September 30, 2023

September - time to rest

September 30, 2023

As usual, video footage can be accessed through the Blog page of the website: www.liddells.co.uk

2nd September

John and Clare have decided that the next ten years will involve less hard work, accordingly they had a stroll to begin the new month. Clare found a Harvestman occupying the Necessarium, Purple Loosestrife offering late forage for pollinators and the first fir cones on one of the young Scots Pines.

3rd September

Enough rest - Clare did some preparatory work for a small wall repair on the west boundary while John repaired fencing on the Hayfield in readiness for the sheep to come later in the year.

Clare found a Violet already in flower on the edge of the Pit Wood.

Clare was delighted to see a Spotted Flycatcher from the hide. These birds haven’t been seen since early in the season. This one may have been feeding up en route south or it may have been around the whole time.

A hare in the north-west corner of the Pit Wood demonstrates the art of stretching.

4th - 5th September

John and Clare completed the wall repair then John extracted an unused hurdle from long grass while Clare used a crowbar to dig up some buried coping stones on the Hayfield. Unfortunately the crowbar slipped. As Clare takes most of the photos, not many of her appear in the Blog - good to swing the balance a bit; it would have been better not to swing the crowbar.

There has not been much activity on the roadside pond this season so Clare was delighted to spot this female Southern Hawker ovipositing near the edge.

9th September

Always good to see later flowering plants for the pollinators. Here a bee forages on Michaelmas daisies in the Meadow.

It was the local Village Show this morning and John won a first prize for his photo of a Spotted Flycatcher taken earlier in the summer, and Clare won a second prize for the Red Admiral photograph from last month’s blog post.

A kid shows off its pronking skills in the Pit Wood.

11th - 12th September

Another new insect discovery, this time a Sun fly Helophilus pendulus. It is a hoverfly and its scientific name means ‘dangling marsh-lover.’ It was neither dangling nor on a marsh. While Clare was giving some syrup to the bees, she noticed a beetle had fallen into one of the wasp traps. She fished it out and wrapped it in a tissue to bring home to check the identification. It was a Smooth Ground beetle and as you can see from the photograph, appeared pretty much dead, however the next day Clare was surprised to see it climbing out of the compost bucket where she’d put it. Another dramatic drowning insect rescue and revival.

In the gloom a badger marks territory on the edge of the Pit Wood.

13th September

John and Clare were delighted to welcome Linda F back to walk round Liddells with a view to some creative writing activity in the future. While Linda and Clare were exploring they saw a male Southern Hawker basking on a tree trunk and a female Common Darter basking on a stone, both by the Big Pond. They also noticed a group of Puffballs that had released their spores.

After Linda had left, Clare went foraging for this year’s Hedgerow Jelly and foraged quite a few creatures with the fruit - two different shield bugs and two species of spider. None of them will go into the jelly. Clare also videoed a Speckled Wood foraging on the blackberries. The butterfly seems to prefer the fruits that have gone over slightly.

Birch Shield Bug - this is about the size of a ladybird

Eurasian armoured long-jawed orb-weaver *Metellina segmentata*

14th September

The doe with twins sets about grooming them.

22nd September

Clare discovered that as well as the familiar Bluebottle fly, there is a Greenbottle - here is one on Michaelmas daisies.

23rd September

Catching Covid has left John and Clare unable to do little more than gentle strolls on Liddells, however today Clare enjoyed sixteen sightings of hares - of course several were probably the same hare or hares, however the views certainly helped lift the spirits. There were five at one time on the Hayfield.

25th September

Yet another recuperative stroll and watching a hare run away on the edge of the Pit Wood alerted Clare to an Elm tree she had never noticed before. It’s quite small and much higher up the bank than the ones already identified. Liddells continues to surprise.

26th September

One of the does shows how much her coat is changing to winter colours. She also shows gorget patches. John has read some commentators who think that these are more prominent in winter.

28th September

John may not be working much, however Clare discovered that he had invested in a new toolbox dedicated to spanner activity. It takes all sorts. Clare was amused by the double sense of this and decided to see if there are any spanner jokes available. Of course there are. Once again Liddells proves to be a route to consciousness raising.

29th September

Michaelmas Day - the day that marks the end of harvest, the start of winter and the beginning of shorter days. Oak leaves are on the turn.

The doe with twins is quite clear with them that milk is off the menu. Maybe she too needs a rest. It looks at this stage as if both kids might be bucks.

Hares seem to be playing Hide and Seek.

Clare and John

June 30, 2023

June - the call of the wild

Clare and John

June 30, 2023

First corrections and clarifications from last month. Chris, ever supportive, helped untangle the mysteries of the dragon/damselfly emergences. Chris says that the last photo of the May blog post shows ‘four damselfly exuviae and two damselflies. The white threads coming out of the back of the two in the centre are the nymphs’ spiracles and are evidence that emergence has occurred. Bottom left, hidden by a leaf…there are two more, one behind the other. The upper damselfly is a female large red, recently emerged and beginning to colour up. The lower one has only just emerged and has no colour or visible markings so we can’t say what it is, although it will be a large red or an azure. It is still in the process of expanding its wings which will go clear like the one above’. Chris also commented that the penultimate photograph shows a Four-spotted chaser, not, as Clare had labelled it, a female Broad-bodied chaser. He pointed out the extra spots on the wings; he said that without a clear view of the abdomen, it isn’t possible to determine the sex.

NB remember that to see the videos (and there are some particular delights later in the Blog) go to the website www.liddells.co.uk and click on the Blog page.

1st June

Clare decided to embark on her 30 Days Wild - readers take note, this Wildlife Trust challenge has been featured in The Archers this year - by having a stroll round Liddells to see what she could see. She wondered about attempting some grass/rush/sedge identification but decided life was too short. She made for the Big Pond where she realised that almost every upright growth in the water had several damselfly exuviae attached.

She noticed a pair of Pied Wagtails flying away from the Hayfield, and what she guessed was a juvenile Rook hopping along the boundary wall while a parent bird appeared to caw encouragement from the top of an Ash tree.

She was keeping an eye open for any glimpse of a doe and kids and did hear a deer bark but with no sign of the animal. As she approached the north-east corner of the Pit Wood, she kept her eye out for Spotted flycatchers. It’s the part of the wood where she has seen them in previous years although she had spent a while looking there without success two days previously. She was delighted to see a pair of the birds and watched them for about half an hour as they fluttered between an Ash and a Hawthorn. Next she went to the hide to fill the feeders and was amazed to see a Spotted flycatcher on top of one of the Hawthorns in front of the hide. It flew off towards where she had just been watching them. Neither Clare nor John have ever seen this species near the hide before. While she was watching, a Tree Sparrow, usually very shy about coming on to the feeders if someone is in the hide, spent a lot of time taking mixed seed. Then a pair of Siskins perched nearby. These have not been seen for months here. A good bird-watching episode. All these sightings are a reminder that the breeding bird survey doesn’t account for all the birds that may be around. It was also a great start to Clare’s 30 Days Wild.

Clare then had another unexpected experience - she realised that about a dozen sheep and lambs from the neighbouring field had pushed against the bottom gate, freeing the bolt though the chain was still in place, and opening it sufficiently to force their way through the gap, and were busy grazing on the Meadow. Clare set about some impromptu shepherding. This involved unlocking the gate while not letting any more animals in. At the sound of the padlock some cows and calves came running down to the gate so they had to be sent on their way first. While this was happening some of the sheep had made their way up through the Scrub and were near the open gate into the Hayfield. Clare managed to head them off at the pass, get to the gate before them and close it but then had to make a wide arc round the sheep to encourage them back down. She also had to keep an eye on the neighbouring field to check nothing else was getting in. This involved a lot of running up and down hill seeking different routes from the sheep. Fortunately the splinter group made their way out of the gate. Clare then sought to move the Meadow sheep. She managed to encourage them out of the Meadow and she closed the hurdle - not an easy task as it hadn’t been moved for ages and the chicken wire at the bottom had become enmeshed in grass. As she moved them towards the gate they broke back into the Meadow by forcing themselves through the wire. Hurdle off again. Clare felt like a beginner at a sheepdog trials as they sheep kept circling the Meadow, approaching the entrance and then going off in a different direction. At last they left the Meadow but then chose to go back into the Scrub. Clare wanted to head them off before they reached the top so went up through the Scrub by a different path. The sheep, intent on getting to the top, were ahead of her. Clare went back down to the bottom, through the gate and up the road, in through the top gate and approached them from above. This seemed to work and the sheep headed down the main path. Clare took the other path and hoped to stop them turning left at the bottom rather than right and through the gate. This was a good plan except the sheep were slower than Clare had expected and were still quite a way up the path when Clare appeared at the bottom. Guess what - they went back up the path. Clare repeated the last section of the plan and this time the sheep came all the way down the path and turned right and out through the gate. Clare reckons this counts as a wild experience. She can also see that it does all sound quite amusing. One day she hopes to be able to laugh about it. Fortunately she was soothed on her walk home by seeing a pair of Linnets and a mile further on, a pair of Greenfinches.

June 2nd

Clare noticed that the cattle grazing with the sheep had been munching on the Sycamores overhanging Liddells’ road wall, probably because they are sweet with honeydew at the moment, and the cattle had knocked down quite a section of the wall. Clare made her way down to the NE Strip to prune the Sycamores there and reduce the risk of more damage. As she approached the Meadow she saw a ewe and two lambs happily grazing there. They must have split off at some point during yesterday’s shenanigans and returned to the Meadow after Clare had left. Fortunately Tim and Jane were walking past at just this moment so the business of removing the sheep only took a couple of minutes. Hardly wild at all.

The Flycatchers were still in the same area of the Pit Wood and using the same perches as yesterday. Clare returned a deer’s bark with one of her own, a skill learned from John. She saw a large newt in the Big Pond and a green Weevil on the road gate.

Clare thinks this is Polydrusus cervinus although the description does not include metal gates as a habitat.

A clip from the trail camera in the Pit Wood - although no wildlife is to be seen the footage is included here because the bird calling is a Marsh tit. They are often seen on the feeders but not so often heard.

Later that same evening the camera captures a wonderful close up of the older buck’s head. You can see the gutters (grooves) and pearls (the knobbly bits) on his antlers, and just what a fine head he has.

June 3rd

Clare did more Sycamore brashing while John repaired the wall. After that strenuous work John went to see if he could photograph the Flycatchers. He was very pleased with the result. Rightly so.

Clare had a leisurely walk around and several wild encounters - a Goldcrest, a Treecreeper, a Sparrowhawk and the Flycatchers. She sat in the hide for a while and noticed a Great tit make numerous trips to peck up some of the peanut butter-based paste that she makes and leaves on the tree trunk feeder. The bird took the paste to the nestlings in J2.

By the pond she saw a female Broad-bodied chaser ovipositing, a Small Copper butterfly and had an up close and personal encounter with a Large Red damselfly.

Keen film fans might recognise a film from 1970 referenced here (answer at the end of this post)

4th June

Mel arrived to complete a wildflower survey. He showed Clare the difference between a Bulbous buttercup and a Meadow buttercup. In the latter the sepals are turned downwards.

John created a Sycamore Gap on Liddells by removing the spindly trees in the NE Strip which were not only tempting the cattle but crowding out some Oaks.

John thinks the footage below is of the younger doe and is left wondering if she is pregnant. Time may tell.

5th June

Clare often hears Blackcaps singing on Liddells however with all the foliage she rarely sees one. Today one perched in one of the Hawthorns in front of the hide. Catching up with some old episodes of Tweet of the Day later on, Clare was reminded that the bird is referred to as the ‘Northern Nightingale’.

Clare set about some preparatory work for the school visit next month by beginning to weed the steps up to the Point of View ready to add new chip.

Mel sent his updated record of the wildflowers on Liddells. It’s an impressive and encouraging record and John and Clare are hugely grateful to Mel for the time he has given and the thoroughness with which he has done this. You can see the record here. Mel was interested to find several specimens of White Bugle not far from the hide. He commented that these are quite rare. He also enjoyed the Orange Hawkweed on the Meadow and the Water Violet in the Big Pond.

Mel prefers the name Grim the Collier:
‘Although Pilosella aurantiaca (more commonly known as Fox-and-cubs) is a native of northern Europe, it must’ve been introduced to Britain a very long time ago as it gets a mention in Gerard’s 1633 Herbal. Gerard called it Grimme the Collier, which seems to me a most intriguing name. I’ve read speculation that the name may have been coined because the plant’s hairs resemble coal dust on a miner’s beard (really?) but there was also a play that originated in the early 1600s called Grim the Collier of Croydon and that was apparently based on a real-life character from the mid 16th century. It would seem more likely that the plant’s name relates to the person or the play but, in that case, I can’t help wondering: was Grim tall with a head of bright orange hair? Was Grim an invader from northern Europe? Were these particular flowers mentioned in the play?’ (Earthstar.blog)

6th June

Hares and roe deer are predominant on the trail cameras however Clare and John are always pleased to see evidence of other life (except grey squirrels).

8th June

Clare was working on the steps when she saw a Red and Black Froghopper. Struck by their colour she thought about London buses and wondered if several would turn up together. Sure enough within a few minutes she had seen four, clearly the Routemasters of the insect world. Here are a couple:

John has been surprised to see the younger buck still around, particularly as this is the time when does give birth and have usually pushed the former year’s youngsters away by now. You can see that this one has, in roe deer head terms, a rather poor set of antlers.

However the older buck seems aware of the younger one’s presence as he sniffs at this branch and the next day is seen chasing him through the Scrub.

9th - 11th June

Clare noticed the first of the Common Spotted Orchids out in flower on the Meadow and a profusion of Ragged Robin at the base of the Crag. A female Broad-bodied Chaser perched long enough for Clare to get a photograph and she watched a family of Willow Warblers near the apiary. One juvenile stayed still for long enough for a short video.

13th June

Clare was delighted to be receiving a new colony of bees today - a small colony that was the result of swarm control by beekeepers in a nearby village. The delivery was due early in the morning as it was so hot and when Clare arrived at Liddells the dew revealed a mass of webs all over the grass.

‘Sheet webs are usually built by the Linyphiidae. This is the largest family of spiders in the UK, with 280 species. It includes the tiny money spiders said to bring good luck if you find one wandering over you.
The smallest species tend to build their sheet webs on depressions in the soil, others on low vegetation and some on tree bark.
The money spider hangs beneath its web, waiting for dinner to land above.’ (https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/spider-webs.html)

14th June

John and Clare have been keen to retrieve the trail camera discs as they have been expecting the roe does to have their kids at any time now, however here is the older doe still pregnant.

15th - 21st June

While metaphorically pacing the corridors of the maternity ward, John and Clare enjoyed welcoming Hal, Beth and Juno for an afternoon on Liddells, continued their preparations for group visits in July and for John’s inaugural talk on roe deer which he is giving at a local village hall. Clare also completed this year’s assault on the Creeping thistle on the Meadow - she was delighted to have found only 78 in total, well down from previous years.

Positioning the first post for what will become a tree house. Beth would like it noted that John is not carrying anything and that carrying it over, she had the heavy end

Juno and Hal indulge in a bit of tree climbing…

while John assumes the role of Health and Safety Officer

Juno joined in Insect Week by finding and examining the nymph of a Froghopper inside Cuckoo Spit. She couldn’t resist finding a use for Foxglove flowers.

John took his camera to the pond.

John also spotted the creature below on a leaf on the pond. Clare thinks it belongs in a cartoon or animated film. The Royal Entomological Society has a wonderful insect identification service and the response to Clare’s enquiry about this one was that it is ‘one of the leaf beetles from the family Chrysomelidae with some 280 UK species. This one could be Plateumaris sericea or a related species. They have a variety of colour forms and are found near ponds where the larval food plants are’.

