In early June the meadows in the middle part of the dale, around Middleton-in-Teesdale, are full of buttercups, while...
... the hawthorn blossom beside the riverbank footpaths is just past its peak.
In the middle of the river this fledgling dipper has been parked on a stone by its parents that are away collecting food, though it looks like it could feed itself.
This young rabbit was using a coltsfoot leaf for cover but ....
... it would have done better to run for the dense stand of butterbur leaves that could hide a hundred rabbits.
Upstream of Middleton-in-Teesdale, on the way to Bowlees, there are globe flowers blooming on the riverbank, alongside the white umbels of pignut.
You can hear a spotted flycatcher's beak snap shut when it catches a fly ..... and there are plenty of those around, including .....
... dungflies that are plentiful wherever there is livestock grazing in the fields and ....
..... empid flies that use nectaries of wood crane'sbill flowers are fuel stations.
The wet weather hasn't been kind to bees and this little solitary bees resting on an oak leaf looked bedraggled. Can anyone help with an ID?
Hay rattle is coming into bloom in the hay meadows .....
..... and mountain pansy Viola lutea is flowering well. The epithet lutea means yellow but pure yellow pansies are in the minority - most have variable amounts of purple in their petals and this has a hint of it in the petal tips.
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