Jenny Brown's Point from Warton Crag Strong sunlight illuminates the quarry face. Jackdaw are vocal in the tree tops nearby. And bass notes of raven sound as birds fly above and about the quarry cliff. Overhangs create shadows across the rock-face, clumps of gorse and vegetation grow on sheer rock, jagged with shadowy crevices and niches. When I find the raven's nest the surrounding rock throws shadows rather like the black raven itself.
Caught in flight, a raven appears to have a pale wing and pallor on the head. It's a strange trick of strong sunlight.
Up on Warton Crag the weird calls of raven are evocative and a buzzard and a raven are in aerial combat. Strong light on channels through the salt marsh near the Leighton Moss sea-hides and out to Jenny Brown's Point. We linger to take in the spring and the beauty of the day, blackthorn and blue moor grass, leaves of rock rose and orchids, bumblebees and peacock butterflies. In the woods the herb layer is vibrant green with cuckoo pint and dog's mercury. In the woodland canopy there are birch and willow catkins. As the day grows warm more butterflies appear. Last spring, I saw brimstone at this time but they were yellow-green winged males marking out territories and none would settle. Today, females with pale green underwings are nectaring on dandelion flowers. As we walk a short distance along the road back to Warton Quarry brimstones take flight at each passing car, then settle again on the next dandelion flower. Settled and half-hidden, wings closed, they resemble a displaced petal or a leaf blade. Their long antennae are brownish red, their legs pale as the veins in their wings.
Warton Crag with its scrubby limestone grassland and woodland is ideal habitat for brimstone butterflies. Trees bordering the roadside to the quarry are thick with ivy in which the adult butterflies overwinter, emerging to mate in the sunshine when the temperature reaches 13 degrees. The brimstone can live as a butterfly for a year, a long time for a butterfly. In flight, males appear yellow. The female underwing shows pale green, almost white in sunlight. The wing-shape resembles a heavily-veined leaf. Females in flight have an aura of pale green, as we saw when we found them nectaring on dandelions on the woodland fringe and roadside. These early brimstone have overwintered as adults. In July, a new brimstone butterfly brood will emerge from chrysalis.
We had sat overlooking the salt-marsh and Jenny Brown's Point, taking our bearings. And speaking of cleverness, how we define it. Mankind is largely ignorant of the natural world. its wonders, like the brimstone. Its wing has evolved to mimic the vegetation of its habitat, to conceal it. The wing is leaf-shaped, veined like a leaf with blotches that resemble leaf decay. Closed wings resemble a leaf. Evolution has worked brilliantly. But how? What triggers these adaptations to give the butterfly such survival strategies? We can monitor numbers, track changes in distribution. But how far back in time can we find brimstone and detect evolutionary changes?
We had sat overlooking the salt-marsh and Jenny Brown's Point, taking our bearings. And speaking of cleverness, how we define it. Mankind is largely ignorant of the natural world. its wonders, like the brimstone. Its wing has evolved to mimic the vegetation of its habitat, to conceal it. The wing is leaf-shaped, veined like a leaf with blotches that resemble leaf decay. Closed wings resemble a leaf. Evolution has worked brilliantly. But how? What triggers these adaptations to give the butterfly such survival strategies? We can monitor numbers, track changes in distribution. But how far back in time can we find brimstone and detect evolutionary changes?
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