Butterfly Conservation is a registered charity dedicated to the conservation of butterflies and moths. You can find out more about the national organisation 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.
Our branch is organising many butterfly walks in the summer across the county.
Our next events are:
01 Aug: Martin Kalaher will lead a walk in Stoke Bottom and Medley Bottom, near Amberley
07 Aug: An Introduction to Castle Hill NNR its butterfly and plant species with Graham Hubbard.
Information on all our walks and other events can be viewed here.
Anyone can post photos of butterflies they have seen in Sussex. Recent sightings include:
30 Jul: Saw a Clouded Yellow in my paddock for the first time this year and second time ever. Quite a treat!
30 Jul: I did a recce of Stoke Bottom in preparation for Saturday's event and was joined by 2,000 blue butterflies (five species). It was all rather lovely.
29 Jul: Farmers field off Clay Lane is a set aside field sowed with Lucerne, was only there for 15/20 minutes and I counted six Clouded Yellow in a few small area. Suspect there are many more ! Will go back. Clouded Yellow x6 Painted Lady x2 Common Blue x2
29 Jul: A marked decline in the numbers of Gatekeepers since last week but Meadow Browns, Small Heaths and Common Blues are doing very well. Total Counts: 262 Meadow Browns; 94 Gatekeepers, 21 Small Heaths; 33 Common Blues; 1 Speckled Wood; 2 Red Admirals; 11 Painted Ladies; 1 Small Tortoiseshell; 7 Large Whites; 13 Small Whites; 4 Small/ Essex Skippers, 1 Clouded Yellow and 1 Silver-spotted Skipper
29 Jul: A Dingy Skipper this morning at the edge of New England Wood. Also seen today: Clouded Yellow, whites, Small Copper, Common Blue, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Peacock, Speckled Wood, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown and Small Heath.
29 Jul: Following on from Neil Hulme's report of the 27th I did my transect of Washington Chalk Pits this morning. This revealed 76 Meadow Browns, 5 Gatekeepers, 6 Small Heaths, 34 Common Blues, 28 Chalk Hill Blues, 1 Red Admiral, 7 Painted Ladies, 1 Large Whites, 5 Small Whites and 1 Clouded Yellow.
29 Jul: A Clouded Yellow, a second brood Dingy Skipper, double figures of Chalk Hill Blues and single figure Adonis Blues on the Mill Hill butterfly transect. Fab to see a dozen Exmoor Ponies. Another important step in the restoration of the site to its former glory.
29 Jul: Five of us spent a few hours searching the slopes of Deep Dean again, just hoping for a small number of Grayling. Unfortunately, once again none were seen. All species of butterfly were down on the numbers we used to get in this special valley. There were still reasonable numbers of Chalk Hill Blue, but not the 10s of thousands we used to see here. The only bright spot was the much better showing this year in the valley of Silver-spotted Skippers. Their best year in the valley for several years with many seen buzzing around. It was interesting watching them as they kept landing on high foliage to escape the extreme heat. I tried to photograph one on top of some Ragwort. It flew onto my arm and enjoyed licking Bob's sweat and factor 50 before flying a short distance and landing on some tall grass where it stayed. Its proboscis stayed fully extended as I guess it tried to get moisture where it could. In the photo it shows a split proboscis, I should know, but is this normal?
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.
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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