Through a break in the cloud, the Sunlight warms the Willow leaves and few remaining Ox-eye Daisies in flower, outside our offices. Two butterflies bask here; a Red Admiral and a Speckled Wood, wings spread wide to capture the warmth.
I wander around past the scrub, now filled with rosy-red Haws and juicy Blackberries. I listen to the Robin’s chatting to one another, as they pipe from within.
South Field, like much of the meadows, has been cut and rolled into hay bales which sit dispersed across each field. The low growing Red Bartsia, Clover and Selfheal can still be found underfoot. Crickets and Grasshoppers still whirl from areas left uncut, and a Bloody-nosed Beetle trundles across the path.
Good numbers of Swift and Swallow move across the sky from the west, pretty much continuously in twos and threes. Chiffchaff heard, along with a distant Pheasant and grumpy sounding Crow. A single Skylark bursts up from the ground, appearing as if from nowhere, perfectly camouflaged amongst the grasses.
Flowering Old Man’s Beard attracts a host of Honeybee, Common Carder Bee, and various Hoverfly along the East-West drove. Many of the flowers have already fruited, displaying its namesake - the wispy white fluffy extensions of each seed. Rosehips adorn the thorny Dogrose adding to the autumnal display.
I check on the Hereford cattle, happily grazing in Haysom and find a couple more wall collapses around Arable. More Swifts and Swallows dancing around the hay bales and butterflies flutter by: Meadow Brown, Small White, Gatekeeper, and a very tatty Common Blue.
Katie reports sighting three Painted Lady’s – having crossed the channel, the reverse of the journey about to be undertaken by the migrating birds. The journey for these butterflies will likely end here, as they are unable survive the winter in the UK, unless they too migrate back South.