Clare and John hope you have enjoyed a year of What’s That Bird? challenges. If there are any more notable recordings they will be added to subsequent Blog posts, however for now that particular element of the Blog will end.
Please remember that to access the video footage you will need to go through the Blog on the website: www.liddells.co.uk
1st October
After the death of a stoat earlier in the year, Clare has been happy to see evidence of their presence on Liddells. Here is one demonstrating the species’ agility.
The buck kid (one of the twins), shows his buttons developing. John thinks this is early in the kid’s life to show this antler growth. Perhaps he is hoping for a part in a Christmas pantomime. The kid, not John.
3rd October
The doe with her twins comes through the Pit Wood and you can see how much more of her summer coat she has lost since last month. By contrast, the kids are still in summer garb. You can also see that the kids’ sex difference is now very clear. The doe kid, with her anal tush, is nearer the camera.
4th October
One of the large bucks, John is not certain which of the two it might be, also shows considerable loss of his summer coat.
5th October
John and Clare went to see what, if any, damage had been wrought by Storm Amy. A large branch had come down from high on a Larch in the Pit Wood however its fall had been checked by an Elder which had prevented the limb from falling across the path. John discovered a Sycamore limb down in the Top Strip however there appeared to be no other damage.
Clare was pleased to see water collecting in the newly deepened Roadside pond and was struck by the intensity of autumn colours.
Recently Jane B had shared the following quote from Sense and Sensibility at an arts event on the subject of Passion. Clare thought it would fit perfectly here although she was mindful that her English teacher, Miss Flint, would have balked at all the exclamation marks. Jane Austen is, of course, forgiven.
“Oh! cried Marianne, ‘with what transporting sensations have I formerly seen them fall! How have I delighted, as I walked, to see them driven in showers about me by the wind! What feelings have they, the season, the air altogether inspired! Now there is no one to regard them. They are only seen as a nuisance, swept hastily off, and driven as much as possible from the sight.’
‘It is not everyone,’ said Elinor, ‘who has your passion for dead leaves.”
A couple of Waxcaps adding to the colour palette caught Clare’s eye. Clare thinks they are Golden Waxcaps Hygrocybe chlorophana: ‘Yellow or orange, wet and/or sticky, domed at first, becoming flatter with age. Diameter of cap: To 70mm. Gills: Narrowly or barely attached to the stem. Stem: Yellow or orange, usually dry, but occasionally moist. Notes: A common species in unfertilised grassland. A similar species, H. ceracea (Butter Waxcap), is usually smaller and has gills which are broadly attached to the stem.’ (plantlife.org.uk)
6th October
National Badger Day. Clare had hoped a badger might put in an appearance on one of the trail cameras however, in spite of almost nightly expeditions across Liddells, none obliged that evening. Here is a passage about a badger instead. John and Clare hope it will enhance your recognition and understanding of the species:
‘The Badger, who wore a long dressing-gown, and whose slippers were indeed very down-at-heel, carried a flat candlestick in his paw…The Badger did not mind [that sort of regrettable conversation that results from talking with your mouth full], …nor did he take any notice of elbows on the table, or everybody speaking at once. As he did not go into Society himself, he had got an idea that these things belonged to the things that didn’t really matter.’ (Wind in the Willows)
Clare collected stones from her excavation of the Roadside pond to add to the rubble on the path through the Scrub. John finished sheep-proofing the Hayfield.
7th - 10th October
At least one badger appeared on the trail cameras each night. That’s badgers for you, shunning the spotlight on their National Day.
Clare loved a passage about leaves and colour from a book lent to her by Sally, The See-Through House. Shelley Klein tells the story of the relationship with her father Bernat (Beri), textile designer and artist, and the house he commissioned.
‘I also recall standing by these windows as a child with Beri beside me admiring the beech trees.
‘Those leaves,’ Beri explains as the trees shake and glister, ‘are made up of hundreds and thousands of colours. They aren’t just flat and green.Remember that. You have to look, really look, beyond what is there.
I stare upwards at the toppling greens. There are not enough words to describe all the colours I’m seeing, let alone the ones I can’t see.
‘It’s extraordinary,’ Beri continues, ‘how many colours a single blade of grass can contain, or a feather or pebble.’
I remember his words and I also remember how afterwards I stopped thinking of colour as something to be applied like nail varnish or paint. Instead, it was to be explored, entered into, felt. The world suddenly looked very different; it expanded and achieved unknown depths. Looking at yellow I discovered all kinds of words and emotions and sounds. Yellow was scrambled and fruity and lobed. It was soft, gassy and golden. Occasionally it was sluiced, frequently it was high-pitched, sometimes it was sour as lemons.’
One of the mature does is now fully in her winter coat.
12th October
Clare set about brashing more of the Hawthorns on the Meadow and disposing of the brash in the pit in the NE Strip. It is a very prickly occupation. The work will let more light onto the ground and make it easier for Tom to get round with his tractor when he cuts the hay.
