Orton verges, East Cumbria

A trip down south to several sites yesterday...first of all just off junction 39 of the M6: Orton verges. The quality of this strip of verge was comparable to the meadows of the Picos D' Europa in northern Spain - just a shame it is only a few hundred metres long. Oh to put surrounding fields under traditional management to see what returns!

Mainly northern marsh orchids ...

Northern marsh x common spotted hybrids, with typical hybrid vigour.

Frog orchids - note the long bracts of the right hand one which makes it var longibrachteatum.

Fragrant orchids - sp yet to be agreed upon.

 

Many, many twayblade.

Yellow rattle, red clover and crosswort, water avens and wood cranesbill.

Castle Crag, Borrowdale

When we set off it was good weather - but then again Borrowdale is well known for being wet, so it was a damp evening walk up Castle Crag. This is the smallest of the Wainwright's but would be well worth another visit as it has super views ...potentially!

Castle Crag.

The cloud began to roll in over the Borrowdale Fells.

Glaramara disappeared.

The path up the slate heap to the summit.

Slates ...

The summit memorial.

Damp Herdie lambs.

Moth trapping ....

A good night moth trapping on Monday night ...

Opening the trap...

Elephant and poplar hawk moths .....

Plain golden Y and beautiful golden Y.

Common wainscot; poplar grey; broom moth; snout; buff tip; silver Y; spectacle; engrailed clay and heart and dart. 

Garden tiger ....

Poplar hawk moth.

Spectacle.

Lempke's gold spot. 

Solway sunsets

As we look over the Solway towards Scotland we do get brilliant sunsets and earlier this week was no exception.

Maryport - bee orchids

The bee orchids, together with pyramidal and common spotted orchids were stunning this morning - as were the purple broomrapes. It's remarkable what a little rain can do - if you look back at our last visit to Maryort this year click here, you'll see that we were wondering if they'd even make an appearance!

Bee orchids ...

Pyramidal, common spotted cross northern marsh and common spotted orchids. 

Colour....everlasting pea; weld etc; kidney vetch and bloody crane's-bill.

Small skipper, stone chat, small blue and linnets. 

Lesser twayblade, Cliburn Moss NNR

A return visit to satisfy Tom's orchid twitchiness! ..and a good excuse for a nice walk out and a field sketch. As I actually do have a job, this required a rather early start, but we were rewarded by some very atmospheric cobwebs!

The rare bog bilberry ....covered in cobwebs...

The diminutive and very rare lesser twayblade ....there were plenty of leaves for about 50 plus individuals but this was the only one in flower.

Bulrushes ...

Cobwebs ..

Water droplets and spiders.

A pregnant female common lizard; northern marsh orchid; cross-leaved heath; ragged robin; round leaved wintergreen and marsh cinquefoil.

Silloth Dunes - day flying moths

A quick walk out through the dunes at Silloth, with plenty of flowers and moths.

The dunes. 

Viper's -bugloss; mullein; Rosa rugosa; kidney vetch; heartsease; bindweed; rest harrow and bladder campion. 

Burnet moths. 

Yellow shell moth; cinnebar moth; small heath butterfly and latticed heath moth.

..and a fabulous emperor moth.