Big Butterfly Count 2026 | Friends of Burgess Park

London Wildlife Trust gazebo with people gathered round at the start of the count. — Photo: Tom Brodie: London Wildlife Trust

Burgess Park launch of 2026 Big Butterfly Count – 17/7/2026

An event to launch the annual Big Butterfly Count, a Citizen Science project, organised by the Butterfly Conservation Trust – in order to benchmark the UK butterfly population.

FOBP hosted Tom Brodie from London Wildlife Trust in Burgess Park – an area known to support at least 16 different butterfly species.

It was an excellent day for spotting butterflies – i.e. not too windy or too hot. To reflect the local community, Tom helpfully brought along a Spanish version of the id sheet.

The first walk took in the Albany Woodlands, an area deliberately managed to encourage butterfly habits through maintenance of sunny glades next to woody areas. The second walk included St George’s copses, a less wooded area, with grasses and next to St George’s gardens.

71 butterflies/day flying moths were seen across 9 different species

Species	Numbers Walk 1: Albany Woodlands	Numbers Walk 2: St George’s Copses
Small White	11	26
Small Copper	2	0
Speckled Wood	2	0
Gatekeeper	4	7
Red Admiral	2	4
Comma	0	1
Painted Lady	0	2
Holly Blue	0	6
Jersey Tiger Moth	2	2
Totals	23	48

Table showing species and butterflies across two walks on 17 July 2026

So do take part in the world’s largest butterfly survey, the Big Butterfly Count, by spending 15 minutes outdoors in a sunny spot, count the butterflies and day-flying moths and submit your sightings via the free app or at www.bigbutterflycount.org.

Butterfly pictures: Sam Tilling taken on the Big Butterfly Count 17 July

Participants:

Tom Brodie /Woodland Nature Recovery Officer – London Wildlife Trust and two volunteers from LWT Nunhead Cemetery butterfly ID group

Holly Weber/Southwark Council Ecology Officer

FOBP volunteers – Susan Crisp, Monica Heeran and Sam Tilling and

Cllr Eloise Walden-Day, Executive member for Council Coordination and Climate

11 locals joined in to help spot different species. Tom collated the findings for the count.

We did more butterfly art, using stencils for butterfly species found in Burgess Park, and promoted the Big Butterfly Count on Sunday 19 July at the Making Our Neighbourhood event.

Butterfly art with stencils for Burgess Park species; adult hold completed butterfly picture.

Butterfly art; two completed butterflies cut out.

FOBP at the Making Our Neighbourhood event 19 July 2026 – promoting the Big Butterfly Count