NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

It's not too late to see the Littlestone Green Sand Catchflies! They are a devil to photograph, being small and no higher than the blades of grass that grow among them. I resorted to my ancient DSLR with macro lens to get something passable. Not for me the mucking around with f-stops and exposure times - just focus on one plant and claim that those that are out-of-focus around it makes the shot 'arty'. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

The Greens at Littlestone is an area of municipally-managed sandy grassland, loved by joggers, dog-walkers and botanists alike. Close by the multi-coloured pastel shaded beach huts is a small bank which, despite the heavy foot-fall, is home to thousands of Sand Catchfly plants. At least 2-3,000 are in flower at the moment, with many more in bud. It really is some show. Better images to follow.

Although any stay at Dungeness will be primarily focused on birds, it would be foolhardy not to pay attention to the splendid flora on offer - here are a few tasters... Clustered Clover - a new species for me, and 're-discovered' close to the observatory Bird's-foot - there was a fine show on the sand at Littlestone Sand Catchfly - happy to flower in the hundreds close to beach huts and holidaymakers Annual Knawel - underwhelming, un-showy, yet a firm favourite of mine, at Littlestone Burrowing Clover - if you are at Dungeness, look down - it is all over the peninsula Sheep's Sorrel - literally millions of plants turn the grassland red Thrift - on the western side of the point can be found extensive drifts

After an evening of football, Neil Young, beer, music, olives, garlic, chilli and pasta (thanks Mark!) this morning needed to be on the tranquil side. A botanical foray was called for and I was joined by Nick and Russell Gardner on a whistle-stop tour of the floral wonders of the peninsula. The observatory area yielded plenty of Yellow Vetch, Subterranean Clover and Nottingham Catchfly, whilst further out on the shingle there was plenty of Bur Chervil and Small-flowered Buttercup. A small amount of Sea Pea was in flower close to the new lighthouse. Littlestone was checked for several specialities, although it is stil early for some of them, hence only a few leaves of Sea Holly and no Sea Rocket (although we shunned the best area for this as it was knee-deep in grockles on the beach). Best of all was a fine show of at least 300 plants of Sand Catchfly (above), the raking of the site to encourage seed germination by Owen and his team paying dividends. Hare's-tail Grass wa...