The dreaded slurp of suction

The safari was very kindly taken up to our favourite reserve in south Cumbria where we teamed up with IH again. After a quick look at the Ospreys on the nest, word on the street was that the youngster was on the cusp of leaving to go on its adventure across the big wide world, we started to head for the trail across the moos butc were sidetracked by the sight of a lone Red Deer in the field along the valley. four excessively loud fighter jets out on a high speed jolly made her look up from her grazing.

She soon went back to grazing and then ambled up the  hill a little ways where, despite the distance, heard and was more alarmed by  our camera shutters' clicking than she was by the horrendously loud planes.

Down at the gate to the moss a couple of National Park Rangers were replacing the gate, digging holes for the gate posts - this disturbance didn't bode well for seeing any snakes nearby. Once through the gate we saw that they'd already resurfaced the boggy footpath, removed the rotting boardwalk and replaced the old bridge over the stream. On a pile of ex-boardwalk timbers we found our first Common Lizard of the day, maybe there would be some snakes out after all.

And there was, the usual female Adder was basking on her usual mossy rock near the bridge but today was a camera-shy and slunk into one of her boltholes before we could lift our cameras. 

Across the bridge was a very welcome sight, the very narrow crumbling boardwalk had been replaced by a much wider and more solid indestructable recycled plastic one winding its way through the woods over the boggy ground - why didn't we take a pic??? The woods, as expected at this time of year were quite with just the odd 'hweet' of Willow Warblers and/or Chiffchaffs. Some insects to have a look at wouldn't have gone amiss but there just weren't any. Rounding a bend on the board walk we saw that it came to an abrupt end right before the wettest part off the footpath - nightmare - - we were later to find out from the Rangers that they'd run out of money to go any further - double nightmare. What followed can only be described as a comedy of errors by three grown men acting like schoolboys on a summer holiday adventure. Any thoughts of looking for/watching wildlife were gone when we heard that ominous squelching sound that signals a wellington boot becoming firmly stuck in the mud and you're about walk out of it putting your now unprotected foot into deeper cold slimy goo. The next thirty yards or so to slightly drier ground took not an inconsiderable amount of time and plenty of teetering on the brink of extinction but we got there without losing a welly and only a (fortunately) minor wet boots/dirty knees incident...it could all have been a lot lot worse!

Back on terra-firma we started looking for Adders in the undergrowth again to no avail but the older large wooden boardwalk randomly positioned in the middle of nowhere soon ran out and we were back on (or should that be in) the bog. The log piles didn't give us any Longhorn Beetles or basking Common Lizards but the very wet ground was full of the marvelous little predatory Round Leaved Sundew plants with their sticky blobs of glue ready to trap any unsuspecting insect - they might be going hungry this summer! We'd love to show you a nice close up pic but we didn't even contemplate getting down on all fours on that sodden ground for you. 

An Osprey passed by and a Tree Pipit with a beakful of food for its nestlings was perched on the wires that cross the moss. But where were all the dragonflies along the ditch and over the pools? We only saw a couple of distant either 4-Spotted Chasers or Broad bodied Chasers and a very brief view of what was probably a Black Darter. The path across the moss wasn't as bad as we'd just endured through the woods but we did need to carefully watch where we put our feet in places, one wrong move here and you'd disappear into the peat not to be seen again until some future archaelogist finds you with their trowel. At the bridge we saw no Banded Demoiselles in the stream, not even and more 'normal' damselflies. beyond the bridge the vegetation was shall we say dense. The first obstacle only  five yards on was a leaning tree to limbo dance under, followed by a stretch of tall reeds and Bracken where a machete would have been useful, at least it was drier underfoot. The path opens out onto a higher drier area overlooking a large swathe of Bilberries with woods on the far side. It's always worth scanning the edge of this woodland for Red Deer and today was no exception, with a good sized herd of hinds with a few young bucks with their new velvet covered antlers and some young fawns too.

 

Carrying on to the stream there was little to peek our interest until we heard a Reed Bunting singing but couldn't see it through all the leaves. The boardwalk along the stream was like an assualt course with several storm blown trees and bushes to negotiate a way round, under or through without stepping off the boardwalk and into the mire. At the path junction we hit new territory following another recently replaced section of boardwalk - we've never dared go that way before but with a new path the chance of falling through or off was minimised. We followed it to its conclusion at Rusland Beck where the path rose to higher ground. not a lot was seen but it was an adventure to visit an unknown area. Retracing our steps we hit the rickety old boardwalk for the circular route back to the bridge not knowing if it was going to collapse under our weight at any moment, there's some very dodgy planks down that way. Again not a lot about, not even many Horse Flies - after the previous day's rain we were expecting to be eaten alive by the pesky horrors so we're not sure if not seeing many of them was a good thing or a bad thing. The best thing about them is their scientific name which translates as Blood Drinker of the Rains, very appropriate! Another brief glimpse of a Black Darter and a small handful of Green Veined White butterflies completed the invertebrate list while the bird list got stuck on one Buzzard and cronking Ravens. After more limbo dancing under fallen trees and successfully negaotiating all the muddy shenanigans we made it back  to the bridge, across the mosswhere hawkeyed IH spotted a cold Large Skipper huddled in the grass, not that often you see the underside of their wings.

