A grey evening on the Access Trail

A slight breeze and grey skies kept the temperature down this evening.

My first surprise was re-finding the tiny patch, about 2 square metres, of Shepherds's Needle, Scandix pecten-veneris, just by the Victoria Lane entrance to the Access Trail, just a little further on than I thought I had seen it two years ago. The unequal petals can be seen in the picture below, and the "comb-like" fruit can be seen in the one below that.

There are Forget-me-nots all over the countryside at the moment, and I think these are one of the common ones, either the Field Forget-me-not Myosotis arvensis, or the Wood Forget-me-not, Myosotis sylvatica, with longer pedicels and larger, flatter flowers. I think it is very difficult to tell, and I must get my measuring tape out next time I'm walking!

In the wood there was one plant of Winter Cress, Barbarea vulgaris, probably, and there were many more in the Bourneside marshy area. The upper stem leaves are probably too "toothed" for his plant to be Early Winter Cress, Barbarea verna.

As far as birds went throughout the walk, it was very nice to see the occasional Swallow sweeping past, and also to hear a Garden Warbler, and later on, somewhere to the South of Style Place, a Cuckoo. Throughout the walk there were plenty of Chiff-chaffs, Chaffinches, Woodpigeons, Robins, Blackbirds. Here is a picture of a a Wren in a willow by the river from the Bourneside marshy meadow.