Female Gatekeeper (the males have a brown stripe on the upper wing)

Dear Readers, there are a couple of opportunities to get out and about over the next few weeks, should the urge take you! First up, it’s the Big Butterfly Count until 9th August – I shall be doing mine soon, so let’s see what we can see! My Buddleia has practically gone over, so I shall have to be quick.

You can read all about it here.

And secondly, this looks like a lot of fun, and I may well give it a go myself. The BSBI 100 Plants in 2026 combines citizen science with plant education – it’s encouraging beginning botanists to find 100 plant species in their neighbourhood, and to record them on iRecord. The BSBI provide excellent materials to help identify plants, and this feels like a very nice way to cure the ‘plant blindness’ that so many people have. I have learned so much from doing the Wednesday Weed blog, but still have more to learn than I can possibly pack into a lifetime.

Let me know if you’re trying either challenge, and let me know how it’s going! Anything that both encourages us to pay attention to the natural world and collects data has got to be a good thing.

Feverfew – a favourite ‘weed’