Darland Banks East

It is many years since I've been onto the Eastern half of Darland Banks, so I made the effort to stop at Hoath Close today, and approach the steep downland slope from the East side, and this side does seem to have some different plants in it. You get equally good views across the green gap towards Capstone - its such a valuable lung for Gillingham.

A very nice plant to see a little way along the downland was the Blue Fleabane, Erigeron acer (L.), with its greatly reduced ray florets - remarkably pretty! It is also known as the Bitter Fleabane, and has the Latin synonym Erigeron acris, also from Linneaus.

It is an erect hairy annual or biennial about 3 to 15 inches tall with many linear-lanceolate unstalked leaves running up the upright reddish stem, unbranched until the panicle of inflorescences is reached. I didn't see the described basal rosette of stalked leaves.

The ray florets are only just longer than the yellow disc florets, pink-purple, narrow, erect. The bracts appear to me to be similar in shape, neatly pointed, but in rows of differing lengths, each row clearly overlapping the one above. Within a row they do NOT overlap. Each flower head could only just have been the described diameter of 12 - 18 mm as described in Rose, who may have got it from CTW - I would have said nearer 8 mm, and therefore as said to be less than 10mm in Luontoporti, the Finnish website! I need to go back with a ruler. The ring of white might perhaps be styles, but they could be "intermediate" florets, it is rather unclear. The flower heads themselves are held in a loose panicle of about three to half a dozen heads.

It is typically found on calcareous grassland in the UK and flowers from July to August, but is more broadly regarded as growing in rocky places and dry meadows in countries like Finland, where there are several subspecies known varying in factors such as hairiness, colour and number of inflorescences. It has a distribution that extends across to North America. In Kent it is well-known as a regular on this particular site, and I think found quite generally across the county.

Here is another head, this time just coming into fruit with each pappus joining together to appear as a strawy fuzz above the old disc florets. Stunning colour combination to our eyes!

The Yarrow was also looking good!

A very common plant at the top of the slopes was the Sainfoin, Onobrychis viciifolia, with its salmon pink flowers streaked with darker red.

White Hill Reserve

Trying out the camera settings when I climbed the hill to the reserve, I caught this honey bee on a Devil's Bit Scabious, Succisa pratensis.

I think this might be Common Rock-rose, Helianthemum nummularium, and something has been nibbling the edges of some of the leaves. There is a Brown Argus adult to the bottom right, but i don't think the damage is entirely typical of the Brown Argus caterpillar - but maybe its not too far off.

The Dogwood, Cornus sanguinea, was in full berry.

And the yew arils are coloured up as well:

There were a fair number of Carline Thistle, Carlina vulgaris, on the shallower soils at the top of the slope.

and I think this a Dwarf Thistle, Cirsium acaule - amazing tubular structure of the individual florets.

and quite a few possibly different "hawks" in flower, possibly different members of the Asteraceae.

One of the Guelder Rose plants was colouring up very well indeed!

There were fair numbers of Chalkhill Blues, Polyommatus coridon, on the reserve today, perhaps more up the hill than at the bottom. Here was a female that looked as though it was exploring laying an egg.

This is another female, settled on a fairly bare patch of chalk at the top of the hill, and in slightly better condition:

These quite bare patches are really interesting. If you look at the top photo above, you can seen a grey thallose lichen below the butterfly.

And here is a tough moss, partly dessicated, in the section below the nibbled plant.

This is another female with the fringes very much worn away, but otherwise I think recognizeable. The only really worrying thing is that I cannot see a white streak on the v4 of the rear underwing, so I cannot be sure that it is not a Common Blue:

This is a male Chalkhill Blue,

This is another male Chalkhill Blue:

and another:

and a close-up of another head:

Here on the other hand is apparently a worn but originally very blue form of the female Common Blue, Polyommatus icarus.

This is a suspected female, but definitely a Brown Argus from the rear underwing pattern of spots.


This is another Brown Argus, this time possibly a male:

I also came across this vicious looking Robber Fly:

Below Brenchley

I got to the viewpoint to the north of Brenchley and was very impressed. The whole of the Low Weald is spread out before you. Beyond it the Lower Greensand Ridge rises up in the far distance apparently along the whole length of the horizon. I drove about for a bit trying to find the footpaths until I found a pull-in on the side of Knowle Road below Knole Cottages, more or less in sight of the viewpoint. 

