Walltown wildlife

I'm not a Naturalist, I have a great interest in natural history and I enjoy nature watching but I'm not privy to the finite differences between some of the species of plant or animal, and I'm getting worse at remembering the names.

So today I'm simply bringing you some pictures from a two hour ramble around Walltown Quarry.

(see bottom of the Blog for a link to a PDF of Walltown Quarry area)

As the name suggests this area was once quarried for stone but now it forms part of the Hadrian's Wall Trail, a pit stop for walkers or a picnic spot for day visitors and locals alike.

The Northumberland National Parks Authority look after it and great areas of wild flower meadow sway with grasses and wildflowers, buzzing with insects.

There are bog areas, dry areas, ponds, woodland areas and mown grass, ducks nest by the ponds and swallows swoop for insects, they're already onto their second brood of the season and can be seen swooping into their nests by the toilets. Plently of car parking space and even refreshments available.

My photographs show just some of the flowers and insects and my apologies for the names, it's not my strong point and I hope that it will whet the appetite of true naturalists to come and check the place out for yourselves.

Pictures today are smaller than usual because there are more of them.

One of the gems of Walltown, a Bee Orchid. This is the first year I have seen them there but I found at least 4 plants in different spots and it's awash with other orchids so maybe I've just not noticed them before.

Common Blue Butterfly a beautiful splash of colour amongst the grasses

Common Blue with wings open.

One of the smaller Darter's, they whirl around your head as you pass by, later the big Dragonfly's will emerge with a real clattering or wings when they fly.

Amazing insects to watch they change posistion in the blink of an eye.

Hawksbeard,  insects seeme to be drawn to these open bright yellow flowers.

Common Centuary

Latticed Heath Moth, so striking you might mistake it for a butterfly

Prunella vulgaris

Ragged Robin

Ringlet Butterfly, I counted 75 of these on this ne visit to the site

Small Heath Butterfly

Small Skipper butterfly

Small Skipper butterfly, although they are as fast as all the other butterflies they don't seem to mind you getting quite close to them for photographs and generally chose a nice spot to pose.

Speedwell

St John's Wort

Flower of the Twayblade Orchid, something you could easily pass by and not notice, but they're worth a second look

Twayblade Orchid

Twayblade orchid blends so well with the surrounding grasses.

Birds Foot Trefoil, always humming with insects

Simple Buttercup, a full field of them look amazing

It's been a great year for Orchids at Walltown with the various types flowering from late May onwards

I imagine we have all of the Northern Orchids represented

Orchid, not only a variety of colours and form but sized from mere inches to 3ft tall

A white version of the Orchid

Deeper pink Orchid with distinctive markings on the lower lip

What meadow land would be complete without clover, and both pink and white can be found in the park.

Bees love the nectar rich flower.

So, I hope you managed to get this far, lots more things to see and record I've merely skimmed the surface  to give you a little taster, please come and see for yourself, it's a wheelchair friendly area.

A leaflet, with map, from Northumberland National Parks Authority as a PDF for you to print off linked below here

All photographs used in this blog are copyright of Joan Thirlaway and cannot be used without written permission

Sunsets

Last night's sky looked promising.
I needed to find a branch of wood to use as a perch for the woodpeckers I'm hoping to photograph and the obvious place to combine a search for a branch and some photography was Walltown.
It was a beautiful night to be out, cold but bright.
I was trying to get a photograph of the quarry workings the had both ends of Hadrian's Wall on so you could see how the quarrymen had simply blasted through this ancient monument.
I didn't get it quite right, needed to be lower which would have had the Wall cresting the horizon.
One for another outing perhaps.
The sun is setting parallel to the Crags and Hadrian's Wall at the moment, perfect for simply standing and watching the spectacle, not so good for photograhic composition perhaps.
I took some photographs, found a nice bit of branch and got some fresh air and exercise, what more could you ask from an outing ?

The Quarry Face at Walltown the first tiny crest to the left of the quarried face has the remains of Hadrian's Wall, so a vast chunk of stone has been removed.

In the background you can see Mucklebank Crag and to the right Winshields Crag. William's barn still hasn't weathered.

The view west following the line of Hadrian's Wall.

Sunset over Hadrian's Wall

Still trying to work out the kinks in the Nikon D7000, it's quite different to my D300 but I shall persevere.

