30th June 2020 #30DaysWild

Walked on Calgary machair today.  It is looking fantastic.  Huge swathes of Lady's bedstraw and wild Thyme. Bees and tiny flitting Moths, incredible scent.  Prasad was there too, and spotted a Common twayblade. 

In the evening we went up to Reudle to look for Early marsh orchids and Lesser twayblades. We weren't successful but it was a beautiful walk back over the bogs and hills into the sunset. 

 

29th June 2020 #30DaysWild

Lots of quite grown up Greylag goslings in Salen Bay.  Very flighty! 

In the evening we went looking for Lesser twayblade on the Sitheans, we didn't think we had found one but when we checked with Prasad we had!  So exciting.  Please excuse the photograph, it was almost dark! 

We walked back over the bog from the Sitheans and saw a Common gull chick.  Thankfully we only had Coco with us, and Farmer picked her up so she couldn't disturb it.  You can see why they are easy pickings for the Golden eagles - not great camouflage. 

28th June 2020 #30DaysWild

We clambered into the damp wood.  This Water avens greeted us, it was about 3 feet tall. 

Bird's nest orchid.  It is not past its best, this is how it looks.  It hasn't flowered here since 2012. Nearby were 3 Broad leaved Helleborines but they are not flowering. 

After the scramble back through thigh high damp ferns and over rotting tree trunks on steep banks we walked back through the graveyard field strewn with hundreds of Common spotted orchids we walked down on to the shore to look for the Thyme Broomrape.   

It was lovely to see the Hare on the rocky shoreline - every time we come down here we see him/her.   P had given good instructions and S spotted them first (see extras) on the cliff face, on a ledge.   They are a distinctive rusty colour and only a couple of inches high.   (If you view the extras large you should be able to spot where it was!) Another first for me.

These two plants are both quite unusual.  Bird's nest orchid looks dead when it isn't and Thyme broomrape is a parasitic plant living off, not surprisingly, wild Thyme. 

So far we have seen 11 of the 14 orchids found on the farm this year, with only Bog, Lesser twayblade and Early marsh to go. 

This afternoon Friends of Calgary Beach met to discuss what to do with the toilets and campsite this year, and it was decided it was safer to keep them open because if we didn't who knows what mess will follow.  So they were pressure washed and cleaned while the rest of us beach cleaned and some removed last winter's storm damaged fencing.  

27th June 2020 #30DaysWild

The wild flowers that caught my attention today amongst all the others:

Yellow pimpernel
Sweet woodruff
Enchanter's nightshade
Dog's mercury
Buckhorn plantain
Sea plantain
Common hogweed
Fairy flax
Corn spurry
Wild thyme
Birds foot trefoil
Melancholy thistle 
Marsh thistle
Bloody cranesbill
St Johns wort
Bitter vetch
Meadow vetchling
Wood bitter vetch
Tufted vetch
Fragrant orchid
Greater butterfly orchid
Frog orchid
Small white orchid
Many unknown Hawkweeds

And the Butterflies and Moths we saw:
Small pearl bordered Fritillary
Dark green Fritillary
Six spot Burnet moth
Yellow shell moth
Common blue 
Small heath
Meadow brown

Noctilucent clouds

Thyme and Birds foot trefoil

Dark green fritillary 

The underside of a Small pearl bordered fritillary 

Red clover and Silverweed

Thyme and St Johns wort

Small pearl bordered fritillary 

Enchanter's nightshade 

Sweet woodruff

Buttercups and grasses

Sea plantain

Yellow pimpernel

26th June 2020 #30DaysWild

Another good flower dog walk on the Point this afternoon and a bonus walk through the field beyond Haunn this evening.  A relief after most of the day was spent doing the cleaning course and then ordering extra bedlinen and duvets etc.  

I wish I could adequately capture the feeling of standing on a bank with such colourful and scented beauty at ones feet.  The eye seems to work on two levels, appreciating the whole and the detail all at once.  I certainly cant get my camera to come anywhere close but I keep trying.  

We both saw a Grayling which was exciting for me.  And lots of Dark green fritillary, Meadow brown and Common blue.  Found a new flower  for me which I think is Procombent pearlwort but I need to check first. 

Butterfly heaven even though the sun was not shining

Bloody cranesbill and Lady's mantle

Six spot burnet moths

The view from the top of the Point 

A turf dyke above the Haunn cottages 

Behind the wall, in the shade, the ?Procumbent pearlwort.

Grasses and butterflies

Red bartsia