Spring has sprung!

Awakening on the last day of 2020 my first view of the outside world was of the Rooks ariving from their night roost at Bradford Peverell and inspecting their nests in the Horse Chestnut tree outside my bedroom window, tugging at sticks and tucking them back into the structure. They do this every year only to be lost from view as the sticky buds break into leaf and hide the more interesting activities as they start  rearing families.

Rooks inspecting nests.  Phto. John Elliott.

 

Later in the day a walk up to West End yielded a surprise in the form of several blooms of Butterbur on the roadside below the mill leat. which supplies the moisture they love.

Butterbur at West End.  Photo. John Elliott.

 

 

According to my admittedly old Flora, the Butterbur flowers in months 3,4 and 5. In recent years it has flowered much earlier than this but I have never seen it before the old year is out until now. The flowers appear before the leaves and provide early food for such insects as are about. In past years the large leaves served to wrap butter, hence the name, keeping it cool by  evaporation.

 

Another Garden Rarity.

 Until the late 80s Little Egrets were regarded as 'A very rare passage migrant'. in Dorset, occuring in low single figures. My son, John, saw one in Poole Harbour then and had to  submit a full description to the British Birds Rarities Committe for scruteny before it was admitted to the national records. Numbers started to increase in the nineties; in 1999 a total of 226 were seen in the main coastal sites and there has been a steady increase since.  The birds are now frequent visitors to the village and a pair have often roosted in the Manor House trees adjacent to the road, and foraged up and down the stream. It came as a big surprise though to see, on Christmas Day morning, one standing in my front garden. A great garden tick and a new one for my weekly Garden Birds website entry.

 Little Egret in Tregerrick Garden. Photo. John Elliott  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a further surprise on Boxing Day morning was a Grey Wagtail in the back garden feeding on the bird table. The bird was very active, they don't stand around like the Egrets, and I didn't manage to get a photo.

Further to my remarks on the Moorhen below,  we now have these three birds which normally live and feed quite happily by the stream, coming into our gardens.  This usually  only occurs in very cold, freezing conditions, which recent weather has not been, and food is then difficult to find. I fear something has gone seriously wrong with the South Winterborne to drive these birds away.

Garden Rarity.

Some birds, such as the House Sparrow and Robin,  happily share our gardens with us all year round, my robin is even tame enough to eat out of my hand. Others will only come into the gardens when food supplies in the wider countryside are becoming scarce. Scandinavian visitors such as  Fieldfares and Redwings only venture into gardens in the most severe weather. Red Legged Partridges from the local shoot are only occasional visitors to Martinstown gardens, while some species virtually never venture into them willingly. I was surprised therefore to see a juvenile Moorhen, a species that doesn't normally stray far from the stream, picking up dropped seed from the bird table and then flying up onto the table to feed. It was very nervous however and disappeared when I tried to get a photo, so I was very pleased a few days later when a photo appeared on the Dorset Bird Club web site  taken by my neighbour, Nick. He tells me it has been with him about a week, it must like his birdseed better than mine.

Moorhen.          Photo:  Nick Pridle.

 The stream is silting up very badly at the moment, not at all surprising since the absence of plants, particularly the wavy green strands of  Water Crowfoot, makes the flow very smooth and not turbulent enough to keep the silt suspended. The silt is perhaps covering up food supplies that the moorhem might otherwise enjoy. Certainly the Little Egret I saw wading along a few days ago didn't seem to be finding much.

Winter flowers

 An early morning ground frost covering house and car roofs heralded the coming of winter and the long sleep of most of our flowering plants. But not all, as a walk up the bridleway to Ewelease Dairy revealed. Next year's Cow Parsley, already six inches high ( or 15.24cms. if you insist) above the ground layer of Ivy and Ground Ivy, as is also next year's crop of Nettles, one of nature's great food plants, the main or sole food plant for around seventy moths and butterflies. Though most of the Ivy is now covered in berries a few flowers remain to provide late food for insect like bees, wasps and hover flies.

Ivy is not the only plant to be still in late flower on the roadside bank up to the farm. A small       patch of Hedge Mustard has come into bloom quite recently.

Hedge Mustard.

A few flowers of Red Campion remain, as also do Herb Bennet and White Dead Nettle.

Hawkweed.

Hawkweed looks far from over in several places, A few Dandelions and Buttercups are still showing, together with one of the Hawkbit species and Yarrow, and right at the top of the hill a couple of specimens of that much maligned plant, Ragwort.

Ragwort.

Yarrow.

         

                                         

News of Cuckoo Valentine.

An update from BTO on the migratory travels of my Cuckoo Valentine arrived in my inbox today .

