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A KESTREL hovers at tree-top level over Kessie's meadow. It's a fine fresh morning after the mugginess of yesterday, there are wisps of cirrus across a clear blue sky. Something interests the kestrel. It swoops to a lower level, hovers again, flies to another part of the meadow, hovers there for a while, then returns to its original spot.
There was a big influx of Painted Ladies in the summer of 1996. On some days in August that year there were more Painted Ladies about than any other butterfly. I don't remember seeing one last year, and this is the first I've seen this year.
It soon starts pushing down into the soil, with the kind of side to side action you'd need to push your finger into the soft sand of a beach. I notice it has a flat shield-shape on the front of its head. Perhaps this helps as it digs itself in. When we picked it up we noticed that this floppy caterpillar has the ability to go tense and stiffen itself up, again a great help in digging. I shall try and keep it cool but sheltered from the worst frosts, and hope that I'll see it emerge as an adult.
Richard Bell, |
To judge by the number of holes in our lawn there are a lot of voles about at present. I cut up an old apple for the blackbirds and throw a couple of slices over to the vole hole by the herb bed. Voles love apple. A Blackbird feasts on the Blackberries I couldn't reach when I trimmed the hedge behind the shed the other day.
Three or four Large Whites are feeding, and flying at each other, on the Buddlehia. A fresh-looking Peacock suns itself on a large stone at the edge of the raised bed. It stays there as I walk past, casting my shadow on it, but a Painted Lady gets up and flies skittishly around the garden. It lands on the Buddlehia and feeds for a few minutes, then it's off again, flying around.
Neighbours call to ask my opinion on a large caterpillar they've found shuffling along on the ground in their garden some distance from the nearest tree. We decide it is an Eyed Hawk-moth. We offer it leaves of apple and willow, two of it's food plants, but it is obvious that this full grown caterpillar is keen to find a suitable place to pupate. I ring John, who comes and takes a couple of photographs then I put it on some garden soil in a small plastic propagator.
A fungus growing on the grass verge at the side of the lane, by a mixed plantation, has a white stem and gills and a cap that is russet like an apple. Slugs have eaten holes in its edges and right through the cap.