Sundown

Another sunny day on a brownfield site. Though I've visited for many years, I always find something interesting  - today it was a well-established patch of Knotted Clover. Not a huge surprise, as it's a winter-annual occurring in short, open communities around rock outcrops and on thin, relatively infertile drought-prone soils - which describes large areas of the site perfectly.

It was also good to find two thriving populations of the very local Long-stalked Crane's-bill and Field Mouse-ear, as well as a couple of healthy plants of Hoary Mullein, a nationally scarce East Anglian species that is occasionally found outside it's home range, especially on railway land. A well-grown Mullein caterpillar was chomping away on the flower-head (see extra). 

We finished relatively early, which was just as well because it became very hot in the afternoon. I retreated indoors to enter data but emerged again in the evening, when it was comfortably cool to appreciate a glorious summer sunset, accompanied by the song of several blackbirds.