Riddlesdown Quarry, Early Summer

Riddlesdown Quarry, 9 June 2016.

Walking into Riddlesdown quarry in summer is a completely different experience from a winter visit. It is a few years since I had seen it in this season.  I was invited to join Andrew, one of the rangers, for a butterfly walk.  My aim was to photograph anything interesting, not just butterflies!  We did see some of the scarce Small Blues, the main reason for this walk, which I managed not to photograph.

Even before the walk I had taken a couple of shots on a nearby bank. This is Crested Dog's-tail, Cynosurus cristatus.  It's a common grass, but very showy.

Burnet Companion, Euclidia glyphica.  Riddlesdown quarry, 9 June 2016. 

Inside the quarry we soon saw lots of these moths, Burnet Companions, common day-fliers in grassland.  I was pleased to get a close photo, which I had not managed before.  

I saw a couple of spiders ..

Crab spiders, Misumena vatia.  Riddlesdown quarry, 9 June 2016

In the middle of this Oxeye Daisy is a crab spider, Misumena vatia.  Crab spiders are ambushers.  They wait in a flower until an insect comes along, then pounce.  This species can change its colour to yellow, but I have only ever seen white ones, whatever colour flower they are on.  Of course that might just mean that I have missed some well-camouflaged specimens!

The larger one is a female.  The small striped one is a male, which I found wandering around on a different flower.

Jumping spider, Heliophanus species, with prey. Riddlesdown quarry, 9 June 2016

Jumping spiders creep up on their prey and then jump at them.  They are fast.  This Heliophanus has what looks like a small fly.

Brimstone caterpillar, Gonepteryx rhamni, on Common Buckthorn, Rhamnus cathartica.  Riddlesdown quarry, 9 June 2016

Andrew pointed this out to us.  It's the caterpillar of a Brimstone butterfly, lying along the leaf of a small Buckthorn.  This and the related Alder Buckthorn are its only food plants.  The caterpillars were hard to see until we were right up close to them.  Soon afterwards, we watched a female Brimstone lay a single egg on a Buckthorn leaf.   That's it inset into this photo.

Weevil, Tychius schneideri.  Riddlesdown quarry, 9 June 2016.

As well as white Oxeye Daisies, the quarry was full of yellow flowers.  All up the slopes were masses of Kidney Vetch, the food plant of the Small Blue butterfly.  

We looked inside a few of the flower heads, searching for caterpillars, but didn't find any.  It was only a quick look, not a proper investigation.  But I did see this little weevil, Tychius schneideri, which is known to favour Kidney Vetch.

There were many yellow-flowered dandelion lookalikes, and the floor of the quarry had a healthy population of Rock Rose.

Common Rock-rose, Helianthemum nummularium.   Riddlesdown quarry, 9 June 2016.

And, of course, there were many other things.  I have carefully avoided repeating things featured in the previous summertime post linked to at the top.  

Riddlesdown Quarry, December 2015

The north end of the face of Riddlesdown quarry, 28 December 2015.

Last year there were sheep in Riddlesdown Quarry at the time of the year-end walk.  This time they were absent.  There is a tentative plan to bring back goats; they keep the birch saplings under control, which sheep do not.  But it is hard to bring goats in for health checks and the like.  Also, they would have to be moved elsewhere for the summer, so that orchids and other desirable flora would not be munched.

The fenced area above Riddlesdown quarry.  28 December 2015.

An area at the top of the quarry is fenced off, allowing interesting plants to grow.  The small green fence seen here is inside the main fence and is to protect the actual edge.  There's a path winding along the top and down near the far fence, curving back into the lower part of the quarry.

Cotoneasters in Riddlesdown quarry, 28 December 2015.

Much scrub has been cleared from inside the quarry, and more clearance is planned.  These Cotoneasters look pretty but spread too easily, and will be removed.  Contrastingly, there are some juniper seedlings at the top which are so slow-growing and tasty to sheep that they have to have individual protective fences around them.

The management team are quite aware that it is rather artificial to look at a piece of landscape at a particular time and say it should stay that way rather than be allowed to develop and change.  But this way, rare and interesting plants and insects are encouraged.  For example, this is one of the few sites in this part of the country where you can find Round-leaved Wintergreen and Small Blue butterflies.

Anthills and Junipers at the top of Riddlesdown Quarry.  28 December 2015.

This is the group on the way back out.  The anthills you see here belong to Yellow Meadow Ants, which are eaten by Green Woodpeckers.  You can just make out the small Junipers in the middle distance, where the group are walking past them.

