Meadow Browns and Ringlets

I used to think that the Meadow Brown was probably the most common butterfly in East Lothian. I had memories of seeing hundreds of them on grasslands on the coast, along field edges and up in the hills. However, over the last few years I haven't seen many at all. Possibly I have been out and about at the wrong time, or maybe my memory is letting me down.

Last year numbers of Meadow Browns were lower than average, despite what seemed like favourable weather. However, as I commented previously the dry weather and easterly winds may have resulted in these lower numbers.

Looking at the figures that I have been gathering for the last 14 years, numbers seem to vary quite a bit from year to year and if anything have been showing a slight increase.

The number of the other grass-feeder, Ringlets also vary quite a bit from year to year, but they do seem to show a downward trend.

At home in the Borders I have certainly seen an increase in numbers of both species, but since we took over the place ten years ago, we have created a couple of areas of wild flower meadows and felled an area of Spruce woodland, replacing it with native broadleaf trees, with grass growing under them. I think I can put the increase in Meadow Browns and Ringlets here down to there being a lot more suitable habitat for them.

I had a look at my notes from when I had been surveying Northern Brown Argus in the valley above our house, but there was nothing conclusive as the numbers of Meadow Browns and Ringlet were really variable and they were based on only a couple of visits a year.

However, last year colleagues in East Lothian and the Butterfly Recorder in the Borders also commented that they had noticed a reduction in the number of Meadow Browns and Ringlets. This caused me to look for any other records I had.

I was able to look at the transect figures from Aberlady Local Nature Reserve going back to 2008. Both Meadow Brown and Ringlet numbers have been really variable, but both show quite an obvious down turn in numbers.

The other long-standing transect in East Lothian is at John Muir Country Park. It was set up in 1995, but unfortunately there are quite a number of years when it hasn't been walked. However, it shows a similar decline in numbers.

It is really interesting to note that Ringlets weren't recorded there until 1998. It is easy to forget that they only made their way up to East Lothian in the early 1980s.

I will certainly keep an eye on how numbers do both here in the Borders and in East Lothian over the next few years. I would be interested to hear how these two species are doing elsewhere across the UK.

East Lothian Butterflies 2024 - Part 2

Continued from my previous post.

The number of Small Skippers recorded took a dip after they have been increasing since they were first recorded in East Lothian in 2011.

Large Skippers are now found all across East Lothian, but we only receive a few records. I think it is quite a difficult butterfly to spot and identify as it zips about between flowers.

Ringlet numbers were a little lower than average, but nothing significant. 

However, Meadow Brown numbers were down to about 75% of the average.

Holly Blue numbers crashed. After the odd sighting for many years their numbers have increased since 2019. They started off very well in the spring of 2024, but the summer generation was very much lower than expected. Across England the annual population fluctuates in response to a parasitic wasp. This wasp was discovered in 2024 by a local enthusiast who had reared some Holly Blues, only for some to fail with wasps appearing from the chrysalises.

There are a number of small, isolated colonies of Northern Brown Argus across East Lothian. They are found north of Traprain, east of Dunbar and in the Lammermuirs. Some of the known colonies may have died out and there are likely more undiscovered locations. Because of their remote locations we struggle to monitor how they are doing. In 20224 the Countryside Rangers received funding to plant Rockrose at a coastal site and they worked with Bear Scotland to plant up a south-facing road verge. Once these are established they will hopefully these will provide stepping stones between the existing colonies. 

Grayling butterflies continue to be found at three semi-urban sites. Sadly two of these locations are being developed, so I suspect we may lose those colonies. The exciting new was that there was a Grayling photographed on North Berwick Law last summer and they were also seen in the Lammermuirs.

The Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary is a rare butterfly in East Lothian, but they are found in a couple of locations in the Lammermuir Hills. They were seen in one of the Lammermuir valleys last summer.

And finally, hairstreaks! We have long been aware of a few small colonies of Green Hairstreaks around East Lothian. They are mostly in quite remote locations in the Lammermuirs, so I don't often receive records of them. There was a colony in Saltoun Big Wood, but there have been no Green Hairstreaks recorded there in the last few years, since there was a fire in the small area of woodland where they were found.

