This first image shows the Redlands area of Paxton Pits in 2024 - covered in Ragwort - to compare with this year's same view completely devoid of vegetation with the dry conditions. Tomorrow we have a wildflower walk in the morning and I feared that it would be without many subjects but a walk around yesterday morning produced 56 species so plenty to keep the group occupied.
For the first time, we had a couple of Marbled Whites on our Lavender bush and an impressive Privet Hawkmoth on the pear tree. Apart from these, there were lots of smaller insects to add to the garden list including this exquisite Ruby-tailed Wasp, which is a parasitoid on small stem and wood-nesting wasps, and very strange Hemipteran that feeds on small insects as well as plant buds and unripe fruits.
It seemed a simple task on a free day to record what wild flowers are in bloom in my garden at the moment but I had underestimated how many species I would find and, even after over 60 years practising (yes it was a childhood obsession too), I still find getting attractive images of flowers in situ really difficult. Here are the species from my front garden which has herbaceous beds that are a mix of cultivated and wild species; I find these do really well together in maintaining a good ground cover and height - essential in these dry conditions for invertebrate life.
Lots of butterflies around for our morning visit with Marbled White by far the commonest species. I was looking for butterflies and other insects in good condition and on attractive perches away from other vegetation to try for some pictorial images. The wind was the greatest barrier to achieving this but here are a few that I liked plus a species sheet for those seen in the 90 minutes we spent there
