NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

A last dip into my recent stay in Cornwall, via the medium of photography... Beautiful Demoiselle - the name says it all Little Egret - the Ganel Estuary played host to several Ravens were present in good numbers along the clifftops between Porth and Mawgan Porth Corn Buntings were breeding in the fields at Whipsiderry There is something of the 'art installation' about this group of Wild Carrot plants

Breakfast was taken to the accompaniment of c2,400 Manx Shearwaters heading SSW, with, a few hours later, a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull through. The afternoon was spent on the cliff-tops between Porth and Bre-Pen, with the highlights being breeding Corn Buntings, more Corn Marigold in set-aside, both Wall Brown and Dark Green Fritillary, plus a dribble of Swifts and Swallows south, all set in spectacular scenery. I couldn’t resist taking the photo of this group of Wild Carrot, all flowering at different times and in subtle variations of colour.

Last day of April. Cold. Dull. Wet. Very wet. What better antidote to all of this weather misery than to bathe in the memories of those warm, colourful days of summer with this offering of colour via the mass-flowering of plants, all mostly from a single species. They'll soon be here again... Kidney Vetch, Banstead Downs Wild Carrot, Langley Bottom Common Poppy, Langley Bottom Bluebell, Margery Wood

It has hardly got light here in Banstead today, a stygian gloom more reminiscent of mid-winter. But, after an almost full day spent decorating (well 'full' as far as I'm concerned), I hot-footed it up onto Langley Vale Farm for a spot of botanising. I chose to check the fields at the base of the slope close to Nohome Farm. It was all quite pleasant. The Wild Carrot was wonderful, as the two images above show. This field has been chosen by the Woodland Trust as a 'wildflower' meadow, and what pops up here is a mixture of species that were here before and those courtesy of seeding. I'm sure the Wild Carrot is a mixture of both sources. Although cloudy, it was muggy, so a few butterflies were on the wing. Highlight - by a country mile - was a single Clouded Yellow (top image), my first this year. I was also pleased to find a robust Round-leaved Fluellen (above and below), a brute of a plant, nothing like the weedy stems I usually find. Last but...

When nature does 'big' there is little that can beat it. A large flock, a hillside smothered in flower, a spectacular sky, each of them can reduce us to an open-mouthed and humbled observer. I have been lucky enough to have witnessed several instances of this during 2016, two of which I share here. Both are botanically themed and both were close to home. The UK is blessed with some of the largest populations of the Bluebell in the world. Locally we have several woods that are home to literally hundreds of thousands (if not a millions) of them. Each year we go along to see them, but to get the timing right, when most of the plants are in good flower, can be hit or miss. In an early year they can peak in late-April, in a late it will be mid-May. To get it wrong is to find plenty yet to open, or a show that is sullied by browning flowers that have gone over. This year however, we timed it to perfection, and it was a good year for them to boot. The following images are from Marge...

Langley Vale Farm turned on the spectacle again today, with the No Home field an unbroken sea of Wild Carrot (above). A few weeks ago it was a blizzard of Ox-eye Daisy, a few weeks before that it bled with Red Campion (below). Such expanse of colour is truly memorable - and, unlike the industrial quantity colour hits of crops such as Rape or Flax, these wild flower meadows are more of a natural artistic statement. Last year this same field was dominated by Common and Opium Poppies, and they are much reduced in number this time round. I wonder what will flower in profusion next year? The Woodland Trust are behind this field turning on the botanical spectacle, as they laid down a seed mix in 2014. Sometimes an insect stops you in your tracks. This afternoon, at Gatton Park, this hoverfly, Volucella pellucens , did exactly that.