Our Cuckoos have now reached their wintering areas. It is amazing to see that having been tagged within a stone's throw of each other, Norfolk Cuckoo Valentine and Suffolk Cuckoo PJ were separated by 3,780km (2,349 miles) in August but are now again within 15km (9.3 miles) of each other in northern Angola.  They are approximately 70 km (43 miles) north east of the capital Luanda. PJ and Valentine have wintered in this area in previous years and if conditions are good, they may well stay in this area untill late February/early March.

Hedgehog Survey.

 I recently took part in Dorset Wildlife Trust's survey of Hedgehogs in Dorset. Sadly I had to report that I had seen none in Martinstown.  For most of my 46 years in the village hedgehogs have been nightly visitors to my garden, together with Badgers and Foxes. Experiences ranged from stepping on a hedgehog in the dark, I am not sure who was most alarmed, me or the hedgehog ( niether of us suffered any serious harm), to getting up in the middle of the night to investigate what sounded like a baby crying in the front garden. This turned out to be due to a tightly rolled hedgehog which a badger was trying to open up and make a meal of.The badger was persuaded to leave through the front gate and the hedgehog taken to the back garden where it scampered off into the shelter of the hedge.Alas these nightly visits seem to have ceased in the last four or five years.

However, of the 4000 responents to the survey 80% had seen a badger.  Full results of the survey are at:-

dorsetwildlifetrust.typeform.com/report/ogep1RZr/yswQfsOA2Zh2LbJJ

and a leaflet on helping to preserve the hedghog population is at:-

www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/download-your-hedgehog-guide-0?utm_source=EmailHHGuide91120&utm_medium=EmailHHGuide91120&utm_campaign=EmailHHGuide91120&utm_term=EmailHHGuide91120&utm_content=EmailHHGuide91120

 I saw a car flattend hedgehog at the western end of the village a few days ago so we do still have a few around.

 

Update on Valentine.

 The latest bulletin from the BTO on migrant Cuckoos has arrived with news of the one I sponsor, Valentine.

Since our last update our Cuckoos have been making steady progress towards their wintering grounds. Valentine is leading the way, having passed through Cameroon, Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo, he is now in northern Angola. He is now only approximately 130 km (80 miles) north of his wintering location in 2019. Last year he arrived here on December 5 so he is a little ahead of schedule this year. If conditions are good, he may well stay in this area until late February/early March. 

Nearer home the Horse Chestnut outside my bedroom window has produced a record crop, the best in the last forty years, despite the extensive damage to the foliage from the Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner and a fungus infection.  

 

Bird Migration Goes On.

BTO have just posted news of their three tagged Cuckoos which have just started to move north from their winter quarters in the rain forests of Central Africa. My Cuckoo, Valentine, is number three in the queue. "A low quality location received from Valentine's tag suggests that he may also be on the move from Angola towards Democratic Republic of Congo. Hopefully he will emerge from the forest canopy soon and his tag will receive enough sunlight to send us a more reliable location." The birds will be feeding and fattening up in preparatiom for their Sahara crossings.

Very late House Martins nesting.

 Most of the village House Martins and Swallows are now on their way to somewhere in Africa, but one or two are still flying around stoking up their fat reserves for the long journey ahead. Somewhat surprisingly one pair of House Martins are still feeding two young ones in a nest that has not been peviously used for breeding this year. Whether the adults or the young ones will now be able to build up enough energy reserves to get across the Sahara must be doubtful.

House Martins.  Photo. John Elliott. Click to enlarge

They don't seem to mind visitors.  They are up the path to Steven's Farm, just past the Air Ambulance box for milk bottle tops.

 Autumn Fruits

September is Blackberry time but this year it is proving disappointing. A few weeks ago it looked as though we were in for a bumper harvest but late ripening has resulted in berries that are dry and not very sweet. So goodby to my ideas of making blackberry jelly.

                                              Blackberries on the way to Ewelease Dairy. Photo. John Elliott

 

The Bullaces, wild plums, have however had a good year and I now have, thanks to a kind neighbour whose garden has several trees, four pounds of  'damson' jam. The trees by the Reading Room, much appreciated by villagers in former years, have had a bumper crop this year but this is now rotting on the ground as the trees have been trimmed and the fruit can't be reached. 

 

                                             Reading Room Bullaces.   Photo. John Elliott

Cuckoo.

  

                                                                                                                                           

     My Cuckoo, Valentine, is now covering large distances in Africa.  Here is the latest bulletin from the BTO.

      Valentine has also been busy over recent days. Since our last update he has flown 1,351 km (811 miles) east from Burkina Faso to Nigeria. He is 3.5 km (2.2 miles) north of the town of Bebeji in Kano State in northern Nigeria. In 2019 he stayed in Burkina Faso until mid-November, not reaching Nigeria until 24 November so it is interesting that he has moved east so much earlier this year.                                                                                                                                                                 

Uncommon moth.   15th August 2020.

