Italian Spring

 

We went looking for spring and the sun in Italy, and we found it on the slopes of Vesuvius. We woke to sunshine across the Bay of Naples, but when we looked out of the hotel's back window, we saw snow on the volcano.

 

It's a bit concerning staying in on the side of an active volcano, with lava in the car park, but we survived. Apart from the infamous eruption in 79AD, Vesuvius has erupted regularly since with the latest in 1944. This gives an interesting habitat on the various lava flows, and near the hotel we found a rich area of mosses, lichens and plants.

 





Butterfly Orchid (but not as we know it)

 

 

Early Spider Orchid (Ssp probably)

 

This is part of the original cone, taken from the current cone with a 1944 lava flow in between. The original cone was about 8,000' high apparently, but most was blasted into the sky so the centre is now only about 4,200'. You can drive up most of the way to the summit, then fight past coaches and tourist traps to walk the rest of the way to the top, and look down into the crater which is a few hundred yards across.

There was a blue rock thrush singing in there somewhere, making the most of the acoustics.

Steam rises from vents in the crater, giving off a slight sulphurous smell, but mostly it seemed peaceful.

Just one flowering plant was seen on the inside - a dandelion had colonised first, although the dreaded red valerian was making its relentless way up the outside of the cone, a successful pioneer of arid land.

 

 

A distinctive lichen has also colonised the lava, Vesuvius Snow Lichen (Stereocaulon vesuvianum).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How do people live here, with the constant threat of eruption?

 

Kingsdown born and bred

Just a quick note to advise that the long-tailed blue  colony seen on the Leas in August have successfully produced a new generation which have started to fly.

This is an extremely rare occurrence in the UK and I'm so proud!
There has been debate over whether a pair of blues arrived on the cliffs in the warm winds of July, and procreated there, or alternatively an impregnated female arrived on her own, and laid the eggs that turned into the butterflies in the last generation.
We will never know, but can be reasonably sure that this emergence will be the last well see of them,as they won't be able to survive the winter here.

Unlike our native blues, some of which were found roosting nearby, waiting for the fuss over the continental stars to die down.

Cloudy Banks

 

 

 

Ever wondered where the song Claudy Banks got its name? No, I thought not. It was a song that I first heard sung by Bob Copper, but it's an old traditional favourite.  I like to think that it refers to clouded yellows on the chalk downs, where this year the species has enjoyed a bumper time.

 

A brief lunchtime stroll over a nearby acre or two found five of these butterflies, including a very pale one that might have been a Pale Clouded Yellow, or a Berger's Clouded Yellow or (more likely) a helice version of the common race. It was hot so they didn't hang around for a portrait; on the weekend it had been cooler (natch) so the clouded yellows on the beach were more sedentary, absorbing warmth from the pebbles.

 

 

 

 

Late summer is the best time to be on the Lydden / Temple Ewell nature reserve; not only are the chalkhill blues still swarming in their hundreds, but also the devil's-bit scabious is coming into flower. Centaury is not frequent this year and it's good to see its spiral stamens.

 

And the glorious Adonis blue is emerging in its second flourish of the year, while silver-spotted skippers are appearing for their only show; if it's a bit cool or cloudy you might be able to warm them up on your hands.

In fact, silver-spotted skippers are best observed in the cool as they move too quickly in the sunshine - we counted over 20 resting in the grass on a small part of the down.

 

A surprise was an extensive patch of common dodder. The records tell us that it has been seen at the Temple Ewell end but not here, in the middle. A nice find, twisting its predatory self around the scabious but living off bedstraw.

Beware dwarf thistles.....

....and nasty-tasting stink-bugs.

 

A good year for butterflies



It's not been a bad summer, has it? Dawn till dusk sunshine, warm enough to swim in the sea, cool beer, cold ices, no irritating long flights to suffer - all in all a good year to stay at home.

To answer last year's fretting about the lack of bugs on the windscreen, some muggy drives have even had these, although the report of a clouded yellow squished against the screen was rather unnecessary.

And butterflies have appeared in (relative) profusion. Buddleias are covered with whites and aristocrats while the herbs and grasslands are alive with blues and skippers.

The biggest news was, of course, the discovery of a veritable colony of long-tailed blues on Kingsdown Leas, with around seven adults and 47 eggs recorded, plus an egg in each of the villages of Kingsdown and St Margarets. The adults would have been blown north from the Mediterranean area on the warm "Spanish plume" wind in early August, along with many other unusual insects. The arrival even made the national press.

The eggs were laid on broad-leaved everlasting pea which grows profusely on the clifftops. The six-week life cycle of this butterfly is continuous throughout the year, so we may see an emergence of adults in late September if weather permits, but it is not possible for them to repeat the cycle through the winter.

I caught a brief glimpse of a female before being submerged beneath a pile of camera-toting twitchers, but for the record here's a photo taken in Rhodes a couple of years ago, in more familiar surroundings (note the pea leaves behind).

Also just for the record, here's a selection of sundry pics taken this summer, mostly without the tedium of commentary.

I like woolly thistles. I shall devote the rest of my life to spreading their downy seeds.

After all the work done of the catastrophic disappearance of the once-common small tortoiseshells, can any of the experts now explain why they have returned this year in such profusion? Have they also flown across the water, or are they our recovering native population?  Will we again see them in sheds and garages in the winter?
[ Answer from BTO: This year’s boost for Small Tortoiseshells is probably due to three reasons. Firstly, the long period of dry, hot weather has been good for both butterflies and the flowering plants they feed on. Secondly, there may have been an influx of immigrant Small Tortoiseshells from the continent, benefitting from the warm weather and boosting our British population. Finally, it is possible that the parasitic fly Sturmia bella, which is thought to be a partial cause of the overall decline of Small Tortoiseshell, is at a low in its population cycle.]

 The undersides of some butterflies are unjustly ignored.

In other news......

Autumn gentians have appeared at Lydden, but I've not seen any autumn ladies' tresses yet.
[Stop press - news just in..... tresses seen on a lawn in Kingsdown.....]

Dwarf elder is in flower beside the A2 by Brenley Corner.

In common with many plants, sea heath seems to have had a good year, with its patches beneath Shakespeare Cliff seemingly doubled in size. The climb up to see it is, however, getting more difficult [it's your age!]

And on the bird front, there's been lots of interesting migrants (all of which I have missed) and although a visit to Oare ticked my first UK cattle egret.....

...I failed to see the long-staying Bonaparte's gull. Oare is lovely in the late summer sunshine, although when I shared my affection for the place to a passing birder he replied "not much about though". Good grief, man.