Where are all the butterflies?
Are you worried by the lack of insects this year? We're enjoying lovely sunny weather but there's hardly a butterfly on the wing in our fields. Plus some thoughts on soil health, no-dig and rhizophagy
It’s National Insect Week ( 24-30 June) in the UK, organised by the Royal Entomological Society, a week to celebrate all things insect. It’s also my favourite week on the farm as our meadows are at their best. But not this year. I don’t think I have felt quite so depressed when walking around our fields for a long time - glorious sunny weather and hardly a butterfly on the wing.
Looking back over my IG posts, this time last year I wrote: It's peak time for butterflies We have lots of meadow browns, ringlet, comma, small whites, small tortoiseshell, peacock, blues at the moment, plus dragonfly and damselflies. Plus there were videos of my lavender border in the garden with clouds of meadow browns on the wing.