Conkers to Come

When I wake in the morning my first view of the outside world is the Horse Chestnut tree that stands in next door's garden, close to the boundary wall. Earlier in the year I can follow the activities of the six pairs of Rooks that nest in it. In the last couple of months they have been carefully rebuilding their nests ready for egg laying, but now the leaves are fully opened and the 'candles' in full bloom, completely filling my view from the window.

Horse Chestnut in full bloom

I estimate that there are around 600 candles, each with 50 individual flowers which makes a total of 30,000 potential conkers in the autumn!

Wandering Wheatear.

I have received a report of  a Wheatear which has appeared in a Cowlease garden for several days now. It is unusual behavior as we usually only see these birds as they pass through Dorset on their way to their northern breeding grounds. A walk along the Ridgeway at this time of year will often reveal several birds flitting along the wall tops.

Northern Wheatear.                 Photo:  Mark Pemberton. Click to enlarge.

  Considering that this bird has flown over 2,000 miles, probably non-stop, from Central Africa, it deserves a rest and feed-up for a few days in Martinstown.  It is then likely to continue its journey to north country moorlands to breed.  They do sometimes stay to breed in Dorset, but in very low numbers, maybe two or three pairs every year in the Purbecks..

Things were different in the late 1700s, with thousands of  Wheatears being caught and sold as a delicacy in Weymouth market. In 1794 one man is credited with catching 7,880!  

Beefly

Looking like a miniature Humming Bird Hawk Moth, the Large Bee-Fly, Bombylius major  is making an appearance in village gardens. Moving rapidly from one spot to another in a behavioiur known as 'yawing' it is searching for the entrances to the underground nests of solitary bees, on which it is parasitic,  in order to lay eggs which on hatching will start feeding on the wasp larvae.
The Bee-fly has only one pair of wings as opposed to a bee's two, and is thus a true fly.

Large Bee-Fly              Photo: John Elliott

                      

Webcam Wildlife

For those of us having to  restrict severely our wanderings in the countryside there is much interest to be gained from two Dorset webcams, one run by DWT at its Lorton reserve where a pair of Barn Owls inhabit a nest box, and one on a Bournemouth University building where a pair of Peregrines are already incubating eggs.
The DWT webcam is at Wildlife webcam | Dorset Wildlife Trust  
The Bournemouth University is at H O M E - Bournemouth Peregrines

Country Coronavirus.

I attempted earlier in the week to continue my monitoring of our spring butterflies by taking my exercise along public paths only to meet strangers, both walkers and cyclists, some of whome made little attempt to maintain a two metre separation. At the age of 90 I cannot afford to take any chance of infection and will so record what I can  from the house. From my bedrom window the Rooks are back after last year's wipeout and busily rebuilding their nests.The sticks are broken from living branches, often with much difficulty, and if dropped are not picked up but left lying on the ground. Some of the smaller ones are  picked up by my resident pair of Woodpigeons who are starting a nest in the Pittosporum by the gate.  No sign of the blackbirds nesting yet though.

Badgers, Beavers and Butterflies

Wildlife enthusiasts and dairy farmers will be relieved to know that the Government  has announced that the ineffective cull of Badgers and cattle as a means of reducing bovine TB is to be phased out in favour of a policy of vaccination, and an earlier and more effective test for infection in cattle  to replace the present skin test which doesn't detect early infection and thus results in a reservoir of infection within the herd. It is sad that scientific advice which has been available for several years has taken so long to be accepted.
Dorset Wildlife Trust has announced that it has now secured the necessary licenses to proceed with its enclosed Beaver trial, the first of its kind.The project will host research that will help us to understand the positive impact this species could have on chalk stream water quality, flood prevention and wildlife. Though highly desirable on the presently much abused South Winterborne we are unlikely to be lucky enough to get Beavers in the near future.
And a welcome sign of spring, a Brimstone butterfly, the first for the year, has just fluttered across my front garden.

First Frogspawn

A

1st February

Only the first of February and already the first batches of frogspawn, six of them, have appeared in my small garden pond. The picture above, though it looks a bit rough, isn't a sketch but a close-up photo. The two green leaves of duckweed give an idea of the scale. The embrio tadpoles show clearly in the centre of each gelatinous blob and hopefully I may be able to get similar pictures as they develop.
Watch this space.

13th March 2020

My tadpoles disappeared two days ago ( I blamed the heron that as been flying round the village)  but they have now reappeared hiding below a mass of bubbles. This I have never seen before but, according to the current issue of New Scientist, it is the way they breath at a certain stage in their developmnet. Most tadpoles develop lungs as well as gills and need air to survive, but they are too weak to break the surface tension 'skin' to take in air. Instead they can form bubbles and take in air from them. 

Tadpoll Bubbles  Click to enllarge

21st March 2020

The Tadpoles have grown enormously in the last week and are now attacking any likely food such as this unfortunate snail.

Tadpoles eating drownned snail   Click to enllarge