Guided walk date - 19/6/09
We all met in Wedderleap car park in Alwinton with the sun shining bright and loud bangs coming from the ever present artilliary section. After a sugar rush of jellie babies on offer, and a quick and friendly introduction from Shaun, we set out along the road towards Barrow Burn. Almost immediately, we were introduced to cow parsley, aptly named for it's white parsley like shape, found mainly on the outskirts of fields.
We walked across the road and up a field, prior to Barrowburn Tea room where we saw cuckoo flowers (or Lady's smock as it's sometimes known) which Shaun told us, grows in moist grasslands. A white butterfly flew by and we discovered white/green viened butterflies also love damp climate hence seeing it in this area. Torment (a yellow buttercup type) was seen next and it is believed to be used to cure stomach ache. Shaun told us that haymeadows are created and managed by the farmers, mostly in conjunction with the National Parks. Aside from these plants being very pretty in the countryside, they also provide food, shelter and comfort to a number of insects, bugs and of course, bees. Interestly, small heath butterflies, which are orange with a black dot on the tips of its' wings for camouflage works in that if they are attacked by birds, the birds go for the black spot, thinking it is the butterfly's head, which enables the butterfly to escape to live to fight another day!!! Clever butterfly (or mother nature).
We stopped to admire a wheatear bird which thrive in the tumbling walls and stony rivers in this area. He was posing on top of (you guessed it) a drystone wall.
We learnt that in longer grass grazed fields, different types of plants flourish depending on whether there is sheep or cattle grazing. Interestly, sheep graze very wide areas and "munch" near to the ground. Their feet are small and don't leave holes in the ground - few wild flowers grow in a field where sheep regularly graze, unlike cattle, which do not "munch" right to the ground, they are heavier animals which mean their feet sink into the ground, gouging and exposing the soil in land. This enables seeds to be dropped and spread into the soiled area and opportunities for plants to grow.
Further up the field, we encountered a white tail bee. Shaun told us that it was due to the abundance of the white clover that bees particularly liked. Other wild flowers we encountered included :
Bulbus, meadow and creeping buttercups, Dovesfoot cranevilles and red clover - really pretty!
We also discovered that prior to machinery used to cut back fields, when they were manually cut, which obviously took weeks to complete, the last field cut would have a much more diverse crop of wild flowers and grasses the following year due to the plants having longer to shed their seeds. It was also interesting to note that clover with orange "blots" on the underside were eggs from the green pot belly beetle.
To find out more about the Rothbury and Coquetdale Midsummer Walking Festival click here.
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