South Durham University of the Third Age
Monday, May 21st 2018
To prove that there is always something new to find at Foxglove, today we had a return visit from the South Durham branch of the University of the Third Age (U3A), who had last visited 2 years ago. After tea and coffee in the Field Centre and a short talk on the management and development of the reserve, we headed off out to the Middle Moor hay meadow and the moorland before moving into the shade of the Larch plantation and on to the Lake Head
Before we started some of the U3A members were trying to identify a butterfly that they had seen at Roseberry Topping last week. Going round we saw both male and female Orange Tips, male Brimstones and Speckled Wood in the glades among the trees. This helped eliminate some of the suggestions and we ended up with a probable identification of a Small Tortoiseshell.
The group really enjoyed themselves and have even suggested a further visit, although this time in autumn or winter when they may be able to see more with less foliage on the trees.
Two volunteers were in today, and we welcome Ian as it was his first day today. Work continued on cutting the net rides with a further ten being cut to keep the grass growth down.
Out near Plover's Pool, Lark and Taurus continue to do the same, but Lark did take several minutes this morning to use one of the tree shelters to scratch a number of itches starting with his nose and ending with leaning his hind quarters into one post of the shelter and moving from side to side. I don't think that's what it was put there for, but it seemed to do the trick!
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