Cambridgeshire and Essex Branch of Butterfly Conservation

We cannot conserve butterflies and moths unless we know where they live.

This might seem like a statement of the obvious, but it is sometimes all too easy to forget that Butterfly Conservation's work to record and map the distribution and abundance of butterflies and moths is at the heart of our efforts to conserve these wonderful insects, especially the rarest and most vulnerable species.
SO PLEASE DO SEND US YOUR BUTTERFLY AND MOTH SIGHTINGS . . .

Casual Recording

We are pleased to receive records of butterfly sightings from anyone at any time; the minimum requirements for a record are:

Correct identification: Always make sure of the species; get a good view of the butterfly, preferably settling, before noting it down. Remember that a smallish white butterfly, for example, is not necessarily a Small White, but could also be a Green-veined White, female Orange Tip or even a small specimen of a Large White.

Grid Reference: Give a 6 figure grid reference if you can; if not then give a clear description of where you saw it, such as a street name, pub or other identifiable landmark, as well as the nearest town or village. A town name alone is not sufficient; "Cambridge" for example, could refer to at least 6 different 2 km grid squares. If you have difficulty finding the grid reference but have a place or street name or postcode, click here to use the Ordnance Survey website. Or click here to use a very useful mapping tool which gives you a grid reference of a movable marker on a Google map.
There is also help and information on the Ordnance Survey website.

Rare or Unusual Species: If the species is rare, or you are unfamiliar with the species, describe as much as you possibly can about the appearance of the butterfly and where you saw it, how it behaved, how you identified it, and if at all possible get a photograph. Then as soon as you can with your news!

Garden records: When sending in records from your garden, please record the earliest and latest sighting and peak count for each species, rather than everything you see each day.

How to send in your records:

Electronic Recording:

Paper Recording:

All paper forms should be returned by post to:

Transect Recording

Butterfly transects are a way of monitoring trends in butterfly populations at a local (site), regional or national level.
The method was devised in 1973 by the Centre of Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), and involves walking a fixed route across a site each week between April and September whilst counting the number of individuals of each butterfly species.
The United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) co-ordinates a network of chosen transects across the UK (see below for further details).

The information gained from transect monitoring is invaluable, especially if the same transect is walked for many years. When data are brought together from a large number of sites, regional and national indices can be generated. The key value of such annual monitoring is that it provides early warnings of species decline, at a time when conservation action can be most effective and before species are lost from whole sites and areas.

Transects not only provide accurate assessments of how each species is doing every year, but enable us to investigate many questions about butterfly ecology and how habitat management and the weather affect populations.

The United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) was officially launched on 15th May 2006 as a result of the merger of the long-running Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (which was originally established in 1976 and run by the CEH) with Butterfly Conservations's co-ordination of 'independent' transects.

The UKBMS consists of a network of sites throughout the UK where butterflies are recorded weekly along fixed transect routes for six months of the year (April to September). From this information, national fluctuations and trends in butterfly numbers can be inferred.

The scheme is run as a partnership between the CEH, BC and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), with the active involvement of the National Trust, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Forestry Commission and several wildlife trusts and local authorities.

The primary aims of the scheme are:

A new UKBMS website contains a wealth of information including - details and summary data on all transects in the (old) BMS, species trend graphs, phenology graphs, interactive maps, weekly summary tables for all years for all sites, downloadable reports and much more. Data for the transects which have been co-ordinated by BC branches will also be made available in due course.

Data from butterfly transects form a huge repository of information for all kinds of research. For example, butterfly transect data has been used to assess whether government grant-aided conservation management, undertaken through agri-environment schemes, are having a positive effect on butterfly populations.

Butterfly Conservation
40 years of saving butterflies, moths and our environment