#86 Duke of Burgundy by Robert Parks
Meet Robert Parks, Butterfly Conservation volunteer!
Robert is a Butterfly Conservation volunteer with no formal training in ecology/conservation. He began looking for the Duke of Burgundy butterfly after moving to North Yorkshire in 1990. The butterfly was reduced to only three known sites, but he coordinated a search with other volunteers to look for undiscovered sites. Between 1992 and 1999 they found the butterfly on nearly twenty sites on the southern edge of the North York Moors.
He then worked with successive Butterfly Conservation Regional Managers to develop a comprehensive programme of management of the sites where we had found the butterfly and an annual programme of monitoring was set up for all the known sites. Butterfly Conservation obtained significant funding to remove scrub and trees from many sites using contractors to complement an ongoing programme of volunteer work parties.
Robert had moved from Yorkshire to Cumbria in 1993 but (finally!) handed over responsibility as Butterfly Conservation ‘species coordinator’ in Yorkshire to Dave O’Brien in 2023. Dave has taken over the annual programme of recording and site management and Robert has moved his focus to recording and conservation of other rare butterfly species nearer home, although he remains closely involved with the ongoing work in Yorkshire.
Male Duke of Burgundy
Butterfly Conservation has published a fact sheet on the Duke of Burgundy which is available from this link . This is a rare butterfly species which emerges in late April/early May in areas of scrubby grassland and woodland clearings which contain the butterfly’s ‘foodplant’ Primrose or Cowslip. The butterfly is found mainly on the chalk downlands of southern England but there are also colonies on the limestone grasslands of Morecambe Bay in Cumbria and the southern edge of the North York Moors. It has never been common in Yorkshire but been recorded since Victorian times in the steep valleys north of Pickering and Helmsley.
This species was found historically in coppice woodland which and was threatened by the decline in coppicing in the UK since Victorian times. At the same time, most of the chalk and limestone grasslands in England were ploughed up for cereal growing. This was not possible on steep hillsides which were often left ungrazed. This process also occurred on the limestone grasslands on the southern edge of the North York Moors. The Duke of Burgundy developed an alternative habitat on steep ungrazed hillsides with its foodplants, and there was a sufficient concentration of ungrazed limestone grassland sites left on steep hillsides north of Helmsley to maintain a network of Duke of Burgundy colonies which were discovered during Robert’s recording between 1992 and 1999. These sites are not static and in the absence of grazing succeed quite rapidly to scrub and woodland.
It has been possible to maintain these colonies in the Helmsley area through an active programme of scrub clearance using both contractors and volunteer work groups with the support of key landowners and the North York Moors National Park.
The work to conserve the Duke of Burgundy sites in the Helmsley area is also very important in maintaining habitat for many other insect and plant species which are dependent on limestone grassland. Only 195 hectares of this precious herb-rich calcareous grassland remained on the North York Moors when work began in 1993 (1).
The Duke of Burgundy was nearly extinct in the Pickering area by the year 2000, being reduced to a single known site. After one of Butterfly Conservation’s recorders found some butterflies on a recently replanted woodland site in 2008, they began a process of creating a clearing in the plantation as well as widening a forestry ride and creating a large new ‘coppice area’ in the woodland working closely with the Duchy of Lancaster who have developed their own ‘coppice programme’. Robert is delighted that they have managed to maintain a small network of colonies in this area, but the maintenance of these sites is dependent on an annual programme of bramble strimming, scrub clearance and coppicing.
Hawnby Hill
The Duke of Burgundy is listed a species of importance under Section 41 of the NERC Act. It is classified as vulnerable under the GB red list and ‘threatened’ as a European species. It was identified as a ‘high priority’ species for Butterfly Conservation after very serious declines over the last decades of the twentieth century and has been subject to intensive conservations effort in North Yorkshire and elsewhere. Fortunately, the rate of decline appears to have been halted throughout England in recent years as strategies to manage its sites have been developed. The report on the ‘State of Nature’ in England in 2024 states:
‘Duke of Burgundy have recently been down-listed from Endangered to Vulnerable in Great Britain and conservation is likely to have played an important role in this status improvement. Habitat management in the North York Moors helped stabilise populations by providing open grassland to support the larval foodplants Primrose and Cowslip, and the scrubby grassland patches utilised by the species’.
The continued future of this butterfly in North Yorkshire is dependent on the ongoing work by Butterfly Conservation and volunteers like Robert to manage the sites on which it is found.
Recording and monitoring
Butterfly Conservation organises volunteer work parties in February and March to manage Duke of Burgundy sites as well as running a monitoring programme in May. If anyone wants to help, they can get information via the Yorkshire Branch website www.yorkshirebutterflies.org.uk or contact the species coordinator Dave O’Brien directly at: dobrien66@virginmedia.com.
Further information and acknowledgements
NEYEDC would like to thank Robert for his time and expertise in helping to create this blog.
(1) Nan Sykes ‘Wild Plants and their Habitats in the North York Moors’ North York Moors National Park 1993
(2) The State of Nature Partnership ‘State of Nature, England’ 2024