Village Pond resurrected

 

   Old Village Pond.  Photo. John Elliott.  Click to enlarge

After drying up completely during the late summer, the South Winterborne lived up to its name and started to flow again overnight on 21st October/22nd October.  This ' Wherry breaking ' as it was known by old villagers,is due to the rapidly rising ground water level. which for a while was increasing at 40cms/day. It is now slightly over the normal maximum level but has levelled off to 1cm/day or less so the risk of flooding has eased. One of the former village ponds  in the old cricket field (did you know that if you hit one of the sychamore trees it counted as a six?) now has water in it, presumably spring fed. This pond and the one on the corner opposite East Lodge (now filled in) are shown as permanent features in the maps of 1896 and had a direct connection to the South Winterborne.

 

Magnificent Mushrooms.

 

                              Shaggy Inkcap.   Photo. John Elliott. Click to enlarge.

 

A fine clump of Shaggy Inkcap, Coprinus comatus, which has appeared for a second year by Fouracres gate at the eastern end of the village. Sometimes known as the Lawyer's Wig from the shaggy, woolly scales that form on the surface. this fungus is regarded as one of the best edible species while the fruitbodies are still young and the gills white. The gills finally liquify and turn black releasing the spores.

If drinking alcohol while eating this mushroom, make sure you are not confusing it with the Common Inkcap (C. atramentarius). Alcohol and Common Inkcap consumed together lead to vomitting and palpitations.

My Cuckoo JAC

    JAC.

Just over the border in the Republic of Congo is Llangollen Cuckoo JAC. JAC is currently at the edge of a forested area close to the town of Gamboma in the Plateaux region of central Republic of Congo. He is still south and west of his 2021 wintering grounds over the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo, maybe he will join Joe and Ellis in DRC soon?

Late Butterfly.

 The very mild autumn has led to a much longer butterfly season, with Clouded Yellows persisting in the valley, as they have elsewhere in the county. In fact a weekoago they were the  butterfly most often reported to Butterfly Conservation, (www.dorsetbutterflies.com) The top spot has now been taken by the Red Admiral which has appeared in my garden for two days running.

   Red Admiral.  Photo. John Elliott.  cte.

The Wherry Breaks.

 

Older residents in the village will remember the excitements of ‘the Wherry breaking’ each Autumn as the South Winterborne suddenly resumed its flow after weeks of being perfectly dry. In recent years this pattern of behavior has been interrupted by the activities of Wessex Water, but this year the classic flow pattern has been evident. It is well known that the flow in the stream is controlled by the annual rise and fall of the aquifer, the ground water level being easily available online for the borehole at Ashton. After falling at around 5cm per day throughout the summer months the rate dropped in August to 2cm per day and the stream dried up at Ashton, though there was still a small flow through the main channel in Martinstown. The ground water fall of 1cmpd then continued until the 21^st October, with the stream bed being dry. On the 22^nd of October the ground water movement reversed direction suddenly with a rise of 5cm. And low and behold, there was again a small but steady flow through the village, The Wherry had broken.

 

                                                                                                     video.  John M Elliott

Conkers Gallor

Horse Chestnut.  Photo. John Elliott Click to enlarge.

 The unusually hot summer we have had has led to abundant crops of fruit, berries, nuts, - and conkers.

The Horse Chestnut outside my bedroom window has the heaviest crop of conkers that I can remember in the nearly fifty years I have lived here. A few have already fallen or, in the case of the low hanging ones, been picked by passers by. These however, once opened, reveal rather small conkers which won't be much use for playing 'conkers' (are children allowed top lay such 'dangerous' games these days?)  Elderly ladies also gather them as they are believed to scare spiders, though I must say they don't seem to make much difference in my summer house. Most of the brown colouration of the leaves is not the normal autumn change but due to the action of the larvae of the Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner moth This is a fairly recent arrival in this country which at first was not thought to do much damage to the tree, but it does seem to get worse with the passage of time, and is now covering a large percentage of the leaf area and restricting the area of the vital green chlorophyll. Smaller patches of brown are due to a fungus, Chestnut Blight, another recent arrival,which has caused large losses of Chestnut trees in America.

The Hazel bush next to the Horse Chestnut has also yielded many nuts, but the Squirrel from across the road is beating me to it.

South Winterborne Flowers.

