Not all doom and gloom? (More insects than I initially thought.)

I've been seeing a lot about a precipitous decline in insects this year. Here I chalk it up to our having an excessively wet and cold spring, where it was still cold well into June. It's been so bad that my partner, who's not a naturalist by any stretch of the imagination, has frequently mentioned the decline in insects and birds in our yard. We haven't seen nearly the same volume of insects on our flowers as usual. The Viburnum dentatum shrubs are loaded with ripe berries, when normally the birds would pick them clean as they ripen.

However, in recent days, I've noticed a marked increase in the number of insects. And I'm noting more diversity in what we get – we're getting lots of grasshoppers and dragonflies, for example, which were never a noticeable presence before. A humming bird frequents our yard. When I go out at night, and sometimes even during the day, I've noticed a ton of moths. There was an absolutely metal looking moth that I wish I had taken a picture of. So, I felt pretty grim at the beginning of the summer, but now I'm feeling a lot more hopeful. Just sharing to see if anyone else is experiencing the same thing.

Still, I wish more birds would come and eat the arrowwood viburnum berries!