I Love Arnside and Silverdale: Snippets of Wealth - Monday 3rd June 2019 - Holme Stinted Pastures and Holme Park Fell - Adders Tongue/Hybrid Orchids etc/Rigid Buckler Fern/Dryopteris sub-montana

Monday 3 June 2019

Snippets of Wealth - Monday 3rd June 2019 - Holme Stinted Pastures and Holme Park Fell - Adders Tongue/Hybrid Orchids etc/Rigid Buckler Fern/Dryopteris sub-montana

Heath Spotted x probably Common Spotted although there also is a look of Marsh Orchid as well. (Click over to enlarge

Photo: Holme Stinted Pastures, Hutton Roof on 3rd June 2019

Been away all weekend down in East Lancs following yet another of my interest. So I wanted to break back in gently this morning and decided to go up on to Holme Stinted Pastures and then followed by a visit to the Fell. My main purpose was to check out the rare hybrid orchids we have up there. Sure enough there is evidence of them coming through but will need another fortnight to start showing their brilliance...

The Yellowhammer was kind to me this morning and allowed me to get pretty close while he sang his little ditty "Little bit of bread and no cheese" delivered from high up on the uppermost branches of a hawthorn tree over on Holme Park Fell. Great to see it back on a established breeding territory for yet another year.

Shortly after enjoying listening to a good five minutes of the little minstrel, I started to check out local ferns whilst heading in the direction back to Clawthorpe and stopping to take one or two photos of the Dryopteris sub-montana (Rigid Buckler Fern). Photos showing the contrasting blue/green, but my eyes were taken over to a strange sub-montana coming up from down in a gryke which looked so unusual to the norm. I quickly started to take one or two photos, but so difficult because of todays strong winds. I did manage it in the end and have posted the results below.

Here is another hybrid of sorts (Click over to enlarge)

Photo: Holme Stinted Pastures, Hutton Roof on 3rd June 2019.

It was also lovely to check out how the Ophioglossum vulgatum (Adders Tongue Fern) were doing, the spikes on some of the specimens have really grown since my last visit and you get a idea from the photos below: