martinswarren.bsky.social

We need more of this, ecological management of road verges. And it could save local authorities money!

Butterflies of the Italian Alps & French Mercantour This tour will suit those who enjoy being surrounded by thousands of easily accessible alpine butterflies at a fabulous time of year, as the burgeoning vegetation in this glorious Italian and French a...

Places remain available to join us there in 2026. If booked before 1 Dec 2025, they qualify for our Early Bird discount, automatically taking £150 off the list price of the tour. And the tour generates a donation to support @europebutterfly.bsky.social. 🦋(2/2)

www.mariposanature.com/tours/butter...

Guest feedback for Butterflies of the Italian Alps & French Mercantour

"If I were to set out to create my perfect butterfly tour then this would be it"

"I have never personally seen so many butterflies in such a short time"

"An absolutely fabulous experience"

Wonderful guest feedback for Butterflies of the Italian Alps & French Mercantour! (1/2)

#butterflies

Fascinating development, cant wait till they make trackers small enough for smaller butterflies. so much we dont know about mobility

Annual Members’ Meeting Our AMM will be held in Cerne Abbas on Saturday 8 November – see our Events page for full details. You may be able to help…

Dont forget our Members Day and AGM on Saturday 8th November. Helpers needed www.dorsetbutterflies.com/2025/10/annu...

As forests are cut down, butterflies are losing their colours The insects’ brilliant hues evolved in lush ecosystems to help them survive. Now they are becoming more muted to adapt to degraded landscapes – and they are not the only things dulling down

Today´s Guardian has an article about our study on butterfly colors, where we compare butterfly colors in native forest to those in eucalyptus plantations. This is study is a partnership between labs from Denmark, Spain, and Brazil.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Now the 2025 field season for butterflies has come to an end, it is a good moment to look back at the great work of the recorders of Dutch Butterfly Monitoring transects. Almost 400,000 butterflies counted in 2025 on 1372 locations, 8,5 million since 1990 on 212,327 km. Thanks for all hard work!

The new European Butterfly Red List will be published this Friday at the IUCN Global Biodiversity Conference. Watch this space for the shocking findings

Scarce Fritillary (Euphydryas maturna) © Jon Dunn

Chequered Blue (Scolitantides orion) © Clive Burrows

Your guides to a feast of fritillaries and a bonanza of blues will be our popular, knowledgeable, and friendly team of Paul Selby & Michele Viganò.

Importantly, like ALL of our butterfly tours, this one generates a donation to support the great work of @europebutterfly.bsky.social. (2/2)

🎉We are delighted to announce we won the 2025 Communications Award from the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) Europe, recognising the power of our #RestoreNature campaign.

Together, we can make a change. 💚

OK not the best picture but definitely an October Clouded Yellow at Durlston in Dorset, along with a couple of Walls, Speckled Woods, and an egg laying Red Admiral. Happy.
@dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social

Miriam Rothschild used to say that reintroductions appealed to our ‘get up and go’ genes, but that does not make them more important than saving what we have!

Wow, the season goes on and on

Same here: I just encountered one yesterday in Thuringia, Germany.

Still a few very fresh Walls on Corfe Common, my first ever October sightings in UK. @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social

17 sp + 44 moths in my Corfe Castle #mothtrap yesterday. Inc 24 Lunar Underwings. Other lovelies were Centre-barred Sallow, Sallow, Feathered Brindle, and Frosted Orange @dorsetmoths.bsky.social @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social #teammoth

Very many thanks, always good to check with a real human, and expert!

White-tailed Eagle heading east at Swyre Head, Dorset, 17:35. Looks like an immature from my phone pic @harbourbirds.bsky.social @staldhelmsbirder.bsky.social

Thanks for that, will put a note in ID book!

Very many thanks. They are more common in north UK but apparently do occur down south where I live. If so it’s a NFG!!

ObsIdentify says 100% Flame, but would be good if an expert could confirm @mothiduk.bsky.social

@dorsetmoths.bsky.social

Northern or southern Deep-brown Dart? From Corfe Castle today @mothiduk.bsky.social

It would be very disappointing if the German government do not adopt the Grassland Butterfly Indicator just because it is going down. They should be taking up the challenge of reversing the decline of pollinators not ignoring this crucial issue to humanity

𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗺𝗻𝗶𝗕𝗨𝗦! 🚌

We've been driving around Brussels in an actual omniBUS because the European Commission has been driving a giant Omnibus of proposals themselves.

When it comes to nature, simplification doesn’t mean easier rules. It means weaker rules.

#HandsOffNature

Had a very poor year here in Dorset, southern England too

2025 will mark another bad year for the Dark Green Frit (grote parelmoer, S aglaja) with numbers comparable to 2023 and 2024 in NL (=low). Once widespread throughout the country, and numbers ten years ago still good, now reasonable numbers only on Vlieland and N-Texel (the islands in the NW).

September 2025 Figures
Moths 1338
NFY 24
Lifers. 6
Traps. 28

Year to date 2025
Moths 6800
NFY. 452
Lifers. 87
Traps. 172

Life list total 699
Garden list 487

I was down at Southbourne today and there was plenty of action from at least 20 Clouded Yellows seen along a mile long strip of the undercliff and getting photos of the females whilst they were egg laying was a top highlight.
Fantastic.

Southbourne Undercliff
Dorset

It also has a Donate button if you want to support our work saving butterflies and moths across Europe