Whitethroat, Grayling, Parsley Piert at Clawthorpe

Friday 3rd July 2015 - Clawthorpe Fell and thereabouts 0930 to 1100hrs

Grayling butterfly
Click over to enlarge)

Decided today to go over to Clawthorpe Fell and see if I could locate the Spotted Flycatcher which I first located behind Curwen Wood. But again like 2014 I did not manage to see it.  In fact there was very little in the way of bird song other than a (new to me) Garden Warbler quietly bubbling away whilst going up past Holme Park Quarry Nature Reserve. I did have part calls from a Green Woodpecker which never broke into full yaffles just samples.

One of the highlights had to be the emergence of the Grayling butterflies, which seemed to be everywhere.  There underwing pattern looks superb, and they always intrigue me how on landing they sit for a second or two and then fall over to one side.  I wrote a poem years ago about this:

Grayling – (1^st July 2011)

Grayling butterflies must have hatched today,

I have seen them here and seen them there,

On the limestone pavements and on the scree,

You watch them flutter, so fanciful and free.

Then they come down to settle on the ground,

With wings not open but so tightly bound,

And then they fall upon their side.

I checked out some of the rare Birds Foot Sedge which were showing regular, but seemed perhaps less than past years.

Great Mullion on Clawthorpe Fell

Also of note are the Great Mullion flowers to be found on the fell along with large Common Valerian. Also checked the Biting stonecrops which are everywhere, and the patch of English Stonecrop is over 20 square metres.

I manage to find a small patch of Parsley Piert which is new to the list for here.

A large brown dragonfly was also noticed at the perimeters with Curwen Wood.

Another welcome experience today was to hear the lovely "Whitethroat" singing away and close to the large Ash tree from behind the farm at Clawthorpe and close to where I had it three years ago.  So a really nice record for today.

Other species recorded today were:
Flora: Crosswort, Birds Foot Trefoil, Heath Bedstraw, Cotoneaster, Ragwort, Wild Strawberry, Herb Robert, Angule Solomons Seal, Hawkweeds, Wood Sage, Wild Thyme, Dropwort, Perforated St. Johns Wort, Self Heal, Wall Lettuce, Eyebright, Fairy Flax, Lesser Meadow Rue, Spring Sandwort, also Harts Tongue Fern and Maidenhair Spleenworth Ferns.

Birds: Bullfinch, Green Woodpecker, Chiffchaff.

Fairy Flax found on Clawthorpe Fell