The Other Kingdoms

Cheery cherry blossom on Cove Road.

Grange-Over-Sands from the Cove.

The Bay and Humphrey Head from the Cove.

Eaves Wood – the path to the beech circle.

The Other Kingdoms

Consider the other kingdoms.  The
trees, for example, with their mellow-sounding
titles: oak, aspen, willow.
Or the snow, for which the peoples of the north
have dozens of words to describe its
different arrivals.  Or the creatures, with their
thick fur, their shy and wordless gaze.  Their
infallible sense of what their lives
are meant to be.  Thus the world
grows rich, grows wild, and you too,
grow rich, grow sweetly wild, as you too
were born to be.

Squirrel.

Another item from my list was ‘read more poetry’ a goal which I have singularly failed to meet.

New beech leaves.

It’s usually at this time of year that I become most enthusiastic about poetry, habitually scanning through my e.e.cummings collection, looking for something new about spring to furnish a post full of photographs of the usual collection of my favourite springtime images. Newly emerged beech leaves, for example.

This year cummings should have had a run for his money because I’ve acquired large collections by Frost, MacCaig and Oliver all of which I was very keen to dip in to.

Caledonian pines.

However, I have been reading ‘War and Peace’, another item from my list, which has turned out to be pretty all-consuming. Fortunately, I’d already read quite a chunk of the Mary Oliver collection before I completely submerged in Tolstoy.

My first speckled wood butterfly of the year.

I’ve finished now. Well, I say I’ve finished; in fact I have a handful of pages of the epilogue left still to read. Which probably seems a bit odd, but in the last 50 or so pages Tolstoy abandons his characters (again) and turns back to tub-thumping. Historians have all got it wrong and he is just the man to set them straight.

Speckled wood butterfly – my first of the year, looking newly minted.

Don’t get me wrong: although it took a while, I was completely hooked by the book and really enjoyed the various intertwined stories of the characters. But there are many lengthy historical sections about the stupidity, vanity and in-fighting of generals which are not so interesting. In particular, Tolstoy is at pains to dismiss any notion that Napoleon was is any way a military genius and spends many pages making his point. There are also several philosophical digressions about history and what drives the actions of nations and peoples. Whenever I was reading these sections I was reminded of the Gang of Four song ‘It’s Not Made by Great Men’, which makes the same point but way more succinctly.

Whilst these digression are often interesting in themselves, I did find they were often a frustrating distraction from the story. Steinbeck’s ‘Grapes of Wrath’ has sections of polemic laced through the story which, it seemed to me, are entirely redundant. And I’ve heard it said of Moby Dick that it’s best to skip the chapters which are solely Melville’s detailed descriptions of Atlantic whaling. Having said that, Tolstoy’s character assassination of Napoleon is hilarious, and I’ve just found a guide to the book which says, ‘Anyone who tells you that you can skip the “War” parts and only read the “Peace” parts is an idiot.’ It also says that the book will take 10 days at most to read and I’ve been reading it for more than a month. So, doubly an idiot, obviously.

The journey of the central characters is totally absorbing though, so I would definitely recommend it.

Untidy nest.

Anyway, back to the walk: when I first spotted this nest, it had two crows in it and I got inordinately excited, as I always do when I find an occupied nest. However, they soon left the nest and on subsequent visits the nest has always looked empty. Now the leaves on the surrounding trees are so dense that I can’t even see the nest.

Crow.

On our walks together TBH and I have frequently found ourselves passing comment on the fact that livestock seem to be being regularly moved about. I don’t know whether that’s standard husbandry or perhaps because of the prolonged dry spell we’ve had.

There’s a herd of young calves, for instance, on the fields between Holgates and Far Arnside which seem to have been moved into just about every available field at some point.

I was examining these trees, trying to work out which was coming into leaf first, and only then noticed all the splendid dandelions.

Dandelions.

Of course, once you stop to look at the flowers, then you notice other things of interest too…

Red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius))

Early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum).

Daisies (of the Galaxy)

Ash flowers.

Silver birches line a path on the Knott.

And have come into leave.

Beech buds.

Partially opened.

Opened.

Hazy views from the Knott.

Herb Paris…

…flowering this time.

Bramble leaf.

Linnets. (?)

