The Flower of The Axe

A few miles from here is the village of Kilmimgton which was very famous amongst 19th century botanists, but don't just take my word for it. Here's an extract from a 1893 publication entitled The Rivers of Devon from the Source to the Sea, by John Ll. W. Page.

In this neighbourhood, on Kilmington Hill, grows one of the rarest possibly the very rarest of our wild flowers, the Lobelia urens, commonly called 'the flower of the Axe'. I have never seen it myself, but those who have tell me it is of rich blue colour. Needless to remark, its habitat is eagerly sought out, and Kilmington Hill is the happy hunting-ground of the botanist.

The flower, also known as Heath Lobelia was first found at this location in 1768 by Lord Webb Seymour and was for a while thought to be its only site in the country. It was subsequently discovered in several more sites along the south coast but today remains at only six of them. It is easy enough to see at the Devon Wildlife Trust's reserve at Andrew's Wood but having never seen it I was eager to see it at the site it was first discovered, especially as it's on 'my local patch'. The plant remained growing on at least four sites around Kilmington Hill (which was birch woodland and heathland) until the early 1960s when it was heavily afforested with conifers causing the decline and eventually extinction of the species at all but one small site. The actual location of the plants is kept pretty secret but I went along and searched for it on three occasions in the last couple of weeks and I'm pleased to report that it was a case of third time lucky! 

I was doubly delighted when I spotted them, firstly because after all the effort I'd put in I'd finally located them but also because I simply wasn't prepared for how stunning they would look. I was expecting to see a few plants dotted about in the grass but they were growing in a couple of large swathes and were a lovely colour too, not quite purple, not quite blue but quite magnificent.

Heath Lobelia. 

Very rare and very beautiful too.

This morning on Black Hole Marsh there were many, many waders, far, far away, except this Common Sandpiper, one of about a zillion on patch at the moment!

Very Common Sandpiper

My New Morning Alarm Call (Take Two)

I've been enjoying feeding the birds in our nice new garden but I fear I've made a bit of a 'rod for my own back'. As from a couple of weeks ago if I'm not up and about and putting out the bird food before about 7 am I'm rudely awoken by this type of thing. I got up before seven this morning and decided to set the camera up. Sorry about the background noise, I'd already put on the washing and didn't realise how loud the machine was! He didn't really put that much effort in this morning and was then disturbed by Rex entering the kitchen but the first time I was woken up by his antics I actually thought someone was trying to break in!

EDIT:  This morning he put on a much more typical performance like so:

Then There Were Two

A few less waders in total on Black Hole Marsh this morning but there were now two Wood Sandpipers, which was nice. I tried to get a photo of both together but it's very tricky when digiscoping because they don't both fit in the field of view unless they're pretty close together and then I struggle to get them both in focus because of the very shallow depth of field. Still I just about managed it a couple of times. You can't have too much of a good Wood Sandpiper or two! If you disagree just wait until I bring out all of the moth photos I've got piling up on the hard drive! I also tried to get a photo of a Green Woodpecker that I spotted in the cemetery as I drove through on the way to the Black Hole Marsh car park. I digiscoped it from the drivers seat with both the scope and camera handheld. The results are predictably naff, but it's only the second time I've managed to get a shot of one. For such a common bird they're surprisingly difficult to get near to.