In praise of our Little Brown Butterflies
Maybe there are not as many as we oldies remember but there are still lots of
butterflies in our countryside – some even visiting our gardens.
Some like the peacock and red admiral are as beautiful and showy as their names suggest but ‘brown’ butterflies at first glance look very uninteresting but take a closer look!
The ones you are most likely to see
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| Meadow Brown | Ringlet |
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| Gatekeeper | Small heath |
August is school holiday time – make it a wild month!
There is so much wildlife to see and things to do in Somerset.
With the Somerset Wildlife Trust (SWT) you can go to some of the very best parts.
Our local Wells Wildlife Group will be meeting at the Bishops Palace Moat (By the drawbridge)at 8.00pm on Tuesday the 23rd Aug joining bat experts with bat detectors. Other years we have seen- and heard- up to seven different species including dozens of Daubenton’s bats flying out from the drawbridge chains to skim low over the moat hunting for insects, tiny Pipistrelles , and nationally rare Greater Horseshoes who come out from caves on the Mendips.
For more information on this walk contact Amanda Millar 01458 741821 or David Coggan 01749 673155
It is fairly easy walking but be aware that we will finish well after dark, and it can get quite cool - even in summer.
Oh and bring an adult along - why should you have all the fun!
Natterer's Bat Nigel Milbourn 2011
There are events and organised walks on almost every day of the month
– just check out the SWT website: http://www.somersetwildlife.org/events.html
Les Cloutman
June is a very busy month for our wildlife and after such a cold slow start to the year everything is happening at once.
I had planned to mention all our fabulous flowers and wildlife and the glories of our wildlife Spring – instead a small common bird just won’t let me ignore it!.
1. Birds of the month the house martins,swallows, and now the swifts!
These amazing birds spend nearly their whole life on the wing and have now returned from southern Africa to scream round our church spires – it is little wonder a more religious age called them ‘the devils birds’ !
2. Flower of the month:
The bluebell. Many of our small woods are now a glorious haze of blue. The wild blue bell ( much more elegant than the garden Spanish’ bluebell) 
is a truly British flower, thanks the warm wet winds we receive from the Atlantic west! It is absent from the dryer colder continent.
3.Mammal of the month:
Badgers; 
This is the month when cubs emerge above ground for the first time and if you are lucky enough to see them playing in the evening near their set it is one of the highlights of the natural year.
4. Insect of the month: the Orange Tip butterfly, 
they can now be seen along our country lanes looking for ‘Jack by the Hedge’ to to lay its eggs and start a new generation. The ‘orange tips’ are only on the male, the female look much more like a cabbage white - till she closes her wings and you see the lovely damask patterned under wings.
Les C