I spent Sunday afternoon in a brief warm spell checking tall oaks in the grounds of Howick Hall for Purple Hairstreak butterfly. This is flogging a dead horse, but one was seen and photographed in Alnwick Garden last year, the first for North Northumberland so this place looked as good as there ( in my opinion the gardens are much better at Howick).
No joy with the Hairstreaks but I did see 1 Red Admiral, 1 Small White, 3 Meadow Brown, 35 Ringlet, 1 Comma and 1 Large Skipper. The uncut meadows here are excellent too and well worth a look especially if the sun is shining...
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| The Croquet Lawn, Howick Hall. Complete with uncut flower margins. |
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| Howick Church. This is how church yards should look with lots of hidden over grown corners for wildlife. |
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| The Croquet Lawn from the other way. Look closely at the short turf, its full of wildflowers too with Self Heal in profusion. |
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| A Speckled Wood |
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| Martagon Lillies were naturalised into the meadows. |
Also noted were Chiffchgaff singing, Nuthatch, Bullfinch, 2 Buzzards, Jay, 1 Roe Doe.
4 comments:
Hard lines about the Flutterfly!
I have to agree that Howick Hall blows the highly over rated Alnwick Garden away, as do most other Estates in Northumberland, Belsay and Cragside to name a few.
Nuthatch and Jay ?!! Both cripplers, send em my way please....
Hi Georde, ta for the comments, they are rarer than my blog posts these days!
Gaz - I need to send you some trees taller than 20 feet first!
I always find PH's start to be more active after 15:00hrs Stewart - that is when its warm and sunny !
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