A friend emailed to tell me that
Autumn Lady's Tresses had appeared in their lawn, so I went along to have a look. There is only one other place that I know of in Kingsdown where these appear (also a lawn but I don't make a habit of looking for them in private places).
This sward is characterised by a large density of Mouse-Ear Hawkweed and precious little grass, so chalk downland plants are able to thrive. We counted 29 spikes (plus one in the back garden).
A couple of doses of Weed'n'Feed should do the trick - we'll soon have it looking like a putting green.
Elsewhere.......
....without looking too hard I found six
Wasp Spiders and webs, in three discreet locations, so there must be a reasonable community (as long as the females don't eat the males before mating).....
....the
Common Blues have reappeared after the wind and rain in similarly large numbers, and a Small Tortoiseshell (!) was also seen....
...there's a good crop of
Dewberries now (rather too bitter to my taste though)....
...there was a passage of Gannets and Terns during the bad weather, these being
Commics....and in an attempt to twitch the Wood Sandpipers at nearby Restharrow Scrape I managed to see only Greenshank, Common Sandpipers and a
Snipe.
A friend emailed to tell me that Autumn Lady's Tresses had appeared in their lawn, so I went along to have a look. There is only one other place that I know of in Kingsdown where these appear (also a lawn but I don't make a habit of looking for them in private places).
This sward is characterised by a large density of Mouse-Ear Hawkweed and precious little grass, so chalk downland plants are able to thrive. We counted 29 spikes (plus one in the back garden).
A couple of doses of Weed'n'Feed should do the trick - we'll soon have it looking like a putting green.
Elsewhere.......
....without looking too hard I found six Wasp Spiders and webs, in three discreet locations, so there must be a reasonable community (as long as the females don't eat the males before mating).....
....the Common Blues have reappeared after the wind and rain in similarly large numbers, and a Small Tortoiseshell (!) was also seen....
...there's a good crop of Dewberries now (rather too bitter to my taste though)....
...there was a passage of Gannets and Terns during the bad weather, these being Commics....and in an attempt to twitch the Wood Sandpipers at nearby Restharrow Scrape I managed to see only Greenshank, Common Sandpipers and a Snipe.
2 comments:
Had similar experience at Fairlight near Hastings . Passing front garden of bungalow , no fence , lawn down to tarmac covered with Autumn Ladies Tresses . No one in , just took shots from roadway .
Great shot of Wasp Spider with cliff and blue sky . Nice one with the Small Tortoiseshell .
I like those Autumn Ladies Tresses and think I would prefer them to a "putting green" lawn :-) Great spider!
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