1st March
From Nature Rambles Edward Step, 1930
‘How long the winter has been in going! Winters are always long; but some of them seem to us much longer than they ought to be, owing to a lengthy spell of north-east winds filling the sky with dark, heavy cloud when we are longing to see the swaying tassels of the hazel, the golden stars of lesser celandine and the haloes of the leafless coltsfoot…dwellers in the country…can take a fair ramble during the eight or nine hours of daylight, making up for the scarcity of flowers and insects by watching those birds that are with us only during the winter. There are also the shrews and mice of the hedge-bottom, and their hunters the stoat and weasel, to take note of…and the occasional bat that has woken up for a brief flight. There are almost endless treasures to be found in the pond, as soon as the thick ice has melted and made them easy to see and reach; and some nice things, such as many of the mosses, that can be found in full beauty during the cooler, moister months only.’
4th - 7th March
John and Clare put up the rest of the 12 new nesting boxes in the Scrub and the Pit Wood and saw four hares each day while so doing.
Clare asks which film title is being represented here? (answer at the end of this blogpost and credit to John for the joke)
The pond trail camera captured a hare eating peacefully.
Another and far healthier looking deposit of frogspawn has appeared in the roadside pond.
While Clare was in the hide she saw a Blue tit making several visits to perch in the entrance to nesting box J1 and a Great tit staying close to J2 for several minutes. She heard for the first time this year a Yellowhammer singing on the Wetland.
Clare spent some time taking tubes off Junipers at the top of the Crag and protecting the trees with chicken wire cages in order to give the plants the chance to bush out more and gain strength against the wind.
John and Dave took the top of a willow that had been blown over and broken in the Top Strip, however the tree had sprouted below the break so they left the rest to grow. Clare helped cut about 50 potential whips from the top branches and will use them to replace some that have died round a couple of bird-watching seats.
John started work on a gateway into the Top Strip so that he can take the flail mower in to keep the path cut - this will take a lot less time than weeding.
The cut Willow with plenty of growth left
Willow whips with even more potential growth
The pond camera has recorded the largest number of ducks on the pond together to date. While John and Clare often see Mallards on or leaving the pond in daytime, they have never seen a Mandarin duck there and then.
8th - 10th March
Clare planted 7 of the Willow cuttings for International Women’s Day. The trees will henceforth be known as the Seven Sisters.
Clare and John were delighted to welcome Rebecca from Miscreations Theatre. They talked about the possibility of bringing a Wilding Theatre workshop/performance piece to Liddells for schoolchildren. Much will depend on funding and logistics however the prospect is exciting.
The deer family run through the Pit Wood followed by the older buck. John is expecting the older doe to encourage the triplets to leave the patch soon.
A hare is caught in the snow at midday. 17 hours later and the snow is still falling thickly.
11th March
Clare freed the last of the Junipers. There are 16 plants established now.
She also staked the Seven Sisters while John did more work on the gateway.
Astute readers will notice there are only six willows pictured, the seventh is on the other side of the new gateway
Clare and John watched a Blue tit sit in the entrance to J1 for at least three minutes during which time the bird repeatedly looked into the box, bobbed its head and looked behind and around. As it is the females that build the nest, John and Clare wondered if the bird was claiming the site or signalling that she had found a site and was looking for a mate. Or both.
Today’s OED Word of the Day is ‘nunatak - an isolated peak of rock projecting above the surface of inland ice’. As the weather has returned to wintry conditions, Clare decided she had found a nunatak in the roadside pond.
12th March
John cut about 70 whips from neighbour Sylvia’s Willow tree. Clare had thought a good use for them would be to make a walk from the bottom of the Crag north across the wetland.
15th March
An abundance of frogspawn has appeared - more in the roadside pond, a large amount in the big pond, some in the Crag pond, and for the first time ever some in the vernal pond between the roadside and big ponds. It represents the potential for a lot of frogs and/or heron and newt food.
19th March
Clare and John set about planting the willow walk and by the end of the afternoon, and with cutting some of the longer whips, had 96 planted and a lot more in reserve to fill in gaps or use somewhere else. They are very grateful to Sylvia and have named the path Sylvia’s Avenue in her honour.
From The History of the Worthies of England, Thomas Fuller, 1662
Willows - ‘A sad tree, whereof such who have lost their love make their mourning garlands; and we know what exiles hung up their harps upon such doleful supporters. The twigs hereof are physic, to drive out the folly of children. This tree delighteth in moist places, and is triumphant in the Isle of Ely, where the roots strengthen their banks, and lop affords fuel for their fire. It groweth incredibly fast; it being a by-word in this county, ‘that the profit by willows will buy the owner a horse, before that by other trees will pay for his saddle.’ Let me add, that if green ash may burn before a queen, withered willows may be allowed to burn before a lady.’
Hal, Beth and Juno arrived for some outdoor activity and built a shelter, used the story-telling circle fittingly, investigated frogspawn and lots more besides.
Note the camouflage face paint
Frogspawn - ‘it sprawls, cold and uncontainable, like jellyfish’. (from Still Water: the Deep Life of the Pond John Lewis-Stempel
20th March
World Rewilding Day.
John worked on the new gate and removed the cage round one of the first Horse Chestnuts Clare and John had planted in the Top Strip, replacing it with a cage to protect the trunk from fraying and nibbling.
