We're Losing Our Butterflies!

The reality of change on a global scale is only brought home when something happens in our local neighbourhood. So Butterfly Conservation's new report, which warns of yet more British species which are on the slide to extinction, has hit me because we've seen three of the butterflies mentioned, the scotch argus, dark green fritillary and grayling, relatively recently on either Ardnamurchan and/or here in the Golspie area. So the scotch argus, above, which a few years ago was common around Kilchoan, is now classed as Vulnerable. I have difficulty in believing it!

In the report, Head of Science for Butterfly Conservation, Dr Richard Fox, says: “Shockingly, half of Britain’s remaining butterfly species are listed as Threatened or Near Threatened on the new Red List. Even prior to this new assessment, British butterflies were among the most threatened in Europe, and now the number of threatened species in Britain has increased by five, an increase of more than one-quarter. While some species have become less threatened, and a few have even dropped off the Red List, the overall increase clearly demonstrates that the deterioration of the status of British butterflies continues apace.”

I wrote only a few days ago about the lack of butterflies here at the moment but largely put that down to a miserably cold, windy and wet May. While land-use change is quoted as being one of the main drivers of their decline, butterflies are also struggling with the warming of the British Isles. This is hitting species like the scotch argus which would prefer Scotland's summers to remain cool - picture shows a pair doing their utmost to keep the species going.

The dark green fritillary is also mentioned, as Near Threatened. This, again, is close to home as we've found them in healthy number in the last couple of years at Littleferry.

The greyling is another that's suffering - this one was pictured at Littleferry but we also saw them on Ardnamurchan. It's been moved from Vulnerable to Endangered.

As an individual I feel frustratingly powerless to find anything constructive to do about the loss of our butterflies because the changes that are needed are on such a massive scale - like, we've got to stop burning hydrocarbons. Yet I hate to think that I'm leaving a world to my children and grandchildren which is going to lack these beautiful creatures.