July 31, 2026

July - Pied in the sky

July 31, 2026

Please remember that to watch the videos included in this Blog post, you will need to access them through the Liddells website: www.liddells.co.uk

3rd July

Clare harvested more Yellow Rattle seeds and topped more Hogweed on the Hayfield and beside the Meadow. She found two patches of Salad Burnet (which defied her camera) and Field Scabious on the Meadow. A Marmalade hoverfly was benefitting from a Hogweed flower (there are plenty of the plants left for insects).

4th July

Clare started sieving the Yellow Rattle seeds to remove the seed pods and general detritus from them and discovered that she had inadvertently harvested a couple of spiders. They were intent on escaping from the colander so the quality of photos isn’t great. The first is a Cucumber Green Orb spider, the second proved harder to identify, however it could be a Forest Cobweb Weaver (also known as Mothercare spiders). In the first photo you can see the Yellow Rattle seed husks and in the top right, a couple of seeds. They give an indication of the spider’s size.

4th - 6th July

John worked on freeing the second and third Spindle trees from their cages. It was a tough job as there were several years’ worth of grass growth knotted into the mesh.

7th July

Liddells has been littered with broken and emptied Pheasants’ eggs. Likely culprits are foxes and corvids. It is good to see that thus far one brood of chicks has survived.

9th July

John noticed more success from the wildflower plug planting earlier in the year. A Nettle-leaved Bellflower has taken to a new habitat near the Story-telling Circle in the Pit Wood, and Betony has come up near some existing Betony plants near the Yew trees in the Pit Wood. Clare added a photo of Enchanter’s Nightshade because she likes the name of the plant.

11th July

John remains bewildered by how many deer there are on on Liddells at the moment. He had thought that only one young doe remained, however footage from the Scrub today challenges that notion.

The finely-antlered old buck also appears in the Scrub.

12th July

Ruth and her son Louis had a ringing session. Ruth sent photos of a juvenile Dunnock, a juvenile Robin and a juvenile Treecreeper.

13th July

Two days later a single doe goes through the Scrub and John notices that she has a slightly bent right rear leg. Maybe that will help future efforts at distinguishing the does.

A stoat scuttles about in the undergrowth before making it up the hawthorn. Do not assume from the video’s title that John and Clare have named the stoat after Lady Macbeth’s dog.

The trail camera in the Pit Wood stirs further deer information into the mix. First a buck, not the oldest one, has a wound on his rear left leg. Note that this buck has no back points on his antlers. You will see the relevance of this later. As the rut is imminent (mid-July to mid-August), John thinks the wound may be an injury from fighting with another buck. In support of this idea the following video (two stitched together) shows a buck limping and with his left antler missing the back point which was evident in the video from 11th July.

The two young does appear in the Pit Wood a few times (two videos joined here). They seem to be behaving like siblings however if they are last year’s kids, they are from different does. They have differently coloured and shaped caudal patches. It all keeps John’s deer mind alive.

A clip from the Pit Wood to show how John and Clare, but mostly John, manage the paths. The flail mower saves huge amounts of time and causes considerably less muscle aching than strimming.

The last video in the ‘how many deer’ question - here is a buck with apparently no wound on his leg and well-developed antlers with back points, although one back point is shorter than the other. John thinks this is the old buck and from now is the only buck to appear in the videos. John concludes he has seen off the other two contenders.

Now for the hay saga. Are you sitting comfortably?

For the last few years July has brought John and Clare hay-related angst. This year has been no exception. The hot weather has seen hay-making ahead of the usual time in fields all around Liddells. John and Clare are reliant on the generosity of two local farmers to complete the task. Tom, who has a small tractor, cuts, turns and rows up the hay on both the Hayfield and the Meadow; Barry bales the Hayfield, however his baler is too big for the Meadow. For a couple of years Tom had access to an old-fashioned square baler which he could use on the Meadow. That is no longer available. For the last three years or so Clare and John have raked up the hay and given as much of it as he could take away in dumpy bags, to (a different) Barry for his goats, throwing the rest away.

This year John approached Tom only to discover that Tom’s tractor was out of service. Much creative thinking followed and several overtures to others who might be able to help, all to no avail. John and Clare in their desparation, even considered buying a small tractor. Then John was driving past Tom’s farm and saw smoke coming from the tractor’s exhaust and it spluttering into life. Phew.

14th - 16th July

Tom came and cut the hay and Barry the Baler said he would come and do the necessary. Tom turned and rowed up the hay ready. Then Barry’s baler broke. Clare opted not to check her blood pressure.

17th July

Tim sent a photo that made him smile - a Large Skipper on Bird’s Foot Trefoil on the Wetland. A meal of bacon and eggs.

19th July

Clare and John set about channelling their frustration into raking the hay on the Meadow into dumpy bag sized heaps. Barry (goats) came and made four trips taking back six bagsful each time. Apparently his goats loved the hay so much last year that when it ran out they turned their noses up at the purchased version.

20th July

Barry took six more dumpies full of hay - he has more available space to store it this year. The Meadow is looking much clearer.

After the removal of 30 dumpies full of hay

From deer to hay and back again. Some time in the last couple of days a doe appeared in the Scrub with a buck nearby but not apparently interested. Then, the same day (there was no night footage in between), the old buck (both back points intact), is seen driving one of the does (you can hear the deer squeaking). By way of an interlude, a Treecreeper appears on the Hawthorn in front of the camera, then the buck is seen driving both does.

22nd July

The baler is mended. Barry is coming tomorrow. More hay-raking for John and Clare so that Barry (goats) can collect more.

Clare photographed some of the Ragwort on Liddells. Many people know that the plant can be poisonous to horses and cattle, so pull it out of road verges. This is completely unnecessary since horses and cattle will not eat Ragwort. Below is a photo Clare took of a field where horses are kept and you can see that they have eaten everything else but left the Ragwort. The plant can be poisonous if it is cut into hay and the animals eat the hay. The plant is valuable for many pollinators; Cinnabar moth caterpillars feed exclusively on ragwort foliage, sequestering the plant's natural toxins to deter predators.

23rd July

Clare had a very spotty day. She and John finished raking and bagging up all the hay they could then took the remainder up to the Hayfield and added it to the rows there. Clare rowed up the dumpies and bags ready for Barry (goats) then went back up to the Hayfield just as Barry (baler) arrived. Only 7 bales this year however John and Clare appreciated finishing this part of the process. Clare enjoys watching the baler drop the bales out.

Barry (goats) collected the last of the hay.

TrogTrogBlog Chris arrived to help Clare spot ladybirds. Clare hadn’t really known where to start with this, however Chris led the way and he and Clare used sweep nets on the grass and on some of the trees, focussing on Oaks and Scots Pines but also trying other deciduous trees. Although the ladybird count was very low, Clare thoroughly enjoyed the exercise and marvelled at just how many insects ended up in the nets. Chris sent some of his photos which appear below with one of Clare’s phone photos to show the difference in quality.

A red-legged Shieldbug (*Pentatoma rufipes)* - this was from an Oak, then another fell into Clare’s net from another Oak.

Chris’ photo of the same insect - enough said!

Chris thought this weevil is a *Sciaphilus aspitatus* which feeds on a large variety of low plants and woody crops (Chris’ photo)

Candy-striped Spider (*Enoplognatha ovata*) - doing wha it says on the tin. The species is particularly associated with low growing trees and shrubs and occasionally low branches of trees - the ones reachable with a sweep net (Clare’s photo)

Clover mite (*Bryobia praetiosa*) - Clover mites reproduce parthenogenetically — their eggs do not need to be fertilized and are entirely female. (Clare’s photo)

Alder spittle bug (*Aphrophora alni*) - a large froghopper with distinct white patches along the edge of the forewings (Clare’s photo)

Rough-haired lagria beetle (*Lagria hirta*) - often seen on tree leaves or open flowers (Clare’s photo)

More spotting, this time on ladybirds - only two and a pupa. The pupa was on a Scots Pine on the wetland, the two 10 spots on the last Oak Clare and Chris investigated. Thanks again to Chris not just for his time, knowledge and support but for his excellent photographs. His enthusiasm is infectious. Do look up his Blog for wonderful still and trail camera footage: https://trogtrogblog.blogspot.com

Pupa from a Harlequin ladybird on a Scots Pine needle

And here’s how its done - Chris photographing the pupa

10-spot ladybird (*Adalia decempunctata)* form *decempunctata*

10-spot ladybird (*Adalia decempunctata)* form *decempustulata*

En route Clare spotted that one of the Junipers on the Crag was covered in berries, some of them already ripe. Liddells gin anyone?

The spotting didn’t end there. As Chris and Clare were finishing, Butterfly Tim was on his way round the transect. He sent Clare a message to say there was a Holly Blue on some thistles by Pond Maggiore. The butterfly had flown off by the time Clare arrived and she was just saying that she hadn’t seen a Small Copper yet this year when Tim pointed out that there was one right in front of her. A Peacock also posed close by.

Inspired by all this spotting, Clare decided to see whether any Broad-leaved Helleborines had emerged. She found one, however a flurry of birdsong called for attention. Clare saw a Bullfinch, Siskins and an adult and a juvenile Spotted Flycatcher around the glade in the Pit Wood. This last was particularly pleasing as Clare had been looking out for them for a while this year with no success. They must have bred on Liddells this year. Clare then decided to have another look for Helleborines and found one more.

The day ended with another message from Tim to say he had also seen a ‘Small Heath near the hives, Painted Lady on the meadow, and 2 more Holly Blue as [he] walked back up to the gate. But no photos’.

Much spotting and lots of spots.

24th July

John and Clare decided to have a work-free day on Liddells and John took his camera in the hope of seeing the Flycatchers. Clare took the sweep net with her to see what else she might find. Her first trophy was this Marsh Snipe fly (Rhagio tringarius) - they feed on small beetles and earthworms and rest on leaves. She also found a Black-headed Birch Leaffolder moth (Acleris logiana) in her net. Larva spin and fold birch leaves together to create a protective shelter while they eat the plant tissue inside. The moth bears a strong resemblence to birch bark.

As John and Clare reached the bottom of the Crag and came onto the Wetland, a Barn Owl flew out of the Barn Owl box. This was the first they had seen on Liddells for a long and it was especially pleasing to see the mended and re-erected box in use. The box is on an Oak so Clare tapped a few small leaves over her net. She found another Red-legged Shieldbug. They obviously like Oak trees.

The Spotties didn’t appear in the Pit Wood where Clare had seen them yesterday however as Clare came up out of the wood towards the Orchard she saw a family of four Wrens flitting about and perching on one of the log piles while calling to each other. Halfway through the Orchard John and Clare noticed a flurry of small birds, two of them flying high up in the Ash trees just like Spotted Flycatchers. There were an adult and a juvenile again - maybe the same, maybe different. They were quite close to where Ruth has one of her nets. Fingers crossed…

Clare and John took the camera from the Pit Wood to resite it to overlook the Barn Owl box. When Clare looked at the disc she found 6 clips of the buck pursuing the does.

There were also a couple of clips of badgers. One demonstrating the digging that accounts for overturned and excavated ground all over Liddells; the second badger is staring fixedly at something unknown. It remained in place through a second 15 second clip before moving off. History does not reveal what was holding its gaze.

29th July

Ruth and Louis had another ringing session with one result in particular that is especially pleasing. A delightful end to the month’s activity.

A female Redstart, this year’s bird. There have been Redstarts on Liddells most years, sometimes seen, sometimes heard ony. Ruth has had them in the nets each year she has been ringing. In the latest edition of Roebuck, the magazine of the Northumberland Wildlife Trust, Chris Wright, local birder and Chair of Ponteland Wildlife Group and who brought a group of members to Liddells last week, worte that his favourite UK birds are common redstarts. The birds are ‘named for their red-brown tails which they quiver as they move around. With his orange-coloured breast and distinctive black and white head pattern, the male redstart has to be one of our most beautiful and exotic-looking songbirds. Redstarts are rather secretive and often difficult to see. When giving their short, high-pitched and delicate song, males tend to keep to the tops of tall trees in areas of mature deciduous woodland, which is their preferred habitat. Although not uncommon in Northumberland, redstarts are amber-listed, making them of conservation concern…The best chance to see a flash of their red tails is often after fledging, between May and July…when family groups move through the trees and hedgerows giving their distinctive contact calls, before setting off in the autumn for Africa.’
You can listen to their song here.

Juvenie Bullfinch, one of half a dozen ringed this morning

The highlight - a juvenile Pied Flycatcher. A first for Liddells. You can read about them and hear their song here.

Clare and John

June 30, 2026

June - no kidding

Clare and John

June 30, 2026

There are far fewer video clips this month than last however, as always to see what there are, you will have to access the Blog through the Liddells website: www.liddells.co.uk

Clare and John hope you have enjoyed going wild for the last 30 days and found many different ways to engage with nature. Clare has not listed every wild activity this month, reckoning that her habit of always being on the look- or listen- out for nature isn’t easily translated into a list. John too is rarely without an eye open for deer or hares. Clare has had a few days this month reading about one of the wildest, and the only named wind in the UK - the Helm. It is a phenomenon of the Eden Valley and surroundings in Cumbria and is very wild. The book is Helm by Sarah Hall and Clare recommends it as a particularly imaginative and engaging work of fiction.

John and Clare have been hoping to see this year’s new kids this month however for the first time since having trail cameras (2017), none have appeared. The old doe who has been around for several years and has had three sets of triplets and at least a couple of sets of twins, has not appeared in camera footage for quite a while. She may have moved into a different territory or she may have died. A younger doe, not apparently pregnant, suggesting she is a yearling, and possibly one of the old doe’s last year’s kids, has put in an appearance recently. Maybe she will have kids next year. John sees this, together with the territorial vying between three bucks, as a ‘changing of the guard’.

1st June

Clare made up hive frames ready for a new colony of bees.

She spotted a clump of Comfrey which has established among gorse at the bottom of the Scrub.. This is a great plant for pollinators. Bees with long tongues such as the Garden bumblebee and the Hairy-footed flower bee can reach into the long flowers, while bees with shorter tongues, such as the Buff-tailed bumblebee bite holes in the base of the calyx and can feed on the nectar without pollinating the plant. Honey bees and wasps can then benefit from the access to nectar.

Ragged Robin is out in profusion in several places on the Wetland and Orange Hawkweed is marching over the Meadow.

After the stoat/nest box debacle, Clare moved the trail camera to overlook a different box. Unfortunately there was quite a lot of wind and many leafy branches between the camera and the box, however there were clips of Blue Tits going in and out with food. Fledging was not caught on camera and when John looked in, he saw that some eggs had been abandoned although Ruth had ringed 8 nestlings from the box. The last sighting of a Blue Tit entering the box was dated 1st June.

2nd June

Clare tackled her annual Creeping Thistle pull on the Meadow and was pleased to find only 83 (she found about a dozen more over the next few days); the annual total is going down. She then set about the Blackthorn suckers that have begun invading the west end of the Meadow from the hedge there. She still has to face the challenge of the Hogweed. Joy is unconfined in Clare world. She was happy to see more Meadow Cranesbill in flower on the Meadow this year.

While Clare was on the Meadow she bagged up all the left over rubble from wall repair and used it to level the main path through the Scrub.

She noticed a Red-tailed bumblebee attempting to climb a grass stalk. It proved to be quite a challenge for the bee. A Large White butterfly was feeding on a Ragged Robin flower. There was a Willow sapling on the Wetland that had been broken by deer activity. It’s not unusual to see fraying damage however completely snapping a stem is less common.

4th June

The Orchids are emerging in abundance on the Meadow and in less profusion in other habitats on Liddells. All Common Spotted. The Meadow Cranesbill flowers are beginning to go over and form the cranes’ bill-shaped seed cases. While Clare was checking on the new hedging plants, she sensed she was being observed.

5th June

Clare has been noticing a few Painted Lady butterflies in the garden and on Liddells recently; ususally only one at a time so it has been hard to determine numbers. This morning she read this article in The Guardian which heralds the arrival of potentially record-breaking numbers of the butterflies from sub-Saharan Africa for a ‘once-in-a-decade’ Painted Lady Summer. Blog readers who have read Isabella Tree’s Wilding may remember her describing such a phenomenon and how the butterflies benefitted from the Creeping Thistles at Knepp.

The Guardian also featured a piece on the use of tools by bumblebees. You can read here about how the bees moved and used a ball to secure a reward of sugar water.

6th June

A Great Tit investigates Box 8, which has been occupied by Blue Tits. Perhaps it lost its way from the sheer tiredness of feeding its offspring.

7th June

An exciting start to the day for Clare - her past bee-keeping mentor Ian delivered a nucleus colony of honey bees. The queen is newly hatched this season and marked white (there is a mnemonic to help remember the queen bee colour for each year: Will You Raise Good Bees? - white, yellow, red, green blue). Ian suggested transferring the bees into a full size hive within a couple of days. Clare spent some time watching the flying bees start orienting to their new situation.

8th June

With wet weather forecast for the next few days, Clare took advantage of a warm dry spell to transfer the bees into one of her hives. They were quiet throughout the process, more interested than irritated, which augurs well for a colony of calm bees. Their disposition comes from the queen.

The trail camera focussed on the nest box shows a pair of Great Tit adults attending to a juvenile. Again, they seem attached to this box, even though it was used by Blue Tits.

9th June

With another group due to visit Liddells later this month (Clare has checked the date several times), John started mowing the paths while Clare set about clearing the steps over the Point of View. She saw a Six-spot Burnet moth on Yellow Loosestrife leaves by the steps. Unfortunately she only managed an out of focus photo. Clare moved stones to replace the wooden edging to the steps and one stone split open as she moved it. It seemed to Clare that the impressions of leaves were fossilised into the exposed surfaces. Looking at the photos just now, Clare can see a rabbit on each side. Pareidolia rules OK.

14th June

The Dog Roses are out all over Liddells. The honey bees are bringing in the orange pollen.

15th June

A young looking fox appears in the Scrub in the early morning light and seems to be wary of the camera.

16th -19th June

Clare and John pressed on with their preparation for the visit. Clare finished the steps; John finished the mowing and some sawing and decided his old saw horse needed replacing.

Checking in with the trail camera discs from the Scrub, Clare found numerous clips over several nights, of a bat flying around. Clare has stitched a couple of clips together below. John investigated the clips and thinks it is a Natterer’s bat. The pale underside is quite distinct. Natterer’s bats mostly fly around trees and quite low - exactly what this one is doing. You can read more about them here.

19th June

The last of the visit preparation and Clare returned the cleaned bird feeders to the hide (not to fill, but to store ready for the Autumn) and noticed that in the 24 hours since she walked the same path, there had been considerable deer damage to three Willow whips, two either side of Sylvia’s Willow Walk. The old buck is still around, however there are two younger ones vying for territory, and the young doe presumably. The rut begins in the middle of July.

The sight of Honeysuckle in flower offset dismay at the damage. New whips can be planted.

20th June

Thirteen members of the Ponteland branch of the Northumberland Wildlife Trust came for a visit. They had lunch in the meeting room while Clare and John spoke about Liddells - how they came to own the land, their aims, the work they have done to date and their hopes for the future - then Clare and John each took a group round. The group were very appreciative and clearly understood what was involved in the project as a whole. A 4-spot Chaser put in an appearance on Pond Maggiore along with many Common Blue damselflies. Clare noticed that some Viper’s Bugloss had flowered in the Meadow - this was one of the species planted on a recent Green Gym Day.

Val kindly sent photographs of the Cockchafer beetle she spotted on Elder. The Cockchafer is the UK’s largest scarab beetle. Wikipedia tells that:

‘In the Middle Ages pest control was rare, and people had no effective means to protect their harvest. This gave rise to events that seem bizarre from a modern perspective. In 1320, for instance, cockchafers were brought to court in Avignon and sentenced to withdraw within three days onto a specially designated area, otherwise they would be outlawed. Unsurprisingly, since they failed to comply, they were collected and killed. Similar animal trials also occurred for many other animals in the Middle Ages.’

Viper’s Bugloss with Red and White clovers, Buttercups and Ribwort Plantain

The young doe - possibly the only doe on Liddells now - is seen in the Scrub and regularly coming up the same path through the Pit Wood.

21st June

Clare opened her hive for the first time and was pleased to see the queen and plenty of eggs. They still had some syrup so must be finding enough forage from their surroundings.

Clare saw a family of at least ten Long-tailed tits, the juveniles cheeping for food, on the southern edge of the Pit Wood and a 4-spot Chaser and male Southern Hawker on Pond Maggiore.

22nd June

The rut is not far off. There is footage from the Scrub of the old buck barking, and of bucks chasing one another.

25th - 27th June

Clare and John decided on a different kind of gong wild and went away for three days - if you know them, you will know how wildly out of character this is. They chose a train journey so that they could travel from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh. The scenery was satisfyingly dramatic and the journey well worth making. Clare took a photo of a Scottish Thistle which looked particularly Scottish and one of a Giant Hogweed plant by the River Ness. There was a lot of Giant Hogweed along the rail tracks and in fields along the way. Touching Giant Hogweed can lead to severe chemical burns, large blisters, and long-lasting purple scars. Clare acknowledged that there is always someone worse off than yourself. At least she doesn’t have to dig them out.

28th June

Back to Liddells and Viper’s Bugloss has come out on the Hayfield. Hedge Woundwort is in flower in the Pit Wood and the Heather is coming out on the Crag. Clare spotted a Large Skipper on some Meadow Vetchling.

Here is Tim’s rather better photo of a Large Skipper on Bird’s Foot Trefoil, taken on 17th June

John had a close encounter with a hare late in the evening.

29th June

While John attended to the top gate which had dropped on its hinges, Clare went to the Meadow armed with a spit; but no sawdust. She dug up 30 Hogweeds which were in flower and half a dozen more which were just showing leaves. She found another 4 Creeping Thistles so those were dispatched as well. She rewarded herself by collecting Elderflower heads for this year’s cordial.

Coming down the Crag onto the Wetland later, Clare noticed a large excavated patch. Her first thought was ‘badger’, however she then noticed a lot of Buff-tailed bumblebees flying around. Disconcerted, Clare wondered momentarily whether they had excavated the ground for their nest. Realising this was a preposterous idea, she landed on the likely explanation: a badger had excavated the bees’ nest and the remaining bees were lost and disorientated.

