Warm Hues of Early Autumn Evenings

Went to Beanrig Moss late on Friday afternoon, and now that the end of September approaches, the place is beginning to change. The rich gorgeous greens of the summer have begun to fade to the yellows, oranges and reds of autumn. Some of the Willows, have turned to a wonderful yellow hue, while others had already lost their leaves in the first of the autumn storms and others still remain a now decidedly tatty green. Beneath the Reeds have that mix of autumn colours some green and others yellowing. This is then all contrasted with the Sphagnum below which remains a bright spring green, as though the new season has just arrived.

Beanrig Moss – 28 September 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

Wandering in the early evening, as the sun had begun to drop lower in the sky, all the hummocks and hollows are highlighted by a combination of shadows and sunlight. The vegetation was also lit from behind, so that the yellowing vegetation took on this amazing warm glow, so much so that it almost radiated an autumnal warmth. This was made more spectacular by the presence of the darkening storm clouds approaching from the south, producing a dark contrast to the warm autumnal highlights.

Incy Wincy Spider Grows Up!

While the first storm of autumn, blows and blusters through the surrounding trees, its time to go hunting wildlife, closer to home, and somewhat more sheltered and drier than outside! In an old house, in autumn, it is never a difficult task to find the odd creature hiding away in the more remote corners of the place or even making more blatant bids to move in, especially the Spider, which will take up residence anywhere it seems think is available. Today the hunt led to the disused entrance, which I have to say is the fond haunt of the Spider, being cool and relatively undisturbed. In this case today’s is a very very large one – a Giant House Spider (Tegenaria duellica) to be precise.

Giant House Spider – 25 September 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

Have to say I’m quite fond of these creatures, with their long gangly legs that are covered in the most amazing hairs, each hair being at least 5mm long (long when the creature is just a few inches across, and this includes their legs) and each angled out from the leg at 45^o. Accompanied by their mottled brown bodies, the patterns of which seem to be unique to the individual and pair of glistening jet black eyes, like a pair of polished coals. This one at least is safe, living with the recycling and bothering no one, happily constructing its almost orb like webs in the corners.

Pair of Giant House Spiders – 12 September 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

Last Day of Summer

As autumn approaches tomorrow, and as yesterday it felt like November, as the clouds had formed slipped halos that sat partway down the surrounding hills, accompanied by pouring rain, and the Swallows lined up on the phone-lines ready to head south again. However, twenty-four hours later and for the last day of summer, the sun has shone and autumn could be a million miles away, apart from the fact that the colours are beginning to change and the breeze has a whisper of the cooling temperatures to come.

As for me, today, I was back at one of my favourite mires in the Scottish Borders, Murder Moss, where though the sun shone and the weather was beautiful, instead of the greens of summer, the Sedge beds are beginning to turn a rich autumnal red. At present these have yet to form fully and the last hints of summer can be seen as a remnant green carpet left underneath, with the occasional shoot making its way through these reddish highlights, in the form of the long stalk of the still green Common Reed. Accompanying these autumnal reds and oranges, there are just some hints at the summer that has been, with the occasional spot of mauve from Devil’s-bit Scabious and Water Mint inflorescences and the occasional yellow saucer of a Greater Spearwort flower, remaining amongst the now ripening Sedges and Purple Moor-grass beds.

Murder Moss – 21 September 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

Within the more sheltered areas Dragonflies where hawking around the dying stems, from the small and brownish Common Darters to the larger and more brightly coloured Common Hawkers, shining with their patches of azure blue, highlighted against the black background of their body. Found the one of these Common Hawkers sunning itself on a six inch wide plank, which are used for monitoring the dipwells on Murder Moss, making it perfect to study. Though not quite in focus, I was still impressed with the photo and especially as balancing on narrow planks and taking photos at the same time isn’t exactly a strong point of mine, and thought it was worth a showing here.

Common Hawker – Murder Moss – 21 September 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

Passing of Summer

Thursday, on a what was a decidedly cold and blustery evening, I was out at Lindean Reservoir, where I was accompanied by a cold northerly wind and the occasional honk of the first of this years Geese returning south. Bringing home the fact that summer has now almost passed, and autumn and winter will be rapidly approaching.

With the passing of summer, the vegetation is now beginning to look distinctly tired and worn. The grasslands have a distinctive brown tinge as the remaining inflorescences have set seed and dried out. There are only a few spots of colour remaining from the odd flower, making the occasional mauve, yellow and cream splash to highlight the now drab appearance of the sward. Above the scattering of trees round the reservoir edge have leaves that are beginning to turn brown, some have even dropped most of them leaving just the bare branches to announce the coming of winter.

Lindean Reservoir at Dusk – 12 September 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

But autumn means that sunsets are much more accessible, coming at a sensible time, rather than of way off in the early hours and Thursday night’s was a good introduction to those to come. The sky had begun to darken, as a number of shower clouds began to gather, as the grey clouds grew they took on a delicate apricot hue of the setting sun, while the sky to the west remained clear with a delicate tinge of blue. A reminder of the summer, maybe? As the clouds grew, so did the depth of colour, as though someone was washing the clouds with successively deeper orange coloured washes. Always they remained in the oranges, never quiet making the transition into red. Maybe not the fire of classic sunsets, but when reflected in the still areas of the water surface a spectacular sight, never the same for two minutes in a row. Then just as the rain came to wash away the orange colour, out came a final sight of a rainbow, with its start somewhere around Nether Whitlaw Moss and its end in the direction of either Blackpool or Beanrig Moss.

