Living World ( Radio 4 Sunday 29th April) featured the Pearl-bordered Fritillary. This programme with Richard Fox of BC and Gary Pilkington of Devon Wildlife Trust is well worth listening to. As well as being informative it is a timely reminder that even on poor days the butterflies are out there! O...

Daily Mail special offer Three dwarf buddleias Buzz for cost of postage £4.90 is a current Daily Mail offer. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/prmts/article-2110380/Our-150-plant-giveaway-continues-.html Well worth a try for that money. I am trying some & will report back how they do. I suspect th...

The bit of film at the start of Sarah Raven sitting in flowers and talking was filmed at Butterfly Conservation's Magdalen Hill Down reserve at Winchester. I was disappointed that Sarah did not credit Butterfly Conservation with creating such a fantastic area for butterflies and bees on what was an ...

This a plant well worth having in the garden to help to encourage Orange-tips to breed. For anyone anxious to get some planted this Spring I have just spotted these are sold as a perennial by http://www.shiptonbulbs.co.uk There are lots of other plants for butterflies on sale there too. Now is such ...

Non-butterflies - do you know what I mean? Butterflies that look like butterflies but aren't! Does anyone else share my disappointment when clip art type butterflies are used in articles, web sites or advertisements when an image of one of our beautiful British butterflies could be used to better ef...

About a month ago I ordered the collection of three dwarf buddleias that were offered to members of Butterfly Conservation in the Autumn issue of Butterfly. Thompson & Morgan have acknowledged my order & promised delivery by the end of March 2012 - which I think is good timing. I am buying t...

Just got around to replying - sorry its a bit late. Sedum spectabile - I have found this to be always successful in attracting butterflies. Michaelmas Daisies. Again these are good. I have a large clump of what seems like a wild one & I had a tropical butterfly on it in October. How bizarre was ...

Matthew has done a piece on Butterflies In Love to open new series of R4's Saving Species, out 11am Tues 26th & 9pm Thurs 28th, on Duke of B.
Or catch it on Listen again.

Just to say I spotted that Tescos in Andover Hampshire had these on sale for £7. Its worth checking out your local Tescos as this is a really good price. Not familiar with this dwarf tree? Well, it has a stem of about a metre or three feet in old money onto which weeping wands of "pussy willow&...

Two plants I recommend for moths are the wild plants Greater Mullein and Dark Mullein. Both have yellow flowers and the latter is less tall. These are very likely to be used as larval foodplants by the Mullein moth, which has very attractive caterpillars. A garden flower - Verbascum phoeniceum hybri...

I have had Jan's book for a few weeks now and it is great. Here is a copy of the review I have written.. Is there room on your book shelf for just one more book on gardening for the creatures we love? I hope so! Jan Miller is an exceedingly active volunteer with Butterfly Conservation in North Wales...

The 2010 Target and beyond for Lepidoptera University of Reading 26th -28th March 2010. I have just got some brief and personal recollections from this fantastic event. I hope othere who were present will add in their comments too. Inspiration a-plenty was provided by the opening remarks of our Pres...

This conference was hosted by Butterfly Conservation at University of Reading on 25th March - the day preceding the International Symposium. It was attended by around 400 people, including many butterfly and moth enthusiasts and we were able to listen to top class speakers on all aspects of woodland...

Gardening for Butterflies, Bees and other beneficial insects A how to guide Jan Miller-Klein Jan is well know to those of us who encounter members from other branches of Butterfly Conservation and she is well known as a person who undertakes habitat creation in gardens and parks very much at a pract...

Painted Ladies A Small patch of flowering ivy had 12 PLs on it on the 12th October and 14 on the 14th. These sightings were at Butterfly Conservation's Magdalen Hill Down Reserve at Winchester Hampshire. O that they would start spending the winter with us as the Red admiral started doing a few years...

Crete October 2009 We arrived on Crete on 13th October and we noted small numbers of Painted Lady in the first three days of our stay. On 16th October we were at the top of the Topolia Gorge, one of several gorges in western Crete that run in a north - south direction, and we became aware of a stead...

Kate Dent will be on BBC Breakfast tomorrow morning talking about Painted Ladies and the plight of British Butterflies! Most of the interview will be live. It should be on at 5.50am, 6.50am and 7.50am.

Richard Fox, Moths Count Project Manager, is on BBC Springwatch tonight (Thursday 28 May) BBC2 8-9pm



The topic for discussion is the possible link between the decline in moth populations and the cuckoo.

At 4.15pm Thursday 28th Painted Ladies on the move at Ropley Hampshire. I counted 130 in five minutes in a 20m strip crossing my field. Flying North very strongly very fast. None appeared to settle. Having watched them both Saturday & Sunday again in great concentrations I must say I find the wh...

Just to say on BBC South today at 6,30 -7pm but I am sure people out of South Today area will find a link on the web.

The trailer had a super aerial shot of Clives butterfly friendly zones at his estate in Dorset.