Photo Blog

I love observing nature through the changing seasons both in my Norfolk wildlife garden and the surrounding countryside. I blog about wildlife gardening as well as about Norfolk butterflies, wildflowers and other flora and fauna that I come across. Bookmark my Norfolk nature photo blog to keep up to date with my photographic adventures.

Poppies, Poppies, Poppies

At last! Some beautiful, warm, sunny summery days.

Lately I've become totally obsessed by the fleeting, ephemeral nature of some beautiful red Common Poppies, Papaver rhoeas, that have sprung up by the new patio due to earth disturbance.

The Poppy’s flower buds burst open first thing but are so fleeting they only last a single morning. Their nectar banquet must be intense as pollinators such as bumblebees and hoverflies go wild over them.

Through the course of the morning the delicate Common Poppy petals steadily fold further and further back until they fall to the ground, or are knocked off by the weight of frantic bees trying to land. This all happens in the space of a few hours and by early afternoon the blooms are already gone, petals lying crumpled and shriveled up on the ground.

Last Butterflies of the season

What was probably my last butterfly shoot of 2022 happened one evening in beautiful golden light when I spotted not one but four female Common Blue butterflies settling down to roost in a very small strip of our wildflower meadow that we’d decided for the first time was mature enough to leave uncut over winter.

It was a timely reminder to me that the less we humans do to intervene, “control” and “manage” things and the more we resist the urge to “tidy up”, the better chance wildlife has to thrive in our man-made garden, park and urban environments.

Butterflies in particular are vulnerable to disturbance at pretty much any time of year as their eggs, caterpillars or pupae lifestages may all be needing to shelter amongst or feed on plants even when adults are not on the wing. If at all possible, its a good idea to try to leave a section of meadow untouched for a full twelve month cycle at any one time to allow larval stages to overwinter successfully undisturbed.

Nature just isn’t a tidy phenomenon, its chaotic and unpredictable. But the innate human desire for what is ultimately a false sense of control is a perennial urge played out in our gardens and very hard to resist, especially when accompanied by societal pressures of convention and fashion. Over the years this along with the globalisation of plant production resulted in the creatiion of a modern aesthetic that is surprisingly wildlife unfriendly from an ecological perspective, with large showy double blooms with little nectar to offer pollinators, exotic non-native flowers that can’t be used as host plants and monoculture green-baize lawns doused in weedkiller to prevent even a daisy or dandelion, and these days, a great deal of hard landscaping too.

Thankfully the emergence of the wildlife-friendly gardening trend and greater awareness of envirnomental issues is gradually encouraging the development (and revival) of more naturalistic planting schemes and is evolving that traditional aesthetic towards more sympathetic wildlife-friendly designs such as prairie style and cottage-garden planting, low mow flowering lawns and the inclusion of mini wildflower meadows and even wildlife ponds.

After all, who wants a dull old bowling green lawn when the reward is enjoying beautiful wildlife sights like these little roosting butterflies instead!

Grow Garlic Mustard for Butterflies

Many gardeners don't realise that Garlic Mustard, alliaria petiolata, is an important host plant for both Orange-tip and Green-veined White butterflies so innocently pull it up right as the butterflies are laying on it. This is a tragedy for the butterflies, but also a shame because Hedge Garlic, as its also called, is an attractive wildflower in its own right with beautifully scalloped fresh lime-coloured leaves, dainty white jasmine-like flowers and can look wonderful against a south facing wall.

May proved an eventful month, and not exactly for the best of reasons…

Orange-tip butterfly ovipositing on Hedge Garlic / Garlic Mustard, Alliaria petiolata, in my wildlife garden

One wildlife gardening project that I've been working on for a long time, in fact more or less since I moved in almost ten years ago, was how to get Orange-tip butterflies, Anthocharis cardamines, to breed in my wildlife garden. At first I planted Cuckoo flower, Cardamine Pratensis, the Orange-tip's best known primary host plant and the one they are always associated with. It tried it in my then new bog garden and by my pond margins, but the site proved too sunny and dry and Cuckoo flower failed to establish there.

Then I learned a less well known fact: Orange-tips also have a second primary plant, Hedge Garlic, Alliaria petiolata, also known as Garlic Mustard or Jack-by-the-hedge. This is a very different plant, larger, with beautifully scalloped lime green leaves, small Jasmine-like leaves, and it's even edible. It's a wanderer of part-shaded leafy lanes and hedgerows and is often used by butterflies as a more abundant alternative. Now that sounded alot more promising.

But for some reason I still struggled. Hedge Garlic is a biennial that behaves much like a foxglove. At first the Hedge Garlic didn't return, so I tried a variety of positions, all seemingly unsuccessful. Then I had an unexpected breakthrough, a self seeded patch popped up in, of all places, my gravel trap, not in part shade as everywhere advises, but southfacing and in full direct sun, exactly where the butterflies need it to be to lay on it. It seemed super happy there with damp feet and poor soil and went from strength to strength.

Finally, another three years on, I had a large clump running across the whole wall in a sunny position. Then this year Eureka! I spotted a female Orange-tip honing in on the patch, checking the flower tips out for prior eggs and then ovipositing some eggs in the bracts of several flower tips. I even managed a grab shot with my camera. I was euphoric and simply over the moon, I'd finally cracked it!

Two days later I took my camera out onto the patio preparing to photograph the eggs looked up and shrieked in horror. The gardener had been that morning, taken some initiative and “tidied” the whole wall! It turns out that not many people know that Hedge Garlic is a Orange-tip host plant.

Devastated, I spent the evening rummaging through the compost bin. Remarkably I saved about a dozen eggs and even more incredibly all bar one of those hatched. Despite various challenges rearing such minuscule hatchling, a few caterpillars were successfully released back into the wild on replacement host plants.

