Fritillary on scabious Fritillaries shot through with sunlight are nectaring on scabious, on yellow hawkbit and hawkweed. A dusky fluttering butterfly alights on hot limestone clitter and turns to stone. Drifts of flowers in stillness and heat. Birds fall silent, the breeding season almost accomplished.
The early morning lacked promise: a blaze of sun in a monochrome sky, the fells smothered in haze and parched grasses crisp and crunching underfoot. Flora burns out fast in the heat-wave that goes on and on. An interlude of butterflies was respite.
The early morning lacked promise: a blaze of sun in a monochrome sky, the fells smothered in haze and parched grasses crisp and crunching underfoot. Flora burns out fast in the heat-wave that goes on and on. An interlude of butterflies was respite.
To interpret butterfly behaviour you have to fine-tune to weather (they like hot sunshine and stillness) and to flora which might provide a source of nectar to attract them. It's a challenge to work it out. Today's fritillary images show butterflies nectaring on scabious that is suddenly abundant, and on the yellow compositae: hawkbit, hawkweed. Thistles are now in bloom but nothing seems to favour them this week. The heat wave curtails the flowering season: brambles came and went fast. What are the implications of this speeded-up and burnt-out summer for pollinators? The coincidence of nectar being available as broods hatch out.
Today's weather relaxes the butterflies and they linger longer on their chosen flowers than in a breeze. Butterflies weave about the seeding grasses, come down on limestone clitter to absorb the heat. And vanish. Their cryptic colouring is remarkable. Shadow photographs become a motif of the morning, harebells redefining themselves in shadow. And butterflies with shadow-antennae and countless legs. Sunlight is so strong that shadows seem a sharper reality than flimsy petal and wing.
Today's weather relaxes the butterflies and they linger longer on their chosen flowers than in a breeze. Butterflies weave about the seeding grasses, come down on limestone clitter to absorb the heat. And vanish. Their cryptic colouring is remarkable. Shadow photographs become a motif of the morning, harebells redefining themselves in shadow. And butterflies with shadow-antennae and countless legs. Sunlight is so strong that shadows seem a sharper reality than flimsy petal and wing.
What do we seek in the countryside? For me, there are seasonal highlights and I love the transitions and the anticipation of what will show. Or what will puzzle by its absence. An interpreter requires fine-tuning. The south and east facing slopes where butterflies will appear, in stillness and sunlight. Is it sultry enough for adders? It's thrilling to sense what the weather will bring, and to find it.
Weather, in its infinite variety, is a motif for a naturalist, for all who love hill walking. Thursday and another day of faded and frazzled skies as temperatures are set to soar again in the coming days. I miss cloudscapes, skies with subtlety and definition. And clarity, not this smothering haze over the fells.
Each day this week there's been a helicopter hovering over Kendal and Scout Scar. We're wondering if there's a moorland fire patrol, with fires at Saddleworth and around Greater Manchester and copycat fires in Lancashire. In an interview, a conservationist speaks of the destruction of wildlife: curlew, golden plover and owls, of moorland birds. Even if they escape the fires their habitat is destroyed.
Weather, in its infinite variety, is a motif for a naturalist, for all who love hill walking. Thursday and another day of faded and frazzled skies as temperatures are set to soar again in the coming days. I miss cloudscapes, skies with subtlety and definition. And clarity, not this smothering haze over the fells.
Each day this week there's been a helicopter hovering over Kendal and Scout Scar. We're wondering if there's a moorland fire patrol, with fires at Saddleworth and around Greater Manchester and copycat fires in Lancashire. In an interview, a conservationist speaks of the destruction of wildlife: curlew, golden plover and owls, of moorland birds. Even if they escape the fires their habitat is destroyed.
Perfect poise of a fritillary on scabious, amidst seed-heads of grasses.
RSS Feed