I walk across Windmill Down on the South Foreland at St Margaret's Bay most days. It's only two or three acres but has a fantastic range of plants.And at this time of year butterflies.
I've always meant to do a bit of a study of its flora as it is classic coastal chalk downland.
This morning I started by taking some photos of the different plants butteerflies and insects that I could spot.
As with all my floristic identifications caution is required. I'm still working on some of them.
It seemed fitting to celebrate the diversity and richness of life on such an inauspicious day. I include a photo with the Dover Patrol Memorial obelisk that remembers the lives lost patrolling the Dover Strait against U-boat attack in the IWW. A similar memorial stands on the French side of the Strait/Pas de Calais at Cap Blanc Nez.
Windmill Down, South Foreland Species
Butterflies
Male and female Chalk Hill Blue (Polyommatus coridon)
Common Blue Polyommatus icarus
Wall butterfly (Lasiommata megera)
Silver-studded Blue (Plebejus argus)
Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus)
Marbled White (Melanargia galathea)
Small White (Pieris rapae) female
Plants
Carline Thistle (Carlina acaulis)
Queen Anne's Lace - wild carrot Daucus carota
Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum)
Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia)
Vipers Bugloss (Echium vulgare)
Field Scabious (Knautia arvensis)
Chalk Milkwort (Polygala calcarea)
Sea kale (Crambe maritima)
Common Rock Rose (Helianthemum nummularium)
Yellow Rattle - Rhinanthus minor
Agrimony - Agrimonia eupatoria
Common eyebright (Euphrasia nemorosa)
Salad Burnett (Sanguisorba minor)
Seaside centaury (Centaurium littorale)
Greater Knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa)
Lesser Knapweed Centaurea nigra
Hemp agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum)
Cirsium acaule - Dwarf Thistle or Stemless
Welted thistle - Caardus crispus
Red clover - trifolium pratense
Wild privet (ligustrum vulgare)
Bramble (Rubus fruticosus)
Mignonette - Reseda lutea Mignonette - Reseda lutea Yarrow (Achillea milefollium)
Old man's beard or Travellers Joy (Clematis vitalba)
Rough Hawkbit (Leontodon hispidus)
Rough Hawk's Beard (Crespis biennis)
Common Ragwort - senecio jabaea
Lady's bedstraw (Galium verum)
Bird's foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus)
Common toadflax (Linaria vulgaris)
Yellow-wort (Blackstonia perfoliata)
Fen Bedstraw (Gallium uliginosum)
Holly
Ash
Wayfaring Tree
Holm Oak
Sycamore
Yew
Hawthorn
Blackthorn
Dandelion
Maritime Pine
Briar Rose
Apple
Horizontal Cotoneaster
Meadow Thistle
4 Grasses
Moss
Ground lichen
Tree lichen
52 to here
a few undientified
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