August 31, 2025

August - adopting ‘an antic disposition’*

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

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

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.

Clare and John

November 30, 2024

November - a visit from a royal beast

Clare and John

November 30, 2024

Below are two more ‘What’s that bird?’ challenges (answers at the end of this post). You will have to go to the Blog page of the website www.liddells.co.uk to see the videos in the blogpost as they will not be included in the email.

1st November

The sheep left last evening, presumably to trick or treat somewhere else, maybe that is what the fox is doing too.

The trail camera footage from the Crag features mostly a single mouse running around, however on this clip there are two mice; this seemed worthy of inclusion.

4th November

A hare decides that right in front of the camera is a good place for a wash and brush-up. It’s cleaning routine lasts 6 minutes in all.

5th November

Here a doe and a kid show how they are now in their chocolatey-brown winter coats.

6th November

Stoats have been seen on Liddells several times, most often in the Scrub. There has never been one seen on the Crag before. Maybe it is after the meeces.

8th November

Last year, footage from the Scrub trail camera revealed that Woodcock had a presence there throughout the year, whereas John and Clare had thought the birds were only winter visitors. Some, however do arrive for the winter. The British Trust for Ornithology says, ‘In winter there is a strong arrival of Woodcock from the Continent, thought to increase numbers in Britain & Ireland five-fold. Recent ringing and tracking studies have shown that some individuals originate from quite far east. Areas of highest abundance in winter are in North Ireland and north-west Scotland.’

The pair of birds in the two video below look as if they might have just arrived, slightly dazed and uncertain. Or maybe that’s just how Woodcock look. Countryside folklore suggested that Woodcock arrive on the first full moon in November. These two are a week ahead of the next full moon on 15th November.

9th November

In the video below you can see how the hair on roe deer’s caudal patch is erect when the animal is alarmed, creating a much larger and whiter patch. It is more apparent here in the larger doe than in the buck kid. Deer are woodland animals and John says that the large white patch acts as a flag to other deer as it can be seen through trees and Scrub.

11th November

Dismayingly, it seems as though a fox has taken one of the Woodcock. The video is not clear, however the beak length of the captured bird suggests it is a Woodcock. The fox has clearly not read ‘the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981’ where the Woodcock ‘is listed as a Red species under the Birds of Conservation Concern 5: the Red List for Birds’.

This video is showing more false rutting behaviour. As with the clip last month, you can see the vigour with which the buck treats the sapling. Although at this distance it is not possible to be certain, this looks like the middle-sized buck who first appeared on Liddells recently.

15th November

Rachel P, a friend who works for the Woodland Trust, visited Liddells today and was generous with her thoughts and ideas about Liddells, as well as with the offer of some trees, tree guards and stakes. People have often asked if the Crag is part of the Whin Sill. The Whin Sill is one of the special geological features of the North Pennines and forms some of the area’s most dramatic landscapes. Read more about it here. The Crag is sandstone and not part of the Whin Sill, however Rachel showed John and Clare part of a geology map that revealed that the Whin Sill is part of Liddells and crosses diagonally in the north-west corner. It is not apparent overground, however John and Clare are pleased to finally know that this iconic landscape feature is part of Liddells after all.

Rachel alerted Clare and John to how Beech regeneration, particularly with Ash dieback, could lead to a monoculture. Attractive though Beech is, very little will grow below it. There is already substantial Beech regeneration in the north-west corner of the Pit Wood and at the top of the Scrub. John and Clare will need to reduce this.

Rachel confirmed that four of the plant species that appear on Liddells, Wood Sorrel, Hard Fern, Golden Saxifrage and Wood Rush are all Ancient Woodland Indicators, suggesting that woodland on Liddells is older than John and Clare have previously thought.

Rachel spotted some Common Puffballs on the path in the Top Strip. They ‘are typically found in broad-leaved woodlands but may also occur with conifers’; both types of tree are in the Top Strip. While the puffballs are at the end of their life, the Hazels are busy producing catkins for the Spring.

18th November

A surprise appearance in the Scrub - a unicorn pauses in front of the camera!

John identified this as the murder buck and it has shed one of its antlers. Roe deer shed their antlers late November - December and start regrowing them immediately. (The ‘unicorn’ appears again on camera in the Pit Wood on 28th with the remaining antler intact.)

23rd November

Clare and John awoke to snow lying and falling quite heavily, however it all quickly turned to rain. By the time they reached Liddells there wasn’t enough for a Christmas card image. Clare was amused by the handful left in the pond net, by a snow-capped camera and by evidence that a pheasant had tried skating on thin ice.

25th November

A buzzard catches something in the Pit Wood, though it is not clear what.

26th November

Two avian oddities: a Woodcock behaves strangely in the Scrub. It looks as though it is displaying, however it is the wrong time of year for that. It may be threatening and attempting to take on an animal such as a stoat. John and Clare are pleased to see that one Woodcock has survived thus far though of course it would be better to have a pair.

Then a leucistic Pheasant appears in the Pit Wood. Leucisim is a genetic mutation that causes loss of pigment in feathers so the bird looks washed out. Of course it may feel washed out. The words ‘leucism’ and ‘leucistic’ are derived from the stem leuc- + -ism/-istic, from Latin leuco- in turn derived from Greek leukos meaning white.

28th November

The doe and triplets still appear together as a family group even though they also go their separate ways at times.

What’s that bird? The first video features a Blackbird and a Robin, the second a Willow tit (the rather nasal sound).

Clare and John

August 31, 2024

August - season finale

Clare and John

August 31, 2024

Apparently August is known as ‘sere month’. Although Clare knew the word ‘sere’ meaning dry or withered (see Macbeth: ‘My way of life Is fall’n into the sere, the yellow leaf’), she first came across the phrase ‘sere month’ through the solution to a cryptic crossword clue. John said that he did not know the answer ‘sere’ and when Clare looked up the definition to show him, the phrase ‘sere month’ was included. The clue was ‘Issue drinks, perhaps not very dry,’

If you are new to the Blog, go to www.liddells.co.uk and click on the Blog page to see all the video footage from this month. It is most unlikely to be included in your email.

First some left over videos from the end of July. The first two clips from the camera near the Dirty Dancing Bridge have helped to distinguish between two of the does. The first doe has a much thinner caudal patch than the second, which is a far more distinct kidney shape. The third video shows the rut continuing in the Scrub with the old buck driving a doe. You can hear her squeaking.

1st August

With the relief of the hay-making behind them, John and Clare continued their preparations for the Open Weekend, working on paths, weeding inside tree cages and devising signs to help visitors navigate and enjoy the site.

Meanwhile the trail cameras have captured a fox in the Scrub and the doe with her triplets near the Dirty Dancing Bridge.

2nd August

John started building a platform for the bench David O had made for the Point of View.

Good to consider all angles in any point of view

3rd August

The bench is complete and a fine place to sit.

Providing a platform for a point of view

A Small Tortoiseshell basking on a stone nearby - thankfully a few more butterflies are beginning to emerge

Always important to consider contrary points of view

Clare has withdrawn injured and frustrated. Weeding, scything, sickling, carrying stones and chip have proved too much for her back. She is forbidden strenuous activity so is at home making signage for the coming weekend and catching up with the camera discs.

One of the cameras records the best footage of bats yet - some compensation.

5th August

A badger makes slow, investigative progress through the Scrub just after midnight and a doe suckles her twins in the early morning.

John photographed one of the juvenile robins near the hide. It has become a Robin Redbreast.

7th August

The triplets move in and out of sync in the Scrub.

8th - 9th August

A couple of clips demonstrating a kid feeping. In the second you can see the abdomen moving to make the sound.

There was also evidence of more rutting activity near the Dirty Dancing Bridge, however the footage wasn’t brilliant, so it is not included here.

Clare was back on light duties. She was struck by the autumnal colour palette in this young Chaffinch’s plumage.

10th - 11th August

The weather gods were kind and the sun shone for the Open Days. John and Clare welcomed nearly 70 visitors, all of whom seemed to enjoy themselves. Many partook in the activities on offer (some illustrated below), most wandered around at their own pace and some simply enjoyed the scenery and company. Everyone came with great generosity of spirit and of purse and talked of how lovely it was to be able to be in, and to engage with, nature. There were sightings of deer, a hare, more butterflies in a day than have been seen thus far this year, dragonflies and damselflies, and although not as many birds as usual (the birds would have been sheltering from the heat and also there was more disturbance than usual at the hide), Susie W saw a Spotted Flycatcher on one of the Hawthorns in front of the hide. Clare was particularly pleased to hear this as she hadn’t noticed any this year. Susie also heard a Redstart calling.

As she walked around at the end of Sunday, Clare noticed one of the Alders on the Wetland has begun to produce next year’s catkins.

John and Clare decided to extend the delights of the weekend with a stay in the shepherd’s hut. The sunset was a rich reward.

12th August

A glorious start to the Glorious Twelfth - John and Clare had a gentle early morning stroll round Liddells. They noticed small flocks of Willow Warblers and Goldfinches, Guelder Rose berries and Branched Burr-reed that they had been too busy to see before, and two male Common Hawkers on the Big Pond, however more delights awaited at the hide. Two Bank voles were scurrying around all the time John and Clare were there and just as Clare decided that the Spotted Flycatchers weren’t going to show, two turned up. On the way back to the Hayfield John and Clare saw Wrens, a pair of Bullfinches, Siskins, more Goldfinches and Willow Warblers; then, as they walked up and out of the Scrub, three or four more Spotted Flycatchers put in an appearance. Cherries on top of the icing on the cake.

Trail camera footage shows a kid pausing as if to listen to the Willow Warbler that is still around and singing. This kid shows how much it has grown and that it still has its spots. Later the same day that one of the kids seems to be developing an anal tush, marking her out as a doe.

13th August

Tom cut the Wildflower meadow today. Unfortunately he no longer has access to a small square baler so the hay will have to be raked up and disposed of in some way.

14th August

Ruth conducted her penultimate ringing session of the season. She reported a good session with a total of 42 birds. The highlights were an adult Spotted Flycatcher and a juvenile Whitethroat. (Clare learned recently that there are many country names for the Whitethroat, ranging from Nettle Creeper to Beardie and Hay Jack. though in this instance Net Creeper might be a more fitting name.) Ruth also recaught the Willow Tit she had ringed in the winter. There were plenty of Blackbirds, Blackcaps and Willow Warblers too. Ruth said that it is hard to know whether all the birds have bred on site this year, however ‘after fledging a lot of birds tend to flock and become quite mobile, they’ll go where there is good feeding. And the warblers will be gearing up for migration, it’s possible some of the Willow Warblers are moving down gradually from the north.’ Ruth once again demonstrates what an asset she is to Liddells and to Clare’s and John’s ongoing education.

The hares are enjoying the shade from the bales on the Hayfield.

18th August

John’s turn for some impromptu shepherding. When John and Clare arrived today they could see two sheep near the bottom gate. The sheep had jumped the wall to get in.

There are several Common Hawkers around the Big Pond. Common Darters are more obliging by keeping still for a a short while. Here is a male basking on one of the treads in the Alphabet Bridge.

Clare and John discovered that defeated by the wires now securing the lids to the seed feeders, the squirrels are going straight to the source of the food. Clare and John were greeted by the following sights when they went to the hide today.

Their frustration was, however, offset by some delightful sights.

Later in the day the oldest doe goes through the Scrub, closely followed by her feeping triplets. Kids are appearing fairly regularly on the trail camera footage however it isn’t always possible to know whether they are the singleton, the twins or the triplets as they are all becoming more independent.

19th August

Juno learned the word ‘dendrologist’, and set about investigating one of the slices of wood in the log shed. Clare and John indulged in a bit of child labour exploitation and managed to fill a dumpy with hay that they will be able to give to Barry for his goats.

20th August

John had his camera with him at the hide and managed to capture footage of a Spotted Flycatcher and of a squirrel. Clare thinks the squirrel looks decidedly smug. In retrospect she thinks it was planning its bungee jump.

21st August - 26th August

Barry R took the hay off the Hayfield on 21st. Happily, the hares that habitually use the bales as shelter have not abandoned the area and Clare and Juno saw five when they arrived. Here are a pair John photographed.

Clare noticed a patch of Harebells under the roadside beech trees. The plant thrives on dry undisturbed soil and the beeches provide exactly that. Clare has tried to establish this species from seed in the past though with no success. There have been a couple of flowers in previous years, however it seems as though they have increased in number this year. In Scotland, the harebell is sometimes known as the 'bluebell'; elsewhere, it has picked up various local names, including 'witches' thimbles' and 'fairy bells', alluding to magical associations - people believed that witches used juices squeezed from this flower to transform themselves into hares. The more prosaic reason for the flower’s name is that it grows in places frequented by hares.

The squirrels had inevitably made short shrift of one of the bungees on the feed bins. Smugness will be short lived. Metal chains are on the shopping list.

John continued working on the new fence post and strainers. The work will involve rerouting the old fence so the job keeps growing. Meanwhile Clare set about raking more meadow hay into rows ready for disposal. She filled another dumpy, however the rest was thrown in the North-East Strip into one of the old pits. It seems a shame to waste the hay, however leaving it on the ground would ultimately enrich the soil, the very opposite of what is needed for a wildflower meadow. It is hard for the photos to give a sense of the depth of the pit and Clare lost count of the number of trailer loads after the thirteenth. It was a lot.

As Clare and John worked over the Bank Holiday weekend, they decided that while most people have high days and holidays, they have hay days and no holidays. They took breaks in the hide and were pleased to see two and occasionally three bank voles feeding from spilt bird seed. On the Monday John and Clare noticed there were no voles in view. Clare decided it was because it was a Monday Bank Vole Holiday. They were both pleased to see and hear Willow Tits, which were particularly vocal. They completed the hay task, creating an inverted haystack, stackhay? in the pit.

Two plant species still in flower are Marsh and Hedge Woundwort. Both have an unpleasant astringent smell, however both were used to promote the healing of wounds.

25th August - 27th August

Trail camera clips. The triplets reveal themselves to be two does and a buck. For new readers of the Blog, sexing roe deer is from the caudal patch - the creamy coloured kidney shaped patch on the rear. Does have a downward pointing anal tush of hairs at the lower edge of this.

An unusual sight - two does and one kid. The kid is probably the singleton born to the youngest doe. This doe is often captured on camera grooming her kid.

A young buck pursues the triplets and the old buck seems to be evidencing late rutting behaviour in the Scrub. Note the difference in antler conformation between the two bucks.

