The absence of butterflies is a huge concern again this year but I was delighted to see seven fresh and bright Red Admirals all at once in the garden the other day. The lovely illustration above is from:
Humphreys (H.N.) and Westwood (J.O.) British Butterflies and their Transformations; British Moths and their Transformations. Three volumes. William Smith, 1841-1845.
Usually found in three volumes, these were originally published in parts bound in paper wrappers, as was common at the time. The illustrations are by Humphreys, the text by Westwood. The plates are lithographed and coloured by hand.
One of the Red Admirals taking a break in the summerhouse:
A more surprising daytime visitor was the nocturnal and aptly named White Plume Moth.
I have already posted these images of Drumstick Allium, Allium Sphaerocephalon:
Here they are fully flowered:
The Asiatic Lilies are also coming into flower:
As are the water lilies:
These are Gaillardia:
And I liked these water droplets on Red Clover:
Also this Sweet Pea which I thought had died – it did nothing after I planted it last year – is now climbing and flowering with purpose. The way the tendrils seek out and wrap themselves intricately around whatever they come across is rather amazing.
It is clearly a bumper year for Jackdaws. The local flock is well over 100 strong, perhaps even 200. The cacophony, especially in the mornings and evenings doesn’t bother me, but I am concerned that it may annoy some who will start taking potshots at them. I bought a fresh supply of peanuts for the birds from a local street market supplier (elsewhere they are so very expensive) and joked with him that they are eating me out of house and home. “Get an air rifle”, he said, not joking. Now I am thinking I should boycott him.
Packed newsletters are in from both the Norfolk and Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trusts. I don’t like everything BBOWT does or condones, but they do a lot of great work. They quite rightly ask for dogs to be kept on leads at this time of year, but this is absolutely not enforced at Greenham Common for example. There’s a two-page section about the state of our rivers, reminding us that even small contributions from all of us (use less water and no chemicals in or gardens, campaign) can make a difference, although of course it is the water companies which really need to change. I hadn’t realised that Liz Bonnin is BBOWT’s president – I am very much a fan and recommend her documentaries about the Galapagos and especially the Caribbean. She is one of those presenters who is brilliant at sharing her wonder and excitement at what she sees. There’s an excellent piece on orchids too – “one of the most diverse groups of plants on the planet”, over 1,000 genera and over 25,000 species.
NWT’s Tern (Summer Issue) has high production values, not least the lovely tactile paper upon which it is printed. There’s a glorious Lapwing on the cover. The work they do on peatlands and wetlands in particular is nothing short of wonderful. Nick Acheson who co-led the trip I was on last year so well helps us to understand how palynology, the study of pollen grains, tells us so much about landscapes of the past. Patrick Barkham, NWT’s president and author of the excellent Badgerlands: the twilight world of Britain’s most enigmatic animal. Granta, 2013 and The Butterfly Isles; a summer in search of our Emperors and Admirals. Granta, 2018, writes passionately too about what has been and is happening to our precious waterways and acknowledges the power of daily gratitude. When he swims in the Bure, he “gives thanks to the river”, for its life-giving force and resilience. He feels silly saying it but “daily gratitude deepens [his] connection” and awakens his “awareness of its living power, and our responsibility to liberate it and all other waterways from the blight of pollution.”
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