Hoary Ragwort, Senecio erucifolius

This was a tentative ID, impossible to definitely confirm, on a plant on the path in the meadow on the path leading down to East Lock.

Pointed lobes on the stem leaves at least and quite cottony on the underside of the leaves suggested this ID.

Most importantly, the outer bracts are nearly half as long as the long inner bracts, not less than a quarter, so definitely Hoary Ragwort!

The flowers however seemed a golden yellow (at least when drying out) rather than a clear pale yellow, so PERHAPS this might indicate that it could be Common Ragwort yet again - I just don't believe that this is a good indicator.

Geranium species

I looked at the Geranium species along the Access trail which I think I had classified as G. dissectum in the past. I toyed today with this ID, thinking this plant to be G. columbinum, the long stalked cranesbill. However a quick use of the hand-lens indicated glandular hairs on the old style at least. The fruits are also hairy.

There is also plenty of G. dissectum around already - its extremely common as an arable field weed in the Oil Seed Rape fields on the Fairlawne Estate, where I feel it presents very differently.

Winter Cress, Barbarea

The Fairlawne field just before the Cricket Bat Willow plantation has thousands of a Barbarea plant on it, about 25 - 30 cm high.

The fruit \are curved initially but appear to straighten up and also become more appressed when mature.

The styles may lengthen slightly as the fruit mature, but the longest one I measured was still no more than 2 mm long. Equally the longest fruit I have measured so far was no more than 40 mm, (4 cm).The pedicel was stou, definitely not more slender than the fruits themselves.

The flowers were about 5 mm when measured across, with the petals about twice the length of the sepals,

The uppermost leaves were quite lobed at the base, so it is unlikely to be B. vulgaris or B. stricta.

The leaves tasted quite sour, so it is unlikely to be B. verna.

Crepis vesicaria var. taraxacifolia. The Beaked Hawkweed.

Ecology: A usually biennial herb, sometimes annual or perennial, of lightly mown or grazed grassland on roadsides, lawns, railway banks and in waste places. Lowland.

Status: Neophyte

Trends: In Britain, this species was first recorded in 1713 in Kent. It spread rapidly, reaching the west coast of Ireland in 1896. It is now the commonest yellow composite in flower on roadsides in S. Britain and S. Ireland in May. It has failed to spread far into N. England, and the first authentic record from Co. Durham was not made until 1951. There are many more records in W. England, Wales and Ireland than in the 1962 Atlas.

World Distribution: Native of the Mediterranean region and S.W. Asia.

Found on the A26 verge opposite the college entrance. Look for the basal purple flushing, the orange striping on the outside of the petals, and the general downiness of the plant.

Dene Park, a bit muddy

Just one circuit today. The track was still somewhat muddy, and a very interesting "flower-like" fungus on the ground on a wet section of the track itself, with whitish tips to the dark petals! On the far triangle, the Lesser Spearwort, Ranunculus flammula, is still in flower.

Smooth Hawksbeard, Crepis capillaris, with fairly hairless arrow-shaped stem leaves, and no basal leaves visible.

Perforate St Johns Wort, Hypericum perforatum, along the Knights Park track, along with Long-leaved (?) Dock and the flower heads of the Broad-leaved Helleborine. The St. Johns Wort had narrow pointed sepals shorter than the petals with no stalked black glands, quite pointy, but not as lanceolate as those of the square-stemmed st Johns Wort and there were a few tiny black dots on the underside margins of both the petals and the leaves. There were tiny translucent spots in the rather undeveloped leaves, but these were not very obvious, and I had to look quite closely to be sure. The stem was roundish, but perhaps oval in cross-section (the two raised lines?).

No sign of any Purple Hairstreaks, a few quite well marked Speckled Woods, but the weather wasn't brilliant.

Leybourne Lakes

What a pity I didn't have a camera with me today.