15th October
A Jay appears in the Scrub. Jays are quite shy birds although their cry will give them away. The Jay appears in The Lost Spells, the companion book to The Lost Words. Robert McFarlane and Jackie Morris created spell poems and illustrations to re-engage people with nature. They were prompted to do so by the removal of some nature words from The Oxford Children’s Dictionary due to an apparent lack of use.
Jay
Jay, Jay, plant me an acorn.
I will plant you a thousand acorns.
Acorn, acorn, grow me an oak.
I will grow you an oak that will live
for a thousand years.
Year, year, fledge me a Jay.
I will fledge you a Jay that will plant
you a thousand acorns that will each
grow a thousand oaks that will each
live a thousand years that will each
fledge a bright-backed, blue-winged,
forest-making Jay.
15th October
Thanks to slippage of the camera angle, the buck kid is captured drinking from Pond Maggiore. John says there has long been a debate about whether or not the species drinks. The naysayers argue that the animals get whatever they need from browsing - long-standing readers of this Blog may remember that this was true of the Exmoor and Fell ponies that were resident on Liddells for a while - however here is evidence to the contrary.
After the numerous clips of Titmice attacking the cameras, Clare found the video of a crow attacking a camera was even more amusing. She was quite pleased with the title that came to her.
18th October
More crow activity - drinking (from earlier in the month), and bathing. John and Clare are always pleased to see different evidence of habitat use.
20th October
Ruth set her mist nets to see if there were any autumn visitors around. She said there were plenty of Redwings, however she was very happy to see a Willow tit. Neither Clare nor John have seen a Willow tit on Liddells for months and had assumed the couple or three that had been seen regularly had not survived. The bird below had no ring so is a new visitor and Ruth thinks it was likely it had not travelled far. Tim who lives not far away, and someone Ruth knows locally to Liddells have both mentioned seeing the species. Ruth thinks possibly they don’t nest on Liddells (neither John or Clare have ever seen young), however there is a local population. Clare has talked to Keith about nest boxes designed for the species so that might be a winter project.
22nd October
Clare was startled to see the vibrant colour of the gills on the fungus below. Seek by iNaturalist thinks they are Common milkcaps but the app can’t suggest which particular type.
24th October
Ruth contacted Clare to say that a young Goldcrest she had ringed on 28th August was recaught in Allestree Park, Derby on 19th September. It had flown 233km. Ruth wondered where it was off to.
Clare looked up Allestree Park and thinks the Goldcrest must want more from life than Liddells can offer: ‘Allestree Park is a much-loved Derby City Park and a haven for wildlife. The site of a Community Rewilding Project, Allestree Park is undergoing changes led by nature and supported by the people of Derby, making it even richer for people and wildlife.
Allestree Park Community Rewilding is a partnership project between Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, Derby City Council (the landowner and manager) and the University of Derby and is the largest urban rewilding project in the UK. Through the project, wildlife will flourish, species will return, and the site will be more accessible, providing the people of Derby and surrounding areas with an even more beautiful place to visit.’ (derbyshirewildlifetrust.org.uk)
Some Goldcrests are never satisfied.
27th October
Clare and John finished brashing the last of the Hawthorns on the Meadow. Clare stacked some of the logs from the work and realised she had made a Hawthorn Jenga. In true Hawthorn fashion, it is particularly higgledy-piggledy. The last of the Hawthorns revealed an example of inosculation, though not the most romantic looking one. ‘If two branches of a tree rub against each other so the bark is worn away and their cambium (the layer of vascular tissue) is exposed, they can unite in a natural graft. The resulting forms often resemble a loving embrace, and the word for this phenomenon - ‘inosculation’ - is fittingly derived from Latin ‘osculari’: to kiss.’ (Uncommon Ground: A word-lover’s guide to the British landscape by Dominick Tyler)
28th October
Clare worked on trimming the Meadow hedge. Taking a break in the hide later John and Clare were charmed to see a flurry of Goldfinches arriving; and not flurried to see a charm of Goldfinches arriving. They seemed to be attempting to achieve an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most Goldfinches on a feeder. Apologies for the poor quality of the photographs (which may negate a GBofWR entry), the range of a phone camera is limited.
21st - 28th October
Meanwhile back at the pond…
John and Clare realigned the camera on Pond Maggiore and were astonished to see that while the, as it were, camera’s back was turned, some Mandarin ducks had been making good use of the pond. They appear each evening at about dusk and leave as the light comes up. There have been a small number of Mandarin ducks visiting before, however never this many. There seem to be about 16-20 mixed with a handful of Mallard. Here is a small selection of Mandarin activity.
30th October
The breasting wire seems to be working, however some cattle, not to be outdone, have pushed down some wall stones further along the road wall. John is determined to keep abreast of things by adding more posts and wire. John and Clare are resigned to more wall repair.
31st October
Clare was curious to see whether there was any interest in the habitat she had created from Ash brash at the top of the Pit Wood. Frustratingly the most interested mammals seem to be squirrels and Clare is not prepared to give them any more Blog space. Instead here is a black cat clearly on its way to trick or treat.