How Gardeners can Help Orange-tip Butterflies

Gardeners can help Orange-tip butterflies in three ways: Firstly by allowing self sown wild Hedge Garlic to grow in their garden, secondly by checking any Garlic Mustard they do need to weed out for butterfly eggs and relocating either the plants or the actual stems with eggs to a safe alternative host plant and lastly by proactively growing a patch of Hedge Garlic in a suitable sunny spot .

How to Transfer Orange-tip Eggs when Weeding Garlic Mustard

Orange-tip butterflies are most likely to have laid their egs on plants in a predominantly sunny aspect. If you do need to weed out a patch of Garlic Mustard then first check the undersides of the flower buds and bracts for eggs. The eggs are usually proud and bright orange so although small tend to be quite visible. If you find any, either pot up the plant, move it to a convenient spot and look after it. Otherwise clip the section with the egg on and then tie it high, as close to the flower tip bracts as possible onto another plant stem that is without an egg and that will be left in situ (or if wild, definitely won't be strimmed in road verge management). Tie the section securely, but without damaging the host plant stem, using fine wire or a non-fibre-shedding thread, if possible leave a route for the caterpillar to migrate avoiding contact with the tie altogether. The caterpillars are so miniscule on hatching they can even get caught in microfibres from polycotton just as in a fine spider web.

Lastly, its important to only put one egg onto each plant, or at least each flowering stem if the plant is a very large second year one. This is because the Orange-tip caterpillars are opportunistic cannibals and will eat each other if they cross paths.

Growing Garlic Mustard as a Butterfly Host Plant

Growing Garlic Mustard can actually help two spring butterfly species, as it is also the caterpillar host plant for another attractive white spring butterfly, the Green-veined White. The caterpillars however are not in competition with each other as the Green-veined White caterpillars eat the leaves of the plant whereas the Orange-tips feed on the seed pods.

Garlic Mustard is very easy to grow from seed in autumn or you can buy young plants from online wildflower providers like Naturescape in spring. Other native plant suppliers are available, do order youor Hedge Garlic early to catch egg laying season.

You will need to grow a generous clump in a sunny area (The butterflies don't generally oviposit on plants in shade) and grow them somewhere you can leave the plants all year even after they die back as many, though not all, caterpillars stay and pupate on the plants. Keep an eye out for ovipositing females and then look for the orange eggs regularly. Eggs are pale yellow day 1, turn bright orange on day 2 then fade to dull brown a day or two before hatching after about 7 days.

If you have grown Garlic Mustard in pots then you can optionally check over the flower heads and buds for predators, (moneyspiders with fine webs, aphids and ladybird larvae were all lurking in wait for mine) evict the predators and transfer the pots into a netted butterfly habitat to reduce predation. At time of writing 90cm butterfly habitats can be ordered online for about £15 from places like Bugzarre.

You can also grow Cuckoo flower, the Orange-tip butterflies’ other primary host plant, if you have a pond margin or bog garden of course. Orange-tips will occasionally lay on other crucifer wildflowers such as Charlock as well as Dames Violet and Honesty but larval survival is generally considered poor on these latter plants.

Garlic Mustard or Hedge Garlic is an attractive wildflower in its own right and deserves a place in every wildlife garden

Female Orange-tip butterfly nectaring on Hedge Garlic, Alliaria petiolata, flowers

Day 2 Orange-tip butterfly egg

Orange-tip caterpillar - 1st Instar or Moult

Orange-tip caterpillar - 2nd Instar or Moult

Orange-tip caterpillar 3rd Instar or Moult

Butterflies and Blackthorn Blossom

Peacock butterfly, Aglais io, nectaring on early Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa, blossom

Every year I wonder when and which butterfly species will be my first sighting of the year. Often its a “classic” springtime butterfly like a Brimstone or an Orange tip butterfly, but this year it was actually a Nymph family butterfly instead.

Out of nowhere on the 17th March, a Small Tortoiseshell appeared, it landed, pausing briefly to bask on some bare earth, only just long enough for an ID then darted off in the stiff breeze.

The sighting was so fleeting, however, that it was only really when I caught sight of this Peacock butterfly, Aglais io, a week later, with is vivid diversionary eyespots, frantically nectaring on newly opened blossom on the still leafless Blackthorn branches several days in a row in my native hedgerow that I really felt that spring was finally on its way and warmer days were not too far off.

It was also a timely reminder of just how vital a habitat a mixed native hedgerow is for our early pollinators. Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa, and other early flowering Prunus species for example are particularly important both for newly emerging butterflies, bees and hoverflies as well as acting as caterpillar hosts once their leaves burst and eggs hatch.

Its often overlooked in favour of exotic non native evergreens or plain old fencing, but by the time its warm enough to spend any time in the garden my native hedge is so thick my garden’s totally private. Hopefully as wildlife gardening becomes more popular and awareness of just how bad things are for insects and the remaining wildlife that depends on them, the popularity of mixed native hedging will start to increase.

At last, it is spring!

Blackthorn,Prunus spinosa, flowers even before its leaf buds have opened

The Dragonflies Return

One of my biggest concerns last summer was the reduced diversity in the dragonflies visiting our pond, due I suspected to “ecological succession”. Over time ponds naturally fill in and the water becomes more acidic from leaves and organic material. This changes the nature of the habitat and correspondingly, of its inhabitants.

After eight years of benign neglect, our pond plants and marginals had established and flourished so well that there wasn’t a drop of open water left on the surface of our pond. I’d read that certain dragonfly species, particularly larger species like Hawkers require this in order to breed.

