A post to deal with mid-September last year. On a dull Sunday, after a walk around Jenny Brown’s Point with TBH, I went to Lambert’s Meadow and took a few photos of spiders and a lot of photos of snails. Do snails breed in September? I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many in one visit.
More banded snails.Cottage at Silverdale Green.Another cottage at Silverdale Green.
On the following weekend, the second Morecambe Poetry festival took place at the Winter Gardens. This time TBH joined me and we went to see the headline poets on both the Friday and Saturday nights; first Brian Bilston and Henry Normal, then Jackie Kay and Carol Ann Duffy. Fabulous.
Morecambe Winter Gardens.
The line up for this year’s festival looks every bit as enticing, hopefully TBH will join me again.
I saw Lemn Sissay at the first festival and years ago when I lived in Manchester and likewise, I saw Mike Harding live several times, but not for a very long time. This time, two BBC programmes – Loose Ends and The Verb – will be broadcast live from the festival. Things are on the up and up, both for Morecambe and for the Winter Gardens.
On the Sunday of that weekend, TBH had a mission to perform.
Hazelwood Hall.
She took me to Heald Brow with a hand drawn map she’d been given by a colleague.
TBH on Heald Brow – Bowland Fells on the horizon.
The map showed the location of…
Heald Brow fossilised Nautiloid.
I’ve heard about this impressive fossil a few times from friends in the village, but have never actually managed to find it. With the aid of TBH’s map, we found it this time almost immediately. It’s hard to spot because it’s generally covered with a piece of turf which you’re supposed to replace, although I’m not sure why.
A skein of geese.Post sunset light at The Cove.
Later, I was out again for a wander to the Cove and across the Lots.
After years of not putting out food for the birds because our cats were a bit too interested, we’ve now realised that our one remaining cat is too old, fat and slow (I sympathise) to do any harm anymore. I snaffled a number of feeders from my parents a while ago and since TBH strung them all up (the feeders, not my parents!) from the Silver Birch by our kitchen window they have been giving me a great deal of pleasure ever since.
Starling eating dried meal-worms.Starling on our beech hedge.
Expect a lot more photos of our very varied visitors as I catch-up (ho ho) with the intervening six-months or so.
Two more local strolls from the back end of August. The first was a quick trip to The Cove and around The Lots, with TBH, but since she wasn’t ready to leave the house when I was, I first walked across the fields to Stankelt road and around Clark’s Lot first.
Looking towards Grange from the Cove.And the other way from the Cove.Garden Spider.
This spider was in our garden, but only just, hanging just beyond one of our kitchen windows.
The following day I walked our circuit around Jenny Brown’s Point, but had a mooch around Lambert’s Meadow first. This slight path runs around the eastern edge of the meadow…
Lambert’s Meadow – very wet.
It’s where I take most of my photos – you can see here that’s it under a couple of inches of water, which isn’t uncommon at all in the winter, but which shows what a wet August we were having.
Harlequin Ladybird, with a raindrop on its back.Wet Guelder Rose berries.A couple of wasps and a fly.Hoverfly, possibly Eristalis arbustorum.Bog Hoverfly – Sericomyia silentis, I think.
“This is a large and brightly marked hoverfly, with 3 pairs of wedge-shaped yellow bars and reddish-orange legs.” It prefers wet heath, so Lambert’s Meadow is the right sort of spot.
The light wasn’t great, but there was plenty to see and photograph. In particular, a variety of snails seemed to be having some sort of rave. They were everywhere.
Garden Snail.Banded Snail.A slug and a few snails.
There were actually several more snails on these two tall stems, who knows why they were so busy that day?
Probably the Banded Snail from the photo above – White-lipped.Two more White-lipped Snails.Crane Fly.Pirate Wold Spider – Pirata piraticus. Female carrying an egg sac.A very hairy bee – I don’t know which kind.A fly.Harlequin Ladybird Larva.A ladybird chrysalis – also possibly a Harlequin.
On my way down to Jenny Brown’s, I emerged from Fleagarth Woods into a small clearing which was mobbed with wildflowers, especially Common Knapweed. The flowers were really busy with bees and hoverflies, so of course, I took no end of photos.
