Fantastic summer weather!!

The sun works wonders for wildlife in our meadow.  Photos taken last Saturday whilst showing  some friends around the field.  These photos are not the sharpest in the world but they just show yet again the variety of wildlife activity that is just waiting for some one to slowly walk around and look carefully at the hedges, grasses and wild flowers and insects that live there.

This first picture tries to show the Grass Vetchling , still flowering but at the same time, on the same grass like plant, a seed pod has developed. You can see it towards the top right hand corner. I must find out how to put a marker on a photo!

This yellow flower is,  I hope, a Greater Birds-foot-trefoil, looking resplendent in the bright sunshine. It grows in patches and looks very attractive against the grasses.

Whilst looking at plants which my friends were mostly interested in we found the ants nest, which are pretty numerous in the field , had come alive as ants came out and climbed up the grass stems and eventually flew off. Hundreds and probably thousands from the several nests we were close to. I know very little about this phase of an ants life cycle and I assume we were seeing male and female ants here.
A quick look at Wiki here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_ant ,   gives an idea of the complex world of ants

I feel confident that this flower is Wild Basil. Growing at one end of the field in a patch in front of a hedge over about 30 metres or so. very attractive. Mild herby smell from the leaves.

Just as we were leaving the field we noticed this Gatekeeper butterfly , quite close to the gate as it happens! We had already seen large numbers of Meadow Browns, Ringlet, Large Skipper, Marbled White's , Large White, and numerous Burnet moths