June - 30 Days Wild

First, apologies to Tim for forgetting to include his charming photos of hares last month. He took these on the 14th May, on the Top Grazing.

Also from last month, the trail camera in the Pit Wood showed a different buck from any seen here recently. This one is what is called a ‘murder buck.’ A murder buck is a mature roebuck that has antlers devoid of any tines. That is to say the antlers will resemble two long spikes, without the traditional brow and rear antler tines. The reason that this type of beast is called a murder buck comes from the damage that this type of buck can cause to an opponent when sparring. John has seen them in the roe deer population on Holy Island.

Clare decided to log her 30 Days Wild this year and make these activities the main focus of the Blog. She has enjoyed taking a creative approach to her 30 wild days. Every day she has read a passage from Nature Writing for Every Day of the Year, ed. Jane McMorland Hunter, a delightful gift from Kathryn. Footage from the trail cameras has been added to these activities.

1st June: 4.15 am, thinking the bees would be quietly asleep, attempted to add a special entrance to one of the hives to help the bees defend themselves against robber bees - the bees detected the intrusion and objected strongly; finished reading The Wisdom of Trees, Max Adams.

2nd June: search for Yellow Rattle in the west end of the Top Grazing showed that the seeds sown last year had taken in many places; baby Blue tits at the feeders.

3rd June: planted trees - 7 Bird cherries + 3 Hawthorn (kindly donated by Keith) as hedging on the west boundary below the Wetland, and one Oak (also from Keith) nearby; walked home and identified 56 plant species in flower on the way.

4th June: another walk home from Liddells by a different route and saw 3 curlews in a field. Trail camera - fox and moths

5th June: evening walk round Liddells, nestlings seen still in J2.

Trail cameras - Great tits still feeding nestlings in J1; old buck seen in Pit Wood.

6th June: prepared a piece about the honey bee waggle dance for this month’s Rat Arts (a bimonthly meeting at a local pub to share songs, poetry, prose, etc., on a chosen theme. This month the theme is Dance).

7th June: Eileen came for lunch on Liddells and noticed a hare come up really close while we were talking; reference to the Ghost moth in Nature Writing - ‘A common sight at this time of year…[it] hovers above the fields and hedges at dusk - at one moment a pale, floating shape flitting across our path, then suddenly vanishing. It is usually still within reach of your hand, although invisible, for it has only to alight and fold its wings to disappear in the half-light. The upper side of its wings is mealy-white and glimmering, coming into view when poised, a most perfect disguise of brownish grey.’ (from The Peverel Papers, Flora Thompson, 1923)

Trail camera - hare in the Pit Wood; juvenile crow wing-flapping for food.

8th June: Bullfinch pair were perched in a Hawthorn near the first willow arbour; took photo of Corsican pine cones developing. Frustratingly the trail camera focussed on J1 had failed to capture footage of the Blue tits fledging. Heigh ho.

Trail camera - limping doe and two others, neither of which seems to be the old doe.

9th June: Pat and Sue came for some botanising and found Heath Speedwell, aka Common Gypsy Weed, Common speedwell, or Paul's betony, on the Crag.

Trail camera - in spite of the many broken pheasant eggs lying over Liddells, this hen has raised a pair of chicks.

10th June: learned the word ‘nemorous’ from a newspaper article - it means ‘full of woods or groves, wooded, woody. A passage from Edith Holden’s Diary in Nature Writing refers to the Yellow Bunting [the bird we call the Yellowhammer], and writes that, ‘in Cumberland they say it says ‘Devil, devil dinna touch me-e’. This bird is called Yeldrin and Yellow Yowlie in Scotland.’

11th June: today’s Guardian has an interesting article about Mugwort - there is some coming out near the Wildflower Meadow which might find its way into one or two of the recipe ideas suggested.

Trail camera - the juvenile crow still wants feeding

12th June: photographed a Buff-tailed bumblebee on Water Avens; saw Early Purple Orchids and a Stonechat while walking home

13th June: visited the Peace Labyrinth at Walltown; saw Common Spotted and Early Purple orchids; wondered about creating a tunnelled willow walk this year on Liddells with Sylvia’s willow prunings.

14th June: went in search of orchids on Liddells and found some out in the north-west corner and on the Meadow.

15th June: much activity at the feeders today; identified lots of juveniles - Tree Sparrows, Great tits, Marsh tits, Blue tits, Chaffinches, Great Spotted Woodpeckers.

Trail camera - young hare in the Scrub

16th June: another search for Creeping thistle on the Meadow - only 12, so this year’s total is 118, a big reduction; several Guelder rose plants in flower for the first time in the Orchard.

Trail camera - wary doe in Pit Wood. She may have had her kids and is therefore being particularly alert to possible threats.

