Page 51 - BR August 2023

August 2023 August 2023
WILD WOODBURY
SOCIABLE BOOKWORMS

Last month I wrote about how invertebrate numbers were struggling from the wet
March and cold April that we had this year. Thankfully, their numbers have been
greatly increasing in the past 3-4 weeks, with the fields once again buzzing with June's book -'A Terrible Kindness' by Jo
grasshoppers, crickets, butterflies, moths, and much more. One particularly Browning Wroe
exciting discovery in July was a pair of mating Silver-studded Blue butterflies
(pictured). These stunning – Review by The Sociable Bookworms
butterflies have a fascinating This book was generally well received. It showed
relationship with certain species knowledge and understanding of the love of music and the practicalities of the
of Black Ant, by where the art of embalming (unsurprising as the author was brought up in an undertakers).
b u t t e r f l y l a r v a e u s e
pheromones to trick the ants The story concerns a newly qualified embalmer, a
into tending to them whilst they young man who volunteers to go to Aberfan in the
grow. They are often immediate aftermath of the disaster of 1966, which
associated with lowland killed 28 adults and 116 children. It brought back
heathland, nectaring on the personal memories for us all.
heathers, but can also survive
on other plant species, His work at Aberfan leaves him with what would
including Common Bird’s Foot clearly be recognised these days as PTSD, but
Trefoil and Gorse, both of which which at that time went undiagnosed and
we have at Wild Woodbury. untreated, affecting all his subsequent
relationships.
Hopefully we will be The book is well written and deals with many
able to support a complex issues, such as love, family, homosexuality
population of these (attitudes here also reflect the setting of 1960s
going forward. England).
The past few months We rather liked the redemptive ending, which
have also been prime saved it from being too much 'gloom and doom'.
time for carrying out There were also bits of humour, such as the protagonist being rightly told more
reptile surveys across than once that he is behaving like a complete idiot due to his behaviour - missed
W i l d W o o d b u r y . opportunities etc.
Although some reptiles
can be quite nomadic Recommended (if you dont mind some of the gorier bits).
and move around
(Gr a s s Sn ak e i n
particular), most tend to
take a little while to
spread and recolonise areas. For this reason, we weren’t expecting that many
species on site for a few years yet. However, our recent surveys have been very
encouraging. After confirming the breeding of Common Lizard on site last year,
and with a couple of sightings of Grass Snake and Slowworm, we were pretty
happy with what had been seen so far. To our surprise, during a survey this year,
we had a juvenile Adder underneath one of our surveying tins! Very exciting

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