Is it a superlative summer for butterflies or simply a return to normal? Plenty of nature-lovers have delighted in the abundance of gatekeepers, red admirals and peacocks this year, particularly after the dire summer of 2024, the second worst for common butterflies since scientific records began in 1976.
We won’t know the answer until results from the Big Butterfly Count come in – add your 15-minute butterfly counts in your local green space using the free app or website until 10 August. Confirmation will come when UKBMS data is crunched early next year.
My butterfly counts in Norfolk this week have been better than recent years but the nine peacocks on my garden buddleia is fewer than I counted in 2021. So I suspect a return to average.
For a truly vintage summer, as the naturalist Matthew Oates points out, we require several reliably good years in a row. Then flying insect numbers really boom. He notes this happened in the late 1940s and again in 1974, 1975, 1976 as well as 1982, 1983, 1984 and, to a lesser extent, 1994, 1995, 1996.
This century, we’ve experienced scattered decent butterfly summers – 2003, 2006, 2009, 2013 and 2018 – but no consolidation of good years. The fluctuations of global heating will probably thwart a run of truly brilliant butterfly summers but here’s hoping 2025 is start of something.
