Borders Butterflies

Last week a friend and I went down to the Scottish Borders to have a look for butterflies. There were three sites that we intended to visit. Unfortunately the first area where we were hoping to see Large Skippers drew a blank. I think we were just a little too early in the season.
Next we drove down to the coast, just north of the English Border. Here there is a rocky scree where there is a colony of Small Blues, Cupido minimus. These are the UK's smallest butterfly and they are a real pleasure to see. Despite them being rare, if you know where to look they are easy to find.

Almost as soon as we arrived we spotted our first Small Blue and while we were there we estimate we saw about 40 individuals.

There were also a lot of Small Heaths, Coenonympha pamphilus, flying in the area.

There were also one or two Wall Browns, Lasiommata megera, flying, although they wouldn't let me get very close!

We noted that the number of other butterflies was down on previous visits. This has been the case all over this part of Scotland after a cold spring.
Next we headed only a mile or so up the coast where there is a good colony of Northern Brown Argus, Aricia artaxerxes, on a steep slope above some cottages.

I hadn't been to this site before, but I was delighted to see so many Northern Brown Argus at the side of a steep track on some Valarian plants. The hillside above here was covered in their caterpillar foodplant, Rockrose, Helianthemum nummularium.

We also saw my first Common Blue, Polyommatus icarus, of the year.

Despite the poor weather and low numbers of butterflies I have been very lucky so far with the butterflies I have seen.

Green Hairstreak - Callophrys rubi

One advantage of having lousy weather is that when it is nice we really appreciate it! Yesterday we had sunshine forecast and I was able to visit the site where we had found Green Hairstreaks, Callophrys rubi, last year.
A friend and I have already visited this site twice this month without seeing any Hairstreaks. Although it was sunny, up in the hills the temperature wasn't high enough for the butterflies to emerge. My friend noticed that when she felt the clumps of vegetation where the chrysalis would have been it was very much colder than the air temperature.
Last Friday she sent me an e-mail to say that she had seen some Green Hairstreaks there. The weather was great this weekend, but I was working, so yesterday lunchtime we met up to go and have a look for them.

As soon as we arrived we saw a small butterfly flying close to the ground. Even though the wind was quite strong the Green Hairstreaks were flying in sheltered spots close to some pine trees.

I had noticed last year that the Hairstreaks always occurred close to pine plantations. I had assumed that this was because they offered shelter from the wind. However, as we watched them this time two Hairstreaks briefly chased each other and then spiraled up onto a pine tree where they proceeded to mate.

The pine trees appeared to be attractive to the Green Hairstreaks and we noticed that they often landed on the fresh shoots. Presumably there is resin on the shoots that the butterflies feed on.

The male butterflies seem to have special perches where they wait for other insects to fly past. They would fly up and chase away any flies that flew too close to them and pursue any females that flew nearby.

These are such beautiful little butterflies. The metallic green colour looks so exotic. Some of them have a row of white dots, while others are completely green. The intensity of the green varied depending on how the light was hitting the wings. The top side of their wings is brown.

It was a real treat being able to spend time watching these butterflies.

Favourite butterfly

It is time for my annual indulgence. After a week of miserable weather we actually had some sunshine yesterday. I was able to complete my butterfly transect and on the way back I stopped to take some pictures of Orange Tips. They are my favourite butterfly and represent the start of the butterfly season for me.

I was amused that within seconds of the sun going behind a cloud the Orange Tips would stop flying and close up their wings. They are very difficult to spot when they are roosting like this.

When the sun came back out they would open up their wings and start feeding again!

So far this year I have only seen one female Orange Tip, but I was delighted to spot an egg in this picture behind the butterfly's left antennae. Sadly the weather has turned windy and rainy again, so it may be a few days before they are out and about again.

Trials and Tribulations of being a Caterpillar

Many of the plants in our small garden have been specifically planted to provide nectar for bumble bees and butterflies. Others have been planted hoping that butterflies will lay their eggs on them. Last year I planted Nasturtium seeds in any bare areas of the flower beds. These not only provide a nice splash of colour, but the flowers attract bumble bees and various species of white butterflies lay their eggs on the leaves.

I was delighted to find some Small White, Pieris rapae, eggs dotted around the Nasturtiums. They lay their eggs singly.

One day I noticed a Large White, Pieris brassicae, laying eggs on a Nasturtium leaf. They tend to lay their eggs in batches of about 30 or 40 eggs. It took the female butterfly about fifteen minutes to lay this lot on 27th July.