28th August

Ruth ended her ringing season ‘with a bang not a whimper’ - she had 82 birds and a squirrel in her nets (no damage done to net or squirrel). Her report: ‘Highlights - several mixed flocks of tits and warblers (hence the high numbers). Lots of coal tits, sadly no willow! Two young nuthatch (first for site), two young greenfinch, LOTS of young bullfinch. And…a tree pipit, which is the first I’ve ever ringed.’ Ruth added later that the tree pipit was very fat, clearly feeding up for migration. She added that there had been 14 juvenile Bullfinches, and compared that number to the 15 Chiffchaffs and 12 Blue Tits. The two latter species are far more in evidence than Bullfinches. Bullfinches will often raise two broods of young and even three in a good year. Four to five eggs are normally laid, hatching after around two weeks, so 14 juveniles could be from a couple of pairs, each pair having two broods. Or from many other permutations; impossible to know but still delightful.

John and Clare are as thrilled as Ruth that her trial season can be declared a success and are very happy to know that the diversity of birds on Liddells is much greater than they had realised. Ruth is hoping for some autumn passage surprises.

31st August

Haws are forming, Blackberries ripening, Rowan berries reddening and Rosehips swelling - all indicating Summer is morphing into Autumn and Clare can prepare this year’s Hedgerow and Rowan berry jellies.

Clare and John

July 31, 2024

July - 'wetter summers might prevent hay being cut' - fortunately not this year

Clare and John

July 31, 2024

To view the video footage in this Blog post go to www.liddells.co.uk and click on Blog.

1st July

John and Clare are keen to see how the three does and the six kids they have between them share the space on Liddells. Here the doe and singleton make their way through the Scrub.

2nd July

Clare reckoned she had removed all the Hogweed from the Meadow. Whether she has or not will be seen in due course. She completed a second butterfly transect; Meadow Browns and Ringlets were in evidence but not in great numbers. Following Tim’s route up to the Meadow from the north, Clare noticed a patch of Monkey Flower Erythranthe guttata which she had never seen on Liddells before. The plant is typically found growing in water margins and wetlands so it is not in its usual habitat, however it is very welcome, as is the Spot-winged Drone Fly foraging on Marsh Valerian.

The doe with twins is captured on the north edge Pit Wood and the singleton shows its growing independence in the centre of the Pit Wood.

3rd July

It is always a treat to see the deer and their kids in video footage, however it is also good to see evidence of other wild animals on Liddells. A fox and a badger put in an appearance in the Scrub.

5th July

Meadow Browns are around most dry days now.

A hare provides evidence that it is not just roe deer that are a threat to tree growth, however it is good to see the hares in the trail camera footage as at this time of year they are hidden in the long grass for much of the time.

7th July

Clare set about collecting Yellow Rattle seeds from this year’s growth. she bagged over 100gms which is quite a lot of seed. John mowed the path at the west end of the Top Strip for the first time since abandoning weeding as the form of maintenance - the mowing worked well so Clare can strike ‘maintain Top Strip path’ off her to-do list for evermore.

In this year’s dearth of butterflies Clare was pleased to see a Large Skipper on the Greater Knapweed.

8th July

The proximity of the rut is evidenced by the older buck chasing a doe through the Pit Wood and something has disturbed the doe and twins in the same location.

9th July

The twins forage independently in the Scrub and a bit over an hour later are with the doe in the rain in the Pit Wood.

10th July

In the Pit Wood the doe and her single kid provide a charming example of learning by copying.

Later the same day the Scrub camera, albeit with some obstruction on the lens, captures the doe with her triplets.

11th July

The triplets are the last of the kids to demonstrate their independence, caught on camera in the Scrub.

Shortly later the twins bound through the same area.

Ruth completed another ringing session. Her previous session had been very quiet so she was very pleased this time to end up with her highest number of birds yet - 50. She ringed several juvenile Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs, a juvenile Linnet and a pair of Yellowhammers. A good day!

Juvenile Linnet - Ruth said it ‘looked very fresh (wings and tail still growing)’

A Robin ‘starting to look like a Robin’!

16th July

Although the new gate on the Meadow has been at cost to a patch of Field Scabious Knautia arvensis, Clare is delighted that a different patch is thriving. Apparently species of scabious were used to treat scabies and many other afflictions of the skin including sores caused by the bubonic plague. The word scabies comes from the Latin scabere 'to scratch'. The plant is also called gipsy rose.The genus Knautia is named after a 17th-century German botanist, Christian Knaut.

Juveniles are often present on the feeders and John was able to photograph a young Goldfinch.

18th July

John decided to reposition one of the cameras on the Hayfield as there was evidence of the deer using the long grass for couching. No deer appeared however there is an amusing clip of a Pheasant staring into the lens. Clare took a photo of the camera so readers can work out where the bird perched. She also remembered that there is a wildflower called Pheasant’s Eye. If readers click on the link, you can decide whether the flower is well named.

19th July

As in previous years the Willow Tits have disappeared through the breeding season, which leaves John and Clare anxious. They were both relieved to see one of the adults at the feeders today. John will take his camera up in the hope of further sightings.

21st July

As the day warmed up Clare noticed quite a few bumblebees around. Here is a Garden Bumblebee making the most of the forage on a Spear Thistle, a honey bee on Creeping Thistle, a pair of Red Soldier Beetles illustrating their nickname (Hogweed Bonking Beetles) and some Ragwort from the Wetland. Many people have heard that Ragwort is poisonous and a threat to horses and cattle and then assiduously pull it up from verges and the like. Horses and cattle will not eat Ragwort in a field; the plant is only poisonous if it is cut into a hay crop and fed to beasts. The plant is a valuable food source for a wide range of insects, in particular the cinnabar moth. John and Clare pull out any they find on the Hayfiled and Meadow, however they leave it in other places.

Clare enjoys seeing honey bees foraging on Liddells and always assumes they are from the Liddells apiary

23rd - 24th July

An update on the deer. The triplets and the twins have been captured by the Scrub camera. After last month’s first ever (for John) footage of a deer barking, here is another. Expect the third any day…

Tom and Barry had planned to start cutting and making the hay earlier this week then the weather defied the forecast, however today it and the prospect over the next few days was better so Tom cut the Hayfield. Clare is unsure whether it is more stressful not knowing whether the grass can be cut at all or, when it is cut, whether the rain will hold off until the hay is made.

Recently the fat ball feeders in front of the hide have been opened and the fat balls eaten in spite of the feeders allegedly being squirrel proof. John and Clare have tried several methods of securing the lids none of which has proved to be effective for longer than a day or two. Clare set up a camera to see what happened.

25th July

John and Clare are spending a lot of time preparing Liddells for an Open Weekend next month, so while one man (Tom) went to mow, one man (John) took to his strimmer and one woman (Clare) set to work with her sickle and her scythe. John and Clare are making sure the paths are clear ready for visitors. While Clare was walking up through the Scrub she noticed the single Nettle-leaved Bellflower (there has never been more than one) is in flower.

25th - 28th July

It took the squirrel a couple of days to get the lid off. In the process it investigated the nyjer seed feeder as well. The squirrel made four visits/attempts on the first day, four on the second and cracked it on its second visit on the third day. Thereafter it made four further visits that day and two on the next before Clare retrieved the disc. The feeder is now secured with a cable tie - probably easily chewable. The videos below show something of the process and how almost the instant the squirrel is successful and leaves with his trophy, the birds come to the nyjer seed feeder (one of the Willow Tits appears; they seem to vanish during the breeding season so Clare & John are especially pleased to have evidence they are still around). A Wood Pigeon looks bemused by how to get a fat ball even though the top of the feeder is off but then Pigeons seem bemused at the best of times. Clare was told that a way of recognising their call was to hear ‘I don’t know, I don’t’. A juvenile Woodpecker shows its head as it starts to climb the pole.

Later that night in the Scrub the camera catches the height of the rut. The old buck drives the oldest and largest of the does round in a circle through hawthorns. There were three videos. In the first the pair make three circuits; there is a five second gap while the camera regroups and then captures another two circuits and the sounds of a third before the clip finishes. In the third video, five seconds later and not included here, you can hear the doe squeaking then all goes silent. Readers can use their imaginations for what happened next. John says he has read a buck will mate with the youngest does first, so he deduces that this buck will already have mated with the other two does who have Liddells as their home patch. If there is no buck on the home patch, the doe will go and find one and draw it in. Clare commented that there must be different driving circles on Liddells as the Scrub camera has been working and has not recorded any other driving. The rut is propelled by the does, who are monoestrus, coming into oestrus from mid-July. There is thinking that this happens as daylight hours begin to shorten. Apparently the word ‘rut’ is ‘late Middle English: from Old French, from Latin rugitus, from rugire ‘to roar.’’ Red deer stags do indeed roar, however as readers of this Blog know, roe deer bark.

29th July

With no fat balls left, the squirrel has to picnic on pine cones.

Clearing inside a caged Scots Pine, Clare saw a female Nursery Web Spider carrying her egg sac in her fangs.

While John and Clare feed a pile of brash through a chipper, Tom takes a spinning class.

Tom will probably row up the hay tomorrow. It smells gorgeous

The Point of View steps looking chipper after a top up

After John and Clare had left, a juvenile Greater Spotted Woodpecker visited the feeders.

30th July

As expected the squirrel had chewed through the cable tie so there are now carabiner clips on the fat ball feeders. Ha!

Ruth had a personal best with 62 birds in her nets this morning. She said that the warblers were arriving in the nets in small flocks. She listed the juveniles - 9 Chiffchaffs, 9 Siskins, 6 Willow Warblers, 6 Robins, 5 Blackcaps, 4 Bullfinch, 3 Goldfinch, 3 Blackbirds, 2 Wrens, 2 Blue Tits, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Dunnock and 1 Great Tit. It sounds like an alternative version of the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Yesterday Clare had found a Broad-leaved Helleborine where she had not found one before however she had forgotten to take a photograph. Today she went looking for more and found only about a half dozen plants in total, far fewer than when she and Mel first discovered the plants on Liddells two years ago. (Mel will probably complete a wildflower survey any day so watch next month’s Blog post for a numbers update.) On the way Clare noticed a Red Admiral and a Comma both with folded wings and blending into the bark, high on an Oak. Her attempts to take a photo of them together came to a full stop when the Comma flew off. It was the only Comma Clare has seen this year.

She also looked for the Betony in the Pit Wood and found a colony of about twenty plants still thriving; the Bittersweet nearby them was also increasing in its spread.

Betony *Stachy*is officinalis commonly known as Common Hedgenettle, Purple Betony, Wood Betony, Bishopwort, or Bishop’s wort. Historically, it was planted in churchyards to prevent activity by ghosts.
In dyeing the plant makes chartreuse on wool with alum mordant.
Betony was also an ingredient of “Pistoja powder,” an old herbal medicine remedy for arthritis, gout, and tension headaches. It was also claimed to be effective against snake and dog bites, and was believed to be a cure for drunkenness.

Bittersweet *Solanum dulcamara* also known as Woody Nightshade. The berries are toxic; the leaves smell of burnt rubber when crushed.

At the Big Pond Clare watched Common Blue and Emerald Damselflies, a male Common Darter and the impressive blue helicopter that is the male Common Hawker. Clare apologises for the poor quality of the photos, at the time she was more concerned with not falling into the pond than with sharp focus; also she didn’t have her glasses; and dragon and damselflies won’t keep still for long! She had more success filming a Raft spider weaving its web above the surface of the pond. ‘The chocolate-brown raft spider inhabits bogs and ponds. It can be spotted sitting near the water, its legs touching the surface. When it feels the vibrations of potential prey, it rushes out to catch it, floating like a raft…Raft spiders will also swim underwater, often diving beneath the surface when threatened.’ According to the Wildlife Trust website, these spiders are ‘widespread but scarce.’ (wildlifetrusts.org)

On her way up to the Hayfield Clare saw what she first thought were ladybirds on one or two of the Willows in Sylvia’s Avenue, however on closer inspection they proved to be galls. Identification, even with the help of the British Plant Gall Society (who knew?) still proved difficult, however they are possibly Aceria iteina a mite that causes galls on Salix species.

The Scrub camera recorded the singleton kid with a dragonfly in the foreground - a reminder that dragonflies often use trees for shelter.

31st July

Tom rowed up the hay this morning. This afternoon, while Clare was working on path clearing, she heard the welcome sound of a tractor. The month has ended balefully. Ten bales this year, fewer than before however John and Clare are very relieved to have the work completed. Huge votes of gratitude to Tom and Barry for making time to help us.

Clare and John

June 30, 2024

June - juvenilia

Clare and John

June 30, 2024

Welcome to June’s Blog post, no doubt readers will have been having 30 wild days this month.

Please remember to go to the Blog page of the website - www.liddells.co.uk - to see the trail camera footage. There are a lot of videos this month, all except a couple are only 15 seconds long.

Ist June

Mel sent in the results for his May wildflower survey and had 88 flowering plants on his list. He is undertaking the Herculean task of identifying grasses and sedges (Clare bows down in respect), and has added Cocksfoot Grass, Perennial Rye Grass, Sweet Vernal Grass, Curled Dock, Glaucous Sedge, Guelder Rose and Water Figwort to his running list. His final list of the year will be added to the Surveys page of the website when his surveys are complete.

Ruth reported on her second session with Martin ringing birds in nesting boxes yesterday. She ringed one adult Blue Tit and four Great Tits. The nestlings she found were too small for ringing and some birds were still sitting on eggs.

Ruth arrived today for her nest session with the mist nets. It proved to be a quiet morning and she ringed the fewest birds so far, with several already ringed Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs in the nets. Her particular pleasure was finding and ringing a Linnet.

Clare set about working on the Meadow, removing Creeping Thistles (fewer than 130 this year, the numbers are going down), Dock (not too good if there’s a lot in hay) and Hogweed (a thug if ever there was one). All these species are left to grow in other areas of the site.

Phil Gates’ wrote last year about umbellifers, including Hogweed, in his Country Diary in the Guardian. He says, ‘Umbellifers, members of the carrot family, offer pollinators with short tongues easy access to nectar, which is secreted in tiny drops on each of the many florets…there are Bluebottles, Greenbottles, Marmalade Hoverflies and Red Soldier Beetles. The male beetles take advantage of the females’ preoccupation with nectar, coupling with them, clinging on tenaciously while their mates feed.’ You can read the full article here.

There was plenty of Ragged Robin out, and Orange Hawkweed and Common Spotted Orchids were opening on the Meadow.

As Clare set off to walk home, she passed a large Cotoneaster outside the local farm and it was covered in bees, including a great number of honey bees. Clare was sure she recognised them.

