East Lothian Grayling Project

For the last four years I have been involved with an exciting project to try to create a new habitat for Grayling butterflies, Hipparchia semele.

Grayling are only known to occur in three small colonies in East Lothian. One is in a steep-sided valley, or cleugh, in the Lammermuir Hills. The other two locations are ex-industrial sites – one on a disused railway siding of an old opencast coal mine called Blindwells, the other a re-landscaped tip from an old coal mine called Meadowmill.

The colony at Blindwells was discovered in 2009 and it is suspected that Graylings could have been there for a few years before that. In 2011 they were found on the old coal tip at Meadowmill, which is just across the road. This colony is now the larger of the two and I think the maximum count of Grayling seen there was 80.

There have long been plans to build a new town at Blindwells, but there seemed to be so many issues surrounding this that we doubted it would ever happen. However, in 2017 we were alarmed to see fencing going up around the site and bulldozers moving in.

So, very quickly, a plan was hatched. The idea really came from a countryside volunteer who persuaded the East Lothian Countryside Rangers that we should try to translocate the Blindwells Grayling colony to somewhere safe.

East Lothian Council own another ex-industrial site, Levenhall, which is being restored for recreation and wildlife. The Countryside Ranger who works there identified a perfect south-facing slope. I just happened to be in the office one day and overheard the Parks Manager complaining that he was going to have to pay to dispose of a few hundred tonnes of crushed concrete from a depot that had been demolished. This, we thought, would make the perfect material to create a new Grayling colony.

In 2018 we attended the AGM of the East of Scotland branch of Butterfly Conservation, where they said that there was funding available for projects. Perfect, we secured funding to scrape the top soil from a site about 50 metres long by 30 metres. On one side we spread the crushed concrete in three long piles to replicate the railway sidings and on the other side of the site we asked the contractor to leave random piles of crushed concrete. Hopefully this would provide a variety of different slopes and orientations.

With the help of more volunteers, including the Junior Rangers, we removed rubbish (it is amazing how much wire and plastic there was amongst the concrete). The area was then seeded with Red Fescue and Sheep’s Fescue (the foodplant of the Grayling caterpillars) and dry meadow mix wild flower seeds were scattered along the lower slope. Between the two areas was a grassy strip, which has also had wild flower seeds, including Yellow Rattle sown.

The next problem was how to get the butterflies there. We devised several plans. Initially we searched for caterpillars at Blindwells. We were told they were easy to find at night using a torch, as they climb up grass stems to feed. Five of us crawling in the grass one night for two hours unearthed one caterpillar in May 2018.

So, we then decided to try to locate eggs in August. The sidings at Blindwells were now protected by Heras fencing, but we needed permission and full protective clothing to get in and this had to be arranged a few weeks in advance. By the time we managed to get in we discovered the site covered in dust with a diesel generator running next to it. Sadly, we found no eggs.

So in July 2019 we decided to look for eggs at Meadowmill. They were reasonably easy to find and we collected 36 eggs and we took them to Levenhall, where they were put on the now well-established Fescues.

In the summer of 2020 we regularly monitored our new site in the hope of seeing adult Grayling flying, but sadly none were seen. So, in July the Countryside Ranger caught 12 adult Graylings at Meadowmill and translocated them to Levenhall. They were put in a cage overnight, which was removed early the next morning. Five of them were still there at lunchtime, so we hoped they may have laid some eggs.

Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to record any adult Grayling there again in the summer of 2021. So, it looks as though that attempt may also have failed.

Creating a new site for Grayling butterflies has never been done before, so we made it up as we went along. We had a lot of good fortune and it has been really exciting to be involved in such a project.

We are now wondering if there is some crucial element missing from our new site. We have a south-facing slope with Fescues growing on it, but what else could it need. Two of the existing colonies are associated with coal, but the other colony is in a natural valley. Do they need a particular chemical make up in the soil, is there some sort of symbiotic relationship with ants, possibly it is something even more subtle such as bacteria, or a fungus that is required. Maybe things will change over time.

We will certainly keep monitoring the site and consider how we can persuade Graylings to move in. Last year 17 species of butterflies were recorded at the new site, so it is clearly attractive to butterflies.

Butterflies through time (2)

Following on from my previous post I have been continuing to read up about the butterflies that have recently been recorded in East Lothian. It would seem that many of the "new species" found in East Lothian in recent years did once occur here in the past.

Grayling, Hipparchia semele

I can find very little information about the distribution of the Grayling in East Lothian. "The Butterflies of Scotland" shows some records on the east coast of East Lothian between 1900 and 1980, but it says that the Grayling has been lost from many of its inland sites. The 1970 "Provisional Atlas of the Insects of the British Isles" showed it to no longer occur here. I found a stray Grayling in East Lothian in 2001, but the first recent records of it breeding here are from 2005 at the western side of East Lothian. I have also received records of it occurring in a remote valley or "cleugh" in the Lammermuir Hills. However, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it has been around for a lot longer, unnoticed in some remote location. Certainly it has become more numerous in the few sites it is now found in the last five years.

Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria

Recorded around Edinburgh in 1811, but another species that disappeared from Edinburgh and the Lothians in the mid 1800s. By 1970 it no longer occurred in the North of England. It was first recorded back in East Lothian in 2009 having spread north up the east coast from the Scottish Borders. Since then it has continued to extended its range, now being commonly found right around the coast and in many wooded areas inland in East Lothian.

Wall Brown, Lasiommata megera

Again, it seems that this butterfly was found in much of Scotland in the early Nineteenth Century. It appears that it was reasonably common until it was wiped out after a series of cold summers from 1860. Thereafter only occurring in the south west of Scotland. It was first recorded in East Lothian again in 2010 arriving on the east coast and it has since worked its way around much of the coast.

Small Skipper, Thymelicus sylvestris

There are a couple of dubious records of the Small Skipper occurring in Scotland, but it is thought these could be mis-identification. The first records of the Small Skipper in East Lothian were from the Aberlady area in 2011. Since then it has slowly spread westwards along the coast as far as Levenhall and in 2014 it was also found at a couple of inland sites. There seems to be no obvious pattern to where they have been found here. It could be that, unlike many other species, they have come around the western side of the Lammermuir Hills.

There are three more species of butterflies that have recently been found in East Lothian. I will put details of them in my next post.

New East Lothian Butterfly Species for 2011

2011 was a lousy year weather-wise in East Lothian. We had a couple of lovely weeks in April and thereafter there was so much rain and temperatures were well below average. However, 2011 was a great year for butterflies here! It seems strange to me, considering that there is so little natural environment left in East Lothian that we get any butterflies at all! The disadvantage of so much of the landscape being prime agricultural land means that hedgerows have been ripped out and every square inch is ploughed and planted with wheat or barley. Being close to Edinburgh there has been a lot of new housing built recently, which may actually be better than a field of wheat for biodiversity!
In April I received an enquiry about a blue butterfly near a village called Aberlady. It didn't sound like a Common Blue, Polyommatus icarus, which is the only blue we get here and I thought it worth investigating. The description made me think it could be a Holly Blue, Celastrina argiolus, so each sunny lunch time I headed to Aberlady and searched any likely areas where I knew holly or ivy grew. On my third attempt, just as I was about to leave, I spotted some large holly trees so had a quick look, and there were at least three Holly Blues.

They were quite active little things, and they tended to land high up in the holly and a neighbouring apple tree, which didn't make photography easy!

This one seemed a little shy and these were the best pictures I could manage in the limited time I had before returning to the office. I returned a couple of times later, but didn't get any better views. I also returned a few   times later in the season to see if there was a second generation, but without luck. Possibly because of the poor weather conditions over the summer. I hope to see them again in 2012.

In May one of the countryside rangers described a butterfly she had seen that sounded like a Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary, Boloria selene. I headed for the area of John Muir Country Park where she thought she had seen it, but had no luck finding it. However, on the way back to the car a small brown butterfly flew up from the track in front of me. It turned out to be a Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria, I think of the sub-species tircis, which is found over most of the southern half of the UK. There had been one or two isolated sightings of this butterfly in East Lothian over the previous two years, so I suspected they may be secretly breeding somewhere in the county. Close by I saw another Speckled Wood making it very likely they were breeding there.

There is another sub-species, oblita,  that occurs to the north of here, and we are bang in the middle of the area where neither sub-species occur according to the distribution maps. I think that the southern sub-species is extending its distribution northwards.

I went back to the same site in late June and this time found four Speckled Woods in the area. These ones were a lot fresher-looking, so I presume were a second generation. Others were spotted later in the year in another part of John Muir Country Park and a nearby wood, so it looks as though we have another new species for East Lothian.

For a couple of years I have heard rumours of Grayling butterflies, Hipparchia semele, living on the site of an old opencast coal mine. Last summer I was told where abouts to look and a friend and I visited one lunch  time. To our surprise we immediately came across several of them on an old section of railway. I returned again later in the year, but the weather was so poor that I didn't see any more of them. 

These butterflies are incredibly well camouflaged when they land on the ground.

It has been suggested that the change in distribution of these butterflies may be a sign of climate change, although it is difficult to believe that slightly warmer winters, wetter summers and more wind could have such an effect (particularly as we just had two very hard winters!). There were also three sightings of Small Skippers, Thymelicus sylvestris, at Aberlady this year - another new species for East Lothian. Other butterflies that used to be rare here are now more commonly seen. Wall Browns moved here in 2010, Commas in around 2006 and before that Peacocks, Orange Tips and Ringlets. It certainly isn't an abundance of habitat that is attracting the butterflies here. This is just another reason why butterflies fascinate me so much.

Hopefully the weather will improve in 2012 and I will be able to go back and see if these species have made it through the winter.