Contrasting conditions in Wensleydale

Mon. 23rd April 2012

                                     I've just arrived back from Wensleydale from a short walking holiday and it's been a few days of contrasts with the weather, we've had frosty mornings, bright sunshine, rain and hail showers and on the higher summits of the Pennines snow showers,the temp.only 2c centigrade in the snow showers. But in spite of all this contrasty weather some of our summer migrants  arrived during the week. The Sand Martins and Swallows numbers grew as the week proceeded and they were joined by lots of Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs by the middle of the week, and on the higher hills Wheater. On the Pennine tops the frogs had just finished their spawning this is around 7 weeks later than than my frogs back home in our garden

         So this has been a week of extremes with snow showers on the summits and the first orchids of the season flowering in the hay meadows of Wensleydale.

           Wensleydale cheeses from the local cheese factory in Hawes

        Hawes the small market town near to the head of Wensleydale

Gayle Beck runs through Hawes after passing through the village of Gayle

                                                Gayle

 Our first walk, the long slog along the Pennine Way to the summit of Great Shunner Fell 2350ft

The wet areas and small tarns near to the summit were full of frog spawn this spawning is 7 weeks later than my own garden pond back home

                           Still some ice from the overnight frost

                               Summit of Great Shunner Fell

                       A snow shower approaching from Swaledale

                In the passing snow shower the temperature fell to 2c

The north aspect of Ingleborough

                    Nearing the end of the walk back.... Wensleydale

A low level walk from Leyburn to Castle Bolton, on this walk the early spring flowers were starting to open and the air was filled with the calls of the Willow Warbler and Chiffcaff

                  Pen Hill one of several flat topped hills in the area

                 Hybrid .....across between the Primrose and Cowslip

A flower I haven't seen before...  the Small-flowered Buttercup (Ranunculus Parviflorus)  and to my surprise I found it again yesterday growing on a shady bank near to my home

                               Bolton Castle....Castle Bolton

A view of Hawes Church across a flooded stream after one of several thundery downpours

                                 Unloved and abandoned

Cam High Road ....the Roman Road leading to the Roman Fort in the village of Bainbridge

                                           Askrigg Village

And finally on a wet morning in an old hay meadow, cowslips and the first orchids of the year

                                       Green-winged Orchid

                                       Green-winged Orchid

                                     Early Purple Orchid

                                                                    

                 

Purple Saxifrage (Saxifraga Oppositifolia)

Wed. 21st March 2012.
           From the Northern tip of Greenland at 84 degrees north, Northern Spitsbergen, Arctic Canada, Alaska and south through the Rocky Mountains and European Alps at over 4000 metres altitude, this small rare arctic plant gladdens the heart when it bursts into flower in mid-March in what until now is a cold colourless  landscape in our Pennine hills

    This is my Purple Saxifrage growing in my scree garden, I bought it at a garden centre many years ago. When it begins flowering in mid March I wait just one week then set off  for my annual visit to the Pennine hills fairly near to where I live.
    In the British Isles it only grows on lime rich rocks and gravels so it is limited to just a few mountain areas of Scotland, Northern England and Wales with a few plants growing in the Brecon Beacons in South Wales.
      This week is just another of the countless visits we've enjoyed through the many years finding and recording this magical arctic flower and I will never tire of it, the effort is well worth it.

         The landscape in our Pennines where the Purple Saxifrage grows

Spot-On Time

Friday 24th February 2012

          It's almost uncanny that our wild frogs have an inbuilt seasonal clock, it's12 months to the day that they're  back in my pond to start their annual spawning .Looking back in my diary to last year the same weather conditions and temperatures were almost identical to today's so I think it most be the frogs sensitivity to the water temperature that trigger off their annual spawning.

P.S.
      Are our wild ducks also so clever as to know the exact day that my garden frogs start their annual spawning ? The male first showed up a few days ago for a quick visit but today he's brought his mate back with him. They must be the same pair that have visited our garden over the last few years because they always sit at the back door waiting to be fed. Having the ducks is a mixed blessing, I enjoy them around the garden  but they do mess up my pond and if I don't net the pond nearest to the house they will eat most of the frogspawn and clear up the young tadpoles after they've hatched. The female will lay her eggs somewhere in the fields near our house, hatch them and bring them down to either our pond or our neighbours pond for a few days then they disappear until around this  time a year later it's uncanny.

It's that time of year again

Monday February 20th 2012
                          Yesterday was one of the sunniest day we've had this year, such a change from our normal cloudy overcast days that occur so much in the Pennines in our part of the world.
               This is an annual walk around this time of year up into one my favourite dales ..... Littondale a quieter dale branching off from Wharfedale, it is one of the prettiest and most unspoilt dales in the Yorkshire Dales.
           It's around this time in February that the Snowdrops are at their best and ever year it's almost a compulsion of mine to photograph these flowers and strive to get that perfect photo, it's never going to happen so back I go every year.
             Littondale has now become colonized by Oystercatches and every year their numbers seem to increase, yesterdays count was more than a couple of dozen, it's the shingle beds along the sides of the river that attract them, it make a perfect nesting habitat. They arrive back from the coast in Mid-February but I'm not sure where they obtain their food supply at this time of year because the dale looks fairy barren.

     After photographing the snowdrops along the banks of the river and around the old church at Arncliffe we climbed out of the dale and traversed along the sides of the fell, at this point the Yorkshire Air Ambulance circled round and and landed on a suitable patch of level ground to attend to a walker who had slipped on some ice and broke her ankle, she was found by a group of walkers and they called  the Air Ambulance and the Fell Rescue on their mobile. The Yorkshire Air Ambulance features in the television series Helicopter Heroes on the BBC and this incident was covered and videoed by an on-board cameraman which turn out to be a very attractive cameragirl.  The whole incident was carried out professionally and efficiently by both the air ambulance crew and the fell rescue and the lady was flown to the hospital at Leeds.

The shingle banks of the River Skirfare provides suitable habitat for the Osytercatches

              A never ending endeavor to obtain the perfect photograph

Arncliffe Church.... the snowdrops are the first flowers of the season but many wild flowers have naturised in this peaceful area

                           Arncliffe an unspoilt village in Littondale

Yorkshire Air Ambulance being guided down by one of the crew who alighted earlier on more suitable ground higher up the fellside

     BBC  filming the action for the autumn series of Helicopter Heroes

       A special pose for me ...... note the High Definition video camera

                             Departing for the hospital in Leeds

      Continuing on our walk down Littondale to the village of Hawkswick