Not so much Painted as Faded and Jaded ladies

 We seem to have had quite an influx of migratory Painted Lady butterflies this spring, but they’re now looking like Faded and Jaded Ladies. In order to preserve my personal safety, I will decline the chance to say more…

Ever since I was told that buttercup flowers are very attractive to a species of tiny wasp, I have tended to glance at them as I walk along, and recently noticed this cracking little Swollen-thighed beetle sitting in a flower close to the boardwalk.

We’re already back in Himalayan Balsam pulling season again, starting with an hour-long session on Sunday 31^st May. Your usual correspondent having come up with an implausible excuse for not joining in, we’re grateful to Team Leader Julie for this account:

“We had 11 volunteers this morning. Mostly ‘old hands’ at Balsam but we did have a few new to the task, including an 11 years old Brownie (and her mum) who had contacted us about volunteering to complete a nature badge. Our young Brownie was a natural at the task spotting the Balsam with ease and showing mum what to look for.

We were in Area X today and all managed to get back out again safely, which is always a bonus!

There was nowhere near as much to collect as last year, which is testament to the great efforts over many years to pull it up before it can seed. Not as exciting as when there are loads but very satisfying to know we are slowing its progress over the Common.

We had a quick look over at Area A and found very few there either - just a muntjac grazing!

So we called it a day after an hour. We still managed a decent amount collected.

Our special Brownie was a little disappointed with the amount she had collected. But as we pointed out, each flower can produce over 800 seeds which it can disperse over 7m away. So even if you only collected 20 you have prevented a potential 16,000 plants from growing! I think that’s a job well done!

I did snap a lovely moth, but it was only happy to have a picture of its face not the wings!!

I also snapped one of the few orchids this year on the central area…we suspect the muntjacs are munching on them.”

Advice on casting clouts

 Now that May is almost out, casting a clout or two seems a risk worth taking; perhaps even an essential one. Those who prematurely did so at the start of the month will have had a nasty shock, and I blame the atrocious weather in mid-month for the failure of the Blue Tits’ breeding attempt in our garden nest box. Skylarks are larking whilst ascending, swallows twittering whilst swallowing no doubt, newly fledged starlings squawking and some swifts screaming. Not having a name starting with S, I have only seen a few House Martins so far.

Exciting bird sightings in April were Ring Ouzels and Wheatears, both in the field above Pit Common (although they kept well out of sight when I went looking for them!). Speaking of sightings, in addition to the most recent 100 shown on this site, we’re now working on an ambitious project to include historical nature sightings on the Southrepps History Hub website. So far, we have all the animal sightings we know about since 2005 available, whilst the plants are a major undertaking in progress. See https://southreppshistory.org.uk/nature-sightings/

We always want more records, so if you would like to tell us of something you have seen in our area, please contact us, by using the form on the page linked to above, or commenting on our sightings page on this site, or by adding your sighting to the whiteboard at the Lower Street end of the main boardwalk. Please tell us what you found, as well as when and where. Thank you!

Here’s a striking ichneumon wasp that found its way into our conservatory on the exceptionally warm Friday before the end of May Bank Holiday.

On an exceptionally hot day in May, there's nothing nicer than to pause on the bridge over Fox's Beck and enjoy the birdsong; in this case a chiffchaff and a typically loud wren.