NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

4. Rock Speedwell (Veronica fruticans) Early July, 2008. A vile day, with swirling force 6-8 winds thrashing heavy rain about with violent abandon. Not a day for botanising, and certainly not a day to be at the top of Ben Lawers, the most famous of the Scottish botanical mountains, with a feast of alpine plants not equalled elsewhere. But here I was, soaked to the skin, barely able to see further than 100m in front of me, and at times that view was down to 10m. Fortunately the path is well marked and worn, and as long as I kept to it and did not wander from it, I was safe. I had been sheltered somewhat from the elements by Ben Ghlass's shoulder, but, as I ventured towards the final stretch of the summit path the weather got at me unimpeded. What part of me that was dry now became very wet indeed. Every so often the fog-like cloud parted for a few seconds to reveal the way ahead. A boulder strewn grassy rise led up to the cliff base but it was not until I was close to this wall ...

Two delicate plants for you this morning, both being quite local around here. On the left is Common Valerian . I found a few tall specimens growing on a chalky slope above Chipstead Bottom, and even though I have walked past this spot many times before, have not previously seen it here. And on the right is Pale Toadflax , a modest but rather fine species, which is found sparingly on Park Downs. A quick check at Fames Rough revealed a flowering Ground Pine (looking sickly) and the few Cut-leaved Germander plants that are present are now heavily in bud. There were modest numbers of Marbled Whites and Meadow Browns on the wing, a scattering of Large Skippers, but butterfly numbers still seem depressed to me.

5. Marsh Cinquefoil (Comarum palustre) This is a very local species in the SE of England, and I have only seen it in two places - Thundry Meadows (Surrey) and - yes, you've guessed it - Dungeness (Kent). In fact, the latter site is the only place in Kent that it is found. It is having a very good 2016 on the shingle, with clearance work across the northern part of the bird observatory recording area having opened up habitat enabling it to flower for the first time since 1984. There are other sites nearby, such as the Oppen Pits on the RSPB reserve, where a discrete population has endured. I was entranced by the flower long before I saw it. Not many have such a colouring - a cross between Ribena and red wine. And not many look as if they were the product of someone skilled in the art of soft furnishing. My first encounter with Marsh Cinquefoil was on a misty June dawn at Thundry Meadows, and I was not disappointed. Even in the half light it shimmered at me, an exotic flower i...

I tweeted that at 09.00hrs, a few hours after coming to terms with the fact that this country had decided to vote to leave the EU. I can honestly say that I have never been so angry, confused and felt so impotent over a political decision. It was a referendum that did not need to happen, but did so because of petty party political infighting. I took myself off to Denbigh's Hillside, close to Dorking, to clear my head. I sat down and started to put all of what had happened into some sort of order. The bare facts are that 51.9% of those who voted opted to Leave, and 48.1% opted to Remain. For such a far reaching decision, it seems almost too narrow a margin to allow any progress to continue. This isn't just a case of the UK coming out of the EU. It has opened up massive chasms between the generations; a deeper fracturing of a fragile United Kingdom; a widening class divide; Northern Ireland and Gibraltar now facing up to being on closed borders; enormous worry for UK passp...

6. Water Mint (Mentha aquatica) This species is really the twin of my last selection (Ragged Robin). As with that species, it came to my notice by being one of the plants that populated the wet flushes on the shingle at Dungeness. I often smelt it before seeing it, at times in subtle wafts, and at others it could be overpowering, depending on whether or not I had just crushed some leaves underfoot. The flower cannot be described as anything but modest, but is recognisable from a distance, as each neat 'ball' tops another, discretely strewn amidst the vegetation. You can find it where there is water, whether a damp flush, a village pond or a stream-side bank. I have it growing in my small garden pond, where it is a great attractant to a wide range of bees, flies, wasps and moths. Just sit for an hour and watch the winged procession come and visit. It is easy to plant and will spread across the pond by creeping rhizomes. I look for the spikes each summer and am delighted w...

7. Ragged Robin (Silene flos-cuculi) This is another species that buried itself deep into my subconsciousness by being a plant that was with me at the start of my 'Dungeness time'. Back in the mid-70s I could be found regularly helping out with the bird ringing, and as such trudged across the shingle and through the sallow bushes from net-site to net-site day-in, day-out. The wet flushes that were found out on the shingle had their own community of flowers, many not found away from them. These, even to my bird-obsessed mind became little icons, friendly markers appearing by the damp edges. The coral-pink, deeply-indented petals had got my attention, made me take notice, and encouraged me to find out what it was called. It looked like torn ribbons to me. "Ragged Robin," I was told. I liked that name. And it is a species that still brings a smile to my face whenever I stumble across it. It is not a plant that I see much locally, more's the pity.

