Highland Branch of Butterfly Conservation has a growing membership in Highland, Moray, the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland.
Our activities include recording butterflies and moths, organising events and field trips which are open to the public, and publishing newsletters which you can download from this site. |
Coming up in July |
Garden Moths Count ran from 21st June to 6th July. It's too early yet to know the results, but keep an eye on the Moths Count website where the findings will appear.
RSPB are holding another Creatures of the Night event at Insh Marshes Reserve, Kingussie, on Tuesday 15th July, starting at 8:30pm.
On Thursday 17th July, The Highland Council Countryside Ranger Service is offering a guided walk from "Ardroe to Lochinver in search of butterflies" (pdf file).
Save Our Butterflies Week (link to main Butterfly Conservation website) runs from 19th to 26th July - "a week to celebrate the beauty of Britain's butterflies and promote ways to stop their devastating decline".
Coinciding with Save Our Butterflies Week, Highland Branch has organised two field trips, which are free and open to all members of the public.
The first is to Littleferry, Loch Fleet National Nature Reserve on Sunday 20th July. Target species include Grayling and Dark Green Fritillary. For more information, check our Events page.
The second takes place on Saturday 26th July, with a visit to Findhorn dunes. Again, there's more information on the Events page.
Thursday 24th July sees another Countryside Ranger event, starting off at Glen Nevis Visitor Centre, entitled "Butterflies on the Glen and Ben" (pdf file).
On Sunday 27th July the Countryside Ranger Service will be "Looking for butterflies at Ardersier" (pdf file). |
 Moths of the Month: July
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This is a series by Roy Leverton, illustrating a selection of characteristic moths to look out for each month in our area. Click on the links below for more images and text.
Large Emerald, Geometra papilionaria. Photo by Roy Leverton
Moths of the Month: March | April | May | June | July |
 Butterflies to look out for in July
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In July, the Large White and Green-veined White are familiar sights, especially in gardens. The Small White can also be seen, although scarcer further north. The migrant Clouded Yellow can turn up at any time during the summer (one was seen during the Branch field trip to Corrimony in June), but it is an irregular visitor to the north. Orange Tip will all but have disappeared.
Of the "blues", it's possible to see the Small Copper later in the month, when a second brood appears. Perhaps a few Small Blue may be survive into early July. July is generally the best month to look for the Northern Brown Argus and Common Blue.
Look out for the migrant Red Admiral and Painted Lady, and also Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock. These are frequent garden visitors, especially when buddleia is in flower. Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary also flies in July, although it first made its appearance in June. The larger and more powerful Dark Green Fritillary can also be seen this month. Both species of fritillary are widespread in the north.
The Speckled Wood can usually be found in July, possibly from a second brood. The Mountain Ringlet is another July flier, and may be sought in the Fort William area. If you come across this butterfly, please send your records to the Mountain Ringlet survey - details opposite. Note also that the Countryside Ranger event starting at Glen Nevis Visitor Centre on Thursday 24th July will look for this species on the Ben. The Scotch Argus can make an appearance in late July, although it is most commonly found in August. July is the best month in which to look for Grayling, Meadow Brown, Small Heath, Large Heath and Ringlet. In recent years the Ringlet has extended its range westward from Aberdeenshire and is now established in SE Sutherland. |
Learning more about butterflies and moths |
 Branch Secretary Tony Mainwood, based in Golspie, is available to give talks on butterflies and moths to schools and other interested groups in places north of Inverness.
If you'd like to find out more, please get in touch with Tony. You'll find his contact details on the Committee page.
Don't forget to check out the Events page for details of field trips, workshops and other events planned in 2008. |
| SNH Grant 2007 |
Highland Branch is fortunate to be able to acknowledge that we received an "end of financial year" grant from Scottish Natural Heritage to buy some much needed equipment. The grant met 50% of the cost, the other 50% matched by Highland Branch.
We bought two "point and shoot" digital cameras for habitat recording purposes and for use at Branch events. These have already proved very useful.
In addition we bought butterfly frames, nets and handles for our species distribution and recording, and plastic pots for viewing butterflies and moths which we catch for identification. These are a real bonus when we have moth nights or go on field trips, as they give those who may be new to identification a hands on feel for butterflies and moths.
SNH's contribution is most welcome. Thank you SNH.
Jimmy McKellar
Chairman, Highland Branch. |
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Can you help with surveys this summer? |
Currently, three surveys are being undertaken:
- The Scottish Peacock survey
- The Mountain Ringlet survey
- Butterflies in the wider countryside resurvey.
Below, you will find more information about each project, and how you can contribute. |
Scottish Peacock survey |
 The Peacock is believed to be colonising new parts of Scotland in huge numbers, and Butterfly Conservation is currently undertaking a survey to map its distribution north of the border.
To find out more, please click on this link to the main Butterfly Conservation website, where you can also enter details of your sightings. |
Mountain Ringlet survey |
 The Mountain Ringlet (Erebia epiphron) is the UK's only truly montane species of butterfly, occurring at altitudes of 350 m to 1000 m in the central highlands of Scotland and in the Lake District.
Due to its remote habitat, the Mountain Ringlet's ecology is not well-known and it is hoped that volunteers can be recruited to get involved in surveys on different mountains in the central highlands to achieve the following goals:
- to define the distribution of Mountain Ringlet by systematically surveying mountains with accessible south-facing slopes;
- to identify the habitat characteristics of preferred sites of Mountain Ringlet, especially nectaring plants;
- to record which nectaring plants Mountain Ringlets feed on;
- to determine the current minimum altitude of Mountain Ringlet colonies by surveying a number of mountains.
For further information about this butterfly and the recommended methodology, please visit South West Scotland Branch website. There is also a distribution map showing locations in Highland as well as further south. |
Butterflies in the wider countryside: 2008 resurveys go ahead |
Recent research indicates that many wider countryside species underwent substantial declines in local and regional abundance during the 20th century; declines that were largely undetected by monitoring and mapping schemes in spite of a rapid growth in recording effort.
A new way of monitoring common and widespread butterflies, day-flying moths and dragonflies is being piloted for the second year in 2008 by Butterfly Conservation and the British Trust for Ornithology Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) recorders in selected regions. The project is part of the UK Butterfly Monitoring scheme and is run by Butterfly Conservation and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in partnership with the BTO. The sampling design and methods, with a few adaptations for butterflies, follow those used for the BBS, and involve 2 - 4 visits to random 1km squares between May and August.
2007 was a great success (despite the weather) with over 250 people from Butterfly Conservation and the BTO taking part across the UK. Two years of data will allow us to compare trends and find out if conventional 26-week transects are underestimating declines in the wider countryside species such as the Small Heath.
Small Heath butterfly (photo by Dave Green)
This summer, recorders from Highland Branch will be visiting 1km squares once again as part of the wider countryside pilot. If you'd like to take part in the second year of testing, then there is still time, as the two core visits are in July and August.
Please get in touch with Katie Cruickshanks if you'd like to help by covering a random square.
You can contact Katie at kcruickshanks@butterfly-conservation.org
or by phoning her on 01929 406036. You can also find out more about the pilot by visiting ww.ukbms.org/wider_countryside_pilot.htm |
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