Overwintering Red Admirals

[PhilBJohnson]

I haven't seen many Red Admirals around this spring in Surrey (2014).
I have only seen one Red Admiral in March and that looked rather tatty. As Red Admirals don't normally go into a proper hibernation as adult butterflies, I guess the mild, wet stormy weather in the 2013-2014 winter (south east UK) wasn't very good for overwintering adult Red Admiral butterflies. I wonder, could anyone else confirm this please ? To confuse things a little, I know other Red Admirals migrate to the UK.

[David M]

I still don't think the hibernation habits of this species are terribly well understood. Clearly, some of them do successfully navigate themselves through British winters and I think last year's virtual absence of spring adults proved beyond doubt that sustained cold conditions will account for the majority of them.

Last winter was benign in comparison, yet thus far I've still only seen 5 so far this spring, whereas in years gone by where we've had worse winters, I've seen far more.

I still believe this is a legacy of last year's abnormally cold winter/early spring. Red Admiral numbers basically started from a 'zero state' with them relying on immigrants from the continent to build up a base. Even last Autumn, there weren't huge numbers, meaning that fewer individuals than normal overwintered.

Of course, this meant that fewer Red Admirals were present to survive this latest relatively mild winter.

[jasonbirder]

Still not seen a single Red Admiral here (Notts/Derbys/Lincs) despite being out most days when weather is decent...a real dearth then...especially when you compare with numbers of the other hibernators...