As always all photographs in the Blog are copyright of Joan Thirlaway and can't be used without written permission.

Trying out

I got a new camera yesterday and thought I'd go to Washington Wildfowl  to try it out.
Then last night I decided that a new camera, with controls in different plac, it might not be a good idea to risk missing the shot of a lifetime because I don't know which buttons to press.
So this morning after a quick visit to Herding Hill Tea room (great cakes!) I went up onto Walltown Crags.
So many people walking the Hadrian's Wall Path, it's great to see and I hope it translates into a good year for our local businesses. (I do wish people wouldn't climb on the Wall though, it is an ancient monument)
I'd taken the instruction book for the camera (a Nikon D7000 by the way) but it was so blowy up there that it was in danger of being ripped to bits, so I forgot about accessing the built in Spirit Level and just used the settings I know and love.
When I got home I had to ferret about in Google to find the plug-in's that allow me to open the pictures in Photoshop Elements, then I discovered it only works in Elements 9 so by the time I'd downloaded, uploaded and generally twiddled about half the night had gone by.
Never mind I think the D7000 and I are going to get along just fine, it's so much lighter in weight than the D300 which was the deciding factor for me.

So here's a shot of Hadrian's Wall at Walltown this afternoon.

Hadrian's Wall as it snakes it way over Walltown Crags, an impressive bit of masonary

One of the undulations of Walltown Crags, with views west over Gilsland and the Solway coast beyond

From the top of Walltown Crags you get a view of the lake, picnic area and to the north the marshland. There's also a strange arrangement of tree guards, this is the Willow maze.

A piece of living artwork in its infancy.

Michael the Ranger, tells me  that there are various species of Willow planted so there'll be a variety of textures and colours once they grow.

Fortunately, Willow is very fast growing so we shouldn't have to wait long to see the results.

The Willow Maze

If you have time it's well worth a wander into this bit of Walltown, masses of orchids grow here and they're just starting to bud up now, the wildflowers areas attract many different butterflies and during a quick visit this afternoon I watched Martins, Reed Bunting and Spotted Flycatcher over the lake.

Day out tomorrow, was hoping to go to Ullswater but the forecast wasn't good so it might be the NE coast instead, must remember the instruction book.

Over the valley

Worked in the garden today then after tea we went to check the bluebells at Poltross Wood in Gilsland.
As I had suspected they're out already this year, not quit at their peak but out enough to perfume the wood.
I shall have to go back on a less bright day to get some photographs to share, I've found the blues don't take kindly to harsh light.
So as the night wore on and it looked like TT was going to be engrossed in a football match on TV I headed off with my camera and tripod to Walltown.
Behind the Roman Army Museum is a public footpath that passes an interesting tree and I was hoping it would be in the right spot for a picture with the sun going down.

Some nice light across the valley I thought so as well as the tree I took a photograph to show the valley with Longbyre.
The Hadrian's Wall Path goes down to Thirlwall Castle and then crosses the valley to Gilsland a much gentler path for tired legs.

I shall be up for a sunrise tomorrow morning, I'm hoping for a misty or frosty start, keep your fingers crossed for me :)

On the water

I know my wildlife shots aren't as popular with you as the Hadrian's Wall shots but
life got in the way of photography today so I'm indulging myself with a couple of shots taken recently at Walltown Quarry Lake.

I thought the Dabchicks had flown off but when I checked on Sunday there were at least two of them back on the lake.

They're like tiny little powderpuffs, dwarfed by the Mallards.

I haven't seen a female yet but maybe they are there and there'll be chicks to watch.

The frogs and toads seem to have left the pond and although I haven't seen much toad spawn there's masses of frog spawn.

Weather forecast isn't that grand, hopefully we'll see some brightness over the coming week.

Male Dabchick ( Little Grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis) just 25cm from tip to tail.

