Saturday Walker

Nature observations from country walks in the south east of England

[Saturday Walker @SWC_Nature]

@MikeFRobinson Ooh, that’s a nice spot. An elusive plant.

[Saturday Walker @SWC_Nature]

@BrennanMartine Used to get them locally to me but I haven’t seen one in years, sadly

[Saturday Walker @SWC_Nature]

@MikeFRobinson @LucyCorrander Yes, the bumble bees showed a lot of interest in mine this year, while largely ignoring the “bee-friendly flowers” I got from the garden centre.

[Saturday Walker @SWC_Nature]

@MikeFRobinson It is just getting started. Soon it will take over the whole garden!!

[Saturday Walker @SWC_Nature]

@MikeFRobinson Sorry, just making a feeble pun. It’s not grass: it’s knotgrass!!! 😆

[Saturday Walker @SWC_Nature]

Wood ants….

[Saturday Walker @SWC_Nature]

@MikeFRobinson It is so rare they stop to be identified! GVW are maybe a bit more cooperative in this respect, but in general I find them very frustrating.

[Saturday Walker @SWC_Nature]

My first cuckoo spit of the year!

[Saturday Walker @SWC_Nature]

@MikeFRobinson Looks like dog rise to me

[Saturday Walker @SWC_Nature]

@MikeFRobinson Part of my rapidly expanding ivy-leaved toadflax empire…

[Saturday Walker @SWC_Nature]

@MikeFRobinson Some?!! It reigns supreme on my patio. I half expect to wake up one morning f and find it strangling me in bed. Lovely flower, lasts all summer. Grows out of walls (by eating the mortar and cement, as you find out eventually….)

[Saturday Walker @SWC_Nature]

@nature_michelle Always exciting to see a green hairstreak too. I would be thrilled to have one in my garden

[Saturday Walker @SWC_Nature]

@nature_michelle I wasn’t being critical, just jocular: I photograph butterflies myself. I just wonder what it feels like for them sometimes. Green hairstreaks have a particularly startled expression somehow. Silver-washed fritillaries look much less intimidated.

[Saturday Walker @SWC_Nature]

@MikeFRobinson Or in my case, not….!!

[Saturday Walker @SWC_Nature]

A big surprise yesterday while I was out hunting for pearl-bordered fritillaries (second photo) in the New Forest near Brockenhurst yesterday was this very fresh painted lady. It was VERY hungry, so perhaps had just been on a long journey….

[Saturday Walker @SWC_Nature]

@MikeFRobinson Someone pointed a female HFFB out to me on Wednesday, so they ARE still about…