8. Nottingham Catchfly (Silene nutans) Back in the mid-seventies, when we all wore long hair and flared trousers, my first visits to Dungeness were all about birds. Birds, birds and more birds. But a couple of plants crept into my subconsciousness, by dint of having some more enlightened birders close by who also looked at other life forms that did not necessarily possess feathers. One of these species was Nottingham Catchfly. I was told that it was rare and that Dungeness most probably held more of it than anywhere else in the UK, and that is all I needed to know to embrace it as a 'worthy' flower. In time I got to know it well, knew where the best populations were and it slowly became an iconic part of my 'Dungeness experience'. - the shingle would have felt bereft without it. I spent the summer of 1979 at the Bird Observatory. Back then, during late June and July the peninsula used to be vacated by birders, so there were many days when it was just me at the ...

Sometimes a fortunate observer (whilst toiling in the field) will find something that will grab your attention. It will grip you by the collar and shake you like a rag doll. It will make you want to see it. It will make you want to give up your right and left arm to do so. What sort of species could make you feel this way? Something like this... A big, colourful, obvious and very rare beetle. It's called, Calosoma sycophanta . Also known as The Sycophant.... I didn't find it or see it. Graeme Lyons did. He took the picture above that I hope he doesn't mind me using - after all, I'm bigging him up and suggesting that you read his account of the 'find of the decade' by clicking here . I had spent a most miserable morning on Park Downs, soaked through from my toes up to my thighs via the medium of wet grass, suffering from a mild bout of labyrinthitis, and coming to the conclusion that the orchid meadow that hosted so many Bees and Pyramidals last year is ...

9. Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria) Chalk downland is a favourite habitat of mine, no doubt influenced by the fact that I am surrounded by it. There are certain plants that grow there which are joyous representatives - Wild Thyme, Fairy Flax, Marjoram, Dropwort, Horseshoe Vetch and, in my opinion, best of the lot, Kidney Vetch. It has the 'yellow and orange' petal colouration that could remind you of Bird's-foot Trefoil (that would undoubtably be found close by), but unlike that plant the flower heads are like pom-poms, all snuggled down on a bed of white fluffy hair. It is the product of a natural history craft fair! Although often found in discrete patches, sometimes it can dominate the short turf, such as that witnessed on Banstead Downs last summer (above). If you do find a lot of it, be on the look-out for the Small Blue butterfly, that uses Kidney Vetch as its foodplant. Apparently it takes the 'Kidney' part of its name from the shape of its fl...

10. Ground-pine (Ajuga chamaepitys) Barry Banson, a fellow birder and long-time botanist, had often tried to encourage me to take up 'looking at the green stuff' without success. He would often mention a place called Fames Rough, and would point out that it was very close to where I lived, and that I really should go along and try and seek out two of the rare species that were present - Cut-leaved Germander and Ground-pine. In fact, I did accompany Barry to that very place in 1981, but we didn't find either of them (not that I would have known what I was looking at anyway). Fast forward to 1998. Barry's badgering over the years had paid off, and I was at the start of my immersion into all things botanical. I was still very green behind the ears and was gently finding my way into the process of trying to identify the bewildering array of species that appeared wherever I looked (pavement cracks, flower beds, roadside verges, footpath edges). Fames Rough beckoned, a...

11. Twinflower (Linnaea borealis) For a southern botanist, the lure of Scotland, and its wealth of plants, is very strong indeed. My only trips north of the border had been when the 'leafy stuff' did not figure in my thoughts - it had been all 'birds, birds, birds' back then, and I must have walked straight past a wealth of botanical delights on my quests for Ptarmigan, Golden Eagle and Crested Tit. I looked back on this myopic treatment of the natural history around me and shuddered... In the summer of 2006 I aimed to right these botanical wrongs and, together with Derek Coleman, set out on a grand tour of the highlands. As much as our wish list was heavily populated by the many alpine specialities on offer, there was one plant that I wished to see above all others - Twinflower. On 27th June we arrived at Culbin Forest, a large pine plantation on the edge of the Moray Firth. This was home to One-flowered Wintergreen and Creeping Lady's-Tresses amongst others ...

A few posts ago, I suggested that if I were to produce a list of my favourite plants, it would be an act of banality. So here it is. I managed to make a list of 24 species, which I whittled down to 12 without too much difficulty. Rather than going with the conventional Top 10 you're going to get a Top 12 - you lucky, lucky people. As always, if I were to produce this list next month (or, to be honest, tomorrow), it would most probably change. So, for the first post, and in descending order: 12. Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) This species was, in my world at least, a myth for an awful long while. I just never came across it. The feeling seemed to be that it pops up out of the blue, stays but briefly, and disappears just as quickly. Plus it isn't common in Surrey. There was also 'something of the night' about it, not just the species ghostingly brief appearances, but its veined petals, apparently foul smell and, last but not least, its poisonousness. Possibly a plant t...

