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)
14 comments:
Wish my garden had that many butterflys, we only see a few but at least it is more that we saw last year. Nice crop you have, I seem to have a glut of cucumber ATM
I have never taken part in the Big Butterfly Count, but it doesn't take me long to figure out there is a massive decline of butterflies and moths in my own garden. Time was when I could go outside and needed both hands and toes to count the number of species in my garden on any given summer day. Now I'm lucky to see just one butterfly, usually a cabbage white. Sad and worrying indeed.
Thanks Billy. It is certainly a relief to see more butterflies this year. Thanks re the vegetables. Son hasn't grown cucumbers this year as far as I know.
Thanks Debbie. It is so sad and worrying about lack of butterflies, moths, bees and so many insects. Even if this a good summer the dry weather may well mean larval food plants have died which may cause problems next year.
Oh, love all your butterfly photos! We have the Red Admiral in North America also! I live in Georgia in the USA and we are enjoying our butterflies too.
Thank you Kay and thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment. Butterflies are such a joy to watch and I am glad you are enjoying yours too.
You've seen a good selection of butterflies and a few different ones each time. Hardly any butterflies in the garden this year but we saw a few on a Buddleia when we walked at Wolseley Reserve last week. Peacock, Comma, Red Admiral and a small blue which we thought was a Common blue. Your garden produce looks good and both crumble and scones look delicious:)
Thanks so much Rosie. The garden really seems to have come alive with butterflies since the buddleias started flowering! D does enjoy growing vegetables and they taste so good when picked straight from the garden as you will know yourself.
A good selection RR.... Apparently a good year for Jersey Tiger Moths
Thanks Pete. Indeed it is but none seen here yet............
Yum to the scones! I have made feta and sun dried tomato scones but never seen a recipe with courgettes. Mind you, I think I made everything else you can possibly make when I used to grow them! Have you tried courgette cake?
That wasn't too bad a result for the butterfly count, given that this is not the best time of year for them Iat least here, as there are far fewer wildflowers as everything is dry). I haven't done a count but it would probably be somewhere between 2 - 5 species at the moment! Love your photos, and yay to the demoiselle!
Thanks Mandy. Feta and sundried tomato scones sound good! Yes son has a good recipe for a courgette and walnut loaf cake!
Thanks re he butterfly count. I think the buddleia, herbs and golden rod flowering are attracting more here atm.
Hope you are ok - I thought of you when I saw on news about wildffires in the South of France and I am not sure exactly where you are and I was worried about you.
Beautiful butterfly photographs.
Thank you.
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