21st March
World Poetry Day.
I love the little pond to mark at spring
When frogs & toads are croaking round its brink
When blackbirds yellow bills gin first to sing
& green woodpecker rotten trees to clink
I love to see the cattle muse & drink
& water crinkle to the rude march wind
While two ash dotterels flourish on its brink
Bearing key bunches children run to find
& water buttercups they're forced to leave behind.
John Clare
22nd - 23rd March
John and Clare played at The Flintstones - Clare had spotted a pie of discarded stones by the roadside near home, so she and John bagged them up and used them to fill ruts on the Top Grazing roadway. They then went to the Top Strip and began their annual check to see which trees needed maintenance,
Evidence of fraying on saplings in the Orchard suggest that the buck is now, as some writers describe, ‘in hard horn’. John points out that this description is incorrect as roe deer antlers are made of bone, not horn. Synchronously the latest news from The Deer Society (23rd March) included the following: ‘Regular readers may be amazed just how often we encounter the common mistake of referring to deer antlers as horns. It's not surprising, given how last year one celebrity wildlife expert on a popular wildlife show, made this very mistake in front of millions of viewers…Deer are unique in being the only animals to produce antlers. They are normally cast and regrown annually in pairs and are produced by the males of all deer species with the exception of the musk and water deer. Although it is abnormal for the females of any other deer species to grow antlers, female reindeer are the only ones to do so habitually.
Antler growth and casting is controlled by a number of hormones, the principal one being the hormone testosterone whose production is governed by daylight length. The growing antler is living bone which is covered by a furry skin called velvet which supplies it with oxygen and nutrients.
At the end of the growth cycle, the velvet is lost and the material within dies to become hard and insensitive. After a few months the join between antler and skull weakens and the antlers fall off. The process of regrowth begins again almost immediately in most cases.
Horns, on the other hand, consist of a living bone projecting from the skull that never dies back and is covered by a sheath of a tough protein called keratin, the same material found in hair, hooves, fingernails, feathers and claws. Horns are grown by ruminant animals such as goats, sheep, cows and antelope. They are generally retained throughout an animal’s life and continue to develop as it matures.
There is only one exception to this rule, the Pronghorn antelope of North America which sheds and regrows its horn sheath every year. This interesting animal is really neither a deer nor an antelope, although it is related to both, belonging in a distinct family of its own.
Somewhat confusingly, and although now considered by many to be a somewhat archaic term, it is still quite correct to refer to a deer that has shed the velvet on its newly grown antlers as being in ‘hard horn’.’ bds.org.uk
26th March
As soon as John and Clare arrived this morning they heard a Chiffchaff calling and then saw the bird in the old Alder near the spoil heaps. As soon as Clare tried recording the song, the bird flew away and went silent.
With a large bunch of Sylvia’s Willows remaining, John and Clare planted more round the two bird-watching seats, removing dead shoots and replanting outside the membrane floor this time.
Clare spotted a Great Diving Beetle making its way along the grass path away from the big pond. Apparently they use damp soil by the edge of ponds in which to pupate.
A heron is seen in the big pond at night. (The true Night heron can be seen in waterside habitats in Southern and Central Europe.)
27th March
Clare had found another dumping of stone by the wayside so she and John went rubble-rousing again, collecting several bagfuls to fill ruts.
They then finished planting the remaining Willows on the Wetland.
Again the singing chiffchaffs were alert to the sound of Clare getting her phone out to record them, and went silent, though immediately resumed singing once she had put her phone away.
‘It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is from summer in the light, and winter in the shade.’ (from Great Expectations Charles Dickens) Taking advantage of the sunshine (the apiary is sheltered from the worst of the wind), Clare had a quick look at the hives and was disappointed to discover that only two of the four colonies had made it thought the winter. One might have been too small to survive; the other had obviously succumbed to damp. The hive was secondhand and maybe past its waterproof prime and needs replacing.
New Yellow Iris shoots are emerging.
‘…the shoots of yellow iris are pushing through in six-inch blades, a water-bed of daggers; every day they ‘weaponise’ towards the swords of their maturity…Yellow iris is yellow flag (on account of its large petals), is Jacob’s sword, is segg, from the Anglo-Saxon for ‘sword’. The knifeness of the young leaves means that the water-margin plant is occasionally nominated as the origin of the ‘fleur-de-lys’ of heraldry.’
from Still Water: The Deep Life of the Pond
28th March
A Mandarin duck appears on the trail camera in daylight for the first time. This is a male and you can see the distinctive markings: bushy orange ‘whiskers’, triangular orange ‘sails’ on the back and a black chest.
The camera then captures a pair of herons.
29th March
Clare and John collected more rubble for the roadway then went to the Orchard where they freed three trees from their cages - a Damson, a Wild Cherry and the large Bird Cherry. They have each reached a size where they are unlikely to be used by a fraying buck. John noticed that the Oak nearby has become even more of a veteran tree.
Freed Bird Cherry.
After several attempts Clare managed to record a Chiffchaff without it noticing her getting her phone out. The song is unremarkable and an easy one to learn.
30th March
The deer haven’t been seen on Liddells for a while, although John and Clare saw two groups of three out on a field very near to Liddells earlier this week. The trail camera however captured the three does near the big pond.
The film illustrated in 4th - 7th March is ‘Withnail and I’.