Where are the butterflies?

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Boosted LS1

Original Poster:

21,167 posts

259 months

Saturday 1st July 2017
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There are hardly any around here. There are stacks of buddleia's with none on them. I'd usually expect torts, peacocks and a few admirals but there are none. No bee's either.

jas xjr

11,309 posts

238 months

Saturday 1st July 2017
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i have seen quite a few bees this year but cannot recall seeing any butterflies. i will keep a lookout smile

NorthDevon66

67 posts

81 months

Monday 3rd July 2017
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Yep, insects have taken a big hit over the past few decades.

Can't help that we are destroying large tracts of the countryside to make way for wimpy houses for our expanding population.

Successive governments have done a spectacularly useless job in protecting the 'british way of life'.

jmorgan

36,010 posts

283 months

Monday 3rd July 2017
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Quite a few out on the nature reserve and down the lanes, including hornets. We usually get a good few in the garden but not many yet. The Lavender we have usually has the bumbles coming in thick and fast and it is just starting to flower, hopefully they keep the bees in business again this year.

Sorting out an area of the garden for wild flowers but not finished it yet. Idea is, wait for it.................wild flowers. All insect friendly with e few insect houses dotted around.

Not a big garden but every little helps.

Plums will probably get wasps in but what the heck, natures assassins. Just don't be around in August.

Snubs

1,166 posts

138 months

Monday 3rd July 2017
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If you're looking for statistics, analysis and long-term trend data, your best bet is the Butterfly Conservation Trust reports:

http://butterfly-conservation.org/1643/the-state-o...

Mr GrimNasty

8,172 posts

169 months

Monday 3rd July 2017
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I've seen loads this year, more weather dependent than anything else. A few varieties can be seen over long periods but most have a particular window, so it you don't happen to be looking/go for a walk at just the right time you get the impression there are not many.

Couldn't move for marbled whites last week, few days from now you won't see any.

http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/flighttimes_by_date...

In my experience Buddleia is misnamed aka Butterfly bush and indeed some colour varieties aren't attractive to butterflies at all, and those butterflies that are attracted tend to be the later season or all year varieties.

Boosted LS1

Original Poster:

21,167 posts

259 months

Monday 3rd July 2017
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But usually when you look at a buddleia you'll see torts and peacocks and the occasional red admiral. There are lots of buddleia's around here and nothings feeding on them. I know red admirals migrate but torts and peacocks often winter over. I know a country lane with a selection of ancient hedgerow/plants. It's usually got an extensive selection of species. I'll go next week to see what's feeding on them.

Mr GrimNasty

8,172 posts

169 months

Monday 3rd July 2017
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I've seen a smattering of both so far.

It's the off season for adult Peacocks at the moment, and a second later batch doesn't always occur - weather again - I think they are extending their range so not in danger really.

And most Red Admirals you see are migrants so again very weather dependent if they make it here or not, and although you can even see them just about anytime of the year - the odd one on a mild winter's day even, they really peak in late summer/autumn in my experience gorging on rotten fruit juices.

Pesty

42,655 posts

255 months

Tuesday 4th July 2017
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No idea what I've seen but on recent walks noticed quite a few.

Not something I remember seeing before or something I particularly look for. Quite a few buzzing around or landed in front of me as I walked.

MisterTee

319 posts

108 months

Tuesday 4th July 2017
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Here's one I took on my phone on Sunday whilst out walking.

Andy


Mr GrimNasty

8,172 posts

169 months

Wednesday 5th July 2017
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MisterTee said:
Here's one I took on my phone on Sunday whilst out walking.

Andy

Looks a bit dog-eared, who would break a butterfly on a wheel!

Boosted LS1

Original Poster:

21,167 posts

259 months

Wednesday 5th July 2017
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It's probably wintered over. Good news is I had a 'new' one in my garden/yard today and about time. ;-) I had one a few years ago that was so tatty and moth eaten you could see right through it's wings and it couldn't fly :-(

Evoluzione

10,345 posts

242 months

Friday 14th July 2017
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I haven't seen a single one this year, there is a feature on Jeremy Vines show about it now.

