Orange-tip butterflies are among the species we’ve recorded during our Nature & Wellbeing Sessions lately - Photo by Alex Blomfield
Common Blue Butterfly - Photo by Alex Blomfield
As well as the more familiar garden butterflies, Morecambe Bay is home to a number of our rarer species. In fact, the Morecambe Bay Limestones are of national importance for butterflies, being the singularly most important area for butterflies in northern England and supporting several rare, priority species.
A few of the key butterfly species found around The Bay
Many of these rare butterflies are host-plant specialists, meaning that, as caterpillars, they only eat one type of plant. Often, these species also have specific habitat requirements, meaning that they are unlikely to be found in urban parks and gardens, but are instead found in wilder places like nature reserves. We are looking forward to working with Butterfly Conservation and Morecambe Bay's Green Recovery Project to visit some of these sites and to help with practical conservation tasks to improve the habitat for butterflies and moths.
Alex and Nature and Wellbeing Participants identifying bees in Happy Mount Park - Photo by Alex Blomfield
Lately at our sessions in Happy Mount Park and The Storey Gardens we have been on the lookout for bees and butterflies, testing our ID skills and submitting our sightings to national databases using iNaturalist and the iRecord Butterflies App.
Data from monitoring schemes and ad hoc sightings like ours are important to track how our insects are coping with pressures, including habitat loss and climate change. Insects are vital environmental indicators. Their short generation times and specialist lifecycles make them sensitive to changes in their surroundings, meaning that they are a useful gauge of environmental health. Results from the United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme show that many of our butterflies are not fairing so well. Sadly, even many of our ‘common’ garden butterfly species are in decline.
Small Tortoiseshell butterfly nectaring on a dandelion. ‘Weed’ species like dandelions and nettles are very important for butterflies! - Photo by Alex Blomfield
Reasons for these declines include habitat loss and deterioration in habitat quality. Luckily, there are lots of ways we can make our gardens and green spaces more friendly for insects. These include leaving areas of your lawn uncut through the summer or allowing plants like dandelions and stinging nettles to grow. Nettles support more than 40 different species of insect, including some of our best-loved garden butterflies such as the Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and Red Admiral that feed on them as larvae.
On Saturday 30th April there is a wildflower planting event that will support pollinators in Morecambe and Heysham supported by the Eden Project and Lancaster City Council. Planting native wildflowers in parks and gardens can support pollinators by providing the essential pollen and nectar resources that they need to survive.
The North-West is a wonderful place to find butterflies! You can learn more about butterfly ID and submit your sightings using the iRecord Butterflies app. We will also have some butterfly events coming up over the summer – keep an eye on our events calendar for details!
Orange-tip butterflies are among the species we’ve recorded during our Nature & Wellbeing Sessions lately - Photo by Alex Blomfield
There are lots of ways to get involved with The Bay Project, we run a range of public events as well as our smaller wellbeing-focused groups and are also on the lookout for new volunteers to help us deliver these. If you'd like to join our Nature & Wellbeing sessions in Morecambe or Lancaster, or know someone who might benefit from our programme, fill out a referral form or contact Alex at ablomfield@edenproject.com for more information.
