For my patrol the sun was hidden behind clouds, but still warm and bright and much to enjoy on this still morning.
As I went down (to take a photo for the records) to the newly refurbished Quarr, with the Oak capstan, Elm spack and new interpretation panel, the sound of a Yellowhammer captured my attention, and there on the dry-stone wall was a magnificent brilliant yellow headed and chested Yellowhammer. To add to it another male was perched on a stem of a white flowered Wild Rose, a little further down the field, also singing.
A flutter by my feet and a Small Heath butterfly emerged, disturbing a Meadow Brown as it went, while yesterday, the first (as far as we know) Marbled White was spotted.
A group of young birds flitting around the ‘trip-trap’ bridge included Blue Tits, Great Tits, Dunnock and Blackbird, while from the Hawthorn came the scratchy call of a Common Whitethroat, competing with the tapping of a Stonechat and the seeping of the Greenfinches. As I peered at the Apple tree in which was a Chaffinch, I was surprised to see it was covered in green apples – in June! – although only small (about he size of a ping-pong ball), this seems very early for the stage of development.
In one of our gateways a display of Garlic Mustard, some of the white flowers now turning to seed. Nearby the yellow flower of Herb Bennet and the pink of Herb Robert.
Across the meadows a wonderful sight, with the soft furry Yorkshire Fog and the delicate droplets of Quaking Grass in amongst the Cocksfoot. Providing colour swathes of flowers, from Ox-eye Daisy, Hay Rattle, Sainfoin, Rough Hawksbeard, Wild Carrot and Tufted Vetch to the lower growing Red Bartsia (just starting to show) and the Hop Trefoil and Black Medick.
A strange white flower caught my attention, it was a Greater Knapweed – but white instead of the usual purple.
Whirring around the thin yellow and black bodied Ichneumon Wasp - it didn’t sit still long enough to work out the exact species !!