Its week 23 of the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme! September is here and we're into the last month of the survey. Some summer species may no longer be on the wing, but keep an eye out for second (or even third) broods of some species.

The abundance of butterflies seen in woodland in the UK has declined by 57% since 1990. But, the short-term trend, since 2015, shows no change - which is more encouraging.

The abundance of butterflies seen on farmland in the UK has declined by 32% since 1990. The short-term decline (since 2015) is less dramatic at 11%.

Habitat specialist butterflies have fared worse than the generalists. For all UK habitat specialist butterfly species have declined by 37% since 1976. However, if we look at the trend over the last ten years from 2015, there has been little change.

The Butterfly Indicators work by grouping species of butterflies together. An indicator is produced for all species, for habitat specialists and generalists and for butterflies on farmland and on woodland. This is done for all of UK, and then for England.