I tend to take lots of closeups and not show the general appearance of whatever place I am at, but if I think I might make up a post for this blog I make more of an effort to get some views, as here.  But I still like closeups.  They reveal details you do not normally see.

Unripe Juniperus communis berries.  Riddlesdown quarry, 28 December 2015.

Here are some unripe berries I spotted on one of the Juniper bushes. 

Sheep on Boxing Day

View from inside the quarry on Riddlesdown, with Jacob sheep on the skyline.  26 December 2014.

There was a Boxing Day walk on Riddlesdown, along to the abandoned chalk quarry where the warden, Matt, counts the sheep every day.  There are 40 Jacob sheep grazing here to keep down the secondary growth, which allows the rare chalk plants and butterflies to survive.

The quarry is fenced and locked, so it's good to get inside occasionally.  I was last in Riddlesdown Quarry in the summer of 2011, a very interesting time to see it.  Not much is happening in midwinter, but we had a good look at the sheep.

View from inside the quarry on Riddlesdown, with Jacob sheep on the skyline.  Closeup.  26 December 2014.

This is part of the same photo at full size.  The sheep were baaing loudly.  Matt gives them some pellets to get them to come and be counted; they were clearly reluctant to come down that slope, and not intelligent enough to go around.  There used to be some goats in the quarry that would have come straight down with no problem.

(Here you can see the typical jpeg compression blockiness that is a shortcoming of the iPhone camera.)

Geologists love this place because so much of the chalk stratification is exposed.

Diagram of exposed strata in Riddlesdown quarry.

This is an iPhone photo of a handheld photocopy.  This shows the good points of the iPhone camera - it's still quite visible and legible!   The view at the top is at the left side of this diagram, showing the gully.

We clearly could not count the sheep from this viewpoint, so we went to find them.

A walker feeding sheep in Riddlesdown quarry.  26 December 2014.

This is at the top, not quite the same place shown above because they came running to us, more so when they heard that bucket being rattled.  We learned that counting 40 sheep is only possible if they stop running around.

Before the walk I had a look around Coombes Wood, near the car park, and saw this pretty late season fungus:

Mycena rosea, Rosy Bonnet.  Coombes Wood, Riddlesdown, 26 December 2014.

 There are not many annual fungi around this late, but it has been a very mild December.

Riddlesdown in Winter

The main track.  Riddlesdown, 12 January 2014.

I had been to Riddlesdown in lovely colourful summer, but it looks quite different just now. It consists of a long grassy ridge with small areas of woodland.  There is a track that leads from the top at the north end, down the side of the slope at a slant to the bottom at the south end, where there is a disused chalk quarry.  This pic is about halfway along and shows the golden, slanting winter sunlight.  As you can see, people like to stroll along here, including many dog walkers.

The railway crossing.  Riddlesdown, 12 January 2014.

Right at the bottom the track comes out to a road, but almost immediately there is a narrow path up to the left. It is marked "steep", which struck me as unusual.  But the warning was justified.  The first short stretch led to this railway crossing.  I paused here while I convinced myself that just using the crossing would not constitute a trespass.

Steps up from the railway.  Riddlesdown, 12 January 2014.

Then, some steep steps.  I found it difficult to take photos that showed the slope convincingly, but I think you can see it here.  This view is looking back down.  To the right from this viewpoint, which was to my left as I climbed on, I could see the quarry, looking very wintry.  The edge is only a few feet past the railings.

The quarry from just above the railway.  Riddlesdown, 12 January 2014.

The summer sunshine contrasts with the shadowed area, which is still frosty and looks bluish.  That's because the sky scatters blue wavelengths sideways, leaving yellower rays to strike the chalk.

The path up the side of the quarry.  Riddlesdown, 12 January 2014.

Does this look steep?  It felt it; and slippery, too.  I had to hang on to those railings all the way up.  I was surprised to find such a poorly made pathway after the steps earlier on.  I would have expected either much rougher steps, perhaps lengths of wood pegged into place, or a metalled path all the way up.  The actuality seemed inconsistent.

We are well past dog-walking country at this point.  But still close to civilisation.

Whyteleafe from the top of the quarry.  Riddlesdown, 12 January 2014.

This is the top of the quarry, looking towards the town of Whyteleafe on the far side of the valley.  I am looking over the edge that you can see on the right two photos back. 

All the photos were taken with my iPhone.

Rest-Harrow

Common Rest-harrow, Ononis repens, on Riddlesdown Common.  2 July 2011.

