Hello Everyone,
At last we had a couple of good butterfly days on the 11th & 12th of April 2024 together with another reasonable day on the 14th of April 2024 which enabled most transects to be walked in the County but sadly at least 20 sites returned a zero count, these being mainly in the Peak District. Fortunately the harbinger of Spring, the Orange Tip, appeared at over 80 locations across Derbyshire with the highest counts being 16 seen in Swadlincote Woodlands on the 11th of April 2024 (Arthur & Janet Jackson),15 noted in Gresley Wood (Ruth Moore & Alan Bates) and 14 seen at Markham Pit North (Sid Morris) all on the same day.
A couple of new species were noted last week with sightings of the Large White on the 11th of April 2024 at both Swadlincote Woodlands (Arthur & Janet Jackson) and around theToyota Ponds at Burnaston (Angie Smith) together with the Green Hairstreak on the 11th of April 2024 in Tansley/Cressbrookdale (Gordon & Alison Rooke) – unfortunately no sightings of this latter species from the moorlands yet. The ‘whites’ have not really started to be seen in gardens and the general countryside yet with only low numbers of the Small White seen at a mere 12 locations in the County last week together with just 10 sightings of the Green Veined White in the County as well.
Fortunately a few more Holly Blues have been seen during this last week with sightings from Mickleover (Peter Roberts) and also 2 in Chesterfield (Jenny Hudson) all on the 12th of April 2024 together with a singleton at Thurvaston ion the 14th of April 224 (John Abrehart). Also the Speckled Wood has increased in numbers recently, mainly across the Lowland Areas of the County, with sightings from 28 locations, the highest count of 9 coming on the 11th of April 2024 from Forbes Hole in Long Eaton (Marion Bryce & Paul Davis).
Other species seen this last week include reasonable numbers of the 4 hibernators (Brimstone; Comma; Peacock; and the Small Tortoiseshell) but sightings of the Red Admiral have been scarce with records coming from just 8 locations including 2 seen at Hollinhill/ Markland Grips on the 11th of April 2024 (Dave Fenton).
I have attached the 30 year chart of Derbyshire butterfly sightings for the first 3 months of the year since 1995 – it will be seen that during the last 11 years counts have been the highest for 9 of those years with only 2018 and 2023 having low counts during the 3 month period. With the winter weather becoming milder but wetter it looks like the butterflies are taking advantage of those few days of winter sunshine with the Red Admiral managing to over winter every year since 2006, which again reflects the changing climate.
However, with the wind now blowing off the Peak District from the North Westerly direction, it looks like the best chance to walk Week 3 of the transect season will be later in the week and possibly next weekend, so it will be yet another challenging week to get all 140 transects completed in the County.
Good luck!