The Butterfly Isles: A Summer in Search of Our Emperors and Admirals by Patrick Barkham from Amazon
The Yorkshire Branch of the Butterfly Conservation charity is advocating we use our gardens to help butterflies.
There are many simple tactics that can help including planting food plants and nectar giving plants like nasturtiums and buddleia without spoiling our gardens. Even a pot of oregano or lavender will help. Read more at ‘Get Butterflies in your Garden’ from Gardeners Tips
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union works with the Butterfly Conservation Society and promotes the recording scheme known as ‘ButterflyNet Yorkshire’.
As an alternative visit one of Yorkshires Tropical World of Butterfly houses. Wander among free- flying tropical butterflies and exotic birds in a rainforest setting at butterflyhouse.co.uk Sheffield or see between 30 and 40 varieties of butterfly in a mature environment of flowering exotic plants and Citrus trees. The types of butterfly change regularly so there’s always something new to spot. Some of the specimens are bred here from pupae, which is also displayed at Tropical World Roundhay Park Leeds.
Resources
These pages from the Yorkshire butterfly site offer a guide to the most common micro and macro moths found month by month in the county of Yorkshire. A-Z of British Butterflies
Butterfly seed mixture from Thompson & Morgan or Plant collections
Get Butterflies in your Garden from Gardeners Tips
Top photo by Lindsay Sorenson, second photo by Sophiea on flickr under creative commons license.