Ragged Robin and photo-bombing Damselfly

John and Clare had set up a trail camera on one of the nest boxes in the hope of capturing images of the nestlings fledging - this is an annual project that thus far John and Clare have failed to complete. The batteries run out, the discs are full, unknown forces intervene, etc.. Today Clare retrieved a disc only to find 429 short videos, which became shorter as the batteries ran out. When she looked in the box, the birds had fledged. Failed again. However here is footage of one of the adult birds emerging. Clare wonders if it is gauging the weather prospects before flying off. Clare moved the camera to a different box situated in the Scrub and crossed all available digits.

2nd June

More Hogweed removal - this could go on a long time.

Clare and John had a lunch break in the hide and were pleased to see 4 Tree Sparrows making frequent visits. This is double the number of this species seen recently so they may have bred although none of the birds look particularly young or are being fed. Either one Great Spotted Woodpecker made two appearances or two made one each. Another species not seen from the hide for a long time.

4th June

Clare and John are hoping to see footage of this year’s new roe kids any day now, however one of the does appeared on the Scrub camera and she still looked pregnant.

7th June

John mowed all the paths with the flail mower and recognised yet again what a time saver it is.

8th-9th June

Clare arrived to pursue her assault on the Hogweed and heard a Whitethroat singing in the Scrub. It continued to sing for most of the day. Ruth had asked only a few days ago about the presence of Whitethroats on Liddells and Clare had assumed they had given the site a miss this year as Clare had heard several while walking home but none, thus far, on Liddells.

The repositioned nest box camera has offered 849 new videos for Clare to sort through. Both birds are involved in foraging, feeding and housework (removing fecal matter) and work throughout the day and evening, often with as few as a couple of minutes between visits. As Clare labelled some of the clips, the Hokey-Cokey came to mind. A doe makes a couple of appearances and one of these clips has a delightful quality as the deer is caught in the sunlight. Maybe the doe is also keen to observe the fledging. A couple of other birds use the box as a perch - a juvenile Robin and a Chaffinch.

11th June

Ruth conducted another ringing session and sounded delighted: ‘We have babies!’ She had netted about 34 birds of which half were juveniles; the Coal tit pictured below was one she had ringed in one of the nest boxes.

12th June

After uprooting another bagful of Hogweeds - the roots are usually longer than the depth of the spit she is using, which evokes much metaphorical spitting - Clare had a wander round. She found that the half dozen Dame’s Violets that Sally had planted several years ago in the Pit Wood, have spread into a sizeable group. The plant is also known as Sweet Rocket and the RHS website records that it ‘is named in Gilbert White's History of Selborne, 1768-1793 'June 3 1792' among other plants flowering on that day. It was also said to have been 'cultivated by dames of baronial castles' and 'called castle gillyflower'.

Clare was also amused to find an instance of plants’ resourcefulness - a Herb Robert rooted in the moss on the fallen tree that is the Dirty Dancing Bridge. ‘Herb-Robert was traditionally used as an antiseptic, as well as to treat stomach upset and nosebleeds…Its leaves are edible and used by some to make tea. They have also been used crushed and rubbed on the skin as an insect repellent…Herb-Robert was traditionally carried to bring good luck and for fertility…Herb-Robert is thought to have gained its name from an ancient association with Robin Goodfellow, a house goblin from English folklore also known as Puck. That said, some think it was named after an 11th-century monk who cured many people using the plant.’ (https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/)

Catching up with the trail camera discs Clare discovered that later this evening there had been a new arrival.

The doe then spends at least 5 minutes cleaning the kid before they move on. John thinks this kid had been born only shortly before the footage - the kid is a little unsteady on its feet and the extensive cleaning would fit with a very recent birth. The doe is on high alert all the time.

All this footage is of course a delight, however it also served to offset Clare’s disappointment that the curse of the fledglings had struck again. Clare had realised that while the trail camera would capture the fledglings leaving the box, it wouldn’t record what happened next, so she took another camera to focus on the branches near the box. After setting it up she thought it would be sensible to check that the nestlings were still there. They weren’t. ‘Ah well,’ she thought, ‘At least there will be footage of them leaving the nest.’ How wrong she was. When she put the disc in her laptop she discovered that the locking tab was in the ‘Lock’ position and nothing had been recorded at all.

13th June

Clare took out some of her frustration on the Meadow Hogweed, however she was pleased to have some respite when Sally arrived to see the Dame’s Violets and have a walk around. Sally discovered an ants’ nest under one of the corrugated iron sheets that are left as potential shelter for amphibians. The sheets are too basic to merit the name ‘hibernacula’ however they have the same function. The ants, under threat, began moving the eggs underground at great speed.

Clare and Sally watched juvenile Blue tits coming to one of the peanut feeders. You can see one being fed by a parent while another two feed themselves.

Sally sent photos from her wander around. It is always a pleasure to see Liddells through Sally’s artistic gaze.

The doe is watchful before her kid comes out from cover.

Further deer delights - what Clare and John assume is the older doe (she has had triplets the last two years), has had twins this year.

At about the time Clare and Sally were walking around the Pit Wood, the camera records two does rushing away. With the wisdom of hindsight, John and Clare assume both does have left their kids lying low in undergrowth. The kids have no scent so they are relatively safe from predators.

14th June

John had lunch in the hide after working on removing a rotten strainer post near the Roadside pond. He heard a loud knocking sound and couldn’t work out what it was and then noticed a juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker fly onto one of the feeder posts and start pecking at it. He then saw marks inside the hide on one of the posts. John had been sitting very still on squirrel watch and as juveniles haven’t always learned to be wary it is possible the bird and John had shared the space.

He photographed a pair of juvenile Tree Sparrows and a Siskin, which may be a juvenile.

Clare’s daughter Mathilda follows a bird-watching podcast, ‘Rock ‘N Roll Birder’ and sent Clare a link to a recent social media post in which the podcaster refers to juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers as ‘taplets’. He had called the adults coming to his feeders Tappy and Mrs Tappy and has adopted the name ‘taplets’ from ‘someone’s’ suggestion in comments on the post. Mathilda is so proud - she is that ‘someone’.

Mel carried out his June wildflower survey and added 14 plants to his original list - he is mystified as to how or why he omitted Oak and Beech from his first surveys 10 years ago.

15th June

The roe kids are proving as irresistibly charming as in previous years. The footage below shows a mini pronk, the kids discovering a pheasant - their reaction suggests this is for the first time, and learning what to forage.

16th June

The hares are less visible on Liddells with the grass now high; here is an entertaining clip showing that they are still around.

The singleton kid follows its mother out of the undergrowth. Both does and their kids often use this route into undergrowth in the Pit Wood and Clare saw a lot of couches there when she investigated.

In the third clip below you can hear the doe making a high pitched squeak - John says it can be called a ‘feep’ - which does make to communicate with their young.

17th June

A rarity - a sunny morning. Clare noticed huge amounts of activity round the hives, as if every foraging bee had taken the opportunity to get out and find food. There were many damselflies at both the Roadside and Big ponds and much mating of Common Blues and Large Reds. Two Broad-bodied Chasers were engaging in dogfights while a female oviposited in the Roadside pond.

The doe with twins had left them on the Meadow and they were disturbed when Tim went round on his butterfly survey. They seemed to settle down and Clare carried on with her Hogweed battle.

Tim has seen very few butterflies this season so was relieved to spot a Large Skipper near the Alphabet Bridge.

John had bought a double set of harrows in the local farm sale and he and Clare spent a merry time untangling them and working out which way they attached to the tow bar. John sensibly hung them up before they could knit themselves together again.

John and Clare both worked on the remains of the strainer post, however thus far it is resisting all attempts towards its removal although the hole around it is getting bigger.

The trail camera in the Pit Wood captured a badger going through - not seen on the cameras for a while.

A young buck follows a doe out of the undergrowth, however the rut doesn’t begin until mid-July. The old buck is still around and John is interested that the old buck seems to tolerate the youngster in the same territory.

18th June

Followers of this Blog will have read several references to roe deer barking. Today’s camera footage from the Scrub reveals all. John will no doubt use this in one of his talks on roe deer.

19th June

Hares are maintaining their presence in the Scrub as well as in the Pit Wood.

The singleton roe kid is subject to substantial grooming and then starts grooming the doe.

20th June

Ruth conducted her next ringing session (she does this every 6-10 days in the breeding season). She recorded 34 birds in total, including a baby Great tit she had ringed in the box, seven juvenile Robins and the first juvenile Garden Warbler, however the highlights were discovering breeding Redstarts this year (they are included on the Amber List of species with unfavourable conservation status in Europe where they are declining), and a Tawny Owl. Ruth saw two Tawnies as she set up her nets so there may well be owlets. Ruth said that owls go sleepy and limp during the bagging and ringing process, though this one woke up to fly off.

Juvenile Redstart - the bird is in the Robin family and the juveniles look quite similar

While they were in the hide, John and Clare saw two adult and a juvenile Goldfinch. The adults were feeding avidly on the nyjer seeds and seeming to ignore the young bird which remained tucked into the Hawthorn. Eventually it darted out onto the feeder though didn’t stay for long. Presumably the adult birds were leading by example. Neither John nor Clare had seen a juvenile here before - there is no red mask on the face - and of course this was a day when the camera was at home. Clare’s phone camera at least shows the absence of the red mask.

The singleton kid dashes to and fro. It is hard to think other than that it is running about out of sheer exuberance.

22nd June

With apologies for the old jokes - it is less usual though nonetheless welcome, to see a stoat in the Pit Wood.

24th June

Tim and Jane are away so Clare carried out the butterfly transect. Several Speckled Woods put in an appearance however there were precious few butterflies around. There have been several reports of what a disastrous year it is for insects. A Common Blue brightened up the Wetland and there were a couple of Meadow Browns and Ringlets on the Meadow.

25th June

After assaulting some of the Hogweed and the embedded fence strainer, John collected the camera discs. What a surprise - the Scrub camera shows a doe with triplets! It is probable that the oldest doe has had the triplets, as she did the last two years, with the singleton and the twins being born to younger does.

29th June

An end of the month camera disc round up. One video (not included) shows the older buck might be less tolerant of the presence of one of the younger bucks, and chases him. There seems to be a new doe on site; she might have been drawn in with the rut coming up. It is hard accurately to identify the animals, however the following three clips show distinctly different anal tushes. (When Clare retired she never thought that she would be writing things like this!)

30th June

Ruth had a really quiet ringing session this morning, only 17 birds, and very few warblers. She wondered whether some might have already started their journeys south.

John finished setting the new fence post in and he and Clare continued their assault on the Meadow Hogweed. Clare reckons there are only about 30 plants left. She did muse on the 30 Days Wild challenge and thought about 30 things that drove her wild. Hogweed would be one. Readers are invited to make their own lists…

Clare and John

May 31, 2024

May - life and death

Clare and John

May 31, 2024

The usual reminder - in order to view the video footage, go the the Blog page of the website: www.liddells.co.uk

1st May

Sadly the ducks’ nest has been raided; ducks and eggs have gone. Possible culprits are herons, foxes, magpies, crows, rooks, jays and squirrels.

3rd May - 4th May

Clare was intrigued to see evidence of considerable disturbance of moss on the Crag. She wondered whether it was caused by birds finding nesting material, however the disturbance seemed on too big a scale for that to be the reason. She set up a trail camera and waited. Resulting footage suggested at first that Pheasants were responsible and maybe a Song Thrush; there is a clip of a Red-legged Partridge although the evidence is insufficient for an arrest in this case, however further footage showed a couple of Jays flinging the moss around with abandon.

Two clips of bucks from the camera behind the bee shed show the old buck still in winter coat, while one of the younger bucks shows more of his summer coat.

4th May

While John worked on one of the strainers for a gate post, Clare repaired the wire damaged by the sheep grazing on the Meadow.

More plants coming into flower; today Clare added Field Wood-rush, Bugle, Bluebell, Lady’s Mantle (the wild version is lower-growing than the one you see in gardens), Stitchwort, Marestail; there is blossom on pear and apple trees, and the Wild Service trees are in leaf. Here is a selection of those and a photo that suggests the young bucks are no longer in velvet.

5th May

Clare supported International Dawn Chorus Day with an early visit to Liddells and discovered why we have the phrase ‘up with the lark’. Skylarks were singing before dawn in the neighbouring field and there were a few lapwing calls as well. The blackbirds and robins began singing at about twenty-five past four and were soon joined by thrushes, wood pigeons, wrens and the warblers; last to sing were the titmice. Keith told his bird-watching group that the birds with the largest eyes sing first and they are after the worms that emerge early in the day. Clare was also entertained by a roe deer barking during her visit; as the light came up she could see it was the pregnant doe. (You may need the volume on the highest setting for the video.)

Thank you to Jean for offering a quote from Tom Stoppard: ‘How beautiful the dawn is. If only it did not occur so early in the day.’

7th May

Ribwort Plantain is in flower on the Hayfield and the Wildflower Meadow. The Wildlife Trusts’ website notes that Ribwort Plantain is the subject of a game that's similar to conkers - children pick the stems and knock the flower heads together, battling it out to see whose head drops off the stem first. Clare recently read Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent and in it Judi Dench quotes part of a song from Cymbeline:

‘Golden lads and girls all must,

As chimney-sweepers come to dust…’

Dench says these chimney-sweepers ‘are those reeds - I think they’re called ribwort plantain - which have a brown nobbly bit at the end. If you pick them and bend the stalk round the neck, you can go ‘phwat’ like that and shoot off the head, and all the seeds burst away like dust. I do it all the time when I find them. I can’t resist it.’

Clare noticed recent fraying on the protection around a Small-leaved Lime; happily the protection has proved effective as the tree itself is untouched.

7th May

Ruth completed the first of her breeding season ringing sessions. She ringed 33 birds in total and the species list is: Blackbird, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Willow Warbler, Garden Warbler, Blackcap, Chaffinch (unringable, diseased legs), Bullfinch. She sent a photo of a Garden Warbler adding the birders joke about the species - ‘their Latin name is Sylvia Borin, because they are boring.’

This is a male Garden Warbler identified as in breeding condition because of the cloacal protruberence (not visible in the photo and recorded as CP in the ringing records. Females in breeding condition have a visible brood patch, recorded as BP).

Speaking of breeding, there is much activity in the North-east Strip, in the very first nesting box John and Clare put up. It is being used by Coal Tits. One of the trail cameras has recorded footage of one of the birds leaving with what is probably fecal matter, keeping the box clean; a bird arrives with food and then leaves; a bird arrives with what looks like a St Mark’s fly and leaves without depositing it inside and then is followed by a Blue Tit having a very good look inside the box, maybe with a view to a takeover; the last clip in this series shows a Coal Tit with another large insect - the bird seems very hesitant about taking it into the box, however it seems to do so in the end.

