Nature & Wildlife

One of the most recognised opening lines to an English poem is in John Keats’ To Autumn.  This poem was drafted on September 19^th 1819 following an evening walk near Winchester along the River Itchen.  It was published in the following year.  Three different aspects of Autumn are shown: its fruitfulness, its labour, and its ultimate demise as the Earth waits for Spring.  There’s much to recognise in our own experience today in the first and last verses.  The second verse, however, speaks of a different vanished world.  This was the final poem Keats wrote before his untimely death.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,  Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless  With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,  And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells  With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,  Until they think warm days will never cease,

For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.  Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find  Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;  Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,

Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook  Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep  Steady thy laden head across a brook;

Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,  Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they,  Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,  And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn  Among the river sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;  And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft  The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

The pop-up lake in the field at the bottom of Pound Lane hosted a large flock of fieldfares this afternoon, swooping, settling on the muddy edges of the water, and swooping away again.  There might have been redwings in there as well, but it wasn't clear. There are fieldfares in the village every winter, if it cold enough as this one certainly is.  The orchard to the north of the tennis court is favoured ground.  We can expect more over the coming days as they come out of the woods to feed.

Congratulations to the volunteers at Semington's local nature reserve at Conigre Mead in Melksham.  They have been awarded "Level 5 - Outstanding" again in this year's RHS Britain in Bloom It's Your Neighbourhood competition.

Since 1999, the populations of greater (and lesser) horseshoe bats, and common pipistrelle bats have been rising thanks to a combination of conservation, regulation and public support.  It's good to see Semington doing its bit to help.

The Box Tree Moth is a pretty sight: white with a  grey line around its wings.  Its caterpillar is attractive too in green yellow and black.  But it's not good news if you grow box in your garden as some in the village do.  The caterpillars eat the leaves and wrap the plant in silk.  The RHS has advice on what you can do if you spot them. The moth was spotted last week.  Maybe the coming Autumn will see it off – until next year.

If you went to Steeple Ashton in July you won't have missed the striking road verges going into the village.  They were "a spectacular riot of colour" according to The Wiltshire Times which has just noticed them.  The Times reports that local farmers were inspired to sow seeds on verges after seeing colourful displays in Gloucestershire.  Local companies covered the cost. It certainly was colourful but whether these really are English wild flowers is another matter as no English wildflower meadow ever looked like this.  Rather, the flowers looked like the sort you’d find in a Summer garden. The nearest authentic English wildflower meadow to us (sadly there are not many of these left) is on Salisbury Plain just a few miles south-east of Steeple Ashton. Happily the Steeple Ashton displays did attract butterflies and bees, so maybe it doesn't matter all that much that they're not authentically wild.  If you think it does, Salisbury-based Plantlife sells English wildlife seed mixes that will fit your soil type.  All you have to do is to get them to grow …

Have you seen a lot of Red Admiral butterflies this Summer?  Butterfly Conservation reports a 400% increase in sightings through its 2023 Big Butterfly Count compared to last year.  These popular insects are a migrant species, normally travelling to the UK from the continent and from as far away as North Africa.   It is likely, however, that some at least are now over-wintering in the South of England.  

Although it sounds like the start of a nursery rhyme, the woodpeckers in question were real enough as they milled around in Pound Lane this morning near the junction with Wessex Close. We'd never seen more than two together before so it was a joyous sight.  Something must be ok with the world after all.  They quickly headed off towards the play area as we approached.