RXwildlife Sightings

In recent mild winter’s the tiny Common Whitlowgrass has been flowering from late January to early February, but this year it has only just appeared. I noticed a few flowering yesterday on short grass on sandy soils.

Another observation along the edge of the White Kemp Sewer yesterday were several patches of thread-leaved water crowfoot Ranunculus trichophyllus in flower.  These were seedlings that had recently germinated on exposed damp mud, grown rapidly during the recent warm weather, and managed to avoid the need to undergo an aquatic phase over winter before flowering.

This plant is distinguished from brackish water crowfoot Ranunculus baudottii as it possesses only the finely divided aquatic leaves, and relatively small flowers.  Both species are common on Walland Marsh.

It looks like they are going to have to adapt to an aquatic lifestyle soon, as the recent run of warm dry weather is breaking.

About a dozen Common Darters were catching flies and sunbathing this afternoon at the reedbed viewpoint at Castle Water. They were very approachable, especially along the handrails. But not much longer before they disappear. Also, nearby were flowering Hedgerow Cranesbill, Bristly Ox-tongue and Viper’s Bugloss.

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One of the more characteristic plants of the grazing marsh ditches at East Guldeford is fine-leaved water-dropwort Oenanthe aquatica, a species that in early spring has divided leaves that look very much like an aquatic plant, but as the summer progresses it emerges above water level with a characteristic swollen stem that has fine ridges running down it, with cross joints where the leaf stems emerge. The flowers are packed into white umbels.

Right now flowering is mostly over and Read the rest of this entry »

Stinking hawk’s-beards were introduced to the garden of a property on Dungeness in 2007, sowing them on a lawn growing on soil-capped shingle. The following notes are based on observations by Dave Bunney and Owen Leyshon, with a few observations of my own. The photo below shows the first generation of self sown plants, which germinated in 2008, and flowered this summer. 34 plants were recorded here this year. The photograph shows the seed heads, some closed, with dense white seed heads, others open showing the “dandelion clock” and two thirds of the way down the right-hand edge of the picture a star-shaped seed-head that has lost most of it’s seed-heads.

This plant is the only member of it’s family Read the rest of this entry »

Well Bee Orchid – which I think is our most stunning flower, is out now. This year there seems to be fewer than normal. They have a fascinating biology which can be discovered in David Lang’s book online…

http://www.britainsorchids.fieldguide.co.uk/?PP=species_account&SPID=60&SHC=4&PSD=1

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Sea Pea is now in full bloom, and in places along the shore ridges looks spectacular. However, a closer look reveals that most of the plants are damaged …

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… is commonly called Biting Stonecrop or Wallpepper or Goldmoss Stonecrop.  The leaves have a sharp taste, from which it gets its Latin name ‘acre’, meaning sharp. I tasted it recently for the first time and at first thought it was tasteless, then the sharp peppery taste developed and I was pleased to have a drink with me. Anyway, it is now in full bloom on the shingle, but this golden display will only last a week or so.

It seems to be a very good year for the pea family and there is plenty of Sea Pea, Common Vetch, Subterranean Clover and Grass Vetchling flowering now. One of our uncommon vetches has been located close to Camber Castle by Frank Palmer. There is a large patch of Yellow Vetch within 20m of the castle walls to the north east, but don’t be fooled into thinking the flowers are yellow!

This is one of the largest flowers (up to 65mm across) in the area and it has one of the longest flowering periods. It is common on shingle and the first flower was out today… and it can still be in flower into October. But each flower only lasts a day or two.