Today was most definitely summery and hot! Thank goodness for a cooling breeze and the shade of the trees. The heather and ling has suddenly responded to the warm weather.
The slopes and dips of the landscape are now swathed in various shades of deep purple to mauve and lilac and the air scented with that unique perfume. The daft dog absolutely loves this time of year when the moorland is in full bloom with this woody stemmed shrub. He bounces through it, rolls over in amongst it and even pulls out thick bunches of it to throw in the air and chase. All around us young skylarks were practising their with their newly, fully fledged wings and high above us young buzzards were testing the thermals, with immature high pitched calls ... "Kiew-kiew"
It was a lovely day to be out, slowly pottering about, taking notice of things above us and below.
Like these small mounds >>> that are all red ants nests. Yet each has it's own unique "garden" of varying kinds of plants. Some just grass, others mosses and others laced with tiny flowering plants such as Stitchwort, Speedwell, Creeping Cinquefoil and Heath Bedstraw above which small butterflies like the Meadow Brown are foraging for nectar.
But one sight amazed me today ... ^^^ Common Ragwort in a stand over 10 foot tall ^^^
Just about double my height. It is a seriously problematical weed especially in pasture land or if mown into hay crops where it can be dangerous to livestock, causing liver damage. It is also a poisonous plant for rabbits though they seem to (sensibly) avoid it. It is spreading throughout our area of Wales at an alarming pace and just recently our farmers have been discussing the lack of responsibility of our council to even attempt to control it as it encroaches along our roadsides at speed, subsequently spreading its seeds into farming pasture land and fields where horses are kept. On the flip side of agricultural concerns, it seems that it is the most visited plant by butterflies in U.K and by approximately 200 species in total. However, due to the irritant alkaloids, it should not be removed with bare hands. There is much information on various websites about this very strikingly attractive golden flowered but potentially dangerous plant.
Now ... I bet you didn't expect me to be adding lotus to my list of sights today ... not something one might associate with heath and moorland but the Latin name of one of my favourite small flowers is Lotus corniculatus ... better known as Bird's-foot Trefoil.
Due to the colouration of the flowers it is also known as "Butter and eggs" or "Eggs and Bacon" not that I've ever seen bacon with that reddish-orange tinge but there you go.
An attractive little member of the very large pea family it also produces tiny "pea pods".
They turn from green to an attractive purple <<< (and I admit to deliberately placing them in this way to show you). I don't think, they have naturally artistic arrangement tendencies. But they are amongst my favourite flowers also of the pea family, like the wide variety of vetches, which are not always easy to accurately identify. Today I was seeking a Grass Vetchling, but no luck. Blink and you miss it, the name is very apt ... it is a grass leaved plant with a tiny, bright cerise flower.
(Apologies to Wiki for using the photo, I'd so hoped to get my own).
Anyway back to ants ... all those mounds in the photograph were created by red ants and today I found a very active nest in a moorland rush, so me being me and wanting a rest, I poked my stick in it and sat back and watched ... the result was just fascinating.
The nest burst into a mass of activity with the larger red ants scurrying to rescue the exposed eggs and get them deeper into the safety of the nest as fast as possible. The black, winged ants, took no part in this activity and just seemed to scurry around.
The smaller ants, spread out, some climbing up the rush stems as if to ascertain any further possible danger. Within about fifteen minutes all the eggs were safely secreted away and then the process of starting to repair the damage I had done started with these tiny little earth moving insects, shifting the crumbled soil in such a way as to protect the minuscule tunnels from further harm. It's a good job that I'm not an ant eater! The dog lay by my side looking somewhat bored with all this attention to a pile of seemingly crumbling earth. On the way back home, we stopped at the old church, where we met three very interesting ladies ... on of them a rather lovely black Labrador. Whilst us human folk sat and chatted a few hours or more away in the sun, the canine two had a lot of "excercise".
They spent hours in the sun, chasing each other around and generally having a lot of energetic "liaisons" with fresh drinks of water in between all their fun and games as we humans just sat and nattered on about all sorts of subjects, making the most of what had turned out to be a fine and interesting afternoon. All I can say about the mad mutt, is that it was a good job he'd had a bath earlier ... so that he looked his best for his latest admirer.
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