February 2024 – Beating The Bounds

Cove Road – Holgates – Far Arnside – Park Point – Arnside Point – White Creek – Blackstone Point – New Barns – Arnside – Black Dyke Road – Silverdale Moss – Challan Hall Allotment – Hawes Water – The Row – Hagg Wood

Home again and a familiar walk around the coast to Arnside and then back via Silverdale Moss and Hawes Water. It was a walk which involved a lot of stopping and gawking, and during which I took nearly four hundred photos (I’ve edited them down a bit for this post!). It was a good day for butterflies, spiders, harvestmen, grasshoppers and various other things.

P1390606 — *Harlequin* *Ladybird nymph.*

I find Grasshoppers very tricky to identify. I found this guide useful, if not conclusive.

I spent a long time by a Buddleia at the edge of the caravan park at Far Arnside – it was very popular with the butterflies, with quite a few bees and hoverflies visiting too.

Whilst I was snapping away, a Robin appeared close by in the hedge and watched me for quite some time.

P1390681 — *Common Blue Butterfly (female).*

P1390701 — *Bumblebee on a St. John’s Wort.*

PXL_20230816_140846057 — *Looking south along the coast to Clougha Pike.*

PXL_20230816_141156679 — *Looking North to Grange-Over-Sands.*

P1390725 — *Holidaymakers enjoying the mud.*

I was surprised to see a few family groups dotted about on the mud of the Bay, with a full collection, by the looks of it, of beach paraphernalia. Of course, I love the area myself, so I shouldn’t be surprised at all that other people want to enjoy it too.

PXL_20230816_140837388 — *Heather on the clifftop.*

PXL_20230816_141331230 — *Bloody Crane’s-bill.*

PXL_20230816_141559341 — *Naturalised Montbresia.*

PXL_20230816_143955660 — *Approaching Park Point.*

PXL_20230816_145400818 — *And around the point looking up the Kent Estuary.*

PXL_20230816_150033868 — *Marsh Samphire.*

PXL_20230816_150354069 — *The foreshore at White Creek with lots of…*

PXL_20230816_151744445 — *The estuary near New Barns.*

PXL_20230816_151812019 — *Lax-flowered Sea-lavender.*

PXL_20230816_151903647 — *Lax-flowered Sea-lavender.*

PXL_20230816_152213071 — *Approaching New Barns.*

PXL_20230816_153211348 — *At New Barns.*

PXL_20230816_152526475 — *A yellow composite (which is to say, I don’t know what it is!).*

P1390742 — *Common Carder Bee (possibly) on Marsh Woundwort.*

PXL_20230816_153724081 — *I think that this is an Orache, possibly Spear-leaved Orache.*

P1390730 — *A Rove Beetle, on the Orache, – one of the *Paederus* species.*

Paederus species are widespread across the world and I was surprised to discover that one (or possibly more) of them can cause severe skin reactions.

PXL_20230816_155204146 — *The Kent near Anside.*

PXL_20230816_155350934 — *Another boat on the Kent.*

PXL_20230816_155748078 — *A particularly vigorous clump of Sea Aster.*

This tall clump of Sea Asters was thronged with bees and hoverflies, particularly Drone Flies.

P1390756 — *A Drone Fly on the Sea Aster.*

A sixth species of butterfly for the day, not bad going.

PXL_20230816_160733107 — *People paddling in the Kent at Arnside.*

Over the years, I’ve taken countless photos of Blue-tailed Damselflies, but curiously, I don’t recall noticing the rather gorgeous two-toned wing-spots which are characteristic of the species before.

PXL_20230816_161130468 — *Former Custom House Arnside – now home to the Sailing Club.*

I’ve walked past the Sailing Club in Arnside many, many times. I’ve often thought of joining – I’ll no doubt get around to it at some point – but I’d never been inside their clubhouse. I have now. But I’m getting ahead of myself – that post is still some way off.

PXL_20230816_165605950 — *The footpath beside Black Dyke.*

I’d only set-off from home mid-afternoon, so it was getting quite late. I’d originally intended to follow the path beside Black Dyke, but as you can perhaps tell, it was pretty water-logged, testament to what a wet year 2023 was. So instead, I turned left and headed East…

PXL_20230816_165715738 — *A drier alternative, heading East.*

…towards some very dark looking skies.

PXL_20230816_170743841 — *Ominous clouds.*

PXL_20230816_170917646 — *Blue skies back the way I’ve just come.*

Long-suffering readers might know that I love to be on the edge of a weather front like this with strongly contrasting weather evident in different directions.

PXL_20230816_171030607 — *Silverdale Moss and Middlebarrow.*

PXL_20230816_171854156 — *More threatening clouds.*

PXL_20230816_173801543 — *The remnants of the Cloven Ash.*

PXL_20230816_181432110 — *Dandelion clocks.*

PXL_20230816_182132892 — *Common Knapweed.*

PXL_20230816_182707101 — *Thistleheads.*

PXL_20230816_184407342 — *Inman Oaks – nearly home.*

You may have noticed that no Skylarks appear in this post. The fact is, that I was listening to Horace Andy’s marvellous 1972 debut album ‘Skylarking’ whilst I was choosing the pictures for this post. Now that I’m almost done, my soundtrack is the similarly laidback reggae of John Holt’s ‘1000 Volts of Holt’.

A really delightful walk and a precursor to another family get together the following day.

Beating The Bounds

A Blog about walking, thinking about walking, reading about walking…….and maybe other stuff

Month: February 2024

Blackberry Picking

Skylarking