Yesterday was a coffee and sausage roll at the park with sis (in the rain). Despite the council's best efforts a few roadside Pyramidal Orchids have survived and, at the park, the usual spot was full of CSOs.
Today, a drier day, saw a slightly longer hobble to the main field where the vegetation has gone wild after such a long absence with much more Ragwort than last year and masses of bindweed flowers for Buff tailed Bumblebees and Swollen-thighed Beetles (above) to use or rest in.
Many Small/Essex Skippers along the path trying to hide of out the wind with only Essex being identifiable in a quick look, plus one Large Skipper.
The older Meadow Browns are faded and tatty whilst the similar numbers of Gatekeepers were pristine being newer on the wing. A Nomada bee, probably Gooden's, was too quick for me as was a flushed Silver Y moth. Plenty of the grass moth Chrysoteuchia culmella also disturbed.
Tachinid Eriothrix rufomaculata (above) was plentiful whilst these two Dock Bugs were 'docked'.
Birdwise, still calls and songs from multiple Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs and a single Whitethroat slipped past silently. Slightly more surprising were two juvenile Jays being chased off by irate Blackbirds, the first of the former, according to my notes, for nine years at this site.
