Blog Archives: Britain’s Wildlife

July Moth Morning 2026 at Beth Chatto Gardens

Beth Chatto Gardens, Britain's Wildlife, WildEssex, WildWivenhoe

The second outing for our moth trap into Beth Chatto Gardens this year came just as the unprecedented third heatwave of the summer broke down, albeit not into a tumult of thunderstorms. The drought remained but the night temperature fell to a delightfully chilly 13 degrees. I had little idea what to expect as I opened the trap: it could have gone either way…

I characterised the previous trapping a month earlier as a qualified disappointment: the overall number of moths and species was lower than I hoped for given the heat of that particular night, and it felt the haul lacked a little in colour and the ‘big game’. The same was true this last weekend: it produced almost as many moths and almost as many species; plenty to see but just lacking a bit of spice.

At first view I was worried, though. Sitting on the outside of the trap was a Hornet. Even a small number of Hornets or other social wasps can cause carnage in a trap, but not this time. Just one Hornet outside, one and an equally predatory Common Wasp inside, and no obvious mortality. And the ‘big and beautiful’ were crown-pleasers: an Elephant Hawkmoth and two Oak Eggars…

Other ones distinctive in colour, pattern or posture included Rosy Footman, Black Arches, Scarce Footman and September Thorn…

Equally distinctive, though less obtrusive, were those hiding in plain sight and reliant on camouflage either as bark (Dark Arches, Iron Prominent) or bird poo (Lime-speck Pug, Least Carpet and Scorched Carpet)…

Another selection of macromoths helps complete the picture of their diversity and the delightful poetry of many of their English names: Large Yellow Underwing, Dingy Footman, Maiden’s Blush, Pebble Prominent, Twin-spotted Wainscot, Nutmeg, Spectacle, Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing and Sallow Kitten.

It is a simple fact though that even the macromoths are not always identifiable to species on external appearance. Some identicouples or moresomes can be specifically identified only by killing them and examining their unique genitalia, which of course is something we will not do. So the below must remain as Ear Moth (one of four possible species), Grey or Dark Dagger, and one of the three possible Common Rustics.

Turning to the numerous micromoths, most frequent were the several species of grass moth, along with small ermines of at least five species: Bird Cherry, Apple, Willow, Iceplant and Orchard Ermines.

Micros may (generally) be smaller but can be very attractive and/or distinctive, such as Agapeta zoegana, Ethmia quadrillella, Calybites phasianipennella, Water Veneer and Catoptria pinella:

Many moths are well-known as migrants to the UK from the Continent, and at this time of year a moth trap may well contain several specimens indicative of a recent immigration event. That was the case at the weekend, despite the fact that the breeze was northerly, with several Willow Ermines, Diamond-backs and Small Mottled Willows, along with single Silver Y, Dark Sword-grass, Rush Veneer and Rest Harrow, the latter until recently being considered a real rarity.

Hitherto migrant moths can and do sometimes establish breeding populations, and we had a selection of those too, with Tree-lichen Beauty, Cydia amplana and Plumed Fanfoot, first recorded in Britain in 1987, 1990 and 1995 respectively, and now likely to be breeding in and around the gardens.

All in all, the night’s haul amounted to about 350 moths of 96 species – see here for a full list and comparison with previous trapping at this site BC MOTHS TOTALS to July 26. This included more than thirty species new to the garden list: because we run the trap here only a couple of times a year, there is always ample opportunity to expand that list further! Running the trap in different locations and in different months would certainly add considerably to our overall biodiversity list.

As always, creatures other than moths found their way into the trap. Caddisflies are regular visitors, especially given the proximity of their aquatic breeding habitat, and included Glyphotaelius pellucidus and Mystacides azurea.

Another pond-dweller was the Supertramp Beetle Rhantus suturalis, one that is well known for dispersing at night and seeking out fresh ponds by the light of the Moon. A plant bug Phytocoris varipes was the first time we have recorded it in the garden, and the most dramatic element of the by-catch was a carrion-beetle Necrodes littoralis, a species best known from coastal strandlines, and indicative of the wondrous, largely unnoticed, flux of insects under the cover of night.

Our group also had time for a quick walk around the gardens and managed to see a couple of characteristic day-fliers, Jersey Tiger and Hummingbird Hawkmoth, along with a selection of butterflies, shield-bugs, dragonflies and damselflies.

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The trap was again pressed into action a few nights later, to prepare for a kids’ mothy session at the start of the summer holiday. With focus on experience rather than identification, we didn’t produce a full list for that event, but just appended new ones to the weekend trap results.

And what an experience it was for them, especially enthralled by the size of the Oak Eggar, the pattern on the Black Arches and the birch-twig camouflage of the Buff-tip. The latter was extremely compliant, allowing itself to be handed gently round all the little hands massed around the trap, one by one until even those who were initially scared had a go. And then it was released into safety, content in the knowledge that it might just have changed the life of one or more of the kids.

And remarkably, given that we had trapped only four nights’ previously, I found about 25 moth species that had not appeared in the trap on Friday night and, of those, nine were were completely new to the ever-expanding garden biodiversity list. Some of the absentees from the Moth Morning event were White Point, Gypsy Moth, Pale Prominent, Peacock Moth and Sharp-angled Peacock.

Hopefully the Moth Mornings will be back next summer, and after the joy of the kids’ moth event, I would love that to become a fixture too. Watch the Beth Chatto website events page for more details.

#WildEssexWalks: Lower Lodge in the grip of a heatwave

Britain's Wildlife, Bug & Botany Walks, WildEssex, WildWivenhoe

As is by now traditional, we organised a WildEssex walk in high summer around Lower Lodge nature reserve, near Wivenhoe. Lower Lodge is a lovely, flower -rich grassland site, mostly mown on a three- or four-year rotation by Colchester City Council, producing a diversity of habitat structure, from woodland, to dense scrub, to scattered scrub to open grassland. All components have their value, although the open grassland is especially diverse for both insects and flowers.

But we hadn’t planned on a summer like the current one. An unprecedentedly hot, dry summer with three heatwaves and droughts already, and it is only mid-July. So it was with some trepidation we set out onto the site to see what we could find. At least there were plenty of pollen- and nectar-bearing flowers, particularly Wild Carrot, Hogweed, Common Knapweed, Field Scabious, Creeping Thistle and the beautiful bicolored form of Field Bindweed.

From a distance there were a few butterflies flitting around, but I was stopped in my tracks at the very first Carrot umbel: Ectophasia crassipennis! A stunning parasite-fly that lays its eggs on unfortunate shield bugs before the fly larvae devour the bug from the inside. Slowly….

It is a species I know well from the Pyrenees that first reached the UK in 2019; it is now found widely along the south coast, but is only just starting to head our way. So far as I can ascertain there are only a couple of other records from Essex, one at Wrabness in the year of its first arrival and one last year that I found in Beth Chatto Gardens.

We then carried on on the parasite-fly theme, recording two more species, Tachina fera and Eriothrix rufomaculata.

What a great start and although individual numbers of most insect species were not high we kept on finding things of interest until the end of the two hours when the other absolute highlight performed as the very last insect of the walk. This was a Hummingbird Hawkmoth, always good to see and reasonably common this summer. But what was it doing hovering its way through, not over, the grass, avoiding the flowers, completely oblivious to us as it flew between us, and occasionally touching down? And then it twigged, ‘it’ was a ‘she’, she was laying eggs on the Hedge Bedstraw plants growing in the grassy sward. This is not a behaviour I have ever seen before, so our walk ended with me as excited as when we started!

Sadly, unless any larvae develop very quickly such that the next generation is out by early autumn, they are unlikely to survive our winter. But maybe, just maybe, a warm winter could allow it to succeed.

