Coombe Bisset Down 05-05-2018
As my wife was booked onto an aromatherapy course in one of the little villages on the outskirts near Salisbury I was given the dual duty of chauffeur and childminder for the afternoon. So with part one of duty one completed I loaded the girls back into the car and we set off along the high hedged windy lanes. Nearby was a site that I’d only visited once before some years back – Coombe Bissett Down and so with ‘Iron Maiden – Two Minutes to Midnight’ (their choice not mine though I heartedly approved
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
) blaring from the open windows turned off up the hill towards the site.
Only it wasn’t the correct turning. Instead I was following a route that I’d last taken almost 30 years towards Great Yews a Scout camp. I’d love to have carried on and inspected the old camp but my memory isn’t that good and it certainly isn’t the chalk downland I wanted to visit. So we pulled a U-ey and started back down the hill but very slowly as here, away from all the hustle and bustle down a largely ignored road there seemed to be butterflies everywhere. I inched the car along with the windows open and pointed out butterflies to the girls as we went past as if we were on a safari. A male OT went past, a Green-veined White rose almost vertically up the side of the hedge, a pair of male Brimstone started a scrap right in front of us and I stopped for fear of them colliding with the windscreen. Then a Holly Blue jinked by and in my rear view mirror I could see a/the male OT returning whilst ahead another male flew towards on a collision course. They met and spiralled upwards. The loser shot off over the hedge the victor settled down for a victory drink whilst just further on a female OT nectared – the reason for all the strife? The girls were enthralled by this greener, lusher and miniature Serengeti but all too soon the spell was broken as another car came up the hill and passed us by.
![DSC_0376 - Copy.JPG (1.12 MiB) Viewed 1305 times DSC_0376 - Copy.JPG](./files/thumb_9821_c4ac6254113cdd0151eefbe94fef2135)
We got back on the main road and took the next left turn which was the right one this time (if you follow me) and then we stumbled across the next memory related problem. I remembered reading that there was a particular hotspot right at the far end of the reserve which was particularly resplendent in wildflowers and therefore butterflies too So we sailed up the hill past the car park looking to our right down across the down for said field. Only it wasn’t there anymore and neither was there anywhere sensible to park or anywhere to get over the barbed wire reserve boundary. So noting another Holly Blue we pulled another U-ey and drove back to the car park.
By now I’d wasted a good amount of my allotted child caring time and it would soon be back to Duty 1 and the pick up so we made haste down the Down starting along the largest and widest terraced ramp. It was really well grazed by sheep from the look of the height of the sward so we climbed back up the steep bank to look for one of the more roughly grazed terraces. This proved better straight away as a Peacock and Brimstone other did a fly-by. In the surprisingly hot sun I was worried about the girls getting burnt and so I found them a shady little nook under a large Hawthorn and they set up camp so that I could investigate further.
It was hard going with the heat making everything solar charged and OTs , GVWs and anther Peacock all flew by without stopping. The Peacock itself did a U-ey and circled me a couple of times before landing wings closed – too hot possibly? I took a few shots and gave it a wide berth and it stayed put while I carried on towards the bottom of the hill. Something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye a familiar and welcome green flashed at me from amongst the foliage – my first Green Hairstreak of 2018. I fired of a few shots as it flew this way and that but none came out so I waited for it to settle so I could make an approach. It was very gittery but eventually I managed to get in close enough for a few shots I was happy with.
![DSC_0385 - Copy.JPG (1.61 MiB) Viewed 1305 times DSC_0385 - Copy.JPG](./files/thumb_9821_671e60de8218fd8acb60e0a348e58661)
![DSC_0396 - Copy.JPG (1.39 MiB) Viewed 1305 times DSC_0396 - Copy.JPG](./files/thumb_9821_72801860c62bb818fad757fcdf64e12e)
![DSC_0398 - Copy.JPG (930.98 KiB) Viewed 1305 times DSC_0398 - Copy.JPG](./files/thumb_9821_4338deb8e8e28805205562048b561210)
![DSC_0413 - Copy.JPG (1.21 MiB) Viewed 1305 times DSC_0413 - Copy.JPG](./files/thumb_9821_2c081090c8298e2b593668964ef1b2b0)
It was all going so well and then I heard “Wurzel” being screamed across the valley and so in a flash I was sprinting back to the girls. Normally the call of ‘Wurzel’ just means the battery has gone flat on the iPod, they want to know where the chocolates are or one of them needs the loo but this time there was real fear and anguish in the call. I was actually a little bit scared.
“What’s up, why’s K crying, why are you crying?” I asked a blubbing little L.
“K’s really upset there’s a lost lamb and it’s crying for it’s mum”
I’d been called away from my commune with nature, my meditation to play Shepherd! On the next terrace down there was a gate, on one side was a Ewe with one Lamb and on the other was another Lamb bleating mournfully. It seems someone had opened and closed the gate behind them properly but the sneaky/stupid Lamb and snuck through and not couldn’t get back. So I managed to herd it down and towards the gate, corral it in the triangle of a kissing gate while I opened up the main gate for it to gambol through. Job down, tears stopped, mother and baby reunited. But I’d lost all of the remaining time and so we had to make our way back up the hill on the hurry up! Hopefully there will be other meetings with the Green One.
![DSC_0420 - Copy.JPG (2.58 MiB) Viewed 1305 times DSC_0420 - Copy.JPG](./files/thumb_9821_514fa5008d7d3e6eaf48ac0315550ae3)
We arrived back a little early for the pick up and so I checked out the meadow on the other side of the road. It was a sight to see and I scanned across from left to right counting 57 Whites in the single continuous gaze. Judging by the tiered vegetation that is probably less than half of the number actually present in this one little bit of field. Stunning
Have a goodun
Wurzel