Back to the Hollows

This is the second missing blog – meet last  Thursday’s adventure….

From one extreme to the other – from the open hills on Tuesday where you could see for miles, back to the enclosed hollows of the fens on Thursday, where all views were lost by the enclosure of 6 feet tall Reeds on all sides. This was a visit to Hummelknowes Moss.

Hummelknowes Moss – 23 August 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

Hummelknowes Moss is a basin fen situated within the undulating topography that is so typical of Scottish Borders. This topography hides so many of these little basin fens; that many are almost invisible from any distance, hidden as they are amongst the crinkles of the hills.

As for Hummelknowes Moss, in its prime it would have shown a number of distinctive communities that had formed almost in distinctive zones, varying on management, substrate, water chemistry and depth, to mention just a few of the factors that can influence the development of the flora. Unfortunately due to the spread and growth of Reeds on this site, the variation is being lost and the open wilderness enclosed by walls of Reed.

Spreading Reeds over a Rich Fen Community – 23 August 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

In places the Reeds are still thin enough to allow the original communities to remain, such as the rich fen vegetation to the north, where Long-stalked Yellow Sedge and Lesser Tussock Sedge form carpets over a rich Brown Moss carpet. Highlighted at this stage in the summer, by the odd remaining pink flower of the Marsh Lousewort and the new mauve of the Devil’s-bit Scabious.

Walls of Reeds – 23 August 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

To the south where the Reeds are thicker, the communities have almost been lost. The Reeds have shaded and out competed almost everything, only suddenly while hacking through this jungle, the odd sight comes to surprise. Suddenly there will be a huge Greater Tussock Sedge, that has failed to be over come, but is tightly surrounded. Or an odd white flowered plant, that still defies accurate identification, that keeps heading towards Enchanter’s Nightshade, a plant of woodlands, but then maybe dense stands of Reeds where the ground is drier, emulates such woodland habitats.

To The Hills

Its been a busy few days – so this blog is running a little bit late, therefore this and the next entry date from Tuesday, 21 August and Thursday 23 August, respectively.

Just as I was beginning to think that I was either getting webbed feet or trench foot, Tuesday saw me take to the hills for the day. For this visit it was up into the Moorfoot Hills, above Heriot. Wow! What a difference from the enclosed feel of primeval swamps to the wide open views of the almost treeless moors. If one was going to suffer from agoraphobia, then this sort of sudden change could well act as a trigger. But it was good to feel the wide open spaces again after the confines of the swamps and blow all those cobwebs away.

Looking Towards the Carcant and Dunlaw Windfarms – 21 August 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

From an advantage point somewhere near the top of Huntley Hill, the views eastwards towards the Carcant and Dunlaw wind farms, make striking white statements in the landscape, as the sun appeared and disappeared behind the clouds, catching the white blades in the process. It is one of those strange days of August, where the sky is blue, but across it pass both white and black clouds that occasionally open up with short and sharp showers.
 

Passing Shower Cloud – 21 August 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

By now the hills have developed a generalised rich purple tinge as the Heather was in full bloom. From our vantage point the further hills had sizeable areas of purple Heather, mixed with areas of still bright green grass, still growing following our very wet summer. Where there was less Heather and more grass, the purple of the flowering Heather formed isolated clumps, that almost made the hillside look as though it had a case of measles. Their were purple clumps of Heather surrounded by the greens of both grasses, rushes and a variety of mosses, together with a highlight of golden brown from the metallic coloured spikelets of Wavy Hair-grass.

Heather and Grass Mosaic – 21 August 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

Back to the Swamp!

Must have some sort of attraction for the steaming reaches of primeval swamps at the moment, for yesterday’s bright sunshine found me slopping my way through the wet edges of another swamp, this time the transition fen at Yetholm Loch. I’m not sure that following the wet weather we’ve had this year; that this was necessarily a good idea, as the water regularly lapped round the top of the wellies and occasionally could be felt leaking in over the top!

In this case, yesterday’s steaming swamp was made up of Reedmace and Common Clubrush, both of which were easily growing to well over six feet in height, so could easily have been anywhere as all the views were hidden, especially with the rising humidity in yesterday’s sunshine that could have placed us somewhere tropical. It was also to some degree a disappointment that the height of the vegetation hide the views of the surrounding loch that then spread down the valley towards the Cheviot Hills in the distance. 

Yetholm Loch and the Edging Bands of Vegetation – 20 August 2012 (Copyright – Carol Jones)

Though in general these edge swamps are species poor, being dominated by either Bulrush or Reedmace and not a great deal more, other than the tiny floating green plates of Common Duckweed that is washed one way and then another by the wind on the open water. There were also a couple of nice plants hiding amongst the stems. The first is Gypsywort (Lycopuus europaeus), a tall perennial plant, with deeply toothed leaves, that tries its best its best to look a little like a Stinging Nettle, but doesn’t sting. It also has whorls of small white flowers at the base of the leaves, with tiny purple dots marking the lower lip of the flower. The second is the white umbel of Cowbane (Cicuta virosa) with its coarsely toothed, bright green leaves, that within the confines of the tall surroundings grow almost straight up, accompanied by the dense white umbels of flowers.

Away from the mono-cultures of the edge and before the dense stands of Reed Canary-grass that characterise the eutrophic inner reaches of the fen amongst the willow carr, there were patches that are much richer and are characterise by bands of Lesser Pond Sedge. In places accompanied by the wonderful minty scent of large patches of Water Mint (Mentha aquatica), that was just beginning to produce whorls of delicate lilac flowers. Together with patches of Skullcap (Scutellaria galericulata), with its bright blue flowers, that reminds me of the bright blue skies of a true British summer.

When is a Loch, not a Loch?

