National Meadows Day

To celebrate National Meadows Day, Pete and I led a walk round Castor Hanglands NNR, a relatively little visited site with some wonderful flower-rich grassland, ranging from dry calcareous swards with Dropwort, Lady's Bedstraw, Field Scabious and vast numbers of the magnificent and rather local Woolly Thistle, through to an areas of fen meadow with sheets of Common Spotted-orchids, and sweetly scented Meadowsweet and Water Mint, not to mention tangles of Fen Bedstraw. The walk was a great success, even though we were being filmed to get footage for three programmes that are being made to highlight the environmental and historical value of the area, and the potential impact that four new 'villages' is likely to have on it. Despite being miked up, I decided to just ignore the whole affair, which was probably for the best. 

But my image for the day wasn't taken on our walk, but was a serendipitous discovery, made on a morning of surveying road verges which might be impacted by construction of the access road for the development. We'd seen Pyramidal Orchids at the southern end, as well as other calcicole species, but when we strayed into a rather dull plantation we were amazed to find hundreds more in the shaded interior. I decided to break through to the other side and was stunned to find a small west-sloping field, totally enclosed by the plantation and a thick hedge, filled with a vibrant mix of wildflowers including lots more Pyramidal Orchids, Bird's-foot Trefoil, Marjoram, Lady's Bedstraw, Musk Mallow, Meadow Crane's-bill and one of the largest populations of Betony that I've seen locally. A veritable jewel, completely invisible to any passers-by. The only downside is that there is some scrub-invasion, which might call for some guerrilla management...

Also many thanks to all who left presents for my Small Skippers - at the moment I'm rushed off my feet so I'm afraid I won't get around to thanking you all individually.