Nice to see Purple Loosestrife, Fleabane and Birds-foot Trefoil in full flower. I checked on the details of the Birds-foot Trefoil, Lotus corniculatus, as it is such a common but interesting plant, and also I could compare it with the Narrow-Leaved Birds-foot Trefoil, Lotus glaber (tenuis), which I had seen at Oare Marshes the day before. 

In Rose, the text refers to the low, creeping, more or less hairless character of the plant, and the solid stems of the native form. The sepal teeth are clearly upright at the bud stage, and I believe at a later stage (the mature flower - might also be worth checking in fruit?) when you look at the overall shape of the teeth, you see that the upper two teeth do not continue to difurcate at the tips - they should be near parallel, or even converge, giving an overall "obtuse angle" at the base.

Whetsted Gravel Pits, 29/06/2014.

Salix viminalis hybrid?

Went back to the probable Salix viminalis (L.) x ? hybrid by the gate along by the newly planted birch) today and took a photo of some retrieved leaves. These may not be entirely characteristic as the tree has been pollarded in the recent past, so the shoots are perhaps a bit sucker-like.

My best guess is that it is a hybrid with Salix caprea (L.), known as Salix x sericans Tausch ex A. Kerner or Salix x laurina in the older version of the Kent flora. However it could be the hybrid with S. cinerea

This is a cklose up of the leaves, two upper sides and one lower (the topmost leaf). There appears to be fairly strong reticulate venation patterns (this is what seems to me to be giving a "Goat Willow" look to the upperside of the leaf, and what we hope is a fairly tomentellous underside.

Here is a slightly enlarged view, again showing the "Goat-Willow" appearance of the leaf. The insect damage could perhaps be early Capsid Bug.

Other clues are a largely yellow-green sometimes glossy (lustrous) twig, a slightly recurved, somewhat undulate margin to the leaf, no obvious striae. I could see no stipules at all - possibly they are not noticeable at this time of year?  I am not sure how much before the leaves that the catkins appeared, I need to double-check next year. , The female catkins are of close to 5 cm in length, and are quite numerous clustered towards the ends of the twigs

Lady Bagots Drive

Sycamore Leafhopper, characteristic colour pattern of late instar nymphs

Yellow Pimpernel,

Woodruff, note forward pointing prickles on leaves

Rosebush

Red Kite, Buzzard and Kestrel over the village/car park. Chaffinches, Blackbirds, Willow Warbler, Chiff-chaffs, Song-Thrush, unidentified birdsong, possible Dunnock, Wren.

Creeping and Field Buttercup, Greater and Lesser Spearwort, Crowfoot, Heath Bedstraw, more Ragged Robin than you could throw a stick at, CatsEar, Red Campion, Sheeps Sorrel, Wild Strawberry, Marsh(?) Orchid, Sallows and another possible (Eared?) Willow, Rowan, Bilberry, Rhododendron, Ash, Heather, Wood Avens, Hawthorn, Lady's Mantle, Birds-Foot Trefoil, a Trefoil, Tufted Vetch, Meadow Vetchling, Eyebright, Herb Robert, Cow Parsley, Speedwells, Brooklime?, Marsh Thistle, Smooth Sowthistle, goodness knows what else.

Painted Lady.

Large Red Damselflies, Emperor Dragonfly. 

Freshwater East, Bosherston, St Govans and West Angle Bay

Sea Plantain, Buckshorn Plantain, Kidney Vetch, .

Walk round the coast from Skerryback Cottages

Pignut, Queen Anne's Lace, Herb Robert, Ivy, Cut-leaved Cranesbill, Red Campion, Birds-Foot Trefoil, Meadow Vetchling, Kidney Vetch, Smooth Hawksbeard, Catsear, Borage, Japanese(?) Rose, Sweet Chestnut, Ash, Sycamore, Oak. Wood Avens, Blackthorn, Hawthorn, Gorse, Red Clover, White Clover, Common Vetch, Trefoil, Water Dropwort,

Azure(?) Damselfly, a Chaser sp.

