It happened last month and again now: the heavens open the moment I write Butterflywatch. So with the perpetual caveat of a British summer – and rain lashing down on my window – I declare it’s been an excellent month for butterflies.
Like farmers, lepidopterists perpetually grouse about the weather but May has brought plentiful sunshine and a little rain. We need the latter to stop caterpillars’ food plants from withering and dying.
Early summer species are often mauled by fickle May. But this year we’re seeing excellent numbers of small blue – at the Woodland Trust’s Warren Farm, Surrey, counts have risen from 25 in 2014 to 442 last year – as well as the resurgent Duke of Burgundy and marsh fritillary. Record numbers of Dukes have been seen in North Yorkshire and Sussex, where 216 were spotted on the downs near Storrington. The endangered marsh fritillary is a boom-and-bust creature and this summer it is booming: the naturalist Martin Warren recorded his highest ever count of marsh fritillaries at Alners Gorse reserve in Dorset.
Of course, most of Britain’s 59 native species are still declining, but this early summer brings us cheer and hope.
