NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

When I first started to take an interest in wild flowers, there was a mythical species that was nationally rare but known from nearby Headley Heath - it was called Starfruit. I knew it grew on the muddy margin of ponds, so whenever I visited the heath (as I did frequently for birding) I would seek out those ponds that I knew of on site and take a look. I never found it. And then it became common knowledge that the plant had seemingly died out at its favoured pond, due to scrub encroachment and the dumping of cut vegetation from a nearby house. I only found out a few years ago that I had never checked the actual pond where the plant grew. In fact, it was a pond slightly away from the heath itself. Five years ago I went to Inholme Clay Pits, near Holmwood to pay my respects to the introduced Starfruit plants that were putting on a fine show. As much as I enjoyed finally seeing them, they were not wild. I still longed for a truly wild plant, and not only that, a truly wild SURREY pla...

In a recent tri-blogger's discourse between Stewart Sexton , Dylan Wrathall and myself, we have been exploring the lessening of blogging, the reasons behind it and why, indeed, people bother blogging at all. In the past 24 hours I was twice reminded of why it is worth carrying on with it and how a humble post can do good even years later. Firstly, Karen Woolley (of the excellent Wild Wings and Wanderings ) got in touch. She is hankering after going to see the rare and frankly bizarre looking Starfish Fungus (Aseroe rubra) that can be found in a Surrey woodland at Oxshott. She either remembered a post of mine from 2013 or Googled the fungus and was sent to my site. Either way, knowing that I had been there and that Oxshott Woods is quite big, she emailed me to see if I would 'point her in the right direction'. I was only too pleased to oblige. Then last night I received an email from David Gowing, Professor of Botany, (Environment, Earth and Ecosystems) at the Open U...

Birds My birding away from the NDB area was largely confined to two Dungeness breaks - three days in January and a fortnight in May. Both delivered... In my first stay, the Hume's Warbler that was still performing in the flooded trapping area was the rarity highlight, but the back up cast included Glossy Ibis, Great White Egrets, Barn and Short-eared Owl, Hen Harrier, Bewick's Swan and Glaucous Gull. Sheer spectacle was apparent on the sea, where a vast raft of feeding Great Crested Grebes and Guillemots (that numbered in the thousands) could be found. In May the numbers of migrants were disappointing, but rarity was present, with 2 Black-winged Stilts, a Great Reed Warbler, a Bee-eater and a Montagu's Harrier. However, it was the late passage of Pomarine Skuas that were my highlight - even though it is a species that I have seen regularly over the years. A fully-spooned adult is a wonder to behold and there was one particular beast of a bird that flew east (and close) one...

I've longed after seeing Starfruit for many a year, but the trouble is it is rarer than the proverbial hen's tooth. But I was thrilled to find out that, after a nationwide gap of six years without any records at all, three sites in Surrey have come up trumps this year - one of them a site with no previous record! Now, whether these reappearances are down to habitat management (or surreptitious seed sowing), I do not know. But this morning I hot-footed it to one of the known historical sites and spent a good while in the company of Damasonium alisma, managing to obtain a pleasing set of images to boot.