Shoreham, November

A field of grape vines near Shoreham. 2 November 2013.

I'm tidying up my folders of photos, and these are a few from a walk round the neighbourhood of Shoreham with the Orpington Field Club in November.  I thought these plants, seen on the walk down from the station car park,  were hops, but a close look at the leaves reveals them to be grape vines.  Two really wet winters in a row .. I wonder how well they are doing?

Shoreham is a small town on the small river Darent.  Some of the houses are right by the river.

Riverside houses in Shoreham. 2 November 2013.

I expect the inhabitants are glad that the houses are noticeably above the water level.  I see two concrete cats on the decking.  I wonder how actual cats would like it there?  There had better be some good spots for them to come ashore if they fall in.

Water House, Shoreham, where Samuel Palmer lived 1828-1835.   2 November 2013.

This is Water House, occupied by Samuel Palmer for seven years from 1828.  You can't see it well from farther back because of that high hedging.  The occupants of Shoreham seem to be very aware of this bit of history.

Stinking Iris, Iris foetidissima, by the roadside in Shoreham.   2 November 2013.

The vivid seeds of the Stinking Iris.  Sometimes called the Roast Beef Plant.  If you crush the leaves you get a strong smell that might be compared to roast beef, so I suppose how much of a stink you think it is is up to you.  I find it unpleasant, much more so than actual roast beef.

Lych gate at the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Shoreham.  2 November 2013.

This lych gate and walkway give a very gloomy introduction to the local church.  It's very well cared for, but that dark avenue with fastigiate yew trees on both sides is artificial and overpowering.

Photos were taken with my Ixus 100 (Water House and the iris) and my iPhone 5S (the other three).  Even though they are jpegs, I put them all through Adobe Camera Raw, which is brilliant at adjusting brightness levels.

More Shoreham

Hoverfly, Episyrphus balteatus.  Shoreham, on 3 August 2013.

At Shoreham we saw some of my favourite hoverfly.  It's probably our commonest species, and you can see it all through the summer.   It makes a really good photo against the yellow flowers it seems to favour.

I also caught a good shot of another hoverfly:

Hoverfly, Scaeva pyrastri.  Shoreham, 3 August 2013.

Pity it was on a tatty flower!  And there were quite a few grasshoppers and crickets chirping away in the grass.  This one is a Speckled Bush-cricket.

Speckled Bush-cricket, Leptophyes punctatissima.  Female.  Shoreham, 3 August 2013.

It's a female, and that sickle-shaped projection at the back is its ovipositor.  The eggs are laid in plant stems or under tree bark, so it needs something fairly powerful to get in there.  I saw a Speckled Bush-cricket laying under oak bark last September, and that's tough stuff.

Thyme Plume, Merrifieldia leucodactyla.  Pterophoridae.  Shoreham, 3 August 2013.

This was a tiny, delicate plume moth.  They are so called because when they are at rest, their wings look almost like feathers.  When the insect perches, it rolls its wings up.  Some species have tightly-rolled wings and look like a letter T; in others, like this Thyme Plume, you can see a forking towards the tips where the fore and hind wings diverge.

Shoreham Blues

The hillside above Shoreham on 3 August 2013.

Wow, doesn't the iPhone pimp up its photographs?  But it did look good.  This was another Orpington Field Club trip, this time to a hillside above Shoreham that is known for Chalkhill Blue butterflies.  While they aren't rare, you don't see them just anywhere.

This is the same Darent Valley I showed in a post about a walk from Otford back in February.  You can see the war memorial, a white cross cut into the hillside. 

These were the butterflies we came for.

Chalkhill Blue, Lysandra coridon, on Small Scabious, Scabiosa columbaria.  3 August 2013.

At first there were a few, as well as other butterflies, insects and plants.  Then the sun went behind a cloud.  As it emerged and lit up the hillside, suddenly butterflies rose from all over the grass and started flitting about.  It was like a scene from the past, when we are assured that butterflies travelled in flocks.  There were mating pairs, too.

Chalkhill Blue, Lysandra coridon.  Mating pair.  3 August 2013.

The other butterflies included this Silver-washed Fritillary, a little tattered, that we couldn't get very close to.

Silver-washed Fritillary, Argynnis paphia.   Female.  Shoreham, 3 August 2013.

And this Large White.

Large White, Pieris brassicae, on Common Knapweed, Centaurea nigra.  Shoreham, 3 August 2013.

This is what we used to call a Cabbage White when I was young, but as there are other white butterflies that lay eggs on cabbages, Large White turns out to be a more useful name, however bland it may seem. 

Of course, there were moths too ...

Six-spot Burnet, Zygaena filipendula stephensi.  Zygaenidae.  Shoreham, 3 August 2013.

This Six-spot Burnet is a lot like a butterfly.  It flies by day, feeds the same way, and doesn't have feathery antennae.  It's very reflective.  The wings and antennae are black in the sunlight and it's only the flash that makes them look silvery or blue.