What an interesting week... the beginning spent wondering if the weather would turn, the end spent sweltering beneath a July sun that would do justice to climes much further south...
The week started off with a brief visit to the track near Quinn's school... whilst there I came across a small wild flower meadow...
Alsike clover - common enough, usually as part of a fodder crop, but still cool to come across - it's the pink bits that give it away...
Essex skipper - small, brown butterfly, but one that is actually more than that when you look at it closely...
figwort... great for insects, but has unobtrusive flowers... a bit like rabbits's ears...
grass in flower - on of my favourite shots of the week... great colour and form...it just shows what you can see if you look...
small tortoiseshell - it has been a great year for this species; they appear to be everywhere at the moment, which is great as a few years ago they were hard to come by...
Last weekend also saw a band I have worked for make their Glastonbury debut... yep, this crowd..
...Blackbeard's Tea Party... played at the festival last Friday... so congratulations to all... If you get the chance to see them I can recommend them... if you want to buy their albums, I shot the cover for "Tomorrow We'll be Sober" - their second album...
After this start to the week, I took the opportunity to visit a nearby road verge which I had been eyeing up for a week or so... A great riot of colour and a nice suite of species...
common mallow...a great plant...love the mallows...
common ragwort - horse people hate this plant but if you are an insect it is one of the best... love the colour...
field scabious - apparently the colour is ideal for a bedroom... with plenty of white for contrast...
greater knapweed - just divine...that mix of lilacs...
lady's bedstraw with a small but important pollinator...
finally... two pictures looking along the verge - the purple of greater knapweed along the edge...
with the red of common poppy along the back...and the lovely feather-like flower-heads of wall barley...
What with my son's birthday and other commitments I had to wait until Friday before I managed to get out and about again... this time I went out into the Brecks on the search for some rarities... Now the Brecks is an area of Norfolk and Suffolk marked by a unique landscape - rabbit grazed heath. The climate is hot and dry and thanks to rabbit grazing some special plants have evolved to take advantage of the micro-climate. It was these I went to look for. Now, some pre-planning was needed - locations, flowering times etc and this trip was to be a precursor to a more intense visit in about a week and a half... peak flowering season.
Packing the gear I needed I set off and arrived at my first port of call. The warden was very helpful and showed me a group of dark red helleborine - all in bud... "Yep" I thought "In a week, they will be just right" He then took me to an enclosure to see a species that I have always wanted to see and never had - spiked speedwell. He said I was too early... come back in a week... we arrived only to see that the 20 odd plants were very nearly over...! The early spring had seen them flower in June rather than July - I did manage a shot showing the remnants of a spike...
as you can see, gone over... but the stunning blue is still visible... next year I shall post a perfect specimen... you just wait and see...
So, after that minor disappointment, a nice chat with the warden lead to some good information about a cracking site just down the road - with a major rarity and other lovelies...I bought the relevant OS (good salesmanship that) and headed off down the road... That site yielded...
broomrape - also gone over early making ID virtually impossible... but always a delightful group to find - they are parasites, mainly on specific hosts - for example yarrow broomrape parasatises yarrow, thistle broomrape is on thistle... you get the picture... I think this one is yarrow broomrape but a trip back next year is needed to confirm this...
common centaury - great colour... lovely plant
hare's-foot clover - I always like to see this... dry grasslands are it's home...
kidney vetch - butterflies and other insects love this plant...
a couple of pyramidal orchid shots - there were several flowering spikes; and it is difficult not to photograph them...
BUT...the highlight was this tiny plant...
this is proliferous pink... a tiny member of the Dianthus family. The flowers are as big as a finger nail and whole plant is about 50cm high. This is the only site for genuine wild plants in the UK... and on this site it is relatively common - I had no problem finding it...although the wind made it tricky photographing it.
A great end to a cool trip and a good example of how nature can thwart even the best plans... that's why we love it and why we do it... nature is just so cool...
I hope this has been a fun trip for you this week... I'm watching the sun go down over Scarborough as I write this... party day tomorrow; feel kinda lost... haven't got a camera with me...what an odd feeling...
If you want to you can keep in touch here... or you can see updates here - I shall bring you the best of Alex JP Scott Photography next week...
