Kent Orchids

Kojak and I spent yesterday orchid twitching in Kent. A few sites are still closed due to lockdown so we visited three famous sites in south east Kent all within a few miles of each other on the North Downs. We used the excellent guide book, Wild Orchids of Kent by David Johnson (Kent Field Club).

1. Bonsai Bank  Grid Reference: TR 105 510  GPS: 51.221781, 1.015369
We reached this hidden gem by parking in Penny Pot Lane and then working our way on foot through the woodland with Apple maps until we arrived at the bank which is accessed through a hidden path and an overgrown kissing gate. We spoke to and heard tales of several lost souls wondering round the woods (Denge Woods) looking for the site to no avail so just pray the intermittent 4G is occasionally working or follow the sounds of the chanting and drumming Shaman that we encountered on our visit. The main attraction here is the large colony of Lady's Orchids. We found 150+ Lady Orchids, 8 White Helleborine, Common Twayblades and Common Spotted Orchids. This is also a site for Duke of Burgundy butterfly. We also had Firecrest and Marsh Tits in the woods.

 Lady Orchids 

 Lady Orchid- a variant with paler flowers 

  The Duke (Duke of Burgundy) 

2. Yockletts Bank Grid Reference: TR 125 477 GPS HERE
This is not a difficult place to find but impossible to park at so you will need to find a verge somewhere to stack the car and then walk in to find the treasures in the woods. Here we had about 8 Fly Orchids, one Greater Butterfly Orchid, lots of White Helleborines, a few Lady Orchids and Common Twayblades. There are entrances to the nature reserve on both sides of the road, we took the south entrance. Also in the nearby farm and orchards were 4 Turtle Doves singing.

 Fly Orchids- this insect mimic (its even got antennae) sends out a pheromone that attracts the solitary wasp Argogorytes mystaceus which pollinates it while trying in vain to mate with it 

 White Helleborine 

The stunning Greater Butterfly Orchid (The two yellow pollonia set wide apart separates it from Lesser Butterfly Orchid) 

3. Park Gate Down  Grid Reference TR 168 457 GPS HERE
One of the most famous orchid sites in the UK for hosting the largest of only three colonies of the rare Monkey Orchid in the UK. There are three fields, we found most Monkeys were in the second field. We found about 30 Monkey Orchids and also Early Purples (mostly over), Common Spotted, Twayblades and emerging Chalk Fragrant Orchids.

 A close up of a little monkey 

 Monkey Orchids! Stunners!!

 Common Twayblade

 Chalk Fragrant Orchid- looks like these were just about to come out 

 Common Spotted Orchid 

Park Gate Down

So a pretty amazing little day for a couple of botany duffers with nine species of orchid:  Common Twayblade, Common Spotted Orchid, Early Purple Orchid, Chalk Fragrant Orchid, White Helleborine, Lady Orchid, Fly Orchid, Greater Butterfly Orchid and Monkey Orchid.

.....and here's a few day flying moths and some tentative identifications that we came across on the chalk grasslands

 Lathronympha strigana (?)

 White-spotted Sable at Bonsai Bank 

  Eucosma aspidiscana

 Small Purple-barred (fusca) 

Kent Orchids

Kojak and I headed back out Orchid hunting in Kent for late spring species following our successful trip a few weeks ago for early spring species HERE. We visited Wye Downs Nature Reserve, back to Park Gate Down and then onto Sandwich Bay.

Wye Downs Nature Reserve (GPS HERE) 

Our first stop was accessed from near the triangle on Amage and Brabourne Roads (the Black-veined Moth site) and our second stop was at the Late Spider Orchid spot (GPS above). In the chalk valleys here we had Late Spider, Bee, Pyramidal, Common Spotted and Fragrant Orchids. It was too cloudy and cool for moths, just a few Common Heaths flying around. 

