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For the second year running the Big Butterfly Count took place in the middle of a long hot summer. While much of our wildlife has been stressed the butterfly count turned up some cheering numbers. Across 49 x fifteen-minute counts, 4Bs volunteers logged 718 butterflies and day-flying moths — an average of nearly fifteen per count, up a quarter on last year's tally despite fewer counts being made. Gatekeeper topped the table this year (210 individuals), with Meadow Brown and Common Blue close behind, followed by Large and Small Whites. The Common Blue butterfly is a fussy species, needing species-rich, unimproved grassland with vetches and trefoils that's becoming harder to find in the wider countryside — its steady presence here says something good about what we're protecting. The full results for the national survey are yet to be published but preliminary data suggests the average per count will be around 10.1 compared to our local count of 14.7 which is a genuinely positive sign. Top five in 4Bs Butterfly Count 2026  But according to Professor Richard Fox there a sting in the tail? Heatwaves, like those we’ve experienced this summer, aren’t likely to be a major problem for butterflies themselves. But very high temperatures may impact on a butterfly’s fertility, as well as killing the eggs they have laid through dehydration. But the biggest threat comes from drought. Newly hatched caterpillars need fresh green plants on which to feed. During prolonged drought, many of the plants that caterpillars rely on wither and die, starving the caterpillars. Fewer caterpillars mean fewer butterflies, so the next generation of butterflies will be much reduced. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Big Butterfly Count this year A report of the 2026 4Bs butterfly count can be found on the 4Bs Biodiversity Initiative website https://www.biodiversitypark.uk/4bs-butterflies.html
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August is the month when the meadow that has served us with vibrant wildflowers since May, looks ragged and exhausted. Now is the time to cut and leave the seeds to fall before removing every last windrow of cuttings, taking the fertility with them, leaving the soil leaner and poorer and better suited to the wildflowers that will grow next year. August belongs to the butterflies. This is season for the Big Butterfly Count. The idea is simple: find a patch of flowers in the sun, spend fifteen minutes, and count every butterfly species you see. Nothing more technical than that. There is a smartphone app which makes it easy to identify and count the butterflies and upload the results to a national database. The data builds, year on year, into one of the most important citizen science records in British natural history. If you haven’t taken part before, this is the year to start — and the 4Bs parishes offer some fine counting ground: the chalk grassland above Betchworth, the thistle patches along the Greensand Way, the buddleia and amy number of flower species in village gardens. Some of the more colourful butterflies found in the 4Bs 1 Silver washed fritillary, 2 Painted Lady 3 Peacock 4 Red Admiral 5 Chalkhill Blue and 6) Comma  What might you see? On warm afternoons along the scrubby North Downs, look for the Chalkhill Blue — the male a pale, luminous silver-blue quite unlike any other butterfly on the wing, the female a more subtle brown, often overlooked. Gatekeepers are still busy in the bramble edges, the male’s orange-and-brown wings carrying a distinctive double white-pupilled eye-spot. Small Tortoiseshells and Commas are visitors to garden nectar sources, fuelling up for hibernation. And if you’re very fortunate, a Silver-washed Fritillary may still be crossing a sunny woodland ride — a large, fast, glittering orange sail, gone almost before you’ve registered it. Elsewhere this month: watch out for dragonflies like common darters resting on warm stone and bare earth, or the large beautiful southern hawker laying eggs on a pond. Listen in the evenings for the churring of any late nightjars on the heath. In the hedgerows, young birds of the year are now largely indistinguishable from adults and August birdsong has a different, quieter quality to May’s chorus. Something is ending, and something is resting before the next act. |
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
October 2026
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