SKYLARK SUE’S REFLECTIONS OF NATURE 

April 2014

 

 

 

The blossom has been spectacular this month - red crab apple

 

 

A misty start to April 1st

 

 

Blackthorn

April started very warm; although April 1st began mistily, the temperature rose to a surprising 74 degrees F. A trip to Hatfield Forest, Essex, on the 2nd, though initially cloudy, soon developed into sunshine and blue sky. It was noticeable that many of the spring flowers and shrubs were already in full bloom. Blackthorn was thick with its white starry flowers, while plenty of primroses, celandine and violets were around, too. Various butterflies were on the wing, including a peacock sunning itself on a log, and the water was churning in the small lake with frog activity.

Celandine

Primroses

Violets

 

Peacock butterfly sunning itself on a log

 

On the main lake there was plenty to see. Joining the usual mallards and geese were a group of tufted ducks, and there were also the great crested grebes, coots and moorhens. Chiffchaffs were calling, and one was perched high on a branch so I was able to get a view of this often secretive bird. Green woodpeckers were cackling noisily. It was a beautiful spring day.



Frog activity in the lake



Chiff chaff

Great crested grebe

Tufted duck with moorhen in background



Sparrowhawk's pellet

On the 5th April we discovered what appeared to be a sparrowhawk’s pellet by a hedge just outside out front door, and the next day we discovered another, or part of one, which we dissected. It seemed to be a mix of feather quills and small bones, but we were intrigued to know where the sparrowhawk been perching. It must have been low down, as the hedge is only a few feet high. By now the weather had changed; it was damp and gloomy, though soon warmed up again – the 9th was really warm and sunny.

White crab apple blossom

Robin enjoying a bath in the fountain

On the 10th I watched a robin taking a long and very splashy bath in one of our fountains. We have three, but the birds seem to like best of all one that is shaped like a ball with a shallow indented top where water bubbles gently before flowing over the sides to collect in a larger, shallow bowl. Other birds were around the garden including a dapper dunnock on the bird table, and I was pleased to see a speckled wood butterfly near the plants by the pond. The blossom is looking very pretty now.



Dunnock on feeder dish



Cherry blossom

Marsh marigolds

Blue skies and sunshine were the order again for the next day, the 11th. The greengage, nectarine and plum blossoms are fully open; they have been out for quite a while. The pink cherry blossom on the tree near our front door is glorious – thick and heavy – especially looking wonderful against the blue sky. The red and the white crab apple blossom, as well as the white suffused with pink blossom on the apple tree, is beginning to open. I think there will be a good display this year. I have noticed that there is a plethora of dandelions alongside road verges, and also on our small lawn. Such cheerful flowers, and their white fluffy seed heads are so delicate. We also have a thick crop of bright yellow marsh marigolds around the pond. A look into one of the small wildlife ponds at night revealed some smooth newts, but still no sign of frogs. Last year we saw a couple, but, unlike a decade or so when the garden was thick with frogs, now they are a rarity. There seem to be lots of magpies around; driving along one road recently I counted at least eight in a stretch of about a hundred yards. There are some making a lot of noise in the oak tree across the road from us, too. No doubt they will be nesting there again.

This mallard had 22 ducklings!

She had them swimming two by two



Canada geese

Male chaffinch amongst the pussy willow



Mallards - note the vivid blue wingflash of the female

On the 15th April I was back at Hatfield Forest on yet another warm and sunny day, though the breeze was a little chilly by the lake. The air seemed filled with the laughter of green woodpeckers, but I only glimpsed one, some way off in the grass. The male chaffinches were in full colour, a magnificent deep pink, and singing lustily, and there were the usual jackdaws strutting around. One was sitting high up in the trunk of a tree near the hole in which the birds were nesting last year. A grey squirrel was searching for food, and a grebe was diving. Perhaps the highlight of the day, however, was a female mallard who had no less than 22 very young ducklings. At one point she had them swimming two by two behind her as they crossed the lake. I wondered how many would survive, what with the cormorants, herons, gulls and pike, all eager to take a duckling.

