Notes on an Emergency

 I see that the charity Butterfly Conservation (which does an excellent job) has declared a national 'Butterfly Emergency'. This is in response to the Big Butterfly Count of 2024, in which 85,000 volunteers participated, and which came up with lowest-ever figures in its 14-year history, an average of seven butterflies per count, barely half of last year's figure. I doubt if this dire news will greatly surprise anyone: it has been a terrible year for butterflies, with a cool, wet and windy spring followed by a cool, wet  and windy summer, which only warmed up and dried off when it was already too late. My personal species count was pathetic, the lowest I've ever recorded, and in many cases the number I saw was well down – and this outcome was not entirely due to my no longer being based on the edge of the Surrey downs and hills; I saw many more butterflies last year.
  The Big Butterfly Count findings show declines in over 80 per cent of species (including lowest-ever figures for three that, oddly, I saw plenty of – Holly Blue, Green-Veined White and Small White), but even that means that one in five species showed no decline, which I suppose is something to cling on to. It's also worth looking at the long-term picture: according to the last definitive survey, The State of the UK's Butterflies, published in 2022, although 80 per cent of species had declined in either abundance or distribution since the 1970s, 56 per cent had increased in one or the other over the same period. Butterfly abundance at monitored sites was only down by six per cent, and in Scotland abundance was actually up by 35 per cent. So the overall picture is not quite as gloomy as is often claimed, and certainly more complex and nuanced. However, there is no denying that 2024 was a truly awful butterfly year. I am hoping very much that things are better next year – especially as, if all goes to plan, my little book on butterflies should be emerging from its long pupation in the spring. But I'll say no more on that until nearer the date...