Leaving the Wetland for the Pit Wood, she paused to photograph Marsh Valerian.

From one nest to another - the day before the visit last weekend, Clare had lifted one of the corrugated iron sheets left in case any passing snakes or newts needed shelter. She found an extremely active ants’ nest. She thought this might be interesting to the visitors, so when they walked past the sheet, Clare lifted it and saw - almost nothing. The ants had moved all the eggs underground to safety. Today Clare had another look, and sure enough the ants and eggs were there in profusion. Possibly they won’t be by tomorrow.

A butterfly interlude in the Pit Wood - a Painted Lady, Ringlet and Speckled Wood each perched for long enough for a photo. The Painted Lady obligingly closed its wings so that Clare could photograph the underwing too.

Clare noticed another clump of Viper’s Bugloss on the Meadow - a further success from the Green Gym planting day - and on the way to take a photograph, paused to enjoy how the Meadow has developed. She recorded Great Burnet in its usual place, Salad Burnet from the planting day (unfortunately neither Burnet photo came out clearly) and Lady’s Bedstraw also from the planting day, a Meadow Brown enjoying the warmth and a Meadow Cranesbill defying its nominative determinism by flowering outside the Meadow. Greater Knapweed threatens to take over the Meadow and may need thinning, however it provides late forage for pollinators so a stay of execution is in order.

Lady’s Bedstraw among the Buttercups, Clover and Yellow Rattle seedheads

Lastly this month, Clare noticed a web spun around a head of Red Clover on the Meadow. Moving closer in she spotted the spinner - it is a Nursery Web Spider. The Wildlife Trust's’ website tells us: ‘The nursery web spider is a common spider of grassland and scrub, and is often seen sunbathing among brambles and stinging nettles. The adults are active hunters and do not spin a web to catch food, instead using a quick sprint to capture flies and other insects. The female carries her large, round egg-sac in her fangs. When the young are about to hatch, she builds a silk sheet among the vegetation to act as a tent, sheltering them until they are old enough to leave on their own.’ The males have a trick up their sleeves, if indeed spiders can be said to have sleeves: ‘Mating is a dangerous game for male nursery web spiders, so they present a gift of food to the female while laying perfectly still and pretending to be dead. When the female investigates the food, the male will suddenly jump up and mate with her.’

Wild!

Clare and John

May 31, 2026

May - birds and maybe bees

Clare and John

May 31, 2026

This is a post of two halves. The first covers covers general activity on Liddells, the second is dedicated to the activity recorded on a camera focussed on one of the nest boxes. As you might imagine, there are a lot of videos. In order to see the videos you will have to go through the Blog section of the website: www.liddells.co.uk

John and Clare hope you enjoy the post in spite of some rather grim aspects.

1st May

The cloudy skies were against Clare seeing the Flower Moon today. It was classified as a micromoon as it was at its furthest point from Earth, making it seem smaller. It is named for the Spring blossoms that occur in May. Fingers crossed for a view of the second full moon this month on 31st - once in a blue moon.

3rd May

International Dawn Chorus Day and Clare got up in the dark, dressed in as many warm clothes as she could and went downstairs only to discover it was raining spectacularly heavily. No Dawn Chorus this morning.

While not officially a storm, the weather reminded Clare of a phrase she had heard recently - ‘lambing storm’ - referring to the typically unsettled weather that happens during lambing season.

4th May

Clare joined in with an annual Dawn Chorus provided by her choir. Since 2008 many members of the choir join forces at the local bandstand and sing in the sunrise. It is bonkers but fun. And the weather was better than yesterday.

Clare has been uncertain for a while about whether or not to restart bee-keeping after the disappointments and colony failures of the last few years, however she has decided she is not quite ready to stop. The apiary needed some attention, particularly from the explosion of Blackthorn regeneration. The area was resembling a thicket. Armed with her chain saw and John with his strimmer, they cleared round and in front of the hive stands. This involved cutting and moving a lot of Blackthorn brash and Clare couldn’t help feeling as if she was re-enacting the scene from The Scottish Play when Birnam Forest apparently moves to Dunsinane.

5th May

More work in the Apiary. Clare was accompanied by a Garden Warbler singing close by for most of the time and was delighted to discover it was her ‘Bird of the Day’ on Merlin.

While John and Hal worked on replacing some seats in the Story-telling Circle (and adding another on the list of seats to be replaced after Clare sat on one and it broke under her), Clare walked round enjoying whatever caught her eye. She noticed an unusual number of St Mark’s flies on the tubes for the new hedging. Read more about this insect here. The flies on the tubes may have been females waiting for mates. There wasn’t a single tube without several flies. Clare wondered if the plastic, warmed by the sun, offered a cosy place to bask. Or they were waiting for the Hawthorn plants inside to grow for their nectar source.

Ruth sent John and Clare the BTO results for her ringing on Liddells last year. CES stands for the Constant Effort Sites Scheme, a standardised bird-ringing programme. Volunteer ringers capture birds at the same locations for identical amounts of time each breeding season to monitor population sizes, breeding success, and survival rates. You will see that the results are rather encouraging.

8th May

Clare decided to have another attempt to listen to the Dawn Chorus. Up early and, dressed appropriately she left the house only to drive into thick mist after a few hundred yards. Not only was it unsafe to carry on, no birds with any sense would be out and singing. Heigh ho. Next year perhaps.

While John used the flail mower to cut the paths, Clare had repairs to tackle. She set about patching the holes in the Meadow fencing that had been caused by sheep making a bid for freedom or for the allegedly greener grass on the other side. It was probably one of the more unusual sewing challenges she has faced (and bear in mind she has made two arm-operated goose puppets for pantomime use). Ok, since you ask…

The repairs will be put to the test later this year when the sheep return to graze.

Needing a bit of a stretch after all the bending, Clare walked around and found some Water Avens that had found their way onto the Meadow (a welcome addition), Adder’s Tongue Fern also in the Meadow, Stitchwort in flower on the Wetland, Woodruff and Water Avens blooming in the north-west corner and Marsh Marigolds aka Kingcups by the stream in the Pit Wood. She also noted Forget-me-not, Germander Speedwell, Cow Parsley, Bittercress, Ribwort Plantain, Perennial Cornflower, Red Campion and Wild Garlic. She saw a Painted Lady butterfly which perched for a brief moment but with closed wings.

Clare also had a peek in a couple of nest boxes and found a Blue Tit sitting in 3 at the top of the Scrub.

10th May

John celebrated his birthday and made use of Hal to help with a gate and post that needed repair on the Hayfield.

‘The’ leveret appears in the Scrub again. Of course there is no way of knowing whether this is the same leveret as previously or a different one. Lovely to see, either way.

11th May

Ruth had another ringing session and although there was no evidence of Whitethroats, she reported ringing Song Thrush, Coal Tit and Long-tailed Tit as new species for this season; she also caught a couple of Bullfinch ‘among the ususals’, and heard ‘tons of Goldcrests’, so expects them to appear in her nets soon.

John arrived later and worked on the gatepost.

There has been much deer activity in the Scrub. The exact dates uncertain, however for reasons that will become apparent, the following videos are captured before 13th May. Below is the oldest buck demonstrating mastery over his territory.

Four videos are joined next. They show three different bucks seeking to establish territory: the oldest buck (thick neck, well developed antlers), a middle buck (thinner neck, slightly smaller antlers and at one point seen with a piece of velvet dangling from his antlers and with a babyish looking face) and the youngest buck (smaller altogether and antlers hardly branched at all). They anoint over each other’s anointing and chase each other off.

12th May

Clare was preparing for one of her bimonthly arts events - this time the theme was PETS - and looked up words that began ‘pet-’. She was thrilled to come across ‘pettichaps’: an alternative word for the Garden Warbler according to the OED. The dictionary says the word can also be applied to other species of warbler and/or the Long-tailed Tit; the earliest evidence for ‘pettichaps’ is from 1673, in the writing of John Ray, naturalist and theologian; the etymology suggests the word derives from ‘peti/petit/petty’ meaning small; ‘chaps’ refers to the jaw or beak.

13th May

On their way to Liddells Clare and John noticed a fallen stretch of wall on the Meadow. It was too big a length for them to tackle so they called on the wonderful Gavin to come up do the repair.

They then conducted the first nesting box survey of the season. They found 9 boxes definitely in use (either eggs present or birds sitting), with 8 or 9 more that could still be (one might be being used by a squirrel, hence the uncertainty over numbers). On her way round Clare found a previously unnoticed patch of native Bluebells near the surviving Elms in the Pit Wood. Pond Maggiore has Water Violets in flower.

Unfortunately John came across a dead deer in the Top Strip. He gave it a quick examination and could find no obvious cause of death. It seems to be the young (‘candle’) buck from last year’s twins. John and Clare leave any carcasses. It will be recycled in its own way.

15th - 17th May

John continued working on the gate, post and tightening the adjacent fence.

Gavin mended the wall.

Keith and Clare met early to carry out the annual breeding bird survey - it was cold and windy and there were far fewer birds either seen or heard this year. Maybe 2026 is not a good year for early birds. You can see the results here.

Clare had brought home one of the hives to clean out ready for the new year. She set about emptying all the frames and disinfecting them and the box in case there had been any disease.

18th May

Working on the apiary preparation, Clare decided to tackle the bee shed. She might have neglected it in the last twelve months, however mice and wax moths had been busy. Clare sorted out redundant equipment, including a box of frames taken over as a mouse nest site and stuff that needed cleaning; she conducted an equipment audit and put everything back in a better state than on removal.

19th May

The oldest buck seems to choose to pick up a small branch as part of his territorial assertions.

The Middle buck (or younger one now), shows his summer coat emerging.

21st May

John completed the work on the gate, posts and fence straining between the Hayfield and the Top Strip.

22nd May

Clare started work on tidying up the steps over the Point of View then noticed that the Yellow Rattle has started coming into flower.

Early this morning Clare read an article by Phil Gates in The Guardian’s ‘Country Diary’ column in which he drew attention to the nectar and pollen available from newly opened flowers at this time of year. He says ‘none delivers its pollen with such deception and violence as broom (Cytisus scoparius)’. He describes why: ‘A large bumblebee arrives, settles briefly, finds no nectar and departs, leaving a deranged tangle of stamens protruding from the petals. What Happened? Poking my finger into an intact flower, to mimic the visitor, there’s an explosion of pollen as 10 stamens and a coiled stigma break free. Simultaneously, they deliver and collect pollen, with a gut-punch to the insect’s furry abdomen.’ You can read the whole article here. Clare went to look at the Broom at the top of the Crag but saw no bumblebees.

Hal came to help John finish refurbishing the Story-telling Circle. Thanks to him for the photos of John working.

The greatest treat and delight of the day was when Clare believed she heard, and Merlin confirmed, a Greater Whitethroat at the bottom of the Scrub. Returning later than expected, Clare and Ruth had almost assumed there would be none this year, so it was especially good to hear. Clare kept hearing it, or them as there might be two, throughout the day. Here is a recording of a Garden Warbler, Wren and Whitethroat singing at the top of the Hayfield.

Back at home Clare has been cleaning and sterilising brood boxes, nucleus boxes and frames and then adding wax to the frames. She contacted her bee-keeping mentors to see about the possibility of buying a new colony or two. There may be one available in a few weeks providing the queens have mated well and produced colonies of quiet bees.

25th May

Milkwort is out on the Crag and Pignut in the Hayfield and Meadow.

26th May

Clare checked to see whether there had been any developments in the nest boxes with the beginnings of nest construction. She found chicks in two of them. Ruth arrived later and started ringing nestlings, ringing 2 broods of 7 Great Tits, 1 brood of 7 Blue Tits and 1 brood of 3 Coal Tits. She left four broods of Blue Tits to ring in the next few days.

John saw a Large Red Damselfly near the Hayfield so Clare headed for Pond Maggiore. On the way she spotted a pair of Blackbirds bathing in the Roadside pond. There were Large Red Damselflies on Pond Maggiore, some mating, also Common Blue Damselflies and a male Broad-bodied Chaser. Beside the pond a fly caught her eye. It is a Tetanocera elata, a species of Marsh Fly. Apparently the young can eat aquatic snails so they will be playing a part in controlling the pond snails.

Bistort is out on the Meadow.

27th May

Clare positioned a camera in the Pit Wood pointing towards an area that seems to have been used for the does to kid. Previous years’ footage have often shown the does and kids coming on to the main path from here. Thus far there have been very few clips of does, however bucks, old and younger, have been around and confounding John. The next video will illustrate why. Both bucks here are quite young, possibly even the same age. It is possible they could be the two bucks from triplets born three years ago. They don’t seem to be in competition with each other here.

30th May

Clare visited the Meadow to look for signs of Orchids. There were plenty of leaves emerging. She also noticed that quite a large patch of Bird’s Foot Trefoil had spread around the remains of a wall in the middle of the Meadow where Silverweed has also taken. Clare was delighted by the profusion of yellow flowers. She was also struck by the flower head of a Marsh Thistle which looked like a small bouquet and she noticed that Heath Speedwell, looking like tiny trees, was in flower on the Crag.

Meanwhile at the nest box camera…

Clare had moved one of the cameras to cover box 3. From 8th - 17th May, the camera captured nearly 1000 videos. Some of these were triggered by movements in the tree and around the box, at least once by a bumblebee, by moving shadows and patterns of light movement; many may have been triggered by bird movements, however the time lapse from trigger to filming meant that birds did not always appear in the clips. Recordings started at about 5 each morning and continued every few minutes until about 8 in the evening. Clare confesses that to begin with she did not watch every single second of every video, however she did become more assiduous after opening one at random and seeing a Treecreeper, or maybe two, on the tree trunk. On 17th Oystercatchers are heard flying over.

The main drama is on 13th when a stoat leaps onto the box at 11.50 almost catching one of the birds. After this the Blue Tit is understandably hesitant to enter the box. One approach is especially gymnastic. The bird approaches the box many more times from the stoat’s visit until 13.24 when, on its thirty-second visit, it finally goes into the box and comes straight out again. It makes three more approaches before going in again and again comes straight out. Another four visits later and at 13.46, the bird goes in and doesn’t immediately emerge. The camera captures thirteen more visits before activity ends for the day at 18.48. The next day the bird’s activity seems less frantic. Perhaps a good night’s sleep helped.

The next few days produced over 1000 videos. Unsurprising as over the 21 days it takes for hatchlings to be ready to leave the nest, the parent birds have to provide about 1000 caterpillars each day. Both parent birds work at this task and they work seemingly non-stop. The earliest activity recorded for this period was at 04.46, the latest is at 20.58.

Here the birds come in with food within seconds of each other.

A Song Thrush has also been on the quest for food.

The next day there is another glimpse of a Treecreeper.

One of the parent birds seems very undecided about whether or not to deliver the grub it has brought. It’s the only time the camera has captured this kind of hesitation on the part of the parent birds. At first, in spite of there being no evidence to suggest it, Clare wondered whether the nest had been predated and the adult was puzzled not to find chicks. Thankfully that is not the case (thus far).

A small slow drama - at 10.33 a slug appears in the bottom right of the metal plate. It makes its way across the front of the box eventually reaching the entrance where it appears to look in. One of the Blue Tits encounters it - is it sending it off, tasting it, deciding whether it is food for the chicks? The answer will remain a mystery. Thirteen minutes after arrival the slug has gone. Where to? Another mystery.

It is not uncommon to see the parent birds hesitate as they prepare to leave the nest box, however the bird below takes a much longer time than usual. It may be sensing some nearby threat or perhaps it is just tired.

The next disc collection revealed nearly 2000 videos. This was somewhat daunting however Clare discovered that the batteries in the camera, unsurprisingly, had been failing and about half of the clips were only 2MG or so. A 15 second video is about 56MG. Clare managed to establish that the birds were still surviving at the end of the disc so she could delete half the videos without needing to watch them all. Working through the full length clips revealed the presence of a Jay causing alarm to one of the parent birds on 26th May. Jays will predate a nest. Then, and more alarmingly, there is another stoat attack. The stoat fails to catch a bird and the Blue Tits continue feeding the nestlings straight away. Clare needed more time to recover.

The next two days produce well over 1000 videos. Pretty much every one reveals the parent birds bringing in food or removing fecal matter. The work is relentless. As it is for Clare. She is combining the videos with catching up on podcasts. She reckons she can cover 100 videos during an episode of The Archers, considerably more during Round Britain Quiz and even more during Private Passions.

The camera captures Ruth coming to check on the species in the nest 27th. You can see how delicately she works and handles the bird. The hatchling was back in the nest within a minute and the parents resumed feeding straight away.

John and Clare are collecting the discs from this camera daily. There are usually between 400 and 600 videos each time. Morning activity has started earlier than previously - 04.29 - and continued later - 21.09. On the 29th May they show a parent bird waiting for quite a while with food outside the box before taking it in. The other bird does not emerge during these times. Clare is wondering whether the parent is starting to tempt the fledglings out of the nest. Ruth thinks they will be ready in two to three more days. Only a few more podcasts to go.

There is a third, and fleeting visit from a Treecreeper (not shown here).

Ruth arrives to ring the 8 chicks. Again you can see how gently she handles the birds. They are back in the nest within about three minutes and again the parents are straight back in with food.

We are told things come in threes. This has proved true for the Treecreeper and unfortunately it is also true for the stoat which arrives early in the afternoon of 29th. Happily for the birds, it leaves without taking any. Clare is not very good with suspense movies.

31st May

Clare went to collect the nest box disc before publishing this Blog post. All was quiet round the box whereas usually the adult birds make a noise while Clare changes the disc. Clare had a look inside only to find an empty box. The reason is revealed in the video below. Clare has stitched together all the relevant clips. While the video is a little over two minutes long, the episode took 39 minutes from start to finish. Clare rather likes stoats, understands they have to eat and recognises the colour of tooth and claw in nature, however in this instance she hope the stoat suffers from acute indigestion. The parent birds both continued to bring assorted bits of food for the remainder of the day and during the next, while occasionally seeming to hunt around the next box and display what in humans might be recognised as bewilderment and distressed behaviour.

The camera also captured two different avian visitors to the tree, a male Blackbird and a female, or possibly juvenile Chaffinch.

Remember that the Wildlife Trust’s challenge ‘30 Days Wild’ begins today. John and Clare hope you have a suitably wild time.

Clare and John

April 30, 2026

April - egg hunting

Clare and John

April 30, 2026

A reminder to all Blog readers - in order to see the video footage in this Blog post, you will need to access the Blog through the Liddells website: www.liddells.co.uk

2nd - 3rd April

The Willows and Wild Cherries are now in flower.

An early Easter egg hunt for Hal, Beth and Juno. While they were searching for eggs, Clare took the left over canes from the hedge planting and strengthened the Willow whips on the Wetland.

4th April

The Guardian reported on what is proving to be the ‘earliest spring of the century’. A study in Oxfordshire records Great Tits laying on 23rd March. The north-south divide is apparent as on Liddells the titmice are still building their nests. The article also states that ‘Fears that global heating could jeopardise wildlife with cold snaps killing off frogspawn…haven’t come to pass so far’ - they have in Northumberland. Apparently ‘the Willow Warbler has almost vanished and this is a proven result of climate change’. Clare and John have yet to hear a Willow Warbler on Liddells this year. It will be interesting to know Ruth’s ringing results; her ringing year begins on 30th April.

5th - 6th April

Storm Dave had blown some of the hedging tubes over so John and Clare effected a quick bit of repair work. John saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker near the feeders, a Tree Creeper at the top of the Pit Wood and a Stoat running along the wall there. Four Tree Sparrows were present at the feeding station, however they didn’t come on to the feeders while John and Clare were there.

John liberated some wood chip that had been left by the roadside - it will be used to top up the chip on the Point of View steps.

7th April

With Merlin’s confirmation, John heard a Willow Warbler on the north edge of the Scrub - good to know they haven’t vanished entirely from Liddells.

Many people are commenting on the profusion of Blackthorn blossom this year. Clare’s friend and avid Blog supporter Barbara said that a fellow supermarket queuer had spoken of the ‘Blackthorn Winter’. The phrase refers to the uncertain weather that often happens when the Blackthorn is out, settling down after the blossom has finished.

8th April

Prompted by yet another excellent post by Chris Wren on his TrogTrogBlog about recording ladybirds on small Scots Pine trees (you can read it here), Clare decided to investigate the five small Scots Pines on the Wetland. She has never seen a Pine ladybird and rather hoped she might. Chris is clearly a Ladybird whisperer - he found 10 species in total, a 7-spot on nearly every branch and Pine ladybirds on almost every tree. The Liddells trees were not such cornucopias, however Clare did see 16 7-spot ladybirds on the five trees and then another 2 on the small Yews in the Pit Wood. You can see how well the Ladybirds appear to merge into the pine cones.

While she was inspecting the trees for ladybirds, Tim arrived on the second of the season’s butterfly transects.

Clare discovered that tadpoles had hatched in the Crag pond; you can see some have broken free of the large mass of tadpoles on the left of the clip.

Energised by her Ladybird success, Clare went around noting plants in flower. She saw the first Dandelion, Wild Strawberries, another patch of Primroses in the Pit Wood, Common Dog Violet and a lot of Wood Sorrel in the Scrub (the one pictured had found its way into a fork in the tree); she also discovered that her family were not the only egg hunters around and that something had attacked the roof of one of the nest boxes, probably a Woodpecker. The loss of the Pheasant eggs may seem sad, however the Pheasants eat food that would otherwise be eaten by, for example Dunnocks, Robins, mice and voles. The eggs provide a meal for foxes, stoats, etc..

The strap belongs to one of the trail cameras

12th April

John watched two hares boxing on the Hayfield today.

13th April

Clare found the first of the year’s Cowslips in flower under one of the Spindle Trees. Neither Clare nor John have planted any here, or indeed anywhere else on Liddells.

John set about some trailer repair. Hal has asked why John doesn’t use the smarter trailer that is currently stored in the Pit Wood - John, having replaced pretty much every part of the old one, is just far too attached to it!

15th April

Clare arrived to meet Ruth on Liddells. While she was waiting she saw the first Red Admiral of the season near the Meadow and counted at least 12 Bumblebees collecting pollen at the top of one of the Goat Willows.

