2013: a year of extremes in terms our weather and butterflies!

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1 Newsletter No. 5 March 2014 Project co-ordinator Tomás Murray tmurray@biodiversityireland.ie The National Biodiversity Data Centre Beechfield House WIT West Campus Carriganore, Waterford Tel.: Regional co-ordinators West Cork: Ciaran Cronin & Abigail Brewer, ciaran@wildeye.ie & abibrew@yahoo.ie Donegal: Richard McCafferty, mccafferty@eircom.net Dublin (Dun Laoighaire/ Rathdown): Mary Toomey, mtoomey@dlrcoco.ie Galway: Elaine O Riordan, elaine.oriordan@nuigalway.ie Liz and Martin Byrnes, lizmartin9@eircom.net Kildare: Jesmond Harding, deniseharding@eircom.net Kilkenny: Dearbhala Ledwidge, Dearbhala.Ledwidge@kilkennycoco.ie Longford: Áine Fenner, afenner@eircom.net Tipperary: John Fogarty, johnfogarty@yahoo.com Wexford: Chris Wilson, chris@wildside.ie 2013: a year of extremes in terms our weather and butterflies! With the start of the 2014 monitoring season almost upon us, the Irish Butterfly Monitoring Scheme has now been in operation for seven years. Through the huge efforts of Eugenie Regan and Stephanie Fleischer, the scheme has gone from strength to strength and now boasts 152 active volunteers, making it one of the most important and successful citizen-science projects in Ireland. Eugenie has moved on to pastures new, but we d like to say a big thank you and wish her all the best with her new career. Between the new project co-ordinator, Tomás Murray, and the highly experienced regional co-ordinators, we ll ensure that the scheme continues to grow and develop into a gold-standard national monitoring scheme. The appalling weather at the start of the year did manage to prevent many recorders from starting their transect, with temperatures being below average right up until the end of May. However, the summer temperatures and our butterflies really took off, with July to September seeing above average temperatures and almost 50,000 records submitted in the same period. Overall, 123 transects were completed in 2013, including 20 new volunteers. From the map, you ll see that Limerick, Louth and Monaghan were the only counties lacking a transect this year as always, we re more than happy to help new recorders join the scheme, so if you know someone who is interested in butterflies and would like to contribute, please encourage them to get in touch with the project or regional co-ordinators. Compared to many countries, the Irish weather certainly makes conducting a butterfly monitoring scheme more challenging, but with an average of 15.9 visits per transect, your efforts are still putting us well above the average from the other 20 monitoring schemes across Europe. Your data from the Irish Butterfly Monitoring Scheme is now being used as a National Biodiversity Indictor to inform conservation policy at a national level and we will continue to contribute data to the European Grassland Butterfly Indicator and the Butterfly Climate Change Indicator, both of which inform the EU Biodiversity Strategy. Furthermore, your casual records collected outside of the monitoring scheme will be used as part of an Irish Butterfly Atlas project starting in 2015 and the next version of the Regional Red of Irish Butterflies. Fundamentally, your transect and casual records are now more important than ever! Our thanks go to the many dedicated volunteers that devote their time to conduct transects, attend field meetings and help others new to the scheme. Finally, the continued efforts of the regional co-ordinators are deeply appreciated by everyone in the scheme for their expertise and support, they cannot be thanked enough.

