Peter Jones Wildlife blog

  Decided to spend the weekend on a round tour of Chilterns, Wiltshire and New Forest, with a few targets in mind. Also spent 2 nights in the campervan a novelty this year, but worthwhile as driving out the Friday night before cuts down the daily mileage and makes such weekends possible. Chilterns, I was searching for Gentians, and did see Autumn Gentian at Aston Rowant, together with Chalkhill Blue, Adonis Blue and Silver spotted Skipper. I left a bit deflated as I had hoped to see Chiltern Gentian also, but luckily found another site, courtesy of Twitter, which was absolutely heaving with Chiltern Gentians, wow, very memorable.  The weekend took a slight nosedive after these highlights, with no joy for Wart-Biter, and no sign of Field Gentian at Wilverley in the New Forest on the Sunday morning. (I have another area of Wilverley to try in the coming weekends). However, plenty of other wildlife seen at these great places. photos

Much of my flower hunting is frustrated by a semi-secrecy of rare flower sites. It is only on arrival, that I realise the vagueness of directions, often sucked in by comments such as "very near the path", which turn out to be any of several miles of paths! More often than not there is just enough information to tempt you to visit, but have a very slim chance of finding what you are looking for. Makes for some great challenges, and I always get there in the end. I get the need for caution with people digging up flowers, but if I can find them, someone with poor motives will also find the flowers based on the info out there. However, the book "The Wild Flowers of the Isle of Purbeck" bucks this trend and has excellent directions to some great plants. I spent a morning in Studland Heath, and finally saw Great Sundew, fairly easily, after several hours in the New Forest without luck! Other highlights were Sea Lavender and a few other coastal species plus Royal Fern. Pho

 August annual leave, which should have been spent in South Africa!, left me with a few days to spend locally. I set myself a target of 22 new species of birds, flowers, moths, grasshoppers, anything! 2 a day. As it usually the case with these games, it starts off looking easy, then ends up a complete nightmare being stuck 1 or 2 short as the end of the week looms. My trips were mostly into the New Forest, and together with a moth trap session in the garden I eventually stumbled past the 22! Highlights were Light Crimson underwing moth, Grey Bush Cricket, Woodland and Mottled Grasshopper, Marsh Gentian, Oblong Leaved Sundew, and Brown Hairstreak (at Shipton Bellinger). Enjoyable, but hopefully I get to South Africa next year. photos

Weekends are to be planned carefully at the moment. The number of people descending on the New Forest, and coast on sunny weekends is quite incredible, so trips to more obscure areas is a better option. I headed to Broughton Down on Sunday morning hoping to see Stripe Winged Grasshopper. Was fortunate, even though the bat detector was only picking up ( I think) Meadow, Common Green, and possibly Long winged Conehead. Also a smart micro moth, Pyrausta nigrata