East Lothian Butterflies 2021 Part 2

Continuing on from my previous post ...

Ringlets started to appear on the 6th June, which is the earliest I have known over the last ten years. They did well and had a longer than normal season. Normally they are only around for seven to nine weeks, but in 2021 they were recorded over 11 weeks.

Large Skippers were another 2021 success story. Having first been recorded in East Lothian in 2014, they made slow progress westwards along the foothills of the Lammermuirs. Over the intervening years I only received a handful of records of them. In 2021 I received 11 records, many of which were from Levenhall Links. There was also a record from John Muir Country Park and the Lammermuir Hills.

Meadow Browns had an amazingly good year. In fact I received more records of them in 2021 than in any previous year, which is great because I had been worried that numbers had been declining over the last few years. The first record was on 16th June. Interestingly they had quite a short season with the last record coming in on the 1st September.

The Small Skipper had an exceptional year. Their numbers have increased year on year since they were first discovered in East Lothian in 2011. The first record was received on 17th June, which is a week earlier than in previous years, and I received records of 1643 Small Skippers, more than three times the average of the last few years.

The first record I received of a Dark Green Fritillary was on 21 June. These butterflies also had a very good year and I received more records of them than in any previous year.

It is interesting to note that the species that emerged from May onwards did very much better than the species that emerged earlier in the year. I can only put this down to the cold weather we had in the late spring.

There were a number of other species recorded in East Lothian in 2021. Some of them are regularly seen, but only in small numbers and others are rare migrants.

We had a few sightings of Green Hairstreaks in May from two sites. They are known to occur in a few different locations, but they are mostly remote and difficult to access. It is likely that there are a lot more of them around than we are aware of.

On 5th June there was a sighting of a Clouded Yellow flying along the coast at Longniddry. They are occasionally recorded in East Lothian and are migrants that have ventured north from mainland Europe.

The only Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary I am aware of in East Lothian in 2021 was one that I saw in the Lammermuirs on 29th June. They are a very rare butterfly in East Lothian, only having been recorded from a couple of sites.

Another exciting butterfly seen in East Lothian was the Brimstone. In fact there were four of them seen in 2021, two in June, one in July and one in August, all in different locations across the county. They are seen once or twice every few years and are considered to me migrants from England. Their distribution matches the distribution of the caterpillar food plant, Alder Buckthorn, which doesn't occur naturally in Scotland. However, it is interesting to speculate whether there could be a colony of Brimstones somewhere in an East Lothian garden.

I usually say that there are four known colonies of Northern Brown Argus in East Lothian. Two of these locations are really small and I fear that the colonies may have died out in them. There are, however, two strong colonies at either end of the Lammermuir Hills and I was pleased to hear that they have also been found in a location close to Traprain Law. It is difficult to assess how well they are doing with so few records. I saw some on 29th June and I heard of one other being seen on 24th July.

There were only three records of Graylings this year between 29 June and 14th July, all from the same site. I only know of three sites where they occur in East Lothian, one in the east of the Lammermuirs, one in the middle of the housing development at Blindwells and on the pyramid at Meadowmill. Sadly there were no records from the new site we have created for them at Levenhall Links.

A very rare sighting, accompanied with a photograph, of a Camberwell Beauty was reported on 14th September in North Berwick. I am only aware of two other sightings in East Lothian in the last 40 years, one in 2019 and the other back in 1984.

This last butterfly meant that we recorded 27 species of butterflies in East Lothian in 2021. I think this must be a record for the county. Over the last 50 years we have seen an increase in the number of species that breed in East Lothian, most of these species are extending their range northwards, apparently in response to climate change. In 2021 we also had three unusual visitors.

I would like to extend a big thank you to everyone who has sent in records over the last few years. This has helped to build up a great picture of how butterflies are doing in East Lothian. Every record makes a big difference, no matter how common you think the species is, or how insignificant a single record may appear. I was in touch with Butterfly Conservation a few years ago and they said that it is just as important to send in records of common species as it is for an exciting rarity. Otherwise in the future people may consider that green-veined Whites or Meadow Browns used to be uncommon.

I am looking forward to hearing about the first butterfly of 2022.

