Roe DeerToday, if I had the energy and time, I could have taken my first ever chance to go to the post office and apply for a provisional driving license, seeing as I am now seventeen. Instead, I slowly got ready and went out for a stroll around the patch. I didn't see too much bird-wise, the highlights being a migrant Willow Warbler and a showy juvenile Goldcrest.
Today was memorable for one of the first things I saw when I arrived at Tattenham Meadow. For about ten minutes I watched a doe Roe Deer and her fawn frolick through the now flowering linseed crop. I also managed to get a couple of pics of my favourite butterfly, the Marbled White, which was present in increased numbers at the butterfly hotspot that is the north end of the Legal & General playing field. There were a few small Skippers kicking about too, but only one was obliging enough for me to be able to observe the pattern at the end of its antenna, confirming it as a Small Skipper. Other butterflies present included singles of Comma, Red Admiral and Large Skipper as well as five Small Tortoiseshells and lots of cabbage whites (mainly in Broadfield).
Marbled WhiteI also finally managed to catch up with a Roesel's Bush Cricket; a species that is rather rare nationally but apparently common in the Sutton area.
Roesel's Bush Cricket