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August brought in butterflies

Flutters of butterflies have been enjoyed in this Perthshire garden. I am delighted, especially as I keep reading on other blogs that sightings have been low this year. I’m happy to report butterflies are thriving up this way. This past week has seen the most Peacocks I’ve ever seen at any one time with five at one point – that I could see anyway. Other species visited with them too. For other areas this may be a small number but it’s definitely up for here.

The Buddleja ‘Buzz’ series bush in my front garden and a smaller one in my back garden (both white flowering) have attracted a least 3 species at any one time. Bees have joined them too. What fun it has been to count them all and record these sightings in my diary. The only downside to this bush is that it has outgrown the space having grown taller and wider than it was listed to be by the grower. I need to address that issue come Autumn.

I do hope other gardens have seen a boom in butterfly sightings and species this last week of August too. Please do share your sightings in a comment. I’ve been out with my camera collecting many photos and some of my favs are below. We had a dragonfly first this past month too. September is shaping up to be a fluttery one, let’s hope we get spells of sunshine for it to continue as long as possible 🙂

Drumstick allium (sphaerocephalon) is a magnet to bees and all butterflies including this Small Tortoiseshell, seen on August 13th.

Sunny front border with good mix of flower types proving a busy feeding spot
to a wide range of pollinators, area behind buddleja bush, August 24th.

Hugging the ground, a low variety of gypsophila ‘Festival Pink’, new planting earlier this year, is adding a great froth of flowers for smaller pollinators.

No surprises to which pollinators are enjoying the edging strip of lavender 🙂

Verbena bonariensis ‘Lollipop’ is partially shaded by the buddleja,
still it was spotted by Small White butterfly on August 24th.

Peacock butterfly, August 26th, spotted sunning itself on patch of dry earth.

Common Darter dragonfly surprise, pond path August 15th, a garden first!

Red Admirals led the charge in butterfly visitors for 2016, great to see this one feeding on a fresh Japanese Anemone flower, August 26th.

The Painted Lady finally arrived on August 26th and has become a regular since.

So far, only one Painted Lady has been seen at any one time – are more visiting?

A sunny edge on the birdbath attracts a Peacock butterfly on August 27th.

A worn and tattered Peacock butterfly catches my camera lens!

Folded butterflies, especially on windy days like yesterday, August 29th,
reveal pretty underside patterns like the ones on this Red Admiral.

Seeing as Painted Lady sightings are always special and not seen
every year here, this post needs to end with another image of it.
Fingers are now crossed for Comma butterflies in September 🙂

This post was published by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in August 2016.

8 thoughts on “August brought in butterflies

  1. Still only the white butterflies and the occasional brown caught out of the corner of my I eye and the fire on identified. Our buddleias are just about finished flowering somany butterflies that arrive later will have missed the bounty.

  2. The lack of butterflies here in NE Essex this year is unreal. Other than the perennial cabbage whites, that are clearly hardier than the other species, I have only seen 2 non-white butterflies since March and I have spent many hours in the garden everyday since March. There are buddleias galore around the garden and they are butterfly free. The 2 coloured butterflies were a small blue and one painted lady. No skippers, no heaths, no peacocks, no red Admiral, no tortoiseshells. Terribly sad.

  3. I'm afraid August wasn't a good month for butterflies here in Devon, not many at all.We managed to spot the tiny common blue, a few peacocks and red admirals. While painting a bench, the Jersey Tiger Moth came and sat on it for a bit, a dry bit , thank goodness! Yesterday we had lots of tiny brown ones which were too quick for me to identify, oh yes and a few speckled woods too, but so far no fritillaries, commas, tortoiseshells or ringlets unfortunately, and definitely no painted ladies!

  4. Unfortunately I've not been able to spend much time in the garden recently Shirl but have enjoyed reading about and seeing your flutterby visitors. I did have a close encounter with a dragonfly the other day which whizzed past my nose and made me start 🙂

  5. What beautiful jewels in your garden. I love that dragonfly. I sometimes have a black dragon in the garden but nothing this colorful. Fun fun.

  6. Hello again to you all, thanks for visiting and leaving your comments. No butterflies here now with my late reply on November 1st 🙁

    Janneke, thank-you, they make great subjects for the lens, I am lucky there 🙂

    Sue, that’s been a shame re 2016 butterfly sightings for you in Yorkshire. Now, on November 1st my buddlejas are past too, so no sightings on ground level. I do wonder if any visit the ivy on top of my pergola that is currently teaming with bees and other insects. They must do, however temps now dropping more so I suspect that butterfly visitors for 2016 have come to an end – I’d love to be proved wrong though 😉

    Jade, gosh, terribly sad indeed down in NE Essex especially when you have been on the lookout and have food plants in your garden for them. Wishing you a healthier butterfly year for 2017.

    Pauline, gosh, August in Devon wasn’t a good butterfly month either? Shame you missed the painted lady and a lot of your regulars didn’t appear – sounds like you’ve a fantastic variety of species on a good year, congrats there 🙂

    Anna, that’s a shame, I hope you have been able to get out gardening over the last couple of months (as I have). I need to get back to blogging about mine. That must have been a fun encounter with the dragonfly!

    Lisa, that’s exactly what the splashes of colour are aren’t they. That dragonfly was indeed a big surprise this day – I had no idea they would ever be seen in my garden! A Black dragon sounds fun to me! Although not half as fun as your flying squirrels – I wonder if they are still visiting your garden or do they hibernate?

    Karen, thank-you and welcome! Sorry to hear you too have missed the painted ladies for 2016, fingers crossed 2017 is a better one where you are 🙂 I appreciate you taking the time to comment, my replies aren’t normally this embarrassingly late. I have continued to take photos from my garden throughout September and October but working in it and other commitments have kept me from blogging about them. Hopefully I’ll get back blogging soon. Tonight, here, is a start 🙂

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