Butterfly hunting. Avoiding thunderstorms.

A couple of years ago on one of fairly regular, if rather wide-spaced, walks up Lark Hill (it’s very steep and the path is now so badly eroded that you really have to watch where you are putting your feet) we came upon a buddleia bush absolutely full of exotic looking butterflies. I know that butterflies love buddleia - I hear that they also love nettles - but this was especially spectacular. 

 

Last summer, at about this time we went looking to see of we could have a repeat performance. No such luck - rather like the spectacular display of laburnum we saw on a lane near here, also two years ago, and have not seen repeated since then. 

Now, the other day we spotted a number of buddleia coming nicely into blossom and wondered if the moment might have come to seek the exotic butterflies once more. So yesterday towards the end of the afternoon we set off up Lark Hill, over the top and onto the flatter bit of road that brings you out eventually in the centre of Dobcross village. It had been really warm all day and the sun was still shining. Thunderstorms were forecast for later but the sky was mostly clear when we set off. Clouds were moving in, however, as we went up the hill.

 

 

We found a fine specimen of burdock at the top of the hill. 

 

And we found the buddleia bush but it was hardly in bloom yet. Maybe it’s too exposed up there on the top of the hill. 

 

There were a number of butterflies around, ignoring the rather bloomfree buddleia. 

 

 

There were a few cabbage whites and some nondescript small brown ones but no red admirals or other exotica, unlike the rather fine specimen I saw in our garden the other day. 

 

My brother-in-law informed me that that one is called a “comma” and is becoming more common in northern climes as our summers grow warmer. 

I think most of the butterflies we saw yesterday were actually heading for home. I read some time ago that butterflies and other insects can detect changes in air pressure which indicate a possible storm approaching. And indeed, we started to hear the odd rumble of thunder as we reached Dobcross. The clouds, previously white and fluffy, were moving in and predominantly grey. 

The thunderclaps grew more frequent, rolling around the hills as we walked down from Dobcross centre towards home. Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac might well have written that ‘thunder only happens when it’s raining’ but she’s wrong. We had lots of thunder, but few flashes of lightning and no rain, until we were a good way down the hill. And even then, it didn’t really come down until we were almost at our door. 

And then it rained with a vengeance! Real torrential stuff! What the Galicians call ‘la tromba’! And then, a couple of hours later the sky was blue once more. Strange weather.

This morning I ran round the village in sunshine but by lunchtime the sky was grey again and more rain and thunderstorms are forecast. 

And still some people deny climate change. In Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain, they have had floods. Much of the south of Spain is under a ‘heat dome’, where high pressure patterns trap and intensify the warm air, and can expect temperatures in the high 30°s. Part of America are experienced daily temperatures of well over 40°. Even parts of Canada up near the Arctic are having oddly high temperature. And scientists and climatologists are worried about the Antarctic ice which is decreasing in volume. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!