After leaving the bees alone to settle in for a few days, Clare moved them from the nucleus hive (5 frames) to a full size brood box. The bees had built wild comb on top of the frames - Clare thinks they must be upwardly mobile.

John says that bucks often seem to be invisible in the summer months however the older buck is maintaining his presence for the trail camera in the Scrub.

22nd June

The day before John’s talk ‘A Year in the Life of the Roe Deer’, Clare decided to change the discs in her camera. Imagine her delight when she saw the perfect postcript for the talk.

Clare reckons the one at the back is destined for a career in comedy. The doe has had triplets for the third year running.

The doe is picked up by the camera in the Pit Wood later the same day though only two kids appear.

23rd June

One kid appears on its own in the Scrub.

24th/25th June

With paths needing chip, John and Clare hired a chipper and invited a few friends to come and work extremely hard in return for some cake. Fortunately they have great friends. Five piles of brash were converted to the wood equivalent of mincemeat, about two dozen bagfuls were used on paths and the rest bagged up for future use. Clare was so focussed on the work she forgot to take photographs until the end so it looks as though Jane E did all the work. Clare and John would like to extend their thanks to all who took part - Barry, Jane B, Mel, Pat and Jane E. As ever they all pitched in with huge amounts of effort, great good humour and a much valued generosity of spirit. Thanks too to local farmer John R who donated lots of bags to reuse.

Jane B discovered a visitor on her jacket which Jim Hardie of the Royal Entomological Society identified as ‘an adult female meadow plant bug, Leptopterna dolabrata which is a plant/capsid bug, family Miridae of which there are some 230 UK species’. Good for it to appear in Insect Week. Also supporting Insect Week - Clare noticed these beetles bonking on Hogweed while she was walking home. Regular readers of the blog will know that in spite of their location and activity, these are not Hogweed Bonking beetles, although they may be trying to emulate them. These are Speckled Longhorn beetles Pacyytodes cerambyformis.

‘In the UK it is locally common in the south of England and the west midlands, throughout Wales and more local and scarce through most of Scotland. Adults are active from May until July … the typical habitat is deciduous woodland and wooded parkland but they fly well and will travel some distance to visit flowers and so may occur away from wooded areas, e.g. we found specimens on umbel flowers beside a busy A-road in Surrey far from any woodland, they are very active and on warm days may display a habit of hovering above flowers and moving rapidly, in the way a hoverfly might move. Mating occurs throughout the season and pairs may be seen on the leaves and flowers of various shrubs and herbaceous plants, typically umbels but also meadowsweet.’ (ukbeetles.co.uk)
Clare saw these beside a path between woodland and a road.

Crossing the Hayfield to some of the brash piles on Saturday, Clare noticed three very small couches all close together, suggesting the triplets had been left to lie up there. John says very young kids are scentless so their presence can’t be detected by the likes of a fox. On Sunday Clare arrived early and went onto the Meadow to remove some Hogweed flower heads and found a single couch. She thought this might not be one of the triplets who would most likely be together. Seeing a movement out of the corner of her eye, she realised she was looking at a single kid at the far end of the Meadow. It ran backwards and forwards along the fence line for a while watching Clare. No other kids appeared, nor a doe, so Clare left it confident that it would either find a way out or be found by the doe. John and Clare are left wondering if a second doe has given birth.

Clare also had a couple of delightful butterfly encounters on the Meadow.

25th June

Footage from the Scrub camera suggests that there is indeed a doe with only one kid.

28th June

Two video clips from the Scrub camera both seem to suggest that there is a doe with just one kid, maybe the kid Clare saw on the Meadow. The triplets have not appeared all together on the cameras since 22nd June. In the first clip it looks as though the doe stops to groom the kid just out of range of the camera.

29th June

John and Clare set about the last of the preparations for the Hexham Village Band’s visit on Saturday. Clare then went to Barry’s for some beekeeping and was delighted to spot a new queen fairly quickly - cataract surgery and new spectacles seem to work. Once a queen is identified she can be marked and this makes the whole process of swarm control considerably easier. Queens born this year are marked red although Barry’s queen was marked green as this was the pen to hand; clearly Clare and Barry are catering for red/green colour blindness.

If you have taken up the 30 Days Wild challenge, John and Clare hope you have enjoyed it.

The answer to the film question posed on 3rd June is Claire’s Knee, directed by Eric Rohmer. Clare remembers going to see this film as a student in the days of power cuts. The film had hardly started before the cinema was plunged into darkness whereupon Clare heard a disgruntled voice behind her complaining, “We haven’t even seen Claire, let alone her knee!”

Clare and John

March 31, 2023

March - the coming of Spring

Clare and John

March 31, 2023

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.

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.

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’.

Clare and John

January 31, 2023

January 2023 - benchmarking

Clare and John

January 31, 2023

1st January

To experience the Blog in all its video glory, go to liddells.co.uk and click on Blog.

Clare began her year delighted to be able to return to some bird-watching. It was as if a rainbow had come out. After a lot more rain the roadside pond seems to be holding its level.

The Pit Wood trail camera captures the old buck - you can see this year’s antlers forming and how thickly covered they are with velvet. John says the older bucks grow their antlers before the younger ones and growth begins as soon as they shed the old ones, which can be any time in November and December.

2nd January

John lit the first fire of the year in the shepherd’s hut. A stoat and two hares keep warm with activity in the Scrub.

3rd January

A hare looks contemplative in the Pit Wood and a young doe noses around.

4th - 5th January

John started work on the benches for the Meeting Room, recycling upstands from benches he made for Hal and Beth several years ago.

John provided his own caption - ‘John has been elevated to the bench’

5th - 7th January

John planted more Willows, started work on a second bench and saw fives hares as he was walking around.

The Pit Wood trail camera captured a pair of hares that looked as if they might start boxing.

In the Scrub, the doe and triplets go round in circles, disturbed by nearby shooting.

9th January

John did more work on the second bench for the meeting room and plugged some of the leaks from the recycled and storm damaged roofing sheets with a bitumen sealant. He is hoping this will work.

Clare began putting netting on the shepherd’s hut steps which are very slippery when wet.

10th - 14th January

John did some stone-walling repair work on the north boundary, worked on the second bench, added more sealant to the roof (his work two days ago seems to have been effective), and added a drip cover to one of the windows.

The first fox of the year is captured on camera in the Pit Wood. It pauses to look at the camera light.

The young buck’s antlers continue to grow.

A kid’s squeak is very clearly heard in Pit Wood footage.

The Pit Wood camera captures four roe deer and very clearly shows the difference in rump pattern between the three does and the buck.

Either one badger goes through the Scrub twice ot two badgers go through about 40 minutes apart.

15th January

The second bench is nearly complete so John started on the frame for one of the tables. Then demonstrated how they might be used.

Clare is adopting a one-step-at-a-time approach.

16th January

Snow! While John was walking round with his camera, he saw five deer moving from the Scrub, up and along the Crag, across the Top Grazing and into the Top Strip. He only managed to get four of them on camera. He said they were most likely the old buck, older doe and her three triplets.

17th January

For reasons best known to itself, the Scrub trail camera has decided to stop taking video footage in favour of stills, however it has captured a stoat with prey and a Woodcock.

19th January

Chris B met John and Clare to talk about bringing up some hard core to fill in the muddy ruts on the Top Grazing near the gate. Clare heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming nearby. It continued to drum on and off throughout the morning’s visit. John and Clare filled the feeders and sat in the hide and were rewarded by a Bullfinch feeding on bramble seeds in front of the hide. Neither John nor Clare dared move to reach for a camera. Bullfinches are resident on Liddells and often seen in the trees, however they seldom venture near the feeders so this was a particular delight.

20th January

Taking best advantage of the hard, frosty ground, Chris sent a team up to make the roadway less muddy. John was impressed not only by the speed and efficiency of the work, but by skilful digger manipulation and trailer reversal.

21st - 22nd January

A Jay digs for acorns in the snow.

John made a start on a second table, using timber from the small and now outgrown bed he made for Juno.

Ice on the roadway pond looks to be in Art Deco style as it begins to thaw. The water below is draining away slightly so the ice surface is sloping.

Catkins have appeared on hazels and alders in the Pit Wood. The catkins on the old hazel tree are far more abundant though less developed than on the more recently planted trees.

23rd - 30th January

John continued his work on the table tops and started the third bench. He has sanded, varnished and planed the edges.

A badger demonstrates the meaning of rootling.

Signs of Spring activity to come are appearing - one hare is clearly interested in another; two different badgers (one larger than the other) an hour or so apart mark their territory on opposite sides of the path in the Pit Wood; a fox marks his territory in the same area; a pair of male pheasants confront each other.

The family of four roe deer are still being seen together, although the smaller of the two young does is often captured several minutes behind the others. The single doe and kid haven’t been seen on film for some time now so have probably moved on to find their own territory.

Clare noticed several deposits of a white opaque jelly round the edges and on the island of the big pond. On closer inspection these were attached to what looked like eggs. Keith thinks they are snail eggs, most likely of the water snails.

John noticed that something has been nibbling away at the trunk of one of the trees in the Orchard - possibly hares or rabbits during the cold spell.

31st January

Final benchmarks and a rainbow for the end of the month.

John wishes it to be known that he realises that the bench position in the next photograph is preferable to the arrangement above.

Clare and John

December 31, 2022

December - hip hip hooray

Clare and John

December 31, 2022

Happy New Year to all Blog Readers - thank you for your support. We hope you continue to enjoy progress reports from Liddells. To see the Blog in all its glory, ie with trail camera footage included, click here and then click on Blog.

2nd December

John planted about 40 willow whips from neighbour Sylvia’s tree.

It is always heartening to see that there are hares thriving on Liddells. Here two rush through the Scrub.

3rd December

Clare made sure her bees were ready for the winter before she went in for her hip op. (The surgeon is also a beekeeper, so understood how the timing of the operation suited a beekeeper’s calendar. There is very little to do over winter except check the bees have plenty of food available.) Clare hefted the hives to assess the state of the stores and added boxes of fondant over holes in the crown board above the colony - the bees’ metabolism is slowed right down so they need to eat sugar directly without needing to process it, as they have to with syrup. Clare also added pillowcases stuffed with old sweaters under the roofs to provide some insulation and help absorb any damp.

John set about revamping a temporary log shelter near the bug hotel and worked on clearing a pine in the Pit Wood that had fallen during Storm Arwen, brashing the trunk ready for logging.

He brought home photographic evidence of how cold it was at Liddells.

5th - 6th December

John has moved his trail camera to the north-west corner of the Pit Wood as he recognises it is one of the deer’s favourite places. First on the scene was a pair of hares, then sure enough, the camera captured a doe couching and the young buck standing , then they reverse positions.

10th December

The cold brought a dense mist to Liddells that was slow to clear. Through the murk the camera in the Scrub has recorded the family of four roe; it is a while since they have all been seen together.

12th December

While Clare recovered in the warm at home, John’s car recorded that it was -5º while he worked at Liddells.

14th December

John is doing preparatory work prior to getting logs from the northern boundary under shelter. It remains cold.

16th December

John cleared an old gate and other debris from the north-west corner of the Pit Wood. He noticed how much less frosted the evergreens are than other growth.

20th -21st December

The Scrub camera captures the young buck on his own. The doe will have been encouraging him to go it alone. A Jay appears to be listening for its buried acorns.

22nd December

John wandered round Liddells with his camera instead of being there to work. Although he has included a couple of images of recent work, going up to play has sent him into reflective mode, if not a bit barking.

Enlarged Trapezium Bridge (for the log trailer)

Orange Willows by the roadside pond - these are some of the very first Willow whips John and Clare planted, and were donated by Wenda and Matthew several years ago

and of an old one, probably past its canoe usefulness

The outflow from the spring, looking upstream. It is on the banks here that Primroses are abundant in the Spring

25th/26th December

A little bit of festive footage. A pair of Jays on Christmas Day and a single one pleasingly close to the camera on Boxing Day; also on Boxing Day a doe, a buck and another doe (probably one of the younger ones) are startled by nearby pheasant shooting and run through the Scrub.

John had to do some repairs to the meeting room roof to stop some leaks.

28th - 30th December

John set about various tasks - more work on widening the Trapezium Bridge, stone-walling on the northern boundary, adding a pallet to the temporary log shelter, clearing logs round the log shed, and making voice notes for tasks in the New Year with which, fingers crossed, Clare will be able to help. John saw three roe making their way out of the Scrub, across the Meadow and into the NE Strip. The roadside pond is filling up again with recent rain.

31st December

Three trail camera clips to end the year, a doe, a hare and the young buck - you can see the buttons developing on his head.

Clare and John

November 30, 2022

November - fog, fog blog

Clare and John

November 30, 2022

For those of you who had difficulty loading the last post, there are fewer videos this month, so it should be easier. As ever, go to the website: www.liddells.co.uk and access the Blog from there to see all the video footage.

October’s Blog was posted before John and Clare saw the Halloween activities in the Pit Wood. One hare is joined by another, but can you see the deer as well?

Although the footage is in black and white, the small birds in the Pit Wood can be identified as Bullfinches - you can see the white rump of the one flying off to the left.

An owl makes a Halloween sortie and its movements suggest it was successful.

2nd November

A fox makes its way through the Pit Wood.

3rd November

Footage of a hare nibbling shows its markings very clearly.

5th November

A fox in the Pit Wood again; it’s hard to know whether or not it is the same fox as a few days earlier, however this one seems to have a kink at the end of its tail that is not so evident in the other one.

More footage of a Jay in the Scrub and as it flies off there is a brilliant flash of the blue in its wing feathers. Jays often appear here in the Scrub as do grey squirrels. It’s possible they are raiding each other’s stashes.

6th November

John fixed catches to the shutters and a handle to the door of the meeting room. The choice of handle is particularly satisfying as it is a recycling of a fixture from the old pony shelter.

Clare found a fungus she had not seen before. It resembles tiny ghostly trees. Thus far she has been unable to identify it. Any suggestions welcome.

Footage from the Pit Wood shows the backs of two hares as they run past the camera, however the source of the squeaking is a mystery. Clare wondered if it was a roe kid, however John thinks this is unlikely given the maturity of the kids now. Any ideas?

9th November

John finished varnishing the meeting room floor.

10th November

More owl footage. A Tawny Owl again finds prey in the Pit Wood.

12th November

Clare brashed a path to the group of Aspens (two newly planted and Juno’s tree) in the Pit Wood and managed to punch herself in the nose with the long loppers. Memo: never tug towards the face. She felt very foolish and very sore and with a black eye as a momento. The path looks nice though.

13th - 16th November

Clare began the annual cleaning of the nest boxes ready for next year. She found the remains of a wasp nest in one, the vacated nest of tree bumblebees in another and lots of woodlice in several.

John worked on logging and moving the remains of the fallen oak branch in the Orchard.

The doe with two of the triplets, the buck and one of the does, forage in the Pit Wood.

The next day one of the kids appears limping. This is similar to last year although there is no obvious injury to the kid. Clare wonders whether with triplets, one might become slightly more vulnerable if it is always last in the queue for food or attention. This year the cameras have shown that one of the three kids, a doe, is habitually slightly behind and more separate from the others. Meanwhile the single kid and the other doe have been seen together and are apparently healthy. John says that in deer world generally, survival rates are thought to be in the region of 30%. In the case of roe deer the figure may well be higher.

18th November

After considerable rain yesterday, Clare was delighted to see the roadside pond fuller than it has been in months and water coming out of the overflow pipe.

19th November

The Hexham Village Band came to plant an Oak tree for one of their members who has died. It was a very touching ceremony. After the planting the band became the first users of the meeting room. They managed to squeeze in 20 players even though one end of the space was full of wood ready to be made into tables and benches. You will note the creative use of the window.

