Ulgham Grange

It was my turn for the duty rota to maintain the meadows and woodland local nature reserve at Ulgham. Nothing untoward but the recent heavy rain has meant the river Lyne has been over a metre higher than it was this morning going off the flattened vegetation on the bank but it was quite high today. On the way over I went through Pegswood and saw three buzzards soaring over the old pit heap. When I lived there in 1989 I would have travelled to the Lake district or up to Perth if I wanted to see these birds then! Plenty of the usual wildlife with the thistles, Knapweed and Betony attracting many butterflies such as the Comma above. My favourite plant at Ulgham this time of year is Giant bellflower. I have also added a couple of fungi pictures from the Abbey and Scotch gill woods of Small stagshorn (Calocera cornea) and Giant puffball.