Friday garden opening done and dusted, Saturday to go. It’s been an uphill struggle but I have coaxed most of the garden through to this point of the summer in reasonable condition. The next two pairs of open days are in three and six weeks time. I’m less optimistic about how it will look by then.
I’ve noticed a marked increase in the number of insects around over the last week, enough to attach my new telephoto lens to my new camera and have a stab at getting some pictures. I’ve not spotted anything of particular note but common butterflies are no less beautiful for being common. For a change then , I am featuring six critters instead of six plants.
If the significance of the repeated sixes is lost on you it can only be because you are new to the global phenomenon that is Six on Saturday. Started back in the mists of time by The Propagator, it is now hosted by yours truly. All it entails is posting a picture or two of six things doing their stuff in your garden this Saturday, accompanied by a few words, on a blog or something similar, and putting a link to it in my comments below. Still confused? check out the participants guide.
The alert among you may have spotted a comment from CAVERSHAMJJ last week; yes folks, The Propagator put in an appearance after a very long absence. Perhaps a six this weekend Jon?
One.
Red Admiral. These seem to spend most of their time with their wings closed and the near black undersides the onlt thing showing. Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ was quite a popular food source.
Two.
Peacock. Both spectacular and comparatively common, I recall seeing it described as the nation’s favourite butterfly. (How do you land a job finding out what the nation’s favourite butterfly is?, asking for a friend) Good to see that my most recent Buddleja, in spite of its wretched name of ‘Butterfly Candy Little Ruby’, at least that’s what the garden centre had on the label, still apparently offers up candy for butterflies.
Three.
I’m still seeing plenty of Painted Ladies (that didn’t come out quite as intended) and they are particularly rewarding to have photographs of that can be studied and admired at leisure; they really are exquisite.
Four.
Gatekeepers are probably my commonest butterflies, run a close second by cabbage whites, but they are not easy to photograph. When they settle they almost always have their wings folded and they are restless, flitting from one flower to another as well as just flying round and round without settling. Verbena bonariensis serves up thousands of meals every day, good thing I didn’t pull up all three million seedlings.
Five.
I noticed a couple of days back that I have a wasp’s nest in the garden. It’s far enough from the main paths not to be too great a menace to visitors but may cause me problems if it ever rains and I want to get to one of my water butts. For as long as I don’t get stung I am happy-ish to have them in the garden; if they leave me be, I’ll do the same for them. I don’t wish to test my tolerance threshold to the point of turning on them. From the current comings and goings I wouldn’t judge it to be a big nest, yet!
Six.
I played around with my camera snapping away at bees and hoverflies and a bunch of other things and eventually the thing I was hoping for made a fleeting appearance. This I’m afraid, is the best I could do of humming bird hawk moth. For every one I see with a camera in hand there are 10 when I don’t. Or I have the wrong lens. Or the battery runs out. I can tell you it was taken at 1/800th of a second which will allow you to work out roughly how fast its wings are moving. No? my maths is rubbish too.
Earlier in the week I was watering in Sue’s cactus house when I was buzzed by a bee which turned out to be a leaf cutter bringing in a rolled up piece of leaf for its nest in one of the cactus pots. I turned the pot round about 90 degrees to try to get a picture of where it was going in but that threw it completely, it couldn’t find the spot and I had to turn it back. I would stand there for ten minutes staring at the pot and the moment I stopped looking the bee, or two bees quite often, would swoop in. Never did get a decent picture. The plant looks OK at the moment, I watered it as normal, if they don’t like it they should have thought about it earlier.
garden ruminations 
Those are fabulous photos. I love seeing the grumpy-looking little faces of the butterflies and moths. I chortled about the number of seedlings of Verbena bonariensis. Mine doesn’t reseed much but at a job with a raised bed next to a gravel driveway, there were dozens of seedlings.
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What an awesome Six! It must have taken so much patience to get all those shots, and the photo of that chunky hummingbird moth is so cute. We’ve been having a good bug and bird year as well, and the neighbor has reported the bees are making an obscene amount of honey.
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Hello again from Orkney Jim. Although we don’t get the variety you have further South, off the top of my head Orkney has only nine recorded species of butterfly, it has been a butterfly summer here. So far the most abundant of all has been the Painted lady, a species that in a normal year is an uncommon visitor.
Good luck with the new lens, it’s an unwritten law that the best photographs are seen when you are outside and the camera is inside, either that or when you have forgotten to reinsert the memory card – my favourite. For insects on the move it seems that no shutter speed is ever quite fast enough 🙂
My first comment on Six on Saturday, here’s my six, a half dozen favourite Summer blooms from this island garden.
https://agardeninorkney.com
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Fabulous photographs. I find them really hard to catch, especially the humming bird hawk moth which I was stalking round the garden last week.
Six on Saturday. Hosepipe Ban.
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My favorite quote this week: “it was taken at 1/800th of a second which will allow you to work out roughly how fast its wings are moving. No? my maths is rubbish too.”
I enjoyed the beautiful shots of glorious butterflies.
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Tearing off to a garden tour two and a half hours away. Will be back to read later! If we’re spared! My six. https://tanglycottage.wordpress.com/2026/07/17/six-on-saturday-18-july/
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Great post! You know I am all about the insects. I love the painted lady with her tongue unfurling, and the stunning Peacock. I have not seen a red admiral yet this year, they are usually quite common. Lat year I found them often on the bare dirt, wings open, or on a tree trunk. This year nothing. I have seen a couple of monarchs and loads of cabbage whites, but that is about it for me as far as butterflies go.
