Discovering the flora and fauna in a small square of Portmellon Valley
Pretty much the same as the valley – lush with new grass and punctuated with clumps of purple loosestrife and single bulrushes waving their cigar-like flower heads above the grass.
Again, the difference between the beginning and the end of the summer is striking.
The main difference between the valley this month and last month is the weather. For this week, at least, we have the return of summer, and the sunshine is casting a glaze over all the foliage. The reed canary grass toppled over after flowering but is now sprouting fresh green blades. In previous years I haven’t noticed this second ‘crop’, but I am not expecting it to flower again. Bursts of colour come from the purple loosestrife, which is still flowering.
Below, I have pasted the picture for June, so you can see the difference from the beginning to the end of summer.
More things that got away – I had to mow the pathways down in the watermeadow yesterday, as it was my only chance for the next couple of weeks. My back was well enough as long as the mower’s motor assisted me. I tried not to think about the wildlife I was rampaging over. Many grasshoppers hopped out of my way as did a couple of frogs which I was peeved about as I didn’t have my camera with me. There were three huge spiders guarding webs across the left-hand pathway, but they scuttled back to their anchorage points before I came barging through and I know they will soon build more cobwebs. I missed a beetle on the ramp and a red dragonfly, which might have been the Common Darter, but it flew off before I could examine it close-up. I straightened one of the stone steps and a centipede scuttled away. I went back down with the camera a little later and didn’t see as much that time, though I got an excellent photo of a green-veined white butterfly and one of the disgruntled spiders’ cousins whose web in the middle of a grass patch remained undisturbed. Lots of carpet moths and speckled wood butterflies and swarms of dung flies of various sizes.
PROJECT UPDATE – I have just realised that at this point, I am a quarter of the way through the year that started on 5th June 2023. So how’s it going? My goal was to record 260 species in the year, which is 65 per quarter and I have recorded 120 so far, which on paper looks way ahead of schedule!
However, there are lean times ahead! The meadow will be flooded for a month or two during the winter and, yes, I could paddle, but I don’t want to turn it into a quagmire. During that time, I can try and spot birds from the decking or the house and I can record the rest of the trees – alder, willows. Also, I have some photos that I still haven’t identified, like grasses, docks, and toadstools.
There will be a fresh scattering of flowers in the spring, and I hope to be able to do some pond-dipping. The pond and stream are too overgrown to get to at the moment, so I haven’t recorded any pondlife at all as yet, but I know it’s there.
So, until then, I’ve got to keep my eyes open and my camera clicking. There are probably tiny plants that I have been overlooking, the centipede that got away and there will undoubtedly be more fungi in the autumn. I wasn’t expecting to see any during the summer – and I still haven’t identified what I saw.
Although the valley looks greener than last month the watermeadow doesn’t as the grass looks a lot drier. This is a bit puzzling, but perhaps it’s because we have a higher proportion of grass in our bit, maybe not as much bindweed clambering over everything.
Pops of colour in the meadow include orange montbretia blooms, spears of purple loosestrife over on the right, and a flourish of water mint in the centre bottom with some purple flowers. Some bulrushes are starting to spike near the top of the picture where the pond is. The pathways are very overgrown, as we haven’t had a chance to get down there to tidy them up.
Here are August and July side-by-side so you can compare and contrast:
The montbretia is a bit of anomaly as I’m sure it is new this year. We used to have a lot in the top garden, and we pulled most of it up as it seemed to be taking over. Now it appears down in the bottom, so I hope it isn’t going to make a bid for domination. I wasn’t sure whether to count it as I thought it was a garden plant, but along with hydrangeas and fuchsias, it is not unusual to see it in Cornish hedgerows and verges, and it is looking quite at home down there.
We went for a walk round the watermeadow and pushed our way through the overhanging grass down the paths. We saw baby frogs, but they hopped out of the way before I could focus the camera on them. We saw a Drinker Moth caterpillar again. It was huge, around 6cm and quite chubby. We also saw a dead animal, very dead, very smelly. I thought it was a rat, but it had a short furry tail, so I’m wondering whether it was a water vole, as even though it was flat, it still looked too large, wet, and dark to be a field vole. It would be very exciting if we had live water voles in the stream – I’ve never seen them in our garden before. Signs to look for are a) a burrow with nibbled grass ‘driveway’ b) a pile of grass stems nibbled at a 45° angle, like a quill, as they tend to eat in a regular place, and c) tiny oval droppings.
Again, compared to last month the watermeadow looks ravaged and untidy. The grass is longer and brushed with its pink-ish blooms.
We have had rain over the past three days and wind. The valley and the watermeadow are looking ravaged again, as the Reed Canary Grass has grown tall and fallen over. Compared to last month, you can see the HWD has finished flowering and the valley has tints of pinky-orange where the grass is in flower.
A small square that ends where the Hemlock Water Dropwort begins, as we have tried to remove it from our garden. A tangle of green, mostly grass (to be formerly identified) with a weeping willow and alders. Many other plants to be discovered.
A cross-section. The most striking plant at the moment is the Hemlock Water Dropwort frothing in swathes down the valley. It currently stands at over 6ft high. Dwarfing the grasses which will outgrow them shortly. Yellow irises, now also in flower are hidden from view, but last month, we could pick out their foliage without difficulty.