20th November

Sadly Clare and John saw first the carcass of a hare on the path below the Scrub, then Woodcock feathers a bit further on. A Sparrowhawk is probably responsible for the Woodcock. Hares continue to turn up on the trail cameras, so there are still some around.

23rd November

Mel came to help John with tree maintenance, mostly replacing stakes and tubes on the Wetland and in the Pit Wood.

26th November

John completed cleaning out the nesting boxes, which meant climbing up the the three Clare couldn’t reach.

27th November

The Scrub trail camera captures a lone doe kid with a very slight limp and what looks as if it might have been a wound near her front right shoulder. If this is so then it seems as if the kid is getting better, though separated from the family.

29th November

Clare had found a lovely passage in November’s section of Nature Writing for Every Day of the Year, and sent John off with his camera to produce some illustrations. He was somewhat hampered by the dense fog that covered the land, however he managed to augment the writing with his creative eyes and with other treats from Liddells bosky areas.

‘A Leafy November

On some of the oaks the inner leaves were still greenish, while those on the outer boughs were brown, and the mingling of the two tints seen at a little distance under the sunshine produced a remarkable and pleasing colour. Other oak trees had assumed so red a brown as to approach a copper colour…Between the dark Scotch firs the foliage of the beeches seemed warm red. The branches of the larch had a fluffy appearance, caused by the yellow needles which had partly separated but had not yet fallen…Birches, too, except just at the corners of the copses or in isolated positions, were not yet bare…while whole hedgerows full of maple bushes glowed with orange. The sun shone brilliantly day after day, lighting up the varied hues of the trees and hedges and filling the woodlands with beauty.’

From Chronicles of the Hedges, 1879, Richard Jeffries (1848-1887)

Clare was amused to see that today’s OED Word of the Day is bockety: ‘of a person: unable to walk without difficulty; infirm, lame. Also of a body part: injured, impaired’. The dictionary word chooser seems to know that Clare is due for a hip replacement next week. She looks forward to being less bockety in the New Year.

Thanks to Mathilda for this month’s blog post title; the month seems to be ending in typical November weather; ‘Dark November brings the fog/ Should not do it to a dog.’ (Flanders and Swan)

Clare and John

August 31, 2022

August - being driven round in circles

Clare and John

August 31, 2022

For new subscribers, it will be unlikely that you can watch the video footage through an email. We suggest that when you see the Blog email, go to liddells.co.uk and click on the Blog page. All the video clips will be there.

1st August

Clare and John visited the Knepp Estate in Sussex. This is where Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree have abandoned intensive farming in favour of a pioneering rewilding project. The Maori use the word kaitiakitanga, for ‘Guardianship or management, esp. of the natural resources of a place or area; environmental stewardship considered as a duty and responsibility of the inhabitants of an area’ (OED Word of the Day 04.07.22). The undertaking is inspiring, based as it is in respect for and trust of nature, and those qualities were apparent throughout. Although not the best time of year to see some of the more exciting species that have returned there, Clare and John each saw a Turtle Dove in fight, many White Storks and were astonished that a pair of red deer stags grazed within ten yards of the hut where they were staying. There were numerous Gatekeeper butterflies which Clare had not knowingly seen before; Clare noticed a Common Field Grasshopper had landed on her jacket, a short distance from its usual habitat of unimproved grassland, which was there in abundance.

Meanwhile, back on Liddells, the trail camera in the Scrub captured footage of a neighbour’s dog chasing one of the roe triplets. The doe and other two kids appear, following the scent and much alarmed. Clare and John are now waiting for any footage that shows the kid has been reunited with its family.

2nd August

Tim and Jane thought they had seen a Purple Hairstreak butterfly on the large oak on the Wetland last evening, so set off again this evening to try their luck. They were successful and saw a couple on a tree that overhangs the north boundary near the bee hives, although photographing the butterflies proved hard.

4-5th August

Clare has learned a lot about roe deer from John and was therefore excited to discover what she believed could be a driving circle in the Scrub, a clearly trampled circle round a Hawthorn. In the rut, a buck, sensing a doe coming into oestrus, will quite literally, drive her round in circles or a figure of eight until she is receptive. This may happen over several days. The buck appeared early in the day of the 5th. John came to look at the circle and agreed with Clare’s speculation so Clare moved the Scrub camera to focus on the central Hawthorn. Later that day the doe appeared, the buck is seen in pursuit, and a single kid follows on its own.

Clare worked some more on digging out the roadside pond while it remains dry.

6th August

Clare found a Ground Beetle cloaked in a spider’s web on the brush in the Necessarium. Ground Beetles are often found under the bark of decaying wood, so perhaps the sawdust was the attraction. The brush didn’t seem to be decaying.

The single kid appears on its own for several minutes in the morning and in the afternoon, near the Hawthorn in the Scrub.

7th August

Clare and John celebrated nine years of kaitiakitanga of Liddells by getting on with their chosen projects - Clare digging out the roadside pond and John working on the classroom. Mindful of the damage caused by Storm Arwen, he has decided to put shutters on the openings, which can be fixed open if there are weather warnings, thus allowing any storm winds to go through the structure without lifting off the roof.

Clare’s hunch proved to be well founded although the main driving circle proves to be to the right of the Hawthorn. The doe was captured hanging around the circle early in the day. The drive happens in the early evening. John has edited together all the clips from the trail camera and you can see the buck driving the doe for several minutes. There are calls audible throughout the drive. John is unsure whether these are from the buck or the doe. She seems to tire towards the end and then returns on her own, presumably after mating. John says that the buck will mate with the younger does first, hence selecting the doe with only one kid. John is very pleased to have footage of a drive.

8th August

Clare, having unsuccessfully tried to find Purple Hairstreaks on previous days, not realising that they are usually seen in the early evening in sunny, still conditions, rather than earlier in the day, was pleased to see Tim also out to look for them. Tim showed Clare exactly where to look and there indeed were a couple of the butterflies, just visible to the naked eye, however binoculars gave a better view.

9th August

Tom made 30 bales from the hay on the Wildflower Meadow. Clare and John enjoyed seeing the old-fashioned rectangular bales. Clare, finding it hard to know how deep was deep enough, saw the heap of soil she had removed and decided she had added sufficient depth to the roadside pond. She started work on uncovering the edging stones that had become overgrown.

11th August

Tim managed to get a photograph of a Purple Hairstreak and has helpfully circled its whereabouts! He pointed out that, rather than purple, the wing colour appears rather reddish.

13th August

Barry told Clare that in the north of England and in Scotland, the process of moving hay out of the fields and storing it in a barn is called ‘leading the hay’. Clare had not heard this before although then synchronously heard John use exactly this phrase later in the day. Barry also demonstrated the use of some rather nifty straps with ratchets to secure the hay on the trailer. Just as he was explaining that if you threaded them the wrong way, they were almost impossible to undo, John provided a visual aid for this problem. John and Barry led the hay to Barry’s barn. John finished untangling the strap by early evening. While investigating the phrase Barry had introduced, Clare discovered a photograph in National Galleries Scotland entitled ‘Leading Hay’. She rather wished she had worn a boater for the Liddells event.

Clare started work on the north side of the pondside road, spotting a Small Copper nearby.

14th August

Clare finished uncovering the stones on the south side of the road, so turned her attentions to the north, remembering that when the large digger had come to further dig out the big pond, it had displaced several of the road edge stones.

15 - 18th August

The classroom building work continues. You can see the first shutter in place.

Clare’s work on the road edge continues.

One of the trail cameras, now returned to the Pit Wood, shows a doe with two kids. There has been no footage showing all three kids since the beginning of the month.

A hen pheasant has a young chick. This is quite late in the season as pheasants typically raise a brood between April and June with the incubation period lasting on average between 22 and 28 days.

With no hare on the blog thus far in the month, here is a hare. John is seeing hares regularly on the Top Grazing while he works on the classroom. The hares may be using the hay bales as shelter from the sun. They seem unperturbed by John’s activities. He has seen five out at the same time.

21st August

A busy day. Jane B had arranged to bring several family members to Liddells. Zoe, who is studying agri-forestry, came early for a tour with Clare. There was plenty of activity on the pond and Zoe managed to capture a shot of a Common Darter at rest. Georgie and Charlie had fun testing their strength pushing bales and in the process found a caterpillar of the White Ermine Moth. The contrast in colouration between caterpillar and moth is striking. A visit to the hide entertained.

Charlie inspecting the results of his pond-dipping

Not a masked invader but Clare in her bee suit

Checking all the struts are there on the Alphabet Bridge

John lifted a roofing sheet from a pile on the ground to find two Violet Ground beetles underneath. They quickly scuttled for cover, however Clare managed to photograph one of them.

Clare completed a butterfly transect as Tim and Jane are away. Clare saw 8 different species - Large White 7, Green-veined White 4, Small Skipper 1, Red Admiral 3, Peacock 1, Speckled Wood 5 and Wall Brown 1. The Wall Brown was the first she had seen this year. Here is a photograph of one she saw just six days later while she was on a walk with Pat.

While Jane et al dipped the pond, Clare inspected her bees and was delighted to discover that the most recent split had worked, and the nucleus hive had frames of capped brood, indicating a successfully mated queen. Clare began the season with two colonies and has increased them to six. This hot, dry summer has offered ideal conditions for new queens to mate, unlike in previous years where cold, wet spells have compromised successful mating.

22nd - 23rd August

Clare was relieved to finish restoring the roadside edges. She then turned her attention back to the big pond and she and John started tackling more of the invasive Branched bur-weed and Hard and Soft rush.

John used surplus roofing sheets bought for the hide at a farmers’ sale three years ago, to create a weed-suppressing sub-floor for the classroom. Perhaps also a Violet Ground beetle hideaway.

24th August

The single kid has appeared on its own several times in the Scrub, however today the doe and kid appear together.

25th August

A doe followed by a single kid walk in front of the trail camera. Clare and John were relieved that the next clips show all three of the triplets. This is the first time they have all been recorded since the dog was seen chasing a kid.

In the evening a pair of hares run through the Scrub.

26th August

Clare and John were delighted to welcome TrogTrogBlog Chris to Liddells. They took a scenic route to the big pond where male and female Emerald damselflies, male and female Common Darters and two male Southern Hawkers kept them entertained. The Southern Hawkers frustrated all attempts to have their photographs taken, however you can see how spectacular they are here. While watching the activity on the pond, Tim and Jane appeared doing a butterfly transect so Clare was able to introduce three members of the Liddells curatorium (‘A group of curators (in various senses), typically acting as an advisory body.’ OED Word of the Day 28.08.22) to each other.

Clare and John, not having heard or seen a Greenfinch on Liddells for months, noticed a pair coming to drink at the pond. John managed to get a photograph of one.

He also took a couple of images that showed autumn on its way.

After Chris had left Clare noticed a dead hare near the log shed. There was no obvious cause of death.

Not long till hedgerow jelly making time

Not for the hedgerow jelly, these are poisonous, however thrushes can feed on the berries, as they are immune to its poisons, and scatter the seeds abroad.

27th August

Clare found, if not a fairy ring, at least a fairy semi-circle, in the Scrub near to the driving circle.

John moved the hare’s carcass and saw two Common Sexton beetles scuttle away into the grass. A hare would seem to be a bit too big for them to bury, however they may well have been feeding on the corpse. Apparently the beetles can sense rotting flesh at a distance of two miles.

John began flooring the west end of the classroom.

John and Clare were most surprised to see footage of a Woodcock in the Scrub. Readers may remember that there were clips of Woodcock in the Scrub last winter, however John and Clare had always thought that the birds were migrants rather than resident. You can hear a Tawny Owl calling in the background. Shortly after the Woodcock had left, a stoat appeared.

On their way to the hide, John noticed a frog sitting in the roadside pond Clare wondered if it was optimistic about the prospect of water, in which case it could be a Froghoper.

While John progressed with the classroom, Clare turned her attention to the damp section of the Wildflower Meadow and dug out the mint that was beginning to take over again. She also lifted and split Yellow Iris and Purple Loosestrife to replant round the ponds.

28th August

More activity in the Scrub. A Tawny Owl appears in front of the camera, then about twenty minutes later, the buck comes through. John has always said that after the rut, the bucks seem to vanish, however this one is still around.

A Great Tit flies at the camera. This happens again round about midday. The bird can’t be looking for a nesting site at this time of year.

Meanwhile, John decided to put a trail camera on the Meadow. He and Clare have seen deer on and nearby there quite often. His choice proved successful and a doe appears several times, again challenging the received wisdom that roe are crepuscular. The camera is pointing east.

29th August

Clare worked on the big pond again while John began the doorway for the classroom. They both spotted a new bit of excavation on the path near the hide. Best guess is a vole hole.

While at the hide there was a moment when there was a flurry of alarm calls, all the birds flew for cover and before Clare had finished saying, “Where’s the Sparrowhawk?” a female flew across the feeders. No birds were taken however it was a while before they reappeared, led by two Marsh tits.

Kathryn arrived with a trailer full of hazel seedlings which had germinated in pots in her garden, possibly from nuts buried by squirrels.

Mammalmade doorway (the tunnel is about 6-7 centimetres wide)

When Clare checked the trail camera she found several clips of a grey squirrel in the Scrub. There are often clips of grey squirrels and normally she would delete such footage muttering darkly, however, this time the videos raised a grudging smile. The squirrel’s activities lasted for a couple of minutes; John has stitched the videos together. The animal seems to be playing in a way reminiscent of stoats gambolling.

Clare and John

July 31, 2022

July - discoveries, neither hellish nor boring

Clare and John

July 31, 2022

There are more than usual video clips this month - roe kids are very cute. Remember that you are unlikely to be able to access these through the Blog email. Go to www.liddells.co.uk click on the Blog and watch them through the website.

John and Clare have been waiting and hoping for sightings of this year’s roe kids, and the first glimpse was towards the end of last month, however retrieved too late to include it in the June blog post.

1st July

Kathryn L came to plant trees she had kindly donated - a beech, an oak, two birches, a rowan and a holly. Cutting gorse for protection revealed a birds’ nest tucked deep into a gorse bush near the top gate. The nest hasn’t been feathered so may not have been used this year.

2nd July

The trail camera in the Scrub is showing at least six hare appearances in any twenty-four hour period.

The trail camera in the Pit Wood shows another tantalising glimpse of a roe and kid.

Earlier in the year, and on the way to check on one of Juno’s bird boxes, Clare had noticed an unfamiliar plant growing near one of the signposts to the hide. She had kept her eye on it and wondered if it might be an orchid although since the flowers have been late emerging, she dismissed the idea. More on this story later…

3rd - 6th July

The repair work from Storm Arwen continues. John finished restoring the fencing behind the sheds and started on the stretch at the east end of the Top Strip. Clare was delighted to see a pair of Bullfinches below the Scrub - she had remarked yesterday that it was a while since she had seen any. So gratifying to know the birds are listening.

At last there is a proper view of the new kid. Then one of the doe and kid together. Take a look at the shape of the doe’s muzzle. More on this story later…

The old buck chases another deer through the Scrub. John says it is a bit early for the rut (mid July to mid August), so more likely the buck is chasing another buck off his patch in readiness.

The hare is investigating a fern frond. More on this story later…

The doe appears with the kid. Then another kid. Then another kid - triplets again!

7th July

Obviously footage of the kids is irresistible. This doe’s muzzle markings are clearly visible. The edges of her muzzle are squared off.

A little later, still in the Pit Wood, a doe with a different muzzle shape appears. This muzzle tapers to a point at the sides.

8th July

The hare checks the frond again. Or it might be a different hare.

Clare and John set about collecting Yellow Rattle seeds from the Top Grazing. They were pleased to see how well the plant is establishing there.

