A NATURALIST'S NOTEBOOK

Last month I was complaining bitterly about the weather and discussing the effects of the bad summer on our flora and fauna. Unfortunately, apart from this last week, August has been no better, with rain, rain and even more rain. With this in mind I have to record one of the most interesting observations I have seen for many a long year. This occurred on the day of the Stockbury Flower Show and Fete (which was blessed with a remarkable amount of sunshine) and concerns a phenomenal number of Cabbage White butterflies which were passing over an adjacent barley field in the middle of the afternoon. Probably "thousands" of these butterflies were concentrated together in this twenty acre field, and to my amazement they did not appear to be feeding on the wild flowers which were present in the corn, but very slowly moving south, as if they were a migration.

If one bears in mind the bad summer which I have already mentioned and the perils of toxic chemicals which these insects have to face, it is more than unusual to see such a phenomen in this day and age. The reason why so many butterflies were concentrated together and where they had come from I shall probably never know, and is just another instance of how the study of our natural living crleatures can be so absorbing.

In conclusion I must record a further interesting observation in the insect world. It concerns an outsize bees' nest which was uncovered last week in a sealed-off chimney at the house of Miss A. Woodcock. This nest was two feet three inches long, fifteen inches wide and about seven inches thick and consisted of six to eight layers of honeycomb, suggesting that the bees may have added a fresh layer each year. The presence of these wild bees had been known for eight years and, though active earlier this summer, they bad mysteriously disappeared a few weeks before Messrs. Wilfred and John Skinner began the restoration work in the house. Many years ago Miss Woodcock's house was of course the Poor House of the parish.

W.F.A.B.

PATRONAL FESTIVAL - 29th September

8.00 a.m.Holy Communion.
11.00 a.m.Mattins and Sunday School.
6.30 a.m.Evensong. Preacher, the Venerable T. E. Prichard, Archdeacon of Maidstone.
A Quartet, consisting of Jocelyn and Malcolm McLaren, Richard Carleton and David. Standen, will help sing the service and give us two anthems.