Other moths we saw during the walk were many and varied, from grass moths like Agriphila straminella (all very brown and flittery) to the stunning Brassy Longhorn (a specialist moth dependent upon Field Scabious, seemingly very scarce in Essex) and of course the Six-spot Burnets, resplendent in their black and red livery in the sun, whirring around, occasionally landing to feed, and some new emergers just drying out close to their vacated pupal cases.

Other flies feeding on the umbels included the hoverfly Chrysogaster solstitialis and lots of Flesh-flies, while sitting around on the leaves, either mating or on the lookout for insect prey were Kite-tailed Robberflies, alongside tiny sweat-bees Lasioglossum sp.

Another selection of insects feeding on flowers comprises a parasitic ichneumon wasp (the nemesis of caterpillars), Turnip Sawfly, a Knapweed Bug Oncotylus viridiflavus (for which there are only a couple of records east of Colchester), Hairy Shieldbug, Seven-spotted Ladybird, Thick-thighed Beetle and Hogweed Bonking-beetle. A veritable cornucopia of delights!

So among the insects that leaves just the butterflies. Gatekeepers were the most numerous, with just a few Meadow Browns, good numbers of pristine Painted Ladies, and a very few Small Skipper and Common Blues.

In addition, but not photographed, were Small and Green-veined Whites, single Red Admiral, Brown Argus, Small Heath and a Purple Hairstreak that had a lucky escape from a spider’s web up in an oak canopy.  And flying around the fields there were Emperor, Brown Hawker and Common Darter dragonflies, and Willow Emerald and Common Blue Damselflies.

Aside from insects, there was plenty more of interest, including a spider Enoplognatha with its hoverfly prey, abundant Oak Mildew, artichoke and marble galls on Oaks, and a good fruiting of sloes.

And just to finish off, the things we didn’t see as a group, but which I found on my recce a couple of days previously: leaf mines on oak and galls on Wild Rose (we just didn’t have time to hunt them all out on the walk)…

… Box Bug and Cinnabar caterpillars

… Ringlet and Small Copper

… and a hoverfly Xanthogramma pedissequum, known aptly as the Superb Dayglower.

Yes, Lower Lodge performed very well as always, a powerhouse of biodiversity on our doorstep!

The Wild Side of Essex: High Summer by the Stour Estuary

Britain's Wildlife, WildEssex

It was in the third heatwave and drought of the summer and the north Essex landscape was looking decidedly tired. Leaves drooping, few birds and insects braving the heat of the day and, sadly, several of our target species were missing. No Turtle Doves or Sand Martins seen or heard around their well known breeding sites, where they had been earlier in the year; no White Admirals flying in the woods – presumably their flight season has closed prematurely. But of course we carried on, always hoping, consoled by the notion of nature: if sightings were guaranteed, it would mean you were in a zoo, not the wild!

Actually the day started very pleasantly under a veil of cloud, but this soon burned off as the fierce sun once again took control. And all the time a stiff northerly breeze probably kept some activity down as well. But at Wrabness Nature Reserve, clad in its wind-damping cloak of scrub, there were Blackcaps and Whitethroats into their second broods, Goldfinches and Greenfinches twittering in the hedges, several Song Thrushes, presumably having a hard time finding snails and turning their sights on Elder berries, and some confiding fledgling Robins.

Flyover Cormorant, Little Egret and noisy Lesser Black-backed Gulls reminded us of our proximity to the Stour Estuary, while also in the skies Buzzard and Sparrowhawk drifted over, the latter being harried by Swallows rising from the nearby horse pastures and stables, along with a noisy family of Kestrels starting to master the art of flight.

Given the drought, flowering was a little more sparse than usual, but included yellow composites like Bristly Oxtongue, Ragwort and Common Fleabane, white umbellifers such as Wild Carrot and Hogweed, plus Yarrow and Common Knapweed, Great Mullein and Teasel…

… Viper’s’ Bugloss, Meadow Vetchling, Red Bartsia, Common Toadflax, Rosebay Willowherb and Field Bindweed  providing colour and the pollen and nectar for visiting insects.

And Dittander giving a refreshing hit of horseradish when chewed, a much-needed pick-me-up on a hot day!

Butterflies were pretty abundant, although most were Gatekeepers, and almost all were flying low, through the grasses, to stay in the shade. In addition there were a few Common and Holly Blues, Large and Small Whites, Red Admirals, Meadow Browns and Small Heaths, but very surprisingly, not a single skipper, often ultra-abundant here.

A few burnet moths whirred around, occasionally stopping to nectar, when the spots could be counted: most were 6-Spot Burnets, with just one being Narrow-bordered 5-spot Burnet.

Other insects included Cinnabar moth caterpillars, Squash Bug, Flesh-fly, Sphaerophoria hoverflies, Southern Hawker dragonfly and Common Blue damselfly, together with a couple of knapweed specialists, the bug Oncotylus viridiflavus  and the picture-winged fly Urophora jaceana.

But because the heat was starting to suppress activity, we also spent time looking at fixed features, especially in the shade: leaf-mines and gall. The leaf-miners included Holly Leaf-miner (a fly) and Stigmella aceris and Lyonetia clerkella, both micromoths, while galls included the pea gall and Robin’s Pincushion, both caused by gall wasps on roses.

Down towards the quiet estuary, there were Greater Reedmaces in flower as the spears from last summer exploded, and over the seawall, a saltmarsh alight with Common Sea-lavender:

Moving on to Stour Wood and lunch in the shade, I rapidly reformulated my plans and cut out any idea of heading out into the open agricultural landscape around the wood. In the woods we remained for the afternoon seeking out any hotspots of insect activity.

The trees, mostly Sweet Chestnut coppice with standard English Oaks and a sprinkling of Hazel, Hornbeam, Aspen and Wild Service, were still in full leaf, albeit drooping with drought, but the paths were littered with the recently shed chestnut catkins.

In the shade, the flora, just three months ago a sea of blue and white, Bluebells and Wood Anemones, was restricted to the unassuming Enchanter’s Nightshade…

… while in the rides and coppice clearings, Marsh Thistle and Ragwort added essential nectar resources. It was here that there were butterflies, including good numbers of Ringlet and thankfully, one our targets Silver-washed Fritillaries. They were few at first, but as the walk progressed and the group size dwindled, fritillary numbers increased, and at the end put on a fantastic show for me and the last, lucky couple!

Other activity along the rides came from dragonflies, both Common and Ruddy Darters flycatching, having come some considerable distance from breeding ponds after emergence, to colour up, feed and get into breeding condition before returning to ponds ready for action.

Bird-wise though, all was quiet, praeternaturally quiet, siesta time hopefully, although it will only be in hindsight (when it is too late) that we can evaluate the true impact of climate collapse on our nature and lives. Imagine a world in which the only memories of woodpeckers are their exploratory excavations in our trees…

So, all in all, a trip which failed to provide most of its targets, a struggle in the heat, but hopefully ultimately enjoyable, rescued to a great extent by the fascinating minuteries of life we might just have overlooked if Turtle Doves and Purple Emperors had been distracting our attention from everything else!

Into our unknown: Stafford & Stoke

Britain's Wildlife, Travel by Bus, Travel by Rail

Why Stafford? Well, we had never been there, and knew nothing about it, except a vague memory of some Civil War connection (as do many places of course). But we were offered a great deal by Coaching Inn Hotels, one of our chains of choice. And we love a dip into the pot of luck!

