Birds

April - burgeoning

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.

Extended gate

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.

Damson

Plum

Bird cherry

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’.

Field Maple

Wild Cherry

False Oxlip

Meliscaeva auricollis

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.

Cowslips

Common Spotted Orchid leaves

Adder’s Tongue Fern

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.

Before the discovery of postcrete

Throwing in the trowel

Riding to the rescue

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.

March - new life

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.

Wych elm

Aspen

Hawthorn

Larch

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.

February - Primaveral Season

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

A bird in the hand…

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

January 2024 - ringing in the New Year

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.

Goldcrest

Treecreeper

Coal tit

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.

Alphabet soup

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.

Hawthorn decorations

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.

Staple diet

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.

December - preparing for new growth

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

November - bench marks

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.

October - rock stars

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.

September - time to rest

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.

Hawthorn Shield Bug

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

Eurasian armoured long-jawed orb-weaver Metellina segmentata

Clubiona comta

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.

June - the call of the wild

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.

A juvenile’s beak appears quite thin

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.

Bulbous buttercup

Meadow buttercup

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.

White bugle

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)

Water Violet

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.

Male Broad-bodied chaser

Azure damselflies mating

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.

Adult female meadow plant bug

‘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!”

May - surveys and surprises

First the familiar reminder that to watch the trail camera footage, go to the Liddells website, click on the Blog: the videos will be there in all their glory.

1st May

Clare decided to honour International Dawn Chorus Day by arriving at Liddells just before 5am to listen to the birds. She decided on an anti-clockwise route for a change and so quickly arrived at the bottom of the Scrub having heard Blackbird, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Robin, Song thrush, and Willow warblers on the way. At this point she realised she was looking at an odd shape between two Hawthorns on the Meadow. It was a tarpaulin shelter under which was a pair of boots and a bundle. This was not what Clare was expecting and she was quite scared. She backed off quietly and walked away thinking about what to do. Guessing this was a wild camper, but not knowing how wild, she made her way up to the tool shed to see if there was a suitable weapon with which to defend herself. Rejecting the idea of a rake or a hammer, she realised her best weapon was her mobile phone camera. Thus armed, she locked the top gate and made her way on the road to the bottom gate, keeping it locked and between her and the camper. She could see he was up and was starting to pack. He did this very slowly and methodically and was obviously careful to leave no trace. He saw Clare and as he approached asked if this was the Hadrian’s Meadow camping field. Clare pointed out that had it been, it was unlikely to have had a padlock and chain. Kush was profusely apologetic, particularly when he realised how upset Clare had been and that he had somewhat compromised her delight in the dawn chorus. He was courteous, thoughtful and interested in the Liddells project. He asked if there was a café anywhere soon along the route where he could top up his water bottle, then went on his way. Knowing there is no café nearby, Clare drove back home, gathered some portable breakfast goods and water and drove back to find him on route. Kush was very touched by the gesture and gave permission to be included in the Blog. He may well be reading this.

A postscript - Clare knows she is dilatory about checking the Liddells email and was both embarrassed and delighted to see, far too late in the month, that Kush had sent a kind and generous email after his stay on the Meadow, appreciating how Clare and John are engaging with Liddells and appreciative of his stay and his breakfast.

Clare did manage a few recordings so for those who would like to listen, the audio clips feature the following dominant songs (you will hear others in the background):

Wren (often described as the having loudest birdsong per body weight)

Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Garden Warbler (the Blackcap has a deeper tone, slightly more tuneful, while the Garden Warbler has more by way of burbles in among the notes. Then sometimes the Blackcap burbles and the Garden Warbler sings more tunefully.)

Chiffchaff, Chaffinch (Clare often thinks of this song as resembling a build up to a sneeze and ending with the ‘p’choo’ of the sneeze at the end)

Willow Warbler (again for Clare, as if building to a sneeze but then the sneeze goes away in a series of descending notes), Magpie, Coal Tit

2nd May

Juno came to help John and Clare flatten the last of the molehills on the Top Grazing. Not a mountainous job and Juno set about the task with enthusiasm. And a back hoe.

6th May

Clare and John took a break in the hide after strimming the Orchard and protecting Bird Cherry trees with tubes and cages. They were surprised to see a Willow warbler round the feeders and even more surprised when it went into the caged ground feeder. It was not after food though - the bird emerged with a small feather and set off to a Hawthorn not far away. The bird made several trips across the front of the hide collecting several small feathers. Clare went to see where it was taking them and saw it disappear into the base of a clump of rush. While the bird was away Clare had a quick look and saw a small hole with a mossy cup inside. This was very exciting.

7th May

More tree protection in the Orchard. John and Clare are mindful that the younger buck is still in velvet and they have found fraying damage.

8th May

An evening visit to Liddells after a day of heavy rain. As John approached the bottom gate he said, “If there’s not a deer out after that rain, I’ll eat my hat,” whereupon he and Clare saw the younger buck on the Meadow. John’s hat collection remains intact.

9th May

John had noticed a hare on the Top Grazing which frequently ran for cover from the same spot. On closer investigation he found the hare’s couch. It is more likely to be a temporary resting place than the hare’s form. Below you can see the couch and where it is on the Top Grazing.

Clare had moved her trail camera to a site near the Willow warbler’s nest and was pleased to pick up some footage of three deer. First a doe eating raspberries. She is still in her winter coat but looking very shaggy; then a splendid view of the older buck in hard horn (regular readers may remember why this phrase, although often used, is technically incorrect), and winter coat; last the younger buck still in velvet and winter coat. Not a velvet winter coat. The clips are all captured within a twelve minute period.

10th May

Clare had moved her camera again after capturing no footage of the Willow warbler near the nest. The camera had recorded a lot of footage showing the abundance of St Mark’s flies, (so called because they emerge close to St Mark’s Day, 25th April); they are also known as Hawthorn flies. They do seem to be attracted to Hawthorns in particular.

11th May

Keith generously offered his annual help with a breeding bird survey and met Clare at 7.15 in the morning to walk round listening and making a note of what they heard and saw. They enjoyed the usual Blackcap or Garden Warbler challenge. The results of the survey are here.

Clare took Keith to see the Willow warbler’s nest and was dismayed to see that it had been pulled out and apart, and was empty. Culprit unknown. Clare saved the nest and weighed it - it was 8 grams - light as a few feathers.

The destroyed nest…

…and where it was hidden

Clare commented that she hadn’t seen or heard any Bullfinches for a while. Later in the day walking home, she saw one on an apple tree in the garden at home.

12th May

Bullfinches clearly have a sense of humour - there were two on the Meadow as Clare arrived today.

John and Clare are seeing hares on nearly every visit. Below are a couple caught on camera.

13th May

A gloriously sunny day so, as Tim and Jane were away, Clare completed the weekly butterfly transect. Tim has often said that although the transect year begins in April, nothing much happens in this part of the county till later. Nonetheless Clare saw 8 Orange Tips, 4 Speckled Woods and a Small Tortoiseshell on the Liddells part of the transect. After completing the transect Clare went for a wander into a part of the Scrub that is less accessible and was delighted to see a pair of Tawny Owls. They had obviously been roosting together and flew out surprised by Clare’s proximity.

A sequence of clips from the trail camera showed a doe browsing Hawthorn for several minutes before couching at 7.15 am. She doesn’t get up until 8.43 when she begins browsing again for 2-3 minutes before wandering off.

14th May

John and Clare cleared the last of the barley straw bale from the Top Grazing and distributed it in front of the hide where the ground had become very muddy. The pheasants had a great time moving it about as they hunted for the odd grain.

A doe, possibly the older one, and in her summer coat, looks very pregnant. The kids will be born some time in the next few weeks.

15th May

All the trees in the Orchard are now fully protected either with tubes or cages. It’s a time-consuming but necessary part of routine maintenance. John’s friend Mike saw the Tawny Owls in the Scrub.

16th - 18th May

Clare found 6 of the Willows in Sylvia’s Avenue on the Wetland had been frayed and a couple pushed out completely, so she set about putting tubes on them. Clare and John have a commitment to recycling materials whenever possible in their work on Liddells; it was particularly pleasing to use the hedging tubes that originally came with the plants for the hedge by the apiary. There were exactly the right number for the willows.

