July 12th, 2012 |
Join In The Big Butterfly Count !
The Guardian explains things pretty well here:
If this summer’s 50 shades of grey are getting you down, imagine how miserable it is to be a winged insect. In what is shaping up to be the worst year on record for butterflies, Sir David Attenborough on Wednesday urged people to find a window of sunshine and join the biggest butterfly count in the world.
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The wettest April for a century and the dampest June on record has left lepidopterists despairing about the fate of Britain’s 59 species, almost three quarters of which are in decline and one third are in danger of extinction.
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Launching the third year of Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count, the biggest citizen science project of its kind in the world, Attenborough said it was more important than ever to discover if butterflies are dodging the downpour. The count, in which people are asked to record online all the common species they spot in a 15-minute window in their garden or local park, will alert conservationists to the species most in danger so efforts can be better targeted to prevent their extinction.
You can find out more on the Big Butterfly Count website.
You simply download and print their identification chart and spend 15 minutes when its sunny noting what butterflies you see.
You could do this in a garden, or park or field, or one of our woods. You can then submit your findings, and they go onto an interactive map:
A couple of thoughts :
Ron Oatham
Trevor Parrett
Bruce Smart
Chris Stanley
Pam Waldie
Elena Black
Rochford District Council carries out grass cutting on behalf of the County Council.
If you see a grass verge that badly needs cutting, you can report it
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