'Butterflying up' the garden

Last year, we saw 16 butterfly species in our garden. Given the size of our front and back garden, I think that's a pretty decent number, and one that certainly sets a benchmark for this and future years. 

The most popular plant in the 'wild flower meadow' front garden was Verbena, which will no doubt attract butterflies again this year. We decided to add some Knautia as well as replace a dying Azalea with two Buddleia bushes (one with white flowers, one with purple flowers); can't go wrong with Buddleia, can you?

In the back garden, a single large Buddleia bush was the real butterfly magnet last year. We put pots with Liatris, Hebe, mint, rosemary, lavender, thyme and marjoram around it. Hopefully, this larger and more varied patch of butterfly plants will be even more attractive than the single Buddleia bush.

The first few garden butterflies have already been spotted: three peacocks and two brimstones. We'll see over the next half a year or so whether the additions have worked and attracted more butterflies to the garden. Fingers crossed; expect a 'Garden list 2021' post come October!

Butter, damsel and dragon plans for 2021

Last weekend our butterfly season officially started when we saw about a dozen brimstones enjoying the warm (for late February) sunshine.

Last year, it wasn't until early August that we set out on our first butterfly-spotting walk. And although we saw quite a number of species, several of which were new to us, we did miss out on the species which are active earlier in the year.

Now that 2021 butterfly season has kicked off, it's time to think ahead. Looking for information on where to find which species in our local area, I stumbled across this Butterfly Walks booklet. It gives detailed information on 25 different walks across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, indicating which species one is likely to see at each walk.

This will be really useful in helping us see the common or locally common species we missed last year. I made a list of 10 'target species' we hope to see this year. Among those are several earlier flying common species we missed (e.g. several skippers), as well as a few rarer species we tried to see this year, but were just unlucky with (e.g. silver-studded blue and purple emperor). 

When it comes to dragonflies and damselflies, we were really late; our first proper dragonfly walk wasn't until early September, so we only saw species active at the very tail end of the season. 

I couldn't find a 'Hampshire Dragonfly Walks' booklet similar to the one I got for butterflies, but did come across two web-sites, which will prove to be really useful later this year.

Hampshire Dragonflies covers Hampshire and beyond, and has a section on the New Forest, giving very detailed information on the various ponds, pools, streams and bogs, including links to maps, and with species likely to be seen highlighted. 

Dragonflies and Damselflies of the New Forest also pinpoints water bodies throughout the New Forest, with a list of the species that can be seen at each. The New Forest is said to have about three quarters of all British species, so nice to have that on our doorstep!

Like with butterflies, I've picked 10 damsel/dragonfly species to target this year. Mostly common species which we simply missed due to starting so late (e.g. broad-bodied and four-spotted chasers), but also a few more local species that I'd really like to see (e.g. beautiful demoiselle).

Twenty new butterdamseldragon species in 2021? Very unlikely we'll see all twenty target species, but we'll have fun seeing how far we'll get with those. Plus of course simply enjoying seeing the species we're already familiar with!