ringlets and underwings

the very distinctive underwings of the ringlet butterfly.











The two lower pictures are of a yellow underwing moth, either the large or broad yellow underwing, it is difficult to tell which from these photos. The orange underwing is a protective device, normally the moth is an undistinguished brown but when disturbed it flies erractically displaying the vivid underwings.

eyebright

in one small patch of meadow we found eyebright (euphrasia nemorosa), tormentil, meadow vetchling, birds foot trefoil, butterfly orchids, hairy tare, tufted vetch, yellow rattle, marsh orchids, heath spotted orchids, knapweed, sorrel, cornish bladderseed, ox eye daisies, and in the surrounding woods heath speedwell, wood speedwell, germander speedwell, St John's wort, cow-wheat, and one specimen of bastard balm. Enough for one day!

heath fritillary 08

We went for a long walk today with Lisa, who reads this blog and lives across the road. She particularly enjoys our early morning singing. We were very lucky to see lots of heath fritillary butterflies; clearly the re-introduction into Greenscoombe woods is working very well, thanks to the hard work of so many people.

on our walk

On our walk today. the faint patch of pink in the background is a patch of ragged robin. Spot and Harri were off somewhere arguing over a badger jaw bone.

long horned beetle

Spot thinks this is a long horned beetle, but we are not sure which one. We have decided it is the variable longhorn as that covers all bases.

tipula maxima

This is the largest of British crane flies. It is supposed to be common but I have never seen one before, and it is very big. It looks amazingly complex and reminds me of an apache helicopter.

water figwort

the flower of water figwort. Water figwort is a tall, handsome figwort found in wet marshy places. It has much more vivid flowers than common figwort, and very square, angular stems.

valerian

valerian is appearing everywhere. It has a strange burnt rubber smell and attracts a wide range of flies and other insects. I think this is a horse fly of some sort

woundwort

a strange little homunculus caught appearing in some hedge woundwort. It reminds me of the fairy photographs that entranced Arthur Conan Doyle.

tamar valley

the upper part of the Tamar estuary, St Dominic to the right

field rose

wild roses growing in the hedgerows. They have no scent unlike the dog rose (Spot wants to know who is responsible for giving the rose a bad name). The distinctive feature of the field rose is the tall columnar styles in the middle of the flower.

skippers

the large skipper, a primitive moth like butterfly, sitting on some seed pods of yellow rattle. There were marsh and butterfly orchids (use the orchid label to see earlier pictures of these orchids in the blog) in the meadows today although they are coming to the end of their flowering season and were looking a bit tattered. Butterfly orchids have the most delicate, slightly sweet vanilla scent.

an enormous foxglove

this is a very odd triple stalked foxglove. The stalks are fused together like Siamese twins, and the flower spike is huge and crowded with flowers (a normal foxglove can be seen to the right).

not stirring up a hornet's nest

the rarest largest and most docile of our native social wasps. This is a queen hornet building her nest out of masticated wood, under the eaves of an out house near Kelly Bray. She will lay her eggs in the comb (the structure appearing in the centre). She will feed them on chewed up flies until they emerge later in June at which point we may need to stand a bit further a

way.

ragged robin

a clump of ragged robin growing wild; it is very striking at a distance and yet it is a very isolated patch.

more agrions

the handsome male agrion and his smoky female posing before getting down to more serious business. The river banks are full of dragonflies and demoiselles.

entente cordiale

Spot is very concerned about the shortage of elderflower cordial that his friends and cousins across the sea are facing and has tracked down the address of an exclusive supplier. Although his blog is an advertising free zone he is happy to provide this link to the wonderful world of Duchy products, all organic and spoken to.

corncockle

the corncockle is extinct as a wild flower in Britain. These specimens grew from some seeds we brought back from a wild meadow on the border between Andorra and France two years ago. These pictures show two of its characteristic features, the very long sepals (green things sticking out behind the flower) and it is very hairy .

elderflower

elderflower bush growing in wall on an old quarry on South face of Kit Hill, Duchy College (to the left) and Stoke Climsland to the right.

cotton grass

cotton grass growing in Kit Hill quarry. Very little wild life today. Is this blog getting boring, Spot asks himself?? It may be just that there hasn't been anything new recently. Mind you up at Bude today we saw all sorts of exciting plants, marsh orchids, crow garlic in flower, wild thyme, but we didn't take the camera.

callington

Callington (said Kal-ington rather than Call-ington which would sound incredibly posh) on a fine sunny morning looking south west towards the rest of Cornwall. All the key features can be seen, church, chapel, cricket green and cemetery

not howling but singing

"now, after me, one two three, "happy birthday to me "

birthdays

yes, I know, you would have sent us a birthday card if I had reminded you. It is hard to believe that we are three today and old enough to vote. Harriet (on the left) has always looked out for me even though she cannot read or write herself. If we can sit still for more than a few seconds we will try and provide an up to date birthday pic.

swallobatics

a pair of swallows doing an aerial show chasing down insects above the paddock this morning

more and more blogging

on a more mundane note, this pretty flower is hedge cranesbill, which I have probably seen but not noticed before. The lower picture is from another type of cranesbill but shows the bill in question. We are not entirely convinced by the analogy but we don't see many cranes around here.

we must blog on

the French have stopped sending us their great thunderous clouds of rain, so at last life can emerge from the swamp once more. This little insect was a complete mystery but, Spot thinks, this is a female glow worm or larva, not that he has ever seen one before. They sometimes climb up on grasses to flash themselves about more widely (soi disant, to maintain the French theme today). Our source of information (The Illustrated Book of Insects, 1979) informs us that they eat snails, by injecting them and then drinking the dissolved fluids (sounds tres gastronomique). Given the weather we clearly need a lot more of them. Are we the only ones who find it very difficult to identify certain things like insects on the internet but very easy then to use the internet to verify something once we have half an idea what it is (for example see this link)? Is there a way round this? Googlmology?

editor's note:- Lisa has pointed out that this is a ladybird larva, (see link) so this was a mis-Spot. Would we have ever have found out without the internet? It illustrates the axiom popular with most doctors, common things are common, and hen's teeth don't grow on trees.

flood doggling

maybe Spot and co knew something we didn't because the rain was torrential this afternoon. The scene at Beals Mill was one of devastation. No one can remember floods like this before. And then the sun came out.

Portwrinkle

the beach at Portwrinkle. The local flora is as quirky as the flora on the North Cornwall coast.

red damselflies

red damselflies mating at Tredis farm near Polbathic. These are common but we never see them locally.

on St German's quay

the viaduct over the river Tiddy, and the quay at St Germans near Polbathic where we went to see some paintings. Notice sunny weather, but storm clouds over home where we returned later to find 4 quivering poodles in fear of the thunder and lightning.

holly in flower

the woods are full of holly; this is a close up of the male flower so no berries later.

let's have some colour

the blog has been rather dull recently, all greens, greys and black, because of the weather. So we set out to find some colour today. The top picture is of rhododendrons in the woods (another non native invasive species), and below is an old fashioned climbing rose ... the one thing a photograph cannot convey is its beautiful gentle scent.

three cornered garlic

a small patch of this uncommon but invasive stranger. It is native to the mediterranean but is found in the South West, and on the coasts of California and Oregon (I hadn't realised Oregon was on the coast). So here it is in lower Downgate. The unmistakeable smell of garlic pervades the air around it.

our neighbours

our next door neighbours providing some colour contrast on yet another dismal public holiday.

bad hair day 2

meanwhile, there are others who would dispute with Spot his claim of unchallenged supremacy of the blasted heath and moor.