Here are my six: https://wisconsingarden.wordpress.com/2026/07/18/july-18-2026-six-on-saturday/
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I enjoyed this little change but hopefully your flowers will be back next weekend
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Late this afternoon I had a silver washed fritillary which obligingly stayed put on a buddleja while I raced upstairs for my camera. Pretty sure it’s the first I’ve seen in the garden, ever. Took 33 shots and none is much good.
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Gorgeous shots of butterflies!! Thank you
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What great butterfly photos Jim! Really nice to see them.
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Bravo on the telephoto attachment. I purchased one recently and you have inspired me to get busy and work with it. Glad to hear that your insect population seems to be increasing.
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Love the hummingbird hawk moth, and I also love a gatekeeper. We have lots here in Scotland this year, but far fewer peacocks and red admiral. We usually get them later, but the buddlija is ready! Here’s my six: https://balmerino.ddns.net/geekygarden/
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It’s a delight to see a butterfly focused six this week! Wonderful photos. I have a lot of pictures of where an interesting critter was a split second ago, but they’re not really worth sharing. 🙂
What I do have this week is a lovely lark ascending rose, the latest iteration of my bird song game, which now covers about 12,000 years in the place that becomes the city of Bath, as well as dahlia, hydrangea, wisteria, and a couple of corrections and clarifications on last weeks six!
https://doingtheplan.com/2026/07/18/lark-ascending-hydrangea-dahlegria-sweetpea-elderberries-and-wisteria/
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Great, and SO true, line!! : “I have a lot of pictures of where an interesting critter was a split second ago, “
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Haha, I am with Chris on that – this is perhaps another reason I take at least three images in rapid succession. Last year one time, I got the picture I wanted, but the unintended image of the monarch taking flight was better – Serendipity. And the numbers game. The more you take the better chance of getting something intresting, in focus, and crucially, still in the frame! Haha! Good think we do nto have to pay to develop film anymore!
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Those are great pictures and yes watching insects in our gardens especially when you can watch their behaviour as you did with the leaf cutter bees, is a great privilege. That hummingbird hawkmoth picture is fab. Here are my six: https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2026/07/in-garden-mid-july-2026-six-on-saturday.html
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Brilliant photographs. I had my first sighting of a hummingbird hawk moth a few weeks ago and they are incredible creatures and aptly named.
My six gleaned from a very parched & heat-stressed Berkshire garden https://wp.me/p88ZiK-dxx
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It’s great to see so many insects around now, and that hawk moth shot is wonderful.
https://tishfarrell.com/2026/07/18/six-on-saturday-a-change-in-the-weather/
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Lovely photos. I saw my first painted lady in the garden this week too. No pictures sadly. My son has just got his camera for his Photography GCSE, so I’m hoping I can enlist him for future SoS photos.
It took me several weeks to get a picture of my leafcutters but I got one for last weeks SoS. They seem to have moved on now. Here are mine for this week. https://potsandplots.blog/2026/07/18/sixonsaturday-18-07-2026/
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Wow, spectacular photos! I am in awe of the fact that a) you got a picture of a hummingbird hawk moth at all and b) that it’s in focus. I have only ever seen one in my garden twice and haven’t succeeded in getting a picture either time.
My rather more mundane six is here: https://mysanctuarygarden.wordpress.com/2026/07/18/six-on-saturday-18-07-2026/
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The autofocus on my camera is impressively good if can get a fix on a moving subject while it’s still out of focus. I only got two shots in and the other one was just a blur. I’m a bit surprised it allowed me to take the shot.
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Great photos, including the hummingbird hawkmoth at all. Does your camera have an automatic gale setting like mine? I’ve yet to figure out to turn it off but it often kicks in as soon as I point the camera at a plant on a seemingly still, calm day. Good to hear the Prop stopped by https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2026/07/18/six-on-saturday-18-july-2026/
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Hmm, Where did the ‘at all’ come from? Bad editing on my part.
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As far as I know my camera has no gale setting, automatic or otherwise. It does have a 941 page manual so I doubt I’ll ever learn half of its functions. My Zenit B was so simple and still took pretty good pictures.
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An all-insect Six ! What a great idea—and, above all, an amazing shot of that hummingbird hawk-moth foraging… Well done! https://fredgardenerblog2.wordpress.com/2026/07/18/six-on-saturday-18-07-26/
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That is a different sort of six. All are impressive pictures, even the picture of the hummingbird hawk moth, but the wasps make me cringe. Here are my six. https://tonytomeo.com/2026/07/18/six-on-saturday-not-closeups/
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The wasps seem intent on their own business for now, it’s late in the year when they’ve nothing left to lose that they get vengeful. I’ll be cringing then.
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What wonderful pictures!! I have a similar lovely range of butterflies, but I have never seen a hummingbird hawk moth. It’s stunning, even if it’s hard to photograph.
Regarding discovering the nation’s favourite butterfly – you’d have to get a job with Butterfly Conservation. I actually took part in the national survey this year, along with 21,000 other people. Here are the results: https://britainsfavouritebutterfly.co.uk/
And here’s my weekly round-up:
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I’ve also noticed an increase in insects, which of course is brilliant. You’ve done a brilliant job of capturing their photos, they are all lovely. You have also done a brilliant job of creating a habitat where they are happy, which also is lovely. Here are my six https://offtheedgegardening.com/2026/07/18/six-on-saturday-frazzled-2/
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