Creatures From the Moss

The next few blogs cover the catch up period of late summer and early autumn, between my return from North Wales and now in mid-autumn. This one dates from the 08 August.

Walking round the edge of Blackpool Moss, it was wonderful to see the bright new greens of the moss, after the browning, tiredness of the surrounding areas which are slowly being baked in the heat of the summer. Here on the moss, it’s as though the sprinklers have been turned on every day to supply a dose of water; as all the vegetation has a spring newness to its colour, just like the lawns in suburbia. Out of this brightness there sprouted a number of Wild Angelica plants with their white frothy umbels that are tinged very slightly with pink, standing out as sentinels in this sea of green. More statuesque though, was a tussock of Greater Tussock Sedge that poked out of the surrounding vegetation like a weird creature with some form of bottle brush hair style. Well named by a friend, who called them Dr Who monsters!!

Blackpool Moss – 08 August 2013 (Copyright Carol Jones)

Surrounding this island of green, the grassland is browning and drying in preparation to be turned to hay, but amongst this brown there stands out a bright bank of purple, formed from a mass of Knapweed flowers. There were so many flowers that it was as if someone had taken a paint brush, dipped it in a paint pot and added a splash of colour across the grassland. This bank of flowers were also a great temptation to a mass of butterflies, the most I’ve seen this year in one place at anyone time. They were mainly Meadow Browns, flitting here and there, around the mass of flowers producing a mass of movement. Try as I might they did not settle for long enough to photo, all attempts at pictures where nothing more than a blur of movement, made worse by the gentle breeze that would set the heads of the Knapweed off in a swaying pattern all of their own.

Purple Edgings – 08 August 2013 (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)

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)

Dreams of Yesterday

While sitting in a very hot, stuffy meeting this afternoon, with the after effects of lunch in the sunshine, it was easy to drift off, back to the open countryside and warm sunshine of yesterday, when I was at the North Esk Reservoir, exploring some of  the species rich grassland there. The North Esk is situated on the very southern edge of the Pentland Hills, and is a refuge for a number of species now rare in both the Scottish Borders and Mid Lothian.

Drifting back to yesterday, I am standing on the dam at the southern edge of the reservoir, looking out across the still blue water, surrounded by the rounded grassy hills of the Pentlands. Standing there observing the scene and watching small cumuli scud slowly across the sky, while Sky Larks trill in the gentle breeze and wondering if we may finally be heading towards summer.

North Esk Reservoir – 18 June 2012 (Copyright – Carol Jones)

Turning south, the feeling of summer increases as the area below, a mixture of rush pasture, with drier grasslands on the slopes, seems to sing with this fresh new growth. The grasslands in particular have this slight yellow tinge from the many emerging grass inflorescences, that are rippling gently in the breeze. Amongst the fresh greens the colours of early summer emerge, there were the white umbels of Pignut, the occasional washed out purple bloom of Bitter Vetch and the sky blue eyes of Germander Speedwell, accompanied by many yellow spots of Tormentil.

 

North Esk Valley – 18 June 2012 (Copyright – Carol Jones)

Wandering through the grassland, the developing Common Spotted Orchids, caused much discussion, as this year the leaves seem excessively spotted. Many more of the plants seen here than usual, have so many spots that they have begun to coalesce into each other to turn the leaves more purple then green. Rather than the usual sight of spots that can be individually identified.

The most interesting aspect for me today, was the recent rediscovery of several Mountain Everlasting (Antennaria dioica) plants on the thin soils of a short steep slope above the stream. Possibly named everlasting because when the flowers are dried they last for a long time and use to be gathered for dried flower arrangements or named because the flowers come up in the same place year after year due to its perennial nature. The plant itself is an attractive affair, covered with white woolie hairs that gives its other common name of Cat’s Paw.

Down amongst the grasslands the field seems to be singing with life, particular insect, as the air was filled with large numbers of a hairy bodied flies. Now I am no expert on flies, but these had an uncanny resemblance to cleggs, but luckily seemed not to be the biting kind! Accompanying these were the occasional flash of blue from a Damselfly, the first of the season!

Lost Valley

OK, so there I was standing in the bottom of the Crook Burn valley on Wednesday. Supposedly I was in a wide and gently sloping valley, but at that moment, it could have been almost anywhere, as the visibility had dropped to less than 20m in any direction and the surroundings where coated in a think layer of cloud.

Crook Burn Valley – 30 May 2012 (Copyright – Carol Jones)

But oh, what surprises awaited! What I had been led to expect to be the remnant of a long lost northern hay meadow, that may have been suffering from under grazing and scrub invasion, actually turned into the most amazing complex of valley wetlands that graded into drier grasslands on some of the steeper slopes. The valley floor and all the lower slopes were dominated by various wetland communities. They contained the typical Rush pasture of northern hay meadows, to areas of valley fen dominated by Sedges and Water Horsetail, to those areas that truly quaked and wobbled like a jelly, and also areas of tall herb fen carpeted by Meadowsweet through which water flushed.

Amongst the swirling mist that rose and sank, as the breeze moved it around, patches of Marsh Marigold almost glowed, as though they had been coated in a fluorescent element, and some of the flowers were unusual in being semi-doubles.

Marsh Marigolds – 30 May 2012 (Copyright – Carol Jones)

Out of the gloom there also loomed a number of Greater Tussock Sedges, and with the mist swirling, they could almost have been monsters escaped from a Dr Who program, especially as many of the leaves where coated with tiny drops of water. Plants weren’t the only items to be coated in droplets of water and amongst the areas of taller vegetation where a number of spiders webs that had been decorated with hundreds of droplets of water, all seemingly individually sculpted and placed.

