To receive invitations to future members’ events, a fantastic welcome pack and other benefits you can join online from just £3 a month. For November only the promotional code EMBER1850 will reduce the cost by 50%..
One of the great benefits of being a member of Butterfly Conservation is the yearly Members’ Day. For members in Scotland this is usually held in October, and it’s a chance for our supporters to come together to hear more about the fascinating world of butterflies and moths, and the work we are doing to study and conserve them.
This year’s event was a special one as it is the 50th year of Butterfly Conservation. We wanted to mark the occasion in style, so reached out to some special guest speakers who travelled from all over the UK to be with us. We were also joined by 155 attendees, packing the venue almost to capacity!
The event was opened by Butterfly Conservation’s Chief Executive Julie Williams, who took the opportunity to personally thank our Scottish members for their support of Butterfly Conservation. Julie looked ahead to the future of the charity, describing the work being done to ensure that we have at least another fifty years of conserving butterflies, moths and our environment.
Our keynote speaker was Matthew Oates, a man who has become fairly famous in butterfly circles as the master of the Purple Emperor butterflies. We don’t find Purple Emperors in Scotland (yet!), so Matthew’s talk was an excellent introduction to this charismatic species and its weird and wonderful behaviours. Matthew describes it as ‘Living in a purple world’, and I’m sure that most people there could relate to his enthusiasm for butterflies.
One of the stalwarts of our work in Scotland is Dr Mark Young. Over the years Mark has been flying the flag for the micro-moths which often get overlooked because of their small size. But Mark wants us all to have a look at the ‘squiggle marks on leaves’ – those signs that tiny micro-moth caterpillars are living inside leaves of plants. Some are remarkably easy to find, and during the breaks many people went outside to find leaves for Mark to look at!
James O’Neill from Northern Ireland presented on his research into the enigmatic Cryptic Wood White – a species only confirmed as new to the British Isles in 2001! James’ research is truly pioneering, being some of the first published research on this insect, including its incredible mating rituals. His research was hailed as one of the best student research projects ever presented at our gatherings, so we hope to see more from James in future as he embarks on his research career.
Another student who is carrying out ground-breaking research is Apithanny Bourne. Apithanny has spent the summer looking at the insects which visit green roofs and roof gardens in Edinburgh, including butterflies, bees and hoverflies. With green space becoming ever-harder to find in cities, rooftops may be one way to help boost populations of pollinators. Apithanny’s research will hopefully be used to make recommendations as to how these spaces can be made better for insect pollinators, so she could be making a real difference to urban butterfly populations in years to come. But there can be a dark side to moth recording, and Dr Katty Baird took us through her escapades to find Herald moths which hibernate in dark outdoor spaces.
There’s hardly a culvert or cave or ruined castle in central Scotland that Katty hasn’t visited, looking for these moths! On her way she’s been able to find out more about the predators of Hearlds, including small birds like wrens, and has made a huge contribution to our understanding of how these and other moths hibernate. Katty’s talk has certainly inspired many of the members to go away and crawl through cold, dark places to look for Heralds, so we hope to hear more about their findings at future events.
While all the talks were brilliant, one of the most cherished parts of all Members’ Days is the chance to meet and mingle with other people who have an interest in butterflies and moths. Walking through the venue at lunch time, the good feeling was palpable and it was a delight to see people enjoying themselves. And as ever, there was a huge crowd to see the moths caught in the traps the night before by other members and staff.
There was also great excitement to see the famous ‘Battleby Commas’. The Comma is a relatively recent arrival in Scotland but is often seen at the Members’ Day. This year there were several sunning themselves on the brambles outside the venue, so they did not disappoint. But those who could tear themselves away from the Commas, leaf-mines and moths outside were treated to a slice of the special 50th anniversary cake, baked especially for this event and a fitting tribute to the hard work done by our volunteers and members to support our work.
The bar has been set very high, and we are already planning our Recorders’ Gathering at Battleby for March 16th 2019. The Recorders’ Gathering is a chance to find out more about new opportunities to record butterflies and meet other enthusiasts. It is open to non-members, and we hope to see you there! The information for this and other events will appear on the Butterfly Conservation website.
Anthony McCluskey
Urban Project Butterfly Officer