Go to the last entry on this page .....Go to previous entry17 April - A damp start with a touch of drizzle, but the day soon became sunny, and while Farnborough recorded a high of 17C it certainly felt warmer in the garden. It was still 17C at 6pm. There was quite a brisk, mainly southerly breeze which swung round to the south-west in the evening and picked up to over 20mph.
The first of the Snake's Head Fritillary flowers opened today, and it looks as though it will be joined by numerous others by the end of the week.
While we haven't really enjoyed a good Spring so far, it does seem as though some plants have come through it quite well. While there are Primroses appearing all over the garden,
The Cowslips don't seem to have made similar progress over the last few years.
And as mentioned previously, the Wild Garlic (Wood Garlic, Ransoms), while not ready to flower yet, is certainly spreading well, the Triangular-stalked Garlics in the same area of the garden are not doing well at all. In this picture, most of the small seedlings that you can see are probably Ragged Robins, preparing to take over in the summer!
Another plant that thrives on a sunny day is the Lesser Celandine, this clump in the shade at the side of the big pond.
Down at what was the Ivy tree, the stump is now covered once more with fresh Ivy growth. This is another one of my jobs unfinished, having intended to incorporate a nest box before that new growth had taken hold. Perhaps I'll get to do that before the end of the summer, ready for next year.
Next to that spot the two Common Hazels are doing well, although one is clearly more advanced as its buds have started bursting.
In contrast, the Willow has no leaves but instead has its first catkins. This afternoon I took advantage of the fact that the shrubs and tree are still largely bare to do a bit of essential pruning along our south-facing fence. This branch fell victim to my secateurs as it extended out into my neighbour's garden a bit too much.
Two butterflies (first of the year) were seen today, both dark and too far away to identify. However, I did have a closer encounter with this, the first Bee-fly of the year. It reminds me that with all the family upheaval of the winter, I having taken a macro lens out of my camera bag since before Christmas. Perhaps it's time to put that omission right.
Finally, the birds - Well there have been no more visits by the Black caps as activity continues at a low level here.
Once again this was a single visit to collect nesting materials, the Dunnock taking away a length of straw. With the Blackbird male singing loudly at the top of the conifers, it seems that his partner may be having a successful attempt at nesting, so far at least. While it would be nice to be able to watch, it has to be good news for the pair after the 'local' pair failed completely last year after some seven attempts.
18 April - The day started with the south-westerlies continuing at speeds around 30mph. However, in the afternoon they became more variable and more westerly, bringing in thick cloud and some heavy rain/hail showers. And the temperature, after peaking at around 14C at lunchtime, fell back to 7C as the rain arrived before crawling back up to 11C later on. No pictures and no visits to the monitored nest site today - a grand-daughter day, and I hope to catch up with the backlog of large images over the next few days.
23 April - A bright, sunny start to what should be a pleasant Spring day. We've had several similar days since the previous entry, although yesterday became cloudy after a nice morning, and by the evening we had to resort to the log burner. Today the temperature surpassed 20C during the afternoon and I resorted to wearing shorts for the first time this year.
It's been quite a busy few days, mainly grandson oriented. He has learned to pick up earthworms with great care, and for the first time allowed a (Hawthorn) bug to wander over his hand, although he is not so sure about millipedes! And he took great delight in watching closely as a bee-fly hovered over Dandelions and Lesser Celandine flowers.
On a sunny morning at the moment he gets a special treat at breakfast time in the form of his own 'rainbow', produced by sunshine striking a glass picture frame at the front of the house and producing a spectrum on blinds at the back of the house - there is a beautiful one there now as I write this at 8.30am.
Yesterday morning the first of our solitary bees started emerging. Also yesterday I finally got around to clearing our mini allotment and must now get some suitable plants that the grandchildren can pick and eat later in the year. I've also added a slate roof to the Ivy tree, and I intend to add a small nest box ready for 2014, encouraging the Ivy to grow around it. today I set about clearing the mess that accumulated in the log store during the winter, and clearing some space for us to use the West Wing for lunch and coffee breaks on sunny days.
