Hello Everyone, Despite the fact that we are currently in the grip of cold and frosty weather, at least that white stuff that makes life a misery this time of the year has thankfully just about managed to miss the East Midlands so far this Autumn/Winter, thus yet again our local butterflies have taken advantage of the brief periods of sunshine that only raises the temperature up to around 4c here in Derby during the lunch time period.
Sightings this last week of November 2023 have included at least 12 Red Admirals from 10 locations in the County with the latest seen on the 28th of November 2023 at both Wyver Lane, Belper (Dave Evans) and in Mickleover (Max & Christine Maughan) and then another seen on the 30th of November 2023 in Morley (Sylvia Green) when the temperature barely increased above freezing but in weak full sun Earlier in the week Mark Longdon saw 2 no Small Tortoiseshells in flight – one on the 21st of November 2023 in Riddings and another on the 24th of November 2023 in Ripley, whilst on the 23rd of November 2023, John Schofield saw a late Brimstone in the walled garden at Elvaston Country Park together with 2 no Red Admirals included in the above total. Finally a Peacock was seen flying at Stretton, near Clay Cross on the 28th of November 2023 (Tarnya Fisher)
It was great to see so many butterfly enthusiasts at the East Midlands Branch of Butterfly Conservation’s AGM and Members Day last Sunday – no more so than Nick Hall, the Yorkshire Transect Co-ordinator, who had travelled down from York to find out what was the secret of our success on the transect scene – I am fairly sure that Nick was well impressed with the commitment of the vast army of transectors who religiously carry out their survey work every week in the Region! I have attached some notes from the talk that I did on the Effect of Climate Change on out local Butterflies – ie first and last dates in Derbyshire together with a list of possible arrivals and a list of the 9 species that have established themselves in the Region since 1980 – the next species for Derbyshire being (hopefully) the Purple Emperor for which the Sallows project was inaugurated yesterday (30th of November 2023) when a number of Organisations collected their allocation of whips from Rosliston Forestry Centre ready for planting next week when the weather finally (hopefully) gets slightly warmer! The representatives who attended also witnessed the planting of the first Sallow whip under this scheme by the Chair of South Derbyshire District Council ( Cllr Sean Bambrick), and included those from the National Forest, Forestry England, the National Trust, Lubrizol, and Derby College as well as members of the Joint Venture teams of Butterfly Conservation East Midlands and South Derbyshire District Council who together kindly purchased the whips to enable this important project to get started in anticipation of the arrival of the Purple Emperor into our Derbyshire woodlands – now that would be a moment to savour! It’s not far till July 2024 – honest!
