It has been great to get back into the gardens after a month’s absence. And it has been ‘all change’: the rains of late July provided merely a brief respite, and drought has reasserted itself, with the effect of producing an exceptionally early autumn.

Many flowers are fading, leaves are colouring, fruits are forming and even a few fungi are sprouting, including Boletus radicans. Fledgling birds like this Song Thrush are all around the garden, and there has been a steady stream of Swallows heading southwards overhead.

Of course by the ponds and in the damper corners, drought is less of an issue and here late summer is at its most luxuriant, with still plenty of aquatic insect activity, especially Ruddy Darters and Willow Emeralds.

Pride of place flower-wise must go to Bistorta amplexicaulis and Rudbeckia, side-by-side and buzzing with life, the former especially with social wasps and tachinid parasite-flies such as Tachina fera, the latter with all manner of flies and bugs like Green Shieldbug.

Plenty to see around the rest of the garden as well, including German Scorpionfly, Dock Bug, Tarnished Plant-bug and the autumnal micromoth Agriphila geniculea, with butterflies such as Small and Green-veined Whites and Commas still active when the sun emerged.

And as always, a few less common species. The Field Digger-wasp Mellinus arvensis is only thinly scattered across most of Essex, although with concentrations along the Thames bank and the gravels around Colchester. I have seen it in the gardens only a couple of times previously.

The sawfly Selandrina serva has, according to the maps, only a very few Essex localities, but this is surely down to under-recording and under-reporting of what is not a popular group among non-specialists. What is more certain is that the Spurge Bug Dicranocephalus medius is genuinely scarce in the county, with the map showing just two localities. One of those is my previous sighting in the garden in April 2024, no more than ten metres from today’s on the Rudbeckia.

And staying with the Rudbeckia, best of all was an extraordinary number of Locust Blowflies Stomorhina lunata, maybe ten in total in one small area. We found one of those in the garden back in October 2016. At the time there had been only two previous records from Essex of this distinctive fly that lives as a parasite of desert locusts. It is still believed to be entirely migratory to this country, probably from Africa, but it has certainly increased over the past decade, and there have been reports from elsewhere of much larger numbers than ever before. Look out for a blowfly with stripes like a hoverfly, a longitudially striped thorax, a protruding beak, and stripy eyes, especially in the less well marked female. Wonderful to see so many!

My July Wildside Walks around the Beth Chatto Gardens came with a backstory. Just over a week previously, we had seen an influx of insects into north-east Essex that was unprecedented this millennium. Two previous blogs cover the events of that week: I didn’t have time to get to the gardens while the influx was actively under way so we had to enjoy the spectacle from Wivenhoe Lower Lodge and Walton-on-the-Naze. In fact I have to go back to the long, hot summer of 1976 to recall such numbers…

I did however manage to get to the gardens the day after the insect blizzard and found the flowers to be dripping with hoverflies and ladybirds. In keeping with our observations from the previous couple of days, all ladybirds seemed to be 7-spots, and the hoverflies were of six main species: Eupeodes corollae, Eupeodes luniger, Syrphus ribesii, Episyrphus balteatus, Sphaerophoria cf scripta and Scaeva pyrastri.

A week later, for the walks, things had quietened down a lot. Yes, there were still many more than the (recently) ‘normal’ number of insects (aside from aphids which the hungry hordes had hoovered up), but clearly many of the ladybirds and hoverflies had either been eaten or moved on. We were in Blackpool four days after our influx, and noticed a significant arrival of ladybirds there, perhaps ‘ours’, having crossed the North Sea and pushing on, boldly going places where there might still be aphids left to eat.

As always there were some star plants, doing the heavy lifting and feeding the most insects: lavenders, marjorams, sea-hollies, buddleias, scabiouses, fennels and spurges. Anyone wanting to enhance their own garden for summer wildlife could do a lot worse than to bring in some of these, or their close relatives.

