With temperatures still in double figures for most of us recently, it has been a good opportunity to go searching for Clingons in the garden. No, not humanoid warriors from the planet Qo'noS (Dr Who fans will correct me if I have got that wrong*) but those creatures that cling on to the last vestiges of summer and refuse to let winter in. [*I now find out that the Klingons were in Star Trek. It shows how little I know about sci-fi. I spend too much time in the garden, clearly!]
I'm talking about beautiful creatures like this:
The gorgeous Red Admiral is one butterfly species that can stay on the wing right into November and sometimes beyond if the weather is mild and sunny. Those black wings are excellent at soaking up the faint rays of the sun to give them the body warmth they need to stay mobile.
This one was feeding away on one of those toppest notch butterfly flowers, Verbena bonariensis, that has been in bloom in the garden for months and months and still keeps on giving.
Another flower that is drawing in the Red Admirals this week in my garden is this: Ageratina ligustrina. It is a very well behaved, slow-growing shrub, up to about 1.8m (6 foot) high at most, evergreen and with these heads of pinky-white fluffy flowers produced at the tail end of the season.
It is a little bit tender, so keep it out of cold winds, but I think is a great, trouble-free shrub to try in the garden.
However, my top pick for late butterflies is this: Buddleia x weyeriana.
It is the hybrid between the ubiquitous Buddleia davidii, and the Orange-ball Buddleia B. globosa. And not only does it go on flowering until the final moment when the frosts strike it, but it is also sterile. In other words, it doesn't set seed, so that means no forest of seedlings cropping up all over the neighbourhood as with B. davidii.
It is really easy to manage - you just prune all the stems back hard in March or April, cutting back to leave two or three buds on each stem, and that's it.
But Red Admirals weren't my only Clingons to be seen this week. Common Darter dragonflies have been in the garden daily since July, and have kept going right into November. Those adults that are still hanging on don't have the energy to spend much time flying but instead seek out very predictable hotspots around the garden. Logs, brick walls, and this old bit of sacking have all been reliable sunbathing perches for them.
Winter will soon take these last dragonflies, while the Red Admirals will enter semi-hibernation when the weather really takes a turn.
But for now, why not get out and find your own Clingons, and in doing so, share with them the final link to last summer.
If you want to drop by my RSPB wildlife gardening blog, it is updated every Friday, and I'd love to see you there - www.rspb.org.uk/community/blogs/hfw
Its been lovely and amazing seeing all the late "cling ons" helps make the days not feel so dark. We love gardening for wildlife and have only just pulled the evening primrose as it finally had no pollen left. Its lovely watching them open slowly on an evening, almost magical, and then watch the varying bees (bumbles, honey and solitary) and they all do the same thing, they enter the dying flower and throw themselves around to get coated in pollen, then they clean. Amazing stuff nature