Old and new

A very long day of fieldwork in a sand quarry near Colchester...over twelve hours, including eight hours of walking and four hours of driving. The terrain was challenging and the sun shone down on us constantly - summer hasn't quite given up yet! Needless to say I was too tired to blip last night.

Most of the photographs I took yesterday were purely functional, but just before lunch I spotted this rather dark and overmature female common darter sitting amongst the seedheads of panicled willowherb Epilobium brachycarpum.

This rather delicate annual willowherb was first recorded in Britain from Colchester in 2004. I came across it in 2008, and since then its population has mushroomed, as it particularly thrives on areas of bare, somewhat damp sand. There must have been millions of plants in the quarry!

It's clearly spreading as I recorded it in a Suffolk sand quarry this year, but so far I've not seen it in any long-established habitats. It originates from North America - it would be fascinating to know how the first seed arrived in Essex!