Scotch Argus - Erebia aethiops

We are going through an amazing period for butterflies just now. There are literally hundreds flying at the moment, presumably because conditions have been perfect for them this year.

I visited my father in the Scottish Borders on Saturday and thought that I should be able to call in to an area where there is a colony of Scotch Argus butterflies, Erebia aethiops, on the way home. Unfortunately, the day turned out to be cloudy and it rained in the early afternoon, so I didn't think I would have a chance to see them. On the other hand I had been told that they are one of the few species to fly in overcast conditions.

Despite the weather, on the way home I thought I should at least have a look at the site that I had been told about. It was 5:30 in the evening, 15 degrees and cloudy, but I thought it was worth a look as I was in the area. I parked the car, crossed a golf course and walked down a track to a grassy area. There was no sign of any butterflies, and I was about to give up when I saw a small dark butterfly fly out of the grass ahead of me. I managed to catch up with it, switched on my camera and then heard it beep and switch off as the battery was flat!

I had another battery in the car, so I ran back and grabbed it. My poor son was waiting for me and now he was going to have to wait even longer. At least on the way back I was able to go straight to the right place. By now it was 6 pm and you normally don't see any butterflied at that time.

However, the Scotch Argus is obviously a hardy soul and over the next 10 or 15 minutes I saw about 30 of them. They seemed very timid and difficult to approach, but I did manage a few pictures. Unfortunately, when they land they tend to drop down into the grass and the cloudy weather made getting a clear picture almost impossible.

These are truly beautiful butterflies. Due to the light conditions the pictures don't do them justice. They are a dark chocolate brown, with bright orange markings containing black ocelli with white pupils. The white pupils really stand out very brightly.

The books give a wingspan of 40mm, but the sub-species occurring here, caledonia, is said to be smaller. Certainly the butterflies I saw seemed smaller than that.

The Scotch Argus occurs in scattered colonies across Scotland and northern England. It also occurs in central Europe.

I will definitely return to this site next year to look for these butterflies. Hopefully, it will be a sunny day and I will have more time to spend watching them.

Ringlet - Aphantopus hyperantus

The Ringlet, Aphantopus hyperantus, is a medium-sized brown butterfly that occurs in much of northern Europe and temperate Asia. In the UK it has been extending its range north and west over the last few decades. A distribution map from 1970 shows the butterfly occurring mostly in the south of the UK, with a few scattered colonies in southern Scotland.

This map was taken from the Provisional Atlas of the Insects of the British Isles, produced by the Biological Records Centre in 1970.

And the map below is from the UK Butterflies web site showing the current distribution of Ringlets.

My boss tells me that when he was working as a countryside ranger in the 1970s it was rare to see a Ringlet. These days, at this time of year, they are definitely the most commonly seen butterfly here.

Ringlets tend to favour damp, sheltered grasslands. They spend much of their time roosting in the grass with their wings closed, or basking with their wings open, absorbing the sun's rays. They have a lazy, floppy flight and don't go far when disturbed. Their dark colouration means that they quickly warm up and they are able to fly in cooler, overcast conditions.

This species spends most of its life as a caterpillar. The female lays the eggs whilst flying over grass in July or August.The caterpillar eats various species of grasses and the adult butterfly only lives for a couple of weeks.

Although I find the markings on Ringlets very attractive, I tended to think of them as little brown butterflies that were all the same. This year I looked a little more closely at them to see if I could spot a difference between the markings of the males and females. I think it is generally recognised that the males are darker and smaller than the females and they tend to have fewer dots on the upper wings, but I didn't realise that they were so variable.

This was the butterfly that started my quest. Other than some damage it has no markings at all on its upper wings.

This one has the faintest of markings on its hind wings.

One dot on the fore wing and two on the hind wing.

And this female has three well formed ocelli on the fore wing and two on the hind wing.

I watched her for ages, waiting for her to close her wings, but she was intent on basking in the sun.

Eventually she obliged.

 The underside of the wings turned out to be just as variable. She has slightly elongated ocelli.

These two have fairly standard markings, although the one below has a very small third ocellus on its fore wing.

This beautifully marked Ringlet is demonstrating one of the frustrations of trying to photograph them. They always land in amongst the vegetation! 

This one lacks the white central dot in some of the ocelli.

And this one has very reduced ocelli.

The butterfly above shows a recognised aberration called arete. This is described as having much reduced points with no encircling. As with many aberrations, there seems to be a range of difference from the norm, and I wonder where you draw the line between reduced markings and this aberration.