Coming as this did right at the start of the Big Butterfly Count 2025 citizen science survey, I’ll start with the butterflies. In total, fifteen species were spotted and I could have easily added another five or more had I gone searching specifically for them.

The above were just a few of those on offer but, in terms of number, pride of place must go to the Gatekeepers. They were everywhere, seeming to love the marjoram especially.

And there was much more than just the butterflies. There were of course the remnants from the previous week’s arrivals: ladybirds and hoverflies.

Then there were several other hoverflies that seemed not to be represented in the main influx such as Drone Fly and Batman Hoverfly, while tachinid parasite-flies were also noticeable, especially Tachina fera and Eriothrix rufomaculatus.

Hogweed Bonking-beetles were numerous, and not restricting themselves to their favoured umbel inflorescences, while a Black-and-yellow Longhorn beetle nibbled the Eryngium majestically, pushing aside the hoverflies as it fed.

Many different bees and wasps were active on all the favoured flowers, and more. As well as bumbles and honeys, bees included miners and leaf-cutters, solitary bees that seem to be doing well here this year, perhaps related to their being apparently fewer Honeybees dominating the floral resources. Leaf-cutters have also been busy cutting discs from leaves, like a garden Matisse, then inserting them into suitable nesting holes.

The social Common, German and  Median Wasps (two colour forms of the latter pictured here) fed alongside solitary wasps like Bee-wolf and Ornate-tailed Digger-wasps Cerceris rybyensis:

With so much action on the flowers, not surprisingly there were those hoping to take advantage, including Flower Crab-spiders and Blue-tailed Damselflies, ‘sit-and-wait’ and ‘in-flight’ predators respectively. And with all that going on up top, our attention was rather deflected from the insects feeding on the leaves and stems such as this Hairy Shieldbug.

But probably the most notable thing about these walks was the number of ‘firsts’, at a range of scales. There was a first for me in this garden (although others have reported it as it has spread to our part of the world over the past five years): a Jersey Tiger moth. Another day-flying moth, albeit rather worn, was a Six-spot Burnet, probably the first garden record. And a dead Bank Vole was the first I have identified with certainty here, having not done any small mammal trapping surveys.

Three bugs were new to the garden list, although probably have simply been overlooked in the past: Nysius senecionis (just five previous records on the Tendring Peninsula, here with the small plasterer bee Colletes daviesanus for scale, showing how easy it would be to miss), Orthops campestris (only three Tendring records, all right by the coast) and Liocoris tripustulatus (widespread across Essex, albeit with records concentrated in the south of the county, which probably says more about the distribution of active recorders than the species itself!).

A Large-headed Resin-bee Heriades truncorum was the first garden record. This species has spread from being a south-eastern rarity in the last two decades, but in Essex has generally been found on brownfield sites by the Thames and west of Colchester: its two recorded localities on the Tendring Peninsula are both right by the coast. Perhaps caught up with the influx of Seven-spots, a single Adonis Ladybird (small, with spots weighted to the front half of the wing-cases) was also new to the garden list. This is found mainly in sandy areas and on brownfields sites, so in Essex it is most frequent west of Colchester and along Thames-side. Likewise the  lovely little fly Cistogaster globosa, a parasite of shieldbugs, that is found mainly in the same two areas of Essex, but rather more sparsely. And another parasite, the ichneumon wasp Ctenichneumon panzeri (if identified correctly: they are many and tricky) is recorded on the National Biodiversity Network Atlas from only 14 locations nationally, none of which is anywhere near Essex. The latter is surely down to under-recording.

But this is certainly not the case with the insect highlight of the day: two Long-tailed Blues, again probably ones that had been caught up in last week’s immigration spectacular. Not only is this a new garden record, there are only seven previous Essex sightings, and I have never before seen it in the UK. Safe to say, I got rather excited!

Although widespread in mainland Europe, Long-tailed Blue has rarely been proven to breed in this country, and its occurrence is generally the result of immigration. And so is unpredictable, irregular and always a delight. What a way to mark the first day of this summer’s national butterfly survey!