The busy Weymouth Road is not the best of places for an afternoon walk, even on a Sunday when there is little commercial traffic It is however highly rewarding from the botanical point of view, providing an agreeable contrast to the South Winterborne as it passes through the village and has been dredged to a mono-culture of Hemlock Water Dropwort, the most poisonous plant in the country. Going downstream from the pumping station the enormous leaves of Butterbur dominate the bank for some metres, their pink flowers, which are the first wild flowers to appear in the Spring, are long since over and gone. Burdock has now developed the hooked seed-heads which children used to delight in throwing at each other to stick on their clothing.

All along the stream banks the long tendrils of Large Bindweed support the large white trumpets of its flowers, but dominant at the moment along the length of the stream are the metre high pink flowers of the Great Hairy Willowherb, rapidly turning into little white parachutes waiting for a bit of breeze to disperse them. Here and there the purple flowers and bright red berries of Woody Nightshade, another poisonous plant, appear. The nearby Elder is now bearing its dark red fruits which make it one of our most useful hedgerow plants, The fruits make excellent wine or jam, while earlier in the year a couple of flower heads can be turned into Elderflower champagne. A few plants of Comfrey and Lords and Ladies appear, the latter now spikes of brilliant red, and poisonous, berries. A single dried up stem of Hemlock is still standing, The purple blotches on the stem which identify this very poisonous plant still show. Definitely not for peashooters.

Ribwort Plantain is common all along the stream. This is another plant which children used to play with as the seed heads can be fired a considerable distance at ones enemies. The few Yarrow plants are rather small. Regarded as a powerful herb since Anglo-Saxon times, it was used in divination rituals and as a charm against bad luck, as well as staunching wounds. Water Mint is a frequent occurrence all along the valley. A single plant of the very attractive, but unwanted, Himalayan Balsam is all that remains of a once frequent occurrence. The efforts of the Dorset Wildlife Trust to eradicate it seem to be succeeding. Hedge Woundwort and Purple Loosestrife and a single Oxeye Daisy complete the list.

Away from the stream a single Pyramidal Orchid has now flowered and gone over. This was not in the same place as last year’s specimen which was unfortunately dug up and taken. Now that that danger has gone perhaps I can show a picture of this year’s rather small specimen.Perhaps it didn't like the heat.

  Pyramidal Orchid.  Photo. John Elliott

 

Cuckoo JAC.

 The latest bulletin from the BTO on my Cuckoo, JAC.

Llangollen Cuckoo JAC has flown approximately 300km (186 miles) east within Nigeria towards north central Nigeria. His route took him to Kamuku National Park and he has since flown a further 30km east. He is now in north west Kaduna state, approximately 90km north west of the city of Kaduna. Last year JAC stayed in Nigeria until mid October when he moved directly to the Congo Basin where he spent the winter. AC.

South Winterborne flood prevention.

 There stilll seems to be uncertainty in the valley as to what should be done about flood prevention. Perhaps we should note what Dorset Wildlife Trust are doing, namely --  Slowing the Flow.

 

My Cuckoo makes it across the Sahara desert.

     JAC.

  The latest bulletin from BTO brings good news of my tagged Cuckoo, JAC, now some 7,000 miles from home.

Llangollen Cuckoo JAC has successfully completed his desert crossing. He is now in the rainy Sahel of eastern Mali, 24km (14 miles) north east of the city of Goa.

My Cuckoo.

 An exiting bulletin from the BTO .

The big mover over the last few days has been Llangollen Cuckoo JAC. Having spent two weeks in northern France, by Tuesday evening he was close to L'escala on Spain's Costa Brava. But he didn't hang around for long as further updates received that evening showed him crossing the Mediterranean on a bearing for Mallorca. The next updates arrived between 04:55 and 08:35 this morning by which time he had reached northern Algeria. His most recent location showed him approximately 200km south of Algiers, and just south of the vast Zehrez Chergui salt lake in the high steppes between the Tell Atlas and Saharan Atlas mountains. Last year his desert crossing took him via Mali to Burkina Faso and then on to Nigeria.

Valley Orchids.

 For a second year running we have  Orchids blooming in the valley. A single Southern Marsh Orchid has reappeared in last year's locaton, and a single, rather small, Pyramidal Orchid has appeared in a new location. The Pyramidal Orchid which was found last year was, most unfortunately, dug up and all that remains in that location is a trowel shaped hole. Orchids do not transplant, so, please, if you do come across one, do not pick it or attempt to move it. The seeds of Orchids are described as very numerous and very small. They are wind borne and a single bloom can, if left undisturbed, result in large numbers of flowers.