8th - 12th May

Clare inspected all three bee hives and found that two of the queens had upped their laying rate. Clare added supers to all three hives to provide more space - the bees can use the super to store nectar and pollen, leaving the frames in the brood box for the brood. There is a queen excluder fitted between the two boxes so that the queen remains in the lower chamber. On her way back to the Hayfield, Clare disturbed a Tawny Owl twice in the Scrub.

John and Clare marked John’s birthday with a nesting box survey. They found 9 occupied with either eggs or sitting birds and nesting material in a further 11.

The Oaks are coming into leaf and Germander Speedwell has found its way through the stones in the top roadway. Tormentil is coming out everywhere and the Water Violets are looking splendid on the Big Pond. Large Red Damselflies, often the first to be seen in Spring, are emerging and flying.

The two young bucks who were captured sparring last month appear one after the other in the Scrub and seem to still be wary of each other.

The old buck seems contemplative in the Scrub; his summer coat is now coming through; he seeme to check out a twig for scent marking.

John and Clare both did some preparatory work for a group visit.

A badger appears on the Crag.

13th May

Members from the Wildlife group of the local U3A came for an afternoon visit. Clare had given the group a talk about Liddells earlier in the year and this was a follow-up. The visit went well - hares appeared and the big pond offering sightings of damselfly nymphs and, for one half of the group, a couple of newts close to the surface. Jenni L sent a collage of some of her photographs of the visit. The newt is bottom left.

More footage of a Thrush on the Crag.

15th May

Ruth completed another ringing session. She said it was quieter than the first, however her highlights were 2 more Garden Warblers, 3 more Long-tailed Tits a Song Thrush and the first juvenile - a Blackbird. She also heard a Yellowhammer for the second time (Clare has noticed two singing in the last few days and has seen one in an Ash tree on the west boundary which has been used as a Yellowhammer perch for the last few years.) Ruth also heard Linnets so is hoping one might appear in her nets. She sent these photos and thought the Blue Tit was ‘rather grumpy looking’!

17th May

A young doe appears in the Scrub. She could either be the one that had a single doe kid last year and therefore might be pregnant again, or she could be the kid that is now a yearling and unlikely to be pregnant. Neither has been seen for a while. Later in the day one of the younger bucks appears in the Scrub.

18th May

Clare arrived early to conduct the annual breeding bird survey. With the tree foliage well advanced the survey is primarily a listening exercise and the listener can never be sure whether the same bird is heard in more than one place, however the survey gives a snapshot. The first treat was seeing a Tawny Owl perched on Sycamore branches in the Top Strip and clearly visible. During the survey Clare noticed that she heard no Goldfinches, Siskins, Willow or Long-tailed Tits and no Goldcrests, although all have been seen recently. The most numerous songsters seemed to be Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs (13 apiece), followed by Blackbirds and Chaffinches. You can see the full result on the Surveys page of the website.

Clare tackled a long neglected patch of wall repair in the Top Strip. There was plenty of evidence that deer were using the damaged area as a place to jump in and out of the land.

With the stone back in place, Clare checked all the nest boxes again to see whether any with material were now in use. She found Great Tit nestlings in one box. She also noticed that Yellow Rattle, Sorrel and Pig nut were all flowering.

19th May

The Large Red damselflies are being joined by Azures.

A different buck appears in the Scrub. He looks young although his antlers are well developed.

20th May

In the early hours of the morning the old buck is captured chasing the new buck. While the old buck seems to be tolerating the two younger ones, probably sired by him, this new one is one buck too many.

Ruth arrived with her mentor to conduct the first of her nest box ringing sessions. She began with the Coal Tits in Box 1, however when she opened the box where Clare had seen the Great Tit nestlings, the box was empty. It had been predated, possibly by a weasel or a mouse.

25th May

Ruth conducted her second breeding season survey and ringed 30 birds including a number of new Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs, a baby Robin and a new female breeding Goldcrest.

Clare and John have been away bird-watching and delighting in seeing three species for the first time - Stone Curlews, a Wood Lark and several Hobbies. Neither of the two cameras in use had much footage of particular interest on their return, and frustratingly the batteries in the camera aimed on nest box 1 had run down so there is no footage if the Coal Tits have fledged.

26th May

The younger doe appears again in the Scrub. Her summer coat is now much more evident. She may be pregnant. John and Clare are hoping the trail cameras will capture footage of any new kids which could be born at any time now.

31st May

John and Clare came up to have a final check on the trail cameras before the deadline for the Blog. Sadly box 1 seems to have been predated. Ruth’s mentor said that with so much bad weather more nestlings may have died beacuse the adult birds have been unable to go and find sufficient food. The bad weather may have contributed to fewer boxes being used this year; conditions have made it harder for birds to breed.

More plants in flower, Clare noticed Ragged Robin, Bush Vetch, Red Campion and some White Bugle.

Large Red, Azure and Common Blue damselflies on the Big Pond and a male Broad-bodied Chaser was flying around the roadside pond and perched for just long enough for Clare to grab a quick snap with her phone - not the best quality however it was delightful to see the dragonfly season progressing.

Happily the hares seem to have bred successfully - the trail camera in the Pit Wood has captured several clips of what are clearly leverets. Here are two of those clips, delightful scenes to end the month.

Readers may remember that the Wildlife Trusts encourage as many people as possible to undertake a 30 Days Wild in June, engaging with nature in some way or other during the coming month.

Clare and John

April 30, 2024

April - burgeoning

Clare and John

April 30, 2024

A reminder: in order to watch the video footage in the following Blog post, go to the Liddells website - www.liddells.co.uk, click on the Blog page and the videos will be available there.

Corrections and clarifications:

Clare is squirming with embarrassment on two counts. She has been reminded that ‘whence’ means ‘from when’ and that in pursuit of pedantry in last month’s Blog post, she fell prey to tautology. Apologies to all who were offended.

Second, for reasons best known to her unconscious, Clare forgot to mention a talk she gave twice last month. ‘Liddells: The first ten years’ was the last in the ‘Nature Near and Far’ series that Keith had proposed as a way to raise funds for Liddells. Clare offered it on 12th March, having also given it the day before to the Wildlife Group of the local branch of the U3A. The group will be following their talk up with a site visit in May. Clare was delighted that her talk was well received on both occasions and both John and Clare are hugely grateful to Keith for the idea of the talks and for giving four of them and to everyone, both attendees and those who were unable to come, who all supported the project and donated most generously.

Two postscripts - the most recent edition of the RSPB magazine included a short feature on Willow Tits (mentioned in last month’s Blog), noting them as ‘imperilled’ and describing the RSPB’s collaboration with their grounds maintenance contractor and community green space groups to improve habitat for these birds. The work includes ‘building natural dams in small watercourses to create wetter areas, increasing standing dead wood tp provide nesting spaces or installing nest boxes’. John and Clare realise that the spring stream and fallen wood near there in the Pit Wood maybe be part of the reason the birds are on Liddells.

Also, footage retrieved from a trail camera disc after last month’s Blog post was published shows a hare in the Scrub. Hares are always popular, however this footage is included in order to use the caption.

1st April

Clare was pleased to see the Blackthorn in the hedge by the apiary in flower at last. She set about some repair work on the Willow Avenue and foraged for Wild Garlic and Nettles to make some pesto.

4th April

The new position for the trail camera in the Scrub is proving fruitful. The camera captured footage of the pair of young bucks vying with each other. John suggests that as the bucks are yearlings, this is learning behaviour and the beginning of territorial aggression. There were eleven clips of this activity. John has stitched them together to give a better sense of it all. Although John has seen videos of red deer stags fighting in the rut, he has never witnessed this activity in roe deer.

5th April

The older buck, who is most likely the father of the two younger bucks, walks through the Scrub with the air of an animal that does not have to fight for territory. Oedipal reckonings may arise later.

Another piece of hare footage called for a suitable caption.

Clare has noticed several patches of Scarlet Elf Cap (aka Elf Cup) fungus in the Pit Wood recently. The Woodland Trust describes it as ‘mystical and cheery’ and notes that it ‘has been used as a medicine by the Oneida Native Americans to stop bleeding and was placed under bandages and on the navels of newborns to promote healing.’ Apparently ‘in past times, elf cups were made into arrangements with moss and leaves and sold as table decorations.’ The fungus is also edible and ‘can be stir fried and sprinkled in salads for colour. The fruiting bodies seem to be designed to use them like little baskets. [They can be filled] with any other seasonal ingredients to make raw wild canapés, like Three Cornered Leek, Garlic-Mustard, Wild Garlic or Wood Sorrel.’

6th April

The older buck demonstrates the tastiness of new shoots. Here he is nibbling on Elder.

7th April

A double delight - Clare saw and heard Willow Warblers for the first time this year and noticed that the Willows are coming into flower. The birds were in the Willows. It’s not without reason that the birds have the name they do.

Clare has seen Yellow Brain fungus on many occasions, however she has only recently remembered that it is also called Witches’ Butter. This particular example does look more buttery than some. Long term readers of this Blog may remember Witches’ Knickers and Witches’ Broomsticks from earlier posts. It was clearly important in the past to recognise the part witches played in nature. The Woodland Trust says, ‘According to European legend, if yellow brain fungus appeared on the gate or door of a house it meant that a witch had cast a spell on the family living there. The only way the spell could be removed was by piercing the fungus several times with straight pins until it went away. This is why yellow brain also has the common name of 'witches’ butter'. In Sweden, yellow brain fungus was burnt to protect against evil spirits.’

Clare doesn’t think there is any magic involved, however she was intrigued to notice how the water created curious reflections of rush in the pond.

The Scrub is having almost nightly badger visits, sometimes with more than one visit during the night. It is difficult to tell how many badgers there are, however it is possible there is more than one since the animals are often traveling in the same direction. There is much territory marking happening. The visits recorded thus far have been:

31/03 2308 going away from camera

01/04 21.39 coming towards camera

02/04 22.42 coming

05/04 21.57 going

05/04 22.41 coming

06/04 22.17 coming

06/04 22.36 coming

06/04 23.16 going

07/04 01.56 coming

07/04 23.29 coming

(Clare is reminded of the ‘minor masterpiece of unmalicious humour’, Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith. Pooter, the diarist, has two friends Cummings and Gowing. After an unfortunate incident in which Pooter paints the bath with red enamel paint, Cummings arrived followed shortly by Gowing. Pooter writes, ‘ I said: ‘A very extraordinary thing has struck me,’ ‘Something funny, as usual,’ said Cummings. ‘Yes,’ I replied; I think even you will say so this time. It’s concerning you both; for doesn’t it seem odd that Gowing’s always coming and Cummings’ always going?’) Which of the badgers is coming and which going, will have to remain a mystery.

8th April

The two young bucks are still in velvet and show signs of beginning to lose their winter coat. The same evening the trail camera shows they are still with the mother even though she will be having this year’s kids soon. The older buck follows two minutes later.

10th April

It is unusual for John and Clare not to see a hare when they are on Liddells these days. The cameras are picking up plenty of movement through the different areas. Here three hares seem to be involved in a chase, then two appear a few minutes later (this footage has some clear birdsong) and have a boxing flurry.

12th - 18th April

John is tackling gates. The gateway by the spoil heaps, while wide enough for the quad bike, is too narrow when the flail mower is attached. This means replacing one of the gateposts and retensioning the wires. Also one of the posts supporting the hurdle for the Wildflower meadow was broken in the most recent storm. John has decided to replace the hurdle with a metal gate.

Clare had a far easier time looking to see what plants had come into flower since she last investigated. She found Wild Garlic flowering in the Top Strip.

Badgers continue to come and go each night. From the 8th April there have been 31 further recordings; the badgers always pause to mark in the same places; several times there is only a gap of a few minutes between footage, with badgers going in the same direction.

The cameras pick up two foxes. One seen limping before in a different part of the Scrub, has lost a foot. This does not stop it hunting.

19th April

Clare came home from Liddells today with a big grin. Her morning started well when she opened the hives again and found all three colonies seemed to be thriving with capped brood on 3-4 frames each. The Wildflower meadow is covered in dandelions which accounts for the orange pollen the bees are bringing in. You can see that they are making the most of the good weather.

Recently Clare heard a reading from Maud Martha by Gwendoline Brooks in which she writes ‘the very word ‘meadow’ made her breathe more deeply and either fling her arms or want to fling her arms, depending on who was by, rapturously up to whatever was watching in the sky, but dandelions were what she chiefly saw. Yellow jewels for every day, studding the patched green dress of her back yard’.

Clare noticed deer slots on the path to the bee shed and following them found Violets and Wood Sorrel in flower.

Relieved that all seems as well as it can be with the bees, Clare went looking for more plants in flower and en route noticed a ladybird resting on some algae that Clare had pulled out of the roadside pond (perhaps algae does have a use), then she saw a mallard drake fly off the Big Pond followed shortly by the duck who flew off the island. Clare went to have a look and saw a nest with several eggs. She then decided to have a quick look in the two nest boxes that Juno had helped to make and one had a nest that was beginning to be feathered and the second had plenty of moss. From there Clare went to the Orchard to discover more blossom there than in any previous year. She was particularly pleased to see blossom on one of the Damsons that she and John has planted last Autumn.

All this was lovely. Clare decided to go up to the Top Strip next and as she came to the top of the Crag, she could see three hares. She inched forward and witnessed five hares racing round in circles at the far end of the Hayfield. This went on for a minute or two then two hares went down the Crag and two started to come closer, then joy of joys, they started boxing. Clare was nervous to move and get her phone out to begin with, however the hares seemed oblivious of her presence and she was able to capture some footage. She was so close she could hear the animals grunting with the force of the boxing. You will see the fur literally flying. At the end of the first video, watch how the recumbent hare is gasping for breath.

Long term readers of the Blog will know that for a very long time Clare has hoped to see hares boxing on Liddells. She is delighted.

The day continued well - Field Maple out on the Hayfield, Cherry and False Oxlips out in the Top Strip. Then an insect on a Dandelion that proved to be a Meliscaeva auricollis or Spotted Meliscaeva. It is a ‘narrowly-built species of rather variable appearance. It is one of the first hoverflies to appear in spring and also flies on mild winter days’.