Common Blue Butterfly, Speckled Wood

Llyn Brenig

Off to Llyn Brenig reservoir, where there were good common wildflowers, very few birds, and not much at all in the way of insects!

I was very glad to see more Smooth Hawksbeard, Crepis capillaris, along the roadsides, having identified it at Bod Petrual yesterday. This is the Hawksbeard I have most commonly seen in the past I think, and is said to be the only common one with smooth rather hairless leaves and stems. The involucre by contrast with the rest of the plant, is rather bristly, as with most Hawksbeards! The first thing to note about Hawksbeards is the distinct double row of involucral bracts, the outer ones either adpressed or spreading.

NOTE - in retrospect I would have liked to be more careful with my ID, as I feel it is potentially easy to confuse with the Marsh Hawksbeard, Crepis paludosa, although I think that is even more bristly on the involucre. These two species are most easily separated in fruit, and the relatively short achenes that I picked out the following day, did appear slightly curved, suggesting the Smooth Hawksbeard, Crepis capillaris. The Marsh Hawksbeard, Crepis paludosa, together with the Beaked Hawksbeard, Crepis vesicaria, are two of the few other species that I am ever likely to come across in Wales - together with the largely introduced Rough Hawksbeard, Crepis biennis.

If I look further into these I really do need another excellent Loupe lens! However even I was able to see that this plant branched from near to the base, eliminating the Marsh Hawksbeard, Crepis paludosa, from consideration, which only branches half way up. Another fairly obvious feature was the adpressed second/outer row of involucral bracts, a feature I believe only shared between these two of the commoner species, so if it isn't paludosa, it really should be capillaris! The styles should be yellow rather than blackish-green. A further difference is that the pappus of capillaris is a flexible pure white, while that of paludosa is a brittle yellowish or brownish-white, rather like a member of the Hieracium genus, with which it seems intermediate. Much less clear was any orange tinging to the outer florets, which may or may not be a feature of this species, among others.

The flowers are about 1 - 1.5 cm in diameter, but can be as much as 2.5 cm across. The involucre is generally wider at the base than the middle. The stem leaves are small and lance-shaped, with few lobes, apart from the two spreading basal lobes, that seem to gradually develop. The BRC Plant Atlas points out that it is a ruderal, and morphologically variable. The basal leaves, while present should be much more greatly lobed than the stem leaves, almost filigree, but I didn't see any of these!

These are the upper stem leaves, with their arrow-shaped backward-pointing lobes at the base.

I can compare this plant with the one tentatively identified at Cliffe Pools on the 6th September 2014. The colouring of the outer florets appears different, and the degree of darkening of the bracts, but the stem is similarly channelled. Also noted on Warkworth Beach, 26th June, 2015. The degree of variation is extreme, making it "polymorphic"!

I have already eliminated the Northern Hawksbeard, Crepis mollis, from the possibles, as it has not been found in Clwyd since 2000, and in only one tetrad then. A perennial with a short rhizome, it has a longer, 20-ribbed achene. http://www.bsbi.org.uk/Crepis_mollis_species_account.pdf. Worth keeping an eye out for though!

Bod Petrual

A nice walk around this Forestry Commission site, with some buzzards seen, and three wrens heard. Some different passerine calls were heard overhead and in the trees, but nothing I could distinguish for sure, except one Great Spotted Woodpecker that flew over the path, calling.

The Hypericums along the pathside all had black streaky lines on the petals, which, despite the key to the genus in Francis Rose, makes them Hypericum maculatum, or perhaps possibly the hybrid Hypericum x desetangsii. I think I need to look lower down the stem for the square section, and most other things seem to fit, translucent veins but no spots in the leaves, no stalked black spots on the sepals, . However the sepals might seem to be not quite blunt enough, according to the BSBI crib sheet diagrams.

