Some natural wonders from North East England
I sowed nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) seeds this spring, partly for the flowers but also because I was hoping that large white butterflies might find them and lay eggs. They did, and now the foliage is disappearing fast, thanks to some very hungry caterpillars, A nostalgia trip really, because I remember watching exactly the same thing happening in my parents' garden, seventy years ago. Childhood nature experiences can last a lifetime.
Poor photo (heavily cropped, taken with an old phone in deep shade) but this appears to be a queen wasp mating with drones. They all flew away, still locked together, before I could get a better picture.
Mid-July seems very early for new queens to be leaving a
nest - they usually hibernate after mating - but still plenty of summer left
for her to start a new nest this year, I suppose.
Two wasp generations in one summer? Are seasonal patterns of insect
behaviour confused by changing climate, maybe?
This morning, riverbank footpath, Durham city
Wild flowers have bloomed early and flowered quickly in this year's summer heatwaves. The barley harvest has already begun and grassland in the landscape is parched, the colour of a well-baked digestive biscuit. So I was surprised to find these exquisite little flowers of centaury Centaurium erythraea in full bloom amongst withering grasses on a footpath verge, in a place I've walked many times but had never seen them before.
Centaury is an annual species that seems to thrive in dry locations, including sand dunes. Its seeds germinate in late autumn when water is plentiful, wintering as a rosette of leaves, restarting growth in spring and then sending up a spike of flowers in early summer. If this year's sequence of heatwaves and drought becomes established, maybe this winter-annual growth pattern will be a winning strategy.
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