NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

Scarlet Pimpernel of the blue-flowered form We've reached number two in the countdown of my 10 most enjoyable natural history events of the past five years. 2. Arable overload Nationally rare plants within a couple of miles from home is not a prize that is bestowed upon too many naturalists, but when the site that they occur on is opened up for access - and then proves to be an even better site than first thought - it is the stuff of botanical dreams. For the past five years I have had the absolute pleasure of visiting such a place. Langley Vale Farm occupied a large part of the chalk downland of Walton Downs. It was farmed sensitively and maintained a tremendous arable flora. For many years just a couple of footpaths crossed this land, with access onto the fields prohibited, but there were one of two spots where a wander along a field-edge could be made. And then, in 2014, the farm was put up for sale and purchased by The Woodland Trust (WT). The reaction to the buyer was...

Langley Bottom Farm has appeared on this blog many times - mostly because of the fine arable flora that is present. Keen students of ND&B will remember that the Woodland Trust has bought the farm and are currently planting up large areas to create a Millennium Wood. Thankfully they are leaving plenty of the fields alone and the early signs are good that the rare arable flora will be looked after. Last summer was the first in which no crops were grown. The fields were left to run wild, a tangle of grass and flower. Most of the fields have been cut back (above) and others left well alone (below). The upshot of this 'wildness' is that there is plenty of seed on the ground, and where there is seed, there are birds. Any scan across the farm revealed good numbers of birds, moving along hedgerows, dodging between copses and wheeling over the open ground. My final counts are very much minima - Skylark (80), Fieldfare (145), Redwing (75), Goldfinch (100), Brambling (1) and...

Those of you who are regular visitors to this blog (and thank you if you are) will by now be familiar with Langley Vale Farm, an area on the Surrey downs that is blessed with a terrific arable flora. I do go on about it quite a lot... To cut a long story short the farm has been purchased by the Woodland Trust (WT) who are managing the land and aiming to have 60% of it as woodland - currently this figure stands at 20%. There have been many meetings; environmental impact assessments made; working parties formed; correspondence sent and received. I have been heartened that these processes have alerted the WT to the presence of the rare flora and that it has been recognised by them as not only of national importance but also in need of protection. The WT, in consultation with Plantlife, have agreed to implement plans to ensure that it survives. I have been impressed by their willingness to do so, as the WT's existence is not to be the custodians of rare wild flowers. They could ha...

Common Poppy in profusion, Langley Bottom Langley Bottom, Langley Vale, call it what you like - Walton Downs would do - the farmland that blankets much of this area has had a lot of coverage from me over the past few years. To recap: this farm was put up for sale and purchased by the Woodland Trust some three years ago. They plan to release the area into the public domain as a woodland reserve and intend to plant up a great deal of the open farmland, in so doing connecting existing copse and woodland together. So far, so good you may think - after all, private farmland is going to become countryside for the public to access and enjoy. Yes and no. Langley Vale has been farmed sympathetically down the ages, with a tremendous arable flora present as a consequence. It is like a botanical time capsule. When the Woodland Trust released their plans there was a great deal of fuss created by the counties botanists - why plants common trees on top of rare flowers? Meetings were arranged, ...

It has hardly got light here in Banstead today, a stygian gloom more reminiscent of mid-winter. But, after an almost full day spent decorating (well 'full' as far as I'm concerned), I hot-footed it up onto Langley Vale Farm for a spot of botanising. I chose to check the fields at the base of the slope close to Nohome Farm. It was all quite pleasant. The Wild Carrot was wonderful, as the two images above show. This field has been chosen by the Woodland Trust as a 'wildflower' meadow, and what pops up here is a mixture of species that were here before and those courtesy of seeding. I'm sure the Wild Carrot is a mixture of both sources. Although cloudy, it was muggy, so a few butterflies were on the wing. Highlight - by a country mile - was a single Clouded Yellow (top image), my first this year. I was also pleased to find a robust Round-leaved Fluellen (above and below), a brute of a plant, nothing like the weedy stems I usually find. Last but...

Langley Vale Farm was awash with the colour red this morning, as a number of the fields that have been allowed to 'rewild' have found that the Common Poppy has taken a liking to them. In a few corners Opium Poppy is the dominant species, and in between this festival of poppies are huge numbers of Common Field Speedwell, Scarlet Pimpernel, Field Pansy, Black Bindweed... I could go on. Needless to say, it is a visual feast. Also on show (and carrying on the red theme) were a minimum of nine Red Hemp-nettles (below), freshly coming into flower. This is a screaming rarity in the county.

This was Downs Field this morning, from the lower, south-eastern corner. It is a big field - I don't know its acreage or hectarage I'm afraid, but I wouldn't like to have to run around its perimeter thank you very much! As you can see from the photograph above, it gently slopes up towards the west, reaching a plateau that continues for a good 200m towards a minor road. It is at this furthest point that the Night-flowering Catchfly used to be found, along with more Sharp-leaved and Round-leaved Fluellens that you could shake a stick at. In fact, this strip held a vibrant arable weed community. I could find four loafing Lapwing, but no interaction or display was observed. A further lurking Lapwing was found on 40 Acre Field South. As I have mentioned before, The Woodland Trust are going to plant this field with trees to establish their Centenary Wood. Although I have not totally given up on attempts to persuade them to spare the field from such action, I do think it high...

This afternoon I was able to attend a meeting between The Woodland Trust and a few of us local naturalists who have voiced concerns over the Langley Vale Wood project. I don't believe this post to be an appropriate place to name those present or to quote directly from any specific conversation. Three senior WT staff were present, with 'concerned' representation coming from several birders, botanists, entomologists and general all round naturalists / conservationists. The discussion was robust and direct from both sides. In brief, the provision for the care of the existing arable flora is, on the whole, better than I could have hoped for. Plantlife are preparing a working document for the WT, and there is provision to have an eminent botanist as part of a specialist steering group. There is a commitment to continually monitor the plants and adjust management on a rolling plan. The designated 'arable plant areas' are in the correct places. That's the good... T...

