All posts by Chris Gibson

Saturday Morning Moth Club at the Minories – July 2026

Britain's Wildlife, WildEssex

Compared with the first one a month previously, our second Saturday morning moth club of the summer in the Minories garden was a little disappointing, with fewer moths of fewer species. In part this might have been the result of competing light sources, but the overwhelming reason must have been the weather. Not a drop of rain had fallen on the garden since the very night the trap was last set; the ‘lawn’ had turned to dust, and the plants of the garden were drooping as if in collective mourning for the state of the climate.

And the moths that were found told much the same story, new arrivals to this country, or species previously restricted to favoured warm localities on the south coast that have been able to expand their range as our temperate isle becomes ever more unpredictable and extreme. Seeing these new things is obviously interesting, but recording them is also important so we can try and understand (and maybe manage) the risks of climate collapse to our wildlife and indeed our own lives. A full list of all we recorded, with previous events for comparison, is found here: Minories Saturday Morning Moth Club to July 26

Biggest and brightest was the Jersey Tiger, of which there were three in and around the trap. This started to spread from the extreme south coast of Devon around the start of the century, and started to move through London and up the Lee valley into Essex shortly thereafter, although it has been regular in the north-east of the county only since about 2020.

A Gypsy Moth sadly evaded my camera, but it paused long enough for everyone to see its extravagantly feathery antennae.  Originally a fenland species, this became extinct in those areas around 1900, but a new resident population has been founded around London since 1995, despite the attempts of the Ministry of Agriculture to eradicate it because of the risk of severe defoliation of important forestry or amenity trees. By now it is widespread in Essex albeit patchily distributed away from London fringes.

The Oak Processionary Moth shares a similar history, except that it never had a permanent UK population until around 2005. The first few windblown immigrants were found in Essex and elsewhere from 1995, but true colonisation came after batches of eggs were assumed to have been imported on horticultural produce a decade later. But irrespective of the mechanism, it was probably only a matter of time, and now it has spread out from London across the south-east of England, again in spite of official attempts at closing the stable door….

Box Moth is another one believed to have colonised via horticultural trade, this from the Far East. First seen in the UK in 2007, it reached Essex by 2009, and nowadays Box in gardens is a thing of the past, except to those gardeners (NOT at the Minories!) who are happy to kill the world with poisons if it creates a pristine, albeit lifeless, garden.

The latter is one of the larger micromoths, but there is also a host of the smaller micros that too have taken advantage of natural and/or unnatural vectors and a warming climate. Cydia amplana arrived (probably naturally) in 1990, was first found in Essex in 2004, and is now widespread across the county. Blastobasis adustella is a native probably of Australasia that was accidentally introduced into western Europe and the UK in the latter half of the 20th century, possibly via Madeira and other mid-Atlantic islands.

And Ethmia quadrillella has always been local in the country, found historically in fenland areas where its main foodplant Comfrey is found; it has now spread throughout Essex, probably as Comfrey has spread through urban environments, and the climatic warming may have allowed it to feed successfully on a wider range of memebrs of the Borage family.

There were of course other moths in the trap as well, including macromoths like Willow Beauty, Peppered Moth, Least Carpet and Haworth’s Pug…

… Swallow Prominent, Ruby Tiger, Marbled Beauty and Cloaked Minor …

… and a selection of forms that cannot be identified conclusively without killing and dissecting them under a microscope (which of course we will not do!), here one of the three Common Rustics and one of the four Ear Moths.

Other micromoths ranged from the colourful: Agapeta hamana, Mint Moth and Carcina quercana …

… to the intricately patterned Argyresthia goedartella, several Small Ermine species and Euzophera pinguis …

… and many in shades of grey or buff: Cydia splendana, Eudonia mercurella, Coleophora clypeiferella and Agriphila straminella.

And one final moth, one of the smaller ones but really quite numerous, the Water Veneer, which lives on aquatic plants as a caterpillar, and can realistically have arrived in the garden only from the River Colne, and as part of a mass emergence: the adults live only for a very short time, hours rather than days, and this there is a great evolutionary incentive for synchronised emergence.

