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.
Hazel catkins
Winter Aconite leaves
Finding its own site
‘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.