Perspective toward Piel Castle, South Walney Something shifts the moment we cross Jubilee Bridge onto Walney Island. We leave behind Barrow in Furness and fast roads, the pace slows as we drive beside the salt marsh, heading for South Walney Nature Reserve. Birdsong reaches us through the open windows (these are Covid times.) Cistercian Way, said the OS map. Now it's designated the England Coastal Path. These were the domains of Furness Abbey and Piel Castle looms in the distance. Mid-June is a season I'm not familiar with on Walney Island, so there are surprises in store.
Leaving Coastguard Cottages, we head along the track seeing Piel Castle in the distance. Viper's bugloss puts on a splendid show at this season. And there are the more delicate flowers of bugloss. Scarlet pimpernel flowers on waste ground and on the shingle. Almost hidden, on the shingle below our track there's a flower I've always hoped to find on South Walney but I haven't been here at the right time. Henbane, Hyoscamus niger. These few flowers on the shingle do not prepare us for the Henbane we encounter on the south side of the island.
There are eider duck but the breeding season is well advanced and they have young. A female with ducklings is out on a freshwater pool, a group of males and females shows on a distant shore. Come earlier in the season and their courtship calling is memorable.
There's a breeze and few butterflies show but the cinnabar moth is on the wing, and some are mating. They settle on sun-warmed earth and in grasses. All along the tracks there's a wealth of delicate flowers; viola tricolor, white clover, the pink flowers of rest harrow and the yellow flowers of lady's bedstraw.
There are eider duck but the breeding season is well advanced and they have young. A female with ducklings is out on a freshwater pool, a group of males and females shows on a distant shore. Come earlier in the season and their courtship calling is memorable.
There's a breeze and few butterflies show but the cinnabar moth is on the wing, and some are mating. They settle on sun-warmed earth and in grasses. All along the tracks there's a wealth of delicate flowers; viola tricolor, white clover, the pink flowers of rest harrow and the yellow flowers of lady's bedstraw.
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