Tuesday 10th May 2016 - Teggs Nose Country Park (Moonwort)

This visit was about a month earlier than usual to this excellent site. Unusually we tried a daytime rather than evening visit, allowing more time to wander slowly round the site, planning on a picnic lunch at a suitable, sheltered spot. After a few days of intense sunshine, the cloud and wind that greeted us was a little surprising, but we expected to stay dry.

As we were so much earlier, the lack of wild flowers in the meadows was not surprising. See June 2014 sightings for some of the meadow flowers.

Common Moonwort (Botrychium lunaria)

 However the lack of these flowers meant much shorter vegetation, giving greater hope of finding the diminutive moonwort. It was still surprising however to find this single, young specimen (given we found one there were likely many others). At about 2" high it is not yet fully developed, and has suffered a little from perhaps wind or sun scorching, but an exciting find! We have looked on all previous visits but never seen it here before.

From Wikipedia: This is a small plant growing from an underground caudex (basal stem structure) and sending one fleshy, dark green leaf above the surface of the ground. The leaf is 6 to 10 centimeters tall and is divided into a sterile and a fertile part. The sterile part of the leaf has 4 to 9 pairs of fan-shaped leaflets. The fertile part of the leaf is very different in shape, with rounded, grapelike clusters of sporangia by which it reproduces.

Mountain Pansy (Viola lutea)

It was also pleasing to find a good display of the mountain pansy, a specialist of this site, despite being so early and given that it started flowering about 2 weeks later this year than last year, according to the local Facebook pages.

Teggs Nose Summit - Cathy and Pat

The expected dry conditions did not survive, and with the increasing wind, the summit shelter provided a little respite.

Teggs Nose Summit - Amy and John

Teggs Nose and Bottoms Reservoirs

Despite the limited visibility, the views are always worthwhile. Atmospheric, if not the usual dramatic.
Other flowers seen included Red Campion, Greater Spearwort, Pignut (probably), a Forget-me-not, with well-laden bilberry bushes, and not to forget the widespread and showy dandelions, and occasional daisy.
Pied wagtail, Carrion Crow and Kestrel were easily identified, while at least one Skylark was heard but seen only by John.
The rain was more persistent as we returned to the cafe for a little refreshment.
Despite the relatively poor weather, it was still an enjoyable trip and worthy of a more leisurely daytime visit.

Sunday 8th May 2016 - Goyt Valley (First Cuckoo)

First cuckoo of the year heard on this sunny morning in the Goyt Valley.

Claire Joures

Friday 6th/Saturday 7th May 2016 - Altrincham (First Swifts)

First swifts seen over Oxford Road, Altrincham on Friday 6th May. Also seen above Oak Road, Altrincham on Saturday 7th May - their traditional date of return.

Jacky Johnson