Welcome to the Butterfly Buffet! Today's special: Tree sap 🦋🌳 Flower nectar is an important source of energy for many adult butterflies and moths, but some also have a taste for tree sap, aphid honeydew, rotting fruit and even animal dung! 📹: Charlotte Brooks

Great day on our Southbourne Seafront transect supporting @savebutterflies.bsky.social Big Butterfly Count. Nice to show visitors the Clouded Yellows zipping along the undercliff. Thanks to all who helped with the display 😀 @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social @ukbms.bsky.social

Whilst down for the LT Shrike, we headed to Prestbury Hill Reserve. A fantastic @savebutterflies.bsky.social site with 18 species of #butterflies seen including plenty of shimmering Chalkhill Blue in the midday heat. Also several Clouded Yellow, Brimstone, Brown Argus, DG Fritillary & WL Hairstreak.

Are there tigers in your neighbourhood? 🐯 Tiger moths are some of our most iconic day-flying moths with vibrant colours and flashy patterns, but some species can look quite similar. Here's what to look for 👇 #MothsMatter #MothMonday #TeamMoth

Slo-mo of a Hummingbird Hawk Moths in our #YorkshireDales garden this afternoon. One of several investigating the pink Phlox. @savebutterflies.bsky.social #lepidoptera #nature

Still time to do a 15 minute Big Butterfly Count. You can do as many as you like until 9 August. Details bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org @savebutterflies.bsky.social @kentwildlife.bsky.social @rspb.bsky.social @rspbengland.bsky.social

New month, new butterflies and moths to look out for in your gardens and local green spaces! 🦋🌻 See how many you can spot in the Big Butterfly Count, running until 9 August 👉 https://butrfli.es/3SVFepj

As we come to the end of week two, it's time to dust off the #BigButterflyCount County Leaderboard 🏆 Greater London is currently smashing it out of the park with an impressive 4,644 counts submitted so far, but Devon is hot on their heels! Is your county on the board?

There are three white butterflies to spot in the #BigButterflyCount: Large White, Small White and Green-veined White 👀 All of which are hard to identify when flying, but if you manage to see one land, use this handy guide to help you.

Celastrina argiolus the Holly Blue unusually displaying its upper wings (at least for me) revealing this is a second brood female (#RSPBArne last week). @savebutterflies.bsky.social

Male Gatekeeper clinging to a grass seed head on a windy day at Dunwich Heath Suffolk. #Butterfly #Butterflies #wildlife #ukwildlife #wildlifephotography #nature #naturephotography @bc-suffolk.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social @suffolkwildlife.bsky.social

#InsectThursday from my garden yesterday, I told you my holly blue was tiny! Great size comparison with a #bee! Both enjoying golden rod. @savebutterflies.bsky.social #BigButterflyCount #butterflies

Count the butterflies! How many Painted Ladies are in this photo? 🔍 Our Head of Ecology Services, Amy Ross, witnessed clouds of these migratory butterflies on a visit to RSPB Bempton Cliffs last weekend. Spotted many near you? Don't forget to record your sightings in the #BigButterflyCount 📱

So many local butterflies were concentrating on Marjoram in July. Now that it's going over the attention has switched to Ragwort. Here's a recent selection from the wild space in our local cemetery in Lowestoft. @bc-suffolk.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social

🌳🦋 Does woodland restoration benefit moths? Join Patrick Cook (@savebutterflies.bsky.social) on 10 Nov for a FREE entoLIVE exploring how moths are responding to woodland expansion in the Cairngorms, and what this means for Lepidoptera diversity in the UK 🌍 🧪 🔗 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1978821238...

On my walk yesterday, the other side of our High Weald village, before the sun was too hot, Silver-washed Fritillary, Painted Lady, masses of Gatekeeper and slightly smaller numbers of Meadow Brown. Today much the same but no Painted Lady and instead Common Blue. @savebutterflies.bsky.social

An incredible 60,000 citizen scientists have taken part in the #BigButterflyCount so far. Thank you! 💚🦋 Together, you have recorded over 900,000 butterflies and moths across the UK, with the Gatekeeper currently in top position. 📷: Megan Lowe

Big Butterfly Count week one in photos 🤩 Thank you for sending in all your fabulous photos, we love seeing what butterflies and moths you're finding during your counts! The #BigButterflyCount runs until 9 August, so there is still plenty of time to get out and count.

Purple Hairstreak, Neozephyrus quercus, in an Edinburgh cemetery I visit regularly for #CemeteryWildlifeWatch and never thought to look for it in the Oaks here. Two individual females seen. @savebutterflies.bsky.social

Female Gatekeeper enjoying the flowering heather on Dunwich Heath, Suffolk #Butterfly #Butterflies #wildlife #ukwildlife #wildlifephotography #nature #naturephotography @bc-suffolk.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social @suffolkwildlife.bsky.social

While watching Six-spot Burnet Moths a stunning yellow form flew into my view at RSPB Conwy, N Wales this week. @savebutterflies.bsky.social #moths View the full video here: youtube.com/shorts/HOslg...

Dark Green Fritillary putting on a show on the wild thyme at Clyde Muirshiel Regionals Park's Waterfall Trail yesterday! #BigButterflyCount @savebutterflies.bsky.social

A female Common Blue, Polyommatus icarus, in my East Kent garden. Logically: an unusual individual where the blue suffusion extends to the wing margins. Emotionally: absolutely beautiful! #KentNature @savebutterflies.bsky.social

Happy Friday #Flyday Red Admiral feeding on the lavender in my garden. @savebutterflies.bsky.social @lincswildlife.bsky.social #Butterflies #Nature #Wildlife #Gardens #EastCoastKin #Flowers

Our Practical Work party team of volunteers were out at Harbury North yesterday. We were all delighted to see a number of Clouded Yellow butterflies around the site. #cloudedyellow #migrant #butterflies #warwickshire @savebutterflies.bsky.social

PhD forum finished early so I took @drheatherprice.bsky.social's advice to get outside for 15 minutes - just enough time for a @savebutterflies.bsky.social #BigButterflyCount! Ringlets and speckled woods counted on the #UofStirling campus 🦋

Two Jersey Tigers and a Small Copper in my #Quedgeley garden early afternoon @savebutterflies.bsky.social

With the #BigButterflyCount well underway, keep your eyes open when spotting differences between species 👀 Tiny white dots on the underside of the hindwing mean you've spotted a Gatekeeper - there are none on Meadow Brown!

Just submitted some observations for @savebutterflies.bsky.social’s Big Butterfly Count. Including this stately Red Admiral, lovely Jersey Tiger Moth, and about a gazillion Gatekeepers feasting on our marjoram. Take part here: bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org

A morning with Dan Tuson @naturalengland.bsky.social & Rebecca Levy @savebutterflies.bsky.social exploring Ileden Downs, new species-rich meadows created by arable reversion as part of East Kent Landscape Recovery Project. It holds the largest UK population of Bright Wave moth. #KentNature