Kentish Nature Walks # 7 - The Ranscombe Loop - 11th May 2021

Being back at work since the end of March has not been easy despite being on a wonderful nature reserve and I am finding so much enforced human interaction daunting after so long away but I told myself that I would still make (not find) the time to continue with my exploration of my local area.

This has not been happening and I am already slipping back into routine of get up, go to work, come home, have dinner, turn on pc, go to bed.  I know that this is normal but it does not make me happy and I desperately needed to escape out into the wilds of Ranscombe for a long walk yesterday.

I had a goal in mind when I set out and that was to find the Lady Orchids that eluded me last year.  This time I had a map in hand as I set up the Cuxton Road.  I diverted past the Foxglove Tree that was just coming into flower to wander through the Medway Gate estate quarry in the hope that the Small Blues may have emerged.  It was a bit shady in their corner and I only saw a Small white before following the ramp back up to the main road.  There were plenty of chalk loving plants along the edges and a few big fat Calliphora were sunning themselves on the Armco barrier.

Bird's Foot Trefoil

 

Wild Strawberry

Red Valerian

Oxeye Daisy

Spotted Medick

Herb Robert

Foxglove Tree

Broom

Stock Doves were display above me and a pair of Kestrels were drifting around and Blackcaps were singing all around.

Kestrel

 

I crossed the M2 and just before the Ranscombe car park I found the patch of Columbines that I saw last spring.  The cold, dry weather has certainly kept even the low lying vegetation stunted at the moment but I am sure it will all come good.  There were lots of micro moths flying around and I managed a couple of shots that Antony has helped identify.

Aethes smeathmanniana

Columbine

Dichrorampha aeratana

Ground Ivy

There were plenty of flowers in bloom as I walked up to and alongside Longhoes with Winter Cress, Speedwells, Bugle and Rockroses along the edges and clumps of Yellow Archangel illuminating the shady areas beyond the borders.

Possibly Changing Forget-me-not

Field Forget-me-not

Germander Speedwell

The view over Longhoes

White Campion

Yellow Archangel

 

Winter Cress

Common Rock Rose

The sun poked through and Butterflies appeared as if by magic with Orange Tips, three Whites and Brimstones zooming up and down and two Wall Browns were on the same stretch of path as I saw them last summer.

Wall Brown

 

Down in the corner near the railway the big Bramble clump was alive with insects despite the lack of blossom with Holly Blue joining the list along with dancing Green Longhorn Moths with their oversized antennae waving randomly.  There were plenty of male Andrena bees who, to be honest, I ignored and several Nomads that I will have a stab at while a big fat hairy Tachina fera was my first of the year.

Green Longhorn - Adela reaumurella

Tachina fera

 

female Nomada flava

There were a couple of territorial Myathropa florea and a Xylota segnis was scurrying around the Bramble leaves looking for sap but cautiously avoided the waiting embrace of White Crab Spider that was lurking in plain sight.

Myathropa florea

Xylota segnis

Misumena vitia - White Crab Spider

Dark Bush Cricket nymph

I walked up past the cow meadow with its carpet of Ground Ivy, Bugle and Bulbous Buttercups and Small Heaths, Large and Green Veined Whites were nectaring while a male Brimstone was down on the path after salts.  

Brimstone

Small Heath

Bugle

Bulbous Buttercup

Dove’s foot Cranesbill and Common Gromwell were along the fence line with lots of Germander Speedwell and a female Orange Tip even landed and posed for a few shots on a Shepherd’s Purse seed head. 

 

Orange Tip

 

Gromwell

Dove’s foot Cranesbill

The view was, as ever spectacular and it always manages to look different upon every approach. I dropped down into The Valley with the silvery fresh leaves of Whitebeam pointing at the blue where Skylarks sang and a Buzzard with a single white outer primary was mobbed by protective Carrion Crows who obviously had a nest in the big Ash tree.

The Valley

 

Whitebeam

Buzzard

The Dandelion patch was especially lush with yellow pom-pom heads interspersed with clocks ready to disperse and the flatter seed heads of the Coltsfoot that had already had its time in the sun. 

