Butterfly Conservation is a registered charity dedicated to the conservation of butterflies and moths. You can find out more about the national organisation here.
We have a busy programme of working parties all over the county starting in October into March. This has been a wonderful summer for butterflies and with your help we can make 2027 even better.
Information about all the sessions can be found here.
Our branch is organising many butterfly walks in the summer across the county.
Our next events are:
22 Nov: Members Day 2026 - More details to come later.
Information on all our walks and other events can be viewed here.
The SxBC photo competition is back!
We're inviting photographers to submit their best Sussex butterfly photographs to our annual competition. Whether it's a rare species in flight or a perfect close-up of delicate wing patterns, we want to see it.
The results will be announced at the Members Day held on Sunday the 22nd November. For more information click here.
To see the 2025 winning entries click here.
Anyone can post photos of butterflies they have seen in Sussex. Recent sightings include:
29 Sep: This morning I walked in Lancing by Widewater and later by the river Adur (as far as the footbridge). I started by going down the passage by 50 Brighton Road to the coast path. There are a couple of large semi wild and grassy gardens here. Four Common Blues and one or two Small Coppers were flying. I began to see Clouded Yellows and Small Whites - 13 of the former including a helice and 20 of the latter. One of the Clouded Yellows flew up, over the coast path and on towards the sea. Where I could, I walked off the path and along the shingle by Widewater which was more sheltered. A couple of Painted Ladies and an unexpected Speckled Wood completed the tally. The grass on the west bank of the Adur had been cut and I saw just one Small White there. On the east bank I spotted 5 more Small Whites, 4 Clouded Yellows including a helice and a Red Admiral.
29 Sep: It was warm and sunny this morning, but it turned into a gloomy afternoon. Started off with a reasonably fresh Long-tailed Blue in my garden, who seemed interested in defending territory against the persistence of my resident male Small Copper. In the adjacent chalkpit there were two more even fresher male Long-tailed Blue. Result! Also seen today were 2 Clouded Yellow, 2 Wall, 2 Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Speckled Wood, a few Small White, 3 Humming-bird Hawk-moth. I hope the Long-tailed Blue hang around, as everything else seems to be waning fast!
29 Sep: It was a taste of the Mediterranean down at the Buckle By-pass Small Blue work party today. Temperatures must have hit 27 degrees or more in the sunshine and the dedicated team in attendance were richly rewarded with sightings of four Long-tailed Blues, half a dozen Clouded Yellows, Painted Ladies, Red Admirals, Wall Browns, Common Blues, Small Coppers, Large, Small and Green-veined White and singles of Peacock, Speckled Wood and Comma. To add to the European flavour a couple of Vestal Moths, mature Humming-bird Hawk-moth larvae, singing Southern Field Crickets, Southern Green Shieldbug nymphs and other French delights were in assemblage with mature Fox Moth caterpillars, Four-spotted Spiders (one of which caught an egging Clouded Yellow) and a number of viviparous lizards that scuttled away. Thank you so much to the members of Seaford Natural History Society and Sussex Branch members who attended over the two days. You all deserve medals. A huge amount of Cotoneaster was dug up using picks and mattocks and the resulting soil disturbance will hopefully germinate some of the Kidney Vetch seedlings that have been submerged under a sea of alien invasion for the last few years. With a bit of luck the Small Blue will have a reasonable amount of new food-plant to lay on in a couple of years` time. Thank you again one and all. Dave.
29 Sep: I visited Herstmonceux Castle this afternoon. This Red Admiral was the only butterfly I saw in warm but hazy conditions.
