Burnet Moth on ScabiousDark Green Fritillary … in Motion … come on, you take the camera, and see if you can get a better shot of one … they’re very flighty. But you can certainly see the green underwing coloration, with big rounded white spots, in the third photo. The High Brown Fritillary is very similar but vanishingly rare…. mind you, this species could well be called the High Velocity Fritillary, so there. Rattling a Yellow Rattle – yes, really, play the video and listen! The plant is important in flowery meadows, as it parasitises the tougher and taller grasses, weakening them and letting in the smaller and prettier wild flowers. An old farmers’ name for it is accordingly “Poverty”: guess they preferred money to beauty and diversity in them there days. A gloriously shiny and iridescent green leaf beetle, Cryptocephalus hypochaeridis, on HawkweedChiltern Gentian, probablyPyramidal OrchidDark Mullein
A show of flowers on Barnes Riverside, looking upriver to Barnes Railway Bridge. Valerian seems to have escaped from someone’s garden, the three colours of red, white, and pink harmonising beautifully with the river scene.The spacious Leg of Mutton Nature Reserve, once a reservoir, and mercifully saved from development. The platforms in the lake are for breeding birds.
Dark Mullein, one of the rather special flowers in the Leg of Mutton Nature Reserve
The English seem unemotional … except for their passion for nature