Clare had moved her camera to a different area near the hide wondering if the deer might be using it. They weren’t, however she was pleased to have recorded this night time activity.

Clare moved her trail camera again, this time in the hope of capturing the owls on film. The camera proved its worth again. The very first clip after moving it provided evidence of both birds with the too-wit-too-woo calls. Although people might assume this is the call of a single Tawny, in fact the female calls ‘too-wit’ and is answered by the male’s ‘too-woo’. A couple of days later one owl is recorded coming into the tree. (Since then there have been no more sightings.)

20th May

Clare was having a gentle walk round Liddells noticing which plants were in flower. She had had cataract surgery a couple of days earlier and was amused that the first flowers that caught her attention were Eyebright.

Clare also saw Large Red damselflies mating near the Big Pond, the first damselflies of the season. She has been waiting for several months to include nuggets of information from a programme called Dragons and Damsels. First nuggets - these creatures have been around for 330 million years (not the ones Clare was seeing obviously). Both dragonflies and damselflies cover great distances in search of suitable spots; their eyes can detect polarised light reflected by water surfaces and this means they can not only detect a pond however small, but also tell a lot about the water quality and submerged vegetation.

21st - 25th May

Clare decided to pursue the idea suggested by Linda France a while ago - to think of more creative names for the different areas of Liddells rather than the prosaic terms used thus far. So the Top Grazing is henceforth the Hayfield - I think you will agree that this is an improvement in terminology. Clare is working on the Top Strip, dividing it in her mind into sections - the Quarry Walk, Up to a Point - the west end awaits a name.

While on the Hayfield Clare noticed several insects that looked rather like Daddy-long-legs, although this is the wrong time of year for them. She managed to photograph a pair mating and sent the photo to the Royal Etymological Society, as ever receiving a very quick response: ‘Tipulidae are tricky to identify, as many of the colour characteristics that look so straight forward are in fact continuous between species, such that many species are difficult to distinguish one from another without careful attention to other characters often not apparent in photographs. Nonetheless, if I'm not too much mistaken, based on the eye, wing and abdomen colouring, this is a mating pair of Tipula (Lunatipula) vernalis. The species has a preference for sweet-grassland or chalky grassland where the larvae thrive in drier soils.’

John and Clare began mapping and maintaining the trees at the east end of the Hayfield. They were pleased to note that from all the planting over a few years, particularly with the very small trees planted last autumn, there are now 37 Oaks, 18 Horse Chestnuts, 3 Beech, 3 Birch, 3 Hornbeam, 3 Field Maples, 2 Limes, 2 Hazels, 1 Ash and 1 Crab Apple. Every one of these is now protected with either a tube or a cage depending on size. Less than a handful of the trees had failed.

Wandering through the Quarry Walk later in the day, Clare found a wildflower that she had never seen on Liddells before. She thinks it is Charlock.

26th May

More damselflies around both the Big and Roadside ponds (yes, these need new names); this time Azures were abundant with much mating activity. Next nugget - Azure males will sometimes attempt to mate with female Common Blues though with no success.

Clare found a mystery creature inside one of the folding chairs in the shed. John thought it might be a tick however it seemed to be too big, then revealed itself to be a spider - a False Widow Spider.

27th May

Water Crowfoot is in flower on the Big Pond. You can also see a photo-bombing pond snail.

28th May

Clare fashioned a step into the meeting room using half an unwanted pallet. John finished extracting nails and other fixings from fenceposts and rails he had collected from different areas of Liddells which had been discarded during a previous ownership. The retrieved wood is now sawn and stacked. Clare added another layer of protective wire to the third of the Oaks that are descendants of the Leper Oak on Hexham golf course.

Clare also completed this season’s nesting box survey. 13 are in use this year - not a huge number, although clearly there are birds nesting without recourse to the boxes.

While she was walking round, Clare noticed Holly in flower which hasn’t caught her attention before. She also found another face in a tree. regular Blog readers may recall that seeing such things is called pareidolia.

30th May

Both male and female Broad-bodied Chasers were flying round and over the Big Pond. Clare waited patiently to spot the frequently used perches and waited beside them only to be outwitted by the Chasers which immediately moved to different resting points, then returning to their original places as soon as Clare had moved. Nonetheless, here is her attempt at a photo of a female. And more information - dragonfly larvae have forward-facing eyes giving them stereo vision, and jaws that can shoot out an additional half length of their body to catch prey. The ideas in ‘Alien’ were far from original.

Clare saw a juvenile Blue Tit in the Orchard.

31st May

In keeping with all the other surveys this month, Clare has been keeping a record of the plants as they bloom. Thus far the following have been in flower this month:

(the flowers are listed as you would find them in a field guide)

Nettle Family - Nettle

Dock Family - Bistort, Common Sorrel, Broad-leaved Dock

Pink Family - Greater Stitchwort, Common Chickweed, Field Mousear, Red Campion, Ragged Robin

Buttercup Family - Marsh Marigold, Meadow Buttercup, Creeping Buttercup, Lesser Celandine, Common Water Crowfoot, Wood Anemone,

Cabbage Family - Charlock, Cuckoo Flower, Garlic Mustard, Common Scurvy Grass, Hairy Bittercress,

Saxifrage Family - Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage

Rose Family - Lady’s Mantle, Raspberry, Wild Strawberry, Water Avens, Herb Bennet, Tormentil, Silverweed, Crab Apple, Rowan, Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Wild Cherry, Bird Cherry

Pea Family - Gorse, Broom, Bush Vetch, Bird’s Foot Trefoil, Red Clover, White Clover

Wood-Sorrel Family - Wood Sorrel

Geranium Family - Meadow Cranesbill, Herb Robert

Milkwort Family - Common Milkwort

Spindle-tree Family - Spindle Tree

Violet Family - Sweet Violet, Common Dog Violet

Carrot Family - Cow Parsley, Pignut

Heath Family - Heather, Bilberry

Primrose Family - Primrose, Oxlip, Cowslip, Yellow Pimpernel

Bedstraw Family - Woodruff, Heath Bedstraw, Common Cleavers

Borage Family - Common Comfrey, Lungwort, Field Forget-me-not,

Labiate Family - Bugle, Water Mint

Figwort Family - Germander Speedwell, Common Field Speedwell, Eyebright, Yellow Rattle

Plantain Family - Ribwort Plantain

Honeysuckle Family - Guelder Rose

Daisy Family - Daisy, Ox-eye Daisy, Perennial Cornflower, Dandelion, Common Catsear, Orange Hawkweed

Lily Family - Lily of the Valley, Ramsons, Bluebell

Of course some are past their flowering period and there are others yet to come. Clare was particularly please to see Common Spotted Orchid leaves appearing in several places.

Readers may note that Clare has made no further mention of the course she joined on Grasses, Rushes and Sedges. She felt that she insufficient botanical background and inadequate eyesight (at least while she still had a cataract), to derive most benefit from the sessions, so she withdrew. She still has a field guide so hopes to learn a few specimens in her own time.

Another juvenile Blue tit near the Big Pond and three juvenile Thrushes in the Pit Wood.

John and Clare had an afternoon walk on Liddells - yes, they can just walk without any need to work - and spent a lot of time by the Big Pond observing dragon and damselflies. Thanks to Chris W’s wonderful blog, Clare had read of his experience watching a dragonfly emerge from its exuvia and so today she thought to inspect some of the rushes in the pond. One plant had at least seven nymphs, another three or four; luckily John was there with his camera. A splendid way to end this month’s Liddells experience.

Male Broad-bodied Chaser

Female Broad-bodied Chaser

Here are some we prepared earlier - Clare is not quite certain about what is shown here and as this all happened just as this post is about to be published, she hasn’t had time to check in with Chris. Her guess is that three dragonflies have emerged and are yet to develop their full colour; the darker smaller form is a nymph that is yet to split and release a dragonfly or it maybe the exuvia from which a dragonfly has emerged, Clare is also uncertain what kind of dragonflies these are. So much still to learn. Clare hope to follow up on this great photograph next month.