Just a glimpse of a yaffle - green woodpecker

Grey squirrel

The warm weather continued, and by now the crab apple blossom was stunning. Hopefully, there will be a good crop this year, unlike last year when an invasion of lackey moth caterpillars badly destroyed much of the leaves and buds. The invasion happened in May, so maybe one will occur again, this year. There were plenty of birds around, including robins on the feeder.  It was really warm and sunny on the 16th, too. It seems very strange, however, that none of the nest boxes have been used this year. For decades we have had blue tits nesting in the garden, and it’s sad not to see them bustling around gathering nesting material and feeding their young.

Young robin



Young robin and parent bird

The temperature dropped quite a bit by the 18th – it was the mid-60s, warm for April but there was a chill wind.  A young robin was in the garden being fed by an adult, it seemed a bit early for young robins, but then, due to the exceptionally mild spring, everything is more advanced than last year.  The next two days saw a more dramatic temperature drop – on the 20th the daytime temperature went down to 52 degrees F. On the following day, though, it soared again, to the low seventies. This was a beautiful, warm and sunny day and once more the robin was bathing in the garden. On a trip to Ely, I noticed that the oilseed rape was in full flower and crops seemed to be everywhere – just field after field of yellow. It’s an odd, harsh shade which to my mind doesn’t suit the British landscape, and I much prefer to see the fields full of light blue flax.

 

The naturalist Chris Packham had been broadcasting from Malta, where he went to observe the regular custom of hunting migratory birds that fly over the country. The reports were fact-filled and moving, and hopefully will raise awareness of the dreadful carnage of birds, many of them on their way to Britain. I have written a separate blog about Chris’s efforts.

The warm, sunny weather continued throughout the rest of April, with just the occasional shower, though a visit to Berkshire on the last day of the month was made through torrential rain and a thunderstorm. We had hoped to see red kites as we knew they were in the area, but all we saw was a heron perched rather incongruously on someone’s roof!

Oilseed rape

April 2014 proved to be a mild month with less rain than is usual – during the period the 8th – 19th, there was no rain at all in our part of Essex. Temperatures for the majority of the month hovered around the high sixties or even the low seventies, the coldest day being the 20th when it was wet and overcast, and just reached 52 degrees F. There was only around an inch of rain for the whole month. Compared to last year, this year’s apple blossom was open almost three weeks earlier. I wonder what May will bring?



Malta Migration

Malta Migration Massacre

 

Most of you who read my wildlife blogs are interested in the world of nature. You enjoy walking in the woods, watching the birds and listening to their singing. But what if there were no birds? What if we could no longer enjoy the sight of swallows swooping low over the ponds in search of insects, watch the sickle-winged swift soar high in the sky overhead, or hear the definitive sound of spring – the cuckoo? We would lose our summer. Sometimes, we might not even be aware of the swallows twittering around the barns or gathering on the telephone wires; they are summer’s background sounds – but we would soon miss them if they weren’t around. Yet each year, the numbers of our migratory birds are decreasing, and although there are many factors to take into account, one major finger of suspicion points directly at Malta. Malta is an idyllic Mediterranean holiday isle, destination for thousands of British tourists each year. Malta is also a place where thousands of birds, many on their way to Britain to breed, are shot.  Birds affected include kestrels, ospreys, cuckoos, bee-eaters, swifts, marsh harriers, purple herons, swallows, golden orioles and pallid harriers. There are many others.

 

Chris Packham with a swift killed by hunters

This April, naturalist and television presenter Chris Packham, together with three colleagues, is working on an independent, self-funded project to raise public awareness of the plight of Malta’s migratory birds. With the support of Birdlife Malta, the team will produce a series of videos depicting their findings as they infiltrate the hunting grounds. Chris states, ‘It will not be pretty. The species killed include many UK favourites and rarities and the hunters are infamous for being confrontational and violent. I don’t care, this is not a holiday. It’s an attempt to bring this forgotten issue to a wider public attention and then to offer a couple of ways in which the viewers can actually do something to effect positive change.’

 

Little Bittern

The problem is that Malta has a controversial exemption from the EU Birds Directive – a ruling which aims to protect all European wild birds and the habitats of listed species – and this exemption allows hunters to shoot a limited number of turtle doves and quail during the spring migration. Malta is the only country in the EU that has a recreational spring hunting season, but the hunters are ignoring the restrictions and killing other birds that are meant to be protected. Sadly, even the ‘allowed’ turtle doves, whose soft call once resonated across our land, are now so rare that their numbers have dropped by 95% in the UK. Not all the Maltese people are hunters of course – the large majority wish to see migrating birds protected and they oppose spring hunting, yet successive Maltese governments have failed to bring the illegal killing of birds under control. So, each year in spring over 10,000 hunters cluster on this small island to ‘enjoy’ their sport.



