The River That Came Back From The Dead

 

This idyllic scene shows a small beck running into the River Keekle, a few miles to the east of Whitehaven. It has not always been so. It has been the site of two coal mines, one in the 1880s and one in the 1980s. In 2010 a plan was proposed to dump low-level nuclear waste here (which was rejected by Cumbria County Council in 2012). From 2019-2020 the West Cumbria Rivers Trust spent one and a half million pounds removing 150 tonnes of plastic from the river bed. The bed had been lined in the 1990s to protect it from mine water contamination. In the intervening thirty years the liner had degraded with bits of it floating downstream causing blockages and localised flooding. The plastic has now been recycled and some of it used to make the bench by the car park.

After yesterday's constant drizzle, today's occasional outbreaks of sun has brought out the butterflies and moths. Two which can be easily confused are the Meadow Brown and the Gatekeeper. Their colouration and markings are very similar but the Gatekeeper is about half the size of the Meadow Brown. These are both members of the Nymphalidae family (which we used to call the browns) but the third one is a Small Copper which is a member of the Lycaenidae family (which we used to call the blues). When dealing with nature, it's a lot less confusing if you use the scientific names. It's not just naturalists trying to sound clever! There are also a couple of moths about. The small one on the Ragwort is one of the Wave Moths, a Lesser Cream, I think, and the last beauty, with the silver Y-shaped markings on it's wings is called, unsurprisingly a Silver Y.

The river meadows are now re-establishing themselves and the summer wild flowers are abundant. There are a couple of wetland specialists in the Marsh Thistle and Marsh Woundwort (so called because it was used to promote the healing of wounds). There is a good distribution of Yellow Rattle which is hemiparasitic on grasses and helps to keep them in check, allowing other meadow flowers to grow. The Odonites, I'm pretty suris a type of Red Bartsia which is also parasitic on grass roots. 

And finally, we have some meadowsweet which the Flea Beetles seem to adore. They have nothing to do with fleas, by the way, but they have highly developed femora which enables them to jump like fleas. We'll pick some of the meadowsweet on the way back, to make a sweet white wine following the generic wine recipe.

Apart from the butterflies and moths, we have some other pollinators about. We have three of the 25 different species of bumble bee to be found in the UK: The Carder Bee, the Red-tailed Bumble Bee and the Garden Bumble Bee. We also have a couple of hoppers. These are both True Bugs (HEMIPTERA) They're called hoppers because they can leap tremendous distances. They have to release the energy in their hind leg muscles exactly simultaneously, otherwise they'd shoot off at odd angles. In order to do this they have one of nature's evolutionary oddities; they have synchromesh gears. I kid you not. You can see photographs of them here.

It will come as no surprise to learn that I am very fond of creepy-crawlies and find them fascinating. They, in turn, are very fond of me and find me fascinating as well, which is fine, but not when they use me as a mobile restaurant. While I was photographing the hoppers, a Deer Tick decided to take a chunk out of my arm. In entomology, insect bites are an occupational hazard and antihistamines usually do the trick. If you don't have any to hand, look out for plantains, one of the original 'nine wayside herbs' mentioned in The Lacnunga, a 10^th century herbal. They remove the itching almost immediately. Luckily, the tick doesn't seem to have been infected with Lyme disease, which is present in Cumbria, as it is in many other counties.

That's it on the nature front for this week but the latest episode in The History of Things looks at the fascinating history of the blood pressure monitor.

Steve's History of Things 1 Introduction		Steve's History of Things 2 5 Good Reasons to Buy EPNS
Steve's History of Things 3 Fielding's Musical Tankards		Steves Hstory of Things 4 Jasperware
Steve's History of Things 5 Blood Pressure Monitors

All the best,

Steve

Beetles and Butterflies; spiders and scorpions; woodlice and worms. How do you tell them all apart? To say nothing of crane flies, dragonflies, bee flies and yet more butterflies. Are they all flies? If not, why call them so? If you're fascinated but confused by the beautiful world of the very small, then this is the book for you. 82 pages of information on all aspects of the world of minibeasts, with over 100 photographs and illustrations, this book will help you track down and identify any arthropod, in its adult or juvenile state, anywhere in the world. See all of my books at author.to/SteveDaniels