Back down to the Wildflower Meadow - Cowslips in flower, Yellow Rattle is coming through as are the leaves of Common Spotted Orchid and Clare was delighted to notice emerging Adder’s Tongue Fern. She had first learned about the plant when Naomi Thwaite from the Wildlife Trust visited and impressed Clare and John by spotting the plants when they were only a centimetre or two high. Clare is proud that in the Adder’s Tongue Fern spotting department, she has made progress.

As if this wasn’t all enough, when Clare looked at the camera disc she had brought home, she saw an, admittedly brief, hare mating attempt.

She also discovered that two foxes had been through in the early hours, just four minutes apart. Will the ducks and their eggs survive?

20th April

Recently John has been working on a talk about hares and his reading has included a book called The Leaping Hare. Clare thought of this when she saw the next clip, which she found amusing, but then having read recently about the naming of a process with which she is familiar, she decided to name the clip in honour of that. She hopes that this is a male hare leaping out of the way of a female though is enough of a realist to guess that it is a female avoiding a male.

21st April

John had discovered that the post on which he had hoped to hang the new gate on the Meadow, was also rotten and broken. One big learning has been to only use tanalised timber for posts in future. John enlisted Clare’s help and asked her to dig out the post. This went well until she discovered that the post had been set in postcrete. She threw in the trowel and John came, like a knight - hardly in shining armour, although a muddy quad bike is some sort of charger - with a pinch bar lance, to break the solid lump up. After much exertion with the spade, the spit and the pinch bar, and a tow from the quad, the job was completed. Clare thinks ‘the spade, the spit and the pinch bar’ should be a title for some kind of company but can’t think which. Suggestions from readers welcome.

The gate hangs well.
When Clare captioned this photograph and wondered aloud about why pubs were thus called, John looked bemused. A bit of Googling revealed that ‘the gate hangs well’ or variations on that phrase, are common pub names in the Midlands where Clare grew up, however the name doesn’t seem to occur elsewhere. It is thought to be connected to a pub's proximity to a church gate, toll gate or town gate, though why specifically in the Midlands remains a mystery.

A Fritillary in flower on the Meadow in a place where Clare had sowed some seed and the patch of Wood Anemones that has increased considerably, were reward for all this hard work.

Elder is now coming in to flower.

21st - 23rd April

Seeing the badgers go through the Scrub with such regularity has been interesting, however Clare wanted to put a camera on the path behind the bee shed to capture some deer footage. This worked with comings and goings and much footage of hares, mostly running across the bottom path from west to east. Here are two clips - the pregnant doe comes up the slope and one of the younger bucks goes down. The buck is still in velvet, not in tatters as the caption suggests.

Clare had also moved a different camera - she had seen deer slots in the North East Strip and there is a clearly used path from there across the Meadow, so she hung a camera on the gatepost. The position seems to have been in a wind tunnel and Clare faced over 300 clips of wavy grass when she brought the disc home. Among the clips however, is a lovely close up of a hare and a few birds. There were only two clips of deer, both of the oldest buck (not included here), and one of a badger.

26th April

More emerging growth - Cuckoo Flower and Hornbeam caught Clare’s eye today.

The badgers appear everywhere. One comes up the slope behind the bee shed.

27th - 30th April

Footage of the young buck shows him still in velvet (footage not included here).

Mel completed his wildflower survey for April and said there had been ‘a whopping increase’ from 9 species in flower in March to 35 this month. He noticed three species that were new to his Liddells list, Large Bittercress, Meadow Foxtail and Damson.
Clare had a sit in the hide before collecting the camera discs for the end of the month, and was pleased to see a Redpoll. They have not appeared for a while. Siskins and a Tree Sparrow visited and quite a handful of Goldfinches as well as the usual Titmice.

Clare was successful in her search for the Large Bittercress Mel had mentioned although she forgot to take a photograph. She did notice Bilberry in leaf and Broom in flower on the Crag, and some of what she has always called Cow Parsley although her sister calls it Queen Anne’s Lace. Clare hadn’t realised both were names for the same plant. Queen Anne’s Lace seems a far more attractive name. Apparently the plant is associated with beauty, and the flower is sometimes referred to as 'bishops flower' and therefore it has become to symbolise sanctuary, safety and refuge.

Said plant was on the Hayfield and Clare saw it as she set about making the hundreds of molehills less mountainous. Five hours later she had succeeded. Woe betide any mole who creates a new hill.

Clare and John

March 31, 2024

March - new life

Clare and John

March 31, 2024

4th March

A jay, and then a second jay join the procession of creatures that have appeared in the story-telling circle.

A heron demonstrates why there might be very few frogs in the big pond.

6th March

The older buck seems to have an offstage interchange with the younger buck. You can see that the older buck is no longer in velvet while the younger one still is.

The hares are still in evidence near the story-telling circle. Here are three manoeuvring round each other. There is a delightful early morning chorus of birds in the background.

8th March

Clare’s attempts to capture footage of frogs mating have thus far been unsuccessful although there are plenty of videos of herons hunting frogs; unfortunately because of the camera angle, the herons are mostly headless. Here is one that is not beheaded and showing the black spots on its foreneck.

11th March

The old buck is captured scraping vigorously - he is clearing debris from the ground to make a couch. To put it differently, he is making his bed so he can lie on it.

12th March

A mallard drake defends his territory against another drake. The second drake seems to have got straight back in the water although it is chased off again.

Clare noticed that the regenerated elm in the north-west corner of the Pit Wood has lost more of the original trunk, leaving a very slender strip to support life, and yet the tree is sprouting. The buds resemble small raspberries.

13th March

There have been no Mandarin ducks on the big pond this year until now. They seem far less active than the Mallards. Neither John nor Clare have been able to find out from whence locally come the ducks. (Clare has just read an article on not ending sentences with a preposition, a rule that she was taught at school.)

16th March

There are thrushes singing from many high perches on Liddells at the moment. It is pleasing to see one on the ground in the story-telling circle.

The Chiffchaffs are back and singing, although ‘singing’ is a generous description of the sound they make. The collective noun for Chiffchaffs is ‘a confusion’ - maybe this is because looks-wise they are similar to Willow Warblers. Chiffchaffs have blackish legs, Willow Warblers’ legs are pale yellow/brown - so as not to be confused, Clare thinks ‘Chiffchaff/charcoal’.

Another visit from a Jay to the story-telling circle; this one presents a great close-up view.

Although the camera missed capturing any frogs mating, Clare was delighted to see that there is frogspawn in four ponds, so frogs have clearly been busy. She heard a Tawny Owl calling in the daytime, discovered that there is now a much larger patch of Coltsfoot in the north-west corner, the primroses are out on Primroseside (the north bank of the spring stream), she saw at least five Bullfinches on her visit and half a dozen Goldfinches on the feeders - far more than in recent weeks, celandines are beginning to appear in flower and the native Daffodils planted in the Top Strip have not only begun to clump up but are now appearing in places in the Top Strip other than the original planting sites. It’s all very Springlike and yellow.

17th March

A warm and still day, so Clare took a gamble and opened the hives for the first time. She was pleased to see all three marked queens, one of whom had started spring laying. As all three colonies have come through the winter and have plenty of stores, there is no need to disturb the bees again for a little while. This is the earliest Clare has ever been able to open the hives.

19th March

Clare has moved one of the cameras to the feeding station - she has noticed how quickly the nyjer seed is being eaten in spite of very few birds seeming to be on the nyjer feeders - and decided to investigate. Although Clare has heard a Woodpecker drumming recently, she hasn’t seen one on the feeders until this footage appeared.

A male Mallard displays, and a Mandarin is heard calling.

20th March

World Rewilding Day. Clare had a delightful morning hosting a friend of a friend’s nephew. Moritz had come to Hexham to give a concert and, having visited Liddells before, expressed a wish to return. Nature obliged and in spite of seeing no Siskins or Redpolls this season thus far, there were several of both on the feeders, numerous Goldfinches, a Great Spotted Woodpecker and a couple of Tree Sparrows (also notable for their absence recently). A pair of Bullfinches perched nearby and two hares ran through the Pit Wood as Clare and Moritz strolled along. There was a peacock butterfly in the far north-west corner and a Buff-tailed bumblebee queen searching for a nest site in the same area. In spite of all these sightings, Clare only managed to capture a photo on her phone of three different finches sharing a feeder. Yesterday she had moved a trail camera to overlook the feeders so expected to find all this activity recorded, however disappointingly the camera had recorded nothing that day.

21st March

Delighted by all the finches, Clare and John went back to the feeders and John took his camera.

A pair of hares pause in the story-telling circle.

22nd March

The trail camera has recorded some activity on the feeders; the first footage provides a nice example of pecking order, the second more amicable feeding.

24th March

Clare had moved one of the cameras to an entirely new position - on an old stone gatepost looking along the north-east boundary between the Pit Wood and the Orchard. It transpires that this is a favourite pheasant run so much deletion of footage followed. Three deer, a doe and two kids, appear grazing near the camera and you can see that the young buck is still in velvet.

31st March

Ruth planned to have a ringing session today, the last of her practice runs before starting regular ringing in May. She was surprised by netting and ringing at least ten Chiffchaffs. Quite a confusion. Clare was interested to see that each bird showed a clear yellow feather on the leading edge of the wing. Ruth showed her how the Chiffchaff can be identified by the emargination to the sixth primary feather, whereas the emargination on the Willow Warbler is only to the fifth primary. Of course Clare first had to learn that emargination is a slight indent along one edge of the feather. Clare will probably stick to ‘Chiffchaff/charcoal’. The Chiffchaffs varied in weight from 6.8g to 8.1g. 6.8g is barely more than a level teaspoon of salt. In addition Ruth ringed two Dunnocks, a Long-tailed tit, a female Bullfinch and, after Clare had left, two Tree Creepers one of which had been ringed on an earlier occasion.

After the ringing Clare wandered around looking to see what plantlife might be emerging. There are dandelions flowering on the Meadow and Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage brightening up the Pit Wood. Although the Blackthorn is still not in flower, Wych Elm, Aspen, Hawthorn and Larch are all greening up.

A ladybird was sunning on the gatepost and John noticed some badger scat on one of the paths - it looks very like wrought iron.

A fitting end to a month of new life - the camera on the edge of the Orchard captures a doe who is clearly pregnant. The cycle goes on.

Clare and John

February 29, 2024

February - Primaveral Season

Clare and John

February 29, 2024

2nd February

Today is Candlemas. ‘To me it appears that there are six principal seasons or divisions of the year, to one of which we may venture to refer to almost all the wild and most of the hardy herbaceous plants which grow in our climate. This arrangement into six instead of four seasons corresponds better with the actual course of phenomena. We may consider the first or Primaveral Season as beginning at Candlemas, on the first opening of the early spring flowers.’ Thomas Furley Forster

‘At last, winter began to gather her limbs, to rise, and drift away with saddened garments northwards…The birds fluttered and dashed; the catkins on the hazel loosened their winter rigidiy, and swung soft tassells. All through the day sounded long, sweet whistlings from the bushes; then later, loud, laughing shouts of bird triumph on every hand.’

from The White Peacock D.H.Lawrence

Mel sent the results of his first wildflower survey of the year (he is interested in seeing the difference now from his first surveys ten years ago), recording Gorse, Snowdrop, Birch (in bud with catkins not quite open), Alder (as Birch), and Heather on the Crag (variety to be confirmed). He remarked that in his very first report for January 2014 the only flower he recorded was Meadow Buttercup, although he suspects the catkins would have been showing then.

11th February

John and Clare inspected all the nesting boxes, cleaning them out and noting what repairs might be needed.

There has been much hare activity near the Story-telling Circle. The following seven clips are all captured within 14 minutes.

12th February

Not to be outdone by the hares, the pheasants are also demonstrating Spring activity.

15th February

Clare cleared weeds from the steps by the Point of View.

Walking round afterwards she noticed the first Coltsfoot in flower by the stream.

16th February

A heron and ducks have reappeared on the big pond, which suggests there may be frog mating activity any day.

Not to be left out, a badger marks his territory near the Story-telling Circle.

19th February

Clare has been looking for hazel flowers and today was successful. The female flowers resemble a bud, with crimson stigmas that protrude when they are ready to receive pollen. The flower buds are located on the branch above the catkin, to avoid self-pollination. Each bud has several flowers. Each flower has 4 stigmas to collect pollen. If fertilised, each flower will produce one nut.

24th February

John brought the last of the bags of chip to help cover the mud near the hide. He repaired a couple of bird boxes and cleared up from working on the Alphabet Bridge.

In the hope of recording some frog mating activity, Clare had moved her camera to the edge of the pond where John had witnessed it last year. It looks as though the ducks might have the same hope.

Later the same day a female pheasant takes advantage of the pond water. The camera showed her drinking without pause for three minutes.

Later that same evening, near the story-telling circle, the trail camera captures the old buck scraping a couch. He settles in the couch with breaks for chewing the cud and personal hygiene, for just over an hour and a half before wandering off.

25th February

Clare went to meet Ruth to discuss equipment storage for Ruth’s bird-ringing activities. As soon as Clare arrived at the bottom gate, she heard a woodpecker drumming; the first she had heard this year. Ruth had netted and ringed four birds that morning. She said that she had netted Goldcrests on every ringing outing thus far. Ruth also mentioned that on an earlier visit, her son had heard Crossbills on the land. This was exciting news - John and Clare had not thought about the presence of this species. The Common Crossbill is both a resident species and a partial migrant. It is perfectly possible that the birds might appear on Liddells. A closer watch will be kept.

Clare visited the hide while Ruth packed up and had fun watching out for birds with rings. On her return Ruth did a final check on the last net and found a wren. This was the first wren she had netted on Liddells. Clare was able to watch what happened next - Ruth freed the bird from the net, stowed it in a cotton bag and brought it back to her work table. She removed the bird from the bag, measured its wing length from shoulder to tip, counted the white spots along the leading edge of the outer feather, looked at the plumage to help age the bird (there can be traces of juvenile plumage before the bird develops its full adult plumage), attempted to determine its sex (wrens are apparently notoriously difficult to sex), clipped on a ring, weighed the bird and logged all her findings before releasing it. Clare had never seen a wren so close and was surprised at how long the bill seemed.

This is a double length net and one of four Ruth puts up - Ruth says she her personal challenge is to get them in place more quickly; at the moment it takes her well over an hour

The same day footage from near the story-telling circle show another, younger buck, with other deer running away in the background.

26th February

A heron hunts for frogs and captures a fair bit of pondweed before finding food.

More hare activity near the story-telling circle - four running around then two starting to box.

The old buck is captured anointing. John says that territorial behaviour in roe deer has been thought to begin in April. This is much earlier and John wonders whether this is evidence of a response to climate change.

A squirrel appears to ambush a hare.

27th February

A pair of mallards feed for a period of six minutes in the same spot in the Big Pond; they leave then return a couple of times over the next hour or two.

The limping fox, last seen in the Scrub, is captured near the Story-telling circle.

29th February

‘The turn of the year is certainly behind us: a thousand sights, scents, and sounds declare the fact. But exactly at what moment the mystic change took place and Nature, writing ‘Finis’ to the tale of last year, started without pause Chapter 1 of this, is a mystery. Officially, I suppose, the turn of the year is at midnight on the shortest day, when the earth starts spinning the 580 odd million miles yearly trip round the sun again. But Nature knows no calendar; and long before that moment came sap was rising, buds were swelling, and this year’s shoots pushing upwards from the soil. Earlier still, the last leaves of last year were thrust from the bough by the rsing life of this. So there seems to be no definite beginning: the seasons move in a circle.’

From The Peverel Papers, Flora Thompson

Quoted for 29th February in Nature writing for Every Day of the Year

Clare and John

January 31, 2024

January 2024 - ringing in the New Year

Clare and John

January 31, 2024

The usual reminder that should you wish to watch the video footage included in this post, go to www.liddells.co.uk and click on Blog. There is one video in particular towards the end of the month that is especially worth a view.

1st January

It’s not the first time a cat has been captured on one of the trail cameras, however this is the first black cat. Clare decided that although it was without the traditional gifts, it was first footing Liddells. Clare and John hope its appearance signals prosperity in the coming year.

Shieldbugs/Shield buses - this Bronze shieldbug suddenly leapt on to the dashboard of John’s car while he was driving to Liddells. Maybe it was looking for the one Clare had found in the foraged foliage before Christmas.

2nd January

Over the holidays the word ‘ectoplasm’ had come up in conversation and its association with the activity of mediums. When Clare saw this clip, she thought of it again. It certainly looks haunting.

3rd January

It is official - the so-called Marsh tits, latterly Mallow tits, are indeed Willow tits. Some time ago Clare had used a bird song identifying app to come up with Marsh tits, however a more recent and more accurate app correctly identifies the birds. Clare hopes the birds enjoyed their marshmallow alter ego.

Ruth and Louis set up their mist nets. Ruth said the activity reflected the expected quiet in winter, however she sent through some photos of the day together with a BTO graph showing the catastrophic decline of Willow tits in recent years. Many thanks for their photographs.

Willow tit - these two photographs show clearly the differences are between the Willow and Coal tits.

4th January

John and Clare carried out some sapling maintenance on the Hayfield. The sheep will often knock over a tube or two while grazing and, if they can, nibble the growing tips of the plants. There wasn’t too much damage this year.

5th January

John worked on repair to the Alphabet Bridge while Clare ferried chip to the feeding station to help provide a footing in the mud around the feeders. She was delighted to see two Tree Sparrows near the feeders, birds which have been noticeable by their absence for a while now.

Clare enjoyed seeing Hawthorns festooned with raindrops and decided that Nature was making the most of Twelfth Night and leaving the decorations up till the last minute.

The Alders have already produced their catkins. Clare was pleased that a recent participant in Mastermind chose British Garden Birds as his specialist subject. Clare did well but didn’t score as many as the contestant. She learned that Siskins are attracted to red mesh garden feeders because the feeders resemble Alder cones.

In Wild Fell by Lee Schofield - an account of the RSPB’s efforts to restore the ecosystems in their Haweswater site - the author describes how trees come into flower through in the year. He notes that Hazel is first (January), Aspen, Alder and Wych Elm next (February), followed by Blackthorn (March), then Cherry and Birch (April) with Bramble and Ivy following on through the summer and into autumn. Gorse, as all Blog readers know, can be in flower throughout the year.

Each Alder tree has both male and female flowers. The catkins which house the male flowers are up to 6cm long. Young catkins appear green before turning yellow. The female flower is a smaller red structure, about 1cm long and with many hair-like structures across the surface. Once this is pollinated, it turns into the brown alder fruit or ‘cone’ which houses the seeds.

6th January

John is up to about L on the Alphabet Bridge. He saw 8 Long-tailed tits on the feeders today - another species that hasn’t been around the hide for a while.

7th January

John saw a Woodcock on the western side of the Pit Wood. It is always a treat to see one as they are largely nocturnal and spend most of the day in dense cover. They will be heading back to Finland/Russia as Spring arrives here.

John and Clare see Redwings and Fieldfares on Liddells on pretty much every visit. This in itself is not that astounding, however noting it does provide an opportunity to share more knowledge gleaned from Mastermind, namely that Fieldfares have a flying faecal defence system. The birds defend their nests by bombarding predators with their droppings.

8th January

Trail camera footage shows four deer together and a single buck. With both bucks the growth in their antlers is quite apparent. The lone buck looks to be bigger than either of the two remaining triplets.

15th - 17th January

Clare has repositioned the Scrub camera so that it is now points south into the centre. Hares feature frequently, even in snow, a Woodcock appears in the late afternoon one day and in lighter conditions two days later at the same time as a stoat, and a fox limps past and back again.

18th - 19th January

John and Clare took advantage of the frozen ground to fetch a couple of trailer loads of logs from home - gathering winter fu-u-el.

John completed some maintenance of the Junipers while Clare moved more barrowloads of chip to the ground round the feeders. A day or so ago John had startled a hare from cover near the story-telling circle so he decided to move his camera to overlook the area. The resulting footage captured more birds than hares, however it is interesting to see how many species the camera recorded. Clare is not sure whether they are telling or listening to stories. Or both. Blackbirds seem to be the most frequent visitors; you will also see Pheasants - one with unusually pale supercilia which makes him look supercilious, Robins, Goldcrest, Great tit, and a pair of Bullfinches. The old buck ambles through too. There are clearly other birds foraging in the background however they are harder to identify.

20th - 21st January

More fox presence - a non-limping fox and the return of the one with a limp. A mouse scuttles past close to the camera while one of the young bucks walks through in the background.

24th January

Always good to find ladybirds. This one is a 7 spot, the UK’s most common ladybird, however it has given Clare the opportunity to add a caption which amused her.

Clare also noticed a plant, probably soft rush, making good use of a crevice in a tree trunk.

25th - 26th January

A box of delights. The camera near the pond captures a heron going past (John had seen one fly off from near the pond the day before), a sparrowhawk (the absence of pink colouration on the breast tells us it is a female), joins the parliament of fowls recorded in the story-telling circle, four hares appear together, and then, oh joy, two hares are captured boxing near the circle. Although hares are known to box at any time through the year, March is thought to be the month when they are most active in this regard. Blog readers know that Clare has been hoping for many years to see hares boxing on Liddells. She is very happy.

28th January

John has not only completed the AZ of bridge-building but he has added a step.

29th - 31st January

Yet more rain, though it hasn’t deterred the heron.

There is more hare activity near the story-telling circle.

The hazels have produced their catkins. February might see the Aspen and Wych Elms coming into flower.

Clare and John

December 31, 2023

December - preparing for new growth

Clare and John

December 31, 2023

1st - 14th December

There has been very little activity seen on the trail cameras thus far in the month, however John (farmer) has now moved his sheep off the land which could make a difference.

15th - 17th December

After little evidence of activity in the Pit Wood the camera there has recorded some. This does seem to chime with the removal of the sheep even though the sheep were not in the Pit Wood. First you see the two buck kids from this year, then the younger doe with her single doe kid, a buck sporting the beginnings of his antlers (this is probably a buck born last year), a pair of hares, a very wary doe (her ears are working nonstop) and four deer all foraging in the same area.

17th December

John and Clare began preparation to plant eight new fruit trees in the Orchard - maybe a kind of nominative determinism. This area of Liddells had a very large patch of wild raspberries in the early days of John and Clare’s guardianship which gave rise to the name. Subsequently John and Clare planted a few fruit trees, none of which fruited particularly well; the new planting is based on advice about improving the chances of pollination.

As there is little to illustrate this Blog post thus far, here is a riveting picture of holes in the ground ready for the trees and one of sticky buds which are already apparent on the Horse Chestnuts.

19th December

Clare and John planted the first five of the new fruit trees. They met with Ruth again who showed them the areas she thought would be good sites for mist nets and bird-ringing.

21st December

With no joy from the trail camera focussed on the big pond, Clare moved the camera to the north-west corner of Liddells where she had noticed some deer slots. The move proved fruitful with footage of a doe, then of that doe with one of her two buck kids and the younger of the two mature bucks. Back in the Pit Wood the camera there recorded a badger going through. It seems as though the wildlife is back in residence.

22nd December

John and Clare planted the remaining fruit trees. They have planted 2 x apples, 2 x pears, 2 x damsons and 2 x plums.

23rd - 25th December

John has spent time hauling out brash from last month’s tree felling.

Returning from replacing a disc in the NW corner camera, Clare noticed evidence of much digging in the Pit Wood at the point where two paths converge. She suspected a badger and moved one of the cameras. Her detective instincts were proved right.

The camera is also positioned on a deer path to and from Liddells and a neighbouring field and has offered several clips of the deer. The most mature buck appears on Christmas Day and you can see how much bigger his antlers are than on the younger buck.

Clare had foraged some berries and foliage from Liddells to make a garland for the door at home. While sorting through the greenery she found a Bronze Shieldbug Troilus luridus. This is the fourth shieldbug species Clare has found this year. The Wildlife trusts website says:

‘Perhaps one of the more difficult species to spot, the bronze shieldbug lives amongst both broadleaf and coniferous trees and is most likely to be found in woodland habitats. Although it feeds on tree sap during its early stages of life, the bronze shieldbug is normally predatory and uses its long proboscis (straw like mouth parts) to feed on a variety of other insects such as caterpillars.

Shieldbugs go through several stages of growth, with the younger stages known as nymphs. Bronze shieldbugs normally reach their adult stage during July, overwinter as adults, then mate the following spring. There is only one generation a year…

A study on bronze shieldbugs discovered that males vibrate to create pulses of low-frequency sound, which is believed to be a call to attract nearby females. After the signal was given, the female approached the male and began to feel him with her antennae.’

Good, good, good, good vibrations.

26th December

Ruth and her son set up the first of the mist nets and reported that they had had some success - they caught a handful of birds including, ‘three goldcrest. Also a blue tit and a great tit both ringed … in 2018 and are therefore 5 years old!’ Ringing attempts in the next few days look to be thwarted by the weather. Ruth has sent a couple of photos to show the nets in place in the main path going through the Scrub.

28th December

More footage of deer in the Pit Wood. The following two clips show the difference in size between the mature buck and the buck from last year and the difference in size of their antlers.

30th December

A pair of hares seem to be playing ‘Here we go round the Hawthorn bush’ in the Pit Wood.

31st December

Since the sheep were taken off, the moles have been having a Hayfield day. There are molehills everywhere.

John and Clare finished hauling out the brash from the Top Strip. On her way back Clare noticed this attractive fungi on the end of a birch log. It could be Crimped Gill Plicaturopsis crispa.

Liddells is very wet after recent rain; as John said, “‘tis the season to be plodging". Tra la la la la.

Thanks to all of you who have supported Liddells this year - your encouragement and feedback is most appreciated. We wish you all the very best for 2024.

John and Clare

Clare and John

November 30, 2023

November - bench marks

Clare and John

November 30, 2023

Clare’s cousin Helen emailed after last month’s blog post saying that her partner Will thought the unidentified lichen might be Cladonia furcata, which is a False Reindeermoss. It can be found on mossy rocks, which fits with its habitat on Liddells. Helen commented that Will ‘is very much into lichen and spends a lot of time identifying them - involving a microscope, an ultra violet light torch and some chemicals. They then go into storage in shoe boxes. This has extended to mosses and liverworts so the house is littered with bits of them after every walk!

1st November

Local farmer John brought 40 of his sheep to graze the Hayfield.

7th November

John felled one of the trees earmarked for removal in the Top Strip. Taking out some of the larger non-native trees allows the broad-leaved trees nearby to benefit from the increased light and space.

8th November

Clare was pleased to find a holly tree covered in berries in the Scrub. There are plenty of holly berries in the hedgerows at the moment however Liddells seems to have few female hollies and therefore few berries. Hollies are mainly dioecious (male flowers on one plant, female on another) and both need to be present for berries because pollen has to be carried between flowers by pollinators.

10th November

Clare went to check on her bees and to fix mouse guards to the hives and on returning to the Hayfield wondered why one of the sheep hadn’t run down to the far corner with the others. As Clare approached she could see that it was totally tethered by and entangled with brambles which were wrapped round its body, neck and leg. The more the sheep struggled, the tighter the brambles became. Clare channelled her inner shepherd, collected a small saw from the tool shed (John had left the car locked so there was no access to loppers or secateurs), managed to get close enough to the animal while talking in what she hoped was a soothing voice, and was able to saw through the offending bramble. The sheep hobbled off and farmer John was alerted to check on it. All in a day’s Liddells.

11th November

John began preparing planting sites in the Orchard for some fruit trees that are arriving next month.

16th November

There has been very little footage recorded on either trail camera this month however the camera in the Scrub, on the same tree as usual but pointing in a different direction, captured a couple of Redwings foraging in the leaf litter.

20th November

There is a substantial amount of gorse in flower at the moment so kissing is in fashion. John and Clare repaired the dry stone wall on the Meadow border ready for the sheep to move down and graze the last of the growth there. The leaf fall is revealing nests in branches. This one in a Hawthorn on the Wildflower Meadow was probably made by a blackbird.

21st November

John split the trunk of the felled tree ready for it to be used as replacement benches in the Story Telling Circle.

23rd November

David O delivered a bench he had promised to make for the Point of View in the Top Strip by way of a thank you for the Village Band’s picnic in the summer. He had used recycled wood from a strawberry bed. Clare and John have had ‘make bench for Point of View’ on their to-do list for several years so this was a most welcome gift.

24th November

Clare tested the water in the Big Pond which showed a PH level of 7 which is neutral in terms of acidity and therefore might not satisfy the needs of Common Hawkers. (see the beginning of last month’s Blog post)

26th November

Neither hares nor deer have seemed to be around much at the moment, probably because of the presence of the sheep, so John was pleased to see the two young bucks on the Wildflower Meadow this morning.

27th November

John felled another tree in the Top Strip with Dave G’s help.

