their environment. Attention is now focused on understanding environments and exploring ecological processes, such as rewilding, as the way to protect, sustain and enhance biodiversity. Ecological processes In the UK all ecological processes and conservation activity is targeted at semi-natural habitats and ecosystems because there is no natural environment left in Britain. The flora and fauna we see today arrived after the last Ice Age and with the melting glaciers came humans (Homo sapiens) and we are a key species affecting everything we touch and not always for good. Our impact on the environment changed dramatically once we ceased being nomadic hunter-gatherers and became farmers. The first process I talked about at Brockham Quarry was the human activity of quarrying, an industrial process that extracted chalk to burn for lime and left behind exposed chalk cliffs, scree slopes of chalk debris and spoil heaps on the quarry floor. Although highly destructive at the time this commercial activity left a wonderful space for nature to colonise and a legacy of dynamic ecological processes that are leading to the creation of diverse semi-natural habitats. Read more about Brockham Lime Works http://www.brockhamhistory.org/business-and-industry/lime-works/  Next we considered the ecological process of natural succession, which is a dynamic progress from open ground through a series of changes in habitat and plant and animal communities living there, to close canopy woodland in the UK. Nature does not favour bare ground, so bare flower beds, or allotment plots, or in this case bare chalk slopes, scree and rubble get colonised by ruderal plants, which change soil conditions so that other plants such as wildflowers, trees and shrubs can colonise. The final ecological process we considered is grazing by large herbivores such as cattle, horses, goats, sheep and pigs, which are generally missing from most semi-natural habitats in the UK. Historically auroch (wild cattle), bison, red deer, wild ponies and wild boar had a key physical impact on vegetation cover, grazed or browsed on plants and created bare ground habitats. The ‘modern’ concept of rewilding is all about restoring natural ecological processes such as grazing to ecosystems such as at the Knepp Estate near Horsham. Habitats & species The outcome of these industrial and ecological processes in Brockham Quarry is a dynamic ecosystem based on chalk rock covered in places by thin, poor, free-draining alkaline soils. This is reflected by four key semi-natural habitats – rocky slopes (with scree), chalk grassland, scrub and lowland mixed-deciduous woodland. The chalk cliffs provide home to a variety of large nesting birds of prey and crows and are topped by three types of woodland – dominated by yew, beech and oak & ash trees. Where trees and shrubs have managed to get a foot-hold the mixed deciduous woodland has spread down into the quarry with areas of closed canopy woodland and scrub. The scrub comprises young yew, oak, ash, birch, field maple and sycamore trees, as well as whitebeam, dogwood, hazel, hawthorn, blackthorn and holly bushes. Scrub is a maligned habitat, often seen as a nuisance or threat to grasslands but it provides important shelter and food for insects and songbirds. The poor alkaline soils of the chalk grassland do not favour coarse vigorous grasses often found in open habitats, which provides space for a variety of wildflowers such as thyme, wild marjoram, vipers bugloss, hemp agrimony and scabious. These plants are all important food sources for a variety of bees, beetles, bugs, butterflies and moths. The absence of mowing on the quarry floor has resulted in the development of lots of anthills. Management These key semi-natural habitats contribute to the quarry being a Site of Special Scientific Interest but they require human management in the absence of wild herbivores and the large carnivores that control them. To stop or turn back the process of natural succession to closed canopy woodland requires the introduction of domestic herbivores such as the feral goats or human volunteers armed with bowsaws and loppers. 4Bs Nature Movie - Paul Rictchie describes the wildlife habitats of Brockham Quarry |
4Bs Nature Group BlogThis blog is maintained by the 4Bs Biodiversity Initiative Team. Its purpose is to provide brief updates of activities and encourage the sharing of experiences and learning. We welcome guests and contributions from members of the 4Bs WhatsApp Nature Group and wider community. To contribute a post please email the editor at biodiversityinititiative1 @gmail.com PagesArchives
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