One of Greenford’s many small waterways, with many nectar rich plants at its edge. They include Himalayan Balsam seen (here and here) which was brought to the UK from India in 1839. It had broken free of gardens by 1855 and is now regarded as a nuisance because it takes over and can cause erosion. It is sometimes called Indian Balsam and Poor man’s Orchid but has also attracted less exotic names like Jumping Jacks, Nuns, Policeman’s Helmet and Bee-Bums! It’s the prefect place to spot butterflies for the survey organised by Butterfly Conservation and this morning I came across a Ringlet and a Gatekeeper. The Big Butterfly Count ends on the 5th of August, find out more here.

Images and text ©Albertina McNeill 2012. Please do not reproduce without permission. All rights reserved. Do not add any of these images to Pinterest or similar sites as this will be regarded as a violation of copyright.

23 Jul This entry was published on July 23, 2012 at 9:37 am. It’s filed under Places and tagged blog, Ealing, environment, flowers, Greenford, July 2012, local, London, nature, pedestrian, photo365, photography, photos, postaday, trees, walking, water, weather, wildlife. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.