Hitchin Wildlife

 Charlton Area Wildlife September 2021 The start of autumn and wildlife is starting to be less obvious than in the summer...  However it is a good time of year to check the edges of fields for specialist flowers (aka arable weeds) left behind after the harvest, they tend to be very small and best appreciated on hands and knees: look along a field edges and corners for places which have escaped the farmer's spray. There is a colony of Chiltern Gentian to be found, these are a really unusual plant to find around Hitchin, needing chalky soil. In the UK this plant is only found only in Buckinghamshire (their county flower) and Hertfordshire (plus a very few in Wiltshire). It is difficult to catch the flowers properly open but here is a spike about to open... Other arable weeds spotted include Sharp Leaved Fluellen (left) and Dwarf Spurge (right)...   ...and there were easier to see things too, this particular Poppy took my fancy... Comma and Red Admiral butterflies were taking advantag