Having found adult Purple Hairstreaks in 2022 at Woodhall and Dunglass, two enthusiasts returned to East Lothian to search for eggs last winter. They did a very thorough job collecting carrier bags full of terminal buds from fallen Oak twigs and branches and searching them with a magnifying glass to look for eggs. Amazingly they were successful in finding eggs in six woodland across East Lothian. The adult butterfly rarely leave the top of mature Oak trees, where they can be seen flying in the late afternoon and early evening. Despite a lot of effort searching these woods in the past Purple Hairstreaks haven't previously been recorded in these locations.

Probably the most exciting news of 2024 was the sighting of a White-letter Hairstreak in a garden in Haddington. This is the first sighting of this species in East Lothian. They have made their way out of Northumberland and into the Scottish Borders over the last few years, mostly along the Tweed Valley. So, this is a big jump for the species. However, one was also recorded in Edinburgh and another in Dundee. It is fascinating to consider how these butterflies have spread so far, or if they have been there for a while. It will be interesting to see how they do over the next few years.

It certainly wasn't a great year for butterflies, but I think East Lothian probably did better than the UK as a whole, with one or two species actually appearing in good numbers. Some of the species such as Meadow Brown, Comma and Red Admiral did amazingly well in 2023, so the lower numbers in 2024 are almost to be expected.

Certainly I noticed that numbers where I live in the Borders were pretty similar to East Lothian. Given the wet summer that we had it isn't really surprising that numbers were a bit down. The next few years will give a better idea of how things are going. Let's hope for some decent weather!!

As always, thank you very much to everyone who took part in a transect or who sent in records. I am always delighted to receive them.

Scottish Borders Garden Butterflies 2023

We moved to this house in the Scottish Borders at the start of 2020 and since then I have been mostly working from home. During my lunch hours I tend to take the dogs for a walk around more or less the same route and I keep a note of the butterflies I see. I then keep a record of the highest number of each species I see each week. So, I now have four years' worth of butterfly records to compare.

Each year the weather has been quite different and that has had an impact on butterfly numbers. The weather was not great in 2023 with a lot of easterly winds. Spring started quite late but dry, but  from July onwards it was cloudy and wet.

Also, I have been spending a lot of time trying to improve habitats and plant different plants to attract butterflies. I would like to think that the effort is seeing rewards.

The main areas where I see butterflies is in the meadow I have been developing, on some Buddleia plants and, this year, in an area where I had some Spruce trees cut down, where I have replanted with native trees. The area is now quite grassy, with various other plants such a Fox Gloves and wild Raspberries.

The four species of white butterflies were interesting. Orange Tips generally had a good year. The first sighting was a week later than normal, but they were about in good numbers.

I saw more Small Whites than I have in previous years, but they were never seen in high numbers. I had found a number of chrysalises last year, which I kept in a cage over winter. 29 of them emerged over a period of a month in April and May. However, I never saw them in big numbers and, strangely, I didn't find any caterpillars on the Nasturtiums this year.

Conversely, Green-veined Whites didn't have such a good year for some reason.  I always associate Green-veined Whites with damper areas, so possibly last year's dry summer didn't agree with them.

Large Whites had a fairly average year. I had been expecting to see a lot of them, because there were a lot of caterpillars last year and there were several chrysalises on the house.  Again, this year, I didn't find any caterpillars on the Nasturtiums, which is unusual.

Last year was a really good year for Ringlets and this year wasn't quite as good. Overall, their numbers have gone up here over the last six years. I would like to think this is in part the result of some of the habitat work I have done.

2023 was a really great year for Meadow Browns here. I recorded 103 individuals, way up from the previous high of 21. As with the Ringlets, I would like to think that the Meadow Browns are enjoying the way I am managing the meadow. The high numbers of these two species may be a result of the weather the previous year, when eggs would have been laid and the caterpillars emerged. 2022 was a very dry summer. It will be interesting to see how they do this coming year after last year's wet summer.

