the house that Sally built

It was Stoke Climsland Flower Show on Saturday and once again we were blessed with fine weather (it feels like every day this year has been fine). Every one is very creative round here. Especially with potatoes.

Spot the butterfly

We saw two or three clouded yellows today, this is several weeks earlier than last year. Clouded yellows are usually migrants from southern Europe but I wonder if these are indigenous examples which have managed to breed last year and survived during the very mild winter. The meadow was full of large butterflies today, including these three silver washed fritillaries having a dog fight over Spot.

giant wood wasp

 

Every now and again one comes across something genuinely strange. This is a giant wood wasp (urocerus gigas), about 4 cms long. The brown rod beneath her sting is the sheath of her ovipositor, and gives it the common name of horntail. She lays her eggs in sick or recently felled pine. The black rod is the actual ovipositor and she is pushing it into the pine wood. Her abdominal muscles ripple with the effort required. The larvae take up to three years to mature

as rare as a pig's bladder

another real local rarity is cornish bladderseed, seen here growing in profusion in the meadows.

cafe agrimony

It has been predicted recently that this will be a good year for peacock butterflies. They are attracted to hemp agrimony, a common wild flower locally and there were four on this one small patch to the side of one of the meadows at Greenscoombe. The moth below is a rosy footman (miltochrista miniata), described as 'local' in my reference book ie not that common everywhere. It is a very striking salmon orange colour.

wire trip

the first of this year's new swallows gathering for a geography lesson on the way to Africa.