29 Sep: tue 29/09/2026 Abbot's Wood, E,Sx. After finding 2x Brown Hairstreak eggs in Abbot's on Sunday 27th Sept. today paid another visit to do a more detailed search of the winter cleared area that one of the eggs was found in. got to site at 10.57am and started the search, at 11.06am found first BH egg, by the time ide found my last egg at 1.11pm I had found 20x BH eggs, fantastic! including one small stem that has 6x BH eggs on it with a cluster of four. After not finding any at last years hot spot (Milton Hyde) I was beginning to wonder if last year was a one off, but no, there are still some blackthorns to search in this area so there might be more. As with the Milton Hyde site this site has a small cluster of blackthorns that have been cut back and are sending up new stems and some older bashed cut bushes of which one has an egg that is the highest off the ground I have found in Abbot's (chest height) so 22x BH eggs so far?. also at this site saw a female Wall flying and settling.
29 Sep: I walked down to the usual area looking for Long-tailed Blue, alas no joy. However I did have the pleasure of bumping into Neil Hulme and I did see several Clouded Yellows, a few whites and single examples of Small Copper, Common Blue, Painted Lady. I then examined the area behind the yacht club where I saw a Speckled Wood some more whites and at least four more Clouded Yellows scurrying about. Finally one settled to nectar on a dandelion long enough for a picture. When I loaded up that picture I saw there was another small insect in shot.
29 Sep: Enjoyable run around the marshes this morning with several butterflies (and birds) for company. Highlight was perhaps a Wall Brown although it was nice to see 3 Clouded Yellows as well. Also present were Small White (2), Small Heath (1), Speckled Wood (5), Red Admiral (2), Peacock (1) and Common Blue (6).
28 Sep: Long-tailed Blue report. Day 22: No sightings on either Saturday or Sunday, but was pleased to have two newborns today. Their appearance confirms the presence of a second egg laying female in August who escaped our watchful eyes. Female 8 made her low-key entrance with a short, low fluttering flight to land on the BLEP leaf in the first image and remained in-situ for more than 30 minutes until I had to leave her. The conditions were dank and cool as evidenced by the water droplets on the grasses, her behaviour consistent with being a newborn. A search was made later for the pupa-casing close by without success. On returning half an hour later, I briefly found her on the dried grasses in sunshine as shown in the second image before she took flight and was not seen again. Male 4 was first seen just before 1pm on a flowering statice with a fabulous open wing display before taking a nectar stop on Lespedeza and then departed from the garden. I continue to rate Lespedeza very highly, and at this stage in the season, the pot-grown plants still have viable flower buds for egg laying females for at least the next two weeks.
Click here for more sightings.
Photo by Graham Hubbard
New colonies of Wood White were recently discovered in West Sussex and our branch is planning to learn more about this rare butterfly.
We are organising a coordinated survey and are looking for volunteers. For more information on the Wood White Project in Sussex click here.
Photo by Graham Hubbard
Throughout the year we receive interesting sightings records. We have started an exercise to identify notable sightings and look for patterns during a month with a little help from an AI assistant.
To read more click here.
07 Aug: Annual Cotoneaster bashing on the Buckle by-pass (A259), Seaford
30 Jun: Martin Kalaher's Open Garden Sunday 12th July.
24 Jun: Scotney Castle - More opportunity to explore
27 Mar: Butterfly Recording Training at National Trust Woolbeding
22 Mar: 2026 walks now appear on the Events Page
28 Feb: Liz Williams Butterfly Haven work day
16 Jan: A summary of Sussex BC work parties in 2026
23 Oct: SxBC Members' Day - Saturday 22nd November 2025 1.30pm – 4.30pm. Latest Update
White Admiral, photo by Maurilio Tesa
Martin Kalaher has written a very interesting article titled 'Partial broods in 2025' to read the article click here.
Last month Martin published 'Second brood Dingy Skippers'. To read that article click here.
Photo from our 2025 competition.
Sussex is one of the best counties in the UK to see a wide range of interesting butterfly species.
More information on species can be viewed here.
There are many important sites for butterflies in our county.
Information on some of them can be viewed here.
The 2025 edition of our magazine has just landed! Members should receive a paper copy in mid November. A digital version can be viewed here.
Orange-tip by Gary Faulkner
The results of the 2025 SxBC photo competition were announced at the recent Members' Day.
To see the winning entries click here.
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