With the sun shining we set off for an autumn amble around Bowness on Solway Nature Reserve. The site used to be a sand and gravel quarry until it was given to Cumbria Wildlife Trust in 1977, since when it has been transformed into a nature reserve. It has a variety of habitats, including ponds, grassland, woodland and scrub, so potential for plenty of wildlife.
Along the A75 and through Carlisle we drove through intermittent patches of thick fog. The peat fields and some of the ploughed fields on the way had cloud so low they looked as if they were smoking!
There was very little wind so the Solway was very calm as we drove along. High tide was only an hour away as we reached a suitable spot to stop and watch both the birds and the tide coming in.
The birds in and on the water included goosanders, curlew, mallards, redshank, turnstones and a guillemot with lapwing, knot and oystercatchers flying past as they moved from place to place. I just love the way lapwings fly - swooping and twisting around the sky. A flock of geese were also heard before they came into view.
Moving on from watching the birds we finally reached the reserve. The cooler nights and dewy mornings meant there were cobwebs to be seen all over much of the foliage. With the sun shining you could see the long strands of thread going from bush to bush too. Our first spot however was a red admiral flitting around the flowers of the ivy. It wasn't alone as there were bees, wasps and flies galore all over them. Ivy is vital for pollinators at this time of year and we have noticed that ours at home is very popular at the moment too.
The sun shining through the bushes and shrubs was beautiful.
Some of the hawthorn bushes were absolutely laden with berries - does that mean we have had a good summer or does it herald a bad winter??
The crab apple tree was also laden - birds will be having a great time this autumn/winter.
There were dragonflies flitting about in the sunshine- difficult to identify the species for many of them as they were too quick for us but we did manage to catch a couple of them sitting still long enough for a quick snap! Common darters we believe.
There was also a very sweet little shieldbug sitting in the sunshine on the top of a post. He wasn't in a rush to move thank goodness!
There were many fungi around the reserve...
... and it was good to see a buzzard soaring right above us!
Just to make our day we also saw a Silver Y moth and a tortrix called Acleris emargana
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| Silver Y |
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| Acleris emargana |
To conclude the day we came home with a good amount of blackberries that we had been collecting as we wandered around.
Blackberry and apple crumble.......mmmmmm
(Especially as the apples come off our own tree!)
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