It’s the start of school holidays, yeah, and we all want to be outside having fun so we’ve added three new things for you to do now, or at any time of the year – Make a Bird Bath, Make a Bee Hotel and Make a Pooter to look for tiny insects.

The big butterfly count is a nationwide survey aimed at helping us assess the health of our environment. It was launched in 2010 and has rapidly become the world’s biggest survey of butterflies. Over 46,000 people took part in 2013, counting 830,000 individual butterflies and day-flying moths across the UK.

big butterfly count 2014 will take place from Saturday 19 July – Sunday 10 August 2014.

Simply count butterflies for 15 minutes during bright (preferably sunny) weather during the big butterfly count. We have chosen this time of year because most butterflies are at the adult stage of their lifecycle, so more likely to be seen. Records are welcome from anywhere: from parks, school grounds and gardens, to fields and forests. Please submit your records here.

We have a wonderful collection of antlers, beetles, crickets, dragonflies and much, much more. We take our Nature Table to various events around the county, the last one was at Studham May Fair on the 10th May, and the next one is at Kempston Fun Day on 23rd August.

Why not come along and feel the weight of the deer antlers and try one of our quizzes.

An Invertebrate Day has been added to the 2014 YounGnats programme, come along and see what insects you can find on Flitwick Moor.

Try your hand at one of our quizzes.

Every year, the BNHS recorders provide summaries of the records that have been submitted during the year. Here is their summary for 2013 –

• 2013 was the 20^th driest year since 1766
• 69 species of weevils were recorded with 3 new species for Beds
• Common Frog was recorded on 32 sites
  • Toad Lift in Heath & Reach helped 85 toads and 85 frogs across the road, other lifts didn’t lift any toads, just frogs!
• More than 29,000 records submitted for macro moths
  • 38 regular garden moth traps
• Bat numbers down in Dec 2013 vs 2012 but back up in early 2014
  • 87% bat boxes in King’s Wood used by bats
• A new mammal was recorded for Beds, a Porcupine recorded near Shuttleworth
  • No Prairie Dog records since spring 2013, are they still around?
  • Road-kill wallaby ‘discovered’  via blog
  • Several hundred records set to People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) but only 85 sent to BNHS
  • Records for small mammals mainly from cat kills
• More than 350 lichen species with 13 new species for Beds
  • Number of species has increased from 132 to 350 in 30 years
  • Is this due to cleaner air or climate change bringing back lichens that used to be here?
• 126 species of hoverfly, no new species
• Increase in orchid records due to orchid book being produced?
  • Common Spotted, Bee and Early Purple increased coverage, Twayblades didn’t do so well
  • Bird’s Nest Orchid wasn’t found in 2013, free copy of book for first sighting!
  • Lizard Orchid found in allotment, now being fostered
• 2 new species of Dragonflies wandered in from Cambs – Norfolk Hawker and Variable Damselfly
  • 1600 records from 74 people
  • 21 species found in usual numbers and locations
  • New UK Dragonfly and Damselfly Atlas being released May 2014
• 22 records for woodlice, 6 species including a tiny white one that lives in ants nests

The wildlife you see changes throughout the year, so we have developed monthly lists of some things to look out for each month, so keep your eyes open and don’t forget to tell us what you see.