Wham Dam surrounds - east of Naden still has lots of bog asphodel. The small pond c 1/2 mile north of Wham Dam still has lush white water-lilies. Today there were good numbers of common blue and large red damselflies present and several emergent hawkers on the underside of the lily vegetation. A stunning male broad- bodied chaser settled on the rushes next to the pond. In the bog cotton a 1/4 mile up from the Woodhouse Lane cattle grid, found an open area with sphagnum which also had bog asphodel - a new site for me. In the dryer parts, much closer to the Lane, cross leaved heath was extensive.
25th June Just off Ashworth Road, above the Old House Brook, a very expansive spread of comfrey in flower and teeming with bumble bees - a happy site. This included tree bumblebee, which has also been numerous in my garden.
Was pleased to find the extremely rare fungus Bauhinus marginalis growing on bistort leaves today. Have spent a few years looking for it locally but without success, present in two locations today.
Dave
Naden A few small tortoiseshells about and a small number of meadow browns. Lots of eyebright and self-heal in the heathy grass at the foot of rocks above the water house and a small spread of what I took to be trailing st johns wort.
Great to meet John Spurgeon here today. Plenty of 'foraging' finds in both valleys during the day;
Pignut Wild Angelica Wood Sorrel Wood Anemone Cowslip Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage Common Mouse-ear Wavy Bitter-cress Large Bitter-cress Water Mint Bistort Bilberry Common Sorrel Wild Garlic Ground Elder
Coal Bank Wood (Naden Brook) Golden saxifrage at it's best Ramsons well established and in flower on the streamside near the Millcroft/ Old House/ Naden Brook confluence.
Primroses in flower, not at the Carr Wood road bridge site but c 150 yards upstream on a vertical, moss covered rock face 40- 60 feet above the stream. Counted c 13 blooms on c 4-5 plants. First noticed them there about thirty years ago but I guess it is an ancestral site of the same age as the road bridge colony. This site has been overlooked in local records.
Holt Wood (yesterday) Orange Tipped butterfly x 3 Small colony of wood anemones in flower