I got very excited about this pair, purely because I didn’t know what they were. I’ve subsequently decided that they are linnets, but I have a poor record when it comes to identifying this species, having previously incorrectly identified red poll as linnets on more than one occasion. If they are linnets, then they’re missing the striking red breast and throat of a male linnet in its breeding plumage.

There were several small groups of birds flitting overhead, including, I think, more linnets and, without any doubt, a small charm of goldfinches.

Goldfinches.

I also caught a fleeting glimpse of what I think was a redstart – I’ve only seen them in the hills before and was doubting my own eyes to a certain extent, but they do arrive in the UK in April and the RSPB distribution map does show them as present in this area, and mentions that they favour coastal scrub when in passage, so maybe I was right after all.

---

One of my favourite Clash songs…

“You see, he feels like Ivan
Born under the Brixton sun
His game is called survivin’
At the end of The Harder They Come”

Ivan is the character played by Jimmy Cliff in the film ‘Harder They Come’, so it’s entirely appropriate that Jimmy Cliff eventually covered the song…

I always enjoy Nouvelle Vague’s unique take on punk and post-punk songs, it’s well worth a trawl through their repertoire..

And of course, the Paul Simenon’s, bass line was sampled by Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, for Beats International’s ‘Dub Be Good to Me’…

It’s been covered by German band Die Toten Hosen and live by the Red Hit Chilli Peppers, and Arcade Fire, and probably lots of others. There’s a nice dub version out there and Cypress Hill didn’t so much sample it as rewrite the lyrics for their ‘What’s Your Number?’.

The Lots with Little S

The day after our trip to Swindale and I managed to persuade Little S to accompany me to check up on the Starling nest. We could see that the nest hadn’t been abandoned and S could see one of the young inside the hollow. We waited for a short time and were soon rewarded by a visit from one of the parents.

Common Blue Damselfly.

Little S was excellent company; he seemed really taken with the Starlings and even more excited by the profusion of flowers on the Lots, where the Buttercups had suddenly appeared and the Green-winged Orchids were particularly rife (although I’m told that when a count was carried out, numbers were actually down on last year, for the first time in several years).

The Lots: Orchids and Starling Nest

A post about the orchids on the Lots is an annual occurrence on this blog. It’s a celebration of sorts: spring is in full swing and there are lots of orchids on The Lots. More every year it seems to me.

I’d already been to check on the orchids a couple of times before this visit. The Early Purple Orchids had been flowering, but the Green-winged Orchids weren’t then in evidence. But now both were flowering abundantly.

In the early days of the blog, I had no clue how to distinguish between the two species, which now seems comically inept. In fact, looking at old posts I often, admittedly tentatively, misidentified both kinds.

These are Early Purples, less purple now than when the flowers first emerged. Even the stems are purple at the tops. They can vary a little in colour…

The Green-winged are a different shape, have spots on the flowers rather than the leaves and have distinctive green stripes along both sides of the ‘hood’…

Based on the evidence of the Lots this year, they are also much more variable in colour…

Though generally purple, there were also white and pink blooms.

Sadly:

“Only a few years ago the Green-winged Orchid was widespread, especially in the south of England, and not uncommon, but the drainage and cultivation of the old damp pastures it favours had led to a drastic reduction in numbers. Although still locally abundant where it does occur, it must now be considered a threatened species.”

Wild Orchids of Britain and Ireland by David Lang

By contrast, here’s an attractive weed which seems to thrive wherever we thrive…

Ten years ago, on the way to mistaking Early-purple for Green-winged Orchids, a commotion in the trees above the Cove alerted me to the presence of a Starling nest in an abandoned Woodpecker nest-hole. I’ve kept an eye on that hole ever since, but never noticed any birds using it again. But on this walk, I heard some raucous squawking from the trees and looked up to discover that it was an adult Starling returning with food to that same hollow.

I was every bit as delighted this time round as I was then.

This titbit is clearly some sort of worm.

But I couldn’t fathom out what the three neatly held morsels are here…

I do know that when the starling left the nest again, it was still carrying one of them, now unravelled into a ribbon of white.

I think that this bird knows that it’s being observed!

Both adults seemed to be making deliveries. Oddly, they made a lot noise as they approached the nest – you would think that they wouldn’t want to draw attention to the location – but became more and more circumspect each time, so after watching four ‘food drops’ I left them to it.

