Garden Butterfly Review 2023

12 Species were recorded in the garden during 2023, which is below the average of 13.05 taken from the last 21 years. 

 The Red Admiral had a particularly good year and was recorded in 7 of the 12 months, the first being 27th March and the last 4th November. 

 The shock of the year was a sighting over a couple of days of a Brown Hairstreak. This was seen on the 28th July and is a first for the garden. See the photograph above. 

 On a more negative note, there were no sightings of a Small Tortoishell. 

 As expected July was the busiest month with 9 species seen. The first species of the year was a Brimstone on the 15th February and the last species of the year was a Red Admiral on the 4th November.

Garden Moth Review 2023

7 new Species were recorded in the garden this year, giving a total of 353.

The highlight being a Clifden Nonpareil seen on the 10th October. Photograph above.

The number of Species seen this year was down somewhat compared to last year. This was in contrast to the number of individuals which was up by more than a hundred. The trap was not put out as many times overall, but it was at least out monthly. Data follows:

2022 = Species 103. Individuals 306. Trap Out 15 times.

2023 = Species 88.   Individuals 401. Trap Out 12 times.

Averages over 13 years:

Species 93.85. Individuals 379. Trap Out 12.54.

The most numerous Moth this year was Heart and Dart seen 37 times. This was quite an increase on last year where it was seen 11 times. The big shock was the Box-tree Moth. This was the 3rd most numerous with 25 individuals. Willow Beauty had a good year with a count of 12 (record) making it the joint 9th most numerous.

Overall since 2005, the Light Brown Apple Moth is still the most common one in my garden with a count of 458.

Garden Moth Review 2022

The above photo is of a Toadflax Brocade, which was attracted to my MV light trap on 25/05/22. This was one of 11 new species for the garden this year. Other highlights were a Convolvulus Hawk-moth on 13/08/22 seen in the evening nectaring on my Sylvestris alata plants.

Overall, this year was rather disappointing compared to reports from other moth recorders. No.of individuals seen = 306 which is well down on the average of 377, considering the trap was put out on 16 nights (average 12.67). No.of species seen = 104 which is just above the average of 94.42.

Light Brown Apple Moth was the most numerous species recorded with 16 individuals, and still remains overall the most common moth since 2005.

Heart and Dart, Dark Arches, Large Yellow Underwing, Lesser Yellow Underwing and Square-spot Rustic are all species that are on a downward trend in my garden.

My total species list for the garden now stands at 349.

My life list now stands at 426.

RSPB Garden Birdwatch 2022

To take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch this year you had to simply choose an hour between the 28th and 30th of January. I did mine on Sunday the 30th between 08:00 and 09:00.

My peak counts gave me a total of 29 birds of 8 different species. Both these numbers were below the averages since my recording began in 2001 (34.7 and 10.4 respectively).

The list is as follows:

Starling (8) : Woodpigeon (7) : House Sparrow (5) : Black-headed Gull (3) : Blue Tit (2) : Blackbird (2) : Robin (1) : Pied Wagtail (1).

With the general decline in many bird species, it is sometimes difficult to find any positives. However, Starlings are just about holding on and are showing a slight upturn in numbers. Even better news is that House Sparrows have actually increased after a real slump between 2017 and 2020. See the attached graphs.

The finch situation looks pretty dire with no Goldfinches for the 3rd year running, even though a couple do turn up periodically. Chaffinch and Greenfinch have now completely disappeared.

Garden Butterfly Review 2021

Over the last 19 years I have recorded the different species of butterflies seen in the garden each month. I do this by noting the first day of each month a species appears.

This year 14 species were seen which is just above the average of 13.

A notable sighting and a first for the garden was a Brown Argus (see photographs above) seen on the 6th August. The other uncommon species was a Small/Essex Skipper seen on the 18th July. On a negative note Small Tortoiseshell did not appear this year.

Small White was recorded in 5 and Peacock in 4 of the months.

As expected July and August were the busiest months with 8 species each seen. However, in June there were no butterflies noted.

The first species of the year was a Peacock seen on the 22nd March.

Garden Moth Review 2021

As a casual moth-er, my MV Robinson trap was dusted off for 13 garden appearances this year (once a month & twice in March). This resulted in a fairly average year for me with 111 species and 461 individuals.

14 new species were recorded including Pine Hawk-moth, Cloaked Carpet, Gypsy Moth, Brown-tail and Hoary Footman (Photograph above).

Garden Grass-veneer was the most numerous species with a total of 53 (record). Elephant Hawk-moth was No.2 with 28 (record).

Small Quaker made a return at No.9 with 11. This hasn't been in the top 10 since 2011, but is still a long way off the record set in 2010 with 53.

Others that had a poor year were Large & Lesser Yellow Underwing, Lunar Underwing, Square-spot Rustic and Common Quaker.

A big shout out must go to the Micro Tachystola acroxantha, which came in at No.8 with a count of 12.

Since 2005, Light Brown Apple Moth is by far the commonest moth recorded here, followed by Heart and Dart.

I still haven't recorded the Clifden Nonpareil moth, which seems to be getting quite common in Berks, Bucks and Oxfordshire. Still there is always 2022 

RSPB Garden Birdwatch 2021

The watch this year could be done over the weekend of the 29th, 30th and 31st January. I did mine on Sunday 31st when the weather looked more favourable. A total of 15 species was recorded, which is above the average of 10.5 for my garden. The total number of birds seen was 32, which is slightly below the average of 35.

The list is as follows:

1 Blackbird       : 8 Black-headed Gull

2 Blue Tit          : 2 Carrion Crow

1 Dunnock        : 1 Feral Pigeon

2 Great Tit        : 2 House Sparrow 

2 Jackdaw        : 1 Magpie

1 Pied Wagtail  : 1 Robin

4 Starling           : 1 Wren

3 Wood Pigeon 

Highlights were 2 Carrion Crows as these have never been recorded during a watch before, and the 8 Black-headed Gulls. Both these species were feeding on bread that I had thrown out onto the lawn.

Lowlights were the lack of birds feeding on the pole feeders this year. No Goldfinches for the 2nd year running and no Greenfinches for the 5th year running.

There have been no Chaffinches seen since 2013. Starlings had a poor year also with only 4 seen compared to the average of 12.

Attached are some graphs highlighting the decline of some of the species