Ferns and Hellebore in Binscarth

Hart's-tongue Fern

Binscarth wood is a great place to see a variety of plants. At the moment as spring gets underway you can find lots of Lesser Celandines, Opposite-leaved Saxifrage, Few-flowered Garlic, Daffodils and Salmonberry in flower, while a month ago there were carpets of Snowdrops. It's also possible to see some fairly

uncommon plants including a couple of ferns that are decidedly scarce in the county. Hart's-tongue fern, according to the late Elaine Bullard, can be found on rock outcrops, caves and dark, neglected constructions - that's exactly where it can be found in Binscarth. It occurs on Hoy, in the West Mainland and on Eynhallow

Hart's-tongue Fern

Hard Shield Fern

Another fern rarity is the Hard Shield Fern which is even less common than the Hart's-tongue Fern and according to 'Wildflowers in Orkney' is found exclusively along rocky burnsides on Hoy. Since publication of 'WiO' it has been found in two other localities, Binscarth and Gyre.

Hellebore

And I couldn't resist putting in this photo of a Hellebore - which like the previous two plants, will not feature in the Orkney Book of Wildflowers - the Hellebore because it is a garden plant and the ferns because they are too rare.

One fern that will though is Common Polypody (below). It can be found growing on trees and dykes in Binscarth and may also be found on rock outcrops and even storm beaches.



Amongst the first Primroses

Monday was one of those special early spring days when the new sun has enough power to penetrate clothing and skin and seeks out those winter bones that are aching for a degree of warmth. I took to the Firth hills desperate to make the most of this day. My route took me along some of Firth's nearly-forgotten hill tracks via Binnaquoy, Snaba Hill, Horraldshay, Burn of Geo, Burn of Vinden and Quoy of the Hill. The day was tailor-made for Buzzards - four of them circled on the thermals; and I flushed a Jack Snipe from a boggy flush and disturbed two feeding Red Grouse. But, birds aside, the day was notable for my first Primroses; in an ancient south-facing quarry, small clusters of 'the first rose' faced the sun. I thought this must be much earlier than previous years only to find my diary for 2010 recording them for February 27th on a Holm south-facing sea-cliff. Even though they weren't the earliest ever, they were still capable of putting a spring into my step.

The quarry at Binnaquoy - is that really a Primrose?

It is!.......

and more than just the one clump....

this is their view.

The lengthening day......

Salmonberry flower - a bit of a surprise

I paid a brief visit to Binscarth yesterday (Saturday). There had been a fresh southeasterly wind blowing for nearly eighteen hours bringing with it a greyness that is picked up as it passes over the North Sea. Binscarth was sheltered though and a watery but cold sun pierced through the branches lighting up the woodland floor. Lesser Celandines were bright yellow stars in some parts of the wood, in others they were the suggestion of buds. It was sobering to see that the Snowdrops were over - just a few white blossoms among the brown and dying flower-heads. Patches of Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage were scattered along the burn edges and some of them were showing early yellow flowers. I was taken a little aback by finding quite a few fresh magenta flower-heads on the spindly branches of Salmonberry. I feel that spring flowering is early this year - the first Daffodils in the Willows, Kirkwall bloomed on February 27th; last year the first blooms were March 22nd.

Here is the draft for the gem that is the saxifrage:

Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage (Chrysoplenium oppositifolium)   Saxifrage family

Creeping Jenny, Buttered eggs

Height to 10cm; flowers March to July. Local and rare in Orkney (5/28); hard to find.

Individually these relatively tiny perennials with greasy green leaves and yellow flower-heads can easily be overlooked given their preference to be in damp and shady places. Elaine Bullard considers them to be frequently found under the stems of tall wetland plants; in such situations they can be  barely noticeable. However they are also frequently found on open ground in damp woodlands and when seen en masse they can be as vivid a carpet of yellow as Marsh Marigolds. In Orkney they are most usually found either alongside or close to some of the burns that run through Mainland plantations; some of the most extensive mats of this saxifrage can be found in Binscarth Wood, Firth and Wideford woodland in St Ola.

