Big Butterfly Count

-


Have you noticed that the Butterfly Conservation is asking us all to do a butterfly count this summer?


Last winter I did the RSPB bird count and it was such a shame that the woodpeckers did not put in an appearance in the hour that I was officially counting. We always have at least two in the garden, but not for the Big Garden Birdwatch. I was very tempted to put it in our count – just one – to show that it was always here but I resisted the temptation. I wish I had a photograph of the woodpeckers to prove to you that they do visit our garden.

Anyway, back to the butterflies, I have just done a count in our field. There are loads of them flitting in and out of the wild flowers and grasses. I counted 12 species in 15 minutes and apparently there are only 58 species in the UK so that is not bad and I feel rather proud. All the special ones that I have seen before put in an appearance.
Now, knowing I was going to tell you about this I went off to take a photograph to prove that our field is full of all these beautiful creatures.



This is my photograph.








Well, I am sure that you know it is notoriously difficult to take photos of wild life. It is their nature to fly off every few seconds. And I did want to show you the grass again!


I will try again with a close up this time
Here is my second try




Nearly.



I am determined to get a photo to prove that we have all those butterflies so I am taking a chair and a cup of tea into the field and I am going to sit there until I have a good picture for you.

Still no luck, as soon as I sat down with my camera they all suddenly migrated to the other side of the field.


I really did see 12 different butterflies.
Honestly.

Comments

  1. Anonymous21 October 2010 at 18:48

    Your garden looks so beautful, and so many butterflies. I haven't seen many this year.

    Birds, yes, I have lots, masses of sparrows, thrushes,blackbirds etc. I did have pair of
    woodpeckers, but they seem to have moved on.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Home from hospital (again)

-
Image
Bang, crash flash. It was not a thunderstorm but noises in my head as I gradually came back to consciousness. My operation was over and I slowly checked my senses I could hear the theatre nurse on my right, I could smell the disinfectant air, I could feel my fingers and I could see. But could I read? I remember when my mother had a brain operation (mine was not this) they asked her as she came round from anaesthetic, ‘Who is the Prime minister?’.  She knew it was Harold Wilson – not too difficult as he had quite a long stint in the job. But if they asked me the same question, I think that I could have been forgiven for not knowing because we have had so many different ones recently. In any case, my brain seemed to be working as I squinted to read a notice on the wall it said, ‘Quiet Please’, and of course all I wanted to do was to shout out in joy that it was all over. When I was waiting the long weeks before my operation, I read a poster telling me how to prepare. Lose weight (I a
Read more

The dangers of living in the country

-
I know that you might think that living in the country we do not get to see people very much. And it is true that I cannot walk out of my door and have a natter with a next door neighbour and I can’t just pop in to a cafe and catch up with friends who happen to be there. But you would be surprised how often I do meet up with friends – it’s just that you have to make more of an effort and it all has to be arranged and planned and when we do meet – we never stop taking – you see there is so much to say after only having our pets for company. Well, anyway, I am trying to tell you about what happened last night. Now the nights are drawing in we all agreed to meet up for an evening meal in our nearest town to cheer ourselves up. I offered to pick up a friend in a nearby village and drive to the nearest town miles away. What a good time we had catching up on news and ... well, just talking to a person and not a cat or bees or the like. But at the end of the evening I was dismayed to find tha
Read more

Baby sparrows fall

-
Image
We have ‘July drop’. This is not a disease, thank goodness, but something perfectly harmless that happens to apples each year. Little apples, which have not developed fully, fall to the ground. It is nature’s way of thinning the fruit naturally. Ours have been dropping for some weeks now, but this year we had frosts late in the spring and so the fruit is not too plentiful. I am hoping the drop stops soon. We are relying on our apples especially at this time when we are trying to be self-sufficient in vegetables and fruit. Two baby sparrows had July drop here too. They fell from their nest, somehow, I don’t know why. Perhaps it was a bird of prey that they were trying to escape from or the wind that broke up their flimsy nest structure. In any case, I heard their parents chirping from the trees and the nestlings soon toddled off into the nearby long grass. The ‘common’ house sparrow is not now so common, in fact it is on the RSPB red list which means that there is cause for concer
Read more