1st April
Clare is pleased with her choice of a different site for one of the trail cameras. The hares are the first to appear in the footage.
3rd April
The Blackthorn is at last in blossom by the hives.
Clare was delighted to see not only a flock of fieldfares behind the hives today, but a Lesser Redpoll and a Siskin on the nyjer seed feeders at the hide. These latter two species have been noticeable by their absence from Liddells for many months. The partridge pair were on the Wetland.
John completed a side on the log shed and Clare set about weeding the steps up to the Point of View.
The male heron appears to be indulging in open water swimming.
4th April
The trail camera records deer in early morning snow. The big buck is captured scraping vigorously at the ground again, however this time he is making a couch. Having made his bed, he is seen lying on it later.
The male heron seems to be viewing the morning snow on the Crag.
Titmice seem to be attempting to use one of the trail cameras as a nesting site.
There were two Siskins on the feeders today, a male and a female.
7th April
The big buck is still marking his territory, this time near where the younger buck was captured in footage three days earlier.
Clare was delighted that she trusted her hunch and went to Primroseside in the Pit Wood. The primroses were out in abundance. She also found a patch of Opposite-leaved golden saxifrage in the Pit Wood that she had not noticed before. Read more about it here.
8th April
No disrespect to pheasants, however they don’t seem to manifest many signs of high intelligence.
9th April
Siskins are on the feeders daily now, though the Redpoll hasn’t been seen again. There is moss in boxes 2, 3 and J1 (Juno’s first box).
Today seemed to be tadpole hatching day on Liddells and there were clusters of what looked to be hundreds of tadpoles emerging in the Roadside and the Big ponds.
Tim and Jane kindly donated two Alder Buckthorn whips which Clare planted on the damp edge to the glade in the Pit Wood. Tim and Jane chose this species to replace trees damaged in their garden by Storm Arwen. The trees are a favourite of the Brimstone butterfly. Tim and Jane hope that with their trees and the ones on Liddells, there could be a local Brimstone corridor. Read more about the Alder Buckthon here.
Clare moved one of the trail cameras to below the hide in the Pit Wood and was delighted to see several clips of hares and deer. One of the clips shows a doe couching.
10th April
As well as a pair of Siskins, there were three Tree Sparrows around the feeders. John spent time there with his camera.
While Clare and John remain delighted at the diversity of species appearing on Liddells, it is noticeable that bird numbers, apart from the titmice, are dropping. This is in line with national, indeed global records, and dismaying.
Clare finished weeding the Point of View steps.
John thinks he may have found a form on the Wetland. Clare has set up her pop-up hide to see if she can verify this.
Clare and John watched the older doe, younger doe and young buck, and a hare all on the Top Grazing at the same time this afternoon.
Tree sparrow - note the chestnut head and black cheek spot, which differentiate it from the House sparrow
Very red-breasted Robin
Dunnock
Male Siskin with seed in its beak
Male and female Siskin
Bold Bluetit sticking its neck out
Looking in…
…and looking out
13th April
The Willow warblers are back and Clare has heard Blackcaps singing. She saw a flock of eight Tree sparrows near the feeders, which was encouraging after the comment about numbers dropping.
The herons have not been seen so often on the pond camera, perhaps because they have eaten all the frogs, however this one is successful in finding food. (PS no more herons appeared this month on the trail camera after today.)
Clare spent a couple of evenings in her pop-up hide and saw no evidence of hares near what might be a form, however she saw six deer the first evening (more than Clare and John thought were regulars on Liddells), two on the second, three hares on the first and one on the second evening, and on the second evening watched a Willow Warbler working the territory just in front of the hide for about fifteen minutes, while a Marsh tit was almost close enough to touch in a hawthorn next to her hide.
16th April
Another otter on one of the trail cameras! The camera is pointing west along a path that follows what might well have in the past been the route of a stream, and joins up with the stream from the spring. Following a suggestion from Chris (TrogTrogBlog), Clare has logged this and the earlier sighting with theotternetwork.co.uk which surveys otters in the north-east.
18th April
Spring flowers are emerging - Clare and Pat saw Primroses, Cowslips, Violets, Wild strawberries and Wood anemone in flower today. The Wood anemones are a new discovery and were close to the Opposite-leaved golden saxifrage, so they might all have appeared since more light was let into that part of the Pit Wood.
Clare and Pat also saw a Great Spotted woodpecker, five Siskins and a Redpoll among the birds visiting the feeders.
John fixed the roof on to the new log shed.
A fox decides not to proceed, probably because of the red light on the trail camera.
20th April
Snake’s head fritillary are out on the Wildflower meadow and Clare is particularly pleased because she grew some of them from seed she had collected.
Clare went to photograph the Wood anemones in the Pit Wood only to find that they had vanished. This evening, browsing through a new book John is reading, about a Frenchman who spent seven years immersing himself in nature and living with wild roe deer, Clare read that ‘[h]ighly poisonous to other herbivores, wood anemones are eaten in large quantities by roe deer in the spring. Since they have no gall bladder, the toxin has no effect on them, apart from preventing certain illnesses’. So there may not be any more of these flowers on Liddells. Clare wonders if this has been the fate of the Winter aconite too.
21st April
A pair of mallards are captured mating again on the trail camera - they appear to be in a bit of a spin.
22nd April
The young buck and one of the young does take refreshment by the pond. Later the young buck appears on the second camera and a closer view shows that he is now in tatters.
23rd April
Clare heard a warbler singing and began her annual is-it-a-Blackcap-or-a-Garden-warbler challenge. She decided it was a Blackcap whereupon the bird, which was indeed a Blackcap, flew onto the gorse in front of her. As if by way of reward.
25th April
One of the pleasures of moving the trail cameras to different sites is discovering how many of the creatures on Liddells cover so much of the area. Here a Jay appears, as do the Partridge pair and a badger. As with the fox a few days earlier, the badger seems to be suspicious of the red light on the camera and changes route.
27th - 29th April
Dave has begun bringing logs from the Top Strip and the Orchard to the log shed where they can be stacked and dried.
Clare checked the hives again and discovered that one of them had eight frames of capped brood, which leaves the bees very little space for stores and more brood, and can prompt them to swarm. Clare quickly added a super and crossed all available digits.
The young buck’s winter coat is beginning to go.
30th April
One of the young does is losing her winter coat.
A last hare of the month (Clare and John saw two on the Top Grazing while on Liddells today). For a while now Clare and John have seen at least one hare on every visit, and more often that not, two or three.
To end the month and celebrate spring, John has taken a photograph of cherry blossom in the Top Strip. Enjoy the hanami.