NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

The 3km circle based on the shape of a square. All is explained... They're all at it, all of my blogging chums - Seth, Jono, Stewart, Gavin, Dylan - you can see their blogs over on the right hand side of the screen under the 'Worthy Blogs' tab. And what have they all been up to? Adopting lockdown recording areas, close to home and in the spirit of community welfare, that's what. And all credit to them for doing so. Some of them have decided to record in an area within a five kilometre circumference from home - others have plumped to go imperial and swap kilometres for miles. As for me, I’ve dithered about somewhat. At the end of last year I’d decided to keep within my Uber patch, but that is an area where the extremities need a car journey. After the early-January lockdown I switched to my mini-Uber patch, the furthest point being maybe two-hours on foot from home. But, in light of the way that this pandemic is evolving, there was no way that I now feel comfortable in e...

I was pleased to find a couple of the 'good plant' fields at Langley Bottom Farm have been ploughed, hopefully in readiness for next years batch of arable goodies. I'm certainly no expert in when it is best to plough a field for the benefit of wild flowers, but can only assume that Plantlife have had some input with the Woodland Trust on the timing. The photo above shows a field that is home to Catmint, Narrow-fruited Corn-salad, Jersey Cudweed, Night-flowering Catchfly and the blue flowered form of Scarlet Pimpernel among others. Roll on next year!

I don't know why it has taken me until now, but I have never before assembled personal county plant lists. 90% of time spent botanising has been in my home county of Surrey, with most of the remaining 10% being in Kent and Sussex (with Dorset and Hampshire deserving an honourable mention). I have just completed the Surrey list (below), which has had the affect of inspiring me to seek out a few of the many glaring omissions! I still need to add precise data for the first date of recording to some species, but that can wait. It is also enjoyable going through old notebooks to check such mundane things as to whether or not I have seen Lesser Swine-cress in Dorset. I have hours more fun ahead of me to get the other county lists under way. Above is another one of those naturalised species - Californian Poppy at Priest Hill - used here as an excuse to pretty up an otherwise monochrome post and act as a red rag to those who believe such species to be a blight on our landscape. Me? I lo...

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...

Another session spent winter botanising, and once again a plentiful supply of plants to identify - mostly actually in flower or bud - which proves that there really isn't a dead season to be had when searching for flowers. I walked from home, along the Reigate Road and stopped off at Priest Hill SWT Reserve. At first glance the open fields of lifeless grass didn't seem to suggest that there would be any joy here, but if you look hard enough... Just like yesterday, most of the highlights were of alien/escaped species, but that is fine by me: Lesser Periwinkle, Sowbread, Asian Firethorn, Silver Lime, Balkan Spurge ( Euphorbia tomentosa ), Vibernum, Pampass-grass ( Cortaderia selloana ) and Mediterranean Spurge ( E characias ) were the pick of the bunch. Asian Firethorn ( Pyracantha rogersiana ) Identified by the hairless leaf stalks. Silver Lime ( Tilia tomentosa ) And before you think my skill levels on identifying obscure winter trees has improved, I was shown this tr...

Dull, wet, blustery... 2018 isn't doing much to endear itself to us. From a personal point of view I've also been wrestling with a virus/bug that has forced me to miss a handful of family and friends get-togethers, plus any venturing out into the field. This morning I did feel up for a wander around the local streets and copses, so was able to start my 'uber patch' botanical search - a project for this year that will hopefully enable me to become far more proficient in the identification of critical groups (such as crucifers), grasses, sedges and rushes. Without busting a gut I recorded 29 species, including a few exotics such as Trailing Bellflower, Snowberry (inset), Yellow Corydalis, Spotted Dead-nettle, Sowbread (Cyclamen hederifolium, main image), and Corsican Hellebore. The later species is present on a well vegetated central reservation on a busy road. I first came across it a number of years ago (when I braved the traffic to identify it) and it has flowered ...

Frog Orchid, Pewsey Downs, Wiltshire, June I recently said to a fellow naturalist that I hadn't really spent a lot of time looking at plants in 2017, but looking back through my notebooks I did have my moments! Admittedly I didn't wander far from Surrey, but when I did one or two special plants popped up, including my first ever observation of Hog's Fennel, a mass of the stuff on the Tankerton slopes (Kent) in August. Here are a few photographic highlights... Marsh Cinquefoil, Dungeness, Kent, May Sea Clover, Camber, East Sussex, June Musk Orchid, Box Hill, Surrey, July Broad-leaved Cudweed, Surrey, July

I do like to have set aims at the start of each year - small projects if you like. They don't ever become all-consuming affairs, more like amusing side-shows. This year saw me adopt Priest Hill as a birding patch, which, at times, was rewarding. So what for 2018? I first started to look at plants in earnest in 1998. I had dabbled before, mainly at Dungeness. The years that followed saw me get fully into all things botanical and culminated in far-flung trips to enjoy the best that Britain has to offer, from the mountain-tops of Scotland, to the Lizard peninsula coast, and the dry Breckland heaths. As much as I still regularly search for plants locally I have become lazy. My identification skills have lessened as I tend not to check difficult groups and have largely shied away from grasses, sedges and rushes. Well, that's where the 2018 project comes in. My Uber patch (map above) will act as the defined area of my botanical year/challenge. I have broken this up into define...

