Brief morning walk round the Nob End SSSI with numerous fragrant orchid and marsh helleborine making a fine spectacle - also plenty of spotted orchid still
Not much insect life around in the cool conditions other than a few six-spot burnets
Emerald Damselfy - 20+ Large Red Damselfly - 10+ Azure Damselflies Common Blue Damselfly - many Blue-tailed Damselfly - 5+ Common Hawker Brown Hawker - 5+ Four-spotted Chaser - 2 Broad-bodied Chaser - 6 Common Darter - few Ruddy Darter - 20+
Glory of the Snows, Snake Head Fritillary, Lesser Celandine, Primrose, Skunk Cabbage, Red Campion, Cowslip, Wood Anemone, Green Alkonet, Opposite Leaved Golden Saxifrage, Lungwort, Butterbur, Marsh Marigold, Summer Snowflake, Blaxckthorn, Flowering Cherry all in flower
-- Edited by Ian Boote on Thursday 9th of April 2015 09:26:01 AM
Yellow Archangel, (Variagated form) Whitedead Nettle in flower also the Wilson Bridge onto Nob End is being replaced and despite the works that are across the SSSI due consideration to the site appears to have been planned and carried out to protect it. This is all on the Bolton MBC planning site
Lots of Rabbits, Symphytum asperum x officinale (S. x uplandicum) (Russian Comfrey) in flower, Primula veris (Cowslip) in flower, and Pentaglottis sempervirens (Green Alkanet) in flower, Leucojum aestivum (Summer Snowflake) also in flower but presumed last planted.
Good bunch of Field Scabious, up at Nob End LNR Blue Fleabane, Oxford Ragwort, 25 Spike of the Autum Gent, Golden Rod, Carlene Thistle all showing well and Fragrent Orchid going over . Also saw a postr on another website of 2013 sightings of Blue Eyed Grass as Sisyrinchium bermudiana rather than Sisyrinchium montanum
Lots of Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown and a few Speckled wood. Ladies Bedstraw, Agrimony, Mallow and Brown Hawker Also a Gooseberry Bush the fruit soon to be made into Jam.
-- Edited by Ian Boote on Friday 19th of July 2013 12:44:55 AM
Good trudge about loads some highlights Up at Nob End Common Blue loads of five and Six Spot Burnet a Meadow Brown, Marsh Heleborine, Norhern and Southern Marsh Orchid, Common Spotted Orchid, Early Marsh Orchid Coming through Carlene Thistle Autumn Gentian, wild strawberry, Devils Bit Scabious, Rough Hawkbit, Canal whirley gig beetle, frog bit, Banded Demoisel, White water lily Gypsywort skullcap, ling Darcy Lever Broad based chaser, four spotted chasers, Red, azure, blue tailed, emerald, and common blue damsels and common darter. Bogbean Water Violet, Marsh Cinquefoil, Common Water Plantain, Lesser Spearwort, Water Soldier, Fringed Water Lily, Eyebright, Butterflies Large Skipper, Speckled Wood and meadow brown Lodges Bittersweet, Water Aven, Meadow cranesbill, valerian, wood aven, water mint and a colony of 2 spot ladybird
Darcy Lever Gravel Pits (this area is part of Moses Gate CP)
1 Four-spotted Chaser, 1 Broad-bodied Chaser. Large Red, Azure, & Common Blue damselflies. A Speckled Wood was the only butterfly due to overcast conditions. Moths :- 3 Silver-ground Carpets, 1 Common Wave, 15+ Small China-mark (seen on a few pools), a few Bactra lancelana, 1 Ancylis badiana.
More of last post still in flower in addition in flower Ramsons, Bluebell, Solomans Seal, Red Campion, Lesser Stitchwort, Strawberry, Cow Parsley, Dusky Cranesbill, Comfrey, Ground Ivy, loads Marsh Marigold
Golden Saxifrasge, Wood Anemone, banks of Cowslip, Snake head fritilary, and Glory of the Snows in flower. Last two are around bird hide apart from a good clump of Glory of the Snows some distance in the wood.
Wood Anemone, Commion Violet, Cowslip, Lungwort, Ramsom comming into flower, Glory of the Snows, Snake Head Fritilary, Lesser Celandine, Butterbur, Skunk Cabbage, Marsh Marigold Primrose all in flower
