High brown fritillaryEric Beety led this week's outing to Warton Crag, Silverdale, the first time that BEES had visited this site since 2001. A full minibus duly arrived ready for the predicted heavy showers but the forecasters had overlooked the fact that it was a BEES' Tuesday and the further Northwest we travelled the better became the weather and we enjoyed a beautiful summer's day with extensive views South-West over Morecambe Bay to the newly-restored Art Deco Midland Hotel in Morecambe, with Blackpool Tower providing a backdrop, round to the Langdales and the more distant Lakeland fells to the North-West and Ingleborough to the East.
The Carbiniferous limestone habitat supports a multitude of plants and a total of 85 flowerings species was recorded by Alice who is doing a sterling recording job in the absence of both Joan and Margaret, both unfortunately hors de combat at the moment. The habitat supports few birds and although we were serenaded by chiffchaff and willow warbler for most of the day, few others identified themselves. Butterflies did flit around all day long with a vivid orange fritillary prominent, but they were very flighty and dificult to identify - our guide suggested High Brown, so we'll settle for that. Sue will no doubt apend a few images of our sightings on the day. A contented minibus party duly returned to Bradford after a full and fullfilling day.
Stuart