Clouds of Gatekeeper butterflies taking flight from the Bracken, Black Bryony and Hawthorn bushes as I slowly wandered around the field edge. More butterflies followed including Meadow Brown and Marbled Whites, plus Small Heath, Small Copper and basking on some Nettles a Red Admiral. Later a Grayling on the ground, just one beautifully patterned wing to admire as it sat in its characteristic shape.
Watching a Small Blue in flight, the pale silvery blue catching the sunlight, but when it settled on the leaves of the Honeysuckle, the open wings are completely brown, not a speck of blue of be seen.
A patch of purple Buddleia was being investigated by a Hummingbird Hawk-moth, a frenzy of wing movement and a constantly probing proboscis in and out of the tiny flowers.
Across the meadows, the constant sound of singing Skylarks, while these birds were also disappearing amongst the long grass and purple Greater Knapweed flowers, one was carrying a beakful of insects, so indicating a clutch of chicks nestled within.
A Yellowhammer was perched on the top of a leafless Blackthorn scrub, its song rattling ‘a-little-bit-of-bread’, his head a bright yellow. On a lower branch a Goldfinch, its yellow a brighter.
Many of the meadow flowers have now gone to seed including much of the swathes of Hay Rattle, now wispy brown burst pockets. The Dyer’s Greenweed has patches of both flowers and their long thin seed-heads.
Tall Teasel stems are now topped with rings of tiny purple flowers, while Red Valerian, Hemp Agrimony and Wild Carrot are scattered along the path edge.
Above me a swooping group of Swallows, while nearby a Kestrel swept past, in its talons something yellow, as it landed on the branches of a Wayfaring Tree a young Kestrel swooped in, collected the prize and began tearing at it.