'Butterfly Emergency'

We've just ended a long spell of fine weather with 10mm of much-need rain falling overnight: our garden pond, in which I had hoped one day to see dragon and damselflies, dried out weeks ago leaving a crusty, cracked surface across which masses of buttercups are growing. It'll need much more rain before it can recover.

Such a spell of warm, almost summer weather in May should have seen the butterflies out in numbers but they've been worryingly absent. The garden of our new house, which we started planting just over a year ago, is designed for butterflies. There are masses of flowers which they should be enjoying - currently available are clover, lupins, pansies, aubretia, marigolds, daisies, verbascum and more - yet butterfly numbers have been dismal. Yesterday, on a day spent largely in the garden, I saw one white and one small copper.

It's the same on the walks we take, be they through forestry or more open landscapes. The only place where we see butterflies in any numbers is in what we've named Speckled Wood, an area of relatively newly-planted deciduous trees which is home to a healthy population of....

....speckled wood butterflies.

It's not just the numbers. The variety of species has been limited. So far this year we've seen peacocks, whites, orange-tips, red admirals, small coppers, small heaths, and a small blue.

The situation is so bad that a leading charity like Butterfly Conservation is declaring a 'Butterfly Emergency', stating that, "....more than half of our UK butterfly species are now in long-term decline."

Our contribution is to plant our garden for our butterflies but I have the feeling that, for many species, we may already be too late.