True enough, last year we didnt see a single Hawker dragonfly, nor did we see Ruddy Darters and even our usually reliable Broad-bodied Chasers and Four-spotted Chasers didn’t linger. So over winter we prioritised a big clear out in order to create an area of clear water again, although we couldn’t quite bring ourselves to remove our Water-lily root Island.

The long cold spring seemed to delay dragonfly emergences so I was on tenterhooks and initially very uncertain whether our intervention was having a positive or negative effect in drawing in dragonflies. Thankfully the pond seemed to burst into life in our sunny mid June spell. Both Broad-bodied Chasers and numerous Four-spotted Chasers arrived in style, displaying their usual spectacular aeriel battle for territorial hegemony.

To top it off, just a few days ago I was delighted when I saw both Large-Red damselflies mating again and then this Emperor dragonfly ovipositing. This latter species in particular, not seen since our very first season and known for its preference for young very open ponds, seemed a promising sign. Sadly there are still no Hawkers about, but overall, it seems our local Odonata have given our major spring clean a seal of approval, which will hopefully bear more fruit in two year’s time with further new emergences.

You can read a short history of the dragonfly and damselfly colonisation of our new wildlife pond in this blog post . My last new species, a damselfly, arrived the following summer (July 2019) to make ten Odonata species in total. Not bad going for a garden pond!

An Emperor dragonfly (blue form) ovipositing next to the recreated open water in our rejuvenated pond.

The Large Red damselfly, an early species, paired wtih an ovipositing female in our mature wildlife pond.

Four-spotted Chaser dragonfly perched on an old Reedmace stem, they seem to have colonised well.

Azure Blue damselfly, perched on Lesser Bird’s Foot Trefoil. They are our most numerous damselfly.

Early Berries and Blackbirds

This year my shady corner native shrubs have really come of age and for the first time I’ve enjoyed watching a Blackbird family go nuts for them, some fledgelings have learned to jump from the ground while others land somewhat precariously on the berry-laden limbs.

The shrubby corner includes Spindle, Euonymous europaeus, Wayfaring-tree, Viburnum lantana, a member of the honeysuckle family and several Dogwoods, Cornus sanguinea. Sadly a hazel hasn’t taken well but all the others are flourishing. Only the ripe black berries are being taking so I may get to watch for a while. The crop seems a little early to me perhaps due to the hot dry spring after such a very wet winter, only time will tell.

One thing’s for sure, no two seasons are ever alike, and that, in a nutshell, is the joy of wildlife gardening!

Fledgling Blackbird perched on berry-laden Wayfaring-tree

Fledgling Blackbird plucking ripe berries from a Wayfaring-tree, Viburnum lantana

Fledgling Blackbird with Dogwood berry in its mouth

Ripening Wayfaring-tree, Viburnum lantana, berries


Sparkling Wings, Spangly Light

The return of fine weather after a week of rain and low temperatures seemed to mark the season’s transition from late Spring into mid Summer. It also brought a flurry of emergences in and arrivals to my wildlife garden.

The Sparrows and Blackbirds have both fledged and are cheeping and chirring charmingly at their parents next to the feeders. As the nectar- and colour-rich magenta Knapweed starts to emerge en masse so do the meadow butterflies. The Meadow Brown and Large Skipper butterflies have emerged, the latter slightly battered so perhaps he had the misfortune to emerge right before the bad weather. In the old Rose garden Goldfinches are frequently landing on the Knapweed buds and a fresh Small Tortoiseshell has been enjoying the Oxeye daisies. A female Common Blue has finally materialised so hopefully my lonesome early male will find his partner.

The other arrival surprised me a little, I’ve been worrying about my pond both for its survival through the drought but also more broadly, due to the process of succession, the gradual growing in causes acidification from leaf matter and less free space. This affects which species can live in a freshwater pond and last year I saw reduced biodiversity the first time.

But my spirits lifted along with the water level thanks to the arrival of a beautiful Four-spotted Chaser dragonfly. He took up the territory for a day or two, on the second I watched as he mated twice with a passing female then hovered over her on protective sentry duty while she oviposited on leaves. Shortly after he moved on to try his luck elsewhere.

Planting for Holly Blue Butterflies

Holly Blue perched on Red Campion leaf

Why Plant Butterfly Host Plants

Wildlife and butterfly friendly gardening is a growing topic of interest and these days most gardeners enthusiastically plant nectar rich “pollinator friendly” planting schemes.

One easily overlooked requirement is to plant for the less glamorous caterpillar stage too, but without these essential host plants, butterflies cannot reproduce.

By catering for the entire butterfly lifecycle in this way you will support your local butterfly population as well as attracting more butterflies into your garden.

This article looks at which host plants to grow to support Holly Blue butterfly caterpillars.

Holly Blue Butterfly Habits

Holly Blues are our earliest blue butterfly on the wing and, being a species of hedgerows and woodland margins, is often also seen in parks and gardens. With the right caterpillar planting scheme, Holly Blues can readily be enticed in to become a resident in your garden.

They are distinguished from other blue butterflies by their beautiful pale powder blue undersides with black spots. They also tend to fly higher up amongst shrubs and trees than their grassland relatives, which prefer to fly low skipping along amongst the ground vegetation.

Given the butterfly’s name you’d be forgiven for thinking this one's a no-brainer for planting but there's more to it than meets the eye.

Holly Blue Butterfly Host Plants

First brood Holly Blues prefer female Holly bushes, Ilex aquifolium, as their caterpillar host plant

Preferred Caterpillar Host Plants

Holly Blues are dual brooded and each generation has its own favourite caterpillar host plant. Unsurprisingly, Holly, Ilex aquifolium is preferred by the spring generation of Holly Blues. Moreover, although the first brood butterflies will lay their eggs on male Holly bushes, they have a distinct preference for female Holly plants.