Dandelions and Coltsfoot

 

Crossing the railway took me into the part of Mill Hill Wood that I have not visited before and that is why I had not found the Lady Orchids. Today was different and the very precise directions I had been given took me to a wonderful spread of this most robust of woodland dwellers. I counted about 30 amongst the trees and the sunny spell lasted long enough for me to appreciate the subtleties of colour amongst their flouncy dresses.  They were far bigger than any I have seen in East Kent and the tallest were about 20 inches tall.

 

Lady Orchids

 

The Orchids were wonderful but I was equally pleased to find fine Stinking Hellebore just beyond them.  I saw some at The Larches last year but this was my first time in the Ranscombe complex. The flowers were over but the flower bracts and forming seed pods were still very impressive.  I remember seeing and smelling it up in the foot hills of Mont Venteux in the Central Massif on a quest for Citrel Finch and Rock Bunting with Bradders about ten years ago.

Stinking Hellebore

 

I lopped back up toward the main path and went to check on the Fly Orchids in their little compound.  They were tricky to spot but I found five in flower but all had just a single tiny little demonic Donnie Darko bunny staring back at me.  There was a good ground spread of Wild Strawberry but the Stinking Iris was not even budding.

Fly Orchid

 

Black Bryony

Continuing up towards Brockles, I found a couple more Tachina fera and several Nomada marshamella in a little clearing along with the emergent forms of White Helleborines and bobbly Sanicle heads and as I exited the wood it revealed a bank of incoming cloud and a few spots of rain although it was seemingly tipping down just a few short miles away at home.

Columbine

Nomada marshamella

Sanicle

Tachina fera

White Helleborine

The vivid green is plastic tubes around young grape vines

 

I looked to the skies with the banks of black and white clouds and hoped they would part just long enough to warm the next part of my walk where I expected butterflies to be dancing. The sun kept me waiting but eventually appeared and out they came. Dingy Skippers emerged to bask on the worn chalky path where they sat at identical angles for all the world like looking down on a squadron of Spitfires lined up for takeoff and after a minute or two they would do just that and aerial dog fights would ensue.  

 

Dingy Skippers

I counted 38 in about 300m of track but they were not alone with a single darting Grizzled Skipper and four gleaming Small Coppers for company adding different wing formations with a ground crew of micro mining bees and cleptoparasitic red tailed Sphecodes bees whizzing in and out of burrows around them.

Small Copper

 

That most tricksy of butterflies to actually find, even the Green Hairstreaks came down to find a few sheltered rays and dazzled me with iridescent shimmer. 

Green Hairstreak

Common Vetch

The Rooks and Jackdaws were playing across the meadows and another pair of Buzzards patrolled above while two Lesser Whitethroats rattled from adjacent hedgerows as I retraced my steps and headed up into the woods following the Yellow Brick Road.

Yellow Brick Road

I soon discovered my first good spread of Bluebells of the day but there was little light so I played around with a gnarled old Chestnut that had ‘photographic portals’ that I could use.  I found a patch of Heath Speedwell, Lady’s Smock and more robust clumps of Sanicle along with the last of the Lesser Celandines.

Bluebell

Heath Speedwell

Lady's Smock

Lesser Celandine

 

Cantharis decipiens planning a route

I searched at the top of Kitchen Field for other Orchids but only found some rather weedy looking Man Orchid spikes and a couple of White Helleborines. Both species are in flower at other sites and I wonder if it has been even drier on this inland part of the North Downs.  There were plenty of insects to get absorbed with though with a few Hovers and several other flies for which id help is required.  

Anthomyiidae sp

Myathropa florea

Syrphus sp

Otites guttatus

Bibio sp

I female Eupeodes latifasciatus was a nice find just into the chalk field but there were no Blue Pimpernel plants visible just yet. While looking for the Orchids I disturbed a Wren from its almost perfectly camouflaged nest tucked into the uprooted base of a fallen tree and I quickly moved on before drawing attention to it and causing the irritated parent any more consternation.

