Great!

Another beautiful morning saw us heading off for a walk around Mapperley Reservoir.  The hedgerows are in full bloom now, among the more eye-catching of these flowers have to be those belonging to the Great Bindweed (Calystegia silvatica).

The large, white trumpets of Great Bindweed make a fantastic show in high Summer and are a big hit with the local insects too.

Another 'Great' flower to grace the edges of the footpaths of Summer, is that of the Greater Knapweed(Centaurea scabiosa).  One of the Daisy family, it is a common sight in Britain and is also very popular with insects - especially the bees.

The plant is a favourite among several butterflies and moths, in particular, those known as 'case-bearers' or
Coleophoridae.   The leaves of the Greater Knapweed have moisturising or emollient properties for smoothing and soothing dry skin.

Rosebay Willowherb (Chamerion angustifolium) is beginning to bloom now as well.  The tall, stately plants rise above the surrounding flora and send up these wonderful, pink-flowered spikes, which look fantastic in the bright sunshine.

These were growing near Mapperley Wood this morning as we left the shade of the woodland and emerged into the sunshine of Slack Lane.

Watch the Birdy!

The fat-ball feeder which we have in the tree in the front garden, has been the scene of some pretty despicable behaviour recently.  The main culprits have been the dozens of young Starlings (Sternus vulgaris) which seem to have claimed the fat-balls as their sole right and have been more than happy to fight for them.

The youngsters, despite being quite capable of feeding themselves, have been squabbling and fighting amongst themselves for days now, attempting to make their poor, over-worked parents, supply them with ever greater quantities of fat-ball.  The adults are starting to look a little fed up with it all.

At various times, we have counted over twenty Starlings at any one time, making the most horrendous noise and tearing into the fat-balls as if they were starving...

... then they sit in the tree looking full and sleepy.

Sometimes, a Magpie (Pica pica) will gate crash the party and temporarily settle the dispute before the Starlings once again take up their cudgels.  Magpies always seem rather plain black-and-white birds, but when the sunlight catches their feathers in just the right way, their iridescent plumage is seen in all its glory.

All the fighting has left the poor Great Tits and Blue Tits looking a little shell-shocked as they wait patiently for their turn at the feeder.  This youngster was keeping clear of the fracas while waiting for things to settle down.

Peas 'n' Poisons

Our garden seems to be full of flowers of one particular family of plants right now, the Pea family, Fabaceae or what used to be known as Leguminosae. Some have made our garden their home, without any intervention from us. These include the White Clover (Trifolium repens) in the lawn.

Others are here because we wanted them to be. In the case of our Runner Beans (Phaseolus coccineus) this year, it seems the slugs and snails wanted them too.

Despite the repeated onslaught of those slimy little beggers, we still have a couple of plants flowering bravely and there are few garden flowers with brighter red flowers than these common veg.

Our Everlasting Sweet Peas, which we grew from seed collected from a plant which we found growing wild, is now blooming beautifully too. The pink/purple flowers are typically 'pea-like' and while they lack the scent of cultivated Sweet Peas, they more than make up for it with their perennial nature, meaning we don't need to re-sow every year.

Enough of the Peas and on to the Poisons mentioned in the title.  Watching Gardeners' World on the BBC last night, I was reminded by Monty Don, of the poisonous plant known as Hemlock and got to wondering where I had seen some growing around these parts. Quite by coincidence, on our walk through Pewit Carr this morning, we passed those very plants.

Hemlock (Conium maculatum) is a member of the carrot family, but you wouldn't want to eat this one!  The plant contains several poisonous compounds, the most noted of which is called Coniine and has properties similar to nicotine and attacks the central nervous system. In a similar way to the poison Curare, Coniine disrupts the interchange between nerves and muscles.  In this way, it can cause 'creeping' paralysis which will eventually reach the respiratory system, causing death by oxygen deprivation.  It seems that ingesting only a small amount of the plant can be fatal.  Six or seven leaves can cause death and it takes a smaller amount of seed or root to have the same effect.  The ancient Greeks used Hemlock to dispatch condemned prisoners, the most famous of these being the philosopher Socrates in 399 BC.

