Gold panning in the Northern Fells.

Being as we should have been in Alaska, gold panning in north Cumbria wasn't really any substitute, but needs must! It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and I can see how, if you found anything it would become quite addictive! We managed to find some 'black' sand - formed largely from haematite - it also had a lot of mica in it, often gold or yellow in colour which made us twitch! 

Nothing - not even a grain. 

Silver How, Grasmere

I'm rather behind with blogs as it's been, and we plan for it to be, rather busy...  On Tuesday we continued with the Wainwrights, going down to Grasmere, to do Silver How. The weather was 'atmospheric', which is my take on wet! Good views inbetween the wafts aand swirls of drizzle/ rain. A nice little top though and well worth doing again on a dry day with the sketchbook. 

Steel How

In Grasmere turn right by the church
 and follow the road to the lake where a finger post
signed Silver How leads up a lovely walled lane.

Some classic views over Rydal and Windermere.

One of the brief appearances of Langdale. 

The summit.

Descending towards Grasmere, after Brigstone Moss, with some lovely wall patterns.

Descending through a surprisingy large expanse of juniper woodland.

Juniper,  yellow mountain saxifrage, parsly fern and  stone bramble.

The path /stream into the village.

Watendlath tarn - oil

Sunday was rather a dricht day - alternating drizzle and rain, so an oil painting it was. After our trip up Grange fell I had noted this scene as a possibility...it was remarkable just how green the reflections were!

I did put the rocks in, but they seemed to dominate the painting too much, so out they came.

Coloured ammonite prints

I finally got round to colouring the ammonite prints ....I think this could be a way forward with the gelli prints.

Wetheral viaduct - purple and white-letter hairstreaks

We knew that Wetheral viaduct is supposedly 'the' place to see the elusive white-letter hairstreak, and being as the sun was out and we were not too far away we decided to take a look. The white-letter hairstreak only occurs at a few sites in Cumbria and is particularly hard to spot as the adults spend so much of their time in the canopy of elm trees. Hence being on a viaduct helps!

As we arrived, looking down on the canopy, we were quickly delighted to spot some hairstreaks in the elm canopy...we were using binoculars ...so finding them on camera was challenging. Finally we got some shots - of purple hairstreaks ...nice to see though. Eventually we did see a white-letter hairstreak though and although the photos aren't the best, being at such a distance, they are conclusive. A site we will return too again - what a treat ...at least 5 purple hairstreaks and a single white-lettered in the same tree top.

The viaduct.

Looking down on  the elm from the viaduct.

Looking at the elm....with three purple hairstreaks to spot! 

Purple hairstreaks - note the two distinct orange dots and the flash of purple on the upper wings.

When  they were sat at a certain angle the purple was beautiful. 

White-letter hairstreak...note the latrge orange patch.

The station house garden ...beautiful! 

Miltonrigg wood: green-flowered helleborines

Great to see these really rare orchids - there are only a few populations in Cumbria and they are just coming into flower at the moment. Lots of broad-leaved helleborines too and some common spotted orchids together with an old bird's-nest orchid spike. Sadly, there is more to this story than a nice walk ...the Woodland Trust, who own the site, have strimmed  the edges of what are very wide paths decapitating many orchids before they have chance to set seed. There has been some social media coverage of  this and we can only hope that this will have ensured that it will not happen again.

Green-flowered helleborines.

Green-flowered detail...

Broad-leaved helleborines.

Strimmed orchid....either a green-flowered or broad-leaved -
it's hard to tell when in bud!

Common spotted and bird's nest orchid.

The woodland ...

Stink horn egg and fruiting body.

Cummertrees

With some time to spare after Southerness and Caerlaverock, we were driving through Cummertrees and spotted a footpath beside the church down to the coast. The church looked fascinating so we took a walk around  the grounds. The church itself is now a holiday property which has retained many of the original features of  the church's interior such as the alter in the living room....worth a google to be nosy! Public access is allowed to the graveyard. The church is 18th Century but the original footprint dates back to the 13th century when it was commissioned by Robert the Bruce. It was restored in 2015.

We then walked down the path to the coast at Powfoot. The coast wasn't particularly interesting but the wood that you walk through to get there was a good mix of tree species and fen with some very old rhododendron trees. It was nice to find some stinkhorn eggs too.

Cummertrees Church
I forgot to take an over all picture of the church so this so this is from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Cummertrees_Parish_Church_%26_Lych_gate.JPG

The path, black bulgar, stinkhorn and jelly ear.

Powfoot.

Southerness fossils and Caerlaverock swallows

On what turned out to be a rather dricht Thursday morning we headed out to Southernness, near Dumfries, to look at the stromatolites (laminated sedimentary growth structures of microbial origin ...although the definition is still hotly debated) and then head west to explore the dune system. It was however very wet, so the dunes were saved for another visit. As the tide was much lower than last time we visited, we were able to see some large expanses of stromatolites which was good. It was also nice to find brachiopods with their spines preserved next to them. With the weather improving in the afternoon we then popped into Caerlaverock where there was very little to be seen, especially (rather obviously) compared to the winter, but it was nice see the site in a different season.

A large orthocone. 

Stomatolites.

Add caption

Brachiopods - the lines are spines.

Brachiopods with spines and crinoids.

And on to Caerlaverock....

Swallows feeding young.

Patterns in the rushes.

Roe deer with fawn.

As we left the blue sky appeared!

The illusive dowitcher!

After our first, failed but admittedly hasty, trip to Port Carlisle to see the long-billed dowitcher we popped in again and this time there was a group of people with telescopes. Hoping that this might help point us in the correct direction we were optimistic ...however they had scanned all the birds to no avail and given the size of their scopes we had no chance! So I settled for some long shots of birds and landscapes ....it was lovely to see and enjoy  the movements and sounds of the Solway's birds at high tide ....and nice to have a good view of whimbrel and greenshank.

Incoming weather!

Across the Solway.

In search of a dowitcher! ...a greenshank among redshank.

High tide flights.

Little egrets and grey heron.

Whimbrel with greenshank in the background.

Greenshank

Whimbrel 

Juvenile male southern hawker ...on the way back to the car.