Big Butterfly Count – 2026
This Friday sees the start of the 2026 Big Butterfly count. Taking place from Friday, 17th July to Sunday, 9th August it only requires 15 minutes of your time to get involved. 2025 saw more than 125,000 people take part …
Protect our pets and save our songbirds
Friends of the Quantocks President, Hugh Warmington, has brought this important nature and pet health issue to our attention to share with you all. SongBird Survival is a UK charity focused on helping to save the dramatically declining populations of …
Seeking the Dingy and the Grizzled Skippers
Quantock nature recovery work in action These two butterfly species have not been recorded on the Quantocks since 1996 and thus may be extinct, however they are both small and easily confused with moths and could be easily missed and …
Rare caterpillars found in a third Quantock village!
A team of volunteers from Friends of the Quantocks had a great evening out in Holford recently searching for White-letter Hairstreak caterpillars. These tiny creatures glow in the dark under UV light and so armed with special UV torches, the …
Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers on the Quantock Hills
Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers (LSW) are a rare and difficult to find resident bird species on the Quantock Hills. They favour wet broadleaf woodland in the Eastern combes, from Aisholt Woods to Hodders Combe and probably beyond. In 2023 a concerted …
Significant species
The Quantock Hills Botanical Art Project ~ by Mary Taylor, South West Society of Botanical Artists We are a group of members of the South West Society of Botanical Artists (SWSBA) from Somerset and Devon. For a long time, we …
A very good year for butterflies
Simon Davies gives an update on this year’s butterfly surveys on Over Stowey Customs Common ~ We have now completed our third full season of weekly butterfly surveys on a specified route across the Common. Four or five of us …
Elms and Hairstreaks
Celebrating a successful first year of the project As summer fades into memory, we’re celebrating an amazing first year of our Elm and White-letter Hairstreak butterfly conservation project. We recorded the first sightings in 18 years of this threatened species of …
Sandstones to roadstones
Geologist Garry Dawson delves into the deep-time and the human history of Bicknoller Quarry The rocks exposed in Bicknoller Quarry are Devonian age Hangman Sandstones – see Geology Map below. These were sands and muds deposited around 390 to 380 million years …