My next set of Wildside Walks are scheduled for 19 September, booking through the Beth Chatto website at 11AM or noon. Especially if we get some useful rain, I would expect the summer to continue in a similar insect-rich vein. While many of the current star plants are coming to a natural end, there are more to come. The various forms of Bistorta amplexicaulis  together with the daisy family (coneflowers, hemp-agrimonies, black-eyed-Susans and Michaelmas-daisies, for example) should prove some of the insect-feeding stars for the next two months.

I make no apologies for finishing by repeating what I have written in a previous blog in relation to this year of insect riches.

We must not let complacency set in, and stop doing all we can to save the future planet just because (unusually) there are lots of insects around. Nothing has changed fundamentally compared to last year when I was complaining of the Silent Summer. The same pesticides are used profligately. Habitat loss and fragmentation is increasing in the drive to build more houses to satisfy a ‘crisis’ promoted by housebuilder lobbyists. And climate collapse is accelerating, especially with world ‘leaders’ in thrall to big oil.

There are always oscillations around a declining trend. Last year was a trough, this looks like a peak. It may well be due to weather patterns of the last few months. And almost certainly many of the insects we have been seeing in coastal Essex are not home-bred. Thank goodness for immigration, as in so many aspects of life.

It is years like this one that give me hope though. As a conservationist over the past four decades, I have seen the continuing, worrying decline of wildlife, but I cling to hope that if nature is given the chance it can and will bounce back. It has to…

It was the day before Midsummer for the June Wildside Walks, just coming up to the peak time for insect activity. But the weather may have different ideas – a couple of months with almost no rain are starting to parch the landscape and if this continues, it may be that the high summer peak is lesser than we would hope for, especially given the busy, buzzy days we have had recently.

But for now, the floral riches are ready and waiting…

Especially in hot weather much activity centres on the ponds, and here there were four species of damselfly…

…and a couple of dragonflies: Emperors, always on the go and typically impossible to photograph, and Four-spotted Chasers, real posers and justifying the four pictures here!

On the Lysimachia round the ponds, there was a sawfly larva with a distinctive black mark on its head. This turned out to be Monostegia abdominalis, the only sawfly that feeds on this genus: although probably overlooked and under-recorded, there appear to be no previous records from Essex on the NBN Atlas. Sawflies suffer from under-recording a lot, especially as there are few good identification resources. Take Iris Sawfly, all over our waterside irises this year and very obvious, that is shown from just three spots in Essex on the NBN Atlas, a wonderful resource but only as good as the data that are provided to it!

Of course some sawflies are rather better known, especially the larvae of Solomon’s-seal Sawflies that are making their mark on our plants (our badge of honour!). And right at the moment there is a huge emergence of what may be Turnip Sawfly adults although they don’t seem to be associated with their customary food plant family, Brassicaceae.

Butterflies are rarely numerous in the ‘June gap’, but their diversity is increasing slowly. A Painted Lady pointed to recent immigration, newly emerged Brimstones, Small Tortoiseshells and Commas were on the wing, while both Large and Small Skippers, Common Blues, Meadow Browns and Purple Hairstreaks set the scene for July.

True bugs included a showy Hawthorn Shieldbug, together with large numbers of the recently arrived species Closterotomus trivialis in both its colour forms. First found in the UK in London in 2009, by 2020 it had reached our garden.

A selection of the beetles on show included a fine, warningly coloured Wasp Beetle, many metallic green Thick-thighed Beetles and (rather less welcome) a Vine Weevil…  And it seems that ladybirds have been breeding well this summer, to judge from the number of larvae, including those of Harlequin and 14-spot Ladybirds.

There were a few Common Scorpionflies flittering among the leaves in search of insect prey…

… and plenty of hoverflies, waspy ones such as Syrphus ribesii and Eristalis arbustorum and less marked species like Xylota segnis and a Cheilosia.

