Summer "Flies" By

My word where has the summer gone, already I am writing October's Notes for Chipperfield News? My lambs went for the "chop" early yesterday morning( 6 Sept) and the first tints of autumn are showing in our top plantation.How time flies when you are enjoying yourself!
Looking back its been a mixed summer, not a great number of butterflies, but a reasonable mixture. Although we did not get a great influx of Painted Ladies there were a few about early on. It always amazes me that these fragile creatures have managed to fly all the way from North Africa. If the winds are from the south at the right time we get a great influx of these butterflies, but what ever the weather a few always seem to make it. The early males will soon set up territories in sunny, sheltered spots waiting for pacing females. She then lays her eggs on thistles, or occasionally mallows or nettles. When the caterpillar hatches, normally after about a month, it spins a fine silvery web under the thistle leaf where it hides until it has eaten every thing but the spines. It then makes a tent of leaves and thread until it forms a chrysalis after about another month.
The caterpillars are black and spiny, with a broken yellow stripe down each side, but one usually just notices the silky tents which gradually fill up with droppings and become more obvious. The last chrysalises will be hatching about now so we may see a few basking in some late sunshine. These butterflies do not hibernate and are unable to survive our winters so they are all doomed I am afraid.
Most people are familiar with our butterflies but not so many realise what lovely moths we have. The National Trust and some of the Wild Life Trusts run events where one can see moths that have been caught in moth traps but it is quite easy to see them in our own gardens. They are attracted to sweet, sugary smells so it is easy to make up a mixture and paint it on a fence post or a tree trunk and then nip out with a torch and see what's having a drink. If one uses a beery mix they are to drunk to fly away! We use a mixture of Newcastle Brown Ale and molasses, but all entomologists seem to have their own recipes.
One of the most attractive moths is the large Elephant Hawk-Moth. It has a wingspan of 60mm- 70mm and pink and brown stripes, with white antennae. They usually lay their eggs on willow herbs, but they seem to like fuchsias as well. I saw some of their fascinating caterpillars on Mr. and Mrs Petherick's fuchsias to-day. At first sight they look slightly frightening, brownish with sort of reptilian markings and two pairs of false eye spots and a little snout that is supposed to look like an elephants trunk, hence the name Elephant-Hawk Moth. The caterpillars had eaten a few leaves on the Petherick's plants, but they are happy to leave these odd bods in peace. Sometimes there is more to a garden than just plants. Wendy Bathurst