17th June: opened the nucleus hive after leaving it in purdah after spitting to find 3 frames of capped brood - this part of the splitting exercise has been successful.

18th June: dug some turves with Red Clover and Yellow Rattle to introduce into the lawn at home after ‘No Mow May’ revealed no wildflowers in the grass; walked home via Written Crag (so-called because Flavius Carantinus, a quarryman, left his mark there: “PETRA FLAVI CARANTINI”) and saw a Swift, a Linnet, several Skylarks and a Yellowhammer.

19th June: a trip to Holy Island with John who wants to see if he can carry out a roe census there; it was a nature extravaganza - Pyramidal, Early Purple and Common Spotted orchids, Marsh Helleborines, Stonechats, Reed Buntings, juvenile Starlings, butterflies, bees, dozens more flower species and at least 20 roe deer. And an owl.

20th June: preparation for Tynedale Community Choir’s 20th Birthday picnic on Liddells, clearing paths, assembling pond-dipping equipment.

21st June: a day at the Burrell Collection in Glasgow to celebrate a friend’s 80th birthday - 10th century ceramic pigeon from Iraq, and an Egyptian green stone goose in a collection of grave goods, were among favourite pieces; not only the longest day today, but the start of another of the Japanese microseasons. From today until 26th June this is 乃東枯 Natsukarekusa karuru - Self-heal withers.

Trail cameras - longest day hare and the first glimpse of a kid (the mother seems to be one of the young does, so probably will only have one kid in her first year of breeding).

22nd June: hive 4 opened to reveal half a frame of larvae - the new queen has only just started laying so hive closed up again quickly.

23rd June: started reading Still Water: the Deep Life of the Pond, by John Lewis-Stempel, a gift from Mathilda; loved the description of summer rain by Edward Thomas in Nature Writing:

‘June puts bronze and crimson on many of her leaves. The maple-leaves and many of the leaves of thorn and bramble and dogwood are rosy; the hazel-leaves are rosy-brown; the herb-robert and parsley are rose-red; the leaves of ash and holly are dark-lacquered…in a minute the rain has traversed half a mile of woods, and…[there is the] pattering on roof and pane and leaf, the dance of leaves, the sway of branches, the trembling of whole trees under the flood…When it is over it has put a final sweetness into the blackbird’s voice.’ (from The South Country, 1909)

24th June: final prep for the choir picnic and time in the hide: Great Spotted Woodpecker, Siskins, Redpoll, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Great tits, Blue tits, Coal tits, Marsh tits, Tree sparrows, Bullfinch, Nuthatch.

25th June: extract from The Nightingale and the Rose by Oscar Wilde in Nature Writing, tells of how the nightingale pierces her breast on a rose thorn and sings until her life-blood has caused the rose to blossom and turn crimson. A tragic tale. Globe on Tour offered an outdoor performance beside Hexham Abbey, of Julius Caesar. Thunderstorms were forecast; swifts screamed overhead in a fittingly dramatic way, though no lions whelped in Beaumont Street.

No nightingales this far north, however here is a rose

26th June: Tynedale Community Choir’s 20th Birthday picnic and an opportunity to relax after the celebratory singing festival in Hexham the day before. 8 Bird Cherries planted in the Orchard - one for each voice (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) and one for each of the choir leaders (Jo, David, Kathryn and Bridie). Huw and Judith went pond-dipping with their grandchildren and found all sorts of things including a large dragonfly larvae and a small fish. How the fish arrived there is a mystery. A celebration bonfire rounded off the occasion. (Thanks to Mel and two Janes for photo contributions.)

27th June: BBC Radio’s Add to Playlist offered a charming piece from the United Strings of Europe - Caroline Shaw’s ‘and the swallow’; the music is inspired by words from Psalm 84 -

‘Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young’

From today till 1st July we are in 菖蒲華 Ayame hana saku: Irises bloom. Japanese irises must come into flower later than in the UK, however here is one still blooming.

28th June: spent time digging pondweed out of the roadside pond and making it a bit deeper, while there is no water; honey bees were coming to drink from the wet mud; time at the hide - 8 siskins including juveniles (6 on one feeder at the same time - sixkins?), Sparrowhawk visited twice

29th June: looked up this year’s Urban Wildlife Photography awards - this led to further investigations into Brolga and Rainbow parakeets; while removing the flowering heads of Hogweed on the Meadow, removed 3 more Creeping thistles (still only 121 this year, so pulling them out seems to be effective).

30th June: another hour digging the roadside pond which has gratifyingly held water since rain fell in the last two days; mud and petrichor (a pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather) to end 30 wildly spent days.

Trail camera - hare looking far from wild