A really warm month of November meant that butterfly sightings have been made in the County up to and including Black Friday, the 25th of November 2022 but a change of month looks likely to be yet another change in the weather pattern with a blast from the Arctic on the way by next weekend. Nevertheless the 3 month Autumn period of September to November 2022 has not produced a single frost here in Derby, although temperatures got down to plus 2c on a couple of nights – it looks like that is all about to change!
The final Autumnal sightings in the County consisted of :-
Red Admiral :- A total of 13 sightings from 10 locations in mainly Lowland locations of the County since the last Update including 2 seen at Pleasley Pit on the 18th of November 2022 (Brian Cuttell) and 2 seen on flowering mahonia in our Allestree garden on the 19th of November 2022 (Ken & Pat Orpe), with the latest sightings on the 25th of November 2022 coming from Barlborough (Neil & Lorraine Jones), Middleton by Wirksworth (Jenny Emerson & Andrew Smith) and the Mickleover garden of Colin Bowler.
Comma :- Just a couple of late sightings in the County from the Goyt Valley on the 13th of November 2022 (Les Gradwell) and also on the 20th of November 2022 in Swanwick (Amy Trewick)
Surprisingly a late Humming Bird Hawk moth was seen on the 13th of November 2022 in the Kinder, Hayfield garden of Brian Gee – let’s hope that it has found somewhere dry and safe to spend the winter here.
So if you want to see some exotic and also more mundane butterflies this year it might be worth you doing what Steve Orridge did during November 2022 when he and his wife visited the Canary Islands where they were rewarded with sightings of the Monarch as well as Lang’s Short Tailed Blue plus Painted Lady and Speckled Wood. It is interesting that not all Monarchs spend the winter in a wood in Mexico after their epic journey from Canada through the entire length of the U S A – has anyone seen the species recently in Southern Spain or the Algarve in Portugal?