I couldn't help but visit Langley Vale Farm this morning to see how the fields are looking from the point-of-view of such arable gems as Red Hemp-nettle (from this very farm last summer). There is good news. The fields south of Nohome Farmhouse have been shallowly ploughed - the stubble and grass clumps from my last visit have gone. Now, I am no ecologist, and cannot possibly predict whether this in itself is enough to enable the arable flora to freely flower, but it is certainly better than the state of the fields a couple of weeks ago. This is the bottom of the field immediately east of Nohome Farmhouse, which has also had a similar treatment - the edge up against the hedgerow is where Cat-mint and Narrow-fruited Cornsalad can be found. Last year this area was swamped with grass and both were hard to find. The top of the very same field. This is very recent tree planting, which has not, so far, been stretched all that far down the field. I do hope that it will be s...

Night-flowering Catchfly at Langley Vale Farm. Not seen there since 2014. There are few greater pleasures than walking along the edge of a field and working your way through a mass of arable plants in flower. It is colourful. It holds hidden gems. It is also disappearing. I am lucky enough to live close to a marvellous site, where such species as Night-flowering Catchfly, Venus's Looking-glass, Red Hemp-nettle, Cat-mint, Narrow-fruited Cornsalad, Sharp-leaved Fluellen, Round-leaved Fluellen and Dwarf Spurge can be found. It is called Langley Vale Farm, situated on Walton Downs in Surrey. They are all in danger of being lost forever. Any regular visitor to this blog will have read my previous posts about the purchase of the farm, in 2014, by the Woodland Trust. They plan to use the site to create what will be known as Langley Vale Wood, in commemoration of the centenary of the start of the First World War. A series of environmental and ecological surveys were commissioned, ...

Last week, whilst wandering along the top of the beach at Sidmouth, I spied several 'fleshy' knotgrass plants lying prostrate on the shingle. I had no camera, no eyeglass, no nothing. I suspected that they might be Ray's Knotgrass, a species that I have only seen once before (further east along the coast at Charmouth). It was a hot day, there were holiday-makers sitting on their towels only feet away from the plants in question and I didn't want to invade their space to collect a piece for later identification. So I left them, but felt that if they were Ray's, then it was something that might just be noteworthy. I wouldn't be going back to Sidmouth any time soon, but I knew of a 'blogging virtual friend' who lived right on the doorstep... I sent an email to Karen Woolley, author of the excellent blog Wild Wings and Wanderings . She has a deep interest in botany, soon went along to have a look, and indeed they were Ray's and a tick for her to boot! ...

I don't need an excuse to return to Langley Vale Farm, home to a fine array of arable plant rarities. Compared to last year, my visits in 2016 have been not as frequent. Some field margins have been specifically spared the planting of crops to hopefully benefit the plants and, to a certain extent, this has delivered. This morning I luckily bumped into local botanist Dennis Skinner. He kindly informed me that Red Hemp-nettle, a species discovered here two summers ago, was showing once again. I know this plant from the shingle beaches of Dungeness and Rye, but not from arable Surrey - it is not common anywhere, and certainly not in my home county. I needed no encouragement to go and look for the three plants reported as being present. I found them easily... Apart from Small Toadflax and Sharp-leaved Fluellen, there was no representation from the other rare arable plants present. I did come across a few strikingly pale-pink Scarlet Pimpernel flowers. These didn't appear to...

Now and again you come across a sight that demands your attention, lifts your heart and makes you thankful for the gift of the senses - please feast your eyes upon a field full of Red Campion, at Langley Vale Farm, this morning. The link between what was set out before me and the Impressionist artists is not difficult to make. And all within a half hour stroll from home - who needs to get into a car and drive off miles elsewhere when you have this on your doorstep? There were a few more bits and pieces from today's visit, but I'll just let the show above play out for now. Too good to dilute with other stuff...

Today saw the annual animal inventory take place at London Zoo - the keepers get together and count all the creatures that are within their care. I know it's most probably an age thing, but when I think of a zoo keeper I just see an image of Johnny Morris in my mind, peaked cap, leaning on a broom and talking to an elephant that talks back to him in a funny voice. If you are under 50 years of age you won't have a clue what I'm on about. It passed for entertainment back in the day... Last year the final tally came to 17,480 of 756 species. I thought that I'd join in, so I took myself off to Langley Vale Farm and counted every bird that I saw in a three hour period. My (more) modest total was 1,277 of 38 species. Woodpigeon was by far the largest component (510). Highlights included 5 Red-legged Partridge and 3 Marsh Tit. Botanically I paid my respects to the patch of Green Hellebore (above) that had come on a treat since my last visit in December. Also of note was...

I'm quite lucky in having our two native Hellebores close to home. Stinking ( which I recently posted about here ) and Green (Helleborus viridus). The latter is not commonly found (at least where I go looking) and has a preference for shady situations on chalk and limestone. There are at least a couple of patches of it in one of the woods found on Langley Vale Farm. While I was admiring it and taking a few pictures this morning (above and below) I was buzzed by a very vocal Marsh Tit - another local site for this dwindling bird! Hellebores are quite showy things and are a garden favourite, particularly Lenten-rose (H orientalis).  They can easily hop over a garden fence and start to colonise 'wild' space. I have also found Corsican Hellebore (H. argutifolius) growing on a roadside verge in Banstead, which still persists 10 years after my initial discovery. Incidentally, this latter species was also found growing on the shingle at Dungeness earlier in the year by Dave W...