Blog Archives

Leighton Moss with coot chicks and avocets

29/4/2025

Willow catkins gone to seed

Drifting willow seed-heads are caught in sunlight on a still morning as the booming of bittern resounds across the reed-beds. It's unusually hot for late April and butterflies are on the wing, whites and orange-tip. Cuckoo flower and marsh marigold are in bloom.
I come to at Leighton Moss with a hint of a wish-list, a reprise of great crested grebe and coot chicks which I saw on this date two years ago. Courtship behaviour, parenting skills and interesting ways of how to rear young- it's not simply about identification.

Rue-leaved saxifrage, Saxifraga Tridactylites

26/4/2025

Rue-leaved saxifrage, Saxifraga Tridactylites

Rue-leaved saxifrage has tiny white flowers borne on red stems. Parachute seed-heads of dandelions seem to be caught -up amongst its flowers.
Saxifrage, of broken rock, the name tells.
I remember scouring the limestone clitter of Scout Scar searching for the flower and then finding it growing in the top-stones of a wall bordering an old orchard on Queen's Road, Kendal.

Bluebell, brimstone and orange-tip butterflies

24/4/2025

Brimstone nectaring on bluebell

As sunlight pours down woodland rides and illuminates glades the butterflies respond. Dancing together through sunlight and shadows, sometimes they alight on a flower.
A brimstone clings inside the bell of a bluebell, its proboscis seeking nectar,
Butterflies are volatile and when they settle to feed camouflage protects them from predators. The brimstone wing resembles a leaf in shape, with veins like a leaf. That wing-shape can often be a sure identification feature, since colour changes with the incidence of sunlight.

Wheatear, a new arrival

23/4/2025

Male and female wheatear

I'm here, where are you?
or
I'm here, clear off.
That's the message birds transmit from their display posts, and in song. Males seek a mate and they claim exclusive rights to their territory. Today, a female wheatear joins her mate.

Nature Notes: Easter on Scout Scar

19/4/2025

Vista to the north along Scout Scar escarpment

A bright and breezy day of scudding white cloud against the blue. There's clarity and from Scout Scar escarpment the western fells are distinct. There's violet. wood anemone and I find my first early purple orchid. Larch come into leaf, looking fresh and bright. Juniper has last summer's berries and new shoots.
Stopping to admire gorse in flower close to the escarpment cliff I hear lambs bleating down at Barrowfield Farm, and the call of green woodpecker.

Wheatear

13/4/2025

Male wheatear with black bandit mask

He’s back. He perches on a fence post claiming his territory, his summer residence. He knows his place, and so do I. I’ve met generations of his fore-bearers, his lineage. I'm delighted he is returned to the neighbourhood and I hope his female is here, or will join him shortly.
My encounter with this smart wheatear is cut short by the farmer who drives out to check on his sheep. Good luck to the pair if they can raise a brood here. This isn’t the solitude of a mountain redoubt where I delight in finding wheatear.

Osprey in April at Foulshaw Moss

10/4/2025

Osprey at Foulshaw Moss

Roadside signs tell of osprey at Foulshaw Moss and by late-morning the car park is packed with eager visitors. Rarely breeding in Britain, says my Collins Bird Guide published in 1999. And out of date because osprey is a success story in the UK. A fish-eating raptor, the osprey nests in the top of pine trees on Foulshaw Moss.
We see Marsh Harrier too. I've been watching a pair nesting at Park End Moss for the last week or so.
It's great to see osprey but, for me, the moss itself and the ecology of the raised mire is full of interest, its aspect changing through the seasons.

Warriners Wood and Park End Moss

7/4/2025

Male wigeon

Wigeon are in their finest breeding plumage at Park End Moss. Accompanied by teal. Earlier in the year we saw a large flock. Today there are far fewer wigeon but good light enhances fine vermiculation patterning flank and rosy breast. Long black upper-tail coverts are emarginated in white. And with that richly coloured head and throat it's a stunning water-fowl.
Three marsh harrier are active and lapwing are displaying, calling in flight.

To Park End Moss

1/4/2025

White Scar from Park End Moss

A lapwing alarm call tells that marsh harrier are on the wing, gathering reeds and sticks to build a nest somewhere in the reed-bed. Bull-rush gleam in the sunlight, a dab chick swims across the pool, passing an egret and gadwall. In the distance the light catches the limestone cliff of White Scar.
Down in the Lyth Valley the damson trees are in blossom. A male brimstone is on the wing, and several whites. Rosy bees seek nectar in comfrey flowers. There are violets and celandine in mossy banks.