Brimming with life: Summer wildlife surveys in Lark Meadow
- Jenny Hyndman
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
If there's wildlife to survey in Long Ashton, LANCE Trustees Amanda and Owen have probably clocked it. Their patience and encyclopaedic knowledge of native species help them carry out this vital work. Ahead of this year's Big Butterfly Count (happening now!), Amanda and Owen surveyed the butterflies - and more - in Long Ashton's Lark Meadow.
The importance of surveying wildlife
There is little point in taking action for nature if you don't start with accurate baseline data. If you don't have a starting point from which to measure increasing or decreasing numbers, how can you tell whether your interventions are having a positive impact?
Abundance vs species richness
There are a couple of things to consider when carrying out these surveys. Firstly, the number of individual organisms is just as important to record as the number of species. In wildlife surveying, these two measures are usually distinguished as:
Abundance (or total abundance) – the total number of individuals recorded
Species richness – the total number species recorded
For example, from our butterfly surveys in Lark Meadow, you’ll read on to find out that:
Abundance: 294 butterflies in 2025, 334 butterflies in 2026
Species richness: 12 species in 2025, 14 species in 2026
A shifting baseline makes things complicated
Shifting (or sliding) baseline syndrome is another important concept to understand when we look at this data. On the surface - more butterflies and a greater variety of butterflies since last year is a great thing. However, the last couple of years have been terrible for butterfly numbers, so the 2025 baseline is skewing our interpretation of the overall picture. In the diagram below, you can see that - even though butterfly numbers increased between 2025 and 2026 - the general trend in abundance is down.
Trends for the abundance of all-species of butterflies resident in the UK (50 species) and in England (49 species), 1976 to 2024
The results of our survey
However, we still had some very positive and promising results from the survey in Lark Meadow this July, including four newly observed species: silver Y, painted lady, clouded yellow and brown argus. Large skippers and meadow browns saw big increases in their abundance too.
The large white butterflies were notably absent from this year’s survey with a nearly 97% drop. There are several possible explanations: these butterflies may have struggled in the heatwave or the weather may have affected the timing of their emergence in a way that hasn’t coordinated with our survey. Large white butterflies feed primarily on brassicas which include human-cultivated crops like cabbages and broccoli. If local growers have doubled down on pest control this year, or crops have been failing because of the weather, this will have a knock-on effect on the butterflies. It was also noted that the weather was hot and quite blustery, probably keeping butterflies down in the grasses. Furthermore, very hot weather tends to drive butterflies into cooler, shadier areas - rather than the sunny, exposed meadow.
Species | 9 Jul 2025 | 14 Jul 2026 | % Change |
Meadow Brown | 75 | 168 | +124% |
Gatekeeper | 118 | 110 | −6.8% |
Small White | 2 | 5 | +150% |
Small Copper | 1 | 2 | +100% |
Marbled White | 7 | 9 | +28.6% |
Green-veined White | 1 | 1 | 0% |
Common Blue | 9 | 13 | +44.4% |
Small Skipper | 14 | 5 | −64.3% |
Silver Y | 0 | 3 | New |
Large Skipper | 2 | 11 | +450% |
Painted Lady | 0 | 2 | New |
Clouded Yellow | 0 | 1 | New |
Ringlet | 1 | 0 | −100% |
Five-spot Burnet | 2 | 0 | −100% |
Brown Argus | 0 | 4 | New |
Large White | 30 | 1 | −96.7% |
Total | 294 | 334 | +13.6% |
Plants of Lark Meadow
While carrying out the Big Butterfly Count, the team also did a rough plant check and spotted at least 27 species:
Owen suggested that there will be other species in the meadow (especially grasses) but these were the easiest to see. That being said, this is already an amazing variety of plant life and it will be supporting a whole host of species (including pollinators, birds and small mammals) throughout the year.
Other wildlife activity in Lark Meadow
Spending time in the meadow allowed Owen and Amanda to observe all sorts of activity. Some of the notable things included:
Three skylarks flew up from the meadow
Many micro moths around
Many grasshoppers, mainly meadow
A few bumble bees, mainly white and buff-tailed
Eight emperor dragonflies
Five azure damselflies
Ant hills starting to appear
Get involved (in just 15 minutes!) by joining the Big Butterfly Count
The Big Butterfly Count is a nationwide citizen science survey, organised by Butterfly Conservation, aimed at helping us assess the health of our environment. It was launched in 2010 and has rapidly become the world's biggest survey of butterflies. Over 64,000 people take part each year, submitting over 96,000 counts of butterflies and day-flying moths from across the UK!
This year, the Big Butterfly Count 2026 runs between the 17th of July and 9th of August.
Why count butterflies?
Following the devastatingly poor results of the Big Butterfly Count 2024, Butterfly Conservation declared a butterfly emergency.
Butterflies are beautiful and fascinating insects, but they are also incredibly important to healthy ecosystems. They are vital parts of our ecosystem as both pollinators and components of the food chain. However, there is a real cause for concern: numbers of butterflies and moths in the UK have decreased significantly since the 1970s. This is a warning that cannot be ignored as butterfly declines are also an early warning signal for other wildlife losses and threats to habitats.
Instructions on what to do
Full instructions are available in our blog from last year.
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