A grandfather from Barnard Castle in County Durham has received an Outstanding Volunteer Award from a national wildlife charity.

Butterfly Conservation (BC) presented Ian Findlay with the honour earlier this month, in recognition of more than 40 years of counting and recording butterflies and moths for the charity.

Surveys and monitoring schemes are crucial to helping BC see how butterflies and moths are doing in the UK and the results can inform scientific research and future conservation projects.

Almost three-quarters of UK butterfly species have declined during the last decade and three moths have become extinct since 2000.

The Chairman of BC’s North East Branch, Peter Webb, said: “It is 40 years since Ian moved to Upper Teesdale and started keeping records of the butterflies and moths he has identified in the Pennines. The area where he lives is above 1000 feet and often experiences high rainfall and cold springs. Despite this, Ian has walked along the same route once a week from the beginning of April until the end of September to gather records for the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme.

“His meticulous record keeping and remarkable persistence has resulted in a totally unique contribution to the conservation of butterflies and moths”.

Ian said: “I was surprised but delighted to receive this award as butterflies and moths have been a lifelong passion for me and that’s something I am hoping to pass on to the next generation. I work with a lot of youngsters and go into schools to give talks on why we need to help these incredible insects and the biggest achievement for me would be to inspire them and encourage them to get involved.

He added: “Even when you live at 1300 feet you can find butterflies. The Red Admiral is probably my favourite because it is so hardy and just a couple of months ago I went out into my garden to find about 38 of them feeding on my Buddleia bush! It’s important we carry on recording these sightings as butterflies and moths are important indicators of what is happening in the natural world, especially when it comes to climate change.”