My Cuckoo leaves the country.

 The latest BTO bulletin on my Cuckoo JAC.

 

  Our other Welsh Cuckoo JAC has left Havant and flown 315 km (196 miles) south-south east, crossing the Channel and arriving in France. The most recent update from his tag showed him in woodland to the north of Fontaine-la-Guyon in the Eure-et-Loire department of northern France.

Cuckoo on the Move

The latest BTO bulletin on my Cuckoo JAC .

  JAC

                       

Since our last update Llangollen Cuckoo JAC has reached Havant on the south coast of England. The last transmission showed him between Nevill's Park and the Fat Face distribution centre. We are due another transmission soon, will he still be touring Havant or will he be in France? Last year he arrived in northern France on 24 June and remained here for approximately a month.

Poison.

 The orphaned lambs which have, in recent weeks, been  penned on the wide verge in the centre of the village, have proved a source of interest and delight to many villagers, young and old. It is sad therefore that I have to report that one of them was poisoned and became very ill through, no doubt, well meaning children, who thought it was a good idea to give them some of the plentiful 'Cow Parsely' growing in the nearby stream.  Unfortunately what they picked wasn't the innocuous Cow Parsely but the very poisonous Hemlock Water Dropwort, Oenanthe crocata  which grows profusely all along the South Winterborne stream in the village,

 

   Hemlock Water Dropwort.  Photo. John M Elliott

                                                                                                Click on iage to enlarge.

 The very similar Hemlock, Conium maculatum, which history relates caused the death of Socrates, also grows along the stream down the Weymouth Road, and is also poisonous. It may be told from the Hemlock Water Dropwort by the small purple blotches on the stems.

The lamb, fortunately , recovered from the poisoning. A Labrador in Dorchester which ate the roots of Hemlock Water Dropwort a year or two ago didn't.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Cuckoo JAC Heads South.

The latest bulletin from the BTO; my Cuckoo is on its way to Africa.

    JAC

 

  After a brief visit to Church Stoke in Montgomeryshire, Llangollen Cuckoo JAC moved on to Hereford and spent yesterday morning exploring the countryside to the south of the town. Last year he stopped briefly south of Worcester before pressing on to northern France

A Welcome Visitor.

Hedgehog.   Photo. John Elliott

 For much of the nearly half a century that I have lived in Martinstown Hedgehogs were frequent, almost nightly, visitors to my garden. On one memorable occasion I had to rescue one from the attentions of a Badger that was trying to unroll it. Over the last decade they have occured less and less so it has been a great pleasure to see one pottering around the back garden in the late afternoon recently. They are usually considered to be a nocturnal animal but this one doesn't seem to mind coming out well before dusk.

Flowers for Butterflies

Mallard's Green Butterfly Flowers. Photo. John Elliott

Mallard's Green Butterfly Flowers. Photo. John Elliott

The sowing of flowers alongside the footpath behind the new houses at Mallard's Green is now providing a rich feeding ground for our village butterflies. Oxeye Daisies predominate together with Cornflower and Corn Marigolds. Butterflies nectaring yesterday included Painted Lady, Red Admiral and Small Tortoiseshell.
 

Valley Butterflies

The permisive path to Ashton  is proving to be the village's best site for butterflies, Orange tips, Small Tortoiseshells, Green Viened Whites, Red Admirals, Common Blues, Peacocks and Clouded Yellows were all seen in small numbers, while the sheltered slopes of old chalk quarry just north of the cricket field were thronged with Common Blues feeding on its foodplant, Bird's Foot Trefoil.

 

Best for Botony

The bridleway running steeply uphill to the Ridgeway by way of Ewelease Dairy must surely be the winner in the botany stakes at the moment. Species noted on a walk yesterday were:-

Cow Parsely, Hogweed, Meadow Buttercup, Cleavers, White Dead Nettle, Red Campion, Herb Robert, Lesser Celandine, Dandelion, Groundsel, Ground Ivy, Germander Speedwell, Herb Bennet, Nettle, Great Dock, Lords and Ladies, Burdock, Hart's Tongue Fern, Male Fern, and Soft Shield Fern.

