Well, what do I have from random small wanderings over the last few days, sometimes accompanied by tourettes tics and other weirdnesses, sometimes not.
On the wing and the fluttery department, we now have gatekeeper butterflies on the move, while in the more buzzy department, spined mason bees and masked bees.
I hope you are all enjoying what you can see around you.
Si
All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 26.06.25
As you may have noticed, or not, during this rather dull spell of weather we've been having, it is now high summer, and the butterflies we are now seeing at work are those typical of that season.
No longer are the orange tips and brimstones on the wing, and the early season butterflies like commas and holly blues are in between flights at the moment. Instead we have the grassland butterflies like the meadow brown and the ringlet, just recently joined now by the gatekeeper and other species.
Our workplace meadow is now over for the year; instead our camous is now bedecked in thistles, ragwort and flowering teasel. These are rather less attractive plants to look at, but still, they have an important function to play as food plants for pollinators.
So let me present to you some photographs of these species, with the bonus of a beautiful brown argus. The good thing about the cooler weather, is that the butterflies are rather slower moving!
Si
All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 05.07.23
Late afternoon on Monday ended up being a pretty glorious kind of day, and with the buddleia now out in flower around the town, I thought it might be a nice sort of day to go out and look for butterflies.
It's an odd sort of thing to do in many folk's eyes, but it gets me out of the house, gets me exercising and is of course a boon to my mental health.
My greatest fear during lockdown was that we wouldn't be allowed out of our houses at all.
As it happens, I didn't have to go very far to find my first butterfly, as right outside my door in my little yard, a male gatekeeper was feeding very placidly off the ragwort I have allowed to grow (read - can't be bothered to dig up) and is actually a more attractive source of pollen than the flowers I've tried to grow myself in various pots and planters.
So, after managing to get a photo or two of this unusually co-operative gatekeeper, it was off for a walk to Cottage Lane Nature Reserve, taking in the various big buddleias I could remember on the way. Nothing on the one by Mill Lane Bridge, but the one down the side of the secure mental health unit was covered in butterflies.
There was even a rather tired looking brimstone feeding, and to catch one of those motionless is a real event, let alone get a photo of one. There was a really nice comma too, kindly showing off its, er, comma.
The cherry on the cake - mating ringlets in Cottage Lane reserve itself!
A very worthwhile walk indeed!
Si
All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 05.07.22
