Back to Fox Hill at last



Yesterday was a fine day so I took a walk out to Fox Hill Farm, a site which has been grievously neglected recently. Unfortunately the wind was far stronger there than it was in our garden, so simply wielding a sweep net was tricky. It rated, of course, as exercise

Not that the journey was wasted for before I hade even reached my destination I encountered a fearsome beast on a piece of waste ground. I kept a prudent distance away and thus avoided attack.

Sweet Violets were growing profusely at the roadside (an unusually quiet A361). Here they had almost attained the status of a weed, but who could apply that term to violets!

Many specimens had been attacked by a rust, Puccinia violae, but the colony was generally flourishing.

Sweet violets were under attack from a rust, Puccinia violae.

Daventry, adjacent to the A361. 5 April, 2020

The blackthorn, Prunus spinosa, was heavy with blossom. Individually the flowers seemed, to me, to carry no scent, but in their thousands the fragrance was very distinct and was attracting tortoiseshell and peacock butterflies.

Blackthorn blossom crowded the stems. Beside the A361, Daventry.
5 April, 2020

Beneath the blackthorn sprawled clumps of Chickweed, Stellaria media. It is generally overlooked but, as one of the world's most successful weeds, perhaps we should treat them with more respect.

Chickweed, so often overlooked, grew thickly in places.

5 April, 2020

John Clare, a superb observer of nature, wrote:

                                          Here's bunches of Chickweed

                                          With small starry flowers,

                                          Where Red-caps oft pick seed

                                          In hungry Spring hours. 

                                                                              Asylum Poems

It has always been valued as food for birds but it has in the past been used as garnish for salads. It was also used as an old wives remedy for obesity, as it apparently helps to prevent water retention.

Moving stealthily near to the chickweed was a Dock Bug, Coreus marginatus, my first of the year.

Partly shaded by leaves of Hedge Garlic, a Dock Bug prowls.

Foxhill Farm, Badby. 5 April, 2020

I took very few insects and I will sort through them with limited optimism.