It is rather puzzling that the three species of ferns grow in profusion, but mainly on the bank at the eastern side of the path. This bank shows signs, particularly as it nears the Ridgeway, of having once been a Celtic type stone hedge, and thus its age may be in the thousands of years rather then hundreds.  Does it take that long for ferns to establish themselves?  This path, incidently, was the Waymouth Road before the Turnpike was constructed along the valley.

Horse Chestnut in Bloom

The Horse Cheastnut outside my bedroom window has, in the last few days, come into full leaf and full bloom.

 Horse Chestnut.

The activities of the Rooks at the ten nests which were built this year are now hidden, but I suspect that most of the breeding activity is over for this year as a very young bird was flopping about in my front garden this morning. Its black bill showed it was in its first year, the grey bill of the adult rook doesn't appear untill its second year.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome Garden Visitor.

 After a gap of several years I was very pleased to see a Hedgehog yesterday evening, helping itself to fallen birdseed. When I first came to the village 45 years ago they were nightly visitors, along with regular Badgers and Foxes. On one memorable occasion I was woken in the night  by the baby-like squealing of a tightly rolled hedgehog as a badger tried to unroll it. I went down into the front garden and the badger dashed off down the village street as soon as it saw me. The unharmed hedgehog I transfered into the back garden in a bucket No picture I am afraid as it was too dark, but I will be standing by tonight complete with flashgun just in case

My Cuckoo back home.

The latest bulletin from the BTO on my Cuckoo, JAC.

  JAC has become our third tagged bird to arrive back in the UK. New updates that came in at around 6am this morning show that JAC has flown the remaining 582 km (362 miles) from France back to his breeding grounds in North Wales. The most recent update showed that he was within a mile of his tagging location. So, if over the next few weeks you find yourself in the World's End area of Denbighshire, between Llangollen and Wrexham, be sure to listen out for a Cuckoo, it might just be JAC!

 

 

 The latest bulletin on my Cuckoo JAC, one of three moving north.

Leading this trio at the moment is Llangollen Cuckoo JAC. Updates received at around midnight showed him approximately 88 km (55 miles) off the coast of France, due west of the seaside town of Arcachon. A single lower-quality transmission received at 6am this morning suggests that JAC has flown a further 377 km (235 miles) north, completing his crossing of the Bay of Biscay. He was close to the commune of Treal in the Morbihan department of Brittany. We will have to await further updates to be certain of his new location.

My Cuckoo JAC nears home.

 

 

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After crossing the Sahara, JAC didn't hang around for long in Morocco. By yesterday afternoon he was on the move again, crossing the Mediterranean. At 19:00 last night he was close to Berja in Andalusia, southern Spain. He pressed on and by 21:55 last night he was in the Sierra de Baza mountains approximately 20 Km south west of the city of Baza in Granada.

My Cuckoo crosses the Sahara

 

 My Cuckoo, JAC,   has at last stopped wandering around West Africa and turned towards home. The latest bulletin from BTO:-

The big mover over recent days has been Llangollen Cuckoo JAC. After completing his crossing of the Sahara, JAC has spent the last 24 hours in northern Morocco. He is now approximately 15 km east of the city of Nador, on farmland close to the shores of the Mar Chica lagoon. He is hopefully enjoying some good feeding to prepare him well for the next leg of his migration when he will cross the Mediterranean and visit Spain and France.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Puzzling Cuckoo moves.

   BTO have just issued a bulletin on the movements of its tagged Cuckoos in Africa including mine, JAC.

Llangollen Cuckoo JAC has been giving us the run around, an erroneous signal received a couple of weeks ago suggested he had already flown from his wintering grounds in the Congo Basin directly to Ivory Coast. The next signal we received however showed him back east in Cameroon. Over the past week we have received several high quality signals that show that JAC has now made his way to Ivory Coast, albeit at a more leisurely pace than we originally thought! JAC is now in eastern Ivory Coast approximately 107km (66 miles) north east of the capital Yamoussoukro and 89km east of Cuckoo PJ.

My Rooks.

 Seven Rooks nests being guarded.

 The Horse Chestnut tree outside my bedroom window now holds seven conpleted Rooks nests which are jealously guarded as birds from the trees at the back of the house attempt to steal sticks for their own nests. These birds have now realised that the sticks dropped over the drive and path might be usefull for their own nests and are taking them away, the first time I have seen this behaviour. Their own nests are not nearly as advanced, some birds don't even seem to have started building yet.

