With the Porritt book at the printers at last, I am now trying to catch up with all the things I haven't had time to do because of it. Like this occasional column. The book was the culmination of five years of work by a small group of Butterfly Conservation Yorkshire and YNU Lepidoptera Group members. It had to be at the printers by Nov 10th. And we did it. Just! It will be produced in a limited edition of 500 copies, of which many are already sold. We hope it will bring to life Yorkshire's historical records, stretching from the late 1700s to the early 1900s. It is thoughtfully designed, in full colour throughout, and around 150 illustrations. (Further details on the publications page.) If you are thinking about ordering a copy you can both help us and save some money by ordering before Christmas. A cheque for £25 payable to Butterfly Conservation and sent to me, Howard M Frost, at 10 Chellsway, Withernsea, HU19 2EN before Dec 31st this year will secure your copy. After that it will be £33. By paying in advance you are helping us to have enough money in the bank to pay the bill! Thanks!!

Unfortunately, I didn't find time to comment on October's butterflies. In fact the season finished unusually early, around Oct 10th, so there wasn't a lot to say. A few Red Admirals were seen at Spurn after that date, but very few and nothing like the numbers seen in other years. I spent most of October in France, not really on holiday but checking over the proofs of the book word by word. I was in France in Oct 2009 as well, in the same place. Then the weather was splendid, with sunny days, temperatures around 25˚C and lots of butterflies. But this year most days were cold with maxima around 7˚C and severe frosts at night. We even saw our first snow of the year. No butterflies! Well, there was one exception: on a cold but sunny Nov 1st, a Red Admiral was spotted heading southward. I wonder if it was one of those which had been seen at Spurn in early October?
Europe has been cooling down fast. Could be some hard weather ahead!

I've just begun working on the next Argus. So that's running late. I am hoping to get it printed by late January. Then I shall need to continue straight on to the next edition, which will be the Annual Report plus a 40 page supplement providing a ten-year update regarding changes we have seen in our butterfly and moth populations. That is due in June. By then I will need a real holiday!

The 2009 Annual Reports are now out or being distributed. If, as a Butterfly Conservation member, you haven't received it yet, it is in the post.
The copies sent out to YNU members were sent directly from the printers on this occasion, so YNU members got them first. Of course, that cost quite a bit extra. BC Yorkshire chose to have the copies sent to Rosemary Roach, our membership secretary as usual, then they were mailed out by TNT which has enabled us to make a useful saving. This year I have less than 10 spare copies to sell at £12 each (128 pages in full colour) - available from me at 10 Chellsway, Withernsea, HU19 2EN, cheque payable to Butterfly Conservation.

Now, those of us involved in preparing 'Porritt's Lists' (see previous report) are working flat out to have everything completed for our first deadline which is coming up soon. We have produced a number of trial pages and are getting quite excited at the results. I can now confirm that we will be producing a full-colour book which will enable us to bring together the information in Porritt's 4 Lists with some of the more unusual specimens in his collection. There is still a lot to do before the project goes to the printers in the autumn, but at least the cooler weather recently has helped us not to be tempted to go out butterfly watching rather than working on the computer! Don't forget that your last chance to get your name in the book as a sponsor or to order at the £21 pre-publication price is July 15th. See full details below.

So far this year butterfly numbers appear to be rather lower than normal. Spring species like the Dingy Skipper and Orange-tip did well, but common species like Small White and Large White have been somewhat scarce in those areas I have visited. There has been a scatter of arriving Red Admirals and Painted Ladies, but very few in number. Continental weather has seen several plumes of warm air coming up from Africa towards our shores but these have lasted only hours rather than days. Last week's deluge across southern France, Spain and Portugal must have created a block to any notable movement with 14 inches of rain falling in some parts in just 24 hours.

Meanwhile, in Yorkshire we seem to have experienced near drought conditions, especially towards the east where there has been very little rain over the last three months. Exploring right to roam valleys on the Wolds a couple of weeks ago I found the grasslands parched and dry with very little growth of the plants needed to support our summer butterflies. Small Heath and Brown Argus were flying in some numbers but any eggs which hatch will produce caterpillars with less food than usual available unless some reasonable rainfall comes soon. The strong northerly winds have quickly dried out the few showers we have had. June is also turning out notably cold, especially at night. It could be that the ash from the Island Mountain Glacier volcano in Iceland has been cutting down the sunshine in the northern hemisphere sufficiently to affect our weather. On top of that the sun is behaving strangely. Not only is it lacking sunspots, but it is also shrinking! And no-one seems to know why! Some scientists think it could be leading up to a 'brief' cooling spell like we had in the middle ages. Brief? The so called Little Ice Age lasted from about 1350 to 1800 or later! We live in interesting times.

