In July the Downs are especially beautiful as the meadows transform into a sea of shimmering grasses and colourful wildflowers. These meadows are an amazing habitat for wildlife. Meadow and field grasshoppers and speckled bush-crickets crick and chirr in the grasses and bees buzz busily from flower to flower collecting pollen. This is also a great time of year to spot butterflies as they flit through the meadow. If you are very lucky, you might see a butterfly settle on a flower and uncurl its long ‘proboscis’ to sip nectar – rather like a long curly drinking straw! There are 35 different kinds of butterflies on the Downs, how many can you spot? Download this month’s activity sheet to find out how to make a ‘butterfly ID swatch’ and go butterfly spotting in the meadow!

• the butterfly images in the downloadable pdf
• some thin card (cereal box or similar)
• a glue stick
• some scissors
• sharp pencil or hole-punch
• a piece of ribbon or a split pin

1.Use the images in the downloadable pdf to create your own butterfly swatch of some of the butterflies that you might see on the Downs this month.

2. Simply cut them out, stick the pictures onto some thin card and use a sharp pencil or a hole-punch to make a hole through the grey dot.

3. Thread the pictures onto a piece of ribbon or pin together with a split pin and take your swatch with you on your next wildlife adventure!