There were Spiny Sowthistle and one clump of Perennial Sowthistle, a Hawksbeard, Catsear, Common Birds-Foot Trefoil, Meadow Vetchling, Gorse, Lesser Spearwort, Creeping Buttercup, Field Buttercup, Upright Hedge Parsley, Bramble, Greater Sallow, Birch, Rowan. Lesser Knapweed was nearer the car park. 

Oare before the torrential rain

At the front of the East Flood there were a couple of Ringed Plover with the larger flocks of Golden Plover, resplendent in their black and gold.

Here is the best photo I got of the Ringed Plover, Charadrius hiaticula. The rounded cheek pattern is clear, and I am fairly convinced of the stout bill, but rather less so of the orange as opposed to pink legs!

There was a Meadow Pipit, with very clearly pink legs, feeding on the mud close to the road:

A Little Stint (on the left) was feeding and chasing a Dunlin around a muddy spit fairly close in,

Leybourne Lakes

Common Blue Butterflies were starting to roost on the flowerheads in the meadow, but the first butterfly I saw roosting was actually a Brown Argus, with the two spots vertically, rather than horizontally arranged:

and this is a male Common Blue,

and another, from the upperside,

There were some fascinating Rose Sawfly larvae, the more orange species, Arge ochropus, massacring the leaves on the wild roses in the meadow.

Dene Park

There weren't many birds around at all in the heat, but I thought I heard a Buzzard calling in the area of the Scambles. The Purple Helleborine is nearly over its flowering period now, and I think I might try to mark the position of this year's flowering spikes. The big spike on the West side of Path 2 is just by a big oak, 100 m from the nearest tip of the triangle at Ringlet Corner. I thought again that I should do something about the Rhododendron and Laurel

The Lesser Spearwort is flowering well in its small regular patch along the dark path, but not the wettest part of the path, and there is a lot of Broad-leaved Willowherb along the dark path as well. The Goldenrod is just about out as well. If anything I think it may have spread a little since last year. Another good yellow is Yellow Pimpernel.

In amongst the Large-flowered Willowherb there was what looked like Purple Loosestrife as well, by the path through Knights Wood just before Sooty Corner. I also saw the clump of Wood Sage along the return path.

I was glad to see some Eyebright in flower on the path through Knights Wood, and also along Path 2. Also seen were Enchanters' Nightshade, Upright Hedge Parsley, Mint, Self-heal, Common Figwort, Hedge Woundwort, Field Scabious, Common Fleabane, Marsh Thistle, Ragwort, Common Nettle, Bramble, Agrimony, Ribwort and also all three of Broom, Perforated St Johns Wort and Woodbine in fruit. There is also a resurgence of Creeping Buttercup, Wood Avens and Herb Robert, together with Coltsfoot in leaf. The Angelica inflorescences were attracting large numbers of flies and wasps.

Samphire Hoe

Wheatears!

This bird was seen to the West of the larger pond, having flown over from the seawall fenceline. I think it is a first winter bird, due to the black centred-feathers on the shoulder and the hint of an auburn cheek - although I worry about the way the photo-processing can alter the hues according to their settings!

There were plenty of chalkland flowers around, including this Melilot, which I think is likely to be the Tall Melilot, Melilotus altissimus, rather than the Ribbed Melilot, Melilotus officinalis, although it is very difficult to be sure. The flowering periods are similar, 6 - 8 for Tall, as opposed to 6 - 9 for Ribbed, so there is no help there!

