A Walk with Wildlife

The wings buzz faster than our eyes can perceive. The hunger is for nectar, the hover the envy of a helicopter.

But a hummingbird only in name: hummingbird hawk moth, the most exotic and marvellous of the generally spectacular hawk moth family. It is a perfect mimic of a species group that it will never meet – but the design works equally for bird and insect. Quite an honour to have it on the red valerian in my garden; it probably flew here from southern Europe, as they do each summer, and it must now be watching our late May headwave dissolve into a temperamental June.

At least the flowers are weathering the wobbles between chill and thunderstorm.

This is white helleborine, a nationally vulnerable orchid that takes eight years to mature and hides in quiet shady woodlands.

And this, wild sainfoin, which prefers the places that the sun makes bright.

And there’s always someone who can take advantage of the rain.