30th November

John and Clare were delighted to welcome Ruth back to Liddells after a brief visit ten years ago; since then Ruth has trained as a bird ringer with the British Trust for Ornithology and is looking for new sites. Ruth asked if Bramblings had been seen on Liddells. None have, however Ruth said this was a good year for seeing them and wouldn’t be surprised if there were some around. Clare walked home and saw a flock of at least twelve of the birds not half a mile from Liddells so she will be looking out more closely on subsequent visits.

John and Clare set the new bench in place on the Point of View.

Clare and John

October 31, 2023

October - rock stars

Clare and John

October 31, 2023

As always, if you wish to see the video footage included in this post, which is unlikely to be included through the email link, go to the Liddells website at www.liddells.co.uk and click on the Blog page. The videos will be there.

Corrections and clarifications: TrogTrogBlog Chris, a continuing source of support and encouragement as well as being a mine of information, pointed out that the dragonfly basking on the tree trunk in the photo below in last month’s Blog post, was not a male Southern Hawker but a male Common Hawker. Significantly Common Hawkers are not that common, so this proved to be a bit exciting. Chris said the Common Hawker, ‘has paired dots on the terminal segments (fused in southern), long shoulder stripes (short in migrant hawker) and a characteristic pattern on S2. It doesn’t show well in your photo but the costa (leading edge of the wings) is yellow - it is brown in migrant hawker. Common hawkers are said to prefer acidic standing water.’ Clare has bought a water testing kit…

1st October

A late afternoon walk round Liddells and as John and Clare came up to the top of the Crag, John spotted two deer and three hares all grazing near each other on the Hayfield. Getting too close would have disturbed them so here is one of each.

Clare managed to identify another fungus thanks to the wildfooduk website. The fungus is an Orange Grisette and you can read more about it here.

2nd October

Excitement for Clare as Ian delivered the colony of bees for which she has been waiting. It seems to be quite a strong colony. Before opening the entrance Clare put a bundle of leafy branches in front of it so any emerging bees would realise they weren’t in Kansas any more and would reorientate. As soon as the entrance plug was removed Clare and Ian could see that happening as the emerging bees went off for short flights before returning to the brood box presumably to communicate this new information.

4th October

Clare put a clearer board on the new colony to remove the bees from the super above so that could be taken away leaving all the bees in the brood box for the winter. The clearer board stays on overnight - and is designed in such a way that the bees in the super go down to the brood nest for the night then can’t get back up into the super next morning.

Clare noticed fungi on a Birch tree in the Pit Wood; the growths looked like footholds for climbing. The fungus is, appropriately, Birch polypore. The birch polypore is also known as the 'Razorstrop fungus' because its rubbery, leather-like surface was once used to sharpen knives and razors. Probably a bit of a stretch to sharpen a chain saw.

5th - 19th October

Clare had noticed recent signs of excavation near a large boulder on one of the paths down the Crag. The boulder has cavities below although it isn’t possible to know how big these are. John set up a trail camera and he and Clare awaited results.

October 5th

The buck kid makes an appearance. You can just see the start of buttons appearing where his antlers will grow next year. He is also in full winter coat.

The big buck goes past eight minutes later, past offering a close-up of his fine head and gorget patches.

There was quite a lot of footage of a grey squirrel. John and Clare usually delete such footage (and grey squirrels), however since the footage provides evidence of all the wildlife in this small area, and of some of the excavation, here is one clip which shows the squirrel burying what is probably an acorn.

A hare also appears to be curious about what may lie under the rock.

October 6th

The first of several clips of a badger. The animal has a look down the hole and then appears to be curious about the red light on the camera.

A male pheasant walks past the camera. Pheasants are more usually seen in the woodland patches or the Scrub.

10th October

As a record of all the wildlife associated with this large rock, the slug also needs to be acknowledged. This one takes two minutes to cover a distance of about six inches. This perseverance merits the second clip although it is hardly going at a clip. Of course it might be for a slug. It doesn’t appear again in the footage so may have gone into a crevice or a Slough of Despond. You never can tell with slugs.

14th October

There were a few videos of field or wood mice (different names, same creature). This one gives the clearest view. It is possible that the mouse is storing berries and seeds under the rock.

A buck kid appears and is joined by another kid. As the first kid moves away there is a clear view of the caudal patch. A female would have an anal tush. The caudal patch is more prominent in winter and when the deer is alarmed the erectile hairs make the patch look bigger.

15th October

One of many video clips of rabbits. Here are two rabbits for the price of one.

16th October

A rabbit in a hole, although whether or not it is in a difficult situation is unknowable. It does go on to do some digging, adding to the evidence bag for the excavations. John and Clare thought readers might not need this particular piece of evidence.

With the damp weather have come an abundance of midges and mosquitoes. The camera has captured them in front of the rock.

19th October

There have been several badger visits, however this is the first in which a badger completely disappears into the hole beneath the rock. Four hours later two badgers investigate. Although badgers have frequently appeared in trail camera footage, John and Clare have never found a sett on Liddells. This footage might suggest these badgers are looking to set up a sett. Setting a precedent.

With more of her attention focussed on this area of the Crag than usual, Clare noticed a patch of moss or lichen that caught her attention. She has been unable thus far to identify it. Any ideas, please email.

There has been far more wildlife in this small area than either Clare or John had imagined. They have moved the camera now, however may well position it back in front of the rock at a later date.

Meanwhile back on the rest of Liddells:

7th October

Barry delivered a new colony of bees for Clare. The colony’s queen was raised from a frame of eggs from one of Clare’s colonies last year. After several weeks Barry had thought this had been unsuccessful and had left the bees to their own devices. After quite a while he thought he would check on them, expecting to find most of them dead, and was met with a thriving colony. As Clare was without bees at the time, he very generously offered them to her. While he and Clare were talking by the bottom gate a stoat made its way across the Meadow and stood up on its hind legs very close to the gate, displaying its creamy underside. It was one of those times when getting a camera out would have alarmed the creature so there is no photographic evidence of the moment.

14th October

The Spindle trees are resplendent in their pink berries. The berries have bright orange seeds and although they are poisonous to humans, they are food for mice and birds.

17th October

John saw six deer on Liddells today, four on the Hayfield and two along the top of the Crag.

18th October

The hay has been collected at last. John and Clare were concerned about it deteriorating in the wet weather.

This evening John gave the first in a series of six talks offered to raise funds for Liddells. This is all thanks to Keith, who a while ago had offered four of his talks to raise money for Liddells. John’s talk was one he had given locally a few weeks ago. He is now booked with several local WI groups. The evening represents how John and Clare are thinking about making Liddells more widely known and available to interested groups.

19th October

Clare heard and saw large numbers of Fieldfares and Redwings while she walked round today. She also spotted three Goldcrests and noticed lot of Blackbirds - the winter visitors from Scandinavia are arriving.

22nd October

As Clare and John approached the top gate they saw about four and twenty black birds (irresistible) on the Oak at the top of the Crag; they were Rooks eating acorns. This is not behaviour either John or Clare have seen before.

John and Clare walked round in welcome sunshine to see if there was much damage from storm Babet. A couple of limbs had come off trees, the largest being from the Oak at the bottom of the Crag. The spring overflow was gushing water down the stream and water was coming up from the previous site of the spring a few yards east of where it is capped. This has only happened a couple of times before in the last ten years. As Clare captioned the photograph ‘Torrents’, she recalled a song by Elgar she had learned at choir, ‘As Torrents in Summer’ and wondered if there was an autumn version.

Large numbers of Fieldfares and Redwings were eating hawthorn berries in the Pit Wood.

A male Southern Hawker was flying around near the Big Pond and a lot of bluebottles were basking on a couple of tree trunks nearby. The flies on one of the trunks appeared to be making use of a vertical groove in the trunk.

Clare noticed the advancing rot in one of the trees left to decay in the Pit Wood. Rotting wood adds to habitat diversity on the site as well as looking rather sculptural.

30th October

Rain has prevented much play on Liddells for a few days, however John has made the Hayfield secure for the sheep which will be arriving shortly. The Meadow road wall also needs attention before the sheep go on there - now on the list for the next dry spell.

John saw a Woodcock - this may be resident or one that has flown in. Regular Blog readers may recall that folklore has it that these birds arrive with the first full moon in November. This isn’t due until 27th November this year, so maybe this bird took advantage of the Hunter’s Moon on 28th October.

31st October

The stream down from the spring is fuller than it has ever been.

As the month ends, here are two images that speak of time to come. Two nascent trees, an Oak with a well placed understory of Holly growing in the Scrub and some lichen that could provide nourishment in a harsh winter. Clare’s friend Gillian reminded her that lichen only grows in areas of low/no air pollution which is a comforting thought about Liddells. This particular lichen is Ramalina farinacea. The trail cameras have captured roe deer eating it on Liddells in snowy conditions. The lichen is packed with carbohydrates (more pound for pound than potatoes), contains usnic acid which has anti-biotic properties against pneumonia, streptococcus and tuberculosis bacteria, and has anti-viral, anti-inflammatory and preservative qualities. If this winter proves to be particularly harsh, John and Clare might use it themselves.

Clare and John

September 30, 2023

September - time to rest

Clare and John

September 30, 2023

As usual, video footage can be accessed through the Blog page of the website: www.liddells.co.uk

2nd September

John and Clare have decided that the next ten years will involve less hard work, accordingly they had a stroll to begin the new month. Clare found a Harvestman occupying the Necessarium, Purple Loosestrife offering late forage for pollinators and the first fir cones on one of the young Scots Pines.

3rd September

Enough rest - Clare did some preparatory work for a small wall repair on the west boundary while John repaired fencing on the Hayfield in readiness for the sheep to come later in the year.

Clare found a Violet already in flower on the edge of the Pit Wood.

Clare was delighted to see a Spotted Flycatcher from the hide. These birds haven’t been seen since early in the season. This one may have been feeding up en route south or it may have been around the whole time.

A hare in the north-west corner of the Pit Wood demonstrates the art of stretching.

4th - 5th September

John and Clare completed the wall repair then John extracted an unused hurdle from long grass while Clare used a crowbar to dig up some buried coping stones on the Hayfield. Unfortunately the crowbar slipped. As Clare takes most of the photos, not many of her appear in the Blog - good to swing the balance a bit; it would have been better not to swing the crowbar.

There has not been much activity on the roadside pond this season so Clare was delighted to spot this female Southern Hawker ovipositing near the edge.

9th September

Always good to see later flowering plants for the pollinators. Here a bee forages on Michaelmas daisies in the Meadow.

It was the local Village Show this morning and John won a first prize for his photo of a Spotted Flycatcher taken earlier in the summer, and Clare won a second prize for the Red Admiral photograph from last month’s blog post.

A kid shows off its pronking skills in the Pit Wood.

11th - 12th September

Another new insect discovery, this time a Sun fly Helophilus pendulus. It is a hoverfly and its scientific name means ‘dangling marsh-lover.’ It was neither dangling nor on a marsh. While Clare was giving some syrup to the bees, she noticed a beetle had fallen into one of the wasp traps. She fished it out and wrapped it in a tissue to bring home to check the identification. It was a Smooth Ground beetle and as you can see from the photograph, appeared pretty much dead, however the next day Clare was surprised to see it climbing out of the compost bucket where she’d put it. Another dramatic drowning insect rescue and revival.

In the gloom a badger marks territory on the edge of the Pit Wood.

13th September

John and Clare were delighted to welcome Linda F back to walk round Liddells with a view to some creative writing activity in the future. While Linda and Clare were exploring they saw a male Southern Hawker basking on a tree trunk and a female Common Darter basking on a stone, both by the Big Pond. They also noticed a group of Puffballs that had released their spores.

After Linda had left, Clare went foraging for this year’s Hedgerow Jelly and foraged quite a few creatures with the fruit - two different shield bugs and two species of spider. None of them will go into the jelly. Clare also videoed a Speckled Wood foraging on the blackberries. The butterfly seems to prefer the fruits that have gone over slightly.

Birch Shield Bug - this is about the size of a ladybird

Eurasian armoured long-jawed orb-weaver *Metellina segmentata*

14th September

The doe with twins sets about grooming them.

22nd September

Clare discovered that as well as the familiar Bluebottle fly, there is a Greenbottle - here is one on Michaelmas daisies.

23rd September

Catching Covid has left John and Clare unable to do little more than gentle strolls on Liddells, however today Clare enjoyed sixteen sightings of hares - of course several were probably the same hare or hares, however the views certainly helped lift the spirits. There were five at one time on the Hayfield.

25th September

Yet another recuperative stroll and watching a hare run away on the edge of the Pit Wood alerted Clare to an Elm tree she had never noticed before. It’s quite small and much higher up the bank than the ones already identified. Liddells continues to surprise.

26th September

One of the does shows how much her coat is changing to winter colours. She also shows gorget patches. John has read some commentators who think that these are more prominent in winter.

28th September

John may not be working much, however Clare discovered that he had invested in a new toolbox dedicated to spanner activity. It takes all sorts. Clare was amused by the double sense of this and decided to see if there are any spanner jokes available. Of course there are. Once again Liddells proves to be a route to consciousness raising.

29th September

Michaelmas Day - the day that marks the end of harvest, the start of winter and the beginning of shorter days. Oak leaves are on the turn.

The doe with twins is quite clear with them that milk is off the menu. Maybe she too needs a rest. It looks at this stage as if both kids might be bucks.

Hares seem to be playing Hide and Seek.

Clare and John

June 30, 2023

June - the call of the wild

Clare and John

June 30, 2023

First corrections and clarifications from last month. Chris, ever supportive, helped untangle the mysteries of the dragon/damselfly emergences. Chris says that the last photo of the May blog post shows ‘four damselfly exuviae and two damselflies. The white threads coming out of the back of the two in the centre are the nymphs’ spiracles and are evidence that emergence has occurred. Bottom left, hidden by a leaf…there are two more, one behind the other. The upper damselfly is a female large red, recently emerged and beginning to colour up. The lower one has only just emerged and has no colour or visible markings so we can’t say what it is, although it will be a large red or an azure. It is still in the process of expanding its wings which will go clear like the one above’. Chris also commented that the penultimate photograph shows a Four-spotted chaser, not, as Clare had labelled it, a female Broad-bodied chaser. He pointed out the extra spots on the wings; he said that without a clear view of the abdomen, it isn’t possible to determine the sex.

NB remember that to see the videos (and there are some particular delights later in the Blog) go to the website www.liddells.co.uk and click on the Blog page.

1st June

Clare decided to embark on her 30 Days Wild - readers take note, this Wildlife Trust challenge has been featured in The Archers this year - by having a stroll round Liddells to see what she could see. She wondered about attempting some grass/rush/sedge identification but decided life was too short. She made for the Big Pond where she realised that almost every upright growth in the water had several damselfly exuviae attached.

