May - surveying the situation

1st-2nd May

On 1st May John continued clearing in the Pit Wood, felling a couple of trees that were compromising the growth of ones next to them, and brashing/path-making. The next day Clare and John had a bonfire to burn all the brash from this work and from when John and Robbie had felled over a dozen trees in the area a few years ago. It was a mighty bonfire. All the clearing revealed a readymade seat from which to watch the conflagration. During the clearing John saw several deer slots in the area so left the trail camera to see what it might capture. He was pleased to know there are still deer around however he has clearly misremembered their size.

3rd May

Clare’s choir has a tradition of singing in the sunrise from the bandstand in Hexham on the first Monday May Bank Holiday, followed by a shared breakfast. Last year Clare offered a post-breakfast walk round Liddells to listen to the birds. In the absence of that event this year, Clare decided to join in with International Dawn Chorus Day on May 3rd and to make some recordings of the birdsong on Liddells to share with the choir. Dawn that day was at 4.40. As Clare left the house she heard antelucan (OED Word of the Day 5th May: Of, belonging to, or occurring in the hours just before dawn) birdsong from a Blackbird and Thrush in the surrounding trees. Here are a couple of the four videos. You will see how it gets lighter during her walk. The first video opens with a Garden Warbler singing. The second ends with a Lapwing and Curlew calling from the neighbouring farmland as Clare went back to her car. In total she heard and/or saw twenty-five different species (not all are represented in these two clips). Here they are in the order you would find them in a bird book:

Greylag Goose, Buzzard, Pheasant, Lapwing, Curlew, Woodpigeon, Tawny Owl (possibly), Dunnock, Robin, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Garden Warbler, Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Marsh Tit, Magpie, Rook, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Yellowhammer.

After the walk, Clare was able to warm herself by the remains of the bonfire. Tim took a photograph of one of the Snake’s Head Fritillaries on the Meadow and John captured this image of new Spring life.

4th-5th May

Clare and John put edging round the membrane of the third Willow screen and removed the camouflage netting from the meadow fence and the protective tubes from the hedging in front of the hives. The growth is now sufficient to screen the hives and shed from the road. Mel moved barrowloads of chip from the North-east Strip and added it to the Willow screen so all that remains is to build the seat.

Clare and John have been perplexed by noticing that on more than one occasion the letters making up Juno’s name on her dead letter box in the hide have been removed and some have vanished. They set up the trail camera to see if it would shed any light on the mystery. The hare seems to be innocent however several clips showed squirrels enjoying the hide’s facilities so Clare and John can only conclude that they are out in the wood playing Bananagrams. At least Liddells has literate squirrels.

7th May

An unusual butterfly was seen flying over the Top Grazing; thus far Tim has been unable to make an identification. Juno practised tree-hugging and tree-climbing. The cleared area in the Pit Wood enabled games of Stump-jumping and Musical Stumps. Clare discovered that a Blackbird had built a nest next to one of the RSPB Swallow nest cups in the old pony shelter.

8-15th May

Mel has sent the first of his monthly wildflower surveys which is available on the Surveys page of the website. He saw a Short-tailed Field Vole near the hide. He has also been working on eradicating some of the Mint that has taken over in the wet patch on the Meadow. Clare embarked on her annual Thistle Eradication Programme - total so far 735. John continues to collect images of the birds round the hide. One image might reveal why the Blue Tits have abandoned the nest box nearby.

14th May

Dave G came to help John with the strimming and they made paths through the Orchard and into the Pit Wood.

16th May

Clare chose Building a Fire Pit as Juno’s activity for the day. Juno was first tasked with ‘woolgathering’ - one of the words from Uncommon Ground by Dominick Tyler. ‘When children were sent out to gather the snagged tufts of wool left by sheep in hedges and on fence posts it’s fair to assume the task, which provides the opportunity for aimless wandering, wasn’t always approached with the focussed attention that parents might have wanted. Hence ‘woolgathering’ became synonymous with absent-minded daydreaming and generally letting one’s mind wander from the matter in hand.’ Tyler believed that the children would have given the bits of wool a name, however he didn’t have any luck finding any words so speculated that they might be called ‘cotymogs’ (a derivation from the Welsh ‘cotwym’ meaning ‘having dags or locks’).