 On first inspecting the moth trap in the morning the moths, which are mainly night flyers, have all settled down under the egg boxes where they will remain until nightfall. Recently there was a wildly fluttering moth, a Jersey Tiger, when I first looked.  These are not as common as the similar species the Garden Tiger and are worth a photo. However I made the mistake of defering the picture until after breakfast and it managed to escape. I am indebted to a Devon friend for a picture of one of three Jersey Tigers which appeared in her garden.

                                                            Jersey Tiger.       Photo. Jill Weller

 

 My Cuckoo reaches his winter quarters.

My tagged Cuckoo has reached his winter quarters. Here is the latest bulletin from the BTO.

Since arriving in Mali, Valentine has moved 20 km (12.5 miles) west, towards the Sahel river. He is now 22 km (14 miles) north east of the town of Niono in the Ségou region of Mali. The temperature is currently 31 degrees C and it is the rainy season. In Niono, most rain falls during the 31 days centered around August 13, with an average total accumulation of 5.7 inches. Last year Valentine stayed in west Africa until mid-November so we don't expect him to make any more big movements anytime soon.

New moth.

Most of the moths caught in my nightly moth trap are old friends, seen many times before, but at not infrequent intervals a new one will turn up. Quite often it will turn out to be a species not recorded in the 2x2 Km square in which Martinstown sits. This is not surprising, as far as I know I am the only one recording in the village and there are 1876 species of moths known in the county.

Last night this dramatic moth ,a Black Arches, arrived. Moth names often give a clue to their appearance, this is no exception.

Black Arches              Photo: John Elliott

 

My Cuckoo crosses the Sahara.

             My sponsored Cuckoo, Valentine, has now completed his crossing of the Sahara. Here is the latest report from the BTO.   Over the last few days Valentine has made a huge movement south, flying 2,840 km (1,764 miles) from his previous location in southern Spain across the Sahara into Mali. At 05:37 this morning he was in southern Mali, approximately 320 km (199 miles) north-east of the capital Bamoko. In 2019 Valentine first stop after crossing the Sahara was a few hundred miles east in Burkina Faso, where he stayed until mid-November. 

                                                                                                                                                            

Comet NEOWISE.

Nothing much to do with valley wildlife, unless you can spot the Pipistrelle bat which has emerged from the side of my dormer window where there is a roost, but  newly discovered comet, NEOWISE,  now visible from the village. It can be seen just below the Plough in the north west sky just after sunset. It is visible to the naked eye in more favoured locations, but light polution in Martinstown makes it necessary to use binoculars.It is now moving away from Earth and will be getting fainter. Its orbital period is stated to be 6700 years, so better grab it now.

Comet Neowise. Click to enlarge. Photo. John Elliott. Exposure. 30 secs. at F4.5

My Cuckoo flies south.

Cuckoo. Valentine.

My sponsored Cuckoo, Valentine, has left this country on its annual migration south and is now in south east Spain, 41 km (26 miles) north west of the town and seaport of Aguilas, feeding up in prepararation for its long flight across the Sahara.

This bird was tagged in 2019 and so has already completed one round trip from its birthplace in Norfolk to Central Africa and back.

I would have prefered to have sponsored one of this year's hatch, but BTO, understandably, seem to have been unable to attempt to capture and attach transponder tags to any of the new birds.



Details of the satelite tracking technology being used to track the current batch of cuckoos may be found at:-
              www.bto.org/our-science/projects/cuckoo-tracking-project/tracking-technology

Fabulous Flyers

I have sponsored a new Cuckoo to replace the one which disappeared last year in Spain while on its way to Africa  My new bird, Valentine, has now started its migration to Central Africa. Here is the latest report from the BTO on its journey.

Valentine has flown a further 512 km (319 miles) south from his last location in north-eastern France and by yesterday evening was in an area of farmland just east of Nimes in the south of France. Last year his route took him further west down through Spain so it'll be interesting to see whether he flies direct to Africa from France or travels first out to Spain.

Much neare home, round my small garden pond to be precise, a new species for the garden has appeared, the Beautiful Demoiselle damselfly. 

               Beatiful Demoiselle        Click to enlarge.   Photo. John Elliott.

    

The male is easily identified by its brown/blackish wings with iridescent blue veins and its metallic blue body, This damselfly is typical of fast flowing streams in southern and western Britain,  and so cannot have started life in my pond, but probably came into the village from down the Weymouth Road.

 

Heavenly Honeysuckle.

A late evening walk up the ( three metres wide, making two metre separation easy between walkers and runners)  bridleway to Ewelease Dairy mkaes it possible to enjoy the heavenly scent of the HoneySuckle, now in full bloom, a reminder that the natural world is carrying on as normal and working its way through the season, virus or no virus.

