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Smardale: Newbiggin-on-Lune to Smardalegill Viaduct

15/8/2018

1 Comment

 
PicturePainted lady on knapweed
Heavy rain at breakfast,   thunder at tea-time. The morning was humid and still, with rain drops lingering  on vegetation.   There was time to appreciate different aspects of Smardale Gill National Nature Reserve as we walked the dismantled railway track.   Vistas opened up  toward Scandal Beck and Smardale packhorse bridge and the sun grew brighter.  There are diverse flowers and with the sun came  butterflies. We had a range of species, with  good sightings of Scotch Argus and painted ladies. 

Overwintering in Chad, Benin and  Niger, the painted lady can cross the Sahara Desert, the mountains of North Africa and the Mediterranean, in a single generation.  En route for Britain, they fly low. And high on their return, reaching an altitude of  3,000 feet. An awesome migration.
Painted ladies showed well at Smardale.  Knapweed and scabious were the nectaring plants for most species we saw today:  small copper, peacock, tortoiseshell, green-veined white, small heath and  hummingbird  hawkmoths.  And numbers of Scotch Argus.
Scotch Argus: Erebia Aethiops  its latin name evokes the rich dark colour of the upper-wings.   A large and  thriving population of Scotch Argus at Smardale is dependent on  blue moor grass which flowers late April on  limestone grassland grazed only in winter.   In Scotland, the Scotch Argus favours the taller purple moor grass of acid moorland.  Once we reached the zone of blue moor grass we began to find them. Chris Winnick showed us their core habitat where Scotch Argus breed in profusion.   Our best sightings occur on the stretch of dismantled railway  overlooking Smardale packhorse bridge, past  the double limekiln and as we reach Smardalegill viaduct.   Scotch Argus is a Smardale special, high on our list of target-species.

Flowers of the railway embankment rose in drifts of devil’s bit scabious and field scabious, of knapweed, with melancholy thistle, harebell, great burnet, rosebay willowherb and greater willowherb.  Abundant rose hips, berries of guelder rose and  seed- heads of angelica and hogweed. At first glance  Valerian  looked browned-off and ragged but its parachute  seed dispersal mechanisms  are intricate and beautiful.  Bloody cranesbill, another speciality of Smardale, had gone to seed and from each scarlet calyx  emerged a long black cranesbill- the seed-capsule for which the plant is named.
There are yellow rattle seed-heads and flowers of eyebright,  hemi-parasitic plants which tap into grasses, seeking their nutrients, sapping their vigour and so increasing the diversity of the Smardale flora.
An abundance of seeds on embankment and hedgerow attracted flocks of linnet and goldfinch. Willow warbler were audible with contact calls as they prepare to migrate. Swallows wove above our track all day.  A twittering hawthorn stopped us in our tracks.
Picture
 With perfect timing, rain held off until the drive home.  Thanks to Chris Winnick for  a rewarding and informative trip and a butterfly focus on Smardale.

1 Comment
An orienteer
16/8/2018 08:36:19 am

Now did the Painted Lady meet the ghost train that still thunders over the viaduct?

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    Jan Wiltshire is a nature writer living in Cumbria. She also explores islands and coast and the wildlife experience. (See Home and My Books)

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