The Parish Magazine June 2023

feature — 2
Where have all the butterflies gone?
The Parish Magazine - June 2023 21
3 June Butterfly Education
and Awareness Day 2023
Peacock Rudmer Zwerver, dreamstime.com Swallowtail Noah-Boyer, unsplash.com
I have been interested in butterflies
since my father gave me a small
patch of ground at the bottom of our
garden about 70 years ago, writes
Bob Peters.
I could grow anything I liked, so
the first thing was to plant some
runners from a strawberry patch in
the family vegetable garden. We lived
near Tiptree in Essex where there
were acres and acres of strawberries.
It was while tending my tiny
strawberry patch that I became
interested in the visiting butterflies
that would always seem to be there.
Also, I can't remember where they
came from, but in a cupboard we
had a collection of dead butterflies
and moths. They were displayed in
several boxes with glass fronts. Each
specimen had been carefully pinned
and labelled with their Latin names
which I spent hours unsuccessfully
trying to decipher.
REMOTE CHANCE
My favourite butterfly was a
splendid Swallowtail and I always
hoped that one day I would see one
flying in my garden — there was a
remote chance because at that time
migrant Swallowtails were said to
frequent East Anglia and my garden
was only about 100 miles further
south. Today, native UK populations
are rare but stable and restricted
to the Norfolk Broads where milk
parsley thrives.
I never saw one flying wild until I
travelled to the Mediterranean in my
adult life.
I'm by no means an expert on
butterflies, I simply enjoy seeing
them when spending time in the
garden — and I am no expert in
gardening either, my approach has
always been 'trial and error', as it has
always been with everything in life!
A bout of Covid a couple of years
ago left me without the energy to
do much gardening until recently
— this lack of energy may have also
been age related!
However, this year I have been
able to get out in the garden a little
more and apart from the abundances
of thistles, nettles and a variety of
weeds, normality is slowly returning.
Orange Tip
Helen Davies, dreamstime.com
The most striking thing that
I have noticed is the lack of the
butterflies that I usually like to stop
and watch. As I write this it is still
early in the season, but by now there
should a good number flying around.
I have spotted one lonely
Brimstone, which is always the first
to be seen every year, one Orange
Tip, and one splendid Peacock.
Where I wonder, have all the
butterflies gone?
The best source of information
I have found is the latest 28 page
report published by the UK charity,
Butterfly Conservation, it is called
The State of UK's Butterflies 2022.
The previous report was 7 years ago.
Brimstone
Leif Algotsson, dreamstime.com
The latest one summarises the key
findings as being a massive 80%
decline. The key finding is: In the UK,
long-term trends show that 80% of
butterfly species have decreased in
abundance or distribution, or both
since the 1970s. The report can be
downloaded free at: https://butterflyconservation.org/state-of-uk-butterflies-2022
AWARENESS
This month, 3 June has been
declared a Butterfly Education
and Awareness Day 2023 or BEAD
for short. It is an annual event
organised by the Association for
Butterflies (AFB) to raise awareness
about the importance of butterfly
conservation.
BEAD is designed to help educate
us, the public, about the importance
of butterflies in the pollination
process and why it's important
to create and protect butterfly
habitats. This event is also a great
opportunity to teach children about
metamorphosis.
There are over 200,000 species of
butterflies in the world and scientists
tell us that they are a vital part of
the environment. They are essential
as pollinators for many crops,
flowers and plants and they provide
a good indication of the health of
the world's ecosystem and climate
change.
Scientific studies of butterflies
different life cycles will, it is
believed, lead to important medical
developments in the future. And, of
course, they are fascinating insects
to sit and watch when you need a
break from digging the garden!