Welcome
Welcome to the Devon Branch of Butterfly Conservation. If you live in the region and are a member of Butterfly Conservation you automatically become a member of the Devon Branch.
Devon has around 39 resident butterfly species and we can help point you in the right direction on where and when is best to see them.
Species to look out for
Devon updates
July 2018
Our wonderful Devon summer butterflies are now enjoying the weather and doing well. We hope you will join us on one of our events to see some of them - see the Events listings below for more details. Please check this page BEFORE you attend as we will try to make sure any changes/cancellations are updated as soon as they are now - best advice is to also contact the leader of the event to make sure all is going ahead as planned.
Members who regularly check our web site will notice our brand new layout – many thanks to Butterfly Conservation colleagues for this update which looks very fresh and clean. However, things are laid out a little differently to before so please take some time to look around the site and make sure you can find all the information about the branch that you need. A few tweaks to the site are still underway so if you notice something not quite right please let us know via our contact page.
You can see the list of First Sightings of each species on our Latest Sightings page. Another way to keep up with sightings in Devon is to use Twitter and follow us on @BCDevon where we retweet details of the many local sightings that are tweeted to @BCDevon. You can see our Twitter feed further down (or across) this Welcome page. If you have a smartphone we do recommend you download Twitter onto it and just scroll through our @BCDevon feed regularly.
Learn more
Latest Sightings
Have you seen a butterfly? Take a look at our latest sightings page to find out what you can see at this time of year and what species were seen each month last year!
Conservation projects in Devon
The ‘All the Moor Butterflies’ project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, will help to restore and create habitat for the Pearl-bordered Fritillary, High Brown Fritillary, Heath Fritillary and Marsh Fritillary on some of the UK’s most famous moorland landscapes, including Exmoor, Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor.
Key sites to see species
Find out more about some of our main butterfly species and the best sites to see them in Devon.
Newsletters and email news
Keep up to date with all our latest news by signing up for our email newsletter or catching up on our past ones.
Get involved
News
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Attenborough: ‘Watching butterflies is good for you!’
Sir David Attenborough has spoken of the mental health benefits of watching butterflies as he urged the public to take part in the world’s biggest butterfly survey over the next three weeks.
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Farmers working together for wildlife
One of the UK’s rarest butterflies is set to benefit from a new project on the Devon and Somerset border that will see farmers working together to help local wildlife, Butterfly Conservation can reveal.
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Latest trends in butterfly indicators revealed
In the UK, since 1976, the habitat specialists butterflies index has fallen by 77%, whilst wider countryside abundance is down by 46%.
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March of the micros
An increasing number of new moth species are arriving and settling in the UK as a result of the global reach of the horticultural trade and the changing climate, moth experts today revealed.
Events
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Devon: Field Trip - Kerswell Downs
Sunday 22nd July 2018: 1.30pm
Kerswell Downs
Guided Big Butterfly Count walk on Kerswell Downs, for good limestone flora and a variety of butterfly species.
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Devon: Marsh Fritillary Larval Web Training Day
Thursday 2nd August 2018, 10.30am-15.00pm
Near Newton Abbot
Learn about the ecology, habitat preferences, and survey techniques of the threatened Marsh Fritillary butterfly on this one-day field course on Dartmoor.
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Devon: Talk - Introduction to Dartmoor's Butterflies and Moths
Friday 3rd August 2018, 19.30pm-21.30pm
Near Yelverton
A fascinating talk looking at the lives of some of Dartmoor's special butterflies and moths, followed by the opportunity to open up the moth trap with Megan Lowe and Tony John.
Volunteer with us
Butterfly Conservation relies on the support of thousands of volunteers, and we are always looking for more help inside the office and out in the field. Whether you want to volunteer at a local branch, get outside and help manage our nature reserves, or help with one of our events, we have something for everyone to get involved in! Your time can make a real difference.
Contact branch
- Chairman
Jonathan Aylett - Branch Organiser
Marjory Taylor - Treasurer
Ray Jones