As the evenings draw in and the days grow colder one of our most important plants for insect life, the Ivy Hedera helix, will increasingly burst into flower. The summer flowers which provided nectar for numerous butterflies, flies, hoverflies, and bees of all sorts, are now over, and it is left to the Ivy to provide a feed of nectar before many of these valuable insects enter their over-winter stage. Prominent among the Honey Bees Apis melifera, which were feeding in large numbers on my garden Ivy today was a Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta.
Red Admiral on Ivy. Photo. John Elliott.
Red Admirals may over-winter in this country if we get a very mild winter, and perhaps will do so increasingly as we fail to deal with climate change, but most of them are now migrating south to Central or Southern Europe where they will mate to produce the first generation of next year's migration northwards and a welcome return to our shores.
Ivy makes a nice hedge and does not damage trees so if you are lucky enough to have it on your land do preserve it.
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