Wisley Gardens

Last week, we went butterflying at Hillier Gardens, and got our second-highest species count: 14. Now Wisley Gardens are a lot bigger than Hillier .... Would that mean more butterflies? One way to find out!

When we arrived, it was quite cool, and it took almost an hour before we saw our first butterfly in one of the flower borders: a meadow brown.

However, as the sun came out and the air warmed up, more and more butterflies showed themselves.

In terms of damselflies, we walked along the riverside walk for a bit, and that gave us several banded demoiselles.

At the various ponds dotted around the garden, we saw some more damselflies, and also several species of dragonflies.

Many common darters, a few emperors, a few brown hawkers, and one migrant hawker were all actively flying around.

So .... the moment of truth: which garden won the Battle of the Gardens? It turned out to be a draw: Hillier - Wisley: 14 - 14! So that means damseldragonflies would have to be the tie-breaker, and Wisley just pipped Hillier to the post: 9-8.

Here the full species lists (one  = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):