Encourage birds and loose the butterflies?

[Susie]

I just wondered, if you encourage birds into your garden to you think it decreases the number of butterflies you will get (via predation of the larvae)?

[Tony Moore]

Hi Rosy,

I have seen both Great Tits and House Sparrows 'working the Buddleia', picking off butterflies at their leisure - until I shooed them off

Tony.

[Susie]

That's what made me think about it today, Tony, I have had similar experiences.

Obviously this time of year some birds start working in groups and clear areas of any inverts but if you are actively encouraging birds into your garden and, therefore, have more visiting then I would have thought that the invert population in your garden would be adversely affected.

This is going to be a difficult call.

[KeynvorLogosenn]

Hi all
My family put a bird feeder by my budlia. There are only bees on it now...

Mouse

[Susie]

Hehe, says it all really, doesn't it, Mouse?

[KeynvorLogosenn]

Yeah Afriad so Rosy...
Its a shame, I used to love sitting under my budlia in the shade, listening to the butterflies flutter above my head.

Mouse

[Dave McCormick]

I have never seen birds getting butterflies in our garden, I have seen many birds at times though... wood pidgeosn got most of my blueberries however And all I got was 4 large ones out of many that were gone. Our cat tries to go for butterflies when they are in garden, but I have stopped her before. She also stops the birds getting in sometimes.

Sad story about yor Buddliah Mouse, but not surprisig cause of bird feeder.

[KeynvorLogosenn]

Hi
I think we are all spelling Budlia differently
I hear it through the computer as Bud-lee-er, But I know it isn spelt like that. So how do you spell it? I spell it as
b u d l i a
but I dont think that is right anymore
Mouse

[Susie]

I have never seen a bird take a butterfly before but I assume they must because I have been butterflies with what I assume are nip marks out of their wings from near misses. I have seen sparrows catching day flying moths though, including several instances of hummingbird hawk moths being caught and eaten.

I was thinking more of birds eating caterpillars rather than butterflies, but I guess it is all the same in the end.

Mouse, I think buddleia is spelt b u d d l e i a although some people spell it b u d d l e j a (I assume that if I type it like that your computer will spell it out for you?). It is named after the Reverend Adam Buddle.

[James M]

We feed birds in our garden and have done for several years and I have seen them searching for larvae and catching butterflies occasionally. However, in our garden at least, they never seem to have a detrimental affect on the number of butterflies and in good years and in the right weather conditions our buddleias can be swarming with them. Perhaps we would get a few more if there weren't as many birds around but I think there is a good balance and healthy populations of both (the past two years not included).

[Susie]

I guess it is time to start filling up the feeders again, got to have something to look at over the gloomy months ahead.

[ColinC]

Case in point! I was delighted to see a Red Admiral in the garden one frosting morning last year - didn't last long though.

[Tony Moore]

Wonderful shot, Colin, if a bit terminal for the poor RA

Tony.

[twitcher]

(Wonderful shot, Colin, if a bit terminal for the poor RA)

Hang on we dont know who won!

[Dave McCormick]

Nice shot, poor RA though!

[Susie]

Fabulous photo!

[Cotswold Cockney]

It's pictures like that Magpie with Red Admiral which make every visit to sites like this a real joy to experience....superb!

During the spring breeding season, tits, sparrows and finches visit my small front and back gardens and diligently search all over and under all the plants, fences and even under the window ledges, greenhouse and garages ( I'm also a car enthusiast ) looking for insect food.

I once placed a potted Aspen containing a dozen Limenitis populi ( Poplar Admiral ) hibernacula outside my large greenhouse to allow the gentle winter rain to give them a good natural soaking. The kind the little larvae will benefit from during their long winter hibernation. I returned a few minutes later to discover, to my chagrin, a hen House Sparrow in the process of systematically removing the little larve from each hibernaculum, tearing the hibernacula from the twigs in the process. How the hell did a Gloucestershire Sparrow know what those extremely well camoflaged hibernacula contained?

That was twenty years ago. A week later it, or another hen Sparrow, somehow entered my greehouse and was removing several hibernating Apatura iris Purple Emperor larvae from their resting sites on the potted sallows I had there. When it saw me approaching it flew at full speed down the greenhouse smashing against the glass falling to the floor..... quite dead! No more such predations.

That spring, one of the few surviving Limenitis populi larvae produced a perfect halved gynandromorph ~ male one side, female the other. As the sexes of this butterfly are noticeably dimorphic, the sexual differences of each half are clearly visible. I set that specimen and still have it.

I'm also a Bird Lover ..... Glad the little bird did not get that particular Poplar Admiral !!

[Susie]

Nuthatches, great, coal and blue tits, robin, goldfinches, sparrows, pigeons, collared doves and dunnocks are back at and around the feeders again. No sign of the poor old chaffinches though.

[Dave McCormick]

I was told a while ago that if you feed birds that usually stay during winter some small bits of fried bacon, they grow fatter quicker and won't need to go far to look for food and will survive well over winter and possibly stay in your garden. I was told that works for robins anyway.

[NickB]

I was told a while ago that if you feed birds that usually stay during winter some small bits of fried bacon, they grow fatter quicker and won't need to go far to look for food and will survive well over winter and possibly stay in your garden. I was told that works for robins anyway.

All I can say is "Fat Balls" to that!
N