This Montagu's Harrier was too badly injured to save

 

Montagu's Harrier

Amongst the birds that Chris Packham came across this week was a swift that had been illegally shot, no doubt winging its way back to Britain. Swifts can live for twenty years and during the course of their lives fly millions of miles from Africa to their breeding grounds in Britain and back again, unfortunately passing across Malta on their journey. He also watched a hunter with dogs and noticed that one of the dogs was carrying a little bittern in its mouth. When the hunter saw that he was being watched, he hurried off, leaving the bird behind. Little bitterns are exceedingly rare in Britain. The team found another rarity, a magnificent Montagu's harrier, which had been shot. This was another stunning individual that will never effortlessly circle our skies again. The Montagu's, a female, had her wing shattered at the joints, and sadly, had to be euthanised. This particularly harrowing episode of the video diaries perhaps puts into perspective more than anything else just why we must all try to get this horrendous and barbaric practice banned. In Britain, a Montagu's is hailed as a rare and spectacular sight, yet to the Maltese hunters, it's just another flying target.

 But why do the hunters kill the so-called protected birds? It could be because they regard them as trophies; sadly taxidermy is becoming popular once more, and the birds’ stuffed bodies can be sold for a lot of money to collectors. One hunter pointed out that younger men ignore the rules and take pot shots at anything that flies. It’s good target practice. The Maltese hunters are against Birdlife Malta – they believe they are interfering with Malta’s birds. Yet they are not – the birds are not exclusive to Malta, they belong to Africa and Europe, too. Many of these shot birds would have been making their way to breeding sites across Britain. Each spring Birdlife Malta seek out injured birds and take them to a vet in the hope that a few, at any rate, might be saved, but very few recover enough to be released.

 

Another problem is that the hunters are unfair. Recently, over the holidays, local people were camping on one of the few public spaces in Malta. The hunters insisted that the police moved them on so they could shoot uninterrupted.  Hunters have also wrecked bird reserves on the island by chopping down hundreds of trees and polluting lakes with oil. They have even broken into the reserves to shoot the birds sheltering there. Few of them have been caught.

 

So, how can you help? You will find the video diaries and many more details if you visit:

http://www.chrispackham.co.uk/    .

 A letter or email to your local MEP would bring the matter to their attention, and if we all do this, then just maybe the laws will be properly enforced in Malta.  You can find your MEP here: www.europarl.org.uk/en/your_meps/list-meps-by-region.html

 

You might like to donate to Birdlife Malta, to help them in their fight against the hunters:

www.indiegogo.com/projects/stop-spring-hunting-on-malta

As Chris Packham points out, the bird life in Malta is stunning and it could attract thousands of bird watchers to view the spectacle each year. But the vast majority of bird lovers won’t go while there is a possibility that the birds might be shot. Would you?

 

Pictures provided by and copyright of Chris Packham

SKYLARK SUE’S REFLECTIONS OF NATURE 

March 2014

 

 March 1st proved to be a mild day with some sun – it certainly didn’t roar in like a lion, so whether it will go out like a lamb we have yet to find out. On the 3rd, a female chaffinch was spotted on our neighbours’ fence, so it is good to know that they are around once more. Just as with goldfinches, chaffinches, although so common in many gardens, tend to elude us. Many of the usual birds, such as dunnocks, were around the garden and on the hanging feeders and trays.

There were eight magpies altogether in the tree.

Collared doves

Cheerful crocuses

 After a frosty start, the 4th of the month turned sunny. Eight very noisy magpies were in the tree across the road – whether they were parents with last year’s brood, or were just using the tree as a meeting place I have no idea. Certainly, magpies do breed in the oak tree opposite each year. March 5th saw the usual bird visitors to the garden, including two collared doves. These birds always look so ‘well-groomed’ and sleek, and they also appear gentle, yet can be very vicious, attacking other birds especially in the breeding season. Two doves and a robin were sharing the feeder, though, without animosity. The garden was very 'yellow', what with the crocuses, daffodils and forsythia. It looked so cheerful.

