A lift out into Cambs with Ben Potterton for a quick visit to the access-restricted Chippenham Fen NNR looked after by Natural England.
Ben has an appointment to collect some seed of one of the rarest plants in the UK, Cambridge Milk-parsley that the warden at Chippenham had collected. So I joined Ben, Meg and Ben's colleague Aiden on the jolly.
It proved to be a very enjoyable visit with Chris the warden being very welcoming as he took a couple of hours out to show us around some parts of the reserve. Cambridge Milk-parsley was obviously our main target and I was amazed that there are thousands of plants there with loads in full flower. Interestingly they favour drier areas where I was expecting to be looking at them with wet feet! This rare plants now grows in just 2 places with this one being the largest population by a huge margin. We saw a few other good plants too with the attractive Saw-wort being a particular highlight for me as this is the closest they occur to home. Long-stalked Yellow Sedge and Canadian Waterweed were also both new to me added to which we also saw Marsh Fragrant Orchid, Fen Bedstraw, Yellow Wort, Heath Milkwort and the Eyebright, Euphrasia confusa.
I didn't spend a huge amount of time looking at insects but did find Ectemnius lapidarius, Wasp Spider, Large-headed Resin Bee, Ruddy Darter, Southern Hawker and the hoverfly Cheilosia impressa. Back at Meg's a Turnip Sawfly posed on Ben's car too.
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