A patch of wildflowers, mostly Common Knapweed.Hoverfly – a Syrphus species.Hoverfly – Pellucid Fly – Volucella pellucens.Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus).Drone Fly, possibly Eristalis Tenax, the Common Drone Fly.Hoverfly – Helophilus Pendulus – The Footballer. On Sneezewort.Honey Bee and a fly.Honey Bee on Common Knapweed.A tiny micro-moth.
My roaming through the flowers disturbed this frog…
A frog!
Had I realised how many different species of hoverfly were in that little clearing, I probably would have stayed to take even more photos, but until I got home to download and look at the photos I wasn’t aware of the variety.
Speckled Wood Butterfly.Honey Bee on Traveller’s Joy flowers.Traveller’s Joy flowers.Traveller’s Joy seeds.Looking towards Grange from Jack Scout.
My behaviour towards the end of our summer break was far from migratory; I almost exclusively stuck to my home patch. I must admit, I sometimes look back at my photos, or at MapMyWalk, and wonder why I didn’t go further afield; why not get out and climb some fells? Partly, it’s laziness and the fact that I don’t need to drive anywhere, but also, this summer gone at least, it was often weather related: the blue skies in these photos are almost certainly deceptive. This walk only began mid-afternoon and I can tell you I wasn’t sunbathing in the garden before I set-off. I know this because I didn’t sunbathe in the garden at all last August – the weather just wasn’t up to it.
Swallows – gathering to gossip about the long flight to come?
So, not a long walk, distance wise at least; not much over six miles, although that did take me four and a half hours. Lots of stopping and gawking, often, I’ve since realised, at creatures, like these swallows, which don’t live here all-year-round, and which are much more ready to travel beyond their home patch than I am.
Common Darter.
I went first to Lambert’s Meadow and back to the lush strip of Great Willowherb which grows along one margin of the meadow, hoping to find Migrant Hawkers there. The air above the field was very busy with dragonflies, but at first I didn’t spot any at rest. But then, on a Willow Tree, I spotted one. Then two. And eventually six, all in close proximity to each other. There were still more on nearby Guelder Rose bushes. Even though they are very colourfully marked, the stripes and mottling are surprisingly good disguise when they’re perched amongst foliage.
A couple of Migrant Hawkers.
I’ve since read that this social behaviour is peculiar to Migrant Hawkers; dragonflies are generally solitary, territorial and aggressive. Migrant Hawkers, however, have an unusual life-cycle; perhaps because in the southern end of their range they live in Algeria, where the pools where they breed can dry-out, their larval stage, typically at least two years for most dragonflies, is much shorter. On the other hand, they have an unusually long adult life and because they aren’t breeding for all of their adult life, the competitiveness which usually characterises dragonfly behaviour is not present.
Migrant Hawker, male.
They are also much more likely than other species to travel considerable distances in search of likely breeding territory, hence the name ‘Migrant’, although I think that also relates to the fact that weren’t a resident British species until relatively recently.
Migrant Hawker, male.Migrant Hawker. Male?
‘Britain’s Dragonflies’ is pretty clear that female Migrant Hawkers are predominantly brown with yellow markings. I saw several specimens which were definitely mostly brown, but with blue markings, like this one. So I’m a bit confused as to whether this is a male or a female.
Two Migrant Hawkers.Hoverfly – possibly Eristalis arbustorum, on an Ox-eye Daisy.Garden Snail.
From Lambert’s Meadow, I headed to Gait Barrows for a walk around Hawes Water and up on to the limestone pavement.
A mass of Common Knapweed in one of the Meadows by Hawes Water Moss.Hawthorns covered in berries.Ragwort and Hawes Water.Hoverfly – Helophilus pendulus, The Footballer.Deadly Nightshade, Atropa belladonna.
The two Deadly Nightshade shrubs growing beneath the low limestone crags close to Hawes Water, which I’d noticed when they were flowering earlier in the year, were now liberally festooned with berries. Apparently they are sweet to taste, which seems like a waste since, like all parts of the plant, they are hallucinogenic in small doses and highly toxic in even moderate amounts.
Deadly Nightshade berries.
In Greek mythology the three fates are Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos. Clotho spins the thread of life, Lachesis measures it, and Atropos cuts it. In other words, Atropos personifies death itself, hence Atropa in the Latin name of this plant. Meanwhile, Belladonna, ‘beautiful lady’ comes from the practice by women of using some part of the plant to dilate their pupils.
