It’s a quiet Sunday morning with just the insects to keep me company. My highlight was watching a Meadow Brown butterfly fly into a Wasp Spider’s web. I hadn’t even spotted the web, or the predator lying in wake, but it instantly sprang into action: spinning the poor butterfly into a cocoon of silk.
This is within a really beautiful patch of wildflowers that we cleared of scrub a few years ago, and now hums with insects: The whirring Grasshoppers to the humming Bees. Fleabane has flowered and now forms a sea of yellow, with their sunshine-like flower heads.
I enjoy watching a bright green Rose Chafer burying its head into a Ragwort – this beetle much larger than the flower which can barely hold its weight. Theres a lovely contrast when a Small White butterfly lands upon the bright pink Willowherb in flower.
I find myself counting the other butterflies: Wall Brown, Brown Argus, Small Blue, Common Blue, and plenty of Painted Lady; their wings chequered orange, black, and white.
Suddenly, a flash of bright blue disturbs the peace. A formible hunter, a massive Emperor Dragonfly hovers through and attacks a Meadow Brown. It misses, and a Painted Lady appears to mob it in defence.
In the woods, short whistles from Firecrest, soft Woodpigeon coos, and the raspier churr from a Magpie. These are later joined by the chirps and song from Robin, Wren, and Great Tit.
I head down to the clifftop and peer over the edge, past the wilted heads of Sea Thrift and Wild Carrot. Even the Teasels have gone over now. It’s nice to hear some juvenile Herring Gulls calling from above, and I spot a flock of three Shags moving along the water together.