Your Garden Butterfly Survey records are shared with County Butterfly Recorders (CBRs) and their assistants, who are registered as iRecord 'verifiers'. These expert volunteers check your records, using their local and ecological knowledge. CBRs add verified records into local databases. Butterfly Conservation relies on these verified data to make sure the National Scheme database is robust for science and conservation. 

When your records are checked directly in iRecord, you may receive emailed feedback from your local CBR. You may also receive automated email messages from iRecord about the status of your records. Some CBRs may verify records outside of iRecord.

Note that your 'unknown white' records may not be verified as these are not identified to species level so wouldn't go into final databases, but we are interested in monitoring these recordings separately.

We relaunched Garden Butterfly Survey with a fresh system in 2022 that connects to iRecord, to make regular sharing of records with verifiers more straightforward. In September 2022, we switched on the data flow to iRecord verifiers. Records are also now publicly visible to other iRecord users. We delayed this switch while we arranged historic records access for recorders.

Recorders who asked for a copy of their past records can now see these in their Garden Butterfly accounts. But note that this historic dataset is not provided to County Recorders via iRecord, as the records have already been shared.

Please note that the public visibility of Garden Butterfly records is set to 1Km in iRecord, but verifiers have enhanced access to view and download records at the level of detail originally entered ("capture resolution") in accordance with the Ts & Cs and privacy notice on the site.

You can amend your survey garden details when things change, for example if there is now a meadow area.

You can do this by signing in and going to ‘Register or update a garden’, available from the Site Pages menu in the website footer. You will be directed to the "My survey gardens" page. You can see a map and list of your garden(s).

From here, find the garden name in the grey table and click ‘edit’ to the right of its name. This will direct you to the garden details page for that survey garden. You can scroll through and edit the relevant details. Then click 'Submit' at the bottom of the page to save those changes.

You can also add in additional garden sites if you record somewhere else from the "My survey gardens" page, using the "Add a new garden" blue button.

In 2022, Butterfly Conservation relaunched Garden Butterfly Survey with a brand new website. The new site is improving data flow and has been designed with recorder feedback in mind.

Behind the scenes, the new system now feeds directly into iRecord This means your butterfly sightings are now immediately available to County Recorder data verifiers, Butterfly Conservation Branches and Local Environmental Records Centres.

The new website hosts the same year-round garden survey with enhanced recording options. This includes adding photographs to your records, adding more than one garden to your account and taking part from shared gardens, community gardens or allotments.

Throughout the year we will be adding more guidance and resources to the site. And, if you opt in, you can now receive news and advice about gardens and butterflies to your inbox.

This work is part of Supporting Science, a project that’s improving data flow and supporting our recorders and volunteers to access natural heritage digitally. Supporting Science received DCMS and National Lottery funding, distributed by The Heritage Fund as part of their Digital Skills for Heritage initiative.

During the first three months after launch of the new website, re-registering participants could request their past records from the old website were transferred for display on the new website and iRecord. We completed the requested data transfers in August 2022. 

Transferred records from the old website are included in Explore Map and the survey pie chart on the Reports page, when past years are selected, for everyone to view.

If you re-registered on the current website with the same email address used on the old website and requested the optional data transfer, you can see your own past records (2021 and earlier) for Garden Butterfly Survey. You can find these records listed on the Reports page under My records, and these also feature within My statistics. The My surveys page only displays surveys entered into the current website.

Note that historic records have been shared with County Recorders for entry into local and national databases.

If you previously participated in the survey from our old website (2016-2022) you will need to register again on this new site and create new log in details, your previous log in details will not work.

Thank you for your support and for joining again. Your previously entered records have been shared with data verifiers for Butterfly Conservation's national recording scheme and local datasets.

For Garden Butterfly Survey enquiries contact gardenbutterfly@butterfly-conservation.org

For all other Butterfly Conservation enquires:

info@butterfly-conservation.org
Tel: 01929 400 209
Manor Yard, East Lulworth, Wareham, Dorset, BH20 5QP:

If you move house, then simply follow the "Sign up and register your garden" link on the home page and you can register your new house's garden by clicking the blue "Add a new garden" button. Then, when you enter sightings you will be able to choose which garden they are for.

You can add additional gardens to your registered account .

After signing in, scroll down to the footer of the website and click “Register or update a garden” in the Site pages menu. This will take you to the “My survey gardens” page. You’ll see a grey box with a list of your gardens, and a map. 

Click the blue "Add a garden button" to the right of the map. This will take you through the same garden questions you completed for the first garden. Click submit. You will be directed back to the “My survey gardens” page where you’ll see your new garden in the list and on the map.

Then next time your go to submit sightings, select the relevant garden name from the drop down. Note: the butterfly species will not appear until you have selected a garden.

If the butterfly is not listed in any of the forms on the 'submit sightings' page then you cannot record it directly. If you are certain of your identification then you can include details in the notes section of the sightings form.