Indian summer, or new spring?

Today is so warm it's like summer - the papers inevitably say it's an Indian summer. The chiffchaffs on School Common however are singing; so I guess they think it's spring again. They are very tame, but flitting in and out of the late summer foliage I cannot get a clear picture of them.

There is a marsh marigold on the main boardwalk that is less inclined to hide. I photographed it last week, but it's still there in all its glory, and I can't resist taking another shot today.

Nearing Pit Common from the Warren Woods direction I hear a green woodpecker. I have had strangely few sightings of Great Spotted woodpeckers this year. Further along the road, more or less opposite The Hill, I find a comma butterfly, and there was a Red Admiral at the Pit. I'd seen a speckled wood on School Common, and there was still a ruddy darter dragonfly at Scouts' Pond.

All in all, very satisfactory for what can be a rather boring time of year.

Magic half hour

2 p.m. on a very warm and sultry afternoon didn't seem a good time to go out with a view to seeing anything very exciting on the Common, but as so often turns out to be the case, my expectations were exceeded many times over. Even before I got to the Common, I had a brilliant view of a female sparrowhawk in Sandy Lane. It perched right beside my car, but not for long enough for my fumbling fingers to get my camera out of its case.

There was nothing very remarkable on School Common, but calling in at Scouts' Pond on the Jubilee Boardwalk  often yields good views of dragonflies, and today was a good example. The most obvious ones were ruddy darters, and I got photos of both the male an female:

There was also a Common Hawker, hawking around in a common sort of way, on our Common:

Once I reached the main boardwalk across the Common I was happy to see lots of swallows still in evidence (keep those records of swallows and house martins coming in please, so we can see when they leave us). Alarm calls directed my attention to a swallow giving another sparrowhawk a hard time as it flew past - brilliant! A short distance further on, and I found this female Common Darter dragonfly:

Once the other side of the bridge (sadly someone is still determined to prevent the beck's banks from being protected) I glimpsed what is incredibly my first Peacock butterfly of the year - but no chance of a photo. They do seem to have been scarce in this area this year - sightings are needed for the survey please.

Hearing another agitated swallow I looked up, to see several high in the sky to the east of the common mobbing a soaring buzzard. At the same time I noticed what was obviously another raptor moving at speed from that direction, and coming directly overhead. With a thrill I realised it was a hobby. This time I had the presence of mind to fire off a few photos. Hardly the best picture of a hobby ever taken, but for all fans of subbuteo this is what I got:

There were also plenty of grasshoppers, some of which seemed keen to have their pictures taken. I believe this is a Meadow grasshopper:

And then, to cap it all, in the same area, not far away from Warren Road, I saw at last a lizard, which I've been missing for a couple of years. A few moments later, there was a brief glimpse of a tiny one - presumably very young.

All this had happened in the space of half an hour or less - I'm glad I went out after all!