 My next door neighbours Rooks

 

My first butterfly of the year, a Brimstone, was seen further down the village yesterday.

My Cuckoo on the move.

A bulletin on my cuckoo JAC which has moved 1,900 miles westard on its return journey to Wales.

    JAC

 " Our  Cuckoos were all tagged in 2021 so are on their first tracked return migration. We last heard from Llangollen Cuckoo JAC on 20th January when he was deep in the Congo Basin. A new update received at 07:16 on Sunday morning suggest that he has moved 3,058km (1,900 miles) west to Ivory Coast. He is approximately 70km west of Lake Bandama in central Ivory Coast."

PJ knows this part of Central Ivory coast well, having stopped off here on previous northward migrations. We expect him to remain here for a few weeks before embarking on the next leg of his journey.  

  JAC's route.

 

The Rooks start their year.

 The Horse Chestnut tree outside my bedroom window has once again become alive with the activities of the Rooks which arrive at first light from their night roost over Bradford Peverall way. 

 Nesting Rooks.  Phto. John Elliott.

 Six pairs of birds are present, with four nests under construction so far, the more experienced birds seemingly well ahead. In past years new arrivals have sometimes taken several weeks to get the first stick to stay in place. having dropped many in the process. These, neither they or the other birds pick up again resulting in a very untidy front garden and footpath for a while.

All our pictures may be enlarged. Click on this one, can you find all the rooks?

Water Vole Survey.

 I have just received the results of the national Water Vole survey in which i have taken part for a number of years.

 

 The lowest blue dot is for the Martinstown survey, sadly no Water Voles were seen this year on the designated 500m. stretch of the South Winterborne which I cover. This starts at the milk machine bridge and then runs west. and was chosen to include as many previously know Water Vole locations as possible. As well as live animals, signs such as burrows, droppings and vegitation browsing are recorded. Nothing at all was seen this year on the survey, but there were two sightings of voles early in the year just outside the survey in the stream between the bridge and the Shepherd's Cottage bridge. There have been reports in recent years of voles in the stream between the Breweers Arms and West End, so we mauy hope that they will be able to work their way back into the village.

 

 

 

 

The Wherry Breaks.

 

 Good to see that the ‘Wherry has broken’, as the older valley residents had it, and the South Winterborne is now in full flow in all its branches, including the mill leat, washing pool, the water meadow sluices and the gap at West End (which could be a relic of the Doomsday Book watermill) and which has been the subject of much discussion in the village recently . The bourne or borne ( or burn in Scotland) in the name comes from the Old English word for a stream or brook. First used in c1396 by W. Longland in ‘Piers Plowman’ , perhaps the most succinct definition is given by the Wiltshire writer Richard Jefferies.

1879   R. Jefferies Wild Life 22   The villages on the downs are generally on a bourne, or winter water-course..In summer it is a broad winding trench..along whose bed you may stroll dryshod..In winter, the bourne often has the appearance of a broad brook.

There is sometimes puzzlement as to how the plants and animals that live in the stream survive the dry periods; the answer is that only species that are capable of dealing with the dry spell exist in the river in some form or other, such as eggs for the minnows, seeds for the plants, and eggs or larvae for the insects. The birds just fly somewhere else.

The natural ebb and flow of the upper reaches of the stream has , in recent years, been disturbed by Wessex Water being required to put compensation water into the stream as part of their allowable extraction rate, so hiding its winter borne nature. As with many other things climate change will inevitably have some effect on the aquifer which supplies the stream, perhaps leading to more extreme changes in the flow.

First Wild Flowers of the Year.

 

 Early  Butterbur. Photo. John M Eliott

I often walk down the Weymouth road on a Sunday afternoon (hoping that there will not be too much traffic on the Sabbath) to check on the wildlife. A pair of Mallard got up this afternoon giving hope for ducklings in the spring. More surprising were half a dozen blooms of Butterbur poking through the dead leaves  on the steam bank by the sewage pumping station. Like its relative, Coltsfoot, Butterbur's flowers appear before its leaves, 'often as early as February' according to the book, so the 2nd of January really is unusual. The huge, rhubarb-like leaves which will appear later in the year were used to wrap butter in olden days, the soft grey down on the underside having a refrigerating effect. The Latin name, Petasites hybridus, hints at another use as umbrellas or sunshades, as it derives from the Greek petasos, meaning a broad brimmed hat