Where are all the butterflies?

[Cleeve Hill]

First week in July and there seems to be a big drop in butterflies in these parts.

Have usually seen lots of gatekeepers, small copper and meadow browns by now but all we seem to have is a few whites. With temperatures now picking up and settled sunny days ahead they should emerge in numbers next week but I'm sure this year.

I reckon last years poor summer is to blame, but hopeful we will see lots of tortoiseshell and peacocks which tend to show themselves in Aug & Sept (last sept was warm and dry).

The big butterfly count start at the end of July so will be interesting this year.

[Winter Warmer]

saw one in spring it was red/brown colour and seen a couple of white ones since 

[Evening thunder]

I had seen a few but I noticed today there were quite a few tortoiseshells fluttering round a small patch of the garden.

 

Last year I remember a similar thread to this and indeed there were hardly any here too, but then later in July and into August with some warmer weather their population seemed to explode and either buddleia (not that big) sometimes had 20+ on at the same time!

Edited July 4, 2013 by Stormmad26

[I Cumbria Marra I]

I can remember seeing loads in a few years ago, probably because the summers were warmer.

[Tamara]

Beautiful gentle creatures  I have an affection for them as much as cute little Garter Snakes

Edited July 4, 2013 by Tamara Road

[Bluebreezer54]

Beautiful gentle creatures  I have an affection for them as much as cute little Garter Snakes

 

Crikey Tamara. Your fear of thunderstorms is on a par with my fear of snakes, they really give me the creeps. On my travels in the past I have seen many snakes, most of them in the wild, and they scare the heck out of me. I tried to overcome the fear by having my photo taken holding a python many years ago. I still shudder when I look at that photo even now.

[Tamara]

Crikey Tamara. Your fear of thunderstorms is on a par with my fear of snakes, they really give me the creeps. On my travels in the past I have seen many snakes, most of them in the wild, and they scare the heck out of me. I tried to overcome the fear by having my photo taken holding a python many years ago. I still shudder when I look at that photo even now.

These are cute, affectionate, tiny and totally harmless . My German friend introduced me to them Her original collection have bred and she has another 15 to 20 baby snakes  Next time I visit I know I have been offered some to bring back home + a terrarium etc

 

All I need next is a butterfly house  *she sighs*

Edited July 4, 2013 by Tamara Road

[nitro_deluxe]

Yes, fascinating creatures - more here. Have a slight aversion for the common blue, very fetching.

http://www.britishbutterflies.co.uk/species-info.asp?vernacular=Comma&x=48&y=5

Edited July 4, 2013 by triple_x1

[Bluebreezer54]

These are cute, affectionate, tiny and totally harmless . My German friend introduced me to them Her original collection have bred and she has another 15 to 20 baby snakes  Next time I visit I know I have been offered some to bring back home + a terrarium etc

 

All I need next is a butterfly house  *she sighs*

Cute is not a word that springs to my mind when thinking of snakes. !!  Maybe I have just had fairly close encounters with the wrong kind of snake in the wild ?!  The closest encounters were with some of the most lethal snakes whilst out hiking. It was a huge cobra just a few feet away that finally did it for me

[mike Meehan]

Don't recall seeing any so far at Watford this year, not too many bees about either - put it down to a cold spring putting things generally a month behind - have noticed that the hawthorn is still in blossom and don't they call that mayflower? 

[Bluebreezer54]

Don't recall seeing any so far at Watford this year, not too many bees about either - put it down to a cold spring putting things generally a month behind - have noticed that the hawthorn is still in blossom and don't they call that mayflower? 

I'm just down the road from you Mike and despite having a nettled railway embankment and a rambling rose covered in hundreds of fully opened flowers right on my doorstep I have seen very little in the way of butterflies or bees so far. I think the cold spring has played a large part. The rose was at least 3 weeks late in flowering this year.

[gottolovethisweather]

Monoculture landscapes along with climatic factors such as wet cool summers and cold winters have led to diminishing populations of most UK butterfly species. The aforementioned conditions affect butterflies’ overwintering prospects, however, with much talk of these issues in the media, their prospects should improve, along with other beneficial insects. As something like over 70% of our land is farmed, this has to be an area of focus, if we are to save butterflies from being another local wildlife extinction statistic. Flower-rich and grassy margins are incorporated across farmland more widely now and along with doing our bit in our own gardens, we may reverse their fortunes.

