Mystery pawprints left by the Beast from the East

Although we live in a suburban area, we have seen (largely Muntjac) deer on occasions making their way across the roads or down the footpaths. We have never seen a deer in our garden.

I peered outside on Saturday and saw these strange prints. Reason tells me they belong to visiting cats, but they have a distinctive hoof print feel about them with that rim around the edge. However, when I looked up deer tracks, they did not seem to match. If they are feline paw prints, I guess the snow must have melted in a particular kind of way. I wonder what you think...

Winter Wonderland for St David's Day

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!

  

When we lived in Swansea I remember wondering whether our Daffodils would be in flower for 1st March. Sometimes we saw small Daffodil buds at Aberglasney as early as November, a fact I find hard to believe these days. I suspect the milder climate in South Wales has something to do with this, but there may be other factors to consider such as global warming and the species of Daffodil bulb.

Like the Grey Squirrel photo below, the picture above was taken in our Suffolk garden yesterday: I fear today's snow will have covered up the Daffodil stem by now. 

A Bitterly Cold Afternoon at Alton Water Park, Shotley Peninsula

It felt as though the temperature was several degrees centigrade below freezing: there was an unforgiving wind from Siberia.

However, we wrapped up warm and ventured out for a short time to enjoy the sunshine at Alton Water Park and Anglian Water reservoir on the Shotley Peninsula near Ipswich. There were several pairs of Egyptian Geese (photo above): we find we are seeing more and more of these.  

 There was a lone Great Crested Grebe swimming and diving, swimming and diving, and looking very streamlined without an elevated crest.

The sunlight was remarkably bright and there wasn't a cloud to be seen. 

 These are some of the Wigeon who were floating near the shore.

 

We checked the tree that usually has good bird feeders, but there was only one feeder today with a few nuts in the bottom. However, as we drove out of this part of the car park, we came across a lovely Song Thrush (thank you, Juliet, for your help here: I often have difficulty telling Song and Mistle Thrushes apart!). 

On such a bitter day, it was good to see some early Daisies, and to remember that spring cannot be too far away - despite the forecast!

I was surprised to find molehills so close to the water's edge, 

but perhaps the damp soil makes digging a bit easier...

In the course of some poetry research last week, I learned that these are not seed cases, 

but rather the globose heads that bear the fruit of the Plane Tree. 

An exquisite downy feather.

If I was a duck, I would hang on to feathers like these until the temperatures rise!

The Egyptian Geese took off...

...but the Wigeon and Coots stayed in their rafts near the shore. 

We walked a little way along the reservoir wall (below), but soon retreated for a more sheltered spot. 

 Here is David before we turned for home...

There was a small flock of birds in a tree by the car: they were in shadow and it was hard to photograph them, let alone see what they were. They seemed too rounded for Sparrows and were not the right shape for Chaffinches. David and I separately came to the conclusion that they might be Redpoll. I have lightened my photo considerably since it was almost a silhouette. Do let me know what you think...

Red Letter Day for White-letter Butterfly

Those of you who follow my blog may recall my excitement at seeing my first White-letter Hairstreak surprisingly close to my Suffolk home last summer. These are the photos I took at the time. I am posting them again in the light of the good news that three White-letter Hairstreak eggs were recently discovered in Scotland where this species had not been known to breed for over a century. You can read the story on the Discover Wildlife site here.

And as for me, well, I shall return to my spot later this year when these pink Bindweed flowers are blooming. White-letter Hairstreaks usually frequent the treetops in areas of elm, but, of course, so many elms have been decimated by disease in recent decades.  

Postscript: I have just ordered a copy of a children's novel, highly recommended by an adult poetry friend. It is called The Island at the End of Everything by Kiran Millwood Hargrave and is about butterflies and leprosy. I will report back in due course...

Urban Birds (and Mammals) in a Local Park

Treecreeper

Inspired by the launch of Nadia Kingsley's new book of art and poetry, DIVERSIFLY, on the theme of urban birds in Britain, we took a short spin around a local park to see what was about before the rain got too heavy.

Having seen the Kingfishers (here and here) on BBC Winterwatch recently, we were thrilled to find not one but two by the lake, presumably a male and a female. Will there be young in due course?

Sadly the birds were at the furthest point from us for much of the time, and since my zoom does not perform well in grey rainy weather, my photo is just a record shot - but it is always a thrill to see these birds, and I have never seen two at the same time before.

Catkins - I think these are birch ones... (whoops, Juliet thins they are hazel. My mistake. Thank you, Juliet!)

