I had a full and interested set of adults on my Grasses and Sedges course at Blencathra 24-25 June - and we covered a lot in the 14 hours available. Read about it here 24th and here 25th.
I continued tidying and my mobile phone said 7pm when I finally left the centre.
My 70 mile journey was to be back east 22 miles along the fast A66 to Penrith then south down the M6 for 35 miles, then east along A65. But soon after the Field Centre I took a detour and turned onto minor roads left towards Berrier and Eycott Hill.
I will be returning to run a grasses course in September and I wanted to see if i could to find some base-rich loving grasses in the road verge that I remember I had once seen.
I failed to find any. Not by looking through the car window anyway. The adjacent fields were mostly recently reseeded with ryegrass monoculture. I continued up to Eycott - that I had visited 20 years ago with a Grasses course and 10 years ago with a Cumbria Bryologists trip (see my blog post). This is now a Cumbria Wildlife Trust Reserve, with a little car park and very helpful boards - explaining the geology.
Geology?
YES, the car park and this tip of the reserve IS limestone - with a row of sinkholes to prove it!
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| View from Carpark into the reserve - the limestone area is in the foreground. |
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| View from the Car park |
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| Another view from the carpark |
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| Sweet Vernal-grass with Common Bent ( just behind right of it) and Meadow Foxtail (behind left). The Flowerhead often looks a bit "dandruffy" with the remains of the stigmas and sometimes the stamen filaments. |
I walked in the field of long grass, the blades still holding water droplets from this afternoon's downpours. My waterproof running shoes became wet inside and out, and the bottom of my trouser legs drenched. Yellow Oat-grass - Trisetum flavescens greeted me just inside the reserve from the Gate entrance, its silky golden heads glinting in odd shafts of late evening sun. In my grassland survey work days in East Yorkshire Trisetum flavescens had been an indicator species for botanically good neutral grassland. Timothy-grass and Meadow Foxtail added to the variety.
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| Yellow Oat-grass |
Most of the grass in the field was getting very long. I wonder what the history of the vegetation is? It did not seem to have suffered from the drought. I walked to the brow of the shake holes where the grass was much shorter - There were no interesting grasses. This did not have a history as a species rich traditional hay-meadow. No Quaking grass or Meadow Oat-grass or Crested Hair-grass or Downy Meadow Oat-grass that are found in the good bits of the Limestone Yorkshire Dales.
(I wait for some reader of the blog to say "Hey you missed.... so and so!)
I returned to the car then explored the road side verge. It had quite varied vegetation including a little Trisetum too. Trouble is, if I come back in September, Trisetum with its very fine stems is extremely difficult to find this once it has been cut or grazed.
I returned to the car then explored the road side verge. It had quite varied vegetation including a little Trisetum too. Trouble is, if I come back in September, Trisetum with its very fine stems is extremely difficult to find this once it has been cut or grazed.
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I continued in the car towards Penrith, wondering if I should visit my friend Colin there. But as I descended from Penruddock back onto the A66 at the corner I saw lots of short grass (not rank grass as on many road verges) and tall Ox-eye Daisies.
I parked and got out with camera - To find Glaucous Sedge Carex flacca, and tufts of Prickly Sedge Carex spicata . A wide stretch of land had been left next to the A66. -possibly for making into future dual carriage-way.
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| Glaucous Sedge (Carex flacca) |
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| Prickly sedge (Carex spicata) |
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| Prickly Sedge (Carex spicata) It is tufted |
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| View of the A66 - as twilight.. and thunder-clouds descend |
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| Prickly Sedge (Carex spicata) |
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| Ox - eye Daisies and Mallow |
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| Mallow |
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| Limestone outcrop |
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| Hedge Bedstraw |
With the top soil removed and cutting through a limestone area, there was a wide variety of plants - from Northern Dock to Mallow. A delightful area.
It was now nearly 9pm. The traffic though hurtling past at high speed, was at least intermittent at this time of evening. It was a privilege to be there. In the daytime, even though a tarmac footpath is available I suspect the traffic will be noisy.
The clouds gathered and a new thunder storm drove me back to the car. It was too late to visit Colin - so I carried on home.
Ready to put away my papers and books the next day until my next course - and to sort my photographs with happy memories. (See here 24th and here 25th.)
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Maybe I will visit Eycott on 23-24 September when I run the "Grass identification using vegetative features" course - Or maybe we will have enough grasses to keep us busy in and near the Centre grounds, and a short visit to woodland for woodland species.
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