To some Stafford, or Staffordshire, might mean terriers or the iconic knot or the hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver. And yes, Staffies were everywhere, a cartoony attempt to rehabilitate the canine reputation, and knots in every conceivable location. Now come to represent heritage, community and the symbolic joining of disparate parts of the county, the knot origin is debated apparently, one theory being it was a devised by a hard-up hangman to hang multiple victims with just one rope… But as for the hoard, well it has decamped to Birmingham Museum, so one for another trip!

So we had no expectations, but the instant impression, stepping out of a pleasant station, safely across the road, into Victoria Park, over the lovely River Sow and straight into the largely pedestrianised town centre was a joy. And the town centre air was breathable even in the (re)building heatwave.

It was soon apparent that the centre was full of interesting buildings, some very remarkable, particularly the area around Greengate Street and Church Lane. Ok, there were also plenty of closed-down shops, vape shops and the like (name a place that isn’t now like that!), but lifting the view above the ground floor proved a journey through time…

Leaving aside the churches for now, the earliest building was the remarkable Ancient High House, built in 1595 as a town house, now the largest timber-framed such house in England. Herein lies a Civil War connection: Charles I stayed there after raising the standard in Nottingham and effectively blowing the starting whistle on the conflict; later on, the town having being taken by Parliamentarians, it was used to house Royalist prisoners.

We felt that inside it was disappointing compared to the exuberant exterior, although perhaps that isn’t so surprising given that it was falling into dereliction in the 1970s, and rescued only after a concerted local campaign involving local boys the Climax Blues Band (a blast from the past for those of a certain age!).

Next in date, and almost next door, the Swan Hotel, built as two houses and a tavern in 1606 but combined into a coaching inn in 1752. Yes, it has wonky floors, but no signs of ghostly activity; being residents we were able to appreciate the original internals at leisure.

Next, Primrose Cottage from 1610, now a funeral parlour, and a lovely set of almshouses, endowed in 1660 by the past MP Sir Martin Noel, from days when some MPs were public-spirited, not seeking to line their own pockets. Guess what is high in the news as I write this!

Moving forward further still we come into the realm of monumental, mostly municipal buildings (many now repurposed), no doubt reflecting the status of Stafford as county town. There is the 1798 Shire Hall, now a ‘business hub’…

… the 1877 Borough Hall, now the Gatehouse Theatre, with a lovely terracotta frieze on the 1888 brick extension…

… the Public Free Library from 1913, funded by the Carnegie Trust, but now seemingly unused…

… and built in the same year, the Picturehouse, now enjoying a second life as a pub with original internal decor.

1937 saw the building of the art deco Stafford College Tenterbanks building, although its first use was as an army hospital …

… and even in the modern era, buildings which to us had their charms, the 1978 borough Civic Centre with splendid clock tower and across the road, the 2010 county council HQ. A real journey through the architectural styles of the centuries, and something we had not expected to become so engaged in.

Then of course in addition to all these there are churches, here the spires of Trinity Church and the Baptist Church with attractive lattice-spire; the latter down by the riverside may have been required perhaps because of the need to keep weight down on sinking soils.

But lording over them all, indeed the whole town centre, was the Collegiate Church of St Mary, cathedralesque in its domination of the skyscape.

Dating from the early 13th century, it is on the site of the Anglo-Saxon church of St Bertelin; the foundations of the latter have been revealed by excavations in the 1980s and feature in the otherwise uninteresting churchyard.

Originally featuring a spire, it collapsed in a storm in 1593, and then by the 1840s the whole building was mouldering. So it was over to George Gilbert Scott to renovate, in a supposed mediaeval style, rebuilding the tower in a striking octagonal form. As for the impressive gargoyles and ornamentation, whether original, faithful copy or flight of fancy, it all adds up to Grade I listing.

On our last day we even got inside, to hear a sublime alto and lute recital.

Chance to explore more deeply, with interesting features including a bizarre Norman font, (accidentally) beheaded effigies, some beautifully understated stations of the cross, as befits an Anglo-Catholic Church, and wall paintings attributed possibly to Gilbert Scott, showing a real Art Nouveau flair.

There is also a modern stained glass window depicting one of the trades upon which the town was founded, shoemaking, and a memorial to Isaak Walton, local lad, ‘piscator’ and author of the 1653 fisherman’s bible The Compleat Angler. But all may not be what it purports to be. Walton was highly devout, and the book is seen by some as a veiled manifesto for Anglicanism (‘The Compleat Anglican’), written at a time when openly worshipping the wrong god or the wrong form of the same god could be terminal…. plus ça change!

But St Chad’s knocked that into a cocked hat for us. Sitting across from our hotel, it looked ornate, enticingly so, but mocked us by being firmly closed at all times. Until just after the St Mary’s recital and a few hours before our train home when it was open for a craft fair.

To walk into the interior was like walking into a menagerie of figures and faces, ornately and crisply carved into the stone: we have never seen anything like it, and the overall effect felt almost like an abstract celebration of the pagan. But then if you are a new religion on the block, why fix things that ain’t broken?

  

Any religious symbology seemed superfluous, although the early 20th century altar piece, almost Orthodox in appearance, was quite beautiful, as were the modern west windows.

The church itself is the oldest extant building in town, dating from the 11th century. But its fortunes waned, especially after the building of the more imposing St Mary’s, and from the 17th century it fell into severe disrepair, so much so that the interior Norman decoration was plastered up to strengthen the whole structure. Enter once again George Gilbert Scott in the 1870s and his restoration zeal, although here it was restricted to some structural stabilisation and crucially uncovering those wonderful decorative motifs. Even his florid imagination could not improve on what he found!

So what of the wildlife?  Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls all over the rooftops brought a whiff of the seaside to this most landlocked of locations, their cries occasionally rising to a frenzy as one of the local Peregrines flew through.

Old walls of course have their own unique plants communities, especially around a steady dribble of water…

… and even their modern counterpart, green roofs on bus stops, add biodiversity, while the pedestrianised streets provided secure basking for a few Painted Ladies. Their early summer invasion has clearly penetrated this far.

And as always pocket-sized brownfields added nature into the townscape. Spear Thistles at full anthesis showed well what the Patchwork Leaf-cutter bees were burying themselves deep into their white counterparts for…

…while a patch of Black Nightshade in a forgotten corner turned up Green Shieldbug nymphs and a remarkable red form of Common Froghopper, both sap-suckers oblivious to the plant’s toxins.

Flowing through the heart of the town, the delightful River Sow, a tributary of the Trent, brings Yellow Water-lilies and Banded Demoiselles into everyone’s lives, whether they know it or not.

Plants of the margins and shallows included Purple Loosestrife, Water Forget-me-not, Great Yellow-cress and both of the tricky-to-separate pair, Lesser Water-parsnip and Fool’s Watercress.

Running through Victoria Park it is a little more tamed but no less beautiful:

Other features of the park include a lovely, free hot greenhouse full of tropical plants, a well-kept aviary filling the air with the plaintive coo of Diamond Doves; the old machinery of the historic Town Mill…

   

… plus ornamental trees, including Silver Maple with the distinctive bladder galls, new to Britain in 2002, of the mite Vasates quadripedes, Izaak Walton again, and a bowling green: the last hour of our visit was spent in the sun, having lunch and watching the strategies play out on the crown green. Genuinely fascinating. We know how to have fun!

Beyond the park, the river passes the long-disused Broad Eye Windmill, tallest mill in the Midlands and now home to a radio station and a fish and chip shop.

Continuing on, under busy roads, we plunged into the wilder side of the Sow. As might be expected here, Himalayan Balsam seems to run amok unchecked except, interestingly perhaps, by infestations of what seemed to be the Asian Balsam Aphid Impatientinum asiaticum.