Eupeodes latifasciatus

Wren nest

Orange Tips danced around and Peacock and Red Admiral were new to the day tally.  The only small bee that I was happy to name were a couple of Andrena haemorrhoa with their rusty bums but there were so many tiny ones around too and I neither currently have the time or patience to delve further.

Fruity Peacocks

 

Nomada flava/panzeri

Nomada marshamella 

Kentish Snails were day ‘roosting’ under leaves and I found a nice Red-headed Cardinal yomping around disturbing the multitude of Wolf Spiders that were inhabiting the leaf litter at my feet.  Given the density of spiders I would not fancy being anything without armour down there at ground level.

Red-headed Cardinal- Pyrochroa serriticornis

 

The gravel track I took headed up to the main path on the top of the ridge and I slowly worked the cleared margins where Wolf Spiders  scurried in all directions often with eggs sacs in tow.  Calliphora, Sarcophaga and three Tachina fera basked on a wood pile and a chunky black Hoverfly with silver hairs and fat thighs was later identified as Pipiza austriaca. 

 

Tachina fera and Wolfies friend

Tachina fera

Sarcophaga - in fact two - I did not realise that he was clutching a female until I saw the extra wings!

Pipiza austriaca

Pipiza austriaca

Pardosa Wolf Spider

As I reached the crest of the path I found another patch of Bluebells and was pleased to find a single gleaming Snowbell amongst them. Yellow Pimpernel, Yellow Archangel, Black Medick and my first Thyme Leaved Speedwell were found in the margins and the Bracken and Male Fern fronds were beginning to unfurl and two Painted Ladies and both Red Admiral and Peacock were down on the path.

Scarlet Pimpernel

Yellow Pimpernel

 

Black Medick

Snowbell

Milkwort

Painted Lady

Thyme Leaved Speedwell

Yellow Archangel

 

Male Fern

Once on the main drag I ambled back down towards home with a single Speckled Wood becoming the 16^th species seen on this walk and the suspected Lily of the Valley was now a verdant green pathside patch although there were no flowers as yet.   

Lily of the Valley

 

The sun came out again as I reached the last of the Bluebells and I was able to get low down for some arty shots and it was here that I actually had my most engaging encounter of the day when a little rusty Bank Vole came out to forage just a few feet from where I was sitting. I often hear the rustling of rodents and the squeaking of Shrews on my walks but seeing any of them is always special.

 

Bank Vole

From here I diverted to have a look for another clump of Lady Orchids that I had been told about and found them safely shielded by a fence from the forestry work that had been going on around them.  Close up the Ladies ‘dresses’ (more like bell bottomed trousers!) are even more intricate with little purple tufts dotted all over them. 

Special Ladies

 

Brimstone and Orange Tips were in the clearing and visiting the Lady’s Smock and Bluebells and I discovered a new (to me) patch of Early Purple Orchids on the path back up through Clay Pond Wood toward the railway where Germander Speedwell grew in lush patches and a female Anthophora plumipes was busy visiting the spires of Bugle.

Anthophora plumipes on Bugle

Early Purple Orchid

Early Purple Orchid

Early Purple Orchid - a very loose flowered one

Germander Speedwell

Greater Stitchwort

Lady's Smock

Brimstone on Bluebell

Wood Spurge

Yellow Archangel

 

Lords and Ladies

Dog Violet

A couple of what I think were Cheilosia variablis with their very long delta wings were patrolling the herbage and Common Green and Hairy Shieldbugs and Box Bug were noted along with a fine male Scorpion Fly. My first Nuctenia umbratica for what feels like years was failing to blend in on white gate post and was guarding her egg sac.

Box Bug

Common Green Shieldbugs

Hairy Shieldbug

Scorpion Fly

 

Nuctenia umbratica

Cranefly - Tipula vernalis I reckon

Bombus lapidarius

I was hoping for some early blue butterfly action by the Green Bridge over the railway but there was barely any growth and the Oxeye Daisies here were under a foot tall and have a long way to go and there were no Vetches of any sort in flower yet and hence it was an insect free zone.  The last stretch of path alongside CTRL showed me that many more Early Purple Orchids had flowered since my last visit although most were now over but I did discover several Sweet Chestnuts with vivid red blister calls which Googling has revealed to be the response of the tree to the presence of the tiny non native Dryocosmus kuriphilus wasp.

