Grassland pearls

07 Saturday Jun 2025

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Aberbargoed Grasslands, Boloria selene, British butterflies, British fritillaries, butterfly, fritillaries, fritillary butterflies, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Wednesday’s weather wasn’t the best for trying to find butterflies – a constant westerly wind was keeping the temperatures low even when the sun did manage to peak out from behind the constant parade of big clouds rolling through, but my friend Shar’s optimism proved well founded.

Though even her sharp eyes didn’t manage to spot any Marsh fritillaries (as they seem to have emerged early everywhere this year, we were probably too late for them at this site), we did find a few gorgeous Small pearl-bordered fritillaries (Boloria selene), the species I was really hoping to see that day. Initially, we thought we had two but on checking my photos at home later, I realised from the wing markings that we’d actually seen three.

As usual, we were conducting our butterfly hunt in the habitat most favoured by these fritillaries, the damp grasslands of the Aberbargoed Grasslands National Nature Reserve, where the butterflies particularly enjoy flowers like common violets and bluebells, Marsh thistles and Ragged robin. The reserve is also home to a large population of orchids, both Common and Heath spotted-orchids, as well as Cross-leaved heath, Tormentil, Devil’s-bit scabious and Knapweed, amongst other wildflower species, making a wander around its fields a pleasure even when you don’t see very many butterflies.

A feast for the eyes

09 Friday May 2025

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British butterflies, butterfly, fritillary butterflies, Marsh fritillary

This was the truly magical sight that awaited me when I arrived at Lavernock Nature Reserve last Tuesday morning.

As I walked the footpaths across the fields, more Marsh fritillaries than I’ve ever seen before were flitting up briefly from their perches before settling back down again in the grass.

I’d heard last Sunday that the first fritillaries of the year had been spotted, which is around 10 days earlier than any previous year. That seems to be the norm with butterflies this year, with our warmer than usual and very dry Spring weather.

These Marsh fritillaries were illegally introduced to Lavernock back in 2022, a practice that seems to be increasing across Britain. Whether they will continue to thrive is unknown but, in the meantime, and despite the manner of their arrival and their unknown provenance, they are certainly a joy to behold.

When my luck runs out

10 Monday Jul 2023

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British butterflies, butterfly, fritillary butterflies, Silver-washed fritillary

Though I’m generally very fortunate with my butterfly sightings, sometimes my luck’s just not in. Twice now I’ve visited the woodland where I usually see lots of Silver-washed fritillaries and manage to get reasonable photos of those I see. My first visit was on a windy day, with lots of big clouds rolling through – not ideal butterfly weather and, though I did see several fritillaries, they were mostly flying strongly along the woodland rides, only settling out of sight behind the shrubbery. This was my best shot from that visit.

230710 silver-washed frit (1)

Last Friday I tried again – it was warm and sunny with little wind. Conditions should’ve been perfect yet, once again, the butterflies just weren’t cooperating. I really enjoyed seeing those gorgeous vibrant fritillaries that zoomed past me but, once again, they weren’t stopping, so this is the best of few images I managed to get. Still, there’s always next year …

230710 silver-washed frit (2)

SPBFs

17 Saturday Jun 2023

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Aberbargoed Grasslands, British butterflies, butterfly, fritillaries, fritillary butterflies, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

On a very hot Thursday I made my annual pilgrimage to the Aberbargoed Grasslands National Nature Reserve to pay homage to these magnificent butterflies, the Small pearl-bordered fritillaries (SPBFs).

At first I thought I was going to be disappointed, as I headed to the field where I’d found them in 2022 and saw none. In fact, numbers of all butterflies were low – not as many Small heaths as in previous years, a couple of tatty Dingy skippers, a few Large skippers, a fly-past of a Red admiral, a single Speckled wood, and one very worn Marsh fritillary.

As I was retracing my steps to check the adjacent, much larger field, I bumped into two Rangers and we chatted butterflies. One said he’d only seen low numbers this year, and assumed our very wet Spring followed by the current very hot dry period was the cause of the decline in numbers. But they had just seen one SPBF in the big field so I was a little more hopeful.

And, as you can see, I was lucky! I’m not sure why numbers rise and fall in different areas of the reserve from one year to the next (particularly as the large field suffered a serious fire in 2022) but, turns out, this year the SPBFs were mostly concentrated in the centre of that large field, where I was fortunate to see at least six, possibly more, of these gliding orange beauties!

The illegals

30 Tuesday May 2023

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British butterflies, butterfly, fritillary butterflies, Marsh fritillary

It’s happening again. Some idiot is fiddling with our local butterflies, illegally. This month, Marsh fritillaries have been spotted at Lavernock Nature Reserve, at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, and along one of the reens (streams) at Rumney, on the eastern outskirts of Cardiff.

230530 marsh fritillary (3) fem

The sightings at Cosmeston and Rumney were of solitary butterflies and, though Cosmeston is not much more than a mile from Lavernock, Rumney is nowhere near any known site and Marsh fritillaries are not strong fliers so neither of these butterflies is likely to have arrived accidently. Also, though Cosmeston does have some areas of Devil’s-bit scabious, the butterfly’s larval food plant, Rumney has none. Hence my description of the person doing this as an idiot – the butterflies at Cosmeston and Rumney have no chance at all of establishing a colony.

230530 marsh fritillary (1)

The situation at Lavernock is a little different, as at least three Marsh fritillaries were found there last year (see An illegal introduction, May 2022). There is a slim possibility those butterflies bred and this year’s fritillaries are the result, but the experts I’ve been in contact with believe it is much more likely these 2023 butterflies are more illegal introductions.

230530 marsh fritillary (4) male

The British population of Marsh fritillaries has been in steady decline for many years so these gorgeous butterflies definitely need help but these random releases in unsuitable locations are not the answer. In south Wales, a large-scale, properly managed and licensed conservation project is already underway. If you’re interested in finding out more, check out the project page and the more recent news page on the Initiative for Nature Conservation Cymru (INCC) website.

230530 marsh fritillary (2)