A reminder that June is the month for 30 Days Wild - readers may enjoy the challenge to engage with nature in the month ahead by being in, watching, listening, reading, creating, discovering, questioning, learning, or any other ways…

February - preparations

To see the Blog with all the video footage, go to www.liddells.co.uk

Left over from January - a fox limps its way through the Pit Wood. The smaller doe squeaks her way along the same path.

1st February

Clare has long said that she wished she knew more about grasses, sedges and rushes. Today she began a course with the Natural History Society of Northumbria on exactly that topic. She learned many new words, always a personal delight, and hopes that by the end of the course she will be able to use them confidently and appropriately. ‘Awn,’ ‘glume,’ ‘tepals', ‘lemma,’ ‘palea,’ ‘stolon,’ ‘culm', ‘auricle’ and ‘ligule’ might also help improve a Scrabble game. ‘Sedges have edges’ is also a good starter phrase and easy to remember.

John began work on the fourth bench.

A fox - not limping - goes off the path in the Pit Wood.

2nd February

The older buck makes his way through the Pit Wood and the camera captures excellent footage of the velvet on his antlers. As yet there is no evidence of him fraying to remove it.

3rd February

Clare took steps to finish putting wire on the approach to the shepherd’s hut; John finished the third bench.

Should the bees emerge in warm spells, there is forage ready for them.

5th February

Clare checked that all the hives had fondant - this can be a time of year when bees starve if they have eaten all their store and there is insufficient forage available for them. If the weather warms and then goes cold again, there is a risk that the queen starts laying but the colony is still too small for the workers to keep the brood warm, so while others are enjoying balmy early spring days, Clare and other beekeepers are concerned.

Clare planted more Periwinkle that she had grown from cuttings. This time she covered them with mesh as previous shoots had been eaten.

John continued his creative recycling for the meeting room; this time the fourth bench top is made from sawn up bed slats from a bed frame he and Clare inherited when they moved house. John also finished plugging gaps in the meeting room roof to keep out the rain. Thus far this treatment seems to have worked.

Clare identified more wall repair that needs to go on the to-do list.

The pheasant feeders that came with Liddells have been removed. Clare and John are hoping that without a supply of food, the pheasants will move elsewhere and stop taking up so much camera footage and battery power.

‘Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis)

From Flowers of the Field, 1885

Too well known to need any description. Fl. January - March.

Rev. C.A. Johns (1811-1874)’ From Nature Writing for Every Day of the Year

7th February

John and Clare seem to be subject to the organising zeitgeist. John created extra storage in the log shed while in the tool shed Clare channelled some of Marie Kondo’s principles.(While looking up exactly what Marie Kondo suggests, Clare noticed that under the heading ‘What are the 5 steps of the Konmari method' 6 Rules are listed:

Rule 1: Commit Yourself to Tidying Up. The KonMari Method™ is not a quick fix for a messy room or a once-in-a-while approach to tidying. ...

Rule 2: Imagine Your Ideal Lifestyle. ...

Rule 3: Finish Discarding First. ...

Rule 4: Tidy by Category, Not by Location. ...

Rule 5: Follow the Right Order. ...

Rule 6: Ask Yourself If It Sparks Joy.

It would seem that Kondo has neglected to discard one.

Clare was certainly pleased with her work, and will be joyful if her efforts are maintained.

14th February

In accord with the tradition of putting up bird boxes on St Valentine’s Day, John and Clare added a new box in the Pit Wood.

15th - 18th February

Clare discovered Woodpecker activity on a dead Elder behind the bee hives. As it is early in the year this is most likely to be from drumming to stake out territory.

Clare applied her organisational skills to the log shed and after three days’ work all the dry logs were stacked at home ready for this year’s autumn/winter burning, and all the wood that had been sawn and split ready to dry was stacked.

19th February

An entirely new experience on Liddells - John had met some detectorists working on land nearby and invited them to visit Liddells. Wayne, Mac, John and Lisa were delighted to accept the offer and spend a hard-working morning with the metal detectors. They covered the Top Grazing and the Meadow and then worked over the spoil heaps near the hives.

There proved to be no need to contact the British Museum with the finds, however there was some social history evidenced. The remains of a toastrack, a tin of Snowfire Vanishing Cream from the 1930s (here is one in fine condition https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/snowfire-vanishing-cream-alluminium-423388038), a tube of Synulox (still prescribed and used for treating a range of bacterial infections in cats and dogs, a tube of Orbenin (also still prescribed and used for the treatment of ocular infections in cattle, sheep, horses, dogs and cats), a Matchbox Series 23 Trailer Caravan (they were produced from 1965-1969; here is one in pristine condition: https://matchbox.fandom.com/wiki/Trailer_Caravan), a very rusted door handle, parts of an oil lamp, 2 spent bullets, the bowl of a spoon, the handle-end of a trowel or similar, several buttons, tuppence ha’penny (a George V penny, a George VI penny dated 193? and a George VI ship ha’penny), a nut, various unidentifiable bits of metal, inevitably the remains of a few aluminium cans, two bottle tops and some pieces of metal decoration whose origin is mysterious (top left of the photograph). If anyone has any ideas about what it might have been these last pieces decorated, feel free to email them in.

Meanwhile John and Clare planted an Oak grown and donated by their alarm maintenance engineer, wove straggly Willows into the arbour round one of the benches and completed a second section of wall repair.

The Liddells Hoard

23rd - 24th February

Dave came to help finish the wall as some of the stones needed extra lifting power.

Clare found frogspawn on the roadside pond however it was brown, which suggested it had been affected by the cold weather which had been distinctly brumous (‘Brumous’ Foggy, wintry OED Word of the Day 24.02.23).

Clare moved the camera from the Pit Wood to start this season’s Pond Watch - there were four clips of a heron within the first 24 hours and some interesting early morning visitors.

25th - 26th February

John and Clare set up a nesting box assembly line, completed 10 boxes and put 5 on trees in or near the Scrub. The boxes are mostly made from left over bits of shed not needed in the rebuilding works.

Clare planted a tray of Snowdrops in the Pit Wood and heard a thrush singing on Liddells for the first time this year. She recorded the singing which was accompanied by a Chaffinch, Robin and Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming - all suggesting the nest-box making is timely.

Clare also carried out an equipment inventory in her bee shed and was pleased that due to somewhat over-zealous prep last year, she has all the equipment she needs to start this bee-keeping year.

John saw a Woodcock near the Junipers.

28th February

Luke the Mole Man arrived with his traps - the final aspect of this month’s preparation.

January 2023 - benchmarking

1st January

To experience the Blog in all its video glory, go to liddells.co.uk and click on Blog.

Clare began her year delighted to be able to return to some bird-watching. It was as if a rainbow had come out. After a lot more rain the roadside pond seems to be holding its level.

The Pit Wood trail camera captures the old buck - you can see this year’s antlers forming and how thickly covered they are with velvet. John says the older bucks grow their antlers before the younger ones and growth begins as soon as they shed the old ones, which can be any time in November and December.

2nd January

John lit the first fire of the year in the shepherd’s hut. A stoat and two hares keep warm with activity in the Scrub.

3rd January

A hare looks contemplative in the Pit Wood and a young doe noses around.

4th - 5th January

John started work on the benches for the Meeting Room, recycling upstands from benches he made for Hal and Beth several years ago.

John provided his own caption - ‘John has been elevated to the bench’

5th - 7th January

John planted more Willows, started work on a second bench and saw fives hares as he was walking around.

The Pit Wood trail camera captured a pair of hares that looked as if they might start boxing.

In the Scrub, the doe and triplets go round in circles, disturbed by nearby shooting.

9th January

John did more work on the second bench for the meeting room and plugged some of the leaks from the recycled and storm damaged roofing sheets with a bitumen sealant. He is hoping this will work.

Clare began putting netting on the shepherd’s hut steps which are very slippery when wet.

10th - 14th January

John did some stone-walling repair work on the north boundary, worked on the second bench, added more sealant to the roof (his work two days ago seems to have been effective), and added a drip cover to one of the windows.

The first fox of the year is captured on camera in the Pit Wood. It pauses to look at the camera light.

