Hello Everyone, Well Week 1 of the butterfly transect was a challenge for the volunteers to get their walks completed with a very limited amount of sunshine available and Storm Kathleen doing her best to disrupt things, although the 2nd of April 2024 was very much the best day of the week (especially as it was also my Birthday!) Pleasingly the Holly Blue made its first County appearance of the year on that day as well with a sighting in the Aston on Trent garden of Rob Waldron, together with another seen in the Langley Common garden of Nick Brown on the 6th of April 2024 and a further individual seen on the 7th of April 2024 at Toton Washlands (Marion Bryce), this after Dan Martin had seen and photographed an individual in Norfolk on the 30th of March 2024. Also on this latter day, a Green Hairstreak was seen and photographed on Cannock Chase in Staffordshire by G H Roger of Littleover (per Pete Clark) – it is usually about 1 week later that this species appears in the Peak District here in Derbyshire, but no sightings of the species here yet. The other sightings, apart from the 4 hibernators emerging, have been Orange Tips noted from 12 localities across the County, including 17 noted at Drakelow NR on the 6th of April 2024 (Andy Large) together with Small Whites noted from 5 locations in Derbyshire. Just 2 sightings of the Green Veined White noted this week with a record from Aston on Trent on the 5th of April 2024 (Rob Waldron) and another seen at Forbes Hole Long Eaton on the 6th of April 2024 (Paul Davis). Finally a couple of Speckled Woods were seen at the last location on the same day by Paul Davis and another noted on the same day at Doe Lea (Willy Lane)
It is amazing that 90 transect sites (out of 135) were walked in week 1, but hardly surprising that 46 of those sites had a zero count which is a great testament to the efforts of recorders here in Derbyshire although Chris Leverington managed double figure counts on the 5th of April 2024 in a couple of sheltered woods in Linton, South Derbyshire, with a total of 25 butterflies seen including a Red Admiral. Also further sightings of this species were noted at Bradwell (Joanna Mackey), Middleton by Wirksworth and Lea Gardens (both Dave & Sue Evans) and at Drakelow NR (Andy Large) all on the 6th of April 2024.
Tony Davison has sent me an email regarding the latest situation with regard to Moth Recording in the County :-,
‘I am putting together the consolidated Derbyshire Macro Moth Report for 2019-2023, as one hasn’t been published since the last consolidated report which covered 2013-2018. You can imagine that this is a big task, done entirely on a voluntary basis, however, I am pleased to say that the document is progressing along nicely. All parties concerned want this to be as accurate and up to date as possible, and we need you, the recorders, to help achieve this.
In order to get this published within time frames, I need to put a cap on outstanding Macro moth records for the period 2019-2023. So if you have not yet sent in your Derbyshire Macro Moth Records for this period, either into iRecord, iNaturalist or via DaNES, then would you please get in touch with either me or Steve Thorpe (email ornithom@hotmail.com )and we will advise you what to do. So if you want to see your records in print, please act quickly, you have until 31st May 2024.
Thank you,Tony Davison (email tony.davison@btinternet.com) On behalf of the Derbyshire Moth Recording Team’.
Many recorders are keen to hone their I D skills by attending a Field Event organised by Butterfly Conservation East Midlands – please find attached the details of this year’s field trips together with the Open Day at Hoe Grange Quarry on the 7th of July 2024.
I have just compiled a Summary of the transects that have been completed in Derbyshire during the last 7 years – have a look at the attached Excel document. It will be seen that over 725,000 butterflies have been recorded at an average of over 100,000 per year!
Comparing 2023 with 2022 it will be seen that 18 butterfly species did better in 2023 whereas 14 species performed worse than in 2022, with worrying a 51% decrease in Wall Brown numbers (was this because the species is moving eastwards out of the Peak District?) together with a 64% decrease in White Letter Hairstreak numbers (was this due to the poor weather in July 2023?). On the positive side there was a massive 181% increase in Red Admiral numbers and an 82% increase in the number of Commas. Also there was a 37% increase in Meadow Brown numbers but a 24% decrease in Ringlet numbers which is rather strange as both species enjoy a dampish Summer, so perhaps this is a knock on effect of the really hot Summer of 2022?
Finally it is not too late to join an existing transect team for 2024 – there is a vacancy for new volunteers at Crich Chase Meadows, Ambergate which is an important site at the southern end of the limestone of the Peak District – let me know as soon as possible if you are interested in helping survey this excellent site which has been monitored over a number of years.
