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.

East Lothian Butterflies 2022 - Part 2

 Continued from my previous post:

I received a record of a Clouded Yellow just outside Haddington on 9th August. These are rare migrants in Scotland, but more commonly seen in the south of England.

The exciting news was that in August Purple Hairstreaks were seen at Dunglass Dean and Woodhall Dean. These are interesting little butterflies that usually fly high up in Oak trees and they tend to fly in the early evening, rather than earlier in the day. This behaviour may explain why the butterflies haven't been recorded previously in East Lothian, although a lot of effort has been put into searching potential areas of old Oaks and particularly looking at fallen branches and twigs to check for eggs, which are quite easily spotted in the winter. Personally, I think if they had been here in previous years we would have seen them and when you consider how quickly Holly Blues have spread across East Lothian, it is quite possible that Purple Hairstreaks may have spread in from colonies outwith East Lothian.

There were a few species that were not recorded in East Lothian in 2022, but I am sure they were probably present, but just that no one managed to be in the right place at the right time to record them. Green Hairstreaks live in small colonies in the Lammermuir Hills. The colonies I am aware of are quite remote, so require a bit of a hike to find. I thought I had done well when I found them in good numbers at a site on Soutra, but when I started entering the records I realised I had been just south of the East Lothian boundary! There were bound to have been some just a few yards away in East Lothian!!

There were no records of Northern Brown Argus butterflies, although some eggs were found. These butterflies also live in small, scattered colonies where Rockrose grows. There was a concerted effort to visit all areas of known Rockrose in East Lothian in 2022 to search for signs of Northern Brown Argus and to see if the Rockrose was doing well or under threat. Unfortunately, by the time we organised ourselves we were a little too late in the year to see the butterflies! However, eggs were found in areas where Northern Brown Argus haven't been seen in years, if at all. We will make a concerted effort to survey these areas a little earlier this summer.

It was interesting that a number of us saw small, or bonsai, butterflies this year. These included Small Whites and Speckled Woods. I saw a butterfly at Longniddry that I thought was some sort of Hairstreak, but it turned out to be an extremely small Meadow Brown, about the same size as a Common Blue! I have seen very small versions of Large White, Green-veined White and Orange Tips in the past. I wonder if they are a result of reduced food during dry periods, meaning that the caterpillar doesn't grow to its normal size before pupating.

The picture above was taken on my phone. It isn't that obvious from the picture, but the Meadow Brown is unusually small, about the same size as a Common Blue.

Here is a list of butterflies recorded in East Lothian in order of appearance:

Small Tortoiseshell
Peacock
Red Admira
Comm
Brimstone
Holly Blue
Orange Tip
Small White
Speckled Wood
Green-veined White
Wall Brown
Small Copper
Small Heath
Large White
Large Skipper
Small Skipper
Common Blue
Meadow Brown
Ringlet
Dark Green Fritillary
Painted Lady
Grayling
Clouded Yellow
Purple Hairstreak

If we include the other three species that occur in isolated colonies in East Lothian (Northern Brown Argus, Green Hairstreak and Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary) we get a grand total of 27 species of butterflies for East Lothian in 2023.

I received 1,817 ad hoc records in 2022, totalling 7,278 butterflies. Add in the 5,149 butterflies that were recorded on the transects and we get a grand total of 12,427 that we have collectively recorded. I am very grateful to everyone who has contributed records over the years. This has helped paint a great picture of how things have changed over the years in East Lothian.

Troodos Mountains - Butterflies

On 28th July I decided to head for the Troodos Mountains in search of some different species of butterflies. I had been told that many species make their way up into the cooler mountains from the coast in the summer. There are also various other species that are only found in the mountains.
I drove along the coast and then up the F616 towards Troodos, stopping a few times whenever I saw a spot that looked good for butterflies.
My first stop was to take a picture of the view, but I noticed a small patch of Heliotropium europaeum, so thought I should check if any butterflies were feeding on it. There was a very old and tattered Common Blue and then I noticed a really small butterfly. I was delighted to see that it was a Grass Jewel, Chilades trochylus. It was so small that I could only follow its shadow as it flew from flower to flower.

 

All along the road I saw Swallowtails and Small White as I drove along. Further up in the hills I stopped a couple of times to look for some of the Grayling species that occur on Cyprus. However, all I saw were Long-tailed Blues.
Eventually, I arrived at Pano Paltres and just as I was leaving the village I saw a small parking area with walking trail. This was a rough tail following a small river up to Caledonian Falls.
As I started to walk up the track I saw several butterflies. The first I thought was another Long-tailed Blue, but it turned out to be a Purple Hairstreak, Favonius quercus. This was a surprise as I have been lead to believe that the Purple Hairstreak is rare in Cyprus and this was in an area of fruit trees with no sign of any oak trees - their normal food plant.

It allowed me to take one picture, but then flew off. There were a number of Long-tailed Blues at this lower end of the track along with Holly Blues. An Oriental Meadow Brown, Hyponephele lupina, briefly landed at the side of the trail and I was able to take a quick picture before someone walked past and disturbed it.

A little further up the track three Large Whites were feeding on a plant. I was about to take a picture of one of them when three kids ran up with fishing nets swiping at the butterflies!! Unfortunately, this walk proved to be very popular and it was difficult to see any butterflies for any length of time before they were disturbed by someone walking past.

However, this area had a good number of different butterfly species. I was surprised to see a few Speckled Woods, Pararge aegeria, here.

Amongst the Speckled Woods I was teased by a number of dark butterflies that would not let me approach them. I would only notice them when they flew up from the rocks on the trail. They would always land too far away for me to identify them, but I did manage to take a couple of pictures on full zoom which allowed me to identify two of them as Cyprus Graylings, Hipparchia cypriensis. One is a male and one is a female.

One other butterfly I was able to identify was the Lattice Brown, Kirinia roxelana. This is a very striking butterfly with large brown ocelli on its wings. I disturbed it as I was walking up the trail, it flew off and landed next to a rock and then crawled into the vegetation. Unfortunately it flew off when I tried to get a better view of it.
All along the trail there were Holly Blues, Celastrina argiolus, resting on leaves, feeding on flowers and drinking from the damp soil at the edge of the river.

The walk to the falls was well worth the climb with the fine spray nicely cooling the air.

On my return journey, as I was driving through Paltres I noticed a large thistle with some Large Whites, Pieris brassicae, feeding on it. I stopped the car and walked back thinking that I could get a photograph to make up for those chased away by the kids earlier.

While I was watching them a Clouded Yellow, Colias croceus, and a White-banded Grayling, Pseudochazara anthelea, briefly landed on the thistles, each allowing me just enough time to take a fuzzy photograph!

On my way home I stopped off a few more times. In a small field just outside Kedares there was a small irrigation channel surrounded by wild flowers. Among them I saw several Common Blues, Polyommatus icarus.

The field also contained many Large Whites, Holly Blues, Clouded Yellows, including the white form helice, a Speckled Wood and a Cleopatra. A little further down the road next to a layby I saw another Grass Jewel and a Mallow Skipper.
All together a very successful day searching for butterflies.