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Bumblebee with corbicula, a pollen-basket

12/8/2020

Bumblebee with pollen-basket on her hind leg

With a buzz, a bumblebee alights on a flower - seeking pollen and nectar. Which it stores in a corbicula, a pollen basket visible on its hind leg.
There's a heat-wave and the early morning sun is strong. I see strands of spider silk strung across the flowers of Japanese anemone. But my camera cannot see them- the spider needs his web to be invisible to his insect prey.
In summer 2014, I was writing Cumbrian Contrasts, and studying pollination. That was the first time I photographed a Bumblebee pollen-basket.
Today's image is clearer

Quest for Autumn Gentian, Gentianella Amarella

9/8/2020

Autumn Gentian, Felwort, Gentianella Amarella

On a quest to find Autumn Gentian, think habitat, geology, and season. On the limestone grassland of the Scout Scar ridge, in the short turf, they're looking good right now. From finding the plant a fortnight ago, they have put on growth and now show as a short, erect plant with dark, linear leaves and dark buds.. I glimpse them on approach, standing proud of short grass. The bud is deep pink to purple, the tiny flowers are lilac or white. From year to year the distribution may vary, they relocate, One worn path is fringed with them.

Foulshaw Moss and Meathop Moss

6/8/2020

Cross-leaved heath with pink flowers fading to ochre

Foulshaw Moss and Meathop Moss were out of reach- until today. Raised mire is a rare habitat and here are species I have not seen this year. What a joy to return!
A prolonged spring drought and a wet summer affects the vegetation of the raised mires and in early August it’s rank. There's the sound of running water and raindrops stand proud on the Meathop Moss reeds. The morning is cloudy, hot and humid, so it’s ideal for a close-focus on the special plants and insects of the Reserves.

Autumn gentian and frog orchid

3/8/2020

Autumn gentian, felwort, Gentianella amarella

Autumn gentian and frog orchid can be hard to find. Both are delicate and lovely flowers but they are not showy and you need to look closely to appreciate them.
Autumn gentian is a short, erect plant with dark, lanceolate leaves . It is found on short turf of the limestone grassland. The flowers open to the sun so many are still in bud during overcast days. Its flowers are pale lilac in colour, occasionally white. And they are tiny, easy to confuse at a glance with flowers of thyme.
Today, I found a single frog orchid. And several new gentian plants.

Swallow migration

2/8/2020

All aboard for South Africa

In September, swallows will migrate to South Africa and these enterprising fledglings have booked their passage on a boat. Good luck with that!
They're clamorous and all a-flutter as parents fly in with food. A pale, wide gape, a hint of down in their plumage and a food=begging posture define the young birds whose tail streamers begin to show- picked-out in shadows as the sun comes out.

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Scout Scar 1st August

1/8/2020

Scout Scar escarpment is the perfect spot for watching rain clouds flow east from the fells, across the Lyth Valley, toward you - and here comes a squall. The wind roars, lashing trees, and the temperature drops. Rain and hail, perhaps. The sun is gone, light fades and the raven calls in a deep gurgle. A kestrel rides the wind, wind-hover, against dark clouds.
Trying to spy out autumn gentian and frog orchid in poor light, hoping to identify birds drained of all colour, is a challenge. On such rainy days you may find solitude and the weather is volatile and thrilling.

Holker Hall Gardens

30/7/2020

An outing to Holker Hall Garde3ns! A scenic drive through landscapes I've known this millenium, but out of reach this spring and summer, until today. A first visit to these lovely gardens, and so memorable.
Herbacerous borders are fragrant and drenched with raindrops. Fragrances of exotic and unfamiliar flowers. Then the morning brightens and the sun appears, bringing forth butterflies that flutter over the border of delicate flowers about the lawns.

Brimstone Butterfly, Autumn Gentian, Harebell

24/7/2020

Female Brimstone butterfly

Being in the moment is the best thing, In deep.

In the moment and mindful of all that has gone before, here in this place, for me and my friends, for others over time, over centuries as our stories interweave.

Yarrow, Milfoil, Achillea millefolium

19/7/2020

Yarrow, Milfoil, Achillea millefolium

For everything a season. So where are the hawthorn berries? I could find none yesterday on Scout Scar and Helsington Barrows- so I shall persevere. Has the crop failed? Blackthorn has green sloes and juniper has green berries- juniper whose fragrance I love.
And if the hawthorn crop of berries has failed up here, what happened- or did not happen?
There are floral motifs of the season. Deep purple betony amongst the bracken, thyme, lady's bedstraw and yarrow. No idea where the name yarrow comes from. Yarrow, milfoil, Achillea millefolium for its feathery leaves. I like its compact flower-heads in shades of pink and white and patterns as its buds form and burst into flower. Today, a moment of perfect symmetry.

Scout Scar and Helsington Barrows: July flora

17/7/2020

Yarrow, Achillea Millefolium, Milfoil

Rain, pervasive light rain and the fells are gone.
A rabbit. A linnet in an ash tree. Swifts silent in cloudy skies. A raven croaks. Jackdaws call.
On Helsington Barrows there's betony, thyme and self-heal, a raindrop palette of purples. And fragrant lady's bedstraw. Yellow flowers of hawkweed close against the rain. The elliptical leaves of mouse-ear hawkweed pale and mouse soft, mouse-ear hawkweed, Hieracium pilosella. The tiny petals of fairy-flax close tight to a fleck of whiteness.
A morning of close-ups since the fells are lost in rain-cloud, butterflies are sheltering from the rain. The lush green of mid-July after rains, after drought.