BUT Ivy, Hedera helix is the preferred caterpillar host plant of the second, summer brood of Holly Blue butterflies.

Second brood Holly Blues prefer Ivy, Hedera Helix, as their caterpillar host plant

So planting a combination of female Holly and Ivy together to accommodate both brood's caterpillars is the ideal Holly Blue butterfly planting scheme.

Alternative Caterpillar Host Plants

Holly Blues will also lay on a variety of other native hedge plants and shrubs. The spring brood of Holly Blues will use Spindle, Euonymus europaeus, Dogwood, Cornus spp. and Gorse, Ulex spp.

Native hedging supports both broods of the Holly Blue butterfly

In contrast alternative planting for the summer Holly Blue butterfly brood includes Bramble, Rubus fruticosus, Alder Buckthorn, Frangula alnus , Common Buckthorn Rhamnus cathartica, also known as Purging Buckthorn and Gorse, Ulex ssp..

Gorse is in fact the only plant used by both broods of Holly Blue, which admittedly isn’t always top of a gardeners list, however a mixed native hedge, hedgerow or shrubby mini-copse or corner containing Buckthorn, Dogwood and Spindle will serve both Holly Blue generatons well and sustain the entire annual cycle of Holly Blue butterflies.

Less Common Caterpillar Host Plants

The non-native, but attractive Snowberry bush, Symphoricarpos spp has also been used by the second Holly Blue brood.

General Caterpillar Host Planting Tips

Caterpillars usually rely on our native wildflowers for evolutionary reasons, which often may not be readily available in your local general garden centre and when they are, may not be the original native cultivar or pesticide free (even with a pollinator friendly label so do take care to ask). The good news is that there are plenty of excellent specialist native plant and seed stockists online, a few of which are listed below.

Plant your caterpillar host plants in generous clumps as butterflies are often quite picky about which stems they will use. Site them in or near a sunny sheltered position (depending on the plants’ requirements) ideally with a good, seasonally appropriate, source of nectar close by. Again native plants are often preferred, when using non-natives pick single flowered varieties rather than doubles as the latter produce less nectar.

Companion Holly Blue Butterfly Nectar Plants

Most of the Holly Blue’s caterpillar host plants serve as nectar sources and honeydew is also used, but these pretty wildflowers are also a good companion planting option:

Spring Brood

  • Ajuga reptans, Bugle

  • Ranunculus spp, Buttercup

  • Selene dioica, Red Campion

  • Myosotis spp., Forget-me-not

  • Anthriscus sylvestris, Cow Parsley

Summer Brood

  • Eupatorium cannabinum, Hemp Agrimony

  • Carduus spp. and Cirsium spp., Thistles

  • Mentha aquatica, Water Mint

  • Ligustrum vulgare, Wild Privet

British Native Wildflower Stockists

There are plenty of online specialist suppliers these days, do ask about pesticides and double check latin names before ordering.

  • Emorsgate - Wildflower seed specialists based in West Norfolk

  • Naturescape - Nottingham based native plant and seed specialist with a good selection of plugs





Planting for Orange Tip Butterflies

Why Plant Butterfly Host Plants

Male Orange Tip Butterfly

Wildlife and butterfly friendly gardening is a growing topic of interest and these days most gardeners enthusiastically plant nectar-rich “pollinator friendly” planting schemes. One easily overlooked requirement is to plant for the less glamorous caterpillar stage too, but without these essential host plants, butterflies cannot reproduce.

By catering for the entire butterfly lifecycle in this way you will support your local butterfly population as well as attract more butterflies into your garden.

This article looks at what host plants to grow to support Orange Tip butterfly caterpillars.

Orange Tip Butterfly Habits

Orange Tips are springtime butterflies that can be seen in a range of habitats. They frequent marshes, river margins and damp meadows but can also be found skipping along hedgerows and visiting gardens, especially if there is a wildlife pond nearby. Orange Tips lay their eggs singly on a flower stem and usually avoid plants with pre-existing eggs so you need a generous patch of larval food plant to go round. The reason for this is that the caterpillars of this species are cannibalistic.

Alliaria petiolata, Garlic Mustard or hedge Garlic

Orange Tip Butterfly Host Plants

Preferred Caterpillar Host Plants

Orange Tip’s favourite host plant is Cardamine pratensis, Cuckoo Flower or Lady’s Smock, which loves boggy areas, damp meadows and pond margins. In fact the term “pratensis” means meadow in latin.

Alternative Caterpillar Host Plants

If like me, you have a drier garden Orange Tips will also lay their eggs on Hedge Garlic/Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) which is often seen along the side of country lanes and hedgerows. Do be careful and check the latin name when ordering this caterpillar plant as several different plants share these common names.

Less Common Caterpillar Host Plants

Cardamine pratensis or Cuckooflower is the Orange Tip’s favourite host plant

Sisymbrium officinale - Hedge Mustard, Barbarea vulgaris - Winter-cress, Brassica rapa - Turnip, Sinapis avensis - Charlock, Cardamine amara - Large Bitter-cress and Arbis hirsuta Hairy Rock-cress. Although Orange Tips will lay their eggs on Lunaria annua - Honesty and Hesperis matronalis - Dame's-violet garden plants, caterpillar survival is believed to be quite poor on these so these are best avoided except as accompanying nectar sources.

General Caterpillar Host Planting Tips

Caterpillars usually rely on our native wildflowers for evolutionary reasons, which often may not be readily purchased in your local general garden centre and when they are, may not be the right cultivar or pesticide free (even with a pollinator friendly label so do take care to ask). The good news is that there are plenty of excellent specialist native plant and seed stockist online, a few of which are listed below.

