All the Common Spotted and Bee Orchids now gone over; a couple of Pyramidals at QECP were small but fresh and plenty of this Viper's Bugloss in the drier, sunny areas.
A pair of Kestrel were hunting and taking food back, so I'm guessing a nest site nearby. Still Skylarks, Meadow Pipits and Whitethroats singing but I'm assuming the food supply for Med Gulls is over as I didn't see any here or en route.
Rather like this-:
I am the skylark researcher.
I am keening my ears for them,
eyeing people in the street,
asking ‘Do you believe in skylarks?’
Nobody has seen one.
They look at me as if I’ve spoken
an exiled word.
I worry that skylarks have been expelled,
become dissident birds.
I try to pretend they are simply out
of fashion, like Shelley,
but secretly I am afraid
they have been hushed up...
by Diane Hendry
Still gazillions of Small Heath plus plenty of Meadow Brown and a few Large Skippers in the scrubby edges. The arrival of the sun encouraged a number of Marbled Whites out and two Dark Green Fritillaries which never stop, although even if inclined to, were constantly chased by other butterflies - not sure why they are so unpopular!!
Two Ravens, always nice to see and hear, were pushed northwards by crows.
The Swallows nesting in the outbuildings are still taking food in.
The umbellifers which were alive with insects last week are now past their best but still produced hovers Xanthogramma pedisequum and Chrysogaster solstitialis. Also a dipterous fly which I think I know but just need to check elsewhere.
As I thought, the below was indeed Gymnosoma rotundatum!
