Hugh’s Views Seasonal adjustments #155
Nature has a way of springing a surprise or two on those of us who are bold enough to try to anticipate natural events.
This year the anticipated increase in numbers of common species of butterflies to compensate for the catastrophic decline last year didn’t really materialise despite the warmer weather; the late arrival of exciting and very welcome migrant red admirals and painted ladies only serving to disguise the continuing decline in numbers of native small tortoiseshells and peacocks. Continued habitat loss is as big an issue as the unpredictable weather.
Small tortoiseshell butterfly
The colourful visitors finally peaked in our garden with three painted ladies, ten red admirals and a single hummingbird hawk moth feasting on verbenas and hebes in mid-September. On the 18th while the butterflies fed, a skein of about thirty pink-footed geese, returning from their Arctic breeding grounds, flew south over Amble, their excited clamouring announcing changes soon to become evident.
An unusual day of rain on the 20th resulted in the departure of many of the visiting butterflies, although the odd one continued to appear over the next few days. It was left to the natives to have the final say, I thought, with singles of comma and speckled wood finally appearing briefly on the last day of the month, while heavy rain on the first day of October signalled the end of summer.
Storm Amy made her presence felt at the start of the new month and on the 6th a pair of whooper swans which were calling loudly as they progressed southwards over Amble, seemed to become disoriented as they approached Hauxley View and turned back towards the Coquet as if to check their bearings.
However, the 12th saw the surprising appearance of an extremely late hummingbird hawk moth which fed from our very popular verbenas on quite a dull afternoon, before disappearing into the dying daylight. Three days later a red admiral became the last of our migrant visitors.
A final surprise late in October came in the form of a plant growing on the verge in front of Northern Structures on the Coquet Industrial Estate. It eventually produced a single blue flower on a stem about thirty centimetres tall. A basal rosette of smooth, strap-like leaves indicated chicory, whose persistence had helped it to finally flourish thanks to an irregular mowing regime.
Hugh Tindall
