Back from the UK and the first night I put out the moth trap on 15th / 16th August (they are released again) I was surprised to find that scarce silver Y moths / skogmetallfly (Syngrapha interrogationis) were everywhere and a count yielded 53 moths of this species. My previous highest count was 22 in August 2022, so I wondered how unusual this was. A quick check on our national species reporting database artsobservasjoner.no and it turns out this was the highest number ever recorded in Norway – next highest was 50 in 1997 in southern Norway and then 25 in Namsos, north of here. This is a moorland species and the larvae live on heather, bilberry and bog bilberry (røsslyng, blåbær og blokkebær) although a Swedish page mentions that they can also live on birch; see https://vilkenart.se/Art.aspx?Namn=Syngrapha%20interrogationis This is a regular visitor in my garden in small numbers and both the high counts were made with the moth trap very close to a large Buddleja davidii in full flower. I haven’t yet seen them on the Buddleja, but I found at least one picture of this species on Buddleja, see https://www.lepidoptera.no/omrade/?a_id=1018865, so I guess this is what is attracting them as my garden is a few kilometres away from its moorland habitat, unless they have adopted birch in the garden. At the same time there are less than normal numbers of its cousin silver y (gammafly) and large yellow underwing (hagebåndfly) both of which frequent the Buddleja, sometimes in large numbers! Scarce silver Y is largely a night flyer as is large yellow underwing whereas silver Y flies both night and day!
In the local paper was a report that it was a bad year for bilberries (blåbær) locally. I’m glad we didn’t listen and went anyway as it was pretty good as you can see with several kilos to dry and make bilberry leather with:
A productive afternoon in the woods yesterday on the Malvik side of Solemsvåttan with my Swiss helper Julia Albrecht with a good haul of bilberries and the year’s first chantarelles! Yes, I think I live in paradise :)
The fungal haul!
Bilberries / blåbær
Masses of bilberries everywhere
Franskbrødsopp (Albatrellus confluens )
Found this Sorbus in the woods…but what species?
Amanita regalis (brunfluesopp) and Russula spp
Amanita regalis (brunfluesopp)
Bog asphodel / rome
Julia Albrecht :)
The year’s first sighting of yellow gold in the woods!
A nice walk at Vennafjellet just over the border in Selbu kommune on Monday! We started at Svendalstjørna,walked over to the old seter (mountain farm) at Engavollen and back via the top of Faseknipen.
Walked up from Svendalstjørna, seen below here
Yellow water lilies
Molte (cloudberry) were ripe, but not many to be found!
Molte (cloudberry)
Molte (cloudberry)
A common hawker dragonfly patrolling
Heather (lyng) in full flower
:)
On the way down to Engtjørna, the boundary over to Malvik kommune goes through the lake!
Engavollen seter
Engavollen seter
Crowberry / krekling (Empetrum nigrum) growing on the turf roof
Crowberry / krekling (Empetrum nigrum) growing on the turf roof
Crowberry / krekling (Empetrum nigrum)
Crowberry / krekling (Empetrum nigrum) was an important edible berry for Arctic peoples
A club moss
Alpine lady’s mantle (Alchemilla alpina), also on the roof!
Willows on this roof!
Clouds can give interesting effects!
Sitting down for lunch, an Arran Brown (fløyelsesringvinge) was patrolling a spruce tree near us!
…and this common hawker dragonfly landed in the same tree..
…and this common hawker dragonfly landed in the same tree..
My first bilberries of the year (blåbær)
There were a few fungi, including this Russula spp
Fruit leather is a quick way to preserve a surplus of fruit. I neither use sugar nor Stevia and don’t have a freezer (by choice), so I dry a lot of fruit from the garden and nature . I had too many raspberries in the garden and also bilberries picked the other week in Hurdal. I just boiled and crushed the fruit with a little water and then poured it as a thin layer into an oven tray and dried at about 50C in an oven for a few hours! This is much quicker than drying the whole berries. The leather can then be kept in a cool dry place for several years. Delicious as a goody to offer visitors!
I used an old red raspberry, originally from the old railway station garden in Malvik, an old Norwegian yellow raspberry and “White Russian” (yellow with a white blush):
A bit of a glut of fruit in my garden. I’ve therefore been drying raspberries and currants :) At the bottom are the dried fruit, also bilberries and saskatoons!
The red variety is a tasty disease resistent variety we found escaped from the old Malvik railway station garden below the house. There are two yellow varieties, one just received as gulbringebær (yellow raspberry), the lighter coloured one that is almost white when unripe is called “White Russian” The red variety is a tasty disease resistent variety we found escaped from the old Malvik railway station garden below the house. There are two yellow varieties, one just received as gulbringebær (yellow raspberry), the lighter coloured one that is almost white when unripe is called “White Russian”
Redcurrants / rips Redcurrants / rips
Dried bilberries / blåbær
Dried saskatoon berries (Amelanchier) / søtmispel
Dried red raspberries / bringebær
Dried redcurrants /rips
Dried yellow raspberries….White Russian are the lighter coloured berries
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
At the same time there are less than normal numbers of its cousin silver y (gammafly) and large yellow underwing (hagebåndfly) both of which frequent the Buddleja, sometimes in large numbers! Scarce silver Y is largely a night flyer as is large yellow underwing whereas silver Y flies both night and day!