And a lovely selection of other green wedge wildlife to keep the naturalist in us happy!: Cinnabar caterpillars, Small Skippers and Ringlets, Batman Hoverfly, 2-spotted Ladybird, mating Polydrusus formosus weevils, and the bugs Plagionothus arbustorum (photobombing Poplar Rust), Orthotylus marginalis and tiny Birch Catkin-bug nymphs – only when looking at the photos later did we realise there were even teenier ones, presumably first instar, in shot.

So far, so near, all on foot. But one evening we decided to head to Stafford Castle, walkable but an easy bus-ride away. The knoll on which the castle stands is now shrouded in Beech woodland, rather lovely in low light and full of Nuthatches…

… but from the top the vista is largely obscured by the growth of a past couple of hundred years, masking the strategic prominence of the site whose purpose is to see and be seen. It was all very different in its heyday!

The motte and a timber fortress were in place by about 1100, the stone added around 150 years later, a red sandstone from local sources.

The castle may now be in a ruinous state but it is undoubtedly impressive, and we were well placed to appreciate it, after the castle closed but the paths still open, the fading sun flickering on the red stone, set against blue skies. With nobody there but us! And sadly the interminable drone of the M6…

 

And of course lichens!

Our one significant diversion away from Stafford was up to the Potteries. We headed there by bus, giving us flexibility to leap on and off. Which on seeing a scary-looking church as we approached Newcastle-under-Lyme bus station, we did. And yes, it was scary, a deeply forbidding monstrosity built of sombre brick, with few positive features outside and seemingly fewer inside, although we didn’t venture in as a funeral was under way.

Little did we know that Pevsner already described the church as a ‘crazy effort in blue brick’! These are strong engineering bricks made of the local red clay, which when fired at high temperature in low oxygen conditions develop a very hard surface with a deep blue colour.

But just a few metres away a roundabout like no other, a sunken garden connected to the outside world by underpasses, full of subtropical planting that evidently thrives in the sheltered microenvironment, its sunken location also insulating visitors from noise on the busy roundabout. And virtually no litter, or evidence of antisocial activities. Other public authorities could and should learn from this: Colchester may have the magnificent Albert Roundabout, planted by the Beth Chatto team and universally loved it seems, but what of the miserable, abused sunken roundabout at the eastern end of Southway. All they can think to do is fell the trees, making bad worse, then filling it in, bringing pedestrians back into traffic, with risk, pollution and delays all round. Perhaps all that is needed is a bit of imagination?

Then on to the Potteries Museum at Hanley, a bit of a disappointment really as it is mostly closed for refurbishment, and only the Spitfire Gallery and café were open.

But all was forgiven when we realised there was one of the iconic bottle-kilns we could get up close to just down the road …

… and on the museum steps, perhaps the most beautiful rove-beetle we had ever thought of seeing, Platydracus stercorarius. Apparently not uncommon in Britain, especially in the Midlands, it seems to like open mosaic habitats and brownfields, so museum steps can fit that category!

So it was another very successful short break, even if impacted a little by illness. Stafford especially was impressive historically, but its fortunes have fluctuated over the past decades. There are signs of at least a couple of waves of town centre investment over the past half century, but it currently feels to be in decline again, the improvements of the past now fading from memory. But we have to say, everyone we spoke to or who approached us was extremely friendly, and we did get an excellent meal one night in the Swan. My smoked duck caesar salad was amazing! And even on big match night (World Cup), the streets, while buzzing, didn’t feel at all intimidating.

The Wild Side of Beth Chatto Gardens: June 2026 – deluge and furnace…

Beth Chatto Gardens, Britain's Wildlife, WildEssex, WildWivenhoe

June was a month of two halves. After the record-breaking May heatwave broke down at the very end of the month, the first two weeks of June were damp, with some very heavy rain, before the even more record-breaking heatwave reasserted itself. Is anybody listening to the cries of the Earth?

My visits to the garden were all in the latter half and included a moth event covered in this blog Midsummer Moths 2026 at Beth Chatto Gardens | Chris Gibson Wildlife, successful up to a point but I think showed signs of the impact of the vagaries of the weather.

Bird broods were very much in evidence, including Great and Blue Tits, Blackcaps and Blackbirds. Three singing male Whitethroats and four Goldcrests were presumably proclaiming territories for their second broods, and my personal first record of a Coal Tit in the garden was also of a singing bird, perhaps a second-brooder that may have first bred elsewhere. Grey Herons seem to be dispersing from their heronries, with several flying over and one at rest by the Reservoir for some hours, while Swallows and a Kestrel were feeding over the long grass of the overflow carpark.

In the garden through the heat, insect activity during the hottest part of the sunny days was much reduced, but by seeking out the cooler times and shady spots, it was possible to find plenty of interest. But not always to photograph it: Silver-washed Fritillary, Rose Chafer and Willow Emerald damselflies were all zipping around, refusing to settle. And always active were the Hummingbird Hawkmoths that occasionally showed especially in the Reservoir Garden:

Painted Ladies have been present throughout the month, those at the end especially being pristine and presumably the offspring of previous immigrants. And the summer butterflies are starting, with Large and Essex Skipper (the latter the first confirmed record for the garden) and Purple Hairstreaks occasionally descending from the Oak canopies, while Speckled Woods loitered in the sunflecks.

Dragonflies and damselflies have continued to perform well, especially around the ponds, including a coordinated emergence of Common Blue Damselflies that proved a bounty for the Cucumber Spiders. But most exciting were the Banded Demoiselles: after a few years when they have appeared with us sporadically and unpredictably, this month finally they seem to have consolidated. Let’s hope they stay!

Of course there was plenty more to see as well, including Yellow-and-black Longhorn, Lily Beetles and masses of pollen beetles…

… mating Fencepost Flies, nectaring Tachina rufa agg. parasite-flies and sunning Dock Bugs …

… plus lots of lovely Hymenoptera: Iris Sawfly larvae, Gwynne’s Mining-bees in the Campanula flowers, Sphecodes blood bees that feast on nectar but whose larvae parasitise mining-bee nests …

… and around the bee hotel, Large-headed Resin-bees and a ruby-tailed wasp Chrysis ignita agg., the latter another parasite but on certain solitary wasps.

And as always a goodly array of new finds for our garden list, as well as those already mentioned, including a couple of moths, Epagoge grotiana and Virgin Bagworm…

… lots of Hollyhock Weevils, a fairly new arrival in the country that appeared for us in Wivenhoe three years ago …

… two ants, Myrmica rubra and Temnothorax nylanderi …

… a parasitic javelin wasp Gasteruption sp., being buzzed by Yellow-faced Bees …

… and Wool Carder-bee nesting in our bee-post.

So it was quite a challenging month because of the weather. Maybe July will settle down, and if anyone wants to join me, my Wildside Walks on 17th July and our Moth Morning on 18th July are all open for booking on the website Courses & Workshops – Beth Chatto’s Plants & Gardens.

Saturday Morning Moth Club at the Minories – June 2026

Britain's Wildlife, Eleanor's photos, WildEssex

After a successful exploratory event in 2025, Moth Club returned to the Minories garden at the end of June this year. Fortunately, given the propensity of hot bulbs to shatter in rain, we were able to place the trap in the Folly, out of harm’s way, safe from the thunderstorms and heavy rain that swept through overnight.

The thundery breakdown came after three days of record-breaking (not in a good way!) heat. Indeed when we walked into the garden first thing to turn the trap light off, the feel of heat was amplified by the highest humidity I have ever known. So the moths’ welfare came to the fore: we protected the trap from the rising sun and the free-range moths within the folly from marauding Wrens, and awaited the arrival of the booked participants.