And Tree Pipit

15/7/2020

Sunlit cloud over the Coniston Fells

When dark clouds gathered it took a while to enter into the spirit of the morning, its own spirit, not mine. I heard linnet and redpoll in the scrub, busy rearing their young broods. And a meadow pipit with a beak stuffed with insects gave a constant warning call to his nestlings, waiting for me to be gone. Somehow they can call without losing the insects they've caught. I try to make out what the pipit brings to its brood for breakfast but the light is too poor. It's so dark I can see little but if I stick it out something brighter will surely come. A metaphor for our times.

Lapwing and Scout Scar

12/7/2020

The Langdale Pikes under louring cloud

Where was the promised brightness? Louring cloud over Scout Scar threatened heavy showers. I thought of heading home when I heard lapwing and followed their call through a scrub of hawthorn and gorse until I reached a dry stone wall topped with a double strand of barbed-wire. Finding a spot where I could see into the pasture beyond, I searched amongst summer flowers lush after rain, their constant calls guiding me to lapwing parents with two chicks.

Flora of limestone grassland: Scout Scar and Helsington Barrows

11/7/2020

Anthill with flowers of thyme

This July weather is so unsettled it's hard to know what the day may bring. Saturday was predicted to be sunnier but the day was overcast and cloudy. Few birds or butterflies on the wing But rain brings forth flowers and we delighted in the flora of Heslington Barrows.
Insect populations diminish and the numerous anithills of the yellow meadow ant are not the floral hotspots they were some decade or more ago. So we linger over an anthill thick in flowers of thyme with a mass of purple betony close by

Dark Green Fritillary, Common Blue and Cinnabar Moth Caterpillar

6/7/2020

Dark Green Fritillary nectaring on thistle

It's so clear I can make out the distant waterfalls of Stickle Ghyll and the gloomy cleft of Dungeon Ghyll. Pools of light and shadow over the Langdale Pikes. My heart is in the fells . A day of vistas and Sunday’s strong winds ease through the morning.
‘I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows.’ Butterflies will choose a sunny glade, a sheltered spot where warm air lingers over flowers rich in nectar, Their favourite bramble and thistle are on today's menu.
A hint of blue at my feet, like the petals of a flower. A long stem of seeding blue moor grass, not petals but wings.

Stonechat and fledglings

2/7/2020

Fresh flowers after late June downpours: betony

A glimpse of secret lives- that's the best there is, a thrilling glimpse. If we hope for more we delude ourselves. Wildlife has its own imperatives, distinct from ours.
In early spring, I listened to a stonechat singing and his display flight won him a mate.. Through the season I've followed their progress. Alarm calls alert me to their presence and I always stop to see what I might discover. And on a morning of louring cloud with interludes when the sun broke through, here they were with their brood. I knew they were raising a family but this was my first glimpse.

27,28 June a 2020

28/6/2020

Linnet preening

The last week of June saw the hottest day so far this year, temperatures of 30 c recorded at Blackpool. Followed within days by (possibly) the wettest day ever recorded in Cumbria.
The Jet Stream flows south of the UK and the North West sees Atlantic lows, slow moving, so rain lingers over Cumbria. June is wetter than normal with rainfall totals mounting to 50 mm, by Monday 29. Double that on the high fells.

June 25th, 2020

25/6/2020

Hedge woundwort, Stachys sylvatica

Even hotter than yesterday. Heat and humidity brings forth horseflies. I'm willing the swifts to swoop even closer and snap them up
Temperatures in the North West will reach 30 degrees. I meet the early birds who dislike the heat. Derek is returning as I head out at 6.00am. Kay and I meet as we're heading home. I know I'll find speckled wood butterflies in pools of sunlight amongst the trees and Hedge woundwort is spotlit.

June 24th, 2020

24/6/2020

Feather care: male linnet preening

LIght overnight rain had refreshed vegetation.
The day promised record temperatures, so I set out at 5.30am. Swifts flew low and silently over juniper and scrub. Moths and tiny butterflies flew about the seeding grasses and rose from juniper. There were common blue and rich-coloured fritillary making territory in wavering flight. I heard the distant call of lapwing and curlew.
I sat contemplative on an erratic and caught the sweet note of a innet which settled in the bare branches of a hawthorn close by.

Dark Green Fritillary mating

21/6/2020

Upper-wings of two Dark Green Fritillary

Cloudy, brightening mid-morning with a light south to south east wind, veering to south westerly. There had been rain overnight and water droplets were points of light in juniper bushes alive with small pale butterflies and moths. Common blue, meadow brown and tortoiseshell and we glimpsed fritillary but they were lively and elusive.
I know a butterfly hotspot, sheltered by larch and a stone wall that is itself a sculpture, with through-stones and limestone like millefeuille pastry- stone of compacted layers. At the base of the wall bright white bedstraw and purple thyme and soft mosses cushion the rock.

Stonechat, Saxicola torquata

18/6/2020

Stonechat, Saxicola torquata

The morning air is warm and full of moisture. The fells are lost in mist.. Swallows skim low over Kendal Race Course and out on the open fell the swifts are screeching, weaving low as they snap up insects. A kestrel calls.
It's a hide- and- seek morning out on Scout Scar. Birds have young to feed and a pipit's beak is stuffed with insect prey. The herb layer is fragrant in a warmth building to thunderstorms and downpour in the afternoon. Tiny moths and glimpses of colour: common blue butterflies , fritillary, and six-spot burnet moth..