Apparently, the plant is considered to be native only in the south of England and plants found further north are the remnant of plants grown in the past for medicinal purposes, which, perhaps surprisingly, given its toxicity, were legion. So: another migrant.
Hoverfly on Common Fleabane.
I think this is also Eristalis arbustorum; Eristalis species are the Drone Flies. Other photos show that this one has a pale face which is why I think it’s arbustorum. In honesty, I was more interested in the Fleabane which is not, despite its name, all that common in this area.
Wasps flit back and forth from a small hole in the ground.
Not the best photo, I know, but the best of the many I took. It had to be included to remind me of the happy moments when I watched, fascinated, as wasps ferried in and out. At the time I assumed that there was a nest in the hole. I suppose another explanation is that there was some abundant food source in there that they were exploiting.
A patch of yellow flowers in one of the Gait Barrow meadows.Bird’s-foot Trefoil.Migrant Hawker, female.
Just below the extensive area of limestone pavement at Gait Barrows a large Blackthorn, which had grown out to be a small tree, proved to be another resting spot for a group of Migrant Hawkers.
This looks, to my untutored eye, very like a Rufous Grasshopper. It probably isn’t. My field guide shows the distribution of that species being solely along, or close to, the south coast. However, I looked up a more recent distribution map, and whilst they are largely restricted to the south of England, there have been verified sightings near Doncaster. Admittedly, that’s still a long way from here, but, on the other hand, they do like calcareous grassland, so this is the right kind of habitat. Maybe they’re migrating north too?
Wishful thinking aside, whilst trying to research whether or not it would be possible to find Rufous Grasshoppers in this area, I came across an old annual newsletter of the North Lancashire Naturalists Group. I’ve only read the Orthoptera section so far, but now I know where and when to look for Dark Bush Crickets locally, which might not excite everyone I realise, but is obviously right up my street. I also came across some familiar names of friends from the village who are members (and, in one case, Chair) of the group and are involved in recording. Why haven’t I joined myself? No doubt they would tell me what kind of grasshopper I have here.
At the point which I think of as the ‘top’ of the limestone pavement, where there’s a substantial memorial cairn, there’s a small set of steps with a rustic wooden handrail. As I climbed the three steps something seemed to fly away from the handrail.
‘That’s an unusual bird,’ I was thinking.
It seemed to land nearby, on or close to some bracken…
Can you see it?
I couldn’t. Or rather, I could, but it was so still and so well disguised, I thought I was looking at the end of a dried branch or twig. Fortunately, I decided to investigate.
Convolvulus Hawk-moth.
It was a Convolvulus Hawk-moth. I think this is probably the biggest moth I’ve ever seen; I’ve read that they can have a five inch wing-span. Their daytime defence strategy is to keep very still and hope not to be noticed. This one let me crawl right up to the bracken frond it was hanging beneath.
Convolvulus Hawk-moth.
This moth is native to North Africa and Southern Europe. It can’t generally overwinter in the UK, so this was a true migrant. The large, colourful, horned caterpillars live on Convolvulus – Bindweed. There’s plenty of that in our garden, but it dies back every winter, which I think is why the caterpillars can’t survive here. I’m not sure the photos do it justice: it was breathtaking.
Fortunately, nobody happened by whilst I was spread-eagled on the ground trying to find the best vantage points for photos.
Angle Shades Moth.
One final surprise for the day, on a leaf of a small Hazel sapling, an Angle Shades Moth. I knew that it was an Angle Shades, even though I don’t think I’ve seen one before. It’s bizarre that obscure facts like that stick with me, but that I can’t remember useful things like people’s names.
Angle Shades Moth.Angle Shades Moth.Another Common Darter.
If every local walk were as packed with interest as this one, I might never both going anywhere else!
One of several sunflowers growing near Jenny Brown’s Cottages.
Out in the real world, spring is springing, whilst here on the blog, I’m still stuck in last August. Will I ever catch up? I’m beginning to doubt it!
Anyway, at the tail end of the summer holiday, I had several excellent local meanders. The first was around our usual Jenny Brown’s point circuit. I was surprised to see several sunflowers – presumably growing from seeds dropped by birds from feeders in the nearby gardens? These days, we have a number of feeders in our garden again and I’m quite looking forward to a few sunflowers popping up.
Caterpillar – Large Yellow Underwing moth, possibly.A view from Jenny Brown’s Point.