I only saw 2 Small Coppers  here last year.  They had done really well the previous year, so I don't know why there were so few in 2023. There are plenty of food plants for them here, so I can only assume that it was the weather that didn't suit them.

I will continue this on the next post ...

East Lothian Butterflies 2023 Part 2

Continuing on from my previous post..

The first Small Heath was seen on the 17th May. They weren't seen in high numbers in 2023, possibly because not as many people were recording along the coast where they are most commonly seen. Apparently, there are two generations a year, but it is difficult to separate the generations because they overlap and vary according to each site along the coast and in the hills.

2023 could certainly not be described as a Painted Lady year. I only received 46 records and it was the first year, since I started recording butterflies in the 1990s that I didn't see one myself. The first record received was on 29th May and the maximum number seen in a week was 8 in August, indicating that they had managed to breed. It is interesting that the other migratory butterfly, the Red Admiral, did so well, but not so the Painted Lady.

The first Meadow Brown was recorded on the 4th June. They had the best year since I have been collating the butterfly records with 2565 butterflies recorded. Almost every year they are our most numerous butterfly recorded.

In contrast, the Common Blue had its worst year since I have been collating the records! The first record was on the 12th June and I only received records of 252 butterflies, with the average number over the previous ten years being 465.

The Large Skipper is a fairly recent arrival in East Lothian and is still seen in relatively small numbers. The first record I received was on the 13th June and I only received a total of 17 records. They have spread their range across the county, being seen along much of the coast and the foothills of the Lammermuirs. I suspect that it often goes unrecorded, being quite tricky to identify as it whizzes between flowers.

Ringlets were another species that had a poor year. In fact the worst year in the last ten years, not counting 2020, when we were in lockdown. The first record was on the 15th June and initially they seemed to do well, but just didn't peak in July as they normally would.

The Dark Green Fritillary also didn't do well in 2023 with the number of records being about a third of what we would normally expect. The first record was on the 18th June. The caterpillars feed on various species of Violets. I wonder if these plants didn't do well the previous summer with the dry weather we experienced.

On the 21st June I went into the Lammermuirs in search of Northern Brown Argus at a well known site for them. I managed to see five, which wasn't too bad for a short visit. They are only know to occur in a few small colonies in East Lothian and there have been no records from a couple of those sites in recent years. However, they were spotted on two occasions on the Barns Ness transect, so it would seem that there is a colony there, too. Also eggs have been found in a couple of locations north of Traprain Law, so there are probably more colonies than we realise.

I saw five Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries when I was looking for Northern Brown Argus. They were the only records that I am aware of this year. It is a rare butterfly in East Lothian, which has only been recorded from a couple of sites.

The final species to be recorded in 2023 was the Grayling on 3rd July. There is a well-established colony on the pyramid at Meadowmill. I am aware of them being seen in an east Lammermuir Dean and I hear that they are often seen at the old power station site at Cockenzie. This year there was one seen at Levenhall, which is very exciting. Maybe our re-location project is going to be a success after all!

Sadly, there were no Brimstones seen in East Lothian in 2023, having had a few records in 2021 and 2022. We normally rely on the odd migrant flying in and I suspect that until we have more food plants available for them, they will not be able to maintain a presence in East Lothian.

I didn't receive any records of the Green Hairstreak in 2023. They are known to occur in a few remote locations in East Lothian, so we rarely get records of them. I saw some just over the border at Soutra, where they appeared to be doing well, so hopefully they are doing as well in their colonies in East Lothian.

Similarly, the recently discovered Purple Hairstreak occurs in a few small colonies in East Lothian. I didn't receive any records in 2023, but I am sure they would still have been at their covert colonies in the eastern Lammermuirs

There are 25 species of butterflies known to breed in East Lothian, with two or three additional species that are occasional visitors to the area. In 2023 I received 2244 ad hoc records, totalling 7737 butterflies. These were in addition to the transects, which recorded another 6025 butterflies. In addition to these, there are other places that butterflies are recorded such as iRecord, iNaturalist and the Big Butterfly Count. We are never going to get close to recording every single butterfly that is in East Lothian, but I think we have a pretty consistent recording method that gives us a good idea of what has been going on in East Lothian over the last few years.

