Riddlesdown Quarry, December 2015

The north end of the face of Riddlesdown quarry, 28 December 2015.

Last year there were sheep in Riddlesdown Quarry at the time of the year-end walk.  This time they were absent.  There is a tentative plan to bring back goats; they keep the birch saplings under control, which sheep do not.  But it is hard to bring goats in for health checks and the like.  Also, they would have to be moved elsewhere for the summer, so that orchids and other desirable flora would not be munched.

The fenced area above Riddlesdown quarry.  28 December 2015.

An area at the top of the quarry is fenced off, allowing interesting plants to grow.  The small green fence seen here is inside the main fence and is to protect the actual edge.  There's a path winding along the top and down near the far fence, curving back into the lower part of the quarry.

Cotoneasters in Riddlesdown quarry, 28 December 2015.

Much scrub has been cleared from inside the quarry, and more clearance is planned.  These Cotoneasters look pretty but spread too easily, and will be removed.  Contrastingly, there are some juniper seedlings at the top which are so slow-growing and tasty to sheep that they have to have individual protective fences around them.

The management team are quite aware that it is rather artificial to look at a piece of landscape at a particular time and say it should stay that way rather than be allowed to develop and change.  But this way, rare and interesting plants and insects are encouraged.  For example, this is one of the few sites in this part of the country where you can find Round-leaved Wintergreen and Small Blue butterflies.

Anthills and Junipers at the top of Riddlesdown Quarry.  28 December 2015.

This is the group on the way back out.  The anthills you see here belong to Yellow Meadow Ants, which are eaten by Green Woodpeckers.  You can just make out the small Junipers in the middle distance, where the group are walking past them.

I tend to take lots of closeups and not show the general appearance of whatever place I am at, but if I think I might make up a post for this blog I make more of an effort to get some views, as here.  But I still like closeups.  They reveal details you do not normally see.

Unripe Juniperus communis berries.  Riddlesdown quarry, 28 December 2015.

Here are some unripe berries I spotted on one of the Juniper bushes. 

Toys Hill, December

Ide Hill from the bottom of Scords Wood, December 2015.

Another walk around Toys Hill and Scords Wood, this time in December.  It was a beautiful sunny morning and this was the view from the bottom of the hillside.  English countryside with rolling hills, fields and woods.  It's almost the same outlook as the misty view in this post from Scords Wood in March 2012.  This shot with my EOS 5DS and 100mm lens collapses the distance and makes everything sharper, allowing for some slight haze still present in the air.  This looks like a lovely walk, and if my car had not been at  the top of the hill behind me I would have tried it!

A viewpoint is being cleared higher up Toys Hill, but there are still many young birches in the way, and it looks as though would be better in the afternoon, with the sun behind.

Viewpoint being re-cleared on Toys Hill, December 2015.

This time I also took a reflective and non-misty shot of the pond at the bottom, part of the waterworks that supplies the neighbouring Emmets Garden.

Toys Hill pond, December 2015

The sign just visible in the far corner explains how it works.

Sign explaining hydraulic ram pump, Toys Hill, December 2015.

The people who prepared this sign must have been at the front of the queue when the apostrophes and commas were handed out.  From the credit line, it also looks as though they had a couple of spare fonts.

The woods are wet and green, with bluebell leaves poking through the moss.  I came back with only one botanical photo:

Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage, Chrysoplenium oppositifolium.  Toys Hill, 23 December 2015.

Some Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage, in early bud and looking very healthy,  near the hut below the pond that houses the pulse valve.

Mug Shots of Some Late Moths

December Moth, Poecilocampa populi.  Hayes, 9 December 2015.

Last year I saw none of the larger moths at all in my garden trap over the first half of the winter, but I have been a bit luckier this year.   This December Moth was in my trap well into its name month.  Previously I had only seen one specimen here, and that was a dead one that seems to have got itself trapped in my garage.  The showy comb-like antennae belong to the male.  Male moths often have more antenna surface, one way or another, to detect the female pheromones.

Red-green Carpet, Chloroclysta siterata.  Hayes, 10 October 2015.

This Red-green Carpet was one of the last of the summer moths, popping up late on.  It's very recognisable, with its strong colours and uptilted tail.  The goggly eyes are an illusion caused by the way the compound eye structure absorbs the camera's flash.  This species also turns up early in the year.  I had one back in May.

Feathered Thorn, Colotois pennaria.  Hayes, 14 November 2015.

In between those two, I had a couple of these splendid Feathered Thorns.  This, too, named for its antennae, is a male.

The December Moth was photographed sitting on one of the egg-boxes from my light trap.  The Red-Green Carpet was on the white painted door just behind the trap.  It looks smooth from a distance!  Quite a few species like the light but will not enter the trap, and instead rest on the paint and brickwork just behind it. The Feathered Thorn is on a piece of rotting wood.  I have a selection of types of bark and wood that I can get the moths to pose on.  However, when tapped onto a new surface, they will not often put their legs into a natural position.  They just leave them bent into any old configuration.

Kemsing Down, Winter 2015

Kemsing Down, 15 December 2015

The weather forecast was for an overcast day, so as I had not had much exercise recently I decided to go up the 600-foot hill of Kemsing Down.  It was grey and drizzling.  This is what the Met Office calls "overcast," it seems.  (I have not been able to find out when the Meterological Office became the "Met Office".  It's not a very descriptive new name, unless it now employs metists.)

Kemsing Down, part way up, 15 December 2015

It was like this only part way up.  From the top:

Kemsing Down from the top, 15 December 2015

Complete with a diagram showing what you can theoretically see.  There was no activity on the hill.  I didn't find the sheep until I was nearly back at the bottom again, by a different route, though I could see they had been up there by the droppings and by the wool caught on dead bramble stems.

It was very slippery and steep, so I recommend good walking shoes to anyone who wants to try this in wet weather.

Well, that was fun, but rather samey.  But I was very happy to find some Winter Aconite flowering in the churchyard, next to the car park on the way to the hill.

Winter Aconite, Eranthis hyemalis.  Kemsing churchyard, 15 December 2015.

Like all churchyard plants, you have to assume that it was planted here at some time, but this seems now to be spreading and thriving.  This plant is supposed to flower in winter.  There were other plants there which were flowering out of their usual season - Primrose, Oregon Grape, Mexican Orange - but those were all clearly cultivated plants.

Pond Wood

The pond in Pond Wood, Hawkwood Estate.  28 November 2015.

I was interested to see a small wood called Pond Wood on the Hawkwood Estate, which is attached to Petts Wood.  The map shows a path circling round inside the wood, probably to look at the pond, I thought.  So I had a walk round the estate and took that path.

There is another path along the edge of the wood, but this one does indeed go around the pond.  The weather had been wet and the path was steep and slippery, probably dangerously so. 

The pond in Pond Wood, Hawkwood Estate.  28 November 2015.

This shows where the pond empties into a stream that flows down into the Kyd Brook. 

Yes, this is a very short post, but I had a couple of nice iPhone shots of the pond!  I like reflections.