Where are the butterflies?

[Woody girl]

I have a lovely budlia (sorry can't spell it) tree in my garden. Every year it's covered in up to ten different species of butterfly. This year not a one. Has anyone else noticed a lack of butterflies? I've had two cabbage white in the garden so far this year. Bees are also relatively absent. Normaly you can hear them buzzing about. The garden is awfully quiet this year... noticeably so especially in the evenings. It seems utterly silent apart from the few birds in the trees. It feels eerie. Considering I'm in a rural area it's very odd.
Anyone else noticed this or is it just my garden? The strangest thing is I've planted so many more butterfly specific flowers than normal this year. I can't understand it.

 

[Nice65]

I’ve seen very few this year in West Sussex, not even the usually commonplace Cabbage Whites. Our Buddleia isn’t in flower yet, but Im not expecting it to attract what obviously isn’t there. We did have a few late frosts after a brief warm period, and some hailstorms and wind that can pummel the chrysalises, but 2017 was listed as one of the worst years on record so maybe that and the general decline due to habitat loss, pesticides etc is the reason. Apologies, it’s The Guardian I quote.

https://amp.theguardian.com/environ...suffered-seventh-worst-year-on-record-in-2017

Where I live, the Chalkhill Blue and Adonis Blue should be fluttering about amongst the flowers on the South Downs but aren’t. It’s a sad tale, an estimated 77% decline.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-44399804

 

[Robson Valley]

At least I read that you have a butterfly monitoring scheme to keep an eye on things.
I've never heard of such a thing here.

For years, I've watched our native bees, bumble bee species, do the job of pollinating my grape vines.
This year? It got done, grapes are pea size BUT I didn't notice who the pollinators were, they were so uncommon.

I have seen individual butterflies of a dozen (?) species this year
but never any one in any numbers like 5-10 years ago.

 

[Billy-o]

They all traded in for German and Portuguese passports ... plenty of work for them in EU.

 

[Wander]

Agreed.
It's been a mixed bag this year.
I live on the North Downs and the numbers of the various different blues have been quite markedly down.
Meanwhile, the number of marbled whites has been up. And I've seen more green hairstreaks than ever before.

But numbers of all butterflies are significantly down, and I also found myself thinking the other day, 'where are all the butterflies?'

 

[bobnewboy]

I’m no use at identifying species, but here where I’m living we had an early flush of butterflies at the end of February. See my Flickr. Perhaps many of them have been and gone early?

 

[Woody girl]

I'm glad I'm not imagining things but so sad this is happening. I've lived here 19 years and every summer I have spent hours watching my tree and recording the numbers and specis of butterflies on that tree. I've fought with the council about cutting it down (and won) as it overhangs a footpath up the sides of the house. It now makes a lovely tunnel to walk under. I do hope this is a blip and not a permanent situation.
Butterflies bring me such joy to watch. I feel so sad about this. On reflection. I havnt seen a wasp either this year.

 

[Broch]

On reflection. I havnt seen a wasp either this year.

That's because they're all up here in mid-Wales - I have two football sized wasp nests in the loft of the studio, two in vole holes in the grass and one in the garage; and they're the ones I know about!

I think our butterfly populations are pretty normal for early July to be honest.

 

[mikehill]

Birds are normal around here (Wigan) butterflies well down, bees well down and dragonflies too. Tons of ant nests though

 

[Woody girl]

That's because they're all up here in mid-Wales - I have two football sized wasp nests in the loft of the studio, two in vole holes in the grass and one in the garage; and they're the ones I know about!



You are welcome to the wasps . I don't mind a bit you got them all.

 

[Woody girl]

What happened there? i quoted myself!... oh well.

 

[Keith_Beef]

I was talking with a friend a couple of days ago, about how few mosquitoes there are this summer, and that my theory is that we had several short spells of very warm weather followed by short sharp cold spells; I wonder if the warmth prompted larvae or pupae to move on a stage too early, and then be killed by the following chill.

 

[daveO]

I've seen tons of bees and butterflies around here this year. I've never known the garden so full of bees and of so many different species too. The bee hotels are almost full now and the leaf cutter bees are only just starting so I need to make some rooms for them. I took a walk around the local lake on Friday and there were butterflies everywhere up there too.

 

[Keith_Beef]

I've seen tons of bees and butterflies around here this year. I've never known the garden so full of bees and of so many different species too. The bee hotels are almost full now and the leaf cutter bees are only just starting so I need to make some rooms for them. I took a walk around the local lake on Friday and there were butterflies everywhere up there too.

We have loads of bumblebees (not sure how many species) as well as a few species of other bees; they were feasting on the kolkwitzia through the spring, and are now on the lavender.

Crickets are marginally lower in numbers; wasps, hornets and mosquitoes are noticeably few and far between.

The only butterflies I've seen so far are cabbage whites.

 

[mousey]

Now you mention it I've not seen many butterflies. Although a few weeks ago there were many, many very small completely black ladybirds in my garden. Had quite a few climb on me while hanging in the hammock.

 

[bob_the_baker]

Seems to have picked up massively in the last week in the Swansea area. Even spotted a Hummingbird Hawk-Moth in the garden yesterday afternoon, which was nice.

 

[Keith_Beef]

Seems to have picked up massively in the last week in the Swansea area. Even spotted a Hummingbird Hawk-Moth in the garden yesterday afternoon, which was nice.

I saw one of those on the lavender last summer; the only one I've ever seen.

 

[SimonL]

In Farnborough (Hants) where I live, we have just had a golf course close to be turned into a SANG next to Southwood Woodland. This is now teeming with butterflies, although I'm not good at identifying many species. The VAST majority of them seem to be Meadow Browns and they seem to hang around in large groups. Also a few Marbled Whites (which I haven't seen before) A number of Emperor Dragonflies are in evidence there too, and a walk around Castle Bottom (Yateley way) on the weekend treated me to my first sighting of a pair (M/F) of Golden-Ringed dragonflies and a few Demoiselles (didn't know what they were - but was on a guided Dragonfly walk at the time )
Got a good number of honey bees on the (English) lavender at home, but noticeably fewer Bumble bees.

 

[Broch]

I'm currently on a two-day meadow bugs course (everything from butterflies to beetles; 23,000 species in the UK!). Last year I did Dragon Flies and Damsel Flies.

What I am really learning is how much I don't know

 

[Nomad64]

Seems to have picked up massively in the last week in the Swansea area. Even spotted a Hummingbird Hawk-Moth in the garden yesterday afternoon, which was nice.

I managed to get a snaps of a hummingbird hawk moth and a comma butterfly this afternoon.

When the sun was out the buddlea was full of butterflies - not to say there shouldn't be more of them though. Didn’t have much time today but will have another go when the sunshine’s and start trying to record species a bit more methodically.