Ellington Banks and Greygarth: 23-07-2019

PART TIME WORKERS!

The bad news this week was that we were balsam pulling again. Booo!

The good news was that we only had to do it for half a day. Hurray!!

The even better news was that the long awaited moths, orchids and posh picnic morning was back on. Double hurray!!!

Yes indeed - before heading off to Greygarth ponds to get rid of the balsam we were able to look at all the interesting moths that expert Charlie Fletcher had trapped overnight at  the MOD's Ellington Banks SSSI site. We also went on to the magnesian grassland to see the wild flowers that were flourishing after our scrub clearance efforts there earlier in the season. A lovely way to spend a beautiful morning.

Pity about the balsam!

So here is the photo record of the day.....

We arrived to find 5 of these mystery parcels all wrapped up in sheets.

Charlie 'Moth Man' Fletcher carefully unveiled each parcel one by one.....

...to reveal.....egg crates!
Egg crates? I thought we were coming to see moths.

Ahh. There they are. All nice and snug.
Of course once they were out of the traps they started to come to life.
Charlie had to be as quick as can be to identify and count them before they fluttered away.

Pretty soon the air was full of the most beautiful flying creatures.
Many of them landed on us!
Anita was going to struggle to drive home if this one didn't shift.

Is that a tattoo you've had done Andrew? It's very life like.
Yes - that's because it's alive!

Everyone was soon jostling to take close up photos with their phones.
Apart from Tony who made do with this cheap little Box Brownie camera
 he bought from Woolies in the 1960s.

I spy with my beady eyes....

...a LOT of lovely moths.
Here are four beauties....

Buff tip - it lives around birch trees and looks just like a birch twig!

Leopard Moth

Poplar Hawk Moth.

This poor chap is unable to eat.

Emptied of egg boxes each trap was then carefully examined to make sure no moths were overlooked (quite a hard job with some of the tiny weeny micro-moths).

As Charlie shouted out each of the different species, assistant Jill expertly recorded each one. Eventually there were 200 species logged - probably about 1500 individual moths. An excellent haul, thanks to the perfect trapping conditions during the previous night.

Once the moth traps were empty the NCVs toddled off for a little look at the magnesian  limestone grassland. There were all kinds of flowers to see...

...as well as some more interesting creatures such as this 
male Silver-washed Fritillary butterfly and grasshopper.

Everyone enjoyed this sunny session in a tranquil setting.
Hard to believe it is a military training ground!!

This nice old oak tree offered a welcome refuge from the baking sun for our picnic.
Thanks to Liz for organising this - and to the 'Just Delicious' Coffee shop in Pateley Bridge for supplying such an excellent spread of goodies.

And then things changed somewhat.
A brave band of 7 accompanied Liz to Greygarth to have a go at some balsam pulling.
As with last year - it didn't look too bad from up here.

But, close up, it was a different story.
Lots of the pink stuff - luckily not yet seeding.

 All over the area there were sun hats to be seen doing their best to battle against the heat, the reeds, the nettles, the boggy conditions in order to gain some control of the situation.

Everyone worked for over an hour in the sweltering sunshine,
 blissfully unaware of the results of the election of the new prime-minister.

By the time we packed in there were many patches much improved - 
but many more still to do. ☹️