August 2026 Ramsbury Nature Notes by Peter Marren

Purple Emperor

This prolonged hot weather has produced a landscape I last saw in 1976 (as a young man): a chiaroscuro pattern of light and dark with the deep green shade of late summer contrasting with parched straw- coloured grass. Our parks are coming to resemble the savanna of east Africa, and you could easily imagine a giraffe or zebra wandering into view. Is this what the future holds for us? The insects seem to like it. I have seen more butterflies this slimmer than for several summers' past, and the gatekeeper, one of our last butterflies to emerge, was flying in the hundreds, feasting on bramble, marjoram and ragwort. On a morning visit to Savernake in late June, we saw no fewer than six purple emperors, a personal record for that magnificent, tree-top dwelling butterfly. More emperors have been spotted nearer to home, especially at Bottom Copse. On the river there were numerous banded damselflies and southern and brown hawker dragonflies and, in the long grass more grasshoppers than for many a year, though mostly of the same species, the meadow grasshopper, the one whose song lasts ten seconds or more, starting quietly and rising to a screeching crescendo.

I have been looking for old and unusual trees for a planned "Trees of Ramsbury", to be the third booklet in our series after "Birds of Ramsbury" and the forthcoming "Wild Flowers of Ramsbury". We seem to have many special trees, some easily accessible in public places, others quietly shut away in gardens. Among the stars are two mighty holm or evergreen oaks, centuries old, an ancient pear tree, a pair of magnificent umbrella pines, several spreading walnuts, a rare black poplar and an equally rare small-leaved lime. Our oaks must be among the most prolific in the county, spreading their mighty lower limbs over lanes, or towering over bracken and hazel scrub in our coppice woods. We have several whose girth is greater than four metres at chest height and at least one which exceeds seven metres. Unlike Savernake where some of the older oaks are pollards, our trees are mostly maiden oaks. And thank goodness, most of them look healthy.