Some more Borders Butterflies

In addition to the fabulous butterflies I saw this year on our property, I went on a few trips around the Borders to look for other species.

On 10th May I drove over to the Berwickshire Coast to look for Small Blue butterflies. These are such endearing wee butterflies that I feel it is well worth the drive over to see them.

The day I had chosen to do this turned out to be a lovely sunny day, although there was a cool wind coming in over the sea. However, I still managed to see about 35 Small Blues as well as a good variety of other butterflies.

I had heard that Green Hairstreaks had been seen in a location a few miles from where I live. So on 18th May I went for a walk up a lovely forestry track that I have often driven past previously. I had always thought that it looked as though it could be an interesting walk and a few years ago the trees were felled in the area, opening it up. Again, I was blessed with good weather and I was really excited to spot a Painted Lady on my way up the track. This was the first one I had seen since 2022, although it only landed for a couple of seconds and then it disappeared across the hillside. At the top of the hill a large area had been planted with young Spruce trees, but there was a clear edge to the plantation, which I followed.

This looked good, as everywhere else I have seen Green Hairstreaks there has been Blaeberry growing with conifer trees behind it. Eventually I spotted a small butterfly flying around which turned out to be a Green Hairstreak when it landed.

In a short time I spotted at least six of them there. I am a little concerned that the area may become shaded as the trees grow up, but hopefully there is sufficient space to allow the sun to still get there.

I volunteered to do some Northern Brown Argus surveys in the local area this year. This involved a visit to the valley above our house on the 6 June and the 15th June to count butterflies and eggs. They still seem to be doing well there, but the Rockrose is becoming more and more overgrown as grazing was stopped there about 20 years ago.

I also visited the next small valley a little further up the road on the 21st June where I spotted a couple of Northern Brown Argus, despite there being very little suitable habitat remaining. I think I will have to go and check for hidden clearings behind the trees next year.

I had also volunteered to survey Small Pear-bordered Fritillary in the area, so I was able to combine this with the Northern Brown Argus surveys. There are a few in the small valley above our house and some others in the other valley a bit further up.

The big question was are these isolated colonies, or one continuous colony. I am not sure what the answer is. They were certainly all along the other valley and I saw a few when I was clambering back over the hill towards our valley.

As I mentioned in my previous post, most years I see one or two Scotch Argus on our land. This has always intrigued me and I have always suspected that there is a local colony and I am seeing strays from that colony. So, on the 2nd August I went for a walk along the valley up the road. When I had been looking for Small Pear-bordered Fritillaries I had seen a few places where I imagined Scotch Argus could occur.

And I was delighted that at the first one of these locations I spotted two dark butterflies, which on closer inspection were Scotch Argus. A little further along and I saw another. I climbed up off the track and found grassy area where I found about 15 more Scotch Argus.

About another 500 metres further along the path I found another in a very unlikely location - an area of dry stumps and branches where some Spruce trees had been cleared. When I got to the end of the valley I had the choice of a very steep climb up out of the valley or turning around and retracing my steps. Luckily, I chose the steep climb, because as I walked down to the stream I spotted some more Scotch Argus. Once on the other side there were loads. I counted more than 80 in that area. 

And towards the top of the very steep slope I found two more. I was so delighted to have found so many Scotch Argus locally in an area where they haven't previously been recorded. However, best was yet to come, as I descended into our valley I saw another six Scotch Argus along a grassy area near where I normally see the Northern Brown Argus.

So, it seems they occur in quite a few places locally. Now I am thinking I will need to go and look for them in the other direction next year.

We were blessed with great weather this summer, so I was able to go out at the weekends to search for butterflies. So often in the past I plan to go on a butterfly hunt, only for the weather not to be good enough for them to be flying. It really was a great year.

Borders Garden Butterflies 2025

The weather was fantastic here in 2025. After a very wet 2024 it was so lovely having dry and sunny weather. We didn't have the drought seen in England and we had just enough morning dew and occasional shower to keep the grass and wild flowers growing.

I record butterflies all the time when I am outside on our property, taking the dogs for a walk, or working in the woods and then I tend to keep the records from roughly twice a week. I think this gives me something that is comparable year on year, to see how butterflies are doing. And it has been amazing seeing how things have changed over the last six years since we moved here.

I have done a lot of work in that time, removing Rhododendron, having a spruce plantation felled, planting hedges, native trees and wild flowers.

The first butterflies I see each year are those that hibernate as adults. The first butterfly I saw this year was a rather sickly looking Peacock, which I think had been tricked into waking up on an unseasonably warm day at the end of February. Peacocks went on to have the best year I have known here. Strangely my perception was that there were fewer around but the figures show otherwise!

