Wildlife lovers across Scotland’s towns and cities are being asked to look out for the country’s only widespread blue butterfly this summer, amidst fears it could be struggling.
The Common Blue has been in decline for the last 40 years across the UK, but a recent run of poor summers in Scotland may have caused populations to fall even further.
Wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation (BC) is asking people across Scotland to take part in their Common Blue Survey.
BC Scotland’s Project Officer, Anthony McCluskey, said: “Sightings can be entered from anywhere in Scotland and we would especially like to hear from people living in cities like Glasgow and Edinburgh, where we know the butterfly is found but we don’t have many records.
“Sending in your sightings will help us to understand more about the places this butterfly lives and where we might need to do more conservation work to help it.
“The results will feed straight into our Urban Butterfly Project, so we can start making a difference for this butterfly right away.”
BC’s ‘Urban Butterfly Project’ was launched in 2016 and thanks to funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Scottish Natural Heritage, has been encouraging people across Scotland to engage with butterflies and help with conservation work to reverse declines.
Anthony added: “In Glasgow, BC volunteers are already doing what they can to help the Common Blue by growing Birds-foot Trefoil – the food plant of the butterfly’s caterpillar – and planting it all around the city.
“If we know more about where the butterfly is found, we could do similar things in other towns and cities too.”
The main flight period of the Common Blue in Scotland is from early June through to early September.
To take part in the survey visit www.butterfly-conservation.org/ScottishCommonBlue or email Anthony [email protected] for more information.
