Hello Everyone, It is not often that I get important butterfly sightings immediately after I have sent out an Update but Lucy Benniston emailed me to say that she recorded both the Marbled White and the Purple Hairstreak at Loscoe Fields site on the 16th of June 2025 – these species require a very different habitat for their survival and as well as flowery meadow areas for the Marbled White there are also some mature oak trees for the Purple Hairstreak on the site. With the weather set fair and warm for the next week please check out those mature oak woodlands such as at Calke Park, Kedleston Park, Hardwick Park, Haddon Hall Estate and Chatsworth Park – all known sites for the Purple Hairstreak which is often seen in the evening flying around the tops of oaks often showing a silvery jazzy flight. This is what Chris Burnett & Georgina Siddals did last evening looking at the oaks on Willington Playing Fields and they were rewarded with sightings of 3 individuals at 20.20 pm. The Marbled White on the other hand is a member of the ‘brown’ family and relies on grassland for its survival – its natural movement north in recent years has been slow and erratic with records coming from Toton Sidings, Long Eaton, Aston Brickyards, Alvaston, Derby, Ednaston; Mugginton; The Forge at Ironville and the Blackwell Trail, South Normanton amongst other sites. Most sites in North East Derbyshire are probably as a result of unauthorised releases in that area of the County
Pleasingly Alf Bousie took time out yesterday to check the Disease Resistant Elms on the grassland adjacent to the Inner Ring Road in Derby- this was a J V between Butterfly Conservation East Midlands and Derby City Council, the trees were planted back in 2012, and Alf was pleased to see 4 White Letter Hairstreaks zig zagging around the tops of the D R Elms – so yes by planning ahead this rare butterfly will use D R Elms for its life cycle – we are hoping to plant some more trees in the area during the Autumn!
Finally Mark Radford tells me that large numbers of Painted Lady, Red Admiral and even Clouded Yellow butterflies have been seen coming inshore on the East Coast near Hornsea recently – keep those eyes peeled and your records coming in please!
