NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

I began August in Dorset and ended it in Kent, two book-ends that sandwiched a frustrating time spent locally. The plants still enchanted, the odd moth came along that excited (including the back garden's second Small Mottled Willow), but the birding was dire. More great flowering was on show, but this time not in the Banstead area. I give you Thursley Common (above), looking more like a formal garden rather than the random flowering of Heather, Bell Heather and Dwarf Gorse; and West Bay (below), a stunning series of mats of Sea-heath, not a species that I've seen in such profusion before. The natural history highlight in Dorset was the finding of several Cliff Tiger Beetles on the crumbling undercliffs between Charmouth and Eype. This highly restricted species is quite easy to find in the few places it exists. It must be, if a failed coleopterist such as myself had little trouble in seeking them out. At the end of August I packed up my bags and headed for the shingle...

Very close to the grandstands that tower over the downs at Epsom is a special roadside verge. The higher section has been close mown, as is the way of the council, but the lower part has been left well alone, for here is to be found the most daintiest of orchids, Autumn Lady's-tresses. The further down the slope you walk, the more numerous they are - I estimated a minimum of 2,000 spikes and there are no doubt many more than that. As I knelt to take photographs, careful not to kneel on any, I could sense the motorists, sitting yards away at traffic lights, wondering what on earth I was up to. My thanks must go to Dennis and Rosy for alerting me to this fine show.