One of the pleasures of midsummer is that you find something new almost every time you go for a walk. On our Ramsbury Wildlife Group outing to Spring Hill on 21st May, someone spotted a Dotted bee-fly, an elegant, almost cuddly bee-mimic with spotted wings I have never seen before. On the next, on 28th May, I found a small but pretty day-flying moth, the Small Yellow Underwing, a very local species which likes flowery meadows. On both occasions we found our special rarity, the Duke of Burgundy butterfly, around a half-dozen on each occasion, still fresh on the 21st but becoming worn by the end of the month. Other butterflies enjoying the sunshine on the hill were Dingy and Grizzled Skippers, Green Hairstreak and Small Blue, plus the very butterfly-like Burnet Companion moth. On 5th June I had the pleasure of watching a Hummingbird Hawk-moth feeding on my red valerians just before dusk, with a darting, zigzag flight as though held on an invisible thread of elastic.
The spectacle of this year’s hawthorn blossom has been remarked on by many: a mass of white and pink flowers smothering the fresh leaves (but precious few bees to feed on such a bounty). Other trees have had a great flowering too, presumably from all that rain in April, especially beech, holm oak, goat willow, guelder rose and spindle. Come late May, you could pick out the spindle bushes in some of the hedges by the dense webs made by the tiny caterpillars of the spindle ermine moth. They can completely defoliate the bush, though that does not seem to cause it any permanent damage. Many wildflowers have had a fine flowering too, with golden vistas of buttercups in some of the fields. My most surprising find was an enormous patch of herb Paris, a strange relative of lilies with a solitary green and yellow flower that turns into a big black berry later on. Not far away, under deep shade, was a patch of white helleborine, a woodland orchid with egg-shaped white flowers, hence its older name of egg orchid. Our parish is full of such hidden treasures.
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