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Knepp visit

FireFire Posts: 19,096
edited July 2022 in The potting shed
I’m back at Knepp wild lands for the first time post Covid. It’s very good to be back. 

The current soundscape is of storks clappering right by the tent and lots of green woodpeckers yaffling. There are a lot more storks now - I saw 12 this morning riding the thermals - such a sight in England! 




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meadow browns, I think. Clouds of. 







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  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited August 2022
    There are huge meadows of flowering common fleabane (aster family) and ragwort, humming with hover flies, bees and clouds of meadow browns. They offer high levels of nectar and pollen. 

    Common fleabane’s Latin name, Pulicaria dysenterica, is given for its supposed powers to ward off fleas.  Latin for flea  is pulex. Its scented leaves were strewn on floors. 

    Insect numbers are low here this year. 

  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 7,093
    We get waves of plants coming in, dominating briefly and then being replaced or moved aside by something else. It's fascinating to see how the biodiversity builds. Ragwort seems to be the one that's arrived in numbers this year. I suppose the conditions favour it - rather than the wild angelica we had last year and which likes the wet. 

    I hope you're enjoying the visit - I'd love to go there sometime
    Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon

    “It's still magic even if you know how it's done.” 
  • ShepsSheps Posts: 2,236
    Beautiful pictures @Fire the sunset/sunrise image is beautiful, such gorgeous colours.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited August 2022
    They have a cabin for rent on the land, by footpaths outside the season (and availability). 

    Isabel’s book suggests they have big waves of flora and insects that come in waves. It’s all yellow this week. 

    There are so many people now (including me, obvs, high season) that I worry these kinds of lands turn into a park. The deer and pigs seem very used to people where they turned away before. And… 

    It is wonderful watching red admirals, commas and 20 storks circling over head. I was chatting to a bat last night. 🦇 

  • LunarSeaLunarSea Posts: 1,923
    Fire said:
    I was chatting to a bat last night. 🦇 


    We've all been there :D
    Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. 

    I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I do love bats 
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    a day of wrens, greater spotted woodpecker, yaffles, grebes, buzzards and bearded tits. 

    Lots of dogs are on the wildland, off the lead, leaping into the hedges and the wildlife ponds. I don’t think the newts, dragonflies, frogs, chicks or fish appreciate the enthusiasm. Ground nesting birds are having a very hard time if it. 
  • ShepsSheps Posts: 2,236
    @Fire When I used to do serious photography, dogs off the lead was my No.1 annoyance, very difficult to photograph a shy species with dogs running riot.

    I once had an English Bull Terrier come sprinting up and grab my camera bag, full of ridiculously expensive lenses, and shake it around like a rag doll , the owner just thought it was his dog playing a silly game.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I get steamed over it. The answer is always “I’m always in full of my dog” as it dashes all over the place, ignoring the owner’s yells. 🙄

    I was taking pictures of dragonflies. The dog was the end of that. You’d think a specific wildlife delineation would be clue enough. But no. 
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    Sheps said:
    the owner just thought it was his dog playing a silly game.
    Was he one of the bearded tits?
    I'm surprised Knepp allows dogs in the water. So many of them are carrying massive doses of neonicotinoid flea treatments that are lethal to aquatic life.

    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
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