SCOTS greenkeepers are giving the UK’s smallest butterfly the ideal space to spread its wings.
The small blue butterfly had been absent from Ayrshire since the 1980s but its habitat is now expanding, thanks to a project led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust in partnership with Butterfly Conservation Scotland and local links golf courses.
The species bred successfully for the third year in a row on the Gailes Marsh reserve and neighbouring Dundonald Links this summer, thanks to work to create large areas of kidney vetch – the butterfly’s only food plant – and a carefully managed translocation in 2013.
Greenkeepers on a number of links courses have now sown kidney vetch and others are following suit later in the year, giving the butterfly a larger area to colonise.
Kidney vetch is part of the clover family of plants and thrives on sandy soil, so courses on the Ayrshire coast are perfect place for growing it.
Paul Kirkland, of Butterfly Conservation Scotland, said: “The settled weather of the early summer was ideal for seeing small blues on the wing this year.
“Our members observed them mating and laying eggs almost daily and we are very hopeful that this small population will spread and grow as their habitat expands.”
The R&A, golf’s governing body, is supporting the habitat enhancement work with £33,000 of funding from 2015 to 2018.
Steve Isaac, director of golf course management at The the R&A, said: “The continued success of the small blue is exciting news and an example of how golf courses can help protect and conserve our wildlife.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here