Plant blitz

Common Dog Violet (Viola riviniana)...Stobswood

Common Cornsalad (Valerianella locusta)...main railway between Stobswood and Ulgham

Hairy Woodrush (Luzula pilosa)

Ivy leaved Duckweed (Lemna trisula)

Common Water Starwort (Callitriche stagnalis)

Bog Pondweed (Potamogeton polygonifolius)

Overgrown sidings

St George's Mushroom

Yellow Fieldcap

Wheatears...Hadston dunes

Heath Dog Violet (Viola canina)...Hadston dunes

I'm doing a plant blitz of the tetrads around Stobswood and Widdrington. I'm covering 16 squares in total. I have already completed the first round this year. The areas to the East; the farmland around Widdrington village and Houndalee are disappointing botanically due to intensive agriculture and over grazing but the more interesting areas are where there is habitation or post industrial sites. Sadly the railway sidings near Felton Lane which were rich botanically are becoming increasingly overgrown. While some plants are lost I am still finding new plants in this ever changing environment. The new plants I found in the main wood at Stobswood (Grangewood) are Hairy Woodrush (not uncommon but hard to spot) and the pond in the wood where Ivy leaved Duckweed is growing but probably introduced into the pond at some stage. A small acid flush runs through Neds Whin plantation and used to go into a ditch to the East of the wood but since the reclamation of Colliersdean opencast it now floods part of the grassland to the North of Widdrington Moor. These pools are already established with water plants and I was delighted to find Bog Pondweed and Common Water Starwort. I have also found Common Clubrush (Schoenoplectus lacustris) growing in the large ditches beside the newly formed ponds on the former opencast site near Ulgham park. The bottom pics were taken on a visit to Hadston dunes but at Stobswood yesterday a pair of Wheatears were near Middle Stobswood and a flock of 41 Whimbrel. The fungi pics were taken at the former tip at Widdrington.