I quote from my butterfly book:

"Since the 1930s the Speckled Wood, which had been in decline for 60 years, has expanded its range enormously and is now a common butterfly throughout the Midlands southwards, as well as in Wales, Ireland and parts of Scotland."

Don't forget to include a patch of nettles in your garden, these are especially important for the Small Tortoiseshell, another of our butterflies which hibernate over winter.

I think they came back every year. I guess it was just an old cottage and they instinctively sought out the habitat they liked for hibernating.

My parents taught me a lot about birds, butterflies, flowers, trees etc when I was really young.

It is lovely to grow up in the coutryside and learn about it

Or, perhaps like Monarch butterflies, there was an ancestral memory which caused them to keep returning to the same spot.

Do you know if the cottage is still there? Are the butterflies still hibernating there?

Welcome to Wildlife UK, Amethyst!

Kingfisher

This post was last modified: 28-06-2007 05:02 PM by Kingfisher.

The cottage is still there - but I dont live in the area now, I dont know about the butterflies.

Would be nice to think they still are, but modernisation, redecoration, or even unsympathetic new residents might have driven them away over the years.

I think Buddlea and Scabious are the faves for butterflies in my opinion, however I did have around 5 Red Admirals on an Escallonia shrub in the front garden last week! Sadly it's finished flowering now, but it was definately a hit at the time

Here's one having a feed!

I agree with Caz you can't go wrong with Buddleia , although we have bought another & it is flowering now but not a butterfly in sight.I suppose it's because of the weather. Our best time for butterflies is August when our other buddleia is absolutely covered.
I thought originally scabious was attractive to them but couldn't decide if I was imagining it but if Caz is saying that then my thought must have been right. There is one called 'Butterfly Blue' which springs to mind, named possibly because it does attract them.

This post was last modified: 11-07-2007 02:51 PM by tibbar.