I have not ventured out beyond my patio door, but here are some of the avian visitors who came to our garden today. I gather there are Redwings and Fieldfare in the vicinity, but I have yet to see any this year. As for the snow, well, it is probably the most we have had since we moved in to our current house about nine years ago!
I thought I would post a few photographs from my time in the garden this morning. Despite a downpour yesterday, there is hardly any water in the old tray at present, but these spiders were making the most of the sunshine.
Way ahead of St David's Day, we were thrilled to see these buds.
Our soil doesn't seem particularly suited to Snowdrops, but it is always a joy to peer under the Hydrangea and see these small white harbingers of spring.
I also noticed two Hellebore buds.
And finally, these catkins beyond our garden fence were turning gold in the sunlight.
As you can see, I finally succeeded in uploading my Big Garden Birdwatch Results for 2021 on to the RSPB site. There are not really any surprises on my list, although, typically, Long-tailed tits and Wood Pigeons have been around in much greater numbers since my counting hour.
Ours is a medium-sized suburban garden. It is in close proximity to a Local Nature Reserve. We have a mix of trees, shrubs and the somewhat battered stalks of last year's long grass. Our sandy soil contains a fair amount of old builders' rubble.
We usually put out fatballs with seeds or mealworms. We replenished our supply of these, adding a new canister of sunflower seeds, which attracted the Goldfinches.
I wonder what birds you were able to count. Results can be uploaded, I believe, for the next few days (possibly until 19 February, but do check). Here are a few photos of our avian visitors, taken from behind double-glazing ...
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| female Blackbird |
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| Long-tailed tit |
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| Starling |
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| Blue tit |
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| Robin |
RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch Update of 31 Jan. 2021: I have tried several times to upload my Big Garden Birdwatch results to the RSPB site, but apparently the volume of results has caused a glitch. According to messages on the RSPB England Facebook page, we are invited to keep trying to upload our data, and this can be done right up until 19 February.
I look forward to taking part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch over the weekend. Long-tailed tits may not gain my highest score, but I expect they will be in the top three. We hardly ever saw these exquisite birds when we lived in South Wales: I wonder whether they have become much more prevalent in recent years. We placed a robin-sized nesting-box of brushwood and a small roosting pouch in the garden today. It will be interesting to see in the coming weeks whether we have any takers.
Sadly this Dockbug has come to grief. I noticed it in the old shallow tray of water we keep out for the birds. On a happier note, I watched a ladybird moving along a branch in the sunshine. I expect it should really be overwintering, but the unexpected warmth had probably lured it out. I also saw what looked like my first bee of 2021. I always look forward to the return of the insects.
The specks of ice (or hail?) on this leaf caught my eye the other morning. I have greatly enjoyed seeing the icy wonders on BBC Winterwatch this year.
We had beautiful blue skies here in our part of Suffolk this morning, and it was a joy to watch the Long-tailed tits feeding from the fatballs. I love the way the top one clings on, projecting its bill forward. These birds are so acrobatic!
A number of folk have been posting about Snowdrops. I looked in the garden a few days ago and failed to see any signs, but today I came across two Snowdrops in flower, virtually hidden in a tangle of undergrowth. They brought a smile to my face!
David and I were out looking for the over-wintering Wasp-spider egg-sacs. We only managed to see one of the four that were in our mini-meadow (aka unmown lawn) last autumn. I hope the others have survived the frost. I wonder if you saw the Wasp-spider photograph on BBC Springwatch yesterday?
We nearly missed this patch of Cyclamen in a shady corner... I wonder what we will find next.
And meanwhile, here is the Wasp-spider eggsac...
And just in case you have yet to see this striped spider, here is a link to one I saw last year...
We finally had more than a five-minute flurry of snow today. It looked beautiful for a while, but began to melt fairly swiftly. There is still some slush on the pavements, which will doubtless turn to ice if the temperatures freeze again, but most of the snow has vanished. The Blue tits, Long-tailed tits, Great tits, Robin and Blackbird have been very active around the coconut feeder. We also had a couple of gulls and Magpies battling it out for a tasty morsel.