Egyptian goose

Egyptian goose



The grebes were starting to pair up at Hatfield Forest



Female mallard

 

Coltsfoot



On the 8th of March, I went to Hatfield Forest. It was still mild and sunny. One of the more unusual visitors at the lake was an Egyptian goose, quite an elegant bird, at least while it was on the water. Out of the water, it seemed ungainly and slightly podgy! The grebes were beginning to display, occasionally bobbing up and down though not holding weed in their beaks and dancing, and the black-headed gulls were getting their black heads back after moulting into white for the winter. There were swans, Canada geese, mallards and coots on the lake, too. Many of the woodland paths were still very muddy after the February rains, but there were a few primroses out, as well as coltsfoot, while the pussy willow was turning yellow with pollen. The next day, the 9th, was a glorious warm sunny day, with plenty of crocuses, kerria japonica, daffodils and snowdrops in bloom in the garden.  I saw several brimstones, too, and some darker butterflies which were too quick for me to identify but could well have been peacocks. It turned cooler on the 10th, but soon picked up again.



The pussy willow with its golden pollen

Black-headed gull




Bullrush or reed mace

Large bumble bee on purple crocus at Anglesey Abbey

Comma butterfly at Anglesey Abbey

A trip to Anglesey Abbey on March 12th revealed gardens that were ablaze with spring bulbs and flowers, including daffodils, crocuses, anemone blanda, hellebores, Daphne, aconites and narcissus. Bees, both large fluffy bumble bees and smaller honey bees were gathering pollen while a few early butterflies, including comma and brimstone, were in evidence. There were a mass of celandines by the mill stream, beautifully reflected in the water and moorhens were on the stream, too. Sticky buds were forming on the chestnut trees, and it was a glorious day with blue sky, and robins and blackbirds singing loudly. Maybe spring really is coming early? Certainly, birds were in full song, and what with the bees, butterflies and other insects, it was difficult to remember that it was only early March.



Bee on anemone blanda

Bee on anemone blanda



Iris

A host of daffodils

Reflections of celandines

Sticky bud

 

 

Starling, beautiful against the blue sky

On the 13th, there was a goldfinch in the garden again, I wish they would come more often – we certainly put out all types of food.  The warm weather continued and the 14th of March was beautiful. All the usual birds were around, including blackbirds, starlings and collared doves. A starling perched on the apple tree looked beautiful in the sunshine against the blue sky, with the light illuminating its feathers. Strangely, though, we still hadn’t seen any blue tits investigating the nest boxes, which was unusual as normally they would have chosen a box by now. The goldfinch was back on the 16th, as well as some peacock butterflies and several bees. It was still warm and sunny.

 

 

 

 

Dew-encrusted moss

The weather turned during the following week, and by the 22nd it was chilly.  The following day we had a heavy shower of hail. On the 24th I made a brief trip to Broxbourne, and noticed a thick crop of moss, encrusted with dew and sparkling in the sun.  We often ignore moss, yet it is so delicate and very pretty. I was looking back through my past records, and noticed that last year, on March 25th I had been photographing thick snow and icicles. Hopefully, we will be snow free now till next winter.



Oxlip

Cowslip



Small tortoiseshell emerging from garage

Scented violets

Spring snowflake

On the 26th, I saw a sparrow perched on our greengage tree pecking at the blossom, I hope it doesn’t continue to do that as we would like some fruit this year!  Yet again we had a very heavy hail storm, turning the garden white for a while.  On March 30th, a small tortoiseshell butterfly emerged from the confines of the garage where it had presumably been hibernating over the winter and was soon fluttering free.  There was a male chaffinch in the oak tree opposite. Flowers are quickly opening – in the garden, on the 30th March, there was a tub filled with scented violets (we grow them in a tub otherwise they become engulfed with the unscented dog violets), as well as cowslips, oxlips and fritillaries. There were also some pretty spring snowflakes (Leucojum vernum). On 31st March, I was pleased to see that the smooth newts are back in our small pond. Hopefully they will breed again; they seemed very successful last year.

 

 

Robin on the feeder

Blackthorn has been in bloom for the last two months

 March has been exceptionally mild, even though we did experience a few hailstorms. With plenty of sunshine, the bees and butterflies have appeared earlier than usual – hopefully, they will do well and we shall experience another ‘Butterfly Summer’, just as we did last year.

Morning sunlight illuminates pusssy willow at Hatfield Forest