Ruth’s ringing season begins soon so she was checking on equipment and deciding which nets not to use this year - at the height of the season lat year six nets proved far too demanding to manage. Ruth spotted a skeleton by one of the Willow seats. John confirmed it is of a small roe deer, possible one of last year’s young; he also managed to find part of one of the cleaves (hooves). Clare has cleaned the skull and will add it to her nature collection for visitors’ interest. Any squeamish readers look away now.

15th April

Clare set about pruning some of the Hawthorns that would compromise Ruth’s nets. On her way round she found two eggs - one a Woodcock’s and the other a Blackbird’s. The loss of a Woodcock egg is particularly sad as the birds are red-listed. The eggshells will join Clare’s nature collection.

The two remaining trail cameras have both lost any coherence when it comes to recording the date, so it is unclear when the footage is captured. Here is a selection of videos that were taken between the 12th and 15th April.

15th April

Clare heard the Willow Warblers singing.

This is the recording Clare made through Merlin - you can hear Robin, Blue Tit, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Dunnock.

17th April

Clare planted 18 Oaks, 4 Rowans, and a Horse Chestnut all donated by John M and a further Horse Chestnut donated by Pat.

18th April

The birds captured in the recording above may have been females. An article in The Guardian today features a new guidebook The Sound Approach to Birding 2. One of the researchers, Lucy Mc Robert, says female birds sing for territorial display, to ward off other females and to attract males. She says, ‘We’ve got a completely false narrative around female bird sounds and female birdsong’; the narrative’s assumptions were drawn by the largely male ornithologists of the past. You can read the article here.

19th April

The original Bird Cherry in the Orchard has more blossom than ever before and the Bird Cherries planted for and by the Community Choir are in blossom for the first time.

Clare saw a Holly in flower in the Pit Wood and had another look for ladybirds on the Scots Pines. She only found a couple however a pinhead of bright green caught her eye and she wondered whether it was a Pine aphid, however as she looked she saw legs emerge. The insect was a Cucumber spider. Read more about them here.

The first Bluebells are opening in the Top Strip with a lot more to come.

21st April

John saw two pairs of hares boxing on the Hayfield. They seemed completely oblivious to his presence and work on the trailer.

John and Clare have decided to follow the RSPB advice and stop feeding birds until winter. Bird feeders, particularly if they are not cleaned regularly, can be a way in which the highly infectious disease trichomonosis, is passed on. There is also a risk that birds such as the Willow Tit are out-competed by titmice. This may account for the absence of Willow Tits on Liddells recently.

John and Clare were delighted to see this footage of a leveret in the Scrub. The black tips to the large ears are identifiers.

22nd - 23rd April

Clare and John prepared for the next Green Gym Day. Clare has been growing on wildflower plug plants in the vegetable beds at home for a couple of years and the plants are ready to be moved. Accordingly John and Clare dug up, separated and sorted all the plants, listing where on site they could go. The plants filled the back of the, now splendidly repaired, trailer.

25th April

Green Gym Day - Janes E & B, Sally, Pat, Fran and Barry all joined Clare and John to plant several of each of 14 species of wildflower, mainly in the Meadow and on the Hayfield, but also on the Wetland, in the Pit Wood, on the Spoil Heaps, in the Scrub and by top and bottom roadsides. All was done by 12.30. Fortified by lunch and the customary baked goods, including Anzac biscuits as this was Anzac Day, Sally, Pat, Jane E and Clare sowed seeds that Clare had collected last year from 12 species of wildflower. The planting included Viper’s Bugloss, Salad Burnet, Great Burnet, Skullcap, Great Willowherb, Nettle-leaved Bellflower, Wintercress, Black Medic, Great Burnet, Betony, Field Scabious, Musk Mallow, Yarrow, White Campion, Lady’s Bedstraw; the seeds were from Great Willowherb, Red Bartsia, Musk Mallow, St John’s Wort, Sweet Cicely, Bladder Campion, Salad Burnet, Field Poppy, Agrimony, Weld, Wild Carrot and Yarrow. Some of the seeds were from the plants grown in the vegetable beds. A good dose of rain will now help. Not all the plants or seeds will establish, however even if some do, the exercise will have been a success.

Clare was so absorbed by the activity, she completely forgot to take photographs until packing up at the end. The debris in the trailer will have to stand as proof of the work, as do Pat’s, Sally’s and Jane’s pleased faces. Clare did notice Bugle in flower and took a photo of that.

Walking home Clare was thrilled to hear and then see a Whitethroat in a hedge near home. She hasn’t heard them on Liddells yet, however she will be listening particularly carefully in the next few days. Whitethroats are territory loyal so maybe the ones that bred on Liddells last year will return.

A later inspection of the trail camera discs illustrated the idea of setting a thief to catch a thief - the camera captured two images of corvids each with an egg in its beak - most likely from the Mallard nest in Pond Maggiore. Caught with egg in the face.

A photo from later that evening showed a pair of Mandarins on the pond - they nest in trees so the eggs would not have been theirs. Next day a Mallard drake appears, presumably to discover the robbed nest.

28th April

Today will be etched on Clare’s mind for a while. She likes to think of herself as a fairly well organised person. At 11.30 she had a call from Ruth who was setting up her equipment ready to start ringing on Thursday, to say that a party of walkers had arrived at Liddells ready for their tour. Clare had wrongly written this event in her diary on 28th May. John had it on the correct date but deferred to Clare’s assertion that it was in May. Haltwhistle Walking Festival had included a visit to Liddells in one of their walks. John and Clare made it up to the land as fast as they could and the group and particularly the leader were more than magnanimous about the gaffe. The party had a break for drinks in the Meeting Room while Clare and John talked to them about Liddells and their past and ongoing work. They then split into two groups, one having a clockwise tour and the other anticlockwise, before coming back to the Meeting Room for lunch. John and Clare suggested it was likely they would see a hare and one group saw four running across the Wetland and the other group saw a leveret. It was clear that the visit was a success and John and Clare enjoyed taking round such an animated, interested and appreciative group. In the dash from home Clare forgot to pick up her phone to take photos, however Wendy forwarded some taken by members of the group. Clare spend the afternoon recovering. On the plus side, the ‘To Do Before 28th May’ list is now redundant and John is many ‘I told you so’ points in credit.

Clare heard the first Garden Warbler of the year in the Top Strip and Merlin confirmed this. Ruth heard one nearer the Orchard. The birds usually arrive at the same time as the Whitethroats so all digits are crossed.

29th - 30th April

John and Clare set about watering the newly planted wildflowers.

Having seen abundant berries on local bilberries, Clare had a look at the ones on the Crag and they are covered in developing fruit. Maybe a Green Hairstreak will be tempted by them this year.

While stacking logs, Clare noticed there was something sticking out of one of the Swallow cups in the log shed. Rather gruesomely it proved to be a decapitated female Blackbird. The bird was resting on a small quantity of moss and feathers. It is all rather perplexing. Neither Clare nor John have any idea how long the corpse has been there. The fragments of nest are not characteristic of a Blackbird, indeed the Swallow cup is smaller than a Blackbird’s nest. The bird was ringed so Clare and John will ask Ruth if the ring can shed any light on the matter.

Clare is planning to be up with the larks on Sunday to witness the dawn chorus on International Dawn Chorus Day. It will be good practice for the next day when she will be up for a lark with her Community Choir to sing in the sunrise at the local Bandstand. John will be enjoying his sleep.

Advance warning for Blog readers - the Wildlife Trusts will be promoting their usual 30 Days Wild in June - there is still plenty of time to think about how you might engage with that.

Clare and John

March 31, 2026

March -

Clare and John

March 31, 2026

1st March

A day full of birds for John and Clare. As they arrived, they heard a Curlew caling in a neighbouring field; two Buzzards were flying over the Wetland; Jays called from within the PIt Wood; Long-tailed Tits, Redpolls, Dunnocks and Tree Sparrows arrived on the feeders and a Greenfinch wheezed nearby.

Clare found frogspawn in the Crag pond.

2nd March

John took his cameras to the hide.

2nd - 3rd March

The first full Moon of the season arrives just as meteorological Spring springs on 3 March. Known as the Worm Moon, it is the third full Moon of 2026. It is called the Worm Moon because it traditionally signals the time of year when the ground begins to thaw and earthworms emerge, marking the return of Spring.

John and Clare heard their first Great Spotted Woodpecker of the year drumming near the Orchard. John noticed the first Peacock butterfly of the season and a Blue Tit had two looks into J1.

John rehung the bottom gate so it no longer sticks or catches on the ground. While he was doing that Clare went on a frogspawn check and noticed that with the warm weather, the water level in the Roadside Pond had dropped, all but stranding the frogspawn. Clare effected a frogspawn rescue operation, scraping the frogspawn off the damp pond edges and into the pond.

John and Clare measured for the new hedge.

4th March

John fixed more fastenings on nest boxes.

6th March

It was suddenly a lot colder and snow fell in the morning. A pheasant seems to be confused by the weather. It doesn’t take much to confuse a pheasant.

Later the same day the snow has melted and the old buck is captured in tatters. New readers of the Blog might not know that when bucks fray to remove the velvet covering their newly grown antlers and the velvet starts coming off, they are said to be ‘in tatters’.

7th March

The young buck with antlers like candles is still in full velvet. Clare rather liked this footage of him with the sun’s rays catching the camera lens. Not quite an Elton John song. A Chaffinch sings in the background - it’s the song that ends with what Clare thinks sounds like a sneeze.

8th March

John put in more work taking down the now redundant fence (this included a spell of wool gathering); Clare helped remove one of the cages from the Spindle Trees and replaced it with her own version of protection.

Unfortunately a sudden cold spell did for the frogspawn in the Roadside pond. Clare spotted another unfamiliar pareidolic creature in the Pit Wood.

12th - 14th March

John finished taking down the fence and he and Clare worked out the line for he new hedge, leaving gaps to access the apiary and the Orchard and Pit Wood.

Badgers make frequent excursions through the Pit Wood; usually the camera captures their retreating backsides. This time a badger is taking its time, probably sniffing out worms, slugs and snails.

15th - 18th March

A dog fox marks its territory in the Pit Wood.

Two videos of hares - both really included so Clare could use the captions - and a Jay which is maybe looking for lost acorns. It could be a lost cause as there are no Oaks in this part of the Pit Wood.

18th March

Two Johns managed to replace the Barn Owl box on the Oak tree on the Wetland. February and March have been the months when Clare and John have most often seen the birds hunting over Liddells. John and Clare hope the birds will hunt out the box. The Two Johns making such a successful working double act, they also removed the hide roof before finishing.

19th March

The Two Johns replaced the hide roof in no time at all. Meanwhile Clare was at home doing some one-handed weeding and heard a Chiffchaff. She quickly sent a message to John suggesting he might listen out for them on Liddells. His response was somewhat compromised by autocorrect - ‘yes, chitchats’. Good to know they are socialising. The other John generously donated more trees that he had grown - Oaks and Sweet Chestnut.

20th March

Spring Equinox and a day of import for nature - World Wildlife Day and World Frog Day. Clare was pleased to see frogspawn surviving in both Crag and Roadside ponds. The frogs have obviously had a second mating session since the cold spell.

Furthering her involvement in the significance of the day, Clare spotted Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage in flower in the Pit Wood. She walked through the Top Strip to see how the Daffodils are spreading and found Wild Garlic in abundance and Pulmonaria (Lungwort) in flower. It was only when she looked at the photo of the Pulmonaria that she noticed the new Nettle growth. Wild garlic and Nettle soup and pesto on the to-do list.

Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage - a long name for a small plant

This is just one of twelve clumps of Daffodils thriving in the Top Strip

Pulmonaria/Lungwort- tea made from infusing the leaves is thought to help with respiratory ailments

21st March

More Spring delights. Not only have the Daffodils spread - this year Clare found that the patch of Coltsfoot in the north-east corner is bigger than it has ever been. She suspects that deer eat the flowers so is pleased that she happened upon the profusion before the deer demolished them. Primroseside is living up to its name. According to the Wildlife Trusts, Primroses ‘are regarded as an ancient woodland indicator plant and a sign of a special habitat’. Willows and Horse Chestnuts are joining the Spring emergence and Clare saw a Small Tortoiseshell flitting about along the Wetland path.

22nd March

There haven’t been many videos of deer this month so John was pleased to see the old doe and her daughter from last year together in the Pit Wood. The younger deer is almost as big as the older now.

24th March

John and Clare enjoyed sitting in the hide without any damp patches or drips to negotiate. They saw the first (male) Siskin of the year feeding on Nyjer seeds and two Blue Tits viewing J1. Two Bank voles benefitted from the ground feeder - John captured one on video.

24th - 27th March

John and Clare each prepared for Green Gym Day in their own way - John strimmed the planting area, collected the hedge plants, tubes and canes from a local grower, made sure the Necessarium was ready for guest use, bagged up compost, assembled spades and other planting equipment; Clare set about baked goods. It might not seem a fair division of labour, however both efforts were essential to the success of the day.

Maybe the hare below was catching some of the anticipation. Or maybe its paws were cold.

28th March

A good forecast came as a relief. Seven noble friends and helpers arrived with spades, energy and goodwill and the planting began. By lunchtime, assisted by a shortbread break, over half the planting was complete. John wondered whether to defer the rest till the next day, however the general consensus was to press on. Lunch and more baked goods were restorative and by 2.17 all the work was done. It was fortunate that the work finished before the appointed time of 3pm. At 2.55 an almighty hail storm erupted. The planting was a terrific achievement and Clare and John are hugely appreciative of all the friends who gave up their time to help. People seem to enjoy getting tired, sometimes wet, muddy, scratched, stung more besides and come back for more, thanking John and Clare for the opportunity. It is a source of touching wonder to John and Clare. Long may it continue.

29th March

John and Clare rested and let the day’s rain water the hedge in. Result.

30th March

The buck’s Spring cleaning is complete - his antler’s are free of velvet.

Clare and John

February 28, 2026

February - 'With hey, ho, the wind and the rain'

Clare and John

February 28, 2026

The month begins with yet more rain. In the absence of work opportunities on Liddells, Clare has been remembering apt quotations.

The one above is from a song in Twelfth Night in which Shakespeare suggests that rain accompanies any individual from life to death. It certainly feels that way at the moment. (Click here to read all the lyrics to the Clown’s song that ends the play.)

And it is no consolation that:

‘The rain it raineth on the just / And also on the unjust fella; / But chiefly on the just, because / The unjust hath the just's umbrella’. (Attributed to Lord Bowen)

February 8th

A break in the weather and Clare was able to finish cleaning out all but one of the next boxes (she forgot about the one on the Wetland), re-stake a couple of trees and make yet another list of jobs to do once it is drier. John was able to saw some logs.

Clare enjoyed seeing Hazels in full catkin and how the Snowdrops are spreading to new sites and becoming more numerous where they are already established. She is excited to see that on her fourth attempt to establish Winter Aconites, she has had some limited success. Mel says the plant is very particular about where it likes. This time Clare has opted for the Wildflower Meadow rather than woodland sites.

‘And if the river should ever run dry
Somewhere the rain will still fall
Will still fall from the sky’

from ‘Rivers Run’, Karine Polwart

14th February

The rain stopped for St Valentine’s Day so John and Clare were able to follow tradition and put up a nesting box. This one is number 46 and is now in place near the Dirty Dancing Bridge in the Pit Wood. Clare was reminded that St Valentine is the patron saint of beekeepers and prompted her to decide to return to beekeeping this year after the loss of her colonies last year.

Clare went to check on the Winter Aconites and discovered that not only had the plants put on more growth, but another was showing through the grass.

15th February

Remembering the level of predation on nesting boxes last year, John and Clare have decided to add fastenings to as many as possible. They began with four of the boxes today and will continue the work over the next few days.

16th February

Clare began her day with a fall and broke her wrist. It was put in a splint, however she had to wait a few days before it could be manipulated and put in plaster. This will necessitate a pause in relation to her to-do list, however she still managed to give a talk about creating Liddells as a nature reserve to one of the local WI groups. The talk was well received, hopefully not all due to a sympathy vote, and may lead to a visit by members of the group later in the year.

‘The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath.’ The Merchant of Venice

17th February

The button Buck is captured anointing a sapling in the Pit Wood. The older buck might have ideas about this assertion of territory.

18th February

The old buck, in velvet, passes through the Pit Wood followed a minute later by the button buck. The difference in size is very evident. Will the young pretender oust the old?

Later the same day the older doe is chased by what is probably the oldest buck although it is hard to be sure. The younger doe also goes past the camera although that video is not included here. The deer seem to have taken back possession of the territory.

20th February

Always a treat to see a stoat. This one is quick, however you can just see the black tip to it tail. Clare is pleased that it is quite close to, maybe even heading for, in Clare’s optimistic world, the habitat she created with stoats and weasels in mind, at the top of the Pit Wood.

21st February

Seeing a stoat is a treat, capturing hares boxing on camera is a joy. These two are telling their own story.

22nd February

One of the cats that visits occasionally has had a collar fitted. It looks rather spooky on camera. The cat seems to travel through the Pit Wood and then tries its balance in the Story Telling Circle.

24th February

John added fastenings to more nest boxes and noticed a stoat in the North East Strip. The more the merrier now any nestlings in the boxes will be harder for them to predate.

25th February

An image on the Pit Wood camera suggests that the button buck has outgrown its name. ‘Candle buck’?

26th February

Clare decided she had had quite enough inactivity and accompanied John on a quick change discs/fill feeders visit to Liddells. She checked on the Aconites - plenty of foliage though no buds in view. As she approached the Roadside Pond she spotted activity in the water and sure enough, there was a fresh deposit of frogspawn and a frog beating a retreat. The next delight was Redpolls on the feeders; at least two males and two females. The warmer weather is prompting Spring activity.

Holding her phone still enough at a distance with one hand proved complex for Clare, however you can see the pink of the male bird’s breast.

John, with his two good hands, fared slightly better with his shot of the female sharing this feeder with two Goldfinches. John will add ‘camera’ to his list of things to take up to Liddells.

27th February

Clare’s son Hal joined John to move logs from the Orchard to the log shed. They worked so hard there was no time for a photograph. The trail camera, however did provide some evidence of all the activity. Hal also moved the roof sheets nearer to the hide ready for the repair work.

Clare recorded the moved roof sheets the next day

28th February

A brief visit to Liddells today - more frogspawn in the Roadside Pond although none as yet in Pond Maggiore. Two Redpolls visited the feeders and below is a photo demonstrating why the birds are so named. Clare was pleased to hear a Song Thrush singing and noted that she usually hears Blackbirds before Song Thrushes in the Spring. Merlin confirmed John and Clare’s identification from its call of a Tree Sparrow and Clare was delighted that only for the second time in her experience she had recorded Merlin’s Bird of the Day. John and Clare also witnessed what they assume is mating display behaviour by a couple of Dunnocks - the birds were twitching their wings in a way that was reminiscent of fledglings demanding food.

John took the lovely photograph of Alder catkins below. Alder is monoecious - male (long/yellow) and female (short/woody) catkins are found on the same tree.

You may well be reading this on St David’s Day so here is an acknowledgement. These are the first of the native Daffodils to appear this year.

Clare and John

January 31, 2026

January 2026 - weather for ducks

Clare and John

January 31, 2026

John and Clare wish all Liddells’ supporters a Happy New Year with plentiful opportunities to engage with nature.

Please remember that to view any video footage in the Blog post you will need to access it via the Blog page on the Liddells website: www.liddells.co.uk

1st January - the seventh day of Christmas

Clare enjoyed watching Gordon Buchanan’s documentary ‘Wild Horses, the Rockies and Me’ which followed Buchanan’s interactions with a herd of wild horses in the Canadian Rockies. When Buchanan was able to scratch one of the young horse’s rear and said, “The power of the tickle is strong”, Clare had fond memories of finding Paul the pony’s favourite ticklish spot.

2nd January - the eighth day

Clare took Juno to see Little Red Riding Hood at the local theatre. This version of the fairytale challenged preconceptions about wolves, highlighting how they live in an exceedingly complex social unit—an extended family of parents, offspring, siblings, aunts, uncles, and sometimes dispersers from other packs. The aggression of the wolf in the play was attributed to the loss of his place in such a group and thus feeling unloved. A decent psychological interpretation. The French hypermarket chain Intermarché adopted an equivalent vulpine principle in last year’s Christmas advertisement. You can enjoy it here. C’est très amusant. Thanks to Clare’s sister Jean for sharing this.

3rd January - the ninth day

The day of the Wolf Moon and Clare and Juno were able to see it as it rose in the morning. Read more about the phenomenon of Super moons here. The Wolf Moon might be so called because wolves seem to howl particularly loudly to their packs through January nights; it is also called the Stay Home Moon - a good idea in the cold with all those wolves about; others might refer to the Moon after Yule - the first full moon after the winter solstice.

4th January - the tenth day

An avian start with Tweet of the Day which featured the Jackdaw. Clare then went up to Liddells to prepare for a special tree planting. She noticed a flock of starlings on the Hayfield. There has been quite a large murmuration near Clare & John’s home since October. It is conceivable that the birds on Liddells join in with this of an afternoon. Neither Clare nor John have noticed a flock of Starlings on Liddells before. Paul and Julie arrived for the planting (Julie had managed to keep this a secret from Paul until the previous evening; after bumping into Paul in town when she was with Juno the day before, Clare had told Juno about the plan. They then bumped into Paul again about half an hour later after which Juno kept stage whispering “Secret Tree Man!” as she went down the street.) In spite of the frost the ground gave enough to plant the Rowan - a yellow-berried variety particularly favoured by Waxwings - and then Clare, Julie and Paul walked around Liddells, seeing a hare, and Fieldfares and Redwings close to the hide.

Today also marked the sheep’s return to their home farm. Clare was excited to see John R arrive with his dogs and quad as up till today she hadn’t been present when the sheep were moved and she had wanted to record the event for the Blog. Disappointingly, such was her state that she failed to capture the sheep at all and took a singularly uninteresting video of the road surface. Not included. Heigh ho. Maybe another year.

5th January - the eleventh day

Clare watched the David Attenborough documentary on wildlife in London. She recalled that during her twelve years in the city, leaving in 1985, she had never seen a single fox and Ring-tailed Parakeets were still considerably further south. The birds are now present to the east of Liddells in parks near Newcastle and it will presumably only be a matter of time before they arrive on Liddells.

