Garden Butterfly Review 2006

I have been recording the Butterflies that I see in the garden each year since 2003. The method I use is to write down the first day of each month that a particular species is seen and then enter the data onto a spreadsheet for year-to-year comparison.

Highlights this year must be the first ever sighting in the garden of the Lycaena phlaeas (Small Copper), which is pictured here nectaring on the wonderful Verbena bonariensis plant.

Two other records of note were as follows:
1. Pieris rapae (Small White) was seen in 6 consecutive months between April 22nd and Sept 4th.
2. Vanessa atalanta (Red Admiral) was seen in 5 of the months including Oct 1st, Nov 3rd and even Dec 30th. Surely this will never happen again !!!

In a splendid year for butterflies the major disappointment for me was the absence of Aglais urticae (Small Tortoiseshell). This is the second year running that this beauty has not been seen in the garden. In fact, I have not seen it anywhere in this locality, which surely is an indicator of impending doom. However, while walking Hadrian's Wall in July, this did seem to be one of the commonist species around, which may mean this butterfly is moving steadily northwards with climate change. Only time will tell.