A biennial or short-lived perennial herb occurring in disturbed grassland and on roadsides, field-borders and waste places, the Tall Melilot has been in the UK since the 16th Century, and is quite well distributed across S and C England. Its original native distribution in Europe is now very difficult to check due to its widespread introduction asa fodder crop, but is definitely an introduction to the UK. The standard, wings and keel all appear to be the same length, the raceme is really quite dense, with a good gold colour to the flowers, and the upper leaflets do tend to be parallel sided, pointing to this plant being Tall Melilot rather than Ribbed:

These are the pods, which are slightly hairy, and clearly do not appear to be strongly ridged as in the quite similar Ribbed Melilot. I think that Rose's suggestion of persistent styles may not be totally reliable, as this is the one character that does not seem to hold for all the pods on these plants, although not the ones in this particular photo. They should ultimately ripen black, not brown, and with two seeds per pod rather than one.

and here is the Common Sea Lavander, Limonium vulgare, with its yellow anthers.

and Common Centaury, found occasionally across the Hoe,

Here you see the lower-lying bifold stigma off to one side of the flower tube, and the higher-lying spirally-listed anthers of the 5 stamens:

Cliffe Pools

Walked up to Flamingo Pool where there were dozens of Great Black-backed and Black-headed Gulls roosting, together with a possible Whimbrel (very short bill, something of a central forehead stripe), Oystercatchers, Little Egrets, Coot and Great Crested Grebes.

At the start of the path there were perhaps a hundred Goldfinches on the bushes by the side of the track. I could hear Little Grebes calling across the central pool, where there were Redshanks and Lapwings roosting on the islands, and some Coot in the water.

Along the path I think I identified Bastard Cabbage, Rapistrum rugosum, with its clusters of small pale yellow flowers leaving behind long strings along the stems of double-chambered fruit, with the top segments abruptly narrowed into (0.8) 1 - 3.5 (5) mm styles, reminiscent of Chianti bottles. Rose has an amazing clear description - "Fruit with two joints. The upper globular, 3 mm wide, with a long beak like an old Chianti bottle, lower joint like a stout stalk".

Stace has it as subspecies linneanum with long thin appressed pedicels (1.5 - 5 x 0.3 - 0.7 mm) and seedless lower fruit segments. He also states that the fruits are also very variable in hairiness and degree of sculpturing, and these were not noticeably hairy.

It is an erect but well-branched annual, to 1 m., said to be hispid at least below. The leaves are dentate and a little fleshy, and in these plants today quite grey, possibly due to mildew. It flowers May to September.

The plant is introduced/naturalised from S. Europe, casual in waste and arable land, on tips, waysides and open grassland, frequent and increasing in C. and S. Britain. It has been introduced to N. America and it is classed as a noxious weed in Texas at least. It seems to smother other seedlings with its basal rosettes in the early phases but these do die off, as they have in these plants at this stage.

Lots of Bristly Oxtongue and other late summer flowers out.

Lakenheath Fen - The Reserve

Plenty of Ruddy Darters along the track towards Fen View. I do not THINK I saw any Common Darters, which was quite a surprise to me!

Here is an immature male rather, perhaps, than a female, I think, on balance. However, this is just based on my impression of the tail shape:

It is definitely a Ruddy Darter, as it has the frons side line, the blackish T-mark back from the collar, and entirely black legs, and more solid black markings along the middle of S8-9. I think my memory was was that it was also quite small, with a fairly short abdomen. 

Warkworth beach

Paula and I escaped the house mid-afternoon to take a walk along the beach - and I was hoping to catch a few birds and plants as well, it being a bit breezy and overcast to hope for too many insects. Monty rolled in some muck on the beech, and we had to get him to go in and out of the waves to make him compatible with civilisation again, but all was eventually well.

Black-headed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Sandwich Tern, Shelduck, Mallard, Greylag Geese, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Meadow Pipits, Linnets, Reed Bunting, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler.

Harebell, Hop Trefoil, Common Vetch, Bush Vetch, Red Clover, White Clover, Black Medick, Common Restharrow, Burnet Rose, unknown Speedwell, Smooth Hawksbeard, Autumn Hawkbit, Common Daisy, Thrift, Yarrow, Mouse-ear Hawkbit, Rough Chervul, Marram Grass, Cocksfoot, Gorse, Goat Willow, Ash, Sycamore, dried out orchid flowering spikes,