Giles Watson's poetry and prose
Speckled Wood
Taken on St Mary's, Isles of Scilly. The Speckled Wood is one of the few butterflies which seems to have increased in numbers in Britain in the past few years. Close observers will notice that Scillonian specimens are rather different from their mainland relatives: the lighter spots are much more distinctly orange in colour. This enhanced vividness is a notable feature of several widely divergent species: blackbirds' bills are orange, not yellow, and foxgloves are a much deeper pink. Is it possible that something is passing up the food chain from the seaweed which is regularly used as fertiliser on Scillonian fields, or is the enhanced pigmentation perhaps a response to the higher levels of ultra violet light? Whatever the solution to this mystery, the added vibrancy is not out of keeping with the sub-tropical look of the islands' flora. Hedgerows there are not composed of hawthorn, but of introduced New Zealand Pittosporum, Olearea, and an exotic, rather fleshy-looking relative of the Spindle tree.
Speckled Wood
Taken on St Mary's, Isles of Scilly. The Speckled Wood is one of the few butterflies which seems to have increased in numbers in Britain in the past few years. Close observers will notice that Scillonian specimens are rather different from their mainland relatives: the lighter spots are much more distinctly orange in colour. This enhanced vividness is a notable feature of several widely divergent species: blackbirds' bills are orange, not yellow, and foxgloves are a much deeper pink. Is it possible that something is passing up the food chain from the seaweed which is regularly used as fertiliser on Scillonian fields, or is the enhanced pigmentation perhaps a response to the higher levels of ultra violet light? Whatever the solution to this mystery, the added vibrancy is not out of keeping with the sub-tropical look of the islands' flora. Hedgerows there are not composed of hawthorn, but of introduced New Zealand Pittosporum, Olearea, and an exotic, rather fleshy-looking relative of the Spindle tree.