martinswarren.bsky.social

Such a lovely news story... with people from around the world caring enough to chip in...

Our latest Activity Report for 2025 is now available on our website. It gives updates on several major projects as well as a report on our Partner meeting in December. We have made good progress but are aware of the huge challenges ahead www.bc-europe.eu/documents/69...

From Dorset to the world: wave of donations helps to secure Cerne giant’s home Support from more than 20 countries propels National Trust to its target to protect chalk figure and local wildlife

Hip, hip, hooray. The starting bell has sounded to save the Duke of Burgundy in Dorset. Giant Hill is its last decent sized site left in the county www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...

Lesser Fiery Copper (Lycaena thersamon) © Jon Dunn

Blue Argus (Aricia anteros) © David Moore

Good morning & welcome to a new week!

Just 3 places remain available on our featured tour this week, Butterflies of North Greece. And naturally, like all our butterfly holidays, it's a tour that generates a donation to support
@europebutterfly.bsky.social. (1/2)

mariposanature.com/tours/butter...

Newsletter Editor wanted Could you be our Newsletter Editor? Jane Smith has decided that after nearly ten years of undertaking this role for Dorset Branch, it is time to hand over to someone new.

Our wonderful newsletter editor, Jane Smith, is retiring after nearly 10 years in the role. Please get in touch and f you think you can help us with this vital task and keep our members informed of all the great work we do www.dorsetbutterflies.com/2026/01/news...

Wow, UK moth recording really on the up. Nearly 900K records in 2025, probably reach over 1 million in due course. Well done everyone. National Moth Recording Scheme meeting online now @savebutterflies.bsky.social

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!!

Rare butterflies bounce back after landowners in Wales cut back on flailing hedges More than 300 brown hairstreak butterfly eggs were recorded in hedgerows near Llandeilo this winter after decade of decline

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

This coming Saturday the annual UK Moth Recorders' Meeting. Free tickets are still available. To book your place buff.ly/QHLFDFv

Interesting paper on the dramatic increase of Silver-studded Blue butterflies on Dorset heathland sites suggesting it is probably a climate change winner that is benefitting from the warmer summers, and possibly wetter winters
www.dispar.org/reference.ph...

Amazing scenes from The River Frome in Dorchester Dorset. London road had just closed when I got there at 1220 (despite being a causeway). Videos and Photos #stormchandra 1/7

Thymelicus hamza with closed wings. I found it typical that the sandy ground color of the underside hindwing is completely surrounded with an orange border. I didn't see the local subspecies of Thymelicus acteon so I don't know how good this is for an ID feature on pictures of individuals with closed wings. In my European pictures of T. acteon I haven't seen an individual however with such a continuous orange border.

Thymelicus hamza, male with open wings. The pale spots in frontwing tip are lacking or very vague. The darker brownish color is more confined to the area below the androconial stripe, unlike in T. acteon (although they probably look darker when abraded).

While preparing for Morocco last year I only found few Thymelicus hamza pics online, a NW African endemic skipper, so I was afraid it'd be scarce. I found it to be widespread however, I guess the lack of pics is mainly due to people thinking skippers are boring & hard to ID? #dailylepi #vlindermaand

The migrant highlight of the year in St Mellion was actually a butterfly: American Painted Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) on 24/8, the 2nd record for East Cornwall.

Truly it's our absolute pleasure to help support the great work you do. Conservation, and butterflies and moths in particular, has a great champion in @europebutterfly.bsky.social.

Glaucous Shears

Caloptilia honoratella

Yponomeuta irrorella

At least 621 species were recorded at St Mellion in 2025, 105 of which were new for the garden. Highlights included
Yponomeuta irrorella (Scarce Spindle Ermine): 2nd for Cornwall, Caloptilia honoratella (Pale Maple Stilt): New to Cornwall & Glaucous Shears: 1st Cornish record since 1982 #teammoth

I found the first Clouded Yellow caterpillars of 2026 today on the transect.
Only 2 seen, but clear evidence that they continue to overwinter at Southbourne despite what the British winter weather is throwing at them.

Southbourne
Dorset

Another amazing aspect of nature, this time electrostatic pollination!

Electrostatic pollination by butterflies and moths Abstract. Animals, most notably insects, generally seem to accumulate electrostatic charge in nature. These electrostatic charges will exert forces on othe

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🔬 Scientific paper:
royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article...

🌍 Popular science:
www.popsci.com/science/butt...

Provence Orange Tip (Anthocharis euphenoides) © Jon Dunn

Violet Copper (Lycaena helle) © Jon Dunn

Good morning and welcome to a new week!

Our featured tour this week is Spring Butterflies of the French Pyrenees. A tour that explores a richly butterfly-laden area of France in late May, and guarantees a donation to support @europebutterfly.bsky.social. (1/2)

mariposanature.com/tours/butter...

Last summer was nearly 2C warmer than the 1961-90 average, especially in spring. No wonder butterflies bounced back. But just think how bad populations would be if we did not have global warming.

Cornwall Butterfly Conservation volunteers cutting scrub in the rain.

Before: a heathland-covered slope encroached with Gorse, Sallow and Cotoneaster.

After: Gorse, Sallow and Cotoneaster have been removed from the slope, exposing the heathland and patches of bare ground.

An intrepid band of volunteers braved the rain today for Cornwall Butterfly Conservation's work party at Wheal Maid. We were removing encroaching Gorse, Sallow and Cotoneaster from a south-facing slope to restore the heathland for Grayling and Silver-studded Blues.
@savebutterflies.bsky.social

Hedgerow Heroes - Volunteers from Butterfly Conservation and CPRE Herts hedge planting today. The mix 15 plant species for butterflies and moths includes Buckthorn, Blackthorn, Elm and Holly. We’ve planted over 1km of hedge north of Hertford @bc-hertsmiddx.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social

Butterfly Conservation Europe logo

Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland logo

All of our butterfly and orchid holidays generate a donation to support the invaluable conservation work of our friends at @europebutterfly.bsky.social and @bsbibotany.bsky.social respectively. That support is important to us, and we know it's important to our guests too.

Yet more worrying data on the decline of European butterflies, this time from Finland. We must find a way of combining agriculture and biodiversity, it can be done and many NGOs are showing the way www.rspb.org.uk/helping-natu...

UK Butterfly Recorders' Meeting Butterfly Conservation holds an annual meeting for butterfly recorders in the UK.  These meetings provide a great opportunity to hear about progress with the Butterflies for the New Millennium (BNM)…

Save the date! Join us on Sat 28th March 2026 for the UK Butterfly Recorders meeting.

This free event is open to anyone intersted in butterfly monitoring. We'll present the 2025 UKBMS results, update on other monitoring schemes and talks about butterfly ecology.

A new study shows that butterflies, unlike birds, are declining in Finnish agricultural landscapes:

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Great new research shows that light pollution prevents activity in the critical twilight period (just after sunset) in a moth and spider species. 🕷️🦋💡- this calls for mitigations targeting this critical time period. Read more in our dispatch:
www.cell.com/current-biol...

The Great Plains are known for waves of grass—and herds of cattle grazing “out on the range”. But the native wildflowers dotted throughout are critical for the many pollinators that call these places home. And those same plants are actually a nutritious meal for livestock!
xerces.org/blog/feast-f...

Excellent to see this work going on with our Branch volunteers and Hilfield Friary folk. Well done everyone

Shocking to see that 52% of habitats are in unfavourable bad condition. These are our top sites and should be the Crown Jewels, but are sadly deteriorating. I hope NE can get stuck in to turning this around