Plant your caterpillar plants in generous clumps as butterflies are often quite picky about which stems they will use. Site them in or near a sunny sheltered position (depending on the plants requirements) ideally with a good, seasonally appropriate, source of nectar close by. Again native plants are often preferred, when using non-natives pick single varieties rather than doubles as the latter have less nectar.

Companion Orange Tip Butterfly Nectar Plants

Most of the Orange Tip’s caterpillar host plants serve as nectar sources, but these pretty springtime wildflowers are also an option:

  • Lychnis flos-cuculi, Ragged Robin

  • Selene dioica, Red Campion

  • Stellaria holostea, Greater Stitchwort

  • Anthriscus sylvestris, Cow parsley

  • Lunaria annua, Honesty

  • Hesperis matronalis, Dame's-violet

British Native Wildflower Stockists

There are plenty of online specialist suppliers these days, do ask about pesticides and double check latin names before ordering.

  • Emorsgate - Wildflower seed specialists based in Norfolk

  • Naturescape - Nottingham based native plant and seed specialist with a good selection of plugs



Pear Tree Blossom

The mild, sunny weather conditions have been just perfect for our fruit trees. The blossom on our heritage Norfolk pear trees has been simply divine…

Bank Vole

Sometimes you hit the limit of physics and your kit, the outcome is, ahem, aesthetically underwhelming to say the least, but you have captured a beautiful memory and that’s all that ever really matters. Here are some technically awful, through a window, ISO crazy, super slow shutterspeed (1/20th on a 400 lens with extender, ISO 64,000 for the photographers among you) grab shots of an utterly charming dusk encounter with a little russet-furred, round eared field vole that has made its home near our patio.

A favourite prey species of pretty much everything bigger than itself, including Barn Owls and Kestrels, I first identified this as the little short-tailed field vole (Microtus agrestis) , but the russet fur and round ears suggests he is actually a Bank Vole (Myodes glareolus). (S)he used clever predator avoidance tactics including hiding, freezing and zooming and taking varied circuitous routes round my collection of pollinator pots to harvest bittercress flowers, dandelion leaves and gnaw through a gone to seed dandelion flowerhead, which took quite some doing for the tiny creature working to stock its larder.

I quietly watched for some time, just enjoying the moment, before eventually reaching for my camera. Its certainly made me halt my plans to weed the cracks between my patio flagstones. Who knew that a few pollinator pots could bring my patio alive in such an unexpected way?

Short-tailed field vole using our guttering as cover before venturing out

Short-tailed field vole harvesting a gone to seed Dandelion flowerhead

Short-tailed field volves have much rounder ears than mice.

Short-tailed field vole battling with a gone to seed Dandelion flowerhead

Purple Loosestrife and Autumn Copper

Small Copper butterfly nectaring atop a Purple Loosestrife flower

One of the most spectacular, for me almost magical, wildlife gardening plants I’ve discovered in my project to create a wildlife-friendly garden is Purple Loosestrife.

Purple Loosestrife grows in a dense cluser on pond and river edges. Its foliage and flowers support a variety of long-tongued pollinators

These butterfly photos, probably my last of 2019, a quickly grabbed series of a Small Copper butterfly, Lycaena phlaeas, frantically nectaring on swaying Purple Loosestrife flowers by my wildlife pond on a sunny but very blustery mid-September’s day, illustrate perfectly why it is such a wonderful wildlife-friendly plant to grow.

Gardening Value

Purple Loosestrife, or Lythrum salicaria to give it its botanical name, is a native perennial, widespread across the UK. In the wild it inhabits a range of damp habitats including river edges, marshes and pond margins. The wildflower works well in gardens because its height and colour have a strong impact, making it visually impressive in the way that relatively few other native wildlfowers are.

Its almost exotic-looking flowers are formed of tall rosettes of rich magenta-pink petals and it enjoys a long flowering period from June until well into September. Salicaria refers to the willow-like, elongated oval shape of its leaves and its red-hued stems can be striking in their own right, adding height and structure to a pond margin. Purple Loosestrife is easy to grow, being a vigourous plant which can grow up to a metre and a half tall, often in quite dense colonies and tolerates a wide variety of soil types. It establishes easily, so much so that in North America it has become designated an invasive species, and has a reputation and status similar to that of Himmalayan Balsam here.

Elephant Hawkmoths use Purple Loosestrife as a caterpillar host plant and have magenta markings

Wildlife value

Purple Loosestrife is a particularly useful nectar source for a variety of long-tongued insects; not just butterflies and bees, but also hoverflies and moths, including several hawk moth species. Its prolonged midsummer-into-autumn flowering period means Purple Loosestrife can serve pollinators as a nectar source both through the “June Gap” as well as supporting later emerging and second brood insects, such as Small Copper butterflies well into early autumn when many other nectar sources such as meadow flowers have vanished with the haycut and harvest.

Being a UK native wildflower, it is also favoured as a caterpillar host plant by several moth species including the Elephant Hawk-moth, Willowherb Hawkmoth and the Powdered Quaker.

Plant folklore

Its main common name suggests one of its many herbal uses may have been to “loose strife” and historically it was also used medicinally to help gastric upsets, fevers and dysentry. Lythrum comes from the Greek word for “gore”, again referencing its vivid flower hue. Alternative names for Purple Loosestrife include “Blooming Sally, Bouquet Violet, Grass Polly, Purple Willowherb, Purple Lythrum, Salicaire (its French name), Red Sally, Soldiers, Spiked Willowstrife, Stray by the Lough (Ireland) Swaggering Sally”. A red dye and food colouring used to be made from its vividly coloured flowers and its tannins have been used to preserve ropes or wood from rotting in water.

