Published at 15:48, Wednesday, 13 October 2010

IT WAS in August that the swifts departed on their long flight south from our area. Now in October the swallows are leaving us.

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You may sometimes see them congregating on overhead wires, before their long and hazardous journey. Their last brood would have been raised in August in a nest built of dried mud in a barn our outhouse – habitats which are fast disappearing and sadly reducing our swallow numbers.

The picture of the parent feeding the baby swallows is part of a collection given to me by historian, the late Grant Longman, and taken by a friend of his who was a very good wildlife photographer. The closely- related sand martins would have left us last month and the house martins about now. I recall being on the cliffs at Cape Point, the southern tip of Africa, one November, watching the swifts, swallows and martins in the high wind and reflecting how many of them may have arrived there from Britain. Swifts are in a quite distinct order from swallows and martins and have evolved similar adaptations for feeding on insects on the wing. This is an example of what is known as convergent evolution.

October is a time to visit Ennerdale. Right by the shore as we look across the deepest part of the lake towards Angler’s Crag, is the occasional self-sown Rowan tree. A sunny day is best, when the thick red clusters of ripening fruit contrast stunningly with the deep blue of the lake. The fruits are tart almost to the point of being acrid, but are rich in vitamin C and can be rendered effortlessly into the wine red, tangy rowan jelly – delicious with ham, poultry or vegetarian flans and pancakes. Rowan’s straight twiggy branches were formerly used in basket making and the tree is valuable for wildlife. The fruits form an autumn feast for birds and red squirrels and the whole tree has a useful insect fauna.

Far less common in Cumbria, and indeed throughout Britain, is the walnut tree, well known for its delicious and nutritious kernel enclosed by the hard shell. Few realise that its green outer husk contains the substance Juglone, which is wonderful for dark hair or even grey hair, giving a natural looking mid-brown tint. Indeed when I was involved in cosmetic science work in Carlisle, I would find the green husks and nuts fallen from a walnut tree in an old garden east of the city. There is a record west of Brampton at SD 4862, but it may not be the same site. Also quite a few in South Cumbria with an avenue of 30 trees east of Old Park Holker. Other places are at Lowick Green SD 2985, Hall Dunnerdale SD 2094, Whitbarrow Town Head plantation SD 4488 and High Newton SD 3882. What would be most interesting would be to know of any locations – most likely in old gardens – within our area of west and south west Cumbria.

There are few wild flowers which open in October. Of these the autumn crocus is the most exquisite. Do not confuse with the Meadow Saffron, which has pinkish rather than purple blooms and six instead of three stamens. Autumn crocus has been seen near Rose Castle in the Caldew Valley, very old records from around Sebergham and sadly the classic site near Arnside was destroyed in 1975. But it will be out there somewhere, in forgotten gardens or by old verges where the vegetation has not encroached too freely.

I was given a good photo of the crocus by wild flower artist Ann Ambrose, but when I visited the site in Styal Wood near Wilmslow some years later, the path had been clumsily widened, bracken had encroached and the few flowers were struggling with the effects of trampling.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk