After a cloudy, but warm, morning, the sky cleared to give sunny intervals, although with a cool breeze from the east. The may blossom and cow parsley are still in flower but the hogweed is just beginning to open and there are a few in flower. Everything is being telescoped together this year after the very cold and wet may. Last year there was a distinct succession of hawthorn, cow parsley and then hogweed. There were a few more butterflies today:
- small white 11
- small tortoiseshell 2
- Red admiral (pristine) 1
- Peacock 1
- Orange tip, male 2
The meadow grasses are now growing up and beginning to look good and there are good patches of birds foot trefoil. The bee swarm has gone and by the hedge alongside the Parkway I found yellow rattle in flower. Red and white clover along with hawksbeard and hop trefoil were also flowering and I found 3 mother shiptons moths. On the way home walking across the slope of the first meadow above the woodland burial ground I found large swathes of birds foot trefoil in flower and lots of yellow rattle coming into flower. Birdsfoot trefoil is a food pland for common blues so fingers crossed there and yellow rattle is parasitic on grass roots and suppresses the tall rank grasses which encourages the growth of flowers, so necessary in a wild flower meadow. I also came across a patch of cowslips, a first for the Horsefield.
To view large, please click on an image.
Cowslips
Cowslips
Hogweed
Hogweed
Hogweed
Hogweed
Mother Shipton's Moth
Mother Shipton's Moth
Looking back to the houses across the rape
Looking back to the houses across the rape
Looking back to the houses across the rape
Yellow Rattle
Yellow Rattle
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