Finally!
After over 2 months of relentless hot and dry weather in the UK, resulting in drought conditions and hosepipe bans.... it was a welcome sight this morning to wake up to rain
And boy, was there a lot of rain today!
The forecast was for thunderstorms and prolonged, heavy downpours for most of the country, and for most of the day. There should be more due tomorrow as well, along with more rain forecast for much of next week.
And while this rain is long overdue, and greatly appreciated... it means its a day of sitting inside and doing household chores
So instead this post will be about a walk we did last weekend, when it wasn't raining!
Linwood Warren is a small-ish Nature reserve in Lincolnshire (near Market Rasen). It is managed by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, which is a charity organization which looks after various nature reserves in the area.
Many of these reserves are usually protected and managed for a reason, and in the case of Linwood Warren, it is because it is one of the last remaining fragments of Heathland in the county.
There is Wet Heath on on one side, Dry Heath on the other side, there is a small chalk meadow and a section of Mature Oak Woodland.
This mosaic of habitats is home to a wide variety of insects, birds and plants. We've been several times before, and see different stuff each time, so will be interesting to see what we can find today.
Our route today was simple. The car park is in the middle of the reserve, we will head East through the wet heath, before heading through the line of trres on the South edge. We then go round the edge of a small pond, before heading across the 2nd section of Heath to head back to the car
We began heading across the first section of Heath
Cross-leaved heath - Erica tetralix
There are 3 species of Heather to be found here, the first was this Cross-leaved Heath...
Small White Butterfly - Pieris rapae
...and seen feeding on the heather flowers, was the first butterfly of the day, a Small White.
There were plenty of these flitting about in the sunshine (it was already getting very warm at this point!)
Gatekeeper - Pyronia tithonus
A couple of these Gatekeepers were also spotted here
Further along, we found a different type of Heather:
Bell Heather - Erica cinerea
There is a third type of Heather also found here, known as Common (or Ling) Heather, but that wasn't in flower at this time. We'll be back at late Summer (i.e. the end of August) to see this one.
After crossing the Heath, it was time to double back and head through the trees
It was cooler in the shade, and we saw plenty of insects such as
Gold Swift - Phymatopus hecta
This moth was hiding under a leaf, but my partner @dawnsart's keen eyes spotted him!
Large Skipper - Ochlodes sylvanus
Seven-spot Ladybird - Coccinella septempunctata
Berries are starting to appear - I think these are Blackberries (and will turn black when they are fully ripe)?
There was a tiny little pond here, but it was mostly dried up due to the recent dry weather
Gatekeeper - Pyronia tithonus
Common Green Grasshopper - Omocestus viridulus
And then after heading past the pond, we joined the 2nd Heath section
Looks quite brown and dry here doesn't it!
There didn't appear to be many birds to see, maybe they were hiding away and waiting for the temps to cool down. There were still plenty of Butterflies though, including this gorgeous Small Copper
Small Copper - Lycaena phlaeas
Love these, they are very small, but I love the bright orange colours, makes them feel larger than life.
By this point we were nearly back at the car, and then end of the walk. The reserve itself is quite small, and the loop walked was not much more than a mile in total. This meant that even though we took it slow, we were still done in under 2 hours.
It is a lovely little place though, and one that I suspect we will return too near the end of August, as there will be different stuff to see.
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