Starlings were once such commonplace birds that I think it was easy to overlook how stunning they are.

Welsh Poppies in our driveway.

Serendipty Squared

Eaves Wood – Hawes Water – Gait Barrows – Coldwell Meadows – Coldwell Limeworks – Silverdale Moss – Hawes Water – Eaves Wood

By rights, this post should have been an account of a walk from the Leck Fell Road taking in Coum Hill and Gragareth via Ease Gill. I had it all planned: I drove as far as Cowan Bridge, but the car was playing up, unexpectedly losing power without warning or any apparent reason; so, reluctantly, I drove home – with some difficulty – left the car outside the local garage, and walked home through the village. Later, I decided to cut my losses by heading out for a local wander.

The previous week, when I’d been in Eaves Wood looking for Cuddlytoy-Makeshift -Orienteering-Controls, I was distracted by a proper hullabaloo issuing from a Birch tree which was listing from the perpendicular. I recognised the commotion as the distinctive uproar of a Woodpecker nest, with what sounded like several chicks demanding food. I scanned the tree and soon found the hole in the trunk which housed the nest. I watched for a while, but whilst both parent birds approached, they became agitated and wouldn’t visit the nest under the glare of my attention, so I left them to it. Now I was back. I could only hear one young bird this time, but it was making-up for having to perform solo by protesting its extreme hunger with remarkable vigour.

I assumed that the other chicks had fledged and that this one would be on the point of leaving too, but I was back there a few days later, with some old friends, and the single chick was still there, and still every bit as volubly voracious. We watched it poking its head through that porthole and clammering for sustenance. This morning, however, I was back again and all was finally quiet.

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Amongst the Buttercups near Hawes Water there were many Rabbits, a couple of them black. Escaped pets or the descendants of escapees?

Blue-tailed Damselflies.

This…

…has me stumped. It may be a teneral damselfly, that is, a recently emerged adult which doesn’t yet have its adult colouration.

In Eaves Wood I’d seen many Squirrels. It occurred to me that, although they are always about, there are times of the year, this being one of them, when Squirrels are more active and therefore more evident. I was also thinking about a Squirrels drey and the fact that, whilst in theory I know that Squirrels live in a nest made of sticks, I”d never actually seen one before.

Ironic then, that when I watched this Squirrel, it climbed up a Scots Pine to…

…a drey!

Bird’s-eye Primrose.

I was intrigued by a loud tearing sound in the reeds at the edge of the lake and went to investigate the cause. I was very surprised to find that the culprit was this little Blue Tit…

Yellow Rattle.

Because I find Orchids very difficult to identify, but also absolutely fascinating, I’ve long wanted a field guide dedicated solely to them. Usually, if I wait long enough, the Oxfam bookshop in Lancaster will fulfil my needs and this winter that’s exactly what happened. So I am now the proud owner of ‘A Guide to the Wild Orchids of Great Britain and Ireland’ by David Lang and have become an expert.

‘Yeah right’, as A would say. This looks to me very, very like Northern Marsh Orchid, especially the majaliformis sub-species. Except, this was growing in a relatively well-drained meadow, not a marsh, and the sub-species is only found within 100 metres of the coast, and this meadow is a little further than that from the Bay.

As is often the case, I didn’t have an exact route in mind; I’d thought of going to take another gander at the Lady’s-slipper Orchids, but chose instead to take another path through Gait Barrows – one that I knew would take me past several patches of…

…Lily-of-the-Valley.

It was getting late, but rather than doubling-back towards home, I took the track out of the nature reserve onto the road, without really knowing where I would go next. When I reached the road, I noticed a small notice attached to a gate almost opposite. It said something like “Welcome to Coldwell Meadows AONB Nature Reserve”. I decided to investigate.

Good choice! In the meadow, no doubt tempted by the lush, un-grazed grass, were a small herd of Fallow Deer…

These are not a native species, and whilst I have seen feral deer in this area before, the last time I did so was quite a few years ago. I assume that these are more escapees, perhaps from the Deer park at Dallam?

I also saw a Marsh Harrier, and managed to get a photo, but not a very good one.

