[Ina]

Saw the first (for me) butterfly of the season today.

Guess what: it was a blimming cabbage white attacking my last kale plant...

But a butterfly nevertheless! 


Anybody else seen any around yet?

[ZaktheLad]

Yes - have seen a few whilst out riding the horse and a couple around the garden but quite few and far between.  Have only seen one honey bee this year so far and 1 x bumble bee  .    I am really pleased though that for the first time ever we have a pair of those little black and white birds that wag their tails(sorry, not sure of their correct name as I always call them wagtails!), nesting in our barn.    there might be some young ones hatching in due course.     

[Ina]

Wagtails is their correct name, as far as I know!

Haven't seen a lot of bees, either - honey or otherwise.

[jaykay]

I saw a small tortoiseshell the other day, and one bumblebee

Yes, those little black and white birds are pied wagtails. They arrived here (Cumbria) a few weeks ago, the grey wagtails last week.

[ZaktheLad]

What country do the pied wagtails fly from?  Always amazes me how the swallows we have in one of our old sheds return year after year from Africa. 

[jaykay]

It's another one that comes from Africa. It's amazing isn't it, them and swallows, such tiny little things.

[in the hills]

Have seen a couple of Orange tip butterflies and a few bumble bees.

[Fleecewife]

Just tortoiseshells here, but several and they've been around for about 10 days  .  Tonight will be a frost though so don't know if they will survive 
 
Just bumbles here too, but various insects doing the pollination.  We have grown plenty of nectar flowers this year which are very popular    even if they are late flowering.

[Ina]

Checked my red currant yesterday which is full of flowers - but very few of them set. Now I don't actually know how pollination works for red currants - but if they need insects then all the flowers in the world won't give me any fruit. They did say it would be a great year for fruit because of the long cold winter - but if there aren't any insects, fruit won't happen no matter how cold it was!

[ZaktheLad]

Saw a few more white butterflies today with 2 chasing each other.  Also had a honey bee in the chickens water that couldn't get out, so I got a piece of stick and it crawled on to it.  It took a little while to fly away but it soared off in to the sky after about 5 mins so I hope it will be ok.

[HesterF]

Yep, cabbage whites have been out and about for a couple of weeks round here. I've got netting up over the cabbages and only just got it done in time. There have been other butterflies but i haven't noticed specifically what they are.

I didn't realised pied wagtails migrated - I've had one helping create my pumphim patch for the last three weeks.

H