Viper's bugloss, the old pier and Piel Castle Summer begins here on Walney with the intense blue of Vipers bugloss on the curve of shingle reaching the old pier. Piel castle defends the entrance to Walney Channel, and beyond is the open sea. We glimpse a few eider duck out in the channel, then realise there's a flock roosting on the shingle by the old pier. Yellow horned poppy is in flower and I follow the scatter of eider swimming to join the larger flock. Early in the breeding season male eider are distinctive black and white with a beautiful pistachio green on the nape of the neck. Female are brownish, so what have we here?
After breeding, eider moult into eclipse plumage. As they moult they're vulnerable to predation so blotches and smudges of colour and pattern are effective camouflage. Most of the eider by the old pier will be adult males. Juvenile males take some time to assume that striking black and white plumage. I thought we'd see the brown females with a creche of young.
This Scottish Wildlife Trust website focuses on eider and changing plumage according to maturity and gender.
https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/.../06/the-stages-of-the-common …
This Scottish Wildlife Trust website focuses on eider and changing plumage according to maturity and gender.
https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/.../06/the-stages-of-the-common …
From Coastguard Cottages the first flowers are banks of Viper's bugloss, some mingling with teasels. Hidden amongst them on sandy ground are scarlet pimpernel and centaury. Then comes shingle flora and the first henbane.
I hear a tern but the flocks are oystercatcher and herring gull with cormorant on the spit, and eider. Past the lighthouse there's sand-dune flora and in bright sun the fragrance is exquisite, millefiore, the perfume of a thousand flowers. There's white and red clover with a scatter of orchids and I've never seen viola tricolor so abundant. Looking for linnet, we find one amongst seeding grasses.
I hear a tern but the flocks are oystercatcher and herring gull with cormorant on the spit, and eider. Past the lighthouse there's sand-dune flora and in bright sun the fragrance is exquisite, millefiore, the perfume of a thousand flowers. There's white and red clover with a scatter of orchids and I've never seen viola tricolor so abundant. Looking for linnet, we find one amongst seeding grasses.
I first found henbane on South Walney in June 2019, here's a link
https://www.cumbrianaturally.co.uk/blog/henbane-hyoscyamus-nige
This year, I'm three days later. The last flowers show and green seed-pods are already forming. It's a weird plant, an archaeophyte with long associations with both medicine and magic. It's big and bulky. The leaves quickly wither and flowers are yellow with purple veins. Its flowering season is brief so this is just the right time. A return visit to the splendid museum at the nearby Furness Abbey could tell how the monks might have used it.
Next time I hope to visit the new sea hide which looks rather impressive. The previous hide was falling apart and we had a thrilling time in a high wind with planks flapping all about us!.
https://www.cumbrianaturally.co.uk/blog/henbane-hyoscyamus-nige
This year, I'm three days later. The last flowers show and green seed-pods are already forming. It's a weird plant, an archaeophyte with long associations with both medicine and magic. It's big and bulky. The leaves quickly wither and flowers are yellow with purple veins. Its flowering season is brief so this is just the right time. A return visit to the splendid museum at the nearby Furness Abbey could tell how the monks might have used it.
Next time I hope to visit the new sea hide which looks rather impressive. The previous hide was falling apart and we had a thrilling time in a high wind with planks flapping all about us!.
I discover an English Heritage website, presenting psychoactive plants grown at Mountgrace Priory, plants they speculate the monks could have grown. They include Hyoscamus Niger, Henbane
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/mount-grace-priory
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/mount-grace-priory
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