I didn’t take my camera on this first walk, so not all that many photos. It was a frustrating omission. because I thought I saw two Great Egrets in Quicksand Pool, but they were too far away to be sure – I could have really done with the large zoom available on my camera.
So, the next time I was out, for a mooch by Bank Well, Lambert’s Meadow and around Hawes Water, I remembered my camera and, predictably, took hundreds of pictures.
Speckled Wood Butterfly.Purple Loosestrife.Brimstone Butterfly on Purple Loosestrife.Common Carder Bee (I think) on Common Knapweed.A tiny snail on the very large seed-pod of a Yellow Flag Iris.A small spider – maybe Metellina mengei.Lambert’s Meadow.Wild Angelica.Brown-lipped Snail.Tapered Drone Fly – Eristalis pertinax(I think).A tatty Gatekeeper butterfly.Migrant Hawker, Male.
I was astonished to see three Migrant Hawkers, all male, perched on the same Great Willowherb plant. I shouldn’t have been: over the next few days I would see lots more – it seemed like it was a good summer for this species, in this area at least.
A different Migrant Hawker, Male.A Crane Fly.Another tatty Gatekeeper. Hoverfly – Ferdinandea cuprea.White-lipped Snail.Beetle – potentially Poecilus cupreus.A Banded Snail, maybe White-lipped.Another Banded Snail.And another, White-lipped.Fly – Tachina fera.Yet another White-lipped Snail.Soldier Beetles and a Honey Bee on Mint.Tachina feraon Mint.Common Carder Bee on Mint.Enchanter’s Nightshade – easily overlooked.Snails – Banded and Garden respectively.Snail on nettles. Some sort of Glass Snail?Another White-lipped Snail.A Banded Snail.Fox and cubs.Marsh Willowherb, I think.Dragonfly – Common Darter, female.Hoverfly – Helophilus pendulus.Dragonfly – Common Darter, male.Honey Bee.A Clematis?Garden Spider.Lime Tree.Harvestman.
And there we are: one step closer to the end of August!
Still, if the weather’s showery, how handy to have Lambert’s Meadow on the doorstep for between the squalls.
Lambert’s Meadow, Mint flowering.Lambert’s Meadow, fringed with Great Willowherb.Angelica.Bird’s-foot Trefoil. A ripe blackberry (but most weren’t).Guelder Rose berries.Megachile species – Leafcutter Bee (I think)Common Carder Bee and photobombing Marmalade hoverfly.Western Honey Bee? Quite different from the very yellow Italian bee in the last post.Bombus lapidarius – Red-tailed Bumblebee.Bombus lapidarius – Red-tailed Bumblebee.A faded male. Possibly.Soldier Beetle.Soldier Beetles.Green Bottle.Physocephala rufipesand one of the White-tailed Bumblebee Species on a Mint flower.
This odd looking fly, with its narrow wasp-waist and the bulbous end to its abdomen, was a new species to me.
Episyrphus balteatus – the Marmalade Hoverfly.
Apparently this small hoverfly might be the most widespread and most numerous species of hoverfly in the UK.
White-lipped Snail.Another White-lipped Snail?
I’d managed to go out without my camera, or possibly with my camera but either no charge or no memory card. Either way, these photos were all taken with my phone, hence the lack of damselflies, dragonflies and butterflies, none of which would tolerate me getting close enough with my phone to get a decent photo.
I thought I could real-off a quick portmanteau post to dismiss the final week of July. The weather was very frustrating – I repeatedly studied the forecasts and made plans for promising looking days ahead, only for the forecasts to change and for more unpredictable, showery weather to arrive. I read a lot, and pottered around in the garden, between showers, or escaped for short local walks.
Garden Snail.
But even pottering in the garden throws up interesting, to me at least, subjects for photos, and that applies twice over to a lazy wander to Lambert’s Meadow. So I have a lot of pictures, and have decided, after all, not to try to cram them all into a single post.
Garden Snail.Late light on The Lots.Sunset from The Cove.Common Carder Bee.
Most of these photos are from our garden. Marjoram self-seeds all over the flower beds and is brilliant at attracting pollinators.
Wolf Spider. Possibly Pardosa amentata.
Marjoram leaves are not very big, so this spider was pretty tiny, but I like its mottled patterns.
One of the many forms of Harlequin Ladybird.Unidentified bug.Honey Bee – Italian?