When I was looking for Small Pearl Bordered Fritillaries recently I came across this next Ringlet. It is quite unlike any I have seen before.

The top side seemed a little lighter than normal and the ocelli were quite large. However, it was the underside that looked unusual.

I have been told that this is an aberration called chrysophalarus. 

I will no longer consider Ringlets to just be little brown butterflies. They seem to be infinitely variable and well worth having a quick look at to check out their markings. It is funny how I have taken this common butterfly for granted in the past!

Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary - Clossiana selene

The Small Pearl Bordered Firitillary, Clossiana selene, is a medium sized butterfly that occurs in much of Europe, other than the Iberian Peninsula and Ireland. It seems to occur in scattered colonies across the UK, mostly towards the west of the country. As far as I am aware they do not occur in East Lothian, although there have been a couple of unconfirmed sightings here.

Its preferred habitat is damp, marshy, woodland areas and I suppose that may explain why they tend to occur in the west of the country which is generally wetter.

As with many species of Fritillary, the larval food plant is various species of Viola. I find it interesting that this butterfly lives in such a specific habitat, when the food plants are found much more widely.

This species spends much of its life as a caterpillar. The adult butterflies are on the wing for a period of about six weeks during June and July. Their eggs will hatch in July and the caterpillars will live through to the following May before becoming chrysalises.

This week I heard that there were a lot of Small Pearl Bordered Fritillaries at a Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve in the Scottish Borders. On Tuesday I headed down to Gordon Moss to take a look for myself. I had been sent detailed instructions on how to find the reserve and then whereabouts on the reserve to look. No sooner had I arrived at the gate into the field I saw my first one and over the course of an hour I saw about 40 of them.

I was surprised how variable the markings were between individual butterflies.

I was hoping that I would see some Small Pearl Bordered Fritillaries perched with their wings closed, as the markings on the underside of the wings are really beautiful. It was quite a cloudy day, and although I had been told that they would still be flying, I think that they were taking any opportunity to absorb the few solar rays available. As soon as they landed they would open their wings up towards where the sun was trying to shine through the clouds.

However, I presume this is a female which has recently emerged. I first spotted her because there were a couple of males flying about where she was in the grass. She kept climbing grass stems presumably as she was still drying her wings. In the process she kindly revealed the underside of her wings!

The butterfly below is an aberrant, which doesn't seem to be that uncommon with fritillaries. Normally people get quite excited about aberrations in butterflies, but I have to admit that I felt rather sorry for this one. I think its wings were a little malformed and it seemed quite an effort for it to fly. It also had a wonky antenna!

It was lovely to see these butterflies. They appeared more orange in real life, but they were still very difficult to keep an eye on when they were flying.

Small Blue butterflies - Cupido minimus

Late May and early June are normally a quite time for butterflies in this part of Scotland. Between April and May we see the butterflies that have hibernated as adults and reappeared when the temperatures warm up. We also see the first of the new species for the year. Here that consists of four species of white butterflies and more recently Speckled Woods and Wall Browns have moved into the area.
Normally, by the beginning of June, these spring butterflies reduce in numbers and there isn't much to see, but this year, having had such a cold spring there are still a few white butterflies on the wing.
My usual antidote to this quite spell is to take a trip down to a small location in the Scottish Borders where there is a colony of Small Blue butterflies, Cupido minimus. This is the UK's smallest species, having a wingspan of only about 16 to 20mm. Their upper wings are often described as dull brown with a silver underside. Personally, I find these butterflies far from dull!

The males have a scattering of blues scales on the upper wings.

Small Blues occur in a few different locations around the UK. They are mostly found in the south of England and the south of Wales. There are also scattered colonies on the east coast of Scotland. Because many of these colonies are isolated they are vulnerable to land use changes. The colony I visit in the Scottish Borders, like many, is on a coastal slope covering an area about 50 metres by 25 metres. This year I was delighted to hear that they have also spread to a small valley a little further along the coast.

I had a look in both areas and estimate that I saw about 60 individual butterflies. It is great to know that while most species are suffering from the terrible summer last year and cold spring this year, the Small Blues are doing very well.

Because of their colour and small size they are quite difficult to spot, so I was delighted to find this couple hiding in the grass.

Eggs are laid on Kidney Vetch, Anthyllis vulneraria, and the caterpillars feed on the flower heads. Kidney vetch likes alkaline conditions and grow on poor soils where it won't be smothered by more vigorous vegetation. 