Small Copper butterfly in profile seeking nectar rich Purple Loosestrife flowers

Small Copper butterfly amidst swaying Purple Loosestrife flower spikes

Small Copper using its long proboscis to nectar on Purple Loosestrife

A Painted Lady Summer

Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui nectaring on white Buddleia. Will 2019 be a record-breaking Painted Lady summer?

As the Butterfly Conservation Society’s annual three week long Big Butterfly Count draws to a close, the UK looks set to have enjoyed the magical, once-in-a-decade phenomenon called a “Painted Lady summer” when the apricot- and black-marked species arrives here en masse.

The last such event occured in 2009, when some 11 million Painted Ladies, known as Vanessa cardui, arrived on our shores and there is speculation that 2019 could be a record-breaking year.

But how is it that a butterfly that doesn’t survive our winters and isn’t even permanently resident in the UK manages to congregate here in such numbers?

The Painted Lady, a member of the large and colourful Nymphalidae butterfly family, is a poweful flyer and long distance migrant. During its migration it can achieve an impressive speed of almost 30 miles per hour and fly some 100 miles in a day. In fact, it’s 7,500 mile round trip migration from North Africa as far north as the arctic circle is even longer than that of the famous Monarch butterfly, which travels up and down the North American seabord.

Freshly emerged, second generation Painted Lady nectaring on a budding Common Knapweed flower

Despite its flying prowess, like the Monarch butterfly, Vanessa cardui traverses its intercontinental route multigenerationally and, having only a 2 week long life span, takes about 6 generations to complete it.

Each season the butterfly flies northwards from the desert fringes of North Africa to reach mainland Europe and then on to the UK, reaching Britain in late March. Here the newly arrived lepidopteran immigrant lays eggs on Marsh and other Thistles, Viper’s Bugloss, Mallow and Nettles. After about a month-and-a-half later the next generation emerges (46 days according to devoted turn of the century lepidopterist F. W. Frohawk).

These native-born Painted Ladies then lay a brood of their own, which, further supplemented by arrivals from both Europe and Scandinavia, significantily boosts numbers towards late summer. Some of these butterflies will commence the return migration southwards as the seasonal conditions turn.

So what makes the once in a decade “Painted Lady year” of mass abundance occur? Experts believe that the butterfly’s migratory instinct may be triggered by population density (leading to competition for egglaying sites and food sources) and in exceptional years, unusually good food availability and favourable weather conditions foster population booms. This in turn triggers mass North- and Easterly-bound migrations, often with hundreds, even thousands of butterflies reaching landfall along the UK’s East and South coastline, some arriving from Europe, others from Scandinavia and some even directly from Africa in favourable windstreams.

As well as Thistles for egg laying, depending on its generation, adult Painted Lady butterflies will nectar on a wide range of plants. These include Knapweeds, Buddleia, Trefoils, Hawkweeds, Heather, Privet, Ivy, Bugle and Clovers, so planting these species, and tolerating that annoying thistle or two (you can always deadhead later to stop the patch growing!) increases the likelihood of you attracting this orgeous, intricately-marked butterfly into your garden and enjoying your very own Painted Lady Summer.

Tenth Green Damselfly

Female Banded Demoiselle, Calopteryx splendens, perched on Common Knapweed

How time flies, I had a whole series of late spring early summer blog posts planned to write, got waylaid and now suddenly its midsummer already! Although this image is an imperfect “grab” shot rather than a nature study, I just had to share it because it is exciting news for our wildlife pond..

Last year I blogged about the nine damselfly and dragonfly species my widllife pond had attracted as it evolved over its six years and speculated that might be the maximum a relatively small pond like mine could achieve due to the way pond habitat changes.

Then unexpectedly on 5th July I spotted this iridescent green female Banded Demoiselle damselfly, grandly named Calopteryx splendens, its vivid emerald green contrasting beautifully against the deep purple of the Common Knapweed flowers it was perched amongst.

She represents the tenth species to have visited our Wildlife pond and garden. Not all consecutively of course, and some will never return'; we've learned that ponds evolve over time naturally to gradually fill in, undergoing an inevitable acidification in the process, which some species can’t tolerate.

The male Banded Demoiselles are blue with a clear blue band across the forewings so she definitely is a female. The species is easily confused with the Beautiful Demoiselle, Calopteryx virgo, but that species is a species of fast-flowing rivers and isn’t resident in Norfolk. In contrast Banded Demoiselles prefer slow flowing watercourses with a muddy bottom. There’s plenty of debris in mine with all our surrounding vegetation so I wonder if she was eyeing up our pond for ovipositing. Only time will tell…

Cheery Cowslips

Cowslips are invaluable to early pollinators and have a long flowering period

The mid-Spring superstar of our wildflower meadow this year was undoubtably the humble Cowslip, Primula veris. I’d always hoped to see them in my wildlife garden, as not far up the lane from my cottage is a little tucked away-clearing near a small copse that is too small to farm and in springtime always seemed to be bursting full of rich custard-coloured Cowslips mixing in beautifully with the deep indigo of native Bluebells.

Disappointingly, despite their inclusion in my native seedmix for clay soil, for the first two years not a single one materialised. I philosophically put it down to the soil conditions or an unlucky batch mix and thought I might sow some plugs another year.

Then unexpectedly, the very next spring just a smattering appeared! I was overjoyed to learn that it was simply that their seeds can take several seasons to germinate and interpreted it as an encouraging sign our meadow ecosystem was establishing itself well naturally.

Since then they’ve gone from strength to strength, spreading almost right across the small sward. They must particularly like cool dry springs as this year, our meadow’s sixth season, has been their best appearance to date.

