May 2015

Nature Notes: May 2015

I couldn't wash my face in the morning dew on the first of May as there was a rather hard frost. Although I felt this was rather unseasonal it was not the last of the month.

There was quite a lot of firsts this month:

The first sound of the cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), the first drumming of the great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) and the first swallow (Hirundo rustica), all of which were on the 9^th.

The breeding season brought fourth its results on the 13^th in the shape of a young blackbird (Turdus merula); the first juvenile of the year.

We had to wait until the 23^rd before the starlings(Sturnus vulgaris) introduced us to their new broods.

 Two families of turned up with three young each. The parents were pecking off mouthfuls of suet block (the birds are eating one a day now, with a little help from a squirrel) and feeding them to their squabbling young.

With all this activity around the feeders it is becoming more common to see a sparrowhawk swooping in to come to grips with some fledgling prey. When the alarm call goes up the birds scatter to the safety of the bushes. However, the sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) can be seen plunging into the bush to grab a bird from the supposed safe cover of it's conifer shelter.

The birds are not the only creatures who have been procreating this spring as we have some unwelcome visitors in the shape of three rats (Rattus norvegicus) . Three rats in the daylight probably means many more under the cover of night. That's life.

This sparrow kept looking through the window

A female eider duck with ducklings on the Firth  of  Forth

Nature Notes: November 2014

Birds

With the shorter days came less time for viewing nature. 

November was rather grey, wet and mild. 

However the cooler shorter days are bringing the birds back to the garden. All the usual species are back in at least low numbers, except the greenfinch (Carduelis chloris), which has only been spotted once this month. I also don't see them on my local walks either.

I did see a bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) at Junk Woods on the morning of the first.

A mixed flock of sparrows often dominate the bird table. They seem to be about 60% house (Passer domesticus) and 40% tree (Passer montanus). There is also the odd hedge sparrow or dunnock (Prunella modularis) which is a more solitary individual.

I spotted at least five goosanders (Mergus merganser) on the River Wharfe at Tadcaster, 

Goosander 

Three buzzards (Buteo buteo) at B woods, and a murmuration of starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)at the flyover. I spent some time filming the murmuration on the afternoon of the 29^th. They started about 15:50 and it was all over by 16:30. They dropped out of the sky to roost in the shrubs around the pond. There must have been about 500 of them. Quite a spectacular spectacle.

Whilst this was going on there was a kestrel hunting in the field nearby.

Cock pheasant through the kitchen window

Mammals

A tortoiseshell cat was seen in the garden on the 1^st but after a couple of other visits has now disappeared again.

Although we used to have rabbits in the garden every day in the summer they are now a very rare occurrence, only one has been spotted in the last couple of months.

Plants

I took some photographs of plants that were still in flower on the last day of the month. I suppose this is testament to the mild weather.

Buttercup in perspective

Nasturtium

Geranium

Fungi

The wet weather has also been good for the fungi.

Part of the fairy ring?

The common name of Auricularia auricula-judae - 'Jew's Ear'-may have come from 'Judas' Ear'. This refers to a common belief that Judas hanged himself from an elder tree, the common host of this fungus.

Winter sunlight captured through a fallen sycamore leaf

September Nature notes.

Birds

September has been even quieter than the preceding months. The hour long bird count that I do at the start of each month came up with the grand total of two great tits (Parus major). Apart from the tits there is a flock of sparrows and the odd goldfinch. There is only one starling (Sturnus vulgaris) that comes to the feeders. This starling looks like it still has some down from it's juvenile coat.

Mammals

The squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is in the garden burying some chestnuts. One hare (Lepus capensis) was spotted in the garden. Apart from this there was a dead rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and a few dead mice.

Insects

I'll end on a positive note with a picture of a shieldbug that was crawling up the back door.

Woundwort Shieldbug (Eysarcoris fabricii)

July 2014 Nature Notes

Birds

A month when most of the birds have deserted the garden to pursue their interests in unknown places. The grain harvest started on the 14th and the oil seed rape on the 17th, which means there is spilled grain and wide open spaces for the birds to investigate.
However, some birds have remained in the garden; mainly members of the tit family.

Juvenile blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus).

On the 7th seven young starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) were seen on the bird table. They barge and jostle each other like young boys waiting in line for school lunch. By the 21st I saw 15 of them at one time in the feeder area.

Other juveniles that have been spotted were three young robins (Erithacus rubecula) on the bird table on the 5th.

 The same evening I saw four blackbirds (Turdus merula) chasing a barn owl (Tyto alba) down the farm road.

We also have a large flock of sparrows which can number up to 50 at a time. They love to bathe in the dust of the farm track on dry days and can be heard squabbling among themselves in the clump of conifers as they settle down for the evening.

I don't often see the wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) coming into the garden but I spotted this one hunting around the gate.

Mammals

On the evening of the 1st at 21:00 I saw two roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) fawns and their mother at the end of the farm road near Junk woods. I also saw four hares at the same place and time. Hares (Lepus europaeus) became a rarer sighting once the fields were harvested. However I did see a group of hares chasing each other and standing up on their back legs in what appeared to be an almost 'pronging' movement.

Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) are still visiting the garden and a rabbit proof fence had to be installed around part of the veg plot to keep them out. Rabbit scrapes are proving more of a nuisance than what they are nibbling.
Mice can be seen scuttling about and one mouse used the tall dahlia stems as a ladder to the bird table so that he could eat the spilt seed.

Insects

I caught this couple in the field margin near B woods.

Soldier beetles (Rhagonycha fulva)

A common beetle found throughout the UK between March to October and feed on small soft-bodied insects.

 It's quite rare to see them singly. More often they are seen as mating pairs, earning them the nickname of 'bonking beetles'.Ref: 1

Their brown, maggot-like larvae live in soil and leaf litter.

These wasps decided that a bird box would make a great place to build a nest.

Fungi

Dryad's Saddle (Polyporus squamosus)? growing on dead beech tree (Fagus).

May Nature Notes

May 2014

The birds who survived the winter and were successful in their breading are now moving into the next phase of their life cycle. That is to say they are putting all their efforts into bringing up the next generation. The starlings were picking out any meal worms from the bird table mix to feed to their offspring the 'starlets'. There has been up to three at any one time pestering the parent.

A speckled starling

Get a beak full of meal worms

Feeding time

Young birds could also be seen on the U lake.

Black swan with cygnet. 

Great crested grebe chick

Parent still on the nest

Mallard ducklings

Coot and cootlet

 However, birth was balanced with a couple of deaths.
On the 16th I found a dead barn owl on the path next to the A64 towards Askham Bryan. It had no rings on the legs so i threw it over the hedge.
On the 19th there was the head of a greenfinch on the stones under the bird feeders. I thought it might have been the cat because I had seen it in the garden a couple of days before.
I found the culprit the next morning as i witnessed a sparrowhawk swoop in and miss the birds on the table but he then hopped into the bush and plucked a bird out. It then landed with the bird in its grip, where it kneaded it a couple of times before flying off.