Over the summer, I took a lot of photos in the garden, but I often missed the most interesting things that appeared. One afternoon there was a tiny, colourful Mint Moth. Another day I saw a large hoverfly, which I’m pretty sure was my first Volucella zonaria, the Hornet Hoverfly, which has the size and colouring of a hornet.
Cultivated Angelica with wasps.
This last photo is not from our garden, but from a colleague’s, who threw a party. I’m a bit rubbish at parties, small talk is just not one of my talents, so I took photos of wasps instead! I thought that this tall, striking plant looked very like Angelica, aside from the fact that the flowers were purple, and I’ve since discovered that Angelica Gigas, or Korean Angelica, has purple flowers, so I suspect that’s what this was. The wasps were obviously loving it, and I’m very tempted to get some for our garden next summer.
The photos in this post are all from two walks around home from the first Saturday in July. The random musings are more recent.
Lambert’s Meadow.
I remember there was a bit of a fuss about a Slow Food movement a few years ago, wasn’t there? Started in Italy, apparently. I was thinking about this, because I was idly contemplating the concept of a Slow Walking movement. Although movement sounds a bit energetic in this context.
Lambert’s Meadow.
Apparently, there’s already a Slow Living campaign: “Slow living is a lifestyle which encourages a slower approach to aspects of everyday life, involving completing tasks at a leisurely pace.”
Spear Thistles.
Leisurely pace. Yup.
Monotasking.
If that.
Silver Y Moth.
I read somewhere that this year was a good one for butterflies. I can’t say it seemed that way particularly, from my perspective. I did see a lot of Silver Y moths though. They migrate here from the continent apparently. Overachievers.
A very faded Meadow Brown.
For various reasons, TBH has put a lot of effort into researching ADHD recently. Now and again, she gives me articles to read, or listen to. They usually make me chuckle with recognition.
Another very faded, and very hairy, Meadow Brown.
Whilst not a recognised symptom, apparently people with ADHD often display hyperfocus. “Hyperfocus is highly focused attention that lasts a long time. You concentrate on something so hard that you lose track of everything else going on around you.”
A faded bee – an Early Bumblebee?
The example given in the article TBH showed me yesterday was of a child continuing to read a book under a desk, which is me all over. I imagine slowly plodding around a field taking hundreds of photos of bugs, bees, flies, fleas and creepy-crawlies probably qualifies too.
Hoverfly – female Syrphus ribesii.
I realise that it can seem like half-the-world is busy self-diagnosing ADHD these days, but that’s okay isn’t it? We can all be neuro-diverse, we all have our little, or not so little, idiosyncrasies.
Fourteen-spot ladybird.Fourteen-spot ladybird.
Similar colouring to a Twenty-two-spot ladybird, but much bigger, and the spots are more rectangular and less round, and can merge together.
Common Spotted-orchid.Rutpela maculata – the Harlequin or Spotted Longhorn Beetle.
Apparently these longhorn beetles, in their larval stage, live on dead wood for three years – then they get a fortnight in the sun to mate. They’re certainly very striking. The black and yellow markings seem to be very variable. I’m fairly confident that I saw beetles of this species several times this summer at Lambert’s Meadow, but this was the only time that I managed to get clear photos.
One of the white-tailed species of Bumblebee.Silver-ground Carpet Moth.Seven-spot ladybird.I think that this is an Ichneumon wasp, very tentatively a male Ichneumon xanthorius, but since there are around 2500 species of these parasitoids in Britain, and I am the exact opposite of an expert, you should probably take that identification with a lorryload of salt.Bee on Marsh Thistles. Common Carder Bee?Hoverfly – male Xylota segnis. A new species to me.Green bottle fly.Figwort Sawfly.Figwort Sawfly.
I’m hoping that the weevils and sawflies which live on Figwort, about which I was completely ignorant before this year, will become familiar sights now that I know where to look and what to expect. That has certainly happened with a wide variety of other species that I’ve become aware of over the years.
The little green bug here has hind legs reminiscent of a grasshopper or cricket – but it’s so small, no bigger than the tiny weevil, that it can’t be one of those can it? Except, I’ve discovered, that grasshoppers and crickets undergo five moults, becoming more like an adult at each stage, so maybe this is a small hopper.
