NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

This wall summed up all that is pleasurable about my current little project, that of recording all of the flora in the 'compartments' of the uber patch. Without it, I would have not checked this old wall in Church Street, Epsom, and would therefore not have recorded four species of fern - in the image above, from left to right, are Wall-rue, Hart's-tongue and Black Spleenwort. Just a few metres away was this Maidenhair Spleenwort (below) - no excuses for posting another image of this fine species. This afternoon, to escape 'Brigit Jone's Baby' on the TV, I paid my respects to the Green Hellebores (below) on Walton Downs, which came with the bonus of a flushed Woodcock. I also visited nearby Juniper Hill where there is - surprise, surprise - a good number of mature Juniper bushes (bottom). By the way, I've been unhappy with the reproduction of my images on this blog for some time and have only just got around to trying to sort it out. With the help ...

I ventured onto Epsom and Walton Downs this afternoon, one that was sun-drenched and accompanied by butterflies and mewling Common Buzzards. On Walton Downs there is a northerly facing clearing that is locally referred to as Juniper Hill.  The name comes from a good population of Juniper, one of our few native tree species. The ground here is one of shallow sward and chalky scrapes, and during the summer months is home to a wealth of wildlife including Chalkhill Blues, Dropwort, Round-headed Rampion and Bastard-toadflax (the latter has so far eluded me locally). Juniper is a species that is in trouble. It has declined throughout much of Britain and some southern counties have declared it extinct! There are maybe only five sites in Surrey. Here on Juniper Hill there has been clearance of invasive scrub through manual cutting and burning, plus livestock grazing (with the fencing off of many Juniper trees to protect them). I didn't count the number of trees, but there must be 3...