TTFN
The week started off with a brief visit to the track near Quinn's school... whilst there I came across a small wild flower meadow...
Alsike clover - common enough, usually as part of a fodder crop, but still cool to come across - it's the pink bits that give it away...
Essex skipper - small, brown butterfly, but one that is actually more than that when you look at it closely...
figwort... great for insects, but has unobtrusive flowers... a bit like rabbits's ears...
grass in flower - on of my favourite shots of the week... great colour and form...it just shows what you can see if you look...
small tortoiseshell - it has been a great year for this species; they appear to be everywhere at the moment, which is great as a few years ago they were hard to come by...
Last weekend also saw a band I have worked for make their Glastonbury debut... yep, this crowd..
...Blackbeard's Tea Party... played at the festival last Friday... so congratulations to all... If you get the chance to see them I can recommend them... if you want to buy their albums, I shot the cover for "Tomorrow We'll be Sober" - their second album...
After this start to the week, I took the opportunity to visit a nearby road verge which I had been eyeing up for a week or so... A great riot of colour and a nice suite of species...
common mallow...a great plant...love the mallows...
common ragwort - horse people hate this plant but if you are an insect it is one of the best... love the colour...
field scabious - apparently the colour is ideal for a bedroom... with plenty of white for contrast...
greater knapweed - just divine...that mix of lilacs...
lady's bedstraw with a small but important pollinator...
finally... two pictures looking along the verge - the purple of greater knapweed along the edge...
with the red of common poppy along the back...and the lovely feather-like flower-heads of wall barley...
What with my son's birthday and other commitments I had to wait until Friday before I managed to get out and about again... this time I went out into the Brecks on the search for some rarities... Now the Brecks is an area of Norfolk and Suffolk marked by a unique landscape - rabbit grazed heath. The climate is hot and dry and thanks to rabbit grazing some special plants have evolved to take advantage of the micro-climate. It was these I went to look for. Now, some pre-planning was needed - locations, flowering times etc and this trip was to be a precursor to a more intense visit in about a week and a half... peak flowering season.
Packing the gear I needed I set off and arrived at my first port of call. The warden was very helpful and showed me a group of dark red helleborine - all in bud... "Yep" I thought "In a week, they will be just right" He then took me to an enclosure to see a species that I have always wanted to see and never had - spiked speedwell. He said I was too early... come back in a week... we arrived only to see that the 20 odd plants were very nearly over...! The early spring had seen them flower in June rather than July - I did manage a shot showing the remnants of a spike...
as you can see, gone over... but the stunning blue is still visible... next year I shall post a perfect specimen... you just wait and see...
So, after that minor disappointment, a nice chat with the warden lead to some good information about a cracking site just down the road - with a major rarity and other lovelies...I bought the relevant OS (good salesmanship that) and headed off down the road... That site yielded...
broomrape - also gone over early making ID virtually impossible... but always a delightful group to find - they are parasites, mainly on specific hosts - for example yarrow broomrape parasatises yarrow, thistle broomrape is on thistle... you get the picture... I think this one is yarrow broomrape but a trip back next year is needed to confirm this...
common centaury - great colour... lovely plant
hare's-foot clover - I always like to see this... dry grasslands are it's home...
kidney vetch - butterflies and other insects love this plant...
a couple of pyramidal orchid shots - there were several flowering spikes; and it is difficult not to photograph them...
BUT...the highlight was this tiny plant...
this is proliferous pink... a tiny member of the Dianthus family. The flowers are as big as a finger nail and whole plant is about 50cm high. This is the only site for genuine wild plants in the UK... and on this site it is relatively common - I had no problem finding it...although the wind made it tricky photographing it.
A great end to a cool trip and a good example of how nature can thwart even the best plans... that's why we love it and why we do it... nature is just so cool...
I hope this has been a fun trip for you this week... I'm watching the sun go down over Scarborough as I write this... party day tomorrow; feel kinda lost... haven't got a camera with me...what an odd feeling...
If you want to you can keep in touch here... or you can see updates here - I shall bring you the best of Alex JP Scott Photography next week...
TTFN
No comments:
Post a Comment