Fruit down

What happened to the sun?, it hardly appeared today and though the temperature was 18C the wind was rather coolmand it certainly did not feel like it. The lack of sun and the wind made it rather poor for butterflies and generally it was very quiet. The woods held a Great spotted Woodpecker and juvenile parties of Chiffchaffs and Long-tailed Tit but not much else. About 100 Common Swift were again feeding over the trees with a handful of House Martin though later they moved over to Waldridge Park.

Common Swifts against a typical July sky

Common Red Soldier Beetles (Rhagonycha fulva) seemed to be everywhere, especially on the umbellifers and nettles but also on other plants including many on the masses of False Oat-grass (Arrhenatherum elatius).

Common Red Soldier Beetle

The first Upright Hedge Parsley (Torilis japonica)

Upright Hedge-parsley

was noted amongst a clump of Lady Fern in the wood.

Lady Fern

With the poor weather which obviously has had a huge impact on the insects,  this in turn has had a knock-on effect on plants needing pollinated and certainly the yield of the fruit in my garden is way down. I can also see this in the hedgerows with a limited number of fruit on things like Elder and Hawthorn.

Elder - a poor crop