Late Spider Orchid 

Bee Orchid 

Pyramidal Orchid

Park Gate Down GPS HERE
We failed to locate the Musk Orchids here (supposed to be in the third field from the car park). We spoke to a couple of locals who said they may not be out yet. There were literally thousands of Fragrant Orchids here and also Pyramidal Orchids, Common Spotted Orchids a few Greater Butterfly Orchids and Common Twayblades.

Fragrant Orchids (above and below) 

Fragrant Orchid (white morph) 

Greater Butterfly Orchid 

Common Spotted Orchid

Sandwich Bay 
We parked at the Royal St. George's Golf Club visitors car park and took the public footpath across the golf course towards the coast. We found Lizard Orchids almost immediately in the roughs but the majority of orchids were near the coast edge. We also a Southern Marsh Orchid on the golf course with good numbers near the Bird Observatory trapping area. We did a bit of birding in this area, the most interesting thing was what appeared to be a hybrid House Martin x Swallow.

Lizard Orchid 

Southern Marsh Orchid 

Small Skipper on Viper's Bugloss 

Presumed House Martin x Swallow hybrid 

A pretty stunning looking bird 

On the road

I left the Old Vic on Tuesday night, set the moth trap up in Hackbridge (in my mum's garden) , visited Park Gate Down Kent Wildlife Trust reserve on Wednesday, set up the moth trap at Little Woodcote on Wednesday night and work today before back at the Old Vic for moth trapping here (there's the evocative sound of a Curlew calling at cooling dusk while I'm writing this and just had a Yellow Wagtail fly over calling too). We are currently experiencing a heat wave so I'm trying to make the most of it. 

Had a few lifers, here are a few of the highlights. 

Musk Orchid at Park Gate Down- after failing to find these last years, I found (with some help ) eleven plants this time. Such delicate little beauties. This is my second UK orchid tick this year following the Early Spider Orchid a few weeks ago at Howell Hill. Slowly collecting (in light of this years well known orchid raids, for clarity, not literally collecting) them all. 

Chalk Fragrant Orchid with Quaking Grass. There were hundreds of Fragrant and Common Spotted Orchids, several Common Twayblades, a few Greater Butterfly Orchids, a couple of Monkey Orchids and Pyramidal Orchids. A truly magical site. More on Kent Orchids and how to find them  HERE

An almost pure white Common Spotted Orchid

Bird's-wing in my mum's garden, had two of these. A well overdue lifer, a bit of bogey moth for me

Pale Shouldered Brocade - if I've identified these correctly, either this or a dark Clouded Brindle (it has a C shaped line in the forewing) 230622 update- yes this is Clouded Brindle.   I had three of them at Little Woodcote (the Little Oak HQ). Had over 70 moth species at Little Woodcote and 54 at my mums garden. Also had a Dark Green Fritillary flying round, Steve Gale also saw one a few 100 meters by the cross roads later in the day so presumably things dispersing across the Chalk Downs in this weather

The closest fit I can get on this is Purple Argent, Argyresthia albistria

Varied Coronet in the garden

Large Ivy Tortrix, Lozotaenia forsterana . A couple of these at Little Woodcote

I presume this is a worn Buttoned Snout 

I went for a pale Roseate Marble, Celypha rosaceana on this. This might be a lifer.

Tufted Button, Acleris cristana - although I couldn't see much of a Tuft

Waved Black- always great to get this as a NFY. Also NFY was Lobster moth - both of these at Little Woodcote

Still working on this. Update 190622, Brindled Groundling, Recuvaria nanella, (thanks Stephen Palmer!) 

This White Ermine was very white and sparsely marked. I considered the possibility of a Water Ermine but not sure if that's even possible in Surrey.

2020 Review, January to June

The natural history 'highlight' of the year was the global invasion of a zoonotic pathogen, that appears to have jumped from pangolins into humans. 

