Another good day’s forecast so it’s clearly going to be a busy day at Wittering Estate. Early in the morning there was quite a queue to get in and plenty of people already there staking out their favourite spots. Unusually many of them had ventured away from the beaches and cars onto the footpaths, I’ve never seen it so busy. Even worse on the way back, the road down to Wittering from Chichester was rammed!

Several of the sun seekers had ventured out to the stream where they were crabbing. I’m not sure how many or what size they were but they were catching something which kept the children, young and old, happy.

The dryness was particularly evident once on the coastal path, probably due to the large number of people that have been coming here due to the Pandemic. The ground was parched & dusty, the grass dried out and many of the plants that had been flourishing desiccated. In particular these Bristly Ox-Tongue were dried out together with the Hogweed which was well after it’s prime.

Amongst the Meadow Browns and Large whites that are so plentiful were
these Gatekeepers. A little more interesting than the Meadow brown but rather similar, apparently they used to be known as Hedge Browns some time ago.