Waitby Greenriggs

A day off down into South Cumbria..

First stop Waitby Greenriggs. Initial disappointment as the first half of the reserve has been grazed flat by the Trust's ponies - it will be interesting to see how the flora develops next year, but after the bridge to the further part was home to many orchids. It was noticeably drier than usual, so the best flowers were down at the bottom of the embankment. 

|Lesser Butterfly Orchids.

Common Spotted-orchid; marsh helleborine and Bee Orchid.

Fly Orchids.

Large Skipper and Grizzled Skipper.

Common Blue. 

Moth trap - 19th June

The weather has been appauling for moth trapping recently...so when we had an opportunity we took it ...

24 species; nothing spectacular but good to see a Map-winged Swift, Peppered Moth and Beautiful Golden Y.

Spectacle; Cabbage Moth; Garden Pebble and Ingrailed Clay.

Ingrailed Clay: Another colour form of the Ingrailed clay: Peppered Moth; Beautiful Golden Y. 

Buff Ermine; White Ermine: Green Carpet and Map-winged Swift. 

Lamonby verges

After visiting Eycott we walked along the verge at Lamonby....

Bird's-eye Primrose ...on its last legs ...

A white ragged robin. 

Twayblade, Common Spotted and a hybrid Common Spotted - Northern Marsh? 

Common Spotted; Fragrant and Northern marsh-orchid. 

Across to Blencathra.

Eycott Hill

After a long session digging and planting in the veg garden ; time for a back-straightening walk! Things are definitely later this year, so sadly we were too early for the Pearl-Bordered Fritillary butterflies - but great to see a Marsh Fritillary butterfly. 

Cranberry.

Thyme.

Heath Spotted-orchid.

Marsh Fritillary....and below ...

Tarn Moor

After visiting Ashes Meadows and Orton Verges, it was a short hop to Tarn Moor - and what a glorious site this is. I've always loved it and this year it didn't let us down ....

Ragged Robin.

Northern Marsh orchids. 

Bird's-eye Primrose - and a white one...

My favourite - Bog Bean.

There was a spectacular number of orchids. Northern Marsh and Early Marsh and the complete range of colours between the two through hybridisation ....

Early Marsh (probably!). 

 

A mixture of parents and hybrids....

Hybrids ....

Marsh Cinquefoil.

Mallard eggs.

Just on the edge of the site - a  spectacular patch of Heath Fragrant-orchids. 

Orton verges

A quick stop off on the way home....

Some spectacular hybrid Northern Marsh and Common Spotted-orchids. 

Twayblade, Frog orchid and (Heath?) Fragrant Orchid.

Frog Orchid and Twayblades.

Just beautiful! 

Ashes pasture

Ok...so I am way behind with blogs and with three to do from today I'm going to just play catch up later! So today...a trip to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust's Ashes Pasture reserve near Ribblehead viaduct. We failed to find the Small-white Orchid, but it was a great site - lovely to see the Globe Flower in amongst the Buttercups - lots of Heath Spotted and some Common Spotted and many Northern Marsh and their respective hybrid orchids. If you are visiting on a weekend I'd recommend parking at Ribblehead and walking down the road ...and lunch at the Station Inn was superb. 

Just nice views as well! 

Looking over the reserve.

Heath Spotted-orchids.

Melancholy Thistle.

Ragged Robin, Globe Flower and Buttercups. 

Pen-y-ghent.

Globe Flowers.