It is hot and dry, last month saw local records broken, some love it, others can’t cope with it, but what about our local nature? As I move around the valley I can see clear impacts, some positive, but mostly negative.
Nature will respond and adapt in time, but many plants and animals are struggling to handle the speed and magnitude of the current changes.
A lot of our valley is under grassland, and most of it is parched and looks dead, including lawns. The grass itself is okay. Despite only having shallow fibrous roots which cannot get down to any water hidden deep in the soil, it will spring back almost miraculously within days of steady rain.
This weather shows up how successful dandelions and other tap-rooted plants, weeds to the gardener, can be. The cricket pitch outfield was studded with green rosettes last week, but even the cat’s-ear leaves are looking burnt now, although the autumn hawkbit is still going strong, which is just as well for many insects.
Thinking of insects, the Big Butterfly Count has just finished. A group of citizen scientists has collected data with more than 150 individual counts of local butterflies as part of the national project. In the past, our biodiverse valley has been well ahead of the national average. The full national data is not published yet, but it looks as if our usual southern advantage has been eroded.
Butterflies need to feed, they need the right flowers producing nectar. There were still plenty of flowers in the fields and hedgerows in the middle of July and counts taken then showed us well ahead of the national average, 14 butterflies per count compared to about 10. By the end of July, there was hardly a flower to be seen locally and the average count had dropped by 35% to less than 9. The north of England and Scotland hasn’t had such an extreme summer as we have and the national average did not drop that much. Hopefully our butterflies had time to breed and lay eggs for next year before they ran out of food.
One butterfly that has enjoyed the weather is the Painted Lady. This migrant has arrived in large numbers with the hot air coming up from Europe and North Africa and has jumped from 13th place last year to be third in the 2026 local list. In the previous four years, about 18-20 were seen in total, this year over 200 were recorded.
The grass is parched, the herbaceous flowers have withered, but one surprise is that so many local trees are still fully green. It may be hot and very dry now but we had a very wet winter to top up the local groundwater and the valley’s springs are still running, feeding the river as well as the trees.
Recently planted trees need to be watered in this weather because their roots take several years to develop. Established trees, like the dandelions, have well developed roots to seek out water. The question is, will the recent weather patterns become the new normal, we will have to wait and keep watch on how local nature responds.
Ed Dolphin
Tag: How is nature coping with the weather?
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