What’s that bird?
Apologies, the answers to last month’s bird-listening challenge were missing from the end of the Blog post. They were 1. Dunnock and 2. Jackdaws
Here are this month’s two challenges. The first Clare thinks of as a bird sneezing, the second, an audio clip rather than a video, has arrived a week earlier than usual this year.
1st - 4th March
John finished maintenance and replacement work on the nest boxes. The fluorescent paint is to make it easier for Clare and John to find the boxes, not for the birds!
Luke the mole man ‘removed’ twelve moles from the Hayfield and two from the Meadow.
Clare worked on path clearing near the roadside pond and came across a patch of considerable digging activity on a spoil heap and under a Hawthorn. She wondered about badgers, however a trail camera revealed that the miners were rabbits.
Clare noticed the first patch of frogspawn of the year in the roadside pond. John worked on preparing for the new fence on the Hayfield while Clare cleared a felled Hawthorn from the Wildflower Meadow.
She also started removing some clumps of Soft Rush which had appeared in the middle section of the Hayfield.
On her way back to the top gate, Clare spotted a wild cat in the roadway.
The ‘wild cat’ is about 10 cms long, 8 cms wide and 6 cms deep. There are three holes for fixing it to something. It is possibly made of bronze and appears to have been painted black at some stage in its history. It will likely have arrived in the rubble that was delivered to make the roadway on the Hayfield.
5th March
The Pit Wood camera recorded roe deer in a grooming sequence. First the doe, mother to the triplets, starts grooming one of her doe kids, however after a few seconds the buck kid noses his way between them and the doe starts to groom him. The doe kid attempts to reconnect with the mother unsuccessfully and wanders off. The doe continues to groom the young buck, particularly around the head, for six minutes before wandering off. She returns a minute later and grooms the buck’s body, then his head again, for two minutes, at which point the buck begins to groom the doe and they groom each other for another two minutes. The deer were involved in this activity for twelve minutes in total. The doe kid might well be harbouring some sibling-based resentment. Apologies for anthropomorphism. Below you can see the start of the sequence and a clip of the mutual grooming.
March 8th - International Women’s Day
Clare decided to have a walk around Liddells. She was delighted to hear her first Chiffchaff of the year. It wasn’t making much noise and appeared to be the only one singing so maybe an early arrival.
Further on Clare heard the unmistakable ‘purring’ of frogs mating. She managed to record that from a distance however the frogs dived as soon as she came close. Clare is nothing if not persistent and eventually managed to capture the frogs on her phone camera. She had also been aware for a long time that ‘Big Pond’ is about as unimaginative a name as possible, although no new name came to her. Until today. Henceforth the pond previously known as ‘Big’ will be referred to as Pond Maggiore.
While Clare was delighted to have recorded both events, she was conscious that they were decidedly male-dominant!
The alder catkins redressed the balance somewhat with male and female catkins in flower. An owl pellet is evidence of an owl hunting successfully. The native Daffodils are now in bloom although they didn’t quite make it into flower for St David’s Day. The replacement gatepost for the new fence is in position.
Further delights - more frogspawn had appeared in the Roadside pond and newly appeared in both Pond Maggiore and the Crag pond. More Chiffchaffs were calling in the Pit Wood and Clare heard a Greenfinch as she approached the hide. Sitting in the hide Clare saw Dunnocks benefitting from seeds dropped from the hanging feeders; a Bank vole made several quick dashes onto the ground feeder; Robins, three Tree Sparrows, a Wren, Great Tits, Coal Tits, a Willow Tit, several Long-tailed Tits, a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a Goldfinch, Goldfinches and Chaffinches were all in evidence too. A Blue Tit appeared to be investigating J1 and a Tree Sparrow was doing the same with box 8.
On her way out of Liddells Clare saw a Red-tailed bumblebee queen flying around the Meadow - a decidedly female end to Clare’s visit.
9th March
John took the harrows off their pegs and flattened all the molehills on the Hayfield.
Clare had another look at the ‘wild cat’ and noticed a pair of horizontal holes drilled out below the mouth. Best guess - this was a door knocker. Not quite evidence of ancient Roman occupation but evidence of occupation nonetheless!
12th March
No boxing, these hares went straight to it.
13th March
The oldest buck anoints a tree in the Pit Wood using the scent glands beside his eye; as he approaches closer to the camera you can see the coronets - the protruding circles at the base of his antlers.
Two hours later the buck kid settles down on the path. His position is described as ‘couched’; in heraldry an animal depicted in this position is ‘couchant’ Clare was reminded of unicorn tapestries she has seen in New York and Paris.
