East Coast 2025 spring update

Spring has sprung on the East Coast!

That’s certainly what it felt like at our most recent habitat management days, where we were stripped to our bare arms while cutting gorse……unfortunately this meant several of us looking like we had the measles the following day! It also meant the delightful Scottish Tick put in an appearance – we weren’t ready for that in February!

Let’s take a look at what Tracy on the East Coast has been up to over the winter, and into these sunnier, brighter days.

Habitat work

October to March sees us full steam ahead with habitat work up here on the north-east of Scotland. Once again, I was blown away by the energy and enthusiasm of our amazing volunteers, especially when three of our work parties were back-to-back. From Sutherland, through Easter Ross, Inverness and out to Moray we had a whopping 95 attendees across the winter helping us to improve and create a mightily impressive 1.78 hectares of habitat for Small Blue and Northern Brown Argus.

We had two epic days at RSPB’s Culbin Bar – I really do take my hat off to our volunteers who are prepared to walk these distances over shingle, salt marsh and sand dunes whilst having to carry tools all in the name of helping biodiversity. I thought they were going to banish me to the dunes as on one of the days I forgot the cake – yikes, I was lucky to escape! Several of the volunteers have asked if we can take them back out in June to see Small Blue; I look forward to showing them just how vibrant the end of the bar looks when the wildflowers are in bloom, thus allowing them to see the reward of all their hard efforts.

A particularly special site

The star of the show though had to be a wee hidden gem of a site, up in Sutherland, which has taken a lot of time, effort and close work with volunteers to reach the stage of being able to undertake habitat management. I had nicknamed it Gorse Mountain as when I visited in early 2023, with the local transect walker, we had to actually cut and crawl our way in there. We believe this is the only Scottish transect with both Northern Brown Argus and Pearl-bordered Fritillary on it, so it was great to finally get in there and keep it open. We will though have to go back and do something about the gorse for Pearl-bordered Fritillary. We had a lovely spring day cutting gorse and watching two White-tailed Eagles being mobbed by Red Kite. We were also lucky enough to realise that the hills have eyes……as we were watched over by a herd of wild goats complete with a quite magnificent Billy Goat and his amazing set of horns.

One of the key aims of Species on the Edge is to have lasting legacy. This transect is walked by Tony, an 80 year old who had been ready to give it up due to the gorse and effort (not to mention that he also walks another transect!). Through Species on the Edge we have managed to find another volunteer who will spend this year learning from Tony and then hopefully take over the transect going forward. It is a fascinating site; there can’t be many places with White-tailed Eagle, Northern Brown Argus, Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Kestrels and Ravens breeding in such close proximity to each other!

Back at the butterfly bank

The first official day of Spring saw us back at the butterfly bank at Ardersier to plant out 400 Kidney Vetch plug plants as well as indulge in a spot of sign painting and gorse cutting. The bank is looking promising with hundreds of Kidney Vetch seedlings appearing along the tops which have now been supplemented by the plug plants. Bird’s foot-trefoil and a coastal seed mix have also now been sown, so fingers crossed for some butterflies come summer!

Species targets

As we are now at the halfway stage in the Species on the Edge programme, it is a chance to reflect on where we are against our species targets.

Get involved in some surveying

As you can see from the tables above, we are well on target and would like to wrap these up in the upcoming field season. We are especially keen to hear from you if you would like to survey some historical Small Blue sites for us or you fancy a trip to the lovely Black Isle or Easter Ross coastline to carryout some abundance monitoring for Northern Brown Argus. Let us know if you’re interested: tmunro@butterfly-conservation.org

I have also set my local Small Blue volunteers a couple of challenges – to find Small Blue:

• on the Black Isle
• on any large river shingle system, particularly the River Nairn
• on any old disused railway lines

Do send me an email with photographic evidence and a grid reference if you come up trumps, there might even be a prize for the winner!

If you live in and around the Nairn area please do get in touch if you would be interested in joining our newly set up Nairn Small Blue Group, the aim of which is to help look after Small Blue in and around Nairn after the end of Species on the Edge.

Coming up…

Now, who’s ready for some summer sunshine and the chance to see our wonderful species once again?!

Get involved:

Small Blue survey opportunities: Mid-May to late June

Small Blue Week – a week celebrating all things Small Blue: 31^st May – 7^th June 2025, including:

• Small Blue walk, Loch Fleet, Saturday 31 May, 11:00 – 13:00
• Mindfulness in the Meadow, Dunnet Community Forest, Sunday 1 June, 12:00 – 13:00
• Butterfly Walk, Ardersier, Monday 2 June, 11:00 – 13:00
• Small Blue Walk, Culbin Sands Nature Reserve, Wednesday 4 June, 09:30

Northern Brown Argus Zoom training: Monday 9th June at 7pm. Sign up here

Northern Brown Argus in the field training: Date TBC

Northern Brown Argus survey opportunities: late June – August

Inverness Museum Tapestry Display: 5^th March – 24^th May 2025.

To keep up to date with all that we’ve got going on on the East Coast and to receive notifications of new events and opportunities, sign up to the Species on the Edge mailing list, keep an eye on the Species on the Edge social media channels, or get in touch with Tracy: tmunro@butterfly-conservation.org