Honeysuckle.  Click to enlarge.           Photo. John Elliott

Also in full bloom are the various species of Bramble, of which there are over 400 microspecies, promising a good harvest of blackberries later in the year.

Magnificent Moth.

Privet Hawk Moth.   Click to enlarge.  Photo. John Elliott.

In the moth trap last night a Privet Hawk Moth,  Sphinx ligustri. There are half a dozen egg boxes in the bottom of the moth trap, and most of the moths attracted by the ultra violet light settle under the boxes and can be identified and counted next morning, but the larger moths, like the Privet Hawk Moth, have to settle on the outside like this one.

Damselflies

My small garden pond is still producing numerous Azure Damselflies. which appear on warmer days.

Azure Damselfly.  Click to enlarge.   Photo. John Elliott.

Very similar to the other species of blue damselflies, the Azure is distinguished by the much narrower blue stripes on the thorax, just behind the head, and by the black markings on the last segment of the tail. The females are mostly black with only a few blue markings.
A walk down the Weymouth road this afternoon, the first for several weeks, revealed only a single Beautiful Demoiselle damselfly which didn't linger long enough for a photo. Walkng back along the permissive path a Little Egret appeared making its way down the valley, occasionally dipping down into the stream, and a thin scattering of butterflies included Comma,  Large Skipper. Marbled White, Meadow Brown, Small Heath and Ringlet. All were very active in the warm sunshine, so no photos.

First Dragonfly.

The first dragonfly of the year, a Broad Bodied Chaser, has turned up in the garden. This may or may not have emerged from my garden pond, as this species is known to wander. The larvae can take between one and three years to emerge. Their food consists of insects, small fish and tadpoles. Is that where all my tadpoles went? There isn't one to be seen now.

Broad Bodied Chaser. Click to enlarge. Photo. John Elliott  

 

 

My family are keeping me well supplied with wildlife photos to lighten the darkness of lockdown. From Hampshire comes a most unusual photo of a Hawfinch visiting my daughter's garden. These birds usually inhabit the tops of woodland trees and I wonder if its usual food supplies are scarce, so making it visit village gardens.

Hawfinch Click to enlarge.  Photo. Ryan Bundy.

Magnificent Moths.

The moth trap has been yielding very low numbers recently, with perhaps two or three specimens of a couple of species., Heart and Dart and Hebrew Character being the most common. Things picked up a bit last night when two hawk moths were captured.

Private Hawkmoth and Small Elephant Hawkmoth.   Click to enlarge.  Phot. John Elliott

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Privat Hawkmoth has a 10cm. wingspan and must be a magnifent sight in flight, but is rarely seen in daylight. As well as both wild and garden Privat the larvae eat Ash leaves and many garden shrubs. The Privat they have to share with twnty three other species of moths.
The Small Elephant Hawkmoth is unmistakeable, being the only small pink and yellowish hawkmoth found in the British Isles. The bedstraws are its favourite foodplants.

More Damselflies

  Large Red Damselfly  Click to enlarge.   Photo. John Elliott

 

 

 

Damselflies are emerging from my small garden pond in larger numbers than usual this year, the warmer winter may have helped. To tell the difference between the Large Red Damselfly and the slightly smaller Small Red Damselfly  you have to look at the legs, in the Large they are black and in the Small they are redish/yellowish.

Azure Damselfly.  Click ot enlarge.  Photo. John Elliott   

 

 

 

 

Azure Damselflies Ovipositing..  click to enlarge.  Photo. John Elliott  

 Six pairs of damselflies egg laying in a very small area of the pond. The upright bright blue ones are the males, which in this species stay guarding the female from other males and possible predators such as fish, and the females are the greenish, doubled up ones

Damselfly Delight.

Being confined to house and garden its not without its pleasures if you are interested in wildlife. Inspection of my ultra violet moth trap which has run overnight was the first task of the day. Numbers of moths have been very low so far this year, both in total and in numbers of species. This has been a common feature of reports from other trappers in the area, so slightly better results than recently were very welcome. Species recorded were Brimstone Moth, Pale Tussock, Treble Lines, Muslin Moth and Hebrew Character. In addition one Cockchafer and a Caddis Fly were caught.
The pale blue flutter of the Holly Blue butterfly has been seen throughout the day, and as the temperature rose to the mid twenties two species of Damselfly emerged from my very small pond, the beautiful Azure which is difficult to separate from the Common Blue without the use of close focus binoculars or an enlarged photo, and the Large Red which requires the binoculars to check on the leg colour. If the legs are black it is a large red, and if they are reddish it is a Small Red. 

Bird life as usual dominated by the Rooks and Jackdaws, with my resident pair of Wood Pigeons getting the occasional look-in.

Large Red Damselfly      Click to enlarge.  Photo. John Elliott

 

Azure Damselfly.  Click to enlarge.  Photo. John Elliott

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