Commas also had a great year. It is great to see them doing so well.

Red Admirals also did really well, with 2025 being the second best year since we moved here.

Many of these species feed on an orange Buddleia that flowers late in the season, up until November. I often wonder what these butterflies would feed on it I hadn't planted the Buddleia.

The Whites, or Pieridae, had a great year. The first to appear was a Small White on 8th April. They went on to have a fantastic year and I recorded 164, way up on my previous best of 99.

Later that same day I saw my first Orange Tip of the year. They also had a good year, but not quite as good as last year.

Green-veined White also had a fantastic year, with me recording more than twice the number I have seen in previous years.

And Large Whites were the best of all with me seeing more than three times the previous best count.

I was thrilled to see a Speckled Wood here on the 28th of April, which suggests that they are now breeding here. The first Speckled Wood arrived here only two years ago and it is such a thrill to have them here. I recorded 140 this year with the best count being 18 one day. This is a picture of the first one I saw this year, a particularly lightly marked individual.

And one of the last Speckled Woods I saw was unusual in only having very feint marks.

2025 was one of the better years since we moved here for Small Tortoiseshells, but I only saw 23. There is concern about the decline of this species across the UK. It is quite difficult to judge how well they are doing as an individual, as if one has laid eggs on a nettle patch it can lead to there being a high number of butterflies being seen locally. The County figures give a clearer picture on how well they are doing.

On 13th June I was delighted to see a Northern Brown Argus on my area of Rockrose. This is the third time I have seen one here over the last six years and they must fly down from the colony up the valley. Northern Brown Argus are said not to be very mobile, but this butterfly must have flown over 600 metres through thick woodland. Unfortunately, it was a male, so no chance of eggs being laid on the Rockrose this year!

As has happened every year since I moved here I saw one Small Heath in my meadow. There isn't really very much suitable habitat around, and it seems strange that each year there has been just the one!

It was a great year for Large Skippers here. This year I saw 29 with my previous maximum being 7. As well as being found in the meadow they have now moved into the new woodland I have planted where they are enjoying the uncut grass.

Small Skipper also had a good year with me counting 21. Both species of Skipper have only arrived in the area in the last 7 or 8 years.

Ringlet also had a good year. I saw 396, about twice the average number. When we first moved here they were only found in a grassy area under mature trees, they then turned up in the meadow when I started managing that and now they are found in the area of new woodland.

Meadow Browns also had a good year. Their numbers had been picking up until last year, when numbers crashed. It was good to see them doing better this year.

I had thought it was a poor year for Dark Green Fritillaries, seeing only seven. However, this number was only beaten in 2020, when I saw 12.

Wall Brown. Also only arrived here in 2023. I saw four of them this year, so numbers are slowly increasing. They seemed to enjoy the sunny bank where I have removed Rhododendron.

And now for something really exciting! I was aware that there were old records of Purple Hairstreaks from the grounds of a stately home on the other side of the river from many years ago. We have a large Oak tree on a steep slope on the other side of our pond which must be at least 200 years old. I am aware that the best time to see a Purple Hairstreak is after 6 o'clock in the evening at the top of an Oak tree in a sunny position. So, since we have moved here I have spent many a summer's evening scanning the tree through binoculars.

This year, on 13th July, I saw a couple of small butterflies flying high in the tree at 8pm. Unfortunately it isn't possible to get close to the tree for a better look, but what else could they have been at that time in the evening. 

Luckily the following evening I was able to get a photograph that was good enough to confirm they were Purple Hairstreaks. I continued to see them until the 16th August with a max of 3 flying together. It would be so interesting to know how long they have been living in this old Oak. I have been observing it for years, but never seen anything before. They have certainly been found in a lot of new locations across South East Scotland, so are they expanding their range, or are more people looking for them?

I saw two Painted Ladies here this year. It doesn't sound like many, but I hadn't seen any in 2023 and 2024, so a big improvement!

As in previous years, I saw two Scotch Argus here again. It does seem strange, as we have no Purple Moor Grass, which is the food plant of their caterpillars. However, one year I did see one laying on a finer grass species. I have always been suspicious that there is a colony close by and I am seeing strays from it here. Anyway, there will be more about this in a separate post.

I only saw two Small Coppers here late this year. I don't understand why they don't do better here. There are plenty of their food plants here, but maybe it just isn't sunny enough.

So, overall it was a great year for butterflies here. No doubt the weather played a big part in this, but I would like to think that all of my efforts to create good habitat for butterflies is starting to pay off.

21 species of butterflies were recorded here this year, one of them a species I haven't seen here before and a couple of them species that generally remain in isolated colonies, but which have somehow found themselves here. I am really looking forward to seeing what happens over the next few years.

