All the rain this spring and summer has had at least two noticeable outcomes. One is the sheer luxuriance of the vegetation. River weeds, including Stream Water-crowfoot, did well, encouraged by a fast flowrate with sediment running off fields in the rain. Tall herbs like hogweed, meadowsweet, and, above all, stinging nettles flourished, and, for the first time, in my experience, the path at Seven Bridges became overgrown in places. I needed to take a pair of clippers to clear a path. We should be getting a fine crop of blackberries this autumn, judging by the thick blossom everywhere. Many wayside flowers have done well, including the pretty blue flowers of Meadow Cranesbill, which brighten many a verge in June and July. I spotted a big patch of one of our rarities, the Lesser Teasel, on Hilldrop Lane. This tall relative of the common teasel has prickly white flowers about the size of a ping-pong ball. It used to grow in quantity on the Littlecote track until its places became shaded over.
Unfortunately all this blossom hasn’t meant a rise in nectar-feeding insects. In fact, this has been about the worst summer for flying insects that I can remember. River-flies (may-flies) are reported to be scarcer than ever, though, curiously, river-monitoring of their early stages didn’t suggest a sudden fall. Slugs, on the other hand, did very well indeed. Most butterflies were in smaller numbers than usual, with the exception of the Ringlet, our darkest butterfly, which has little circles on its back wings. Perhaps significantly, this is one butterfly that can fly in cloudy weather and even light rain. There are also reports of the day-flying Jersey Tiger-moth, as pretty as any butterfly, with ‘tiger-striped’ forewings, in Ramsbury gardens. This is a new arrival, moving north, perhaps in response to climate change. The smaller Scarlet Tiger-moth, with its brilliant crimson hind-wings, has been seen in reasonable numbers in gardens by the river, where its hairy, yellow-spotted caterpillars feed on Comfrey. Let’s hope, for the sake of the natural world, that these cold wet springs and disappointing summers do not become a trend!
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