Speckled wood Bird watching at Leighton Moss is the perfect way to spend a hot day. The coolness of bird-hides looking out onto Morecambe Bay, the susurration of the reed beds and the leafy shade of trees is delightful.
Long seed-capsules of greater willow-herb split to release parachute seeds drifting away on the lightest breeze. Codlings and cream the flower is called- codlings, rosy-pink apples.
Butterflies all about us as we walked. Maybe speckled wood, maybe not.
Long seed-capsules of greater willow-herb split to release parachute seeds drifting away on the lightest breeze. Codlings and cream the flower is called- codlings, rosy-pink apples.
Butterflies all about us as we walked. Maybe speckled wood, maybe not.
Speckled wood butterflies flitted about us along the woodland fringe, their niche habitat. I rather like the scalloped edge made by closed wings. And the underwings. If I were thinking field-guide and identification I'd show images I took earlier this summer, in June. Speckled wood are photogenic with their habit of settling on sunlit leaves against a foil of darkness in the wood beyond. Suppose you merely glimpsed the butterfly, wings closed, that crinkly edge. Would you be sure?
From Grizedale Hide we looked across the water, across the reed- beds eager to see marsh harrier, as we often do. There was a sudden kerfuffle, a raptor being mobbed high above the hide and quickly out of sight. I glimpsed the underside of a bird with long-fingered wings, tail spread- like a red kite. Were its legs trailing, like an osprey? Going for an impossible photograph I saw even less. I can't be sure. The sightings board in the RSPB reception centre lists recent sightings of marsh harrier and of osprey, with possible red kite. Sometimes being unsure is the challenge and the fun.
From Morecambe Hide we watched black-tailed godwit and made out more distant redshank, greenshank and dunlin. The plaintive call of lapwing rose from a sand-spit where they gathered.
From Grizedale Hide we looked across the water, across the reed- beds eager to see marsh harrier, as we often do. There was a sudden kerfuffle, a raptor being mobbed high above the hide and quickly out of sight. I glimpsed the underside of a bird with long-fingered wings, tail spread- like a red kite. Were its legs trailing, like an osprey? Going for an impossible photograph I saw even less. I can't be sure. The sightings board in the RSPB reception centre lists recent sightings of marsh harrier and of osprey, with possible red kite. Sometimes being unsure is the challenge and the fun.
From Morecambe Hide we watched black-tailed godwit and made out more distant redshank, greenshank and dunlin. The plaintive call of lapwing rose from a sand-spit where they gathered.
Saturday 28 July. We wake to the welcome sound of steady rain. A break in the heat-wave. The news is all about travel chaos, a consequence of the heat-wave and strikes. Thank Heaven for the oasis of Leighton Moss.
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