The land on the slope just here is arable and the footpath has not been fully maintained. The crop is almost weedless except in the grassed tramline tracks, there is no grassed headland here and virtually the only non-crop vegetation is in the actual ditches themselves. This is mainly Nettle, Willowherb, Hedge Bindweed, with a bit of Purple Loosestrife. 

The wood just uphill of the path had a buzzard circling low close by, calling regularly, and possibly roosting there, perhaps having had a nest this year. Marked on the map as Winsborough Wood, it looks as though it might have some useful habitat, a mix of woodland with a bit of rough grass, worth investigating at some stage. 

I passed the wood by for the moment.  The area is very quiet and peaceful, with some-one setting a bonfire in the garden of the White Cottage. I followed the ditches and then the marked footpath towards the White Cottage. There were a couple of walkers travelling in the other direction consulting the map to see where the footpath had gone. 

The path eventually finds its way through the garden of the White Cottage to Mile Oak Road. Mile End is a really nice tiny little hamlet with a super wooden sign. 

I walked along the quiet Knole Lane until I reached the footpath by Orchard Place Farm Fishing Ponds that leads north to Pearsons Green Road. This is a long well treed path passing between the ponds, even if the oaks are a bit scraggy. There in a junction I found what looked large enough to be an Emperor Dragonfly - it looked quite dark along the abdomen but I just saw a greenish hint to the side of the thorax - a female possibly. The path has been churned up by at least one horse - there is one in the paddock of Orchard Place Farm.

Pearsons Green Road leads to the East quickly back into Knole Road which turns back South through some fields of longer grass to either side. Oddly enough there was a CCTV warning sign. As I walked up the road I thought I heard a young woodpecker yakking in a dead tree along a fisheries track, and then I heard a young robin hungrily chitting for food to its parents in the excellent mixed hedgerows. I then walked past the Longbrooks development and then the junction with Knole Lane, to where the car is parked.

As I passed the junction opposite the very attractive gates of Trenches Farm, I was suddenly enveloped by a large group of long-tailed Tits and some Warblers (Chiffchaffs?) Calling gently to themselves, this was a magical moment as I stood still enough not to alarm the birds and I got great views as well as listening, for what seemed to be about two minutes. 

Overall I had walked about two and a half kilometres, see maps below.

Back at the car I greeted another dogwalker before heading off to Dene Park to complete my target with two quick circuits. No sign of Purple Hairstreaks in the cool of the evening today, despite some sunshine. 

Adonis Blue at Queendown

This afternoon was rather overcast and cool, and I arrived at Queendown Warren at about half past two, stating until just gone five. As I parked up at the island the prospects didn't look particularly promising but the first wildflower patch did have over a dozen Meadow Browns, so there was limited encouragement there. Then I came across three Brown Argus there, and so I thought things were looking up a little. The next flower patch had both Brown Argus and Common Blues in reasonable numbers, and so I moved down to the bottom of the slope and picked up more of the same.

Through the fence and along to the next flower patch closer to the far corner and I was coming across Chalkhill Blues as well, and then finally the Adonis Blue, concentrated in the far corner. Good numbers of Lycaenids by now, all tending to sun, nectar and roost. I was using ISO 200 and I was quite happy with the picture quality, particularly when I switched to AV mode to ensure a slightly better depth of field. However I always have to watch our for motion blurring, either camera or subject so I need to keep an eye on the exposure speed when in AV.

This was a photo of a Brown Argus, Aricia agestis, possibly a female, partly shielded by foliage.

I got some nice photos of the male Adonis Blues. I don't think I noticed any females - they are more difficult to spot!

This is an Adonis Blue head close-up showing something of the eye colouration, antennal insertion above the ye, forehead tuft and maxillary palps.

The Adonis Blue has undergone great population changes over the last few decades, as befits a butterfly with a single food plant with highly exacting environmental requirements at the northern extremity of its range! Populations crashed very badly in the 70s in the UK, said to be due to the terrific drought of '76 affecting its foodplant the Horseshoe Vetch - God bless Dennis Howell who finally ended it by getting appointed as Minister for Drought, at which point the heavens immediately opened, creating floods!

