13th June: Coach Road Meadow, near Penhurst

Our last visit here was in the heat of late May, after a very dry Spring. Several weeks of wetter Weather had transformed the grassland. It was covered in Dyer's Broom and Ox-eye Daisies, and leaping with tiny Grasshopper and Cricket images. There had also bee a mass emergence of Meadow Browns, plus my first Marbled White of the year.

Some bird sightings, however, exceeded all else. A Hobby, two Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers and at least two Goshawk!

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In this video, you can just about see the tiny Orthoptera, leaping as I approached

Common Spotted Orchid 

Bettany

Meadow Grasshopper 

Knapweed 

Though I didn't realise it at the time, this visit to Coach Road Meadow was the last time I would use my lovely old Nikon Coolpix P900. For ten years and goodness knows how many tens of thousands of photos that camera had given me so much joy. On this visit the motors moving the lens in and out began to grind and jam. This distant photo of the afore mentioned Hobby was taken while the lens was jammed. After this, the camera turned itself off and refused to play anymore.