Grasses in collagraph

With it being such a disgusting weekend weather wise - time to play a little! This time with grasses and using collagraph to print...a variety of images ...

Bog orchids, Carrock Fell

A very hasty trip out to see if the bog orchids were out at the base of Carrock Fell - and they were...just a couple in bud and probably more to find. The bog asphodel was just coming out and we managed to see a gold ringed dragonfly.

Long-leaved sundew.

Bog asphodel.

Gold ringed dragonfly.

The base of Carrock.

Frog orchid and detail below...

A summer moth trap

With 47 species of moth it was a classic night!

Peppered moths; poplar hawk and grey dagger ....a hopeful start to opening up the trap.

White ermines and buff ermines.

Barred yellow; map winged swift: burnished brass; plain golden y; buff tip; peppered moth ( love the antennae if you zoom in) ; green carpet and grey dagger.

Brussels lace; light emerald; snout with a latticed heath.

 ...and predictably...

Poplar hawk and ....

Elephant hawk moth.

Banded demoiselles at Lesson Hall

Good to see that there is a strong population still at this site....and we saw a kingfisher.

The beck...

The colourful male...

The prey - hiding!

The elusive female.

..and a speckled wood in the background.

Eycott Hill Nature reserve

A quick visit - rather windy, but some spectacular skies and the meadows were glorious - must go back!

Waitby Greenriggs reserve

After Smardale (previous blog) we popped in to Waitby, the fly orchids were still in good condition and the marsh helleborines were almost. but not quite out. A spectacular broad-bodied chaser was the highlight at the end of the walk.

Fly orchids.

Lesser butterfly, fragrant sp, marsh helleborine and common spotted orchids.

Common blue.

Broad-bodied chaser.

Smardale Gill NNR: flowers and butterflies.

I'm still ploughing through last Saturday's photographs ...and we are now on to Smardale Gill. This old railway line is home to a host of spectacular array of plants and butterflies. ...and I did get a field sketch in too, but I'll do a separate blog of sketches to try to get up to date.

Melancholy thistles.

Common spotted orchid:; greater butterfly orchid; round-leaved wintergreen; bloody cranesbill and hare bell. 

Large skipper.

Common blue. 

Northern brown argus.

Small pearl-bordered fritillary portraits

When at Tarn Sike, see previous blog, this small pearl-bordered frit landed perfectly on a bog bean flower ....as it was early in the morning and fairly cool it didn't fly off immediately.

Tarn Sike

After stopping at Orton verges we went on towards Little Asby. As we approached Sunbiggin Tarn we noticed lots of orchids and ragged robin on the left hand side of the road at Tarn Sike...well worth a stop. To be honest I could have spent the whole day there sketching it was so lovley.

In amongst the ragged robin; cross-leaved heath; bog bean and orchids. 

Ragged robin. 

Bird's-eye primrose. 

Early marsh orchids. 

We're working on the id ...not as easy as I thought! 

Small pearl-bordered fritillary.