Outdoorsy Shite - April Top Trumps

[GrimmaTheNome]

Rules as before - nature 'spots' fauna and flora, points for rarity (absolute or relative to where seen), seasonality, eloquence of description. Please declare if you're in forrin parts or a mermaid.

Did I cover everything?

Rusty its a yes from me too! Hope the wagtails are bave enough to last it out.

Swallows nested in the porch of my Dcs school last year and ds did a maths lesson timing how often the parents fed the chicks, how many trips to the nest per hour etc. T'were lovely.

We went last Easter and saw thousands of gannets and no puffins. My MIL lives in Bridlington and we are RSPB members so we visit there a lot but it's trying to co-ordinate our visits with the birds. They have no bloody consideration!

I grew up in Brid! Loved seeing the puffins when we went round Flamborough Head and up to Bempton.

Ace photo rusty.

Puffins are my favourites.

My two swallows seem to have abandoned us and gone elsewhere, or maybe they are just sheltering from this shite weather.

Blue, pink and white bells in the woods. But naught else.

I thought I spotted some swifts earlier but I must have been mistaken. There is no activity round the back of our house and that's where the nests are so they were probably blackbirds and my windscreen needs cleaning.

We've got our first blackbird fledgeling! I got a closer look than I expected...

I saw it on the garden table begging for food (parents scurrying around on the wet lawn); then a moment later I heard an omininous little thump on the patio window. It dropped into DDs tub of primulas, lay looking stunned a few moments and then picked itself up and got its wings sorted out and sat there quietly a while - its gone now so should be fine.

Yesterday lots of white flowers - cow parsley erupting, greater stitchwort, wild garlic and masses of garlic mustard. I had a look for more winsome names (Jack-in-the-hedge, Sauce-all) and discovered what should have been obvious from the name - its edible. Also that in the US its an alien invader so they're pretty keen on eating it up (pity we can't feast on bloody himalayan balsam!). Recipes here together with tips for eradication. I'd weeded out loads that afternoon and consigned to brown bin - but there's still plenty more in my garden so I'll have to try it.

My bird feeders have been taken over by the starlings again, but no white one so far this year. I've never seen last years's white one again, so I expect it didn't survive

the blackbird's nest by our front door has been raided by a cat (i think) one decapitated body on the path and another on the road outside the house.

it was a sad scene

but (here's the top trumpy bit) a red kite swooped as i was mourning the dead and took the dead chick clean away- that was a magnificent sight!
recycling at nature's best!

wow! Glad the kite was able to profit from cat's wanton destruction.

At least this rain should keep those murdering bastards sweet pets out of my garden (the dog is not out on duty)

Poor little baby birds - this is their first impression of the big wide world. Freezing rain and buffeting gales.

Something very sad happened yesterday - we saw a little bird swooping over the sea (tiny, brown and mottled - I don't know what it was) and it nearly got to the coast when a gust of wind drove it into the sea. It tried to take off again but its little wings would have been full of salty water. Last seen struggling on the surface :(:(:(:(:( I nearly burst into tears. Fancy coming all that way only to fall at the final hurdle.

Oh God, I nearly burst into tears just reading about it. Maybe the tide took it into shore and washed it up somewhere safe where it could dry off and sort itself out. Yes, that's definitely what will have happened.

I once saw a butterfly caught in a slow moving side area of a river. It had one wing flat on the water and was frantically but increasingly weakly flappin the other, but couldn't get itself upright to take off. I spent hours trying to reach it with a stick so it could get some purchase for take off. I nearly cried when it slowly but inevitably got swept out into the river itself. Poor little yellow butterfly. Sob.

MrA was almost in floods as well. Literally the only thing that makes him cry is the plight of animals/birds. His grandad died - not a sniff. A little bird falls into the sea - lower lip was wobbling like mad.

Oh how sad.

DD rescued a baby swift from the canal last year and wept at how delicate it was in her hands. She uses the story in English when they have to write about an emotional moment.

It will definitely have been washed ashore and dried itself off in the shelter of a cave.

I think so too

It's probably there now. Safe and warm and resting with its head tucked underneath its wing.

It's definitely fine now, dry and warm somewhere.

We saw another Kestrel by the side of the road on our way to my brother's house.

Two attempts two days running to post only for Mn to go off line (how dare they) and my essays vanish into The ether.
So here's the edited version.
Violets, lots, under the gorse. Some very pale, some v. dark purple.
Bluebells, also quite a few, in the lea of a drystone wall, same field. Have put lectric fence up, so wildflowers will be safe as sheep went in this am. And hopefully sheep wont be able to get to wall to use as launch pad.

And it hissed down

Two stocky lambs hopping in and out of the branches of a blown down willow tree, with bits of willow leaf in their mouths.

I heard 2 cuckoos today! Does that qualify me for Top Trumps?

This morning another bunk-off to Leighton Moss. Before I get down to work:

A blackcap (male)
a couple of chiff-chaffs - yes, I know they're dead common, I've heard hundreds but never visually ID'd any before today and been certain what they are.

Butterflies - peacocks and brimstones, lovely.

Garganey, shovellers, shelduck; 3 greylag families with goslings (one pair near path had a major hissy fit!)

A roe deer on the path just ahead of us.

Blackheaded gull sitting on clutch of 3 eggs (OK, that was on the webcam - we'd seen the nest being built last time we went)

And a bar-headed goose. Descendent of an escapee presumably, as they are the geese famous for being able to fly right over the Himalayas - they make an antifreeze protein. Handy trick, that.

Hello Saggy All spots welcome.

I am ashamed to say I have never heard a cuckoo in the wild, so I am very jealous.

Very very very wet and depressed looking lambs yesterday.

One swallow has come out of hiding, bit worried the other hasn't survived the gales and rain.

I am ashamed to say I have never heard a cuckoo at all :(

Don't be ashamed They are really scarce in some parts of the country. I haven't heard one since June 1987, when they say "cuck-cuckoo" (the cuckoo comes in April, sings its song in May, changes its song in June....can't remember the rest but at some point it flies away. August?)