Butterflies

[SueA]

I do think it's a bad year for lots of creatures, we've only seen butterflies really in the last week or so on the buddleia weyeriana, loosestrife, echinops & flowers down by the pond but the bumblebees seem to be doing O.K. here at the moment, not so many honeybees though.
Gatekeeper & Small White from the other day here.

[balc2]

I saw a grand total of just 2 Cabbage Whites yesterday - just a couple of minutes walk from home. I had taken a 20 min. walk to my son's house to water his plants & a 20 min walk back home & they were the only ones I saw in that time.

[seaburn]

There have been a few of the whites and a couple of holly blues in the garden today. but none of the peacocks etc.

[Eli]

I've seen very few insects this year, but there was an admiral butterfly flapping around in one of the bedrooms yesterday. I opened a window wide but it wouldn't go out until I shooed it with a towel. 
I've seen one or two peacock butterflies and a few common whites in the garden and along the back road, but nothing like the numbers we usually get. 

[Cherry]

There is definitely a lack of butterflies in this area.

[daitheplant]

Aug 20, 2022 7:48:23 GMT Cherry said:

There is definitely a lack of butterflies in this area.

Same here Cherry, insects around here are so scarce I even had to rescue a bee from a spider and his web this morning.

[balc2]

Yesterday I went up to my son's house to water his plants. It was the 4th day this past week that I went up but in all that time I hardly saw more than half a dozen butterflies - all of them Cabbage Whites. Even the buddleia in his garden didn't attract any. (Nor were there any bees on it!) I can't remember having seen a single butterfly on the balcony this year either! Normally the whites are flitting around it all summer & laying their eggs on the Nasturtiums!

[balc2]

I said I hadn't seen any butterflies on the balcony this year so far - but a day or two ago I was out watering & a Cabbage White flew in my face!

I've still not seen more than one or perhaps 2 a day during August, many days I haven't seen any at all. The ones I have seen have only been isolated Cabbage Whites & once a tiny one I couldn't identify but which flew fast & very low - below knee height.

[Eli]

I've seen a few butterflies this year but didn't have a camera so no photos.
I've seen Commas, Peacocks, Common whites, Red Admirals, and a brown one I didn't recognise.
I also saw a ladybird which are rare here these days. Years ago there were lots of them.

[Cherry]

My Buddleia is fully out with not one butterfly near it. So sad.

[SueA]

We've seen a few butterflies over the last couple of days but only one or two at a time, gatekeepers, speckled woods, large & small whites, one small tortoiseshell, one Red Admiral & one Holly Blue, not very many at all.

[grindle]

not many around here too

[balc2]

Last Saturday I saw about half a dozen Cabbage Whites during the 2 hours l was out. I'd been into town to get some shopping and I returned home by way of the river. There are lots of trees and native wild flowers along the way, at one point there is a very large Buddleia but I didn't see a single butterfly of any species on it 😒

As I got close to home I did see my first Tortoiseshell butterfly of the year! No more than a minute later I then saw my 2nd! I also saw a very small butterfly that I didn't recognise. It flew very fast and I wasn't able to make out its colour. When I was near our balcony I saw a Peacock butterfly on the plants on the balcony railings! I'd been out 2 hours & I come back home to find more butterflies within a 2 minute walk of home than in the 2 hours I'd been out!

Even so I still didn't see more than 10 in 2 hours & 6 of those were Cabbage Whites.

[Cherry]

Peacock butterflies were enjoying the Buddleia, but they have gone now that it is windy. This is good, as I thought we had none at all.

In contrast, the bees were buzzing madly around the tall lavender. The pigeons ate all the emerging flowers off the short English lavender, but the short secondary flowers are out now. I used a few individual flowers in my salad.

[Fractal]

Saw the most Northern Colony of Marbled White in the UK this year at Wingate Quarry nature reserve near Durham. A work colleague told me where they were. She said the window of opportunity and I just managed to get the tail end of them. Very pleased to see them.