Butterflies

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The farmers have got the message. We have several local farms in and around our valley here and for several years now field margins have been extending, and even patches of land set aside for seed bearing wild plants for birds. My last walk revealed a wide variety of wild flowers and grasses.

I am heartened to see that my bee hotel has six tubes sealed up where solitary bees have lain their eggs.

A month or more ago I was very hopeful as I was seeing more butterflies than last year (when I saw fewer than ever before), but it isn't looking so good now now.

Earlier in the season I had the little blue ones, but now just the occasional peacock and cabbage white, plus some brown ones that I haven't identified.

My garden is pesticide-free, and I am growing lots of flowers that should attract all kinds of insects, including butterflies, between my rows of vegetables. Most of my neighbours' gardens should provide a good habitat too.

We live rurally, and although there are a lot of arable fields that might not be be great places for our butterflies, a lot of field edges are now left uncultivated, and they have a reasonable variety of our native wildflowers growing in them.

This lack of butterflies (and insects in general) is quite concerning. In fact, our local bird population doesn't seem anything like as plentiful and varied as it did 20 years ago, either.

We only usually get Cabbage Whites, Red Admirals or pretty little blue ones, but this year there are loads of brown ones, smaller than CW or RA but bigger than the blue ones. A couple of them have strayed into the house and I had to coax them back out.

I was only saying this to someone yesterday, isn't it heartening!

Our London garden has had peacocks, red admirals, gatekeepers, small blues, common whites and others I couldn’t identify but the most exciting - purple emperor - never seen one before.

They seemed to come all at once here in South Yorkshire. We had a butterfly famine until a few weeks ago and now there are commas, tortoishells, red admirals, peacocks and the odd painted lady. Hedgerows are hosting brimstones, speckled wood, small blues and gatekeepers. I’ve had to rescue a few that have flow into my conservatory and can’t seem to find their way out again.

I’m in south/south east.

It’s not a fantastic year for them in my garden, noticeably fewer than last year. No Red Admirals or Peacocks, just Small Fritillaries, Painted Ladies and small Whites. Far fewer bees and hoverflies too. I am in Cumbria.

I took one out of my cats mouth today and put it in ahanging basket that was out of her reach..I watched it fly away 5 minutes later .
Last week we retrieved. Small pigeon from the grasp of a hawk in our back garden sadly it only lived a few days.
Waiting to see what our next rescue will be

Yes load in our garden, peacocks, red admirals, little blues, orange tips, painted ladies and cabbage whites of course!

Loads of the in the garden and allotment