Hello Everyone, The mini beast from the east is no good to man nor beast and with a very cool east wind persisting it was a surprise to get one butterfly sighting in the County this week when a Red Admiral was seen by Simon Beavis flying at Mickleover Meadows on the 6th of February 2025.
At least the recent poor weather enabled Pat and I to get a grip with all the butterfly sightings for 2024 (whether Transect, WCBS, Big Butterfly Count, Irecords or just Casual Sightings) and attached is a Summary of the Tetrads in the County for each butterfly species together with a comparison with 2023. You will see that there was a 25% decline in 2024 of butterfly records which is no surprise given that transects totals were down by 41%, yet surprisingly a few species did better last year notably the Ringlet (+15%) whilst a few species managed to do about the same as 2023 – Green Veined White, Gatekeeper and the Peacock. The worst performing resident species in 2024 being the Brown Argus (Migrating) at minus 69% in distribution ( minus 86% in butterfly numbers), followed by the White Letter Hairstreak at minus 67% in distribution ( minus 60% in numbers), the Purple Hairstreak minus 54% in distribution (minus 72% in numbers, the Holly Blue at minus 51% in distribution (minus 74% in numbers) the Dingy Skipper at minus 50% in distribution (minus 70% in numbers). ) and the Wall Brown at minus 40% in distribution (minus 54% in numbers),
From the above data it is obvious that our butterflies are in deep trouble and whilst weather conditions play an important part of their life cycle, habitat destruction and/or mismanagement also play their part in the reduction of butterfly numbers – how many times have you seen patches of nettle cut down at any time of the year in order to create a tidy open space, even on so called Nature Reserves!
If you care about the future of our butterflies then please help us monitor the situation in 2025 as some species are spreading north such as the Purple Emperor, whilst others are really struggling to survive. There are a few vacancies still available on the 2 transect training/butterfly I D courses that are being run in March 2025 :-
Saturday the 1st of March 2025 – Transect Training and Butterfly I D at Pleasley Pit in the Ken Lomas Room from 11 am by Willy Lane – this will appeal to mainly volunteers in N E Derbyshire and North Notts – please book you place by contacting Willy at the following email address – doeleaboy@gmail.com
Sunday the 16th of March 2025 – Transect Training and Butterfly I D at the Evergreen Club , Allestree from 11.30 am till 2.30 pm by Ken Orpe – this will appeal to volunteers from the remainder of Derbyshire and other parts of the Region – please contact myself to book your place at ken@malaga.plus.com
Finally Mark Radford has sent me some details of the Heartwood Community Forest that is being organised by Derbyshire County Council – have a look at the following link :-
Any planting that helps our insects is vital – see the attached map of Derbyshire showing where Disease Resistant Elms have been planted in the County from 2012 – 2022 – the White Letter Hairstreak butterfly certainly uses them for its life cycle.
