NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

It was an absolute pleasure to welcome Paul and Bridget James to the arable plant fields of Langley Vale today. We walked far and wide across the area and managed to find most of the notable species that we had targeted, including Night-flowering Catchfly, Blue Pimpernel, Field Gromwell, Field Woundwort and Red Hemp-nettle. The dry spring and early summer has certainly taken its toll on many species, with some crisped and stunted, while others that we expected to be in full flower were already clearly over. However, a most enjoyable day was had and it now remains for us three intrepid botanists to start picking all of the grass seeds out of our socks and footwear... Field Woundwort Red Hemp-nettle Round-headed Rampion Scarlet Pimpernel (blue flowered)

Another trip to Langley Vale, this time to have a good nose around Penn Field, where back in August I was able to see Peter Wakeham's Field Woundwort. I spent a couple of hours criss-crossing the site and was delighted to find a minimum of 56 Night-flowering Catchfly plants, the most that I've seen together - there was a loose group of 32 along a 20m strip, the rest scattered across the field in ones, twos and threes. Most of the plants were in good condition, many in flower and, once my eye was in, easy to pick out even from distance. They really are a different beast to White Campion (of which there was quite a bit).

A few day's ago Peter Wakeham, that most diligent of local botanists, found a small clump of Field Woundwort (above) in Penn Field, Langley Vale. As far as I know this was a new record for the area, and as any reader of this blog will know, I am very keen to see anything that decides to pop up and flower in these local fields. This morning, armed with directions, I found the plant(s) with little effort - and for my troubles was rewarded by bumping into a fine Night-flowering Catchfly (below) on the way across the field. What else lurks within it? It is a large field and looks ripe for a good going over. I will be back.

It was only four years ago that Red Hemp-nettle was discovered at Langley Vale by Caroline Bateman. This is a species that I have a great fondness for, a plant that I normally associate with the shingle beaches of Dungeness and Rye Harbour (where I had seen it before) - so when this population was discovered in Surrey, it was a must to visit. Annual trips along to this 'weedy' strip of north downs farmland are a pleasure, and the plant appears to be doing well. I counted 36 robust flowering specimens yesterday evening, all - bar one - in a small compact area.

Weasel's-snout - or Lesser Snapdragon - is a decreasing arable plant that is possibly native and is found sparingly in the UK (mostly in the south of England). I was delighted to find out that a single flowering specimen had been found at the botanical wonderland that is Langley Vale, in a field due west of Nohome Farm. Unfortunately my pictures were not up to much, but worth posting here for anybody that is not familiar with what it looks like. Ignore the reddish-brown vegetation that is wrapping itself around the plant, as that is Black Bindweed. Whilst scouring the site it was a delight to bump into several local naturalists, and among their number was artist and creative writer Susy Jones. We teamed up to try and hunt down the Venus's Looking-glass plants found earlier in the summer. Even though we were armed with grid-references and 'pin's on digital maps' we failed. Was that down to our poor fieldcraft or had they stopped flowering, which would have made t...

This afternoon's visit to Langley Bottom/Vale Farm was enlivened by a fine show of arable flora, including a profusion of blue-flowered Scarlet Pimpernel, masses of Small Toadflax and both Sharp-leaved and Round-leaved Fluellen, up to a dozen Ground Pine plants and some 'well over' Common Cudweed (first image). Marvellous stuff! Ground Pine - up to a dozen plants are huddled in a corner of a field at Langley Bottom Farm this year. This species is doing really badly elsewhere. Scarlet Pimpernel of the blue-flowered form. There are fewer plants that stir the blood so much. The third photograph shows some Small Toadflax on the right hand side.

This morning was spent on foot - from the front door to the northern edge of Epsom Downs, across the race course to Langley Bottom Farm, then back again. This first part of the walk was dominated by Marbled White butterflies (below). It was only in 1999 that I saw my first one at this particular site, at a time when the species was starting to blaze its way into new areas locally. Since then it has really taken off, with at least 1,000 being counted this morning, the best area being the grassland that runs down along the road between the Grandstand and Langley Vale. There were moments when I must have seen 300+ butterflies in view at the same time, dancing around this grassy slope in a throwback to days gone by - mostly Marbled Whites but also good numbers of Meadow Browns and up to six Dark Green Fritillaries. A wildlife experience cannot be measured by volume alone, although there are times when sheer numbers can grab hold of you by the ears and shake you to attention. This was su...

It was too nice an afternoon to stay indoors and watch Brazil v Costa Rica, so I popped up to the farmland at Langley Vale, home to a wonderful arable flora. I didn't stay all that long and mostly checked the edge of the field where Field Gromwell (below) grows. It is still doing well, with maybe 100+ plants along the 100m section that I checked. It is aways worth checking the fields by Nohome Farm, where a profusion of flower is almost a certainty. Today's display was dominated by Ox-eye Daisy (top).

This morning I met up with local botanist Peter Wakeham to partake in what amounted to a spot of plant 'twitching'. The farmland at Langley Vale had once again come up trumps, with two species of local (and national) rarity having recently been found by the eagle-eyes of Dennis Skinner. Before we made our way to these newly discovered gems, Peter showed me a couple of Night-flowering Catchfly plants that he had come across last week, in a field corner where they had not been seen before. They included one highly robust, fully-flowered specimen, that had a mixture of open and closed flowers. Both are pictured above. These flowers were also strongly pink, the Langley plants being normally coloured white. Our first target was nearby - a single statuesque Jersey Cudweed (below). Although a coloniser of 'nearby' London streets, how this individual made it to a chalky field on the Surrey downs is anybody's guess. Ground-pine (below) is becoming exceedingly...

Night-flowering Catchfly - hanging on in a field ear-marked for tree planting Catmint - just the one plant where many appeared three years ago Cut-leaved Dead-nettle, widely distributed across the farm Quinoa - remnant of game cover, alongside plenty of Millet Another alien, one that I'm calling Common Amaranth Dwarf Mallow, understated and one of my favourites

Elegant Tern at Pagham Harbour? Red-footed Falcon at Frensham Common? Squacco Heron at Dungeness? Nah... why not be perverse and stay local, you never know what you might find. And find I did - maybe not headline grabbing birds like those above, but species that got my juices flowing... Scarlet Pimpernel (blue form and maybe the ssp foemina) This is a 'normal' blue form, overlapping 'full' petals, shortish sepals Putative foemina, showing petals that do not overlap, are not as 'full', with seemingly longer sepals ssp foemina is meant to be smaller and slighter - these do look it to me compared to the red Pimpernels I have posted these images on a couple of botanical Facebook groups and emailed my trusted Surrey botanical contacts, but so far nobody has commented. Feel free to do so if you have any thoughts! Seen on farmland at Langley Vale, Surrey. Yellow-legged Clearwing The lawn was mowed, the sun was out and I thought "Why not put ...

The grey, wet murk of the past few days had finally sodded off and ND&B-land found itself basking in a low, blinding sun. Out came the bins, on went the ruck-sack and I hot-footed it up to Epsom and Walton Downs for a mornings aimless wander. I needn't have taken the bins as the birding was dire. However, as befitting a winter's morning playing at being spring, I sought out a patch of Green Hellebore that is present in a small wood on the lower slopes of Walton Downs. Only a couple of flowers were open (above) with most of the small population a little way off from flowering (below). The Woodland Trust seem to have upped the ante in the creation of their Millennium Woodland on parts of the downland farm fields ( click here to find out more about this project ). Piles of posts and plastic tubing were lying in strategic positions, but the dead give-away were a number of posters along the public footpaths, inviting volunteers to come along for tree-planting sessions la...