{"id":427,"date":"2009-07-11T04:27:03","date_gmt":"2009-07-11T09:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/?p=427"},"modified":"2009-08-14T04:34:32","modified_gmt":"2009-08-14T09:34:32","slug":"lodge-hill-11th-july-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/lodge-hill-11th-july-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"Lodge Hill – 11th July 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lodge Hill is an isolated chalk hill situated between Bledlow and Saunderton Lee.\u00a0 It is not a nature reserve but it is access land and very easily accessed as the Ridgeway Path runs through it.\u00a0 Four members visited on a dry but cloudy afternoon and explored three areas of the hill, land that had been cultivated but was now reverting to scrubland, a small area surrounded by trees and shrubs, away from the Ridgeway Path, and the much more trodden and rabbit-grazed terrain beside the Ridgeway Path. A very large number of species of plant was noted, with many pyramidal orchids in the first area and both bee and frog orchids in the second area.\u00a0 The show of bloom was excellent throughout with greater knapweed and lady\u2019s bedstraw providing plenty of colour.\u00a0 Plants in one colony of lady\u2019s bedstraw had cream, rather than the usual yellow blooms. A few very fine specimens of clustered bellflower were noted and, in areas where rabbits had disturbed the soil, wild candytuft.\u00a0 Many butterflies were on the wing, none of them great rarities but enough of them to give great pleasure.\u00a0 New second-generation painted ladies were particularly beautiful.\u00a0 The area merits further visits.<\/p>\n