A lovely summer morning, with a cooling easterly breeze carrying with it the scents of summer and the melodious song of Skylarks.
The meadows are truly spectacular as they approach their mid-summer peak. Thousands of Common Spotted Orchids are scattered in constellations across the fields, from deep pink to almost white, with the first of the Pyramidal Orchids also appearing – chunkier and a deeper, single shade.
Also in bloom, a few Bee Orchids – an extraordinary flower – the bottom (or top, as the flower is considered by botanists to be upside down!) petal adapted to produce a fair resemblance of a bee. A pair of pollinia are positioned to deposit pollen on the back of any visitors attempting to mate with the flower (although the necessary species is not found in this country, so they are believed to self-pollinate).
Especially striking this morning, swathes of blue Pale Flax bob in the breeze, alongside Ox-eye Daisies, Rough Hawkbit, and seas of pink Sainfoin. Deeper among the grass, Yellow Rattle, Grass Vetchling, Yellow Vetchling, Meadow Buttercup, Crosswort and the curious ‘bleached’ flowers of Common and Carrot Broomrape.
Although a little lacking in sunshine, plenty of butterflies are enjoying the warmth, including Adonis Blue, Common Blue, Small Blue, Small Heath, Dingy Skipper, Large White and Speckled Wood, with few Soldier Beetles also on the wing and a Southern Hawker whirring across the Car Parks in a flash of green and blue.
On the downs, Birdsfoot Trefoil, Horseshoe Vetch, Milkwort, Salad Burnet, Black Medick and the charming Quaking Grass carpet the short turf. Bloody-nose Beetles lumber mechanically along, while the stems of many grasses and flowers are adorned with flecks of Cuckoo Spit, many containing the larvae of bright green, big-eyed Froghoppers.