Joan Dobson led a full complement of 20 members to Sizergh where we enjoyed a bright, blustery day when the showers that were about fell elsewhere. The location allowed the option of anything between a leisurely stroll through the gardens and castle and a decent walk over the fells but it wasn't necessary to walk too far to get spectacular views over Morecambe Bay, with Arnside Knot and viaduct prominent, the mountains of the Lakes and Ingleborough which all gave excellent views. The wind kept the bird count low this week, but we did manage to record 35 species in the day, with perhaps close-up views of a pair of buzzards being the highlight. No hawfinches were spotted and we're beginning to think that this bird must be related to the Yeti - does anyone know anyone that's seen one?? Flowers and ferns totalled 33 with the highlights being brown-backed fern (but see note in comments!) and moschatel (our inexperienced recorder had the former down on the bird list as a brown-backed tern until he was told that such a bird doesn't exist!). BEES is working hard on the second E of the acronym (for educational) but obviously has some way yet to go!
Stuart
Fern at Sizergh
Rustyback, that's it, Julia, I told you the recorder is inexperienced - I'll reprimand him!
Stuart
One of the highlights of the day for me was seeing the beautiful snake's head fritillaries. Follow this link to see photos of them....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/suejeanz/3421998156/in/photostream/
The vast swathes of daffodils were gorgeous, too.
Susan