My Cuckoo.

 

Valentine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My tagged Cuckoo, Valentine, sadly didn't make it back to this country.

BTO. 19 Mar 2021

Sadly, it looks as if we have heard the last from Valentine. When his tag last transmitted, the battery in his tag was low on charge and had been for some time, but there's also an indication of a problem based on temperature. The temperature sensor in the tag reported about 8 degrees C lower than any of the previous readings in Angola, including those from similar times of day, and we don't think the move north by a few hundred km explains this. We suspect that Valentine perished between the last location in Angola (2nd Feb) and the ones in southwest DRC (16th Feb). Valentine was tagged in June 2019 so we have benefited from a lot of valuable data from Valentine, helping us extend our knowledge and understanding of this amazing species.  

BTO hope, coronavirus restrictions permitting, to tag some of this year's hatch. If succesful I will be able to sponsor another bird and follow its amazing journeys to and from Africa.

Buzzards galore.

The most amazing sight of the year so far,  no less than fourteen Common Buzzards circling and tumbling in the air above Grove Hill Bottom yesterday afternoon.

My daughter reminds me that when we moved to Martinstown from West Wales in 1974 we were very disappointed that there were no Buzzards to be seen here.  We had been used to seeing them every day and everywhere around Cardigan, but in the eighties they began to appear in small numbers and finally to nest annually within half a mile of the village.

Pussy Willow.

  Pussy Willow.   Photo. John Elliott

 The two warm spring days which brought out the Brimstone and Small Tortoiseshell butterflies which had overwintered are now but a memory, and we are back to chilly wintery days. Plant life however is pressing on, with the delicate leaves of Cow Parsley and the triangular hastate (arrow head shaped) leaves of Lords and Ladies  prominent along the hedgerows. Hazel, with its long yellow catkins and Sallow, better known as Pussy Willow, with its silvery, furry catkins, both flower early in the year and before the leaves appear.  Both these are wind pollinated, with the pollen from male trees being carried on the breeze to flowers on the female trees.