Garden Butterfly Survey - November 2020

 

Those following this blog will know that I have been taking part in the Butterfly Conservation Garden Butterfly Survey this year. There is one month to go and I am not really expecting to see any butterflies in it, but who knows what December may bring.

As you can see, the only butterfly I noted in November was a Peacock. Like the Holly Blue, the Large White and the Small White, this species showed up here in a total of six different months. For this survey, the number you record refers to the total number seen at a time, rather than the total number per se.
 

UPDATE, 16 January 2021

Not surprisingly, there were no butterfly sightings to report for December 2020.

Shades of Autumn

These silver birch leaves make me think of Klimt and his beech trees.

As you can see, we have been out in our locality, breathing fresh autumn air.

 

Sunset, and home beckons. Yet over the fence the world, as so often, looks more enticing! 

The oak leaves in the photo below were almost too high for my camera, but look at the skeletal patterns, left presumably by leaf miners.

I'm not really an autumn person, but the colours and the play of light and shade are hard to resist.

Once again I apologise for the rather erratic layout: the new Blogger really is continue to fox me at times!

Garden Butterfly Survey results for October 2020

 

This is the first year I have taken part in the Butterfly Conservation Garden Butterfly Survey. I have the rest of November and December still to go, but am not expecting to see (m)any more of these wonderful insects before next spring. Looking at the chart above, I wouldn't be surprised if the year here didn't end for me in the way it began; but, who knows, I might yet be caught off guard and delighted by the flutter of small wings. 

David, meanwhile, has been recording butterflies seen on his (near) daily walks in our locality. A brief report of his first-part-of-the-year findings has just been published in The Suffolk Argus, the magazine of our local Butterfly Conservation branch. The figures prove to us just how many butterflies, and how many species, are inhabiting our suburban environment here in Suffolk. Butterfly numbers may be in a worrying decline, but we have certainly been finding that a closer inspection pays dividends when it comes to honing our observation skills.