Butterfly Conservation is a registered charity dedicated to the conservation of butterflies and moths. You can find out more about the national organisation here.
We have a busy programme of working parties all over the county starting in October into March. This has been a wonderful summer for butterflies and with your help we can make 2027 even better.
Information about all the sessions can be found here.
Our branch is organising many butterfly walks in the summer across the county.
Our next events are:
22 Nov: Members Day 2026 - More details to come later.
Information on all our walks and other events can be viewed here.
The SxBC photo competition is back!
We're inviting photographers to submit their best Sussex butterfly photographs to our annual competition. Whether it's a rare species in flight or a perfect close-up of delicate wing patterns, we want to see it.
The results will be announced at the Members Day held on Sunday the 22nd November. For more information click here.
To see the 2025 winning entries click here.
Anyone can post photos of butterflies they have seen in Sussex. Recent sightings include:
20 Sep: There were five more Clouded Yellows in my garden today. Also of note, a mating pair of Common Blues, two male Brimstones and a Red Underwing (they are huge!). In 2025, there was a a very significant emergence of Brimstones on September 19th (and seen for the following 3-4 days). This year there has been only one website record of Brimstone for the past 48 days, and that was at Cootham on September 14th. It will interesting to see if there are many records of Brimstone in the next few days.
20 Sep: Two male Long-tailed Blue, one in my garden and a fresh individual found by Paul Robards in the hedged Triangle of land to the west of Lancing Ring hilltop. It was very interested in some Lucerne that was still in good flower. Many thanks to Paul for going out of his way to find me! Otherwise I saw 19 Common Blue, 17 Wall, 11 Clouded Yellow, 5 Red Admiral, 3 Speckled Wood, Brown Argus, Small Copper, Large White, a few Small White, Humming-bird Hawk-moth, Silver Y.
20 Sep: A Clouded Yellow in my Barcombe garden this morning was visiting Evening Primrose flowers of almost identical colour. In the process, its legs were getting covered by sticky clumps of pollen. It also tackled one flower from behind (second photo) possibly to avoid this happening. This was just one of two Clouded Yellows that passed through the garden today. Also present was a Comma on a Buddleia flower head and a Humming-bird Hawk-moth visiting Verbena bonariensis flowers. Meanwhile a female Southern Hawker dragonfly was laying eggs into moss on rocks at the edge of my garden pond.
20 Sep: We visited RSPB's Pulborough Brooks, late morning / early afternoon. Little to attract waterfowl - it's very dry. Fair number of butterflies - one each of Small Copper and Peacock, 2 Red Admirals, 5 male Common Blues, 6 each of Small White and Speckled Wood and 8 Clouded Yellows. The brightest of the Blues reminded me of the special edition all blue shirts Brighton & Hove Albion were wearing yesterday to celebrate their 125th anniversary! (Memorable win over Arsenal too.)
20 Sep: A GENTLE REMINDER REGARDING THIS YEAR'S PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION. PLEASE ACCESS THE HOME PAGE ON THE MENU BAR AND THEN CLICK ON THE PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETION PANEL FOR FURTHER DETAILS. ENTRIES MUST BE IN BY MIDNIGHT OCTOBER 24TH. THUS FAR VERY FEW MEMBERS HAVE SENT IN THEIR PHOTOS. LET'S DO IT!
20 Sep: 3 or more Clouded Yellow in flower border
19 Sep: In my garden it was a mad minute two days ago when I saw three Spitfires fly over westwards with a Peregrine flying just below them. Astounded, I turned round when they had disappeared and was amazed to see a Long-tailed Blue darting through the garden! I have since learned that my elder brother Paul saw the Spitfires circling low over the Whitehawk Long-tailed Blue site a few minutes before my whirlwind of sightings. Spooky. Today I was gratified to see two male Long-tailed Blue in my garden, with one setting up a lek despite the almost total lack of sun and a very stiff breeze. One was pretty fresh, the other lacking tails but in generally good nick. Hopefully this will carry on in the coming days, as all my four sightings before today had been incredibly fleeting. But you never know, so it is rather in hope rather than expectation! Also in the garden were a Clouded Yellow, Small Copper, 4 Common Blue, a female Wall, Small White and 2 Humming-bird Hawk-moth. On a less positive note, my last female Wasp Spider has disappeared overnight. Of the incredible thirty odd females present in.my garden this summer, only two seemed to have managed to leave egg cases. In other years it has been a very high percentage. I wonder what happened to them this year?! Still, bad news for Wasp Spiders is good news for our six legged friends, including butterflies which are regularly caught by Wasp Spiders in normal years.
19 Sep: Thanks to Graham, Jonathan, Maya, Debbie, Dave, Marion, Janet and Jim for completing a majestic clearance of Cotoneaster on the northern slope of the Hawth Hill A259 cutting at Seaford today. It really looks most impressive. This year the mass of invasive growth was tackled with picks, mattocks and tree poppers on temporary loan, a variation on previous years of hand cutting and stump glyphosate application. There is more disturbance of the soil using today`s approach and it will be interesting to see whether there is a corresponding increase in Kidney Vetch seedling growth to benefit the Small Blues. We are used to finding unusual things during work parties here. Last year Graham photographed the scarce Slender Hare`s-ear on its only known road verge site for Sussex. This year it was the turn of a lovely colony of Ivy Bees humming around their nesting site on the sandy disturbed earth of an old burrow, but perhaps more interestingly a sighting of the Castle Hill Rove Beetle, Astrapaeus ulmi, only previously known from five other sites in Sussex. Photos courtesy of Pete Varnham. The weather was unfortunately not conducive to hunting for Long-tailed Blues but by way of consolation a couple of Small Whites, a Clouded Yellow, solo Wall Brown and a fly-by Common Blue put in appearances during a brief interlude in the clouds. Thanks again to the Seaford Natural History Society and branch members who came today, tools in hand, and completed miracles. All to be repeated on the 29th - see you there! Best wishes, Dave
Click here for more sightings.
Photo by Graham Hubbard
New colonies of Wood White were recently discovered in West Sussex and our branch is planning to learn more about this rare butterfly.
We are organising a coordinated survey and are looking for volunteers. For more information on the Wood White Project in Sussex click here.
Photo by Graham Hubbard
Throughout the year we receive interesting sightings records. We have started an exercise to identify notable sightings and look for patterns during a month with a little help from an AI assistant.
To read more click here.
07 Aug: Annual Cotoneaster bashing on the Buckle by-pass (A259), Seaford
30 Jun: Martin Kalaher's Open Garden Sunday 12th July.
24 Jun: Scotney Castle - More opportunity to explore
27 Mar: Butterfly Recording Training at National Trust Woolbeding
22 Mar: 2026 walks now appear on the Events Page
28 Feb: Liz Williams Butterfly Haven work day
16 Jan: A summary of Sussex BC work parties in 2026
23 Oct: SxBC Members' Day - Saturday 22nd November 2025 1.30pm – 4.30pm. Latest Update
White Admiral, photo by Maurilio Tesa
Martin Kalaher has written a very interesting article titled 'Partial broods in 2025' to read the article click here.
Last month Martin published 'Second brood Dingy Skippers'. To read that article click here.
Photo from our 2025 competition.
Sussex is one of the best counties in the UK to see a wide range of interesting butterfly species.
More information on species can be viewed here.
There are many important sites for butterflies in our county.
Information on some of them can be viewed here.
The 2025 edition of our magazine has just landed! Members should receive a paper copy in mid November. A digital version can be viewed here.
Orange-tip by Gary Faulkner
The results of the 2025 SxBC photo competition were announced at the recent Members' Day.
To see the winning entries click here.
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