Serra de Mariola, Spain - Butterflies September 2025

In September we took a week's holiday to the south of Spain, staying in a hotel in the mountains above Benidorm. I didn't go with any great expectations of seeing many butterflies, but I hadn’t realised quite how few there would be there. Despite the hotel having a large golf course around it, plenty of flowering shrubs and the roads in the area having irrigated trees along the pavements there were very few butterflies around.

All I managed to see was a couple of Long-tailed Blues and Lang’s Short-tailed Blues on some Dittrichia viscosa, known as False Yellowhead, growing near a roundabout.

There were some lovely Lantana bushes growing next to the road, which I thoroughly checked. Although there were plenty of insects including little black and white bees, and some moths, there were no butterflies. 

Back at the hotel a lone Geranium Bronze, Cacyreus marshalli, flew past, but sadly there was no sign of them on any of the numerous Geraniums.

So, one day I rented a car and drove up into the mountains to the Parc Natural de la Serra de Mariola, about 40 kilometres inland. I chose this area by looking on Google maps for a green area with north-facing slopes.

The scenery was much greener in the mountains and as soon as I arrived I spotted butterflies from the car. A couple of times I jammed on the brakes and jumped out to go after them! They turned out to be Small Whites and Cardinals, Argynnis pandora.

Eventually, I arrived at the spot I had chosen - the Area Recreative Font de Mariola. It was actually my second choice of location as in my panic to set my sat nav after picking up the car I clicked on a slightly different location from where I intended. I had intended to walk along the Vinalopo River along the advertised blue walking route.

I parked under a tree in a small car park with some picnic benches. There was a small irrigation channel running below the car park and a green area of grass and wild flowers next to it. On a patch of Lucern next to the water there were a number of Lang’s Short-tailed Blues, Leptotes pirithous,

... and Long-tailed Blues, Lampides boeticus, feeding. 

Flying along the grass was a white butterfly which turned out to be a helice form of the Clouded Yellow, Colias croceus.

Just above the car park I spotted a Wall Brown, Lasiommata megera, flying.

I decided to walk down a track through an area of Pine trees. There was scrub and wild flowers growing below them. Off to the side I saw a small white butterfly, which I quickly realised was a Wood White, Leptidea sinapis. It flew from flower to flower, not stopping for more than a second at each. I followed it as best I could hoping that it would settle for a while. All I could manage was a slightly over-exposed picture.

By this time I was some way off the track and I found a smaller path, which had a lot of butterflies flying along it. There were loads of blues, which mostly turned out to be Adonis Blues, Polyommatus bellargus.

I have only seen an Adonis Blue a couple of times before, but here I must have seen about 15 or 20 of them.

Afterwards I noticed that one of my pictures was of a Southern Blue, Polyommatus celina.

There were quite a number of brown butterflies flying around there, too. Most of them were very worn-out Cardinals, which seemed to chase after any other butterflies they encountered.

There were a few Tree Graylings, Hipparchia statilinus, the first time I have seen this species.

One or two Rock Graylings, Hipparchia hermione, another new species for me! 

And some Striped Graylings, Hipparchia fidia.

There were quite a number of Wall Browns and two Small Coppers, Lycaena phlaeas. 

Also two Sage Skippers, Muschampia proto, one very worn out and the other very 

fresh-looking.

On my way back I also spotted a female Wood White and a “normal” yellow form of Clouded Yellow. This was the only yellow one I saw compared to six or seven of the helice form.

I was so pleased that I had made the effort to drive away from the coast and up into the mountains. I am always delighted to see butterflies when I am on holiday and those that I saw this time were a little different from what I have seen in other areas of Spain. 

Back at the hotel on our last day I went for another walk along the roads around the hotel. There was just a Lang’s Short-tailed blue on the False Yellowhead patch and then out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw something land on a shrub close by. I zoomed my camera right in to the branch where I thought it landed and spotted a little face!

It looked like a skipper of some sort, so I braved the thorns and strange looks from passing motorists and scrambled into the vegetation! I managed to get a picture from the side and then confirm that it was a Mediterranean Skipper, Gegenes nostrodamus.

We didn’t have to leave the hotel until 3pm, so spent the day sitting by the pool. Strangely, I saw a Swallowtail fly past on three occasions and in a garden area there was a Two-tailed Pasha flying around the trees.

I had been pondering on why there were so few butterflies around, all along the coast. I remember reading that in Costa Rica many species migrate up into the mountains during the dry season and I wonder if something similar happens in Southern Spain. There were areas of green in the hills around the hotel and there were plenty of flowering plants in the hotel, along the roads and in parks. Maybe it is just natural that butterflies leave the coast in the hotter months and not the result of all of the development in the area.