Butterfly Surveys

Conservation action is absolutely reliant on information about the distribution and abundance of butterflies. Butterfly Conservation uses a number of survey techniques to gather this information.

	Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey
	Pearl-bordered Fritillary Sites in Scotland
	Mountain Ringlet Surveys in 2011
	Butterfly Transects

 

Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey

Butterfly Conservation is introducing a new survey – the Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey. This has been modeled on the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) Breeding Birds Survey (BBS).

For many years Butterfly Conservation, in conjunction with the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (formerly the Institute for Terrestrial Ecology) have carried out butterfly transects in the Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (BMS) as a means of assessing butterfly population levels. However, this survey is limited by the sites which are chosen to carry out the transects. As these tend to be 'wildlife sites' such as nature reserves and SSSIs, it does not tell us about the number of butterflies out there in the general countryside and it is in an effort to gauge the butterfly population levels in the general countryside that this new survey has been organised and can be thought of as an extension of the very successful BMS.

The new survey again involves members carrying out butterfly transects – but now at the random sites picked out by a computer. Members will be asked to record the butterflies at their site on at least two occasions during the summer and noting all the butterflies seen. Detailed instructions will be given out to all participants.

The 20 random squares allocated to the branch are shown on the map. It is likely that the WCBS will occur once every 3 to 5 years in the future. Therefore in the first roll out year, 2009, we need to achieve good coverage to make informed species assessments and demonstrate the usefulness of the data to funders. Click on a grid reference below to open a web page showing its location on an OS Map.

If you would like to take part in this ground-breaking survey, then please contact Richard Buckland as soon as possible (tel: 0131 332 0615 ).

Area	Survey square	Observer
Lothian and Northern Borders	Boondreigh Burn, Lauder (NT5646)	Jonathan Gahan
	Roslin mineworks, Loanhead (NT2764)	Sally Floyd
	Spartleton,  nr. Whiteadder Reservoir (NT6565)	Sara Toule
	Ecclaw, nr. Abbey St Bathans (NT7568)	Lesley Fairweather
	Linthill, nr. Eyemouth (NT9263)	Glenn Norris
	Milne Graden, nr. Coldstream (NT8544)	Eddie Paterson
	Ditcher Law, nr. Lauder (NT5156)	Looking for volunteer*
Western Borders	Craig Hill, nr. Ettrick (NT2515)	Eilidh McNab
	Craik Forest, S of Ettrick (NT2710)	Eilidh McNab
	Tweedmuir, Upper Tweed (NT0923)	Alison McArthur
Perth area	Strelitz Wood, Perth (NO1737)	Lesley McCabe
	River Isla, nr. Ratray (NO2444)	Cathy Caudwell
	Forest of Alyth, nr. Rattray (NO1957)	Hamish Johnston
	Coire Odhar, nr. Muthill (NN8414)	Paul Kirkland
Pitlochry area	Kindrogan Wood, nr. Pitlochry (NO0460)	Hamish Johnston
	Kindallachan, Pitlochry (NN9950)	Looking for volunteer*
	Loch Ordie, Kindallachan, Pitlochry (NO0251)	Bob Noble
Tayside	West Bradieston Wood, nr. Laurencekirk (NO7368)	J Curnow
Aberdeenshire	Rathen, nr. Fraserburgh (NJ9961)	Colin Frost
	Berefold, nr. Ellon (NJ9736)	Kenn Watt
	Crimond, nr. Rattray Head (NK0457)	Colin Frost
	Craigston Castle, Turriff  (NJ7956)	Terri Greene
	Clola, nr. Peterhead (NK0144)	Glenn Roberts
	Glen Dye (NO6184)	Will Telfer

*Square allocations last updated 27th June 2011
 

Pearl-bordered Fritillary Sites in Scotland requiring surveying in 2011

The Pearl-bordered Fritillary is a high priority species. It is a UKBAP Priority Species and is included on the Scottish Biodiversity List. It has recently been designated a Species Action Framework Species by SNH. Although still relatively widespread in the UK, most colonies are small and vulnerable to changing management It has declined rapidly across the UK, particularly in England, and Scotland is now the major stronghold but we believe it is still under-recorded with many sites having few recent records, hence the need for this survey.

Owing to the efforts of Butterfly Conservation staff and volunteers over the last 20 years, approximately 270 Pearl-bordered Fritillary sites have been identified in Scotland with the caveat that some could be the very similar Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary.

However, many of these sites have not been visited in the last five years according to Butterfly Conservation Scotland's records, and some have not been visited for several decades. Therefore, these web pages which list the sites which have not been visited in the last five years (some sites have been included where a visit has been made in the last five years but Pearl-bordered Fritillary was not found) have been constructed to help direct volunteer effort to visit these sites in May 2009.

Please go to the Glasgow and South West Scotland Branch's web page on this survey for more details

Mountain Ringlet Surveys in 2011

The Mountain Ringlet (Erebia epiphron) is a rare UK butterfly being confined to montane habitat between 350 & 900 m in the central highlands from Ben Lomond in the south to Creag Meagaidh /Glen Roy in the north and from Glasdrum/Glencoe, Argyll in the west to Schiehallion in central Perthshire in the east with two known colonies further east in the Cairngorms National Park: Glen Doll & Glen Feshie. This distribution amounts to just 50 10 km squares in Scotland which makes it much rarer than the iconic birds of the Scottish mountains such as the Ptarmigan & the Golden Eagle. Given the presence of large areas of land from 350-900 m outside the known range, there must be a factor other than altitude which explains this limited distribution of Mountain Ringlet. This aspect of Mountain Ringlet ecology is being investigated as part of a research project into montane invertebrates being funded by Scottish Natural Heritage, the John Muir Trust, the National Trust for Scotland & Butterfly Conservation during 2008 & 2009. Previous research suggests that it is a combination of damp Mat-grass grassland and abundant nectaring plants which provides good habitat for Mountain Ringlet. Please go to the Glasgow and South West Scotland Branch's web page on this survey for more details

 

Butterfly Transects

The Butterfly Transect is a walk along a set route that is divided into separate sections. In each of these sections the number of butterflies are counted along with the climatic conditions. Using this method comparisons can be made year-on-year and between transects. The UK has over 1500 recorded sites going back a far as 1976. Scotland has a growing number of transects, many of which are located here in the East Scotland branch. The transect is an enjoyable way of getting to know a site well and all the butterflies in that site. A weekly commitment is usually required and usually groups of walkers share such a walk. The walk is done from April till September every year and the counts entered into free software called Transect Walker available from the UKBMS website. If you would like to know more about transects and how to set one up please contact or the Scottish Transect Co-ordinator:  . Downloading Transect newsletters Click a link below - you will be prompted for a location where you wish to save the file. Spring 2008 (PDF) 309KB Spring 2007 (PDF) 353KB   The newsletters are provided in Adobe Acrobat® PDF file format.  You must have the Adobe Acrobat® Reader program in order to view\print the newsletters. If you do not have this program it is freely available at www.adobe.com/acrobat