{"id":3853,"date":"2020-06-04T10:50:52","date_gmt":"2020-06-04T10:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/?p=3853"},"modified":"2020-06-05T11:01:53","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T11:01:53","slug":"getting-into-the-groove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/?p=3853","title":{"rendered":"Getting into the Groove"},"content":{"rendered":"

These days I am doing the same local walk so often I can imagine I am cutting a groove in the tarmac along Jerry Clay Lane, Wrenthorpe.\u00a0 This lane is my gateway to a small island of surviving countryside around Brandy Carr and Carr Gate.\u00a0 I guess due to the Covid-19 outbreak the verges along the lane have not been cut back allowing many plants the opportunity and freedom to flower and hopefully seed.\u00a0 In particular the hedges are entwined together with flowering\u00a0 bramble and dog rose (photo attached).\u00a0 In turn they are attracting a wide range of pollinating insects.\u00a0 I wonder if giving wildlife a chance like this will catch on.\u00a0 My first meadow brown and large skipper butterflies of 2020 were seen here on the 31 May.\u00a0 A photo of a large skipper nectaring on an elder bush close to Brandy Carr Road is attached.\u00a0 Also, there appears to be a good emergence of small tortoiseshell butterflies probably resulting from eggs laid this April and early May by the overwintering adults.\u00a0 Certainly the caterpillars feeding on the garden nettle patch at home dispersed some time ago.\u00a0\u00a0 Astonishingly researchers have found them to travel up to 55 metres from the nearest nettles looking for sites to pupate.\u00a0 Bird sightings along Jerry Clay Lane this week include buzzard, kestrel, great spotted woodpecker, blackcap, whitethroat, yellowhammer, chaffinch and a lapwing has returned after an absence of two weeks.<\/p>\n

\"arge<\/a>

arge skipper near Brandy Carr Road<\/p><\/div>\n

\"dog<\/a>

dog rose<\/p><\/div>\n

Further into the walk looking towards Ossett church the yellow sea of oil seed rape has ebbed away exposing ribbons of scented mayweed and poppies around the field edges.\u00a0 The attached photos show the changing landscape on 2 May 2020 and scented mayweed and poppies on 2 June.<\/p>\n

\"Ossett<\/a>

Ossett church from Carr Gate<\/p><\/div>\n

\"poppy<\/a>

poppy and scented mayweed<\/p><\/div>\n

Elsewhere in our local park the marsh orchids are flowering.\u00a0 Photo attached.\u00a0 They are most likely to be hybrids.\u00a0 Wakefield is close to the southern limit of the northern marsh orchid and close to the northern limit of the southern marsh orchid and offspring showing characteristics from each species may be expected.\u00a0 Similarly, both species may also hybridise with common spotted orchids.\u00a0 So the jury remains out for another year on trying to positively identify them.<\/p>\n

\"4.hybrid<\/a>

4.hybrid marsh orchid<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These days I am doing the same local walk so often I can imagine I am cutting a groove in the tarmac along Jerry Clay Lane, Wrenthorpe.\u00a0 This lane is my gateway to a small island of surviving countryside around … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32,19],"tags":[448,57,449],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3853"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3853"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3861,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3853\/revisions\/3861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}