NB Clare wrote up this episode on Wednesday 27th May. That evening, in an extraordinarily synchronous way, the BBC programme The Repair Shop (if you don’t know it, have a watch) featured a spinning wheel from Shetland that needed restoration. The woman who had inherited the wheel spoke of how she and her sister were sent out woolgathering for their Auntie Annie, the spinner, and she then said that in Shetland, the bits of wool were called ‘hentilagets’. Dominck Tyler take note!

Juno and family gathered other kindling and wood for fuel, and marshmallows were toasted.

17th - 24th May

The lino floor in the shepherd’s hut seemed to have stretched over the winter. John has cut it down to size and it looks a better fit and much chastened. John then set about cutting the tiles for the woodburner surround, using his birthday angle grinder. He has formed a perfect relationship with this new tool and says he is in love with it.

Keith was inducted into the art of bumble bee surveying today and did his first transect. We look forward to hearing his reports. Clare had discovered that the nesting box which is visible from the hide has been taken over by a bumble bee however she is not sure which species. On his way past the ponds Keith saw a Large Red Damselfly.

John did more work on the tiles; Clare suspects this was because he wanted to use his angle grinder again. She dug some of the pondweed out of one of the ponds that has dried out.

Clare found that wasps have been nest-building in one of the sheds. They seem to have done this as a teaching aid to demonstrate the stages of construction. Her discovery was on the day the OED Word of the Day was simplex munditiis. (Elegantly simple; unostentatiously beautiful.) Exactly.

Clare has been checking her bees for signs of imminent swarming. Both colonies have produced queen/swarm cells so Clare has stepped in to create artificial swarms by removing the queens and some of the house-bees (the ones too young to go out foraging) and putting them with some stores and a frame with eggs and brood, into a nucleus hive. This leaves the remaining bees with the queen cell; the cell should produce a queen who will emerge, mature and mate, ready to start a new colony. Unfortunately the bees do not always read the same textbooks as beekeepers.

Dave G came to help with more strimming, clearing more of the paths through the Pit Wood.

25th May

Keith had offered to help with an annual breeding bird survey again. He and Clare went round early morning to listen for singing males as well as spot birds whenever possible. Given the number of Titmice round the hide, very few made their presence felt, however Keith and Clare heard and/or saw 22 species. You can read the full results on the Surveys page. Keith took the two photographs of warblers.

As Keith and Clare were getting close to the hives, there were many, many buzzing bees in the air over one of the hives; this is what bees do when they are about to swarm. The likely explanation is that the new queen had emerged and matured, just as the textbooks say, and then she had skipped the bit about going off for her mating flights and returning to found a new colony, and had gone straight to the trouble-shooting pages which describe virgin queens leaving with a swarm. So much for so-called swarm control. Fortunately the bees usually leave a queen cell behind when they do this, so another colony should develop. Clare is holding her breath while she waits to see if the second colony have read the books or have a different one, clearly been written by a bee, with the express purpose of dispelling any illusion bee-keepers might have that they are in control.

26th - 30th May

John and Clare completed the last of the month’s nesting box surveys. The results are on the Surveys page. You will read that John and Clare were concerned that they might have caused too much disturbance by inspecting the boxes weekly, however John has found on the BTO website that weekly inspections are advised throughout the year, so there may be a different cause for the two abandoned broods on Liddells.

The Roe buck has appeared in the Scrub. John says the final frame of the video shows a well-balanced three-pointed right antler with brow, top and rear points, however the left antler is less well-developed with only a rudimentary brow point and no significant branching. This imbalance may be due to damage sustained while fraying or fighting, or simply a genetic factor. Next year he may grow a completely differently shaped set of antlers. John hopes readers of the Blog appreciate their developing knowledge of the Roe.

The trail camera has revealed a new mammal on Liddells. People have often asked whether there are hedgehogs on site - the answer is now, “Yes”.

John, relieved that the tiling in the shepherd’s hut is largely finished, has taken his camera to the ponds.

All that remains is to paint the tiles to match the stove

Identification unclear - this is either a dragonfly or damselfly larva

31st May

The last visit of the month. John took several photos of a Linnet perching on gorse and of a Swallow on the shed roof, before realising he had forgotten to replace the disc in his camera. He swallowed hard. Happily the Swallow returned and settled even closer on the fencing rail. John hopes the Linnets will pose again next month.