Last week I had planned to do a fairly thorough bug check on the Westland Green green and wanted to tie that to a visit to another animal garden, following a kind invitation from Maria to view her vast field. of wild flowers beside it beautifully landscaped. garden.

Monday got up overcast so I waited until the temperatures were a bit warmer as that would encourage the bugs to move and feed.

Arriving at the green after 11am a light breeze meant the butterflies were clinging to the grass stems rather than feeding, so I wandered around to find a more sheltered spot. While doing this, I noticed a good selection of summer butterflies: marbled white, meadow brown, little skipper, and ringlet were all present, with meadow brown being the most common.

I put down my entire kit – sweeping net, butterfly net, camera with macro lens, and selection of pots to place the insects so I could study them for identification – and checked the range of wildflowers growing through long grasses and sedges. Self-healing and horny trefoil were the most common; several bee orchids and a huge amount of silver leaves and buttercups.

Species of grasshoppers and crickets ricocheted off my shins as I disturbed them and a few silver moths rushed for cover.

I ran my sweeping net through the vegetation, checking the linen sheet every five sweeps. Each session produced numerous insects, bugs, beetles, as well as Roesel’s crickets and common green grasshoppers. Roesel’s bush cricket was once quite rare, but since the 1990s it has expanded its range and can now be found over any area of ​​large uncut grassland in the southeast.

One insect I was certainly looking for was the rare scarlet malachite beetle.

This has only been seen in Hertfordshire a few times – 1924, 1940, 1956, 1974 and 1986, when it was discovered in the grass on a roadside in Bassus Green. This site was monitored annually and the beetle was present every year until 2007. Then, due to poor management and disturbance, the habitat was degraded and the beetle did not. not seen since.

This rarity has a preference for the long meadows adjacent to thatched-roofed buildings, where it is believed to overwinter and the larvae feed. Everything he needs is there at Westland Green, but for the ninth year in a row I haven’t been able to find him. However, this is a great site to cover so I will continue to search.

I took the camera with the close-up macro lens and went looking for insects feeding on nectar and pollen.

Oedemera nobilis (beetle with swollen thighs) was the most common. This shiny metallic green beetle feeds in the center of flowers such as bramble, daisy, and buttercup, with only the male showing enlarged hind legs.

Other common insects were the meadow bug and Streaked miris, the latter a beetle that offers a colorful mix of yellows, oranges and blacks.

I got close enough to a few foraging butterflies but the problem was the breeze. Focusing on a rocking buttercup makes the photography rather frustrating, but I managed to include a few shots here.

I checked the hoverfly species that were there. A common overview was Episyrphus balteatus, the marmalade flies. These come in a range of yellow and black patterns, all similar. The reason for the differences is believed to be the air temperature while they are in the larval and pupal stage; with the very cold April we have had, I encountered a few designs on the abdomen that were unusual.

After a few hours, I moved on to Maria’s garden, just about 100 yards down the alley.

We walked through the expansive lawn, where I noticed a well-designed pond patrolling dragonflies and damselflies. Later for that as we had arrived at a stunning 50 square meters of wildflowers.

These had been planted in February, and to say it was colorful would be an understatement. The flower heads were full of insects as I recorded the species and took pictures.

A Guardian Butterfly was a new species to me this year and a small, solitary tortoise shell added some vivid color by feeding on blueberries and corn marigolds. Blueberries in particular offered a wide spectrum of colors ranging from light pink to dark purple to a selection of blues.

Again, brown moths were the most common, but on a plant a Heliophilus pendulus – a hoverfly with striking yellow and black stripes – offered for a photo.

After Oedemera nobilis, mostly females, made its way through the pollen while a gray heron flew away, after observing the pond.

Here, mating damsels sat on water lilies while a female emperor dragonfly hugged surface vegetation to lay eggs. It will spend less than a minute laying a few eggs before flying away. It does this for two reasons: one to get away before submarine predators see it on the surface and, second, to distribute its eggs around the pond. If she deposited them all in one site, a predator would soon devour the whole lot; Distributing them in small numbers to many sites offers a better chance of reaching the nymph stage, after which they will become one of the main predators in the pond.

Large koi carp swam back and forth as an immature four-point dragonfly, recently emerged, dried its wings on wires placed around the pond to deter herons.

A one-legged female mallard sat motionless under some vegetation. I wondered if, when he left, he would just go around in circles, but he wasn’t. She seemed perfectly capable of direct movement. The azure damsels continued to frolic, the males gripping the heads of their companions.

This area was another example of a wildlife friendly garden and shows what can be done in a relatively small area. The bee species were plentiful, many appreciating the open flowers which also included yarrow and a variety of barely extinct poppies.

For anyone planning to set up a wildflower patch, and regardless of size, I highly recommend Boston Seeds as a place to buy your seeds. They have 100% native stock and offer a huge selection of packs to suit every type of soil and lighting conditions. Just a small 2m² (21.5 sq. Ft.) Patch in the corner of a garden will do a lot for struggling bees and, after dusk, for nectariferous butterfly species.

I offered my thanks to Maria and went back to green on the way home. The breeze was a bit stronger now and the high temperatures before had subsided, so back to my office to sort over 200 photos.

I always look forward to hearing about wildlife-friendly gardens and habitats where readers encounter many butterflies and other insects. Having lived in and around Bishop’s Stortford for 40 years, I know of many such sites, but I bet there are several that I haven’t found so I would be grateful for your suggestions. Please email the Indie office at [email protected] with details. Thank you.

On a hot summer afternoon, Westland Green can offer great views of many species of butterflies. It can be found by turning right by Nag’s Head pub in Little Hadham and up Chapel Lane for about a mile and a half. It is on the left just before arriving at the first houses on the edge of the village. Well worth a trip in July and August.