Ladybirds, Butterflies And Warm Weather !

Lovely butterflies Louise!....we have had lots of ladybirds this past month or so....but they have not been getting in my hair....
A week off....lovely......enjoy:)))

Lovely blog louise and great photos.we are having a mini heat wave here as well, isn't it great to still be enjoying gardening weather at this time of the year,I haven't noticed the lady birds though but we're still getting butterflies

Peeing it down, up here, river upto the level of the garden, fields flooded, an 80+ year old farmer swept away into the river yesterday ( not our river, I mean the Don ) whilst trying to rescue cattle in distress......and he's not been found so I think it's curtains for him.....

Please send a bit of sunshine up our way....we need it.

;-(

Thanks girls :-)

B, that's very sad news about the farmer :-(((
I'll send some warm sun up straight away :-)

Sorry you are getting lousy weather in scotland Bscott. I'L waft a bit of sun over for you. it really is lovely here. mind you rain is forcast for tomorrow hey ho.

Lovely pics. :o)

Gorgeous Lou !!!!! Blue skies in Brum as well ! :-)) (I've already talked about the farmer on another blog.....Bless x)

Lovely pictures Louise,we've also had very warm weather
and I've been pottering in the garden feeding the birds and cleaning up after hoggies. I haven't seen hardly any lady birds this year.
Enjoy your week off.

Lovely here today as well, in London - and tons of ladybirds on my balcony, but not like you've had Louise - they'll be indoors if they get a chance - last year I kept finding them in the house during the winter.
I was in Norfolk at beginning of August and went to Sheringham for the day - terrible plague of ladybirds, had to have glasses on and something over your mouth to breath. There was a man with a yellow teeshirt in front of me and you couldn't see the teeshirt at the back, it was completely covered in ladybirds. We left fairly quickly....

But they do eat affids Bamboo !!! lol (Is that spelt correctly ?)

Lovely blog Louise, Yes loads of ladybirds here in Surrey. I went to a friends house today and the front door was covered in them amazing it is obviously a general thing.
Sorry Sue can I butt in, it's aphids.

Thankyou Doctor Bob !! I knew it was wrong, just got my p's in the wrong place !! (Not for the first time !) lol :-)))

That's ok Sue, hope you didn't mind me butting in.

Is that why they say mind your p's and q's, Sue...?'-))

DoctorBob ... I don't mind at all ! The way I look at it is that I don't know everything ... and .... if someone can help me learn, well ... thankyou ! (How long I'll remember at my age though might be another matter !! It's a girl thing Bob ! lol)
Bamboo ... hello ! ..... Never really minded much at all !! haha Are you well ??

Such a great photo of a ladybird under the purple bloom

Thanks Victoria :-)

Am I well, hmm, that used to be such an easy question to answer! Yea, I'm okay, thanks, Sue, you sound pretty chipper yourself.;-)

Think you must have all our ladybirds! I've not seen ONE single one this year.

They always remind me of those Dinky toy cars we had when we were kids, trundling along.

Its been very mild here too today Louise I have also noticed how many Ladybirds seem to be around.

If you have too many ladybirds Louise, maybe you could direct some of them across the Bristol Channel towards my garden. I haven't seen one for quite a number of years.

That's odd, Hywel, when the East of the country has been over run this year, wonder why?

None up here either! And the weather's cold very wet & windy!
Lovely blog!

Fantastic clear photos.............

I haven't seen any ladybirds today but I did see a couple of bee's on my giant Hebe!

Now how come that only a few miles up the coast Louise has ladybirds, and I haven't?? I want some. too! Moan, moan. :-((

I've seen a few ladybirds this last couple of weeks, more than all summer, we haven't got the nice weather to enjoy though :((( it was dry yesterday morning, but rain arrived in the afternoon and it's still at it (grrrrrrr)

Isn't it queer ?
An invasion of Ladybirds !!!
What have they been doing and where do they come from ??

At one stage i was sitting on the bench in the front garden and could see them all flitting through the air and landing on plants which was nice to see but when they're pitching all over 'you' ....... no :-[

no idea where they've been hiding all summer, but I'm glad they've finally arrived

WHERE are MINE???????????

Can I have some as well please Louise?
You could post some to Spritz and I Lol

You have got mine too not seen a one this year! and weather dull cloudy and cool just put the heating on. lovely pictures Louise.

Like Hywel if you've to many butterfly's send them to me, only seen one at beginning of summer.

Amazing isn't it how areas vary so widely with our wildlife ?!

We've been having loads of ladybirds also - all in our porch - huge ones!!

I'm finding them in the house now !
There are various different types around, they're not all the same !

At our daughter's in Surrey, we saw a Harlequin ladybird....I had to get my husband to catch it and get rid!

No 'proper' ladybirds here at all. :-((

What's a harlequin ladybird, Spritz? And I've no butterflies here either, not since cabbage whites 2 months ago

Bamboo, they're an invader from Asia and are an orangey colour with more spots.
They're endangering the British Ladybird because they eat other Ladybirds.

Yet another thing that has escaped my attention, then, never knew anything about this. Thanks for the info

I`ve been finding ladybirds everywhere too Louise but some are the dreaded Harlequins which I squash on site. Our poor native species will be wiped out by them. I think the warm weather is atracting them because we also have clouds of white fly everywhere.

Sandra :o)

I think the same, the warm weather's playing havoc with everything !

Those Harlequins are really bad news aren't they ?
They eat living and dead Ladybird larvae aswell as other smallish insects and you're quite right, the natives are under serious threat by them.

We all know what Ladybirds eat but what (apart from Harliquins) eats Ladybirds?

Do birds like them - or is their colour a clue there?

Heron, i wish i knew because i'd have them here, i don't want my natives disappearing.

Spritz, i don't know if birds would eat them.
As for their colour and them being a clue or not .... would birds eat the yellowy orange Pyracantha berries ?

Very interesting, we all need to find out what the Harlequin predator (right term ?) is and stock our gardens full of them/it ;-)))

ABSOLUTELY STUNNING PICS Louise.....

Thank you Oddbillie :-))))

:0)))

Yes I too noticed that you've been setting your camera to 'A' to get the narrow DoF and very well too, they're good.

The camera's set to Manual, Heron. This way i can adjust all the settings myself for shutter speed etc. etc.

One up for you Louise, I was trying to show off as I've only just learnt that bit.lol

Moving on - swiftly, do you think the Ladybirds know something we don't. The weather forecast for this week is incredibly warm for mid Nov.

Don't know Heron but yesterday there were several Ladybirds out in the front garden, at the warmest part of the day it was 22 degrees out there ....... crazy !

Our plants must be getting very confused.