Devon SSSI nature reserve and eco lodges - Maggie's Blog
21 May
Bog bean, drinker moth caterpillar and begging chicks...
This is one of the plants I've been waiting for - a bog bean, so called because its leaves look like broadbean seedlings when they first appear. We have a patch of it in the nature reserve and I've been concerned that it was getting swamped by too much rush and grass. Last year I didn't see any flowers, although there were leaves.
This year there are plenty of leaves coming up - and now this lovely lacy bloom. The first year we were here the flowers were almost over by the end of April. This year this is the first I've seen of them.
Elsewhere, ragged robin is flowering and orchids are coming through. This wonderful caterpillar is going to be a rather brown-looking drinker moth apparently.
And here's a rather late update on the blackbird chicks. This photo was taken the day after my earlier post - but we were away for a week so I didn't get around to adding it. The chicks at least had a quiet week in the garden, and are gone now, presumably fledged as I doubt much could get at them in that thicket of pampas grass.