2 Transects Map Name Site Legend: Ongoing transects New transects Code Name Site Code Aine Fenner LD01 Kate Lavender- CE12 Duncan and Eileen O'Connor Alan Dunne D27 Kate Welsby RN08 Alberto Villarejo KE10 Kathryn Freeman KY08 Angela Brewer C40 Kealin Ireland LM03 Angela Dakin D08 Kevin Deering S01 Angus Tyner WW16 Lee Donohoe MH03 Anne Griffin CE11 Leo and Geraldine DL04 Solosy Annemarieke van der LS04 Lesley Whiteside WH02 Voort Annette Lynch MH02 Linda Paterson CE08 Anthony Pickering MO04 Liz Sheppard DL03 Bryony Williams MO06 Lynda Weekes KK04 Caitriona Fenton W22 Maeve Foran C46 Carol Fynn C15 Mairi-Elena Crook DL07 Caroline Stanley G36 Mark McCorry OY02 Catherine Seale G10 Martin & Elizabeth Byrnes G19 Cathy Kelly WW08 Mary Foley WX09, WX10 Christian Osthoff WW03 Mary Howard CE05 Christopher J Wilson WX01 Mary Niblett W13 Cicely Gunton S04 Michael Bell S05 Clare Bromley DL08, Michael Dunne KK08 DL09 Clare Heardman C13 Michael O'Connell G30 Clare McIntyre C37 Michael O'Sullivan KY01 Colin Hamilton C38 Monica van Harpen WX07 Damaris Lysaght C29 Nancy Murphy C06 Daragh Smyth C21 Orla Murphy C41 Dave McKay WH05 Padraig Keirns G29 David McDonagh CN03 Padraig Rocke RN07 Deirdre Murphy G26 Pat Bell KE06, KE12 Dermot McNelis DL06 Pat Doncaster C22 Donna Smith CE04 Patrick Sheridan KE09 Eddie Gilligan KE04 Pauline Murray D26 Eileen Maguire G22 Peter Duffy G17 Emma Stewart-Liberty CE01 Philip O'Donaghue C34 Eugene McGettrick S02 Rachel Vaughan T16 Tomás Murray W18 Rebecca Teesdale G05 Finbarr Ryan T17, Rebeccah Cogan RN11 T18 Fintan Ryan CW01 Richard McCafferty DL02 Fiona Lloyd LM04 Rob Wheeldon LM01 Fiona Wheeldon LM02 Robert Richardson S06 Frank Smyth D07 Rodney Daunt C03 Dingy Skipper (Kevin Murphy) Gillian Stewart WW07, Ronan Mac G35 WW10 Giollapharaic Grainne Reidy G01 Ronnie Murphy D24 Gregory Daly T08 Roslyn Nicholson D19 Harm Deenen WX11, Ryner Weinreich C23 WX12, WX14, WX15 Howard Preston RN05 Sara Garcia Hipolito LM05 Ian Edwards WW04 Sean Mullins LS03 Irene Deisler DL05 Shonagh Gray KY14 Ismay Bothwell CN01 Siobhan Hardiman RN09 Isobel Abbott C49 Stephen Lester CE10 James Kilroy MO07 Sue White D13 Jesmond Harding KE01 Tadhg O Corcora KE02 Jim Galloway CW02 Ted Cook C42 John Cullen WX13 Tim Butter C48 John Fogarty T03 Tom Cuffe G18 John Lovatt D01 Tom Kenny C19 John Rossiter WW09 Tony Miller C16 Justin Ivory WW13, Valerie McGrath D17 WW14, WW15

3 Species Summary for 2013 The histogram summaries the number of sites at which each species was recorded and the pie chart illustrates the top ten most abundant species recorded in Marsh fritillary (L. Lysaght) Speckled Wood Green-veined White Small Tortoiseshell Meadow Brown Peacock Ringlet Large White Small White Red Admiral Orange Tip Small Copper Common Blue Silver-washed Fritillary Wood White Small Heath Painted Lady Brimstone Holly Blue Wall Brown Small Blue Dark Green Fritillary Green Hairstreak Grayling Dingy Skipper Large Heath Gatekeeper Marsh Fritillary Pearl-bordered Fritillary Clouded Yellow Comma Brown Hairstreak Purple Hairstreak Essex Skipper Ringlet, Green-veined White, Meadow Brown, 9873 Speckled Wood, 8681 Small White, 4684 Peacock, 4037 Small Tortoiseshell, 3496 Large White, 3378 Small Copper (C. Wilson) Common Blue, 2034 Silver-washed Fritillary, 1278 Other, 6579