Mothing in the heart of the city is always uncertain. The Minories garden is a green oasis amid intensive development, and the trap light could easily be diminished in effectiveness as a result of the multitude of other light sources which shine as the city sleeps. But on the positive side, the garden is close to the Meanwhile Garden, a noted biodiversity hot-spot, and just across the road from Castle Park which provides green links right down to the River Colne.

Before we even delved into the trap, it was clear that there were going to be some highlights, in the shape of six pristine Elephant Hawkmoths, all much appreciated as they allowed themselves to be gently passed around.

Overall there were probably some 400 moths, and a myriad of other insects in the trap, although the moth species seemed skewed towards the often smaller micromoths as we found also last year. A full list of our findings can be found here Minories Saturday Morning Moth Club, with last year’s catch for comparison

The most abundant macromoths were Riband Wave in all its colour forms, Dwarf Cream Wave and Least Carpet, the latter probably feeding upon the festoons of Wild Clematis that grow out of the lime-rich mortar of the Roman Walls.

A selection of other macros included Pebble Hooktip, Phoenix, Willow Beauty and Clouded Silver…

…Miller, Marbled Beauty, Poplar Grey, Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Flame and Grey or Dark Dagger (the two species cannot be separated externally and must be killed for internal examination, which we will not do!)…

… Vapourer, Short-cloaked Moth and White Satin…

… and Silky Wainscot, a largely coastal species that may well have found its way to us through the green corridors.

The most numerous micromoths were Garden Grass Veneer and three rather similar Small Ermine species: Bird Cherry, Apple and Willow, the latter at least possibly wanderers from the near-Continent.

Then there were some distinctive ones, displaying well the fact that micros can be beautiful tiny scraps of life: Agapeta hamana, Argyresthia goedartella and A. spinosella, Gold Triangle, Coleophora deauratella and Mother-of-Pearl…

… Acrobasis tumidana, Recurvaria nanella and Tachystola acroxantha (the latter a recent colonist of this country, probably originating in Australia) …

,… and another couple of inseparable pairs, at least to ethical entomologists: Caloptilia robustella/alchimiella and Endothedia gentineana/marginana.

Wanderers potentially from far afield also included Diamond-back, Pempelia genistella (a Gorse-lover perhaps coming from Middlewick Ranges?) and Crescent Plume, which feeds on Rest Harrows, the nearest of which is probably Spiny Restharrow in the grazing marshes of the tidal Colne towards Rowhedge.

Many other insects fly by night, and they too ended up in the trap, including a green lacewing Chrysopa carnea, Forest Bug and the plant bug Oncotylus viridiflavus …

… together with 10-spot Ladybird, Summer Chafer and very excitingly another Brown Chafer. Not previously recorded in this part of the county, we found the latter a week previously in Beth Chatto Gardens, and then in midweek in the Wivenhoe garden of a couple of friends.

And if the fare in the trap became too much of course there was still the lovely garden to look around in the rising heat. Hollyhock Weevils, as always, were up to no good in tandem on the Hollyhocks, but as for the plants, I shall leave it as usual to the camera of Eleanor, our eight-year-old granddaughter to tell the visual story of flowers and rain through her growing eyes…

Moth Club will return for one more session this year, on 25 July, all bookings via the website Night Garden Moth Discovery with Chris Gibson | Colchester | The Minories. A month apart, the trap contents should be very different, and will always surprise. That is the beauty of moth trapping…its like Christmas every day!

 

Midsummer Moths 2026 at Beth Chatto Gardens

Beth Chatto Gardens, Britain's Wildlife, WildEssex, WildWivenhoe

Our June moth event in Beth Chatto Gardens took place as normal just before the equinox. On the face of it the night was perfect: calm, humid and very warm, with temperatures not falling below 20ºC. But such are the uncertainties (and joys!) of moth trapping, reflecting not only weather on the night, but also recent weather extremes (eg the May drought and more recent downpours) as well as seasonal trends, that in fact we were a little disappointed. Or thought we were until we totted up the total and found we had recorded four more species than on the equivalent date in 2025, last year being the record-breaker to date. For a full listing over the years, see here BC MOTHS TOTALS.

71 macromoth species and 33 micros is certainly a good haul, but the slight disappointment was at the number and especially diversity of the big, bright ones, the crowd-pleasers. And again, we cannot really complain at the twenty or so Elephant Hawk-moths, a couple of Small Elephants, six Buff Tips, Swallowtail Moth, Ghost Swift and a lovely Puss Moth, mostly compliant and happy to be passed gently around the early morning crowd. The Ghost Swift even laid eggs as we watched, scattering them freely where it was resting, rather than as with most species attaching them firmly to their substrate.

Among the smaller macromoths were colourful ones such as Brimstone Moth and Rosy Footman…

… whitish ones, like Yellow-tail, Brown-tail, White Satin (playing dead!), Miller and Dwarf Cream Wave…

… distinctively speckled and barred ones: Latticed Heath, Willow Beauty and Peppered Moth …

… and a whole host in every shade of brown: Lackey, Fen Wainscot, Dotted Fanfoot, Clay, Cypress Carpet, Uncertain, Dingy Shears, Bright-line Brown-eye and Minor Shoulder-knot, a litany of names almost as euphonious as the Shipping Forecast!

Some of the brown ones are also distinctive by having shaped wings like Beautiful Hooktip or a characteristic resting posture, like the Festoon, the latter a nationally scarce species of old oak trees in the south-east of the country.

Micromoths seemed to constitute a higher proportion of the catch than in previous years. But not all micros are small and some are rather beautiful, and certainly should not be overlooked, even though they often don’t have widely used English names. Here are some of the more colourful ones: Carcina quercana, Agapeta hamana, Lozotaeniodes formosana and Mint Moth…

… and equally striking monochrome morsels: Bird-cherry Ermine, Ethmia quadrillella, Diamond-back, Platytes alpinella, Zeiraphera isertana and Homoeosoma sinuella.

And always interesting is the bycatch of other insects attracted to the light, including pond-dwellers (in their pre-adult stages) such as the mayfly Cloeon dipterum and the caddisfly Stenophylax permistus …

… a green lacewing Chrysopa carnea and Birch Shieldbug…

… a couple of plant-bugs Stenotus binotatus and Phytocoris dimidiatus.

And when all was counted up at the end, we found in the trap some 35 new insects for the garden list: moths, bugs, caddisflies, a mayfly and best of all a Brown Chafer Serica brunnea, with only about four previously recorded sites in north Essex.

Moth-trapping (and release unharmed) provides a window into the night life of the garden, as well as giving the privileged opportunity for attendees to experience the delight of the early morning calm before floods of garden visitors arrive. So if anyone fancies it, our second event is planned for 18 July, booking via the Beth Chatto website at Marvellous Moth Morning – Beth Chatto’s Plants & Gardens

A Trio of Botanic Gardens: Chelsea, Oxford and Reading

Britain's Wildlife, Travel by Bus, Travel by Rail

June is always a peak month for seeing the delights of a botanic garden, so last week for me it was three in three days, dodging the rain. The chance for some ‘extreme botany’, taking photos of plants from all over the world, including usefully some rare British plants without the need for long treks into the wilds!

First, Chelsea Physic Garden. Only our second visit there, the warm sun was interspersed with a couple of sharp showers, but it was lovely, the blue sky adorned with lenticular clouds:

Lots of interesting plants here, of course, many with a medicinal bent, although not exclusively:

And not just showy flowers: seeds, leaves, stems and fronds were all interesting and photogenic too:

And in the hot, sunny interludes the insects and other invertebrates performed for us, surprisingly abundant given the position of the garden almost surrounded by the metropolis. These included Zebra Jumping-spider, and Mullein and Knot Grass caterpillars, hopefully indicating the garden is managed without recourse to poisons…

… diverse bees, including Colletes daviesanus agg, Osmia leaiana agg, Gwynne’s Mining-bee, Wool Carder-bee and Honeybee….

