Hazel and Vanessa

I’m out tonight in the company of Hazel and Vanessa. We’re in the fields of South Devon together. Hazel is laid back and Vanessa is sunning herself in the warm, low evening sunshine. Hazel is Corylus avellana, the Hazel Tree, and forms this wonderful hedge:

Hazel Hedge - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

There are nuts forming which will feed many species in the autumn:

Hazel - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Vanessa is this Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta:

Red Admiral - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

It’s forty years since I saw and identified my first Red Admiral and noted it in my nature notebooks:

Red Admiral - 1970s Nature Notebooks - The Hall of Einar

There’s also a Common Red Soldier Beetle on an umbellifer. In fact there are hundreds of them :

Red Soldier Beetle - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

The light is exceptional:

Grasses - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

All of these fields are earmarked for residential development and will soon be 1,275 homes. My friend Dave says that means “NEWSFLASH …… 1,275 Harvest mice to lose their homes !”

Abbotskerswell - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

It also means that the Barn Owl I’ve been seeing here and its family will also lose their home.

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