Swirls of white, milk and dark…oh, no, it’s a White-lipped Snail.A wasp on unopened Figwort flowers.Figwort Weevil – very dapper markings.Figwort Weevil.Figwort Sawfly.Figwort Sawfly.
There were lots of Figwort Sawflies about. Plenty of Weevils too. Lots of damselflies also, but, for some reason, not many of my damselfly photos were very sharp.
Small White Butterfly.Mating Figwort Weevils.Great Willowherb flowers.Comma Butterfly.Red Admiral.Common Blue Damselfly – male.Yellow Flag Iris seed pods.A solitary bee – possibly a Mining Bee of some description.Hawes Water – wide angle.
I had five cameras with me on my walk. My Panasonic and the four in my phone. I didn’t use the selfie camera on this occasion. The other three are labelled as -7, x1 and x2. How come a zoom is a multiplication, which makes sense I suppose, but a wide angle is a subtraction? I’ve found myself using the -7 camera as lot. It’s not as powerful, in terms of the huge numbers of megapixels on offer – but I like the perspective it often gives.
The Sunday of the Art Trail weekend at the end of June. I was out early for a solo wander, and then later with TBH and J touring a few more art venues.
Common Spotted-orchid.A group of almost entirely white Common Spotted-orchids.White-lipped snail.Seven-spot Ladybird pupa. I think. And a host of aphids.
I’ve always assumed, I think because of the rather crumpled appearance, that ladybirds like this were in the act of actively transforming from their larval form into an adult. I suppose I was right, but I hadn’t thought about the fact that there might be a pupal stage at all. I suppose lots of insects go through a pupal stage, but I generally only tend to see ladybirds in this phase. I wonder why they so often seem to choose such obvious spots – you’d think they would all get picked off by birds or other predators. This one was on the thorny stem of a Teasel and, since ladybirds prey on aphids, looks well set for a good meal when it metamorphoses into its adult form. The aphids seem to be in all sorts of sizes and two completely different colours – I have no idea whether they are of different species or not.
Seven-spot Ladybird.Two-spot Ladybird pupa. (According to Google Lens).
I also found a Twenty-two-spot ladybird, tiny and yellow and rather natty, but sadly none of my attempted photos were very sharp.
Dolycoris Baccarum – Hairy Shieldbug.Lime Tree in flower.Hazelwood Hall.
Hazelwood Hall was one of the art venues, which suited me since it provided another opportunity to have a peek at a Thomas Mawson designed house and garden.
Without mentioning it, I’ve slipped into June on the blog. These photos are from local walks, almost all from the first weekend in June, the end of our Whit week holiday. I was out twice on the Saturday, to Lambert’s Meadow and Woodwell in the afternoon and then a very short tour round the fields in the evening. And three times on the Sunday: a Jenny Brown’s Point circuit with TBH in the morning, Lambert’s Meadow again in the afternoon and another short postprandial leg-stretcher in the local fields in the evening.
Ragged Robin.Common Blue Damselfly.
I took a lot of photos of Common Blue damselflies, there were a lot of them about. I also saw quite a few Broad-bodied Chasers, all of them female again, although most of the photos I took were from quite a distance, I only got reasonably close once…
Broad-bodied Chaser, female.
On the other hand, I only got two photos of this…
Emperor Dragonfly.
…my first photos of an Emperor Dragonfly, something of a holly grail, since they never seem to land. Even this time it was a fairly fleeting opportunity. I have more photos to come, however, of our largest species of dragonfly.
I’m almost as excited by this hoverfly, since I think that this may be another first for me. The common name reflects the fact that the larvae of this species will eat Daffodil bulbs, but in the wild they generally live on Bluebell bulbs. The fascinating thing about this species is that there are several different forms which mimic a variety of different species of bumblebee.
Woundwort.Yellow Water-lily in Woodwell pond.Honey Bees (I think). Are they having a drink?Large Red Damselfly, male.Sunset.Sharp’s Lot.Wild Celery.Lambert’s Meadow.Peacock butterfly caterpillars.
My second trip to Lambert’s Meadow of the weekend was a bit frustrating since I hadn’t recharged the battery in my camera, a common error on my part. Since my old camera wasn’t too good at close-ups, and there’s always lots to see at Lambert’s Meadow, I missed out on getting decent photos of some Dock Beetles, and a rather dapper little Chafer. That night, I dropped my phone, for the umpteenth time, which must have been the final straw; after that, it refused to turn on. Which means that the following Friday, when I climbed Arnside Knott for the sunset and took very few photos, I didn’t have a phone to record my route.