Dryocosmus kuriphilus galls

Early Purple Orchid

Peacock

The last of the walk back down the road to home was punctuated by a soaring female Sparrowhawk and an ever so slightly battered mkIII Ford Cortina with a penchant for Prog Rock.

 

It was a long but much needed walk and a mini-reset at least for the time being...

 

RSPB Rainham Marshes - A mini bloglet just about Dunlins... 5th May 2021

I got to work a little early today and after adding the requisite 37 layers required for a walk in the British spring time I waddled along the river wall into the stiff westerly breeze.

The tide had just turned and there was a little mud exposed on the south side upon which some Sanderling were scurrying and a Turnstone was hunkered down with four Ringed Plovers.  This was  a good sign and I continued towards Aveley Bay but long before I got there a dog walker flushed  a shimmering ball of Dunlin from the concrete Victorian seawall where they were obviously trying to wait out the tide. Five more Sanderling and a gleaming male Turnstone decked out in black, white and orange headed straight across the Thames but the fish ball returned and I stayed back to see what they would do all the while conscious that they needed to rest but there was always a walker and hound to keep them on the move so I soon moved on and left them be.

 

I can’t remember ever seeing such a large spring flock here and as I suspected in the field they appear to be of the British upland breeding race Calidris alpina schinzii that have shorter slightly less decurved bills than the birds we often see here in the winter months.  Their black bellies are small and quite patchy and surrounded by white and in flight there seems to be quite a bit of contrast between the silvery wings and chestnut in the mantle. 

 

And the Turnstone!

 

I suspect that many we see this time of year may be this race but to be honest I have never really paid close attention until today when the spectacle of 112 of the little beauties swirling around in some rare morning sunlight made the differences all the more apparent.

I headed back to the Centre for the day with a female Cuckoo for company and four Whimbrels around their favoured posts and spent the day around the building watching Hobbies chase careening Swifts with kronking Ravens and soaring Peregrines and Buzzards up above as the storm clouds grew and the heavens finally opened as we closed up for the day.

Quality Cuckoo shot...

The light kept changing from about 3pm onwards

          And I shall leave you with Thunder and Sparrows - volume up all the way!

Thirty Years Ago – April 1991

3^rd April: 

An early morning visit with my Dad to Gernon Bushes at the top of Epping Forest where other than the ‘usual’ Hawfinches we saw a two late Redwing and a female Lesser Spotted Woodpecker before popping down to Fishers Green Goosefield where the Little Ringed Plovers were still present along with a many Redshank and Snipe and a bonus male Pintail which even today is a rare Lee Valley bird.

7^th April: 

A North Kent perambulation with Pete G with a few summer migrant Warblers at both Cliffe Pools and Church Wood Blean but no waders of note at the former and just some Wood Anemones, Sweet Violets and Lesser Celandines at the latter.  We rounded up what I described as 'a very disappointing day' with the long walk from Grove Ferry to Stodmarsh and back.  There were a few more Warblers and a summer plumaged Green Sandpiper but the undoubted highlight was an early Turtle Dove.

Green Sandpiper

8^th April: 

A day in the Brecks with Roy and Ian W and James H and we arrived at Mayday Farm at just after 8am to be greeted by a convoy of Forestry Commission machinery and the calls of numerous singing Golden Pheasants and Crossbills. 

Despite this we could not find a single Golden Pheasant and most seemed to be deep within the understory of naturalised Moonberry and Mahonia. The days of hearing Golden Pheasants where ever you went in the Brecks are long gone.

Once at the end of the track Crossbills became more evident and three male Tree Pipits were already proclaiming territories.  Two male Goshawks got up for a bit of a tussle and both started displaying and a female Sparrowhawk was keeping well out of their way. 

Goshawk

 

The main clearing held two pairs of Woodlarks and several singing Skylarks and Yellowhammers while a flock of 12 Crossbills containing a big headed male Parrot that we picked up on call.