Robin's Pincushion Gall

Robin's Pincushion gall, caused by the wasp Diplolepis rosae, on a wild rose in Riddlesdown Quarry, 2 July 2011.

Riddlesdown Quarry

Riddlesdown Quarry from within the security fence, 2 July 2011.

It's not one of my local commons, but it was recommended, so I booked for the summer flower and butterfly walk to Riddlesdown Quarry on July 2nd. It's a City of London common like West Wickham Common and Spring Park, which I visit often as they are within walking distance of my house, but I had never been to Riddlesdown before. The warden there is Matt Johnson, and he led the walk with the assistance of one Frances, a local volunteer, who knew the quarry and its flora in detail.

Both the common and the quarry are spectacular. First, a long straight path through open grassland, thought to be on the route of a Roman road. Excavation is needed to confirm this. Grassland, and some trees and scrub off to the sides; the common is being actively managed to increase the open grassland. The wildflowers were profuse. I saw several which were new to me, or if I had seen them before I didn't know at the time what they were. Vervain, Dropwort, Tufted Vetch, Rest Harrow. Spear Thistle and Welted Thistle. The Mignonette looked very much like the garden plant of the same name that I remember from my childhood.

Long-headed poppy, Papaver dubium subspecies dubium,
in Riddlesdown Quarry. 2 July 2011.

Some plants that I did know grew here in great numbers. We followed a track that verged away from the Roman road and saw hundreds of Pyramidal Orchids, by the path and under a tree. Then we walked up a slope and came to the top of the quarry.

The common is open to all, but the quarry is surrounded by a tall metal security fence, and there are two locked gates to get through before reaching the edge of the excavation. It is a spectacular sight. Geologists would love it. Until 1996 it belonged to Blue Circle, a company that sold cement, but they had not taken chalk for some while before that.

There were a few butterflies around on the grass plateau outside, but when we went in we were suddenly surrounded by them; Meadow Browns, Ringlets, Marbled Whites and some Skippers, fluttering around, disturbed by our passing. And there were more plants, different again. Some were vivid, with strong colours, like the Everlasting Pea and the Long-Headed Poppy; others had clear pastel shades like Centaury and Restharrow.

Kidney Vetch, the food of the caterpillar of the scarce Small Blue butterfly, was all around, but we did not see the butterfly, though it is known to live here. Hop Trefoil, Eyebright, Rosebay Willowherb, many plants with beautiful and evocative names. And I discovered from one of the walkers that Bird's-Foot Trefoil, sometimes called eggs-and-bacon here, is called "old women's teeth" in Sweden.

Hop trefoil, Trifolium campestre, in Riddlesdown Quarry. 2 July 2011.

I thought I might see some of the day-flying Burnet moths, as those teeth are what the caterpillars eat. But no, though there are said to be plenty of them. I did see a Cinnabar, another brightly coloured day-flier, whose caterpillars eat only Ragwort. One of the group pointed out a Peregrine Falcon, rather larger but a lot further away, circling around the trees at the top of the quarry.

The path winds down into the centre of the quarry, where we looked around for a while, and then back up and home again. The walk was advertised as three hours. We started off at 10 a.m. and got back to the car park at 1:30 p.m. It did not seem a long time. There is only one chance each summer to visit the quarry, and I will definitely book early next year.

This was a good chance to try out my new camera, a Canon EOD 60D, and all the closeup photos were taken with that and my 100mm macro lens. The wide view of the quarry, and the view of the group, were taken with my little Canon Ixus 100. As usual, these photos show only a tiny fraction of the good things there were to be seen.

Matt Johnson addressing the group at the top of Riddlesdown quarry. 2 July 2011.

One of the group remembered when that table was new; it was quite flat then.

Common centaury, Centaureum erythraea, in Riddlesdown Quarry. 2 July 2011.

Cinnabar moth, Tyria jacobaeae, in Riddlesdown Quarry. 2 July 2011.

Round-leaved wintergreen, Pyrola rotundifolia, in Riddlesdown Quarry. 2 July 2011.

Wolf spider hunting under the grass, carrying her young on her back, in the meadow above Riddlesdown quarry.
2 July 2011.

These spiders are quick-moving hunters and they don't hang around and pose for the camera. I have seen lots of wolf spiders this summer, but I have very few photos.

Marmalade hoverfly, Episyrphus balteatus, on a small scabious, Scabiosa columbaria,
on Riddlesdown Common.  2 July 2011.