Northcot Mouth 3

a stonechat sitting quietly (for once) on a favourite perch, and kidney vetch and thrift providing some Spring colour.

Northcot Mouth 2

uplifted, turned, folded and warped layers of sedimentary rock indicate the enormous forces at work to shape the land around us. It wasn't always so peaceful in North Cornwall (see link for more info).

oh I do like to be beside the seaside

at Northcot Mouth beach today, below scurvy grass and thrift and the big blue yonder

cotton grass

cotton grass growing in Kit Hill quarry. Very little wild life today. Is this blog getting boring, Spot asks himself?? It may be just that there hasn't been anything new recently. Mind you up at Bude today we saw all sorts of exciting plants, marsh orchids, crow garlic in flower, wild thyme, but we didn't take the camera.

kidney vetch

the amazing shades of natural colour of kidney vetch within a few square yards of each other in the cliff top meadows on yesterday's walk. I am not impressed by the supposed similarity of the flower heads to kidneys but it was enough to justify using the plant to treat a range of kidney diseases. It is also one of those plants with lots of local names eg butterfingers, lamb's foot and ladies finger.

Harriet and Spot at Backways cove

HRH does a bit of posing while Spot goes fishing. Spot put his head completely under the water (as does his bro Vasco aka Tigger) several times as if he was hunting for something. It is not obvious what he is up to.

rock pipits

a pair of rock pipits (I think) flirting in a meadow full of spring squill and kidney vetch. And below showing off.

scurvy grass by the sea

and here is scurvy grass growing in its natural habitat rather than by the roadside (qv), in an almost inaccessible little spot called Backways cove.

spring squill

one of the nice things about walking in new places is that you find new plants. This is spring squill, which we have neither seen nor heard of before. It is a relative of bluebells (it looks like the end of a bluebell) and grows in abundance on the cliff tops on the coastal path. It is commonly found with sea campion, and there it was (bottom picture).

Trebarwith strand

we took the bold decision today to leave the safe confines of the Tamar valley and to explore the coast of North Cornwall. This is a small clump of thrift high on the cliff overlooking Trebarwith Strand.