The young buck’s antlers continue to grow.

A kid’s squeak is very clearly heard in Pit Wood footage.

The Pit Wood camera captures four roe deer and very clearly shows the difference in rump pattern between the three does and the buck.

Either one badger goes through the Scrub twice ot two badgers go through about 40 minutes apart.

15th January

The second bench is nearly complete so John started on the frame for one of the tables. Then demonstrated how they might be used.

Clare is adopting a one-step-at-a-time approach.

16th January

Snow! While John was walking round with his camera, he saw five deer moving from the Scrub, up and along the Crag, across the Top Grazing and into the Top Strip. He only managed to get four of them on camera. He said they were most likely the old buck, older doe and her three triplets.

17th January

For reasons best known to itself, the Scrub trail camera has decided to stop taking video footage in favour of stills, however it has captured a stoat with prey and a Woodcock.

19th January

Chris B met John and Clare to talk about bringing up some hard core to fill in the muddy ruts on the Top Grazing near the gate. Clare heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming nearby. It continued to drum on and off throughout the morning’s visit. John and Clare filled the feeders and sat in the hide and were rewarded by a Bullfinch feeding on bramble seeds in front of the hide. Neither John nor Clare dared move to reach for a camera. Bullfinches are resident on Liddells and often seen in the trees, however they seldom venture near the feeders so this was a particular delight.

20th January

Taking best advantage of the hard, frosty ground, Chris sent a team up to make the roadway less muddy. John was impressed not only by the speed and efficiency of the work, but by skilful digger manipulation and trailer reversal.

The result

21st - 22nd January

A Jay digs for acorns in the snow.

John made a start on a second table, using timber from the small and now outgrown bed he made for Juno.

Ice on the roadway pond looks to be in Art Deco style as it begins to thaw. The water below is draining away slightly so the ice surface is sloping.

Catkins have appeared on hazels and alders in the Pit Wood. The catkins on the old hazel tree are far more abundant though less developed than on the more recently planted trees.

23rd - 30th January

John continued his work on the table tops and started the third bench. He has sanded, varnished and planed the edges.

A badger demonstrates the meaning of rootling.

Signs of Spring activity to come are appearing - one hare is clearly interested in another; two different badgers (one larger than the other) an hour or so apart mark their territory on opposite sides of the path in the Pit Wood; a fox marks his territory in the same area; a pair of male pheasants confront each other.

The family of four roe deer are still being seen together, although the smaller of the two young does is often captured several minutes behind the others. The single doe and kid haven’t been seen on film for some time now so have probably moved on to find their own territory.

Clare noticed several deposits of a white opaque jelly round the edges and on the island of the big pond. On closer inspection these were attached to what looked like eggs. Keith thinks they are snail eggs, most likely of the water snails.

John noticed that something has been nibbling away at the trunk of one of the trees in the Orchard - possibly hares or rabbits during the cold spell.

31st January

Final benchmarks and a rainbow for the end of the month.

John wishes it to be known that he realises that the bench position in the next photograph is preferable to the arrangement above.

December - hip hip hooray

Happy New Year to all Blog Readers - thank you for your support. We hope you continue to enjoy progress reports from Liddells. To see the Blog in all its glory, ie with trail camera footage included, click here and then click on Blog.

2nd December

John planted about 40 willow whips from neighbour Sylvia’s tree.

It is always heartening to see that there are hares thriving on Liddells. Here two rush through the Scrub.

3rd December

Clare made sure her bees were ready for the winter before she went in for her hip op. (The surgeon is also a beekeeper, so understood how the timing of the operation suited a beekeeper’s calendar. There is very little to do over winter except check the bees have plenty of food available.) Clare hefted the hives to assess the state of the stores and added boxes of fondant over holes in the crown board above the colony - the bees’ metabolism is slowed right down so they need to eat sugar directly without needing to process it, as they have to with syrup. Clare also added pillowcases stuffed with old sweaters under the roofs to provide some insulation and help absorb any damp.

John set about revamping a temporary log shelter near the bug hotel and worked on clearing a pine in the Pit Wood that had fallen during Storm Arwen, brashing the trunk ready for logging.

He brought home photographic evidence of how cold it was at Liddells.

5th - 6th December

John has moved his trail camera to the north-west corner of the Pit Wood as he recognises it is one of the deer’s favourite places. First on the scene was a pair of hares, then sure enough, the camera captured a doe couching and the young buck standing , then they reverse positions.

10th December

The cold brought a dense mist to Liddells that was slow to clear. Through the murk the camera in the Scrub has recorded the family of four roe; it is a while since they have all been seen together.

12th December

While Clare recovered in the warm at home, John’s car recorded that it was -5º while he worked at Liddells.

14th December

John is doing preparatory work prior to getting logs from the northern boundary under shelter. It remains cold.

Path past the roadside pond

Frosted rush

Path to orchard

16th December

John cleared an old gate and other debris from the north-west corner of the Pit Wood. He noticed how much less frosted the evergreens are than other growth.

20th -21st December

The Scrub camera captures the young buck on his own. The doe will have been encouraging him to go it alone. A Jay appears to be listening for its buried acorns.

22nd December

John wandered round Liddells with his camera instead of being there to work. Although he has included a couple of images of recent work, going up to play has sent him into reflective mode, if not a bit barking.

Refurbished log shelter

Enlarged Trapezium Bridge (for the log trailer)

The Big Pond,

the Roadside Pond…

and the Crag Pond

Dead Elm with regeneration

Orange Willows by the roadside pond - these are some of the very first Willow whips John and Clare planted, and were donated by Wenda and Matthew several years ago

Bark of a young Silver Birch…

and of an old one, probably past its canoe usefulness

The outflow from the spring, looking upstream. It is on the banks here that Primroses are abundant in the Spring

25th/26th December

A little bit of festive footage. A pair of Jays on Christmas Day and a single one pleasingly close to the camera on Boxing Day; also on Boxing Day a doe, a buck and another doe (probably one of the younger ones) are startled by nearby pheasant shooting and run through the Scrub.

John had to do some repairs to the meeting room roof to stop some leaks.

28th - 30th December

John set about various tasks - more work on widening the Trapezium Bridge, stone-walling on the northern boundary, adding a pallet to the temporary log shelter, clearing logs round the log shed, and making voice notes for tasks in the New Year with which, fingers crossed, Clare will be able to help. John saw three roe making their way out of the Scrub, across the Meadow and into the NE Strip. The roadside pond is filling up again with recent rain.

31st December

Three trail camera clips to end the year, a doe, a hare and the young buck - you can see the buttons developing on his head.

November - fog, fog blog

For those of you who had difficulty loading the last post, there are fewer videos this month, so it should be easier. As ever, go to the website: www.liddells.co.uk and access the Blog from there to see all the video footage.

October’s Blog was posted before John and Clare saw the Halloween activities in the Pit Wood. One hare is joined by another, but can you see the deer as well?

Although the footage is in black and white, the small birds in the Pit Wood can be identified as Bullfinches - you can see the white rump of the one flying off to the left.

An owl makes a Halloween sortie and its movements suggest it was successful.

2nd November

A fox makes its way through the Pit Wood.

3rd November

Footage of a hare nibbling shows its markings very clearly.

5th November

A fox in the Pit Wood again; it’s hard to know whether or not it is the same fox as a few days earlier, however this one seems to have a kink at the end of its tail that is not so evident in the other one.

More footage of a Jay in the Scrub and as it flies off there is a brilliant flash of the blue in its wing feathers. Jays often appear here in the Scrub as do grey squirrels. It’s possible they are raiding each other’s stashes.

6th November

John fixed catches to the shutters and a handle to the door of the meeting room. The choice of handle is particularly satisfying as it is a recycling of a fixture from the old pony shelter.

Clare found a fungus she had not seen before. It resembles tiny ghostly trees. Thus far she has been unable to identify it. Any suggestions welcome.

Footage from the Pit Wood shows the backs of two hares as they run past the camera, however the source of the squeaking is a mystery. Clare wondered if it was a roe kid, however John thinks this is unlikely given the maturity of the kids now. Any ideas?

9th November

John finished varnishing the meeting room floor.

