Hello Everyone,
The wet and very changeable weather continues this month but a recent southerly airflow possibly assisted the arrival of an early Painted Lady into the County on the 20th of February 2024 when Lindsey Bance saw an individual in their Darley Dale garden. – however this is not the earliest sighting of the species in Derbyshire as one was seen on the 1st of February (2007). Interestingly on the same day a Humming Bird Hawk moth was seen in Wiltshire (per Pete Clark) so it looks like a mini migration into the UK took place on that date.
Since the last Update the few sunny intervals allowed a further 5 Brimstones to appear on the wing together with 2 Red Admirals, 2 Commas and a single Peacock which was seen on the 16th of February 2024 at Erewash Meadows LNR (Stephen Bacon) Meanwhile in Leicestershire a fresh Speckled Wood was seen on the 18th of February 2024 at Braunstone by Steve Close (per Pete Clark) but no additional sightings of the species have been received to date.
Most of the transect invitations have now been sent out in the County – if you have not received an invitation or you haven’t yet replied to one, could I ask that you make contact with your Local Organiser as the 1st of April 2024 is looming up very fast now! Thanks also to the volunteers who have contacted me regarding their agreement to carry on this year with the inputting of data into the UKBMS website – please ensure that all Record Sheets are circulated amongst the other volunteers within a team, together with a copy to myself, so that any queries can be resolved before the data is entered on to UKBMS. Many thanks for your support.
