Garden and the Cronk

The last week of July - and the first comma.

Sunday 10th August, 2014

Well, the first week of August has passed in a blur of activity.  The garden was full of butterflies but there wasn't much time to photograph them because the house was full of jet-lagged American granddaughters.  But I do have some photos which I took the week before the invasion.  I was too busy cleaning the house and getting ready for the visit to sort them out and prepare a post for the blog before the visitors arrived.

This first photo is a male Garden bumblebee.   The males patrol "mating circuits" laying down a scent to attract the queens and this Bombus hortorum appeared to be laying down his pheramones on an old rose blossom which was about to shed its petals - not the brightest of ideas.

Maybe bumblebees are not the most intelligent insects.  On one of our walks up through the plantation we saw two buff tailed queens  (or same one twice?).  She was twisting around like a furry corkscrew  apparently trying to burrow into the compacted earth under the pine needles on the path.  If she was looking for a suitable place to hibernate it would have been more sensible to find softer ground.  

On the subject of bumblebees, a good question for Trivial Pursuit could be "What does a bumblebee do if it is annoyed?"  I read that they stop what they are doing and raise one of their middle legs as a warning - and this is true.  They do it to me when I get too intrusive with the camera.

I mentioned a probable second brood of blackbird babies in the last post.  We thought the nest must be in our holly hedge.   A couple of days after writing about them, Tim called me and pointed out one of the young ones sitting on top of our garden fence. 

 It was complaining and obviously waiting for food.   I stood by the window  for ages waiting to get a photo of the baby being fed but the parent didn't appear.   Of course as soon as I gave up and sat down at the computer the father arrived.  I was too far away to get a good shot but took one anyway.  Just after taking the photo, the baby tried a rather ambitious leap.  I don't know whether it was trying to fly but it landed on its father's back and knocked him off the fence.  Father fell down in front of the fence onto a cotoneaster and baby disappeared behind the fence into the hedge.

About ten days ago we went for a short beach walk from the Cronk to Killane - just over half a mile each way. There was an interesting group of wild flowers near the parking area.  I spent some time trying to identify these unusual pods and eventually decided that they are most likely to be sea radish pods.

Near the sea radish plants there was a flourishing patch of mugwort - bollan bane in Manx.  This plant has significance on the Island because it is customary to wear a sprig on Tynwald Day.  It is said to have magical properties and protect the wearer from harm.

On a small flat area of silt and sand between the mouth of the Ballaugh River and the car park, I saw an impressive patch of tufted vetch.

Near the vetch were a few mayweed plants  . . .  probably sea mayweed but it may be scentless mayweed . . . and the inevitable bumblebee.

Then I saw some flowers which I didn't recognise.  They appeared to belong to the labiate family and I wondered whether they were a variety of wild mint.  When I got home I discovered that they were marsh woundwort.  I have hedge woundwort in the garden but hadn't seen the marsh variety before.  The flowers are similar to the hedge woundwort but are paler, and the leaves are a different shape - longer and narrower.

Before we walked up the beach, I couldn't resist taking a photo of this colourful  and exceptionally healthy looking crop of dock seeds.  I am glad they are a safe distance from my garden.  Docks have a long tap root and are difficult to eradicate from flower beds.  It is useful to have a few leaves handy to crush and apply to nettle stings but if you give them an inch . . . .

The tide was a long way out and we thought of walking as far as the wreck at Jurby Head but as we made our way along the beach we realised that the tide had turned and was coming in fast.  The wreck would have been under water by the time we reached it so we turned back at Killane.

I have been keeping my camera handy and looking out of the kitchen window hoping to spot a juvenile dunnock or a young moulting robin.  I saw a young dunnock the other day but it scuttled off into the undergrowth and I only got a photo of its back which was no good because I wanted a picture of the speckled breast.  But I was more successful with this little robin - half way to getting his adult red breast.

There are very few new flowers at this time of year although some of the summer flowers are still looking good.  The Japanese anemones are flowering well this year and the blue cranesbill geranium has produced a second flush of flowers. 

One of the latest of the summer flowering perennials is this red astilbe which shows up well against a backdrop of hydrangeas.

This hydrangea seems to be slightly schizophrenic - doesn't know whether it wants to be pink or blue.

While I was mowing on Thursday afternoon, I thought  "I haven't seen a small copper so far this year . . . or a holly blue since spring." and at that very moment a holly blue flew past and disappeared up into the trees.  I tried thinking "I haven't seen a small copper" again but the magic didn't work twice and no small copper appeared.

The only "new" butterfly in the garden this week was this comma.  It is the only one I have seen in the garden so far this year.   The second photo shows the mark on the underside of the wing that gives the butterfly its common name.