Our visit to Magdalen Down coincided with the International Moto Cross event to the west of Winchester where traffic jams were predicted in the local paper.

Fortunately the jams did not materialise and although the Moto cross was just over the hill we neither saw nor heard a thing.

We were a bit disappointed not to have a motorbike to whiz up and down the hill but you don’t see much wildlife from a speeding trail bike so we had to be content with shanks’ pony.

The weather did not look too promising at first as it rained all the way to the car park but fortunately it stopped and slowly turned into a warm summer’s day.

There have been more than usual amounts of rain locally in August which has enabled some of the earlier flowering plants to regrow and give a second display of flowers.

However the warm dry spring together with the recent wet weather seems to have fooled the trees into thinking autumn has arrived early and some of the leaves have already started to take on their autumn colours.

Many of the meadow flowers have either finished flowering or have one or two flowers amongst many seeds. The seeds however are often a good means of identifying a particular plant in a similar manner to the farmer noticing the difference between wheat and barley.

The seeds of Tall Melilot for instance can be distinguished from Small Melilot by their black hairy coating.

Hedge Parsley seeds have hooked hairs on them which distinguishes them from any other Umbellifer.

Mugwort has very innocuous flowers that look like seed spikes but were plentiful along the path sides.

Mugwort is not as I originally thought a school of Magic and Witchcraft but a wild plant that originally was used to discourage midges.

Ploughman’s Spikenard another grand old English name was also present in small numbers.

This was used as a wound pain relief on cuts and bruises by promoting blood flow.

The word Spikenard means an ointment container presumably much used by ploughmen.

We noticed several specimens of the Wasp Gall on wild roses.

These are the product of a group of larvae each residing in its own chamber and are also known as the Bedeguar Gall or Robins Pincushion.

Magdalen Down consists partly of original chalk downs grassland and partly of reclaimed arable land that has been resown with wild flower mixtures.

The reclaimed land is slowly becoming naturalised but many of the plants are still in their own groups that change as you walk along the paths.

You may pass clumps of Wild Basil and Marjoram for instance followed by clumps of Sainfoin and Wild Carrot.

On the hillside the Yellow Rattle has long since finished flowering but the seed case still rattles if shaken.

Butterflies started to appear when the weather brightened up towards midday.

We saw Red Admiral, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Brimstone, Common blue and Small Tortoiseshell amongst others.

When we arrived back at the entrance to the reserve we met someone who had been doing a butterfly survey and recorded over two hundred Chalkhill Blue butterflies but we had not been to that particular area of the reserve.

Our indoor meeting for August was a member’s only meeting to discuss the future of the society.

Apparently our finances are based on the government model which means that our expenses exceed income by a considerable margin.

We are looking to recruit more members or a rich benefactor.

Next month we will be travelling to Winnall Moor Reserve near Winchester and the indoor meeting will be a talk on ‘Great Testwood House’ by Roger Grier.

Anyone wishing to attend our meetings or even rich benefactors should contact our secretary Ron Mintrum at 023 8089 3803.