One member of the carrot family to steer clear of then!

Orchid

Malcolm and I had to go our separate ways this morning as a dental appointment kept Malcolm away from our normal walks. So I cut a solitary figure as I walked around Shipley Park and thought I would try out a couple of paths which have so far remained unexplored. The first, took me across a small (and thankfully dry) weir at the lower end of Shipley Lake and along a newly opened footpath through the woods. This diversion proved to be a wonderful idea as I stumbled across probably the highest concentration of Orchids I have ever seen.

It is difficult to do the plethora of Common Spotted and Southern Marsh Orchids justice in a photo, but these give a hint of the numbers growing along the pathway.

I have frequently mentioned these two species of orchid in previous posts and their propensity to inter-breed and produce hundreds of hybrids - making identification, somewhat tricky. But whatever species they turn out to be, they make a spectacular display.

Some of these little beauties were marked particularly well.

And some had flower spikes of an impressive size.

This is definitely a path I shall be taking again in future and one which I will introduce Malcolm to before the orchids start to fade.

Other Fliers

I mentioned a few flying things yesterday and thought I would continue with the subject today. First, a photo from our walk around Mapperley Reservoir the other day. The Canada Geese there have been nurturing their young goslings for a few weeks now and it was nice to see the whole family out and about, grazing on the grasses of the picnic site nearby. The parent birds were ever vigilant, sometimes with one adult keeping watch, while the rest fed...

..and sometimes, both parent birds would keep an eye out for danger, while the youngsters (now almost as large as their parents), continued eating.

When we came down for breakfast this morning, a small insect caught my eye as it clung to the glass of our patio doors.  Closer inspection was needed to see it was an Ichneumon Wasp and an Internet search, revealed the species to be Pimpla hypochondriaca. A formidable looking insect, the long 'tail' which has the look of an enormous stinger, is actually an ovipositor, used for laying eggs deep within the stems of host plants.

Another garden insect was found when we returned from our walk on Tuesday morning.  Flitting about the Pyrocantha, this turned out to be a Lacewing of the species Chrysopa perla.  Like the Ladybirds I mentioned yesterday, lacewings are partial to good meal of aphids, so they are a welcome sight in anyone's garden. They are also rather attractive little insects - although Malcolm still needs some convincing of that!

Flying Things

The bright green countryside is burgeoning with flying and fluttering things at the moment.  Our garden is filled with noisy, squabbling young starlings, fighting over the fat-balls.  Bees and Hoverflies are buzzing around the flowers and the ever-present aphids are making free with almost every new shoot.  All those aphids are bad news for us, but they are very good news for the Ladybirds and it was a Ladybird which caught my eye this morning as we walked through Pewit Carr.  Normally of course, Ladybirds are rather attractive, bright red little insects with varying numbers of black spots.  Occasionally however, you find one which seems to have its colours 'reversed'.  This little beauty for example, is a variant of the more familiar Two-Spot Ladybird (Adalia bipunctata).

No less attractive than its black-spotted cousin, it was almost impossibly 'shiny' in the sunshine.

Butterflies are also flitting about the countryside in large numbers right now. Most seem to belong to the 'brown butterflies' section of any lepidopteran guide, this one included.  The Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris).

Another rather brown butterfly was to be found sunbathing on a Blackberry leaf by the old Nutbrook Canal this morning.  This time, it was a Comma (Polygonia c-album), an easy one to identify by its scalloped wing edges.

Canal

Yesterday found us taking our walk along the Nottingham Canal. In places, the water is covered by Duckweed and the banks are choked with reeds.  However, the Coots and Moorhens seem to be coping well with the lush growth and judging by the number of young they all have, it has been a good breeding season for them so far.

Along the banks of the canal, Meadowsweet was in full bloom, giving off a heady fragrance as the breeze wafted through the frothy, cream flower heads.

Thistles are starting to open their flowers now too.  Among the best of these are the Spear Thistles with their large, purple flower heads on top of their ferociously spiny stems and leaves.  They make a formidable display and almost defy anyone to approach them without getting a sharp stab for good measure.