Butterflies and Migration

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 7:23 pm

Hi just joined so please be gentle with me as i'm more bird watcher than Butterfly,but i do find them so interesting and will probably bore you with information that i want to know

I work offshore on the Rigs in the North Sea 130 mile East of Montrose south of Aberdeen,thats where the Migration comes in

We get Butterflies and Moths at certain times of the year,but do they like birds realy migrate or is it that they turn up when the winds are from a SE direction as it is when they turn up.

Last week we had dozens of Painted Lady and Red Admiral butterflies plus a few species of Moth on board !!again SE winds.

Only Butterflies i have seen offshore so far are Painted Lady,Red Admiral,Large white (i think) bit distant for poss ID and a Cracking Camberwell Beauty 2 years ago .

Do any others turn up on our shores (rig) regularly.

Well enough for one post i think.
Cheers
Lenny

Post by **Pete Eeles** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 7:44 pm

Hi Lenny - and welcome to UK Butterflies!

Yes - butterflies and moths do migrate. The scale of migration is dependent on both species, population and weather conditions.

The most-frequently encountered migrants are Red Admiral and Painted Lady, although this is possibly because, unlike the Large White, they're generally unable to survive our winter (although they are starting to overwinter too!) and therefore all individuals are perceived to have migrated!

The next commonest migrant is probably the Clouded Yellow. Camberwell Beauty are pretty rare migrants, although last year was quite good. Rarer still are sightings of species such as Large Tortoiseshell, Queen of Spain Fritillary, Long-tailed Blue, Pale Clouded Yellow and Berger's Clouded Yellow.

In terms of the North Sea migrants, I think those that you list are the most likely butterflies, since most migrants (in general) come from continental Europe, whereas I think most of your sightings will come via Scandinavia and the Netherlands.

Cheers,

- Pete

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 7:49 pm

Thanks for that Pete

Very informative cheers

Lenny

Dave McCormick · Post by **Dave McCormick** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 7:15 pm

While we are on this topic I have a couple of questions.

First, will we see (has there been) any clouded yellow in UK yet? Being bad weather, I doubt we will see any, I saw them last year.

Second, I looked at how far butterflies migrate and wondered, since they cannot see as well as say, birds or we do, how do they know where they are going to? Know the wind can help to some extent and the weather is what triggers their move mainly.

Any help on this would help.

Dave Mac · Post by **Dave Mac** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 8:20 am

Re the clouded yellows question, I saw about ten last week in Dorset
Dave

Dave McCormick · Post by **Dave McCormick** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:58 pm

Well, I will keep checking then. I see more in Northern Ireland in August more. Weathers improving (for once) so I will keep checking.