Nature Notes

[ErrolTheDragon]

There's a gardening thread which may overlap with this one but I thought people might like to share nature sightings as the season changes. What we see if we can get out for a walk, plants coming into leaf and bloom, creatures in the garden, birds flying overhead - whatever.

Yesterday along the canal: busy wrens, 3 butterflies (tortoiseshell I think). Lots of Lords and Ladies arrow-shaped leaves. A little bank of primroses, lots of celandines and some wood anemones. Yellow iris leaves starting to shoot up in the edge of the canal.

Early this morning while it was still dark I could hear the tawny owls calling to each other. Then the dawn chorus started and two blackbirds were calling to wach other across the garden.

Lots of snowdrops in the churchyard and some daffs showing yellow.

We're in the process of building a wildlife pond in our garden. Hoping for some frogs.

The blue tits are investigating the bird boxes, I think they will start nesting soon.

Build it and they will come!

Just back from a walk, the 'lake' which appears in winter is full and complete with swans and other wildfowl now. Saw a moorhen in someone's garden too. Good weather for ducks, as the saying goes.

Lots more snowdrops today, a hint of yellow on some celandine and a beautiful camellia starting to flower in someone's garden. Magnolia buds are starting to look fat and fuzzy.

This has got to be the loveliest thread ever! ☺️

I saw the first snowdrops of the year today (although it is possible I wasn’t paying attention before!). I know it’s still a long time until spring, but it does feel like things are changing!

Another highlight for me was seeing a flock of about 15-20 long tailed tits descend on the garden. They’re fairly regular visitors, but as I hadn’t seen any all week I was starting to worry they had succumbed to the cold weather last weekend. So happy to see those little fluff balls come out in force today 😀

Spring sounds like it's on the way for you Errol. Its lovely to see the first signs of life peeping out of the winter gloom. I'm in a little cold pocket at the bottom of a hill, only the snowdrops are blossoming here but the bulbs are all poking their heads above ground.

We had some proper snow today though! not very deep, just enough to make things look pretty and deter me from going out.

Out on a lovely long walk today: saw spotted woodpecker, buzzard and kestrel out. Loads of pheasants in the fields, and redwings. Feels like spring is just around the corner.

I took this picture of a blackthorn tree during my walk today. I just loved the colour of the fruit against the orange-brown bracken.

When I turned round I got a massive surprise when a hare leapt out of the undergrowth just in front of me. I was so shocked to see it, I totally forgot to take a picture!

As if that wasn’t exciting enough, I also saw a flock of about 30 lesser redpoll on my way back. I’m fairly certain I haven’t seen even a single redpoll in the last decade, so that was another big surprise! ☺️

A sunny but cold day has brought lots of birds to the garden. We've had a handful of long tailed tits, two robins, a Male blackbird, and the never ending stream of hedge sparrows on the feeders.

Also, a buzzard was perched on our fence post for ages this morning which was lovely to see.

I saw the first yellow crocuses of the year here (lancashire), emerging from a thin covering of snow.

Your garden sounds lovely @blackteaplease. I’ve seen a huge increase in bird activity in my garden over the last few weeks. It’s lovely watching them all on the bird feeders ☺️

My latest visitors are a pair of siskins. I’m pretty excited about those as I’ve never seen them in my garden before. Hopefully they’ll hang around for the RSPB garden bird watch this weekend!

My garden is pretty wild @Crazzycat. It's pretty much a field that we are trying to tame but not too much as me and my husband are nature geeks.

I went for a stroll round the village yesterday and saw escaped daffodils poking up in the verges and buds everywhere.

That sounds pretty good blacktea. I find it can be tricky to strike the right balance between a garden that’s attractive for wildlife and one that won’t offend the neighbours too much. Mine is definitely more on the messy side 😂

This morning I spent a long time watching a pair of coaltits. They’re regular visitors, but usually a bit shy. This morning they were extremely active and spent hours marking their territory by loudly shouting from the top of a nearby oak tree. They were so noisy my DH came in to ask “what the hell that noise is”...I hope this loud display means they’ll nest in my garden this year. Not sure DH is as enthusiastic!

Ooh coaltit fledgings will be very cute. We get blue tits and they are like kamikaze pompoms when learning to fly!

The crocuses are starting to show some colour in my garden!

I had a big nature highlight this morning when I saw a greenfinch. They may be common in some parts of the U.K., but I only saw one of them in all of 2020 and that one looked really sick. This morning’s greenfinch looked perfectly healthy and very happy to have found a big supply of sunflower seeds 😁

Greenfinch numbers crashed for a while because of a disease, but I saw quite a few last year - healthy looking too. It's good when you see a recovery like that.

I hadn't realised that there was a population crash in greenfinches last year but thinking about it we didn't get many at the feeder last year. Hope we get some this year.

I've just glanced out the kitchen window and the buzzard was back, perched on one of the dead branches at the top of the oak tree. When he swooped off the spot was immediately claimed by a greater spotted woodpecker.

The greenfinch crash was several years ago., last year was when I started seeing them again around here.

Some info here - one thing to note is that good hygiene on feeders is really important

www.bto.org/our-science/population-dynamics/greenfinches-and-trichomonosis

Wow, a great spotted woodpecker! I’d love to have one of those show up in my garden 😯

The decline in some finches is a bit worrying, but it’s not impossible for them to bounce back if they have a good breeding season or two. Fingers crossed 🤞

We have spotted and green woodpecker here. The green ones are MASSIVE compared with the others. I nearly had a heart attack the first time I saw one, it flew in front of the car one my very early drive to work, like a big old green pigeon!!

Lots of redwings and fieldfares here at the moment. Redwings are so very pretty.

A green woodpecker?! I’m almost exploding with envy now! I’ve never even seen one of those 😯

Thanks for sharing that link Errol. Does anyone know if you need a special disinfectant for bird feeders? I usually wash mine in soapy water, but not sure if that’s strong enough.

There's some advice here, not very specific

www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/how-you-can-help-birds/feeding-birds/all-about-bird-tables/hygiene-and-maintenance/

The greenfinch was back this morning and he brought a friend! The Siskin couple returned too. Such pretty finches!

I hope they will all show up for the RSPB big garden birdwatch this weekend. I remember the first few years I took part in that in my current garden, I’d get a handful of sparrows and jackdaws and a single blue tit if I were lucky!