I normally go and pay my respects to the 'winter' flora in the Mickleham area each January, and seeing that it is February on Wednesday I only had two days in which to keep up my record. A grey, drizzly morning kept the light low and gave everything the feeling of being in two dimensions - flat was the word. I started at the White Hill car park and was soon checking the old wall that runs alongside the isolated cottage. It is here that you can usually find Rustyback , and I was pleased to come across two plants, mixed in with the more numerous Wall-rue . Then onto the slopes of Mickleham Downs, home to a great south-eastern rarity, truly wild Wild Candytuft . Several hundred plants are present, although I went no further than the first flowering plant that I came across. This species is in flower all year round here, although the books don't refer to it as having a constant flowering season. Nearby was plenty of Stinking Hellebore , in various sizes and age. Both these sp...

5. Marsh Cinquefoil (Comarum palustre) This is a very local species in the SE of England, and I have only seen it in two places - Thundry Meadows (Surrey) and - yes, you've guessed it - Dungeness (Kent). In fact, the latter site is the only place in Kent that it is found. It is having a very good 2016 on the shingle, with clearance work across the northern part of the bird observatory recording area having opened up habitat enabling it to flower for the first time since 1984. There are other sites nearby, such as the Oppen Pits on the RSPB reserve, where a discrete population has endured. I was entranced by the flower long before I saw it. Not many have such a colouring - a cross between Ribena and red wine. And not many look as if they were the product of someone skilled in the art of soft furnishing. My first encounter with Marsh Cinquefoil was on a misty June dawn at Thundry Meadows, and I was not disappointed. Even in the half light it shimmered at me, an exotic flower i...

6. Water Mint (Mentha aquatica) This species is really the twin of my last selection (Ragged Robin). As with that species, it came to my notice by being one of the plants that populated the wet flushes on the shingle at Dungeness. I often smelt it before seeing it, at times in subtle wafts, and at others it could be overpowering, depending on whether or not I had just crushed some leaves underfoot. The flower cannot be described as anything but modest, but is recognisable from a distance, as each neat 'ball' tops another, discretely strewn amidst the vegetation. You can find it where there is water, whether a damp flush, a village pond or a stream-side bank. I have it growing in my small garden pond, where it is a great attractant to a wide range of bees, flies, wasps and moths. Just sit for an hour and watch the winged procession come and visit. It is easy to plant and will spread across the pond by creeping rhizomes. I look for the spikes each summer and am delighted w...

7. Ragged Robin (Silene flos-cuculi) This is another species that buried itself deep into my subconsciousness by being a plant that was with me at the start of my 'Dungeness time'. Back in the mid-70s I could be found regularly helping out with the bird ringing, and as such trudged across the shingle and through the sallow bushes from net-site to net-site day-in, day-out. The wet flushes that were found out on the shingle had their own community of flowers, many not found away from them. These, even to my bird-obsessed mind became little icons, friendly markers appearing by the damp edges. The coral-pink, deeply-indented petals had got my attention, made me take notice, and encouraged me to find out what it was called. It looked like torn ribbons to me. "Ragged Robin," I was told. I liked that name. And it is a species that still brings a smile to my face whenever I stumble across it. It is not a plant that I see much locally, more's the pity.

8. Nottingham Catchfly (Silene nutans) Back in the mid-seventies, when we all wore long hair and flared trousers, my first visits to Dungeness were all about birds. Birds, birds and more birds. But a couple of plants crept into my subconsciousness, by dint of having some more enlightened birders close by who also looked at other life forms that did not necessarily possess feathers. One of these species was Nottingham Catchfly. I was told that it was rare and that Dungeness most probably held more of it than anywhere else in the UK, and that is all I needed to know to embrace it as a 'worthy' flower. In time I got to know it well, knew where the best populations were and it slowly became an iconic part of my 'Dungeness experience'. - the shingle would have felt bereft without it. I spent the summer of 1979 at the Bird Observatory. Back then, during late June and July the peninsula used to be vacated by birders, so there were many days when it was just me at the ...

10. Ground-pine (Ajuga chamaepitys) Barry Banson, a fellow birder and long-time botanist, had often tried to encourage me to take up 'looking at the green stuff' without success. He would often mention a place called Fames Rough, and would point out that it was very close to where I lived, and that I really should go along and try and seek out two of the rare species that were present - Cut-leaved Germander and Ground-pine. In fact, I did accompany Barry to that very place in 1981, but we didn't find either of them (not that I would have known what I was looking at anyway). Fast forward to 1998. Barry's badgering over the years had paid off, and I was at the start of my immersion into all things botanical. I was still very green behind the ears and was gently finding my way into the process of trying to identify the bewildering array of species that appeared wherever I looked (pavement cracks, flower beds, roadside verges, footpath edges). Fames Rough beckoned, a...

