Duxbury Ramblers: horsetail

Showing posts with label horsetail. Show all posts

Thursday, April 09, 2015

Easter Monday 6 April

Good walking morning

The fertile stems of Great Horsetail - Equisetum telmateia now pushing through, we will soon see the more familiar sterile stems.

Large areas now covered with Lesser Celandine - Ficaria verna

The flowers will soon be open on the Wild Garlic/Ramsons - Allium ursinum - the smell of garlic has already started to fill the valley.

Take Care

Monday, April 07, 2014

Friday 28 March

We had a good bit of rain yesterday and overnight

The Dipper was sat in the middle on one of their usual logs while the river raged round it

Dipper

Sue found this near the old Cottage site

as we have always said the lady who lived there was a true gardener - must have been a beautiful sight in summer

Glory-Of-The-Snow - Scilla forbesii

Great Horsetail - Equisetum telmateia

Take Care

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Sunday 8 April part one

It was a damp morning - Plants first

Great Horsetail - Equisetum telmateia

Lord & Ladies - Arum maculatum

Opposite Leaved Golden-Saxifrage - Chrysosplenium oppositifolium

Sycamore - Acer pseudoplatanus

Water Dock - Rumex hydrolapathum

Wood Sorrel - Oxalis acetosella

Take Care

Friday, March 23, 2012

Sunday 18 March

Raining first thing but the sun came out for our walk

7 Spot Ladybirds found three today two in the valley and one at home

Bluebells - Hyacinthoides non-scripta a couple of weeks and the valley will be full

Great Horsetail - Equisetum telmateia

Ivy-leaved Speedwell - Veronica hederifolia ssp. lucorum a first for me in the area, lucorum has pale lilac flower with white anthers

Take Care

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Saturday 26 March

Cool morning, plenty of activity from the birds.

We did not get one bird down yesterday at this spot, this morning they were waiting for breakfast.

Blue Tit

Chaffinch

Great Tit

Nuthatch

Cowslip - Primula veris

Great Horsetail - Equisetum telmateia

Toad hiding in the roots of a tree.

Thought it might be heading for the pond field, it looks fed up now, it will be when it gets there as it is still just mud.

Take Care.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Had a day at Moses Gate Country Park/Crompton Lodges and Nob End along the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal. The Canal has lengths that are not in water plus a lot of the Bolton part have been filled in. There has been some work done on the Manchester & Bury side - I hope they get round to the Nob End locks as they would be a sight worth seeing.

Nob End is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Local Nature Reserve. The contamination of the land from the old chemical works has resulted in an alkaline soil which supports a variety of plants, many types of orchid, amongst these are Fragrant orchid - Gymnadenia conopsea, the Northern marsh orchid - Dactylorhiza purpurella, the Early marsh orchid - Dactylorhiza incarnata and other species.

We could not make out what this was our best guess was algae.

Broad-leaved Pond weed - Potamogenton natans

Carline Thistle - Carlina vulgaris

Common Polypody - Polypodium vulgare

Confused Michaelmas Daisy - Aster novi-belgii

Coot

Lots of Canada Geese

All seemed too friendly

The lodges were full of bird life.

They have plenty of swans and a Tern Raft.

These lodges were part of a paper mill which dated back to 1674 it ceased that in 1883 and reopened as Farnworth Bleachery in 1894 this finally closed in the 1930s, there is nothing left of it apart from Rock Hall which was restored in 1982.

Fool's Parsley - Aethusa cynapium

Fool's Watercress - Apium nodiflorum

Hard Fern - Blechnum spicant

Hedge Mustard - Sisymbrium officinale

Lesser Swine-cress - Coronopus didymus

Walking along the canal

A sculpture made from CDs

The road to Canal Wood.

This was the entrance to the lock - the wooden gates are long gone, it is a three lock staircase. It was used to lift the barges up to the next part of the canal or down. One day we may see them restored and working again.