Coot

Young adult Black-headed Gull

The ice house from the days when the park was part of an estate

We were fascinated to see the small trunks growing vertically out of the horizontal trunk. This was where we saw our first rat. David also noticed a Grey Squirrel.

It's always lovely to see a Robin.

I had hoped there might have been more Snowdrops, but it was good to see the few that there were.

Good weather for ducks... This is largely, but not entirely, Mallard!

Look who's peeping out!

I don't know if our presence startled the rats, but the larger one, presumably the mother, swam off across the lake. The young one (peeping out of the trunk, two photos up) came down and sniffed around the tree trunk.

We also noticed Wood Pigeons, a Carrion Crow, a Bluetit and a Magpie. Not bad for a short visit in the rain...

The Latecomer

This furry creature arrived after the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, and evidently found something tasty in the planter. Since the mammal section of the survey requires sightings to have been during the last year rather than during the hour of the watch, I guess the squirrel's lateness is of no real significance!

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2018 - And my top bird is...

I believe for the first time, the Goldfinch came out top in my 2018 Big Garden Birdwatch survey. As you will guess, the photo above was not taken today (too much sun, too many sorrel seeds)... but I think you will agree that it is a more colourful picture than this morning's record shot, taken in dull grey weather from behind glass, which I have posted below.

The species chart records what I actually saw during the hour...

There were more sightings of these species, but the records requested are for the highest number seen at one time.

Sadly a number of previous Bird Count avian visitors were missing, including the House Sparrow, Dunnock, Robin (who is often around), Greater-spotted Woodpecker and Green Woodpecker. I suspect the weather plays a part, but it would be interesting to know what the other key factors are. We had Greenfinches in the garden when we moved in some five+ years ago, but these have not been seen for a long time. The Song Thrush was here in the run-up to Christmas and the Wren. A score of two for Wood Pigeons is very low for us.

We are also invited to record animal sightings of the last twelve months. We have seen one Hedgehog some months ago (and back in the summer, quite a few hedgehog calling cards...)

Grey Squirrels come to the coconut feeder most days... but there were none during the hour of the count.

If you would like to take part in the count, there is still time as it continues until 29 January 2018. The link is here. Happy watching... and recording!

Suffolk Flora Preservation Trust Poetry Competition Event

I am just back from the Suffolk Flora Preservation Trust Poetry Competition (SFPT). Many congratulations to Tim Gardiner for winning the £50 adult prize in the SFPT Poetry Competition on the theme of the aquatic life in the Fromus Valley Nature Reserve. Lord Cranbrook hosted the event at Kelsale Village Hall this afternoon.

Tim's poem, along with three other commended entries including my own (about the Wandering Snail, Lymnaea peregra aka Radix peregra), will feature in the Suffolk Flora Preservation Trust's 2018 Adult Education volume on the reserves at Simpson's Fromus Valley and Orchid Glade. The judges were Kaaren Whitney, Poet-in-Residence for the reserves, and Suffolk Poetry Society Chair, Florence Cox. Sue Wallace-Shaddad and Sue Mobbs also read their poems to the enthusiastic audience. It was a real pleasure, too, to hear the winning and commended poems written by those who had entered the young people's section of the competition. 

New Year greetings... and today's (grey) visitors

Belated wishes for a happy new year! 

I saw two Grey Squirrels in the garden today: while this one had knocked his food off the Silver Birch branch and was gorging away at ground level, the other was scampering up the bark, only to find an empty tree. 

The Grey Heron has become a fairly regular visitor in, or usually above, our local patch. I love watching the touchdown as those ungainly wings come in to land.

Christmas Greetings...

This may not be my wildest post, but it comes with good wishes for Christmas and the new year. Mrs Pretty's entrance to Tranmer House in the grounds of Sutton Hoo may not be the wardrobe-entrance to Narnia...

...but there is something rather lovely about it all the same. If you would like to see who lives on the other side of the door, you can click here...

Those of you who have followed my blog over the years will know that I am fascinated by shepherd's huts, like this one at the foot of the viewing platform for the mounds at Sutton Hoo. You can even see some sheep in the middle distance, with Tranmer House beyond. 

 And this photo above is a close-up one of the residents...

Sheep on the hillside lay
Whiter than snow
Shepherds were watching them,
Long, long ago.

Then from the starry skies,
Angels bent low
Singing their songs of joy.
Long, long ago.

For in a manger bed,
Cradled we know,
Christ came to Bethlehem,
Long, long ago.

Anon. 

16th Century Gascon Traditional Carol