… Batman Hoverfly and Ferruginous Bee-grabbers (‘Gargoyle Flies’ to us!) mating….

… 10-spot and 2-spot Ladybirds (the latter seems to be resurgent this year)…

…Cinnamon Bug, Hairy Shieldbug and the eggs and nymph of Green Shieldbug…

… and lots of Azure Damselflies busy making more Azure Damselflies.

Perhaps the most interesting finds, none of which are shown from London on the NBN maps were the cloud-winged hoverfly Pipiza lugubris (with recorded sites no closer than Cobham and Grays) and the banded metallic longhorn moth Nemophora fasciella, a scarce East Anglian species that the map shows reaching only as far south and west as Dartford, an apparently significant range extension.

Then it was over to Oxford Botanic Garden, again my second visit.

Here is a treasure trove of botanical riches, with some important conservation collections of endangered endemic plants from places like the Canary Islands and other Atlantic islands gathered in Britain’s oldest botanic garden.

And much more, including in the glasshouses, providing welcome shelter from the repeated torrential and thunder downpours as well as lots of interest.

The gardens are well laid out, with themed sections. Sadly the parasitic plant bed, of particular interest to me, was well past its best. A May visit might be better some time.

But the Mediterranean rock planting was wonderful, bringing back the memories, sights and smells of many past visits, and without the incessant nibbling pressures of goats disfiguring the plants! This included a section on the specialities of Crete, one of my regular haunts in the past and a place where the endemics often have to be really searched for, and then sometimes in inaccessible spots:

Insects were few and far between because of the rain, but included a Painted Lady and a Footballer hoverfly.

Finally was the Harris Garden at Reading University. This was my first visit, but sadly restricted by a much more organised band of heavy rain which washed out the morning plans.

It had passed through when I reached the Harris Garden at Reading University. But…  was it the gloom, or was it that this was clearly one of the lesser British botanic gardens? More a flowery park with some interesting trees, it made little attempt to engage people in the wonderful world of plants. The labelling was sporadic (and not always accurate) and there seemed to be little effort at interpretation. I was disappointed, although the value of any urban greenspace that is not mown within an inch of its life cannot be overstated, and a school party bug hunting in the meadows was noisily joyous.

While its website suggests it is a valuable teaching and research resource for the University, I felt it was rather limited, especially in comparison with Oxford, and others like Cambridge I know well. Perhaps this is the result of the closure of the Plant Science department, followed by transfer to the responsibility of the Estates Department. I just hope that this apparent dumbing down has not also been reflected in the internationally significant herbarium of preserved specimens.

So, what flowers there were were dripping with recent raindrops, attractive maybe but of little use as an identification resource.

And the only other wildlife a solitary Cucumber Spider waiting in vain for dinner!

Three botanic gardens in three days, not all successful but overall very enjoyable, each a cheap or free day out (for Chelsea, remember to check for ‘2 for 1 by train’ offers) and, for me, the chance to immerse myself fully in plants and what they attract, always a joy, whatever the weather!

The Wild Side of Essex: the Heath Fritillaries of Hockley Woods

Britain's Wildlife, WildEssex

As has now become traditional, early June sees me heading to Hockley Woods atop the hills to the rear of Southend, leading Naturetrek day trips in search of Heath Fritillaries at one of their premier British sites. But nothing is guaranteed, and things can go wrong. The preceding two days had torrential rain, 30mm or more, so would they have survived? Indeed, would they even have emerged yet given our odd weather this spring, of drought followed by downpour.

The day dawned grey and breezy, but mild and with a promise of afternoon sun. When we started the walk it was still cloudy and I felt there were fewer insects about than usual, probably due to the rain. But as always we had plenty of things to look at that were not butterflies. The ancient woodland habitat is impressive, at 130ha the largest contiguous series of ancient semi-natural woods in the east of England.

The trees in the woodland picked out the geological preferences of each species, with multi-layered influences overlain from historic land use, management and other interventions. Many of the canopy trees are oaks, not the usual oak of the east but the normally western Sessile Oak, or its hybrid with Pedunculate Oak. A number of them seem to have died recently, while others show signs of bleeding lesions that could signal the beginning of the end: this might be expected as result the stresses these trees must be under as a result of climate change, and is not a bad thing – the woods are overstocked meaning that insufficient light penetrates to the ground floor to produce the maximum biodiversity the habitat can. If we don’t have Wild Boar (yet!) to cause natural disturbance and break up the gloom, then maybe disease will do it for us?

Hornbeam is one of the dominant understory trees, typical of London Clay, but as in much of Essex supplanted in places by Sweet Chestnut, brought here by the Normans, and preferred in the Middle Ages when woodlands had to work for a living. There was also Ash (much showing signs of Ash Dieback infection), Elder (indicative of aerial nutrient enrichment) and Wild Cherry, picking out the springline between clay and gravel…

… and less frequently Hazel, Sallow, Aspen, Wild Service, Crab Apple and others.

Almost all were well munched by caterpillars  – this is a good year to be a baby Blue Tit! – the only exceptions being the non-natives, Sweet Chestnut and invading from gardens at the wood edge, Cherry Laurel and Mock-orange.

Other birds included singing Wrens, Blackcaps and Stock Doves, and calling Great Spotted Woodpeckers and Nuthatches.

But very soon the sun was glimpsed and then appeared more purposefully around lunchtime. And so the insects emerged, including (phew!) Heath Fritillaries in the first patch of their larval foodplant, Common Cow-wheat. The rest of the walk brought us maybe a hundred in all, all pristine, presumably overnight emergers. I guess the following couple of warm days will have seen the peak for the year.

Other butterflies slowly mounted into a respectable list, including Comma, Holly Blue and Red Admiral, with Meadow Brown, Essex Skipper and a single Silver-washed Fritillary marking the advent of high summer.

Other insects were also out in abundance in the sunlight, thanks to the trees sheltering the wide rides from the chilling breeze. Brambles were the main forage source, visited by hoverflies of all sorts: Batman, Marmalade, Footballer, Tapered Drone-fly, Superb Dayglower, Syrphus sp., Pipiza noctiluca, the Essex RDB species Volucella inflata and more Large Pied Hoverflies than I have ever seen in one place before.

Amongst the other flies were the parasite-fly Tachina rufa, the Semaphore Fly Poecilobothrus noibilitatus and the robber-fly Dioctria linearis, here enjoying lunch seemingly in one of its scattered Essex strongholds.

A diverse array of micromoths included the tortricids Celypha lacunana and C. cespitana, Common Bagworm and the larval webs of Spindle Ermine:

In a nod to the advancing summer there were nymph Dark and Speckled Bush-crickets sitting on many a leaf:

Bumblebees were very active, predominantly Buff-tailed and Common Carders with a few Red-tailed and Early Bumblebees for good measure, while Wood Ants were everywhere, wandering, carrying prey and seeds, nesting and milking aphids:

Black Bean Aphids were very apparent, in common with many places this spring, also a bonanza for ladybirds hopefully to come, while other bugs included nymphal Green Shieldbugs and adult Dock Bugs:

And in a final flourish of insects, the beetles: Seven-spot and Harlequin Ladybirds, Willow Flea Beetles glistening like jewels, Figwort Weevils on almost every Common Figwort flower and a very scarce saproxylic click-beetle in Essex Ampedus balteatus.