When I moved a container of kindling that hadn't been disturbed all winter, a Peacock butterfly 'staggered out from the depths of the wood. It was in almost perfect condition, not what I would expect of an adult that had just over-wintered.
It was certainly very reluctant to fly, and spent the next few hours in sunshine, moving around on the ground. At first it showed no interest in feeding from flowers and it rejected my attempts to offer a honey/water mixture. Eventually it did unfurl its proboscis when I put it on yet another Dandelion. When I returned to check on it a bit later it had disappeared - I must assume that it flew away.
I saw two other butterflies today, both firsts for 2013. The first was a Brimstone, and the second was this Comma - I'm afraid that the jagged edge seen to the right of the middle apple is all I could capture before it detected my presence and flew off!
While bird activity is pretty quiet, with nothing new to report from the monitored site, there was a male Blackcap here again yesterday. I first spotted it bathing in the big pond, and then later at the apples hanging in the Hawthorn. I've put up some fresh ones ready for today. I think I saw a Warbler in my neighbour's apple tree, but it was more or less in silhouette and I was too far away to be sure, other than it was definitely not a Dunnock, nor a Robin. At the end of the afternoon, while I relaxed on the newly cleared area both male and female Blackbirds landed in the Birch tree with beaks packed full of worms before heading into the conifers. This means that their first attempt at nesting must still be making good progress - good news indeed, despite them not choosing 'my' monitored site. The only activity seen on camera for several days consisted of a Robin landing there for just a moment or two this afternoon.
While visits by the Jays are now just a Winter memory, the Magpies continue to check out what is for offer under the hawthorn. I've just watch one take a small piece of stale hot cross bun and dump it in the birdbath - no doubt it will be back later to collect it! I didn't see it return, but the brad had disappeared by the end of the afternoon.
A couple of flower updates - On the 21st, the first of the Marsh Marigolds opened,
and next to the Fritillaries the first Forget-me-nots have come into flower. I couldn't find any others with flower buds anywhere near opening.
On the 22nd I spotted the first Ground Ivy flowers.
Back on 26 March last year I photographed some fruiting bodies on a piece of timber that had been in the garden for several years. These turned out to be a Myxomycete (slime-mould) called Reticularia lycoperdon. Today I noticed these similar structures on that same piece of wood.
On the opposite side of the timber is this very different structure, a very colourful bracket fungus, likely to be Coriolus versicolor.
24 April - There was rather more cloud today. Nevertheless it was a bright day with the temperature reaching 18C during the late afternoon. However, in the early evening there was dampness in the air and at 10pm there is light rain. I had little time to watch out for wildlife in the garden today. In the morning I needed to sort out a load of rubbish to take to our local recycling centre, and this afternoon we headed out to do a bit of shopping before collecting our grandson from his nursery. It will be a fun day tomorrow!
Tonight I took this photograph to follow up on yesterday's picture of the slime-mould. As you can see, the two structures have now burst open to release their very fine chocolate brown spores. The millipede had been taking an interest in the structure for at least an hour.
29 April - Since the previous entry we have been rather busy, with our grandson a guest for much of the time, so virtually no time has been devoted to the garden. As it happened, over the same period the temperature dropped enough to warrant the lighting of our wood burner several times. Today it made it to 13C, the highest in four days, and it was dry, with none of the April showers that plagued the previous days. At some point over the last three days the male catkins on our Himalayan Birch came into 'bloom' and are now shedding their yellow pollen. I don't suppose it helps, but I can't really blame the tree for the very frustrating 'hay fever' that has been causing havoc for my eyes over the last week or so. While I haven't been taking photographs in the garden these last few days I must include a cctv image from the monitored nest site where over the previous four days there had been just two visits to the site, both by a Robin which appeared to be hunting. During the late morning I happened to walk down the garden and was greeted by at least three Blackbirds issuing load and almost continuous alarm calls from within the conifers. These continued for at least five minutes. I wondered whether the cause could be either cats or Magpies, but saw no sign of either. Anyway, when the birds fell silent I returned inside and shortly afterwards I switched on the monitor. Minutes later the male Blackbird 'White Spot' appeared in the nest site for what appeared to be the first time since the beginning of the month. However, this evening, when I had time to look through the day's recording I was surprised by the actual level of activity that had taken place today, all involving just the male. He made his first visit at 6.40am and then went on to appear on camera another twenty seven times, the last at 8pm. This makes today the busiest since monitoring began at the end of February. The visits were more or less evenly distributed through the day so that the disturbance that I heard seems to have had no effect on the Blackbird's behaviour.
