"Learn to love the little wild things": an evening talk in September

Jenny Hyndman
1 day ago
2 min read

Join an eco-evening, within a series of nature-inspired events at Flax Bourton Church, on Friday 12th September at 7pm. Hear from LANCE Trustee, Amanda, whose natural history film-making background and experience of ecosystem restoration make this a must attend event for all nature lovers!

Tickets and more info

Read on for a taster of what the talk will entail...

A marbled white in Long Ashton. Image copyright: Owen Numan

The marbled white butterfly

There aren’t many people who don’t love the sight of a butterfly sipping nectar in their garden. As a symbol of summer, they also symbolise hope and new beginnings for some. For others freedom and in some cultures, they’re regarded as messengers of joy and good fortune.

Living up to its name, the marbled white butterfly is one of the most instantly recognisable insects in our neighbourhood and is on the wing from June to August. It is an emblem of unimproved grassland with the butterflies seen flitting over the waving grass stems or settling briefly to sip nectar from purple flowers such as wild marjoram, field scabious, thistles and knapweeds. And if you grow these in your garden and are lucky enough to live fairly close to flowery grasslands or verges, they will come to your garden too. But to help their populations thrive, we have to remember the caterpillars. And they feed on grasses especially red fescue alongside Yorkshire fog and sheep’s fescue.

Making space for long grasses

Grasses are important to the adults, too, since they often roost halfway down in the security of the long grass stems. But how many people welcome grasses such as these in their gardens or verges? But if we don’t nurture long grasses, we make life difficult for the butterflies too.

Not only that but long, uncut grasses provide great habitat for moth caterpillars that are blue tits’ favourite food. With a large single brood, that can number 14 chicks, blue tits have their work cut out and a single family can get through 10,000 caterpillars in just one season. That’s an awful lot of caterpillars needing an awful lot of grasses.