Environment

The front garden of a good friend and neighbour of ours was recently commended by a passer-by for the pollinator-friendliness of his Michaelmas daisies. “So many bees. It’s wonderful”, was the observation. “Well done!” Yet Ivor disagreed. Like us, he sees Apis mellifera, the honey bee, not as a sign of thriving insect biodiversity but as a pillager that, in great numbers, is a livestock. He said that he thought of them as miniature battery hens or cows, grazing on his flowers against his wishes.

Episyrphus balteatus, the Marmalade Hoverfly, was first given its Latin name by the Swedish entomologist Charles De Geer in 1776, yet it had already been accurately painted by Jan Van Huysum in about 1718 - in a painting entitled Still Life with Bird’s Nest, currently displayed in Edinburgh’s National Gallery of Scotland.

The American Museum of Natural History in New York has been holding a thrilling yet terrifying exhibition of large-format insect photography, entitled Extinct & Endangered. Their entomological curators selected 80 specimens of dead insects held in their collection, classing them-eponymously - as recently extinct or endangered. These specimens were sent across the Atlantic to Levon Bliss, a British photographer, who went to work to create a series of eye-catching photographs.

The vault of heaven was almost discernible from under the skies above Newtimber Hill in Sussex yesterday. It is six weeks into a ‘lockdown’ trying to stem the advance of the coronavirus pandemic and it was our first venture by car anywhere in that time. Grief lies heavy on the land. Gratitude to front-line workers is palpable. We sought therapy on the South Downs. This post is for those who aren’t able to do the same.

It being May, the orchids are back and this year there seems to be an abundance of them. Perhaps this year’s unusually wet spring in the Gers favoured them.

In previous years we have counted between 12 and 15 different species of orchid either on our land or very close by. So far, the count is perhaps 9 and the late-flowering ones are yet to show themselves. What is different this year is their abundance and duration. They are everywhere and a stroll outside requires special attention not to tread on them.