Since 2010 Butterfly Conservation has organised a yearly nationwide survey where people can spend 15 minutes counting the number of butterflies they see in their garden or other location. Butterflies are excellent biodiversity indicators and they react rapidly to environmental changes. Therefore declines in butterfly species can provide an early warning of potential losses in other species too. Big Butterfly Count helps identify trends in species allowing plans to be made to protect those in decline and also to allow scientists to understand the effects of climate change.
I am sure some of you also take part and it is to be hoped that the results from this year's counts are a marked improvement on the awful year butterflies and other pollinators had last year.
D and I did our first butterfly count on the 21st July at Castle Bromwich Historic Parklands and saw the following butterflies:
Small White x 4
Speckled Wood x 5
Large White x 2
Holly Blue x 4
Gatekeeper x 6
plus an unidentified skipper (it was too far away to be sure)!
On 25th July we did a count in the garden at home and saw the following:
Large White x 4
Peacock x 1
Comma x 1
Holly Blue x 1 (here nectaring on water mint flowers by the pond)
Gatekeeper x 1
Speckled Wood x 3
Not seen during the count itself here is a photo of a Red Admiral we saw a bit later.
D did a further garden count earlier this week and managed to spot a Red Admiral during the 15 minutes this time.
Red Admiral x 1
Comma x 1
Speckled Wood x 1
Gatekeeper x 2
Large White x 1
Other Garden Insects
Banded Demoiselle - I was really chuffed this was spotted as I am fairly sure it is a new garden "tick"
Grasshopper
Mint Moth - you guessed it seen on mint! Pretty as these tiny moths are last year the caterpillars decimated all our mint!
Sunflower with a Marmalade Hoverfly
Garden Vegetables and Baking
These days D grows all the garden vegetables.
Here are the first red chilli peppers.
We are picking courgettes galore
Ripening pumpkin
The first crop of beetroot has been harvested.
Apple and Blackberry Crumble made with foraged blackberries from the garden.
D made these Feta, Thyme and Courgette Scones with courgettes and thyme from the garden. Lovely served with onion chutney :)
All photos taken by D with the Canon SX50 HS bridge camera. (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one of my son's or mine I would be grateful for an email first - thanks)
