8th June - Martin Down NNR, Hampshire

Storms on Friday had given way to breezy but a partially sunny morning.  It was a early start as it is just under an hour from home to Sillen Lane in the village of Martin on the north west border of the county.  All went well until about 4 miles from my destination when I was flashed by an oncoming car.  As I was trying to think what he could be warning me about I turned the corner to find a tree blown down and blocking the road.  I hastily turned around and drove back to a turning to try and warn Ian.  After waiting ten minutes I wondered if he had already arrived so set off on the diversion.  As I pulled into the car park Ian was there.  It turns out someone cut through the tree and it was passable, which meant that he must have gone through just after I decided to turn off.

After all the drama it was time to focus on the task at hand.  Today we were hoping that the weather would hold, deliver some sunshine and produce the Martin Down summer specialties, breeding birds, butterflies and orchids.

Leaving the car park we walked up the hill listening for the purring song of the Turtle Dove.  It didn't take too long to find a singing bird, sitting on top of a hawthorn bush in the middle of a dense clump of hawthorn and Blackthorn.  For once though the view was obscured.

Martin Down has become an annual pilgrimage to see Turtle Dove, with them being loyal to the grassland areas and hawthorn scrub.  About 5 or 6 pairs seem to be present.  Today we did not spend too much time searching for others.

It seemed quite settled so I scrambled through the scrub to get to the middle of the bushes in an attempt to get a closer view.  This I just managed to do as after this shot it decided to move on and flew off.

We carried on walking through the wet grass, the rain of Friday having given this part of Hampshire a good soaking.  As we approached Bokerly Dyke I noticed some white orchids growing under the small Hawthorn bushes on the side of the dyke.

We knew it was a butterfly orchid, but was not sure if this was a lesser or greater.  As we photographed several of the specimens dotted around we had opted for Lesser.

The Lesser Butterfly-orchid holds its two pollen-bearing structures inside its flowers parallel and much closer together, while the Greater Butterfly Orchid has a tall flower spike with loosely clustered, whitish-green flowers, each with spreading sepals and petals, with this information we changed our identification on returning home.

The Greater Butterfly-orchid is a distinctive plant of hay meadows, grasslands and ancient woodlands on chalk soils.  Its flower spike can grow quite tall, displaying up to 30 whitish-green flowers in a loose cluster from May to July. The spreading sepals and petals of the flowers look a bit like the wings of a butterfly.

As well as the butterfly orchids we also found several Southern Marsh Orchids.

We set of heading north along the dyke.  The first butterfly being found a little later, a Common Blue hanging to the petals of a bird's foot trefoil.

Orchids could be seen all over the sides of the ditch, these were Common Spotted Orchids and one had a visitor, a Crab Spider.

Not all spiders make webs to catch their lunch, some use stealth and surprise rather than a sticky trap.  The crab spider is a very small spider but what it lacks in size it makes up for in cunning, courage and ferocity! Although this one is 'white', crab spiders can also be cream, tinged with green and even yellow. It chooses a flower of a matching colour and sits on the petal so it can hardly be seen by the human eye and certainly not by the flying insect eye. An unsuspecting insect flies on to the flower to collect the nectar or pollen and that's it, the spider pounces. It can tackle quite big prey which it stuns with its digestive juices and then it just sits and dissolves it prey.  In this case it doesn’t seem to have completely match the petals of the orchid.

When we visited the Alentejo region of Portugal back in April, I commented then on how those massive grasslands were like Martin Down on speed.  Walking along the dyke the sights and sounds brought that experience back to me.  I could hear skylarks above, and the Corn Buntings jingly-jangly song away in the distance.  However one bird we didn't hear or see in Portugal was the Yellowhammer, and here at Martin Down they were present in abundance singing their "little bit of bread and no cheese" song from the bushes along the ditch and out on the grassland.

I managed to get gradually closer to one as it sang.

The breeze was still quite cool, but when the sun appeared from behind the clouds it was quite warm.  Butterflies flew when we disturbed them, but quickly settle back close to the ground to catch what radiation they could from the sun.

A Common Blue.

As well as singing from above, the Skylarks could be seen sing from the small bushes in amongst the grass.

The Corn Bunting too would be heard well before you actually saw them.  This one singing from behind an elderberry bush.

Our fourth orchid species of the day was a Burnt orchid, so called because of the dark purple at the top of the spike.

We found this one away from the usual spot for this species.  When we reached where we had expected to see them they had just about gone over, which was a shame.

It was once more common than it is now. The burnt or burnt-tip orchid holds on in short downland turf, and occasionally strays into meadows.  It is one of the smaller orchids found in the United Kingdom.

As we stood admiring the orchids a Corn Bunting sang from a post at the top of the dyke.

Another different orchid was found, the fifth for the day, this time a Chalk Fragrant Orchid.

The Common Fragrant-orchid is a robust, medium-sized orchid found on dry and damp grasslands, particularly with chalky soils. Clustering to form cylindrical, densely packed flower spikes, the flowers themselves are usually pink, but can vary from purple to white. 

In bloom during June and July, the Common Fragrant-orchid lives up to its name by producing a sweet, orangery smell that is particularly strong in the evening.

While Ian busied himself with the orchids I stalked a Skylark singing on one of the bushes close by.

