Urban Butterflies

It's not the time of year for butterflies, you're unlikely in the UK to see any butterflies in December unless it's a hibernating small tortoiseshell in your garden shed.

However I found today an article about how the speckled wood butterfly is increasing and expanding its range in Scotland. I've certainly seen plenty of them in the past few years - such as this one in the small woodland area at the Musselburgh Lagoons, seen in October this year.

At the end of the article was a link to the Butterfly Conservation website where I found out about the Urban Butterfly project.

The Urban Butterfly Project offers a way to help Butterfly Conservation discover which species of butterfly are most at home in the towns and cities of central Scotland.The results will allow  the organisation to see how butterfly populations are faring and will influence their conservation work in Scotland. Most species of butterfly are relatively easy to identify and will often stay still in warm weather making observation and photography even easier. You can download a PDF of the activity pack here.

To take part in the project it's advised (though not necessary as they will accept paper records) that you join iRecord, which is a website (and also mobile app) where you can share your wildlife sightings to make it easier for sightings to be collated, checked by experts and made available to support research and decision-making at local and national levels. 

So if you live in the urban areas of Edinburgh, joining the Urban Butterfly Project might be a good new year's resolution!