oil beetle

we seem to be a local hot spot for the violet oil beetle. It likes this habitat of grass, wild flowers and leaf mould to be found on the edge of glades and woody hedgerows. This is a male, and he was warming up in the sun. Given their very complicated life cycle (qv, and link) it is amazing that they seem so common around here.

Pest (or pet), the lack of growth in the grass is driving the local warren inhabitants back into our gardens.

getting together

birds are busy pairing up ready for the breeding season. Male and female robins look very similar. They pair up in late winter/early spring. The female chases the male until he accepts her but then he cements the relationship by feeding her, often on the ground. Male and female bullfinches are strikingly different and much more secretive. They are described as 'sedentary' and rarely move far from their local patch.

celandine heaven

What tells us when Spring is really here?

It's when the celandines are open everywhere.

more excitement

first it's long tailed tits, and then it's red wings in the paddock. They are another of our winter migrant visitors, and normally they have left for Scandinavia by April. The cold dry weather seems to be upsetting these natural rhythms but enhancing the bird watcher's daily enjoyment.

relativity goes tits up

Our neighbours all report seeing long tailed tits regularly in their gardens but they seem to avoid our feeders (too full of hungry sparrows?) so it was very pleasing to see one (on the frozen apple tree) for the first time today.

two suggested universal laws of nature:-

1. Buy any garden furniture or barbecue equipment after 1st March  and it will rain incessantly until September.

2. Put some fertiliser and weed killer on a grass lawn and it will not rain again for several months.

Clearly these two laws must interact, and this would suggest that you should only buy garden furniture a day or so after fertilising the lawn, or conversely fertilising the lawn several hours after buying garden furniture. This may be one of those higher dimensional problems with a solution in an alternative universe.

idyllic days

some days seem just perfect and today was one of those days, the ducks on the Venterdon duck pond overlooked by a bank of daffodils, primroses and celandine, and (below) a squadron of fieldfares taking off. They are winter visitors and will soon be off to their breeding grounds in southern central Europe.

what shall I eat next

one of my favourite things! The arrival of a female woodpecker in the garden suggests we might see some more soon.

glad to be out!

not only the magpies are frisky today

Easter primroses

these primroses, in a small patch on the road into our village, are an unusually rich buttery yellow (compared with the normal pale yellow see post below)

four for a boy

In addition to all the other birds a group of magpies have started hanging around. I am not quite sure what they are up to, (courting?),  but usually it is trouble.

at the Venterdon motorway service station

It has been a hectic Good Friday get away at the bird feeders this afternoon. I don't know whether there is a specific collective noun for green finches but a gang of them (holiday makers, I suspect) descended on the garden and proceeded to harass the locals. There is definitely something in the air today (snow?) that is exciting our avian visitors.

primroses!

                                         Upon this Primrose hill,
                                         Where, if Heav'n would distil
                                         A shower of rain, each several drop might go
                                         To his own primrose, and grow manna so;
                                         And where their form and their infinity
                                         Make a terrestrial Galaxy,
                                         As the small stars do in the sky:

from a poem by John Donne

worm hunting

One of the pair of mistle thrushes that has decided to nest in our garden. They hunt like blackbirds, occasionally cocking an ear to the ground to listen for grubs or worms. They have a very easy to recognise alarm call that sounds like a loud rattle .... brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr which sums up the weather as well.

late opening

well, something is trying to get out and pretend it's Spring. And what about this for an amazing discovery in the parish (link to Old School News, Stoke Climsland, April 2013). Can't get enough of old bones myself.

picked clean

this is the skull and upper jaw of a female fallow deer. The teeth are incredibly sharp, just right for chewing bark off trees. Harriet found this trophy and then demolished it.

Spring clean

Female blackbird taking a bath. Blackbirds seem to be particularly keen on washing their feathers.

light in the lanes

Storm clouds ahead on a sunny evening. We are lingering somewhere between Winter and Spring. When Spring finally comes it is going to be short and very energetic and everything will be out at the same time, more like North America than our usual languid season.

squeezed out

One indignant goldfinch unable to get to the nyger seed feeder because of a pair of hungry bullfinches. This may be the same pair who bred successfully somewhere in the garden last year

camellia time

much later than some years but about the same time as last year the camellia is a welcome sign that the plants are stirring.

des res Cornwall part 2

I am not sure what is going on with our house sparrows but they seem to be jostling for squatters' rights.

on a happier note

hellebore (green I think rather than stinking which is supposed to have a crimson border to the flower, but it looks more yellow than green (!)) brightening up the junction by the duckpond.When I last photographed this plant in 2008 (see link) I thought it was the stinking variety. It shows how variable plants can be in their appearance.

a waste of Spring

Sadly, flowers are not the only things to be found growing in the lanes. These waste tips have appeared by the side of Rowden lane, a bridle path. It is not easy to access this area and it must take some effort to get a trailer loaded with rubbish here and dump it, why not use that effort to get rid of the waste legally? I have made this point  before several times (to no avail of course); it is so sad to see the countryside abused and violated in this way.

Cornish daffodils

The recent cold dull weather has brought Spring to a grinding halt, but here and there are signs of the slow emergence of the first of our native harbingers of Spring. In the river valleys locally these slender and very beautiful little native daffodils are just starting to flower. Plus common dog.

these childish things

This little bike has been parked here for a week or more. Don't ask me, I don't know.

this week's guest dog, Meg

now, how did that happen?

Downhouse

despite the cold weather the crocuses at Downhouse are making a fine display this year mixed in with snowdrops, and daffodils yet to flower.

no spots on my D600 (yet)

rooks and starlings swarm over a field where muck has been spread, giving the impression of a very spotty CCD.

a day at St Ives

We went to an exhibition of William Scott at the Tate modern, St Ives (see link) and quite unexpectedly enjoyed the brilliant photographs of Peter Fraser, of which these are not examples, but very much in tribute to him.

des res

one bedroom, much sought after location, near popular restaurant, safe for children, must see now, viewing by appointment only.

I need somewhere bigger than that

Inny valley

the Inny valley in late winter, showing the gentle slopes down to the river. The sun is out and the sheep are grazing.

purple nuns

even earlier than usual purple toothwort makes its annual appearance in the woods by the Inny

and an ambi-otic collie (Meg) making a guest appearance

a little poppet

A meadow pipit in the grassy terrain they like, showing the slender beak and pale eye markings typical of this common but restless bird.

mist in the valley

Oh what a beautiful morning,
Oh what a beautiful day,
I've got a wonderful feeling,
Everything's going my way

which one?

We have a mistle thrush in the garden which likes to sing from the top of the tallest tree. They are described as greyish looking birds which makes me wonder if this is a song thrush with its warmer brown colouring. How do you tell?

Con brio

Spot, full of the joy of living

Old Mill

This used to be a quiet wooded valley full of larch! Anyone who knows this area would be hard pushed to recognise the dam below Old Mill from this picture.