Castle Espie and Attenborough Get All Aflutter
Castle Espie Wetland Centre and Sir David Attenborough are inviting you to get outside this summer to count butterflies.
The Big Butterfly Count runs till Sunday 9 August. You can pick up a spotter sheet at Castle Espie Wetland Centre so that you can tick off what you see, as it’s a great place to spot butterflies particularly the Butterfly Garden area of the free to visit Sensory Garden and the limestone grasslands in front of the Limekiln Observatory.
Kids can also pick up a Nature Explorers passport and earn a stamp for each activity they do, like pond dipping, mini beast hunts or feeding the ducks, geese and swans. For more details, visit www.wwt.org.uk/castleespie
You can also download a butterfly spotter sheet to spot butterflies where you live. You’re especially invited to look out for Painted Lady butterflies, which appear to be seeing a huge influx from the continent this year.
WWT Vice President Sir David Attenborough launched the Big Butterfly Count at London Wetland Centre, on behalf of WWT’s nine wetland centres across the UK including Castle Espie Wetland Centre. He said the UK’s butterflies are on a par with great wildlife across the world:
“We tend to think in the United Kingdom we haven’t got dramatic animals - that’s because blokes like me on the television keep on putting elephants and giraffes on your screen - but there are wonderful things in this country and butterflies are not the least of them.”
“We want to know how many butterflies there are in this country, what kind they are and how they’re doing. Find a nice place and, when the sun shines, just for 15 minutes note down what butterflies you see.”
Toni Castello, Senior Reserve Manager at Castle Espie said:
“I’m delighted to support this wonderful project. Castle Espie Wetland Centre is a great place to see loads of butterfly species. At Castle Espie alone we’ve got at least 15 types of day-flying butterflies and over 200 moths including six spot burnet moths and a lovely blue butterfly called a Common Blue that loves to bask in the sun in coastal areas so is very at home here on the edge of Strangford Lough.”
The Big Butterfly Count is run by Butterfly Conservation and supported by the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, which are closely linked. WWT founder Sir Peter Scott was Butterfly Conservation’s first President, and WWT Vice President Sir David Attenborough is their current President. Both organisations were set up with the ethos that conservation science should involve people getting outside and having fun.