But it was not all about moths. There are lots of other insects flying around by night, and many of those are equally attracted to the light of the trap. There were green lacewings, ladybirds, Strawberry Seed-beetles and a Common Carrion Beetle – large, black and orange, and with many hangers-on in the form of mites…

… and a wonderful array of true bugs. Several Birch Shieldbugs presumably wandered from the local Silver Birch in the garden, famously planted there by Yoko Ono.

Half-a-dozen Forget-me-not Shieldbugs spoke of a strong local population of what is always an unobtrusive ground-dweller. Its Essex strongholds are along Thames-side and in the Colchester area; I have found it especially abundant around the ruins of St Botolph’s Priory, where it may be feeding on the related Green Alkanet, but in the Minories garden there are several members of the Borage family that may be able to support it.

In the trap there were also three examples of the Eared Leafhopper, again not a common species in Essex, especially in the east of the county. This is a remarkable looking creature, and the second photo shows well why I think of this as the Mouse Bug!

And finally, once I had ruled out several other similar species, Eremocoris fenestratus, a Red Data species nationally, with just seven previous Essex records, none of which came from the Colchester area. Formerly restricted to Juniper on the Chilterns, it is believed to have become extinct last century, before it recolonised from 2010 onwards, probably brought in with related conifers introduced into gardens.

The bugs were so fascinating that we might just need to think about renaming Moth Club if we run it again next year! Thanks David and Jude for their helping hands, and to Eleanor. I was so proud of her gently passing moths from finger to finger of the younger ones in the audience, and for confidently showing our special guest Phil Jupitus the Jersey Tiger on the Folly!

 

The Wild Side of Beth Chatto Gardens: another dry July…

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

July: another month with almost no rain. The hum of summer pervaded the garden, if a little subdued especially in the heat of the hottest days. We’re in the midst of an unprecedented three successive heatwaves and almost continuous drought.

I had a busy month leading walks round the garden, but still found time to sit (in the shade!) and look. The full complement of dragonflies and damselflies has now emerged from the ponds with Willow Emerald, Southern Hawker, Ruddy Darter and Black-tailed Skimmer all flying.

Jersey Tigers have put on their now-expected emergence, a flurry of orange, black and white. Hard to believe that these have been with us for less than five years, having spread here under the influence of climate change. Hummingbird Hawkmoths have also been flying around the garden by day, feeding at Buddleja and other tubular flowers. This summer has seen quite a good arrival of these moths that have flown in from the continent; who knows when they will appear as permanent residents…

The same is true of Painted Ladies, ever-present this month following an influx earlier in the summer. Only Gatekeepers have been in larger numbers, feeding especially on Marjoram, alongside Common Blues, Brown Argus and other resident species.

Some other butterflies included Comma, Red Admiral and similarly familiar ones, including the first new-brood Brimstones, plus a few Small Tortoiseshells, very scarce this year presumably due to the relatively recent establishment of a new parasitic fly in this country.

Other new colonists over the past few years have also been apparent, such as Wasp Spider, Firebug (making more Firebugs, so we should be getting more!) and Rhododendron Leafhopper, only the second time I have seen this in the Gardens.

Parasite-flies have been very obvious, including Tachina fera and Eriothrix rufomaculatus, parasitic on larvae of other insects, and all helping bring natural balance to the garden.

Hoverflies have added their buzz to the soundscape, common species like Batman and Marmalade Hoverfly, together with less common ones like the Furry Dronefly, here in two colour forms mimicking different bee species, and Hornet Hoverfly.

As always there have been plenty of other things to enjoy as well, from Grey Herons around the Reservoir to Forest Bugs and Bee-wolves.

This was also the month we ran a moth trap over two nights, reported in detail here, and this alone added about forty new species to the burgeoning garden biodiversity list. But as always, casual observations added to the total. Several of these were leaf-mines and galls, a bit of a niche study …

… but there were others as well, from a couple of hoverflies (Scaeva selenitica and Eristalis horticola) to a jewel-wasp Pseudomalus auratus, a jewel-beetle Agrilus laticornis and the Viburnum Leaf-beetle.

As to what is in store for the rest of the summer depends largely on whether there is rain. But even if the drought persists, there will be things to see. There is always wildlife to see in a garden that prides itself as putting the right plants in the right place, right for us, the plants and for the insects that depend on them!