Moving on to the Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and ants), of course Honeybees were everywhere. One has to wonder how many other bees there would be if what are essentially livestock were not taking such a large proportion of our flowers’ resources. But  one didn’t make it: it was only when I looked at the image later that I noticed it was covered in flies, and at third glance that it was dead in the jaws of a White Crab-spider.

It is wonderful to hear the buzz of bumblebees again after the Silent Summers of the last two years. As always, Buff-tailed and White-tailed were most numerous (but with many more of the latter than last year), while Early Bumblebee and Vestal Cuckoo-bee (a species that lays its eggs in other bees’ nests) were also performing.

Solitary bees too. Whereas bumblebees and Honeybees store collected pollen in the saddlebags on their hind legs, others use the hairs under their abdomen, like this leafcutter Megachile on Cistus, and the mason bees on white Galactites.

Mining bees are also very important pollinators, but very had to identify: the ones here may be Andrena minutula, bicolor and flavipes.

Solitary digger wasps didn’t want to be left out of the picture either. These generally feed insects, especially caterpillars, to their developing young, but the adults require nectar: Cerceris rybyensis and Ectemnius continuus were foraging from the nectar-glands of  Euphorbia.

Campanula latifolia was a particular focus of pollinator activity. I was photographing (probably) a Gwynne’s Mining-bee deep in the flowers, but again only on examining the photos on the computer did I realise that it had been photobombed by something even more interesting: a Campanula Carpenter Bee, a first for the garden, and only rather thinly scattered across the county.

And our bee hotels were simply buzzing with life! It was an absolute delight to be immersed in so many insects in every part of the Gardens.

Depending on the weather, this summer could go either way from here. If drought persists, the promise of early summer may fizzle out, but if rain comes (within reason) we could be in for a bumper few months. And there are certainly the flowers coming along to help support such an abundance:

The next couple of Wildside Walks are planned for 18th July. If you are interested in joining me, please book through these links – 11am and 12am. And if moths are something you would like to know more about, there’s our Moth Morning the following day…

Hopes were high for a bumper haul on the night before the solstice, with the nighttime temperature falling no lower than 19 degrees. And as we opened the trap it was clear that our group was in for a great time…

Everyone’s favourites of course are the hawkmoths. The colour was provided by fifteen Elephant Hawks and half a dozen Small Elephants, and the awe-inspiring size (and weight) by the single Privet Hawk. This took a liking to Jude, and a few seconds after she released it safely into a bush five metres away, it flew straight back, landed on her shorts, and stayed there for an hour. Must have known it was safe from an over-attentive Robin!

Cinnabars, Rosy Footmen and a couple of Brimstone Moths contributed to the wonderful kaleidoscope of colour …

… while Burnished Brass, Buff Tip and Buff Arches added metallic reflections, incredible camouflage and intricate designs.

And just a few others to show the huge range of colour and form, and their wonderful names: Peppered Moth, Clouded Border, Scorched Wing, Angle Shades, Treble Brown-spot, Small Waved Umber, Lackey, Beautiful Hook-tip and Common Emerald:

Apart from moths that normally live in the surrounding vegetation, it is also possible to catch species from afar whose migrations may bring them from far-flung corners of the continent. The L-album Wainscot and Delicate are both examples of moths that until recently were considered to be exclusively migrants to the British Isles, but may now have developed breeding populations. So whether the ones we caught were migrants or residents we shall never know.

Even smaller moths are interesting. Some of the smaller macromoths included Green Pug, Short-cloaked Moth and Festoon, the latter a scarce south-eastern species associated with ancient woodland and veteran trees.

Micromoths often slip under the radar because of their size, or are ignored because they are difficult or impossible to identify without killing them first, something we would never do. But some are as large or larger than the smaller macromoths, like the European Corn-borer, Archips podana and the aptly named Beautiful Chinamark. The latter is not only a new record for the garden, it is only thinly scattered through Essex and one of the few moth species whose caterpillars live underwater, feeding on our water plants.

