There was ice on the puddles, but the sun was shining and the air was still when Fred Taylor led a walk round Lowbury Hill in the Berkshire Downs on Saturday 10th December. A flowering poppy was a surprise find as the group started off up the track above Starveall, near Aldworth. Also in flower at the field edge were Scentless Mayweed, Shepherd’s-purse and Groundsel. Along the base of the hedge were a few clumps of Spurge-laurel, and this too was in flower, with its inconspicuous small green flowers.
There were big flocks of Starlings, Lapwings and Golden Plovers on the grass above Juniper Valley. The big surprise of the day was the number of species which were in flower on the racehorse gallops, including Cowslips, Common and Greater Knapweed, Field Scabious and Clustered Bellfower – very unexpected for the middle of December. A number of fungi were found, including white waxcaps and Field Blewits in the grassland. Some of the hedgerows had been drastically flailed back. Where they had been left, they carried heavy crops of sloes, hawthorn berries and the bright red strings of Black Bryony berries and these were attracting large flocks of Fieldfares and a few Redwings.
Pictures by Ray Reedman and Jan Haseler
Plants in flower
Common Poppy Papaver rhoeas
White Campion Silene latifolia
Shepherd’s-purse Capsella bursa-pastoris
Cowslip Primula veris
Spurge-laurel Daphne laureola
Burnet-saxifrage Pimpinella saxifraga
Hogweed Heracleum sphondylium
Wild Parsnip Pastinaca sativa
Wild Carrot Daucus carota
White Dead-nettle Lamium album
Clustered Bellflower Campanula glomerata
Field Scabious Knautia arvensis
Common Knapweed Centaurea nigra
Greater Knapweed Centaurea scabiosa
Nipplewort Lapsana communis
Birds
Red Kite Milvus milvus
Buzzard Buteo buteo
Kestrel Falco tinnunculus
Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria
Lapwing Vanellus vanellus
Skylark Alauda arvensis
Meadow Pipit Anthus pratensis
Pied Wagtail Motacilla alba
Fieldfare Turdus pilaris
Redwing Turdus iliacus
Starling Sturnus vulgaris
Linnet Carduelis cannabina