Saturday 14th.August 2010

Between a cool , dull morning and a showery afternoon , I managed about one and a half hours , before being driven home by some heavy rain .

I started looking for fungi at Keston Common , thinking that with cooler temperatures and a fair amount of rain , conditions were good . The only specimens I found were the white brackets found on Silver Birch , Birch Polypore , nothing at all on the ground .

Just as well there was some interest on the middle pond , with six female Mandarins , four pictured , feeding amongst the Lily pads . No sign of any males .

On the bottom pond , a female Mallard took no notice of me at all .

The top pond held this 'punky' Goose type . Can't imagine who it might look like ?

Moving on to High Elms , in worsening conditions and just looking in the Burnt Gorse /Orchid Bank area , I managed to record 10 species of butterfly , albeit in small numbers . 2 female

Silver Washed Fritillaries were found , both up in the trees on the woodland edge .Even though there was no sun , 2 White-letter Hairstreaks were found nectaring on the now fully opened Hemp Agrimony . Still hundreds of the small Marmalade Hoverflies about , and also a specimen of the largest of the Hoverflies , Volucella zonaria , in length , bigger than most Bumblebees . Also around , a relative , Myathropa flores .

With the next shower in the wind , the last shot was of a 6 Spot Burnet moth , having lost most of the scales off it's wings , which are now almost see-through , and far from it's colourful best just after emerging .

That shower soon turned into rain , and that had me heading home .