Small Blue Week on the East Coast 🦋

Let's take a look at our annual celebration of the UK's smallest butterfly: Small Blue Week 🦋

By Tracy Munro, East Coast Species on the Edge Project Officer (Butterfly Conservation)

Here at Species on the Edge we have been bringing you Small Blue Week for two years in a row, coordinated by our East Coast team. Let’s have a closer look at this celebration of all things Small Blue 🦋

A small blue butterfly on a blade of grass — Small blue butterfly (c) Jim Asher

In 2023, we had several local volunteers leading walks and showing off their favourite Small Blues sites to members of the public. We had walks on the North Coast in Caithness, along the Moray Firth, and in Angus.

2024 saw the East Coast team mixing things up with a wider variety of small blue-themed events. The weather though was not boding well for the week with torrential rain and even hailstorms here in Inverness.

The week launched with a female-only picnic run in conjunction with Highlife Highland Countryside Rangers and some volunteers from Butterfly Conservation Highland Branch at Nairn beach. The sun shone for a few hours and we enjoyed a relaxing picnic, where we took time to be still and enjoy the sounds of nature around us. It is so good for your mental health to try to spend a small part of each day switching your brain off and reconnecting with nature. We then had plenty of cake, coffee and blethering!

Two women kneel by a picnic blanket on a beach. A lot of food including cake is on the blanket. — Small blue week picnic (c) Tracy Munro

Next up was an art and photography workshop on Dornoch dunes. While the rain definitely made an appearance that day, we still got to see two (rather soggy-looking) Small Blues, and artist Sally Wild led us in dissecting some kidney vetch to really study the structure of the plant. Sally then ran a fantastic workshop back in the safety of the hall, during which one attendee produced this amazing piece of artwork,; can you believe it was her first time using watercolours?!

The image shows two hands, one hand holds a paintbrush, using watercolours to paint a small blue butterfly on a sheet of white paper. — Painting small blue (c) Tracy Munro

Later in the week we held several cycling events across the East Coast. We would begin with a look through the previous evening’s moth trap catch before heading out on a gentle pedal to see what day-flying moths and butterflies we could see. It was great to have a range of ages join us for this event, and all were equally amazed by the diversity of species we saw.

A group of people cycle along a path with grass on either side. At the front of the group is a young child on a small bike. — Small blue week cycling event (c) Tracy Munro

On the final day of Small Blue week we finally saw the sun shine properly and the Small Blue did not disappoint! They made an appearance at all our walks along the east coast, from Loch Fleet to Ardersier and Portknockie. The response to these walks was great with one attendee emailing saying: “it was excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed the walk, the company, the countryside and of course the butterflies!”