Silver Washed Fritillary Soft mud along the water-mint and oregano way. Spiders' webs in grass still drenched in dew as sunlight pours down through the trees into woodland glades, pools of light amidst shadows. A morning sultry and still. not a cloud in the sky. Green fruit on brambles. The last few dewberry flowers at our feet- dewberries, born of dew. A week ago umbellifers were alive with insects, now flowers are gone to seed. Floating in the air, a spider sunlit gold with strands of silk strung between trees. A spider poised in an intricate web glimpsed and lost again as sunlight plays upon it.
The first bracken fronds assume a hint of autumn, like the colouring of Silver Washed Fritillary when butterflies have been exposed to extreme heat and glaring sun. Today, they are the most abundant species. They settle, and I have the photo-opportunity I hoped for. Their long pointed wings almost closed, they show large and the silver-wash of the underwing is visible. The woodland fringe is their domain so it's apt to show them poised on hemp agrimony against a foil of shadows. The first butterfly we see has damaged wings, all are worn. The SIlver Washed Fritillary has a fast, swooping, graceful flight when its wings are fresh and strong but these wings are so tattered I wonder how some of them can fly at all.
This is the second summer of my quest to find and photograph SIlver Washed Fritillary. August is their peak-flight time but there are no fresh butterflies and it seems they've peaked.
We're loving the butterfly experience and the coolness of the wood in extreme heat. By mid-afternoon the temperature reaches 29 degrees. Watching the butterflies, it's hard to gauge how these conditions affect them. In drought. flowers have less nectar for pollinators. At least there's the soft mud which the butterflies like to suck up for mineral salts.
This is the second summer of my quest to find and photograph SIlver Washed Fritillary. August is their peak-flight time but there are no fresh butterflies and it seems they've peaked.
We're loving the butterfly experience and the coolness of the wood in extreme heat. By mid-afternoon the temperature reaches 29 degrees. Watching the butterflies, it's hard to gauge how these conditions affect them. In drought. flowers have less nectar for pollinators. At least there's the soft mud which the butterflies like to suck up for mineral salts.
In the early afternoon brimstone appear, looking leaf-like and rather more fresh. The red admiral is a stunning butterfly and lingers for photographs.
I must have seen Silver Washed Fritillary in the past without being aware of it. Now, they're in my dreams and plentiful in my photographic archive. Still not sure if I've photographed a female. Butterflies often settle in poses which obscure wing-pattern, light through closed wings plays odd tricks, and I still seek the perfect image, knowing there's no such thing. The quest goes on.
I must have seen Silver Washed Fritillary in the past without being aware of it. Now, they're in my dreams and plentiful in my photographic archive. Still not sure if I've photographed a female. Butterflies often settle in poses which obscure wing-pattern, light through closed wings plays odd tricks, and I still seek the perfect image, knowing there's no such thing. The quest goes on.
Woods are cool. In extreme heat, we discover for ourselves that it's cooler amongst the trees. Dew has rarely felt so refreshing, so lovely. Now an item on Radio 4 allows us to match our experience with the science.
Radio 4 BBC Inside Science on 11 August 2022 has its final item on the restoration of Hardknott Forest and native oaks. Scientists working on the project have discovered that it can be between 5-7 degrees cooler in a wood. It's due to EVAPOTRANSPIRATION, a process whereby water is transferred from the land to the atmosphere by evaporation from the soil and other surfaces, and by transpiration from trees. So woodland is a cooler place to be in the extreme weather of August 2022.
Planting young trees is not an instant solution to the loss of mature trees. It takes twenty years for evapotranspiration to bring about that significant localised cooling of between 5-7 degrees. Felling trees is like switching off Nature's air-conditioning.
What do you do in 29 degree heat? I found myself reading Gilbert White's Natural History of Selborne. Seeing an illustration of a spider, I read his letter of 21st September 1741. On that morning he found cobwebs heavy with dew, then remarked ' a shower of cobwebs falling from very elevated regions.'
We thought the appearance of cobwebs gave an autumnal feel to the morning, wondering if autumn is coming early because of this extreme weather and Climate Change.
Radio 4 BBC Inside Science on 11 August 2022 has its final item on the restoration of Hardknott Forest and native oaks. Scientists working on the project have discovered that it can be between 5-7 degrees cooler in a wood. It's due to EVAPOTRANSPIRATION, a process whereby water is transferred from the land to the atmosphere by evaporation from the soil and other surfaces, and by transpiration from trees. So woodland is a cooler place to be in the extreme weather of August 2022.
Planting young trees is not an instant solution to the loss of mature trees. It takes twenty years for evapotranspiration to bring about that significant localised cooling of between 5-7 degrees. Felling trees is like switching off Nature's air-conditioning.
What do you do in 29 degree heat? I found myself reading Gilbert White's Natural History of Selborne. Seeing an illustration of a spider, I read his letter of 21st September 1741. On that morning he found cobwebs heavy with dew, then remarked ' a shower of cobwebs falling from very elevated regions.'
We thought the appearance of cobwebs gave an autumnal feel to the morning, wondering if autumn is coming early because of this extreme weather and Climate Change.
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