September 2026 Ramsbury Nature Notes by Peter Marren

Fool's Watercress

The summer heat and drought produced an early season for fruit. We picked a bowlful of blackberries on the first day of August, and of good size despite the lack of rain. Ivy was coming into blossom weeks early, apples and plums were ripe for picking. The verges were the same straw colour as the harvested fields. What does the future hold for our lawns?

There is still wild colour on our watersides: speedwells, forget-me-nots and monkeyflower, along with two late-flowering umbellifers with watercress-like leaves. The larger is Lesser Water Parsnip, a signature plant of chalk streams whose pure-white umbels fill the first main drain at Seven Bridges (the stems and roots have an unmistakable smell of raw parsnips. The other is Fool's Watercress whose umbels are attached directly to the main stalk like a row of little sun-brollies.

A colourful, day-flying moth is visiting our gardens. This is the Jersey Tiger-moth which really does have tiger stripes on the forewings. There are reports of this lovely moth entering homes and this is probably not accidental. It is looking for a cool place to escape the heat and can even enter a state of summer- dormancy known as aestivation. When first named, a century ago, the Jersey Tiger really was confined to the Channel Islands. But, thanks to our hot summers, it is moving north. There are also many reports of Clouded Yellow butterflies, fast-flying migrants from southern Europe. They will lay on lucerne, melilot and other leguminous flowers but so far the caterpillars survive the winter only on warm, sheltered places on the south coast.

28th September Ramsbury Wildlife Group Talk on Butterflies by Peter Eeles

Memorial Hall 7.30