Lobed and veined Jew's ear fungus on an elder by the Eric Morecambe hide. Eric with arm raised, heel kicked up in classic pose. Other than Eric we have the sea-hides to ourselves. The car park is closed but we walked here and assume this does not apply to pedestrians In Allan hide it sounded like a railway junction, wind louder than the Carnforth train which ran behind the embankment. A run -away lawn-mower rattled in the roof. Last time, we had to manoeuvre the JCBs mending the pot-holes, refurbishing the track. The beck to the salt marsh is brim-full. Our boots are just clear of puddles. At 12.15 high tide could bring 10 feet of water to the car-park.
The wind off Morecambe Bay howls around the hide, thrashing the trees. There's scarlet elf cup in the spot where I've found it for years. When it's fresh those cups are finely moulded, always scarlet. The jew's ear fungus is velvety and mouse-brown.. I angle my camera and I'm startled by the way it handles light- illuminating the interior of the lobe blood-red. Not how it appears to the eye, but striking. Have you ever seen someone with the sun behind them, their ears suddenly illuminated and translucent?
The marsh harriers, male and female, fly over the reed beds and over the water, over the hide from where we watch. Even in poor light the male harrier is splendid.
Someone spies snipe and they are so hard to find, even with direction. There are two little inlets into the reed bed and a willow tree. A teal on the tip of each inlet. Reeds cast reflection onto the rippling water and the pattern shivers. Why has snipe evolved such intricate camouflage of colour and pattern? More than another species? Intricate and beautiful. Those stripes on the snipe's head could be the straw-coloured stem of a reed. The long bill a darker stem of vegetation. Pattern on breast and belly is broken up. How ever does this intricacy evolve? It's a mystery.
We think we hear the bittern boom. A warden stands with a little group listening to a Cetti's warbler down in the reeds and throwing its voice. I glimpse the bird. Water-rail with its piglet squeal is hidden in the reed-bed, a secretive bird. Or so it is said. There's a mossy long beside a path where folk throw down bird seed and bring coal tit, marsh tit and last time a nut-hatch. Today, the water-rail of the place struts his stuff. And a field mouse scurries beneath the log.
Someone spies snipe and they are so hard to find, even with direction. There are two little inlets into the reed bed and a willow tree. A teal on the tip of each inlet. Reeds cast reflection onto the rippling water and the pattern shivers. Why has snipe evolved such intricate camouflage of colour and pattern? More than another species? Intricate and beautiful. Those stripes on the snipe's head could be the straw-coloured stem of a reed. The long bill a darker stem of vegetation. Pattern on breast and belly is broken up. How ever does this intricacy evolve? It's a mystery.
We think we hear the bittern boom. A warden stands with a little group listening to a Cetti's warbler down in the reeds and throwing its voice. I glimpse the bird. Water-rail with its piglet squeal is hidden in the reed-bed, a secretive bird. Or so it is said. There's a mossy long beside a path where folk throw down bird seed and bring coal tit, marsh tit and last time a nut-hatch. Today, the water-rail of the place struts his stuff. And a field mouse scurries beneath the log.
We only visit the visitors' centre after we've been to the sea-hides, so we miss the advice that they're out of bounds. The water is high, we slosh through puddles along the gravel tracks. We look for frogspawn in watery ditches but do not find it. An oystercatcher clings to the last of a floating island before it is underwater. The shoal where I photographed teal roosting is submerged.
More rain as we drive home and rain overnight, when Covid 19 is declared a pandemic. So this day at Leighton Moss is something to shore-up against uncertainties to come.
More rain as we drive home and rain overnight, when Covid 19 is declared a pandemic. So this day at Leighton Moss is something to shore-up against uncertainties to come.
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