At the far side of the field from the road a small, and very tempting, gate gave on to woods. I thought I could guess where it would take me, and I was right: a short downhill stroll brought me to the ruined chimney of Coldwell Limeworks and from there it’s only a few strides to the footpath which runs along the edge of Silverdale Moss.

I was gazing into the distant views of the setting sun and the meres of the Moss, when a crashing sound in the hedgerow focused my attention closer to hand. I couldn’t see anything in the hedge, but there in the long grass, just over the drystone wall….

…a Roe Deer Buck. He watched me closely for a while, then barked in the eerie way they do, and bounded around the corner – the long vegetation seemingly necessitating a gait more like that of a bouncing gazelle than what I would normally associate with our own Deer.

After he’d rounded a corner and disappeared, another bark surprised me, and then a Doe, or at least, I think it was a Doe, jumped out of the grass, where she had been completely hidden, and also leapt away.

I waited a moment: there were still rustlings in the hedge. Sure enough, a third Deer appeared, quite a bit smaller than the other two…

…but this one didn’t run away. Retreating rather in small stages, anxiously keeping an eye on me all the while and not really seeming to know quite what to do.

A bit of a puzzle this little group. I don’t think Roe Deer live in family groups and Roe Deer Kids are usually born between mid-May and mid-June, so the third Deer probably wasn’t new-born. But, on the other had, Bucks are territorial in the summer, with the rut running from mid-July to the end of August.

The former Cloven Ash.

With the light now very low, this might I suppose, have been enough excitement for one night, but back in Eaves Wood for the final leg of the walk, two different raptors slalomed impressively through the trees. One was a Buzzard…

…the other, wasn’t a Buzzard, but apart from that I don’t really have any clue what it was.  Very fast and very agile between the tightly-spaced tree-trunks, it will have to remain a mystery.

Ease-gill and Gragareth are both very fine, and will wait for another walk. This last minute replacement worked out pretty well!

‘You can’t always get what you want,
But if you try sometimes, well you just might find,
You get what you need.’

Do-Re-Mi

Don’t worry, I shan’t be bursting into any Rodgers and Hammerstein numbers.

Last Friday, (I’m only a week behind – Callooh! Callay!) whilst TBH took the kids swimming, I headed back to Gaitbarrow. On my previous visit, I’d read signs asking visitors to keep-off certain sensitive areas important for breeding pearl bordered fritillaries and duke of burgundy butterflies. So, I thought – since I’ve never knowingly seen either species, this is my chance. But, like the otters, bitterns, bearded tits and ospreys at Leighton Moss, which never seem to appear when I visit, the butterflies once again eluded me. Not to worry: there’s always plenty to see at Gaitbarrow.

 

The lady’s-slipper orchids, for instance, are now blooming.

Well, not all of them….

 

…but plenty to keep me and my camera occupied for a while.

 

Where ever I came across an open glade, I paused hopefully, waiting for masses of butterflies to appear. Nothing. But I did spot this moth…

 

I think that it’s a brown silver-line, but I’m not completely confident.

Nearby, I spotted an incongruous burst of colour amongst a patch of moss…

 

…I suspect that this is another slime mould, although, once again, I may be wrong.

Like the carnage of broken garden snail shells the boys and I found a while ago by Haweswater, this seems to be another anvil where numerous snail shells have been smashed, but this time the smaller banded snail…

 

…bits of shell were scattered over quite a wide area.

 

When I emerged from the wooded area into open fields, I did begin to see butterflies: peacocks, brimstones and whites, possibly female orange-tips.

Down by Haweswater the bird’s-eye primroses were flowering..

 

…and I finally managed to catch-up with one of those butterflies…

 

In the field at the end of the lake, I spotted a roe deer doe…

 

It was here that last year I saw a doe with a fawn. This doe may have a fawn secreted about the field somewhere – B tells me that he saw two roe deer fawns this week curled up together in a garden in the village. I often see roe deer on my evening wanders: like me they are crepuscular creatures.

 

As I got close to being back at the car, it seemed that almost every prominent tree had a song thrush busking from its topmost branches.

Several times on the walk I’d thought I’d heard the high-pitched begging of nestlings, but couldn’t find any nests. This time however, after some patient searching, I spotted a marsh tit poised on a branch with a sizeable insect in it’s beak. I backed off and waited and, sure enough, the bird dropped to a hollow in the trunk of a low tree,.