I hoped to keep a diary of the progress of these eggs, but sadly August turned out to be much colder than normal. On 5th August the eggs hatched.

Within a couple of days the caterpillars had chewed a hole in the leaf and they all mad their way to the underside.

There they stayed for several days, not growing at all. This picture was taken on 23rd August.

Then a few days later they were all gone. I watched several batches of eggs and they all went through the same process and sadly the caterpillars all appeared to die. Similarly, the Small White eggs hatched, but the caterpillars didn't grow. I can only assume that the weather was just too cold for them to develop.

Earlier in the year I noticed that a Garlic Mustard plant I had planted in a pot had some Large White caterpillars on it. I had planted this in the hope that a passing Orange Tip, Anthocharis cardamines, would lay an egg on it, but I was happy enough to have these caterpillars instead.

The caterpillars grew quickly, but one day I thought they were behaving a little strangely. They had all climbed to the top of the seed heads. I wondered if they were looking for food, so moved a couple of them onto fresh leaves, but they just crawled back up to the seed heads.

The following day when I returned home from work I was horrified to find that the caterpillars had all been parasitised. The next picture is a little gory. It shows the pupae of a parasitic wasp. The adult must have laid eggs in the caterpillars when they were much smaller and the wasp larvae had been living inside the caterpillars all of the time I had been watching them. They appeared to be quite healthy up until the day before the wasp larvae appeared.

I was concerned that the number of Large White butterflies may be low this year due to the lack of success of the caterpillars that I had seen. Happily I have already seen a couple of Large Whites this year, so hopefully they did better elsewhere.

What perils these caterpillars go though in their short lives. Hopefully they will have more success this year. I will keep my eyes on the plants in the garden and report any good news stories!

More Winter Butterflies

Three weeks ago the manager of a large local estate kindly lent me the keys for an old abandoned castle, after I had told him about the hibernating butterflies I had found around East Lothian. This is a magnificent building, now derelict, with parts of it dating from the 1400s.
I had a quick look in one of the outbuildings and found one Small Tortoiseshell, Aglais urticae, on the ceiling and, sadly, a lot of wings on the floor.

I had a little difficulty opening the door into the castle due to a build-up of debris from the local pigeons. I ended up climbing up through a window and clearing the ground behind the door to allow my friend to get in. Inside we were a little disappointed to find that there were very few rooms with roofs.

However, we noticed a room with a vaulted ceiling that looked very promising, but it was about ten feet above ground level.

I managed to borrow a ladder from a local business and climbed up into the room. 

At the far end, in a little nook, I found two Peacock butterflies, Aglais io, sheltering. Again, they were away from any direct light and sheltered from the wind. I found another behind some old lime mortar that was pealing away from the wall.

We were left a little intrigued, as there is a garden centre close by where there are hundreds of butterflies seen in the summer. Then I had a look up a tall chimney and saw eight or ten Peacock butterflies in the section I could see. There were probably more further up, out of sight.

We then found the perfect place, but unfortunately we couldn't get into the room to have a look. It was a basement directly below the room with the vaulted ceiling. There was a small window opening with a shaft down into the room. I could see another room off the main room, which would be the ideal place for butterflies to hibernate. The door into this basement also had debris built up behind it and I didn't want to risk breaking the door, trying to open it. At least I think I know where the butterflies were all hibernating!

We have had two beautiful days in a row now, so all of the butterflies are wide awake. I walked my transect for the first time today and I was delighted to see two Commas, Polygonia c-album, six Peacocks and six Small Tortoiseshells. Those are the three species that over-winter as adults here. I didn't manage to find any hibernating Commas, so that will be next winters mission!

In a coupe of weeks I should be seeing the first white butterflies and that is when I consider the season has really started!

Hibernating Butterflies

Inspired by my visit to Inchkeith island to look for over-wintering butterflies last November, I have been occupying myself this winter looking for hibernating butterflies here in East Lothian.

I started by looking in a local ruined castle. It has an underground chamber, which I thought could be perfect for butterflies to shelter in for the winter. I didn't find any in the main chamber, but the tunnel leading into it had two Peacock butterflies, Aglais io, in it, just behind this arch:

I think there was too much light in the main chamber, but the tunnel was very dark.

