This morning I visited one of my Bulphan and Orsett Fen
farms for the first time and after meeting Steve White at Fair Play Farm I was
let loose to be shown around the land by my friend Ruth who already had
permission to walk there. As is the norm
around here it is an arable farm of wheat, barley and beans but despite the
retreating rain the sky was full of the sound of Skylarks singing
heartily.
Our circuit took us along the margins and across the
fields. Many had reasonable edges and
most had well maintained and no overly sculpted hedges. These were wide and dense and all had mature
Oak, Ash and Willow standards dotted along them.
The uncultivated strip was very tight to the edge but was
stuffed full of flowering Composites, Hogweed, Brambles, Vetches and Ragwort
and was alive with hundreds of Meadow Browns and countless Episyrphus balteatus along with and dozens of Sphaerophoria
(some of which were certainly S scripta). Amongst them were some
tiny Eupeodes and the odd Syrphus, Platycheirus and
Eristalis tenax.
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Episyrphus balteatus |
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Red Bartsia
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Fat Hen
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Small and Essex Skipper, Red Admiral
and both Small and Green veined Whites were also seen.
Yellowhammers sang from each hedge and
a good flock of 60 roving House Sparrows made me think that some nest box terraces
on the barns would be in order. Reed Bunting and Cetti’s Warblers sang from the
adjacent water works site and families of Whitethroats skipped ahead through
the crops as we walked along.
Rather bizarrely a Curlew spent about
twenty minutes flying around called although neither of us actually ever saw it
while two Ravens kronked into views and perched up on a pylon before heading
low and north. Amazing to think how rare
they were round here not too many moons ago. Buzzards and Kestrels were seen
but the local Kites were in lazy mode and had a lay in.
We got back to the car soaking from the
knees down and weighed down with clay laden boots but it was good at last to
get out onto a farm for a look around.
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A monster - almost purple Great Black Slug
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I headed homewards afterwards as
technically it was my day off but stopped at a little meadow inland from
Gravesend where I had been told I might find a mighty Lizard Orchid. The public
footpath led me through a low growing carpet of Self Heal, Creeping Buttercup
and Marjoram to a scrubby patch where this monster lurked.
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Greater Knapweed
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Greater Knapweed |
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white Self Heal |
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Self Heal |
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Red Bartsia |
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Ragwort |
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Pyramidal Orchid
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It was very easy to find standing so tall
amongst the grasses, Agrimony, Marjoram and Greater Knapweed. I had a bit more time with it than the
roadside ones the other day and almost any Orchid that you get close to will
reveal a hidden inner being staring back at you – in this case Moya’s Pilot
from Farscape...well in my deluded head anyway!
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Lizard Orchid
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Sorry, my mind does see things oddly from time to time...
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There were two big patches of Eryngium
glowing blue and violet and I suspect that they are a garden escapee and tiny
little Eyebright flowers winked from ankle level.
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Eryngium |
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Eyebright |
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Marjoram |
Marbled Whites flitted around despite
the lack of sunshine and spent lots of time open winged on the Knapweed and
Meadow Browns were similarly sluggish and I managed to get close to an
Eristalis nemorum and a tiny female Pipizella before I had to retreat home.
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Eristalis nemorum - I did see it's face!
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female Pipizella sp
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A worn Pyraustra purpuralis
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Marbled Whites
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