The Suffolk Argus amongst the existing plants. This Poppy is not only incredibly stunning in appearance it is also a good source of pollen for bees. So far these are my ‘3’ plants which are currently growing in that border. The next lot of plants that I shall be adding are cornflowers. They come in many colours and have a long flowering period. These will attract various insects and birds one of
which is the goldfinch. Many other wildflowers can be added to your Wildlife Edge. Helpful books on this subject are – ‘The Wildlife Garden Month by Month’ by Jackie Bennett and ‘RSPB Gardening For Wildlife’ by Adrian Thomas
Hill-topping This year I had a reminder of one of those endearing but complex examples of butterfly behaviour which has come to be known as ‘hill-topping’. On the continent, particularly in the hot, dry and scrubby regions bordering the Mediterranean, this strange habit can be very key to the survival of a species within a certain district. It would appear to facilitate the meeting of the sexes, and the subsequent courtship and mating of several iconic European butterflies. In some parts of the world, notably Australia, even small changes to the topography and disturbances to plant life of sites used by hill-topping insects have led to localised extinctions of some species.
number of these butterflies either resting on dried stalks of Fennel or patrolling a small clearing at the ‘summit’. Nectar sources were non-existent, so the attraction offered by this particular spot was hard to see. Mated females however, would have to leave such a site and fly for a considerable distance to lay their eggs, which would just have time to hatch and achieve the pupal stage before the short, mild Mediterranean winter arrived.
This September, our Spanish hotel was situated on a rocky promontory surrounded on three sides by the sea. The seaward side of this outcrop was as high as the six-storey hotel itself and covered in gnarled pine trees. After three days the European Swallowtail, so similar to our Britannicus version, was becoming conspicuous by its absence. So after one of those notoriously satisfying buffet breakfasts and leaving my wife to enjoy the scorching poolside, I scrambled up the slopes of this small wood with camera in hand. The reward was to come across a
Another hill-top site well documented in previous editions of the Argus newsletter by our former chairman, is the ‘Ermitage’, a small monastic building near the town of Ceret on the foothills of the Pyrenees in southern France. This spot is within quick and comparatively cheap reach of Stansted with its fleet of Ryanair jets which fly at least twice on most days into Perpignan. The site is enriched in places by a number of Fig trees with their usual underlying carpet of decaying autumn fruit. Here in September one is confident in finding numbers of that
22