Insects and other invertebrates do not of course to be actually seen to be identified if their life leaves distinctive structure or patterns. Thus we found the mysterious dangling leaf rolls of the Hazel Leaf-roller Weevil and leaf-mines of the Holly Leaf-miner Fly…

… along with a number of distinctive galls including the pouch galls of the mite Eriophyes torminalis on Wild Service leaves, the swollen stem galls of the gall-midge Lasioptera rubi, known from very few other Essex localities, and the new British arrival the Asian Chestnut Gall-wasp galls that I first recorded at this site last year, but are now appearing throughout.

In the shadier sections of wood, fungi and mosses put on more of a show from Turkey-tail to Polytrichum formosum:

And other flowering plants included two species of Hypericum, Slender St. John’s-Wort and Tall Tutsan, Field Rose, Common Figwort and the lovely grass Wood Melick:

All in all, it was a wonderfully diverse day with delights and highlights from all taxonomic groups, a veritable cornucopia of biodiversity. As one of the group said as fritillaries flittered in the sun around her like wood-sprites, it feels like a ‘little bit of Heaven’. Thanks to Rochford District Council for making it happen – it would take only a few years’ neglect, for example when a new administration with different priorities assumes power, for the woods to become overgrown and the whole wildlife spectacle come tumbling down.

A Spring Heatwave in Tunbridge Wells & Hastings

Britain's Wildlife, Travel by Bus, Travel by Rail

Half term, and as often try to do, it was away with Eleanor for a few nights. Little did we realise just how hot it was going to be, a fierce late spring heatwave that certainly restricted some of our planned activities (except ice-cream eating!). We last visited Tunbridge Wells a couple of years ago, and at the time thought she might like it there, especially the Wealden Sandstone outcrops for climbing.

The town itself was a challenge, at least for we lowlives, with hills in every direction, quite an obstacle in the heat. But the tree-lined  streets were model of sanity that all towns should aspire to be like in the global greenhouse…

Straight away it was into Calverley Park, for the first ice-cream and lunch, followed by an hour in the play park. Chance for us to sit in the shade, to keep Eleanor hydrated and take in the gardens, with plants wild and cultivated. Too warm for many insects though apart from a single Closterotomus trivialis bug and a few bumblebees.

‘Mount Ephraim’ may be a bit of hyperbole, but believe me it felt like a full-blown mountain as we slogged up there to find our hotel, a bit of a disappointment this time after an outstanding stay previously. Perhaps a lesson there: don’t look back!

But at least perched on the heights there was a modicum of breeze, and of course panoramic views over the town:

The Common is a lovely area of greenspace, trees full of Long-tailed Tit family parties, calling Nuthatches and singing Blackbirds and Song Thrushes, with Swifts screaming overhead, all set among grassland coming into peak pollen season! And of course the rocks….

It was Wellington Rocks we were headed for, and they provided plenty of opportunity for ‘hard play’ (no safety nets here!) on both afternoons of our stay.

Geologically, the rocks are gently spectacular, water-worn, showing strata of pebbles indicating different depositional environments around 100 million years ago when what is now the High Weald was a warm river delta.

In the cracks and crevasses where moisture can gather, especially on north-facing walls, there were ferns, mosses and liverworts, despite the pounding they have had from the activities of generations of youngsters:

On our second morning, we took the bus out to Eridge Rocks, a lovely nature reserve, the only downside being the complete lack of any provision for pedestrians to cross the very busy road safely on alighting at the bus stop. Seems car is king in East Sussex, as sadly in so many places.

But on reaching the reserve, the modern world is forgotten. Dense woodland around a ravine of those Wealden rocks make for a magical place, abounding in half-imagined wood sprites and goblins:

 

Some faces, eroded by wind into honeycomb structures, were like we have seen before only in the cliffs of West Bay (Dorset) and north-eastern Menorca…

l

And where the cliffs turn to face north, a rich covering of lower plants and lichens, albeit looking less spectacular than on our previous visits probably because of the near-absence of rainfall for the two months preceding.

Then on our final morning, the temperature ameliorating a little, it was out by train to Hastings. Being a sunny Saturday in half term, the crowds were out in force, but it provided the requisite ice creams and funicular to the heights, among begging gulls and screaming Swifts, and views over the town and a by-now-hazy Channel.

Rock-A-Nore beach, as far east at you can get along the prom, provides excellent views of the spectacular cliffs, the rocks looking similar to those on the High Weald but actually about 40 million years older…

Nesting Fulmars kept up their guttural bickering despite the heat of midday, and along the lower cliff slopes, Hottentot Fig, Buck’s-horn Plantain and Tree Mallow provided the botanical interest.

All that was left then was the chance of a wonderful, and reasonably priced, smoked fish platter at Webbe’s fish restaurant, while Jude’s holiday was topped off in fine fashion at the sight of one of Hastings’ notorious residents, the ‘naked cyclist’ speeding home. Must have been getting a bit hot!

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And finally, as is now traditional, the blog ends with a chance to display some of Eleanor’s phone photos, ones that I would have been proud to take. Flowers, wild and cultivated, always seem to stir her creative juices…

… together with those flowers attracting insect visitors …

… and not forgetting the plants that can look interesting after flowering.

And just a final couple: a perfect set-piece of found objects in nature…

… and a flower-head she promptly titled, without prompting, ‘Little Lands’. A fascinating insight into the eyes and mind of an eight-year-old! #ProudPapa, as always!

The Wild Side of Beth Chatto Gardens: late-May delights

Beth Chatto Gardens, Britain's Wildlife, WildEssex, WildWivenhoe

The photo above, a myriad of fairies photobombing a Monet masterpiece, encapsulates the joy of late May in the gardens. Everything is getting on with what they need to do, feeding or breeding or dispersing, furiously because they know the retreat of the sun is only a month away.

The 26th saw peak damselflies mating (mostly Azure, Large Red and Blue-tailed) alongside the first emerging Common Blue Damselflies and Banded Demoiselles AND the mass emergence of dragonflies (mostly Four-spotted Chasers, with a few Broad-bodied and Scarce Chasers, Common Darters, Emperors and a Southern Hawker. Fittingly, and thrillingly, this coincided with my Bug Safaris, a privilege to share it with kids (of all ages!). This was the week our ponds disgorged, a couple of weeks after many garden ponds whose water volume is much lower, so the water warms more quickly, speeding up development.

And the rate of change is just so fast. On a daily basis. A day later, damsels had peaked, dragons were still coming, but the garden was inundated with Painted Ladies, most very fresh-looking so perhaps offspring of the influx a month ago. And the trees and bushes were full of tweeting baby Blue and Great Tits, and Blackcaps: a squeakscape where a day before there was a songscape.

Apart from the Painted Ladies, butterfly action had scaled back from early May: the ‘June gap’ arrived early. But to tide us over were Orange Tips on the Dame’s Violet and onions and Green Hairstreaks on the Thyme, along with a good emergence of Common Blues.

It was a warm two weeks, at times extremely hot, sunny and dry: record-breaking, albeit not-in-a-good way. But generally the insect life seemed to enjoy it: some other highlights included Mint Moth, Cinnabar, Yellow-tail caterpillar and the larval shrouds of Spindle Ermine…

… Thick-thighed Beetle, a soldier beetle Cantharis livida, Adonis’ Ladybird and Two-spotted Malachite Beetles, including this pair in a prolonged bout of ‘kissing’, the male feeding her pheromone-laced food to try and woo her…

… Hairy Shieldbugs and Orange-tailed Mining-bee …

… and a good selection of flies including the lovely hoverfly Xanthogramma pedissequum, and a couple of parasite-flies Tachina fera and Tachina lurida.