Records Broken: First my annual apology for the slow appearance of the first Frost Report of the year. If last year was busy, then this one is turning out even more so! We had a record number of both butterfly and moth reports to process from last year from some 500 people. That's great! But it does mean many hours of extra work for those who type up the reports onto our computer database.

Annual Report: Then it was the Annual Butterfly & Moth Report. Sorting out and analysing masses of information and turning into a readable booklet. Over 30 key contributors help to write it up. Then everything has to be checked and fitted onto pages. It's a full-time job for three months. Finally I signed off the proofs on April 20th and the Report should be in our hands for the end of May. It is due to be sent out in the first week of June. This edition will be bigger and better than anything previous with more pages and full colour throughout. Copies can be ordered from me: Howard M Frost (Lep Report), 10 Chellsway, Withernsea, HU19 2EN for £12 inclusive of postage, cheques payable to Butterfly Conservation. Sorry the price is up on last year, but that's entirely due to postage rises and a heavier booklet.

New Book: Parallel to all this a small group of us are working on a book to be published early next year to celebrate the 150th birthday of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union. Called 'Porritt's Lists' it reproduces the Yorkshire butterfly and moth records published by George Porritt between 1883 and 1922. There are enough of these to fill several hundred pages and they provide a fascinating insight into what species were around more than 100 years ago. In fact the reported records go back to the late 1700s. The problem with old records is that they often only used scientific names and many of those names have changed. So we have re-jigged all the records and added in both modern scientific names and English names where they exist. We hope to be able to use lots of pictures with full-colour throughout. That means it will cost quite a lot to produce and we need to raise the money up front. So we are dependent on selling lots of copies in advance. When published in January next it will be £30 per copy plus postage. Order now before July 15th at £21 inclusive of postage, or for £30 as a sponsor and get up to two sponsorship names printed in the book (available up to July 15th only). Order from me at the address above but write: Howard M Frost (Porritt offer). Cheques payable to Butterfly Conservation. More details about the publication can be found elsewhere on the website.

Winter and Spring: Winter was cold so there were few early butterflies. Even so there were the odd sightings of hibernated butterflies which had awoken in January and February, probably as a result of being disturbed. By March we expect to start seeing a few butterflies about, but the ongoing cool weather with northerly winds kept these to a minimum even though we had a lot of sunshine. You had to look in very sheltered places to find what was around. April has been a little better but with cold nights, often frosty nights, and a slow build-up of daytime temperatures butterflies have only had a short time each day in which to go through courtship rituals, mate and lay eggs. Even so there has been a reasonable show of the hibernated species, at least in the eastern half of the county where I live and have travelled around. One of the problems has been the low rainfall in East Yorkshire if not elsewhere. This means that the high chalk grasslands of the Yorkshire Wolds, for instance, have been dry and brown rather than showing the growth of the spring flowers needed for nectaring and egg-laying. At least by late April the dandelions were out and what a splendid display! They are an essential nectar source for the likes of Peacocks and Small Tortoiseshells. By the end of the April Small and Green-veined Whites were much in evidence along country lanes in my part of the world in SE Yorks.

Unexpected immigrants! However, I got a real shock on April 26th whilst working in my allotment. I just happened to stretch up from planting when a Painted Lady shot by just a few feet away. It was pure luck that I looked up at that instant! I often wonder how many butterflies we miss because we are looking the other way! However, this was a very early record for such an immigrant. Then on April 27th came the report of a Camberwell Beauty spotted in Forge Valley near Scarborough. Interestingly, both records corresponded with a short-lived plume of warm air which came in from the Atlantic through the Straits of Gibraltar, turned over the southern coast of Spain, curved northwards over eastern France, moved through Benelux and just touched the Yorkshire coast before being pushed back to the continent.

Volcanic effects? Now May has turned really cold. Last night temperatures in parts of the Scottish Highlands dropped to -5˚C. May has a history of swinging between summer and winter temperatures. But this year we have the complication of a volcano. I think that unpronounceable name translates into the Island Mountain Glacier Volcano. At least that's easier to remember! There are records of past Icelandic eruptions which have gone on for a year or more with the ash clouds and sulphurous aerosols reflecting enough of the sun's heat to cause dramatic cooling across Europe. However, it was interesting to experience the effects of no flying. For a short time we had some brilliant blue skies. That pushed up ground temperatures and could well have been good for some of our heat-loving species like the Pearl-bordered Fritillary, the caterpillars of which need that sort of heat at this time of the year to enable them to digest. But now we have ash blowing down the Atlantic and turning east through S Spain. It could be an interesting summer!