June 25th, 2020

Hedge woundwort, Stachys sylvatica

 Even hotter than yesterday. Heat and humidity brings forth horseflies. I'm willing the swifts to swoop even closer and snap them up
Temperatures in the North West will reach 30 degrees.  I meet the early birds who dislike the heat. Derek is returning  as I head out at 6.00am.   Kay and I meet as we're  heading home.  I know I'll find speckled wood butterflies in pools of sunlight amongst the trees and Hedge woundwort is spotlit. 

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Yesterday was bliss. Today is not. It's hot and humid and butterflies are behaving differently. Kay and I compare notes.  Yesterday, she noticed lots as she walked the escarpment edge.  So did I. Today,  they're marking territories, in erratic flight (erratic to me, they have a plan) low over vegetation,  They release  pheramones to mark  territory - this is mine, keep out.  Fritillary fly about my ankles and off they go, never stopping to take nectar from flowers. They circle about juniper and bracken where the female will lay her eggs to overwinter.  Where their larvae will find more warmth and shelter in spring.   Step close to a sprawl of prostrate juniper and tiny moths and butterflies fly up around your feet.  It's a sheltering habitat for butterflies and for breeding birds.   There's a herbal fragrance which I love.  

I was looking for butterflies when I became aware of a juvenile robin on the lichened topstone of a wall.  So close and confiding he was. I find linnet on their first note but they are timid birds and I have to search for them.  I see redpoll,  vocal in flight but invariably silent once they're down in the scrub.  How feisty  stonechat are in defence of their territory! The male and female birds perched above the shrubs where they deliver food to their young,  constantly calling all about  me,   I moved well clear and  could still hear the call ahead of me.  Surely there aren't two pairs breeding so close.   The male now chose a bare branch of hawthorn and was seeing me out of their territory.  Telling me to be gone.  Their constant calls as they flit from perch to perch gives me a  clear idea of their territory- they've mapped it out for me. 
I reckon the kestrel who haunts the Race Course, and beyond, has bred successfully.  I've heard him calling and searched to see if the pair has fledglings but the trees are in high-summer foliage and I followed his calling but could not see him. 

Rethink is the watchword on radio 4 this week. Let's rethink the way we live our lives, let's spell out a vision for the future and try to make it happen.  During lockdown we've  seen cleaner air, quieter skies,  thriving wildlife-   Surely it's time to build on that.   But traffic roars down the Kendal Bypass, seemingly busier than before lockd0wn.  And traffic noise was audible up on Scout Scar- I hope this was because of weather conditions.  The morning was still and humid, the fells lost in haze. 
On 26 June, radio 4 there's an excellent item from Prince Charles on food sustainability  sourcing locally, growing your own. 
I recommend   BBC SOUNDS.   Tweet of the Day 28 June 2020. Tweet Take 5
on Swifts with Samuel West, Sir David Attenborough and Bill Oddie