Where are all the butterflies? After 10 years of wilding, my garden has never been fuller of nectar, long grass and plants such as ivy and buckthorn, which are caterpillar food plants for certain species.
The scabious, knapweed and buddleias look glorious. But this is a bad dream where I’m hosting a party and no guests have turned up: most flowers are bereft not only of butterflies but bees, hoverflies, beetles and other once-frequent flyers.
On pristine nature reserves such as Foxley Wood and Hickling Broad in Norfolk, I’ve still seen decent numbers of butterflies.
But those in our neighbourhoods, in our daily lives, have vanished.
The summer of 2012 was statistically the worst year since records began. Like this one, it was mostly miserable, wet and sunless.
My early years at my current house were short on butterflies. Were populations in recovery after 2012? In recent years, butterflies have flourished here.
Long grass has brought in gatekeepers and a dozen or more peacocks and red admirals have graced the best buddleia. Maximum number this year? Two.
Butterfly populations naturally boom and bust, but if climate change delivers more frequent inhospitable summers – too sunless or too dry – populations won’t be able to boom between the busts.
The Big Butterfly Count continues until 4 August. Please join in. Even recording zero butterflies can augment the scientific evidence of this quiet tragedy.
