butterfly

Britain sees second-best butterfly season in 16 years; people counted almost 1.4 million common butterflies and moths; painted ladies jumped by 335%, but scientists are worried

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Britain sees second-best butterfly season in 16 years; people counted almost 1.4 million common butterflies and moths; painted ladies jumped by 335%, but scientists are worried

The record heat of 2026 made this summer exceptional for butterfly-watching. More than 100,000 volunteers fanned across Britain with notebooks this summer, tallying nearly 1.4 million common butterflies and day-flying moths. This was the second-best butterfly season of the past 16 years, according to the Big Butterfly Count. Painted ladies surged by 335% compared with … Read more

In 1983, Britain reintroduced a butterfly declared extinct just four years earlier; the large blue has since surged 1,866% and now survives at 33 sites

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In 1983, Britain reintroduced a butterfly declared extinct just four years earlier; the large blue has since surged 1,866% and now survives at 33 sites

A butterfly once declared extinct in Britain is now at the centre of one of the country’s most striking conservation success stories. The large blue, which disappeared from Britain in 1979, has been successfully reintroduced and now occurs at 33 sites in south-west England. New figures from the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme show its recorded … Read more

Humans stepped back from this UK dairy farm in 2023; three years later, wildlife returns as 27 more bird species appear and butterfly numbers more than double

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Humans stepped back from this UK dairy farm in 2023; three years later, wildlife returns as 27 more bird species appear and butterfly numbers more than double

Image: The Guardian/Jenny Vickers A former dairy farm in the UK has undergone a striking transformation after humans stepped back and allowed natural processes to reshape the land. At Heal Somerset, a 460-acre site in Somerset acquired by the rewilding charity Heal in December 2022, the first three years of nature recovery have brought a … Read more