Sunset from Arnside Knott.
The post’s title, incidentally, is from Wendy Cope’s ‘Being Boring’ again. Is it an allusion, I wonder, to Marvell’s ‘To his Coy Mistress’?
“My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires and more slow”
Hmmm, a bit thin perhaps? Some lazy, internet research led me to lots of adverts for hooch brewed from parsnips and beets and the like, and then to this:
“Newton was constantly awed by the beauty and complexity of the nature that surrounded him. Over time, he concluded that the massive variety of life and processes that occur in nature, such as growth, decay and fermentation, meant there must be some driving force that makes it all happen. He believed that the ‘vegetable spirit’ was that force, and thought it might also be linked with light.”
Hmmm, again. “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower”?
Apparently, he was attempting to reconcile science and religion. I always find it slightly comforting that a genius like Newton devoted so much time and effort to the pursuit of Alchemy. Maybe if he had been around today, he might forget to charge his camera battery or drop his phone and break it? I’m pleased too that he was ‘constantly awed by the beauty and complexity of the nature that surrounded him’.
The Sunday after my Howgills walk, time for an easy day. Well, yes, up to a point.
It’s mine!
It began with a leisurely breakfast, whilst watching the birds enjoying their own morning repast on our feeders.
House Sparrow, male.
Then TBH and I walked a slightly modified version of our frequent Jenny Brown’s Point circuit, during which, for some reason, I took barely any photos at all.
Later, I strolled to Lambert’s Meadow…
Lambert’s Meadow.
For some entomological therapy. By the little stream which runs from Burton Well through the field, I spotted this bizarre creature…
Backswimmer – Notonecta maculata.
Usually we see them in the water, silvered by trapped air and upside down, so we never see them clearly. Those ungainly looking back legs are adapted for swimming, rather like the rear set of legs which some crabs have.
Ribwort Plantain.Sawfly – one of the Dolerus species, apparently.
I’m enjoying trying to get to grips with sawflies. They are so numerous and so varied. Poor photo this, but it was tiny. Rather dapper, I thought.
Hoverfly – Tropidia Scita, female. Something shiny photobombing at the top of the Meadowsweet leaf.
Much the same can be said for Hoverflies, although I suppose they are a bit more uniform. The distinguishing feature of this species, well the female of the species anyway, are the thickened hind tibia which also have a little triangular spur, not visible here.
Another tattered Peacock Butterfly.Guelder Rose.
The Guelder Rose was just about coming into flower.
Common Carder Bee.Crane Fly, male.Common Blue Damselfly, male.
There were damselflies everywhere and I took lots of pictures. I think that they were all, or at least mostly, Common Blue Damselflies.
Common Blue Damselfly, female, blue form.Kentish snail?
There were even more snails about than usual too. I’ve been identifying these brown snails, which I only ever see at Lambert’s Meadow, as Copse Snails, but I’m concerned that I’ve been getting that (and probably lots of other things too) completely wrong. The Copse Snail has a dark spiral line, whereas these have a pale, often white spiral line. That’s a feature of the Kentish Snail, which, confusingly, is not from Kent, but is an introduced species, and can be found in this area.
Kentish snail?Kentish snail?White-lipped Snail?
White-lipped and Brown-lipped snails can be confusing too. I tend to assume that the very yellow ones are White-lipped.
White-lipped Snail.
But then, I also assume that the more banded snails are Brown-lipped, but this one is banded, but White-lipped.
Banded snail.
On which basis, this could be either.
Brown-lipped snail.Roe Deer doe.Juvenile Robins.
When I finally dragged myself away from mooching around the meadow, I took the steep steps up to Bank Well, which is actually a pond. In the trees behind the pond I was delighted to encounter a family of Robins. The adult birds chirped furiously from distant branches, but the young weren’t very alert to the danger they were being warned about.
Juvenile Robin.Yellow Flag Iris.Plateumaris sericea.
This stunning beetle has larvae which feed on Bur-reeds, which I’ve seen growing in Bank Well.
Star of Bethlehem.
A little way along the Row I was taking a turn back towards home, when I bumped into TBH and A who were on their way to Hawes Water. A was home from Uni for a couple of days before heading off for summer adventures.
Beating The Bounds 