Wildlife Value of Cowslips

Aside from their cheerful colour and long lasting flowerheads, they have a healthy wildlife value. Their flowers are a vital resource for pollinators, particularly for early solitary bee species, quite a few of which frequent our garden, but also for butterflies such as the Brimstone butterfly and other insects such as beetles. They are also the caterpillar plant for the Duke of Burgundy butterfly, which is unfortunately not resident in Norfolk.

A member of the Primula family, the Cowslip shares more than a passing resemblance to it's cousins the Primrose Primula vulgaris and the Oxlip Primula elatior, however both of these lack its pleasant apricot perfume and have more open paler lemon-hued flowers.

Plant Folklore of Cowslips

Cowslips can take several years to establish in a new meadow

Amusingly the Cowslip’s latin name Primula veris romantically deems it the “true” primrose, while its established English name more, ahem, rustically refers to its habit of growing near “cow’s slops” or cowpats in grazing pasture. It does have over two dozen pleasanter names in traditional folklore including other farming references such as Milk Maidens, descriptive names such as Freckled face, Golden Drops and Long legs as well as biblical names mentioning Mary or alluding to a myth that Cowslips sprang up where St Peter dropped the keys to heaven, perhaps in a cow pat!

Cowslips’ varied folklore names include: Artetyke, Arthritica, Buckles, Bunch of keys, Crewel, Drelip, Fairy Cups, Fairies' flower, Freckled face, Golden drops, Herb Peter, Hey-flower, Paigle, Peggle, Key Flower, Key of Heaven, Lady's fingers, Long legs, Milk maidens, Mayflower, Mary's tears, Our Lady's Keys, Palsywort, Password, Petty Mulleins, Plumrocks, Tisty-tosty. Welsh: dagrau Mair meaning Mary's tears, Anglo-Saxon: Cuy lippe, Greek: Paralysio.

The Cowslip has a rich cultural and culinary history too; traditionally it decorated Mayday garlands and was strewn along churchyard pathways at weddings and religious festivals. The Cowslip was used medicinally to aid sleep and heal coughs as well as to make Cowslip wine and “Tisty-tosty”, little balls of crushed up Cowslip flowers.

In the literary world the Cowslip’s honours include mentions in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and “Henry V” plays as well as featuring in Keats’ poem of Springtime romance “Hither, hither love”.

Hither, hither, love —

‘Tis a shady mead —

Hither, hither, love!

Let us feed and feed!

Hither, hither, sweet —

’Tis a cowslip bed —

Hither, hither, sweet!

'Tis with dew bespread!

Hither, hither, dear —

By the breath of life —

Hither, hither, dear!

Be the summer’s wife!

Though one moment’s pleasure

In one moment flies —

Though the passion’s treasure

In one moment dies —

Yet it has not passed —

Think how near, how near! —

And while it doth last,

Think how dear, how dear!

Hither, hither, hither

Love its boon has sent —

If I die and wither

I shall die content!

John Keats









And Then There Were Nine...

Watching Nar Cottage's nature pond transform from a muddy hole in our clay earth into a lush, thriving, diverse insectopolis has been one of the most fascinating and rewarding experiences of our five-year wildlife gardening project. Each year we've seen a new species of dragon or damselfly colonise our pond. This year a further arrival brought the grand total to some nine species, five dragonflies and four damselflies. Here they all are, in order of appearance and colonisation. This is the story of a humble pond's evolution into a local wildlife mecca.

Nar Cottage Pond and bog garden as it was in May 2014, newly planted with lots of bare earth

Nar Cottage wildlife pond as it is today, rich in aquatic and marginal vegetation and surrounded by a native wildflower meadow (June 2017)

First on the scene was a large male Broad-bodied Chaser dragonfly, Libellula depressa, arriving the very first week of June 2014, our pond's first spring, closely followed by a female.  A beautifully marked dragonfly of early summer with a penchant for shallow sunny ponds, the males are a dusky shade of powder-blue and the females a rich mustard yellow.

My first ever sighting of a Broad-bodied Chaser, Libella depressa, in my very own back garden, thanks to my new wildlife pond in June 2014

A golden yellow female Broad-bodied Chaser dragonly perched on red campion flowers

The dusky blue of the male Broad-bodied Chaser dragonfly, Libellula depressa

Broad-bodied Chasers return in 2018 after missing a year. Highly territorial, this one saw off a passing Southern hawker dragonfly.

Next to move in on the 1st of July was my very first damselfly species, the vivid Azure Damselfly, Coenagrion puella. Blue damselflies can be quite hard to identify but I discovered the Azure's distinguishing feature is that it has two short black stripes on the side of its thorax, whereas the Common Blue Damselfly, Enallagma cyathigerum only has one. They took to our pond enthusiastically and set about ovipositing eggs for future generations!

Azure Damselflies ovipositing in tandem. Adult male Azure Damselflies are vivid turquoise. Most females have wide black bars on their abdomen with a lime green colour, about 10% are blue in colouration.

Immature Azure Damselflies are pale lilac (the females predominantly black as in their adult form) and have brown eyes.

Our third arrival was the dramatic and impressive Emperor Dragonfly, another species I'd never encountered before. Carrying an equally imperial latin name  Anax imperator is one of the UK's biggest dragonflies and undoubtedly the most regal. According to Lewington, the Emperor's "vigour, aggression and agility in flight are unequalled in Britain".

The Emperor has a reputation for being a bit of a pioneer species and is known for colonising younger ponds so it made sense to see it early on in our pond's existence. The larva have a fearsome reputation for their creative hunting methods and can occasionally mature in a single year although they usually take two. The surrounding meadow and in subsequent years also pond foliage rapidly filled in to envelop the pond so I never did see an Emporer again.