6th January - the twelfth day

Clare went for a walk with Pat and noticed for the first time this year a Great Tit calling “teacher, teacher” - a territorial announcement to other Great Tits. A good end to Twelve Wild Days.

10th January

With a deep frost it was very beautiful on Liddells today. Clare noticed a pareidolic owl looking out of a tree trunk.

With the prospect of warmer weather ahead John bought the panels for a very necessary reroofing job on the hide.

Clare was walking past the pond and caught sight of a small face at the end of the overflow pipe for Pond Maggiore. It disappeared then briefly appeared again. Clare could not be sure what it was however it would have to be a creature that doesn’t mind wet feet as water was flowing through the pipe in spite of the pond being frozen. Clare wondered about a rat. She set up a camera aimed, as she thought, in front of the pipe and scattered a few peanuts to tempt whatever creature it was. John collected the disc the next day and Clare discovered the inaccuracy of her focus. A Blackbird was captured benefitting from the nuts (not shown) and a group of Pheasants appeared to enjoy being on the ice.

11th January

Clare thinks the bird captured in front of the pond might be a Mistle Thrush.

12th January

John watched two hares boxing in the Pit Wood. Although hares can box at any time of year, it is more common to see this phenomenon in the Spring. Later this evening John saw another two hares in a different place near Liddells and they were running around each other, often a preparatory move for boxing.

14th January

Although the pond camera was wrongly positioned for the overflow pipe, it was beautifully in place to record a Heron’s visit.

The bird stayed for 50 minutes and was motionless for much of that time. It was successful in catching newts or frogs twice and unsuccessful twice. The length of the aigrets (black plumes on the back of the head) suggest it is a male. The aigrets are shorter on female birds. Several videos showed the Heron moving its capture down its gullet. One video shows its stealth in lowering itself nearer the water.

The final video shows a hare loping past the bird. On a whim Clare searched to see if there was a fable entitled ‘The Heron and the Hare’. She was surprised to find there is a book entitled The Adventures of the Heron and the Hare in which ‘[t]he two animal friends go on adventures in the forest, where they meet and help various creatures, including a squirrel, a fox, a mouse, a bear, a deer, a family of birds, and a fish. Throughout the book, the Heron and the Hare show kindness, bravery, and teamwork as they help their new friends’. She read further: ‘This book is a literary experiment utilising the Artificial Intelligence tools, ChatGPT & Dall.E 2 for narrative assistance and story image creation.’ (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adventures-Heron-Hare-John-Gregory-ebook/dp/B0BVPLLBNW) Hmmm.

15th January

Clare arrived to change the camera discs and twice heard a Mistle Thrush so perhaps she was right in her identification of the bird by the pond.

The pond camera has captured several videos of Blackbirds eating Hawthorn berries - the birds are numerous, suggesting that the winter visitors are still around, maybe even filling up ready for departure.

16th January

Clare made a start on cleaning out nest boxes ready for the coming season.

17th - 20th January

A Grey Heron appears to be caught by surprise by the depth of the water in Pond Maggiore. It flew off immediately after what you see below, its feathers perhaps a little ruffled.

The Mandarins are still coming to Pond Maggiore though apparently not in such great numbers as previously - the camera recorded at most seven at any one time. A couple seemed to be perplexed by the ice - not really up to Dancing on Ice standards, more a comedic interlude.

On 18th a pair of Mallard flew in and were in the water at the same time as the Mandarins for 24 hours or so and then no more Mandarins were recorded. A pair of Mallard flew off when Clare collected the camera disc on the morning of 20th, which suggests the birds had been resident all night and staged a coup de l’eau.

While Clare ticked more nest boxes off her ‘to clean’ list, John almost finished sawing the timber from the Ash felling.

While Clare was in the Pit Wood she noticed a Tree Creeper doing what it says on the tin.

She also noticed a small flock of Long-tailed Tits moving through the same tree. They didn’t seem to go far. When Clare arrived at the hide only a few hundred yards away, the birds were on one of the peanut feeders. The pecking order allowed Blue Tits to share the feeder.

23rd January

The big buck made a brief nighttime appearance in the Pit Wood - long enough for John to see that it is in velvet (no video included here).

24th January

Hares are quite often spotted at the moment, both singly and in pairs. Here is a pair in the Pit Wood close to where John witnessed the boxing earlier this month.

25th - 26th January

Deer have been noticeably absent from trail camera footage this month so John and Clare were pleased to see the glimpse of the big buck and two brief sightings of the small buck in the Pit Wood on these two days. John speculates that the presence of the sheep may have driven the deer away for a while.

29th January

John saw a Woodcock on the west verge of the Pit Wood today.

He said the spring is gushing as much as he’s ever seen and there is water bubbling up around the original site of the spring. The large stones which usually break the surface of the Roadside pond are pretty much all submerged.

The button buck (last year’s kid) appears again in the Pit Wood and for long enough to see the growth of his buttons. They too are in velvet. John observed that it is unusual for the young bucks to be separated from the does this early in the year. Maybe there will be more deer footage if they are venturing back now the sheep have left.

Clare and John

December 31, 2025

December - 'old December's bareness everywhere!' *

Clare and John

December 31, 2025

* from Sonnet 97, William Shakespeare

Please remember to access the video footage in this Blogpost through the Liddells website: www.liddells.co.uk

1st December

The camera focussed on plentiful acorns on the path below the apiary is capturing much foraging. Unfortunately the quality of the footage isn’t great, however you will gather a sense of how much activity there is. The Pigeon in the second video seems to swallow an acorn whole; in the third, the pigeon on the right appears to change its mind and spits out an acorn.

2nd December

More clearing from the Ash felling. Clare decided it was like a giant game of Spillikins. She found a couple of particularly well-named examples of Jelly ear fungus: Auricularia auricula-judae

One of the feeders at the hide has been set upon by a determined creature. John and Clare suspect a squirrel, although the indentations could be from a corvid’s beak.

5th December

The buck kid adds to the list of acorn foragers.

Today Clare noticed a different fungus while clearing, sawing and stacking Ash branches. This one is possibly Barnacle lichen, although she is unsure about the identification. Relaxing in the hide after the work, Clare counted twelve Goldfinches - the most seen together at the hide in a very long while and seven managed to use the nyjer seed feeders at the same time. Clare was delighted that a flock of Fieldfares and Redwings came briefly into the Hawthorn in front of the hide. They didn’t stay long however one Redwing perched for long enough for Clare to attempt a photograph. While the bird was easy to see with the naked eye, Clare found it much harder to locate it using her phone camera.

Spot the Redwing (Spot is not the bird’s name)

6th December

Assorted birds forage around and on the acorns: female and male Blackbirds, Pheasants (lots), Robin, Blue tit, Coal tit, Chaffinches, Fieldfares, Redwing. Even a hare has a sniff around. The footage of the hare is the clearest, so here it is followed by footage of a Redwing. You can just detect the flash of red under its wing and hear the whistling call as it flies off.

7th December

Rewards for Ash clearing today included a patch of Yellow Brain fungus, some more and more Barnacly fungus, a 7 spot ladybird and a satisfying stack of logs.

Another hare or the same hare has a hunt through the leaf litter.

9th December

The buck kid - note the buttons where his antlers are beginning to develop, spent over 15 minutes foraging on the path, wandered off then returned 15 minutes later for another 3 minutes. Here are a couple of clips - you can see the thickness of his winter coat.

10th December

There seem to be more Pigeons around Liddells than in previous years. Here a group forage together on the path below the apiary. The most common collective noun for Pigeons is ‘flock’ with ‘flight’ used when the birds are on the wing. Racing Pigeons can be called a ‘kit’ or a ‘loft’, while numbers of urban Pigeons have been called a ‘dropping’ or a ‘plague’. Clare prefers her term for the ones on the path.

11th - 16th December

John and Clare decided to move the trail camera from the path to the Top Strip. The last of the videos from the path showed the button buck returning (not included here) and a Jay collecting more acorns, probably to store them and then forget where. More Oaks for Liddells if that proves to be the case.

17th - 24th December

The camera at the end of the Orchard has decided that Clare’s seventy-second birthday must be fixed in time. Whatever reprogramming Clare and John operate on the camera, the camera has a mind of its own. The camera captures many movements in and out of the Pit Wood, most of which in the last few days have been hares. Here are a couple apparently practising for Spring activities.

The camera newly positioned in the Top Strip has mainly captured clips of sheep. An adventurous, or possibly hungry group has broken out of the Hayfield in search of food. When Clare went to collect the discs she had to do some impromptu shepherding as three sheep had got their heads stuck in the sheep-proof fence. Does this mean the fence is or isn’t effective? One of the animals required Clare to think about the manipulations of childbirth as she twisted the head to free one ear then the other. Not one of the sheep said a word of thanks.

The incorrect dates on these clips are due to human error - forgetting to reset the date after adding new batteries. Again.

The presence of the sheep in the Top Strip possible accounts for the alarm shown by one of the two deer - its caudal patch is prominently erect.

Twelve Wild Days

Clare decided to take up the Northumberland Wildlife’s Trust to engage with nature in some way or another over the twelve days of Christmas. Here is the result of her challenge thus far:

25th December - the first day

A serendipitous encounter with a friend in her car to start the process and an example of inosculation.

26th December - the second day

Hazel catkins are in abundance in the Top Strip.

27th December - the third day

A walk through local woods enabled Clare to adopt the role of nature teacher to Hal and Juno - she pointed out the tiny pine cones at the end of the Scots Pine twig, evidence of squirrel nibbling on the pine cone and the berries on the ivy which are food for Blackbirds, Thrushes, Blackcaps, Starlings, and Woodpigeons, Redwings and Waxwings.

Clare read the most recent RSPB and Roebuck (Northumberland Wildfife Trust) magazines. She especially enjoyed the articles on Holly and mosses in Roebuck.

28th December - the fourth day

A surprise encounter with a small elephant and a great example of pareidolia. As Hal pointed out, the elephant certainly has a trunk. Clare also noticed a cow with a crumpled horn and hoped it hasn’t been tossing any dogs. The cow is a Longhorn.

Clare identified 21 different bird species on her walk today: Buzzard, Kestrel, Pheasant, Carrion Crow, Rook, Magpie, Jay, Blackbird, Robin, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Wren, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Fieldfare, Redwing, Common Gull, Black-headed Gull, Wood Pigeon and a single Goldcrest. One hedge was quite noisy with House Sparrows. The Pigeons on a wire nearby look quite organised in comparison.

29th December - the fifth day

Clare saw a charm of Goldfinches and then heard and saw a small flock of Nuthatches.

30th December - the sixth day

A walk with Jane B (her longest since a recent knee op) and the delights were many. First a Little Egret, then a male and female Goosander, then, oh joy, a Kingfisher came and perched on a small branch close by. On the return route the Little Egret reappeared as did the Kingfisher and another male Goosander. Neither Jane nor Clare had any wish to sound greedy, however they did remark that they hadn’t seen a Dipper. At the end of the walk they went a bit further to have a look at the river from the road bridge and two Dippers dipped before flying off into the undergrowth on the bank. Seconds later and Jane and Clare would have missed them.

Clare had looked earlier in the day at Uncommon Ground: A Word-lover’s Guide to the British Landscape by Dominick Tyler and had noticed the word ‘daddock’. It is apparently a dialect word for rotten wood. ‘Daddock implies a dry, crumbling rot that might …dessicate standing wood to provide tinder. Some of the old dialect dictionaries give ‘daddock’ as a synonym for ‘touchwood’, a word derived from the Old French ‘toucher’ meaning ‘set fire’, hence ‘touch-paper’. Every day a school day on the Blog.

Below is the daddock Clare spotted, the black fungus growing on it - King Alfred’s Cakes Daldinia concentrica, which are round, black and hard; they are named for their resemblance to burnt cakes, they make excellent firelighters - and Jane’s photo of Clare capturing the fungus on camera. Clare finds it pleasing that both the fungus and its rotten wood host are good for fire-lighting.

31st December - the seventh day

Ahead of a family visit to Liddells Clare discovered the entrance to a rabbit burrow very close to a Field Maple and then another hole although this time made by a Labyrinth Spider in the Shepherd’s Hut.

More Twelve Wild Days will follow in the New Year. Meanwhile an excellent way to have an encounter with nature, if you haven't already discovered it, is to have a read of Chris Wren’s magnificent TrogTrogBlog: https://trogtrogblog.blogspot.com/ He has published several end-of-the-year favourites recently and offers wonderful footage of otters, stoats, weasels and even a polecat, birds incuding the elusive Water Rail and more besides.

At this time of the year, the funnel webs in our gardens are normally the work of Labyrinth spiders. Labyrinths are common, shy little creatures, and being a dull grey-brown colour they go largely unnoticed. It's only when they start building webs that they draw attention to themselves.

At one end of the web there's a funnel shaped retreat. In fact the web is really quite a magical piece of defensive architecture, designed to protect the spiders eggs.

An end of the year check on the trail cameras showed a hare having a good stretch and the doe chasing off the buck kid in what looks like an unusually forceful manner.

Liddells is a good place to mark the end of the year and a fire for toasting marshmallows is all part of the ritual. Hal, Beth and Juno brought another family with them. As they left Clare hoped they might come again whereupon the younger son replied, “Who wouldn’t want to?” A heart-warming end to the year.

Wishing all readers a Happy New Year and thanks for supporting the Blog.

Clare and John

November 30, 2025

November - playtime for the kids

Clare and John

November 30, 2025

Thank you for supporting this Blog. Remember that to see the videos you will need to access them through our website: www.liddells.co.uk and then click on BLOG.

2nd November

John occupied himself strimming the path below the apiary and around the felled Ashes while Clare cleared up from cutting back the hedge on the Meadow and cleaning the water trough ready for the sheep.

Together they mended the small patch of stone wall pushed over by cattle in the neighbouring field.

5th November

John saw the first visiting Woodcock of the winter below the apiary - perhaps it was admiring the newly prepared path.

7th November

Clare and Sally met to do some tree planting. The morning was bright and cold and there was an inversion in the valley to the north - the warmth of the sun had created a layer or warmer air above the cooler air at ground level creating a layer of mist between the two. It was very beautiful.

Sally enjoys planting her own trees and talking to them as she does so. Clare had the less strenuous and conversational task of fetching and carrying wire cages, tubes and stakes.

Sally had brought 4 Oaks and 4 Horse Chestnuts that she had grown in pots, and what she thought were 3 nut trees that had regenerated in her garden. Closer inspection showed that there were 5 saplings and Clare and Sally decided they might be Hornbeams, so planted them near to the Hornbeams Barbara had given Clare some years ago. There were also two Oaks to plant donated by Ros from choir.

10th November

John and Mel worked on weeding and clearing round some of the fruit trees in the Orchard to give the trees space.

John collected the disc from the camera at the end of the Orchard only to discover that the date is wrong. Again. More reminder notes needed when the batteries are changed. Nonetheless Clare was pleased to see the black cat, now a regular visitor, having a good look into the wall where Clare has created habitat that she hopes will be used by small mammals. The cat’s interest suggests there may be a life in the wall.

Word must be getting around the local feline community. Another visitor, though less frequent, is this ginger cat.

The Pit Wood camera has its own ideas about time. No matter how often John and Clare change the date, the camera insists it can see into the future. The clips below shows the roe twins playing with the doe watching on. They display no signs of alarm - the caudal patches are not erect - they just seem to be having a romp. Playtime begins at the top of the Pit Wood in the Orchard.

More deer footage from the Pit Wood. The buck demonstrates how the rainwater sits on his coat rather than penetrate it; the doe resists the buck kid’s attempt to suckle. She is likely to have mated again in the rut and although subject to embryonic diapause, she is readying the kid to separate from her care. Her continuing care includes grooming but not mating - the kid seems to look puzzled at her lack of interest in his advances.

14th November

John saw the first flocks of Fieldfares and Redwings on Liddells this year. There were so many he called it Fieldfare Friday. A piece in the RSPB magazine recounts how ‘One study found that Redwings prefer Holly and Hawthorn berries, while another highlighted the importance of Rowan berries early in the winter, and Whitebeam in some areas. Redwings have also been shown to detect fruit using ultraviolet vision. The waxy coating of some berries reflevts UV light, and Redwings have shown a preference for these. Other factors, such as the, timing of the berries, can influnce which are chosen. Some berries, such as Holly, may be left until they are riper.’ There are huge quantities of Hawthorn berries this year so the Redwings’ appetite should be easily satisfied.

Although not captured on camera very often since the rut, the murder buck is still around.

17th - 19th November

The Orchard camera is recording plenty of movement between the Orchard and the Pit Wood. Many birds seem to be foraging in the grass. It is likely they are Fieldfares and Redwings however the grass is tto long to be sure. The clips below show Jays, two hares, and a Pheasant and a Robin. Clare wondered whether in the latter clip the birds are vying for a Christmas card opportunity.

21st November

Snow made it difficult to get up to Liddells, however the camera shows a pair of hares in the snow. Not Snow hares. You can read about them, more correctly called Mountain hares, here.

22nd November

Although most of the snow disappeared very quickly, a thin layer of ice remained on Pond Maggiore. No skating will happen. The Roadside pond is at last holding water after Clare’s excavations. Gorse is in flower - who need to wait for Mistletoe - and Clare noticed that although the berries haven’t ripened, one of the Junipers is extremely fruitful. It thus reveals itself as a female plant.

24th November

Mel came to help again and he and John finished weeding and clearing round the trees in the Orchard. Clare planted more Willow whips in Sylvia’s Avenue where some had failed and introduced more whips crossing diagonally between the planting to help thicken what will be the walls of the walk.

29th November

Torrential rain stopped and instead a rainbow appeared over Liddells. Then the rain started again. Before it did, Clare started clearing undergrowth in the apiary then she and John worked on still more tidying up from the Ash felling. A lot of Ash was felled.

Farmer John has brought some of his sheep up to graze off the Hayfield. John and Clare were pleased to see them on the far side of the top planting rather than knocking the tubes over.

30th November

You will be reading this in December. How about engaging with Northumberland Wildlife’s Trust’s 12 Days Wild challenge. A great way to spend the twelve days of Christmas. You might even be lucky enough to see a partridge in a pear tree. Good luck!

Clare and John

October 31, 2025

October - Willow tit (willow, tit willow)

Clare and John

October 31, 2025

Clare and John hope you have enjoyed a year of What’s That Bird? challenges. If there are any more notable recordings they will be added to subsequent Blog posts, however for now that particular element of the Blog will end.

Please remember that to access the video footage you will need to go through the Blog on the website: www.liddells.co.uk

1st October

After the death of a stoat earlier in the year, Clare has been happy to see evidence of their presence on Liddells. Here is one demonstrating the species’ agility.

The buck kid (one of the twins), shows his buttons developing. John thinks this is early in the kid’s life to show this antler growth. Perhaps he is hoping for a part in a Christmas pantomime. The kid, not John.

3rd October

The doe with her twins comes through the Pit Wood and you can see how much more of her summer coat she has lost since last month. By contrast, the kids are still in summer garb. You can also see that the kids’ sex difference is now very clear. The doe kid, with her anal tush, is nearer the camera.

4th October

One of the large bucks, John is not certain which of the two it might be, also shows considerable loss of his summer coat.

5th October

John and Clare went to see what, if any, damage had been wrought by Storm Amy. A large branch had come down from high on a Larch in the Pit Wood however its fall had been checked by an Elder which had prevented the limb from falling across the path. John discovered a Sycamore limb down in the Top Strip however there appeared to be no other damage.

Clare was pleased to see water collecting in the newly deepened Roadside pond and was struck by the intensity of autumn colours.

Recently Jane B had shared the following quote from Sense and Sensibility at an arts event on the subject of Passion. Clare thought it would fit perfectly here although she was mindful that her English teacher, Miss Flint, would have balked at all the exclamation marks. Jane Austen is, of course, forgiven.

“Oh! cried Marianne, ‘with what transporting sensations have I formerly seen them fall! How have I delighted, as I walked, to see them driven in showers about me by the wind! What feelings have they, the season, the air altogether inspired! Now there is no one to regard them. They are only seen as a nuisance, swept hastily off, and driven as much as possible from the sight.’

‘It is not everyone,’ said Elinor, ‘who has your passion for dead leaves.”

A couple of Waxcaps adding to the colour palette caught Clare’s eye. Clare thinks they are Golden Waxcaps Hygrocybe chlorophana: ‘Yellow or orange, wet and/or sticky, domed at first, becoming flatter with age. Diameter of cap: To 70mm. Gills: Narrowly or barely attached to the stem. Stem: Yellow or orange, usually dry, but occasionally moist. Notes: A common species in unfertilised grassland. A similar species, H. ceracea (Butter Waxcap), is usually smaller and has gills which are broadly attached to the stem.’ (plantlife.org.uk)

6th October

National Badger Day. Clare had hoped a badger might put in an appearance on one of the trail cameras however, in spite of almost nightly expeditions across Liddells, none obliged that evening. Here is a passage about a badger instead. John and Clare hope it will enhance your recognition and understanding of the species:

‘The Badger, who wore a long dressing-gown, and whose slippers were indeed very down-at-heel, carried a flat candlestick in his paw…The Badger did not mind [that sort of regrettable conversation that results from talking with your mouth full], …nor did he take any notice of elbows on the table, or everybody speaking at once. As he did not go into Society himself, he had got an idea that these things belonged to the things that didn’t really matter.’ (Wind in the Willows)

Clare collected stones from her excavation of the Roadside pond to add to the rubble on the path through the Scrub. John finished sheep-proofing the Hayfield.

7th - 10th October

At least one badger appeared on the trail cameras each night. That’s badgers for you, shunning the spotlight on their National Day.

Clare loved a passage about leaves and colour from a book lent to her by Sally, The See-Through House. Shelley Klein tells the story of the relationship with her father Bernat (Beri), textile designer and artist, and the house he commissioned.

‘I also recall standing by these windows as a child with Beri beside me admiring the beech trees.

‘Those leaves,’ Beri explains as the trees shake and glister, ‘are made up of hundreds and thousands of colours. They aren’t just flat and green.Remember that. You have to look, really look, beyond what is there.

I stare upwards at the toppling greens. There are not enough words to describe all the colours I’m seeing, let alone the ones I can’t see.

