Only three days left ...

[amateur51]

Two small whites flitting about in the September sunshine here this afternoon

[Anna]

Reviving this thread with a date to mark on your calendar. The Big Butterfly Count starts this Saturday, 19th July, and runs until 10th August. You can do it over as many days as you like and save your loggings for one submission. http://www.bigbutterflycount.org/about

Last year was a bumper one for butterflies, this year so far I've seen very few even though the buddleia flower spikes seen bigger and better than usual and have been out for some time.

[french frank]

Reviving this thread with a date to mark on your calendar. The Big Butterfly Count starts this Saturday, 19th July, and runs until 10th August. You can do it over as many days as you like and save your loggings for one submission. http://www.bigbutterflycount.org/about

Last year was a bumper one for butterflies, this year so far I've seen very few even though the buddleia flower spikes seen bigger and better than usual and have been out for some time.

Snap! I was out standing hopefully by the buddleia this morning hoping for a glimpse of any butterfly. Nowt. The mint moths have been busy on the nepeta for some weeks, but NO butterflies. Cf. comments on bumblebees elsewhere.

[Serial_Apologist]

Snap! I was out standing hopefully by the buddleia this morning hoping for a glimpse of any butterfly. Nowt. The mint moths have been busy on the nepeta for some weeks, but NO butterflies. Cf. comments on bumblebees elsewhere.

I can only report a similar paucity of butterflies at ths end. Perhaps explained by the very wet winter past?

[Richard Tarleton]

Thanks for the reminder Anna. Very few butterflies in the garden (one new species - large skipper ), though I have been seeing plenty of grassland butterflies (meadow brown, ringlet, small heath etc.) in suitable habitat.

You can record casual sightings of dragonflies on the BTO's Birdtrack (as well as of birds, of course).

[greenilex]

Sorry, but the title of this thread always revives my existential collywobbles.

Suppose it were true

But thankfully it ain't

[Serial_Apologist]

Sorry, but the title of this thread always revives my existential collywobbles.

Suppose it were true

But thankfully it ain't

I wouldn't be surprised if it gives you the butterflies.

A couple of frolicking cabbage whites accosted me as I left for the shops an hour ago, and on returning home I saw a meadow brown flitting among the hydrangeas.

[Padraig]

I haven't noticed any butterflies in the garden this year so far; and now that it has been mentioned, I have noticed no butterflies.

[Stanfordian]

I haven't noticed any butterflies in the garden this year so far; and now that it has been mentioned, I have noticed no butterflies.

Hello Padraig, I'm in Lancashire on the coast of the Irish sea and I've been one this morning on garden bush.

[Padraig]

Hello Padraig, I'm in Lancashire on the coast of the Irish sea and I've been one this morning on garden bush.

Greetings Stanfordian. Lancashire was the first place in England I ever set foot, having landed at Heysham and gone on to Blackpool where I worked as a tram conductor for a few summers in the fifties. We're practically neighbours.
Oh what a wonderful thing to be, a butterfly rather than a busy little bee!
Of course, wonderful to see as well.

[french frank]

Who needs Richard Tarleton when one has internet images???

I have seen a Brimstone Moth (it was not obliging enough to wait while I was fetching my camera): googled small moth yellow arrow shaped and hit the images:



As for butterflies, I saw a (one) peacock yesterday, not worth reporting. Though this morning there was a speckled wood on the runners, and that's a first for my back yard - first for the runners too - any connection? . None of the other regulars this year - red admiral, comma, painted lady, small tortoiseshell - they are all absent.

[Richard Tarleton]

Who needs Richard Tarleton when one has internet images???

Oi!

I've spent much of the weekend on the M4, so have yet to do this

[amateur51]

Quite a few medium-sized white ones and a couple of Red Admirals I think. No flowers currently in my patio garden but these flutterbyes seem happy enough.

[french frank]

Oi!

I've spent much of the weekend on the M4, so have yet to do this

I was coming in to ask you but thought I'd give it a punt on Google. Ex-act! Bingo! Etcetera. I once saw a Brimstone butterfly, years ago, but hadn't heard of a Brimstone moth.

Don't think I'll bother to report in this year, there have been so few. I did think I saw a small pale blue one a couple of days ago, but I don't "do" blue ones, so doubt I could have identified it - probably Common of that Ilk.

Not telling them on the veggie thread, ams but the bean plots have already been cleaned up for flowers next year

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

So far, I've reported lots of small whites and small tortoiseshells and a few peacocks and red admirals - nothing "exotic" on the patch on which I do my quarter-hours (aka, my front garden).