It was quite dingy under the tree here, and sadly none of my photographs were very sharp.

But in this last one, you can make out two yawning beaks facing the exhausted parent.

 

When I approached the tree for a closer look, the chicks greeted me at first as if I were bringing them food, but then hunkered down low into the hollow making themselves as inconspicuous as possible.

Whilst I watched the adult bird(s) going to and from the nest, this creature flew into my face and then fell to the floor. It’s a longhorn beetle, Rhagium bisfasciatum. Apparently longhorn beetles often fly at around dusk – another crepuscular creature.

 

Blackbird

Flash Mob* Walk

We received the call by email:

10am start at Holgates on Sat 26th Feb.
Bring family, dogs, cats whoever you like.
The plan is to walk over the field to Hollins farm, up the hill and over Arnside Knott, then to drop down to the beach and along to Arnside. Either chips or a cafe followed by the train home, or for the more enthusiastic a walk back if you like.
Dress for the weather and the terrain (there will be some mud I am sure, and the kids will find it)

We walked to Holgates, past the first primroses on the bank on Cove Road, and found that many others had heeded the call too. I never did a head-count, because…well I don’t always have to be Teacher, but there were over 20 present. Despite a less than promising forecast the weather did us proud. We did climb the Knott via Hollins Farm. We had fish and chips on the prom, and yes the kids found the mud and swam in it, or at least it looked like some of them had.

Whilst the kids (well mostly the boys) ran around like loons, the adults enjoyed the opportunity for a good chinwag.

Near to the trig pillar on the Knott, this tree must have fallen over quite some time ago, but some of its roots must have survived the fall and all of the branches have grown upwards from the recumbent trunk.

The views from Arnside Knott are almost always good value. The hills picked out by the sunshine are Gummer How in the centre and the Langdale Pikes to the left and behind that.

This nest was very poorly concealed, under a heather in a garden on Arnside Prom. Had it been abandoned?

Rainbow over the Kent.

The train times didn’t work out too well, but a knight in shining armour organised some lifts. Did anybody find the enthusiasm to walk home again? Suffice to say that in A’s worldview a walk to Arnside is followed by a walk back from Arnside as surely as night follows day: a much smaller party returned by shank’s pony – of which more…..

*I realise that I have certainly misunderstood what a Flash Mob actually is, but I liked the idea.

Another Series of Sorties to Assorted Spaces

Or Radius of Activity II

A number of short trips to report on. On Good Friday the boys and I sped down to Woodwell. We hoped to see frogs in the pond but found only frogspawn. Later S was on his bike again, this time joined by his sister A and I…

It was her idea to go out – she wanted to join the vicar and a few parishioners on a walk across the Lots which included several stops to read the passion from the Gospel of Saint Mark. A bit of a departure for me!

On Saturday we were in Eaves Wood. Climbing up Elmslack Lane towards the wood we saw several brimstone butterflies, our first of the year. As we entered the wood we bumped into friends and the children (of all ages) climbed trees, carved names on tree trunks, collected sticks and ended up building a den together…

We played hide and seek, as we often do. I took some photos from one of my hiding places…

Balancing on tree trunks is another great woodland activity

On Easter Sunday, whilst the girls were at church, the boys and I had an outing to Hyning Scout Wood. It’s just a couple of miles away, on the outskirts of the village of Warton. (Or should I say that the village of Warton is on the outskirts of Hyning Scout Wood?). But despite its proximity, I don’t know it well and the boys have never been there before. It’s definitely somewhere that is worth further investigation. There are a number of sizeable sweet chestnut trees in the wood…

…and although the nuts are reputed not to ripen this far north I have occasionally found palatable ones locally in the past. There is also an abundance of wild gooseberry bushes. And large areas of bluebell leaves, which bodes well for a few weeks time…

The boys had a whale of a time. We found a small hollow which proved to be the source of endless fun. They decided that it was their rabbit hole…

They climbed up the steep banks at the side…

…and then leapt back in again…

They grubbed around in the leaf-litter looking for mini-beasts…

Or a millipede curled up in the prickly remnants of a sweet chestnut shell…

The sun shone briefly and a nearby tree-stump was very comfortable to sit on, if I’d had the foresight to put a book in a pocket I would have been as content as the boys were to go no further. But I eventually persuaded them to go a little further. They were OK, they found more tree-trunks to balance on…

This one was host to the fungi King Alfred’s Cakes…

Another was huge, and very rotten (it made disturbing cracking sounds when I balanced on it).