‘It’s extraordinary,’ Beri continues, ‘how many colours a single blade of grass can contain, or a feather or pebble.’

I remember his words and I also remember how afterwards I stopped thinking of colour as something to be applied like nail varnish or paint. Instead, it was to be explored, entered into, felt. The world suddenly looked very different; it expanded and achieved unknown depths. Looking at yellow I discovered all kinds of words and emotions and sounds. Yellow was scrambled and fruity and lobed. It was soft, gassy and golden. Occasionally it was sluiced, frequently it was high-pitched, sometimes it was sour as lemons.’

One of the mature does is now fully in her winter coat.

12th October

Clare set about brashing more of the Hawthorns on the Meadow and disposing of the brash in the pit in the NE Strip. It is a very prickly occupation. The work will let more light onto the ground and make it easier for Tom to get round with his tractor when he cuts the hay.

15th October

A Jay appears in the Scrub. Jays are quite shy birds although their cry will give them away. The Jay appears in The Lost Spells, the companion book to The Lost Words. Robert McFarlane and Jackie Morris created spell poems and illustrations to re-engage people with nature. They were prompted to do so by the removal of some nature words from The Oxford Children’s Dictionary due to an apparent lack of use.

Jay

Jay, Jay, plant me an acorn.

I will plant you a thousand acorns.

Acorn, acorn, grow me an oak.

I will grow you an oak that will live

for a thousand years.

Year, year, fledge me a Jay.

I will fledge you a Jay that will plant

you a thousand acorns that will each

grow a thousand oaks that will each

live a thousand years that will each

fledge a bright-backed, blue-winged,

forest-making Jay.

15th October

Thanks to slippage of the camera angle, the buck kid is captured drinking from Pond Maggiore. John says there has long been a debate about whether or not the species drinks. The naysayers argue that the animals get whatever they need from browsing - long-standing readers of this Blog may remember that this was true of the Exmoor and Fell ponies that were resident on Liddells for a while - however here is evidence to the contrary.

After the numerous clips of Titmice attacking the cameras, Clare found the video of a crow attacking a camera was even more amusing. She was quite pleased with the title that came to her.

18th October

More crow activity - drinking (from earlier in the month), and bathing. John and Clare are always pleased to see different evidence of habitat use.

20th October

Ruth set her mist nets to see if there were any autumn visitors around. She said there were plenty of Redwings, however she was very happy to see a Willow tit. Neither Clare nor John have seen a Willow tit on Liddells for months and had assumed the couple or three that had been seen regularly had not survived. The bird below had no ring so is a new visitor and Ruth thinks it was likely it had not travelled far. Tim who lives not far away, and someone Ruth knows locally to Liddells have both mentioned seeing the species. Ruth thinks possibly they don’t nest on Liddells (neither John or Clare have ever seen young), however there is a local population. Clare has talked to Keith about nest boxes designed for the species so that might be a winter project.

22nd October

Clare was startled to see the vibrant colour of the gills on the fungus below. Seek by iNaturalist thinks they are Common milkcaps but the app can’t suggest which particular type.

24th October

Ruth contacted Clare to say that a young Goldcrest she had ringed on 28th August was recaught in Allestree Park, Derby on 19th September. It had flown 233km. Ruth wondered where it was off to.

Clare looked up Allestree Park and thinks the Goldcrest must want more from life than Liddells can offer: ‘Allestree Park is a much-loved Derby City Park and a haven for wildlife. The site of a Community Rewilding Project, Allestree Park is undergoing changes led by nature and supported by the people of Derby, making it even richer for people and wildlife.

Allestree Park Community Rewilding is a partnership project between Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, Derby City Council (the landowner and manager) and the University of Derby and is the largest urban rewilding project in the UK. Through the project, wildlife will flourish, species will return, and the site will be more accessible, providing the people of Derby and surrounding areas with an even more beautiful place to visit.’ (derbyshirewildlifetrust.org.uk)

Some Goldcrests are never satisfied.

27th October

Clare and John finished brashing the last of the Hawthorns on the Meadow. Clare stacked some of the logs from the work and realised she had made a Hawthorn Jenga. In true Hawthorn fashion, it is particularly higgledy-piggledy. The last of the Hawthorns revealed an example of inosculation, though not the most romantic looking one. ‘If two branches of a tree rub against each other so the bark is worn away and their cambium (the layer of vascular tissue) is exposed, they can unite in a natural graft. The resulting forms often resemble a loving embrace, and the word for this phenomenon - ‘inosculation’ - is fittingly derived from Latin ‘osculari’: to kiss.’ (Uncommon Ground: A word-lover’s guide to the British landscape by Dominick Tyler)

28th October

Clare worked on trimming the Meadow hedge. Taking a break in the hide later John and Clare were charmed to see a flurry of Goldfinches arriving; and not flurried to see a charm of Goldfinches arriving. They seemed to be attempting to achieve an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most Goldfinches on a feeder. Apologies for the poor quality of the photographs (which may negate a GBofWR entry), the range of a phone camera is limited.

21st - 28th October

Meanwhile back at the pond…

John and Clare realigned the camera on Pond Maggiore and were astonished to see that while the, as it were, camera’s back was turned, some Mandarin ducks had been making good use of the pond. They appear each evening at about dusk and leave as the light comes up. There have been a small number of Mandarin ducks visiting before, however never this many. There seem to be about 16-20 mixed with a handful of Mallard. Here is a small selection of Mandarin activity.

30th October

The breasting wire seems to be working, however some cattle, not to be outdone, have pushed down some wall stones further along the road wall. John is determined to keep abreast of things by adding more posts and wire. John and Clare are resigned to more wall repair.

31st October

Clare was curious to see whether there was any interest in the habitat she had created from Ash brash at the top of the Pit Wood. Frustratingly the most interested mammals seem to be squirrels and Clare is not prepared to give them any more Blog space. Instead here is a black cat clearly on its way to trick or treat.

Clare and John

September 30, 2025

September - a quiet month

Clare and John

September 30, 2025

There are very few videos to see this month, however a reminder that to see whatever there are, you have to access the Blog through the website: www.liddells.co.uk

What’s That Bird?

What is making the high pitched ‘tzee’ sound in the Scrub?

A postscript to August. Clare shared the photo of the Common Blue butterfly she had seen by Pond Maggiore at the end of the month with Tim. His response was, ‘Your fine photo shows pale blue spots on the outer edge of the wings between the veins. My literature does not describe this, it must be a Liddells subspecies.’ Here it is again so you can see the spots which Tim noticed. Polyommatus icarus Liddellus maybe?

8th - 9th September

Clare was amused to find a spider had made its way into her hair as she worked. The creature is a Crowned Orbweaver, commonly called a Garden Spider, although Clare prefers to think she was being awarded a crown for her work. It is probably more at home on the stone than in Clare’s hair.

John and Clare went to Edinburgh to see the Andy Goldsworthy retrospective at the Scottish National Gallery. Among all the wondrous sights, Clare enjoyed Goldsworth’s creative way with Foxglove flowers. An artistic challenge for Liddells maybe?

While Clare busied herself persuading as many of the local residents as possible to vote for the town cinema in the first ever Cinema of the Year awards, John worked steadily on with routine maintenance, finishing the new fencing round the Shepherd’s Hut (now properly sheep proof), bringing logs up from felling and working on the new gate on the Hayfield. The wildlife seemed to be on ‘routine maintenance’ too with nothing of particular interest on the trail cameras.

21st September

The voting closed and Clare hot-footed it up to Liddells to celebrate. She noticed that along with many fruiting plants, the Hawthorns and Elderberries were heavily laden. A few Branched Burrweed plants have reappeared in Pond Maggiore. They offer good habitat for emerging damsel- and dragonfly nymphs, however need thinning every few years. The pond needs some clearing as the rush is taking over. Time for Clare to don her waders. Autumn fungi has begun to appear, presenting Clare with her annual identification challenge. She is not planning to eat any of them although remembers being told that all mushrooms are edible. Some just once.

Clare was amused to notice another pellet, probably from a pigeon’s crop, on the new gate on the Hayfield. Recent rain had caused the grain to sprout.

Tim sent photos of the sunset.

22nd September

Clare and John added a breasting wire outside the boundary wall that the cattle have knocked down recently. They are hoping this prevents further damage. While John hammered in posts, Clare collected up rubble from the wall repair and added it to the path coming down through the Scrub to help level the path horizontally. John had brought up spare rubble from some garden work at home, so Clare added that too. It should making coming down on the quad bike safer.

The wire doesn’t show up well on a photo so here is the start of it.

Clare then decided that carting rubble was insufficient work for the day so set about digging out the Roadside Pond before there was more rain. She was pleased with the result and very muddy. Her reward came in the form of four Small Coppers on the Mint beside Pond Maggiore (two proved to be camera shy), a Southern Hawker (frustratingly never still but caught fleetingly in a video) and another Common Blue, although this one doesn’t have the spots that Tim noticed on the August butterfly.

While she was walking around, Clare decided to note all the plants still in flower. She listed Red Clover, Purple Loosestrife, Yarrow, Buttercup, Dandelion, Mint, Common Catsear, Rosebay Willowherb, Michaelmas Daisy, Tormentil, Eyebright, Creeping Thistle, Mugwort.

23rd - 30th September

Some videos to end the month. A hare spent 12 minutes grooming in the Pit Wood. One of the videos is included just to use the caption ‘Washing your hare’.

Another clip showing a bird intent on attacking the camera - Clare decided it was trying to intrude into proceedings being held in camera.

One of the kids shows how its coat is still very spotty; a doe is seen in close up showing what beautiful creatures deer are; a doe followed by a kid squeaking show how they are both losing their summer coats; and in the cat versus squirrel battle, the squirrel seems to be the victor.

John has completed the fastenings on the new gate ready for the sheep. He discovered the apples in the Orchard had ripened. This is the first fruit from the earliest fruit tree planting several years ago.

And finally - John came home delighted to have finished the mowing for the year and even more delighted to have backed the flail mower into the storage container seamlessly on the first try! Sadly there is no photographic record of this huge achievement.

The last of the summer flowers - Rosebay Willowherb

What’s that Bird? - Tree Creeper

Clare and John

August 31, 2025

August - adopting ‘an antic disposition’*

Clare and John

August 31, 2025

What’s That Bird?

Clare was surprised to hear the songster in the first video clip so late in the season. He must have still been hoping for a mate. The second clip features an avian quartet. Can you identify all four?

A reminder that you will need to visit www.liddells.co.uk and click on Blog to see the videos. The files are too big to be included in an email.

A follow-up to last month’s Blog post. You may remember the photo of the Marmalade Hoverfly (reproduced below). Clare’s friend and loyal Blog reader Barbara has again pointed Clare to a Simon Barnes article in The Observer where he imagines life as a creature. This time he has embraced living as a Marmalade Hoverfly. You can read the piece here. Clare especially enjoyed Barnes’ claim that the insect’s hobbies include ‘Dynamic stillness’.

2nd August

A Tawny owl appears in the Pit Wood in the early hours.

John and Clare set about raking up the cut hay on the Meadow. They are frustrated that they have no means of baling the hay however Barry came to take some for his goats. After several trips he had 15 dumpies full of hay in his shed. Clare managed the hay-raking equivalent of painting herself into a corner which caused John some amusement.

3rd August

Usually John and Clare have no wish to encourage grey squirrels by giving them any sort of attention, however this one does seem to have earned its 15 seconds of fame.

4th August

The squirrel proved not to be the only entertainer in the wood. A hare takes a dust bath which is clearly invigorating and a stoat seems also to be afflicted with the antics bug. A fox strolled through in the early hours today, however as it offered no comedy interlude it has not been given a place in this Blog post. Foxes take note.

6th - 7th August

There have been several clips of the doe going through both Pit Wood and Scrub with the buck following minutes later. Neither John nor Clare have found evidence of a driving circle this year, however the pursuit suggests the rut is in progress.

The twins appear together fairly frequently in the Pit Wood. They arrive at 07.08 on 7th, then hang around for a while with a bit of grooming before one starts to prepare a couch then settles into it. The second twin does the same though off camera. They stay in place for about an hour ruminating then get up with some stretching and amble off.

8th August

Clare and John arrived to rake up some of the remaining hay on the Meadow. They were met with another stretch of fallen wall. Gavin describes this section against the post as the ‘cheek’. The neighbouring landowner had put cattle on the land outside Liddells and they must have clustered in the gateway. Cheeky. John has decided to put up a breasting wire to deter them in future.

A badger pauses while going through the Scrub and seems to be listening to a Tawny Owl.

9th August

More hay-raking. Farmer Barry collected the bales from the Hayfield. Clare and John both chose to vary their clearing up activities and worked on the aftermath of the Ash felling. There is a lot of wood to move, saw and stack.

The sun brought out the pollinators.

10th August.

BBC’s Tweet of the Day featured the Chiffchaff. You can listen to the episode here.

Yet more hay-raking. John and Clare were delighted by several visits to an Ash in front of the hide by a Spotted Flycatcher. Clare thought she had seen one in the same place a few days ago however the visit was so brief se could not be sure. Yet more Ash clearing.

The highlight of the day for Clare was assembling and starting her own strimmer. John has discovered that strimming can aggravate an injury leaving him needing rest. As the strimmer is too heavy for Clare she now has a lighter one.

11th August

One of the bucks warns off the twins while he is in pursuit of the doe. They follow anyway.

12th August

Gavin has mended the wall and has as ever, done a beautiful job. He said, “Takes a little more time but wasn’t in good condition. No offence to any previous waller”. John and Clare are not in the least offended.

13th August

Again not wishing to pander to any narcissistic tendencies in Grey squirrels, however this one is up to hijinks again but seems to be drawn to the spot where the doe kid created a couch.

15th August

Now the hay is gone, it’s prep time for the arrival of the sheep later in the autumn. John and Clare cleaned out the rainwater collection trough and John fixed the leaks.

He also put in the first straining post for the breasting wire near the bottom gate.

One of the bucks re-marks a tree in the Pit Wood. This is regular behaviour during the rut and soon after. Video clips suggest that sometimes the same buck repeatedly marks his spots, other times different bucks mark over previous markings.

17th August

Clare and John frequently find video clips with insects and more often birds, seemingly attracted to the trail cameras. Clare and John usually delete the clips, however here is one so you can speculate on what it is that attracts the birds in the first place.

Finally all the hay has been raked off the Meadow and dumped into the sunken pit in the North-east Strip. It seems such a waste of good hay. Eagle-eyed John spotted a Common Grasshopper hitching a lift on the final load. See if you can spot the Grasshopper in the haystack.

18th August

Ruth had a very busy ringing session this morning. She reported ‘89 birds in total, of which 31 were Blue Tits (all juvenile). Also well represented were Blackcap, Coal, Tit, Robin, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Great Tit, Bullfinch, Wren, Dunnock, Blackbird. The most notale bird was a juv Siskin.’ She also commented that fewer nest boxes being used doesn’t mean a less successful breeding season. She has one more survey to complete this year however has said that numbers are up a bit this year though maybe without the same variety of species. Clare and John are delighted to have the first ever evidence of Siskins breeding on Liddells.

20th August

The roe twins seem to like the small clearing in the Pit Wood. Today they were there from 9.15 until 10.44. The trail camera recorded 38 videos over this time. To begin with the twins were couched and ruminating together. After 22 minutes one (which later proved to be the doe) seemed restless, got up, moved to the scrape from a few days ago, stayed there for a minute, got up and down again, indulged in some grooming, yawned, got up and settled down again facing the other way, then at 10.35 she got up and settled down again, getting up and leaving a couple of minutes later. The buck kid meanwhile sat still throughout then at 10.44 got up, stretched and left. Clare wondered whether John might identify with the sedentary male.

24th August

Clare was watching all the Emerald Damselflies on Pond Maggiore when she noticed several insects unfamiliar to her on the Mint beside the pond. It proved to be a Tachina fera (Linnaeus, 1761) commonly known as a Tachinid Fly. This is the description of the fly from the Gedling Conservation Trust: ‘Over all length 10 - 14mm. The head and thorax are dark, marked with brown streaking. The scutelum is rich brown. The abdomen is orange with a broad, black line down the centre and very hairy. The veins at the wing bases are tinged orange.’ Clare is delighted to include Gedling Country Park in this blog post as she has visited it often with her daughter Mathilda, who is the creator of this website.

John hung the new gate on the Hayfield and was delighted that it was bang on the horizontal. The slope of the ground might suggest otherwise, the spirit level doesn’t lie.

John illustrating a pub sign - The Gate Hangs Well

25th August

A solitary fox wanders through the Pit Wood in daylight - maybe it was on a Bank Holiday outing.

Clare cleaned out the Meeting Room and Shepherd’s Hut while John fixed more of the sheep netting round the Shepherd’s Hut. Clare had a look at Pond Maggiore and managed a photo of a Common Darter. She noticed that there is hardly space for any more berries on some of the Rowan trees. Almost time to make Rowan Berry jelly. When John returned the quad to its storage place on the local farm, he noticed a spider on the door to the container.

This is a Canestrini’s Harvestman. From the description here, this one would seem to be a male. The British Arachnological Society notes that regarding the species’ habitat and ecology ‘*Opilio canestrinii* is found in the typical urban habitats and brown-field sites favoured by a number of recently introduced, long-legged species of harvestman. It is frequently found on buildings and walls, in gardens and parks and extending into semi-natural woodland. Its prevalence on buildings and in gardens means it is a very readily seen and recorded species.’ Where does a container in Northumberland farmland fit in with this? Maybe another Bank Holiday day out.

28th August

One of the Pit Wood trail cameras captures a hare sniffing at the sapling marked by the roebucks. The hare seems to be adding a mark of its own. Curious.

29th August

In spite of foraging independently, the singleton kid is till suckling. You ca see how its markings are fading as it grows.

The weather was kind for a family visit and even the short burst of rain produced a welcome aftermath. The sunset was a great background for playing frisbee.

30th August

Clare has noticed several patches of Eyebright on the bottom path - the plant is having a second burst of flowering.

Clare carried out a butterfly transect and found a Speckled Wood camouflaging itself on a speckled leaf; she delighted to find a Common Blue by Pond Maggiore. On the way round the transect Clare found several Sneezewort plants in flower, not in the usual place where she finds them. The Spindle Trees are as abundant as every other fruiting tree seems to be this year. A Copper Underwing moth proved reluctant to leave the shepherd’s hut so Clare gave it a helping hand whereupon it became reluctant to leave her hand.

* Hamlet, Act 1, Scene V

What’s that bird? 1 - Willow Warbler 2 - Bullfinch, Siskin, Goldcrest & Chaffinch

Clare and John

July 31, 2025

July - floribunda

Clare and John

July 31, 2025

Welcome to July’s blog post. Remember that to access the video footage included you will need to go to the Liddells website: www.liddells.co.uk and click on Blog.

What’s That Bird?

What is calling near the buck in the Pit Wood and what is calling in the Scrub apart from the Chiffchaff and Wood Pigeon?

4th July

John and Clare have been concerned for a while about some branches on dying Ash trees that were overhanging paths. Ashes tend to drop branches with no warning and some of these were big branches, so John and Clare asked George to come and attend to them. They didn’t want the trees felled as Ashes provide excellent habitat. George and his workmate made short shrift of the job, leaving the trunks which will most likely produce new growth. Clare and John will create more habitat from the brash.

While John was supervising the work (and marvelling at George’s tree climbing ability), Clare updated her list of plants in flower. She noticed Self-heal, Bird’s Foot Trefoil, Ragged Robin, Marsh Thistle, Tufted Vetch, Marsh Valerian, Hedge Woundwort and Enchanter’s Nightshade.

Clare also took some insect photos and noticed that a buck had used protective Hawthorn brash for fraying - rather the brash than the tree it was protecting.

Clare also spent some time capitalising on the dry conditions to dig out the roadside pond a bit more, removing some of the pondweed that was threatening to take over.

A male Siskin visited one of the niger seed feeders; a species that hasn’t been seen for a while although has been heard by Merlin and ringed by Ruth.

Bonkers (Red Soldier Beetles aka Hogweed Bonking Beetles)

The trail camera in the Pit Wood captured a first view of the older doe with twins. She has had triplets for at least four years now. Perhaps only having twins is because she is getting older.

6th July

More pond excavation for Clare and more insect spotting. It is looking to be a good summer for butterflies.

There are vast numbers of Red Soldier Beetles around at the moment. With reference to their common name, Clare decided that what she was seeing was an orgy.

Clare also noticed a Harlequin ladybird. These come in a variety of colours/patterns. Click here for more information.

The younger doe with the single kid runs through the Pit Wood and the erect hairs of her caudal patch show she is alarmed. You can also see how creamy the kid’s caudal patch is in comparison, making it less distinctive.

The older doe is taking the twins further afield - below you can see her leading them through the Scrub.

8th July

Ruth made Clare’s day by ringing a juvenile Whitethroat. This is the first ever evidence that the species has bred on Liddells. Since the birds are site loyal, the prospects of further breeding next year are encouraging.

More plants in flower - Field Scabious, Black and Greater Knapweed and Great Burnet, all on the Wildflower Meadow. John and Clare noticed that there are apples for the first time on one of the Crab apple trees and that one of the eating apple trees planted last year has a few embryonic fruits.

Dance fly *Empis livida* on Field Scabious

The camera on the south side of the Pit Wood showed several clips of the twins suckling. Clare has stitched the clips together.

9th July

John noticed that the weather forecast suggested there would be a few good weather days and quickly rang to see if Tom and Barry could cut and bale the Hayfield. Happily they were available and the hay was cut and made quickly. Only seven bales this year, far fewer than usual. Barry said it was the same everywhere because of the dry Spring. He would normally expect 600 bales from his fields and only had 300. It showed Liddells’ meagre seven in a different light!

Rather than photos of hay bales, here is a link to Edward Thomas’ poem ‘Haymaking’ - ‘nettle creeper’ is another name for the Whitethroat.

Clare noticed her first Comma of the summer. It was basking on Holly in the Pit Wood.

11th - 12th July

Clare has commented on how often the deer seem to pause in front of the cameras to have a scratch. Of course they are probably scratching elsewhere and off camera. This doe exhibits a strange neck movement that John has seen many times. Clare wishes she had such a flexible neck.

Meanwhile a buck seems to have turned into a unicorn. It is very difficult to see what is caught on the animal’s head.

