Ian Hunt
Silent spring. This Pyracantha hedge (London, UK) last year was covered in insects . . . yesterday just a solitary Andrena scotica and a few honeybees and flies. Impressionistic records of insect population can't be more than that. Local weather conditions this year (esp that late frost) may be something to do with it -- has there been any discussion of this? But still, it's eerily silent. #insects #bees #bioabundance #ClimateDiary https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/28/conserve-insects-or-birds-will-vanish-with-them?fbclid=IwAR3BqZ1VlWy_ZsoPJD-C9sGFZJUTsGl-Pb2dts9zuT3wGDY1d-TYiCfXhH0
The vanishing swifts from the sky above my shed are a sad omen

The birds flew in on cue, but there were so few of them. The reason? The catastrophic decline in our insect populations

The Guardian
May 30, 2023 at 8:03amWeb
Show threadMaggieMay 30, 2023
@ianhunt I'm seeing a good range of insects, but in small numbers. Hoping the cause is that the late spring delayed insects starting to breed rather than less about. So they might be out of sync with the plants, which still isn't good.It does take a while for bee colonies and other insects to build up. My solitary bee box is half full, so that's good. But certainly the science says insect numbers have crashed.