10th November

More owl footage. A Tawny Owl again finds prey in the Pit Wood.

12th November

Clare brashed a path to the group of Aspens (two newly planted and Juno’s tree) in the Pit Wood and managed to punch herself in the nose with the long loppers. Memo: never tug towards the face. She felt very foolish and very sore and with a black eye as a momento. The path looks nice though.

13th - 16th November

Clare began the annual cleaning of the nest boxes ready for next year. She found the remains of a wasp nest in one, the vacated nest of tree bumblebees in another and lots of woodlice in several.

John worked on logging and moving the remains of the fallen oak branch in the Orchard.

The doe with two of the triplets, the buck and one of the does, forage in the Pit Wood.

The next day one of the kids appears limping. This is similar to last year although there is no obvious injury to the kid. Clare wonders whether with triplets, one might become slightly more vulnerable if it is always last in the queue for food or attention. This year the cameras have shown that one of the three kids, a doe, is habitually slightly behind and more separate from the others. Meanwhile the single kid and the other doe have been seen together and are apparently healthy. John says that in deer world generally, survival rates are thought to be in the region of 30%. In the case of roe deer the figure may well be higher.

18th November

After considerable rain yesterday, Clare was delighted to see the roadside pond fuller than it has been in months and water coming out of the overflow pipe.

19th November

The Hexham Village Band came to plant an Oak tree for one of their members who has died. It was a very touching ceremony. After the planting the band became the first users of the meeting room. They managed to squeeze in 20 players even though one end of the space was full of wood ready to be made into tables and benches. You will note the creative use of the window.

20th November

Sadly Clare and John saw first the carcass of a hare on the path below the Scrub, then Woodcock feathers a bit further on. A Sparrowhawk is probably responsible for the Woodcock. Hares continue to turn up on the trail cameras, so there are still some around.

23rd November

Mel came to help John with tree maintenance, mostly replacing stakes and tubes on the Wetland and in the Pit Wood.

26th November

John completed cleaning out the nesting boxes, which meant climbing up the the three Clare couldn’t reach.

27th November

The Scrub trail camera captures a lone doe kid with a very slight limp and what looks as if it might have been a wound near her front right shoulder. If this is so then it seems as if the kid is getting better, though separated from the family.

29th November

Clare had found a lovely passage in November’s section of Nature Writing for Every Day of the Year, and sent John off with his camera to produce some illustrations. He was somewhat hampered by the dense fog that covered the land, however he managed to augment the writing with his creative eyes and with other treats from Liddells bosky areas.

‘A Leafy November

On some of the oaks the inner leaves were still greenish, while those on the outer boughs were brown, and the mingling of the two tints seen at a little distance under the sunshine produced a remarkable and pleasing colour. Other oak trees had assumed so red a brown as to approach a copper colour…Between the dark Scotch firs the foliage of the beeches seemed warm red. The branches of the larch had a fluffy appearance, caused by the yellow needles which had partly separated but had not yet fallen…Birches, too, except just at the corners of the copses or in isolated positions, were not yet bare…while whole hedgerows full of maple bushes glowed with orange. The sun shone brilliantly day after day, lighting up the varied hues of the trees and hedges and filling the woodlands with beauty.’

From Chronicles of the Hedges, 1879, Richard Jeffries (1848-1887)

Hawthorns on the Meadow

Oak

Scots pine

Beech

Larch

Birch

Maple

Sycamore

Guelder rose

?

Hazel

Juniper

Alder

Wild cherry

Corsican pine

Clare was amused to see that today’s OED Word of the Day is bockety: ‘of a person: unable to walk without difficulty; infirm, lame. Also of a body part: injured, impaired’. The dictionary word chooser seems to know that Clare is due for a hip replacement next week. She looks forward to being less bockety in the New Year.

Thanks to Mathilda for this month’s blog post title; the month seems to be ending in typical November weather; ‘Dark November brings the fog/ Should not do it to a dog.’ (Flanders and Swan)

October - nature red in beak and talon, and under the wing

A reminder to access this Blog through the website - liddells.co.uk where you will find all the videos. They will be unlikely to play though your email, and may not even show up at all. There are some crackers this month.

Thanks to Jane E and Barbara for their suggestions for a collective noun for pond snails - ‘preponderance’ and ‘snuggle’.

1st October

Local farmer John brought 45 ewes to eat down the grass on the Top Grazing. Clare noticed two more wildflowers still in bloom that she hadn’t included last month: Field Scabious and Red Campion.

More rain has left the Big Pond within a few centimetres of being full. Water is flowing freely through the channel Clare cleared under the Alphabet Bridge.

Clare spotted a Common Puffball and an Orange Birch Bolete near the pond, and more Turkeytail fungus, this time on the trunk in front of the hide.

A badger goes through the Scrub

2nd October

A male Southern Hawker and a male Common Darter are still flying around the Big Pond and the pond level has gone up another couple of centimetres.

The trail camera shows a hare nibbling at a sapling. Hares and rabbits can damage young trees although there is often more publicity given to damage attributed to deer.

3rd October

John is interested in the varied diet of roe deer and was pleased to see a kid grazing on fungi.

Less than an hour after the kid’s browsing, a Sparrowhawk (TrogTrogBlog Chris thinks it is a juvenile), catches what looks like a Blackbird. The Sparrowhawk is mantling its prey. Mantling is hunching, crouching, or arching shoulders and spreading wings over a recent kill to conceal it from other birds and predators just as a mantle cloaks a person. In heraldry the mantling is the drapery or piece of cloth tied to the helmet above the shield in a coat of arms. In the video the sounds are coming from the captured bird. There is a ten minute gap in the footage so it is possible that the Sparrowhawk took its prey off, as Chris so vividly described, to eat it to death. A doe and kid wander through the scene of the crime and show how far their winter coats have developed. As if all the Sparrowhawk footage wasn’t striking enough, a Buzzard comes in to pick over the spoils. You can see just how much larger it is than a Sparrowhawk and it is exciting to have caught this bird on camera as well. A doe kid (who seems to end up with a feather on its nose), a hare and then a rabbit all seem to be investigating the odiferous interruption to their familiar route through the Scrub. Clare and John only saw the footage on their return on 10th October (see below) so Clare went up to see if any evidence remained. The feathers confirm the victim was indeed a Blackbird.

4th October

A stoat runs through the Scrub.

5th - 9th October

Clare and John spent a few days away visiting the RSPB reserve at Leighton Moss. Clare has had Bearded Tits, or as they are more properly called Bearded Reedlings, on her bird bucket list for some time and hoped that on her fourth visit to this reserve, she would be lucky and see them. The birds did not disappoint. Carl Linnaeus classified the birds in the genus Parus with the tits, however they were subsequently removed from this category and placed with the Parrotbills only to be recognised recently as a unique songbird with no other close relations, and placed in the monotypic family Panuridae (from the Greek panu, "exceedingly", and ουρά, "tail"). The male sports moustaches rather than a beard. Clare and John had other treats - a Great White Egret, a Bittern in flight, a Marsh Harrier hunting over and in the reeds, an otter and lots more besides. Clare decided that the time away might have been what some people call a ‘holiday’; she found the word between ‘hogwash’ and ‘holistic’ in her dictionary. Interesting concept. A selection of ‘holiday’ photography is included for Blog biodiversity.

Male Bearded Reedling on a grit tray. The birds spend the summer months feasting on insects. However, to avoid having to migrate south like the swallows and warblers, the Bearded Reedlings change their diet to reed seeds in winter. The seeds are extremely tough so the birds eat grit to make the seeds easy to digest.

10th October

The Big Pond is up to its overflow. The roadside pond is filling slowly although the shallow and deep ends have yet to join up.

A dog fox marks his territory in the Scrub.

12th October

John completed the exterior of the west wing of what he and Clare have decided to rename the Meeting Room. The new name embraces the broader use for the space that John and Clare hope will happen.

13th October

A sunny autumn day and there were several butterflies on the Michaelmas Daisies in the Meadow - a Peacock, two Commas, a Red Admiral and a Speckled Wood. The Speckled Wood proved too flighty to photograph. The flowers were also humming with bees foraging. Clare was pleased to see many honey bees adding to their stores for winter.

