ENJOYING THE SUN

Plenty of blue sky on Sunday 22nd was more than was forecast, as shown in the picture of a sea hogs fennel plant. This is a nationally rare plant that only occurs naturally in a small corner of north-east Essex and in north Kent. As part of a county biodiversity project to encourage a wider population, over 200 plants were planted earlier this year here on the park amongst the long grass and the success rate is almost 98%.

The flowering stalks have shot up on many of the plants to over a metre high in the last month and some flowers are still being swarmed over by little orange coloured soldier beetles feeding on the pollen.

The warm sunshine brought out all the usual insects to hunt and feed such as this red admiral butterfly sucking up nectar from this bramble flower with its long straw-like proboscis.
Other butterflies seen included peacock, comma, meadow brown, hedge brown, speckled wood, large white, small white and small and Essex skippers.
Several large emperor dragonflies were hawking insects over the long grass as was black-tailed skimmer while ruddy darters patrolled along paths.

The sun shone on the sand martin colony in the morning and many of the birds seemed to enjoy clinging onto the cliff-face to soak up some rays of sun. The beach started off peaceful for them but the crowds of people soon flocked to the beach in the afternoon, so the sand martins have learnt to spend a bit of time elsewhere.
Over a hundred hunted over the nearby grazing fields and many took to washing on the wing, flying low along the borrowdyke, the birds would dip themselves onto the water and then carry on flying. The split-second dip of the chest into the water would be the closest they get to a proper bath but it was enough of an eyecatching event, that even other passers-by were stopping to watch the strange behaviour.

Soaking up the sun on top of the cliff is this straggly low clump of everlasting pea. Its big showy pink flowers have been a familiar summer sight along the cliff-top here in recent years - almost everlasting in fact.

Common centaury can be found flourishing on the bare sandy soil along the base of the sandy cliff. It used to be widespread in the park twenty years ago amongst the poor grassland. Maybe the grasslands have become too thick and established with lots more scrub in recent years. The delicate pink flowers always stand out on the summer days.