Hello Everyone, Now that the transect season has started the weather has taken a decidedly turn for the worse, but thanks very much to the intrepid early volunteers who carried out their Week 1 transects on 60 out of 130 sites in the County (for those 48 sites that were walked but without any sightings, it was good to receive a record sheet even though it was a zero result as it all goes into the data at the end of the season), and in fact butterfly sightings in the first week of April have been limited to only the following :-
The 12 transects with sightings produced 14 Small Tortoiseshells, 4 Small Whites, 2 Peacocks,1 Brimstone and 1 Orange Tip. In addition to these records, a Speckled Wood was noted on the 2nd of April 2022 at Creswell Crags (Jim Anderson) and another Orange Tip was seen in Staveley on the 7th of April 2022 (Sid Morris) which was quite a stormy day!
Whilst we may have had the earliest records ever for 5 species this year – the Red Admiral (1st January 2022), Small Tortoiseshell
(1st January 2022), Small White (30th January 2022), Wall Brown (25th March 2022) and the Green Hairstreak (27th of March 2022) the overall numbers of the hibernating butterflies seen in the County during the first 3 months of 2022 were nearly 50% down on the same period in 2021 – Reason? Undoubtedly the poor weather of 2021 resulted in fewer butterflies emerging and consequently fewer were able to enter hibernation! Interestingly the biggest decline was in the Peacock (76%) ,the Small Tortoiseshell (46%), and the Brimstone (23%), whilst the Comma had a 134% increase and the Red Admiral a 82% increase on 2021 early sightings. Perhaps the last 2 species, which mainly survive in crevices in trees, were not predated like the other species which spend the winter in manmade structures and/or within ivy coverings? (see the attached provisional sighting list for 2022)
In the meantime, if you want to do a worthwhile project in your garden or site then why not follow the efforts of Pete Clark of Ironville who decided he wanted to create something special in his garden for butterflies and after a great deal of hard work he created a Garden Butterfly Wall complete with gravel microclimate for basking. Have a look at the attached photos – it really looks great and Pete was rewarded last month with the appearance of both the Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell checking out his Spring flowers and his handy work! Looks like an ideal habitat for a pair of Wall Browns to me!