Mr GrimNasty

8,172 posts

169 months

Tuesday 25th July 2017
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Last couple of days I've seen a fair few butterflies but not close enough to positively id mostly, lots of small browns, lots of a speckled variety, and a few pristine red admirals - all just walking down the street (me, not the butterflies).

Boosted LS1

Original Poster:

21,167 posts

259 months

Tuesday 25th July 2017
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I've seen a few more of late but no Peacocks. Hopefully things will improve.

Mr GrimNasty

8,172 posts

169 months

Thursday 27th July 2017
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Another small brown, two medium sized blues, a very small blue, and another Red Admiral today.

On a a main road in town again!

Yipper

5,964 posts

89 months

Thursday 27th July 2017
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Pretty much all UK butterflies are in decline and have been since the 1970s. There is little space left for them to live, breed and eat. You can join the Big Butterfly Count that is underway in July and August 2017.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/07/13/sir-...

http://www.bigbutterflycount.org

Mr GrimNasty

8,172 posts

169 months

Friday 28th July 2017
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Yipper said:
Pretty much all UK butterflies are in decline and have been since the 1970s. There is little space left for them to live, breed and eat. You can join the Big Butterfly Count that is underway in July and August 2017.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/07/13/sir-...

http://www.bigbutterflycount.org
Yes Yipper, we know the stories in the press, it's normally part of pushing the climate change agenda - trouble is they can't get their story straight and Attenborough has no credibility left anyway.

There is no meaningful data baseline to make a judgment - however, butterflies, birds, etc., as I explained before, go through cycles of boom and bust.

These citizen science surveys are worthless, sighting butterflies and the numbers is highly dependent on a number of factors - just because you see none/none are flying does not mean there are not millions near by.

As a lifelong countryside lover with 60 years of actual experience, I can tell you, there is not a problem.

Yipper

5,964 posts

89 months

Friday 28th July 2017
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Mr GrimNasty said:
Yipper said:
Pretty much all UK butterflies are in decline and have been since the 1970s. There is little space left for them to live, breed and eat. You can join the Big Butterfly Count that is underway in July and August 2017.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/07/13/sir-...

http://www.bigbutterflycount.org
Yes Yipper, we know the stories in the press, it's normally part of pushing the climate change agenda - trouble is they can't get their story straight and Attenborough has no credibility left anyway.

There is no meaningful data baseline to make a judgment - however, butterflies, birds, etc., as I explained before, go through cycles of boom and bust.

These citizen science surveys are worthless, sighting butterflies and the numbers is highly dependent on a number of factors - just because you see none/none are flying does not mean there are not millions near by.

As a lifelong countryside lover with 60 years of actual experience, I can tell you, there is not a problem.
There definitely is a problem. One can see it with one's own eyes. Swarms of butterflies used to be everywhere until the 1990s. Today, it is the odd one here and there. Butterflies are being crowded out, especially in the southern half of the UK.

Mr GrimNasty

8,172 posts

169 months

Saturday 29th July 2017
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Gardener's World yesterday had lots of butterflies caught in shot accidentally and framed - Comma, Red Admiral, loads of browns.

Talking of bad science, Countryfile (BBC so relentless climate change agenda crap) was pushing the butterflies doomed narrative last week as well - the 'first emergent' dates for each variety were getting sooner and sooner and potentially out of syn. with food plants.

How do they 'know' this. Thank the Victorian butterfly collectors who dated their specimens. Yes, we are expected to believe a few specimens captured potentially at any point in their season equates to lots of people constantly monitoring and reporting the first appearance each year!

Now I'm sure as weather gets generally warmer they do come out at different times, but so do the host plants. Not only that, the UK has experienced vast temperature and weather related climate change in the past and the butterflies are still here. Well worth looking up books by H.H.Lamb if you want to learn how massively varied the climate of the UK has been over the last few 1000 years. It certainly puts the supposed 'risk' of modern climate change into context.

Nature always adapts, and yes, sometimes that means one species/variety dies out, but another always fills its place - nature abhors a vacuum. It is naive to thing that you can preserve the natural world in aspic, and that any change is bad.