NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

There are a several species of UK butterfly that could lay claim to the accolade of being the most arresting. My opinion as to which is changes on a daily basis throughout the year, although it's hard not to consider the Adonis Blue as a serious contender. The blue is shimmering - you could describe it as sky blue or Coventry City football shirt blue - neither do it justice. There were a minimum of 35 of these jewels battling the stiff NE breeze on Denbigh's Hillside this lunchtime, along with fair numbers of Dingy Skippers and a few Grizzleds. Marvellous. Three years ago I was able to show author and professional wildlife guide Jon Dunn a rather special circle of Bird's-nest Orchids, which were dramatically exhibiting the species dependence on its underground fungal partner. I went back to have a look at them this morning but was saddened to find clearance work had left rutted earth and torn branches exactly where the orchids had once stood. Fortunately the area is...

On the edge of Ranmore Common, at the very bottom of Denbigh's Hillside, you will find this charming wooden carving. It depicts the life cycle of the rare Adonis Blue butterfly, a species that can be readily found on the chalky slopes above. It was created by local artist Iain Hamilton Crafer, from a two tonne piece of felled oak. Below is a detail from the sculpture of an ant tending a caterpillar. On chalk downland it is usually the Red Ant that 'looks after' the caterpillar, offering it protection from predators in return for a fix of honeydew that is secreted by the larvae. If you would like to see the butterfly for real - and not just a giant wooden facsimile - go along on a warm day in May when the first brood should be on the wing. The food plant of the caterpillar is Horseshoe Vetch, so you will often see the adult butterflies flying around this flower which is easily found across the open grassland. It was a good day to be out. Despite a bit of a breez...

I like counting things - birds, plants, moths, butterflies, it doesn't matter. I'll even count my books, CDs, fingers and toes if there is nothing else on offer. So when confronted with a fine show of Man Orchids on one of the lower slopes of Box Hill this morning, I started counting... a minimum of 350 spikes was the not to shabby total. I was also pleased to find my earliest ever Meadow Brown. Afterwards a quick visit was made to the eastern-end of Denbigh's Hillside where I was able to count more stuff - Adonis Blues - with at least 45 being present, but only a small part of the slope was searched. Quite a few were resting on bare ground, but a stiff breeze made photography a little challenging. Only a couple of Bee Orchids (bottom) were found.

February 1st. A chilly, grey and drizzly day outside. My SAD (seasonal affective disorder) credentials are kicking in - depressed, lethargic, overeating, irritable, feeling down and unsociable. The NHS website tries to be helpful and suggests these 10 steps to redemption: Keep Active, Get Outside, Keep Warm, Eat Healthily, See The Light, Take Up A New Hobby, See Friends and Family, Talk It Through, Join a Support Group, Seek Help... some of these do seem a bit drastic. I'm just fed up with the lack of daylight and the weather, I'm not living in Aleppo! I am following most of these suggestions already (if eating an apple directly after finishing a packet of biscuits counts as eating healthily that is). No, winter cannot hurry up enough and turn into spring as far as I'm concerned. Winter does, admittedly, have its own charm and it would take an emotionally bankrupt individual to not take joy from a heavy frost, Redwings and Fieldfares, er... Redwings and Fieldfares... did ...

I've had a lie down and have almost recovered from my rant. It would be easy to embark on another one, aimed at 'Flaming June' and suggesting that we could rename it 'Freezing June', but will desist. The news channels have been reminding us that unseasonal weather is not a modern day phenomena and have unearthed footage from forty years ago to this very day - June 2nd 1975 for the slow among us - when snow fell. The Met Office says: Scattered sleet and snow showers were reported in East Anglia and the Midlands and even penetrated as far south as the London area. This was the first time since 1888 that snow and sleet had been reported as widely so far south during the summer. Several county cricket matches were abandoned due to snow, the most notable were between Essex and Kent at Castle Park, Colchester and between Derbyshire and Lancashire at Buxton. Strong to gale force winds, occasionally severe on coasts, occurred in Scotland and Northern Ireland with many...

Yesterday was spent wandering over the chalk downland reserve of Martin Down in Hampshire. The sun shone, it was pleasantly warm and a stiff north-easterly kept me cool. It was altogether most agreeable! I had been here once before (in 1981) in the company of Alastair Forsyth, after we had spent a day's birding in the New Forest. After a few beers in a nearby pub we slept in the reserve car park (me in his car, Alastair in his tent) and awoke to Barn Owl and Stone Curlew. I began by parking at the car park on the A354 and walking the entire western length of the reserve along the Bokerley Dyke, a Romano-British defence ditch. This area appears to be as rich in plants and butterflies as anywhere else on the reserve, so if your time here has to be brief, concentrate here. Very soon I was finding Field Fleawort and Burnt Orchid (above). Apart from Horseshoe Vetch there was not a lot of the 'indicator' plant species of chalk downland out in flower. By now I would expe...