My stroll around the park this morning began with the distant yaffling of a Green Woodpecker, and the sight of 3 Gatekeeper butterflies engaging in an aerial tussle. While it is romantic to think of these displays as ones of affection and playfulness, butterflies are in fact rather territorial and they were likely having something of a brawl.
Despite the heavy heat of the morning patches of dew remained in areas of shade, and this gave an added shimmer to the flowers of Knapweed, Field Scabious, and I was even struck by how pretty the sight of Ragwort was amongst the mass of colour present in near every meadow.
Flowers are not all that may be spotted amongst the long grass of the meadows, after spending a few minutes looking I finally located the quite menacing looking Wasp Spider, and not far from her web was another structure which was unmistakably that of a Funnel Web Spider. The gentle cooing of a Collared Dove provided the soundtrack to my grassy investigations.
Many of the ‘usual suspects’, Great Tits, Blue Tits, and Wrens among them, were out and about providing an encore to their morning chorus. I would guess many are as confused as I am by the early appearance of ripe sloes on Blackthorn, and similarly plump fruits of Bramble, the flowers of the latter providing an ideal platform for butterflies such as Small Heath, Meadow Brown, and even a Comma, to make the most of the strength of the morning sun.
Through my binoculars I spent several minutes watching an unaware Magpie hopping about on the downs of field 6, leaping in the air at passing insects as a dog might grasp at water from a hose.
I arrived back at the Learning Centre to find Katie identifying one by one what can only be described as a plethora of moths which had kindly imprisoned themselves within her moth trap last night. Notable appearances including a Poplar Hawkmoth and a Jersey Tiger Moth.
Diary written by Cameron MacInnes