Tuesday 16th July was, as expected, The Day They Cut The Grass. It was another day much like many seen in the early part of July - partly sunny, partly cloudy, with modest temperatures just below average at 22 degrees.
I decided to go round as much of my usual walk as I could before the mowers arrived, and to be honest it was a bit depressing to see butterflies that within an hour or so would be violently displaced at best or succumb to the mower blades at worst. A pre-cut view of one of the more flowery bits, full of Meadow Browns plus a sprinkling of Skippers, Gatekeepers, Small Heaths, and Marbled Whites.
Of course, some parts of my walk don't involve the big grassland areas, so anything there would be unaffected - like these Commas.
I do like the way this species (like Red Admirals and Speckled Woods) takes up position to have a clear view along a stretch of path.
Also seen along these parts of my walk were Red Admirals, Peacocks, Speckled Woods and various Whites.
Now out onto the grassland. With really bad timing, Common Blues had started to appear - a species I suspect will be more affected by the cut than others as a substantial amount of the trefoil, clover and medick would be mown.
One species in particular I wasn't likely to see here again after today was the Marbled White. To be fair, they were looking very worn.
Skippers were definitely going to suffer too, probably at the peak of their season.
- Small
- Essex
- Essex
Even if the Meadow Browns were reduced by half there would still be three figures. I took a couple of shots though - I rarely do so after the initial volley at the start of their season!
Most Gatekeepers stick to the edges ('edge Brown, anyone?
), like this one...
...and this pair sitting on a hawthorn.
One species I also had concerns about was the Small Heath. They have had a bit of a resurgence lately, and numbers were just increasing for the third time this year after peaks in mid-May and mid-June. I came across two new examples, the second of which was particularly striking with very bold markings.
Towards the end of my walk, I could see where the mowers had already made substantial inroads into the grass. The looming weather seemed entirely appropriate for the occasion...
...and you could see the Red Kites gathering over the unseen mowers like vultures, no doubt looking for any unfortunate creatures caught up in the process.
A tad dramatic I know, but the grass cut always marks a major turning point of the whole season here.
Dave
. Might be 2 months before my pictures from that day see the light of day though, I have a shed load of reports to wade through. I ended up on Box Hill that afternoon, it was a very long day!
As for the male/female - there are some images online showing the uniform ground colour but unhelpfully they don't identify is as a male or female