himalayan balsam

this invasive plant is spreading along streams and river banks, but looks very pretty in the evening light.

glades

a lovely sunny clearing in the woods, near the old mine workings, near Old Mill.

buzzards

a very young buzzard taking flight. It was perched near its home nest, and making the piteous mewing sound that sounds like a cat being strangled, that tells its parents it wants food now.

cuckoo bee

I am not sure whether this is a cuckoo bee or a wood wasp, or something else, warming up in a sunny glade.

Greenscoombe meadows

the meadows were resplendent in purple, yellow and white today, full of betony and knapweed; it feels like late summer even though summer has barely begun.

Luckett woods

the woods were full of light today, it was very warm, and this brought out the butterflies.

silver washed fritillary

this is the silver washed fritillary, found in old woods especially in the south. It is distinguished from other fritillaries by the silver streaks or wash on the underside of the wings (rather than spots). It is a powerful and agile flier. It looks very similar to high brown fritillary, which likes sunny glades.

centaury

common centaury and self heal growing on the very arid and acid soil of a woodland path.

yellow corydalis

growing in abundance on the walls in Launceston although I haven't seen it anywhere else locally. Not a native plant but naturalised on walls. A close relative of the fumitories, poppies and cabbages. Corydalis seemingly refers to the crested lark.

Launceston

view from the car park showing two churches and the keep. And, most importantly the golf club in the far distance.

six tomorrow

Spot's best friend, Meg Anna H, who is six tomorrow. Happy birthday from the six der's

gatekeeper

this pretty little butterfly is a hedge brown or gatekeeper. As a rule they are attracted to bramble blossoms. The sun has brought out butterflies in great numbers.

ragwort

and the equally invasive (see below) ragwort plus very drab butterfly, it may be a ringlet but I am not sure because it is very pale for south west types.

angelica

angelica and bee, the angelica plants seem huge this year, perhaps the incessant rain has suited them

willowherb

all of the willowherb family are out, this is the invasive rosebay.

enchanter

enchanter's nightshade is out, with its minute delicate white flowers. Latin name is ciraea lutetiana, for Circe the enchantress.

thank you

I cannot tell you how much I hate the scum who do this, and the people who pass the laws that encourage it by taxing those who dispose of waste legally.

hemp agrimony and honeysuckle

the rain has made for a luxuriant undergrowth this year. The red flower is hemp (for its supposed similarity to hemp proper) agrimony, a flower I always associate with the end of summer not the middle, and of course the yellow flower is fragrant wild native honeysuckle .

one flap in a butterfly's mind

this year's crop of black berries is beginning to form. The drab butterfly is a meadow brown, said to fly 'lazily' although can anyone really know the inside of a butterfly's mind? It might be trying very hard and in any case more than one flap of its wings could well cause mayhem (like the Lifton tornado which I saw but did not photograph, no camera!!).

excitement at Whiteford

as always tonight's concert at Whiteford ended with a beautiful series of bangs, and Google report that they exceeded their bandwidth, is this a reference to the number of fat people on the stage?

holidays by the seaside

One sunny day! The pond seems much bigger. Downderry beach on a beautiful day.

rock pippit

a rock pippit by Venterdon Pond, well quite close.

betony

the beautifully named betony is beginning to appear in fields and hedgerows, if it can push up through the constant rain.

slugs and all

At least something is enjoying the wet weather. The red and black fringe reminds me of the skirt of a hovercraft; perhaps that should be hoover all my plants craft. In fairness this slug and about ten others were all on this specimen of hogweed. Maybe it was a slug slugfest.

mad dogs

what you cannot see is the crisp about six inches above Harriet's snout. And to think this time last year we were winning prizes.

comma

It looks like a fritillary but it is a new bright comma, it will gradually look more and more dilapidated and tattered; it is feeding on some common valerian. It is a butterfly of woods and glades. It was not in the ultra secret site of Greenscoombe.

eyebright weeping for us

a closer view of eyebright. These minute flowers are hard to photograph on the spot with the wind blowing and dogs running by, but this is a good photo with a lot of detail down to the droplets of dew.

purple and blue

at this time of the year there is a distinct change in the colour of wild plants from white and blue to purple and yellow. Self heal, tufted vetch and betony feature in these photos, all in and around the woods and meadows at Greenscoombe.

basking shark

I don't know why but the gaping mouth of a foxglove reminds me of a basking shark. The interior of these flowers is fascinating. There are very fine white hairs standing up on the floor of the plant; what are their purpose?

blue damselfly

a damsel fly of some sort, resting with its wings folded over its back unlike dragon flies which tend to rest with wings spread out. At last we have been able to go for a long walk.

ready to go

this year's brood of martins is almost ready to go. Their parents have been finding it difficult to hunt in the rain and the wind, but are very busy now making up for the loss of food, hence the Oliver Twist impressions.

nemorosa incognito

At last the sun has returned. This afternoon like butterflies we went out and warmed our metaphorical wings. There were hundreds of marbled white and meadow brown butterflies in the meadows today. Underfoot the meadows are full of summer flora, including the minute but pretty eyebright. There are at least 19 overlapping species of eyebright and apparently (according to Marjory Blamey and Richard Fitter) experts demand at least 6 specimens before identifying them. The non expert can only make intelligent guesses .... this is clearly a major challenge.

reflections

If you are wondering why there haven't been any pictures for a few days it is because it hasn't stopped raining. We can't even get out of the Terranosaur without getting soaked. As a result there has been nothing to photograph, except a dessicated little bat found by Jane Parry Davies in the glass of water she keeps by her bed. It is not clear to any of us how the bat got into the water, but it certainly doesn't look like it drowned. It may be a wandering pipistrelle from the belfry across the street, or it fell in from a beam. It's not even an old bat. They have the most amazing little hind feet, with five sharp little toes. Since when have we had a monsoon in June? It reminds me of the summers we used to have in Plymouth in the 1950's (until 1959 when drought struck and we all had to share a bath (3 boys one after the other; of such experiences are our formative days made). I don't recall any drowned bats though.

slender St John's wort

one of the many species of St John's wort, again to be found in Penny's piece. The ecology of this little patch of rough grass is very different from everything else around.

marbled white, Luckett

One of the first marbled whites of the year, in Penny's piece near Luckett.

greater spotted woodpecker

an occasional visitor to our garden, this time with a mate (not shown but busy burrowing into the next apple tree trunk).

out of the nest

and into the firing line, a juvenile blackbird looking rather stunned and lost.

butterfly meadow, Cornwall

lesser butterfly orchid on left, greater butterfly orchid on right (see earlier pages and below for differences). The meadows are now full of cat's ear and rattle.



the middle picture is lesser butterfly orchid, and the bottom picture is the greater butterfly orchid.

dipper on Tamar

dippers are difficult to capture in flight because they are quick and direct. Just for once everything worked out for this photo, with the dark watery background for contrast. There is a nest very near to where this picture was taken so the parents were flying backwards (so to speak) and forwards.

Kit Hill quarry

It was a very still day.

And please note you can get a guided tour to see the heath fritillary in June (16/06) (see previous post with excellent pictures)