On Saturday morning it was raining as predicted by the Met Office; the forecasters had got it right for by 1.30pm the sun was showing a weak face. About 18 members gathered with leader Linda Renshaw for a 2.00pm start and as the afternoon progressed we were enjoying warm sunshine and the quarry became a very good suntrap and consequently good for butterflies.
We were soon admiring Common Blue Polyomattus icarus on its foodplant Bird’s-foot-trefoil Lotus corniculatus and Grayling Hipparchia semele, which is so well camouflaged that once it comes to rest on its favoured perch, rocks, stones or bare ground, it is very difficult to see, the colouring of the hindwings blending almost perfectly with the quarry stone - the forewings are rarely shown at rest.
Meadow Browns Maniola jurtina were flying busily around grass tussocks and clumps of the lime-loving hairy yellow-flowered Rough Hawkbit Leontodon hispidus. As we moved towards the centre of the quarry floor we soon encountered Large and Small Skippers Ochlodes venatus and Thymelicus sylvestris, the latter a recent immigrant to this area of North Lancashire. The difference in size is very little and they are distinguished more by markings and habits.
With Raven croaking overhead we were now walking amongst, and trying to avoid, bright pink patches of Common Centaury Centaurium erythraea, lavender colouredSmall Scabious Scabiosa columbaria, and purple Selfheal Prunella vulgaris, allquite content in the rough ground of the quarry floor.
Well into the quarry is a shallow man-made lake which we thought might have been formed when the quarry company tried to work downwards when a planning application to extend the visible area of the quarry in the hillside was refused. The application to extend downwards was also refused but the depression already created filled with rain/ground water on a permanent basis. The lake is home to palmate newt Triturus helveticus, frogs and toadlets; Linda noted one of the distinguishing features of palmate newts, that the hind legs of breeding males are dark and have webbed feet.
Also in the central area the attractive larva of the Vapourer moth Orgyia antiqua was found on the scrub willow along with the less noticeable adult (male) on the underside of a leaf - the larval and adult stages overlap suggesting a prolonged flight period - the female is wingless. Also found was the larva of another moth, Knot Grass Acronicta rumicis, one of a number of white, grey and black mottle patterned noctuids.
Jennifer was frequently busy finding spiders, for example the jumping spider Evarcha falcata (even a mating pair) and, in a juniper bush, Theridion sisyphium guarding its egg sac under a silken tent; several beetles were found including the snail-eating Cychrus caraboides.
The very high quarry wall was impressive; to anyone looking down from the highest reaches of Eaves Wood we would have looked like small multi-coloured invertebrates hunting for prey; in one place the wall was sparkling with crystal and there were fossils of primitive plants to be found in the loose stones at the base of the wall.
We thanked Linda for introducing us to such a rich and varied site; the species mentioned here are only a small fraction of the total found. Then finally two large birds flying over the Silverdale Moss extension to Leighton attracted the attention; one no doubt was a Buzzard but the jury is still out over whether the other was a Marsh Harrier - it didn't stay around for long enough.
Betty & John Holding
Photographs by John Holding
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