Signs of Spring

Making the most of the current run of record breaking spring days,* I went to Selkirk Racecourse Moss, another of the Scottish Borders amazing range of valley fens. This one much more calcareous than many in the area, and dominated by rich sedge swamp communities. Find out about the site here – http://gateway.snh.gov.uk/sitelink/siteinfo.jsp?pa_code=1416

Though we have had a number of very warm sunny days, the nights are still chilly, and the vegetation remains firmly wrapped in winter, with the dead tinge of brown dominating across the fen. Not all though can remain locked in this winter garb. Close by Gorse banks brighten the place with their splashes of acid yellow flowers, giving the place an almost tropical feel, with their gentle scent of coconut wafting passed. High in the sky, the air was also filled with the trilling warble of Skylarks advertising this arrival of spring. While filling the gaps in this song, came the gentle “chiff chaff“ call, announcing to the world the arrival of the first Chiffchaffs of the spring, and so reminding me that spring real is approaching.

Selkirk Racecourse Moss – 27 March 2012 (Copyright – Carol Jones)

* – The last three days, have seen afternoon temperatures break the current temperature record and set a new one for March in Scotland.

Lost to the Universe

One of the wonders of beautiful spring days, hopefully means that darkness falls fairly early and the night skies are clear.

What a brilliant evening sky we have tonight, almost clear of clouds and the stars are very bright.

Tonight’s show included the waxing of the crescent moon. This evening the moon was showing between the Scots Pines behind the house, and was just at the right stage to show the earthshine, where sunlight is reflected from the earth to show the missing portion of the crescent moon, often called “the old moon in the new moon’s arms”. Then to the left of the moon was Jupiter and above that Venus, both very bright. Turn further left and my favourite constellation comes into sight – Orion, just now showing between the trees and soon to be lost from sight until next winter, as it will so be setting before dark. Further searching shows the Plough, and following the arc of the Plough leads to Arcturis and then when it rises it would have been to speed on to Spica (not visible yet this evening, when I was out). Turn again and the North Star is visible though the Little Bear (Ursa Minor) itself, was hardly visible as yet.

To find out more – follow this link:- http://www.astronomy.co.uk/skytonight

Movement

I know that spring really approaches when I get my first glimpse of a butterfly – today’s was, I have to say just a passing one – there one moment and gone the next. I am almost certain that it was a Small Tortoiseshell, but it flew into view and then was gone, off over a neighbours shed, before I could be sure. Obviously one that had survived the winter in one of the sheds at the allotment.

 Up at the allotments, spring was well on the move, attempting to accelerate far too quickly into the balmy days of summer, as temperatures rapidly rose towards the teens. The rise in temperatures saw site busy with gardeners, brushing off the last cobwebs of winter and occasionally showing the pallid tint of white flesh. People were accompanied by that weekend sound of the steady hum of lawnmowers, and today, as it was spring, the meaty roar of rotavators. Busy attempting to bring order to natures wonderful chaos.

 Wildlife was also stirring, there was the background buzz of insects with regular sightings of both bumble bees and honey bees, bumbling between the flowers. With such beautiful weather, winter annuals such as Hairy Bitter-cress, Shepherd’s Purse, Groundsal and Red Dead-nettle, make the most of this first flush of warmth, to put on growth and flower before they are overtaken by the growth of vegetables. So producing a scattering of colour to a background of brown. Accompanying the activity that this growth has induced in the allotment holders, is the usual quorum of male Blackbirds, that spent their time raiding worms disturbed by the digging, occasionally sending up squawks of protest as a favoured morsel is covered over too soon or a digger comes to close.

 Ah, the bliss of an early spring afternoon……

Hairy Bitter-cress and Co – 24 March 2012 (Copyright – Carol Jones 2012)

Its murder… But not as you’d expect

Went to Murder Moss today, and what a beautiful day, just how spring should be, blue skies and warm sunshine.

Murder Moss is a basin fen, rich in species due to the lime rich nature of the water, but unique with a northern combination of species set in a southern type of fen, and like many of the Scottish Borders fens almost hidden from the surroundings in a crinkle in the hills. You can read more about the site here – http://gateway.snh.gov.uk/sitelink/siteinfo.jsp?pa_code=1636.

Today, though spring-like, has hardly seen spring reach the moss. The site is still dominated by winter, with its carpet of dead stems and bare twigs. However, spring is approaching as amongst the dead stems there are signs of life – plants are slowly beginning to shoot and grow. There were a number of new leaves and rosettes, still tinged a new claret red colour, but no longer prepared to hide their heads. More obvious sparks of life are found within areas of open water, kept free from the encroachment of vegetation by the up-welling of spring water, which buzzed with activity from the whirling of water beetles that dashed here and there, and the determined wanderings of the water snails, to the fresh clumps of frog spawn about to burst into new life.

Murder Moss – 21 March 2012 (Copyright – Carol Jones 2012)

The First Day of Spring

I had hoped for something big and sexy for the first real blog, especially as the spring equinox occurred this morning, something like an amazing sunrise or the appearance of a rare migrant sitting singing for all to see, and so herald the official coming of spring!! But no such luck. Instead I was wandering into work on what was a grey morning, and noticed the tiny but amazing display of Common Whitlow-grass, that lined the edge of the curb and the cracks in the pavement with a fancy white frill of delicate blooms.

Common Whitlow-grass (Erophila verna) is not a grass at all, but a tiny crucifer that flowers in the early days of spring. It is a low annual with small rosettes of narrow leaves, and has clusters of white flowers at the ends of leafless stems and then bears spear-shaped fruits on long stalks. In early spring they are readily found producing a delicate white cover on stony waste grounds and within cracks in the pavement, but by May they have all gone, to appear again, but transiently, for the first few days of spring.

The picture is a copper engraved antique print with original hand colouring, that was published in Sowerby’s English Botany, or Coloured Figures of British Plants, in 1799. Picture courtesy of www.ancestryimages.com

Beginnings…

I’ve always been a recorder, from scribbling notes about outings, thoughts and life to making lists of plants and wildlife that I’d seen when I’ve been out. In some ways I feel that I might have fitted better if I’d been born a century or two earlier and could have explored the world recording the wonders of nature as I saw them. However, as the Victorians and Edwardians had uninformed and misguided ideas on conservation on good days and much worse on bad, and my artistic abilities don’t equal those of a either an mediocre Victorian or Edwardian artist, some modern form of media is required. So inspired by those that have already taken the plunge its time to put more than just a toe in the water.

So me – I live in the amazing and infinitely variable Scottish Borders, from the safe agricultural and rolling lowlands to the dramatic and wild uplands. Maybe not big and sexy as the Highlands, maybe just passed through on the way to somewhere else, but still exceptionally special. Recently I realised that I’ve lost my roots and have become a bureaucrat, pushing figures and fitting ideas to rules and regulations rather than what is correct for the biodiversity. I hope that blogging will remind me of what I’m good at and get me to back to doing more that just looking but actually seeing again!