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East of Eden

Crown Daisies, Mustard and Bumble Bee

The solstice has passed, the festive season is upon us and so I thought that as we

couldn’t get down into the valley from the west side last week we’d have a short, exploratory walk today and see if we can get  in from the east. The sun is shining and the crown daisies, corn marigolds and mustards are blooming.  After our unexpected encounter with a highly venomous scorpion last time I fancy something a little more peaceful this week. And almost immediately we have a lovely lady on hand in the shape of a humble bumblebee. We know them as bumblebees now and have done since the sixteenth century but before that they were humblebees and before that dumbledor(e)s although that tended to be used for any large, slow, buzzing insect. The buzzing has a practical purpose other than letting you know that they are there; it shakes the pollen from the flowers, a technique called sonication. The frequency has to be just right which means that the large bumblebees can sonicate but the smaller honey bees cannot.

Apothecia

Now this is interesting, what’s going on here? This patch of lichen on the rocks appears to have tiny cup mushrooms growing out of it. I do believe that we are privileged voyeurs on the sex life of a lichen. As you know lichens are algae or cyanobacteria and fungi which live together (see A Kingdom in the Pine Woods). Many lichens reproduce simply by bits breaking off and starting a new patch where they land but some, like this one, reproduce sexually. What we’re looking at here are the reproductive parts of the fungal bit of the lichen (called apothecia). These will produce spores and these spores have a bit of a quest on their hands. They have to float about in the wind until they chance upon a compatible partner before they can form new lichen. Although we know that plants have their own Internet (see The Misty Thripti Mountains), as far as I know lichens have yet to develop an Internet dating app -  although most things that we humans think that we have invented generally tend to have been in use by other organisms for millions of years so I wouldn’t be surprised if some equivalent exists.

Ribwort Plantain, Plantago

Has anybody got a bit of a cough at the moment? Well get your size nines off that plant you’re treading on and we’ll grab some leaves if you haven’t trampled on them too much. Although it’s not in flower at the moment it’s easily recognisable by its ribbed leaves. It’s called Ribwort Plantain and occurs pretty much worldwide on tracks and roadsides, hence its old Anglo-Saxon name of Weybroed, one of the nine sacred herbs of mediaeval times. I’ll collect a small bag of leaves whilst you nip up the hill and get an equal amount of thyme. Later we’ll dry and chop them, mix them together and make a pot of tea with them. The thyme is a well known cough relief medicine and the ribwort plantain contains acteoside which is effective against Staphylococcus aureus, a common cause of respiratory infections. Together they are highly effective and part of nature’s pharmacy.

Woodlouse, Porcellio

The track seems to be progressing in a satisfactory downward direction but I think we’re about to reach the end. It will be cross-country from here on down but the gradient looks fairly friendly. A fair few rocks for flipping so let’s take a break here and spend fifteen minutes or so investigating the creatures beneath. Always turn the rocks from the side and never put your fingers where you can’t see them – remember last week’s scorpion. The usual assortment of snails, centipedes and millipedes but a rather finely marked woodlouse. Does he roll into a ball when disturbed? No? That narrows identification down a bit. One of the Porcellio species I think, quite common, but a lovely specimen.

 

Longhorn Beetle, Arhopalus

Well, there’s our valley ahead but once again the gradient has steepened to a dangerous degree. But have no fear; I will find a way down into the central section (but not if it kills me). Meanwhile who have we here in the right place at the wrong time? It’s one of our Longhorn Beetle friends, Arhopalus. The reason I say right place is that the female lays her eggs under pine bark and there are plenty of pines around. Wrong time because it’s late morning and Arhopalus is nocturnal. They have a life span of two to three years and I get the feeling that this one is coming to the end of that period which may account for why it’s laying out in the sun. But that’s nature: a continuous cycle of life, death and regeneration which is what makes this planet such a wonderful place to live.

Now, as the festive season is upon us, I think we’ll give ourselves a week off as running up and down hills when full of festive fodder is a sure fire way of inducing a coronary. We’ll meet up again on Wednesday week when a brand new year will be waiting for us to explore. Until then I wish you all a Merry Christmas (or whatever else you may be celebrating at this time of year) and a Happy New Year.

See all the pictures including insets in detail on Flickr

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LINKS:

Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog)

Cretan Flora

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Crete Birding

Greek Butterflies and Moths

Aquaworld Aquarium

Visit Greece (National Government Tourist Office)