Ranscombe Farm

What a fantastic place this reserve is - where Meadow Clary has survived ever since it was first named here 250 years ago. Took a slow walk around the really colourful field by the railway line and managed to get some reasonable photos.

Warwick services

Its amazing what a bit of tree and shrub planting can do. At Warwick services London-bound there is a nice mixed area of closely planted trees, shrubs and grass at the far end of the car-park, which is primarily used by dog-walkers (including myself). As long as you ignore the rubbish strewn absolutely everywhere and the roar from the motorway carriageway a few dozen yards away, its very pleasant on a nice warm summers day - although I remember it as very wet underfoot over winter.

Today while walking Monty on the lead (he knew there were rabbits there and I didn't want him running off) I found many ringlets fluttering near the shrubby trees and the associated long grass margins (no meadow browns that I could see for sure), several gatekeepers near each other on the sloe bushes in a sheltered clearing and a lovely marbled white butterfly wandering the area as a whole, with its aposematic colouring backed by the repellent chemicals supposedly found in the fungi growing on the grassy food-plants originally consumed by the larvae!

There were also the normal soldier beetles, marmalade hover-flies and many small moths - what a shame I didn't have my camera!