15th July

Although determining the sex of new roe kids can be difficult until they are older, Clare thinks it is possible to see the beginnings of differentiation in this next video. Clare thinks it shows a doe followed by a buck. Time will tell. The birds calling in the background are a Wren and a Goldcrest.

17th July

Ruth had another session with her nets and rings. She said the birds weren’t particularly co-operative when it came to photographs however she was pleased to ring the first juvenile Garden Warblers and Bullfinches of the season. She said that some of the warblers are showing signs of moulting ready to leave.

Clare found another half dozen thistles and a couple of Hogweed on the Meadow which she removed - the total for both is still lower than in previous years. She went looking for Broad-leaved Helleborines and found at least ten coming into flower, then she started doing some clearing where the ashes had been lopped.

After working Clare headed for Pond Maggiore and there were innumerable Emerald damselflies. She also checked in with the wildflowers again and added Marsh Woundwort, Ragwort, Betony, Spear thistle, Cleavers, Yarrow and Upright Hedge Parsley to the list of plants in flower. She was also delighted to see how one patch of Field Scabious is spreading.

18th July

Barely a month old and the single kid in the Scrub has grown considerably. You can see the strong markings it has at birth beginning to fade.

20th July

Another stretch of boundary wall has collapsed - the landowner has had cattle in the field recently and they find young Sycamore leaves especially tasty. This involves the beasts leaning over/against the wall. John and Clare had a look at the repair needed and decided it was a job for Gavin the waller.

They both did some tidying from the lopping instead. Clare started a brash pile agains the remains of an old wall. She had noticed that there were many cavities in the wall which would make excellent nest sites for birds or small mammals, so she laid brash alongside the stones to create some protection. Next season it might be a place for a trail camera to see whether any creatures investigate or use the habitat.

The Meadow was covered in butterflies and when Clare looked at the short video she had recorded, she was delighted to see there was a Painted Lady which she hadn’t noticed before. The video doesn’t do justice to the number of butterflies, however it gives a flavour of the activity.

21st July

Clare decided to join the Butterfly Conservation Count. She recorded 53 Large Whites, 4 Peacocks, 4 Commas, 5 Meadow Browns, 3 Small Skippers, 3 Red Admirals, 2 Small Coppers, 3 Speckled Woods and a Painted Lady. Not bad for a 15 minute watch on the Meadow.

Red Hemp nettle goes on the plants in flower list and one of the Junipers has a large number of berries this year. Enough for Liddells’ gin?

The brash habitat has grown with all Clare’s clearing up. Clare spotted a pellet on one of the new gateposts on the Hayfield and noticed how it was encrusted with what seem to be cherry stones. She has removed the pellet with the idea of picking it apart.

23rd July

All is not lost on the stoat front. Although you have to be quick to see them, three young stoats scamper through a corner of the Pit Wood. Another clip from a couple of hours later showed an adult running past the camera. It is good to know there are still stoats around.

Badgers are still making regular trips through both the Pit Wood and the Scrub. Here is a clip from the Scrub which provides an excellent excuse to include an article sent to Clare by long-time Blog devotee Barbara. It’s from the Observer and is one of a series of pieces by Simon Barnes in which he imagines life as a creature. You can read his badger thoughts here.

24th July

The old buck shows that the rut is beginning. Here he is marking his territory near the Story-telling Circle.

The hares are making good use of the cut Hayfield.

25th - 27th July

More clearing from the lopping, then Clare had a walk around spotting Mugwort, Loosestrifes Yellow and Purple, Water Figwort, Water Mint, Lady’s Bedstraw, Harebells, Goldenrod and Fleabane in flower. The Broad-leaved Helleborines are now fully in flower too.

Fleabane with Yellow-sided clover-sawfly

The cameras haven’t captured a fox for a while. Here is one making an early morning trip through the Scrub.

A day after the buck was captured marking territory in the Pit Wood, a kid investigates a sapling he marked. This happens again two days later (only one of the clips included here). Although the sex of the kid is not clear, John thinks the behaviour demonstrates learning by recognising scent markings from other deer and acknowledging territory.

28th July

Further evidence of stoat activity in the Pit Wood is reassuring. Clare hopes they will find the habitat she has created at the felling site and use it for breeding next year.

29th July

Tom cut the Meadow today. John and Clare still have no access to a small baler, however they hope friend Barry will be able to take some of the hay; the rest will be thrown into the pit in the North-east strip.

Clare set about dissecting the pellet she had found on a gatepost. There were 22 cherry stones, fragments of vegetable matter and small pieces of what appear to be beetle exoskeletons (at the base of the circle in the photograph). The absence of fur and bone suggests this is not a raptor pellet. Most likely candidates are Wood Pigeon, Song Thrush or Blackbird. Clare thinks the size points to Wood Pigeon as the favourite. You can read more about bird pellets here.

30th July

Clare collected the discs for the end of the month and there were several clips from both the Pit Wood and the Scrub showing bucks chasing other bucks. The footage shows there are three bucks vying for the territory, the youngest ‘murder’ buck, an older mature buck and the oldest very mature buck. The latter two are distinguishable by their differently muscled hindquarters, the oldest buck’s being bigger. No footage included here, however the activity confirms that the rut has started. John and Clare will keep an eye open for evidence of driving circles and place cameras accordingly if at all possible.

Ruth carried out her last ringing session of the month. She apologised for the lack of photographs, however with 68 birds to record and ring, she had her hands more than full. Most of the 68 were juveniles and included 9 new Bullfinches, 4 new Goldfinches, and a Chaffinch. There were plenty of titmice including 3 juvenile Coal Tits, a new juvenile Whitethroat, an adult Blackcap, a Chiffchaff in moult and a steady stream of young Robins and Dunnocks. Ruth checked her records for the same date last year and noted that there had been 61 birds then. It’s good to know that the populations are holding steady and is an encouraging end to the month.

What’s That Bird?

Night sounds - Tawny Owl; Who is calling? - Robin

Clare and John

June 30, 2025

June - Young at heart

Clare and John

June 30, 2025

Please remember that to see the video footage in this post, you will need to access the Blog through the Liddells website: www.liddells.co.uk

What’s That Bird?

An audio clip from the Burren, a video and a photo to test your identification skills this month.

While on holiday…

John and Clare returned to find that not much had changed on Liddells. The older doe was captured on camera on 20th May and still pregnant. On 22nd May the young buck was seen in the Pit Wood frantically working to remove the last of his velvet - also evidence of the damage this action can wreak on saplings. A surprise came from footage from 23rd of May, which Clare has stitched together - a pair of Woodcock in the Scrub. They appear again in daylight the next day. On 26th May a badger approaches the camera for a change rather than heads away from it and this affords some good views of the animal. On the same day footage showed that the young buck’s antlers were finally clean. Alongside all these were hundreds of clips of wavy grass!

June 1st

A walk round Liddells and Clare and John heard Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs, one Whitethroat, Siskins and a Redstart. They saw Swallows over the Hayfield, Goldfinches, a Long-tailed Tit family, a Whitethroat and two hares. John and Clare were pleased to be back.

Over the next few days Clare added Bistort, Orange Hawkweed, Mousear, Marsh Thistle, Aconite, Guelder Rose, Cow Parsley, White Clover, Elderflower, Stitchwort, Scurvy Grass, Foxglove, Heath Bedstraw, Prickly Sow Thistle, Russian Comfrey, Hogweed, Common Catsear, Milkwort, Pignut, Sheep’s Sorrell, Dog Rose and Ragged Robin to her list of plants coming into flower.

June 6th - 9th

John mowed paths and strimmed in preparation for Gavin G’s arrival. Clare continued removing damaged tree tubes and Gavin G did some beautiful repair work on four stretches of the south boundary wall. John and Clare are no longer worried about one very bulging stretch of the wall collapsing on someone’s parked car.

Clare added Meadow Vetchling, Zig-zag Clover and Eyebright to her plants list.

Ruth conducted a ringing session and ringed 58 birds including lots of juveniles of Wren, Long-tailed Tit, Robin, Dunnock, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Treecreeper, Blackcap. She also ringed 2 more Whitethroat - a male and a breeding female. Ruth said she was netting Willow Warbler, Garden Warblers and Blackcap in similar numbers. She also had one Siskin in her nets. She said she was ‘too busy and damp’ to take photos!

Video footage (not included here) shows the older doe is still pregnant. The old buck seems to have recovered - he is hardly limping now.

7 spot ladybird with additional rainwater spots

10th June

A birth! The younger doe has had a single kid, probably in the last 48 hours.

The kid is taken out at night.

11th June

Clare discovered that the Common Spotted Orchids are beginning to emerge on the Meadow and the Dame’s Violet aka Sweet Rocket is out in the Pit Wood.

She began this year’s thistle pull and took 104 Creeping Thistles out of the western part of the Meadow.

13th June

The doe and kid venture further afield. The doe is the far side of the of the fence from the kid and moments later seems to head off down the Crag. John’s footage shows how easily the kid can be hidden in the meadow grasses.

Meanwhile at the hide John photographed a juvenile Tree Sparrow.

15th June

Wood Avens, Tufted Vetch, Broad-leaved Willowherb and Wild Service trees are all in flower.

Clare headed for three Oaks in the Top Strip, all of which have been donated by friends. She freed one from its tube, cleared around and inside the cage of another and then, armed only with her trusty billhook (not to be confused with the poet bell hooks), set out to find the third which had become considerably overgrown and could not be seen at all from the path nearby.

The second Oak can now breathe inside its cage

After considerable hacking Clare glimpsed the third Oak’s cage

The third Oak with more space to stretch

Speaking of cages, Clare and John had put up an uncaged peanut feeder by the hide for Woodpeckers and were gratified when Woodpeckers arrived to take advantage of it within 24 hours. Then the squirrels cottoned on and set about gnawing their way through the first and then a second supporting branch. Frustration? Revenge? A cleverly construed plot to make the feeder fall and spill its contents? You decide.

John and Clare were delighted to see a juvenile Tree Creeper and a Juvenile Goldcrest in front of the hide however both birds proved hard to photograph.

Clare took John to see all the orchids out on the Meadow and they disturbed a hen pheasant and her chick. The hen pheasant hissed all the time and followed John and Clare until she judged them a safe distance away. Pheasants usually have several chicks - if this is the only one surviving, no wonder the hen was fierce. Both hen and her chick are very dark in colour.

In the Scrub footage shows the kid learning awareness from the doe.

16th June

The peanut feeder is in constant use through any day from just before 05.00am. When it comes to pecking order, Chaffinches and the titmice seem to feed together; Chaffinches generally give way to Tree Sparrows; with the titmice, if they are around at the same time, Great Tits feed first followed by Blue Tits then Coal Tits. Jays trump everything - one Jay stayed on the feeder for 18 minutes. Here is a small selection of videos. A juvenile Robin is the first to arrive - at this stage in its development its plumage is not very Robin-like, however its eyes are. Next to be of interest are an adult Jay feeding a juvenile. The juvenile is already as big as the adult. Although Tree Sparrows are often around the hide, they are less frequent visitors to the feeders when the hide is occupied so it is pleasing to see one take advantage of the peanuts. A juvenile Jay gets fed again and exhibits the wing fluttering that is a juvenile’s way of indicating it needs food. Then a juvenile Blue Tit does the same and is fed by an adult bird.

No Woodpeckers appeared and Clare and John have noted that they haven’t seen a Willow Tit since early March, suggesting the birds have moved elsewhere or not survived.

17th June

The kid seems to be finding its feet. There are two videos stitched together here.

18th June

John took his camera up to Liddells.

19th June

Ruth conducted another survey and said her session was ‘productive if unspectacular’ with 46 birds netted including ‘new juveniles (for this year) of Coal Tit, Blackbird, Chaffinch, Blackcap, Treecreeper, Robin, Goldcrest, Blue Tit and Great Tit’ but ‘no young Whitethroat or Garden Warbler yet.’

20th June

Clare went up to finish her thistle pulling and added hogweed removal to the task in hand. She removed 38 more thistles (142 this year in total) and 24 hogweeds. It seems that keeping on top of them is bringing the numbers down each year.

Clare also started digging some rush out of the Roadside pond while there is very little water left in it. A frog immediately jumped out and hopped off.

Clare found Greater Knapweed, Hedge Woundwort, Meadow Cranesbill and St John’s Wort out in flower. She was also delighted to spot a Large Skipper feeding on a Common Spotted Orchid.

Large Skipper on a Common Spotted Orchid

21st June

Finally! The Pit Wood camera captures the first footage of the older doe’s twins. Not triplets this year as John and Clare had expected (of course they weren’t the ones who were expecting). The second twin is just glimpsed as the footage ends.

Later the same day the doe and twins are in the Scrub.

While John strimmed the Story Telling Circle, Clare worked on clearing a path inside the road wall and bagged up the left over rubble from the wall repair. The rubble will come in useful to make a more solid surface for the quad bike where paths get very muddy.

23rd June

The twins are racing about in the Scrub. It is unclear whether this is due to panic or exuberance however twenty minutes later they are with the doe in the Pit Wood and being groomed.

25th June

John spotted the twins in amongst the new planting on the Hayfield and managed to film them from the car.

26th June

John noticed a frog on the west verge in the Pit Wood. It is good to know the heron hasn’t eaten them all. Yet.

29th June

Clare and John collected the camera discs for the end of the month and found little activity captured. No sign of the twins, however footage of the doe and singleton going through the Scrub on 28th shows how much the kid has grown.

Clare has been staggered by just how many Common Spotted Orchids there are on the Meadow this year. It is very hard to walk across the area without stepping on one. The photo below will give you some idea of the density.

30th June

John decided to face the heat and mow the paths again. Recent rain made the grass shoot up.

Ruth reported that her final netting and ringing session of the month was ‘very similar to the one before - plenty of Chiffchaff/Willow Warblers’ though ‘no species juveniles’. She caught two adult Willow Warblers moulting which indicated they won’t be around for much longer.

What’s That Bird?

This month’s answers are Sedge Warbler (audio clip), Trees Sparrow (photograph) and Garden Warbler (on the video clip).

Clare and John

May 31, 2025

May - home and away

Clare and John

May 31, 2025

The usual reminder - to see the videos in this Blog post, go to www.liddells.co.uk and view them on the Blog page.

May’s “What’s That Bird?’ has three birds in one recording. Can you identify them all?

5th May

John collected logs from the Pit Wood.

Reeling slightly from singing in the sunrise with her local choir, Clare set about freeing trees in the Top Strip from ragged tubes. She found a spider on one of the trunks inside the tube. The app Picture Insect identified it as an Old World Dome Sheetweaver Neriene montana. It belongs to the family Linyphiidae, commonly called Money spiders. They are known for their sheet- or hammock-like webs, building them among bushes or low vegetation, on tree trunks, or under logs, which they rest beneath. Clare protected the freed trunks with gorse cuttings, tying them on with brambles.

The Crag camera shows that the badgers are still pausing at the excavations but no longer investigating. Clare thinks they may have hit too much bedrock. The camera recorded the stoat heading off from what may be its den.

7th May

The now very pregnant old doe pauses in front of the Crag camera. You can also see that she is losng her winter coat. The kids will likely be born in the next 2-3 weeks.

8th May

John found a dead stoat just inside the top road gate. From its size, it is likely to be the female from the Crag. There was no obvious cause of death. Little did John and Clare know that the video from the 5th might prove to be the last.

John heard a Whitethroat singing behind the sheds. This is a bird that has been heard and/or seen a few times on Liddells over the past small number of years although there has never been more than one bird at a time. The song is not one of the most mellifluous in the bird world although it is recognisable - short and scratchy. You can listen here.

The Crag camera captured three bucks going past within the space of a few minutes. First the youngest buck which is still in velvet, then the older buck, not in velvet, and lastly the oldest buck (video below), which looks as though he has been in some May Day celebrations.

9th - 10th May

Ruth conducted her second ringing session on 9th. John and Clare were very excited to know she had not only netted a Whitethroat, but that she had heard two singing males. Ruth netted 22 birds in total, of 12 different species.

Whitethroat - it has what it says on the tin

Clare noticed that each year there is more Cuckoo Flower Cardamine pratensis (aka Lady’s-smock) appearing on the Hayfield. It is a good forage plant, particularly for Orange-tip butterflies. Clare spotted a moth feeding from one of the plants. It is a Small Yellow Underwing Panemeria tenebrata.

Click here to see why the moth is so called.

John celebrated his birthday by going to Liddells and not doing any work. Except for having a small bonfire - a good way to celebrate. While he was practising the art of relaxing, Clare noticed a small insect on her top. John managed to lure it onto his finger so that Clare could take a photograph. It proved to be a Silver-Green Leaf Weevil Phyllobius argentatus. Not to be outdone in the insect-on-tops department, John played host to a pair of mating Fever flies Dilophus febrilis. This insect can congregate on umbellifers - the Cow parsley is beginning to flower on Liddells though not noticeably on John’s top. There are also huge numbers of insects around at the moment. The swallows are having a field, or rather air, day.

Clare noticed the first of the patch of Yellow Pimpernel flowering in the Pit Wood. She seeks them here, she seeks them there…

With the prospect of roe kids very soon, Clare moved a camera back into the Pit Wood. The big buck crosses in front of the camera and is clearly limping. It is the first sign of vulnerability John and Clare have seen in this magnificent animal. John wonders whether it has been in a battle with the middle-sized buck which has recently come on to its territory.

11th May

Keith came to help Clare with this year’s breeding bird survey. This was a little later in the year than previously and the titmice were noticeable by their absence - possibly because they have mostly paired and mated and are busy rearing young. Keith and Clare did hear two Whitethroats and saw one on the Hayfield. After Keith had left Clare heard and saw a Yellowhammer to add to the list. You can see the results here.

Then John and Clare did a second nest box survey. There was not significantly more activity than three weeks ago however 6 boxes had nestlings or birds sitting and one of the open-fronted boxes in the Top Strip was in use for the first time. Clare has set up a camera to identify which species is using the box.

While walking round Clare added the following plants to last month’s list of plants in flower: Wild Garlic, Yellow Pimpernel, Yellow Rattle, Meadow Buttercup, Bush Vetch, Bird’s Foot Trefoil, Water Crowfoot, Germander Speedwell, Red Campion, Wild Strawberry, Woodruff, Herb Robert and Water Avens. The Hawthorn is beginning to flower too which reminded Clare of a poem featured in April in her Poetry Diary:

Hawthorn

I like it when memories aren’t pinned/haughtily to words, but come to find/them, slowly on the bridge/of a warm breeze filled emptily/with blackbird songs, a robin/twisting its invisible screw/and a more piercing song/I can’t yet name, and beside it a scent/than belongs at the slow start/of another summer, alive/and pungent and unattached/then to the off-white flowers/a little distance off from this bench/and the name, the name.

Zaffar Kunial

John began repairs on the Barn owl box roof.

Domed nest in open-fronted box - you can just make out the hole at the top. Clare thinks this might be from either a Wren or a Robin

John preparing the Barn owl box for a new roof

A Peacock butterfly looking a bit worn, foraging on a Dandelion

12th May

In the Pit Wood a very young badger heads along the path, followed 15 minutes later by an adult. Although there have been many clips of badgers on the Blog, both clips are included here so you can see the difference in sizes.

A fox is captured heading towards the camera and returning 5 minutes later with prey. It is not clear what it has caught.

14th May

The camera on the nest box reveals the identity of the builder. It is a Robin. In her exquisite book Nests, Susan Ogilvy notes that Robins usually ‘choose to build their nests in hollows in banks or tree stumps, but have been known to use shelves in sheds, old flower pots or even the pockets of old coats hanging in barns…The female builds the nest and incubates her eggs for twelve to fifteen days, but both parents feed the young for around a fortnight. They can produce two or three clutches [of four to seven eggs] in a season and the male will take over sole responsibility for feeding the young if their broods overlap’. The bird uses leaves, moss, grass and fine twigs for the body of the nest and lines it with fine grass, roots, hair and very occasionally feathers.

Clare was initially puzzled by how little time had elapsed from the first nest box inspection to an adult bird bringing in food to chicks. Perhaps a better explanation is that the male is feeding the sitting female. The bird in the box looks pretty mature.

Then, barely two hours later the camera captures a worrying sight. A stoat - the good news, but not for the Robins, is that there is still one around - climbing down from the top of the nest box. You can hear a bird’s alarm call. Unsurprisingly. The next round of disc inspection might reveal what happens next.

Later a fox comes through the Pit Wood after another successful hunting session. It looks as though it has caught a pheasant this time.

15th May

John noticed a Clouded-bordered Brindle moth Apamea crenata. They are common, occupying a variety of habitats, including trailer tow-bars.

Clare added Bugle and Eyebright to her list of plants flowering on Liddells. John fixed the Barn Owl box roof. Hopefully a Barn Owl will notice. Clare finished clearing Hawthorn brash from under the trees in the Meadow and noticed a bee in the plants at her feet. It is a Flavous Nomad bee Nomada flava, a species of Cuckoo bee. In the absence of any Cuckoos locally, this will have to do. Clare then spotted that a Common Green Grasshopper Omocestus viridulus had hopped into her tea. She performed a rescue.

Clare has been waiting for the emergence of damsels and dragons. Today in Pond Maggiore, it seemed as though nearly every protruding stalk of the Potamogeton had nymphs clinging on. A phone camera cannot do justice to the scene, however here is one photo to give you an idea of the profusion. A day later Clare saw a Large Red Damselfly. Time for John to put his camera to work.

The young buck walks through the Pit Wood. It looks as though one side of his antlers is clean while the other is still in velvet. He is certainly losing his winter coat.

Clare added Broom and Red Clover to her plants in flower list and she and John saw and heard a Whitethroat on the Wetland.

18th-19th May

Ruth went round the nest boxes as part of her ringing session. She noted that two clutches of chicks had been predated and the nests were empty. The next day she said the first of the juveniles were appearing in her mist nets. The birds she ringed included a second male Whitethroat and a Sparrowhawk. She sent the images below.

17th - 31st May

John and Clare went away on what they are reliably informed is called a ‘holiday’. They joined a guided group in the Burren in County Clare for a few days before staying in Galway and then Athlone before catching the ferry back from Dublin. Instead of news from Liddells, here are a selection of holiday snaps. Normal Liddells service will be resumed in June and if there is anything noteworthy from the trail cameras for the end of May, it will appear in June’s Blog post.

