Wolves Wild

Around here, meadow brown butterflies normally stay in the environment implied in their name: meadows and areas of long grass with wildflowers. So do their somewhat more reclusive relatives, gatekeepers.

This year, both species have been visiting some suburban gardens, admittedly only a few hundred yards direct flying distance from places they hang out every year.

This meadow brown is feeding from the flowers on a buddleia bush in one such garden. It’s a very short clip before the insect decided my mobile was getting to close, so it retreated to a higher flower out of range of filming distance. There had been a gatekeeper around, but it had adopted the more cautious strategy from the start.

A tiny caterpillar, something around half an inch long. It had somehow arrived on the back of a plastic garden chair, under cover, and was slowly making its way along the top of the chair back.

The species is normally a denizen of heathland. Perhaps it’s insinuating suburban gardens in areas where heather is popular.

A painted lady giving prolonged attention to the individual flowers on one of the flower-heads of a buddleia bush, opening and closing its wings as it shifted position.

Bumblebees gathering pollen from lavender flowers. Filmed on a hand-held mobile phone. The bees were so busy with their task, that I could get within a few inches of them.

The prolonged hot, dry weather is finally producing insects in more numbers. As the buddleia flowering season arrived, they attracted some butterfly species which don’t often encroach into suburban gardens: there’s been several meadow browns, and an occasional gatekeeper. But regulars like red admirals, or the small peacocks in this set, are now showing in some numbers.

Cassis, another Mediterranean resort along the coast from Marseille. Outside the town the predominantly limestone geology forms the miniature fjord-like warm water calanques along the shoreline towards the city, while inland there’s an extensive limestone plateau. The entire area is now a designated nature conservation area, with many species threatened by over tourism, forest and scrub wildfires.

But even in the bustle of the town itself, there’s wildlife spotting opportunities. A small park has lots of of exotic trees. A pool is home to terrapins and mallards. These palm moths were among the other insects which were also attracted to the area.