A wide variety of summer flowers has appeared along the Brook Wood path. The new slope below Morris Homes has been sown with wild flower seed and amongst those appearing are Sweet Chamomile, Cornflower, Long-headed Poppy, Corn Marigold, Field Poppy. Images, by Roger Foden, appear below. Other interesting records were a Marsh Thistle six feet tall! And healthy colonies of Ragged Robin and Meadow Vetchling. However, the meadow below Townfields is being regularly partly mown due to concerns about dog leavings, which means there will be no large numbers of Gatekeeper butterflies there this summer as the bulk of the interesting wild flowers which have flourished there for a generation undisturbed are now being mown in the cause of progress . . . .
Other records on the day of the Work Party tackling invasive Himalayan Balsam on 14th July were singing Blackcap and Chiffchaff, calling Great Spotted Woodpecker, a fledgling Song Thrush, and further down the valley below Mill Hill Lane, a party of three Jays, and Brown Hawker and Banded Demoiselle dragonflies. - George
