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.

Had a nuthatch on our birdfeeder for the first time in years

Lovely idea for a thread, we have so much more time to sit and stare..l

Listen as well as staring!

Whoo-hoo!

I've seen a HUGE bee, a peacock butterfly, a strange green caterpillar and loads of birds this last week.

It's amazing how nature just needs us to get out of the way for five minutes and then rushes to fill the gap..(On a lesser note - I think we have a rat in the compost bin again. I've just killed one couple of months ago - shovel time again. That bin is definitely going the distance. I don't like having to kill anything - even rats.)

We have a rat problem. They've got holes in our side alley right next to the side garage door. Per instructions from the council, we're putting down poison, it wasn't working well because our lovely but misguided neighbour was leaving large quantities of bread and bird food on her lawn and using non rat proof feeders. We simply can't deal with the consequences of vermin damage at the moment, I got rather upset about what would happen if the rats got inside so they've stopped doing that now, but I felt I had to stop stocking my ratproof feeder (metal pole thing, nothing on the ground) So I'm not seeing nearly as much in my garden as usual.

If they'd stay down the bottom of the garden then I'd live and let live but near the house they're vermin.

I think rat problems are increasing. My Dsis is having problems since the restaurant across the road is no longer putting out rubbish and so they're looking for other food sources.

I'm afraid there's no room for sentimentality where rats are concerned. In additional to physical damage they spread disease. Parvovirus is a particular concern, especially as dogs won't be getting their boosters.

Sorry, that's probably a bit of a downer!

The sky is incredibly clear blue here today. Blackbirds were busy on the lawn earlier.

I saw a bee fly today for the second time ever! As in the actual creature called a bee fly, not a normal bee flying.

I didn’t even know they existed the first time I saw one. They’re so sweet, it made me happy :)

Long tailed tits collecting cobwebs for their nest from the leaded lights on my living windows. DD was fascinated, and wanted to keep one as a pet....

Yesterday, a huge fallow deer buck racing across the field as I walked my dogs. (I'm lucky enough to live rurally with a garden that opens directly onto a bridleway.) Without aircraft noise, the birdsong in the woods is deafening, and there's nothing to drown out the skylarks singing over the fields. Oh, and the bluebells are coming out.

Now for something delightful - I discovered, after reading a poem by John Clare and looking up a word which had me going WTF? that their 'countryside' name is the bumbarrel , because of the shape of their nests.

community.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/b/notesonnature/posts/this-weekend-spot-a-bumbarrel

Gosh, every day's a school day, isn't it! Bumbarrel is a great name!!

Skylarks so loud out walking the lanes today. Stopped to listen for a while

I saw a bumbarrel while I was out - unusually, just the one. Maybe it was scouting for its flock. Pheasants and partridges running in the fields.

our lovely but misguided neighbour was leaving large quantities of bread and bird food on her lawn

This is what's caused it for us, I think.

The fat, lazy bastard son of our next door neighbour (wh moved back in with his mother year or so ago), just slings slices of bread out into the front street "for the birds". I'm going to have to say something.

Killing anything is sickening - but as you say, you can't be sentimental about rats. They carry too much disease and they breed like wildfire.

Loads of long tailed tits here too. I love their flight pattern

Big flock of fieldfares out too. What a glorious evening

Radio 4 is talking about puffins at the moment.

I’ve been listening to the Planet Earth 2 suite on iTunes and trying not to cry and the penguins bit (I rewatched them recently). Beautiful series and music.

On a less sentimental / harrowing penguin experience note, I saw a red tailed bumblebee bimbling around the garden today. It was bimbling a bit too quickly for me to take a picture though, unfortunately. Hoping we have lots of foxgloves this year as the bees love them!

Peacock, Brimstone, Comma and a Small Heath butterflies seen yesterday. Coltsfoot and Primrose still flowering and the Ramsons is just opening. Thank goodness for the daily walk we are allowed.

I saw a lovely fat bee bumbling about yesterday, also crows roosting (it was at dusk), wood pigeons, Robbins and I'm fairly sure there were martins as well.
Also a rabbit in my local nature reserve a few days ago.

No butterflies here yet, although I did enjoy the butterfly house on the Chester zoo live stream!

Also lots of blossom in gardens, wood anemones and violets aplenty in the woods nearby and cow parsley just starting to come out. It makes my heart sing!

I live in a city and I am really missing being able to go out for country walks. So I am enjoying this thread. Thrilled to see a goldfinch yesterday (we don't see them much). In my garden, we have s small pond, and kingcup is flowering in it profusely, plus the frogs have returned - hopefully frogspawn any day soon.

I've just realised I may have subconsciously adapted the thread title from The Times. Here's this weeks Nature Notebook

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a-splash-of-colour-too-bright-for-our-eyes-295w5nmgt?shareToken=27ad6833c70e1b1baaea31c489f6b3e8

just popped on to say, here in teh W mids, the cherry tree is beginning to shop the first white of openening flower buds.

Blowy in the South Downs today but everything is green and growing. The hawthorn hedges are more bridal every time I pass them and almost every tussock is crowned with primroses.

A few rooks, a lone seagull and a buzzard calling in the distance were the avian highlights of my dog walk - but it was lunchtime so not the best time of day for wildlife spotting. Last week I saw a 3 foot grass snake so am keeping a sharp eye out in case I see it again.

At home, tiny mining bees have taken over my front garden. It’s not surprising as I’ve planted things aimed at attracting bees, and I love watching them but it does mean I’ll have to relocate my guinea pig run!

Meant to attach a couple of pics from today. Hoping this works.....