Had one of those OK moments, when I wonder what on earth am I doing? – At that moment on Monday morning, I was standing dripping with sweat, with water lapping around and into the top of my wellies, and being feasted on by a large variety of biting insects!

As to what was I doing – I was standing in the middle of Lurgie Loch. Only in general terms Lurgie Loch is no longer a loch, having long since lost any open water, and had been filled with vegetation and is now covered with scrub. Only because of this years very wet summer, the site was also covered with water of varying depths, hence the water in the wellies, and as the sun was shining for once, the high levels of humidity and so the sweat.

You really do know that the place is wet, when even the slugs take to the trees! This formed one of the days more odd ball sights of the day, as I kept finding those very large black slugs, part way up the trunks of the trees, grazing on the various patches of lichen that were growing on the trunks. They also made a slightly yucky hazard as well, for if you weren’t careful, and disturbed the trees too much, they would drop off and land on your head!!

Lurgie Loch – 13 August 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

Lurgie Loch is another one of those amazing valley fens. This one has a lagg of Willows, with the centre covered with Birch of varying ages, and in one small drier area some one had planted Scots Pine at one stage. These though now, semi mature, are not currently spreading as the site is still rather wet. Underneath the ground flora varies from Sedges in the wetter areas to carpets of Purple Moor-grass in the drier areas, that until recently had formed more open glades and would make good flight areas for Scotch Argus. Too wet this summer though, for anything other than biting insects to flourish.

Wonders of Whitlaw Mosses

Back at Whitlaw Mosses again on Friday after a couple of months absence, on what finally felt like the first real day of summer. The sun was shining, there was the sound of combine harvesters working in the background, accompanied by that summer drone of insect activity. 

What a difference a couple of months makes to a place, things have changed so much since my last visit to this combination of sites back at the end of May. Since my last visit the greens have become brighter and more vibrant, with maybe that touch of yellow that comes as the vegetation ripens towards the height of summer. More noticeable is that the vegetation has grown. Reeds that where hardly above the surrounding vegetation have shot up to dominate a number of scenes, as they have put on several feet of growth over the intervening time. Now also the greens are spotted with the remains of colour, most prominent by this stage are the white of various umbellifers, ranging from Angelica (Angelica sylvestris) in most of the mosses, to one of my favourites, Cowbane (Cicuta virosa) within the swamps of Nether Whitlaw, accompanied by the yellow of the odd spot of Greater Spearwort (Ranunculus lingua) as it spreads its way across Murder Moss and the blue of Skullcap (Scutellaria galericulata) as it attempts to grow out of the board-walk.

Blackpool Moss – 10 August 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

Each of the mosses has its own character at every time of year, and each has something that jumps out to make a visit memorable. On Murder Moss it was the mad activity of the Dragonflies in the day’s bright sunshine. It is a shame that my identification skills of this group are so poor and that only the ones I can identify are the Black Darters, though there was at least one other species present. For Blackpool Moss the primeval feel of the Willow Carr, made more so by the rapid growth of the Reeds in the understory that rapidly encloses you within an enclosed hot and steamy place. On Beanrig Moss its the hummocks of Sphagnum over which creep the thin stems of Cranberry, where the berries are beginning to form and masses of Sundews spread their gland tipped leaves out across the moss surface. More amazing is the fact that these are set amongst alkaline flushing water of the fen. Then finally there was Nether Whitlaw Moss, where the place was a mass of Blue-tailed Damselflies that I supposed had just hatched and were everywhere. There were so many scattered across the vegetation that you could hear the tap tap of their wings as their movement hit the surrounding vegetation.

Nether Whitlaw – 10 August 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

Siklawica – If you Can!

Almost the last of the missing blogs now – this one dates from the Sunday 22 July – Enjoy!

With so much water on the scene, one of the few things we had failed to see so far were any waterfalls, as a result our last walk in the Tatra Mountains was to a small one of these. So an even simpler route today – straight up the Strażyska Dolinia pass the mountain hut and onto Siklawica, a simple water spout. Not much after the great master pieces of Iceland.

The walk, like many of our previous ones, passes out from the edge of town and up a woodland path along the edge of the Strażyska Dolina, a small bubbling mountain river, that rumbles down this split in the hillside between rock walls that move in and out from the river but for the greater length were never that far away. The surrounding slopes though, are well hidden with the spread of the woodland, Spruces, mixed with various broad-leaves such as Rowan and Beech, coat the slopes. This spread of trees makes it is almost impossible to see the five sharp dolomite rocks, that stick up above the ridge and form structures known as the “Chimneys”, by now you just get the occasional hint of there presence amongst the trees. As for the ground flora, mainly the leaves of a Butterbur blanket the areas close to the path, but occasionally a number of what looked like Fragrant Orchids (Gymnadenia conopsea) and a very dark red coloured Dark Red Helleborine (Epipactis atrorubens) peaked out, accompanying the many yellow spikes of the Yellow Broomrape (Orobanche flava) that were growing on the Butterbur.

Strażyska Dolina with Giewont Lost in the Mist – 22 July 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

The walk up the Strażyska Dolina leads to the open meadow around the mountain hut, from where views of Giewont should be visible, had the mountain not be lost in the low cloud, and from where we are rapidly surrounded by trees again for the final short climb up to Siklawica.

Siklawica is a two stage waterfalls that drops a total distance of about 23m, in two stages 10m in the first and 13m in the second and from a distance looks like a single simple spout of water pouring down the north face of Giewont. Strangest of all though is how this simple spout or chute of water falls down a moss cushion that runs the complete length of the rock face, but is never more than a metre or two wide, with the water mainly confined in the centre of the moss strip. Careful examination of the rock face does reveal water running down much of the rest of the expanse, so one wonders why the moss is not more expansive?

Siklawica – 22 July 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)