BRIGG AND THE BIG BUTTERFLY COUNT 2022

People in the Brigg area can help Mother Nature by taking part in The Big Butterfly Count 2022.
Brigg Blog has previewed annual garden bird-spotting initiatives for many years, and now it's time to do likewise for butterflies.
Like other towns and villages across the UK, Brigg has far fewer of these in 2022 than it did decades ago.
There are various reasons, but butterflies love visiting so-called wild flowers.
The Big Butterfly Count 2022 will begin on Friday, July 15 and run through to Sunday, August 7.
A handy chart has been produced by the organisers which can be downloaded free, in advance, to help people identify the different species.
Folk are being asked to watch for 15-minute spells and then log the butterflies (and moths) they observe.
There is an 'app' to employ for the task, or it can be done through a website.
All the information needed by local people is already available at https://bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org/
Take your pick of local sites, ranging from domestic gardens to parks and areas of public open space.
Suggestions include Holland Park near the railway station, York Road Field where three circular areas planted with saplings have been left to nature, the riverside Ancholme Valley Way, and the Davy Memorial Playing Field between Bigby Road and Kings Avenue.
The latter has a number of Buddleia 'Butterfly Bushes' much loved by peacocks and red admirals.
Summers in the 1960s at the Davy Field used to see these species, plus painted ladies and purple emperors attracted to the steep grassy bank near Bigby Road.
The incline was not cut by Brigg Urban District Council and many wild flowers thrived as a result.
This may have been more to do with the cost of trimming the grass than an initiative to help the environment.
However, whatever the reason, it produced quite a spectacle as butterflies flitted between the range of colourful flowers (some no doubt classed as weeds by gardeners!).
There were similar scenes in the 1960s down at the Donkey Field play area on Newlands, where tall grass and wild flowers were evident in summer rather than the all-weather surface familiar today.

PICTURED: Butterflies visiting Buddleia at the Davy Memorial Field, and the entrance to Holland Park, off Station Road, Brigg.