A large female Sparrowhawk perched briefly in an Ash tree in front of the hide before flying off. No birds were caught this time.

Clare has been waiting for the opportunity to include another crossword clue in the Blog. This time the clue was in the Guardian’s August Bank Holiday puzzle, a double-grid alphabetical crossword with no numbered lights; answers had to be filled in where they would fit. Maskarade, the setter, added a theme of given names: one of each pair of answers for a letter of the alphabet was a name, and the names beginning A-M went into one grid, and the names beginning N-Z went into the other grid. Fiendish. The clue in question is: ‘Oak’s sudden flourish mentioned by American and British Composer, Edmund, half-heartedly’ (7,5) The answer lies in the photograph (and at the end of this Blog post).

A roe doe and her kid show their gorget patches. Not all deer develop these white areas on their throat however when they do develop on an individual deer, they are most easily seen when they’re in their winter coat. ‘A gorget was originally a piece of material wrapped around a woman’s neck, during the period of time immediately after the fall of the Roman Empire. After that, it was used to describe the pieces of armour placed around the throat of a soldier, to protect them from injury during battle. Subsequently, as their effectiveness as protective amour waned, they were used as a badge to distinguish rank in the army. I’m not sure what the gorget’s functionality is on a roe deer. Unless, of course, the white patches to help with their protective camouflage, by breaking up the outline of the neck in heavy cover.’ (aboutdeer.com)

15th October

Today’s offering in Nature Writing for Every Day of the Year is all about Spindle Trees. Happily Clare had photographed the berries earlier in the week having not been wholly taken up with her house-keeping.

‘…the spindle is quite Japanese in its contortions; the boughs, with their twisted grey-green bark, seem positively to writhe, and the leaves and berries are sprinkled so sparsely that they seem to decorate rather than clothe its antiquity…the flame-coloured leaves and pink and orange berries of the spindle-wood glow like clusters of some strange exotic flower…there is something strangely unfamiliar about these berries of the spindle-wood - berries which open out into dull pink segments, like petals, and expose a bright orange centre, which is really a seed…There was a time, not so many generations ago, when even a woman who knew nothing of trees in general, and cared less, being wholly taken up with her housekeeping, would have recognised the spindle-wood at a glance. In those days when the spinning wheel flashed beside every hearth, and everything possible was made at home, the tough close-grained wood of the tree was in constant demand, and many a pair of lovers must have come to such a tree as this to choose branch and cut it, to make a spindle for the lady’s use.’

From The Peverel Papers, Flora Thompson

Today was meant to be a Green Gym day to plant trees, however it was raining substantially in the early morning so John and Clare cancelled. Then of course, the rain stopped. John and Clare decided to go up and plant some trees anyway. They planted 10 Oaks and decided on sites for more of the saplings they have waiting for the next Green Gym day in a week’s time. Clare protected the saplings with gorse, tied round the plants with Brambles.

More vulpine marking in the Scrub.

15th October

The Pit Wood camera recorded the first Fieldfares and Redwings of the winter foraging on the ground.

16th October

Clare and John saw Fieldfares flying over the Scrub and the Pit Wood.

Neighbour Chris brought his hydraulic log-splitter to Liddells and he and John worked their way through all the logs that John and Dave had brought from felling around the site. Clare indulged in one of her favourite activities, stacking the logs. Yes, she has read Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking and Drying Wood the Scandinavian Way, although she doesn’t aspire to such aesthetically pleasing log piles as the Scandinavians.

The roadside pond is filling slowly.

17th October

More Fieldfare sightings and Clare startled a Woodcock in the Scrub.

The doe with triplets spends time grooming one of the doe kids; the buck arrives, tries unsuccessfully to suckle and is subjected to a more intimate grooming.

18th - 19th October

A Tawny owl downs its prey in one and flies off; twenty minutes later it flies past the camera right to left (video not included); a minute after that the bird is on the ground again and eating something it as caught; in the early hours of the next morning it has yet again hunted successfully. The Scrub is clearly a place for small mammals. Or perhaps not, depending on whether you are an owl or a small mammal. The Barn Owl Trust has an information page about Tawny Owls. If you want to know more about their diet, click here.

21st October

Green Gym Day and the weather was on the side of planting and neighbouring farmer John had moved the sheep from the Top Grazing to the Wildflower Meadow. John and Clare were joined by six stalwart friends, one of whom brought additional trees he had grown at home, and they all set about planting 55 trees. An Apple and two Damson trees went into the Orchard, a Hazel and two Aspens were added to the Pit Wood and all the rest - Oaks, Beeches, Elm, Horse Chestnut, Willows - were planted at the east end of the Top Grazing. Each tree was given a protective circle of Gorse or Hawthorn secured round the sapling with bramble twine. Clare has devised this method after reading about how Gorse and Hawthorn scrub make perfect areas for trees to regenerate.

Walking through the Pit Wood Clare, John and Barry discovered a large area of Fly Agaric which was largely uneaten, unlike the ones in the Scrub.

The shallow and newly deep areas of the Roadside Pond have finally joined up.

After watching many hours of deer going through the Scrub, the sight of one of Texels came as a bit of a shock. Apparently it had gone awol on the trip down from the Top Grazing. It seems to have benefitted from the grazing.

22nd October

The old buck makes his way through the Pit Wood. You will see that tip of one side of his antlers has broken off.

Meanwhile in the Scrub, and much earlier than it has been seen before, the Tawny owl flies up on to a perch.

24th October

A hare and a kid browse together in the Pit Wood. Within seconds a stoat runs offstage then returns. The hare is eating apples Clare had put down in front of the camera in the hope of attracting Fieldfares and Redwings, however there are still plenty of berries on the trees for them to eat.

Later that same evening an owl is captured waiting for prey.

25th October

The Tawny Owl appears yet again in the Scrub, hunting successfully in the early hours of the morning and later in the evening.

Between the owl’s two appearances the camera captures two hares, a Jay and a high speed stoat, while in the Pit Wood a single Redwing is seen foraging in the leaf litter. Although the red under its wing is faint, the pale stripe over its eye is very clear.

30th October
Clare saw her first Goldcrest of the winter in a Hawthorn near the bee hives.

Crossword answer: Quercus rubra: Querc sounds like “quirk” = “sudden flourish” + US = “American” + RUB[b]RA = British composer Edmund.
Definition: “Oak” – the Northern Red Oak.










September - it all goes to show

For new readers - when you receive the Blog email, use it as a prompt to read the Blog on the Liddells website: www.liddells.co.uk The videos won’t be available through the email.

August Post Script

It appears that grey squirrels can eat fly agaric mushrooms, so the animated antics featured in last month’s blog may be due to the fungus’ hallucinogenic effect. Videos from 30th August show a stoat behaving similarly, however stoats are carnivores so maybe this one was naturally exuberant.

1st September

The sub-heading for this month in Nature Writing for Every Day of the Year is ‘Airy Spheres of Thistledown.’ The phrase comes from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy.

Farmer Barry took the hay off the Top Grazing.

2nd September

Clare had a friend over from Weardale and they sowed Yellow Rattle seeds on the Top Grazing. They encountered a frog near the feeders. Clare continued her work on the big pond.

The two does and their kids are obviously sharing the same space. They all go through the Scrub regularly though a single kid is now frequently seen there on its own and not all the triplets appear together each time they are caught on camera.

3rd - 4th September

More work for John on the classroom floor and for Clare on the big pond, where she saw another frog. The herons clearly haven’t eaten them all.

