Moss on the moss

I stayed on for an extra day in the Silverdale/Arnside area and, despite the ongoing poor weather, visited a number of nature reserves. One I had long been intending to visit, but never got around to it, was Meathop Moss on the northern side of the Kent estuary. This reserve, now managed by the Cumbria Wildlife Trust, has a special significance for me. Back in 1939/40 it was one of 10 reserves selected by Charles Rothschild for protection by the Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves, an organisation he had recently founded. My own nature reserve, Dancersend in the Buckinghamshire Chilterns, was another of them. For a long time I have read in my reserve files the reports from the early 40s of wonderful butterflies and moths found at both reserves. Today was not a good one to visit Meathop Moss for its entomology interest! However, there was an Osprey in a clump of trees left from the recent conifer removal aimed at restoring the Moss to its former glory. The dull rainy day was not conducive to landscape photos, so I focused on the vegetation and this area of the rather common Polytrichum moss appealed, both for its close-up architecture and the pathetic chance of a pun.