Clare busied herself trying to photograph a wood wasp on one of the log piles, however it found a way down to the bottom and out of the camera’s view. On the way home from Liddells, John and Clare realised they had a longhorn beetle in the car which probably decided to hitch a ride while they were distracted by the wood wasp.

9th July

The buck is marking in the Scrub again. This is probably preparation for the rut, as would be chasing off any other bucks.

John and Clare are watching the footage of the new kids carefully and are a bit confused by what they are seeing - sometimes one, sometimes two, sometimes three. It is perfectly possible that sometimes a kid or two is off camera. However, the doe’s muzzle in the second of the three clips below, is just visible, and looks to be pointed at the sides. The kid on its own in the third video, may well be the third kid, following a little behind.

John and Clare are reaching the conclusion that there are two does with kids, one with three, and one with one. The doe with one kid is likely to be a youngster, no more than two years old. John says it is unusual for two does to be appearing to share the same territory.

10th - 14th July

Activity on the Top Grazing. John starts putting in the posts for the outdoor classroom. The hay is cut. (7th - 11th July is 温風至 Atsukaze itaru - Warm winds blow - in the Japanese microseasons. Good hay-making weather.)

Clare was surprised to find that the bees in the first colony she split are once again thinking of swarming. Nothing ventured, she decided to execute another split, putting the swarm cell and four other frames of brood into a nucleus hive. More on this story later…

Clare began digging reeds out of the roadside pond while it is empty, and using the opportunity to add a little more depth to the pond.

One doe and one kid appear in the Scrub on two occasions; one kid appears, and leaves, independently. Then a doe goes through with three kids.

A hare nibbles at a rose stem in the Scrub. When Clare looked closely at the stem later, she found that it had no leaves (the hare doesn’t seem to be eating leaves), and concluded that the hare must have been eating the thorns. Rabbits are known to eat all parts of roses, including the thorns; as with deer, they are drawn to plants in the Rosaceae family, so it is likely hares are too. In a later video one hare jumps out at another; the first is noticeable smaller than the second, so probably one of this year’s young being surprised by an established resident. The next clip shows the hares apparently not in conflict.

15th July

After a long interruption, Clare and John were delighted to organise a Green Gym Day. They had over 50 trees to plant - donations and their own successful germinations from acorns and conkers - however as the forecast showed days of very hot, dry weather to come, planting trees with no means of watering them seemed to be a bad idea. The other task was to harvest Yellow Rattle seeds from the Wildflower Meadow. All good plans… There was rain. Off and on, quite a lot of rain. With the hot weather still in prospect, planting was out and with the rain, seed collection was out. What to do? John and Clare had been thinking about taking up the path at the west end of the Top Strip to make it possible to cut with the flail mower. The first job was to remove all the edging logs and the stakes holding them in place.

Clare arrived early and decided to catch up with the weekly email from the Northumbria Natural History Society. The email featured a short video on the Broad-leaved Helleborine . Clare was excited to realise that this very closely resembled the mystery plant near the hide and set off to check. Helleborines are also part of the orchid family. Bingo!

The Green Gym team arrived and set about tackling the Top Strip path. They created several piles of pleasingly rotting wood that will no doubt be appreciated by the local bug life. Gratifyingly, there seemed to be no need to pull up all the membrane underneath the path as there is sufficient weed growth for the chip, which is composting anyway, not to compromise the flails. There were gaps in the rain almost long enough for a picnic lunch. Clare noticed that for the first time there were nuts on one of the hazels planted as understory several years ago.

After the work was done, Clare took Pat with her to examine the plants again, and Pat noticed that some flowers had begun to open at the base of the spike, and agreed with the identification.

The doe and three kids are seen on the trail camera, as is the lame doe who hasn’t appeared for a while.

17th July

Although they are two days apart, the clip of the limping doe is followed by a video of a limping fox.

Clare was rewarded for her frequent visits to monitor the Nettle-leaved bellflower in the Scrub, and found that it had come into flower. In spite of the plant allegedly producing copious amounts of seed, there has only ever been one plant in this area.

The Alder Buckthorns from Tim and Jane have grown beyond the tops of their tubes.

Mel had been excited to hear about the Broad-leaved helleborine, saying it was a plant he had been looking for for many years. He went to see it and reported back that there were another 15-20 plants downstream of the first. So not a random occurrence but more likely an established colony that had just gone unnoticed all these years. It is thanks to Juno’s bird boxes that they were seen at all.

Clare inspected the nucleus and hive from which it had been split. There was another queen cell under construction in the nucleus, so Clare took that down, leaving the original. The hive will remain in purdah for a month or so until any new queen has had time to emerge, mature, mate and start laying. More on this story next month… There were eggs in the other hive so it would seem as if the bees have given up on the idea of swarming. It is now late in the season for them to do so, although bees have never been known to read the text books.

Clare was pleased to see a male Linnet in the Scrub - another bird that hadn’t been noticed around for a while.

A hare breaks off a piece of the bracken frond, then leave it uneaten. Some ferns are toxic to rabbits and hares. Maybe this hare remains unsure about this particular plant and takes the safe option.

19th July

John went out for an evening’s deer watching, armed with a video camera and a squeaker that mimics a roe kid’s cry. He wondered if the squeaker would attract a doe and kids. Instead the sound attracted the old buck who came barking and leaping around the Wetland. The buck would be looking for does to mate.

John also saw a Tawny Owl fly out of the North-east Strip.

20th July

The hay was baled yesterday. Barry advised that the bales are left standing to cool down for about 10 days. If they are stacked while the hay is very warm, and in this heat, there is a risk of combustion.

Knowing that the big pond was gradually getting choked with rush and Branched Bur-reed, Clare decided to face her dislike of wading through mud and to order waders so that she could tackle the task of reducing the numbers of these plants. With the dry weather the water in the pond is fast disappearing, offering the perfect opportunity to wade in. Clare began by working round the edges of the island which has slowly been increasing in size. She has decided to call the island St John’s, not to beatify John but to reflect the increasing number of St John’s Wort plants that appear there each year.

The doe with one kid appears in the Pit Wood. There are four clips of a kid foraging on its own in the Scrub, over a period of 8 minutes.

21st July

Clare spotted a pair of mating Red Soldier beetles on Hogweed. It isn’t a very good photograph, however she wanted to use the caption.

A kid leaps off into the Scrub, and then a doe emerges from the direction in which it leapt.

Bonkers.
(Red Soldier beetles are commonly known as Hogweed Bonking beetles. They are doing what it says on the tin.)

22nd July

A fox with gait unimpaired trots through the Scrub. A couple of hours later a badger goes through with a passing interest in the fern. Another couple of hours and a badger comes towards the camera.

23rd July

More pond work. Clare noticed what appeared to be a newly emerged and not fully uncurled male Common Hawker Dragonfly very near where she was working. It obligingly moved onto her arm where John was able to take a photograph. Clare then replaced it on rush where she kept an eye on it. It straightened up over the next few minutes. Clare looked in vain for the exuvia - the cast skin from which it had emerged.

While on her way up through the Pit Wood near the hide, Clare spotted another 4 Broad-leaved Helleborines. They are several yards away from the original finds. She then went to top up the feeders and thought to have another look at the plants on the way out. Curiously they weren’t quite where she had remembered. That was because this was yet another different patch although closer to the one found earlier. Altogether there are another 9 plants; today’s finds are more fully in flower. Not including the ones that are sitting still unnoticed.

There is a sequence of four videos showing the doe, the doe with one kid, with two kids and a bit of grooming, then again a third kid appears a couple of minutes later. In the first clip, you can just see the pointed edges to her muzzle. She is being bothered by the flies.

24th July

It is the season for discoveries. Today Clare spotted another plant in the Pit Wood that she had not noticed before. She thinks it is Lesser Burdock.

On her way through the Orchard she saw two juvenile Chiffchaffs in an Elder, and on the path leading up away from the Orchard, she found a Thrush anvil.

Empty broken snail shells by the Thrush anvil

26th July

Mel came to help dig reed and rush out of the big pond. Clare decided that as well as the phrase ‘mud in your eye’ there should be ‘mud in your ear,’ ‘mud up your nose,’ ‘mud in your mouth’ and ‘mud in your hair’. The OED Word of the Day came up with a timely offering: goopy, ‘That is viscous or semi-liquid, often in an unpleasant or disgusting way’. Clare regretted not taking a ‘before’ photograph of the pond, however she did manage an ‘after’. There were plenty of dragon flies and damselflies about, particularly emerald damselflies, and a Common Hawker laying eggs.

Mel and Clare went to visit the ‘new’ helleborines and found not eight, but thirteen. On the way Mel noticed that the red clover in the Pit Wood is Zigzag clover. The leaves are longer and more pointed that with the usual red clover, the flowers are redder and more open, and where side shoots emerge from the main stem, the main stem goes off at a slight angle, hence ‘Zigzag’.

Tim has noticed that butterflies are fewer in number and diversity this year, however at the moment there are a large number of Small Skippers around.

29th July

The day began with rain, then warmed up, the perfect illustration of the start of 土潤溽暑 Tsuchi uruōte mushi atsushi: Earth is damp, air is humid, 29th July - 2nd August. John began fixing boards to one side of the classroom. Clare dug out some more reeds and rush and spotted an azure damselfly by her foot.

30th July

John did further work on the classroom while Clare mudlarked about in the big pond and dug out more of the roadside pond. The big pond looks a little fuller after two days of heavy rain; the roadside pond remains empty. There was plenty of life in the big pond with water boatmen, pondskaters, pond snails, water beetles all visible, as well as damsel and dragonflies flying around.

Clare and John

July 31, 2020

July - the young ones

Clare and John

July 31, 2020

First a further note re the trail camera videos. If you read the blog posts in the monthly email you receive, it is unlikely you will be able to see video footage as most email networks omit this since it takes up too much space. If you would like to watch the videos, can we suggest you use the email as a prompt to catch up with the blog on the Liddells website: www.liddells.co.uk This month the footage from 27th and 28th is particularly endearing.

4th July

Thanks to Hal and Beth and their social bubble, Clare and John were able to host a mini Forest School session. Six families arrived with enthusiasm and picnics. Hal and Juno acted as chief guides. Clare had left individual pots of honey in the dead letter box for each of the children, which, according to Hal, ‘went down a storm’. Even the child who professed he didn’t like honey proclaimed it delicious. Elora decided to set off on a hunt and found a Gruffalo house. Juno demonstrated her learning and did her best to instil quiet in the hide, however excited chatter won out. A good day was had by all.

6th July

Juno had another investigative day at Liddells.

Baby newts from the big pond. They are too small to tell at this stage whether they are Smooth, Great Crested or Palmate

Juno absorbed by something in her hand. History does not relate what it was however it was clearly interesting

7th July

Mel completed his monthly wildflower survey (see the Surveys page of the website) and is confident that not only are there more flowers present on Liddells than when he first surveyed the flora in 2014, but there are more species in evidence. John and Clare are much encouraged by this.

8th - 15th July

Further evidence of newt presence. John helpfully turned this adult newt over so that you can clearly see the bright orange underside with black blotches which identifies this as a Great Crested Newt.

Clare has been looking for different species of insect on flowering plants. Some are proving hard to identify.

This may be a Soldier Beetle and it may not

Possibly Heath bumblebee smothered in pollen on Spear Thistle

This is possibly one of the 4000 British beetle species. Clare will try and narrow this identification down

This shot is included simply to use John’s caption - Two bees or not two bees

Extra pollinator food - the roses in the hedge by the bee hives have come into flower for the first year

Is it a bee (4000 UK species),or is s it a wasp (9000 UK species)? Clare continues to work her way through identification guides

Whatever it is, it’s on Sneezewort, this much Clare knows

Let’s not forget the Common Wasp, Vespula Vulgaris, on Hogweed here. At least it’s identifiable

Common Red Soldier Beetles doing what they have to do a lot because they have such a short life; this activity has led to their other name - Hogweed Bonking Beetle

On the 12th Juno introduced yet another of her friends to Liddells and is clearly supremely confident now in the art of marshmallow toasting, leaving Hal to initiate Mia.

15th and 19th July

The wildlife on Liddells seems to have been secretly watching and learning from Juno’s stump jumping games. Unless the camera has captured early signs of a pending election with candidates choosing suitable sites for their stump speech. The doe seems to be shaking her head at the idea. John and Clare’s money is on a Parliament of Owls.

While digging out pondweed, Clare spotted a Great Diving Beetle, a ‘large and voracious predator’, in the roadside pond, which obligingly stayed near the surface long enough for John to take a photograph. Clare also saw a creature she didn’t recognise and called on Keith (HWKNEAN) for help. The next day Clare witnessed the GDB driving the creature round in circles before eating it. Keith guessed that when alive it had been an unusually pale Notonecta glauca in its flying phase. After some pond dipping, John was able to photograph another of these backswimmers that has, thus far, survived.

This female Ruddy Darter stopped darting for long enough for a photograph

As did this Small Skipper - you can see how it it is holding it’s forewings half open, typical of Skippers. Clare thinks it resembles an origami creation

19th - 26th July

Alongside all of this observation, John, Clare and Mel have been continuing with Liddells Routine Maintenance. John has felled a couple of trees and done some high pruning in the Top Strip, strimmed paths in the Scrub and Pit Wood and done some clearing in the North-East Strip; Clare has attacked the weeds in the Top Strip path, sickled the growth either side of the path and cut the flowering heads of the Hogweed, which has been slowly taking over; Mel has tackled the Mint on the Meadow which has threatened a land grab. Clare has also set about her annual Yellow Rattle seed collecting - this year the seeds are going to friends with land near Sandhoe, Hallbankgate and Codlaw as well as going back onto Liddells at the west end of the Top Grazing and round the Shepherd’s Hut.

Clare called on Bee Buddy Barry’s help to go through her hives again and managed to do so this time without being stung. There are two strong colonies and a third that is building more slowly. The fourth, as suspected, had a queen that had not mated successfully, so Clare has added a frame of eggs from one of the thriving hives and left it in purdah for a month in the hope there will be time enough for the bees to make another queen and for her to mate and start building a colony.

John has manufactured the most splendid pond rake and he and Clare are slowly extracting some of the algae that has built up in the two larger ponds. The rake is proving its worth and the water quality in both ponds seems already much improved. Clare is using the shorter pond dipping net to skim off some of the surface algae, and finding more creatures in the process. As well as innumerable young newts, she found an, as yet, unidentified insect. Froglets are also emerging, though thus far too quickly to be photographed. John and Clare have added plants to the roadside pond (last year’s plants were compromised by the digger activity in the autumn and plants ordered earlier this year got caught up in lockdown so were not in the best state when they arrived). Clare and John have realised they need many, many more plants than they had ordered for the size of the ponds - more to add to the learning curve as well as to the ponds.

Angle iron head with tines of long bolts

On the 19th John noticed a flower in the Scrub that he hadn’t seen before. Clare thought it was a Nettle-leaved Bellflower and asked Mel for confirmation. Apparently Mel was doubtful as it is unusual to find the plant north of the Humber, however on close examination he agreed with Clare. Clare has sent Mel to look at what she thinks are more of the same plant about half a mile from home, although they might be Giant Bellflower, which is more commonly found locally.

Clare and John received an offer they chose not to refuse - a local Longhorn Cattle breeder offered them beef for haylage. Tom, who has cut the Wildflower Meadow in the past, arrived on 21st and cut the Top Grazing, although Clare and John decided to keep the area round the new tree planting and a section at the west end uncut to preserve forage for pollinators. The next day it rained however Tom was able to return and do the rowing up ready for local farmer Barry to bale and wrap on 25th.