Clare made a note of all the recordings on the trail camera over a 24 hour period:

5.29 Eyes at hare height in the mist

6.11 Doe + large moth moving north to south in the mist

6.32 Rabbit in the half-light

7.25 Hare going east then turning south

9.29 Doe travelling west

10.17 Hare going east

12.18 Blue tit attacking the camera

12.34 Sound of camera attack and fluttering wings

15.25 Lone kid moving east

16.47 Doe foraging behind the hawthorn

20.06 Hare paused in half-light

20.07 Hare still there

20.08 Hare runs off east

20.12 Nearly dark, doe going east; blackbird alarm calls

12.15 Doe and one kid

20.15 Doe and kid eating

20.18 One kid joined by another; much scratching

20.18 Both kids foraging

20.23 Hare running through going east, several moths

22.02 Fox approaches from east, changes direction and leaves south

5th - 7th September

Clare knew two bee colonies needed feeding with sugar syrup as they had eaten all their stored honey. It was first necessary to remove the super (box with frames for honey), so Clare added a clearer board. This has a slightly complicated route for the bees to find their way through and down into the brood box, however the smell of the queen is an enticement for them to work it out. It is harder for the bees to find their way back up. Clare returned early the next morning only to find a lot of bees still in the super. This was unusual as the board had worked well on several previous occasions. Clare brushed the bees off and managed to add a syrup feeder without getting stung though did pause when she had to retrieve a crown board (the board that sits on top of the boxes and under the roof) from the shed. The penny eventually dropped - she had put the clearer board on top of the super instead of underneath. Clare then put the clearer board in the correct place under the super of the second colony and went to continue her work on the big pond feeling ever so slightly foolish. A sparrowhawk swooped through the feeding station, though again no birds were taken.

John finished using up all the boards salvaged from the storm damaged sheds last November.

Finally there is substantial rain. The island in the big pond is once more an island.

Footage of one of the kids shows how the spots on its coat are fading.

Further videos of the doe and triplets. You can see mutual grooming in the second clip.

10th September

The day began with an auspicious sign for John. The Guardian cryptic crossword featured the following clue: ‘Fishy food reportedly expensive, one ruminates’ (3,4) Answer at the end of this blog post.

Clare and John joined in with the local Village Show. Clare was thrilled to win a First Prize for her fruit scones and Second Prizes for cheese scones, rock buns and shortbread biscuits. John, however, completely swept the photographic board with photos he had taken on Liddells. So well did he do that he came home with a trophy. The label for the long-tailed tit doesn’t really do justice to John’s achievement.

Meanwhile the stoat appears in the Scrub again.

Clare declared the restoration of the big pond’s wall complete.

Footage of the kids in the evening shows they can be distinguished as two does and a buck.

11th September

John started working on the east wing of the classroom.

The deer are seen very frequently on the Scrub camera. A doe runs away and you can see how the white hair on her rump goes erect when the animal is alarmed, making a much larger white patch (target) visible. One kid appears on its own and its squeaking is audible. The triplets all try to suckle. When kids are very young is it almost impossible to distinguish what sex they are; here you can see the differentiation on their rump markings in daylight, to show that there are two does and a buck. Later the buck kid tries again to suckle, however the doe is clearly trying to deter him.

On her walk home, Clare saw an exquisite seed head lying on the path. There were no wildflowers nearby except Creeping Thistle and Yarrow and it is not from either of them.. Any identification help would be gratefully received.

12th September

Clare was delighted to show a group from the local National Women’s Register round Liddells. She had been concerned that it was a bit late in the season to see much of interest and was pleased to be proved very wrong when she did a wildflower survey the day before the group arrived. Initially she found over 30 species still in flower and this number increased to 38 by the end of the visit. Particularly striking were the violets out on the west verge of the Pit Wood. There were also Red Admiral, Large White and Speckled Wood butterflies, Southern Hawker and Common Darter Dragonflies and Emerald Damselflies, and a variety of birds on the feeders. The group made a very generous donation by way of a thank you - Clare and John have bought two Aspen saplings to join and talk to Juno’s tree, and they will buy wildflower plugs in the Spring.

After the visit Clare started digging out the channel under the Alphabet Bridge leading in to the big pond. She noticed a large number of tiny pond snails on a rock in the pond.

John completed the door to the classroom. He considers it to be the best door he has yet made. He has made a lot of doors.

Violet

Common Carder bee on Red Clover

Proliferation of pond snails - any suggestions for an appropriate collective noun will be welcome

John admiring his door

13th September

Clare dug out more of the pond channel. There have been numerous male Common Darters around but very few females. This female obligingly paused on a fence post for long enough for Clare to get her phone camera out. The male Southern Hawkers that have been around don’t rest like the darters, though they will come teasingly close, however they move so fast it is very difficult to photograph them. Clare managed to get one in a shot with her phone camera. If you would like to see really splendid photographs of dragonflies, visit trogtrogblog.blogspot.com

Every autumn Clare determines to learn to identify more fungi and then remembers how difficult it is to be sure of the identification. She thinks the bracket fungus featured below might be Turkeytail.

Female Common Darter

Male Southern Hawker

14th - 19th September

John had his trail camera on the Meadow. He enjoyed the footage of the hare so much, it was only on the third viewing that he noticed the deer in the background.

Two hares appear in the Scrub again. A kid appears to be on Robinwatch.

Two clips of a stoat in the Scrub. In one it appears to be going round in circles; in the second it is chasing a hare, which is considerably larger than the stoat.

Clare finished digging out the channel under the Alphabet Bridge. All that is needed now is the water to run through it into the pond. She saw the remains of a hare near the roadside pond - maybe the stoat had been successful in its hunting.

A rabbit is at cross purposes with a hare.

In the Pit Wood, the doe with a single kid (identified as another doe), are foraging on fallen leaves.

There is a fast and furious chase sequence involving birds, a hare and a fox.

John makes substantial progress on the east end of the classroom.

21st September

John raised the roof on the east end of the classroom. Clare saw three hares while walking round.

24th September

A successful fox hunt. It is not clear what the fox has caught.

25th September

Footage of one of the does shows her losing her summer coat.

26th September

The east end of the classroom is nearly fully boarded out. Shutters and flooring remain on the to-do list.

While smearing the stump in front of the hide with her highly popular (with the birds) peanut butter paste mix, Clare noticed a significant flourish of Sulphur Tuft fungus.

The ‘Murder Buck’ appeared again in the Pit Wood. (For any new subscribers, this is a mature buck that has antlers devoid of any tines. That is to say the antlers will resemble two long spikes, without the traditional brow and rear antler tines. The reason that this type of beast is called a 'Murder Buck' comes from the damage that this type of buck can cause to an opponent when sparring.

29th September

John and Mel planted nearly 40 hazel saplings in the stump circle and on the verge of the Pit Wood. Many thanks to Kathryn R for donating the plants.

Finally for lagophilic readers, a hare, which is somewhat startled by a blackbird, to end this post. On a whim, Clare searched to see if there were any relevant fables. She found a print instead.

30th September

For the botanists among readers, the wildflowers still out on 11th/12th September were: Bird’s Foot Trefoil, Bush Vetch, Buttercup, Chickweed, Common Cat’s Ear, Clover (Red), Clover (White), Common Daisy, Dandelion, Eyebright, Foxglove, Goldenrod, Groundsel, Hawkbit, Heather, Hedge Woundwort, Herb Robert, Hogweed, Meadow Vetchling, Michaelmas Daisy, Nipplewort, Ragged Robin, Ragwort, Red Campion, Red Hemp Nettle, Ribwort Plantain, Self Heal, Sow Thistle (Prickly), Thistle (Creeping), Thistle (Marsh), Thistle (Spear), Tormentil, Tufted Vetch, Water Mint, Wild Carrot, Willowherb (Broad-leaved), Willowherb (Rosebay), Violet, Yarrow

The answer to the crossword clue is ‘roe deer’.

August - being driven round in circles

For new subscribers, it will be unlikely that you can watch the video footage through an email. We suggest that when you see the Blog email, go to liddells.co.uk and click on the Blog page. All the video clips will be there.

1st August

Clare and John visited the Knepp Estate in Sussex. This is where Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree have abandoned intensive farming in favour of a pioneering rewilding project. The Maori use the word kaitiakitanga, for ‘Guardianship or management, esp. of the natural resources of a place or area; environmental stewardship considered as a duty and responsibility of the inhabitants of an area’ (OED Word of the Day 04.07.22). The undertaking is inspiring, based as it is in respect for and trust of nature, and those qualities were apparent throughout. Although not the best time of year to see some of the more exciting species that have returned there, Clare and John each saw a Turtle Dove in fight, many White Storks and were astonished that a pair of red deer stags grazed within ten yards of the hut where they were staying. There were numerous Gatekeeper butterflies which Clare had not knowingly seen before; Clare noticed a Common Field Grasshopper had landed on her jacket, a short distance from its usual habitat of unimproved grassland, which was there in abundance.

