The start of July – a month where purple tones come alive through the meadows. It starts with the Knapweeds expanding from their bulbous heads. Then, the spiny leaves of Creeping Thistle topped with more pink-ish flowers, and one of my favourites – Tufted Vetch, whose tendrils twist and turn their way up through the hedgerows.
Deep purple Selfheal, and the lighter lilac Field Scabious follow. Whilst Bindweed, Red Clover, and Agrimony all add to the mosaic of different colours. Six-spot Burnets are showing in good numbers – look out for these black day-flying moths with six red spots.
Marbled White and Meadow Brown butterflies are the most frequent lepidoptera you will see, but in more localised patches look out for Lulworth Skipper, Ringlet, and Common Blue. It’s also been a bumper year for Painted Lady too, with good numbers of this species moving North across the channel from Europe.
There’s a transition in the ground flora as I step into Saxon, with brilliant bright yellow patches of Ladies Bedstraw and purple Ant hills adorned with Wild Thyme – which favours the loose disturbed soil. Bird’s foot Trefoil, and Horseshoe Vetch create more pockets of yellow. Along this fields eastern flank, an amazing carpet of Fleabane leaves; ready to explode into colour later this month.
An absolute highlight for me this morning, was seeing a Rabbit bounding into the scrub by the old hay rake. Their numbers continually affected by Myxomatosis and even much lower than when I started working here.
The woodland offers a welcome bit of shade to the final stretch of my walk. Great Tits and Blue Tits move through the understorey. Enchanters Nightshade providing a pleasant ground flora with dainty white flowers. You can just hear the soft Firecrest call through the noisier Jackdaw and Wren.