Sparkling web...

This was shot in the grass next to the car park of Aqualate Mere. We'd visited this area a few months ago and came back to do a walk today. I didn't spot the small spider until I uploaded the photo back at home!

The walk turned out to be of an access nightmare and we didn't quite do the route we'd intended but there was plenty of wildlife to see. It started with all these lovely dewy webs in the grass. Then we came across a few butterflies - small and large whites, small copper, gatekeeper, speckled wood, commas and yet another red admiral -who looked quite tatty around the edges.

Near the mere itself were plenty of dragonflies - too quick for me to identify. A few buzzards above us were making their presence know with their unmistakable cries. Even the grasshoppers were quite vocal.

A quick stop off at the bird hide on the way back - we hadn't brought our binoculars - but despite that we did see a little grebe, and plenty of coots and swans.

I was quite happy to have encoutered all this wildlife, even if our walk wasn't so successful.