Welcome to the Yorkshire Branch of Butterfly Conservation
Butterflies are not only beautiful and fascinating creatures but are also highly responsive to the environment. David Attenborough described them as 'A thermometer of the health of our natural world' Many species of butterfly are in decline and a quarter are facing extinction. We have lost more than 98% of our traditional meadows and woodland in recent times so it is crucial we raise awareness about the threats facing our butterflies, moths, their habitats and our natural environment. Yorkshire Branch work in partnership with land owners, local authorities, conservation bodies, businesses and the local community to achieve this. Here in Yorkshire the Duke of Burgundy and Pearl Bordered Fritillary are particularly vulnerable due to habitat loss and increasingly susceptible to extinction. Yorkshire also has the only remaining colony of the Dark Bordered Beauty Moth in England, on Strensall Common and is on the brink of extinction.
Become a member today and help us save butterflies, moths and their habitats. There are many rewarding roles volunteering in recording and conservation just take a look at our Branch leaflet HERE . We have a real challenge when 60% of children in the UK have never seen a Peacock butterfly according to a YouGov Survey and 78% of parents are concerned that children don’t spend enough time interacting with nature. Founded in 1981 Yorkshire branch has more than 1800 members and nearly 100 transect walkers go out each week in summer to monitor butterfly sites across the county while dozens more join work parties to maintain habitat for our rarest species.
Your Guide to the Website
Menu Headings
Sightings : Our sightings system is live HERE to see what is going on and your latest pictures. Report your sightings HERE See Yorkshire First Sightings below
Events: See our Calendar below for what is coming up. More about our forthcoming Webinars HERE. Field events HERE or Work Parties HERE . Take a look on our YouTube Channel for recorded events HERE
Sites: Find out about sites to visit near you with our interactive Map of more than 300 sites and a list of Top sites. Download one of our Butterfly walks plus details of our reserves
Species Find out about our Yorkshire species or visit the Yorkshire Butterfly Atlas
Publications : to find the Argus twice annual news plus the Annual report
Contacts Find your local recorder and who represents you on the committee
Yorkshire Moths our sister website returns refreshed and new HERE
DIARY
First Sightings 2024
We are on the TELLY! The wonderful late Susan Stead and our Nick Hall talk to Michael Portillo for The BBC’s Great British Railway Journeys. at Shipley Meadow + Denso Marston NR episode no 5 in series 14 released on iplayer HERE
News
24th October The Autumn edition ofteh Argus is now available to download HERE
ARGUS Issue 100 Autumn 2024.pdf
15th August : The full affects of 2024's poor weather are now becoming apparent in early results from the Big Butterfly Count. Numbers down 41% in the UK and 43% in Yorkshire.
The better results in 2023 came from migrants having a big impact particularly Red Admiral which came in top while this year they are down 80% to 7th. Worryingly many other species down nearly half. However the count is dominated by 7 of our most common species: Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Large White, Small White , Peacock, Ringlet and Red Admiral making up 4 in every 5 butterflies but were also down 30% compared to 2023.
2nd worse was Holly Blue down four fifths and Common Blue down two thirds being absent from many of Yorkshire's favourite butterfly sites. Small Tortoiseshell down again for the third year. Some of the most worrying results are from our scarcer species with Dark-green Fritillary being completely absent from well known sites like Brockadale and Silver-washed Fritillary down 80% in Bishop Wood. We have to suspect the biggest culprit was mortality of caterpillars in the wet along with a poor flight period last July, reducing eggs. 3 Species did better in 2024 including that damp loving Ringlet .
Since Big Butterfly is a three week slot and since flight curves vary from year to year and north and south care is needed in interpreting. For example Gatekeeper flight was only mid way this year but almost over last year. The true picture of our our summer should come from our transects in a few weeks time.. Watch this space!
21th May Day Flying Moth ID course now available on YourTube HERE . Why not expand your knowledge of those mysterious day-flying moths we can't identify. We will cover 32 commonly seen species from 8 families with tips on how to tell similar species apart. We want to encourage everyone to start identifying moths as they are 30 times more species of moth than butterfly with equally exquisite lives and equally colourful.
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