Another day of summer heat, the soil is dry. Yesterday’s night rain was not enough.
Medicago sativa is blooming in the field behind the garden, it looks like a butterfly farm. Hundreds of specimens fly there. From the edge of the garden, without my glasses, I watched 16 Aglais io at one point. Pieris, Gonepteryx, Plebejus, Issoria lathonia.
My son and I went to see one of my areas of interest, two small ponds, man-made on the edge of the field and the forest in places where the field was always waterlogged, for there is a spring spot nearby in the forest. The first pond has water flowing slowly from a nearby spring and is overgrown with Typha and Juncus. The second pond, into which the first one overflows, has a minimum of water, half of it is just mud with tracks of Scus scrofa. Many Odonata and butterflies fly around. Around the ponds, the Colchicum autumnale blooms (right, autumn is coming closer). Its Czech (and EU) conservation status is “Least Concern”, so I will definitely be back there to gather specimens for the herbarium.
It would be necessary to set aside enough time and try to map this entire small but diverse biotope!
