A Sunday Afternoon Stroll

We thought there might be a Thunderstorm or two so didn't want to stray Too Far and Risk being Soaked.

So with Umbrellas snugly tucked into back pockets, we popped down to Church Manorway; walking up the new Footpath (beside the newly landscaped Lake) connecting Church Manorway with Bronze Age Way and returning to our starting Point via Crabtree Manorway North and Mulberry Way and the Footpath connecting Church Manorway to the Thames Path.

Wild Flowers seen included:

Amphibious Bistort
Black Horehound
Broad-Leaved Everlasting-Pea viz.

(assumed) Common Club-Rush viz.

Common Knapweed
Common Mallow
Common Ragwort
Common Toadflax viz.

Creeping Thistle (largely flowered out by now) viz.

Dark Mullein
Goat's-Rue
Great Willowherb
(assumed) Marsh Dock viz.

Lucerne (aka Alfalfa) and/or possible Hybrids &c. of same and similar: seen here being visited by a Common Blue Butterfly viz.

Parrot's-Feathers viz.

Purple Loosestrife viz.

Red Campion
Spear Thistle viz.

Water Plantain viz.

White Campion
White Melilot viz.

White Ramping Fumitory
Wild Carrot viz.

Wild Mignonette viz.

Wild Teasel viz.

and Yarrow viz.

In the absence of any recent Strimming there are lots of flowers beside the Footpath connecting Church Manorway to the Thames Path and therefore lots of Butterflies fluttering around viz.

(a possible) Brown Argus
Comma
Common Blue viz.

Essex Skipper
Gatekeeper viz.

Green-Veined White
Holly Blue viz.

Meadow Brown
Painted Lady viz.

Small Skipper viz.

and Small White viz.

We also noticed at least one, possibly two, Super-Hairy, unidentified, Brown Caterpillars viz.

Up by the River, the Sea Asters are flowering very prettily viz.

There was minimal Avian activity in/by the Lake: single Little Grebe and Moorhen parents, each with a single youngster.

But just as we were preparing to leave, a Grey Wagtail put in an appearance viz.

In the event, the Umbrellas weren't needed, although something to cover our Noses might have helped since there was the most almighty and rather unpleasant, Pong. We didn't know where it came from but certainly not, we were sure, from the Sewage Works some way upstream of us.

A Footnote: we collected some Annual Beard-Grass' Seeds (on the Kent Rare Plant Register) viz.

Also some Red Campion and Spear Thistle' Seeds.

We understand that it is perfectly OK to collect, 'fruit, foliage, fungi or flowers', if the Plants are growing in the Wild and what we collect is for Personal Use (which is of course the case). However lots of Plants are protected by the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act and it's apparently never OK to dig up a Whole Plant.