July - we kid you not

1st July

After the sadness of the ponies leaving, Clare and John were especially delighted by footage captured on the trail camera. They had placed the camera in the Pit Wood on the path where Clare had seen the roe doe and her kid. Since it is very unusual to see a roe kid (the doe usually hides them in long grass) there are several clips included here. The cuteness factor is very high.

3rd July

After a longer delay than expected, John and Clare borrowed a horse box and took Paul over to Cumbria. They were concerned he might not be willing to go into the box having not been in one since he arrived at Liddells, however at Sally and Becky’s invitation he walked straight up the ramp. Becky (Rowbeck) was pleased to see him again and emailed the next day to say that he had settled in just fine.

The doe and kid continue to enchant and the Pit Wood path proves to be a main highway for wildlife.

4th July

Clare received a parcel - the postie thought it was a shovel and was rather disappointed to hear it was a pond-dipping kit. Perhaps the thought of a shovel based crime was more appealing, though probably not to John.

5th July

Mel generously offered John and Clare an anthomaniacs’ day (OED Word of the Day 3rd May - a person who is (excessively passionate or enthusiastic about flowers). They reckon to have found about 110 different species in flower. Mel was struck not only by how many more species there were, but also how more numerous the flowers were since his last survey in 2014. John and Clare felt very encouraged. You can see Clare’s list, arranged by habitat here. On the way across the Top Grazing, Clare had another look under the newt’s log and thought she was seeing double, if not treble - look closely at the top left corner of the photograph and see what you think.

Tim sent Clare a copy of the North East England Branch Butterfly Conservation Butterfly Summary 2018 and she discovered Liddells gets a mention in relation to Green-veined Whites:

‘Spring generation notable counts came from Ian Findlay with 33 from Upper Teesdale on 18th May, Andrew Craggs, 31 on Lindisfarne on 15th May and Tim Wrigley with 25 at Liddells Wood near Hexham on 20th May.’

Any lepidopterists among this blog’s followers might like to read the whole report.

6-11th July

The ponies’ departure means that the area round the sheds and shepherd’s hut does not need to be proofed against mud and post damage. John spent some time rethinking and building new fencing. He has also adjusted the height of the steps into the hut so that persons of smaller stature can use them more easily. Clare is grateful and considers it to be an act of bonification (OED Word of the Day 2nd May: the action or an instance of making something good or better; esp reclamation of land for cultivation, construction, etc..) The kid continues to offer entertainment.

12th July

Hal came to help John put up a swing in the Pit Wood. Juno approved. Clare, Beth and Juno had a first go with the pond-dipping net and tray. Juno took her responsibility as identifier very seriously.

13th July

Clare, while hiding behind a hawthorn tree for Juno to find her, noticed a large hole in the bank near the roadside pond. There were a lot of white-tailed bumblebees in the entrance however the hole was far too big to be a nest for them. It did look the right size for a badger. The trail camera was moved…

16-18th July

John and Clare had three days away near Easingwold in Yorkshire and were dismayed to experience almost a complete absence of birds, even in the Yorkshire Arboretum. On return they went straight up to Liddells to reconnect with the birds there and almost immediately in the Pit Wood saw a family of Goldcrests and moments later a Spotted Flycatcher, a species they had not seen on Liddells for three years. This did a lot to offset their Yorkshire related dismay. They also collected the disc from the trail camera.

19th July

Having seen swallows fly in and out of the sheds, John fixed some shelving to make it easier for them to build nests should they choose to. Coincidentally, John and Clare have discovered there are swallows nesting at home for the first time in the fifteen years they have spent in their house. The badger hole site continues to attract visitors.

23rd July

John completed the new gate into the shepherd’s hut enclosure. While John and Clare were working there, a bat flew from behind the hut in broad daylight. There are no signs of bats nesting there, however it was good to see one. Clare changed the protection for the Field Maple on the Top Grazing; the tiny tree had become very lost in the growth around it. Clare put chip down round the tree as she had seen at the Yorkshire Arboretum.

25-26th July

John saw 7-spot ladybird on Creeping Thistle. Clare saw a Common Darter , probably male, flying round the big pond. Tantalisingly, the only place it came to rest was on a stone on the island which was too far away to take a photograph. The trail camera showed how the roe deer rut has started. The video clip shows the buck pursuing the doe. Maybe there will be more kids next year.

28th July

Clare and John have been smartening up the area round the sheds and shepherd’s hut. John has been levelling off the fencing and Clare has started weeding the paths before putting down membrane and new chip.

30th July

Mike, a long time friend of John, brought his quad bike over for the day. Much wood was moved. While Mike and John were loading and ferrying the wood, Clare continued with her efforts to smarten up the shed area.

31st July

Bee update:

Yet more rain today so no work on the land. Instead Clare has produced an update on the apiary:
There are now three thriving colonies. Two are headed by this year’s queens, both marked green (this mnemonic helps remember the right colour: Will You Raise Good Bees/White, Yellow, Red, Green, Blue). The third has one of last year’s queens and was created by taking her, some frames of eggs and some nurse bees and setting them up in a new hive, while allowing a queen cell that had been created in the original hive, to mature and for that queen to hatch, be mated and start laying. This third queen is marked red and eluded being spotted for a long time. Clare finally saw her and was able to mark her. Clare’s bee buddy Barry named this queen The Scarlet Pimpernel. There is a fourth colony created by taking a frame with a queen cell from one of Barry’s hives when his bees had made several queen cells, and putting it in a 5 frame hive, called a nucleus hive, with frames of brood and stores and some nurse bees. The queen must have hatched because the queen cell had vanished (bees recycle the wax) but was nowhere in evidence when Clare looked, so she gave them a frame of eggs from The Scarlet Pimpernel from which they drew up two queen cells. Clare left one and that hive is now in purdah to leave the new queen time to emerge, mature, be mated and start laying. Unfortunately the wet and colder weather means that this might be unsuccessful. A new queen needs a few hot dry days to be sufficiently mated.

Although two colonies produced a lot of honey in the spring, so much so that Clare added extra supers (boxes with frames exclusively for honey into which the queen cannot go and lay eggs because she is kept out by a queen excluder). However there was a longer than usual nectar-gap in June because of poor weather, and the bees needed to draw on their own stores for food. This seems entirely fair, if a bit disappointing for honey lovers. If not much honey remains, Clare might leave it on for the winter bees which will reduce the need for sugar feeds.