I enjoyed myself too, taking time out to grow the garden wildlife list. Every visit produced something new, in some cases rare or absent (probably underrecorded!) in Essex but equally some very widespread that we just haven’t noted here before. Two new mite galls are a case in point: the Lime Nail Gall is found on almost every Lime tree, whereas the Silver Maple Bladder Gall is a recent arrival in this country and still spreading:

There were new flies to the list: the parasite-flies Phasia barbifrons and Blepharipa pratensis, and the robberfly Choerades marginata…

… new beetles: the thistle weevil Rhinocyllus conicus and Mallow Flea-beetle Podagrica fuscicornis…

… and new wasps: the parasitic Ichneumon xanthorius, a digger wasp Cerceris quadricincta (a strongly south-eastern species, rare in the UK) and a beautiful ruby-tailed wasp Chrysis ignita agg.

The list is growing every month, and but we hope to have a working draft available in the autumn!

And so we are fast into summer. Maybe time to relax a little as things settle in. Or maybe not: all it takes is a few days of deep south winds, and as we have seen repeatedly the Beth Chatto Gardens rarely fail to produce surprises!

By bus to Brentwood….

Britain's Wildlife, Travel by Bus, Travel by Rail, WildEssex

It was our tenth wedding anniversary, a perfect excuse for an extra short break. And where better than Brentwood, travelling by bus, staying in the Premier Inn: we know how to celebrate!

This was our first attempt at longer-distance (free) bus pass travel. Wivenhoe to Brentwood involved changes in Colchester and Chelmsford, and took the best part of a morning. But time is one thing we do have, and the bus took us through places we have never or rarely seen before, some like Kelvedon and Ingatestone that would repay a closer look at some time.

The increasingly wooded nature as we approached Brentwood brought life to its original name ‘Burnt Wood’, the town created within a clearing of the great wood of Essex. It was also surprisingly hilly, being towards the southwestern splay of the Essex Alps we know so well from home.

So first into the town, for a welcome drink in the Dairyman. The High Street felt pretty vibrant, but the main interest lay in the religious buildings and the surrounding greenspace. Our first stop, the Catholic cathedral of St Mary and St Helen was a lovely surprise, the larger part of it little more than thirty years old, with a sparse, calming atmosphere.

The oldest part of the cathedral is a Gothic Revival church from the mid-19th century, designed by Gilbert Blount, who started his career working for Brunel on the Rotherhithe Tunnel before moving into churches, inspired by Pugin.

This church became the diocesan centre from its creation in 1917, then the modern ‘Neoclassical with a twist of Wren’ extension by Quinlan Terry (responsible for many monumental buildings in Britain and abroad in similar style) was completed in 1991.

The internal décor is almost austere, with only subtle ornamentation, including the terracotta roundels marking the Stations of the Cross, designed by Raphael Maklouf, he of the Queen’s head (coins not the pub!). And then tucked away in a corner, the organ that we later learned had come from St Mary on the Walls, now familiar to us as Colchester Arts Centre.

Then just round the corner, another church, St Thomas of Canterbury. Outside it is a stylish mix of flints and limestone blocks…

… but nothing prepared us for the visual assault inside. As we went in we were greeted by a lay preacher who said ‘welcome to the most Catholic church in Brentwood, and it is Anglican!’ This church has all the visual detail one would associate with a ‘traditional’ Catholic church, with Stations of the Cross on the walls, priests called Father and the like. All very confusing to a mere atheist, highlighting for me the folly of sectarianism. Indeed, it seems the church comes under the banner of Anglo-Catholicism, rooted in the 19th-century Oxford Movement that emphasizes the church’s Catholic heritage, sacramental theology, and liturgical traditions…

Although dating only from 1881, there has been a church nearby dedicated to St Thomas since the 13th century, the ruins of an early incarnation still to be found just off the High Street.

Seeking some fresh county air (albeit with the aural hallmark of the nearby M25) we headed into the nearest greenspace, St Faiths Country Park, a nice mix of grass and woodland, with tantalising views over to central London. Giant Horsetail is always good to see, typical of springlines on the slopes, and Common Carder-bees were busy on the clovers despite the chilly wind.

Other bits and pieces included the micromoth Cochylis atricapitana and the gall of the gall-midge Iteomyia capreae, on Sallow.

Sadly the cemetery next door was as sterile as they come, one disappointment alongside the litter strewn all through the Country Park. Jude did her bit to clear it up, but why should she have to? What is wrong with having pride in the green heart of a town? All a bit incongruous really, especially as we found local people on the street almost universally to be smiley and friendly…

And so we headed to the hotel. Very functional, as Premier Inns are, and extremely well priced, it had nine floors, and although we were only on floor four we had a panoramic view of the London landscape by day….

… and by night, the horizon lit up like a distant firework display.

And nearby, a very good Indian restaurant, The Raj, made for a great evening.  Overnight, the rain came. Very heavy at times, we managed to adjust our morning plans, and left the hotel to catch a bus to Warley just as the rain stopped.

I have blogged about Warley Place before, once the home of the eminent plantswoman Miss Ellen Willmott, now an Essex Wildlife Trust reserve, amid the mouldering ruins of her horticultural vision.

My previous visit a year ago was alone, but I just knew that Jude would feel at home in this place where nature and history merge so seamlessly. She bounded around like a child entering a Secret Garden! It really is very special, a nature reserve that doesn’t try to erase past human influences, a reserve that celebrates its non-naturalness, and a place of renewal and hope that nature will outlast us all.

The breeze had turned southerly, the air heavy with humidity from the night’s rain, but the warmth had brought few people out. We had the reserve to ourselves, always a privilege, aside from a young family who were thrilled with the roosting Pale Tussocks Jude found in one of the hides, and just one other lone figure. Who turned out to be Jenny, a former colleague and friend and holiday client of mine, who lives in Newcastle and who I last saw at least 20 years ago….  it’s a small world!

In the intermittent sun patches, a tattered Painted Lady bearing the scars of her spring wanderings appeared, together with diaphanous throngs of dancing Gold-barred Longhorn moths.

And back among the sawflies, as I seem to have been all month, the ferns were being visited by the Common Fern Sawfly Aneugmenus padi. Although reportedly not as rare as the other fern sawfly I found (possibly new to Essex) at Beth Chatto’s a few days ago, looking at the NBN map seems to suggest that today’s treasure may not previously have been found in the county. Of course, probably due to the lack of people looking rather than genuine absence!

A few other insects included a dramatic Wasp Beetle, a few Hawthorn Leaf-beetles and a larval micromoth, probably Archips xylosteana…

… along with a couple of woodlice species and a few fungi among the enveloping mosses…

… and several interesting plants, at least some of which may date back to the times of the garden’s former illustrious owner: Coral Spurge, Coralroot Bittercress and Yellow Figwort, together with Yews, a Ginkgo tree and many blooming Rhododendrons.

Even before Miss Willmott’s time, the estate had horticultural connections, being owned by John Evelyn, the 17th century gardener and diarist. Although he may never have lived there, he could have planted or influenced the planting of the oldest garden inhabitants, the magnificent row of Sweet Chestnuts, at least the oldest of which may be his contemporary. The history is all around in Warley Place!

And so into the Thatcher’s Arms for an excellent celebratory lunch, the only downside being the incessant roar of traffic outside, although at least to head home we didn’t have to take our lives in our hands and cross the crazy road on a blind bend to reach the bus stop…

It was back in Brentwood that we experienced our only travel hiccup when the Chelmsford bus failed to arrived, and then promptly disappeared off the board, without explanation. So we took the alternative (paying) option of train (we were right next to station) and got home couple of hours earlier than planned, ahead of the rain: mildly annoying, as we wanted to prove to ourselves we could do this trip all by bus, but a blessing in disguise really!