Strange sounds

I swear I was woken up to the sound of a calling peregrine falcon the other morning - having heard the distinct call, closely followed by the aforementioned bird chasing a pigeon over our heads in Krakow, I recognised the sound. Bit odd for it to be calling in a quiet Salisbury suburb at 6am!

If it was a peregrine then it is further proof of this species' continued expansion and population recovery. They have moved into urban areas with much success, utilising the cliff-like walls of buildings for nesting sites, and catching other birds that pass through on their migrations, high above settlements. Indeed, analysis of prey remains in urban nests has turned up surprising revelations, including woodcock, not an urban species at all. It just goes to show an awful lot is happening above our heads when we're catching a few zs!

That evening was also the first that I heard my resident tawnies calling again - not the 'to-woo' but the high-pitched screechy 'twe-wit'. According to Wikipedia (!), now is the time of year when young disperse to find territories- so perhaps the resident pair are asserting their claim to this patch, or the young are trying it on!

This week also saw the culmination of this year's fruit and veg harvest - after a reasonable crop of garlic bulbs, and a very disappointing half a raspberry, my Victoria plum tree (planted nearly 3 years ago) has finally produced fruit. Although, as you will see from the picture, it was a very limited crop! It was very nice though - fingers crossed for more next year. My garden does, on the other hand, have a very rich invertebrate population, which has attacked all garden plants and fruit bushes/trees. I like to think I'm doing my bit for wildlife through my almost-impossible garden!

Three butterflies of two species

That was the outcome of the Big Butterfly Count in my garden last Sunday, on the last day of Butterfly Conservation's 'citizen science' initiative. Not bad for 15 minutes on a cloudy and not-terribly-warm day. That was two large whites and a meadow brown, the latter spent the entire 15 minutes on one of my buddleias, thus demonstrating their value as a nectar source. In the sun, I have seen gatekeepers, small tortoiseshells and brimstones flitting by as well, so not bad for a little forgotten corner consisting of a near-vertical slope and a small patch of brambles (lovingly tended for this year's crop).

Later that day I headed out for the customary Sunday afternoon walk, back to Grovely Woods again. I've covered this part of the Wilton estate in previous posts, but it's a very handy local patch, with many permutations of loops to be walked. It's quite difficult to get lost (even for me!), as most of the forestry tracks in this mixed plantation woodland always come back to the main track 'First Broad Drive' through the wood. Lined with magnificent beeches, and stretching off into the distance, it makes for a very good yomp indeed! We took a side track off and found ourselves in a new area we hadn't been to before, along a path seemingly running parallel with the main drive, passing through a band of ancient woodland - a change from the dark depths of the conifers.

Tomorrow I'm hosting Sunday lunch, so the afternoon walk - if we can stir ourselves - will likely be off to Old Sarum again.

Work and play!

So one of the benefits of my role managing a team in Dorset is that this includes National Nature Reserve (NNR) staff, in particular, those that manage the Axmouth to Lyme Regis Undercliffs NNR.

For those of you unfamiliar (I was!), this is a stunning stretch of the Jurassic World Heritage Site coast from Axmouth to Lyme Regis (taking in the world-famous Monmouth Beach ammonite pavement). The undercliffs themselves are a series of constantly slipping blocks of clay. sand and chalk, creating amazing ravines, micro-habitats and rock formations, but making for dangerous walking. Indeed, one part of the south west coast path is still shut here. It's certainly an experience having a guided tour by the NNR staff, with the chosen route yesterday taking in a couple of ascents by short lengths of rope!

It has beautiful views of the coast and turquoise sea, with pockets of extremely diverse chalk grassland and moist fern-rich woodland.

The other end of the reserve at Lyme Regis plays host to the most accessible fossil-hunting stretch, including the ammonite pavement, where you walk on hundreds of these ancient fossils - quite spectacular. As a fossil hunter myself, this trip combined work and play! Last weekend it held the first ever fossilblitz (like a bioblitz but with fossils!) recording over a 1000 records - a great way to get the community and visitors involved.

Walking away stress

This week was the first mentally-tough week in my new job, for a variety of rather boring reasons. And being cooped up in the office at Blandford (which, as you may recall, is on an industrial estate with nowhere to walk) on Monday and Wednesday had me crying out for a bit of the outdoors!

So after work on Wednesday I managed to squeeze in a short walk along Martin Down - one of the good things about my role, is that more frequent commuting to Dorset means I pass right by the NNR.

Perhaps I was just in the mood to enjoy being distracted by anything, but the rosebay willowherb - a very common ruderal plant - was present in stunning pink banks of colour along the Bokerley Dyke, contrasting against the warm ochres of the swaying upright brome grass. I had managed to pick a break in the rainstorms, but the ominous clouds made for a great background, and perhaps mirrored my mood when I started the walk!

Partway along, picking my way through knapweed and marjoram, providing an accompanying scent to my walk, I met one of the local farmers who was checking the sheep whilst the stockman was on holiday - always nice to chat to a like-minded person, out enjoying the countryside.

