Pollinators

[Basil]

Someone mentioned not seeing any butterflies on their buddleia, so I had a look at ours.  Nothing.  Nothing at all.
I have sat out in our garden for 3 separate 15 minute periods this morning.  I did not see one pollinator of any description.   
OMG, we've gone and bloody done it, haven't we?   :'(

[mrcharly-YHT]

we have bees and butterflies up here, but not in the numbers we had last year, when the whole garden hummed with the beating of their wings.

Cause up here is unseasonable high winds and rain.

[Wowbagger]

I've had three separate sightings of comma butterflies in my garden this year, and quite a few when My Dear Wife and I went to a Wildlife Trust visitors' centre a while back. I was hoping they were attracted by the patch of nettles I have deliberately left for them to raise young on, but I've seen no sign of caterpillars. I did watch my runner bean flowers for quite some time the other day and saw nothing at all visit them. There were a few hoverflies hovering around, but I don't know whether they do the job anyway. I didn't see them doing.

[Wowbagger]

I've just been out for another look. As I approached, but was still some distance away, I saw what I thought was a bumblebee in the vicinity of the flowers, but by the time I got closer, it had gone.

There are quite a few flowers on some of the plants, but I can see no sign of any small bean pods growing on the stalks where the flowers are no more. My dad always maintained that, when watering runner beans, it helped the flowers "set" by using a rose on the watering can and dowsing the entire plant. I do this, but I have no idea whether there is any scientific justification for so doing. I also give the plants a good dose of water around the base. We've had no measurable rain for weeks and this could be a factor.

[Cudzoziemiec]

There seemed to be quite a few butterflies and bees around here earlier in the summer but fewer now.

[Auntie Helen]

Lots more butterflies here than normal. Here is Germany, the Lower Rhine region.