Butterfly Count 2024

While the rest of the team were working very hard on Rhododendron removal, I had the pleasure of doing the 2024 Big Butterfly Count! I strolled around the woods for a couple of hours and here are my results: Big Butterfly Count – Friends of Fox Hill 2024. I saw others too, but only these four are being counted in the survey.

We’ll see what the results of the national survey show, but one contributing factor to the decrease in my count this year is that I did it a bit later, after most of the bramble flowers had gone to seed; i.e. blackberries. The best spot for butterflies in Fox Hill is a patch of flowering bramble in the sun.

I encountered all you see below, but I also saw a fox, complete with prey in its mouth! It was too fast for me to capture on camera.

Above: Comma, Large White, Cabbage White, Damsel Fly, White Admiral, Gatekeeper, Buff Tailed Bee, Female Blackbird.

If you’d like to take part, follow the guidelines on Big Butterfly Count before the 4th of August.

Happy counting,

Claire