Edited July 5, 2013 by gottolovethisweather

[Coast]

More comments and observations on the BBC Nature FB page:

 

https://www.facebook.com/bbcnature/posts/524419917613702?comment_id=5578388&offset=0&total_comments=20

[Methuselah]

IMO, the single most-important factor has been the demise of hedgerows. When ah were a lud, an afternoon's walk, in what these days is Furzden, would yield more butterflies than one could ever hope to count...Now, of course the old farmland that stretched all the way from Bletchley to Buckingham has been replaced with H & S-conscious, over landscaped rubbish...

 

Perhaps the best landscaper is Mother Nature, not Comrade Councillor?

I had seen a few but I noticed today there were quite a few tortoiseshells fluttering round a small patch of the garden.

 

Last year I remember a similar thread to this and indeed there were hardly any here too, but then later in July and into August with some warmer weather their population seemed to explode and either buddleia (not that big) sometimes had 20+ on at the same time!

It could be all down to the annuals I've planted, but I have a gardenful of tortoisehells?

[4wd]

IMO, the single most-important factor has been the demise of hedgerows. When ah were a lud, an afternoon's walk, in what these days is Furzden, would yield more butterflies than one could ever hope to count...Now, of course the old farmland that stretched all the way from Bletchley to Buckingham has been replaced with H & S-conscious, over landscaped rubbish...

 

Perhaps the best landscaper is Mother Nature, not Comrade Councillor?

It could be all down to the annuals I've planted, but I have a gardenful of tortoisehells?

You would find that far more hedgerow has been planted over the last 20 years than removed, hedges are not in themselves as important as areas of unimproved grassland cut for hay.Hay-making and in many areas keeping livestock to eat hay has all but disappeared.Un-managed grass, i.e. not cut annually or grazed, rapidly deteriorates, and flowers they rely on die out.Look at gardens too, hard landscaping and frequently cut expanses of lawn have taken over 'for tidyness'  where in the past larger areas might have been planted with fruit trees and grass only cut infrequently with nettle patches for them to breed in.Woodland has also become far less butterfly friendly.Coppicing was once a widely practiced technique which created open glades as trees regrew.Now if anyone does a couple of acres it will probably be featured on Countryfile.Old coppice has grown up into dense woodland with no understorey and almost no flowers.Or been cleared and replanted with conifer which once established are often almost totally lifeless below the dense canopy.

[be cause]

Having stressed the importance of ivy to bees .. it is similarly vital to overwintering butterflies as hibernation habitat .. 

[Sprites]

Havent seen any Cobras here, but in May/ i did see Brimstone x2 , Orange tips, common blue, Brown argus, large white, tortoiseshell, not seen much since though.

[Jax]

Must admit, not seen many at all today again.

[Rollo]

IHave hardly seen a butterfly yet this year and the California lilac we have which is always in the past a hive of activity is devoid of honey bees,I have not observed one as yet,quite a few bumble bees but that's it.

[4wd]

They are getting going now, saw a Peacock yesterday and plenty of Meadow Browns.I think it's not unusual for numbers to be low in first part of summer.

[joggs]

Its not that butterflies and other species are dying off, its the government who are taxing even them to the hilt lol.Either that or theyve thought°sod this, this countrys well crowded with all these foreign species°

[picog]

I am surrounded by organically farmed land and proper flower meadows. The fields are relatively small, and the hedges are ancient as the oaks. We currently have far fewer butterflies than in previous years.

[Methuselah]

Its not that butterflies and other species are dying off, its the government who are taxing even them to the hilt lol.Either that or theyve thought°sod this, this countrys well crowded with all these foreign species°

Tell them to join UKIP...

[frogesque]

Dearth of butterflys this year but after rescuing a small butterfly from the greenhouse this morning (almost black on top of wings, kind of dotty underneath) I saw a simmilar one flying in the garden this afternoon. A couple of whites as well but that's about it.

[4wd]

My wildflower hay meadow was teaming with several varieties of small dark brown types this afternoon.