Category Archives: Biodiversity

Six on Saturday – 1st August 2020

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August already! And for this week’s six a slight deviation. Instead of my garden, I thought I’d share some of the lovely native flowers along our bog road, which is a small track just at the end of our own drive.

  1. First one of my favourite late summer flowers – perennial sowthistles. It has been described to me as an Irish sunflower and it certainly fits that description well, as they can be over 1m tall.
  • Perennial sow thistle

2. Mint, Mentha aquatica – one of my favourite smells

  • Mentha aquatica

3. Next Purple-loosestrife, while native to Ireland this plant has become an invasive species in North America.

  • Purple-loosestrife

4. Greater willowherb , while it can take over does have a pretty flower.

  • Greater willowherb

5. Woundwort, as it’s names suggest was used as a herbal medicine to treat wounds. It is thought to have wound healing and antiseptic qualities.

  • Woundworth

6. And finally common knapweed, a late flowering summer plant loved by bees . Like woundwort it was also use medicinally to treat wounds, bruises, sores, and sore throats.

  • Common knapweed

Thank you to The Propagator for hosting Six on Saturday.

Summer ………………….

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Well not exactly – at least going by the weather. I was going to do a post about beaches and sunshine, but we haven’t been to a beach yet this summer. We could have gone in the spring when we had lovely dry and sunny weather but we were in lock-down. Since mid-June we have been having a lot of grey, dull and wet days. So, what else says summer to me? Well I am back to my favourite subjects.

Bees of course! I took this photo in the drizzly rain this evening but what struck me about it was that it reminded me of when Winnie the Pooh had his head stuck in a honey pot!

  • White tailed bumblebee in bramble flower

Our bumbles did really well in the late spring when there was plenty of sunshine, but numbers seem to be down now as they cope with the wetter weather. Some appear pretty hardy, particularly these large garden bumblebees. I have watched them feed on the sage outside the kitchen window even during rain showers. Now the bramble flowers are out they are feeding on them as are the white tailed bees and carder bees.

  • Garden bumble on sage
  • Garden bu

Of course as well as bees, butterflies make me think of summer too.

  • Fritillary butterfly
  • Speckled wood

And their caterpillars. Here the cinnabar caterpillars (which is actually a day flying moth) have eat their way to the end of the ragwort plant. So it may not be just humans that over-exploit their resources.

Inspired by this week’s Lens Artist Photo Challenge – Summer

Delicate

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Nature has some wonderful delicate colours. Below the delicate pink of Shining Cranesbill, Geranium lucidum.

  • Shining Cranesbill, Geranium lucidum.

Next, collection of daisy, speedwell and pignut flowers

And here the speedwell in more detail.

  • Germander speedwell, Veronica chamaedrys

And finally the delicate green and whites of cow parsley.

  • Cow parsely, Anthriscus sylvestris