Butterflys

[dustypuss]

Where have all the   butterflies 🦋 gone 

[davebro3]

to a spelling BEE ?😁

[sandyRoe]

Good question.  I've only seen one Cabbage White this year and no Ladybirds.

[dustypuss]

And on the serious side. I must have only seen a handful upto now. I have a Budleigh bush that has  just come into flower and not 0ne butterfly. 😕

[davebro3]

Apart from a brief spell it's been a bit cold & wet lately. Can't recall having the heating on in July before!

[ladybirder]

Sorry to have to tell you this but it is because lots of them are now endangered in this country!!

https://butterfly-conservation.org/red-list-of-butterflies-in-great-britain

 

[Tilly2]

Don't plant anything in your garden that isn't pollinator friendly.

I don't.

[ladybirder]

Me neither Tilly. butBig part of the problem is so many people have paved over their front gardens to make a parking place for their car.

[jourdain2]

Probabluy hiding from the rain, like the bees.  I have planted bee/butterfly-enticing plants for years now (my lavender hedge in the front garden is gorgeous) but whilst I had early bees/butterflies  on my chives and other herbs a couple of months ago - now there are practically none.  

I spotted just 2 bees on the fully-flowering lavender yesterday.  It's so cold and damp though that we cannot smell it as we usually could when we came in.

I'm told by experts that it is the weather and that they (bees etc., not experts) will recover .... not convinced......

[Maydup]

They are either sheltering from the wind and rain of this summer, or have perished. 
 

Last week on one of the very rare warm days, I saw a Swallowtail, which was a treat beyond treats. (Norfolk Broads) it supports my theory and hope therefore that they are sheltering and just waiting as we all are, for a late summer.

[ladybirder]

Jourdain and Maydup, have you read my link at 19.33?

[Maydup]

Indeed I did Ladybirder; it's very sorry state of affairs.

But it doesn't tell us where our common butterflies have gone this year. Red Admirals, Gatekeepers, Peacocks etc which I imagined the OP was referring to. 

[dustypuss]

I was just referring to butterflies in general.  I did see one sulphur flutter past yesterday.  Ps are the mothes effected  as well.

[Chipchopper]

It's only when I see one, that I realize how few there are this year.

I've planted many kinds of pollinator attracting plants but the butterflies and moths are still drastically low, and I've noticed this decline over the last few years.

[ladybirder]

I don't think they've gone anywhere Maydup, there are fewer of them and many of those that are here have not been breeding.  I love to see them and this saddens me.

[Hazlinny]

Maybe they have gone to Finland?  Photos received today show three beautiful, coloured ones ... taken in Helsinki.

[dustypuss]

Is there a breeding program. Or can you buy catapiler lava like fishing maggots. That probably sounds daft.

[ladybirder]

Perhaps we could learn from Finland Haz and replicate their conditions.