The Butterflies of Essex
2024 Year in Review
Hesperidae
Small Skipper Thymelicus sylvestris
Summary
The Small Skipper is of least concern in the vice-counties of North & South Essex, and is a low priority for butterfly conservation. This is despite the loss of its preferred habitat across the agricultural dominated landscape of Essex. Intensive farming has destroyed unimproved grasslands, hedgerows, and other open space habitats with long grass. So, even though the Small Skipper is of least concern of extinction within Essex there is no doubt that locally it has become extinct with little chance of recovery. I would expect the abundance and distribution to have declined. It would be wrong to take our eye of this indicator species of unimproved long grass habitats - flailing has been of particular disappointment on my treks around the county this year.
The
2024 distribution of the Small Skipper, limited to recorded sightings, indicates that it can be found across Essex but there are large areas where sightings have not been recorded:
- 2024 distribution of Small Skipper within Essex
Source: Butterflies for the New Millenium
In context, the recorded sightings for the last 10 years shows more coverage but this does not indicate that they have disappeared from all these areas, just that no sightings have been recorded there during 2024 for a number of reasons:
- 2014-2024 distribution of Small Skipper within Essex
Source: Butterflies for the New Millenium
Of particular concern are the more developed landscapes within the south-west of Essex, East London & the Thames Estuary which probably need surveying during the flight period of the Small Skipper. Unfortunately, I have not been able to fulfil this activity with the weather being a limiting factor as well as concentrating on butterflies of more concern during its flight period.
However, I did collect some useful data during my travels which will form the baseline for the next 10 years. The following distribution map indicates the site locations where I recorded sightings of Small Skipper:
- 2024 site locations where Small Skipper was recorded
And the
abundance during 2024 at the site locations are as follows:
- 2024 Small Skipper Total Abundance by Location
Source: iRecord
A grand total of 233 which is not bad. Perhaps of more interest during this year of inclement weather was the start and finish of my sightings compared to the flight period for the Small Skipper across the whole of the UK:
- 2024 Small Skipper Abundance over Time
Source: iRecord
My first sighting was not until the 22nd of June at my local meadow within Meadgate Fields Open Space. This was one day after the Essex Skipper but this probably reflects the fact that this particular site is dominated by Essex Skipper during the early stages of their flight period with the profile about 2-3 sightings to 30 Essex Skipper.
- Small Skipper male
Meadgate Fields Open Space 22/06/2024
Locally my final sighting was on the 08th of August adjacent to the Chelmer Road Bridge within Baddow Meads, with the final Essex sighting at Johnson's Meadow - West on the 13th August:
- Small Skipper female
Johnson's Meadow - West 13/08/2024
What the sightings do show is that the flight period across the sites that I visited was limited to 52 days from late June to mid-August. This may indicate that they emerged a week or so late and finished a week earlier than may occur during better years.
Highlights
The abundance over time does not show the flight period but highlights numbers at particular sites during the flight period. The season highlight in terms of recorded sightings was early in the season at One Tree Hill, Johnson's Meadows on the 25th June where I saw 41 in total across the site. This would suggest that they emerged earlier in the season on the south-facing slopes of Johnson's Meadows before I had a chance to visit. The most I saw locally was the 27 at Little Baddow Heath on the 14th July with a total of 41 on the day across the Danbury Ridge Nature Reserves. 12 days later on the 26th of July there were also 25 at Little Baddow Heath with a total of 31 on the day across the Danbury Ridge Nature Reserves.
Within Chelmsford, I recorded a total of 44 sightings across the flight period within Baddow Meads & Meadgate Fields Open Space in areas dominated, as already mentioned, by their cousins the Essex Skipper.
More details for South Essex and finally North Essex to follow