Instead of reducing the current threat and halting the risk of future zoonotic pandemics by halting biodiversity loss (viruses are jumping into humans as natural systems become increasingly stressed/ eliminated ), stamping out illegal wild animal trade, increasing hygiene and animal welfare conditions in Asian wet markets and world wide intensive animal husbandry (all the last pandemics of the last decade or so have been zoonotic in origin  (Bird flu, Swine flu, Ebola, SARS etc) (SEE INTER-GOVERNMENTAL SCIENCE-POLICY PLATFORM FOR BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES REPORT) while simultaneously reducing the risk of the current pandemic by de-centralising and promoting self-reliance, increasing resilience and changing supply lines to limit the numbers of people and goods being moved across the planet and re-focus onto local and sustainable supply lines interconnected into a regenerative global trade network, while also protecting/shielding the vulnerable from the pandemic and  introducing Non-Universal Basic Income for full-time dedicated hard working 'volunteers' to help develop an international regeneration programme (of re-building society and the environment); well instead of that billionaire controlled world governments (and the UK government) locked in a race to the bottom deployed a strategy that will make pharmaceutical multi-nationals even richer (in an impossible arms race of novel vaccines to outcompete novel zoonotic viruses as the biodiversity crisis intensifies), removed personal freedoms on an unprecedented scale, restructured the economy by eliminating vast tracts of the small and medium scale (and traditional large) business environment, generated mass unemployment and obsolescence  while the mass obsolete,  unemployed and failed small businesses will be scooped up by billionaire controlled mega systems like Amazon, Zoom and even pig breeders (SEE HERE ).  As the global capitalist oligarchy exerted its grip everywhere, Beddington Farmlands (Viridor) was sold to Henry Kravis and George Roberts of KKR Inc @ Co, a £550 billion concern who took control of our local area in March. Henry Kravis is the 317th richest person in the world. The potential to set a global precedent for corporate-local community-council ecological regeneration is now at the highest stakes (and the most challenging/dangerous).

Meanwhile many birders across the country set about becoming billionaire controlled drones, policing and lynching any other birders who strayed beyond walking distance of their open prisons while applauding the Disaster-Capitalists for protecting them from a threat the Capitalists 'engineered' (through creating ecological stress) and were accelerating. Many birders also signed up for low-carbon birding also known as patch self-incarceration, in a bid to neutralise themselves and permanently remove the eco-tourist support of much of the planet's biodiversity - making it easier for the billionaires to scoop that up too in the future. We need responsible travel -not to abandon our global community. As birders our primary objective should be Net-Biodiversity Gain supporting certain Net Zero objectives (many net zero measures are highly ecologically destructive).  

My response to the acceleration of the human planet hurtling even faster to the edge of oblivion was to tell all the  drones in the local bird group and local viridor controlled committees to go fuck themselves while I buggered off to learn how to grow my own food and build my personal resilience to see out the next few years as the global Capitalist dictatorship boot comes down even harder. It's a very precarious time and not one to be sparring in pointless exhaustion inducing pseudo-committee corporate fronts like the CSG, the CAMC and now even the bird group (which I have totally dissociated from). We can achieve much more as an independent outside pressure group- avoiding energy draining engagements, clearing out dead wood from our group and targeting politicians and PR machines.   

Meanwhile on the progress front it was a great year mainly focused on building a technologically advanced local community support base for Beddington Farmlands (totally independent from the viridor controlled groups also to avoid inadvertent greenwash as the KKR backed Viridor execute their coup de grace on Beddington Farmlands over the coming months- a triple whammy of abandoning key ecological targets, abandoning key public access objectives and continual delays in restoration coinciding with an assault from the Thames Water front of decommissioning of over 200 acres of wetland in preparation for development), we launched the Save the Lapwings Campaign which now has over 50,000 supporters (to spotlight the coming Thames Water/Viridor led ecocide), ran a public access campaign (for new paths and fulfilling current obligations) and started the lengthy and complex process of taking legal action against Sutton Council and Viridor for ecological planning regulation irregularities (which we plan to execute after the 2023 planning deadlines have passed). 