Frog doing what frogs do best - just chillin'

All photographs used in this Blog are copyright of Joan Thirlaway and cannot be used without my written permission

www.joanthirlaway.co.uk

Hadrian's Wall at Cawfields

It was lunch time before the skies cleared today and TT decided he'd accompany me on my sorté.I was hoping to get some more photographs of the Dabchick at Walltown Quarry so I headed there thinking TT would have a walk and come back for me, but I hadn't anticipated the wind being quite so fierce.
The lake was bare of birds as the wind scudded across the surface the birds, and there only seemed to be Mallard around today, were being quite sensible and sheltering behind a wall.
No sign of the Dabchicks or the Tufted Ducks that were there last week.
I sat there thinking, you never know what might appear when a great gust of wind knocked me, and the tripod flying, with the camera end giving me a bang on the head on the way to the ground.

Time for 'Plan B'.
Off to Cawfields thinking that as we were out anyway we might as well have a walk, I just took the camera with me.
The wind at our backs pushed us up Cawfield Crags, and however windy it was a Walltown, it was windier on the tops of the Crags reminding me to say to anyone planning on walking the Hadrian's Wall Path, do it from west to east so you have the prevailing winds behind you.
The footpath men have been to Cawfields with their little green sticks but in my first picture today you can see an area they've repaired, this would have been a groove that's been filled and reseeded.

Cawfield Crags with remedial repairs to the Hadrian's Wall Path

It said on tonight's weather forcast that there had been gusts up to 50mph and I could believe that, it was very warm but you had to keep your outer coat zipped up or you were lashed to bits, and in danger of hang gliding over the Crags.

After the ups and downs of Cawfield Crags you eventually reach  the road at Caw Gap

From Caw Gap you can continue up onto the slopes of Winshields Crag, you can see the  line that was Hadrian's Wall in the picture, we chose to head back to the car park at Cawfields, taking the lower track that runs parallel to the Wall, making a three mile circular walk.

The lower path looking east to the right of the picture you can just see the Vallum

The views from the lower path up to the Wall are quite impressive, if you think the Wall was 6 metres high when it was built.

The view up to Hadrian's Wall from the lower path, at Thorney Doors on Cawfields Crag

There are lots of visitors about, considering it's so early in the season and mid week, more of the wrinkly set, like me and TT, making the most of our retirement time.

Milecastle 42 at Cawfields with views west over the Fort at Aesica and Mucklebank Crag.

We laugh about the silly things that 'Public Works' and an intransigent attitude do in this day and age but obviously it was no different in Roman times, if the Milecastles had to be a Roman Mile apart then that was it written in stone, quite literally.

You can see from this picture how much easier it would have been to move the Milecastle just a bit to west where the land is flatter.

On several of the Forts and Milecastles along the Crags there's a gateway to the north that opens onto a sheer drop, not at all practical but can't you hear an ancient clerk of works insisting 'it's on the plans so that's how we build it'?

I include this view to the south over the Mare nd Foal standing stone just because I like the clouds

We eventually got back to the car park, spent some time watching a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly enjoying the dandelion flowers, and looking for toad spawn before heading bag home with burning faces from the sun and wind but feeling better for the fresh air.

Toilets at Cawfield Quarry, refreshments at The Milecastle In and Herding Hill Farm Shop.

As usual, all photographs used on this blog are copyright of Joan Thirlaway and cannot be used without my written permission.

More photographs at www.joanthirlaway.co.uk

Walltown Quarry Lake

I'd seen the Little Grebe when I was out taking the misty photographs at Walltown Quarry, so back I went with my big lens, welly boots and a stool (might as well be comfortable).
When I tried yesterday the birds seemed nervous and kept well away from me, across the far side of the lake, so today I took a camo poncho to drape over the tripod legs and what a difference it made.
This tiny bird took very little notice of me, looking my way when it heard the shutter fire but not nearly as nervous as it had been yesterday.
Guess I shall have to make some camo leg warmers for my tripod!
Saw two pairs of Oystercatchers piping and dancing for the territory, fascinating displays, the Little Grebe didn't like the noise and hid away in the reeds until it was over.
So we have the Little Grebe or Dabchick as it's known and those are the pictures I'm sharing with you today.

Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis)

I think the Dabchick was watching movement under the water, it did this and then flattened it's plumage to dive.

Typical Grebe head

A Caddis Fly for lunch, it caught a variety if insects and dashed them about (at great speed in the water making photo's difficult) certainly no shortage of things to eat.

As always click on the photograph if you'd like to see a larger size.
All photographs used on the Blog are copyright of Joan Thirlaway and cannot be used without written permission