Spiders Webs – 30 May 2012 (Copyright – Carol Jones)

Finally though, in what has generally become a highly agricultural area, the valley had one final secret to reveal and to me one of the highlights of the day, as it took me to one of my favourite places, the North Pennines, and this was a thriving colony of Globeflowers (Trollius europaeus), with their much paler lemon coloured blooms.

 

Globeflowers (Trollius europaeus) – 30 May 2012 (Copyright – Carol Jones)

Flutter-by Day

With the coming of the sunshine, there was finally the opportunity to go chasing butterflies at Murder Moss last week. Until this week the weather has been far too cold, wet and windy, for any butterfly to appear on the scene up here, without disappearing rapidly into the distance never to be seen again.

The butterfly transect is very simple, follow a set route round a site, at a slow meander and record all the butterflies that occur within an imaginary 5m² box in front of you. Simple or so it seems, just so glad that I’m “up north” (as some might say) and unlike southern chalk grassland the likelihood of being surrounded by swarms of butterflies, especially after such a cold period, is unlikely, for the route is somewhat interesting in places. The transect at Murder Moss, takes you through some of the wettest and sloppiest bits of the swamp, which if walked too roughly through, will give a good coating of smelly black swamp mud.

Murder Moss – 23 May 2012 (Copyright – Carol Jones)

As for the transect walk, it was as expected very quiet, in total there were five Orange Tips and three Green Veined Whites. I know somewhat lacking in body, but it has been a seriously cold and wet spring and this is the first period of warmth and sunshine since March. However, numbers it might lack, but there was time to actually take note of the butterflies, as they flitted within and through the imaginary box. The fact that the Orange Tips flitted much more purposively than the Green Veined Whites, who would flop about and then settle on a flower, regularly giving good views of their green tinged veins on the under wings.

Incy Wincy Spider

While staring out of the window this morning, dreaming of being out in the now newly arrived summer, and watching the passing of the world for a few minutes, I noticed that a large spiders web had appeared in the corner of the window. While staring at it innocently, a passing Mayfly became entangled and no sooner had it become caught than the Spider dashed out from his hiding place and bundled his catch away, already paralysed and probably wrapped. Wow! One blink and the whole sequence would have been missed, for no sooner had the insect been caught then it had been ferreted away. Further observation showed that the spider was not to be fooled by either the stronger gusts of wind that rattled the web or a number of feathery seeds that it brought with it and had got caught in the web as well.

Incy wincy spider climbing up the spout
Down came the rain and washed the spider out
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain
Now incy wincy spider went up the spout again!

Bumble Bees and Thunder Storms

I was hiding in the shed this afternoon, between the passing showers, doing some potting, when my attention was distracted away from the task at hand, by an insistent buzzing. This came from a rather perturbed Bumble Bee that was trying to enter the shed, but of course, I was standing in the way. The Bumble Bee was looking for a way past me and into the back of the shed, where amongst the junk they nest, probably somewhere under the old boiler. In fact over the course of the afternoon, there were a number of Bumble Bees that wanted into our shed, but less of them came out then went in, and I wondered if there was another way out.

Now, I have to say that Bumble Bees are amazing creatures, for even though they are fairly small, their wings are amazingly powerful. While watching these creatures as they came and went during the afternoon, I noticed that their wings had enough power to move the scattering of compost that littered the ground, while they flew a couple of inches above it. In fact by comparison, they seem to have the same effect as the blades of a helicopter do on the vegetation underneath, as they come into land.

My pondering, on the wonders of Bumble Bees was rudely interrupted towards the end of the afternoon by a sudden, very bright flash of lightning, accompanied almost simultaneously by an exceptionally loud and explosive clap of thunder. Loud enough to make me jump and loose a few years in the process. It felt almost as if the event had occurred just overhead. In fact it was loud enough to disturb the crows from the trees behind the house, sending them into the air in a single body, as well as sending the sheep, in the field opposite, scattering in disarray.

Leading up to this very explosive strike, we had previously had a single loud, but not explosive roll of thunder some minutes before. There must have been a flash of lightning as well, but this went unnoticed as the sky was still quite light. By the time of the second strike, the sky had turned almost black, as though full of water, and the cloud was going to burst and letting loose a deluge, with the crack of thunder the ripping of the fabric that held back the deluge. However, the deluge did not develop, and the rain passed over, depositing as it went, just a few lonely drops.

Shrimps and Scorpions

This piece was supposed to have been posted several days ago, but due to a technical fault – no internet connection – it has sat for a while. So unfortunately you have to think back into those balmy days of spring….

Back in those days when the sun shone and temperatures approached warmth, the new silt trap at Murder Moss was the heart of the days major activity (and that’s not counting the people standing round it staring intently into the depths of this structure). Within the freshly filled container of water, life had already began to blossom, for the place was swarming with the mad activities of a new colony of Freshwater Shrimps, who seemed best to like the shallow water on the exit lip and were swimming madly round in what seemed like ever decreasing circles.

For me though, one of the best sights of the day was that of a Water Scorpion – these are bugs are amazing. They are brown mottled bugs, with raptorial, pincer-like forelegs (from where they get their common name of Water Scorpion) and a long needle-like protrusion at the end of the abdomen, through which they breath. A strange sight, maybe – as they are creatures of still water, not moving, but then the silt trap acts like a pond and slows the speed of the water! – So was the Water Scorpion there just to make a killing on the mad antics of the Freshwater Shrimps, or was it waiting for a better kill?