Hello Everyone,
After the snow and icy winds of the third week of November 2024, it came as some relief to get warmer westerly winds following on despite some very wet days leading up towards the end of the month courtesy of Storm ‘Bert’
The poor weather on Sunday the 24th of November 2024 didn’t prevent in excess of 40 B C members and friends from attending the AGM and Members Day of Butterfly Conservation East Midlands in Allestree when we were advised by Gareth Jones of the N T on the future work that is going to be carried out at Clumber Park in Notts including work to re-introduce the Silver Studded Blue there (last recorded in 1916!) Also Gareth is looking to get some butterfly transects organised for the 2025 transect season – let me know if you are interested! In addition Ian Patterson of the B C Lincs Branch gave an interesting talk on the progress that they are making in creating the habitat for the Duke of Burgundy butterfly which disappeared from its only Lincolnshire site around the year 2020. This rare butterfly has undergone a decline in its range in the Region having disappeared from Northern Northamptonshire in 1998 and also from Rutland in 1997 so efforts to retain it in Lincs are to be appreciated. Against this decline is the good news that the rare Black Hairstreak is slightly extending its range in the Region with sightings in Rutland in 2024 so let’s hope that the White Admiral makes natural progress northwards through the East Midlands in the very near future.
Recorders have been taking advantage of the lull in sightings to complete their analyses of the distribution for both Moths and Butterflies seen in the County in recent years – Tony Davison kindly emailed me a link to the Derbyshire Macro Moth Report for the period 2019 – 2023 :- Derbyshire Moth News Archives.
I have also attached the list of the number of Tetrads for each butterfly species seen in the County for the period 2016 – 2023 inclusive – interestingly some species distribution in 2023 were identical to 2022 (ie Brimstone; Large White; Orange Tip; Purple Hairstreak; Peacock; Gatekeeper; Meadow Brown) whilst others (Small Skipper; Large Skipper; White Letter Hairstreak; Brown Argus Migrating; Common Blue; Small Tortoiseshell; Silver Washed Fritillary; Ringlet; Small Heath ) were all on a downward spiral but both Red Admiral and Holly Blue did better in 2023 compared to 2022. So the seeds were set last year for a greater number of butterfly species to struggle in 2024 before the extremes of weather were added to the equation earlier this year. With this in mind, a new Local Nature Recovery List of butterfly species has been created by Derbyshire County Council together with advice from the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and Butterfly Conservation East Midlands – see the attached document.
Finally despite the snow and frost of last week, Judy Heap was surprised to find active caterpillars of the Large White butterfly on her Brussel Sprout plants that she was harvesting on the coldest day of the week – just shows how hardy our caterpillars can be!
This was followed by a sighting of a Comma on an ivy cladded bush at Hazelwood by Dave Adams on the 26th of November 2024 and a Red Admiral was seen flying at Hazelwood village on the 29th of November 2024, again by Dave Adams – well done Dave!