I am very grateful to all of the Countryside Rangers and volunteers who contributed records and I am always keen for anyone else to send me details of butterflies they see in East Lothian. All of the records I receive are passed on to Butterfly Conservation.

East Lothian Butterflies 2016 (2)

Continued from my previous post about the butterflies recorded in East Lothian in 2016.

Wall Brown, Lasiommata megera

The first Wall Brown was recorded on 12 May and they were seen in reasonably good numbers through to 15^th September. We are now getting regular records from Bilsdean, right along the coast to North Berwick. Each year we get one or two inland records, but we don’t seem to have any inland sites where they are regularly seen year after year.

Holly Blue, Celastrina argiolus

Yet again we had a single record of a Holly Blue in East Lothian. This time it was in North Berwick on 15 May. I am sure there must be a little colony of them in one of the coastal towns around there.

Small Heath, Coenonympha pamphilus

The first Small Heath seen in East Lothian in 2016 was on 15 May and they were recorded until 29 August. Numbers were a little down on previous years, but not by too much.

Common Blue, Polyommatus icarus

Common Blues were first seen on 8 June and regularly recorded through to 3 September. The numbers were very similar to previous years.

Ringlet, Aphantpopus hyperantus

Ringlets seemed to have a pretty good year, with numbers only a little lower than in previous years. The first record I received was on 19 June and they were seen until 17 August.

Small Skipper, Thymelicus sylvestris

The first record in 2016 of a Small Skipper was on 19 June and they were seen through to the end of August. They are very well established now along the coast from Longniddry to North Berwick and at a couple of inland sites.

Meadow Brown, Maniola jurtina

The first Meadow Brown record was on 2 July and they were seen in good numbers through to the 30 August. They didn’t seem to be affected by the miserable summer.

Dark Green Fritillary, Argynnis aglaja

The first record was on 3 July and they were seen in reasonable numbers but only until early August when I received the last record of the year.

Northern Brown Argus, Aricia artaxeres

I only received two records of Northern Brown Argus this year on 14 July and 30 July, both from the same site in the Lammermuir Hills. There are only another three locations that I am aware of them occurring in East Lothian, and I think the poor weather prevented other sites from being checked.

Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary, Clossiana selene

We had a record of a Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary from the usual site in the Lammermuir Hills on 14 July. There were also two records of a Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary from John Muir Country Park on the 16 and 18 August. These are quite late in the season, but were recorded by different people in more or less the same area.

Grayling, Hypparchia semele

The first record was on 18 July, which is about three weeks behind the norm. They were still seen in reasonable numbers, though. I am only aware of three small sites where Graylings are found in East Lothian, so they are quite vulnerable to habitat loss.

Camberwell Beauty, Nymphalis antiopa

I heard of a very exciting record that a Camberwell Beauty had been seen feeding on a Buddleia on 26 August in a garden in Dunbar. It was seen in the same place the following day. This is the first record of this very rare migrant that I am aware of in East Lothian since 1983. I have no reason to doubt this record even though there were no further records of it having been seen elsewhere.

The other butterfly that we may have expected to see was a Large Skipper, Ochlodes sylvanus. We had three records of them in East Lothian in 2014, but none since. There is a good colony of Large Skippers just over the border at Cockburnspath and I have no doubt that they are still in East Lothian. It is just that the weather has been very poor over the last two summers so people haven't been down to that corner of East Lothian to look for them. I will certainly make an effort to search for them in 2017.

So, all in all, it wasn't a bad year for butterflies given the weather. Most species did as well as ever, but there were worryingly few Small Tortoiseshells, Peacocks and Commas later in the year. I thought that this could be because the weather was poor at a critical time just after the caterpillars had hatched. However, Red Admirals and Painted Ladies did well and they would have been caterpillars around the same time.

We have found a few hibernating Small Tortoiseshells and Peacocks, so hopefully their numbers will bounce back this year. Already I have received a record of a Peacock and a Small Tortoiseshell flying this year!