With the weather likely to give us a couple of decent summer days this week and with the wind in the south. I thought that I would quickly advise you that a Clouded Yellow was seen in Woo Dale on Monday the 7th of August 2023 by Ian & Joy White – is this a precursor for more individuals to arrive in the County this week as a result of a plume of hot air? This species is bright yellow (see the attached photos) and about the same size as a Small White but they usually appear to be on a mission with a fast direct flight – only your sightings will confirm that an influx of these rare migrant butterflies has occurred in the Region.

So far this week there have been yet more sightings of the Wall Brown away from its usual locations in the Peak District with Nigel Davidson reporting 4 individuals from his Belper garden on the 4th of August 2023 followed by the sighting of 2 individuals on the same day in Hundall, near Dronfield (Judy Heap). Other sightings so far this week have come from the Whaley Bridge garden of Alan & Angie Seymour together with a sighting at Ashover Rock (Peter Kidd) and 3 individuals seen on the 6th of August 2023 at the Coombs Dale/ Black Harry area near to the ‘hot spot’ of Longstone Edge which strangely has not yet produced any second brood sightings of the species.

The next time that we have a wet day you might want to take up my challenge – how many transects and for what distance have they been walked in the County of Derbyshire from the first that took place in1979 (in Lathkill Dale which is still being walked)) to the end of 2022. To give you a clue most transects were set up during the last 10 years and this year the 350 volunteers in the County will have walked 137 transects, despite the poor summer weather!  What a team and what a commitment!!