Well, after the minimal moth catch and with a few minor chores to do I wasn't expecting much and that was borne out by a visit to PHP for photos of male Black-tailed Skimmers which I'm sure by now would have been on the footpath sunbathing. Plenty there were but constantly disturbed by a stream of walkers, joggers, baby buggies etc. Birdlife was minimal with just 20+ House Martins and a handful of Med Gulls. 'Insect Alley' was heavily overgrown but the few Common Spotted Orchids are still reaching for the sky. Some of the small sandy patches had digger wasp holes with attendant Miltogrammine Sarcophagid flies, and the now well overgrown 'Beewolf patch' had Oxybelus uniglumism (Common Spiny Digger Wasp) including one which was snatched by a waiting spider. Elsewhere in longer grass adjacent to Bramble, Large Skipper was the commonest butterfly with a Painted Lady the only other species; whilst making a pig's ear of photographing the former a large queen Hornet was rooting about on the ground.
With little on offer and overcast skies a long conversation with one of the carp fisherman ensued.
Back to QECP where, after a coffee, the sun started to come out and things picked up noticeably. First off, around the pond two Emperors and a male BBC interacted and perched up along with a few damsels. Nice to see and hear song-flighting Siskins for the first time in years, like a cross between Greenfinch and Goldfinch, with one bird coming down to drink. The umbellifers, iris and other vegetation were alive with bees, hovers and other stuff including several Ladybird Flies (probably 10 for the day), Wasp Beetle, Tenthredo spp and Tenthredo scrophulariae (which was a second 'target' for the day) and the first two Phasia hemiptera of the year. NfY hover in the form of Leucozona laternaria plus a single Nowickia ferox and loads of Andrena cineraria. It was nice to see the hemipterous bug Miris striatus again.
The butterfly slope was strangely devoid of anything other than a few Meadow Browns with even the Cinnabars and Five-spots all having 'decamped' The thistles, Vipers Bugloss and other plants near the 'aggregate dump' were well stocked with bumblebees but little else
Finally the bottom path, now chest high in grasses had numerous resting Emperors including the one above and the return along the 'well shorn' chalk path had just one Volucella bombylans.
