In Search of Tunbridge Filmy Fern

In research for final project ideas I spent some time exploring Eridge Rocks for Tunbridge Filmy Fern, a small and rare fern that was first discovered in Tunbridge Wells.  There was a huge array of mosses, lichens and ferns on the sandstone outcrops, a whole world of strange little green plants!  I doubt too many people will find these as interesting as I do but it's good to share the love.   The search ended in failure unfortunately but here are a few pictures from the site (I shall add captions as I id them):

Pellia epiphylla (Liverwort)

Cladonia sp

Better luck next time.

The Butterfly Effect

Plain Tiger (i think)

Leaf Wing

Owl

Egglfy

These are pictures taken at the Sensational Butterfly exhibition at the National History Museum.  And this is what the butterflies see:

Fuzzy Wuzzy Distraction

This is just a breather moment from my end of year college work which all finishes tomorrow afternoon, woop.  Then I shall have much more interesting things to say and show!

Is this a Drinker moth caterpillar?

Early purple orchid on the Downs...

Pretty!

A feal frog this time

Brief one today as am rather busy with coursework and exams this week, boo hiss!  This little guy kept me company at Buchan this morning as I was oiling a wood carving in preparation for the Green Flag assessment tomorrow:

And saw my first fox glove of the year on a litter pick:

Land of the Giants

Really, it's a bit early in the year to be doing a survey of downland vegetation but since our project is due next week we had no choice but to spend a gruelling 8 hours on the hillside yesterday! A few weeks later and we would have found a lot more (and it would have been easier) but we did have a fairly productive day.  The funny thing about downland flora is that most things are tiny little dwarf versions of their normal selves due to the tough growing conditions so you feel quite massive when poking around the different species.  

We recorded mouse-ear-hawkweed (note the first picture will old man whiskers), birds-foot trefoil (2nd pic), early and common-spotted purple orchid (not flowered yet but distinctive spotted leaves), chalk milkwort, cowslip, germander speedwell, plenty of daisies, plantains and thistles, lady's and hedge bedstraw, selfheal, salad burnet to name a few.  I'm sure we missed a few but our ID skills are still pretty immature.

We also noted this moss sp on most of the samples but not sure which species it is:

Couple of wildlife moments - this roe deer bounding off along the downs (see if you can spot him!) and this ant dragging a small caterpillar...

The miniature world of downland is fascinating!

The mother load

So the open day went well and our owl pellet dissection was a big hit.  The kids loved sifting through the morbid remains of mice, voles and shrews.  Exhausting day though.  Whilst catching a breather from making sure children weren't eating miniature skulls and pelvis bones or poking each other in the eye with tweezers, we spotted this spider on one of the bags...

Not sure, but think its a nursery-web spider.  It was carrying its egg sack.  God, I hope this one didnt come home with me!!

Beauty is only skin deep

Rhododendron may look pretty this time of year but when you've spent half the winter try to remove massive tangly messes of the stuff and burning it you do struggle a little to fully appreciate it.  It's horribly invasive and a bit of a conservation nightmare but I know some of my followers (the 3 sisters) love a bit of Rhody - just keep it in the garden!  This little bee at Buchan obviously likes it as well so it cant be all bad.  Not much else to report from BCP today as I was building benches and eating lots of donuts (3 today - my personal best!).

Did a bit scoping out yesterday on the downs in anticipation of our grassland survey we're doing on Monday, its gonna be a big one, eep.  Feel free to let me know any downland key species we should expect to find!  Whilst out we got a couple of pleasant visitors in butterfly form - the Common Blue and what I believe is a Small Heath:

 Also, another gem discovery to me, like the Pineappleweed, this White Bryony - its a climber with amazing spirally-coiled tendrils which you can pull like elastic and they ping back - brilliant!

  

If you're bored on Saturday between 10 and 4, come down to Plumpton College.  Its our Open Day and my group are doing owl pellet dissection all day in the countryside marquee.  So feel free to come along and fish through yukky remains of little voles and mice!  Also, its a great day with loads of other stuff going on!

The Grass Is Always Greener

Firstly, thanks for the comments so far - appreciate the help and interesting facts, so keep 'em coming.  Today was all about grass id with a splash of royalty.  Took our first steps as a class into the world of Gramineae which I have to say is a lot more interesting than it sounds.  Went out into our survey site to put our brand spanking new skills into practice and id'd cock's foot, red fescue, hairy brome and meadow foxtail.  They were fairly young little chaps so not fully developed.  This is what we thought was the meadow foxtail:

My team mates' fantastic Francis Rose keying out of this little Daisy led us to discover the wonder of Pineappleweed which I had never previously heard of (smells like pineapple and looks like a daisy, awesome):

We were also treated to a romantic display by a pair of orange tip butterflies whilst foraging in the grass. Note the female does not have orange tips but has black dots (thanks James):

Unfortunately her royal duchessness, Camilla PB, who blessed our college today and opened a gate or something was not interested in my photos of grass and flowers and decided to park her helicopter on top of this wondrous stuff instead.  Fortunately they moved the sheep just in time...

Hedging my bets

Well this morning's hedgerow survey turned up a good few gems.  Downside is I'll be sitting here til daybreak buried in id books trying to work them all out!  Few picture highlights (some identified, some not yet).  Starting simple, spotted nice little common blue damselfy chilling out in a pretty species rich corner of the rye grass field (note the common vetch and speedwell).

Few things I am working on but would appreciate help with (not sure how the green caterpillar ended up on my leg, another hitchhiker perhaps)