A few posts ago, I suggested that if I were to produce a list of my favourite plants, it would be an act of banality. So here it is. I managed to make a list of 24 species, which I whittled down to 12 without too much difficulty. Rather than going with the conventional Top 10 you're going to get a Top 12 - you lucky, lucky people. As always, if I were to produce this list next month (or, to be honest, tomorrow), it would most probably change. So, for the first post, and in descending order: 12. Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) This species was, in my world at least, a myth for an awful long while. I just never came across it. The feeling seemed to be that it pops up out of the blue, stays but briefly, and disappears just as quickly. Plus it isn't common in Surrey. There was also 'something of the night' about it, not just the species ghostingly brief appearances, but its veined petals, apparently foul smell and, last but not least, its poisonousness. Possibly a plant t...

Sorry Dylan, more premature reminiscences and more flowers... In June I happened to bump into local botanist Peter Wakeham on Park Downs. He told me about the time that he had been spending at Langley Vale Farm, surveying the plants in light of the Woodland Trusts purchase. My ears pricked up at its mention, as I had spent some time birding the area (from public footpaths) and had botanised some of the field margins over the years (seeing such rarities as Night-flowering Catchfly). The WT had opened up access to a great deal of the farm and his offer of a guided tour was eagerly taken up. We met on a swelteringly hot July 1st, which was the start of my visiting the farm on a regular basis. On that initial visit, Peter showed me Narrow-fruited Cornsalad and Cat-mint, both new species for me. A couple of weeks later I found myself at a bare, chalky field edge on the north-western side of the farm. One of the first species that I spied was a sizeable Venus's Looking-glass...

Sometimes the natural world decides to take you by surprise and bestow memorable moments when you least expect them. The setting doesn't have to be on the top of a Scottish mountain or at the mouth of a powerful estuary -  it could take place at a humble piece of chalk grassland only minutes from home... Park Downs is but a twenty minute brisk walk from my front door. Until this year I have spent little time there, but have been aware of its reputation as a reserve that holds a number of notable species. After visiting the place back in March to pay my respects to the present Stinking Hellebore, I made a mental note to return in the summer. I did so in late June. I came across two fields in particular that blew me away. They were packed with flower, including incredible numbers of orchids. A careful count suggested 6250 Pyramidal and 354 Bee (both below). But these were just a small part of the mass blossoming that had taken place. From a distance the fields looked as if an ...

When the weather is like this, and the prospects muted, I often embark upon a long walk. I must have crunched across 15 miles of shingle and, in lieu of birds, found myself in deep thought - mainly thinking about Dungeness, what it means to me and how it has changed. Fuel for a future post. The 'November plants in flower list' shows no signs of slowing. It has now reached 118 species with today's additions being garden pansy, broom, snapdragon, ice plant, white ramping fumitory, rest harrow, ivy-leaved speedwell, common knapweed, tubular water-drop wort and lesser trefoil. It was also good to see that a local blogger has been inspired by all of this to start his own 'November in flower' list. The more the merrier!

The birds have largely moved on, the wind has swung south-west and the rain has arrived in the strengthening wind, BUT! I've still got the 'flowering plants in November' challenge. The species list has now reached 79, with the addition of annual wall rocket, common chickweed, rose campion, common fumitory and marrow. Well, when I claim marrow, it is with a big dollop of 'maybe'. This interesting plant is close to the old lighthouse and is a prostrate, but robust plant with two rich yellow flowers at the end of spherical fruits (the fruits are hirsute). The corollas are 55mm wide which, I believe, are too large for Mellon. David W and Gill and Mick H have all had a look, with gourd being the latest suggestion. I'd like to show you a photo, but while at Dungeness I'm having a problem uploading images on an iPad in the Blogger platform.

Dungeness dawned foggy - very foggy, the sort of fog that makes you wander around and lose sight (literally) of where you are. I birdied by Braille.. it was eerily warm, even in the fog, and when it finally left, very quickly at about 08.30hrs, the sun shone, the temperature rose and I found myself peeling off layers of clothing at a rate. By early afternoon it was a case of birding in a t-shirt.It's November 2nd for goodness sake! 2 Clouded Yellows joined in the summer festivities. My November flowering plant list rose to 68 species, with the addition of: musk mallow, hedge mustard, common poppy, sticky groundsel, red campion, spear thistle, purple toadflax, honeysuckle, sea mayweed, glasswort agg, spear-leaved Orache, annual seablite, Canadian fleabane, sea beet, sea purslane, shepherd's purse, dandelion, seaside daisy, evening primrose, wild mignonette, corn cockle and sweet William (as you can see, some naturalised plants taking to the shingle). It really is like summer h...