Balletic

The fine weather continues, so I went for an early morning walk round a couple of the local nature reserves before it became too hot. The orchids at Castor Hanglands NNR were just coming into their prime, mostly hybrid Southern Marsh x Common Spotted, but with a good scatter of Early Marsh and Common Spotted too. However, I was sad to see that the northern part of Ailsworth Heath is still being sheep-grazed and was virtually devoid of flowers and insects - a few years ago this area would have supported sweeps of Yellow Rattle, Red Clover, Dropwort and Bird's-foot Trefoil, which were always humming with bees and butterflies. 

I then went onto a small reserve which is not grazed - here there were sheets of Ox-eye Daisy, which will soon be followed by Bird's-foot Trefoil, Betony, meadow Crane's-bill and Lady's Bedstraw. The insect life was abundant - mostly fairly common species but a couple of local beetles. The sheer abundance was attracting many predatory damselfies and a few dragonflies. I thought that this crane-fly looked particularly elegant as it dangled from an Ox-eye Daisy stem..