Butterfly Conservation Yorkshire

YouTube video by Butterfly Conservation Yorkshire Yorkshire Moths Review 2025

The recording of Charlie Fletcher's review of the 2025 Moth year is now available. Its been another very busy moth year with record number of moths a lots of new earliest and latest recorded dates let alone record abundance for hundreds of species... Phew! youtu.be/-s8RWBO-_nI

The video will indeed be available shortly on the bcy YouTube channel as soon I've had a bit of time to edit and tidy.

Yorkshire Moths. A Review of the Year 2025 by Charlie Fletcher Charlie, the Yorkshire county Macro Moths recorder will present a review of the Moths recorded in Yorkshire in 2025.

A final reminder; the highlight of every moth year is Charlie's entertaining and enthralling stories and revelations around our resident and so many new species. Its Tonight so dont miss out... book now www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1977023474...

Practical Conservation Group Volunteer (Leeds Wild Spaces) We are excited to be running a new Wild Spaces project spanning the city of Leeds. We are looking for volunteers to get involved and trained in meadow management and care at publicly accessible parks ...

Butterfly Conservation Leeds Wild Spaces Project has three vacancies for volunteers. Including Conservation Work Group Volunteer , Events Volunteer and a Volunteer media editor see volunteer.butterfly-conservation.org/opportunitie...

Did you know the mostly likely Yorkshire species you will see first, each year, is a Brimstone. They are rarely the earliest but awoke in force in the warm sun of 25th Feb. More than 5 times as many were seen than any other species, 2nd was Peacock, 3rd Comma and Red Admiral so far is zero!

Now a brief visit from a Hummingbird Hawk-moth to the Paper Bush in our Corfe Castle garden @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social

At long last the weather is improving this weekend. So if you want to get outdoors its a great opportunity to join one of our Duke of Burgundy Work Parties and help save the Dukes Please do come and help.

3 speakers on the YNU zoom tonight see www.ynu.org.uk/news-events

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/western-morning-news/20260128/281698326164784

New Science found moths tend stay put under LED lights, wast­ing pre­cious time! 800 moths from 23 spe­cies were exposed to LED lights of vari­ous col­ours and bright­ness at street lighting levels. Moths moved 85% less than in nat­ural night­time con­di­tions See www.pressreader.com/uk/western-m...

The firing gun has gone off on the Yorkshire butterfly season a Small Tortoiseshell on 24th Jan by Jane Greenwood over in Bilton Small Torts are usualy the first species in Week 3 month and by end of this month we would expect to have seen Peacock and Red Admiral. It doesnt look very hopeful!!

Its been a better year for the Clouded Yellow and they are now making their way south for the treacherous trip home. This individual was captured by Chris Cox at Spurn yesterday where there have been regular sightings recently. Also flying currently are Red Admiral, Small Copper and Holly Blue.

There is no reason why this species is not spreading through Yorkshire in our warming world and is already present at Pleasley Park just over the border in Derbyshire

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.70425

A fascinating study at Leeds University reveals for the first time how its possible to use weather radar data to estimate total numbers of flying insects. They found 11 trillion insects daytime increasing with climate warming while at night strong decline after LED's in urban heat and light islands

With a massive third generation will Small Copper be Yorkshire's Butterfly of the year? Please submit your butterfly records by 16th November 2025 for them to be included in the Annual Report. Please submit on iRecordbutterflies, the Sightings site on the branch website or UKBMS for transects

On another site ,Green Hairstreak ,Adonis Blue and incredibly a Duke of Burgandy ! have been seen and photographed in the last few days . What next ..............Orange-Tip !😂

Front cover of the European Butterfly Red List, showing Polyommatus humedasae. The report can be downloaded at https://www.bc-europe.eu/webpage.php?name=red-list-butterflies-2025

The new European Butterfly Red List is published today, with worrying findings. Over 1/4 (28%) of Europe’s 442 species are threatened with extinction or are close to being so. The situation is far worse for our 148 endemic species, 40% are now threatened or nearly so www.bc-europe.eu/webpage.php?...

This graph from @metoffice.gov.uk says it all about this summer's weather. Every month was at least a degree warmer than the average 20 years ago. Butterflies mostly did well but how will the drought have affected them? @savebutterflies.bsky.social

Still plenty of third gen Walls on Corfe Common, how are they doing elsewhere? @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social

In my garden in Ely, Cambridgeshire this week

One month to go until the UKBMS 50th Anniversary Conference!

Are you joining us?

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/uk-butterf...

#UKBMS50

That looks good for a southern small white to me...

Brown Argus Butterfly

@bcyorkshire.bsky.social @ukbutterflies.bsky.social A lot of Brown Argus locally today. Assume this is the second brood. Also Common Blue, Red Admiral, Small Whites

📣 New research, including @savebutterflies.bsky.social #citizenscience data, shows winners & losers across >1200 insect species in Britain since 1990. Urbanisation identified as major driver of decline for moths, ladybirds & hoverflies www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🌍 🦋🐞🦗🪲🐝

American Painted Lady (Vanessa virginiensis), on my garden Buddleja this morning. St. Mellion, SE Cornwall.

UKBMS data is crucial for research. A new paper uses 45 yrs of UKBMS data to examine how extreme climate events affect butterfly populations in England. Heatwaves during hibernation or early life stages and heavy rain during later stages have -ve effects.
Its worth a read - buff.ly/nOU2Zod

Pollinator‐Promoting Interventions in European Urban Habitats—A Synthesis Syntheses of urban pollinator-friendly management are lacking, hindering policy implementation compared to farmland. Addressing this gap, our re-analytical data synthesis demonstrates the generally p...

New Europe-wide study finds that efforts to provide pollinator habitat in urban areas - such as sowing wildflower mixes - really do work, boosting numbers of bees and butterflies: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Summer Abundance change against 5 yr average across 20 monitored sites

Summer Total counts comparing 2025 against thr 5 yr average across 20 sites

Annus Mirabilis! A brief summary across 20 sites show a remarkable recovery. With a 70% increase in our spring species and 50% increase till August its likely to the best year since the 90's. 20 year ranking puts 20 species 1st-3rd. Numerical winners were the Large White, GV White and Gatekeeper.

An influx of Clouded Yellow since 4/8. They can be seen in many flowery places and clover fields. Popular spots include Ledston Luck, North Cave wetlands, Ripon wetlands. Look for a medium sized dusky orange butterfly in flight. You rarely get to see the upperside so thanks go to Tony Wilson.

All set up for the day at Leeds CC’s Lotherton Hall. @bcyorkshire.bsky.social

YouTube video by orpeken Purple Emperors National Forest Michael Williams

An awesome video from Michael Williams taken a few days ago in South Derbyshire of Purple Emperors exerting their power over Comma's and Red Admiral's. Yorkshire has also 'fallen' purple with three sightings of 'HIM' this year from Sprotbrough, Guisbrough and York confirmed. youtu.be/ZSKUQgC1tHM