If you wish a child to get interested in nature one of the most accessible areas for a child are insects. They are everywhere and with google images and a mobile phone fairly easy to identify. For me my interest was more specific, it was butterflies.
As a child in the 1970’s I was fascinated by butterflies. My parents had a large garden in the center of Spalding just opposite the High School that was mature (the house built in 1900) and surrounded by neighbouring trees. It was rich with an abundance of plants and what we called ice plants and a laburnum were particularly attractive to butterflies.
As early as six I would catch butterflies in a net, or occasionally in a jam jar, before identifying them with my “Observers Book of Butterflies” and releasing them. This changed aged eight when I was first allowed to use a camera and instead of capturing them I photographed them, this improved somewhat when aged 10 I had my first SLR camera, a Praktika that over the next 20 years I eventually wore out taking thousands of photographs. The butterflies I photographed along with notes I started to keep give an interesting record of what I observed over time and how it changed, not just in Spalding, but also in other areas as I travelled. I will try and summarise in a chronological account here using these sources combined with my memory.
Many of the butterflies I saw were white, namely the large white and small white butterfly and occasionally the green veined butterfly which I saw both in my parent’s garden and at my grandparents at the bottom of Twenty Drove in Bourne Fen. The more colourful butterflies I saw frequently were the peacock, the lesser tortoiseshell and the large tortoiseshell. Unlike today the large tortoiseshell was extremely common, but sadly I have not seen this butterfly since 1994 in Spalding or anywhere else. The summer of 1976 saw Red Admiral butterflies appear in my parents garden for the first time in August of that year. Neither myself, nor my parents had seen this butterfly prior to this date. In 1976 I saw a swallowtail butterfly on the school field in Clay Lake Spalding, only for my sighting to be dismissed as “impossible” by the teacher I told. I have only seen a Swallowtail butterfly thrice, 1976 in Spalding, 1977 in Ely and 1992 at Wicken Fen.
1977 was the first time I saw a Painted Lady butterfly in Spalding, then a rarity to me. My observations of this butterfly both in Spalding and on the Norfolk coast became increasingly common with an observational peak around 2015. Whilst still common, I saw it less and the last two summers now I’m in Northumberland I have only seen it a couple of times this far north.
The early eighties saw an increase in seeing the gatekeeper butterfly in my parent’s garden as well as increased viewing of both the common blue and the holly blue. The Coronation Channel in Spalding would also hold the meadow brown butterfly that I started to see in increasing numbers from 1985.
In 1989 I saw and photographed my first Coma butterfly in Spalding. The wing shape threw me off and I was only certain of its identity when I had it confirmed by the entomologist at Long Sutton butterfly park. The coma on the underwing is a giveaway, but I find the less smooth shape is one I notice. Also that year I first saw the Essex Skipper at Moulton Marsh nature reserve in the Welland estuary of the Wash, this was an increasingly common butterfly that I first saw in Spalding in 1994 and in ever increasing numbers until 2017. In 1994 I bought my first house in Spalding, closer to the Coronation Channel and over the next few years made it increasingly insect friendly with lavender, roses, willow trees a holly tree and hazel amongst other plants. 2001 was a really good year for this garden seeing the following species of butterfly: Large White, Lesser White, Orange Tip, Lesser Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Red Admiral, Holly Blue, Common Blue, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Speckled Wood, Brimstone, Coma, Ringlet, Small Copper, Painted Lady, Essex Skipper and Red Admiral butterfly. The next bumper year for this garden was 2019 which saw swarms of Common Blue butterflies both in my garden and in other places, especially the Grantham canal and the limewoods of Lincolnshire. Added to the list in my Spalding garden was the Marbled White. It has to be noted in the period 2001 to 2019 (2019 chosen as it was a peak year) the Coma, Brimstone and Speckled Wood butterflies became increasingly common, but the Essex Skipper and Meadow Brown were declining certainly in South Lincolnshire. Away from Lincolnshire I did see a Chalkhill Blue butterfly in Dorset and a Wall Brown in Northumberland. 2019 saw me observe massive numbers of Common Blue throughout Lincolnshire – 2021 saw these crash by my observation.
In December 2022 I moved to Amble, Northumberland. In my garden here last summer and so far this I have a smaller number of butterflies with the Speckled Wood the most common, followed by the lessor tortoiseshell. The list of species here is: Speckled Wood, Lessor Tortoiseshell, Small White, Large White, Brimstone, Painted Lady and Red Admiral – with both of the latter seen last September.
What do you see in your garden?
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