Common Broomrape on 9 miles stroll from Tattenham Corner to Kingswood

This is a very varied walk.  And is one for anyone willing to take the slow train to Tattenham Corner, where the walk starts.

From the end of the line it is just a couple of hundred yards to the race course.

This bench, overlooking Epsom Downs race course and grandstand, is almost like a royal box.
From here we walked to Nohome Farm, Walton on the Hill, Banstead Heath, Lower Kingswood, Stubbs Lane, Babylon Lane, northwards to the wonderful Well Pub and over the golf course to Kingswood, where one can take a train home.  All in all, about 9 miles.

We ate a sandwich just north of Walton on the Hill where Hogweed Bonking Beetles were feeding but not yet bonking on the Hogweed.
Just before The Bell pub, which curiously is not show on the OS map, Common Broomrape was emerging by the side of the track.

This was very exciting for me, whilst Gloria had more pressing needs to utilise the facilities of The Bell pub, just down the road.

Although described as "frequent" in southern Britain, you only see it when it flowers.  It s parasitic on various trees.  It has no leaves or chlorophyll.  Here it was growing under Ash, Oak and Horse Chestnut.   The Brakespeare ale in the Bell was excellent.

Heading north from Babylon Lane we were within less than a mile from the M25 motorway with not a house in sight! 
The beer in The Well pub was worth the 9 miles slog to get there.

Townhall Clock or Moschatel plant: one of my favourite spring flowers

Townhall Clock or Moschatel plant: one of my favourite spring flowers is bursting into flower now in Surrey.  Eleven days ago the flowers were just starting to open on the north slope of Wolstonbury Hill on the South Downs, where plants flower a week or so earlier than Kingswood, Surrey.  It is far more abundant in Kingswood though, where great swathes of it flourish.  On Wolstonbury Hill there are only isolated small patches.

These pictures, above, are alongside the permissive bridal path (reasonably churned up by horses as it is a bridal path) adjacent to the Surrey Hills golf club in the nature reserve, "The Long Plantation" of Shabden Park
The exquisite, tiny flower is cube shaped with a flower on each vertical face and one on top... so the fairies can tell the time as they fly overhead, if you believe in fairies!  The stamens look like numerals on a clock face, although there are only ten: never mind!  This is a short lived, exquisite and fun little plant.

 Townhall clock plants are really abundant here in Chiphouse Wood, a Woodland Trust reserve on the edge of Kingswood.

Look!  Loads of it alongside the footpath which runs alongside the railway.  It is pollinated by flies or moths.
It is a plant that is featured in my talk at http://www.peterlovetttalks.co.uk/page13.html

Dark-edged Bee-fly, Bombylius major in Kingswood, Surrey, UK

A Dark-edged Bee-fly Bombylius major on a mud-splattered leaf on the path in the Long Plantation, Shabden Park, Kingswood, Surrey, https://www.surreywildlifetrust.org/reserves/shabden-park
Scary? Only if you are a solitary bee like the one below laden with pollen and making a nest in the cracks in the clay soil of my Sussex garden yesterday.

Why scary to the bee?  See http://www.brc.ac.uk/soldierflies-and-allies/bee-flies

Kestrel in Kingswood, Surrey, UK today.

From a private road (and public bridleway) adjacent to Eyhurst Park in Kingwood there was a solitary bird perched in a tree.  It didn't fly away as we walked underneath it, or as I walked back to get a closer look with a camera lens.
Deep joy: a female Kestrel!  Click on any picture to enlarge it.

Picture taken from under the tree.  Then after walking back from whence we came to get a frontal view.

 What a beautiful bird!  Adjacent to a golf course with rough grass and hopefully no chemicals there, plus Shabden Park and The Long Plantation nature reserve managed by Surrey Wildlife Trust, this is a good environment for a Kestrel.

 This bird was so photogenic: staying put as I walked back underneath it to take a picture from the other side.

This is probably the same kestrel seen in October 200 meters away.  See https://www.facebook.com/peter.lovett.18/videos/10153665006384049/?theater

To see earlier blogs of a particular subject or area, e.g. "Kingswood" use the search box on this blog to pull up related entries of wildlife throughout the year and years.  Enjoy!

Meanwhile, here is a picture of another magnificent kestrel in fight taken at Woods Mill in Sussex in August 2015.

Dark green fritillary in the Long Plantation, Kingswood, Surrey

Wonderful to see a Dark green fritillary, Argynnis aglaja, in the Long Plantation, Kingswood, Surrey this afternoon.  It did not close its wings so this identification is tentative.

Toothwort, Lathraea squamaria in Surrey

 14 April 2019, the Long Plantation, Kingswood, Surrey.  Lathraea squamaria is blooming.
See http://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:662054-1 for detailed info'.

Here it is alongside a public footpath if you want to see it.

Toothwort in the Long Plantation, Surrey

Toothwort is flowering again in the Long Plantation, Kingswood, Surrey.

Toothwort in a Surrey wood

Toothwort is parasitic on hazel trees and there were some fine flowers in this Surrey nature reserve near Kingswood. It lacks chlorophyll and the only time it is seen is now, when it flowers above ground.

Insects in the Long Plantation, the North Downs, Surrey

Clearings in a forest allow wild flowers to grow and attract insects.  This clearing in the Long Plantation, near Kingswood, Surrey on the North Downs is a spectacular example of such conservation work.  The flowers are lovely and the insect life awesome.

Nettle-leaved Bellflower lives up to its name.  You are careful not to brush against the leaves until you see the flowers.

Margoram, Origanum vulgare, was highly attractive to many butterflies and insects.

This is a Holly blue butterfly.

All of these flies will have to wait for identification until I get delivery of a new insect guide.

Bee

What a fine wasp...? ... on a wild parsnip.

Yet another species of hover fly.

The ubiquitous soldier beetle(?), or Hogweed bonking beetle, which seemed to be bonked out today.

Flies like wild parsnips too.

Tiny, weeny flies too.

What beauties.

????

 Holly blue.

Speckled wood.

A fritillary, which one though?  Click on this picture (and any other) to expand.  Above, just might be the finest butterfly photo that I have taken to date.

This looks like a Silver-washed fritillary.  In any case, the poor butterfly has taken a pounding.