I noted with interest that the Big Butterfly Count has recorded an overall increase in sightings this year. The reckoning is that the rainy spring was good for caterpillars. Whilst I can't dispute this I still think that early-emerging species suffered. While the multi-brooded speckled wood recovered after a slow start, I think the orange tip had a bad year. It doesn't feature in the Count as it's no longer on the wing in mid-July. Green-veined white numbers are confirmed down and it seemed to me that it had a short good spell at the end of July but wasn't seen much before that. Small white was more considerably outvoted by large white here than generally.
The buddleia is now fading fast and it's a race to the bottom for the last garden sighting. This week there has just been the odd individual red admiral and just one small tortoiseshell and yesterday I felt lucky to capture red admiral and large white (plus a few flies) together. There had also been a speckled wood moments before.
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| Red Admiral with Large White |
Meanwhile the holly blue count is up to 13, but none in the last few days.
It has been flies rather than bees that have caught my attention lately, causing a bit of a problem as I'm only at the guessing game stage when it comes to identifying them.
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| Spider with Fly |
It appears the fly maybe a yellow dung fly, which immediately reduced any sympathy I may have felt for it.
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| Common Orange Legionnaire? |
Well not so common to me as I can't remember seeing them before.
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| Nuthatch with Great Tit and Blue Tit |
I'm keeping my eye out for ivy coming into flower in the hope of nectaring butterflies or an ivy bee, but it's early days yet.
