Butterfly Count how many butterflies have you seen?

If there are any Butterfly Spotters in Pontarddulais, Swansea please share your information and knowledge on butterflies. The Butterfly Conservation are doing a Butterfly Count and we need as many people as possible to get involved and log all your butterfly sightings. I adore butterflies! So when I picked up the Gardeners' World, which had the very sad title "Save our butterflies," I was horrified. But on the up side this could save our School Butterfly Meadow. I believe the school butterfly meadow is the reason why I have been able to photograph four beautiful butterflies in our garden last year and why we have pretty butterflies this year. For years I would look outside in the garden searching for just one coloured butterfly with no luck. But then last year my luck changed.



The school butterfly meadow is full of stinging nettles which is the ideal food for caterpillars. It also has holly which butterflies lay their eggs on. The meadow is full of grasses and flowers which attract butterflies and bumble bees. Here are some butterflies I have photographed in the school butterfly meadow: Large Skipper, Speckled Wood, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Green-veined white and my friend who is scared of butterflies managed to photograph the beautiful Holly blue butterfly:





In a space of one week I saved two Tortoiseshell butterflies. One got stuck in our kitchen window behind the tomato plant. And the other one, poor thing had been stuck in my friends house. And she hates butterflies so the cat could have very nearly eaten it. I went round there this week got an old broom as I could not reach him and managed to get him into a glass jar and the children let him fly free.

The Red Admiral butterfly flew into our back garden yesterday and lay in the sun on the paving stones. I had just enough time to get my camcorder and film him before he flew away. My garden has no stinging nettles or holly so I believe he was born in the school butterfly meadow.

When I got to photograph the Peacock butterfly it was a very magical moment indeed. What a stunning butterfly. I am going to make sure I plant some stinging nettles and holly in our garden so we can study the caterpillars. We all ready have wooden logs on the ground, which I read in Gardener's Magazine is very good for hibernating butterflies.

As you can see in the picture below I got to photograph a butterfly cocoon right in front of the school in the butterfly meadow. If you would like to help save the school butterfly meadow and school field for the children please leave a message of hope!

Copy this picture below and hand out to all your friends and ask them to join in the butterfly count.

I hope to have a wonderful butterfly garden this year and hopefully it will attract different butterflies to lay their eggs in our garden so we can sit back and take in the beauty of nature. Counting butterflies and finding out their names is a very magical adventure for children. Make a child happy and save this wonderful fragile creature our butterfly. And any support in saving Pontarddulais School butterfly meadow and school playing field would be so appreciated! Lets give children a childhood to remember less concrete and more green grass and butterflies.

www.bigbutterflycount.org

www.butterflylullaby.co.uk  fairy songs, fairy portraits, art and crafts for children, music, fairy music, true stories, poems, children's stories, free fairy network for businesses and stay at home Mum's (Mom's)

Butterfly cocoon save school butterfly meadow

I have never seen a butterfly cocoon until today! And lucky for me I had my camera at the ready. I wonder if this is a sign of good luck which may save our school butterfly meadow from being sold off for housing? 

Over the weekend I purchased the July 2011 Gardeners World magazine because of the heading "Save our butterflies." It is jam packed full of information about all the plants you need to grow for caterpillars and butterflies to nibble on. I never knew stinging nettles were a source of food for caterpillars so I have been asking my friends if they have any they don't want. I think they think I have gone loopy lou, ha ha. Because lets face it who wants stinging nettles in their garden "butterfly spotters like me do, thats who!" Anyway, although I adore this magazine and want to treasure it forever I thought I should donate it to the school in the hope that they can find a way to save the school butterfly field. I miss this magazine already so have had to order another one! Here is some video footage of the butterfly meadow on school grounds.



For a good six years I tried planting all sorts of plants to attract coloured butterflies with no luck. That was until I found out about the butterfly plant buddleia. This plant is amazing. I have managed to photograph and video butterflies on this plant. And thanks to the magazine I now know the names of the butterflies: Peacock, Comma and Small Tortoiseshell. I have even seen small blue butterflies which are so fast you just cannot photograph them, or can you? I am going to plant some more plants that are recommended by Alan Titchmarsh and see what magical butterflies I can attract to our Butterfly Lullaby garden and fairy den.

If you want to find out more about butterflies join the Butterfly Conservation and protect our children's future as dreams can come true, but sometimes you have to fight for it! Please join the Butterfly Count and photograph and video as many butterflies as you can! And if you truly love butterflies you will find out as much information as you can to feed and look after the caterpillars and butterflies in your garden. I for one have stopped using insecticides and pesticides as it is not good for wildlife!

http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/text/4818/gardening.html

www.butterflylullaby.co.uk fairy songs, fairy portraits, art and crafts for children, music, fairy music, true stories, poems, children's stories, free fairy network for businesses and stay at home Mum's (Mom's)