Perhaps we should be seeing butterflies as extremely flaky organisms, subject to regular extinction and recolonisation in a very highly dynamic system. If this is so, then we would probably have very few species in Great Britain compared to Europe.....well, do the maths as the Americans seem to almost continually say! And populations should have remarkable powers of recuperation - the Adonis Blue is not a great spreader, in fact one of the worst, but it is rather good at recuperation - one colony increased from less than 50 to 60,000 in five years! There is also a theory with some considerable degree of backup from DNA evidence, that the current British population only arrived from Europe in the 18th Century. Perhaps then butterflies are not really the organisms best suited to act as the environmental canaries in the mine, being rather over-responsive!

Future conservation measures might be more solidly focussed if we knew more of the ecology of the Horseshoe Vetch. I wonder if we could now encourage it to grow in more diverse parts of Queendown, where it was introduced by KWT in 2002, with a greater variety of soil depth. That might give more resilience to the Adonis Blue in different summers and with different grazing intensities. Then we may need to do something about its lack of mobility - carefully! It seems to be doing OK in Kent, partly because of the reintroductions at Queendown and Darland Banks.

There are some excellent websites including this one "Learn about Butterflies".

Dene Park damply

Got in my three circuits in the half-drizzle, and noted with pleasure both the Lesser Spearwort, Ranunculus flammula, and the Goldenrod, Solidago virgaurea, in flower along the back track by the Scambles. The Lesser Spearwort has a long flowering season (ideally I would check for the furrowed flower stalks) lasting from May to September, but the Goldenrod is only recently in flower, although its official season is July to September.

In a brief burst of dry half way round the first time I was delighted to see three or more Purple Hairstreak, on the oak I often look at by the far triangle along by Point Wood. I saw two of them again in a brief burst of warm sunshine on the same tree on the third circuit. Perhaps if I looked more at other trees more carefully I might see them more widely, but still they seem "thin on the ground" this year.

There were half a dozen Migrant Hawkers in the far triangle on the first stop, and four over the grass by the car park as I left, their wings twinkling against the back-drop of the setting sun. I didn't note any Southern Hawkers. All in all a nice late afternoon, before I set out on the Daubenton's survey by the River Medway this evening.

Dene Park on the run

Very quickly while doing my three circuits I saw a Green-veined White on the Knights Park track and two Meadow Browns at the main triangle, so was pleased to add these to my BBCS Kent records.

Above Five Oak Green

An overcast afternoon, not particularly warm, but not unpleasant, and a different feel to the countryside. I parked in the village hall car park (care, it may be locked in the evening if the hall is not in use) and walked into the centre of the village, where the footpath runs as a narrow ground-floor passageway between the cottages, a bit difficult to find.

The footpaths here are often fenced in, even when running alongside fields, which seems to me not overly restrictive, and with some advantages. Of course when the fencing isn't present, you get a bit more freedom to wander!

As you come out of the passage, the fenced and hedged path was very shady and ran alongside fruit trees to the East, and gardens to the West, eventually finding itself along a stream, that must feed in to the Alders Stream that leads eventually to the River Medway. After crossing the stream further South, the path finds itself alongside a field to the West, used for sheep grazing.

Then it gets to the small complex of houses at Brook Farm, where the fenced paths lead you very conveniently through the different properties out to the hop gardens between Brook Farm and Reeds Farm.

There was a hornet scraping wood off one of the older posts:

One the other side of the hop garden, there was an old run-down orchard with sheep grazing in it, maintained in its current condition I am sure with a Higher Level Stewardship Grant.

I found a Jay and heard a Green Woodpecker, which revel in old orchards like this one. The habitat is full of little niches, including hollow old branches like the one below.

This old stump has been protected presumably for habitat rather than horticultural reasons.

And this old fallen tree has been left, again for habitat enhancement:

The sheep also seem happy with their grazing habitat:

The autumn flowering plants included Redshank, Persicaria maculosa, aka Polygonum persicaria as I used to know it,