 

 

 

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!

 

BOOK REVIEW Rough Edges by Natasha Carthew

Reviews

Rough Edges: where land meets water, the untold stories of coastline communities. Natasha Carthew, Sceptre (2026). Hardback £20, 288pp. ISBN 978-1399740586

Rough EdgesThe publicity blurb for Rough Edges starts ‘Beyond the picture postcards, Britain’s coastal communities are suffering.’ And that’s why I offered to review a book essentially about socioeconomics, something that affects me, indeed all of us, but I didn’t think really engaged me. But those few words spoke to me as someone who grew up in such a community, who has lived in several others and visited many more. Furthermore, as an ecologist, to whom community means a very different thing, those words still ring very true in that scientific context.

This is not a nature book, whatever that means, but the author is clearly immersed and invested in the nature of the coast and takes comfort from it. But she sees beyond the chocolate box into the real life of zero-hour contracts servicing the transient whims of visitors, many of whom leave a lasting negative impact in terms of pollution, of removing essential resources (eg housing) from those bound by simple economics to the place, of fossilizing an expectation of coastal living, an expectation which probably never quite matched reality.

Such harking back to the ‘good old times’, whether real or imagined, is something that afflicts society almost everywhere, but for reasons she explores fully (mostly due to dissatisfaction sown by those engaged in self-serving divisive political projects) nowhere it seems is more vulnerable to having its collective views so manipulated than in coastal communities. Which is really rather disappointing given that the essential resilience of those living on the dynamic edgelands of our country should make them less prone to ‘mind control’. That resilience comes in no small part from acceptance of the value of looking beyond the horizon, for trade and transport, past the early cartographers’ dire warnings of ‘here there be dragons’!

It is here I start to read some parallels between human and nature communities. I delight in the plant and animals that thrive by the coast in spite of the chemical and energetic assaults of their environment. I marvel at the stories of migration, travel from distant shores. It is the stories of those survivors and wanderers that define the lure of the coast to me as a naturalist. And it is very much to the author’s credit that she has made me think hard about those parallels, however tenuous.

The language is lyrical and admirably robust, although what I feel is the over-repetition of the words ‘working class’ does risk the author’s well-argued and essential messages drifting into polemic. While it is important the voices of the ‘working class’ come to the fore and are heard by those who, like it or not, are assuming power over others, the inherent hostility of polemicism could work against the essential ‘coming together’ of the idea of community.

Again from the blurb: ‘Rough Edges is a rallying cry for the beauty and importance of our coast and its people.‘ I couldn’t agree more. Coastal humans and coastal wildlife alike need all the help, the friends in right places, that they can get. And this book should be an important contribution to that process.

First published by the British Naturalists’ Association

Wivenhoe in Bloom – through the eyes of an eight-year-old

Eleanor's photos, WildEssex, WildWivenhoe

When the muse takes her, Eleanor, now 8, likes nothing more than exploring and capturing the world around her through a cameraphone.

Last weekend was one of those lovely occasions, an hour together in the sun, with no guidance, no restrictions, just free to photograph whatever struck her.

Mostly she gravitates towards flowers, although not exclusively., especially when insects present themselves…

Whereas I would deliberately try and avoid the tangible evidence of human beings in my own photos, Eleanor seemingly relishes those juxtapositions.

And I would of course always seek pristine perfection, but her photos demonstrate so clearly there is beauty in senescence! That certainly makes me look anew!

Then there is the positioning of the subject. OK this might be random, but seeing the sequences of her pictures where she starts with it centred and then increasingly shifts the focus to one side or another makes me think her artistic appreciation is somehow innate. The number of images where the subject bleeds off the edge without compromising the beauty of the whole has to be deliberate?

Likewise throwing focus: indeed she patiently explained to me how she gets the shots where focused background detail is highlighted by a blurry foreground…

…as well as getting so close into the subject, it is driven to abstraction (my words!).

And finally, by being younger, smaller and more supple she manipulates perspectives in ways I could now only dream of!

The apogee of this (so far) for me is in the picture of a small tree from ground level, looking like a foliar firework exploding into the heavens.

I know I am biased but I am a very #ProudPapa!

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!