East Lothian Butterflies 2021 Part 1

The number of East Lothian butterfly records was quite a bit lower in 2021 than in previous years. This was partially due to the additional work load that Covid 19 placed on the Countryside Rangers and, to some extent, because I am no longer living in East Lothian. I didn't receive so many records from volunteers this year, maybe because they were making the most of the reduced lockdown restrictions. However, it turned out to be a very interesting and exciting year for butterflies in East Lothian, possibly a record year!

It is a little odd reporting on East Lothian butterflies now that I am living in the Borders. I usually get an impression on how things are doing when I am out and about, but things can be very different here compared to East Lothian. I did keep a note of butterflies that I saw when I was in East Lothian on site visits, but frustratingly those dates often didn't coincide with decent weather!

So, in 2021 we received a total of 1,546 records totaling 7,996 butterflies. This is a higher number of butterflies than were recorded in 2020, but about half the number of previous years.

2021 started off very cold and frosty. Despite a warm spell at the beginning of April frosts continued into May. Thereafter the weather wasn't too bad, but the earlier cold spell appeared to impact on some butterfly species.

Despite the weather, the first butterfly to be recorded in 2021 was a Small Tortoiseshell seen at Aberlady on 17th February. This species did very well during the spring, but there weren't as many as usual later in the summer. This year I didn't find any Small Tortoiseshell caterpillars, despite looking in likely spots, which is unusual. I suspect that the late cold spells must have limited breeding opportunities for them.

The first Peacock was seen on 26th February sunning itself in a skip in Dunbar! Like the Tortoiseshells, they appeared to have a poor year, even taking account of the limited number of records received. This corresponded with how few I saw at home on my Buddleia later in the summer.

It wasn't until the 16th of March that we saw the first Comma of the year. Unfortunately, 2021 was one of the worst years I have known for them. They are not normally seen in large numbers, but this year we only recorded 24 individuals. On average over the last 8 years we have seen over 75 Commas each year.

The first Small White was recorded on 3rd April. They had a reasonably good year, but like the species above the summer generation wasn't as big as normal. It is interesting that the Green-veined White, that has a similar life cycle, did much better later in the year. The Green-vein is a species that I associate with damper areas, so possibly they are better able to cope with poor weather. The first Green-veined White was recorded on 17th April and they were seen through to 7th September.

It was exciting to see the Holly Blue doing well again in 2021. The first record was on 10th April and over the season I received records of 101 Holly Blues. They were seen in all of the locations where they were seen the previous year and don't appear to have expanded their range further. However, this is encouraging, given that many other species struggled in 2021.

The first Speckled Wood was seen on 11th April. Their numbers were lower than normal in the spring, but they more than made up for it with very high numbers seen in late August and September. It was good to see their numbers bounce back after a poor year in 2020.

Orange Tips first appeared on 12th April. Unfortunately, they had a very poor year, probably because their flight period coincided with the cold weather. Of course the cold weather may also have meant that fewer people were out looking for butterflies, so hopefully things weren't as bad as they appeared and we will see them back in good numbers again this spring.

Large Whites made an appearance from 21st April. They didn't do very well in the spring, but unlike its smaller cousin, the summer population was relatively high. It isn't a butterfly that is ever seen in large numbers, but 2021 was one of the best years we have had.

Red Admirals had a particularly poor year. The first record of was on 22nd April and only one more was seen in May. June was better, but we didn't see the usual big influx of migrant butterflies. As a result the summer population was lower than we have seen for the last few years.

The first Wall Brown was recorded on 30 April and they went on to have a fantastic year. Over the last ten years, since they first arrived in East Lothian, they have increased in number year after year. 2021 was by far the best year yet with records of 663 butterflies reported.

Small Heaths had a very good year. In fact I received more records of them in 2021 than in any previous year. They had a short season, first being recorded on the 17th May and being seen until 5th September. It is said that in Scotland there is only one generation a year, but further south in England there are two generations a year. It is difficult to understand what is happening here with them being seen over such a long period and it is tempting to think we get two generations.

Common Blue had a bit of a slow start to the season, with the first record being received on 30th May. However, their numbers soon picked up and they ended up having a very good year.

2021 wasn't a good year for Painted Ladies. The first record wasn't until 5th June, which is a lot later than usual and I only received records of 38 individuals. I suppose that when you think that these butterflies start off in Northern Africa and migrate over two or three generations before they arrive here that it isn't surprising that some years very few make it. They will need good weather and food sources throughout their journey to be successful.

I will continue this on the next post...