Even the stretch through the very boggy woods was completed with (almost) consumate ease - maybe because we were already wet and dirty. Better still the Adder was out and although facing away gave some photo opportunities.

Time for lunch so up to the  viewing terrace we went passing a huge Black Slug on the way. before you shout "that's not black you dipstick" it's the fairly common orange form.

At the viewing area the big Buddleia bushes were almost devoid of life apart from our first Small Tortoiseshell butterfly of the year, yes you read that right - our first of the year for this (should be) very common species! A Red Admiral was also about and a handful of bumble bees and hoverflies, it should have been buzzing with life, the cold wet spring has really had a bad effect on the insects.

CR's pie crumbs enticed a Bank Vole out from the dry stone wall but it was too quick for the camera, good to see though. 

After demolishing an mountain of butties we went to put our bags back in the car and saw the tail end of the tail of a Grass Snake disappear over the wall on the way to the car park. 

The 'Hill of Doom' should probably be tackled on arrival not straight after a hefty lunch but once at the vrest you're rewarded with a nice easy downhill walk all the way to the tarn at by the reserve entrance so can take your time. A brown butterfly flitting past was initially called out as a Meadow Brown but when it settled as closer look revealed it to be a Ringlet.

We got good views of another one a little further down the lane.

As well as a couple or three 'proper' Meadow Browns too. Down at the tarn which was looking lovely there were NO dragonflies on the wing whcih was a disappointing surprise.

It took a few minutes to find any damselflies too. A few Emerald Damselfies were discovered in the surrounding vegetation. However IH did find a juvenile Pied Flycatcher and there was a family party of Goldcrests, a Chiffchaff and a Garden Warbler which we need for our Challenge but couldn't get the  camera on as it flitted through the densest part of a Silver Birch tree's foliage.

As were a few Azure Damselflies.

It was a warm humid day with some sunshine so the tarn really should have been hooching with dragons and damsels instead we struggled to find many at all. Ther ewas some insect life about, flitting around the bankside were a pale micro moth we think is Celypha lacunana but could well be wrong

and the very pretty Brown China Mark.

In the water we could see a lot of Backswimming Waterboatman clinging to the underside of the surface tension and a few small water beetles darting about but for the most part the water suface was covered with White Water Lilies and Potomogeton sp leaves making open water to view into a scarce commodity. We did catch sight of an Emerald Damselfly over the water and when it settled on a bit of reed poking out of the water we fired a few shots off, when we downloaded the photos back at Base Camp we realised we'd focused on its reflection rather than the insect itself...a 'should have gone to Specsavers' error making for an 'arty' shot!

With time passing we made our way back up the lane and now there were some more butterflies on the wing with several Green Veined Whites seen

More Ringlets including this one that showed its underside over head height in some overhanging Bracken growing up a steep bank making reaching for a pic tricky, it was partially obscured when being blown about by the breeze too - well that's our excuse for the blurry pic.

More Meadow Browns were on the wing and CR found our first Gatekeeper of the year. A female Scorpion Fly was another good find by CR.

At the warden's cottage a Grass Snake, probably the same one who's tail we'd seen earlier, slithered along the bottom of the garden wall but most of it had vanished before we managed to lift the camera. We had another look for the Adder too but it wasn't for showing itself this time

In the Adder 'zone' we had a Common Lizard taking advantage of the warmth absorbed by the plastic wood.

and a Ground Beetle Carabus arvensis doing the same.

After another brief view of the whole of the Grass Snake, and its a whopper must be well over three feet long, on the mossy wall which again we failed to get a pic of and then we had a bit of a wait for it to reappear, its head did out of a small hole in the wall after a few minutes but nothing more than that, IH decided to up sticks and head off to another site on the hunt for the rare Dark Red Helleborine orchids leaving us and CR to have a last look for the Adder and along the new dry bit of boardwalk before hitting the road. No Adder again but we did get several Common Lizards basking on the dragged out remains of the old boardwalk.

And that ended an odd day out on safari, a disappointing and worrying lack of insects but any day with double snakes has got to be a good day!

Where to next? We might take you back in time a week and blog up a safari we haven't told you about yet

In the meantime let us know if you're having insect woes in your outback too.