Sunday 29 May 2016

18th May 2016- The day after the Marsh Fritillary...


After the excitement of welcoming back the Marsh Fritillaries to Volehouse, I was looking forward to seeing more. I expected to see more. And if there's one thing that (natural) history tells us, it's to not expect anything when wildlife watching!

The day dawned cloudy and wet. This is not unusual in North Devon. Neither is it necessarily a problem, since the weather changes so quickly here. It's not unknown to have hail, sun, rain, fog and even snow in a single morning, never mind a single day. 

But this seemed pretty settled in, and my spirits were dampened by the drizzle as I walked down to fritillary corner. There were some snail shells, broken open by something, and I looked for an anvil that might have been used by a thrush, but there was nothing. I wondered what bird it might have been. There is a roost of crow down by the river, but the holes in the shells seemed too delicate for these large and powerful birds.

Snail shells

It had rained overnight and the mud enveloped my wellies and even threatened to pull one off as I struggled through the gate. Grazing by cows keeps the Culm grassland in good order, but their hooves turn the entrances to the fields into seas of deep sucky mud that have had me toppling gracefully into them several times. 
Even if nobody's around, I find the embarrassment of hopping around trying to retrieve a welly that's stuck firmly in the middle of a muddy marsh is hard to live down.

Having negotiated the mud bath, I set about finding some wildlife, but there really wasn't much to see. A Willow warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus) was hopping around amongst the branches of the hedge, but with a short macro lens on my camera I stood little chance of getting a photograph. Instead, I followed it down the field. Every time I got near, it would hop a few metres further away, perch and look at me, cocking its head. It got bored of playing this game before I did, and flew off over the hedge.

In the end, in the absence of anything else to photograph, I decided to record the Lousewort (Pedicularis sylvatica), growing low to the ground and always looking as if it's just been trodden on. I've always rather liked it- it's actually very attractive when you look closely.

Lousewort (Pedicularis sylvatica)

So all in all, the day had been a bit of a let down after the excitement of the previous day. But that's the thing, isn't it? If every day was a highlight, there wouldn't, by definition, be any highlights. And no matter how little you see outside, it's still a lot more interesting than anything you'd see inside!




2 comments:

  1. Excellent read Tim, Volehouse is a real hidden gem.

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    1. Thanks, Steve! Glad you had a successful day there.

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