{"id":2246,"date":"2013-08-28T03:23:46","date_gmt":"2013-08-28T08:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/?p=2246"},"modified":"2013-08-28T03:23:46","modified_gmt":"2013-08-28T08:23:46","slug":"oven-bottom-10-august-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/oven-bottom-10-august-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Oven Bottom – 10 August 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan Haseler led a walk at Oven Bottom on Saturday 10th<\/sup> August. Oven Bottom is an area of fine chalk grassland on open access land which had not previously been visited by the Society. The walk started form the end of the lane at Woodway, above Blewbury. Members set out up the track towards the Ridgeway. Both Common and Greater Knapweed were in flower beside the track, allowing comparison between the lanceolate leaves of the former and the larger pinnate leaves of the latter. At the first junction, the route turned left along a track next to the racehorse gallops. Yellow Common Toadflax flowers were seen on the grassy verge, a Yellowhammer was singing loudly from the top of a hawthorn bush and a Clouded Yellow butterfly flew across the gallop.<\/p>\n

At the point where the track turned into the Oven Bottom access land, there was an interesting arable field margin. Amongst the scarlet Common Poppies were a few smaller, dark crimson Rough Poppies, with round, bristly seed capsules. Small Toadflax was also noted here. A Raven called as it flew high overhead. The route then led into the Oven Bottom grassland. The top of the first slope was dominated by long grass and Wild Parsnip. Dropping down to the steeper part of the valley, the richness of the flora rapidly increased, with Small Scabious, Common Knapweed, Harebells, Clustered Bellflower, Burnet Saxifrage, Common Rock-rose, Squinancywort, Hawkweed Oxtongue, Mignonette and eyebright amongst the sightings. Amongst the many knapweed flowers, Sally Rankin spotted the slightly smaller and paler flower heads of Saw-wort, with brighter green leaves and a narrow, oblong, purplish smooth involucre below the flower, contrasting with the rough spherical involucre of the knapweed. The last time that Saw-wort was recorded on a Society field trip was on the very acid soils of Bartley Heath \u2013 it came as a surprise to some members to see Saw-wort in such a different setting \u2013 but the flower book does indeed include both heathland and calcareous grassland as habitats where it can be found.<\/p>\n

Chalkhill Blue and Meadow Brown butterflies were abundant. Also on the wing were Common Blue, Brown Argus, Large and Small White, Small Skipper, a single Small Copper and another Clouded Yellow. There were bees on many of the flower-heads of knapweed and scabious. These were identified by Graham Saunders as the females of Bombus lucorum<\/i> and B. terrestris<\/i>, and the males of the Cuckoo bees B. vestalis <\/i>and B. campestris<\/i>. A wasps\u2019 nest was found, which had been dug out by a Badger. There were still many wasps in the hole, with greenish heads and yellow bodies. Finally, about 20 Frog Orchid flower-spikes were found towards the eastern end of the north-facing slope of the southern valley.<\/p>\n