A pleasant day for walking, with the maximum temperature forecast at the lowest for at least a month, only 20°C, and a cool northerly breeze that helped to reduce the effect of the high humidity.

Insect numbers were again poor, even the butterflies well down on two days ago. Meadow Brown is still the most numerous, but today there were some very fresh-looking Small Copper about making it the next most abundant. Otherwise, the same 7 species as Wednesday, with a few each of Small Heath, Small White, Common Blue, Brown Argus and Speckled Wood.

I hardly used the camera. One fly caught my attention, and I thought I had a new species of tachinid fly. Unfortunately, the image showed it to be yet another Common Tachinid (Tachina fera). Sighting of the day was a dragonfly. Before this year I had only seen 2 species of the Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) on Banstead Downs. A female Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) took my tally to 6, with 2 damselflies and 4 dragonflies seen this summer.

On one of the woodland rides that was widened this spring, I found a small sapling springing up along the newly cleared edge. I believe this may well be Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), a species that is widely planted in parks and gardens.

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