Nature's Notebook

If you're interested in nature it's best to take notes when you're out and about.

Nowadays, especially since the advent of digital cameras,

it's easier and often more helpful to take pictures

 rather than carry about a notebook and pencil. 

Sometimes you just want to remember what you've seen,

but often you need to get out the reference books when you get home

to figure out exactly what species you've encountered.

Silverweed

This was the first flower I learned to identify. Lots of it grew alongside the path in
the garden of the house where I grew up. I suppose
I was attracted then by its silvery leaves, as I still am.
I asked the name and was told it was called Silverweed. 
I must have been about four or five years old.

Sainfoin 

Sainfoin used to be used as a forage crop for working horses
 and is supposed to have several health-giving properties.

Speckled Wood

If you spot a butterfly flitting about in the dappled sunlight beneath trees
 it's nearly always a Speckled Wood. Other butterflies much prefer to be in the sun.

Red Campion

It's not really red, is it? But it brightens up many a woodland and wayside,

coming into flower just as the bluebells are dying off.

Sometimes there's a super-colourful overlap of the two.

White Campion

And Red Campion also has a white cousin

not quite as showy but still an attractive addition to many roadside verges.

Musk Beetle
 or more likely a female thick legged flower beetle
(see Louise's comment below)

There are quite a few metallic-green beetles,

some of which aren't in my book -
that's my excuse anyway!

Orchid

It's always exciting to find wild orchids in flower,

even when they're in places where you expect to find them!

They can also be tricky to identify as some are quite similar

and, just to add to the confusion, they hybridise with each other.

Scarce Chaser

Scarce Chasers are so called because they are, well, scarce.

It would be nice to say that I knew what I was photographing

but I didn't realise what I'd got till I saw the photo on the screen.

Yellow Rattle

When our hay fields were full of wild flowers
 the one the farmers really wanted to get rid of was Yellow Rattle.
Nowadays when conservationists are trying to recreate wild flower meadows
the first thing they reintroduce is Yellow Rattle.
How so?
Yellow Rattle is semi-parasitic on grasses and diminishes the yield of hay
which is why farmers hated it so.
But if you kill of some of the grass, that leaves space for other wildflowers to grow,
so it's invaluable when trying to make a flowery meadow.

Azure Damselfly

Pretty common, but uncommonly pretty.
Come on, insects are not supposed to be that beautiful.
Exquisite.

White Bryony (bryonia dionica) 

One of those flowers which it's so easy to pass by,
though its bright red berries are very eye-catching later in the year. 
For this reason some people call it Red Bryony.
Confusingly there's a closely related species bryonia alba, which
translates as "white bryony", the name by which it is known in N America,
and that has black berries.
And, wouldn't you just know it, we have a Black Bryony too
which also has red berries!

I hope you're taking notes!

Take care.