On 24th Tim was pleased to see more butterflies than recently on his weekly transect survey, particularly as these included Common Blue and Small Copper on the Meadow. He and Mel have both encountered the Tawny Owl on their walks round Liddells - presumably the owl is canvassing.

Meanwhile at the hide…

…juveniles are using the feeders and emptying them daily.

This juvenile Blue Tit has yet to learn that toe-nail picking in public is to be discouraged

The RSPB bird guide says that the juvenile Siskin resembles a ‘greyer washed-out female’. Clare thinks this is a rather sexist comment. The Chaffinch is saying nothing.

While on the Top Grazing…

Of course hay bales are not only good for fodder…

27th July

John and Clare were delighted to see this footage on the trail camera.

John thinks that the mother is the doe kid seen on Liddells last year - young mothers usually only have one kid rather than twins. John also thinks she has had her kid late in the season. As you will see in the following clips, the buck is showing interest in her (it is the time of the rut) while the doe doesn’t yet seem receptive. When the buck appears, the kid gets quickly out of the way.

Clare and John

May 31, 2020

May - surveying the situation

Clare and John

May 31, 2020

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.

Watching the blaze or maybe woolgathering

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.

Clare and John

March 31, 2020

March - Liddells-lew and hide-lew

Clare and John

March 31, 2020

1st March

Clare and John wish to begin with an apology. On 22nd February you will have read that John ‘has mastered the art of enlarging and cropping’ his photographs. Missing from this sentence was ‘thanks to teaching from his patient and forbearing step-daughter’. OK now Mathilda?

Here is further evidence of the excellence of Mathilda’s tuition.

Clare has long had a wish to see hare’s boxing and when she saw the next bit of trail camera footage she became really exited that she might see this phenomenon on Liddells.

Then another first ever trail camera capture.

3rd March

Today a thrush was singing in the Scrub, Clare saw a Yellowhammer from the hide, two Mallards flew off the big pond and there were bees flying around three of the hives.

4th March

John enlisted help from Dave G (and Wilf) again. Together they cut logs for seats and cleared much of the quarry area in the NE Strip.

5th March

A Woodpecker was drumming in the Pit Wood - Watts that you ask? Was it by the light of the Moon? What a Starr!

Clare has noticed that on much of the trail camera footage, animals seem to prefer a west-east route through, sometimes appearing more than once in the same evening, going in the same direction, but not coming back the other way. Either there are several different animals or their routes are circular.

Clare learned today from the excellent book she is reading The Overstory by Richard Powers, that seeing the face in the beech tree (December blog post) is due to pareidolia - an adaptation that makes people see people in all things. Clare prefers her explanation that she has a tree guardian.

6th March

Thanks to both Mathilda and Sue B, Clare has enjoyed reading Uncommon Ground by Dominick Tyler, a visual glossary of the British landscape. Among several words and phrases stored away for future use, Clare found two with immediate relevance.

7th March

8th March

Just days after John said no rats had been seen on Liddells, the trail camera proved otherwise.

9th March

A long overdue task, dealing with overhanging branches on the northern boundary, was on today’s to-do list. Fortunately Clare and John found George Clouston, tree surgeon and arborist, the perfect person to tackle this, and watched him work in awe of his skills. As did Juno. George so obviously loves his work and is especially attentive to how he can protect and enhance habitat for wildlife. He’s also a mighty fine tree climber. Clare and John found it slightly alarming to note that his risk assessment noted ‘helicopter landing options are extensive’. George said that one of the worst risks was not amputation but encountering a wild bees’ nest. They don’t take to chainsaws.

George made coronet cuts (see below) and specific bore holes after he had cut branches, to create habitat.

‘When trees are damaged in nature it’s usually due to some catastrophic event (i.e. severe wind storm). Branches damaged in this way have wood fibres break and tear, while bark is pulled away from limbs and jagged stubs are left behind. In the aftermath all manner of fungi and arthropods make a home in the tattered remains. Fungi feed on the newly exposed wood, insects eat the fungi, birds eat the insects, and so on.

In landscapes, trees eventually mature to where their risk of failure reaches a threshold that some mitigating action must take place. For conservation arborists, this is where retrenchment pruning comes in. By using coronet cuts to mimic naturally damaged limbs after reduction pruning, conservation arborists invite the natural order of things to take place.’

10th March

This cat has appeared on the trail camera before. This time it made the same trip at 21.06, 22.07 and 03.27. Was it going round in circles.

14th March

John and Clare were delighted that growth from Liddells contributed to another wedding.

Heather and Kris’s wedding design team transformed these…

15th March

The first frogspawn has appeared although some has already gone brown and sunk which is possibly because it has been laid too early and suffered from the cold.

16th March

Today’s OED Word of the Day is house-lew: shelter of a home. Enough said.

After quite a while with no sightings, a roe doe has been caught on the trail camera. It might be last year’s kid. While working in the Pit Wood, John found a particularly charming patch of Scarlet Elf Cap Fungus. Perhaps the trail camera will capture images of a scarlet elf.

17th March

Clare and John set about making fewer mountains out of the molehills on the Top Grazing, top of the Crag and the Meadow. They had thought there would be between one and two hundred. There were slightly more than that, to say nothing of the ones elsewhere on the land that remain unconquered. Small ones were included in the count as it seemed only right and proper to make mountains out of some molehills. Here’s a challenge to our readers - including the ones John and Clare found over the next four days that they’d missed, guess how many there were. The answer is at the end of this blogpost together with a further guesstimate challenge.

After John had finished with his hoe/got bored/decided Clare was winning in the molehill demolition stakes/was suffering from strimmer withdrawal symptoms, he went off to start strimming a path down which a quad bike could go with a trailer to extract all the timber George had felled. Imagine Clare’s surprise when she went to help John later and found him apparently praying to the woodland floor. With sinking heart she knew what had happened. We suspect regular readers will too and will know why, which John appeared to have forgotten. No need to scroll to the end of the blog post. The answer is, of course (Clare typed through gritted teeth), that he had lost one of his hearing aids. Again. A third time (teeth gritting harder as telling the story retraumatises the typist). Thankfully for Clare’s sanity and John’s survival (there was an idle strimmer lying close by), John found the very small and surprisingly faded leaflike in colour, object. Clare is considering her response: confiscating the strimmer; putting the strimmer on Ebay; putting John on Ebay.

Fortunately Clare’s spirits were lifted by hearing the first Chiffchaffs of the year and by seeing the first Celandine in flower.

There is a way through the woods, with apologies to Kipling. Clare is getting ready for World Poetry Day.

18th-21st March

The first of the Daffodils are out in the Top Strip. On 20th Clare tackled the Liddells equivalent of painting the Forth Road Bridge by starting to weed the path in the Top Strip. She started at the east end and made it all the way to the flat length at the start of the west end. Watch out for reports on progress. On 21st, after a particularly buttercuppy stretch, which slowed progress, Clare went for a wander, wondering whether there would be Primroses out in the Pit Wood. She was not disappointed.

23rd March

John and Clare both woke early and couldn’t get back to sleep, so went for, if not a dawn chorus visit, at least a pre-breakfast one. On the way Clare asked John what was keeping him awake and he made an ornithological slip of the unconscious, ‘CORVID anxiety’, he claimed. Unless of course the crows are after him. It was frosty at Liddells so too cold for much bird-singing, however Pheasant, Red-legged Partridge, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Thrush, Blackbird, Robin, Wren, Dunnock, Great tit, Blue tit, Coal tit, Long-tailed tit, Rook, Goldfinch, Wood pigeon (making display flights) and Chiffchaff were all audible. Clare was particularly pleased to hear several Chiffchaffs as, after hearing them last week, they had been decidedly silent.

24th March

Another 12 metres of path in the Top Strip are now weed free. Clare saw a first Peacock Butterfly near the big pond. John made a bench for one of the willow arbours. John and Clare tend to take lunch up to Liddells to eat in the hide while bird-watching. They have noticed that one of the several male pheasants who have learned that food appears on the ground shortly after the picnickers arrive, has a habit of talking with his mouth full. None of the others do this. The trail camera captured a pair of male pheasants vying for territory.

25th March

Another few weed free metres in the Top Strip - Clare is regretting her habit of starting at the easier east end. Since there is always something else more appealing than weeding, the west end often doesn’t quite get the same attention and consequently is much weedier. Clare keeps telling herself that the sense of achievement will be worth the effort. John did preparation work for more benches and saw a Small Tortoiseshell on his way. The weather was so warm Clare decided to open the hives for the first time this year. As she suspected, one of the hives had not survived. It had been a small colony going into the winter and this is probably the reason since there was no evidence of disease. Two of the colonies are thriving; these queens must have started laying a while ago as there is capped brood (after 3 days eggs hatch into larvae, after 6 more days the cells are capped and the larvae become pupae and 12 days later the new bee emerges). Clare is uncertain about the fourth colony - there were very few bees and she couldn’t see a queen. The bees were good-tempered, which suggests there might a queen. There could have been a few eggs however Clare wasn’t entirely sure - sometimes the sun can produce a glint in the bottom of a polished cell which can then look like an egg. She’ll have another look in a week or so. Her records show that this is nearly a month earlier than she has ever opened hives before.

26th March

The recent hurricanes managed to dislodge one of Juno’s swing supports so John and Clare repaired it today, or rather John did the repair while Clare footed the ladder and handed him things. They then had lunch in the hide (does this habit mean they are hidebound), and watched a Blue tit going in and out of the nesting box nearby. It spent about 5-10 seconds inside each time and made dozens of visits in the time it took to eat a sandwich or two. Clare had a quick peep in and there was a substantial amount of nesting material in place. Unfortunately the trail camera, carefully placed to record this activity, ran out of batteries before the bird began. New batteries will be inserted asap. Clare spotted the first daisies out on Liddells today. and noticed that lots of the wild garlic Sue R donated last year is coming up in the Pit Wood. She also weeded another ten metres of path in the Top Strip and reckons there are just under forty metres left.

Walking home Clare heard the first skylarks of the year singing.

27th March

John and Clare stayed away from Liddells today so that Hal, Beth and Juno could have their daily ‘park’ exercise there. Clare set an i-spy challenge in which Juno was entirely successful, finding frogspawn, feather and fir cone. She helped top up the feeders, making sure the bird food was tasty, entertained Hal and Beth with the story of Goldiblocks (sic), enjoyed the newly repaired swing and began rehearsals for an iconic movie scene with co-star Beth, direction and cinematography Hal.

28th - 30th April

Clare decided that she wanted to get the path-weeding finished by the end of this month’s blog. With this endeavour in mind, and after only a short stretch completed on 28th, the next day she worked till cockshut: twilight (OED Word of the Day 29th March) achieving a wondrous nineteen metres. On Monday, in a push for the end, she finished, however was so engrossed in measuring her achievement (140 metres), she forgot to provide photographic evidence. During the pacing she noticed that sycamore seedlings were sprouting in the refreshed seed bed she had inadvertently provided. Heigh-ho. Back to the east end.

While John was getting materials ready to build more seats, he watched a pair of Tree creepers on an oak near the Orchard, and saw a Chiffchaff close by. Clare heard the first Blackcap of the year singing.

There is nesting material in at least two of the bird boxes, however the trail camera has failed to capture any of this activity. More adjustments needed. To the camera not the birds or boxes.

31st March

Hal and Juno had another Liddells day today. Mathilda came up with the excellent idea, having seen ‘Little Women’, that Juno, Clare and John could have a box on Liddells where they could leave messages. For today, Clare left bug hotel building instructions, some straws and string. Hal and Juno undertook the activity with some speed and considerable effectiveness. While Clare was typing up the answer to the molehill challenge (see below), Juno, at Liddells at the time, and apparently through some telepathic communication system, announced that there are no moles on Liddells because they are shopping for peas. Well that explains it.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it…

This is Hal’s last photo of the day. Clare and John are wondering what he saw…

And the answer to the molehill count - 1343!

Next question - how many moles does it take to create 1343 molehills? (John and Clare do not have the answer to this one.)

Clare and John

November 30, 2019

November - dig this

Clare and John

November 30, 2019

1st November

Along with familiar footage of deer, badger, fox and grey squirrels, John and Clare were delighted to see some birds captured by the trail camera. Although John and Clare have seen Redwings most winters, this is the first time the birds have been caught on camera.

Jays are often heard and sometimes seen on Liddells, however this is the first movie footage to show one.

2nd November

An addition to life on Liddells has arrived. It is not as tall as expected and is not clad in bright colours. We do believe it is capable of work of great strength. Its feet are conspicuously free of curly hair.

…and it comes with its own tiny dustpan and brush, seen next to normal size ones

Moving the stove out of the car boot, up the shepherds hut steps and into the hut took all of John and Clare’s combined strength.. It is made of cast iron. They worked their way through all the layers of packaging (see above) and John initially thought the instruction manual was missing, however found it cunningly concealed in the ash can. On Page 4 Clare found vital information. If only they’d known!

9-11th November

There are noticeably more blackbirds visible and audible on Liddells now. The overwintering birds from Scandinavia must have arrived.

John has almost finished laying the lino floor in the shepherds hut. As it is best cut when not too cold, he and Clare had to empty their kitchen and spread it out on that floor in order to have enough space to unroll and cut it almost to size.

John loves the Collective and Farmstock sales at the local Mart and has picked up many bargains there for Liddells - roofing sheets for sheds, fence posts, flat bed trailer, and more besides - having created a design for the bird-watching screen and hence a shopping list, he was prospecting even more purposefully than usual at the recent sale and discovered that not only was there plenty of the kind of timber that was needed, but also roofing sheets. He was successful at bidding and he and Clare then made three journeys with their little trailer to collect it all.

Load number 1 waiting to be stacked behind the bottom gate

12th November

John’s pool playing has unexpected dividends - two fellow players volunteered to help carry all the sale timber and roofing sheets to where they will be needed. This was no small undertaking - hauling wet and heavy boards and awkwardly-shaped sheets along several hundred yards of sodden and slippery ground and then over a stile. Clare thinks John must be such an asset to the pool team that they will do anything necessary to keep him playing.

The trail camera has captured the following footage. John thinks this is the roe buck that has been around for a while and that it has recently shed its antlers and may be scratching where they have been.

13th November

John made the final cuts to the lino in the shepherds hut and worked on the support for the stove.

A fox came closer to the trail camera than ever before. It looks as though it has either a thick winter coat or is pretty well fed.

14th November

John and Clare were particularly pleased to discover that along with the familiar footage of deer, badger, fox and squirrels, the camera had captured a Sparrowhawk perched in the Scrub. Sparrowhawks will eat anything they can manage, including squirrels, so this squirrel was lucky. It is just possible to see the barring on the Sparrowhawk’s tail.

18th November

The sheep have eaten all they can from the Top Grazing so have been moved to the Meadow for a few days.

Juno is going through a phase of interrupted sleep. John is teaching her to count sheep.

There has only ever been one badger captured at any time by the camera. This may be a lone animal for whom Liddells is within its patch. Clare read that badger territories are roughly hexagonally-shaped areas, each border touching that of a neighbou… — There has only ever been one badger captured at any time by the camera. This may be a lone animal for whom Liddells is within its patch. Clare read that badger territories are roughly hexagonally-shaped areas, each border touching that of a neighbour's range, such that they form a honeycomb mosaic. Each sett is roughly in the middle of the territory and badgers forage closest to the sett first, moving further away as they exhaust the food reserves. The hole that John and Clare found near the Meadow has not been further excavated so may have been made by a badger unearthing a bumblebee nest.

