Blackthorn
1st April 2009, WednesdayWhile walking around Lade Pits on Tuesday I noticed patches of blackthorn blossom that were proving to be attractive to insects, including the dotted bee-fly Bombylius discolor and numerous queens of the buff tailed bumblebee Bombus terrestris.
These bushes form some of the most extensive areas of this shrub on the whole of Dungeness and they are continuing to spread across the coarse shingle that characterise this part of the beach. There are only 11 ha of this habitat across the whole of Dungeness, qand otherwise such prostrate blackthorn scrub is restricted to the coastal areas of western Britain.
Some of the bushes were starting to acquire communities of epiphytic lichens. These develop over time and are most impressive on old degenerate bushes, something these plants are most certainly not. Give it a hundred years or so and they will get there!
Other species of interest on this walk were my first two grass snakes of the year, and a couple of hares that sped across the adjacent arable field.