Well it's back home and the weather is rubbish, so a few half day trips this week. The first being to a favourite Solway Moss to see the orchids.
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| Yellow-tail moth caterpillar. |
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| Speckled Wood Butterfly. |
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| Ragged Robin. |
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| A tiny Ruby-tailed Jewel Wasp. |
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| Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary Butterfly - top... |
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| ..and the beautiful underwing. |
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| Adder. |
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| Some vigorous Heath Spotted-orchids...and |
| ds or some hybridisation? |
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| Northern Marsh-orchid X Heath Spotted-orchid hybrids. |
A fairly non-descript morning, but a surprisingly nice walk out along Grune point, with good views of Mergansers as the tide rose dramatically...
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| Clearing mist... |
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| Mergansers.... |
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| Looking across to Scotland. |
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| The fence line showing how high the tide was, as geese swirl round in the distance. |
After the storm, a walk out along the beach - I wasn't going to bother taking photographs for a blog, until I looked closely at the tideline! There must be an awful lot of Skate in the Solway!
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| Tideline with Criffel in the background. |
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| Sponges tossed up by the storm.... |
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| Peat too.... |
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| And then you notice the Skate cases... |
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| With Whelk and Dog Fish cases too.... |
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| 'Mermaid's Purses': Lesser- spotted Dog Fish egg cases |
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| ..and a mobile tideline of Knot. |
A sunny and dry walk on the beach. Despite being eight degrees warmer than when it snowed, it felt colder because of the wind! Some spectacular high tide roosts of Curlew and Oystercatcher, with the odd Sanderling, Ringed Plover, Redshank and Bar-tailed Godwit.
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| A bright and breezy day - looking back towards Silloth. |
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| High tide roost.... |
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| Oystercatchers...and below. |
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| Curlew ...and below. |
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| Ringed Plover. |
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| Golden Plover and below... |
A walk on the beach. The carpark was full - everyone else having the same need for fresh air and excercise after Christmas. There were some nice Knot murmurations and it is always pleasing to find a Roman fishing weight.
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| Looking into the Lake District. |
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| ..and out to sea. |
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| Low tide murmurations. |
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| Oyster trestles. |
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| Barnacled Mussels. |
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| Knot - and below. |
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| ..with an Oystercatcher and Redshank.... |
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| Well camouflaged. |
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| Into the early sunset... |
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| Roman fishing weight. |
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| Spectacular clouds skirting Skiddaw. |
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| The northern fells. |
A delightful drive round the peninsula, on the way to the folks. Super light and lots of birds...
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| Barnacle Geese at high tide... |
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| Many hundreds of Barnacle Geese - straight into the sun! |
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| Barnies on the marsh. |
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| ..and imcomimg! |
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| Plenty of Little Egrets... |
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| We counted at least 23 Little Egrets on this bit of marsh! |
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| Whooper Swans. |
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| ..and a Great White Egret. |