I checked yesterday and at least one of the four Wasp spider eggsacs is still intact, though much of the long grass is now bent over. I couldn't see any signs of a Snowdrop, but I guess it's early yet. At least some of the bulbs have started to shoot. Will there be daffodils in flower for 1st March, I wonder?
Those following this blog will know that I have been taking part in the Butterfly Conservation Garden Butterfly Survey this year. There is one month to go and I am not really expecting to see any butterflies in it, but who knows what December may bring.
As you can see, the only butterfly I noted in November was a Peacock. Like the Holly Blue, the Large White and the Small White, this species showed up here in a total of six different months. For this survey, the number you record refers to the total number seen at a time, rather than the total number per se.
UPDATE, 16 January 2021
Not surprisingly, there were no butterfly sightings to report for December 2020.
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| These silver birch leaves make me think of Klimt and his beech trees. |
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| As you can see, we have been out in our locality, breathing fresh autumn air. |
The oak leaves in the photo below were almost too high for my camera,
but look at the skeletal patterns, left presumably by leaf miners.
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| I'm not really an autumn person, but the colours and the play of light and shade are hard to resist. |
This is the first year I have taken part in the Butterfly Conservation Garden Butterfly Survey. I have the rest of November and December still to go, but am not expecting to see (m)any more of these wonderful insects before next spring. Looking at the chart above, I wouldn't be surprised if the year here didn't end for me in the way it began; but, who knows, I might yet be caught off guard and delighted by the flutter of small wings.
David, meanwhile, has been recording butterflies seen on his (near) daily walks in our locality. A brief report of his first-part-of-the-year findings has just been published in The Suffolk Argus, the magazine of our local Butterfly Conservation branch. The figures prove to us just how many butterflies, and how many species, are inhabiting our suburban environment here in Suffolk. Butterfly numbers may be in a worrying decline, but we have certainly been finding that a closer inspection pays dividends when it comes to honing our observation skills.
I think the Sparrowhawk is probably a bit like a certain savoury spread in the sense that it is either a bird you like to have around or one whose presence makes you shudder. I certainly veer towards the latter camp, while realising that all birds need to feed if they are to survive and reproduce.
We have Sparrowhawks in the garden from time to time, and this majestic creature appeared a week ago. My photo (through double-glazing) leaves a lot to be desired, but that piercing yellow eye seems to say it all. There are, of course, no vulnerable fledglings out and about at present; but a Sparrowhawk has to feed all year round, and I shudder for the small birds who visit our coconuts.
We were not far from the car when a birder hailed us, telling us to look up as there was a small flock of Crossbills in a tall pine tree. The Common Crossbill is a bird I have long wanted to see so I cricked my neck and waited for a flicker of movement in the high branches.
It was not long before I spotted a male...
...with his burnt-orange feathers.
I particularly wanted to capture the distinctive cross-over bill on my photo, and despite the distance and poor light, you can just about make it out in the photo above.
The kind birder mentioned that there had been a flock, and while we only saw three in total ourselves, it was not long before I noticed the female with her green plumage. You can see her at the end of the lower arrow in the photo above. I always enjoy seeing a new species, and keep hoping the day will come when I happen to be in the same place as a Hoopoe, but a surprise encounter, like this one with the Crossbills, is always a particular joy. Our friend told us there were also Redpolls about but we failed to see them.
The area in question has mixed swathes of woodland, and in the deciduous areas, there were plenty of chestnuts on the ground ...
... and a good selection of fungi.
Most fronds of bracken have taken on that beautiful bronze hue of autumn.
We noticed one small moth larva on the sandy soil. Autumn is not my favourite season, but I do particularly like the display of red (see below), yellow, brown and orange.
P.S. Apologies if the spacing looks odd on your screen. Since Blogger updated its platform, I have found it hard to use the html option and hard to position pictures evenly within text.
