Badbury Rings - 23rd June

A cloudy morning with a little sun and some drizzle. Highlights were Frog Orchids and Bastard Toadflax.

We met at the car park and walked up towards the rings to the sound of several Skylarks singing above us. It took 1 ½ hours to walk the next 100 metres or so because there were so many flowers to look at. Hoary Plantain, Small Scabious, Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Kidney Vetch and Salad Burnet were common. Looking more closely revealed a host of smaller white flowers such as Fairy Flax, Squinancywort, Common Mouse-ear and Bastard Toadflax. In some areas a yellow haze was created by Lady’s Bedstraw among the Mouse-ear Hawkweed, Meadow Buttercups and Silverweed. Pinks and reds were created by Rest Harrow, Musk Thistle and Wild Thyme, while Milkwort and a few Germander Speedwell gave speckles of blue. The most amazing sight was the carpets of orchids covering almost all of the slopes on the rings. Thousands of Common Spotted Orchids in all shades of pink with hundreds of deeper pink Pyramidal Orchid among them. In one spot we found a few Frog Orchids and in another one or two Fragrant Orchids. We also saw Twayblades, quite exquisite with their tall spikes of human-like green flowers.
Further round we came across areas with hundreds of Agrimony flowers, a meadow of yellow spikes. Veronica found a plant of Tutsan, one of the larger St. John’s worts and we saw patches of Hop Trefoil, Stemless Thistle and Tufted Vetch. At one point the sun actually came out and we were surrounded by butterflies. Black and white Marbled Whites were quite common, as were Meadow Browns. We also saw a few Gatekeeper and some Dark Green Fritillary that whizzed past. We saw few birds, but did glimpse a Tree Pipit as it sang on a post and some good views of Yellowhammers.
Back at the start point and Mandy had set out a feast of a picnic. We were lucky with the weather until seconds of pudding, at which point the heavens opened and everyone got soaked.
Simon Curson