Christine's walking & birds blog

We paid a visit to the dam, and much to my relief the house martins (and one swallow) were flying around as usual. Looking down from the wall, we spotted a common sandpiper foraging in the moss, where snow buntings were sometimes seen back in the winter.


I wanted to see if I could catch any of the sundew plants in full flower - but, as usual, they were in bud. Looking more closely at the common hair moss with spore capsules that I snapped before, I could see now that the covers (calyptras) had the hairy appearance they're supposed to have. I'm glad I looked again, because some of the covers were splitting and some had been shed completely, revealing the angular spore capsules inside.


Also seen on our short walk: buzzard, meadow pipit, stonechat, pied wagtail, linnet, lesser redpoll, and mistle thrush.