Waterside Natural History Society visit to Martin Down
The recent rain, although welcome, has not been enough to prevent the leaves on deciduous trees from turning brown. Horse Chesnut leaves for instance, which have a large surface area, have turned dark brown as if the trees have died.The conker shells are the only part that remains green. Hopefully this is a natural protection against the dry weather and green leaves will appear again next year. Grasses in the meadow and crops in the field have also turned a straw colour but in their case fresh shoots are already starting to reappear. Interestingly the forest areas are at their most colourful with the pinks of the heather and emerald green of the bracken contrasting well with the yellow of the Dwarf Gorse. Martin Down was also looking colourful but that was because of the number and variety of wild flowers growing amongst the short grasses.
Driving south from Salisbury we had to drive through three counties before reaching Martin Down although since it is at the junction of Wiltshire, Dorset and Hampshire this was not as big a challenge as it first appears. Martin Down is however just in Hampshire and we arrived on a dull and breezy day in August hoping for some improvement in the weather.
Our first challenge occurred just a few paces on to the down and that challenge was to name all the different varieties of wild flower. One sign of a well established and flourishing countryside is the sheer number of different flowers and since they are flowering and setting seed at all times of the year to see so many on the day of our visit was very impressive. Yellow flowers included Toadflax,Ragwort, St. Johns Wort, Wild Mignonette, Ladies Bedstraw and Agrimony as well as the members of the daisy family such as Catsear and Autumn Hawkbit. Red was represented by the Red Bartsia growing low to the ground and white by the Eyebright which has a multicoloured pattern on closer inspection. The predominant colours however are the blue and purple of the Field Scabious, Sheepsbit Scabious,Self Heal, Harebells and particularly the Knapweeds.
This abundance of flowers usually means that butterflies have a good chance of being around but the dull and breezy weather did not act in our favour. Fortunately the weather warmed up as the day progressed and butterflies flying low to the ground were able to find a sheltered spot. In the event we managed to see a total of eighteen different species which was excellent when you consider there are only just over thirty in the country which do not all appear at the same time. Some of the usually common butterflies such as Red Admiral, Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell are in short supply this year but we managed to find examples of all three. Small White, Large White and Green Veined White were also there as well as the Brimstones. Gatekeepers, Small Heath, Meadow Brown and Ringlet made up the browns. We also saw one Small Skipper but they are getting to the end of their flight period. There were quite a number of Common Blue and one or two Holly blues but we also saw Chalk Hill Blue and Adonis Blue. The intense shining blue of the male Adonis is particularly striking and once seen is never forgotten. The predominant colour of all the female blues is brown so identification is made even harder.
Larger butterflies such as the Silver Washed Fritillary were seen usually fluttering quickly past but we were fortunate to see a Queen of Spain Fritillary feeding on flowers as we returned to the car park. The latter is a migrant so it must have been holidaying on the south coast.
After lunch we went round the western part of the reserve which is thickly wooded and gives a completely different habitat to that over the road to the east. Plants such as Hemp Agrimony were common as well as a patch of Solidago or Golden Rod which is usually seen in gardens or florists shops. A patch of Carline Thistle was seen on the shorter grass which although looking as if it had gone to seed presents a striking picture.
Nature flourishes in Martin Down and no opportunity is wasted. As we returned to the car park over the cattle grid we could see a small pond had formed under the grids with bulrushes and tadpoles wriggling about in the water. There is always something new to see when you visit Martin Down.