This Small Blue is feeding on Birds Foot Trefoil, Lotus corniculatus, which gives an idea of how small the butterfly is.

I have previously posted about Small Blues but I love these butterflies so much I couldn't resist mentioning them again!!

Butterfly Transect

Today was just about the perfect day!
The forecast was correct and we woke to a beautiful clear blue sky. That is something we haven't seen for a very long time! Even better, I had booked today off work and it is even rarer for the weather to be good on a leave day!

At 11:30 I jumped into my trusty old Triumph and drove down to the town where I work to walk my butterfly transect. This is a route that I walk once a week between April and September to log the number of butterflies I see. The route goes from close to my office, along the River Tyne for about one and a half kilometres through open woodland and into a meadow.

Initially I didn't see any butterflies, but on the third section of the transect an Orange Tip, Anthocharis cardamines, flew past me. I was thrilled to see it, as I always think the butterfly season has really started when Orange Tips start to appear. When I reached the area pictured above I saw a pair of Green-veined Whites, Artogeia napi. The Green-veined White is one of our most common butterflies, having two generations a year.

While I stopped to take a picture another Orange Tip flew past and it was soon joined and pursued by another Green-veined White. They, in turn, disturbed another Orange Tip that had been feeding on some Cuckoo Flower. Luckily it briefly returned to the plant.

It then posed for me on some Forget-me-not.

These were the first Orange Tips I have seen this year. They normally appear around about the middle of April, so they are about three weeks later than normal. However, they are better late than not at all. Last year we had a flood in July and most of the area covered by my transect was flooded. The plants where they lay their eggs were all under water and I feared that I wouldn't see any Orange Tips this year. If the good weather keeps up, I hope I will see more over the next few weeks.
I saw five Orange Tips on my transect today, and a few more on my way back. Interestingly they were all male. The males always seem to appear before the females and they patrol up and down the river, presumably looking for a mate.
My transect also produced seven Green-veined Whites, a Comma, Polygonia c-album, and two Small Tortoiseshells, Aglais urticae.

The Small Tortoiseshells are all looking a little faded and ragged after their long hibernation.

Even on the days that I don't see many butterflies there are usually a few birds to keep me occupied. Normally I see a Buzzard or two gliding over the trees by the meadow and almost every time I walk up the river a Kingfisher flashes past me. Today I saw a Grey Heron and plenty of Mallard ducks.

After returning to the car, I put the roof down and enjoyed the drive back to our village in the sun. I often dream about living somewhere warmer where I would be able to drive my Triumph more often and see more butterflies. But I guess if that was the case, I wouldn't get the thrill of days like today.

Spring has sprung!

At long last the temperature has risen and there was a real feel of spring in the air today. We had a false start during the first week in March, but since then it has been cold, a little snowy and windy. On the 2nd March four frogs appeared in our pond, but they soon disappeared again as the temperature fell. I guess they took refuge at the bottom of the pond and avoided the morning ice on the surface.
Yesterday they appeared again and started calling their friends. They quietly croaked away, reminding us of exotic places! As my wife watched a lighter-coloured frog hopped across the flower bed from our neighbour's garden and joined in the party. That made eleven frogs in the pond!

By the afternoon there was a ball of frogspawn. 

Having read a number of blogs about beautiful tropical gardens I thought I would include some pictures of the plants that have sprung into flower over the last couple of days here.

These little primulas have been sheltering from the weather in some tubs of Alpines.

I bought these last month to brighten up the garden.

These little pansies are about the only plants that will flower over the winter.

These little dwarf daffodils are ideal for small gardens. They have been in flower for a while, surviving snow and frosts. 

I was amazed to see the crocuses open up today. They came into flower last month, just before the snow and they spent several days buried under several inches. I thought that the flowers would just rot away this year.

The buds on this saxifrage have been waiting to open for about three weeks now. It is amazing how quickly they respond to a bit of warmth.

It seems that most plants are about two weeks late flowering this year. There are still no signs of leaves on the trees, but I think that things will start to change very quickly now that it has warmed up. 

Our new Labrador puppy was enjoying lying in the garden with our old three-legged chocolate Labrador.

I think there is rain due tomorrow and next week, but I hope that it will soon be butterfly season again. I have only seen one butterfly here so far this year. A Small Tortoiseshell that was taking advantage of a sunny day on 2nd March.