It’s been a week of coruscating heat, as anyone living in the UK must have realised. On Wednesday the afternoon group met in the shady car park of Barlow Common. Everything seemed fine, but then we reached the sun-kissed meadow. The flowers were absolutely stunning again, but it was noticeable that the Lady’s Bedstraw had started to die back. A whole stand of yellowish Wild Parsnip was something we failed to spot last week. One welcome addition was an immature Woodpecker on the path in front of us. Luckily, it stayed long enough for everyone to get a good view. The birds were very similar to last week.
On Thursday we travelled a fair distance to Brockadale, and a former stalwart of the sessions left Ripon to meet up with us. Again the flora had died back slightly. There was still some Rockrose, Gromwell and Kidney Vetch, but it was less plentiful than it was in June. The Marbled Whites seem to have nearly come to the end of their season, but we did spot a couple of specimens. Common Blues were not much more plentiful and the Small Heath seemed to have disappeared altogether. The unusual flora was pointed out and each new butterfly species was identified. We reached the woodland and before the river found a mass of wildflowers which included 3 Brimstones feeding on it, as well as Large and Green-veined White and a pristine Peacock. There were some Banded Demoiselles here and even more under the Kestrel cliff. We turned back because of the extreme heat, and just took it slowly on the way back. This was probably the hottest ever day since Birding with Flowers started in 2003.
