30 Days Wild - Days 17 to 19 - At our Feet and in the Skies

The last few days have been about looking down at what can be found by our feet and up in the skies.

Wednesday, 17 June

I found this zingy coloured lichen in the rubble by a car park a few yards from the office.

Lichen on wayside rubble.

The closed flowers of poor-man's weatherglass (scarlet pimpernel) nearby told me to expect a dull day. 

It was, indeed, a cloudy day. After some good food, fun cocktails and great wine at Marco's at Birmingham Airport Holiday Inn, I enjoyed a wonderful sunset. In spite of the fun evening, the picture isn't too wobbly!

Birmingham Airport Holiday Inn and sunset.

Thursday, 18 June

On my way back home, stole time to enjoy the wayside flowers between the office and Birmingham International station.

A colourful display of wayside flowers.

One particularly intriguing plant was Weld, which once-upon-a-time was grown for the yellow dye that could be extracted from it.

Weld, in sight of the main line.

At the other end of my journey, while waiting for a taxi at Uckfield station, I appreciated the exhilarating air show put on by about 10 screaming swifts as they wheeled and dived over the Station Pub. When I got home, I had a less pleasing experience with a bird. I was slightly exasperated by having to remove a youngish magpie from our conservatory. This is the second time in about a week I've had to do this.

Friday, 19 June

In the garden, our wildflower patch is looking splendid and is attracting plenty of insects.

Orange fox and cubs with bloody Cranesbill.

I am particularly pleased with the fox and cubs, which were revelling in the afternoon sunshine. These were amongst a batch of plants I got from British Wild Flower Plants and planted last September. In my post about Taming the Wild Patch I looked forward to the show, which has now well and truly started. I feel very satisfied with this exuberant little slice of nature that I created.

At about 10pm, I was gazing at the lovely combination of Venus and Jupiter, together with the moon, in the West when a bat flitted by.

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.