Survivors

Last year I came across 15 Crow garlic plants (Allium vineale) growing on the roadside at the bottom of High house lane. Quite a common plant in the North of the county but very few records from VC67, in fact they were the only record from the vice county last year. In May they were growing in the same place again until early June when the council decided to cut this narrow and steep section of verge for the first time in years and mowed eveything flat. In July however, they survived the mowing and came into flower mid month. There are 22 plants this year.

More Green Woodpecker sightings this week with calling bird(s) every morning from High house wood and on Sunday a calling bird flew from High house towards Abbey gate and yesterday morning a bird was feeding on the grassed area at Abbey gate and flew off towards High house wood,,,too quick for the camera. A bird was calling from the Abbey this morning. Between St. Georges hospital and the Howburn woods I saw a flock of 54 Mistle Thrushes, the largest count I have ever seen.

Green Woodpeckers but no camera

At 9pm last night I took bennyboy around the edge of the estate over Monks Ridge and along the leafy gardens of the pastures near the common. Just in front of me something dropped out of one of the Cherry trees and a bird which had dropped it flew down on to the ground...a Juvenile Green Woodpecker. It sat motionless on the ground for over a minute about 8 feet away... a missed opportunity of a good photo but the camera was at home. Worse was to come, the bird flew vertically up onto the bough of the Cherry tree about 9 feet up where it joined an adult male. Both birds sat on the branch peering down at me and the dog. After about five minutes they flew along the gardens...I'll probably not see a sight like this again up here but I will always take the camera with me even for the shortest of walks.
P.S this post may be wasted on anyone south of the Tyne but sightings of Green Woodpeckers locally are a rare treat!

Musk Thistle

Musk Thistle...Old Brickworks

Wild Carrot...Widdrington tip

Wild Parsnip...Old Brickworks

Small Nettle

Another day off yesterday and another day at the old brickworks at Stobswood and Widdrington tip looking for plants and butterflies. The most numerous butterfly on the wing was Small Skipper with over a hundred seen especially at the tip. The best thing seen was Musk or Nodding Thistle (carduus nutans) an attractive and photogenic plant. Stewart (from the notebook) found some plants growing over the line on the edge of a new building site at Widdrington in 2002. I have not seen them since until now, there were 24 plants growing through the cracked concrete. Another plant that shares a similar habitat is Small Nettle (Urtica urens) but I rarely see it but I thought if I look hard enough the old brickworks would be the place to find it. The only birds of note were Sedge Warbler, Redpoll and Buzzard. This morning while walking the dog I heard a Green Woodpecker calling at High House wood, Morpeth. This is the first one in this area this year.

Two lifers at Stobswood

Two new plants...Water Soldier and...

...Greater Spearwort

Broad leaved everlasting Pea

Black Horehound

White Stonecrop

Some plant life at the old brickworks

Grey Heron...Ulgham

A good day for plants at Stobswood despite the rain. In a recently created pond in Woodburn I came across Greater Spearwort and water Soldier. Swan describes Water Solduer as long extinct in the county, last record 1895 at Netherwitton but probably an introduced plant but it is native in East Anglia. The Spearwort was also new and a good addition to the local flora. Other new plants were Black Horehound, near the railway bridge and White Stonecrop at the old brickworks. It was good to see old plants still surviving like Broad leaved everlasting Pea at Stobswood House and Oak fern which has spread from neighbouring Grangewood (a good lowland record). Lots of Butterflies between the heavy showers with Ringlet, Meadow Brown and Small Skipper in good numbers and Speckled Woods were out in force including a one that landed on my nose. Did my botanical 1 km square at Cresswell and also my stint at Ulgham before conceding to the heavy rain.

Ragged Robin

White flowering heads

3 stages of Jack go to bed at noon

and a moth in the garden

In recent years I only know of one site locally where this plant can be seen in good numbers. As a child I can remember this plant growing on the damp woodland edge of Ulgham Park but the site has long gone. They used to grow at Felton lane but I haven't seen them here since 1987 and Beaconhill in the early nineties. The above pictures were taken at Mitford castle yesterday.

Big numbers

Ringlet and Common Blue...Widdrington tip

Speckled wood and Vipers Bugloss...Old brickworks, Stobswood

Wood Vetch...Stobswood

Welted Thistle

Two out of focus moths...Old brickworks, Stobswood

Yesterday after the rain I went to Stobswood and Widdrington tip and as I entered the tip the first butterfly was a Small Heath, the first in sixteen years in this area, Sixteen years ago Speckled woods and Ringlets were not found around here but there were 6 Speckled woods and over 200 Ringlets. There was also 12 Common blues, 2 Large Skippers, 22 Meadow browns and a Painted Lady. Quite a few Moths kicked out of the grass but the two above I don't know what they are. Keeping up the big numbers I counted over 3100 Common Spotted Orchids within the confines of the old tip and this didn't include the many hybrids. At the brickworks I counted a record number of Viper's Bugloss with 940 plants. lots of birds around with 6 Sedge Warblers singing, 4 Buzzards (family group) and Redpolls with young were the best of the bunch. I could bore you further with the myriad species of grasses in flower at the moment.

Aultgowrie

Been offline for a couple of weeks, last week we were getting some building work done so the computer was taken upstairs out of the way of the dust and the week before this we had a pleasant stay in Aultgowrie, Easter Ross just off the Inverness to Ullapool road on the banks of the river Orrin.

Falls of Orrin...Aultgowrie

Ben Wyvis from Clash Wood

Hoof Fungus...Aultgowrie

Dwarf Cornel...An Cabar

Slow Worm in Clash Wood

Breezy and cold on top of Ben Wyvis

The weather was breezy but dry to begin with then but by the back end of the week it became uncomfortably warm and humid with temps reaching a high of 27. I tend to watch the ground more often than looking up to the sky these days so I was able to add a significant number of plants to my list as well as some fungi usually only found North of the border.
I saw plenty of the usual wildlife expected from this area but the highlight for me was coming across some clumps of Dwarf Cornel (Cornus suecica) on the steep slopes of An cabar on the way up Ben Wyvis. A plant that only occasionally flowers, the flowers are clustered in the centre and surrounded by four creamy bracts (not petals).