sling your hook

it was a quiet, foggy morning and the trees were full of these little hammock webs, designed it seems to catch the little midges that tend to fly up and down in little mating clouds at this time of year.

first appearances

more and more plants are putting in their first appearance of the year including the very slender and pretty wood anemone above, and the rough old dog violet below. Early, but not very early.

Kit Hill images - and a linnet

Kit Hill quarry provides a wonderful range of tones with only hints of green at the moment. It has warmed up so quickly that crowfoot is already flowering in the small ponds around the quarry pool.

 And a stonechat (I think) was puffing himself up and giving full vent to his Spring song.

post post script:- my in-house expert has suggested that what I thought was a stonechat is in fact a linnet. This may well be true because its song was strikingly beautiful and the linnet is renowned for the quality of its song. It also likes scrubland. I have a new source of information to keep us all well informed, Birds Britannica (see link)

Downgate

a beautiful sunny morning with a thick mist lying in the Tamar valley. As the mist receded the whole village of Downgate appeared beneath us as we stood on Kit Hill. Downgate is on a fairly steep hill but the perspective has flattened it out. In the background a green wood pecker was yaffling away (to hear it try this link to RSPB). I have never managed to catch a green woodpecker on camera, but there is definitely one in residence on Kit Hill now. We will go hunting (only with a camera of course!)

another yellow body

last week I could hear yellowhammers practising their song. They could manage the "bit of bread" and "cheese" but not the whole phrase. Today there were several sitting in the tops of trees giving it full blast and using the whole phrase.

There was also an odd episode in the field behind our house. A buzzard flew down from a tree in our garden into the field. It was immediately the subject of a spectacular aerial attack by another buzzard. They appeared to be fighting for a minute or so before one flew off, and then the other flew off, neither seemed injured. I have never seen this behaviour before (they are quite furtive birds as a rule other than when they are in the air or roosting on a pole)

very prim indeed

a familiar favourite is out everywhere now