The Lyons Share

I started the farmland breeding bird surveys for NE today and it was a great morning. I finally saw my first Swallows, 12 in all and they were all before 9.00 am. I think one of the most iconic sounds of summer is the call of a Yellow Wagtail, two of which I heard today heading north. I counted a surprising 30 Wheatears on a single farm today too, including a party of 11. After recording no Corn Buntings on the last visit I was glad to see they were back on territory with eight birds singing today. I found a Kestrel's nest and watched a male and female Peregrine having a domestic. They flew off in opposite directions so I don't think they were an item. Seven Brown Hares too.

On a beetle bank I spotted this Cut-leaved Dead-nettle, it's not a plant I am familiar with but having seen a lot of Red Dead-nettle recently, the jizz of the plant caught my eye as being different and I decided to take a quick photo and a specimen. It's not all that scarce apparently, I am sure I must have overlooked this in the past. I have a few specimens to identify this evening but at the time of writing my list stands at 3208 species.