Rainbows at Dusk – 12 September 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

Blessed Thistle

Not sure that “Blessed Thistle” is a term that is supposed to come to mind when thinking about the next blog I wanted to write about Thursdays grassland visit. But that’s what happened, following Thursdays visit to Foulden Burn, I was later drinking a glass of that very named beer and thought it described my thoughts of the place so well. So welcome to “Blessed Thistle” – subtitled a “A Work In Progress” – Enjoy!

Blessed Thistle – 07 September 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

Foulden Burn is one of those wonderful steep sided stream valleys hidden in the depths of the Berwickshire Merse. The sides are so deeply in-sized into the flat surroundings that they disappear until you are almost on top of them, as a result the valley remains, to some degree secret and undiscovered. Foulden Burn itself, runs south from the outskirts of the village of Foulden, until it meets the Whiteadder. On its way it winds through a number of rocky outcrops, in themselves famous for their fossil content. Traditionally this valley was a mix of grasslands and scrub, wet along the valley bottom, with a tall herb grassland found on the deeper soils and finer calcareous grasslands on the steeper slopes of shallower soils, mixed with these are rocky outcrops and areas of scrub and scrubby woodland.

Unfortunately due to its isolation amongst the high quality agricultural land of the Merse, the grazing on the site has diminished over the years allowing the spread of scrub, in particularly Gorse, into the areas of grass. In recent years there has been a concerted effort to open up the areas of grassland again, to recreate warm open glades amongst the scrub, where Yellow Ant hills are active, and Green Woodpeckers come to feed and the grassland species return. With all restoration work, it spends long periods of time as a work in progress. Grassland restoration is no different, there is no quick fix. Currently a number of areas of scrub have been removed over a number of years, but the return of the grassland is more slow. Currently the right mix of herb species are present, but they are still overcome by too many Thistles, especially Creeping Thistle, that are scattered liberally around the place.

A Bank of Calcareous Grassland – Before the Scrub was Removed – 07 November 2005 (Copyright Carol Jones)

Who knows whether the site looks like it always did in the past? I’ve only known the site for about seven years, during which massive changes have occurred. I do know that within only a few months of carrying out the first area of scrub clearance that the Yellow Ant hills became re-invigorated. Also that the herbs that occur amongst the tall grasses are much like those that would have been there before the spread of the scrub. Amongst these I have to say that one of my favourites, the Fragrant Agrimony occurs. This is a robust herb, that has long spikes of small yellow starry flowers, which as the grasses are browning produce a bright spots of colour.

The Same Bank of Calcareous Grassland – 06 September 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

As for now in late summer, the grasses are browning and the tall herbs, such as Hogweed and Wild Angelica, are setting seed, spotted with the odd patch of colour remaining flower from species such as Fragrant Agrimony, Meadowsweet, Marsh Woundwort and other herbs too tall for the reach of the sheep that currently graze the site to graze easily. Accompanied by a serious sprinkling of Creeping Thistles occur, from which our title Blessed Thistle comes – Cheers!

Reminders of Summer

Its amazing what you can find in the hollows between the hills in the Scottish Borders, and Thursday’s hollow was Gattonside Moss, situated not far north of the village of Gattonside, but totally hidden from the village by the crinkles of the landscape. In fact these crinkles are generally well hidden from many of the roads in the area, from where they just look like single hills rising upwards into an upland mass and yet they are situated in the heart of the Scottish Borders, where agriculture is still intensive.

Gattonside Moss – 30 August 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

 As for Gattonside Moss this is one of my favourites – its a long, narrow valley mire, that has some amazing carpets of Sphagnum moss, a central area of Willow carr and areas of floating rafts of vegetation, formed of Bog Bean and Marsh Cinquefoil rhizomes, though all of which is a good scattering of sedges. These mire habitats then grade into a small outer band of Sharp-flowered Rush pasture that then rapidly fades into improved grassland that surrounds most of the site. That is apart from a small area where a more typical hydrosere of wet heath and acid grassland still grades away from the mire.

One of the many sights seen here, that really caught my eye at this late stage of the summer, were the long shoots that bare the single white flowers of the Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia palustris), that shone brightly amongst the browning of the late summer sedge stems and the bright green carpets of Sphagnum. Grass of Parnassus was named by the first century Greek physician Dioscorides when he found it growing on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. Even though it is neither a grass or grass-like, I think it is somewhat special. It is a plant of heart shape leaves from which sprout long flowering stems, that hold single white flowers high above the surrounding vegetation. These flowers are formed of five white petals, each strongly marked by grey blue veins. In the centre of which, you find five normal stamens that alternate with five strange fringed stamens. These fringed stamens support a number of yellow glands on their tips. Then in the centre is the a superior ovary, which will eventually swell to form the fruiting capsule. On Thursday, these flowers where the centre for the local insect population activities, particularly a large variety of hoverflies that found them irresistible and reminded me that it really is summer, even when its been so wet.

Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia palustris) – 30 August 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)