Many thanks, Bob - one of those lucky shots that ends up as something special.
Yes, time for a bit of a 2022 retrospective, Wurzel - an unusual year in many respects.
A few snippets of stats to kick off with... Despite summer plans being heavily derailed, I still managed to notch up 53 species in the UK during the year. This was helped by two of these being lifetime firsts, and two more being late summer migrants - all of which qualify as highlights. If I count 2021 and 2022 together, the total is 60 for the two years. I doubt I shall ever better this!
The majority of the butterfly activity was local to me on my patch close to Heathrow, where I saw my first 2022 butterfly on 29th January and the last on 25th November - both Red Admirals. My local patch managed 26 species this year, including the extraordinary piece of luck that gave me a Large Tortoiseshell. In terms of numbers of butterflies seen, Meadow Browns won by a mile (as usual), with counts exceeding 200 on days in late June. Next were Common Blues, where 50 individuals in a day was the peak in late May. However, their season was a longer one, running from mid-May to mid-November this year - a full six months. Third came the Holly Blue with an even longer season (late March to mid-November) and peak counts of 30+ on several days especially in the first brood. Commas also did well, especially after hibernation and again with the
hutchinsoni emergence, but were thin on the ground in autumn. Though the Red Admiral season was long, numbers were very average, and again autumn numbers were fairly low.
Species that seemed to do well here this year included both Small and Essex Skippers, with numbers of both species combined in the first week of July (before the real heat kicked in) reaching daily counts of 80+. As is usually the case, Essex exceeded Small in abundance (roughly 3:2), and their first emergence nearly coincides these days. Speckled Woods also had a good year, apparently unaffected by the heat and lack of rain and having peak numbers in September, with another long season from late March to Late October. Those noticeably down in numbers in 2022 included Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshells, all three White Species and Orange Tips, and Brown Argus.
Some species always appear in low numbers, but regularly so and all were present in 2022: Ringlet, Purple Hairstreak, Large Skipper, Small Copper and Marbled White, though the last of these does seem to be slowly spreading and increasing and I probably under-record the Hairstreaks..
Unfortunately, there were gaps in my monitoring efforts in high summer because of illness, and then almost 100% coverage for September-November, so some of this may be a bit of a distorted view of things. However, the contrast between the abundance of sightings in early July and those of late August was stark: 300+ compared to 20 at best. The heat took its toll.
A more detailed look at my year next.
Dave