Well, this infestation of Plutella xylostell a has certainly livened up the moth scene no end - it was starting to look like the poor spring was also infecting the early summer. I hadn't been putting the trap out seeing it has been so damn chilly and damp most nights. But now the moth Gods have decided to dump millions upon millions of the little darlings across the country. Some counts (or at least educated estimates) that are being announced are just staggering. The true total will never be known, but that doesn't take away anything from the sheer spectacle being strewn before us. On a parochial level, things stepped up last night, with the single MV in the garden holding 784 xylostella this morning. Numbers of macro moths are still depressed though, worryingly so here in Banstead. However, there were two (no, three) highlights along with all of those tiny migrants, namely Cypress Carpet (above, second garden record) and two Grass Rivulets (below, second and third recor...

I was leafing through my 1979 diary this afternoon, looking up what that particular year's June had to offer, when I came across an entry from June 24th. I was then acting as assistant warden at Dungeness Bird Observatory, and had gone out into the recording area where... "I conducted a survey, plotting singing Reed Buntings and Yellowhammers. The trapping area provided 4 Reed and 6 Yellow; the lower long pit 6 Reed and 2 Yellow; the upper long pit 11 Reed and 5 Yellow; revealing totals of 21 pairs of Reed Bunting and 13 pairs of Yellowhammer." Any current shingle-lurker will know that if you repeated this survey now, you would find no Yellowhammers at all. They've long gone. The last DBO report (2014) records just four single birds each on a single date - and that was considered a 'good' year! Back in 1979, the ever-present song of Yellowhammers and the almost daily capture of them in the mist nets were an expected part of my summer / early autumn stay ...

A very brief wander through the Park Downs 'orchid meadows' revealed three Bee Orchids - last year there were several hundred, so I'm hoping that there are plenty more to come. It was only a few days ago that I posted about the Grass Vetchling at this site, so it was with some surprise to see that the amount in flower had increased greatly. There are tens of thousands on show at the moment, more than I've seen at any time, anywhere. Another great memory for the botanical mind library.

I have an old DSLR - a Canon 400D - that must be getting on for 12 years old now. At the time of purchase I also obtained a Canon 60mm macro lens - mainly for taking photos of moths at rest. For a while I studiously set the camera up on a tripod, used a remote control thingy and made sure that the depth of field and light was good enough to obtain passable results of the said resting moths. And then I got lazy... My compact Panasonic camera could take excellent shots with minimal fuss, so I just used that - no setting up, no trial and error, just click and move on. A bit soulless though. The other day I dusted down the old gear and took it out into the field at Box Hill. Pointed the 60mm at a few plants. Shown here are Sainfoin (top and middle) and Common Milkwort (bottom). Was quite pleased with the results. Of course depth of field is an issue (they were taken with an automatic setting) but in some ways it is quite effective having all but a focus point 'blurry'. I...

Sometimes a lepidoptera migration event comes along that makes us aware about the vast numbers of individuals that can be involved. Tales of beach tidelines of dead Silver Y's, shimmering clouds of Clouded Yellows and Painted Ladies above grassy meadows, Bordered Straws and Vestals popping up in MV's across the country... they become folklore and fodder for reminiscences for the years ahead. And now we can add to this list the great Plutella xylostella invasion of 2016. This very small, nondescript (until you look at it under a lens) micro moth has arrived on our shores in unprecedented numbers, mainly on the eastern side of the UK, but also well inland. They have arrived during a spell of dull, wet and cool weather and, so far at least, this movement is not associated with any other migrant species. Better men than me will come up with an explanation for all of this. What is obvious is that there has been an arrival of millions - they are being disturbed in big numbers fr...

On the 27th May, Dominic Mitchell found a first-summer Glaucous Gull at 'The Patch', Dungeness. This was soon photographed by local laridophiles Dave Walker and Martin 'Ploddingbirder' Casemore. Both the DBO website and Martin's blog published several images of the bird that evening. On 29th May the gull was still present and was still considered to be a Glaucous. However, by 30th May, and with further field observation, Dave was not so happy with its identification, and stated that he felt the bird was more likely to be an Iceland. Martin, on the other hand, was still in the Glaucous camp, although did admit that this individual was "odd and not the normal brute of a bird associated with Glaucous." Yesterday Martin posted further images of the gull, plus a video, to which he commented that "in the video it appears to (be) an Iceland Gull, yet yesterday's images seem to me to lean towards Glaucous." On the same day, the DBO website was r...