Wednesday 7 August 2019

An influx of Butterflies

I've been hearing about the influx of Painted Lady butterflies in the UK, the first on this scale in about ten years and just in time for the Big Butterfly Count too. They are few and far between in my area normally and I think in recent years i've only seen one in the garden.

Butterflies in general have been a little quiet on the patch and certainly in the garden, I think we were spoiled with the heat bringing them all out last year. Despite that we do in small numbers regularly have Peacock, Comma, Holly Blue, Small Tortoiseshell, Small and Large Whites the odd Red Admiral and two Green-veined Whites, which landed long enough in a tree for me to ID them! A Small Skipper landed briefly on one of the Buddleia bushes and we've had a few Burnet Moths too.

Comma


Small Tortoiseshell



Peacock


Green-veined White


Large White


Comma


Burnet Moth


Large White


Finally we had Painted Ladies last week, just two in the garden, but they lingered a while. Walking to work though i'm seeing them everywhere, Buddleia bushes are covered and early in the morning they are sat sunning themselves on the flowers. A bush by work has been covered in all sorts of butterflies including many Painted Ladies. My boss thought they'd had one in their garden, but it turned out to be a Small Tortoiseshell so he was quite pleased when I showed him all the ones by work!





Some of the photos are from my phone so not the best but I don't usually carry my camera when i'm going to work.

We've also had so many large moths in the garden, they love the Buddleia also, i've tried to take a few photos - with a torch and my phone but they aren't the best. I need to work on ID's too! The same night as I was trying to get photos a pair of Hedgehogs were snuffling around the nearby flower bed, we have two or three nearly every night, there's been a lot of mating behaviour so it would be wonderful to see youngsters at some point.






On the patio a pair of slugs were mating, this is not something i've seen before! Though i'm not sure we need many more slugs right now!



Elsewhere around the garden we had the usual birds with odd rarer visitor - Chaffinch, Greenfinch and just recently a few young Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs, as is usual at this time of year.

A family of Mistle Thrush has been around the street, i've not seen any in the garden, but these two were on the neighbours house



Goldfinch on the feeder by the front window, a sneaky shot as they are flighty!


Dunnock


Starling


Willow Warblers, though my photos don't do the bright yellow justice





And finally a Sparrowhawk which sailed through the garden!





10 comments:

  1. Based on several blogs from Europe, and the abundance of butterflies here, it seems to have been a good year for them. Right now we have six Monarchs (three caterpillars and three chrysalises) in the house and we have already raised and released several Black Swallowtails and one Giant Swallowtail. Great to have a Sparrowhawk visit your house, although I suspect that the songbirds don't share my enthusiasm.

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    1. It was a slow start but the numbers have definitely increased. We've just had a few days away in Wales and they were everywhere! We can do the same thing with Butterflies here maybe it's something I should look in to. No the birds are not happy about the Hawk but it never seems to be successful!

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  2. A wonderful selection of wildlife visiting your garden Pam - such good news about the hedgehogs too:) I do hope you get youngsters.

    Isn't it wonderful to see the Painted Ladies? We still have a couple each day on our buddleia. Today I saw my first garden Meadow Brown - we always get far more Gatekeepers than Meadow Brown.

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    1. Fingers crossed! Oh my gosh the Painted Ladies have been everywhere - so many whilst we were on holiday and i've still seen a couple back home even though the weather hasn't been the best!

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  3. Many lovely butterflies good you got painted ladies making the list too..I really enjoyed seeing that slug video I think that's the fastest I've seen one move! Excellent birds the Dunnock reminds me of our white throated sparrows in the way they stand and their profile...a really striking color combo with the steel grey and all the tones of brown. Hope your week wraps up nicely and you are ready for the weekend off work.

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    1. Yes, I didn't think that slugs could move that fast! I love Dunnocks, they are often missed but their markings are definitely striking!

      I just had a weeks holiday rather than the usual weekend and we spent a few days in Wales, i'll be blogging about it soon :)

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  4. Lovely photos of all your garden visitors, how super to have hedgehogs. Great to have the mistle thrushes nearby too. Still not many butterflies around the garden here, just commas and whites. We've seen more in places we've visited recently. I expect after the rain we had during the night the garden will be full of slugs and snails:)

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    1. Thanks Rosie, the garden has been a bit hit and miss with Butterflies but like you we've seen plenty elsewhere!

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  5. Great to see so many Butterflies visiting your garden, loving the last photo of the Willow Warbler.Shame all this rain has stopped them flying as much.
    Now the wildflowers are coming to a end, I have been noticing the birds a little more, still covered by the trees or just laying low after breeding. I am excited to see what's on my new patch at Stainburn Forest. Met two chaps on Wednesday from the Wharfedale group as a Hobby had been sighted in the area, no seen one before. They got to excited over a pigeon and at one point a plane coming in! (Last of the summer wine !! came to mind:) , so I suspect it might be hard to spot at first.
    Amanda xx

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    1. Thanks Amanda :)

      Lol at the Hobby spotting! I'm looking forward to seeing what you find in the Forest, it's great to have somewhere new to explore x

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