Tuesday 5th June - Day 5
I put out the moth trap on Monday evening. In the trap on Tuesday morning
20 x Heart and Dart
1 x Bee Moth
1 x White Ermine
1 x Flame Shoulder
2 x Shuttle-shaped Dart (see below with Heart and Dart)
1 x Bright-line Brown-eye
1 x Straw Dot
1 x Silver-y - It is worth looking out for these moths round flowers in the day-time too
1 X Square-spot Rustic
1 x Elephant Hawkmoth - I think this is a different individual to the one I rescued on early on Monday morning as it is a little worn. Also I released the rescued moth some yards away from the house.
I also found a Dock Bug in the wildflower meadow - a new species for the garden. No photo, I am afraid, as the camera was in the house.
Wednesday, 6th June - Day 6
Reading my new Bumble Bee book from the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust and watching bees in the garden. The most popular plants for bees near the house are Sage and Thyme flowers, Red Valerian and the Blue cranesbill type Geranium.
Thursday, 7th June - Day 7
I drove round today looking for wildflowers on verges and traffic roundabouts. I spotted two roundabouts full of ox-eye daisies and a grass verge full of poppies. I stopped off at one urban wildflower meadow planted some years ago which had poppies and ox-eye daisies.
I then paid a visit to St Mary and St Margaret's churchyard in the suburban area of Castle Bromwich.
The graveyard was laid out around 1810 - prior to that parishioners were buried at the church at Aston.
In 2009 there was a community project when several hundred volunteers cleared brambles and ivy which were choking graves and planted flowers to attract pollinating insects. It is good to see that large areas of grass are left uncut and wild flowers are flourishing attracting insects.
Volunteers also researched the stories behind people buried in the churchyard. They have produced an interesting little booklet called "Stories Behind the Headstones". I will go back one day in search of more gravestones and tell you the histories of some of the people buried there.
Ernest Smallwood, mentioned at the base of this memorial, was an actor who died in 1897 at the age of 37 after falling from the top deck of an omnibus in Oxford Street.
Charles Haynes was a Platelayer who died in 1882 from a fractured skull and lacerations to his leg after accidentally coming into close contact with a train in foggy weather.
Saturday, 9th June - Day 9
On Saturday we paid a visit to Harvington Hall in Worcestershire - a rather splendid moated Tudor Manor House with rare wall paintings and loads of priest holes (I will do a separate post on the Hall). I spent a lovely hour looking round the peaceful and tranquil gardens watching moorhen and a family of ducks.
Reference: "Stories Behind the Gravestones" booklet
Great range of moths. I was out last night with a couple of friends with black lights and a moth “tent.” We got about forty species. This is a whole new taxon for me.
ReplyDeleteDavid Gascoigne - Thank you. Glad to hear you have been trapping for moths too. It is very easy to get totally hooked on it as you never know what you will find in the trap - it is like opening a stocking on Christmas Day :)
ReplyDeleteHow fascinating to read a little about the people buried in the church, I always wonder what happened to people especially when they pass so young. It looks like you're fitting in plenty of 'wild'! Some very nice moths!
ReplyDeletePam- Thanks so much. It is a fascinating little booklet - somewhere a couple of young brothers are buried who accidentally and tragically ate some arsenic. Trying to do plenty of wild as you say but feel a bit guilty sometimes because as I am sure you find too if you love nature it becomes part of your daily life anyway.
ReplyDeleteWell done with the moths. I saw a day-flying one in Hay -all I can tell you is that it was beigey!!
ReplyDeleteAs for wild flowers - the verges (where left to GROW) are looking amazing right now, but round here, a swathe of Ox-Eye daisies brings out the worse in the Council and they feel they need to cut the lot to the ground, using dozens of men and vehicles and signs . . . WHY? They aren't across the road - they are in the middle of the sides, where they just look beautiful.
Foxgloves, Red Campion and Ragged Robin making our local hedgerows a delight too.
So much to enjoy in your post. Moths = quite a few different ones in your trap and wildlowers which seem to be buzzing with bees this year, plenty of ox-eye daisies about in verges this year which look wonderful with all the buttercups. I love the idea of the stories behind the burials, the family history group I was a member of when we lived in Lincoolnshire did a similar thing for the local church. I'm looking forward to your post on Harvinton Hall as it sounds delightful. Valerian, cat mint and geraniums are popular with bees at the moment in our gardent and we had a painted lady butterfly on the valarian over the weekend:)
ReplyDeleteBovey Belle - Thank you so much. Moths and butterflies flitting past can be a nightmare to id - sometimes they never keep still for long enough to id!!!!
ReplyDeleteI feel much sympathy about your wildflower verges being cut. Although there are areas round here where they are left alone in other places they are not! :( I get so angry when I drive past somewhere and the flowers I saw a week before have been totally chopped. Plantlife has a campaign on at the moment to try and stop Councils doing it.
June, like May, is such a wonderful month for wild flowers :)
Rosie - Thanks very much. To me it does seem a really good year for wildflowers.
It is so interesting when you can get information on people buried in churchyards. Recently, I have been visiting some Warwickshire village websites which are supposed to have similar information but sadly when I have clicked on the link it goes nowhere! :(
I hope you enjoy the Harvington Hall post especially if you have not visited. It is in draft form at the moment and a bit long with too many pictures! In fact, I will do 2 posts one for the Hall interior and another for the gardens, chapel and church (I got fed up of uploading pictures!). If you are ever down that way it is definitely worth going there.
Well done on the Painted Lady - I haven't seen one this year. Somewhere I have a small patch of cat mint but it never seems to do that well here and I have given up on trying to grow Borage which I adore.
How awful! Yes it's intertwined and it's probably not until I stop at think, like with the 30 days wild, just how much it is!
ReplyDeletePam - Am trying to find some different things to do! - to keep 30 Days Wild more of a challenge! But sadly lacking in time! Never mind - hopefully publicising it all might get people not normally interested in nature to notice it! :) Thinking more of Twitter here than Blogger!
ReplyDeleteGlad you're doing your moth count. The Ermine is my favorite of the bunch. Little polkadots:)
ReplyDeleteChris Rohrer - Thank you so much. I love your description of the Ermine - it is brilliant :) I don't put the moth trap out quite as much as I used to but still enjoy the results when I do :)
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