I have noticed a serious decline in the numbers of birds and insects this year (compared to last year and years previous).
Birds:
Fewer swallows and housemartins. A noticeable reduction in the numbers of wood pigeons, crows and starlings. Numbers of traditional garden birds appear to be holding up, ie normal. Numbers of green finches appears to be on the increase after the virus that decimated the numbers of the species a few years ago.
Insects:
Greatly reduced numbers and varieties of butterflies. Numbers of wild bees are greatly down compared to last year
Anyone in the UK notice a similar pattern?
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. [Albert Einstein]
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Comments
Less bees tho. A lot more wood pigeons (mostly mating in our trees!) and also saw my first kingfisher by the river next to us.
Last week I heard (and saw) a woodpecker in one of our willows which was the first time I’d seen one for a few years as well.
Across the world, more than 40 per cent of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, the analysis found. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. The total mass of insects is falling by a precipitous 2.5 per cent a year, according to the best data available, suggesting they could vanish within a century.
https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/insect-declines-are-stark-warning-humanity
Insects are part of the food chain... so quite important really!
The Housemartin's are back, I was watching them flitting around and twittering above the house and field over the back on Monday evening, feeding on airborne insects I guess. It was quite a happy hour.
I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.
I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.
In N.E.England I have had more house sparrows this year than in many previous years. The place is jumping!
The usual dunnocks, collared doves, wood pigeons, greenfinches, blue tits, coal tits, siskins,robins, starlings, blackbirds, thrushes, occasional ducks & sodding noisy jackdaws.
Fewer of the usual butterflies; small tortoiseshell, red admiral & peacocks but loads of moths, except sadly no hummingbird hawkmoths this year at all.
I reckon the prolonged cool wet winters of the last couple of years might have had an impact to the insects.
On a recent holiday in the Suffolk Coastal area, we stayed in a log cabin in the middle of a wildflower meadow, surrounded by hedgerows. I counted almost fifty different species of moth in the week we were there, including a couple of impressive poplar hawk moths, and that was without any specialist equipment. I took loads of pics.
But that's a particularly good place to go and not necessarily representative of the country as a whole. Certainly, we have noticed far fewer bug splats on the windscreen on long journeys. That's actually a pretty good indicator, and it's widely reported that this is happening everywhere.
I remember as a kid in the 70s seeing large tortoiseshell butterflies in some numbers. They're now extinct in the UK. I'm sure I'm seeing fewer and fewer butterflies, despite actively looking out for them. This year in the garden we've had holly blue, brimstone, small white, large white, peacock, red admiral, painted lady, gatekeeper, comma and orange-tip. No small torties so far this year. We have also had common blue damselflies, a banded demoiselle and what looked like an immature broad-bodied chaser dragonfly yesterday. As for moths, I've so far identified cinnabar, large yellow underwing (that one came in with the washing), rustic, common wainscot and what I'm sure was a scarlet tiger flying over the garden. Oh, and I found a large, winged Roesel's bush cricket last week, the winged ones being somewhat rare.
What's depressing is the amount of apparently common birds on the RSPB's Red List. Part of the Red List's criteria is that the species' breeding population must have declined by at least 50% over the past 25 years. That list includes starlings, house sparrows, tree sparrows and song thrushes! When you look at the amount of habitat being lost in the south east due to new housing, it's hardly surprising.
I said maybe.....
Insects, not a clue. Unless it's a wasp giving me shit, or ants getting in the house, I try to ignore them. Although we do seem to have had more flies in than normal. Probably should wash more often.