Worrying times...

Large skipper
on yellow rattle

A hot one today. By midday, too hot to work in the sun.

A meadow full of flowers. Oxeye daisy, birds-foot trefoil, yellow rattle, red campion, spotted orchid. Field scabious beginning too.

Surely optimal for insects?

But only two sightings of butterflies during the day. Singles of large skipper and speckled wood. Similarly few bumblebees.

This is part of a wider picture. People reporting significantly lower numbers of butterflies and moths.

The cold, wet weather of late spring looks to have had a  big impact on invertebrates.

The fragmentation of habitats leads to local populations being less resilient, unable to draw from other localities when populations fall. There are simply insufficient numbers.

Spotted orchid

Butterflies, moths and bumblebees are amongst the most visible of invertebrates. Can we be sure that the less-visible invertebrates have not been similarly affected?

The consequence is that populations fall and do not easily - or sometimes ever- recover.

Worrying times.