So, after a quick yomp of 30 minutes or so, I returned to the carpark somewhat refreshed, having mulled over and reflected on the week so far, and hopefully approaching the next day with renewed vigour.

The advantages of getting lost, and other stories

Continuing the theme of butterflies, last Sunday we headed out to Bentley Wood, in the hope of one again seeing the silver-washed fritillary spectacle. Last year they were just amazing - so many of these huge bright orange butterflies flitting through the rides and glades. This year, the weather wasn't quite as good (gusty and a bit cloudy) but it makes a nice walk anyway, so we thought we'd give it a go.

Bentley Wood is a large area of SSSI woodland - mostly conifer plantation, it has remnant areas of ancient woodland, lines of gnarled oaks, and the network of rides and glades makes it one of the top places in the country for spotting a wealth of butterflies, including purple emperors.

Now, I never usually visit my local haunts with a map, being familiar with the various loops we use. However, on this occasion, we both remarked that we had not been up this path before and set off down it. It did not take us where we thought it was going to go, winding its way through conifer plantation instead of being a straight track. Nonetheless, we found ourselves at another carpark - useful to know to explore this other part of the wood. At this point we felt we had better retrace our steps a bit, then took a path that we hoped would link up with one of the forestry tracks.

We found ourselves climbing over various stiles and passing through kissing gates, emerging into a wide meadow area with the path lined with ancient old oaks along the old Anglo-Saxon earth boundary bank. Beautiful flowers and butterflies surrounded us, including betony in the meadows, although no silver-washed fritillaries. The path took us to a confluence whereupon we thought the track looked familiar - this turned out to be incorrect but we persevered and found ourselves along another forestry track that definitely looked familiar this time! We set off in one direction, only for me to realise that we had already passed a particular earth bank before, which meant we were heading away from the carpark. Finally, we knew where we were! A short retracing of steps and we were back at the car, and next time we'll come a bit more prepared to explore this large area we weren't even aware of before.

And yesterday, on a day off, I decided to venture further afield to Kimmeridge Bay in Dorset to drink in the azure blue sea, amazing fossils and landscape, including a spot of underwater photography in the rockpools - beautiful!

Butterfly time

It's amazing how quickly the environment can change - barely two weeks ago I was up on Martin Down marvelling at the orchids and waiting on the butterflies to burst out with the knapweed. I went back last Sunday, and after a 'scorchio' period during the week, all of the fragrant orchids have withered, but the knapweed is out and with it a whole host of butterflies.

Most were marbled whites, but the dark green fritillaries were also making an appearance - I always feel that they're a bit too exotic-looking to belong here. Actually, I feel we're pretty lucky with all our butterflies!

I was out attempting to keep the plants in the garden from completely dessicating this morning, and with the privet hedge in flower, together with the wallflowers, it was abuzz with activity. Lots of meadow browns but also heaps of small tortoiseshells - absolutely beautiful and it only required a little effort to get the garden in order. I need more flowers now but what with the lack of rain, many have - poor lobelias :(

Orchids everywhere

Yes, it's orchid time (well, actually, slightly overdue) so I headed off to Martin Down for a fix.

Typically, as soon as I stepped out of the car, it started to rain, but thankfully the floristic spectacle made this seem inconsequential. It was truly amazing - one of the best years I've seen in a long while - carpets of orchids and cloudy drifts of dropwort, together with various hawkbits, vetches and thyme.

I was lucky enough to not only see the beautiful bright pink pyramidal orchid, together with tonnes of common spotted orchids, but also many fragrant orchids with their delicate scent not dampened by the rain, together with one magnificent specimen of greater butterfly orchid.

At the moment we're still in the 'yellow season' of flowers - i.e. the hawkbits and various vetches (horseshoe, birds foot trefoil, kidney vetch), but the knapweed is on the cusp of emerging, bringing with it an explosion of butterfly life, including the amazing dark green fritillary.

Although the rain meant I didn't get to see many butterflies (apart from those disturbed by me walking!), a brief foray up to Cockey Down yesterday afternoon more than made up for it.

This is a small SSSI of chalk downland above Laverstock on the edge of Salisbury, owned and managed by the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. You pass through a small area of open access land called Laverstock Down to get to it, which was alive with butterflies - meadow brown, small heath and lots of marbled whites - a taste of things to come.

Emerging onto the SSSI, I looked back towards the Cathedral spire, over rolling countryside of ripening arable crops. The down itself had an excellent display of flowers again. There are two basic types of chalk grassland - CG2 (short) and CG3 (longer with a grass called Upright Brome frequent). Martin Down is a combination of both, but with more areas of CG3. Cockey Down is mostly CG2, with carpets of thyme, squinancywort, birds foot trefoil, together with taller spikes of ladies bedstraw and fragrant and pyramidal orchids, all alive with marbled white and small heath butterflies fighting each other for territories.

This largely made up for a week stuck inside various offices - although there was a notable and surprising encounter with wildlife in the form of a pyramidal orchid spotted on a verge whilst standing outside the office in Blandford during a fire drill!