As I strolled around the edges of the soon to be cut meadows, clouds of Gatekeepers took flight from the adjacent hedgerow. These two-tone brown butterflies flitting up from the rambling flowers and leaves of the Old Man’s Beard.
Also using this plant corridor were Willow Warblers, mostly quite yellow in colour, but landing and hopping from frond to frond, able to go between the thorns of the Bramble, much of which is now turning to fruit after flowering.
Greater Knapweed taking pride of place in the fields, the dark purple flowers looking magnificent alongside the white umbels of the Wild Carrot and yellows of Wild Parsnip and Bristly Ox-tongue.
I stopped to admire a Kestrel, which took off and then hovered having first been blown backwards by the strong northerly breeze. Amazing to watch the skill of this bird as it stayed in the same place with barely a flicker of its wings or tail.
Amongst the short downland turf the flowers of Wild Thyme and Squinancywort are still in bloom as is Eyebright, and Catsear with the occasional patch of Bastard Toadflax still in flower.
Hopping out of the grass as I disturbed it were a variety of Grasshoppers, on close inspection the different species of Field Grasshopper with its long wings and slightly hairy chest found as well as the short winged Meadow Grasshopper and the Stripe-winged Grasshopper all in the same patch of turf. The chirping and scratching of these also identifiable.
The 'seeping' call of a Bullfinch as it contacted the other Bullfinches was a constant accompaniment as I was studying these insects, looking up the dull pink chest of the female contrasted starkly with that of a male perched in the Wayfaring Tree.