A few more damselflies today; first a male Azure Damselfly:
And a female Large Red:
Hawthorn blossom, or 'May':
The seeds of Cow Parsley are already forming. These look like beetles complete with antennae. When they eventually turn black, the resemblance is even more convincing.
The next major flower to appear on the hedgerow is Meadow Vetchling, or Meadow Pea. The emerging shoots are very distinctive with their flattened appearance:
A couple of days ago I showed some Lady's Smock - Cardamine pratensis - with four Orange Tip eggs. This is the same plant with a roosting male. The attraction of the plant to the butterfly is extremely strong: most of the roosting specimens I find are on Cardamine.
A couple of days ago I showed some Lady's Smock - Cardamine pratensis - with four Orange Tip eggs. This is the same plant with a roosting male. The attraction of the plant to the butterfly is extremely strong: most of the roosting specimens I find are on Cardamine.
3 comments:
Great post again, Stuart. I spotted a pair of Large Red's on Beara this week, and Common Blue's in Bantry.
I heard the name Quick Thorn also, this week; do you know if it would refer to Black or Haw thorn?
The person who used it didn't know.
'Quicks' is the local name for Hawthorn cuttings ready for transplanting. I have also heard it referred to locally as Half-thorn.
Quickthorn defintely refers to hawthorn round here (of course the name 'hawthorn' itself means 'hedge-thorn') - aka Whitethorn. It seems to be a very good year for hte blossom, even if it is in June not May!
Lovely damselflies.
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