1/2 May
John looked in all the small nest boxes and found 11 in use, fewer than in previous years. This will partly be due to the poor April weather and also reflects the decline in bird numbers nationally. We'll look again in a week or two and see what progress there might be.
3rd May
Friends of ours asked if we would contribute greenery to be used for decoration at the wedding of their oldest daughter. We were delighted to say yes.
This - mostly Larch, Wild Raspberry, Elder, Cow Parsley and Snowberry - was transformed into ....
these and...
this!
3rd May
Clare realigned the trail camera so that, as she thought, it would show more of the nest box in front of it. Hmmm. Luckily the new position caught night time activity.
4th May
John has started work on the shepherd's hut - no Farrow and Ball products will be used in its decor. He is working on it almost daily. Tim has been walking the butterfly transect and in the absence of butterflies sent a lovely photograph of the Snake's Head Fritillaries on the Wildflower Meadow.
Also known as snake's head (the original English name), chess flower, frog-cup, guinea-hen flower, guinea flower, leper lily (because its shape resembled the bell once carried by lepers), Lazarus bell, chequered lily, chequered daffodil, drooping tulip or, in northern Europe, simply fritillary
5-8th May
Clare and Sally walked over the whole site and recorded wildflowers and birds heard and seen. They found three large cushions of primroses in the Pit Wood that had not been found before but which had obviously been there for a long time. The first of the year's bluebells had emerged in the Top Strip. John and Eilidh continue working on Paul's development. We find evidence that a Tawny Owl is still around.
8th May
More evidence of a Tawny Owl in the Pit Wood.
9th May
John makes progress on the shepherd's hut and Clare finds more spring flowers appearing.
Violets in the Pit Wood
Lady's Smock (Cuckoo Flower) on the Wetland
Measure twice, cut once
10th May
John is a year older today. To celebrate he, Mel and Clare did some routine maintenance on the Top Strip path, weeding and laying more chip. They were so engrossed, no photograph records the activity. We saw a swallow apparently investigating the log shed, we'd like to think as a possible nesting site.
14th May
Progress on the hut. We walked round making a list of jobs that Green Gymners could help with. En route we saw what Clare initially thought was a hive preparing to swarm. This was confusing as, to the best of her knowledge, this colony had lost its queen. When the bees were still there the next day, further investigation suggested they were 'bearding'. This happen when the colony is too hot and large numbers of bees leave temporarily so that the house bees can be more effective in cooling the hive, which they do by fanning their wings. This is very different from this. John re-realigned the trail camera so that it focussed on the nest box, which he did beautifully, enabling a fine pheasant photo opportunity.
Getting cross (members)
Bearding bees
Equestrians among you will have heard of William Fox-Pitt, one of the greatest eventers. Here is our Pit fox taking the wall jump. He will henceforth be known as William.
18th May
Tim and Jane are paying particular attention to the bilberry of the Crag in the hope of seeing Green Hairstreaks. None have appeared so far, however Tim did photograph this rather splendid spider. We'd welcome an identification so arachnologists feel free to contact us.
19th May
The Adder's Tongue Fern on the Meadow is showing through. It is approximately 2cm high. It was registered as 'scarce' in Swan's Flora of Northumberland in 1993.
20th May
We are aware we don't have many photographs of the different birds on Liddells, so it's good to find the trail camera helping to address that gap. The Wood Pigeon came back to the same spot several times over two days, visiting about every twenty minutes.
20th May
After all her pedgilling (OED Word of the Day again - to work hard and painstakingly at) away at removing the Creeping Thistle on the Wildflower Meadow last year, Clare was delighted to barely fill one bag with them this year. So far a total of 442 pulled out - yes, she did count them, it helped with the sense of achievement - which would suggest she has pretty much decimated them. Result!
23rd May
John has been pedgilling away too. Clare is delighted he has found a use for the tool belt she gave him.
24th May
Keith helped us yet again with our annual breeding bird survey - he managed to find a window between taking a group bird-watching in Romania and spending a month offering nature tours in the Cevennes. We are very grateful for his generosity, both with the breadth of his knowledge and of his time. We saw fewer birds than in previous years, partly because the tree foliage is quite dense now and also it was pretty cold early morning. One addition to our usual list was hearing a raven flying over. You can see the results here.
25th May
Clare persisted with her work removing the Thistle and Sycamore seedlings which are prolific this year. This necessitated looking closely at the ground and Clare was thrilled to discover that not only has Yellow Rattle established itself in at least three-quarters of Meadow, but there are at least four more patches of Adder's Tongue Fern than we had realised on the western third of the Meadow - and a frog.
27th May
Eilidh came over and helped get Paul harnessed for some work and he pulled two bags of logs, one from the Wetland which is the longest he has been asked to do. As you can see, it seemed to cost him little effort. (We'd like to say that we know best practice would have Eilidh and John wearing hard hats and that it is only because they know Paul so well that they haven't put them on, however will endeavour to remember to do so in future.) Clare spotted more wildflowers emerging. A bit of footage from the trail camera showed a magpie in the Scrub. We've included it to add to our menagerie.
Water Forget-me-not, which we remember is on the Wetland
Tormentil, which is not in the least bit tormenting
Bugle, which does not play the Last Post
28th May
More Meadow work. Orchid leaves are appearing, the Yellow Rattle is beginning to flower and there is a particularly fine patch of Bistort. You can now see more clearly, if you have ever investigated a viper's mouth, why Adder's Tongue Fern is so called.
Yellow Rattle doing it's job and getting down to grass roots
Bistort
Happily this will not bite
30th May
A couple of photos to show how John is progressing with the Shepherd's Hut.
A room with a view...
...and with another view
No, we haven't forgotten this month's fashion shoot. (Clare was asked why we kept including photographs of gorse. If you too are mystified, click here)
31st May
A final note - please consider supporting the Wildlife Trust's initiative to do something wild every day in June. It's the fourth year of 30 Days Wild. The purpose is to boost wellbeing by being more connected to nature. Even if it's too late to sign up, start straight away and let your imaginations work. If you live near enough to Liddells and want to do something wild there, let us know.