22nd November

Having discovered that there is no spring at the base of the Crag, which John and Clare had thought a possibility, and that the wet area there is due to drainage from the land above, plans for an even larger pond at the base of the Crag had to be scrapped since there would be insufficient water flow to maintain such a pond. However John and Clare took advice and realised they could extend and improve the big pond instead. An 8 ton digger with operator arrived today and Carl set about the work. By the end of the day, he had enlarged and landscaped the borders of the big pond, enlarged both roadside and crag ponds, created a new pond, opened some of the grips and improved the roadway east of the roadside pond. While supervising all this activity, John saw a Woodcock fly out of the Pit Wood so at least one has arrived for the winter. Clare marked out the site for the bird-watching screen and was pleased to note that the willows woven into a screen were showing plenty of signs of life.

23rd November

There had been substantial rain overnight so John and Clare went to check on the ponds and were delighted to see that they had already filled to their newer capacity.

Here’s the big pond 364 days ago. Note the rain

The trail camera has captured footage of the roe buck again and here you can clearly see the remains of the pedicles where the antlers were attached.

24th November

Work began on the bird-watching screen. Clare dug holes for the first two posts and, with John’s help, put them in.

25 and 29th November

Work on the screen again - the second two posts in place, the subframe finished, the first floorboards fixed.

Liddells is saturated at present and not very appealing, however the rushes on the Wetland were covered in spiders’ webs and looked beautiful. Clare wondered if it might be possible to identify the kind of spider that would create this kind of web. The Natural History Museum came up trumps and Clare was able to recognise the webs she saw as sheet webs built by the spider family that includes the money spider. Coincidentally The Guardian’s Country Diary on Friday 29th was written by Susie White, who lives near Allendale, and she too commented on ‘the delicate hammocks of money spiders’.

30th November

Today was chosen by the Woodland Trust for their Big Climate Fight Back tree planting campaign. It just so happens that Clare’s friend Barbara had generously offered to give Clare trees to mark her recent birthday and they would only be ready at the end of this month. A plan was hatched: Barbara would come up from West Sussex in time to plant the trees on the 30th. The tree nursery’s delivery date was set back because the ground was so wet that they couldn’t lift the trees, then the haulage company’s scanner broke and they could give no assurance that the trees were loaded for delivery, however the tree gods and goddesses were obviously on The Woodland Trust’s side and the trees arrived on the 29th and were duly planted today. Clare had chosen a Hornbeam, a new species for Liddells. Barbara had generously bought two and a Rowan, so Barbara, Clare and John had a tree each to plant. Liddells was looking particularly beautiful in the heavy frost.

A localised climate fight back and three fewer trees for Corbyn to plant

Clare has long recognised Barbara’s artistic and creative abilities and was delighted Barbara left her mark on the shepherd’s hut

Clare and John

October 31, 2019

October - screenings

Clare and John

October 31, 2019

2nd - 3rd October

Clare began the tough task of clearing mint from the wet patch on the Meadow, where it was threatening to smother other plants. If anyone has grown mint, you will know the task she is facing. John was frustrated by a strimmer failure while trying to clear a patch for a willow screen. The screen will offer some cover for bird-watching.. John took the strimmer in for repair only to discover a small leaf was blocking the fuel flow. Hmm, Conan Doyle had a point: ‘the little things are infinitely the most important.’ Strimmer restored, Clare and John cleared the area for the screen and put weed-restricting membrane down. Although the official weekly butterfly survey season has closed, there are still butterflies around.

5th October

Clare and John set about creating the willow screen, largely by trial and error. They are quite pleased with this first go and are grateful to their neighbour Sylvia who needed her garden willow pollarded and donated the cuttings to Liddells.

7th October

The trail camera is back in the Pit Wood. The deer seem to sense its presence and often stop right next to it and groom. The doe clearly has no need for osteopathy.

Every now and again the camera captures the unexpected. A month or so ago a complete stranger appeared in the footage, carrying a dog lead. We assumed he had lost his dog while walking along the road. Maybe this is the missing dog. Maybe the joker i… — Every now and again the camera captures the unexpected. A month or so ago a complete stranger appeared in the footage, carrying a dog lead. We assumed he had lost his dog while walking along the road. Maybe this is the missing dog. Maybe the joker in the pack. Or ahead of the pack. There seems to have been no pack drill.

The doe and kid are still frequently seen together. Here you can see that they are now fully in their chocolatey-brown winter coats. The next clip shows two white patches on the doe’s neck and chest. They are known as gorget patches.

11th October

John turned his attention back to the shepherd’s hut, adding fireproof board behind where the wood burner will go and a thin layer of wood over the floor which should even out any lumpiness under the lino.

In their absence, it has quickly become apparent just how much the ponies ate. A local farmer has loaned John and Clare sixty-two sheep to eat off the Top Grazing.

15th October

Clare is committed to providing photographic evidence of life on Liddells, however she wondered exactly what message John was sending when he suggested the blog could include a link to this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition winners. While she ponders on this, here is the link:

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2019/october/wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-2019-winning-images.html

19th October

Clare has recently had a Big Number Birthday. She expressed a wish to mark this event by creating a bird-feeding station and watching screen on Liddells, having seen a similar arrangement at a local nature reserve. Thanks to the generosity of those who knew about the idea, she is getting under way with the scheme. There is an ideal site in the Pit Wood which provides plenty of cover for the birds to retreat to if necessary. Clare is currently drawing up designs and shopping lists. Synchronously, the RSPB has feeders on offer at a good discount, so purchases will be made.

There are plenty of birds to watch on Liddells at this time of year - the Fieldfares and Redwings are back, and the Scandinavian blackbirds are likely to arrive soon.

Possible bird-watching screen design. Possible bird-watcher.

22nd October

Mel joined John and Clare for a walk round Liddells with his ‘consultation lunch’ hat on and added to our list of valuable ideas for the future. They saw a Tawny Owl and the roe doe in the Pit Wood. Mel also suggested a way of improving the willow screen by weaving the end whips back into the main structure.

23rd October

One of John’s pool-playing companions, Phil, his wife Sarah and Sarah’s nephew Lucas visited Liddells. Phil has a wealth of geological knowledge and was able to answer the question that many have asked - are the quarry and crag on Liddells outcrops of the Whinsill. Apparently not. Phil could see that the rock on Liddells is sandstone, while the Whinsill is hard black dolerite. Lucas, from London, quickly got over his initial shock at the quantity of sheep ordure and entered into the spirit of things, politely tolerating Clare morphing into nature teacher mode. He contributed hugely to the bug hotel, spotted a ladybird on the thistle, waded up the stream to the spring and did an excellent job of algae clearing in the big pond. He also helped top up the hives with sugar syrup.

Creating a luxury suite for passing insects

25th October

Mel advised that some of the guard tubes could be removed to prevent the trees becoming too spindly, although they still need protection from deer fraying. John worked on six larches in the Verge.

30th October

Clare mused on the turn her life has taken. John arrived home announcing he had a gift for her and it was outside. A new car? A water feature for the garden? A gardener? Wrong. A slice of tree trunk. It will make a perfect top for a bird table at the feeding station and Clare was absolutely delighted.

Not quite as old as Clare but perhaps more weathered

31st October

John and Clare may as yet have made no plans for approaching seasonal festivities however they are ahead of the game when it comes to swallows returning next year - John put up two clay swallow nests on the shelves in the sheds in the hope that next year the swallows will see them and be inspired to either use them, or enter into competitive nest-building mode.

And finally, the PONDS page is up on the website at last!

Clare and John

August 31, 2019

August - an open invitation, shut and reopened

Clare and John

August 31, 2019

1st - 8th August

John and Clare decided to celebrate Liddells’ sixth anniversary with an Open Day on August 10th. This turned John and Clare into preppers (OED 4th August: A person who or thing which prepares or readies something; a preparer). John set about strimming heroically to create paths round the site, Clare devised activities to keep visitors entertained, copious lists and notices were created, tables and chairs were imported, the sheds were smartened up and the shepherd’s hut was fitted with its very first furnishings - two book racks. So much more important than beds or heating. There was even a bit of MacGyvering : To construct, fix, or modify (something) in an improvised or inventive way, typically by making use of whatever items are at hand; to adapt expediently or ingeniously.(OED Word of the Day 08.08.19) - see photos below. There had been considerable rain over these few days however Clare and John remained optimistic and dedicated to prepping. The last task was to put up signs and make maps. This all occupied most of their time, however there were still opportunities to enjoy Liddells’ delights. Tim had managed to glimpse a Purple Hairstreak butterfly (first seen on Liddells last year) at the end of last month, on a roadside oak, and told John and Clare that if present, the butterflies were likely to be seen at around five in the afternoon on a sunny day at the very top of oak trees. In spite of several attempts and much cricking of necks, Tim and Jane are as yet the only ones to spot the butterfly. Good to know it seems to have returned though. Tim is also on the lookout for White Letter Hairstreaks which feed at the top elms which we have in the north-west corner of the Pit Wood. More neck-cricking involved. New dragon and damselfly species have arrived on the ponds, including Blue-tailed and Emerald damselflies and Common Hawkers.

Common Red Soldier Beetle (PG: only read on if you have permission from an adult) also apparently known as the Hogweed Bonking Beetle

“You’re turning violet, Violet!” This Violet Ground Beetle was trying to evade Clare’s weeding activities

Small Copper on Ragwort. John and Clare remove Ragwort from the Top Grazing and Meadow. Although animals naturally avoid eating it, if it ends up in hay they have no knowledge of its presence and that’s when there is a risk of poisoning. This small … — Small Copper on Ragwort. John and Clare remove Ragwort from the Top Grazing and Meadow. Although animals naturally avoid eating it, if it ends up in hay they have no knowledge of its presence and that’s when there is a risk of poisoning. This small patch of the plant is on the Wetland and has been given a stay of execution because it is attracting so many butterflies.

Male Common Darter - even though these dragonflies bask for a few seconds, it is very hard to get a clear photographic image with a phone camera. This is probably the best of several taken.

Here is the female. One wildlife photographer commented that he reckoned to take 250 photographs to get 1 good one, and that’s with state of the art equipment.

Hotel under construction - no planning permission needed. Please note recycled pallets…

This honey bee appeared to be foraging on the tow rope. It spent some time there. Maybe the fibres were similar to stamens…

9th August

The rain began in the night and continued ceaselessly; the forecast for Saturday was atrocious - thundery storms and heavy rainfall. Clare received an email offering an inflatable kayak and discretion being the better part of most things, John and Clare regretfully cancelled the Open Day. They had lovely messages of support in response including Jane K who was relieved not to have to aquaplane to the event.

10th August

The forecast was right - heavy rain through the night and up till mid-morning then again through the afternoon and all the next day.

12th August

Tim and Jane managed a butterfly transect today and great excitement - a new butterfly for Liddells. Tim said the Dark Green Fritillary was a bit bedraggled. Apparently the caterpillars of this species eat dog violets, of which Liddells has plenty. Jane also found an exceptionally well camouflaged young frog near the Crag pond.

Even with Jane’s guidance, the frog is hard to see

13th August

John and Clare visited Liddells for the first time since all the rain, expecting to see a lot of standing water where none had stood before. Surprisingly there wasn’t that much, although the spring was running with great force and water was emerging from the original site of the spring and from a different site close by - neither of these have run with water in the last six years. John and Clare spent a long time by the big pond hoping for dragon and damselflies to settle, in particular the Common Hawkers that were around. Frustratingly this particular species seems to the the swift of the dragonfly world and never settles, so we can offer no photographs. Instead there are good images here. There were also Emerald damselflies, several of which were mating. There was a new insect on thistles on the Top Grazing that prompted an enquiry to the Royal Entomological Society; an enquiry that met with another prompt response from Professor Jim Hardie.

Another of the same, demonstrating how they may vary in colour

According to Professor Jim Hardie, this is a female Great Pied Hoverfly. Apparently they are widespread in the Uk and good pollinators.

This is the first time all but one of the stepping stones in the Crag pond have been submerged

John found this owl pellet on a fence post. You can see fragments of shiny beetle cases and at the top, the distinctive colour of a Violet Ground Beetle. Clare is hoping it was not the one she disturbed

Fungi are starting to appear and here is, if not a fairy ring, at least a fairy semi-circle

The trail camera has captured evidence that the roe buck and doe are still around, however there is no footage of the kid during the last three days. Let’s hope it is somewhere dry.

Taking a less explored route through the Pit Wood, John was particularly excited to find evidence of a roe ring. Roe rings provide evidence of repeated chases, the buck chasing the doe, around tree trunks or broken stumps, chases that leave a circle or figure-of-eight of bare earth liberally sprinkled with slots and often remnants of hair. In this instance, there was a figure of eight around two Norway Spruces. Unfortunately the ring would not show up well on a photograph.

17th - 18th August

John and Clare decided to tackle one of the projects that has been on the Liddells to-do list for quite a while - creating a series of steps over a large spoil heap in the Top Strip. It’s a clichéd task - taking flight one step at a time, the only way is up, until of course what goes up must come down while in the meantime trying not to get the hump.

John at work having just freed the enormous boulder that is in the foreground. It will be incorporated into a cairn nearby

19th August

Followers of this blog will know that photographs of rainbows have featured before. Here is another. Rainbows help compensate for all the rain and Liddells has good rainbows. This is one of Tim’s pictures and he adds that his kids used to call the road bend between his house and Liddells Rainbow Corner because that was the name of the owners of the house near the bend and because there are often rainbows there.

Tim’s caption - somewhere over the rainbow

20th August

The trail camera has captured evidence that the kid is still around. John thinks it is a buck.

21st August

While watching the big pond for dragonflies, Clare managed to identify another new species - a Brown Hawker (also seen recently in the Pit Wood) and in checking it out on the British Dragonfly Society’s website, realised she had wrongly labelled a photo in the June blog post. The subject in question was a Four-spotted Chaser, not the female Broad-bodied Chaser. This means that to date the ponds have attracted nine species of dragon and damselflies.

24th August - OPEN DAY!

The forecast for today had looked good for a while so John and Clare decided to go ahead with the Open Day and make best use of all John’s path strimming. The shepherd’s hut became a Liddells Information Office for the day with lists of the wildlife recorded thus far and some illustrations; visitors were provided with a map and list of suggested activities and an invitation to discover their inner child. Much fun appeared to be had by all. John and Clare were delighted to let everyone else do the work. Keith identified an additional dragonfly ovipositing- a Southern Hawker - which brings our species total up to ten. Thank you to all photographers for their contributions.

Also on offer was ‘Build a cairn’ to make use of some of the rocks excavated during the step making

Pat and Kate undertaking the challenge. Pat later suggested the provision of a swing for adults as well as children; Kate told a story about ‘a little soggy doggy with a very waggy tale’ - this might have had something to do with Maggie the cocker s… — Pat and Kate undertaking the challenge. Pat later suggested the provision of a swing for adults as well as children; Kate told a story about ‘a little soggy doggy with a very waggy tale’ - this might have had something to do with Maggie the cocker spaniel who joined in the day

Sabre wasp enjoying the view from inside the hut

Making seat and orientation board now added to to-do list

Are they looking for the pond or the pond-dipping equipment?

John has found the pond and is looking for dragonflies

Juno and Hal get to have a go a couple of days later

Jane and Gill seem to be looking for the way through the woods

Maggie found some textbook examples of Grey Coral Fungus

Neil and Lesley this Painted Lady on Knapweed in the Meadow

Jane E found another Wolf Spider with egg sac

…and within minutes he had spotted our first guest. It’s a Four-banded Longhorn Beetle. We are hoping it gives a good review on TwigAdvisor (thank you Mark!)

It wasn’t all work!

There had been a large number of flying ants around the shepherd’s hut during the day however everyone politely ignored them. Later Kathryn sent a message to say that it had been Flying Ant Day. That wasn’t on either the biodiversity or Open Day plan yet seems wholly appropriate that they shared the celebration.