A female Emperor dragonfly, Anax imperator, ovipositing on the base of reeds

The vivid green and blue of the Emporer dragonfly

 

August brought another two species, one dragonfly, one damsel and the total to 5 dragonflies in our first season. Next up was the Common Darter, Sympetrum striolatum, first spotted basking on the bare earth next to the pond. A month later I was even more excited to see a mating couple zooming around our pond, hopefully ensuring future generations to come.

My first sighting of a Common Darter, Sympetrum striolatum, August 2014

A pair of mating Common Darter dragonflies mid-flight over my sparsely vegetated new pond, September 2014

A Common Darter dragonfly perched on Knapweed in my wildflower meadow, July 2016

My second August arrival proved to be the Common Blue damselfly, Enallagma cyathigerum, which has a flight period from May through to September. Blue damsels can be tricky to distinguish from each other, but the single short stripe on the thorax and all blue tail segments help to separate the Common Blue from similar species, its also a stronger flier.

Common Blue damselfly perched on Brooklime, August 2014

Common Blue damselfly, drab form, immature, July 2016

My next new species didnt show up until nearly a year later in late July 2015 but, a bit like busses, suddenly two came at once. The Blue-tailed damselfly, Ishnura elegans and another life first for me, the Four-spotted Chaser dragonfly, Libellula quadrimaculata both showed up the same day. Blue-tailed damselflies are variable in colour and also change colour as they mature so can vary a lot in apperance, in particular there are so-called rufescens (pinkish) violacea (violet) and infuscans (green) female forms.

The vivid female violacea form of the Blue-tailed damselfly

Blue-tailed damselfly on Yarrow flowerhead, July 2015

Female Blue-tailed damselfly, form rufescens, July 2016

With its fast, agile flight and distinctive wing markings, the Four-spotted Chaser dragonfly, Libellula quadrimaculata, was a  exciting addition to my wildlife pond's dragonfly tally. Much like the Broad-bodied chaser dragonfly, the males are highly territorial and persistently patrol their patch and return to the same perches to challenge rivals and the two males often held sparring matches over my pond. 

Four-spotted Chaser dragonfly, Libella quadrimaculata, July 2016

Four-spotted Chaser dragonfly showing its distinctive markings, 2018

2017 only saw one new arrival, bringing our total to 8 different species. Our pond was now 4 years old and becoming pretty mature as a micro-habitat. The Ruddy Darter dragonfly, Sympetrum sanguineum, was our new addition. In the past this dragonfly was a major source of identification confusion for me due to its similarities with the Common Darter and it was satisfying to finally get a good view of the jet black legs that distinguish it most readily.

Last but by no means least in my line up is my recent 2018 sighting of the Large Red damselfly, Pyrrhosoma nymphula. It made its debut on the Nar Cottage wildlife pond stage on 28th May. Frequently one of the earliest damselflies to be seen, I'd often spotted it in late May on visits to Stoke Ferry and Hoe Rough . With its distinctive colour it was most definitely a newbie in our garden.

Ruddy Darter, Sympetrum sanguineum, on a pondside perch

My latest damselfly species sighting the Large Red damselfly, Pyrrhosoma nymphula

Its wonderful to still be seing new species colonise this micro-habitat we created even after 5 years and though my pond's evolution is perhaps slowing and stabilising now I continue to hope for more sightings. Who knows, someday this line up may yet turn into a top-ten list!

 

 

Seeing Red

I spent a gorgeous bank holiday weekend pottering around our wildlife pond, watching the Azure damselflies wafting about in pairs and aerial dragonfly wars between the powder blue Broad-bodied Chaser and custard yellow Four-spotted Chaser dragonflies to rival any aeroplane dogfight as each fiercely competed for territory.

Suddenly among all the vivid blue Azures I quite literally saw red, that is, a pair of red mating damselflies! It was another first for Nar Cottage pond as they proved to be Britain's Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula). Flying earlier than its cousin the Small Red Damselfly (Ceriagrion tenellum), it can also be distinguished by its black legs and strongly striped antehumeral markings.

This photo marks the ninth species of Odonata (dragonflies and damselfles) recorded in our wildlife pond (more on that here) and not bad for a pond thats only five seasons old...

Two Blues and No Greens

After a second fruitless jaunt hoping to photograph some rather shy Green Hairstreaks, which seem to be having a good season this year, my sunny late May Sunday ended up being an impromptu tale of two Blues in my own back garden instead.

Male Broad-bodied Chaser dragonfly basking

As I was resting on my patio I spotted our first blue Broad-bodied chaser dragonfly posing ostentatiously by the side of our (now very low) wildlife pond, barely a day after our first Four-spotted chaser appeared. Both were trying to hold territory and I was entertained by some impressive aerial battles.

A subsequent gentle lap of our garden yielded a female Holly Blue Butterfly busily ovipositing on the native shrubs in our wildlife hedgerow that borders our garden and now in its 5th year is nice and dense. Our wildlife garden just keeps on giving year after year. 

A female Holly Blue butterfly busily ovipositon amongst native hedging

Smoothly Enters the Newt

A surprising number of tadpoles survived this year's late snow and frosts to hatch out, proving that nature has long coped with such seasonal extremes. Once hatched, a tadpole's lot does not get easier by any means, because along with the warmth, their nemesis the Common newts have returned.

Common newts, also known as Smooth newts, predate heavily on tadpoles and frogspawn in springtime, and male Common newts can be spotted due to their vivid orange and black spotted underbelly which is a temporary colouring worn during the mating season.

Male Common or Smooth newt in orange mating colours

Common newt hunting among newly hatched tadpoles

 

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