Medicinally it has been utilised to address melancholy and in the kitchen as a salad - in the Vosges it is esteemed as ‘cresson de roche’ – rock cress. The leaves are opposite and rounded and the flowers are in golden-yellow umbels.

Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage

clinging to the burn bank

miniature radiance

Colt's-foot, Lesser Celandine and Marsh Marigold - it's official!

I've seen them all in flower this week. Hooray! Last Sunday at Warebeth, Colt's-foot was in flower in a weedy field next to the cemetery wall - and there were many open flower-heads. Today I managed to see Lesser Celandine along the banks of the Wideford Burn and Marsh Marigold just in land of the burn and surrounded by carpets of Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage that in itself was thinking hard about flowering. And this is just the start - there's plenty left to come.

Colt's-foot

Marsh Marigold

Lesser Celandine



Five flowers of freshwater and wet grasslands - the latest of Anne's plates

Here's the next wetland flowers plate.......

From top left, clockwise, Lesser Spearwort, Marsh Arrowgrass, Marsh Cudweed, Butterbur and Marsh Thistle.

Scurvy grass and White-winged Gulls

For the last three weeks there has been a well-trodden path to Orkney's finest wildlife spectacle. The violent northwesterly gales of December 2011 and January 2012 played their part in bringing a large influx of arctic gulls into the county in the shape of Iceland Gulls and Glaucous Gulls. The phenomenon isn't just restricted to Orkney - similar numbers of white-winged gulls arrived in Faroe, Shetland and the Outer Hebrides. Each winter we would expect to see a handful of these gulls from the northern latitudes but the numbers of gulls in 2012 are unprecedented. If you visit Marwick you are likely to see at least 50 Iceland Gulls and ten Glaucous Gulls. Among them have been recorded up to four Iceland Gulls of the race Kumlien - that's the race that comes from Canada. 

When the gulls first arrived they were looking battered and dishevelled after the rigours of the winter. In fact a few corpses were found on the beaches of Marwick and Skaill to the south. But providentially, the gulls' arrival coincided with the appearance of a whale carcase in Sand Geo - it seems to have been the gulls' saviour - blubber in abundance. Now the gulls look relaxed and well fed - their spirits and well being have soared.



The cliff top path to the spectacle is wet and muddy thanks to the foot traffic and the wet winter - apparently it rained for 54 consecutive days in November and December 2011. The grass is yellow but liberally sprinkled amongst it are the deep green leaves of Scurvy Grass - you can't fail to see it. After flowering the leaves seem to grow bigger and bigger and occasionally you may find some as large as digestive biscuits. Of course when I went out to find monster leaves they played hard to get and the biggest I found last Sunday were the size of Ritz crackers. You can see the size in comparison to a rather shiny 1 pound coin.

Freshwater 2

Here's the next freshwater plate.  This painting has been enjoyable to do, with some interesting backgrounds. You'll note two very similar plants in this one, tufted and water forget-me-not.  We'd decided early on that we would not meticulously paint each flower as is perhaps more common in botanical books, but instead show the plants slightly more 'loosely' in a recognisable Orkney location where you can find them (for those that are familiar with Tim's bird book, you'll see it follows the same format).  Anyway, this usually works well, but with very similar species like the forget-me-nots, it's important to show the smaller differences that separate them and sometimes these risk being lost in less detailed pictures.  In the case of the forget-me-nots, the sepals have slightly different shapes, with those of tufted forget-me-not forming more narrow and long triangles than water forget-me-not.  I hope this shows up enough in the original painting, although I think here the resolution is too low to see clearly.

The other flowers in the painting are from top left:  marsh willowherb, marsh pennywort, bogbean. bottom row from left: bog pimpernel, tufted forget-me-not, water forget-me-not.