After that a friend and I were given permission to have a look around the buildings on a large estate near the coast. We checked out some of the buildings, including the boathouse and curling house, but they were both too light. Unfortunately, the most likely buildings, including an ice house were locked up. However, we found an old stone shed in the walled garden and sneaked a look around the door. There in the rafters we spotted several Peacock butterflies. Unfortunately, my camera couldn't focus on them in the dark. We think there were at least 18 in this group and there were two other smaller clusters.

On another occasion I checked out the old bread oven in another castle.

Initially, I thought there was nothing there, but then I noticed a Small Tortoiseshell, Aglais urticae, in the crack between two stones.

It wasn't until I was looking at my pictures that I noticed that what I thought was one butterfly turned out to be two roosting next to each other. These two are perilously close to a spider's nest.

There were 16 butterflies bin total scattered around the oven. I found it interesting that the first two locations had only Peacock butterflies and this castle had only Small Tortoiseshells.

At work, I met an archaeologist and I mentioned to him what I had found and asked him if there were any other old buildings he could recommend. He suggested a ruined house on the coast that had an old bread oven in the cellar.

Sure enough when we looked inside the bread oven there were some Peacock butterflies.

Some of them were rather worn, showing the colour of the upper side of their wings. We found eleven Peacocks there. At each of these locations I also spotted Herald moths and mosquitoes sharing the winter accommodation.

I rent an old barn on a nearby farm where I keep a couple of old cars and our log supply. Last weekend I was collecting some logs when I noticed some butterfly wings on the floor. The more I looked the more I found. I counted over 100 individual wings, which would mean at least 25 butterflies. Most of the wings were from Small Tortoiseshells, but there were about ten Peacock wings, too.

A couple of years ago we stapled some thick polythene sheeting across the rafters to stop pigeons roosting there. This must have created a nice dark space for butterflies to hibernate. Unfortunately, I guess it is also home to several spiders, which have been enjoying a good feed. I hope that a good number of butterflies have managed to make it through the winter and will soon be flying around the farm.

Last week I received my first 2015 record of a butterfly flying in East Lothian. I am excited to think that I will soon be seeing butterflies again. But, strangely, I am looking forward to next winter now that I know the sorts of places to look for hibernating butterflies!

Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria, in East Lothian 2009 - 2014

I have mentioned in previous posts the remarkable expansion in the range of the Speckled Wood butterfly, Pararge aegeria. I have recently been going through the records and mapping where they have been recorded in East Lothian in the last few years.

Up until 2009 we had no records of them occurring here, but a colleague spotted one right at the eastern boundary of East Lothian in May 2009 and two months later another was seen about 12 kilometres away at John Muir Country Park.

In 2010 I only received one record of Speckled Wood at Tyninghame Bridge in August.

In May 2011 I found a pair of Speckled Woods in John Muir Country Park and subsequent visits in June and September found them at exactly the same spot. They were also seen in various other locations within the park. That year we also received records from Innerwick and at Yellowcraig about another 12 kilometres west.

Despite the poor summer of 2012 I still received a number of records of Speckled Woods. They continued to be seen at JMCP and one was seen on two occasions in a small woodland close to Traprain Law. Most exciting were a number of records received from the Aberlady area, another large leap away.

2013 was a fantastic year for butterflies and Speckled Woods seemed to do as well, if not better than most species. They spread for six or seven kilometres up the River Tyne from JMCP and continued to do very well in the woodland around Aberlady, spreading westwards along the coast to Port Seton. They also seemed to be spreading along the woodland on the Longniddry to Haddington Railway Walk towards Haddington. Late in the season, records were received from Skateraw and Thorntonloch, nicely filling in a gap on the east coast and in November a record was received from the coast on the west of the county, showing that they had spread the length of the East Lothian coast in five years!

In 2014 Speckled Woods continued to expand their range, following the River Tyne up to Haddington and moving inland towards Gifford and Saltoun Woods. In late summer they became the most numerous butterfly seen in many parts of East Lothian, and on 10th September I saw over 400 in a wood near Aberlady.

The increase in Speckled Wood records again last year must have been partly attributable to more people looking for them and sending records in, but I think we have still built up a pretty good indication of how the species has spread over this time. The rate of spread of the species seems quite remarkable and it is difficult to understand why Speckled Woods are extending their range at such a rate. It is easy to label this as another consequence of climate change, but since 2009 we have experienced two of the coldest winters in recent history and the wettest summer on record!
I am really looking forward to seeing if Speckled Woods spread to the remaining areas of East Lothian this year.