National Meadows Day

I visited Coach Road Field, near Penhurst, which is East Sussex's Coronation Meadow. It was astonishing.

The sound of singing grasshoppers was incredibly loud.

Hardhead, Centaurea nigra.

Betony, Starches officinalis.

More Hardheads.

Meadow Brown.

Honey Bee.

Small Skipper.

Meadow Brown feeding on Betony.

Long yellow flower spikes of Agrimony, Agrimonia eupatoria.

More Betony.

Dyer's Greenweed, Genista tinctoria.

Stripe-winged Grasshopper,  Stenobothrus lineatus.

Roesel's Bush Cricket, Metrioptera roeselii. 

Common Red Soldier Beetle, Rhagonycha fulva, feeding on Oxe-eye Daisy.

Ringlet.

I think this is the Large Bulb Fly, Merodon equestris f. narcissi. A large hoverfly that mimics Carder Bumblebees.

Red-tailed Bumblebee, Bombus lapidarius.

Another Small Skipper.

Musk Mallow, Mallard moschata.

Many of the flowers in the meadow had already formed seedheads.

Common Centaury, Centaurium erythraea.

Gatekeeper.

Nearer to home, a small area of grassland near Hill Road Eastbourne has a good number of Pyramidal Orchids growing on it.

Southern Cuckoo Bumblebee, Bombus vestalis, feeding on Pyramidal Orchid.

Pyramidal Orchid.

Great Green Bush Cricket, Tettigonia viridissima. 

The evening sky over Prince's Park, Eastbourne.