The Calestienne - limestone in Belgium

 

There's a narrow belt of limestone that wanders its way across the French/Belgian border that transforms the normally dull area into a beautiful, interesting landscape.  It's not quite the Ardennes but has hay meadows, floral hedgerows and roadsides, quaint villages and lovely rivers. Being limestone, there are also, of course, caves and gorges.

I only visited a small area from Chimay to Viroinval - the roads are lined with plants like valerian and sickle-leaved hare's-ear, as well as swathes of calciphile species like wild marjoram and wild basil.

Valerian 

Sickle-leaved hare's-ear is frequent

There's an excellent blog https://www.botanicaljourneys.com/index.html which describes some of the best sites in the area as well as further afield around Europe.  I was grateful for this information as I was able to find some little gems with little effort.

Some of the south-facing slopes were almost bare limestone, which gives the herbs a chance to thrive. 

Wall germander was profuse in places.

Straw foxglove was a surprise, although I'd previously seen it at Monkton chalk pit.

And this one stumped me for a while (I phoned a friend) - it's Vincetoxicum hirundinaria, commonly named white swallow-wort. Good for snake bite, apparently.

There's an active environmental strategy in place, promoted by the Walloon region. And plenty of information signs. Fauchage tardif means late mowing, on their roadside nature reserves.

Favourite plant on such a verge was downy woundwort, so fluffy!

Belges

My inspiration for a trip to the French/Belgian border was a throw-away comment on the Kent Butterflies Facebook page, where James said that his favourite place for butterflies is Viroinval.

I'd never heard of it but after a little research realised that it's just my kind of place.

There were not too many butterflies on the wing (just before the recent warm spell) but enough variety to be interesting.

 

Wood whites were frequent.

The area also has plenty of forest which immediately makes me think of purple emperors, but only white admirals were seen.

One lovely area of wet heath-like clearing had plenty of bugs of all kinds, and there was one unidentified brute of a butterfly that evaded the camera. And this fritillary which I tentatively identified as a marbled fritillary.

On the rocky limestone slopes were the first chalkhill blues of the season.

And while I was chasing more butterflies on a forest edge, I saw a refugium, lifted it up and saw my first ever smooth snake.

Regrettably, I heard no corncrakes, but the hay meadows seem to be a possible habitat for them.

Chimay - not just a beer

I stayed in a little town called Chimay in southern Belgium (Hainault) for a few days and was charmed. It's very quiet, just the right size, a couple of bars and restaurants, a church and a castle. And it's surrounded by the thin strip of limestone that makes the countryside look like Yorkshire, albeit with a far better flora and fauna.

This was the view from my garret:

Games are brought out into the town square each day, and there is a cracking board game shop with a mouth-watering selection of games for those who like that sort of thing.

And yes, there's an even more mouth-watering selection of beers..... 

Tourist information:

Short trips across the channel are still available from £99 from Aferry (but seemingly not from ferry companies direct) and Chimay is 2½ hours by road from the coast - with no tolls.

A Few Hours' Botanising on Barham Downs... 1861

A Few Hours' Botanising on Barham Downs, and about Broome Park, near Canterbury........ 

in 1861

One hundred and sixty-four years ago, 2nd July 1861, Alexander Irvine left London at about eight o'clock for a botanizing trip from Canterbury to Barham and beyond, leaving eight or nine hours for his researches, and ample time for his return.  It seems impolite not to take the opportunity to repeat this journey.

Spring comes to Hawkshill

 

All the hard work over the winter is now worthwhile - the Primroses on the crew-cut bank are the most obvious sign of spring, but chalk downland specialists are flourishing. Knapweeds, Wild Marjoram, Salad Burnet, Kidney Vetch and Agrimony are showing well, and I'm looking forward to seeing what else comes up blinking in the unaccustomed brightness.

Chiffchaffs were singing and a Kestrel perched atop one of the Sycamores surveying the scene.

A quick pounce, but unlucky this time.

Butterflies were on the wing, with six in sight at one time - Comma, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and Brimstone all battled in the sunny ride which we cut through in the cold, wet months.  

There were at least two male Brimstones and one female flying up and down the path, but giving no chance for a picture. I've no idea where their food plant Buckthorn is.

Kingsdown Rifle Range

Large areas of the rifle range SSSI have been unnecessarily scraped off and removed by the new owner, apparently with the support of Natural England.  The original permission was to move boulders and parts of the chalk butts from one end to the other (south) end to fill the hole behind the sea wall.

Permission was given to create a single track from north to south...... but whole areas at each end have been scraped flat, crushing colonies of Kidney Vetch (with Small Blues) and Early Spider Orchids as well as many other species.

Astonishingly, Natural England had concluded that the grassland was not of any value and that the arisings should be taken off-site.

161 plant species have been recorded in this small area and it's heart-breaking to think how many have now been lost. 

It remains to be seen what may have survived, and hopefully at least most of the Oxtongue Broomrape areas have been avoided.  

And the huge gap in the northern part of the sea wall remains; will the contractors fill this in as well, and if so what materials will be used this time? I fear it could become a dumping ground for spoil from elsewhere.

Historic photos: 1929 showing vegetated shingle in 1929,

... and an aerial picture apparently showing clean chalk after works in the 1930s.

I don't think I'll see its recovery in my lifetime.