Visit to Tarn Sike

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 Regular readers will know that I help to look after a nature reserve belonging to Cumbria Wildlife Trust called Tarn Sike. This small reserve is listed by the government as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSI). I visited yesterday in what is for us high temperatures of 27C. The vegetation has grown lush and high and some of the flowers of mid summer are now in bloom. This image shows sneezewort. Apparently if you chew the leaves it produces a numbing effect in the mouth and has been used as a treatment for mouth ulcers and toothache but I didn't feel the need to try it.


Another flower in bloom is ragwort. Ragwort gets a bad press as it is poisonous to livestock and people with horses do their best to eradicate it. However it is an important plant for pollinators and is doing no harm where it is.

I am also showing a shot over the reserve to give an overall impression. And a photograph I was pleased with of two green veined white butterflies joined in a mating embrace.





Diary
Nothing to do with Eden Wildlife but of wider environmental interest we watched a film on Netflix this week called "Seaspiracy" which should be required viewing for any environmentalist and I highly recommend it.
The stream at the bottom of our land has dried up into a series of stagnant puddles. In this part of the world a stream is usually a "beck". However ours is called Sandwath Sike"(or syke). A Sike being a stream that sometimes runs dry. We are on limestone bedrock and I suspect that there is still a subterranean stream

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