The Suffolk Argus
Autumn Butterflies by Richard Stewart Although 2008 will not be remembered as a vintage year for butterflies, the late summer and autumn weather was in parts beneficial for insects. A bowl of rotting fruit pieces in our garden attracted a maximum of five Comma, four Red Admiral and two Speckled Wood through September. On the 14th September we visited Freston Tower, which was open to the public, and a walk along the River Orwell path nearby produced six Comma, two of them feeding on a sunlight clump of soft blackberries. We went on to Freston churchyard which has an abundance of Ivy, and there recorded seven each of Red Admiral and Comma, three Speckled Wood and five Hornets. It is sometimes difficult to know if Hornets, which seemed to be very abundant in 2008, are around the Ivy for nectar or meat - probably both. Also, there were good numbers of Red Admiral, Comma and Hornets on sunlit Ivy at Playford, during the weeks spanning late September and early October when I did a veteran tree survey of the parish. Fortunately my approach to measure the trunk of one veteran oak was from the side where I could see the nest of wild bees at just about the height where I usually use my measuring string.
continent, plus one Comma and fifteen Red Admiral feasting on the sunlit Ivy umbels. Here the plant festoons the high walls in some parts of the gardens, the clumps being thick and stretching some distance. Three days later, at Tangham, a determined search of the few patches of Bell Heather in the sunshine and still flowering revealed five Small Copper, one var. caeruleopunctata with two small blue spots on the edge of each lower wing.
On 18th October a visit to Landguard Common led to the welcome sight of four Common Blue feeding on Horehound and Sow-thistle flowers. The one we examined closely was in very good condition, probably freshly emerged from a late brood. Back in the sheltered and sunny Spa gardens at Felixstowe we recorded at least fifteen Large White and one Small White, probably come in from the
Comma and Peacock by Beryl Johnson
18