It had also been host to some sort of fungi…

…I think that these ‘bootlaces’ may be honey fungus which kills trees, and also can make the wood fluorescent,  but I am probably wrong!

As we were leaving the wood we found a plant which is new to me…

…although curiously I recognised it as moschatel even before I got home and looked it up – clearly too much time spent pouring over field guides. The scientific name is Adoxa moschatellina. Apparently adoxa means ‘not worth mentioning’ and the flower is tiny and not immediately striking, but what the photograph doesn’t show is that five flowers form a cube – the uppermost one has four petals (that’s the one seen in the centre of the photo) and the other four each have five petals. It’s unusual nature lends it a little charisma.

Also by the edge of the wood we found the Hyning lime kiln…

That afternoon we (all of us but A who had been invited to join some friends for a walk by the Lancaster canal) were back at Leighton Moss for a very brief visit. At the pond dipping area we hoped to see frogs, but once again found only frogspawn….

…the trees reflected here are these alders…

…beyond which I briefly spotted one of the marsh harriers flying. Next to the nest which we have noticed before (see previous posts) a second has appeared…

This is a neater and more compact affair and the eggs are more difficult to see, although still evident. A moorhen was nearby and I assumed that this was its nest.

Water and sticks both exert a powerful influence on the boys, the conjunction of the two is irresistible.

We usually play pooh sticks here but they needed on this occasion to get a little closer. Fortunately they never got any closer than this.

Easter Monday was a bit of a wash out. Well…it was a bank holiday. But on Tuesday we were all back at Leighton Moss to join an organised Wildsquare walk…

Our guide, seen in the foreground here, was informative and witty and pitched it perfectly for the kids whilst still managing to point out many things which I wouldn’t have seen or heard or recognised without his help.

After Lunch at the visitor centre A and B walked home with me via Trowbarrow quarry and Eaves Wood. We passed the pond dipping area on our way and were able to confirm that the second nest is a moorhen nest…

On the path between Trowbarrow quarry and Moss Lane I spotted this skull…

I knew that B would be determined to bring it home, and he has.

He was keen to add this to the ‘rabbit skull’ which he was given last week. He was also very keen to identify this skull and helped me to search through my natural history library looking for help. We found none and so naturally fell back on Google, which led me to this blog which in turn brought me to this handy identification guide. Apparently the large gap between the incisors and the other teeth is typical of rodents and rabbits. Our skull has a second set of incisors behind the first making it either a rabbit or a hare. Which means that the ‘rabbit skull’ he was given isn’t a rabbit skull at all. Now that I’ve looked at it properly, I don’t think that it is a skull of any sort.

Anyway…bugs, dens, pooh-sticks, hide and seek, leaping, climbing, nests, skulls….it’s a wonder we ever find any time for our wii.

On Finding More Things

Saturday’s second stroll was a family affair with three generations of bound beaters. We began in the trough, a slight fault where the bedding plains have turned through ninety degrees so that they run vertically and a softer layer of mudstones has eroded faster then the two layers of limestone which sandwich it. S was on his bike, but the other two kids had great fun exploring the areas above the path, clambering in and out of the trees.

The trough led us to Trowbarrow Quarry….

…where S was fascinated by the climbers and their portable crash mats.

The hazel catkins have changed again and are now more obviously opening. The colour has changed also and where a tree is well covered they make quite a fetching display.

The track which winds its way out of the quarry has a long gradual descent and S went shooting down it on his bike, rapidly disappearing from view. We crossed the golf course and returned to Leighton Moss where we had parked.

It seems that I have become an internet authority on the essay ‘On Finding Things’ by E. V. Lucas after mentioning that I’d read it in a post a while ago. Now a search on google gives my post as the first link and the stats here have swelled to a trickle as a result. Well almost a trickle. In that essay Lucas mentions finding a plover’s nest after a couple of hours of searching. I’m not sure what sort of nest we found – there were no adult birds in attendance, but it didn’t take much seeking out…

Can you spy the eggs in the middle of the clump of reeds?