Leg Up For...

[Chipchopper]

the butterflies & moths.
I noticed that my Buddlea bush is just beginning to come out in bloom,this morning. So I'm hoping this will attract more butterflies, bee's etc into the area, hover flies seem particularly scares this year, so I've allowed some areas of the lawns un-mown and introduced some wild flowers to become established.
The birds seem to be having a good year for raising chicks, robins, g s woodpeckers, great tits have done particularly well!.

[woofgang]

I do no mow May and yes, leave corners never mown and unweeded. I have to be a bit thoughtful of the neighbours though and dead head things like nettles ands the sow thistle that I grow for my tortoises. Oddly although I get a good selection of butterflies, they aren't interested in my buddleias. I get loads of bees and wasps too but my bug htels stand empty! BTW its suggested that buddleias are deadheaded once the flowers fade . Apparently the seed is not attractive to birds and it can be a pernicious weed in surrounding gardens and in the wild. Yes a good year for chicks of all kinds. I do feed them and put water out but my fruit bushes get pirated so next year I am going to have a proper fruit cage. I will still grow some things outside of it for the birds and my amelanchiers and rowans supply generously but I'd like some for myself! This autumn's other job is to turn out the pond. The heron cleared me out once too often so i took off the net and left it open to wildlife. Numpty that I am, I forgot about leaves and its pretty choked up. Still plenty of wildlife enjoying it but the loosestrife has gone wacko so big clear out once it has flowered.

[iluvmargie]

There haven't been as many butterflies here as there were last year (remember the Painted Ladies?). My buddlea bush was covered last year for the first time in years, but I'm not expecting the same this year, unfortunately.

[Chipchopper]

Woof, is that the yellow loosestrife or the purple one, I think the latter is the better.

Iluv, I hope they return in similar numbers, like before.
I'm a firm believer in the "build it and they will come" school of thought.

[iluvmargie]

By now though Chip, we'd already been inundated with Painted Ladies, the lovely things were everywhere.

[iluvmargie]

I've just checked, we may not see their like again for another 10 years - amazing.

[tamborine]

Noticed flocks of blackbirds in fields, are they starlings gathering?

[iluvmargie]

Probably, they do gather in large flocks.

[Chipchopper]

Yep, could be a starling Murmeration.

[tamborine]

They dont stop to settle but just fly over fast. There are water troughs but they dont stop for drinks. Where/how do they feed?

[Vagus]

We’ve had lots of bees of various types but very few butterflies, quite a difference from last year when there were soooo many butterflies.

[Chipchopper]

Starlings, once common and wide spread, have become rare in many places but remain fairly strong in small pockets. I don't see them at all now.
I think they come back to feed in the same places, if they know where it is. I think the lack of leather jackets (crane fly larvae) has a lot to do with it.

[woofgang]

Its the purple loosestrife. I have got a family band of starlings who live in and around my garden. They are very tame and cheeky even though I have got a dog. Mind you all the birds who come to feed here are tame around people.