A last bit of summery weather today, with an almost cloudless sky and the temperature already pushing 20° by 10:00.

The last few butterflies were on the wing with a good variety but not many of anything. A grand total of 3 Common Blue, 2 Small Copper, 1 Speckled Wood, 1 Meadow Brown and 1 Small Heath.

Only other insects to be seen were several Common Wasp, numerous Sarcophaga flesh flies and both Seven-spot Ladybird and Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis).

It is of course also mushroom season and I came across a single Parasola inkcap, possibly Pleated Inkcap (Parasola plicatilis?), in the grassland, together with several Panaeolus sp. mottlegills(?). Make those question marks very big ones!

The Ploughman’s Spikenard (Pentanema squarrosum) mentioned in the post of 12^th July is now seeding, the Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) is beginning to produce its name-giving white berries and Cuckoo-pint (Arum maculatum) is now fruiting, showing the orange-red berries that developed from the female flowers. Cuckoo-pint has numerous regional names including Lords-and-ladies, Lamb-in-a-pulpit, Friar’s Cowl and Adam-and-Eve. As a boy in Durham I knew it simply as Wild Arum.

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