25th August

After all the enchantments and delights of the Open Day, Clare made her own discoveries. Enchanting? Delightful? All part of nature’s rich pattern.

These are both examples of the slime mould Fuligo Septica, also known as Scrambled Egg Slime Mould…

…and less appealingly as Dog’s Vomit Slime Mould

However she was also able to take a slightly better picture of a Common Darter than previously.

31st August

Clare started the process of removing honey from the bees yesterday. This involves adding a clearer board in the evening. (The board has a rhombus shaped escape insert which has two "tunnels" leading to each end and a centre chamber in which the bees gather when initially leaving the super) The board is positioned between the brood box and the honey super . The bees will naturally cluster in the brood box overnight and if the super is removed early the next morning, they haven’t had a chance to work out how to get back up to the honey. This morning only three bees had to be persuaded to abandon their honey which made the collection quite easy. There’s not as much honey this year as last as the bees needed it during the cold and wet spells when they couldn’t get out to forage. While Clare and John enjoy honey on their toast, they hope the bees will be satisfied with their sugar syrup substitute.

Clare and John

July 31, 2019

July - we kid you not

Clare and John

July 31, 2019

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.

I’ve a feeling we’re not in Northumberland anymore

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.

Clare was pleased to see John taking the business of levels so seriously…

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.

John appears to be stuck inside the ladders

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.

Phases 1 and 2, weeded and membrane down in one section

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.

Clare and John

June 30, 2019

June - Dragons! Damsels and Distress

Clare and John

June 30, 2019

1st - 8th June

John and Clare were struck by two pieces of feedback from the June blog post - ‘that was your longest blog post ever’ and ‘you must be at Liddells all the time’. Pause for thought. The second comment does sometimes seem true.

The last few days have seen John and Clare attending to small tasks of routine maintenance: collecting logs, algae fishing, pruning suckers from fruit trees, mending tree protection netting and path weeding. They are proud to be within yards of finishing weeding the path in the Top Strip which seems to take for ever.

Two new discoveries while working. The ladybird was on a stile post near pines and the Bird Cherry Ermine Moth caterpillars were, unsurprisingly, on the Bird Cherry. Clare had seen these before but thought they were spiders’ webs. The caterpillars might well be providing food for all the nestlings.

The trail camera did capture more images of birds leaving the Great Tit nest, however none clearly showed nestlings taking their first flight.

Clare has been much occupied with her bees and how they defy all the text books. She was recently alerted to the presence of a swarm in a hawthorn near the hives but could do nothing about it while on grandchild duty. Four days later - the books suggest swarms only hang around for a couple of days while scout bees look for a new site - the swarm was still there, so nothing daunted, Clare set about collecting it. When she returned later in the day to introduce the swarm to the hive - a traditional way is to lay a white sheet on the ground leading to the hive entrance and the bees walk up it - she noticed a very small swarm still in the tree. This could have alerted her to the fact that she might have failed to collect the queen and therefore the bees would be reluctant to leave her and go into the hive. They were very reluctant to go into the hive, however some started to and lots followed. The guard bees were doing a good job around Clare so she had to walk away in the hope they would go back to the swarm. Eventually they did so that Clare could leave and as she walked past she saw a small swarm hanging in exactly the same place on the hawthorn. She also thought she could hear the distinct sound of bees laughing.

Barbara R alerted Clare to a call for volunteers to record sightings of spittle and spittle bugs - froghoppers. Clare thinks the scientists missed a trick in not calling this campaign ‘Spot the Spit’.

9th June

Weeding the path in the Top Strip is finished, however it is rather like painting the Forth Road Bridge and now needs starting again.

12th June

Jane B sent Clare a link to a page about hay meadows on the Northumberland National Park website. If you have 12mins to spare, listen to the soundscape of a hay meadow. It demonstrably proves the value of these meadows for wildlife.

13th June

In spite of the atrocious weather, there were birds singing on Liddells today and Clare was delighted to hear and see Linnets in the Top Strip.

14th June

Clare and John walked over the Meadow and listed all the plants in flower. They identified 22 different species. The list is here.

15th June

The largest pond is offering a local mallard an opportunity for a bath.

17th June

Clare had another encounter with a sabre wasp. It was on one of the seats in the story-telling circle and probably laying eggs there.

18th June

More insect excitement for Clare. She watched a Broad-bodied Chaser darting over the Roadside pond. The dragonfly lived up to its name and proved hard to photograph. It also lived up to the textbook as apparently they often find new ponds. Clare also watched a Willow Warbler family feeding in the top Strip, calling to each other as they moved through the trees.

Sabre Wasp. The ovipositor is extending forward from her tail and pointing down into the wood left of her legs

22nd June

A friend offered Ox-eye daisies from his meadow for the Meadow at Liddells where they have not yet become established. John and Clare went to collect them today and then Clare transplanted six clumps on the Meadow. Clare saw a baby frog near the big pond and then was delighted to see damselflies. They proved hard to photograph too as they were too busy being flighty to wait for the camera, however photographs were taken and then the damselflies could be identified. They are Large Reds and Common Blues. John was lucky to see two of the Common Blues mating though he couldn’t get a photograph.

The frog was only two to three centimetres long and easily hidden in the grasses and leaves

Clare found these two young crows having a snooze

Male Large Red Damselfly momentarily perched on the Alphabet bridge

23rd June

This was to be a distressing day for John and Clare. For a long time they had been concerned that they were not doing Paul justice. He is a young and strong pony and could well live for another twenty years - this cannot so easily be applied to John and Clare. After much painful deliberation they realised that Paul could fulfil more of his potential with another owner and knew that however painful and sad, this was the right decision. William could be returned to the Moorland Mousie Trust and would be sent somewhere else to continue his excellent grazing skills. Fortunately, Becky, who sold Paul to John and Clare, was happy to take him back and sell him on. Both ponies were due to leave on the same day and William was collected much to Paul’s distress. Unfortunately the transport for Paul didn’t quite fall into place as planned and with John and Clare due to go away for a few days the following day, John made hasty arrangements for Paul to go to a local stables where he has often been for brief stays. This meant that he was not alone and distressed on the land while plans were redrawn and he could be boxed and transported to Cumbria from there. When John and Clare walked Paul to the stables, they realised that Paul had left Liddells for good.

27th June

John, sans camera, watched a female Broad-bodied Chaser laying eggs on the big pond. Not to be outdone in the delights department, Clare saw a roe doe running down into the Pit Wood from the Orchard and as she followed, came across a roe kid tucked up on the side of the path into the Pit Wood. It stayed very still but ran the moment Clare tried to get her camera out. It was about the size of a large hare and still in its spots. Tim sent us a photograph of some of the Ragged Robin on the Wetland. The plants are spreading each year and are a particularly raggedy delight.

28th June

John spent some time filming by the big pond and as a result both Clare and John realise that the ponds need a webpage of their own. This will happen soon and John’s film from today will go on there. Suffice it to say John saw more dragon and damselfly action, more dragonfly egg-laying, a newt and a creature as yet to be identified…

29th June

As the ponies have left Clare and John set about dismantling the arena that John had created. Clare found wildlife under the logs that had supported poles and was able to identify a moth that rested for a moment. After the arena work Clare and John treated themselves to a bit of pond-watching - the dragon and damselflies continue to be a source of delight and new learning. They watched a Large Red Damselfly laying her eggs. To mate, damselflies join together in the “wheel” position and commonly fly in tandem this way. Afterward, the male will usually remain attached to the female as she lays eggs. When doing so he retains his grip on the front portion of the female’s thorax, using claspers located at the tip of his abdomen. On the way to the pond they found a patch of orchids where John had strimmed to make a path and therefore let light in. At a rough count there were nearly one hundred. Further up the same path Clare saw some Bittersweet, also known as Woody Nightshade, a plant she had not seen on Liddells before. The final discovery provides evidence that more squirrel work is needed.

European Garden Spider or Cross Orb-Weaver

Newt, looking like a piece of wrought ironwork. Clare thinks it is a Great Crested Newt. They have full legal protection in the UK and it is an offence to disturb them Clare replaced the log under which she found it

Four Spotted Chaser (males and females both look alike)

This looks to Clare like a photo from a ‘Guess the Mysterious Object’ game

Since seeing the roe kid John and Clare had been hoping the trail camera might capture it on video. No luck so far, however there was some nice footage of the doe.

30th June

Completing this month’s blog post also marks the last of Clare’s 30 Days Wild. We hope you have had an equivalently wild month.

Clare and John

May 31, 2019

May - be...

Clare and John

May 31, 2019

Before further forgetfulness - Images from Easter Day

Liddells has contributed the beech branch to this decoration made by Sue W

Further follow-ups to April’s blog post:

Congratulations to those of you who correctly guessed that the Alphabet Bridge is so named because it has 26 logs in its span. A special mention to Barbara R who suggested that the mystery creature surfacing in the pond maybe one of John’s lost hearing aids. It could also be a newt. Hmm - preferred explanation? No contest.

1st May

John noticed that three of the brooms on the Crag are in flower. This is the first year they have flowered and as you can see, they are growing well. Maybe the tubes will need to be removed, however that will leave them vulnerable to browsing so alternative protection will have to be provided.

John continued wrestling with the challenge to fix guttering to one end of the sheds so that rainwater is directed into the bowser - not as easy as it sounds. Maybe it will work.

2nd May

Derek G has generously spent considerable time researching the history of Liddells for us. Today John and Clare joined him at the County Archives at Woodhorn and spent happy hours poring over old maps, documents relating to the Enclosures Act and Estate records. Derek maybe able to create a timeline of ownership included in which will be a Miss Mary Tulip who was born in 1719. The current sports writer for the Hexham Courant is Joseph Tulip - maybe a relation.

3rd May

John and Clare continued this year’s onslaught on the weeds on the path in the Top Strip. Clare thought that weeding the path before members of the Tynedale Community Choir visited (see below) maybe like cleaning the house before guests arrive. They did not finish the path - draw your own conclusions. During the weeding, they were visited by a mystery insect. Clare thought it was maybe a mayfly however Keith-who-knows-everything-about-nature is investigating further.

The algae is the big pond is diminishing so maybe the barley straw is working. Fresh barley straw added today. While John and Clare were coming up from the ponds to work on the Crag, they noticed a hare running up ahead of them towards the Top Grazing. During their work - clearing fallen wood - they noticed a hare running from the Wetland into the Pit Wood and shortly afterwards a hare running along the top of the Crag. It is possible that hares, being considered by some to be divine, maybe have the quality of ubiquitousness and/or maybe that they move in mysterious ways. John and Clare prefer the more prosaic possibility that maybe there are two hares on Liddells. Maybe they are romantically attached.

The first Cuckoo Flowers are out on the Meadow - maybe one day we will hear the first cuckoo here.

The trail camera has captured more footage of deer in the Pit Wood. One video shows a doe browsing on hawthorn, the second shows a buck anointing a branch in his path. Further footage showed his antlers are clean so he’s not fraying off the velvet. The last clip has been sent to Keith-w-k-e-a-n. Any ideas what may be making the sound? (For a follow-up to this question, see the entry for May 10th.)

6th May

Tynedale Community Choir, in which Clare sings, has for several years now, indulged in the habit of singing to the sunrise from the bandstand in the centre of Hexham on the Monday May Bank Holiday (the Morris Men dance there on May 1st). Many maybe consider this to be a bit bonkers. Participants then breakfast together in the Community Centre. Clare has sometimes followed this with a post-breakfast-chorus walk (this is usually at about 7am) round Liddells. This year she invited any choir members who felt so inclined, to join her. It was cold and wet, however, neither avian, nor the small bunch of intrepid human singers were deterred. A good time seemed to be had by all, though maybe that was due to the delicious biscuits John M provided. Liddells and baked goods seem to have an excellent relationship. (Thanks to Jane B and Sue R for photographs.) Maybe the Liddells muse joined us as Sue R was inspired to write.

Clare is thrilled that the Willow Warblers were performing as if on cue

The path through the north side of the Pit Wood, looking particularly verdant

Rosemary delighted to see how much the oak she donated has grown

Carpeting cowslips in the Pit Wood - many, many more this year after John and Robbie cleared and felled allowing more light in

9th May

Both ponies were shampooed today. Paul has an infestation of lice (not transferrable to humans thankfully) and had scratched bare patches on his face. This had happened before in the very wet winter of 2017/18. Both ponies were reasonably tolerant of the process, Paul rather more than William, however as soon as they were free to go, they indulged in some mutual comfort grooming.

10th May

John chose a walk around Liddells to check all the nesting boxes as his birthday treat. Clare is relieved he is so easily catered for. You can see the results of the survey here. Clare has noticed that the results for the previous year do not appear to have made it to the Surveys page - maybe they have disappeared into the Liddells Triangle, along with box 25, which this year has completely escaped John and Clare’s searching. (May 31st - Clare and John have realised that they didn’t carry out a nest box survey last year. They were still in the unsettled aftermath of John’s DVT.)

Maybe laid especially for John’s birthday survey

John has been working away on wall repair on the northern boundary.

Wall repair, maybe more than half completed

Keith-w-k-e-a-n not only proved to be uncertain about the insect that alighted on Clare’s arm, but declared “I divanaw, man” about the mysterious sound on the trail camera (Keith’s soubriquet will be rethought). John pointed out that Keith-w-k-?-a-n had not even hazarded a wild guess. Maybe one of John’s suggestions is correct - a barn owl on a vuvuzela - a lover's tiff between stoats - a consumptive jay.

Regarding the ‘maybe mayfly’, John availed himself of the free insect identification service offered by The Royal Entomological Society and received this very prompt reply from Professor Jim Hardie, their Director of Science:

‘It’s an ichneumonid or parasitoid wasp which parasitises other insects and there are some 2300 species in UK. This one looks like the largest (body length up to 50 mm and 100 mm including the ovipositor) and is called the sabre wasp, Rhyssa persuasoria. This is a female as she has a long ‘tail,’ the ovipositor, with which she drills into logs and lays eggs on larvae of the host insect, often wood wasps, and when the sabre wasp egg hatches the larva feeds on the host.

Harmless to humans.’

Maybe playing some Khachaturian would attract more of these creatures.

15th May

Barbara R - a friend of Clare’s from London days and avid Blog follower - came to visit. She had two requirements from her stay, a visit to Newcastle/Gateshead to see the kittiwakes and a walk around Liddells. Clare was happy to oblige with both. Clare proudly showed off John’s completed wall repair.

Barbara about to leave Liddells and just after Clare had remembered she hadn’t taken a photo to record this event.

Maybe the Kittiwakes would be envious of all the nesting boxes on Liddells - thanks to Barbara for this and the next photograph

Clare intent on listening to birdsong - maybe a Blackcap

You will maybe notice the spare stones on the left. It seems to be a rule of wall repair that there are either too few stones or too many. Maybe it’s a phenomenon that leaves you climbing the walls.

16th May

Clare, maybe drawing on her capacity for stick-to-itness (OED, 24th April: dogged perseverance) continued her efforts to rid the Top Strip path of weeds. During this activity she noticed what maybe a spider, with a pale blue bulbous body. Of course there is no point in asking Keith-w-k-?-a-n about this. There is also a question about the identity of the insects that were flying around the whole time (except when one alighted conveniently for a photograph - maybe an insect hoping for its moment in the Blog).

The first of the Blue Tit eggs have hatched.

19th May

John and Clare continued their prayerful attitude to the path in the Top Strip, weeding another ten metres or so on their hands and knees.

Clare returned home and investigated the spider with what she had thought was a pale blue body, and discovered that it is a Wolf Spider with its egg sac.

