Weymouth Road walk.

The current road closure on Gould's Hill means that the Weymouth Road is traffic free and much safer to walk down than normally. A stroll down this afternoon revealed a much greater variety of wildlife than the stream displays in the village, where the "gardening" in the name of so-called flood prevention measures results in vigorous growth of the very poisonous Hemlock Water Dropwort and Fools Watercress. These crowd out more interesting plants, such as Purple Loosestrife, Comfrey, Hemlock (that's the one that did for Socrates, but it is not as poisonous as the Hemlock Water Dropwort mentioned above), Woody Nightshade, Oxeye Daisy and, sadly, Himalayan Balsam.

                                         Himalayan Balsam                                             Click to enlarge 

 This handsome but invasive plant should be eradicated as it shades out other species and leads to erosion of river banks, and hence silt build up and increased likelihood of flooding.

Nettles grow freely along the stream and are an important food plant for  some thirty moth species and four butterflies including the Small Tortoiseshell whose black and yellow larvae emerge from a silken web to feed on the nettles.

                                         Small Tortoiseshell larvae on nettle.      Click to enlarge.


My sponsored Cuckoo, Nussey, has mover even further north into France. Very odd behaviour! All the other tagged Cuckoos are flying strongly south into Africa.