nature notes II

[Robbie]

I've seen several too, they're really beautiful.  I love to paint them!  Especially around the blackberry bushes.

Something I have noticed recently is squirrels that seem to be a mixture of grey and red.  The red is quite vivid.  We've always had grey squirrels running up and down the trees and along the top of the walls and shed in the garden, but these are different.  I didn't know that greys and reds bred and haven't seen any red squirrels in my immediate vicinity but they may live in the woods and common.

[wigginhall]

We went to a big orchard near Thornham last week, which grows different varieties of apples and pears.  Anyway, we bought some different kinds, and they are delicious, but of course, forgot to write down the names of the rare ones.  Ah well, we will have to go back now.   By the way, the drive up there from Kings Lynn is lovely right now, as the holiday crowds have gone.  Nice villages along the way, then you can park at Titchwell nature reserve, and walk along to the beach, not forgetting the brilliant bird hides.   Or go to Holkham and see the massive beach.   

[floo]

There is a heron sitting on a tree in a copse at the back of our home, I haven't seen one here before.

[Enki]

For anyone who is interested, there is a very large influx of hawfinches from the continent going on at the moment. They are a rather secretive but very distictive species(think chaffinches on steroids!) but they could literally turn up anywhere. There is a particularly large flock at the arboretum at Castle Howard at the moment.

http://wildlifearticles.co.uk/hawfinch-irruption/

[Sebastian Toe]

There is a heron sitting on a tree in a copse at the back of our home, I haven't seen one here before.

Is it a super-quick growing copse?

[wigginhall]

It's surprising how many birds you can see from a car.   Last week, driving near Manea,  we saw a big flock of fieldfares overhead, and we could hear the chak chak call; then we saw a flock of lapwings, and a decent murmuration of starlings.   Then a little flock of whooper swans, probably heading to the roost at Welney.   Apparently, the Bewick swans are declining, maybe global warming causing this.

[Rhiannon]

Just saw a buck with eight laydeez in his harem. The Barry White of roe deer.

[Nearly Sane]

Just saw a buck with eight laydeez in his harem. The Barry White of roe deer.

I've now got this pucture of Bazza with antlers

[wigginhall]

Just reading about sacred ibis in France.   Not a native bird, but has escaped from zoos, and bred, so there were 5000 in the end, and they are damaging to other birds, eating the young, trampling the nests, and so on.   Anyway, the whole lot have been shot.   Humans are barking mad, really.   There is an incredible photo of a flock of them rooting through dustbins at the back of a burger cafe.   

[SusanDoris]

Yesterday afternoon, white sky, I happened to be looking out of the window facing east. Caught sight of a V formation of large birds, flying low in a south-westerly direction. I think there were about 8 of them. What does anyone think they would have been? 

[Shaker]

A V-formation would almost certainly have been a skein of geese. Happens every day here around this time of year - exactly like this: https://youtu.be/aXQs6jXRLWA

[SusanDoris]

A V-formation would almost certainly have been a skein of geese. Happens every day here around this time of year - exactly like this: https://youtu.be/aXQs6jXRLWA

Thank you for your help. I must look out more often!

[floo]

A V-formation would almost certainly have been a skein of geese. Happens every day here around this time of year - exactly like this: https://youtu.be/aXQs6jXRLWA

It is quite something to see.

[wigginhall]

Yes, we get the pink-footed geese flying over every day, looking for a field to feed in, sugar beet tops often.   They have a great sound as well, sort of bugling.  Now and again, the whole sky is full of them, I suppose 10, 000.

Enki will know, but there are lots of hawfinch around at the moment, an invasion or irruption.   Normally, it's very difficult to see one or two, but people are seeing flocks of them, up to 50.   I think local papers may have reports.

https://insideecology.com/2017/11/10/london-skies-irrupt-with-rare-hawfinches/

[Rhiannon]

We're seeing a lot of goldfinches this year. Can't remember the last time I saw a greenfinch though. Is the virus still going?

[Enki]

Just thought I'd like to share this. I'm reading a book(just come out) at the moment called 'Birding Without Borders' by an American birder called Noah Strycker. It's all  about his year(2015) travelling around the world, trying to break the world record of species seen in one year. His aim was to see 5000 species. In fact he managed to see 6042 species of the roughly 10 and a half thousand bird species in the entire world.

However I would just like to quote one particular part, where he is looking at a most beautiful and very hard to find hummingbird in Peru, called a 'marvelous spatuletail'. He says this of the moment when the bird came into view:

It is impossible to put into words what washed over me just then: euphoria, transcendence, a sense of things coming together. I was ecstatic and pensive, filled with adrenaline. The hummingbird was magnificent, but its allure owed as much to desire as beauty. Because I had spent so many years scrutinizing this bird in books and magazines, it almost didn't seem real in three dimensions.
There is something metaphysical about the human connection with nature, and we each find our own points of contact. For me, that afternoon, the Marvelous Spatuletail represented something far beyond a single bird. It distilled the whole experience of Peru, incarnated in avian form - all of the rough, raw material of an entire country, compressed into one bright and shining diamond.

[wigginhall]

Super quote, enki.

Just to note that the dunnocks are singing now, in my bit of London.   I thought they started at the end of January; also great tits and the green woodpeckers are laughing away now.   

[SusanDoris]

Super quote, enki.

Just to note that the dunnocks are singing now, in my bit of London.   I thought they started at the end of January; also great tits and the green woodpeckers are laughing away now.

Yes, I have heard quite a few dunnocks and great tits hereabouts during the past couple of weeks.

[wigginhall]

Incredible item on Countryfile about flowering plants in winter.   We often count about 25 during January, but botanists are saying that they have found 500-600.   What?

I guess that a lot of it is down to climate change, so that some plants are flowering early, and summer plants are hanging on.   The trouble is, that it can mess up pollinators if their timing is out.

We noticed yesterday in London that there are a ton of flowers out right now, of course, many of them not wild.

[floo]

Our flowering cherry tree is flowering already.

[Rhiannon]

Nothing in flower here. Still feel very wintery.

[wigginhall]

Well, I think rural areas tend to be without flowering plants in winter, whereas in cities you get a ton of them in gardens.   However, I must check this, as I don't think botanists are talking about garden plants.  Just off to the supermarket, and to count the flowers.   I know in my street we have cherry out, and plenty of roses, and also sweet box, but not wild plants.

[Enki]

Around here we have hazel and willow catkins showing well. First noticed them about a week into January.

[wigginhall]

Counted about 20 flowering plants in neighbouring streets, (London).   But they are not wild plants.   Snowdrops are out, by the way.   I must look into this '500 flowering plants' business, as they are obviously wild ones. 

Tracked it down, it's called the New Year Plant Hunt, and takes place every year.   This January they recorded 532 flowering plants - anyway, there is a map and you can click on different pins, and see individual lists.  I'm still gob-smacked.   You expect things like daisies and thistles, but there must be some surprises in that lot.

 https://nyph.bsbi.org/results.php

[ekim]

There are masses of frog's spawn about.  I've never seen so much.  It must have been quite an orgy and they couldn't even wait for spring.