The Burren is a karst landscape of bedrock incorporating a vast cracked pavement of glacial-era limestone, with cliffs and caves, fossils, rock formations and archaeological sites. The flora is especially remarkable and varied although after weeks of dry weather, not as prolific as usual with many plants having been dried out by the heat. Clare was more interested in looking than photographing so there is not much of she saw represented below, however she aims to give a flavour.

The dry-stone walling is single leaf and can be susceptible to storm damage. Clare found it rather attractive

Hairy dragonfly - note the hairs on the throax

Large-flowered Butterwort *Pinguicula grandiflora*

An unusual white Large-flowered Butterwort

Lackey moth caterpillar *Malacosoma neustria*

Dog tooth lichen *Peltigera canina;* because of the resemblance to dog’s teeth, in mediaeval times the plant was used to treat rabies

A slightly out of focus Fen or Turlough violet *Viola persicifolia* (A turlough is a seasonal shallow lake that drains in Spring/Summer leaving wet grassland.)

Sundew *Drosera rotundifolia* an insectiverous plant

Rose chafer beetle *Cetonia aurata.* The background may have you fooled; it is Clare’s knee (not the knee from Eric Rohmer’s 1970 film ‘Claire’s Knee’)

With the US much in the news, Clare was struck by this early version of import taxes in Galway. She and John went and paid their literary respects. Clare visited Charlie Byrne’s bookshop - a rich source of new and secondhand books both inside and outside the shop. And a blessed place.

A road trip along the Connemara coast and back inland was spectacular, however some very Irish weather made photography hard.

Speciality road sign or eco-conscious protest?

In the Burren John and Clare had visited a garden that was the result of one man’s extraordinary and meticulous hard work and obsessions, however they found it unsympathetic to the natural ecosystem and they were struck by how many plants had been imported from other countries. Outside Galway they visited an entirely different garden. It was designed by a woman, was for and run by the local community and was full of life. Brigit‘s Garden is regarded as one of the most picturesque gardens of Ireland; it is in service to Celtic heritage and mythology as well as to native plants. The contrast between the two gardens was striking.

31st May

Driving over to the Burren and back both John and Clare were struck by the minimal mowing on motorway verges and how hedging was used down the central reservations. A great commitment to biodiversity.

John and Clare are now back at home and hoping a trip to Liddells tomorrow to collect the camera discs will result in evidence of new kids on the block…

What’s That Bird? answers - Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Willow Warbler

Clare and John

April 30, 2025

April - stoatally unexpected

Clare and John

April 30, 2025

This month’s two What’s That Bird? videos follow.

Please remember that to see the videos you will need to go to www.liddells.co.uk and click on ‘Blog’.

A left over from last month - a hare and a buzzard seem to contemplate each other across the path divide.

4th April

After several false starts with one of the trail cameras, videos show that the digging on the Crag has indeed been done by badgers as Clare and John suspected. Here is one in action:

5th April - 7th April

Other creatures seem curious about the activity on the Crag. The first two caught on camera are a rabbit and a fox.

While visiting a local wood John met the Land Manager who offered John 10 Aspens to plant on Liddells. He had also recently replaced a gate so John offered to give a good home to the old one. Perfect timing for the new fence on the Hayfield.

John does realise that the gate will need to be differently positioned to be fully effective.

10th - 12th April

Clare heard the first of this season’s Willow Warblers singing; the Wild Cherry is in blossom; Peacock and Orange Tip butterflies were flying around; Ruth visited in preparation for another year’s bird ringing. Spring is springing.

Two days later John took a photo of a Horse Chestnut unsticking its buds.

The Crag camera shows that there are at least two different badgers involved in the activity there. One has a light patch on its left rump. You can see that quite clearly as it crouches to mark/urinate.

14th April

The Camera in the Top Strip show the old buck in the early morning. Later the same day another mature buck with a well developed set of antlers comes through the same space. You can see how this buck, while about the same height, is nothing like as powerful an animal. Its neck shows signs of winter coat loss.

The excavations on the Crag continue to evoke interest. This time from a Red-legged Partridge.

15th April

The camera captures the tip of a stoat’s tail as the animal goes into the hole. The sighting is barely a second long so not included here. The camera did not record the stoat emerging - it may have come out further along the Crag or been too quick for the camera.

16th April

Also not included here, a pair of rabbits spent 9 minutes seemingly plucking up courage to enter the hole under the stones, then doing so, coming out and going in again. Their final decision was to leave. Probably wise.

17th April

John and Clare planted the ten Aspens; five in the Pit Wood where they can talk to Juno’s tree and five in the Top Strip where they can start a new conversation. Clare noticed an abundance of Wood Sorrel in the Scrub and a much increased patch of Wood Anemones on the Meadow. As she was carrying planting equipment at the time, she decided to return later to take photographs.

A hare adds to the Expressions of Interest on the Crag. Or perhaps it’s listening to the Willow Warbler.

19th April

Clare returned to photograph the Wood Anemones and was disconcerted to say the least, when she discovered every single flower had been eaten. There could be many culprits although Wood anemones contain toxins that can cause digestive upset, irritation, and even poisoning in animals if ingested. Pheasants will eat the flowers. Hmmm. The discovery probably accounts for how the flowers appeared as a ‘surprise’ last year. They have possibly been there all along but eaten before they have been noticed. Memo - move trail camera next Spring.

Each flower has been neatly nipped from its stem.

Clare spent some time clearing Hawthorn brash from the Meadow into the North-east strip, and decided a new brash pile was needed there. She chose to cover a tree stump which has been a bit of a trip hazard, however out of curiosity had a look under the thick covering of moss over the stump. Her curiosity was rewarded.

An insect identification app suggested these were Violet Ground Beetles, however as the colour seemed so distinctly blue/turquoise, Clare decided to send a photograph to the Royal Entomological Society’s Identification service for confirmation. Professor Jim Hardie replied, ‘The texture of the wing case indicates that this is a violet ground beetle, Carabus violaceus, rather than C. problematicus or the blue ground beetle. C. intricatus, which, as you say, would be far away from its reported range. The colouration on the edges of the wing cases and pronotum is variable between specimens and lighting condition plus camera angle.’

Good to have the problematicus resolved. There may be a case later for saying, ‘You are turning violet, Violet.’

Clare also had a quick look in the nest boxes in the North-east strip and found moss in one, a Coal Tit sitting in another and nothing in the third.

20th April

Prompted by Clare’s nest box discoveries, Clare and John decided to have their own Easter Egg hunt - they set about investigating all the nest boxes on Liddells. Initially dismayed by how few boxes were in use, they then realised that they were checking the boxes about three weeks earlier than in previous years. Today they found 9 boxes in use - 4 with moss, 3 with formed nests and 2 with eggs. One of the latter was the box Clare had inspected the day before. Today there was no bird present which suggests Clare had inadvertently interrupted a bird while it was in the process of laying eggs. She and John will conduct another survey in a few weeks’ time.

Clare also noticed more spring flowers in bloom. It was once thought that you could use Lesser Celandine to predict the weather as they close their petals before raindrops. The leaves are high in vitamin C and have been used to prevent scurvy. In Pharmacpoeia: A Dungeness Notebook, Derek Jarman refers to the celandine as the ‘messenger of the swallow,’ presumably because the flower arrives shortly before the bird. He quotes a herbal remedy which uses the plant: ‘Take gallingall, cloves, cubibs, ginger, mellilote, cardomania, maces, nutmegs, one dram. Of the juice of salandine, 8 drams. Mingle all these made in powder with the said juice and a pint of aquavit, and three pints of white wine. Put it into a stillitory of glass and the next day still it with an easy fire. This water is an excellent virtue against consumption or any other disease that proceeds from rheume, choler, or fleagme.’ (‘cubibs’ might be cubeb pepper berries; mellilot is Sweet Clover, now naturalised as a fodder crop. Galangal paste is now available in supermarkets should you wish to try the recipe.)

Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage The Woodland Trust says: ‘Opposite-leaved golden saxifrage truly lives up to its name: look for paired, rounded, green leaves with small, golden flowers set among them. The flowers themselves actually lack petals, but are surrounded by their golden sepals and yellowish leaves.’

These are Blue Tit eggs - probably not a full clutch as there is no bird sitting yet.

Lesser Celandine.
Wordsworth was such a fan of the lesser celandine, he wrote three poems about them: *The Small Celandine, To the Same Flower and To the Small Celandine.*

17th - 20th April

John and Clare had few sightings of Great Spotted Woodpeckers this year. They realised that both remaining peanut feeders had cages, making it impossible for the Woodpeckers to feed there. So, knowing the risk of attracting Grey Squirrels, they set up an uncaged peanut feeder to the east of the hide. Of course the squirrels found it very quickly, but so did Great Spotted Woodpeckers (one was captured in the first video recorded), Jays, Chaffinches, Tree Sparrows, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Coal Tits, a Dunnock (usually ground feeders however they have started to use the hanging feeders by the hide) and a Greenfinch. Well worth the squirrel risk. Here are videos of a single Jay showing how easily it extracts a peanut, a pair of Jays with Blackbird nearby (the Jays have made several visits), a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a Greenfinch and Tree Sparrows (notice the identifying black spot on the cheek). (NB the dates on the videos reflect Clare’s and John’s failure (again) to reset after putting new batteries in. 1st February = 17th April.)

Last of this group, a young buck makes a meal of the tender new Hawthorn leaves. You can see that unlike the two older bucks seen in the Top Strip, he is still fully in velvet although the scruffiness of his neck suggests he is begining to lose his winter coat.

21st April

John watched hares boxing on the Meadow yesterday so positioned one of the cameras with the hope of capturing the activity. The camera recorded quite a lot of pheasants but no boxing. The video below of four hares is rather lovely though.

22nd April

Clare completed a butterfly transect today. A disappointing result with only 2 Speckled Woods, 1 Peacock and 1 Orange Tip in view. Tim says this is often the case on Liddells in April. It was only 12° and a bit breezy so those factors will have affected the numbers around too.

More spring flowering growth in evidence - Common Dog’s Violet, Field Wood-rush, Adder’s Tongue Fern and Yellow Rattle pushing up leaves. A single Honesty plant has appeared on the north boundary - maybe more will follow; the more honesty the better. Derek Jarman again, this time on Violets - his grandmother said ‘they corrupted the air … [and] were the flower of death.’ He discovered that the Violet is the ‘third in the trinity of symbolic flowers, flower of purity, ‘Whose virtue neither the heat of the sun melted away, /Neither the rain has washed and driven away.’ He includes another reference to the Violet - ‘Nothing behind the best for smelling sweetly, a thousand more will provoke your content.’ Sweet smelling flowers are often associated with death - their pungency would have helped masked the smell of a corpse.

Clare also found evidence of more excavation below the spoil heaps near the hives. More badgers….?

Adder’s Tongue Fern (about 2-3 cms high)

20th - 27th April - synchronously this period falls in with National Mammals Week (21st - 27th April)

Clare collected the camera discs with a view to getting this Blog post ready to publish. The Crag camera videos were surprising. As anticipated there was more evidence of badgers in the area and marking the territory in front of the excavations. (When she collected the disc, Clare changed the camera angle to capture activity on the right hand side of the digging. This may show something other than badgers going past and partly entering the hole under the rock.)

You may recall the mention of a stoat’s tail appearing in a clip on 15th April. On 20th, more than a tail appears.

TrogTrogBlog Chris, who has seen the clip, suggests from the animal’s size, build and proportions, that it is a female. He pointed out that the legs are white so it is still in partial ermine. The stoat’s scientific name is Mustela erminea. ‘Some stoats turn completely or partially white in winter, particularly in northern parts of the UK where snow is more common, but the black tip on the tail always remains. The white fur is known as 'ermine' and helps the stoat blend in with snowy surroundings when hunting.’ woodlandtrust.org. No doubt the same is true of members of the House of Lords.

‘Stoats are solitary for most of the year, only coming together to breed. A litter of around 6 to 12 young, known as kits, are born in spring. The female will care for the young until they are self-sufficient at around 12 weeks. Female stoats can become pregnant just a few weeks after birth. However, a process known as delayed implantation means the young will not be born until the female has matured around nine to 10 months later.’ woodlandtrust.org

Later on 20th there is another clip of a stoat, and Clare and John both think this one is smaller than the first.

Then two stoats appear in the same clip.

Between 20th and 27th there were nearly 30 videos of stoat activity and many more when the camera could well have been triggered by a stoat but the animal has moved too fast for it to be recorded. Rabbits kept appearing and investigating the excavations, which added a bit of jeopardy. Clare was fully expecting a stoat to shoot out of the hole and attack one at any point. Stoats bite rabbits at the base of the skull to kill them. The rabbits seem to have survived so far.

Early evening on 20th and a stoat emerges, runs off and shortly there is a sound that could be a stoat’s call.

Early on 21st a stoat emerges and briefly rubs the side of its face on the ground. Clare was reminded of otters doing something similar in Chris’ TrogTrogBlog footage. Both species are Mustelids so they might share behavioural characteristics.

Two hours later a stoat comes out and stretches before moving on. Maybe it had been having a lie-in.

29th April

Ruth had her first ringing session of the year and netted 33 birds. She said ‘about half of the warblers were ringed last year so definitely returners. A linnet and 4 garden warblers (3 new).’ A good start.

John started mowing the paths for the first time this year.

Clare went up to collect the camera discs for the last time this month (nothing exciting or new on any of them), and decided to note how many different plant species were in flower. She counted 30.

They are, in walking order, Gorse, Common Dog’s Violet, Wood Sorrel, Bluebell (English), Greater Stitchwort, False Oxlip, Creeping Comfrey, Perennial Cornflower, Wild Cherry, Dandelion, Lesser Celandine, Ramsons aka Wild Garlic, Cow Parsley, Primrose, Cowslip, Bugle, Tormentil, Pear, Plum, Daisy, Narcissus, Snake’s Head Fritillary, Adder’s Tongue Fern, Honesty, Common Field-rush, Soft Rush, Ribwort Plantain, Sticky Mouse-ear, Hairy Bittercress, Cuckoo Flower.

Here is a selection of those:

Greater Stitchwort *Stellaria holostea* It has many other common names, including 'wedding cakes', 'Star-of-Bethlehem', 'daddy's-shirt-buttons' and 'snapdragon' - the latter because its stems are brittle and easily break.

This may be either Creeping Comfrey *Symphytum grandiflorum* or Soft Comfrey *Symphytum orientale* Both are now considered wildflowers though not native to the UK; they escape from cultivation and establish in waste places. On Liddells they have appeared on one of the spoil heaps. The flowers are creamy when they open.

Ramsons *Allium irsinum* This is often an indicator species for ancient woodland. Not so on Liddells, these have spread from a gift of plants a few years ago.

False Oxlip *Primula veris x vulgaris* A hybrid between Primrose and Cowslip, the flowers are deeper yellow than the true Oxlip and not one-sided.

Perennial Cornflower *Centaurea montana* Native to Europe, it has naturalised in the UK.

Snake’s Head Fritillary *Fritillaria meleagris* These flowers are past their best, however they do look particularly snaky.

What’s that Bird?

Answers: 1 - Song Thrush; 2 - Fieldfare

NB for those of you mystified by the quotation, ‘You are turning violet, Violet!’ the line comes from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.

Clare and John

March 31, 2025

March - X rated frogs and hares

Clare and John

March 31, 2025

What’s that bird?

Apologies, the answers to last month’s bird-listening challenge were missing from the end of the Blog post. They were 1. Dunnock and 2. Jackdaws

Here are this month’s two challenges. The first Clare thinks of as a bird sneezing, the second, an audio clip rather than a video, has arrived a week earlier than usual this year.

1st - 4th March

John finished maintenance and replacement work on the nest boxes. The fluorescent paint is to make it easier for Clare and John to find the boxes, not for the birds!

Luke the mole man ‘removed’ twelve moles from the Hayfield and two from the Meadow.

Clare worked on path clearing near the roadside pond and came across a patch of considerable digging activity on a spoil heap and under a Hawthorn. She wondered about badgers, however a trail camera revealed that the miners were rabbits.

Clare noticed the first patch of frogspawn of the year in the roadside pond. John worked on preparing for the new fence on the Hayfield while Clare cleared a felled Hawthorn from the Wildflower Meadow.

She also started removing some clumps of Soft Rush which had appeared in the middle section of the Hayfield.

On her way back to the top gate, Clare spotted a wild cat in the roadway.

The ‘wild cat’ is about 10 cms long, 8 cms wide and 6 cms deep. There are three holes for fixing it to something. It is possibly made of bronze and appears to have been painted black at some stage in its history. It will likely have arrived in the rubble that was delivered to make the roadway on the Hayfield.

5th March

The Pit Wood camera recorded roe deer in a grooming sequence. First the doe, mother to the triplets, starts grooming one of her doe kids, however after a few seconds the buck kid noses his way between them and the doe starts to groom him. The doe kid attempts to reconnect with the mother unsuccessfully and wanders off. The doe continues to groom the young buck, particularly around the head, for six minutes before wandering off. She returns a minute later and grooms the buck’s body, then his head again, for two minutes, at which point the buck begins to groom the doe and they groom each other for another two minutes. The deer were involved in this activity for twelve minutes in total. The doe kid might well be harbouring some sibling-based resentment. Apologies for anthropomorphism. Below you can see the start of the sequence and a clip of the mutual grooming.

March 8th - International Women’s Day

Clare decided to have a walk around Liddells. She was delighted to hear her first Chiffchaff of the year. It wasn’t making much noise and appeared to be the only one singing so maybe an early arrival.

Further on Clare heard the unmistakable ‘purring’ of frogs mating. She managed to record that from a distance however the frogs dived as soon as she came close. Clare is nothing if not persistent and eventually managed to capture the frogs on her phone camera. She had also been aware for a long time that ‘Big Pond’ is about as unimaginative a name as possible, although no new name came to her. Until today. Henceforth the pond previously known as ‘Big’ will be referred to as Pond Maggiore.

While Clare was delighted to have recorded both events, she was conscious that they were decidedly male-dominant!

The alder catkins redressed the balance somewhat with male and female catkins in flower. An owl pellet is evidence of an owl hunting successfully. The native Daffodils are now in bloom although they didn’t quite make it into flower for St David’s Day. The replacement gatepost for the new fence is in position.

Further delights - more frogspawn had appeared in the Roadside pond and newly appeared in both Pond Maggiore and the Crag pond. More Chiffchaffs were calling in the Pit Wood and Clare heard a Greenfinch as she approached the hide. Sitting in the hide Clare saw Dunnocks benefitting from seeds dropped from the hanging feeders; a Bank vole made several quick dashes onto the ground feeder; Robins, three Tree Sparrows, a Wren, Great Tits, Coal Tits, a Willow Tit, several Long-tailed Tits, a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a Goldfinch, Goldfinches and Chaffinches were all in evidence too. A Blue Tit appeared to be investigating J1 and a Tree Sparrow was doing the same with box 8.

On her way out of Liddells Clare saw a Red-tailed bumblebee queen flying around the Meadow - a decidedly female end to Clare’s visit.

9th March

John took the harrows off their pegs and flattened all the molehills on the Hayfield.

Clare had another look at the ‘wild cat’ and noticed a pair of horizontal holes drilled out below the mouth. Best guess - this was a door knocker. Not quite evidence of ancient Roman occupation but evidence of occupation nonetheless!

12th March

No boxing, these hares went straight to it.

13th March

The oldest buck anoints a tree in the Pit Wood using the scent glands beside his eye; as he approaches closer to the camera you can see the coronets - the protruding circles at the base of his antlers.

Two hours later the buck kid settles down on the path. His position is described as ‘couched’; in heraldry an animal depicted in this position is ‘couchant’ Clare was reminded of unicorn tapestries she has seen in New York and Paris.

15th March

Clare planted a bundle of Willow whips on the Wetland and in the Top Strip. She noticed that the Barn Owl box had a hole in the roof - not exactly welcoming as a nesting site.

17th March

John went to investigate the Barn Owl box to see what repairs might be needed. The box has been used far more than either John or Clare were aware - John discovered between 40 and 50 pellets inside. They were dry, therefore old, however they offered evidence that the box has been in far more frequent use as a temporary roost than either Clare or John had realised.

18th March

Clare removed more clumps of soft rush that had appeared in the middle section of the Hayfield. Each time she thought she had finished, she found more. This job will take a while. She added some variety to her work by flattening molehills on the Meadow.

John faced a more finite task and repaired two of the benches in the Story-telling Circle.

19th March

Clare did some maintenance work on the Willow Avenue, taking out dead whips and replanting with fresh ones, then adding tubes for protection. She also removed some tubes that had started deteriorating round some other planting, and substituted Hawthorn brash round the trunks - a more pleasing and ecofriendly way to protect new trees.

Local farmer George brought his post-knocker to the Hayfield and put in two gateposts and thirteen fence posts.

John heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming.

A Red-legged ~Partridge makes its way past a boulder on the Crag. It seems to be speeding through the swarm of insects.

22nd March

The oldest buck is no longer in velvet. Here you can see his antlers stripped clean.

23rd - 24th March

Clare did more work on tree protection where she had removed shredded tubes.

She found a patch of Black Witch’s Butter fungus, Exidia glandulosa, on an Oak limb. She has only ever found Witch’s Butter before, which is yellow. It seems more fitting that witch’s butter should be black. This fungus’ other common names are black jelly roll, or warty jelly fungus.

While in the Meeting Room Clare noticed that one of her ‘Nature table’ boxes was looking damp so she investigated. As soon as she lifted the lid, Beth spotted movement and a wood mouse jumped out. Clare took the box outside and found another mouse inside. They had been making their own nest from the bird’s nest Clare had kept inside. The dampness was from the mice using the box as their necessarium.

Sally came to plant a Birch she had grown; Clare planted two more Oaks that had been donated by a choir friend.

Clare helped John tighten the wire on the first section of the new fence. John devised a method using a tow rope and an old piece of pony harness. What ingenuity.

The Pit Wood camera has recorded dozens of videos of hares over the last ten days, many of them with a single hare following a scent on the ground and an equivalent number of a hare in pursuit of another. The females would seem to be in season. A male will mate with several females.

25th March

The Pit Wood camera has also picked up a Song Thrush singing - here are a pair on the ground; also a stoat running across.

