Ryde Social Heritage Group research the social history of the citizens of Ryde, Isle of Wight. Documenting their lives, businesses and burial transcriptions.
RYDE SOCIAL HERITAGE GROUP
Based at Ryde Cemetery Heritage & Learning Centre. Preserving, documenting and promoting the social history of Ryde on the Isle of Wight.
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Big Butterfly Count 5 August 2025

Gatekeeper in Ryde Cemetery

Seven of us met on a breezy morning for a 45-minute walk in the cemetery. The morning had started with plenty of sun, but during the walk there was a real mixture of sunshine and cloud, which did have a considerable bearing on the results. There has been much talk of a butterfly emergency after the last year’s count. There have also been some anecdotal reports of a good year in 2025 for some species, but the results that we had were a little disappointing. This may, however, have been due to this count taking place two weeks later in the year, when some species are past their peak. The weather in the two years was very similar.

The Big Butterfly Count is based on counts of butterflies in a 15-minute window. We did two of these, the first in the conservation area, and the second in a flowery area south of the chapels. Last year we had a single count, in the conservation area and saw seven species, and a total of 62 individual butterflies. This year we saw six species and 25 butterflies in the more open area, and four species and 27 individuals in the conservation area, so numbers of individuals were more than halved.

Once again gatekeeper was by far the commonest species. We found three species that were absent during the 15-minute count last year … common blue, small white, and red admiral, the latter basking on the wall of the mortuary chapel. Holly blue, ringlet and wall brown were seen in 2024 but not this year. Other species observed this year were meadow brown, speckled wood and large white, all as single sightings.

Finally, one of our members was able to show us the larval case of the six-spot burnet. The burnets were no longer flying but these oval cases on grass are very useful indicators of their presence. We could see how many there would have been in the longer grass of the conservation area. This makes a powerful argument in favour of a mixture of grass lengths being maintained in the cemetery, as at present.

A huge thankyou to everyone who joined us on the day and helped us to achieve the numbers that we did see.

Richard Smout
(RSHG President)