Day 15 - Nature Ramble at Cerne Abbas

A small group of enthusiastic nature ramblers set off today for Giant Hill, a utopian chalk downland for wildlife. Armed with our binocs, cameras, hand lenses, notebooks and identification charts and books and, most importantly, bags of enthusiasm, we aimed to cover no more than 3 miles in as many hours.

I think we managed one mile in that time span; there was just so much to see. Whilst I enthused about Thick-legged beetles, someone else spotted yet another Six-spot Burnet Moth and we learned A LOT about the folklore of many of the downland plants, musing over why so many of them have local Somerset names. Here are a couple of examples:

Milkwort (Polygala vulgaris) - Cross-flower because it was carried in processions at Easter time.
Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria) - Lemonade because lemons, oranges, ginger and sugar were added as a cure for the common cold.

A wonderful morning out in the sunshine.

6-spot Burnet Moths

Small Heath

Thick-legged Flower Beetle