Pond Wood in May

It was a warm, humid afternoon with the sun shing fitfully through grey golden cloud banks. On the slope to a small valley half a dozen fallow deer grazed one of their lawns, then pricked their ears as they picked up my sound and scent. Their lawn was full of flowers: blue bugle, mauve ground ivy, the last of the yellow primroses,but most of the sweet and succulent grasses had gone. One can see how grazing animals help to create herb rich swards in woodland glades by selective grazing.

There was much else to enjoy as the photos show. There were fronds of bracken galled by the Anthomyiid fly Chirosia grossicauda. A drinker moth larva on a bramble leaf: the name is becase these caterpillars are partial to drops of dew on the grass.

A malachite beetle, Malachius bipustulatus, posed for me on the male flower of pendulous sedge, Carex pendula.







And a long horn moth, Adela rufimitrella, settled down for the evening on a flowerof its foodplant, lady's smock, Cardamine pratensis









Pond Wood is in Brede and there is a footpath there, under the transmission lines at TQ806194.