I can only speculate at this point, but could all today's activity be linked with the pair's chicks fledging rather than being predated? The female was nest building at the end of March, and with incubation taking 13 days, followed by a similar time as chicks the timing could well be right. Is the male already inspecting ready for their second brood?
Talking of nesting, it was a year ago today that I first spotted Swifts overhead in 2012. I haven't had the chance to watch for them so far this time, and I have yet to switch on the nest box cameras. I may have the opportunity to sort out the cameras tomorrow, but that is not yet certain. What is more or less certain, is that family commitments mean I will not be able to maintain more that a cursory monitoring regime this year. I hope to set up a webcam, but the nest box diary is likely to be skeletal at best. If the Blackbirds do choose to use the monitored site I will cover that using the webcam, whatever is going on in the Swift boxes, returning to them later.
30 April - The month has come to an end with a much better day, apart from the chilly wind from the north-east that has returned. The day was mainly sunny and the temperature reached around 15C. This morning at around 8.30am our little grandson was treated to the best yet 'picture frame rainbow' (see 23 April). It was projected onto a white panel low enough for him to investigate himself - great fun, although he was quite wary at first when he saw his hand changing colour! It reminded me that a few evenings ago some heavy showers coincided with the sun being low in the west. A dash up to his east-facing bedroom window was rewarded by his first meaningful sighting of a bright, real rainbow which he took great delight in, having been introduced to one in a couple of episodes of a brilliant TV series called Sarah and Duck ......... Anyway, the little boy has left us for the moment, leaving the house strangely quiet, and I finally got my ladder out to check and clean the lenses on the cctv cameras in the Swift and House Martin nest boxes. To my relief, all was well, apart from one dodgy, but easily fixed connection behind my monitoring station.
First, the House Martin boxes, and the new Swift boxes that I put up last year, and which face East. The Martin boxes were last used in 2007, that brood failing due to bad weather, but the cameras are switched on every year just in case they are 'discovered once more). The new Swift boxes do not have cameras installed, although it would be possible to add them once I see the boxes in use for a season.
Just around the corner, facing North is the pair of Swift boxes that I had intended replacing this Spring with a side-by-side pair. As you can see, the Sparrows have not decided to nest in these, but as is often the case, SW(up) is being used by a roosting bird (all the nest box images in this entry were captured at around 7.30pm).
Finally at the other end of our north-facing wall is the other pair of Swift boxes. SW(le) contains a quite advanced Sparrow nest, although I have not seen any activity there for a few days, and there is no bird in there at 9pm. I am expecting Swifts to return to this box - they will be able to make good use of this material, whether or not the Sparrows are in residence.
I've just read that a Swift has been seen over Portsmouth, on the Hampshire coast, so I should expect to see some overhead in the next day or so. I have yet to decide how to divide the recording capabilities that I have available, which will not include my time-lapse recorder this year. To simplify matters I may combine the feed from the four Swift cameras into one quad-image, much like that of the Martins.
Returning to today's activities at the monitored nest site, there were just eight visits recorded today, but significantly, one of those was by the female.
Later in the morning I saw her collecting worms and then disappearing into the conifers, so despite the fracas heard yesterday she must still have offspring to feed, which is good news. The final visit by the male occurred at 6.46pm. And it looks as though there has been another successful brood locally. This afternoon a pair of Wood Pigeons came down to feed with a juvenile (with no white collar) in tow. As I added the large images to the page I noticed that I lamented the slow progress made by the Cowslips. Since then they seem to have made up for lost ground and there are now numerous groups of them around the garden!
Click on images to see larger versions
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