Tower and Town, August 2021 (view the full edition)Goings ANd Comings"In August away I must" goes the nursery rhyme: cuckoos are bound for their wintering quarters in central Africa, indeed some started their migratory journey this year in late June. It is also the holiday season when people seek sunshine, seaside and the great outdoors, needed more this year than ever before.  The cuckoo is not the only bird leaving our shores in what we regard as high summer. By mid-August most of our Swifts are flying southwards, likewise sand martins, common terns and the diminutive little ringed plovers that have summered in the Cotswold Water Park. Despite our position more than 50 miles from the coast migrant waders such as the common sandpiper, the green sandpiper, the whimbrel and the greenshank stop to feed along our waterways or in the shallow margins of gravel pits. An extract from the Wiltshire Ornithological Society's postings for August 1st last year gives some idea of the movement of our summer visiting passerines through Salisbury Plain, mist-netted, ringed and recorded by the North Wilts Ringing Group, with the sanction of the military authorities: "1 nightingale, 7 whinchat, 3 grasshopper warbler, 4 reed warbler, 30 sedge warbler, 70 whitethroat, 18 garden warbler, 20 blackcap, 5 chiffchaff, 30 willow warbler, tree pipit." August is a good month for our brown butterflies: speckled woods, meadow browns, ringlets, gatekeepers, small heaths and walls. The comma is an occasional visitor to our gardens, the buddleia bushes attracting peacocks, red admirals and small tortoiseshells on hot sunny afternoons. Add to this migrant species such as the clouded yellow and the more familiar painted lady (which sometimes arrives in large numbers in Southern England) at a time when wild flowers are a riot of colour on our downs and unimproved grassland: bird's foot trefoil, foxglove, loosestrife, campion and clover.  In a butterfly-rich county we should all have a go at The Big Butterfly Count, which runs from July 16th till August12th this year. We are asked to spend at least 15 minutes each time, preferably on warm, sunny days, recording every species we see and submitting our records to: big butterfly count. butterfly-conservation.org As to the increased number of walkers, picnickers, hikers and bikers in our area maybe we should all join a litter-picking group, keep off eroded footpaths and boycott the sale of disposable barbecues to give the beleaguered National Trust a helping hand. Robin Nelson |