Foulshaw Moss and Meathop Moss

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. 

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​Early August brings a challenge of juveniles,   young birds in a plumage which will change as they mature.  Most visually striking is the Great Spotted Woodpecker and two juveniles show at the Foulshaw feeders.  The full red cap belongs to a juvenile male.  The smaller red cap to a juvenile female.  A  long interlude of watching them gives us time to admire the patterns and colours of their plumage.  The adult male is distinguished from the female by a red patch on the nape.  Great Spotted – named for the white on black wing spots.   Best seen with the wings fanned in flight-  next photographic challenge. Juveniles have a red crown and blotchy white shoulder patches. They are zygodactyls having feet with two toes pointing forward and two  pointing backwards- Both Foulshaw and Meathop have dead tree habitat-  and the woodpecker will use its long tongue to  probe and extract invertebrates. 

I love the flora of the mosses- cross-leaved heath with its pink, bell-like flowers bitten by insects seeking nectar and fading to ochre,  the flowers of heather ( erica vulgaris), crowberry and cowberry.  And there are the rarer flowers of bog rosemary.  Hints of red in sphagnum moss are  carnivorous sundew. There are drifts of beaked sedge.   The last yellow stars of bog asphodel fade and fall and the seed-heads will linger in autumn colour,  still present as grey and skeletal the following summer. 
From late  summer through autumn the raised mire flora  of Foulshaw, Meathop and Roudsea becomes a palette of colour.  Cotton grass and deer grass are lovely in autumn. Heather is now in full bloom but it fades into autumn subtleties and is a delight. 
Through spring and summer of 2020 I have longed for blanket bog and upland tarns.  Raised mire occurs along the coast of South Cumbria and its flora reminds me of what is to be found in the blanket bog of the fells. 

We began to see lizards on the wooden rim of the boardwalk, dark like question marks.   Tiny and dark.  Later, we came upon a larger common lizard with scales and markings clear to see.  When I zoom-in on the photographs of the smaller, darker creatures I see their scales and markings which show them to be young common lizards.  Lizards are viviparous, giving birth to live young in July.  So these were juveniles. Close-ups show their incipient adult markings. 

Below, a pale and delicate cranefly has caught an ant which you may see through this sequence.   Follow its long, jointed legs as they reach out to rest upon birch leaves.  

Black Darter: female and male 
I recognised and photographed a male Black Darter-  it's black as its name tells. But the golden female had me puzzled. There are black markings along the side of the yellow abdomen which shows browner with age. The vulva scale projects from the underside of segment 9.  With two inverted black T shapes on segments 6 and 9. 
The thorax is brown on top and there's a diagnostic black triangle-  partially visible in the central image.   Clearly shown is a black band with three yellow spots- present in both male and female Darter. 
The eye is brown, the legs black. 
Thanks to Ian Brodie for identifying this Female Black Darter.  I looked up
Shropshire Dragonflies
to confirm diagnostic features with my  Foulshaw Moss images.T
Imagine  Gilbert White in the late 19th century.  No binoculars , no camera, solely attention and a lifetime of dedication.