The Butterfly Year

It's official - 2011 was a dreadful summer for butterflies. After those glorious spring months raised our hopes and brought out the early fliers in good numbers, what followed was disastrous for our butterflies, as 'global warming' once again delivered a cool wet summer, this one far worse even than last year's and generally the worst in nearly 20 years (spot the warming trend). It's good to see the cheery Gatekeeper at the top of the charts, and the Tortoiseshell apparently stabilising, but other than that (and a rise in Red Admiral numbers that certainly passed me by), it's all bad news.
My own butterfly summer certainly followed this grim pattern. Indeed, sunny weather and free time coincided so rarely this summer that I never saw a single Adonis Blue, not to mention Silver-Spotted Skipper, Dark Green Fritillary, or any other Hairstreak but the early-flying Green. And numbers of almost every species in my orbit (except perhaps Small Heath and Dingy Skipper) seemed well down. However, this worst of years was also, for me, the best of years - the year of the Emperor! For that alone, it was a butterfly year to remember.