4 Irish butterfly population trends over the past six years Once sufficient data has accumulated in a monitoring scheme, formal analyses of the trends in population size per species become possible. At the moment, 14 of the 33 species in the Irish Butterfly Monitoring Scheme fit the minimum criteria for analyses and the index presented below is a summary of their population trends between 2008 and The shaded area of the graph indicates the region where we can have a 95% statistical confidence of where the population index lies. Silver-washed Fritillary, Gortigrenane (Rodney Daunt) The results confirm that our butterfly populations do fluctuate to a large degree across years, with the 2013 population size set at 100%, the largest population sizes were observed in 2010 (31.5% above 2013) and lowest in 2012 (32.2% below 2013). We ll need a few more years of data before clear trends begin to emerge, but at least now we have an internationally recognised measure of annual butterfly population size in Ireland. On a per species basis, it seems that populations of Brimstone, Common Blue, Green-veined White, Meadow Brown, Ringlet and Sliver-washed Fritillary are all increasing over the period, but Small Tortoiseshell, Speckled Wood, Wood White and Large White populations are on the decline. So far, Orange Tip, Peacock, Small White and Small Heath populations are fluctuating so widely no clear trend is emerging. As the scheme continues and the number of records per species increases, the number of species currently falling into the unknown category will shrink. Population Index (2013 = 100%) Legend: Population Index 95% Confidence Interval Female Orange Tip (E. W. Delaney)

5 Population changes per species Cape Clear Island (C. Cronin) Tipperary - field meeting (E. Regan) Species Change Statistical Confidence Brimstone Strong Increase (> +5% p.a.) 95% Common Blue Moderate Increase (< +5% p.a.) 99% Green-veined White 95% Meadow Brown 99% Ringlet 99% Silver-washed Fritillary 95% Small Tortoiseshell Moderate Decline (< -5% p.a.) 99% Speckled Wood 99% Wood White 95% Large White Steep Decline (> -5% p.a.) 95% Orange Tip Peacock Small White Small Heath Brown Hairstreak Comma Dark Green Fritillary Dingy Skipper Essex Skipper Gatekeeper Grayling Green Hairstreak Holly Blue Large Heath Marsh Fritillary Pearl-bordered Fritillary Purple Hairstreak Small Blue Small Copper Wall Brown Clouded Yellow Painted Lady Red Admiral Uncertain (variable, > ±5% p.a.) Unknown Migrant Male Orange Tip (E. W. Delaney)

6 Upcoming Events in 2014 Annual Field Meeting for Monitoring Scheme Volunteers Burren, Co. Clare: 9-10th August We will hold an annual field meeting for those people who participate in the bumblebee and butterfly monitoring schemes. It will be based in the Burren and will take place on the 9-10th August. Full details will be confirmed closer to the time, but the rough schedule is outlined below: 9th August: Meet 10am and visit a number of different sites to record bumblebees and butterflies. In the evening we will have a clinic in the Fall s Hotel Ennistymon to address any problems with the schemes, identification, and use of the on-line data submission system. This will be followed by dinner in the Hotel for those interested. 10th August: 9.30am, short talks in the Fall s Hotel, followed by another field visit. The meeting will finish up in the early afternoon. We will be based in the Fall s Hotel, Ennistymon for the meeting, but will visit a number of good butterfly/ bumblebee sites across the Burren. The Hotel has limited availability, but they have agreed to hold a number of rooms provisionally until the 1st May If you ring the hotel to book, please mention that you are part of the Biodiversity Ireland group and you will be quoted the cheaper rate. There are also lots of B&Bs in the area. There is no charge for attending the field meeting, but please Tomás to book a place. When you to book, please indicate whether you would be interested in joining us for dinner in the hotel on Saturday evening. Identification Workshops Cork: 28th June Millstreet County Park (Tomás Murray & Liam Lysaght). This workshop is aimed at beginners and will provide an introduction to butterfly identification. Weather permitting it will include an afternoon walk to identify butterflies in the field. Places are limited so advance booking and payment is essential. Please register to attend here. Monitoring Scheme Workshops There will be a series of workshops on the butterfly and bumblebee monitoring schemes in These will cover all aspects of the monitoring schemes including species identification and use of the online data capture system. Offaly: 4th April, 8-9pm (talk) & 5th April 11am-12pm (walk). Clara Bog Centre (Úna Fitzpatrick). Booking: ufitzpatrick@biodiversityireland.ie Gillian Stewart (E.Regan) Cork: 12th April, 10am 4pm. School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UCC (Tomás Murray) Booking: Bernie Connolly, , bernadette@cef.ie Mayo: 26th April, 10am 4pm. Turlough House Country Life Museum, Castlebar & repeated on 27th April, 10am 4pm. Turlough House Country Life Museum, Castlebar (Tomás Murray). Booking: Mick Hogan, , birdwatchmayo@yahoo.com