nature notes

Red legged partridge live in the forest close to us and I feel gently reassured they are there. We quite often see a pair, as we startle them on our walks. I am slightly concerned for them as although we don't have much hunting around here now, there is a fox.

Anyway, todays spot were 2 carpenter bees mating in flight. The female dwarfs the male. I have just read up on what happens, and apparently the male releases pheromones to attract the female to a non food/shelter source (a lilac tree in our case) and then the mating is airbourne. Carpenter bees are massive and black, and I can tell you that 2 stuck together are very noisy!

Also, we have our first swifts. I actually spotted them a fortnight ago. Its because this March is unseasonably sunny and warm, normally its a wet and grey month.
 
Yesterday I saw one of the snakes, an intermediate about 2 foot long. So far so normal, however, I got a real fright because it was almost twice as wide as usual, with what looked like a mouse shaped meal inside it. Last night I had an unpleasant dream about snakes. Then today the cat suddenly narrowed his eyes and followed something he could see above where I was sitting outside. I got up to see a small snake emerging out of its old skin, up on a rafter about 10ft up in the air. The 'new' snake was so brightly coloured. However, this nearly ended in disaster as the snake fell off the rafter, although luckily it landed in the woodpile and has lived to tell the tale. I am so glad the cat was around to alert me to the fact the snake was there, otherwise my bad dream would have been superceded by real life!
 
Very thankful we don't have snakes here!
It's turned cold here this weekend. Temps are around 11C in daytime, but was grey, damp and felt downright cold yesterday. I have seen quite a lot of bees active though, both the honey bees from the hives and several varieties of bumble bees, which is great. The plum and pear trees are in bloom, although the apple trees are very slow, and not a sign of a blossom yet. In the veg garden, onions are only showing about an inch of green, but broad beans haven't appeared yet at all!

In town, the Council have left all the verges to bloom, and there's a several km stretch of the bypass that's awash with dandelions, daisies and some other wild flowers. Lovely to see! So much more restful than a very long strip of close mown grass!
 
OH saw a hedgehog in our garden yesterday evening. Hurrah, its years since we saw one. We have also had a nocturnal visit from a fox, which is a lot less welcome.

One of the blessings of living here is the abundance of wild flowers/weeds, they are getting towards the end of their displays now, as it is starting to get hot, and they all turn brown and die, thus providing seeds for the birds, but I get an enormous amount of pleasure from the plants, their forms and colours. Outside the local supermarket, a French chain, they plant 'meadow' plants, meaning poppies, californian poppies and cornflowers, so red, orange and blue, interspersed with grasses. Its very very attractive, but its not wild. Our local native flora is predominently yellow, white, purple and pink, although I do have californian poppies everywhere in the garden for a strong pop of orange, their petals are like silk, and its possible to watch a flower come out over an hour or so, which is a minor miracle as they unfurl and that action forces off the green 'cap' to let them emerge. They are shortlived for a few days and then the seed pods dry over a few weeks and pop, shooting seed everywhere. I love the foliage as well, its grey/green and quite lacy. Because its distinctive I easily recognise it and leave it alone when weeding.
 
We went to the Ashdown Forest yesterday evening for Nightjars, usually it is somewhat noisy with Gatwick airport traffic, it was lovely last night with not a plane in the sky, few hot air balloons, the birdsong in the evening was fantastic, you hear Cuckoo's calling all over the place with no other noise, even two "bubbling" females. We walked along the Winnie the Pooh trail and it was bliss in the quiet, just like when the books were written.
We got to hear lot's more Nightjar than usual, we had a nice one flying around our heads at our "hotspot" by opposite Gills lap car park for anyone who knows the area.
Slightly odd moment when two women came along complaining that the rangers should cut all the flowers as they didn't like walking around and getting pollen on their clothes, as the paths are quite wide, you do wonder why they felt compelled to walk against the flowers.
 
I heard my first snipe yesterday afternoon- the weirdest sound that I've ever heard. A bittern was booming too. I didn't know that they boomed in the day time?

If you're in the area, I strongly recommend a visit to the Wildfowl & Wetland Trust reserve at Welney, between Cambridge & King's Lynn. It was a great end to our holiday.
 
Seasonal birds are certainly harbingers of summer. I heard my first strimmer a couple of days ago. And no doubt the three hibernating motor cycles will soon awaken and be traversing the island.
But fair enough. I only have one cockerel atm but he crows for Britain.
 
Glad you had a good evening at Ashdown Forest, BYM, I love it now, but when I was growing up I always felt a bit short changed that the 2 forests closest to my parents were The New, and AF, neither of which is a traditional forest.

Ah, the sound of strimmers, often joined by the bass notes of the lesser spotted chainsaw in my experience.
 
Ooh. That's worrying, MrsBiscuit. The lesser spotted & great spotted chainsaws should both migrate to the far reaches of the garage by the time that the great noisy motorbike emerges from hibernation. Trying to cut through wood once the sap rises is like trying to cut through glue, not to mention the effect on nesting birds...
 
OH used to volunteer at Welney, mainly during the winter months when the swans were there. So it has special memories for her especially as she made a lifetime friend there. She remembers the spring months and the drumming Snipe, and huge Pike in the rivers. Also the time a hot air balloon landed in the reed bed and set it alight, burning to death the first Marsh harrier chicks born on the reserve.

I see you will get the best eclipse view tomorrow Hen-Gen
 
We're supposed to have a good view here too, but with the weather, it's not likely! It's very overcast, dull with a thick fog!
 
Not much chance here in Shropshire, apart from only seeing a small part of the eclipse the sky is uniformly grey at the moment.
 
I managed a couple of pics in between the clouds
 

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Oh, well done! The skies here remained covered by heavy grey cloud all day, with alternate mist/rain, so we didn't get a glimpse of the eclipse.

Sent from my SM-A415F using Tapatalk

 
No chance here either. All the more galling because we’d just had a week of good weather.
“Once upon a time I was falling in love,
Now I’m only falling apart,
Da di da Di da,
Total eclipse of the heart”.
 
:o How must the hot air balloonist have felt when they realised what they'd done? How do you begin to make amends for that?
 
Marigold said:
Icemaiden said:
:o How must the hot air balloonist have felt when they realised what they'd done? How do you begin to make amends for that?
Click to expand...

???
Click to expand...

BYM's post Wed 9th June. Hot air balloon landed in reed bed, started a fire which killed the first Marsh harrier chicks hatched on the reserve.
 
An unrelated question for you, as I’ve not worked out how to use Xenocanto. What kind of bird sings "di di di di trill du du zwigow ? It's in our garden, surrounded by farmland, an orchard & mixed mature trees. As with most birds, I can hear it but not see it...
 
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