29th March

The oldest buck is captured anointing and scraping - he has scent glands by his eyes and in his feet.

John restored the gate into the Top Strip and he and Clare laid out the wire ready for the next part of the new fence.

Clare set about removing damaged tubes in the Pit Wood and on the Wetland and replaced them with Hawthorn brash - much easier on the eye and, thus far, this method has proved to be effective.

Clare visited Primroseside (the banks either side of the spring stream) and was delighted to see the Primroses are coming into flower.

The gate is on the right; the section on the left awaits new rails

30th March

John prepared the next section of wire for the new fence while Clare completed her challenge to remove all the tattered trees and replace them where necessary with Hawthorn brash. While sourcing the brash she spotted (ho ho) a pair of 7 Spot Ladybirds, Coccinella septempunctata, in a crook of a branch. ‘The bright colours of ladybirds warn predators that they are distasteful, although some birds may still have a go at eating them. As well as their warning colouration, ladybirds also have another defence mechanism: when handled, they release a pungent, yellow substance from their joints (a form of 'controlled bleeding') that can stain the hands’. (wildlifetrusts.org) ‘The name ‘ladybird’ comes from Christianity in which the ‘lady’ is the Virgin Mary and the red colour of the insect is her cloak. The seven spots are her seven joys and seven sorrows.’ (woodlandtrust.org) The connection with the Virgin Mary adds nicely to seeing the insects on Mothering Sunday/Mother’s Day. Clare was reminded of the children’s rhyme ‘Ladybird, Ladybird, fly away home…’ and looking that up, she discovered that in Yorkshire the rhyme begins ‘Ladycow, ladycow,’ in Scotland it begins ‘Dowdy-cow, dowdy-cow,’ and in Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte calls the insect a ‘lady-clock’.

Every Blog post a learning oportunity!

The answers to this month’s ‘What’s That Bird?’ are Chaffinch and Chiffchaff.

Clare and John

February 28, 2025

February - return of a favourite

Clare and John

February 28, 2025

Two more ‘What’s That Bird?’ videos to challenge your bird song identification skills.

The usual reminder - to watch the videos, go to www.liddells.co.uk and click on the Blog.

Two videos from the end of last month follow. The first is a great example of the art of concealment; the second shows the Tawny Owl with its own point of view.

1st February

It is not great watching the pond being emptied of newts, however this footage of the heron and its reflection is rather compelling.

2nd February

A hare performs its ablutions for the camera.

The bare-patch buck ambles through the Scrub and its antler growth is more than last year although not as great as with the oldest buck.

A flurry of Blackbird alarm calls in the Scrub as a Sparrowhawk flies through before perching in a tree. The hare seems pretty alarmed too.

The camera in the Scrub captured several clips of one or more badgers scent-marking in the same place. What made this more interesting is that a cat left a scent mark in the same place, to be followed three minutes later by a badger. Curious to see the two different species apparently vying for territory.

3rd February

Speaking of cats - an aversion to water is one of the best known characteristics of these creatures. What a surprise to see the following video -

7th February

Dave G helped out by strimming the sites where more new trees will go. Planting day planned for 9th.

Ruth sent through some data from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), for her ringing last year. She explained that their CES (Constant Effort Sites) scheme ‘is a nationwide project to monitor population trends (survival, productivity) for a range of common breeding birds.’ Ruth thinks there are about 250 or so sites across the country. Each site involves 12 visits between the start of May and the end of August.

In total Ruth caught 337 separate individual birds (some were caught several times. Ruth thinks the record was a Chiffchaff caught 5 or 6 times over the season). There were 29 different species in her totals (that excludes the Yellow-browed Warbler, which does not count as ‘common’ for this purpose). Ruth is really pleased with her first season ringing on Liddells as are Clare and John. All look forward to this year’s ringing.

9th February

The forecast was dire so John and Clare took a cautious view and cancelled the planting. Then, of course, the weather was not dire, so John and Clare decided to go up and plant a few trees. The Oaks that had been given through the Woodland Trust were small whips, so Clare and John whipped through them and planted all twenty-five. The baked goods went into the freezer for another time.

There is a lot of mole activity on the Hayfield and Wildflower Meadow. One of the moles seems to be making a mountain out of its own molehills. The photograph doesn’t do justice to the size - the largest is at least forty centimetres high and right in the middle of the roadway.

Three pairs of Mandarins and a pair of Mallards return to the now ice-free big pond. The Mandarins seem to dominate the territory.

10th February

A vixen adds to the many animals marking territory in the Scrub.

12th February

Great excitement - while John, and Sally with her son and two of her grandchildren, were on Liddells today, a Barn Owl put in an appearance. It is the first time a Barn Owl has been seen here for quite a while. Even more thrilling, after flying to the west end of the Wetland it entered the Barn Owl box on the Oak tree there. John waited for forty minutes and it didn’t emerge. Using the box is no guarantee that the bird will choose to breed there, even if it does find a mate, however to have the owl using the box as a roost is very pleasing. John managed to capture some footage with his phone.

13th February

There have been scores of videos of badgers heading east through the Scrub, so plentiful views of badger backsides. This video, for a change, shows a badger head first and marking close to the camera.

16th February

A rearranged planting day and with the help of Jane E, Colin, Sally and Barry, 50 more trees are now in the ground: Wych Elm, Alder Buckthorn, more Purging Buckthorn and Eared Willow (the latter another gift from the Woodland Trust). It was another terrific achievement. Jane worked so hard that she had finished before Clare came round to take her photograph. In case you think John and Clare do no work at all on these days, John acted as gofer-in-chief and Clare was project manager and supplementary planter.

Sally sent photographs she had taken during the lunch/baked goods break.

Clare noticed an abundance of catkins appearing on several of the Hazels. ‘…at this time of year my flower cravings really start to itch - spring is tantalisingly close, and yet still so far away. Until then, we have catkins. These bold yellow columns of time flowers are one of nature’s best timekeepers, associated with late winter and Candlemas for centuries…Catkins appear on a number of trees, among them birch, willow and alder, but hazel (Corylus avellana) is the one that scratches my late-winter floral itch.’ (Alice Vincent, ‘On Flowers’, The Guardian 22.02.25)

19th February

John strimmed a new path through the Pit Wood, going east-west just below the hide. He also prepared the last five remaining sites for Black Poplars on the Wetland. He had hoped to see the Barn Owl again as the conditions seemed right. He collected the camera from near the Barn Owl box (no footage captured thus far) and decided to investigate the box. As he drew near an owl flew out from inside.

A kestrel has also been seen several times, hunting over the Wetland recently. Clare had noticed a while ago the profusion of small mammal holes on the Wetland. It seems she is not alone in her spotting.

Although Magpies are very common, John and Clare don’t often see them on Liddells, although they are heard there. Here is one in the Scrub. Anyone who has enjoyed Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals will recognise the caption.

21st - 24th February

Three videos showed a Woodcock in the Pit Wood on different occasions. The woodcock's diet is made up of invertebrates. It eats spiders, earthworms, beetles and snails, in search of which it wanders the woodland floor. All the videos illustrated this perfectly. Here is one of the videos where the bird also makes some curious jumps. It is not clear why.

On 21st the Scrub camera recorded three badger movements away from the camera within the space of two minutes. This clearly suggests three badgers.

On the same night in the Pit Wood, the camera captured the old buck anointing. It is the first roe territory marking captured this year.

Clare and John planted the last of the trees - ten Black Poplars on the Wetland near the base of the Crag and in the Stank. In total there are now 134 more trees on Liddells than there were at the end of last year. The quick-witted among you will see that the list records 133 trees, the 134th is a donated Oak. To give you some idea of how the planting has made a difference, below is a view of the east end of the Hayfield now. Imagine it in fifty years time…

On her way to the planting site Clare noticed new patches of Soft Rush in the middle of the Hayfield. She decided to start removing them. 20 clumps later and with over a dozen left to go, she took a walk to see how the Snowdrops are faring this year. She was delighted to find that in every place where she had planted half a dozen or so bulbs over the last few years, the plants are clumping up beautifully. The ones beneath the Hawthorns on the Meadow even seem to be making their own rings round the trees. Clare has been waiting for the flowers to emerge so she can include a letter she saw in The Guardian in January. While the epithet nivalis is derived from the Latin, meaning "of the snow", the writer is probably referring to how the word "Snowdrop" may be derived from the German Schneetropfen (snow-drop), the tear drop shaped pearl earrings popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

On the way to the Pit Wood snowdrops Clare walked through the Orchard and realised there was a hare lying in the sunshine very close to where she was walking. Unusually it didn’t move when she took a photograph and only ran off a few moments later. Clare measured the distance between where she had been standing and the hare lying and it was at most four yards.

The delight of the encounter more than made up for Clare’s frustration on discovering that mice had made a meal of the bellows part of her smoker in the bee shed.

26th February

John began the annual nesting box check, cleaning out used ones and noting which needed maintenance or replacement. On the way round he saw two Woodcock, one in the Scrub and one on the west side of the Pit Wood. Clare noted that with all the sightings, in person or on the trail cameras, there has been no Woodcock ever heard on Liddells. They have a distinctive call. You can listen to a recording on the RSPB website here. Clare will continue to hope…

27th February

Clare completed the nest box update and tried out John’s new path. It works perfectly. A bright piece of Yellow Brain fungus (Tremella mesenterica) on gorse, caught her eye. ‘Mesenterica’ comes from Ancient Greek for middle intestine. The plant neatly takes us to the idea of the gut brain. Also known as Witches’ Butter, and therefore the frilly sign of a witch’s curse, the fungus is parasitic and feeds on fungi that feed on dead wood. This food chain reminded Clare of the poem ‘Siphonaptera’ by Augustus de Morgan:

‘Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.
And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on;
While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on.’

28th February

The Horse Chestnuts are ahead of tomorrow’s start of the meteorological spring.

Clare and John

January 31, 2025

January 2025 - new year, new planting

Clare and John

January 31, 2025

John and Clare wish you all well for 2025. To see the best of this Blog post, go to www.liddells.co.uk and click on the Blog page, where you will see all the video footage included.

What’s that bird? 1

What’s that bird? 2 (the same two species from What’s that Bird? 1 are joined by a third. What is it?)

31st December

A cat making its way slowly through the bad weather, is the last wildlife to make it on to the cameras in 2024. Last footing the old year maybe.

1st January

A pair of hares start the year with what looks like preliminary mating behaviour. Or maybe they are first footing Liddells.

2nd January

Clare went to retrieve the camera discs and was delighted to see five Bullfinches near the spoil heaps. These two were close enough for a phone camera and looked gorgeous against the blue sky.

3rd January

Two of the Mandarin ducks put in an appearance for the camera though they seem a bit bewildered by the ice on the pond.

4th January

Clare went to fill up all the feeders ahead of the forecast snow. It was frosty and the grass resembled miniature frozen forests; or it did in Clare’s imagination.

6th January

A Woodcock forages for invertebrates in the snow.

8th January

It is always a delight to see a hare, even better to see two. Joy is unconfined when there are three. This trio seems to be playing Follow the Leader through the Scrub.

9th January

John and Clare visited Liddells for the first time since the snow’s arrival. Several inches of had fallen.

Clare and John were puzzled to find several smallish patches of bare ground in the snow. The patches didn’t seem to correspond to animal shapes and animals would probably take shelter in the woodland areas where to snow wasn’t so deep. They remain a mystery. Less mysterious was the copious evidence of animal excreta which showed up clearly on the snow’s surface. (The bare patches were far larger than could be accounted for by urine melting the snow.)

John noticed a tree stump behind the bird feeders which was covered in a fungus. The fungus extended along the tree root. Clare is fairly certain this is Crimped Gill fungus. It is the right time of year for it to be seen; it is on a birch stump; although the fungus is not deeply crimped, it resembles many photographs of the fungus available online. The article linked above notes that before this century, this fungus was virtually unknown outside Scotland, and that since 2010 in particular, its range has increased dramatically ‘for reasons that remain mysterious’.

The Scrub camera captured a stoat out hunting in the afternoon. This one is not in ermine.

11th January

No letting up on the snow front. Clare arrived to fill the feeders and check the cameras. The top gate was covered in hoar frost and the lock impenetrable. Hoar frost on holly leaves produced complementary spikes and enhanced the silver of the Silver Birches. Hoar frost is a type of feathery frost that forms as a result of specific climatic conditions. The word 'hoar' comes from Middle English, hor(e) meaning grey- or white-haired and refers to the old age appearance of the frost: the way the ice crystals form makes it look like white hair or a beard.

At least eight Long-tailed tits came to the feeders, the most seen on Liddells for months; the Robins were all puffed up to hold air cushions round their bodies. Walking near the bottom of the stream from the spring Clare spotted an ice bridge that had formed over the flow like a horizontal icicle.

12th January

A stoat skitters over the ice of the Big Pond. A fox in its thick winter coat goes through the Scrub. Also in the Scrub the big buck pauses, maybe to listen to the Blue Tit or maybe to show his splendid antler growth to the camera. You can see the antlers have begun to branch.

13th January

The next video shows all the tracks in the snow which Clare noticed going over the Point of View steps. She set up a camera to capture the movement, however she forgot to remove any potential wavy growth in front of the camera. As it was quite windy after the camera was in place, there was considerable footage of brambles and grasses being blown about though no animals appeared. The following video is quite noisy, so turn your volume down, however it does show the prevailing conditions, depth of snow and it gives a sense of how many creatures have been using the steps.

The youngest buck goes past the camera in the Scrub and reveals a bare patch on its flank. It is a mystery as to what caused the patch. There is no obvious sign of injury. You can see how much less snow there is in the Scrub.

14th January

What a difference a day makes. 24 hours later the snow is gone. Several animals have crossed in front of the steps however none have, as yet, been recorded using them and this hare is no exception.

A second coming? A Mandarin duck has returned to the Big Pond. If you turn up the volume you can hear its thin, whistling call. The second video shows the duck apparently walking on water. The real, and less miraculous explanation, is the layer of ice remaining below the surface.

In the Scrub a pair of hares are captured running round a Hawthorn; if they were roe deer, this behaviour would be described as ‘driving.’ In deer driving precedes mating. The breeding season for hares is recorded as from February to September so this ‘driving’ could well be a forerunner (ho ho) of mating.

15th January

At last, a pair of hares oblige and mount the Point of View steps. Hares on stairs.

17th - 20th January

With the improvement in the weather John and Clare set about deciding on the remaining planting sites for the new trees. They hammered in colour coded stakes to make the work easier for the friends/volunteers they hope will come and help. Further preparation for the planting will involve the provision of baked goods. Clare is on to it. John and Clare have decided to extend the planted area on the Top Grazing. Every year there is some loss of, or damage to, planting due to the sheep, so fencing off the planted area will protect it. They arranged for a fencer to measure up and provide a quote.

Clare was distracted by lichen on the roadway wall. The colours and patterns reminded her of oxide glazes and raku firing - not at all influenced by watching The Great Pottery Throw Down of course. A bit of investigation reveals that the pale grey specimen on the left, with rounded lobes, is most likely to be Common Greenshield Lichen (Flavoparmelia caperata). The white patches in the middle photo could be Diplotomma alboatrum. No info as yet on the purple lichen. They are all saxicolous lichens, that is lichens that grow on rock. The prefix "sax" from the Latin saxum means "rock" or "stone".

Two pairs of Mandarins hold a skating party. There were several video clips over a few minutes, so John has stitched a few together. A Heron flies in to a corner of the pond that is ice free. A Mallard drake seems reluctant to try its hand (feet?) at skating.

21st January

The estimate for the fencing was rather more than John and Clare had bargained for so plans are afoot to recruit help to DIY the task.

A pair of Mallards enjoy swimming now the ice has thawed.

24th January

Braving the strong winds, John and Clare made a start on tree planting with five Alders near the hide. These five joined some Blue Peter Alders, ie ones John and Clare had prepared/planted earlier, which are thriving in this situation.

Clare decided to retrieve the camera from the Point of View steps as not many creatures were using them. She was surprised to find she wasn’t the only one with an interest in the steps.

The owl appeared again three nights later, so Clare has replaced the camera at a more owl-capturing height. Ignore the dates on the video clips, which were filmed on 17th and 20th January.

25th January

The storm had mostly died down and the sun was out. Four friends came to help tackle tree planting. John and Clare had planned on planting 23 trees. Such was the enthusiasm, good will and hard work of the group, 43 are now in the ground. 10 Hornbeams, 10 Large-leaved lime and 3 Poplars on the rough area of the Hayfield; 5 Alders and 10 Dogwood north of the Pit Wood; 5 Purging Buckthorn along the south edge of the Scrub. Clare thinks it was all thanks to the cake and shortbread she provided. Only 81 trees left, 50 of which are yet to be delivered. John and Clare will set about preparing more sites, strimming where the trees are to go and hammering in colour-coded stakes.

There are four planters at work here, though one is camouflaged. Can you spot them all?

Clare spotted another artistic fungus/lichen creation on the end of a log. The fungus at the base looks like Turkey-tail.

26th January

Lots of rain today, perfect for the new trees.

Beyond the hare in the background of the following clip, you can just make out the large buck pushing what is probably a younger one around. It is the kind of action often associated with the rut, however this is probably the older animal asserting his territorial rights.

29th - 30th January

Clare went up to retrieve the discs before the end of the month and was dismayed to see a dead hare by the spoil heaps. Corvids are probably responsible for taking the eyes, however although there is a lot of fur lying around, the carcass has not been eaten.

John discovered that last week’s storm had decapitated one of the conifers in the Top Strip. Apart from that, there has been no significant damage.

No significant damage that is unless you are a newt or a frog. The camera on the pond captured the heron hunting over a twelve minute period. It caught at least three, what look to be newts, during this time.

If any readers have been watching the current season of BBC’s Winterwatch, you may have seen the otters captured on trail cameras in Gosforth Park, featured on Thursday 23rd January. Chris Wren, who has set up the cameras and appears in the episode, is our oft referred to TrogTrogBlog Chris. He is a loyal supporter of Liddells and the Blog. You can find one of his own Blogs here.

What’s that bird? 1. Robin and Redwing

What’s that bird? 2. Robin, Redwing and Buzzard

Clare and John

December 31, 2024

December - ‘nearer to Spring’

Clare and John

December 31, 2024

Liddells has been quiet this month so this Blog post is mainly video footage. A reminder that to see the videos, you will have to visit www.liddells.co.uk and click on the Blog.

This month’s title quotation comes from the poem “Hope” by Oliver Herford, an Anglo-American writer.

I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December,
A magical thing,
And sweet to remember:
"We are nearer to spring
Than we were in September."

It seems appropriate to follow those lines with:

What’s that bird?

1st December

John and Clare set about cleaning tree protection tubes ready for reuse. They are pleased that apart from the 100 small tubes for hedgerow whips several years ago, they have bought no new tubes at all. With donations and recycling they still have enough for the new trees next year.

Clare noticed Woodcock feathers scattered on the bottom roadway. They may be from the fox’s visit last month. The feathers are rather beautiful, the implications not.

6th December

A Tawny owl appears in the rain in the Pit Wood. In the first video it is almost motionless; ten minutes later it is still there and there have been no interim videos triggered by movement. The bird then seems to have a flurry before settling in almost the same place. As it is on the ground, it may have been captured after a kill.

A Ring-necked or Common pheasant demonstrates one of the plumage variations that can occur in this species - this one has white eyebrows and feathers on the sides of its head. The white eyebrows and feathers form horn-like or ear-like tufts.

9th December

Clare’s first thought on seeing the following video was that the Jay might be ahead of itself in preparing for Spring. A more plausible and likely explanation is that the bird is pecking for insects in the moss on the tree bark.

10th December

Last month’s Blog post included a video showing how the hairs of a roe deer’s caudal patch are erect when the animal is alarmed. Below a video shows how quickly the patch can return to normal afterwards.

12th December

Unwieldy bouquets are delivered to John and Clare’s house - the new trees have arrived.

The trail camera in the Scrub is the one which usually picks up footage of a fox; this time the fox appears in the Pit Wood and seems to check out the camera.

14th December

Clare finds a roe deer’s squeaking rather an unlikely sound for such an animal and she is drawn to footage that confirms that the sound really does belong with the deer. Here the link between sound and doe is incontrovertible. The cause of the alarm is most probably shooting on neighbouring land.

14th - 19th December

Bud growth and there a sample of the substantial amount of gorse in flower. Long-standing readers of the Blog will know that this latter means that kissing is in fashion.

The doe, her triplets and the oldest buck, probably the father of the triplets, go past the camera in the Pit Wood. It is not that usual to see the whole family together.

20th December

While the hares below do not actually box, they seem to be preparing to do so. Hares can be seen boxing at any time of year although it is most frequently seen in the Spring.

A trio of stoat videos next, captured on different days, maybe the same stoat each time. All three show how fast they move. In the second a stoat is running round in circles, maybe chasing a mouse or vole, the last shows a stoat apparently making a quick exit stage left. The Woodland Trust says that stoats are widespread and thought to be common, but there is a lack of reliable evidence on their numbers. The loss of hedgerows and a decline in the rabbit population are factors that may have a negative impact on the species. Good to see they have a presence on Liddells.

27th December

John has spent several sessions making good after the sheep - they always push over a few tube and stakes - and preparing areas ready for planting the new trees. Today he saw a Woodcock in the Scrub. It is good to know at least one bird has survived. Ruth and her son went in the evening in the hope of netting and ringing some of the more nocturnal birds such as a Woodcock. They had no luck on that front but did see half a dozen Mandarin ducks on the big pond. Clare will move a camera in the hope of capturing some footage.

The handful of subsequent videos, a rather crude version of time lapse photography, show the rate of antler growth in the bucks this month. In the final video the velvet covering the new antlers is very clear.

31st December

Clare braved the gales and rain to collect the trail camera discs in the hope of some last minute footage for this post. There was a considerable amount of footage of wavy branches, lots of clips of hares in the Pit Wood however no ducks on the Big Pond. John and Clare hope the Mandarins will return and if they do, they will appear in the next post.

Until then thank you to all Blog readers for your interest and support and may you have many delightful encounters with the natural world in 2025.

What’s that bird?

The Jay is accompanied by a Long-tailed tit; the second video features the aggressive calls of a Goldfinch.