Celandies, both Lesser and Greater.

 

 

 

Greater Celandine. Photo.John Elliott.Click to enlarge.

 

The cheerful yellow of the Lesser Celandines which have covered much of my wildlife garden in the past few weeks is now fading, and being replaced by the more subdued, paler yellow of the small patch of Greater Celadine at the bottom of the garden. Not numerous, but widely scattered  throughout  Dorset, and stated to have been found in Roman material,  the Greater Celandine is a member of the PAPAVERACEAE or Poppy Family, not the Celandines. Formerly a herbalists remedy for warts and eye troubles. Breaking the stem reveales an orange latex which contains several poisonous alkaloids, including chelidonin and chelerythrin. Another one to add to our list of poisonous plants in the valley. Of these the Lords and Ladies is in bloom and increasing from year to year, and Hemlock Water Dropwort along the stream will soon be flowering.

Song Thrush return.

 Once a common bird, the Song Thrush has been absent from the village in recent years, so it has been a pleasant surprise in the last week to have it a frequent visitor to my garden. The inverted V shaped breast spots distinguish the Song Thrush from its near relative, the Mizzle Thrush, which has more rounded, crosswise spots, and is slightly larger.

  Song Thrush. Photo.John Elliott. click to enlarge 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early butterfly

 

Brimstone. Photo.John Elliott. Click to enlarge.

The Brimstone butterfly is one of the few that over-winters as an adult, the majority passing the winter as either larvae or eggs, and so becomes one of the earliest to appear in the Spring. Now a regular visitor to our gardens on warm afternoons, it may also be seen along the path to Ashton , with other over-winterers Red Admirals, Comma and Small Tortoiseshell. The Dandelion provides an early source of nectar.  

My Cuckoo

 The latest bulletin from the BTO on my sponsored cuckoo Arthur.

 

Arthur rocks up in Morocco

 Cuckoo Arthur was tagged at Surlingham Marshes in Suffolk on 31st May 2025. Just a few days after Ashok made his move, Arthur also crossed the Sahara. He took a route via the western Sahara, including a spell over the sea as he travelled east of Lanzarote and made landfall again just south of Agadir in Morocco. He is currently 33 miles south east of Agadir.

Violets.

Dog Violets. Photo:John Elliott. Click to enlarge

 The small patch of Dog Violets on the path behind the Manor House, the only one I know of in the village, is a little bigger this year than it was last year, a hopefull sign. It is an important food plant for fritillary butterflies and several moths. Though fritillarys are unlikely (our nearest ones if you want to see them are the Silver Washed Fritillarys on Black Down) our moths population, which is rapidly declining, could well do with support.

The Dorset name is 'Snake Violet' 

My Cuckoo on the move.

 The latest bulletin from the BTO brings nes of my sponsored Cuckoo, Arthur, on its journey back to the UK.

 Arthur hops over into Ivory Coast

Suffolk Cuckoo Arthur has also moved into Ivory Coast. Over the last few days he has flown 180 miles north from his last location in southern Liberia to his current location in north west Ivory Coast. Joe, Jim and Arthur are now perfectly poised to capitalise on the superabundance of insect life that emerges in response to the drought-busting rains at the end of the dry season.

 

Cuckoo Arthur's Track. 

Cuckoo Arthur was born last year in Suffolk and then flew south across Spain,down the west coast of Africa and then SE. into the rain forest of Central Africa where it spent the winter.   Now working its way back, it will be feeding up in preparation for crossing the Sahara, the most hazardest secction of its journey.

 

First Butterflies of the Year.

 Yesterday's (Wenesday, 25th) sunny warmth brought out the first butterflies of the year. Several pale yellow Brimstones and and a very welcome Small Tortoiseshell, flew quickly through my front garden, not settling so no pictures. The Small Tortoiseshels have not been very plentyful in recent years so perhaps we can hope that this early emergence might be a sign off better numbers to come.

A walk down the path to Ashton  in the afternoon where several Peacocks and a single Comma settled on patches of bare earth sunning themselves, long enough  to get pictures of sorts. 

Peacock. Photo. John Elliott. Click to enlarge.

  Comma. Photo. John Elliott. Click to enlarge.

 

 

 

News of my Cuckoo, Arthur.

 

Arthur surges west to Ivory Coast!

Suffolk Cuckoo Arthur arrived in the Congo Basin in late October and spent most of the next three months in eastern Gabon. In mid January he moved north and west into southern Cameroon, where he remained for the rest of the month. On the 6th February it was clear that he was making his move to west Africa as he was by then passing over Ghana. He pressed on and by 8th February he had reached Ivory Coast, almost 1,200 miles from his previous location in Cameroon. The latest signal from his tag shows him on the outskirts of the city of Soubré, in the south-west of the country. This move completes the first leg of Arthur's migration back to Suffolk. Will Arthur continue at this pace and be the first of our tagged Cuckoos to tackle the Sahara? Watch this space!

 The rotting log on the Church Green is covered in a mass of fungi at the moment, mostly Tripe Fungus , Auricularia mesenterica, which is described as 'a fairly common species that forms dense tiers, often laterally fused, on old stumps. (I must admit that it doesn't look much like the tripe I ate in my youth up North and which doesn't seem to exist now in Dorset).

    Tripe Fungus. Photo. John Elliott. Clic to enlarge.    

 On the end of the log, as well as Tripe Fungus, the is also the much commoner King Alfred's Cakes, Daldinia concentrica, which are the globolar, burned looking bits on the lower half of the log 

   King Alfred's Cakes. Photo. John Elliott. Click to enlarge.

In spite of their name they are classed as 'inedible', as is also the Tripe. We seem to have lost our, once plentyful, Field Mushrooms and the very best of mushrooms, the Parasol Mushroom.

 

Frogs active.

 Nearly at the end of January and signs of spring already. Butterbur and Snowdrops in flower, 

daffodils in bud, the first leaves of Cow Parsely and Lords and Ladies showing through.  My garden pond frogs laid three lots of frog spawn last night. I only hope that we do not have any more severe frost to kill it off, as happpened last year.

 

 

 

 

This years Frog Spawn. Photo. John Elliott. Click to enlarge.

An Otter was reported in the flooded stream this morning.

 

Rooks.

Rooks preparing for Spring. Photo. J. Elliott. Click to enlarge

The Rooks that nest in the Horse Chestnut outside my bedroom window are now returning from the night roost over the other side of the A35, and each pair slowly pulls the old nest to bits and drops the unwanted sticks, mainly over my drive. That done they will collect new sticks, breaking them off trees all over the village and start a new nest. The difficult bit is getting the first stick to stay in a fork of the branch where last years nest was built. This has been known to take some weeks in past years, presumably with younger, lesser experienced birds. If a stick does fall it is not picked up, but a new one is gathered. 

 

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