• It's a 'white-out' in the cabbage patch

    It has been a funny old year for butterflies - after a very slow start in spring, we seemed to have a bumper summer, but species such as Red Admirals still seem to be in very short supply.

    One group that appears to have done very well is the whites. I don't know if you've experienced the same, but they seem to be fluttering everywhere this year.

    They tend to get lumped in the public's mind as 'cabbage whites…

  • Bravo for insect-loving Parks' Authorities

    There are some very good and very imaginative Towns and Parks authorities out there who do the best they can with cash-strapped budgets and all the other pressures they are under to try and give wildlife a home at the same time as creating attractive looking bedding schemes.


    And I'm lucky enough to regularly see the efforts put in by Brighton & Hove. I give them my own little virtual 'Gold Medal' for what they have achieved…

  • Watch out for the sunshine butterfly

    Here's a little test for you - how many different types of yellow can you name?

    I tried this on the bus, and came up with lemon, cadmium yellow, gold, mustard and saffron before I had to switch to flowers such as daffodil yellow.

    The thing is, we have one resident yellow butterfly, the Brimstone, the males of which are kind of a buttery yellow with an acid tinge. But each year a yellow butterfly from the Mediterranean…