Hello Everyone, It is that time of the year again when we all look forward to the new transect season starting on Monday the 1st of April and as British Summer Time is now in operation we can even enjoy light evenings! We just need the weather to play ball and give us a spell of sun and warmth although the odd day last week provided us with a glimpse of what is hopefully on the way with 15c recorded in both Derby and Staveley on the 26th and 30th of March 2024 – unfortunately on the 26th Pat and I got a sighting of one of the worst kind of Spring events when mower man was seen gleefully zooming round the grass verges in Allestree carefully removing all the flowering dandelions that had shown themselves during the preceding couple of days – you couldn’t make it up and most of the L A bleat on about a lack of cash and put up Council Tax by the highest amount possible.
Nevertheless a new species was sighted during this last week when a Small White noted on the 24th of March 2024 in a wood in Linton (Chris Leverington) with the remainder of this week’s sightings being Brimstones (21 no), Small Tortoiseshells (13 no), Peacocks (16 no) and also Commas (27 no) together with 4 Speckled Woods at sites including Markham Pit (Mark Radford) Sunnydale Park, Derby (Maurice Ireland), in Allestree (John & Jessica Barker) and in Killamarsh (Johanna Walker) together with an Orange Tip seen in Willington on the 30th of March 2024 (Chris Burnett & Georgina Siddalls). So what new species are we likely to encounter in Week 1 of the transect season? Holly Blues could emerge and be noted flying along hedgerows of sheltered sites in mainly Lowland Derbyshire, whereas on the moors in the Peak District it could be possible to see Green Hairstreaks emerging on bilberry. It is also possible that the first Large White could be seen anywhere in the County together with additional sightings of the harbinger of Spring, the Orange Tip.
Just a reminder that transect Record Sheets should be completed each week, even if there is a Nil count, and copied to everyone in the Group, together with myself, so that the next volunteer is aware as to what has been seen the previous week on the transect.
Please find attached copies of blank transect Recording Forms (in both Excel and Word) together with an example of the Casual Recording Sheet in Excel which I would be pleased if you could use a copy of this for your casual sightings, in the same format – some recorders email this to me every week whilst others email it to me monthly, dependant on how many records they have – this will help me tremendously in the inputting of data into the National Database. Hopefully all volunteers have now received a copy of the transect rota for their sites – if not then please email me and I will try and get it sorted for you.
In a bid to cut down the amount of time that I spend on my computer, I will not be acknowledging receipt of butterfly casual and/or transect records again this year but you can get an automatic acknowledgement from me if you carry out the following simple task – when you go into Outlook, go to Options on the top line, click on 2 boxes (Request a Delivery Receipt and Request a Read Receipt) This will then automatically confirm my receipt of your email as soon as I open it – simples! Naturally I will respond to any of your queries, especially to I D of butterflies, in the usual way or if I have any queries on your recording forms. Thanks also goes out to all the100 or so inputters of transect data on to UKBMS for me which again saves me valuable time to compile these Updates.
So what will 2024 bring to our County – will the Essex Skipper finally make it to the Buxton area – last year it was as far north as Longstone Edge in the Peak District, will His Imperial Majesty (the Purple Emperor) grace our woods in the South of the County and will the Wall Brown continue its journey eastwards into North East Derbyshire? Only your sightings will prove any of this!
Good Luck to everyone and a big thank you for your total commitment – let’s keep the East Midlands Region at the top of the transect league table for yet another year.