15th March
Clare planted a bundle of Willow whips on the Wetland and in the Top Strip. She noticed that the Barn Owl box had a hole in the roof - not exactly welcoming as a nesting site.
17th March
John went to investigate the Barn Owl box to see what repairs might be needed. The box has been used far more than either John or Clare were aware - John discovered between 40 and 50 pellets inside. They were dry, therefore old, however they offered evidence that the box has been in far more frequent use as a temporary roost than either Clare or John had realised.
18th March
Clare removed more clumps of soft rush that had appeared in the middle section of the Hayfield. Each time she thought she had finished, she found more. This job will take a while. She added some variety to her work by flattening molehills on the Meadow.
John faced a more finite task and repaired two of the benches in the Story-telling Circle.
19th March
Clare did some maintenance work on the Willow Avenue, taking out dead whips and replanting with fresh ones, then adding tubes for protection. She also removed some tubes that had started deteriorating round some other planting, and substituted Hawthorn brash round the trunks - a more pleasing and ecofriendly way to protect new trees.
Local farmer George brought his post-knocker to the Hayfield and put in two gateposts and thirteen fence posts.
John heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming.
A Red-legged ~Partridge makes its way past a boulder on the Crag. It seems to be speeding through the swarm of insects.
22nd March
The oldest buck is no longer in velvet. Here you can see his antlers stripped clean.
23rd - 24th March
Clare did more work on tree protection where she had removed shredded tubes.
She found a patch of Black Witch’s Butter fungus, Exidia glandulosa, on an Oak limb. She has only ever found Witch’s Butter before, which is yellow. It seems more fitting that witch’s butter should be black. This fungus’ other common names are black jelly roll, or warty jelly fungus.
While in the Meeting Room Clare noticed that one of her ‘Nature table’ boxes was looking damp so she investigated. As soon as she lifted the lid, Beth spotted movement and a wood mouse jumped out. Clare took the box outside and found another mouse inside. They had been making their own nest from the bird’s nest Clare had kept inside. The dampness was from the mice using the box as their necessarium.
Sally came to plant a Birch she had grown; Clare planted two more Oaks that had been donated by a choir friend.
Clare helped John tighten the wire on the first section of the new fence. John devised a method using a tow rope and an old piece of pony harness. What ingenuity.
Pre- tightening
Tightening
The Pit Wood camera has recorded dozens of videos of hares over the last ten days, many of them with a single hare following a scent on the ground and an equivalent number of a hare in pursuit of another. The females would seem to be in season. A male will mate with several females.
25th March
The Pit Wood camera has also picked up a Song Thrush singing - here are a pair on the ground; also a stoat running across.
29th March
The oldest buck is captured anointing and scraping - he has scent glands by his eyes and in his feet.
John restored the gate into the Top Strip and he and Clare laid out the wire ready for the next part of the new fence.
Clare set about removing damaged tubes in the Pit Wood and on the Wetland and replaced them with Hawthorn brash - much easier on the eye and, thus far, this method has proved to be effective.
Clare visited Primroseside (the banks either side of the spring stream) and was delighted to see the Primroses are coming into flower.
The gate is on the right; the section on the left awaits new rails
A small area of Primroseside
Horse Chestnut with fresh protection
30th March
John prepared the next section of wire for the new fence while Clare completed her challenge to remove all the tattered trees and replace them where necessary with Hawthorn brash. While sourcing the brash she spotted (ho ho) a pair of 7 Spot Ladybirds, Coccinella septempunctata, in a crook of a branch. ‘The bright colours of ladybirds warn predators that they are distasteful, although some birds may still have a go at eating them. As well as their warning colouration, ladybirds also have another defence mechanism: when handled, they release a pungent, yellow substance from their joints (a form of 'controlled bleeding') that can stain the hands’. (wildlifetrusts.org) ‘The name ‘ladybird’ comes from Christianity in which the ‘lady’ is the Virgin Mary and the red colour of the insect is her cloak. The seven spots are her seven joys and seven sorrows.’ (woodlandtrust.org) The connection with the Virgin Mary adds nicely to seeing the insects on Mothering Sunday/Mother’s Day. Clare was reminded of the children’s rhyme ‘Ladybird, Ladybird, fly away home…’ and looking that up, she discovered that in Yorkshire the rhyme begins ‘Ladycow, ladycow,’ in Scotland it begins ‘Dowdy-cow, dowdy-cow,’ and in Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte calls the insect a ‘lady-clock’.
Every Blog post a learning oportunity!
The answers to this month’s ‘What’s That Bird?’ are Chaffinch and Chiffchaff.
