The pull of
another trip south of the Tyne was too much to resist, and our efforts today
were well rewarded.
Giant Bellflower at Wingate
Wingate
Quarry was our first stop on what was a breezy morning with a chill in the air,
grey cloud at times threatening rain which never arrived in any noticeable
amount. The first highlight of the day
was finding a rather noisy begging family of unfledged Kestrels
being fed by a parent bird high and safe on the quarry face. The young Kestrels looked almost ready
for flight and they were making moves outside of the nesting area. After this encounter our minds were firmly on
butterflies and botany for the rest of the day.
At this point we had no idea just how well the day was to turn out.
Like the old
quarry at Bishop Middleham, this area had been worked for magnesian limestone
until the 1930s. We were here primarily
to try and find Marbled White Butterflies, rarely seen in the area
outside of the reserve, they were introduced here in 2000. Initially we struggled to find any butterflies
of any description in the overcast conditions, then one or two species began to
make an appearance, all of them flighty. Then we found one Marbled White Butterfly, and moving on
to an area rich in knapweed and thistles more were seen, but again all where
flighty and viewing chances where brief, with no chance of a photograph. They would quickly disappear as soon as the
sun was covered by cloud, seemingly disappearing deep into the grasses. There were other butterflies too including Small
Tortoiseshell, Common Blue, Meadow Brown, Ringlet and Small
Skipper.
Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly. The under-wings are often as interesting as the upper-wing.
Common Blue Butterfly (male)
A single
Fragrant Orchid, a single Common Twayblade and many Common Spotted Orchids
stood out from among some interesting flora.
Having looked again at my image of the Common Twayblade I see in the
flowers, celebrating spacemen/women in green spacesuits, and honestly I have
not touched a drop of red wine today. This had been our first ever visit to Wingate
Quarry, I’m sure it won’t be our last. Our
next stop was to be a first visit too, the reserve at Thrislington, a National
Nature Reserve.
Common Twayblade
Small Skipper
Small Skipper
During our
hours walking at Thrislington we learned a good deal about this calcareous grassland
area, not least being its sheer beauty at this time of year. There are hectares of land painted in patchwork
fashion by the vivid colours of a myriad of wildflowers. The scene could have come straight from an
artist’s brush and palette and offered ample opportunity for the poetic mind.
purple Betony
Betony
With so many
flowers came numerous bees, grasshoppers, butterflies and other insects. The star butterflies were the Northern
Brown Argus, which we had expected, and the Dark Green Fritillary
which we hadn’t really thought about.
Both species probably reaching double figures. Again, the Dark Green Fritillaries
were especially flighty, but one, sadly a little worse for wear, gave the
chance of a photograph.
Northern Brown Argus
Northern Brown Argus
Dark Green Fritillary
By now the
sun was out and warming the air. The day
list of butterfly species seen came to 12 and some others added included a lone
Small White as we stepped from the car, Small Heath, Red
Admiral and Speckled Wood.
As we walked
through the grassland we found the air strongly scented by the many plants that
bloomed and encircled us. Perhaps the
most noticeable scent came from the many beautiful Fragrant Orchids now
reaching their peak of perfection. There
were thousands of orchids of many hues and sizes, but orchid species
which stood out for me was the Dark Red Helleborine which we eventually came
across. This must rank highly on my list
of favourite flowers and they had reached their peak, one of them holding 36,
wine red flowers on its spike. This made up for our disappointment on
visiting Bishop Middleham Old Quarry a couple of weeks ago and finding only one
of these plants beginning to flower.
Fragrant Orchid
Fragrant Orchid
It was with
interest that I noted from Anne and Simon Harrap’s Orchids of Britain
and Ireland that the first British record of Dark Red Helleborine was made in
a work by John Ray in 1677. The site Ray
mentions is Malham, 4 miles from Settle.
Also noted in Harrap’s book is that the maximum number of flowers known
on a Dark Red Helleborine plant is 45, so our plant wasn’t far short of that. My own experience of seeing these orchids is
that spikes usually have fewer flowers.
Dark Red Helleborine
Dark Red Helleborine
I have never
seen such a display of Orchids, nor can I recall seeing such an area of general
botanical interest in Britain. It had us
discussing just how wonderful it must have been to wander around the open country
of John Clare’s England and enjoy not only the sight, but also the aroma of
wildflowers. Oh, how he would have
enjoyed today's walk.
We recalled
the flower meadows of Eastern Europe and the area where open grassland met the
tree line even invoked memories of the African Savannah, although on a minor
scale of course. Yellowhammers
sang as we admired the scene.
Savannah type scene
Sam ready for action
There were
simply too many species of plant to list, but some come instantly to my memory. Carpets of golden Rock Rose, large areas of
purple Betony, layers of Agrimony, bee laden Greater Knapweed, pale blue Field
and Small Scabious side by side, masses of Birds foot Trefoil, clovers and
vetchlings, blue Perennial Flax, Common Centaury, delicate Common Milkwort and
an abundance of Lady’s Bedstraw and many
more. It may sound imaginary and
overstated, but it is not.
Perrenial Flax
Common Milkwort
We chatted
to the chap from natural England who was going about his business and tetrads
and was one of the very few people we saw in the area, and he give us a
condensed history of the reserve. Exmoor or similar Ponies are used here in
winter for conservation reasons and whist some of the area is perfectly natural,
a large proportion was re-laid some years ago.
To my untrained eye I would not have known. As with any conservation area it is not
without its problems and conflicting views as to how best to manage it, but whatever
is being done certainly seems to be working.
Rest Harrow
Kidney Vetch
It’s quite a
walk to do this area justice, but there was so much interest, we quite forgot
how far we had gone, although the whole day here would not have been wasted. Our day had been wonderfully complete and it
had been a good lesson in botany. We’d
quite forgotten about birds and decided that tiredness meant we ought to put
off a visit to Castle Lake until another day.
Our find of Dark Red Helleborine also meant that a visit to Bishop
Middleham Old Quarry wasn’t essential either.
Scabious
Agrimony
Well there is
always another time.
busy Bumblebee
Plantain sp
Quite
incidentally I’ have begun in the past few days to read a book by Steve
Nicholls entitled Flowers of the Field, A Secret History of Meadow Moor
and Wood. A wonderful follow
up to the trip described and full of excellent photographs. I believe Steve is a Middlesbrough guy so
I’ll be checking to see if Thrislington gets a mention in his book. By the look of the index it doesn’t.
Addendum.
No comments:
Post a Comment