Red Arrows, Devils and Admirals over Uckfield

What a summer it has been for aerial wonders.  In just a few weeks we have had an amazing series of flypasts by aircraft of all sorts. Closer to the ground, birds and tiny insects have been joining the display too.

Belgian Red Devils over Manor Park, Uckfield

On July the 26th the Belgian Red Devils display team flew over Uckfield to mark the unveiling of the memorial to Eugene Seghers. While I waited for them in the garden I enjoyed watching the butterflies, which I had been counting for the big butterfly count, fluttering round our flowers. 

Emperor dragonfly - similar to the one seen in our garden.

As we moved into August, we were honoured by almost daily visits by an emperor. It flew in glittering circles for several minutes at a time, bobbing and dipping as it hunted its prey.  Anything that escaped the attentions of the dragonfly and was still flying at dusk may well have ended up as a meal for the bats that fluttered and swooped round our front garden.

Hoverfly (Volucella Inanis) on our Marjoram

While I was waiting for the Red arrows team to come over, I was entertained by colourful hoverflies buzzing round our flowers.  I’ve been looking at them more closely this year and have identified 10 different species – and those are just the ones that are big and slow enough for me to get a photo.

The Red Arrows - not a great photo but I was pleased to get a camera on them at all.

Towards the end of the some days, swifts screamed overhead. Apparently they never stop flying, not even in sleep.  As summer drifts into autumn, these summer visitors have started their long migration to Africa.

Comma butterfly - a sign that autumn is on its way?

After the wonderful, idiosyncratic procession of aircraft coming away from Shoreham at the end of August, we start to see V’s of geese flying to and from their feeding grounds. Newly minted red admirals and colourful commas herald the coming of autumn.

How Doctor Who helped me spot a lizard

Yesterday we took a walk through The Woodland Trust's Views (Williams) Wood to Buxted Park and back. We visited earlier in the spring when the spring flowers seemed to be in a frantic race to bloom before the tree canopy closed over them. Now serene greens of fresh leaves are taking over from the fading flowers.

Serene greens and fading blues in Views (Williams) Wood.

The wood is quieter too as the birds that, earlier, were singing to attract mates and protect territories silently hunt food for their young. Fortunately for them the wood is humming with insect life.

Black headed cardinal beetle.

The most colourful insect we saw was a black headed cardinal beetle. It was eye-catching enough when I first saw it resting on an old stump. Long scarlet wing cases contrast with black head, body and legs. When its comb-like antenna detected me creeping up with my camera, out flashed black wings and it flew away in a swirl of red and black. The larvae of this insect live under the bark of freshly dead broad leaved trees. Maybe they benefitted from last year's coppicing.

The woodland rides are still lined with greater stitchwort, which has now been joined by delicate white caraway (I think) flowers. These still appeared here and there as we crossed the river to Buxted Park.  In the more open parkland, hawthorn are blossoming and rabbits lolloping around in the sun.

Bluebells and hawthorn blossom - Buxted Park

Most of the daffodils in the graveyard of St Margaret's Church have faded but a few of the late, pheasant eye, variety are hanging on. The shaggy grass is full of pea-family flowers: red clover, black medic (which is actually yellow), vivid magenta common vetch and the tiny blooms of hairy tare. As bees work systematically through the flowers, a cloud of shiny micro moths dances above.

Lizard draped round the neck of an angel.

As we walked to the gate I spotted an angel headstone, I gestured towards it and was about to make the usual joke about not blinking (this is from an episode of Doctor Who called Blink) when I spotted a lizard draped round the back of the neck of the angel. In a blink it was gone. I hope it had scurried away from the looming human rather than being zapped back into the past. If it hadn't been for me wanting to make a daft joke about a TV show, I never would have seen the lizard.

Buxted Park Hotel

It looks like some trees have been lost in recent storms and, maybe, some of the Limes that fell in the great storm of 1987 have been cleared away. Parts of the park feel a little more open now and there are some fine views of the Buxted Park Hotel.

Geese and goslings.

Passing between the lakes there are a variety of geese with fluffy goslings. Like us, they fled to the shelter of the trees when a hail storm interrupted the sunshine. We went home to our warm, dry house, leaving the creatures of the park and the wood to fend for themselves.