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

The period of the Spring Equinox in 2025 brought us some lovely settled, almost summery weather. At the start of the spell, there was still a chilly easterly breeze, but it was a delight to find a sunny, sheltered spot and feel the warmth and life returning to the land.

At first, insect activity was limited to queen bumblebees wrapped in their fur coats, visiting Trachystemon, daffodils and hellebores in particular.

As the day warmed, so out came ladybirds, Commas, Red Admirals and hoverflies, mostly basking to make the most of what can be rather fleeting heat at this stage of the year.

And of course, also the Honeybees: now the Crocus have gone over, it was Scilla-season, every splash of electric blue, irrespective of species, simply buzzing.

From now, the floweriness of the garden will grow rapidly, and there were signs of that in abundance:

And what would Spring be without birdsong and breeding activity. Blackbirds everywhere, a couple of singing Song Thrushes, and a chorus of Redwings, bound for Scandinavia, in sub-song. There were pairs of Long-tailed Tits scurrying busily though the hedges, and at the bottom of the Woodland Garden, a pair of Treecreepers searching for spiders in the crevices of a Silver Birch. The Reservoir held several Tufted Ducks and a noisily territorial Little Grebe; everything set against a backdrop of chanting Chiffchaffs, it will not be long before floodgates of summer migration are opened…

By way of a postscript, I was back six days later. The equinoctial heat had peaked, but some spectacular flowers had opened, not least Fritillaria persica. At this time of the headlong rush towards summer, the garden changes on a daily basis! Being a Monday, the garden was closed, one reason no doubt why we saw a lovely Fox running through the Reservoir Garden, the first I have ever seen on site.

But the real excitement of the day was that we were holding a Dormouse habitat evaluation session. One of the participants, Sue, had surveyed for them some twenty years ago, and been able to show a couple to Beth, which naturally delighted her. And, testament to the permanence of plastic, we did find several of her tubes in the bushes, which we can probably reuse this summer.

Several parts around the periphery especially  seem still to be in favourable condition for Dormice, so our hopes are high. And Sue, with her outstanding eye for such things, rounded things off nicely by finding what she thinks is a winter nest in one of the private hedgerows!

The Beth Chatto Gardens – there is never nothing new to see or hear! Entrance – Beth Chatto’s Plants & Gardens

February may be the shortest month, but also the longest when it is filled with days of grey gloom. And for us this year, a life dominated by our mission to save the iconic Wivenhoe King George Oak Tree… But March duly arrived, and on the first day of (meteorologists’) Spring, it was out to the gardens to see the changes over the past month.

It was a beautiful sunny day, with crystalline blue skies, although the air was still cold out of direct sunlight – the breeze was in the north, as it had been for months.

The Winter Aconites, so valuable to insects at the start of February were all but over, with snowdrops following rapidly …

… their place in the pollinator restaurant being taken by Helleborus, Sarcococca and Ficaria …

… and a whole lot more…

… including flowering shrubs such as Parrotia persica, Viburnum tinus, Hazel and Cornus mas.

But the real star was Crocus, especially the stands in the Gravel Garden, literally buzzing with life, with numerous Honeybees nimbly stripping the stamens of pollen and almost as many queen bumbles bending whole flowers under their weight as they fulfilled their needs. This buzz of Spring enraptured many of the human visitors, making a captive audience for me to advocate further about using our own spaces to help beleaguered wildlife.

Otherwise, insects were out a-basking, warming up in the welcome sun, including blowflies, hoverflies, ladybirds and single Box Bug and Green Shield-bug, the latter still in its brown winter garb. It will be changing soon!

The birds are getting into the spring mood too. Around the garden there were Robins, Great Tits and Goldcrests in full song, with displaying Buzzards mewling overhead. Any day now the first Chiffchaffs will be piping up, and from there it will be headlong into summer…

All this, along with flashbacks to the berries and bark of Winter, seamlessly merged with the vibrant new greens of the exciting season to come.

Everything changes so fast at this time of year, so why not visit now, and then again a week later ad infinitum. There will never be nothing new for you to see or hear! Entrance – Beth Chatto’s Plants & Gardens