Britain’s smallest butterfly – the Small Blue – has some new conservation champions in the shape of the community group East Haven Together.
Now into its sixth year, the Angus Small Blue Project is expanding beyond checking where this little butterfly is still present to taking specific “action” to safeguard it and hopefully extend its very limited range.
A joint venture by the Tayside Biodiversity Partnership and Butterfly Conservation Scotland, 2016 is the year for planting out the butterfly’s sole food-plant Kidney Vetch into key areas along the coast.
A true partnership project, local Angus business Scotia Seeds has provided the locally-sourced seeds and new business Celtica Wildflowers from Perthshire has grown them on into robust plants.
Anne Bancroft from East Haven Together said that residents were really delighted to be involved in the Small Blue project.
Catherine Lloyd from the Tayside Biodiversity Partnership explained that the butterfly is easily overlooked because it is so small and, she admits, “a bit dull”.
It is often confined to patches of sheltered grassland where the yellow-flowered Kidney Vetch, grows. In Angus this tends to be along the coast and in a few sheltered areas inland.
The first of the Kidney Vetch plantings will take place on Friday May 6 at 10am at East Haven’s Heritage Point.
Anyone with an interest in butterflies is welcome to join in and will also be very welcome to join a special training session to learn more about the butterfly and how to survey for it.