At last the end of the latest mini freeze is nearly upon us with milder Atlantic weather due later this weekend – mind you we have been very lucky here in Derby with barely a few grains of snow all week but the night temperature fell to minus 8c on a couple of nights so frost persisted for a few days. Not surprisingly there have been no butterfly sightings seen outside in the County this last week but Brian & Jean Hallam visited the tunnels in Calke Park recently and counted 75 Herald moths, 2 Red – Green Carpet moths, just 6 Peacock butterflies together with a small bat (probably pipistrelle) which were in hibernation there. Let’s hope that the butterflies and moths wake up out of their slumber before the bat stirs otherwise they could provide the bat with a pleasant Spring lunch!
Attached are some more photos courtesy of Terry Evans from his recent trip to Tenerife – African Grass Blue and Bath White and the Crimson Speckled moth. However Pete Clark has gone further afield to see some butterflies – approximately 7,000 miles to the Philippines where the temperature is currently around 25c at night! Pete has emailed me some butterfly photos from the flat lands
(see the attached) but he hopes to get into the forests and mountains where the more exotic species live – watch this space!
Finally a very big thank you to the 500 or so volunteers who diligently carried out their transects during 2022 especially those of you who ventured out in the midday sun (mad dogs and Englishmen as the saying goes) – have a very pleasant Christmas and a very Healthy and Happy New Year when we hope to continue with our regular Updates which are so warmly appreciated by many of you!
