This stunning shot of a Comma butterfly was taken this week at Bibbey’s Wild Farms, just outside Birmingham on the West Mids/Worcs border.
Chris Millward, co-founder of Team4Nature, conservation manager at Bibbey’s Wild Farms and Brum Biosphere project lead, who shared images of the butterflies on social media, said: “Whatever kind of day you’ve had, I bet the sight of these gorgeous Comma butterflies will make you feel happy inside.
“These butterflies were just outside Brum. My aim is to work with 300 #BrumBiosphere partners to (amongst a lot of other things) have butterflies fluttering across the city as well as being reflected in community art and craftwork to boost wellbeing for Brummies and build civic pride in our great city.”
Six Comma butterflies – a species commonly found in Europe, North Africa and Asia – were recorded along 7.75 km of transects (recording routes) yesterday in Bibbey’s Wild Farms’ “Countryside Stewardship habitats,” which adhere to “nature-friendly farming” techniques to encourage natural flora and fauna.
The Comma is one of the few species doing well in the UK in recent years, whereas butterflies in general are declining with the results of last year’s citizen science project, the “Big Butterfly Count,” producing the lowest counts in the survey’s 14-year history. This led to a “butterfly emergency” being declared.
Since adopting nature-friendly farming in 2021, Bibbey’s Wild Farms have recorded 26 butterfly species across their 300 acres.