Weeting Heath was our next stop and a pair of Stone Curlews were easily found sheltering while ten late Fieldfare and a pair of Wheatear hopped around them on eth rabbit cropped sward. Ten more Crossbills were in the pines above us.

Stone Curlew - dozing

 

Our route from here to Lynford Arboretum added a phenomenal flock of at least 600 summer plumaged Brambling feeding by the side the road in Mundford.  It was a great splash of orange black and white across the field!

Brambling

 

The Two Barred Crossbill eluded us this time but we did find 15 Hawfinches feeding in the ground along with the magic Six Tits, a few Siskins and another 30 Crossbills. We ended the day at Lackford (after stopping again at Mayday Farm and seeing another pair of Parrot Crossbills – as you do) where Willow Warbler, Sand Martin and Swallow were added to the day tally.

12^th April: 

Another visit to Gernon Bushes where I found four pair of Hawfinches and several Marsh Tits before a mirror visit to Fishers Green which was now knee deep in Warblers with at least 30 male Willows and Blackcaps.

13^th April:

This was basically a re-run of Monday to the  with the male BrecksGoshawks, Woodlarks, Tree Pipits and Crossbill selection again but with the welcome addition of my younger brother pointing out the glowing male Golden Pheasant perched up in a tree above the Moonberry bushes and not within them. 

Golden Pheasant

 

Lynford again provided excellent finchy encounters while Lackford offered the first singing Sedge Warbler and a pair each of Ringed and Little Ringed Plovers.  After a natter with Pete G and the wardens we headed for Bury St Edmunds where the rest of the family went shopping and I kipped in the car before wiggling home through the Essex countryside.

14^th April:

Another Kentish jaunt, this time with Pete G and Roy W and we were at Dungeness by 0730.  Our seawatch (as so often it is) was unproductive in the northerly wind with just one Gannet, Fulmar, seven Mergansers, and adult Med Gull and a selection of Terns than included Common, Arctic and Sandwich. Bar-tailed Godwits and Grey Plovers headed east and a male Merlin did its best to catch a Linnet. 

We circumnavigated the Trapping Area for a grand total of eight Magpies and so headed for the RSPB reserve which was also very quite with just a single Sandwich Tern, two Yellow-legged Gulls amongst many Lesser Black-backed Gulls and my first Yellow Wagtail of the year.

We chose not to try for the Seaford Surf Scoter and headed for Elmley where Pete decided to stay in the car while Roy and I went yomping off. The male American Wigeon was not on view when we got down there but there was a good selection of waders including 500 Black-tailed Godwits, Whimbrel, Little Stint, Spotted Redshank and Ruff.

The Thamesmead Family arrived (I think I know who you are...) and promptly found the Yankee duck. This immature drake showed very well but I am not quite sure what happened in my drawing!  Interestingly it was paired up what even now, I think may well have been a female.

American Wigeon

16^th April: 

Roy W and I started at the top of the Lee Valley at Kingsmead where a pair of Garganey were found dozing along with a few Teal and with five LRPs and four Ringed Plovers. We added little more at Amwell and Rye Meads where I noted the red lower mandible of female Kingfisher for the first time. Kingfishers were also seen down at Fishers Green along with six Barnacle Geese and six Yellow Wagtails on the Goosefields and a strange female aythya hybrid in the relief channel that sounds like it had some Scaup in it. Our last stop was Connaught Water where a Nightingale sang and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Lesser Redpoll and Marsh Tit were casually noted along with a late Siskin.

21^st April: 

A late morning excursion to Abberton Reservoir for Paul H and myself.  A pair of Garganey were our quarry but we could not find them but there was a smart male Ruddy Duck and several Sedge Warblers and Lesser Whitethroats were singing.

We quickly moved on to Fingringhoe Wick where Nightingales performed admirably and Grey Plovers, Dunlins and Black-tailed Godwits fed along eth shoreline of the Colne.  A couple of Sand Martins whizzed around and there were many Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps in the scrub.

