Weather wise this has been a good year for butterflies (in certain respects). 2024 was disastrous for insects generally, cool and damp from spring into summer. That was always going to have a knock-on effect: less butterflies so less eggs laid so less caterpillars so less butterflies.

 The warm, dry conditions thus far have been favourable for such butterflies as have emerged. But here's a conundrum. The rain last year made it made it a lush year for wildflowers but a dearth of pollinators to pollinate them.

 What I'm noticing in the countryside this summer is that it's not very flowery. For example where there were waist-high wildflowers on the Pegsdon Hills last summer now there are dry grasses. Not much to nectar on!

 Here in the UK we have an island ecosystem and a lot of weather. So I don't necessarily want to attribute everything to climate change but we seem to be experiencing extremes of downpour and drought. Rain and sun is what we need, not just one or the other.  

 

Comma basking.

 First sighting this summer of a Jersey Tiger Moth. Formerly a rare species beyond the South Coast, increasingly common in southerly parts of country. I began seeing them in Hertfordshire a few years ago though they have not appeared in numbers as yet this year.

 The summer solstice, the longest day. So it seemed appropriate to do an evening walk along a section of the Icknield Way, that ancient route across the English chalk. The sun was dipping below the horizon in fiery illumination just as we arrived at Knocking Hoe.

 Ivy Broomrape (Orobanche hederae) in flower. There must be a couple of hundred around the grounds of the music school -which is surprising.

 In the 1980s it was considered to be one of Hertfordshire's rarest wildflowers with only one known colony in a churchyard in North Herts. Moreover this was said to be the only site in the eastern part of England north of the Thames. (Ref. Brian Sawford's great book of 1990 'Wildflower Habitats of Hertfordshire')

 I wrote a longer entry on this subject last year [10th. June], suffice to say the Broomrapes at Benslow are an intriguing manifestation of a rare species.

 

 High summer- a shimmering haze of Ox-Eye Daisies.

Garden as habitat.

 Lavendula angustifolia 'Munstead' is a compact Lavender with vivid blue-purple flowers. 

 Like all Lavenders 'Munstead' attracts bees in profusion. For maximum bees it's worth planting one of the Lavandin cultivars i.e. Lavendula x intermedia which is the hybrid of L. angustifola and L. latifolia. They are the most aromatic and bees mob them. 

 

 Commuting into London every day this week I pass this field with a red haze of Poppies.

 

Two men went to mow a meadow (at the music school). Jif worked ahead of me with the brush cutter scything a path. I gathered up the cuttings with a pitch fork and wheelbarrow.

 By way of a contrast Jif keeps the main lawn cut short and stripey using a cylinder mower.

 Spotted this Jay perching on a bench in the garden at the music school. 

 

 By way of a contrast to the Common Spotted Orchid mentioned in my last entry here is the very uncommon Burnt-tip Orchid. Seen here at Knocking Hoe, one of only a handful of colonies in the UK. Neotinea ustulata grows on sloping chalk and limestone grassland grazed to a short sward. A niche habitat much diminished by modern agriculture. 

 There are 52 Orchids native to the UK (or 56 or 57 depending which source you refer to). The Common Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata subsp. fuchsii) is indeed the most common growing as it does in a wide range of habitats including grassland, heaths, moors, woodland, hedgerows, wetlands, coastal areas, farmland and gardens.

Seeing lots of Red Valerian (Centranthus ruber) in the grassy clinker by railway tracks.