Tag Archive | honeysuckle

Sunday stroll: a Wiltshire wood

We went for a walk last Sunday (April 17) in some woods in south Wiltshire. A lone sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) and a lone rowan (mountain ash, Sorbus sp.) were already in leaf; the rest of the trees were still leafless, but budding up nicely. There are a lot of holly and birch trees in these woods; we don’t have birch around where we live as they don’t do well on chalk.

IMG_2297

IMG_2344

IMG_2345

Rowan in leaf (Sorbus sp.)

Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum), also known as Woodbine, showing why it has the latter name ...

Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum), also known as Woodbine, showing why it has the latter name …

The first bluebells are out, plus wood anenomes, celandine, stitchwort and pink campion, and we came across a few clumps of daffodils too.

IMG_2371

Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta).

IMG_2359

A bank of wood anemones (Anemone nemorosa).

IMG_2295

Celandine (Ficaria verna).

IMG_2312

Stitchwort (Stellaria holostea).

IMG_2338

Daffodils. They look a little large to me to be our native wild ones: there are gardens nearby so these could be hybrids.

We disturbed a buzzard (Buteo buteo) from its perching spot in a tree above us, and found a hidden trig point.

IMG_2315

IMG_2321

We also saw a lone roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) hoof print in the mud. Old Peg Leg, they call him.

IMG_2342

There were some heavily pregnant sheep in a neighbouring field: they looked like they were due to lamb at any time.IMG_2304

I also found a pellet, not sure if it’s an owl or other raptor pellet, or fox poo or badger poo. I’ve brought it home and am dissolving it in water to see what it contains. A girl’s got to have her hobbies ….

IMG_2339

(UPDATE: Lots of mashed up hedgehog spines 🙁 Possibly badger poo?)

It was a lovely day in glorious spring sunshine. And as an added bonus, on the way home, we saw the first swallow (Hirundo rustica) of the season. Magical.

IMG_2365

Glorious Wiltshire (seen over a pile of horse manure).

Daytime moths in our garden

In the last couple of weeks we have had lots of beautiful scarlet tiger moths (Callimorpha dominula) in the garden.

Scarlet tiger moth on an Alchemilla mollis leaf in our garden.

Scarlet tiger moth on an Alchemilla mollis leaf in our garden, forewings only showing.

I was chatting on the phone the other day and looking out of the study window as I did so, on to the garden. The tiger moths were flying and I could look down on them, and they have the most brilliant flashes of red as they fly—quite striking. You can just see a hint of the red in the photo above, under the wing. Here it is in all its glory:

Scarlet tiger moth with the red underwings showing. Photo by Chris Manley for Butterfly Conservation.

Scarlet tiger moth with the red hindwings showing. Photo by Chris Manley for Butterfly Conservation.

They’ve been appearing each summer for about as long as we have been growing green alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens), and various reference books tell me that the scarlet tiger moth caterpillars feed mostly on comfrey (Symphytum officinale), which is a member of the Boraginaceae (borage or forget-me-not plant family), like the green alkanet. So it is not too much of a stretch to wonder if the caterpillars are feeding on our green alkanet plants, though I haven’t seen any direct evidence of this apart from the fact that the moths are concentrated in the part of the garden where the alkanet is. We have masses of honeysuckle in the garden (Lonicera caprifolium, Lonicera periclymenum ‘Serotina’ and Lonicera x italica) and the Butterfly Conservation page on the moths says the older caterpillars feed on that, so that might where they are dining.

One of the other really striking moths we see in our garden during the day is the large privet hawk moth (Sphinx ligustri). One time Chap found one on the lawn.

fgsg

Privet hawk moth (Sphinx ligustri) in our garden. Big, isn’t it?

eere

Privet hawk moth (Sphinx ligustri). That’s him at the top in the plate of illustrations.

DSCF1407

Privet hawk moth (Sphinx ligustri).

We moved it out of harm’s way and when next we looked it had flown off. We see these about once a year: they’re not at all common round here, which is a shame as they are so beautiful.

The third moth we see during the day is the hummingbird hawk moth (Macroglossum stellatarum). We see a lot of these every year, usually in the later summer. They especially like feeding on our phlox flowers (Phlox paniculata ‘Mount Fuji’), and often are feeding right until dusk, darting from flower to flower in a flurry of wings—they make an audible ‘whirr’ as they fly. These little beauties fly so quickly that I haven’t yet managed to get a decent photo of one.

Hummingbird hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum). Photo by IronChris.

Hummingbird hawk moth (Macroglossum stellatarum), feeding on lavender (Lavandula sp.). Photo by IronChris.

UK Moths website.

Butterfly Conservation website.