Many micros though are smaller, and arguably less distinctive, though some like Argyresthia brockeella, only 5mm long, can only be described as spectacular. And then we get to the smallest of all, a minuscule 2.5mm long, the leaf-miners whose tiny caterpillars feed between the upper and lower surfaces of a leaf. There are many of them: this one is Ectoedemia subbimaculella whose larvae feed in oak leaves.

As well as moths, the trap also attracts other night-flying insects. These included water beetles and caddisflies, aquatic insects perhaps misinterpreting the light as moonglow reflecting of a pond, together with an Orange Ladybird, a mildew-feeding species that I had not previously found in the Gardens.

In total we recorded 100 species of moth (31 micros and 69 macros) with an estimated haul of  some 400 individual moths, the best such event we have run here in the past four years. The full list can be found at this link: bc-moths-june-25

All that and the chance to spend a little time taking in the beauty and tranquility of the garden before the gates are opened.

And never fear, after the group dispersed to enjoy the gardens’ delights more fully, we set about releasing the moths safely into vegetation, away from the attentions of a very inquisitive Robin, and another chance to spread the magic of moths among unsuspecting garden visitors!

If you are interested in joining one of these mornings, the next is on 19th July (booking at Marvellous Moth Morning – Beth Chatto’s Plants & Gardens) and keep an eye on the Beth Chatto website for future events next year.

It was a pleasure to recommence my Beth Chatto Gardens wildlife walks for visitors a few days ago. The sun was shining, and at least when sheltered from the chill north-easterly breeze, the garden was buzzing with both people and insects!

Perhaps the greatest insect activity was around the ponds, with marginal vegetation full of resting Alderflies, flittering Small Chinamark moths (moths with uniquely aquatic larvae), a couple of dashing Broad-bodied Chaser dragonflies and everywhere, damselflies: resting, flying and mating. There are now three species on the wing, Large Red, Blue-tailed and Azure Damselflies, leaving their exuviae – the empty nymphal shells – on the leaves of marginal plants like Bogbean.

Overwintering butterflies are all but over, with only a female Brimstone and a couple of  Red Admirals seen during the morning. But spring emergers, like Holly Blues, Orange Tips, Green-veined Whites and Speckled Woods put on a good show…

… and there were several Green Hairstreaks among the pondside foliage, some by now looking very battered, although others in full iridescent green glory. A Painted Lady haunted the Reservoir Garden, perhaps presaging a good immigration year for them, and in the same area a vibrant, fresh male Common Blue ushered in a shard of summer.

During the daytime, it is possible to see both day-flying moths and night-flyers that have been disturbed from their place of shelter. The latter group was represented by a Water Ermine, almost pure white, a scarce moth in Essex found in wetland habitats especially in the north-eastern coastal fringes. And lovely day-flyer was a Small Yellow Underwing, more widespread inland in grassy places, but always a delight to see. Both are new species for the gardens, I believe… just a pity that both avoided being photographed!

No such problem with the caterpillars though, here a single Brown-tail, Mullein Moth on the Verbascum and seemingly everywhere on Euonymus, festoons of silk and associated defoliation from Spindle Ermine larvae. It looks dramatic, but the Spindle bushes will likely not be killed, and the moth may not reappear next year…

And looking at the few remaining Spindle leaves, I was pleased to find a new gall for the garden, a leaf-roll made by Spindle Leaf-edge Mites Stenacis euonymi. Not only new for the garden, but according to the National Biodiversity Network Atlas distribution map, scarce in the county with the only other Essex records coming from Hatfield Forest in the far west. As so often though, this might reflect under-recording rather than genuine rarity.

So much to see at every turn. A bunch of bugs (Cinnamon, Hairy Shield-, Green Shield- and Dock Bugs, plus the plant bug Harpocera thoracica)…

… the first nymphal Dark Bush-crickets I have seen this summer…

… a couple of soldier-beetles, Cantharis rustica and C. livida …

… and much, much more.

