August 2008 2

On the 15th the whole family set off for Upper Crockford Bottom in the New Forest. Last time we visited, the sun was nowhere to be seen, but that day we were a lot luckier. We recorded ten different species of Odonata. Common and ruddy darters preferred the heath and bogs to the actual stream, as well as the blue-tailed and emerald damselflies. That may have been because three golden-ringed dragonflies patrolled up and down the stream, catching flies and fighting off other dragonflies. I’ll never forget when one perched on a stick that had been positioned in the stream and so I took off my shoes and socks before wading in and getting a lot of amazing photos! The most abundant dragonfly around was the keeled skimmer which I again got plenty of close up photos of. We found the rare southern damselfly, which is considerably smaller than all the other blue damselflies, and also some small red damselflies and beautiful demoiselles. Finally, a mention to a female southern hawker sighted right at the end. I just can’t say how good that stream is for dragonflies. Interesting flowers were dwarf gorse, marsh St.john’s-wort, cross-leaved heath and lesser skullcap, but I didn’t spend long looking because of the dragonflies. Other insects included a heath grasshopper, lots of gatekeepers and about three silver-studded blues. There wasn’t much time for birds but we did notice two loud hobbies that flew over!
During the next few days (18th-20th) we visited Granny and Grandad on the Isle of Wight. They are lucky enough to have autumn lady’s-tresses on their lawn. It is a colony of 30 spikes, about half of which were in flower that morning. I was surprised at how small they were (5-7cm) because in the pictures they always look really big. A very good way to start the holiday! Later that day Dad and I went to Brading Marshes which has just recently become an RSPB reserve, though we barely saw any birds. I did profit from the visit however, because I found trifid bur-marigold and common club-rushes, both of which I had never seen before.
The next day we all went over to the South-West of the Island to Tennyson Down which is a wind-battered area of short, calcareous grassland where most of the flowers are extremely short because of the constant wind.
It is an area that supports early gentians and Glanville fritillaries in the spring. That day the flower life was very good, but due to the winds effect on the size of the flowers, I had to look quite hard.
The first flower of the day was rock-samphire by the sea, quickly followed by a meadow full of common knapweed and saw-wort. On the Down I found yellow-wort, burnet saxifrage, lots of weld, lesser centaury and lots of autumn gentians! The gentians were only about 5cm high, but it was great to finally see them. A peregrine flew past and I spotted male and a female chalkhill blues, the pale silvery blue easily distinguishing it from its cousins.
We then entered the wood where I found ploughman’s-spikenard and dwarf thistle before emerging onto an old quarry where the wind was weaker. Here, there were lots of chalkhill and common blues and speckled woods too. I also found clustered bellflowers, viper’s-bugloss and one carline thistle! It was a very good day with six flowers that I had never seen before and eight new photos 
On the 20th we went in search of the rare ‘weed’, field cow-wheat, but didn’t find it. Apparently there is a patch that grows in a field there. Otherwise, I found green alkanet and black horehound at the side of a field and rock-samphire, common restharrow, sea-beet and a few sea carrot plants on the cliffs. So, no field cow-wheat . We headed off to St. Helen’s Duver, on the other side of the Island, which is an area of saltmarsh and sand dunes. On the dunes there was loads of autumn squill which was great but hard not to step on! Among the marram grass was sea mayweed and the remains of the thrift that had been there earlier in the year. By the saltmarsh grew common glasswort, greater sea-spurrey, sea purslane and annual sea-blithe. These are all characteristic plants found by a saltmarsh. Finally, my third small copper of the year danced around the hummocks of marram grass but only stopped for a glimpse and unfortunately, not a photo.
It was a nice few days break: Tennyson Down and St Helen’s Duver were two very good places for wildlife. I did a final autumn lady’s-tresses count with 32 spikes at the end of the week – I really enjoyed those!
