Had an interesting walk today at Limpsfield in Surrey. Malcolm and Sally were interested in trying to find an area of heathland which may provide some interesting plants and some galls.
On the map there were two areas, Limspfield Chart and Limpsfield Common. We tried both.
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| The source of the Darent? |
Firstly, though, we needed sustenance and we found a local cricket ground with benches, so used one of these as a picnic site.
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| Amazing but nameless |
Unfortunately, even though the area is owned by the National Trust, the heathland area appears to have been pretty much covered by previous tree planting. There is no sign of any plan to revert the land to it's previous habitat, and although we found a couple of pockets of heather they were very few and far between.
One small area of heather was found in the rough of a local golf club, and a very sparse area was found within some scrub on the village green at Limpsfield Chart.
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| Common Blue on Heather |
Not a lot of wildlife, birds were present but hard to see. We did hear Blue Tit, Nuthatch and Green Woodpecker. Red Admiral, Common Blue and Brimstone Butterflies, and an interesting Dragonfly which shall remain nameless (mainly because it refused to sit in a place where we could see the colour) completed our list
