BUTTERFLY CONSERVATION LANCASHIRE BRANCH DEDICATED TO SAVING WILD BUTTERFLIES, MOTHS AND THEIR HABITATS Lancashire, Manchester and Merseyside Butterfly and Moth Recording Report 2014 Butterfly Conservation President Sir David Attenborough Registerd Office Manor Yard, East Lulworth, Wareham, Dorset BH20 5QP Head Office Manor Yard, East Lulworth, Wareham, Dorset BH205QP Registered in England 2206468 Tel 0870 7744309 Fax 0870 7706150 Registered Charity No 254397 Email: [email protected] Sivell Butterfly Conservation Registered in England 2206468 Pete Marsh Registered Charity 254937 President Sir David Attenborough John Girdley Head Office Manor Yard, East Lulworth, Wareham, Dorset BH20 5QP 01929 400209 Butterfly Recording Laura Sivell County Butterfly Recorder Please continue to send your butterfly records (remember, every little helps)to: Lancashire and Merseyside Laura Sivell, email [email protected]. Or by post to 22 Beaumont Place, Lancaster LA1 2EY. Phone 01524 69248. Please note that for records to be included in the annual report, the deadline is the end of February. Late records will still be used for the database, but once the report is written, I’m not going to update or rewrite on the basis of late records. The report is also going to have to be written earlier in the year, in February, as I’m full on with work in March/April and I just can’t do it! East Lancs John Plackett ([email protected]) from Nelson Nats has taken over the East Lancashire Butterfly Report, so please all send your records to him as well as the Lancashire recorder. Greater Manchester These records should only go to Peter Hardy, 81 Winstanley Road, Sale, M33 2AT, email [email protected] - not to Laura Sivell. Some people have been sending their records to both, leading to a fair amount of wasted time in sorting out the duplicate records. Likewise Lancashire and Merseyside records should only go to Laura. Recorders list I always miss someone off, and that, combined with many new contributors sending in records via the Big Butterfly Count and the new iRecord App, has led to the decision not to include a list in this report, or future ones. Hours of work, and there’s always mistakes; it’s just not worth it. Huge thanks to all of you though. Record Validation Because of the larger number of records received via the various schemes such as Big Butterfly Count, the process of checking and validating them has become much more onerous. It’s easy enough to just delete the Chequered Skippers seen in August, Marbled Whites and the like, but checking through the dates of hundreds of sightings to check that they fall within reasonable parameters takes quite a bit of time, and some, mainly Wall Brown and Common Blue records, are still in a ‘holding’ file so don’t appear in the text or on the maps. Maps in this butterfly report are for 2014 only, but there isn’t space for every species. Other updated maps will soon be available on the Lancashire Branch website . 2 High Counts table You may notice that the 2007 figures are missing. I can’t find the reports for those years. If anyone has kept their copy and could supply the figures, I’d be very grateful. Highest counts 2000 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Small Skipper 244 190 155 100 41 60 54 200 97 150 500 218 Large Skipper 19 39 30 20 40 50 28 33 70 57 25 190 85 Dingy Skipper 17 10 15 11 6 10 34 29 29 22 34 35 Clouded Yellow 6 1 1 1 4 12 1 3 3 1 1 6 Brimstone 17 20 41 12 19 29 30 16 36 16 5 21 22 Large White 100 80 30 50 130 303 100 85 200 18 50 300 100 Small White 64 35 50 23 50 30 120 32 150 52 130 100 Green-veined White 100 46 200 50 70 45 254 155 100 119 100 229 113 Orange Tip 30 28 12 23 20 20 12 14 20 20 55 22 100+ Green Hairstreak 105 213 651 48 70 130 100+ 38 92 463 55 12 68 Purple Hairstreak 10 20 8 24 25 50 57 67 49 42 11 16 59 White-letter Hairstreak 6 2 3 1 10 9 3 