Back home, we all cycled through Bentley Wood from Witt Road to Livery Road. Most of the flowers were finishing with a very noticeable lack of hemp agrimony lining the tracks. The meadow saffron had finally arrived; this year we had 3000 spikes which was a new record for the wood (no idea who took the time to count them all…)! Along with the usual flowers I found some goldenrod in a ditch and white mustard by the Draining Field Pond where the fringed water lilies were still going strongly. I checked up on the broad-leaved helleborines and found that they had all gone to seed (I discovered a third one as well). The usual dragonflies and butterflies were present, though all the silver-washed fritillaries were extremely ragged!
At the end of the summer holidays, Deb and Nick visited and we all went off to Pewsey Down on the 24th. Pewsey Downs support a huge number of wildflowers (including round-headed rampion, frog, burnt and green-winged orchids!) and butterflies such as the Adonis blue and marsh fritillary.
That day, a bit late for the orchids, we set off over the Down. There were the usual chalk grassland flowers in abundance like eyebright, lesser hawkbit and small scabious. There was a large patch of spiny restharrow and a couple of clustered bellflowers. I found five different thistle species including musk, dwarf and woolly thistles, which you’d expect from chalk downland I suppose…
On the 25th no-one could decide what to do so I took control (wink wink) and Dad (VERY!) kindly “ferried” me around the New Forest, to various sites I’d learnt about via WAB, to look for flowers.
First stop was Matley Bog. It looked like a heath from the car park, but we soon found out that it was extremely boggy! The wet surface was covered in Sphagnum moss which was perfect for the rare bog orchids. It was that we were looking for. We searched for 45 minutes before I found 13 of them, growing near the road, on the edge of the bog. The tallest was only 8cm, but most of them were about 3cm and it isn’t easy searching a massive bog for something so small and dull – but definitely worth it! I also found a patch of lesser bladderwort (easily distinguishable from greater bladderwort thanks to its size) and lots of sundews, white-beak sedge and bog myrtle. I also managed to disturb a keeled skimmer in the heather when I wandered off the bog.
Next stop was Pig Bush Heath which was a wood that opened out onto the heath where bracken and huge tussocks of grass grew. Here, we were looking for marsh gentians but unfortunately we looked in the wrong place, so never found them . More marsh st.john’s-wort and dwarf gorse, two heath milkwort flowers and a very late bog asphodel flower (all the others have seeded) and Dad disturbed a snipe hiding in the heather.
Finally, after escaping the crowds playing cricket at Wilverley, I moved out onto the Plain and found the field gentians growing there, among thousands upon thousands of autumn lady’s-tresses. So, in the end I ticked off two out of three species I had come to look for.
On the 26th our bike ride took us through Hound Wood and Farley where I found orpine and what will hopefully be rosy garlic (had finished flowering then). On the road going from Farley to Pitton I found common flax and then in Pitton itself I discovered a patch of greater celandines growing under a huge yew tree.
The next day we went down to Titchfield Haven and the warm but cloudy day brought plenty of birds. There had been an osprey around and a grey phalarope. There were sandwich and common terns flying around, in among the gulls. On the beach, ringed plovers fed and lapwings “wheeled”. On the other side of the reserve there were black-tailed godwits, a couple of snipe, a common sandpiper, a very handsome green sandpiper and the grey phalarope. The phalarope was in its winter plumage and I got some great photos, because it swam really close to the hide. There were buzzards around, a brief glimpse of a sparrowhawk and an even briefer glimpse of the osprey which rose up above the trees, glided across the horizon and went back down again. Not many ducks around today (other than mallard) but we did get tufted duck and gadwall.
There were still lots of flowers out and about, the best of which was frogbit in the water in front of one of the hides. Lots of bristly oxtongue along the paths and sea purslane, sea-beet and one patch of sea plantain as you got nearer the sea. By a pool next to one of the hides, I spotted redshank (not the bird ), water pepper and celery-leaved buttercups that mingled with the lesser spearwort. You could also see orange balsam there too! Finally there was some shoreweed growing....on the shore and a helleborine (seeding) that was possibly violet helleborine but was almost definitely broad-leaved....oh and I saw branched bur-reed, hard rush and common club-rush.
I got good photos of a speckled wood and ruddy darters, but unfortunately, the male southern hawker never landed....