Meadow Rue

One of the plants found on the Yorkshire Naturalist’s Union visit to the village in 1946 was Common Meadow Rue (Thalictrum flavum), in the days when it was common. It is now much rarer but it does still grow in the parish although restricted to a couple of ditches and the little area of fen in the Magic Garden. This is the first one to flower this year.

As I photographed this plant I heard the call of a Kingfisher, I spotted the bird flying in over the meadow behind the garden, remarkably it flew under a grazing cow!

Kingfishers don’t tend to move on to the lake until late summer so this was perhaps a non-breeding bird or, given the exceptionally low river levels,  a bird looking for alternative food sources.

Talking of low water levels these venerable timbers are currently exposed in the river by Morton bridge, I have often wondered what they are, old fish traps perhaps?