22nd May

Keith, maybe seeking to reclaim his reputation, arrived at 7am to help us with this year’s breeding bird survey. The sky was a clear blue and the birds sang generously and offered the annual is-it-a-Blackcap-or-a-Garden-Warbler challenge. If anyone else would like to have a go, try this. The morning’s highlight followed Keith hearing what he thought were maybe robin alarm calls in the Scrub. He wasn’t convinced, and his doubts were validated, as were his ears, when the calls proved to be hungry baby robins which were then fed by the parent. Maybe it is alarming to be hungry. You can see the results of the survey here.

Keith (ok, Keith-w-k-nearly-e-a-n) was also able to identify the large black insects (see 19th May) as non-biting midges. Clare had not known there were such things, having only been acquainted with the biting kind - and far too frequently. Apparently the name chironomidae derives from the Greek for pantomimist. “Oh yes it is!”

Keith was also reassuring about the algae situation which had worsened again in spite of input of barley straw and doses of barley straw extract. He recommended adding oxygenating plants, shoring up the banks where the ponies had puddled them and maybe fencing round most of the perimeter. Keith explained that disturbing the soil through the digging process had released nutrients into the water which then fostered the algae growth. The ponies were adding to that process.

And finally in the restoration of Keith’s reputation, he commented that the colour of the Wolf Spider egg sac is surprising given the spider’s need for camouflage.

23rd & 24th May - two days at the beech

John and Clare were catching up on some gardening (Clare) and sawing (John had blagged some replaced telegraph poles and was reducing them to logs; see photo below) when butterfly-Tim called to say that a very large limb had broken from one of the beeches on Liddells and was blocking the road. John went up straight away and was relieved that local farmer Derek drove up in his Manitou, saw the problem and returned with the Manitou plus forks and levered the branch until it broke off and he could drop it off the road. Clare and Tim arrived and set about clearing up the small stuff (throwing it over the wall into the Scrub) while John sawed up the smaller branches. One trailer load of wood was deposited at the Liddells log shed and a second taken home. Clare and John returned in the evening when Derek and Robbie turned up with two chainsaws that made John’s look like an electric carving knife. Derek had said it would only take ten minutes to saw up the main branch. John and Clare found this hard to believe until they watched Derek and Robbie at work. All sawing was done in 15 minutes, whereupon D&R, maybe thinking they hadn’t helped enough, set about logging the wood. Their double act - one swinging the axe in perfect rhythm, the other turning the wood underneath - was a wonder and very scary to behold. No digits, limbs or heads were lost in the process and John and Clare took another trailer load home to stack. Next morning John and Clare returned to log the remaining wood - another trailer load. So not only are John and Clare hugely grateful for the kindness of friends and neighbours, but they now have a nearly full log shed and very aching bodies.

The wounded beech - you can maybe see the dark area above the wound. It is likely that this is the site of an earlier split into which water has been seeping, weakening the joint between trunk and branch

Here is a close up of wood from the damaged joint

This does not quite do justice to the size of the branch and you can see that much work has already happened

Derek appears to be showing Robbie (a qualified woodsman) how to use a chainsaw. The photo does not reveal that Derek quickly chose Robbie’s best saw to use. Father and son rivalry maybe….

Maybe Derek and Robbie cannot hear John offering ear defenders

This vision of teamwork would maybe more complete if it showed Clare carrying all the logs to the trailer

Maybe nearly a season’s burning once it has dried

Ok, this is not about Liddells, however Clare could not resist including it so that she could add her caption.Poling station — Ok, this is not about Liddells, however Clare could not resist including it so that she could add her caption.
Poling station

24th May

Normal people sometimes receive bouquets of flowers. Clare was thrilled to find Sue R’s delivery of a bouquet of Wild Garlic in the porch. Maybe this is indicative of how Liddells has affected Clare. Huge thanks to Sue for the gift.

25th May

Clare planted the Wild Garlic in the Pit Wood. John and Clare enjoyed being at Liddells without any use of the chainsaw whatsoever.

Clare began this year’s Creeping Thistle Watch on the Meadow and bagged 122. Although she has not finished, there is only a small area left to cover. It would seem as though the numbers have more than halved since last year, so maybe pulling them out is proving a sufficient deterrent. Clare is wondering if maybe there is a Zeno-like paradox here: if the number of thistles is reduced proportionately each year, when only one thistle remains, will it be halved, and will that half thistle be similarly reduced resulting in the impossibility of completely removing thistles from the Meadow.

26th May

The trail camera has been directed at one of the nest boxes and capturing the Great Tits feeding the young inside. The first food was brought in at about five in the morning. Such is the activity, the camera has been triggered approximately every six minutes. There were about four hundred stills and videos to go through. The videos also recorded at least ten different bird species singing in the background. The last video captures a blackbird stand-off.

Here are the beneficiaries of all that activity

27th May

John and Clare are always delighted when Liddells can make some kind of contribution to others. Today Rosemary M-S collected Silver Birch leaves to use for dyeing wool. She was most complimentary about our convenient and lush foliage! She is ‘using a calendar which suggests the right plants for each month. So far, [she has] used daffodils, birch bark, and dandelions. Colours ranging from cream, to pink to yellow. Birch gives the best yellow. This time [she has] mordanted the wool. Many plant dyes are fugitive’. Thanks to Rosemary for the sequence of photographs and the imaginative challenge of fugitive dyes - from what might they be escaping….

Clare completed the Creeping Thistle eradication programme for the year - at least until she spots the ones she missed - and added 43 to the bag, making a grand total of 165. That’s a considerable reduction in two years. Plenty of thistles remain on other parts of Liddells for the pollinators. Yellow Rattle is now established on almost all of Meadow and this will help other wild flowers become established. There is already an increase in the Red Clover.

Following the Thistle triumph, Clare attempted to video Whirligig Beetles on the large pond - they do what it says on the tin. This proved to be easier said than done or maybe Clare just caught them recovering from a dizzy spell.

31st May

John and Clare are checking the trail camera regularly, hoping that it will capture a moment of fledging. Maybe there will be footage for next month’s blog post. Maybe the camera batteries will expire at the crucial moment.

A reminder - 30 Days Wild starts at midnight.

Clare and John

April 30, 2019

April - we're no fools

Clare and John

April 30, 2019

1st April

John started the anti-algae campaign today. He added a net of barley straw to the water. Our thanks to local farmers Barry and Sheila for the straw. He also started to fish the algae out using a small fishing net - by small we mean the kind you buy for pond-dipping with children. We had it to remove leaves from the water trough. John’s first attempt to lengthen the handle with a bit of tree and gaffer tape was not up to the task, so he recycled the two canes that had arrived with Juno’s Aspen to make a longer handle. Even so he was faced with a somewhat Herculean task. We are also investigating native aquatic plants which will help starve the algae.

Further water works - the path from the spoil heaps down to the Orchard has a very wet patch crossing it. John has dug this out and found a small spring and he’s diverting this with a drainage pipe.

John and Clare started clearing logs out of the North-east Strip and gathering up piles of brash ready for the first Green Gym Day later this month.

Diverting the spring - digging a ditch and lining it with gravel…

2nd April

The Sweet Chestnuts planted at home are beginning to show shoots, as are two of the three Horse Chestnuts that Juno planted.

Marsh Marigolds in flower in the Pit Wood

4th April

Clare split the clump of Marsh Marigolds and transplanted some to the stream feeding the big pond. Then she did repair work on fencing, replacing missing fixings - Theresa May would no doubt love that it is all strong and stapled now. Mel came to help today and once again proved to be worth more than his weight in gold. He and John worked on clearing the northern boundary and while so doing, John took off his ear defenders which sucked out one of his hearing aids, which then flew off into the undergrowth. This was one of the very, very recently replaced hearing aids following John losing both on Liddells few weeks ago (don’t ask Clare about this as she has high blood pressure) and requiring a claim on the insurance. It was only after John and Mel had hunted on hands and knees in vain for quite a while that John dared to ring Clare, confess what had happened and ask for help. The three of them performed a fingertip search through leaf litter, moss and twigs, looking for an object that is about half the size of a shrimp and a similar colour. Eventually Mel, who deserves to beat John at pool for evermore, found it in an area that all three had, allegedly, already scoured. Clare hopes that John might learn from this experience.

Clare discovered that her bees were benefitting from the water diversion and were drinking from the damp earth next to it. Double whammy.

5th April

The tracks by both of the two larger ponds have become very muddy and lost their grass so John and Clare have decided to add some seed to help regrowth. They started that process today. Fishing algae out of the ponds (the second largest one has developed it too) has become a daily task. Stopping it taking over completely is a daunting challenge.

6th April

A while ago John and Clare were offered three Oak trees by David Oliver. Not just any old Oaks though - David had grown these from acorns from the Leper Oak on Hexham Golf Course. You can read the full story of the Leper Oak here. Clare and John prepared the sites for these Oaks on the western edge of the Pit Wood today.

Eilidh is busy growing a baby and therefore less available to help with the ponies for a while. Today Lucy, a friend’s daughter, came to see if she might like to help out. Both ponies were instantly at ease with her which augurs well.

Clare started recycling stones from the Crag to make the pathway round the pond at the bottom more walker friendly.

This involved many trips up and down the Crag, carrying stones

7th April

When John saw the deer scrape in the North-east Strip, it seemed a good place to leave the trail camera. Sure enough the camera picked up the roe buck using his interdigital glands on the scrape and his frontal glands on the sapling beside it.

Seeding the first of the two stretches of roadway was finished today and some Yellow Iris moved from the wet area on the Meadow to the banks of Pond No 2.

9th April

David Oliver came to plant his Oaks. Clare forgot to pick up her phone and David left his camera in the car so there is no record of this event. Clare had also made labels for David and his son and daughters to fix to the tree cages when the family all came up together to see the trees on site. She forgot to hand them over. Ah well, such is ageing. The Oliver Oaks look very fine and knots have been tied in handkerchiefs to help remember to take photographs when the labels are ceremoniously attached.

10th April

John and Clare have decided to be a bit belt and braces regarding the algae and have dosed the two larger ponds with barley straw extract. Apparently new ponds are particularly susceptible to algae as are ponds with little shade and spells of hot weather. That’s 3 out of 3 then. Keith-who-knows-everything-about-nature is convinced it will all sort itself out in time, which is reassuring. If it doesn’t, John and Clare will be having words with him.

11th April

John and Clare spent time preparing for the next Green Gym Day, hauling brash, spreading tarpaulins ready to receive chip, and making a supply of baked goods.

Clare added more stones to the path at the bottom of the Crag. John is concerned that she might be planning to crazy-pave the Wetland.

12th April - The first Green Gym Day of this year

It must have been the lure of marmalade cake and shortbread. Seven stalwart friends arrived with bucketloads of goodwill and staggering reserves of energy and worked their way through five piles of brash until every twig was chipped. This involved a lot of hauling, lifting and hurling. Jane E planted Ragged Robin seedlings around the big pond - appropriately so since she had collected and sown the seeds last autumn and generously given Clare a large number to pot up and grow on. It was universally claimed that a good time had been had. John and Clare think they were probably not alone in choosing to do very little the next day. They remain hugely appreciative of all the help.

Tim decided the first and most urgent task was to protect the fritillaries on the meadow. He nobly sacrificed his boots to the cause

…and then turning her hand to algae fishing

…stack in piles to await the chipping team…

Clare was clearly worried there wasn’t sufficient brash so set about making more - or she could have been clearing a space for the LandRover to back up closer to the brash. She is delighted to have some rare evidence of her working - not that it is … — Clare was clearly worried there wasn’t sufficient brash so set about making more - or she could have been clearing a space for the LandRover to back up closer to the brash. She is delighted to have some rare evidence of her working - not that it is rare for her to work

This photo does not do justice to the time it took to rehitch the chipper. Barry acting as foreman here

Breaks were allowed but only to test the sitting area in front of the shepherd’s hut

16th April

Clare heard and saw the first Willow Warbler of the year on Liddells. She was particularly pleased that she saw it make its way from a Silver Birch to a Willow. Bird lovers will know that Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs are similar in appearance, however their songs are very different. If you fancy knowing more, click here. While tracking down the Willow Warbler, Clare came across a clump of Wood Sorrell. Not so unusual until you see where it was growing.

17th April

All is not lost to the algae - there are tadpoles in the big pond. Although it dived too quickly for a photograph, a Great Diving Beetle had arrived there too.

19th April - Good Friday

It was indeed a good Friday for Clare - it was warm enough to open the hives. Both colonies are doing well and are expanding in the brood boxes. Clare added supers (shallower boxes placed on top of the brood box with a grid that is too narrow for the queen. The bees use the frames for their stores leaving the queen more space for egg laying below). Lack of space is one of the factors prompting the bees to create a new queen and swarm. The bees are benefitting from early flowering oil seed rape in a neighbouring field this year, as well as from all the gorse on Liddells, so there is plenty of forage nearby.

Clare heard several Blackcaps singing for the first time this year, managed to see one, and so began her annual challenge to distinguish their song from that of the Garden Warbler. Not as easy as it sounds.

We have eggs in the box in the Orchard - probably a Blue Tit.

20th April

John finished the bridge on the Wetland and has named it the Alphabet Bridge.

21st April

Pond life is on the increase. There are tadpoles in the second biggest pond; Lesser Water Boatmen on one of the smaller ponds; and Pond Skippers (also known as Water Striders, Water Skeeters, Water Bugs, Pond Skaters, Water Skippers, or Jesus Bugs) are visible on all the ponds. The latter seem to be camera shy as each time Clare tried to film them, they ceased all movement. Patience was rewarded however, as yours will be if you stick with the video. There also seem to be a monster that surfaces briefly from the deep. Feel free to submit suggestions as to its identity. It is neither Clare nor John. The bird singing in the background is a Willow Warbler.

On our return home John and Clare learned that David Oliver had taken his family to label the oaks. They are waiting to see if his knotted handkerchief reminded him to take photos. They may appear in next month’s blog post.

25th April

The first Bluebells are out and Clare spotted three more small patches of them in places where she had not planted any. It’s good to know that Liddells has had its own Bluebells all along. They are all English Bluebells, which is excellent news. John added more seats to the story-telling circle. All it needs now is a seat for the story-teller. The Bird Cherry has produced lots of blossom this year, which is just emerging.

27th April

No sooner said than done. All that is needed now is a story-teller…

28th April

Clare saw a female mallard taking off from the big pond and three swallows flying low over it. John and Clare are rather hoping that the swallows make the link between the food supply on the pond and the excellent housing potential of the hay shed. Many butterflies around today including a Speckled Wood that settled obligingly still enough in the Pit Wood to photograph. Sadly the eggs in the nesting box in the Orchard have disappeared, however there is a Great Tit sitting on eight eggs in a box in the Pit Wood.

29th April

A high maintenance day - Clare weeded about half of the path in the Top Strip accompanied the whole time by birdsong, including that of a Garden Warbler, which Clare managed to glimpse so reassuring herself that it wasn’t a Blackcap. She also saw that there are now at least thirteen patches of English Bluebells established at the east end of the Top Strip from the very first ones Clare and John planted there before Liddells officially became theirs, thanks to Mike’s generosity. John strimmed large patches of rush on the Wetland, hoping to reduce its impact and thus allow other growth to come through. He also tightened and refixed fencing all along the Verge and around the arena - ‘arena’ sounds grander than it is, which is an area dedicated to schooling the ponies.

30th April

With the butterfly season well underway and Tim and Jane walking round regularly recording sightings, John strimmed the path they (Tim and Jane, not the butterflies) use through the Top Strip. John also started work on fixing gutters to the hay shed and part of the log shed in order to collect rain water for the bowser. Last year the rain water collection trough proved insufficient for the ponies needs through the long dry spell.

A final thought - the Wildlife Trusts’ 30 Day Wild begins on 1st June. You may like to start thinking about how you could have your own wild 30 days.