And finally, a trio of interesting  sawflies, a group of wasps without a ‘wasp-waist’ that have caterpillars that munch leaves. At rest on Iris leaves, there were Iris Sawflies, parents of the larvae that will be eating a raggedy hole in the leaf-blades in a month or two. The second, with a distinct black mark on its forewings, might well be the Dark Birch Fusehorn Arge fuscipes, a black species recorded at only 22 sites nationally. And then there was the red-tinged Tenthredo (probably T. colon, though some are very hard to tell apart). This was eating an Alderfly, interesting behaviour indeed: I had no idea they were predatory, joining our army of friends maintaining balance in the garden. I am used to seeing related species in showy flowers, but it seems that some at least may not be taking nectar as I assumed: they may equally be lying in wait for other insects to arrive. I learn something new every time I visit. And again, this seems not to be a common species (the NBN map shows no Essex localities), although the under-recording caveat certainly applies here.

This summer is already shaping up to be a good one for garden wildlife, with insects more obvious than the same time last year, although we could do with some rain before an intense drought sets in!

On top of all this, Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and Robins were in full song, together with single Greenfinch, Goldcrest and Cetti’s Warbler, the latter being the first time I have ever heard the species around our garden. The new records keep on coming in!

The next couple of Wildlife Walks are planned for 20th June. If you are interested in joining me, please book through these links – 11am and 12am. And if moths are something you would like to know more about, there’s our Moth Morning the following day…

Three weeks since I last managed to get to the Beth Chatto Gardens. And three weeks at this time of year is a very long time. Especially after some lovely sunny weather, interspersed with cool easterlies and a couple of decent showers, Spring has been comprehensively erased from the scene, with just the late species tulips and anemones in the Gravel Garden hanging on.

So many flowers now coming into their own, almost all providing nectar and/or pollen to feed our insects, the garden is simply stunning…

And the fresh green leaves are both basking spots for warming up and food for the next generation of some: it was an emergence day for Solomon’s Seal Sawflies… but despite last summer’s defoliation, the plants have sprung anew. A lesson for all who might be tempted to turn to the poison sprays. Another sign of our approach to gardening with wildlife in mind is the number of Song Thrushes we have, two or three pairs where give years ago there were none, testament to our avoidance of molluscicides.

For no apparent reason, one individual plant was the focus of bug biodiversity today: a single Helleborus argutifolius was home to half a dozen Green Shield-bugs, two Hairy Shield-bugs and a Rhopalus subrufus scentless plant pug (named to reflect the fact that the related shield bugs aka stink bugs, often emit smelly defensive chemicals.) None of these were noticed elsewhere, and none have known dependencies on this plant, so why it was such a star is one of those delightful mysteries of nature.

In an hour round the garden, there were six species of butterfly, here Large and Green-veined Whites, along with Brimstone, Orange Tip. Peacock and Speckled Wood. Sadly no Green Hairstreaks – my favourite butterfly – often quite abundant from now until mid May, though they have been reported by the gardeners over the last ten days.

And in another sign that summer is icumen in, today saw my first local damselflies of the season, as always Large Red Damselflies, resting on the pondside foliage having just emerged from their aquatic nymphal life.

The starting gun of summer has been fired, and that will be reinforced over the forecast heatwave in the next few days. Do come and see what our garden can offer:  plants, wildlife, tea and cake! All my events are listed here Beth Chatto Gardens – activities and events | Chris Gibson Wildlife, including this coming Bank Holiday weekend. Exceptionally, the garden is open both Sunday and Monday, and among the many special activities planned, on Sunday you can find me in the Nursery at 11am, 1pm and 3pm talking about ‘Gardening for Wildlife’.

Reduced price entry tickets are available online: Entrance – Beth Chatto’s Plants & Gardens