It balance precariously on the small bush, being battered by the wind, but was determined to keep singing.

I was conscious that I was passing the Common Spotted Orchids by, mainly because they were everywhere.  I stopped to take this one lovely individual.

Then a sixth orchid species, a Pyramidal Orchid

Like many orchids, it requires the presence of a specific fungus to be present in the soil in order to bloom.  Originally a flower of old, semi-natural chalk and limestone grasslands, including graveyards, the pyramidal orchid has shown a penchant for more artificial environments in recent times. Colonies have appeared along motorways and ring-roads, canals, marinas and even at one time at Stansted airport.

We reached the old shooting ranges, and the low grass and plenty of trefoil was a big attraction to the blue butterflies.  Again we had to walk through the grass to disturb them, but when we did there were plenty about.

A Common Blue.

A female Common Blue

Adonis Blue

Stunning electric blue upper wings.

There is one day in early summer when you get excited about seeing a Meadow Brown butterfly.  Today was that day, the first of the year found by Ian.

As well as the blue butterflies there were lots of Small Heath.  In flight these little butterflies are orange, but as soon as the settle the wings snap shut and you have to make do with the detailed markings on the underside.

One feature of the grasslands was the profusion of white creamy flower stems of the flower dropwort or fern-leaf dropwort.  This is a perennial herb of the family Rosaceae closely related to Meadowsweet. It is found in dry calcareous pastures.

We crossed the road at the north of the reserve and walked into the grass area just behind the woods.  We turned west to start with and headed down a slope.  In the bushes by the gate a Whitethroat obviously had a nest as it was carrying food into the centre of the bush.

We disturbed a Cinnabar moth, not the first of the day, but the first to settle to allow an acceptable photograph.

Large thistles with purple flower heads were everywhere, on one was another Crab Spider.

It clearly hasn't sussed this camouflage thing.

We came across another Turtle Dove calling from the power lines stretching across an open area of hawthorn scrub and grasses, but it flew off as I reached for the camera.  We walked back and crossed to the other side of the field heading east through grass that was sheltered by the trees.  The sun was in and out, when it was out the butterflies were active.  Small Heath were everywhere, but better still were the tiny Brown Argus.  Here a worn individual

A surprise find was this Wood Tiger Moth.  This is a moth of downland and woodland.  The males are seen flying during periods of sunshine while the females are only active at night.

One of the Small Heaths settled on a buttercup flower, wings closed.

We then found another Brown Argus that settled on a grass stem when the sun went in.

We waited to see if it would open up.

It twisted and turned on the grass stem, but never opened up.

I moved on leaving Ian to see if it would open up, in doing so I came across a little worn Grizzled Skipper, again on a buttercup flower.

Tiny drops of water on the petals of the buttercup.

Going back to the Brown Argus it opened up nicely when the sun came out.

More activity on the ground as we chased a Mother Shipton Moth, a pristine Grizzled Skipper.

We finally caught up with the Mother Shipton Moth.

A day flying moth, it prefers sunshine and takes short rapid flights.  It gets its name from the forewing markings which appears to show an old lady or witches hat.

Then the best Brown Argus of the day.

And another day flying moth, a Five-Spot Burnett.

We crossed the road and then had to shelter from a short sharp shower.  We entertained ourselves trying to lure a singing Lesser Whitethroat into the open, but it was having none of it.

As the shower passed we walked on, and came across another Butterfly Orchid, it was here we began to question our earlier identification subsequently confirmed on returning home, a Greater Butterfly Orchid.

Here a close up of the petals and sepals

Swifts hunted over the open grassland, prompting an effort to photograph them as they swooped low over the grass and up over our heads, the best...

We returned to the cars where we had lunch before setting off for the ditch again in sparkling sunshine.  Halfway up the slope there was a copse of Hawthorn, in a sheltered spot I an found several Small Blue butterflies, including this mate caught coupled together

This is our smallest resident butterfly with a wing span that can be a little as 16 mm. The sexes are similar in appearance, although the male upper side is almost black with a dusting of blue scales, whereas the female is darker brown in colour. Both male and female have an underside that is silvery-grey in colour, and not unlike that of the Holly Blue. The Small Blue  butterfly has a large distribution across the British Isles, being found from northern Scotland to the south of England, with colonies also in Wales and Ireland. 

Our walk along the ditch was in search of Marsh Fritillary.  We were aware we were on the cusp of its flying period, but remained ever hopeful, we shared the task of walking along the bottom of the ditch and along the side, but apart from finding more Common Blue and Adonis Blues along with the ever increasing numbers of Meadow Brown our search remained fruitless.  Just time to enjoy the Adonis Blue.

The Common Spotted Orchids.

The widespread grasses blowing freely in the wind contrasted against stormy distant skies.

But as you watch the grasses blowing on the reserve you realise how this landscape has been created by management and not chemicals and pesticides, this is how the land should look, while all around there is much evidence of intense agricultural practice, that while it can look beautiful from a distance, through the patterns created on the landscape by the many different fields and the crops grown in them.

The truth is I would much rather see the random plants and colours that nature can derive.

It was a great day, six species of orchid, eight quality butterflies including five new for the year, and the joy of walking around one of the truly natural reserves in the country