4 10 3 3 16 10 Small Copper 6 15 41 22 23 23 24 42 18 150 45 84 Northern Brown Argus 65 37 46 8 22 32 17 49 47 103 24 34 26 Common Blue 190 256 97 150 216 88 281 182 250 293 200 268 Holly Blue 8 8 19 6 8 8 30 14 5 4 7 14 Duke of Burgundy 10 8 4 7 5 6 12 15 4 12 7 Red Admiral 61 37 153 37 75 86 46 81 25 50 15 28 100 Painted Lady 44 28 120 28 3 83 1 1000+ 7 20 5 6 20 Small Tortoiseshell 204 105 141 105 66 1700 24 39 287 120 60 280 100 Peacock 148 146 56 71 58 144 49 76 104 71 72 500 50 Comma 19 12 30 13 7 40 6 15 10 14 8 11 15 Small Pearl-bordered 104 35 38 10 10 11 15 24 29 34 33 49 50 Pearl-bordered Fritillary 40 40 40 34 28 22 12 25 38 22 13 20 High Brown Fritillary 25 67 38 35 80 10 119 67 52 16 17 6 Dark Green Fritillary 2 4 6 20 134 14 50 88 70 54 293 10 46 Speckled Wood 62 155 201 67 233 104 47 108 65 66 90 50 115 Wall 20 25 60 34 25 16 20 11 5 7 17 47 Scotch Argus 20 161 304 188 134 199 158 221 38 Grayling 74 78 100 14 37 81 84 108 105 206 98 200 28 Gatekeeper 400 250 136 100 400 79 100 205 137 900 300 225 Meadow Brown 394 300 225 181 194 500 295 433 143 425 300 600 474 Ringlet 0 0 1 1 1 12 100 50 250 100 248 348 Small Heath 78 15 54 50 37 37 59 70 150 75 67 120 Large Heath 69 90 63 28 143 5 48 53 20 33 21 18 3 Number of recorded 2km squares per species and percentage of total number of 2km squares where any butterfly recorded 1994 1995 % 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 % 2001 2002 2003 2004 Small Skipper 71 153 20.48 132 89 95 133 103 19.96 95 114 139 99 Large Skipper 166 267 35.74 147 103 87 127 98 18.99 70 100 116 92 Dingy Skipper 4 5 5 4 4 3 8 8 6 5 7 Clouded Yellow 16 0 14 1 35 2 96 1 4 7 2 Brimstone 18 24 3.21 32 41 48 44 58 11.24 38 61 59 58 Large White 261 392 52.47 286 235 295 340 235 45.54 224 260 318 228 Small White 241 448 59.97 292 254 246 322 203 39.34 177 207 301 172 Green-veined White 181 320 42.83 255 219 243 311 204 39.53 179 201 303 245 Orange Tip 189 265 35.47 231 182 205 246 154 29.84 133 194 185 199 Green Hairstreak 14 29 3.88 23 19 30 22 24 4.65 7 38 25 27 Purple Hairstreak 7 7 2 13 9 9 13 13 11 16 12 White-letter Hairstreak 1 2 2 3 0 5 5 2 3 9 6 Small Copper 169 219 29.31 216 164 108 121 83 16.08 57 68 147 132 Northern Brown Argus 7 7 5 4 7 4 3 6 6 7 8 Common Blue 126 160 21.49 149 100 83 119 100 19.37 71 102 121 120 Holly Blue 36 30 4.01 41 52 142 158 86 16.66 65 99 91 122 Duke of Burgundy 2 3 2 3 2 2 3 2 1 2 3 Red Admiral 263 395 272 156 174 279 222 202 188 332 163 Painted Lady 134 174 415 44 60 72 176 58 157 315 169 Small Tortoiseshell 248 497 66.53 396 403 331 345 238 46.12 248 347 470 281 Peacock 158 266 35.6 290 279 305 311 226 43.79 235 316 329 266 Comma 66 165 22.08 138 122 104 182 168 32.55 145 164 221 146 Small Pearl-bordered 8 8 4 5 10 3 3 3 4 5 6 Pearl-bordered Fritillary 6 7 4 5 6 4 4 4 5 4 6 High Brown Fritillary 10 7 6 6 9 4 4 6 7 7 8 Dark Green Fritillary 5 7 6 5 5 4 6 4 6 8 17 Speckled Wood 65 102 13.65 64 74 117 190 193 37.4 179 241 316 248 Wall 196 205 27.44 191 147 182 209 143 27.71 99 103 104 117 Scotch Argus 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 1 1 2 Grayling 24 18 2.4 12 18 17 15 13 2.51 19 12 12 17 Gatekeeper 98 105 14.05 115 75 66 133 116 22.48 101 125 135 134 Meadow Brown 301 410 54.88 294 225 222 322 246 47.67 213 233 310 236 Ringlet 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 2 Small Heath 62 90 12.04 79 66 45 54 43 8.33 36 59 69 60 Large Heath 1 3 0 7 1 7 1 0 1 4 5 Total recorded squares 566 747 604 555 570 683 516 432 563 675 537 All Sections 115 Small Skipper 110 None 105 100 Arnside Knott 95 90 Small Skipper 85 80 75 70 First 8.6.14 G Lilley, Eccleston 65 60 55 50 Last 26.9.14 C Wilkinson, Rochdale garden 45 Total Number Counted Number Total 40 35 Highest 218 C Ellison, Gin Clough on 24.7.14 30 25 20 15 The high count was less than half of last year’s though most 10 5 0 transects showed a nice increase.