Nightingale

It was time for lunch before heading back to Abberton where the pair of Garganey drifted out from underneath the trees where they were surprisingly cryptic against the roots. A Turtle Dove flew through and Yellow Wagtails scurried around the causeway banks.  Three Common Terns dipped down and suddenly it was raining hirundines with 250 Sand Martins, 150 Swallows and ten House Martins flitting around us after the myriad of flies.

Garganey

25^th April: 

This trip started out as a pop to Rainham Marshes with Roy and Ian but we never got there as the temptation of a Marsh Sandpiper at Elmley proved irresistible.  On arriving we were told that it had not been seen for four hours!  However we stayed until late evening and there was a very fine wader selection to distract ourselves with ruffed Ruffs, summer plumaged Godwits, Little Stint and Golden Plover and two years ticks in the shape of a Whimbrel and a creeping Temminck’s Stint.  The male American Wigeon and his consort were still around there were plenty of hirundines and Yellow Wagtails to look at too.

Temminck’s Stint

 

26^th April: 

We actually made it to Rainham Marshes this time ostensibly to look for Stonechats for Roy’s bird race the following weekend. Now, you have to remember that at this time the east end of what is now the reserve was still out of bounds as a live MoD firing range so this left us with various forms of trespass be it up onto the Silt Lagoons with its quicksand and overflying bullets of the landfill and its settling pools of mysteriously bubbling blue liquid and other such noxious wonders.  In 1991 there was a good pool quite close to Coldharbour Lane (infact opposite where the security booth now sits) and we scrambled up the bank for a look.  Two Common and two Green Sandpipers fed around the edges along with Dunlin, Redshank, Oystercatcher, Lapwing and a diminutive Temminck’s Stint.

I seem to recall that it was at this point that we heard the distinctive ‘pruuk pruuk’ of a Bee-eater overhead but just like a few short days ago and 30 years later I could not find it in the blue.  There were a few Yellow Wagtails around and we did find those elusive Stonechats.

27^th April: 

With the Marsh Sandpiper still being at Elmley I filled my car with bodies (Peter, James and Paul) and off we went.  It was once again mobile but we eventually tracked it down and got some great views of this summer plumaged bird as it delicately fed alongside a couple of Redshanks. This was only my second Marsh Sand after the Cley bird in autumn 1987 that I saw on one of my first ever trips to Norfolk.

 

The wader spread was much as the 25^th with the Temminck’s Stint once again but two Curlew Sandpipers were certainly new  and a drake Garganey was a welcome sight along with the American Wigeon once again. It actually turned out to be a big twitch and there were plenty of pople to talk too and bits of gossip to dig out!

From here went to Westbere in the Stour Valley where Garden Warbler joined in with the general warbler back drop. Two Kingfishers whizzed by and three Cuckoos were singing.  Bearded Tits pinged and there were good numbers of hirundines hawking over the lakes but the surprise was an immature Kittiwake that flew over with a flock of Herring Gulls.

Kittiwake

We end up the day with a long walk around Church Wood Blean where the highlight was a male Redstart in song by the car park.

28^th April:

After a rather uneventful drive (which was in itself a surprise as Pete G was driving) we arrived at Mucklebough Hill near Weybourne in the vain hope that the singing male Sardinian Warbler would be doing just that.  it was not and so after a couple of hours searching we moved onto the East Bank at Cley where an amazing 93 Whimbrel were feeding in the meadows with a further 25 just down the road at Cley Eye.  This was the most I had even seen in one spot before. The reserve was very quiet with just a reeling Grasshopper Warbler for our troubles and the sea was almost devoid of life.

Whimbrel

 

On to Titchwell where Pete stayed in eth car for lunch while I did Thornham Point and back in record time just to see the three delightful Shorelarks which were now even smarter and bedecked with proper ‘horns’.  A few Whimbrel and Avocets were noted as I sped back along with a pair of talon grappling Marsh Harriers while Beardies pinged from the reeds.

A phone box stop revealed nothing on Birdline so we headed into the Brecks and Lackford which was full of warblers and little else bar a pair of Turtle Doves on wires by the car park but the day still finished on a high with three summer plumaged Black Terns delicately hawking over Livermere.

Black Tern