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 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.
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 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. 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.  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 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..  Fragrant orchid, gift of the seed-bank in a wild-flower lawn Seed Stories from the Lockdown. The Food Programme. BBC radio 4.
Caribbean horticulture thrives in Bristol allotments and gardens. Traditions of saving seed, sowing beans and growing fruit trees. 'You get a great pleasure, especially when the rain falls, watching things grow/ says Mr Brown. Jamaican growers like he and Leon Walker bring with them a horticultural tradition of tending a small plot, skills being rediscovered during the lockdown. Both men convey the joy of growing food. And Leon Walker's wisdom is memorable.. It was refreshing to listen to these two Jamaican growers in a week when the headline news from Bristol was the toppling of Edward Colston's statue.  Cleaner air, quieter skies in spring 2020 Home from Smardale, Shelley wrote of the butterflies and flowers they’d found. 'I think we are all appreciating wildlife so much more.' -------- 'Have you spotted anything new? Although, it’s interesting to follow the progress of birds and their chicks, blackbirds and thrushes with their young are giving me such pleasure in my garden.'  Curlew with young A morning with sunlit haze, the fells indistinct. A curlew was calling from atop a field wall, watching over a tiny chick in the pasture beyond. I've found curlew on Cunswick before but not with young.. The adults' plumage was of colours rich and warm, both parents.  Hawksbeard A calm morning, overcast. Tiny moths and butterflies flutter deep into the grass but none of the larger butterflies is on the wing. Last week, flowers of hawksbeard turned their open faces to the sun, releasing nectar to invite pollination by bees and butterflies. Overnight, the flowers furl their petals close again. I found a six-spot burnet moth clinging motionless to a seeding grass stem. It's a rather languid moth once it settles. Unlike the tiny ones whose wings were never still.  The Langdale Pikes from Scout Scar escarpment Rain overnight, welcome rain. Enough to flood beneath the cattle grid on the road to Bradleyfield Farm. After the rain, a wild north wind and clarity.
I'm lost to the distant fells to the west. Floodlight and shadows cast by the play of sun and fast-flowing cloud over the Langdale Pikes. The reed beds of Foulshaw Moss are lit gold, for a moment. Helsington Pool gleams serpentine.down in the Lyth Valley. I am alone up here, with only the Welsh Black cattle for company.  Underwings, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary 7 July 2012 Wings over Scout Scar, July 2012
Rain, rain, rain, flash floods, rivers on flood alert. Relentless rain through April, June and late into July. The jet stream was locked too far south, again. After overnight rain, vegetation was lush. The morning was humid and warm, an al fresco sauna fragrant with herbs. Shadow-wings flickered about my shadow in an hour of bright sun. Before raindrops evaporated, flowers and grasses were astir with micro-moths. Fritillaries were everywhere, foraging for nectar and pollen, in courtship flight, mating and egg-laying.  Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary is an exquisite butterfly. My first of the season, that dramatic upper-wing is unmistakable as it settles on a flower open-winged. I hoped for photographs to show the pearls of the under-wing too. Strong sunlight made their wings translucent, like stained-glass windows. The butterflies are fresh and lovely and after a generous interlude with Small Pearl-bordered Friillary I have images which show their interaction with the flowers they pollinate.
 Willow warbler in full song Strong sunlight at 6.00am and volleys of swifts swept low as I set out for Scout Scar.
Straying from the track to Helsington Barrows, we heard redstart and stopped to find him. Along our way there was mountain everlasting and dark red helleborine on a raft of limestone clitter. It should flower soon, although the weather is set to turn cooler by mid-week. Hoping to find the linnet I'd heard singing two days ago, we settled down on a grassy slope overlooking gorse where I'd heard them, making sure the tall trees were outlined against the sky. |
AuthorJan Wiltshire is a nature writer living in Cumbria. She also explores islands and coast and the wildlife experience. (See Home and My Books) Archives
November 2023
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