General Chat

Have you seen more of them this summer? I have just been watching Red Admirals on the buddleia, ( they prefer the mauve to the white one). Many more this year than last, maybe because the buddleia is taller ( being a dwarf it is of course about ten feet tall lol) which is a bonus as the cats can't reach. There are a few other butterflies as well, small speckled brown ones and cabbage whites. :-)


Flying Crooked - Poem by Robert Graves

"The butterfly, the cabbage white,
(His honest idiocy of flight)
Will never now, it is too late,
Master the art of flying straight,
Yet has — who knows so well as I? —
A just sense of how not to fly:
He lurches here and here by guess
And God and hope and hopelessness.
Even the aerobatic swift
Has not his flying-crooked gift."

:-)

We haven't had anywhere near as many butterflies this year as we usually have. Two years ago we bought 2 "dwarf" buddleia which are now both about 8 feet tall.

Kath. x

Kath, I've not seen any peacock butterflies this year and there were a few of those last year ( I'm roughly in the midlands) maybe need to get some more plants in, not that there's room.I'd like some Michaelmas daisies, we always used to have them.

The white buddeia ( more cream really) was also supposed to be a dwarf and that is even taller than the mauve one lol, and flowering very profusely this year.

I have seen lots of Peacocks here Nyx along with the tortoiseshells and the gorgeous bright Red Admirals. The one I have not seen any of this year around here are the Brimstones which are usually about in large numbers.

LaGooner, I don't think I've seen any Brimstones in the garden here, maybe the lack of the right plants? most of the gardens in this row are paved, with not a plant between them :-(

I live right by farm fields and wooded areas so I also get Meadow Browns, Orange tips and if we are lucky the blue butterflies. One large part of my garden is left to nettles and wild flowers etc to attract the wildlife.

I love blue butterflies, haven't seen any for years though, not since holidays really. Used to love them when we lived in the Isle of Man when I was a child, they were the same colour as the harebells :-)

They are pretty aren't they. I have not seen any Painted ladies for a long time and probably not since I moved away from North London where we used to have them in the garden

I've seen very few cabbage whites, but more than usual of tortoise shell butterflies.

There have not been the usual frequenting of the buddleia.

Just yesterday I saw a small blue, which is the first I've seen for some time.

The flight of the butterfly is deliberately erratic so as to avoid predators.
We have had clouds of butterflies in France big increase on last year - red admiral, tortoise shell, peacock, skipper, comma, orange tip, hummingbird hawk moth, white admiral. Much the same in uk with assorted blue, cabbage white , no white admiral. More than last year but not a crowd. Even fewer bees.
Too many tidy paved gardens, no "weeds", far too much insecticide farm and garden.

I have weeds :-) Green Alkanet from early on in the year and lasting late, the bees and other buzzies absolutely love it so despite it being a thug, full of prickly hairs that inevitably irritate the skin I have kept it. It is described as "invasive in shade"...don't believe that, it is invasive in sun as well :-D Fewer bumble bees this year I think? and the others seemed to appear later than usual. So much building on land here :-(

For a read that will both remind and sadden, "The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy" Michael McCarthy

O.h. told me the other day he is was watching the sparrows on the fence by the door when a Red Admiral flew on to the shrub by the fence, and before o.h. could blink the sparrow gobbled it up. Haven't seen many butterflies in the garden this year but admittedly we haven't had as many things flowering this summer.

Lizx

Apart from the whites our most common butterfly in the garden seems to be the gatekeeper, followed by a blue (common or holly?). Earlier in the year there were several peacocks and orange tip about. Also seen this year were: comma, meadow brown, speckled wood and red admiral.

Sadly, here, the small tortoiseshell hasn't recovered from its dramatic decline of a few years ago, before which it was easily the most common of the coloured butterflies.

Very few in my garden this year, only seen a few white ones

Mind you that's probably for the best as Mr Tibbs the cat is a beee for catching flying creatures

He has been very naughty bringing in birds this year that have had to be rescued and released .

Flies .wasps etc get stalked too

I've seen hardly any this year.

Not surprising really considering it has been the wettest summer for years. :-( :-(