The Big Butterfly Count Is One Of The Largest Citizen Science Projects With Over 100,000 People Spending 15 Minutes Counting The Butterflies They Can See In Their Gardens And Around Other Sites.
Running in late July and early August since 2010, the Big Butterfly Count provides important scientific data on the health of our butterfly and day flying moth populations and, like canaries in a coalmine, they are an indicator of wider environmental health.
Over the last four years, the Sid Valley Biodiversity Group has been looking at the local butterfly count data within the Sidmouth Town Council jurisdiction, which includes Salcombe Regis, and comparing it with national trends.
The identity of the counters is restricted and so we do not know how many people submit counts in Sidmouth but we do know that over 150 counts were recorded in 2025, mainly within the town but also across the valley. This number is not sufficient to make definitive statements but it does provide useful insights.
With differing numbers of counts restricting comparisons of total figures they have been reduced to a mean of sightings per count to overcome this. The data includes two day flying moths, these are included in the term butterflies for brevity in the text.
To access the full report please refer to the file below. This can be read online or can be downloaded.
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