Personally speaking it was an excellent year (while my sincerest sympathies to all those who were exposed to this threat). Much of our preparation for global breakdown paid off  with near record profits, new acquisitions, a restructuring of our projects and enterprises and some fantastic birding. mothing and botanising.  

I suspect I hosted our pathogenic 'ally' in March of this year- if I can ever get it confirmed (with an anti-body test), it will be new species for the pan-species list! 

Here's some pretty pictures of some of this year's highlights:  

January 

White-fronted and Red-breasted Geese in Romania (above) and Whooper Swans (below) . The only foreign trip of the year I did was to complete the purchase on a new private nature reserve in Bulgaria in January. Did some great winter birding but had to travel north to Romania to find the geese which don't always travel so far south when the winter is mild. 

Location of our new small nature reserve project. Although visits this year did not go to plan we still made progress with getting drone footage, surveys and preliminary landscape architect planning. 

Back in the UK (where I was to spend more time than I have in about 40 years!) the highlights of January including this nice comparison between Raven and Carrion Crow (above) and twitching the Black-throated Thrush at Whipsnade Zoo (below) 

February 

The highlight of the month was the discovery by local birders of a wintering 'Sibe-hotspot' on the River Wandle nearby with a Yellow-browed Warbler (above) keeping company with 2 Siberian Chiffchaffs (below) - there was also a Firecrest or two nearby (below that) 

March

As the world went into lockdown in March we deployed our global breakdown emergency plan which involved setting up a mini-farm at the Old Vicarage, utilising supply stores and forming an affinity group. It was a good practise run.   

The mini-farm in March 

Instead of buying bog roll (we'd been storing it for several years anyway for times like this) I went birding with Kojak. We found these Twite (below), which we later discovered had been unknowingly found and photographed by Dave Warren in January and this March Knot (above) was a very unseasonal local bird.  

April

April was all about exploring our local area. The biggest discovery was finding out the birding potential of the Airfield- two minutes walking distance from Holly's (The Old Vic). Firecrest (above), Corn Buntings (below) and Yellow Wagtails (below that) were a few of the birds discovered there. 

Lockdown bird back in London (Beddington Farmlands) where I was based for work was this Spoonbill from the window.

This Pinion-spotted Pug (at the Old Vic) turned out to be the moth highlight of the year. This Blossom Underwing (below) was one of many firsts for the Old Vic throughout the year. 

Oakley Airfield 

May

This stunning pair of Black-necked Grebe was one the highlights of Beddington Farmlands 

We found this summer plumage Great White Egret in Kent, once lockdown was over 

Oakley Airfield highlight of the month was this presumed 'Greenland Wheatear' 

Spotted Flycatchers had returned to the Old Vic by late month 

By mid-month we did some Orchid hunting in Kent. Highlights included Monkey Orchid (above), Lady's Orchid (below) and Fly Orchid (below that)  

Duke of Burgundy was present at one of the orchid sites. 

The mini-farm in May- things started to pop up! 

June

June was mainly about moths, orchids and mini-farming. Always a treat to catch Privet Hawkmoth (above) and this was quite an impressive hand fall caught one night (below)- Lappet, Pine, Poplar, Elephant Hawkmoths and Buff-tip. 

Plain Golden-Y- a stunning moth (and a lifer) 

Maple Pug- one of a number of subtle moth lifers this year (see 'this year in numbers' in the next blog post) 

Dark and pale morph Peppered Moths 

Successfully breeding Great Spots in the Old Vic garden was great to have 

Our orchid hunting continued into June with Late Spider (above) and Lizard Orchids (below)  

Meanwhile back at Beddington Farmlands- it was the beginning of another year of controversy as the Thames Water decommissioning of wetland started to take it's first casualties with drying out habitat providing opportunities for predators to target ground nesting birds. This initiated the Save the Lapwings campaign (SEE HERE) 

The mini-farm in June- all going well