She noticed a pair of Pied Wagtails flying away from the Hayfield, and what she guessed was a juvenile Rook hopping along the boundary wall while a parent bird appeared to caw encouragement from the top of an Ash tree.

She was keeping an eye open for any glimpse of a doe and kids and did hear a deer bark but with no sign of the animal. As she approached the north-east corner of the Pit Wood, she kept her eye out for Spotted flycatchers. It’s the part of the wood where she has seen them in previous years although she had spent a while looking there without success two days previously. She was delighted to see a pair of the birds and watched them for about half an hour as they fluttered between an Ash and a Hawthorn. Next she went to the hide to fill the feeders and was amazed to see a Spotted flycatcher on top of one of the Hawthorns in front of the hide. It flew off towards where she had just been watching them. Neither Clare nor John have ever seen this species near the hide before. While she was watching, a Tree Sparrow, usually very shy about coming on to the feeders if someone is in the hide, spent a lot of time taking mixed seed. Then a pair of Siskins perched nearby. These have not been seen for months here. A good bird-watching episode. All these sightings are a reminder that the breeding bird survey doesn’t account for all the birds that may be around. It was also a great start to Clare’s 30 Days Wild.

Clare then had another unexpected experience - she realised that about a dozen sheep and lambs from the neighbouring field had pushed against the bottom gate, freeing the bolt though the chain was still in place, and opening it sufficiently to force their way through the gap, and were busy grazing on the Meadow. Clare set about some impromptu shepherding. This involved unlocking the gate while not letting any more animals in. At the sound of the padlock some cows and calves came running down to the gate so they had to be sent on their way first. While this was happening some of the sheep had made their way up through the Scrub and were near the open gate into the Hayfield. Clare managed to head them off at the pass, get to the gate before them and close it but then had to make a wide arc round the sheep to encourage them back down. She also had to keep an eye on the neighbouring field to check nothing else was getting in. This involved a lot of running up and down hill seeking different routes from the sheep. Fortunately the splinter group made their way out of the gate. Clare then sought to move the Meadow sheep. She managed to encourage them out of the Meadow and she closed the hurdle - not an easy task as it hadn’t been moved for ages and the chicken wire at the bottom had become enmeshed in grass. As she moved them towards the gate they broke back into the Meadow by forcing themselves through the wire. Hurdle off again. Clare felt like a beginner at a sheepdog trials as they sheep kept circling the Meadow, approaching the entrance and then going off in a different direction. At last they left the Meadow but then chose to go back into the Scrub. Clare wanted to head them off before they reached the top so went up through the Scrub by a different path. The sheep, intent on getting to the top, were ahead of her. Clare went back down to the bottom, through the gate and up the road, in through the top gate and approached them from above. This seemed to work and the sheep headed down the main path. Clare took the other path and hoped to stop them turning left at the bottom rather than right and through the gate. This was a good plan except the sheep were slower than Clare had expected and were still quite a way up the path when Clare appeared at the bottom. Guess what - they went back up the path. Clare repeated the last section of the plan and this time the sheep came all the way down the path and turned right and out through the gate. Clare reckons this counts as a wild experience. She can also see that it does all sound quite amusing. One day she hopes to be able to laugh about it. Fortunately she was soothed on her walk home by seeing a pair of Linnets and a mile further on, a pair of Greenfinches.

June 2nd

Clare noticed that the cattle grazing with the sheep had been munching on the Sycamores overhanging Liddells’ road wall, probably because they are sweet with honeydew at the moment, and the cattle had knocked down quite a section of the wall. Clare made her way down to the NE Strip to prune the Sycamores there and reduce the risk of more damage. As she approached the Meadow she saw a ewe and two lambs happily grazing there. They must have split off at some point during yesterday’s shenanigans and returned to the Meadow after Clare had left. Fortunately Tim and Jane were walking past at just this moment so the business of removing the sheep only took a couple of minutes. Hardly wild at all.

The Flycatchers were still in the same area of the Pit Wood and using the same perches as yesterday. Clare returned a deer’s bark with one of her own, a skill learned from John. She saw a large newt in the Big Pond and a green Weevil on the road gate.

Clare thinks this is Polydrusus cervinus although the description does not include metal gates as a habitat.

A clip from the trail camera in the Pit Wood - although no wildlife is to be seen the footage is included here because the bird calling is a Marsh tit. They are often seen on the feeders but not so often heard.

Later that same evening the camera captures a wonderful close up of the older buck’s head. You can see the gutters (grooves) and pearls (the knobbly bits) on his antlers, and just what a fine head he has.

June 3rd

Clare did more Sycamore brashing while John repaired the wall. After that strenuous work John went to see if he could photograph the Flycatchers. He was very pleased with the result. Rightly so.

Clare had a leisurely walk around and several wild encounters - a Goldcrest, a Treecreeper, a Sparrowhawk and the Flycatchers. She sat in the hide for a while and noticed a Great tit make numerous trips to peck up some of the peanut butter-based paste that she makes and leaves on the tree trunk feeder. The bird took the paste to the nestlings in J2.

By the pond she saw a female Broad-bodied chaser ovipositing, a Small Copper butterfly and had an up close and personal encounter with a Large Red damselfly.

Keen film fans might recognise a film from 1970 referenced here (answer at the end of this post)

4th June

Mel arrived to complete a wildflower survey. He showed Clare the difference between a Bulbous buttercup and a Meadow buttercup. In the latter the sepals are turned downwards.

John created a Sycamore Gap on Liddells by removing the spindly trees in the NE Strip which were not only tempting the cattle but crowding out some Oaks.

John thinks the footage below is of the younger doe and is left wondering if she is pregnant. Time may tell.

5th June

Clare often hears Blackcaps singing on Liddells however with all the foliage she rarely sees one. Today one perched in one of the Hawthorns in front of the hide. Catching up with some old episodes of Tweet of the Day later on, Clare was reminded that the bird is referred to as the ‘Northern Nightingale’.

Clare set about some preparatory work for the school visit next month by beginning to weed the steps up to the Point of View ready to add new chip.

Mel sent his updated record of the wildflowers on Liddells. It’s an impressive and encouraging record and John and Clare are hugely grateful to Mel for the time he has given and the thoroughness with which he has done this. You can see the record here. Mel was interested to find several specimens of White Bugle not far from the hide. He commented that these are quite rare. He also enjoyed the Orange Hawkweed on the Meadow and the Water Violet in the Big Pond.

Mel prefers the name Grim the Collier:
‘Although Pilosella aurantiaca (more commonly known as Fox-and-cubs) is a native of northern Europe, it must’ve been introduced to Britain a very long time ago as it gets a mention in Gerard’s 1633 Herbal. Gerard called it Grimme the Collier, which seems to me a most intriguing name. I’ve read speculation that the name may have been coined because the plant’s hairs resemble coal dust on a miner’s beard (really?) but there was also a play that originated in the early 1600s called Grim the Collier of Croydon and that was apparently based on a real-life character from the mid 16th century. It would seem more likely that the plant’s name relates to the person or the play but, in that case, I can’t help wondering: was Grim tall with a head of bright orange hair? Was Grim an invader from northern Europe? Were these particular flowers mentioned in the play?’ (Earthstar.blog)

6th June

Hares and roe deer are predominant on the trail cameras however Clare and John are always pleased to see evidence of other life (except grey squirrels).

8th June

Clare was working on the steps when she saw a Red and Black Froghopper. Struck by their colour she thought about London buses and wondered if several would turn up together. Sure enough within a few minutes she had seen four, clearly the Routemasters of the insect world. Here are a couple:

John has been surprised to see the younger buck still around, particularly as this is the time when does give birth and have usually pushed the former year’s youngsters away by now. You can see that this one has, in roe deer head terms, a rather poor set of antlers.

However the older buck seems aware of the younger one’s presence as he sniffs at this branch and the next day is seen chasing him through the Scrub.

9th - 11th June

Clare noticed the first of the Common Spotted Orchids out in flower on the Meadow and a profusion of Ragged Robin at the base of the Crag. A female Broad-bodied Chaser perched long enough for Clare to get a photograph and she watched a family of Willow Warblers near the apiary. One juvenile stayed still for long enough for a short video.

13th June

Clare was delighted to be receiving a new colony of bees today - a small colony that was the result of swarm control by beekeepers in a nearby village. The delivery was due early in the morning as it was so hot and when Clare arrived at Liddells the dew revealed a mass of webs all over the grass.

‘Sheet webs are usually built by the Linyphiidae. This is the largest family of spiders in the UK, with 280 species. It includes the tiny money spiders said to bring good luck if you find one wandering over you.
The smallest species tend to build their sheet webs on depressions in the soil, others on low vegetation and some on tree bark.
The money spider hangs beneath its web, waiting for dinner to land above.’ (https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/spider-webs.html)

14th June

John and Clare have been keen to retrieve the trail camera discs as they have been expecting the roe does to have their kids at any time now, however here is the older doe still pregnant.

15th - 21st June

While metaphorically pacing the corridors of the maternity ward, John and Clare enjoyed welcoming Hal, Beth and Juno for an afternoon on Liddells, continued their preparations for group visits in July and for John’s inaugural talk on roe deer which he is giving at a local village hall. Clare also completed this year’s assault on the Creeping thistle on the Meadow - she was delighted to have found only 78 in total, well down from previous years.

Positioning the first post for what will become a tree house. Beth would like it noted that John is not carrying anything and that carrying it over, she had the heavy end

Juno and Hal indulge in a bit of tree climbing…

while John assumes the role of Health and Safety Officer

Juno joined in Insect Week by finding and examining the nymph of a Froghopper inside Cuckoo Spit. She couldn’t resist finding a use for Foxglove flowers.

John took his camera to the pond.

John also spotted the creature below on a leaf on the pond. Clare thinks it belongs in a cartoon or animated film. The Royal Entomological Society has a wonderful insect identification service and the response to Clare’s enquiry about this one was that it is ‘one of the leaf beetles from the family Chrysomelidae with some 280 UK species. This one could be Plateumaris sericea or a related species. They have a variety of colour forms and are found near ponds where the larval food plants are’.

After leaving the bees alone to settle in for a few days, Clare moved them from the nucleus hive (5 frames) to a full size brood box. The bees had built wild comb on top of the frames - Clare thinks they must be upwardly mobile.

John says that bucks often seem to be invisible in the summer months however the older buck is maintaining his presence for the trail camera in the Scrub.

22nd June

The day before John’s talk ‘A Year in the Life of the Roe Deer’, Clare decided to change the discs in her camera. Imagine her delight when she saw the perfect postcript for the talk.

Clare reckons the one at the back is destined for a career in comedy. The doe has had triplets for the third year running.

The doe is picked up by the camera in the Pit Wood later the same day though only two kids appear.

23rd June

One kid appears on its own in the Scrub.

24th/25th June

With paths needing chip, John and Clare hired a chipper and invited a few friends to come and work extremely hard in return for some cake. Fortunately they have great friends. Five piles of brash were converted to the wood equivalent of mincemeat, about two dozen bagfuls were used on paths and the rest bagged up for future use. Clare was so focussed on the work she forgot to take photographs until the end so it looks as though Jane E did all the work. Clare and John would like to extend their thanks to all who took part - Barry, Jane B, Mel, Pat and Jane E. As ever they all pitched in with huge amounts of effort, great good humour and a much valued generosity of spirit. Thanks too to local farmer John R who donated lots of bags to reuse.

Jane B discovered a visitor on her jacket which Jim Hardie of the Royal Entomological Society identified as ‘an adult female meadow plant bug, Leptopterna dolabrata which is a plant/capsid bug, family Miridae of which there are some 230 UK species’. Good for it to appear in Insect Week. Also supporting Insect Week - Clare noticed these beetles bonking on Hogweed while she was walking home. Regular readers of the blog will know that in spite of their location and activity, these are not Hogweed Bonking beetles, although they may be trying to emulate them. These are Speckled Longhorn beetles Pacyytodes cerambyformis.

‘In the UK it is locally common in the south of England and the west midlands, throughout Wales and more local and scarce through most of Scotland. Adults are active from May until July … the typical habitat is deciduous woodland and wooded parkland but they fly well and will travel some distance to visit flowers and so may occur away from wooded areas, e.g. we found specimens on umbel flowers beside a busy A-road in Surrey far from any woodland, they are very active and on warm days may display a habit of hovering above flowers and moving rapidly, in the way a hoverfly might move. Mating occurs throughout the season and pairs may be seen on the leaves and flowers of various shrubs and herbaceous plants, typically umbels but also meadowsweet.’ (ukbeetles.co.uk)
Clare saw these beside a path between woodland and a road.

Crossing the Hayfield to some of the brash piles on Saturday, Clare noticed three very small couches all close together, suggesting the triplets had been left to lie up there. John says very young kids are scentless so their presence can’t be detected by the likes of a fox. On Sunday Clare arrived early and went onto the Meadow to remove some Hogweed flower heads and found a single couch. She thought this might not be one of the triplets who would most likely be together. Seeing a movement out of the corner of her eye, she realised she was looking at a single kid at the far end of the Meadow. It ran backwards and forwards along the fence line for a while watching Clare. No other kids appeared, nor a doe, so Clare left it confident that it would either find a way out or be found by the doe. John and Clare are left wondering if a second doe has given birth.

Clare also had a couple of delightful butterfly encounters on the Meadow.

25th June

Footage from the Scrub camera suggests that there is indeed a doe with only one kid.

28th June

Two video clips from the Scrub camera both seem to suggest that there is a doe with just one kid, maybe the kid Clare saw on the Meadow. The triplets have not appeared all together on the cameras since 22nd June. In the first clip it looks as though the doe stops to groom the kid just out of range of the camera.

29th June

John and Clare set about the last of the preparations for the Hexham Village Band’s visit on Saturday. Clare then went to Barry’s for some beekeeping and was delighted to spot a new queen fairly quickly - cataract surgery and new spectacles seem to work. Once a queen is identified she can be marked and this makes the whole process of swarm control considerably easier. Queens born this year are marked red although Barry’s queen was marked green as this was the pen to hand; clearly Clare and Barry are catering for red/green colour blindness.

If you have taken up the 30 Days Wild challenge, John and Clare hope you have enjoyed it.

The answer to the film question posed on 3rd June is Claire’s Knee, directed by Eric Rohmer. Clare remembers going to see this film as a student in the days of power cuts. The film had hardly started before the cinema was plunged into darkness whereupon Clare heard a disgruntled voice behind her complaining, “We haven’t even seen Claire, let alone her knee!”