Lydden Valley - A Walk Through A Chalk Grassland

Over the recent weeks I have curated the perfect Sunday routine to end the week. I stay round my girlfriend’s house on Saturday night, and when she goes to work at 8:30 on a Sunday morning, I go for a wander - before we reconvene at 13:30 to watch F1. To give you a better picture, my girlfriend lives in a small village between Dover and Canterbury called Lydden, which comprises just about 5 streets and a pub. Surrounding the village are large fields, hills and trees, on which I can see nesting kestrels and hear large rookeries from the road running through. 

‘The Sickener’

My new Sunday routine is quintessential to my week now. Monday to Thursday I am on video calls until the early afternoon, and for Friday and Saturday I am largely redundant. But my Sunday morning rambles put my in the best possible headspace for the coming week. At about 9:00 I set off up the hill with my binoculars round my neck and a small bag, for collecting any interesting items I find. The weather was warm and a heatwave was dawning on us, so I wore a light dress which I later regretted through narrow paths of brambles and nettles. After about 15 minutes of walking up the fields and through the cow gates I noticed some broken fungi on the grass, so I took closer look and a photograph. I later discovered that these mushrooms were russula emetica, or the ‘The Sickener’, and I was thoroughly grateful that I washed my hands before eating anything afterwards. This fungi is toxic if ingested and I’m sure you can guess what the main symptom is. 

Russula Emetica

Further on, I heard a high pitched cheeping coming from the hedge along a narrow path, so I stood back and waited with bated breath. A few moments later, one.. two… three young wrens shot like fluffy bullets across the path, and I crouched down to watch them through the brambles. It was a lovely sight. I have come accustomed to the begging starling chicks and the dappled robin fledglings with their yellow gapes, but I had never seen young wrens. It was a glorious 5 minutes, but the mother caught on that she was being observed and I was promptly warned away by an alarm call, so I left them in peace and carried on. 

Fledglings and Flyctachers

The next stop was through a large cow field, with a broken fence running through the middle. I have been wary of cows after an incident a couple of weeks ago in which, to summarise, I was chased by cows and the ‘don’t-turn-your-back-on-them’ approach failed to work, so I ended up legging it over a stile with some young bulls in hot pursuit.

Anyway, I scanned the fence and bushes for birds and watched a greater spotted woodpecker sat on a post, which is always a treat. Then I noticed a bird slightly larger than a whitethroat and an elongated beak, similar to that of a rock pipit. I was stumped. I tried the process of elimination and couldn’t place it anywhere in my knowledge. Then it started flitting around - up, around, down; up, around, down; up, around, down. Then it clicked, I was watching a spotted flycatcher! Both flycatcher species have evaded me up to this point so I was stunned that I had found one on a whim. In this moment, another bird flew into the view of my binoculars. It was small and slender, with a front so yellow I briefly questioned if it was a wagtail. It couldn’t be though, it was too small, smaller than the flycatcher and similar in shape to a chiffchaff. When I got home, I was straight on the RSPB website. I checked the warbler family to see if my bird could be a willow warbler, but that just wasn’t yellow enough. My eyes tend to see what I want them to see, but in this case the little bird was undeniably yellow-breasted. Then I found it - a wood warbler! I was debating whether or not to count this sighting as a new tick, but on the grounds I was so sure of the colouring and also that my local observatory has recently seen an influx of wood warblers (at least 5 of which have been ringed), I’m going to take the win! 

Butterfly Romance

For the next hour there wasn’t a great deal to see except cows and fields, although I did find some lovely buzzard’s feathers (I have a bit of a collection currently). On the loop back round I sat down in a bit of a meadow to watch the butterflies, which were out in abundance. A pair danced towards me and then tousled about the grass. With a sense of nostalgic childhood innocence I wondered what on earth they were doing, then I realised - when a mummy butterfly and a daddy butterfly get together, they have a very special hug.

I haven’t properly witnessed butterfly mating, but I studied them and saw that the two abdomens were locked together. As well as providing a platform to share my experiences whilst I work on improving my nature writing, this blog is helping a lot for developing my knowledge. While writing this post I did some research on butterfly mating: After identifying a member of its own species using its sight, the male butterfly releases pheromones and may offer a courtship dance to the female. They then fuse at the abdomen, and the male passes his sperm into the female. Post-mating, eggs pass through the female’s body and get fertilised, before the female ventures to find a suitable place to lay her eggs,. It’s all quite fascinating stuff, butterflies may be pretty, but they have many complex stages in the bedroom! 

Moving on from that, I also discovered a couple of new butterflies. The first being small and dappled brown, but at the same time was really quite beautiful. I took a photo and looked up it, and discovered it was a dingy skipper. A widespread butterfly, but rapidly declining, so I was happy to see it. The second new find was a gorgeous orange and brown butterfly with little black ‘eyes’ on the fore and hind wings. Due to the colouring I guessed it was some species of fritillary, but I was very wrong. It was a wall brown, another widely distributed yet declining species. Other notable finds included a silver-spotted skipper, another new one for me.

Wall Brown Butterfly

Overall it was a lovely and bountiful walk, with lots of new finds. I love acquiring new knowledge, I feel like I have learned so much within just a few weeks of walking through this different habitat. Through photography (albeit low-quality phone photos), I am able to capture a species, study it, and go on a sort of Google treasure hunt in order to identify it. Then through writing, I am able to research it, and read plenty of articles to fill in the gaps. There is always so much to learn about the natural world. Unlike many things in life, when I get frustrated if I can’t learn it all quickly, I will never, ever tire of learning new facts about nature, and being able sharing them with others. Through universal acquiring and sharing of knowledge, awareness of nature is abundant and is necessary for aiding the protection of all our species - avian, fungi, and insects alike.