Meanwhile, back on Liddells, the trail camera in the Scrub captured footage of a neighbour’s dog chasing one of the roe triplets. The doe and other two kids appear, following the scent and much alarmed. Clare and John are now waiting for any footage that shows the kid has been reunited with its family.

2nd August

Tim and Jane thought they had seen a Purple Hairstreak butterfly on the large oak on the Wetland last evening, so set off again this evening to try their luck. They were successful and saw a couple on a tree that overhangs the north boundary near the bee hives, although photographing the butterflies proved hard.

4-5th August

Clare has learned a lot about roe deer from John and was therefore excited to discover what she believed could be a driving circle in the Scrub, a clearly trampled circle round a Hawthorn. In the rut, a buck, sensing a doe coming into oestrus, will quite literally, drive her round in circles or a figure of eight until she is receptive. This may happen over several days. The buck appeared early in the day of the 5th. John came to look at the circle and agreed with Clare’s speculation so Clare moved the Scrub camera to focus on the central Hawthorn. Later that day the doe appeared, the buck is seen in pursuit, and a single kid follows on its own.

Clare worked some more on digging out the roadside pond while it remains dry.

6th August

Clare found a Ground Beetle cloaked in a spider’s web on the brush in the Necessarium. Ground Beetles are often found under the bark of decaying wood, so perhaps the sawdust was the attraction. The brush didn’t seem to be decaying.

The single kid appears on its own for several minutes in the morning and in the afternoon, near the Hawthorn in the Scrub.

7th August

Clare and John celebrated nine years of kaitiakitanga of Liddells by getting on with their chosen projects - Clare digging out the roadside pond and John working on the classroom. Mindful of the damage caused by Storm Arwen, he has decided to put shutters on the openings, which can be fixed open if there are weather warnings, thus allowing any storm winds to go through the structure without lifting off the roof.

Clare’s hunch proved to be well founded although the main driving circle proves to be to the right of the Hawthorn. The doe was captured hanging around the circle early in the day. The drive happens in the early evening. John has edited together all the clips from the trail camera and you can see the buck driving the doe for several minutes. There are calls audible throughout the drive. John is unsure whether these are from the buck or the doe. She seems to tire towards the end and then returns on her own, presumably after mating. John says that the buck will mate with the younger does first, hence selecting the doe with only one kid. John is very pleased to have footage of a drive.

8th August

Clare, having unsuccessfully tried to find Purple Hairstreaks on previous days, not realising that they are usually seen in the early evening in sunny, still conditions, rather than earlier in the day, was pleased to see Tim also out to look for them. Tim showed Clare exactly where to look and there indeed were a couple of the butterflies, just visible to the naked eye, however binoculars gave a better view.

9th August

Tom made 30 bales from the hay on the Wildflower Meadow. Clare and John enjoyed seeing the old-fashioned rectangular bales. Clare, finding it hard to know how deep was deep enough, saw the heap of soil she had removed and decided she had added sufficient depth to the roadside pond. She started work on uncovering the edging stones that had become overgrown.

Giant haystack not

11th August

Tim managed to get a photograph of a Purple Hairstreak and has helpfully circled its whereabouts! He pointed out that, rather than purple, the wing colour appears rather reddish.

13th August

Barry told Clare that in the north of England and in Scotland, the process of moving hay out of the fields and storing it in a barn is called ‘leading the hay’. Clare had not heard this before although then synchronously heard John use exactly this phrase later in the day. Barry also demonstrated the use of some rather nifty straps with ratchets to secure the hay on the trailer. Just as he was explaining that if you threaded them the wrong way, they were almost impossible to undo, John provided a visual aid for this problem. John and Barry led the hay to Barry’s barn. John finished untangling the strap by early evening. While investigating the phrase Barry had introduced, Clare discovered a photograph in National Galleries Scotland entitled ‘Leading Hay’. She rather wished she had worn a boater for the Liddells event.

Clare started work on the north side of the pondside road, spotting a Small Copper nearby.

14th August

Clare finished uncovering the stones on the south side of the road, so turned her attentions to the north, remembering that when the large digger had come to further dig out the big pond, it had displaced several of the road edge stones.

15 - 18th August

The classroom building work continues. You can see the first shutter in place.

Clare’s work on the road edge continues.

One of the trail cameras, now returned to the Pit Wood, shows a doe with two kids. There has been no footage showing all three kids since the beginning of the month.

A hen pheasant has a young chick. This is quite late in the season as pheasants typically raise a brood between April and June with the incubation period lasting on average between 22 and 28 days.

With no hare on the blog thus far in the month, here is a hare. John is seeing hares regularly on the Top Grazing while he works on the classroom. The hares may be using the hay bales as shelter from the sun. They seem unperturbed by John’s activities. He has seen five out at the same time.

21st August

A busy day. Jane B had arranged to bring several family members to Liddells. Zoe, who is studying agri-forestry, came early for a tour with Clare. There was plenty of activity on the pond and Zoe managed to capture a shot of a Common Darter at rest. Georgie and Charlie had fun testing their strength pushing bales and in the process found a caterpillar of the White Ermine Moth. The contrast in colouration between caterpillar and moth is striking. A visit to the hide entertained.

Male Common Darter

White Ermine Moth caterpillar

Georgie focussing on the birds

This is what the birds see

Charlie inspecting the results of his pond-dipping

Not a masked invader but Clare in her bee suit

Checking all the struts are there on the Alphabet Bridge

Climbing the hay bales is always fun

John lifted a roofing sheet from a pile on the ground to find two Violet Ground beetles underneath. They quickly scuttled for cover, however Clare managed to photograph one of them.

Clare completed a butterfly transect as Tim and Jane are away. Clare saw 8 different species - Large White 7, Green-veined White 4, Small Skipper 1, Red Admiral 3, Peacock 1, Speckled Wood 5 and Wall Brown 1. The Wall Brown was the first she had seen this year. Here is a photograph of one she saw just six days later while she was on a walk with Pat.

Violet Ground beetle

While Jane et al dipped the pond, Clare inspected her bees and was delighted to discover that the most recent split had worked, and the nucleus hive had frames of capped brood, indicating a successfully mated queen. Clare began the season with two colonies and has increased them to six. This hot, dry summer has offered ideal conditions for new queens to mate, unlike in previous years where cold, wet spells have compromised successful mating.

22nd - 23rd August

Clare was relieved to finish restoring the roadside edges. She then turned her attention back to the big pond and she and John started tackling more of the invasive Branched bur-weed and Hard and Soft rush.

John used surplus roofing sheets bought for the hide at a farmers’ sale three years ago, to create a weed-suppressing sub-floor for the classroom. Perhaps also a Violet Ground beetle hideaway.

24th August

The single kid has appeared on its own several times in the Scrub, however today the doe and kid appear together.

25th August

A doe followed by a single kid walk in front of the trail camera. Clare and John were relieved that the next clips show all three of the triplets. This is the first time they have all been recorded since the dog was seen chasing a kid.

In the evening a pair of hares run through the Scrub.

26th August

Clare and John were delighted to welcome TrogTrogBlog Chris to Liddells. They took a scenic route to the big pond where male and female Emerald damselflies, male and female Common Darters and two male Southern Hawkers kept them entertained. The Southern Hawkers frustrated all attempts to have their photographs taken, however you can see how spectacular they are here. While watching the activity on the pond, Tim and Jane appeared doing a butterfly transect so Clare was able to introduce three members of the Liddells curatorium (‘A group of curators (in various senses), typically acting as an advisory body.’ OED Word of the Day 28.08.22) to each other.

Clare and John, not having heard or seen a Greenfinch on Liddells for months, noticed a pair coming to drink at the pond. John managed to get a photograph of one.

He also took a couple of images that showed autumn on its way.

After Chris had left Clare noticed a dead hare near the log shed. There was no obvious cause of death.

Not long till hedgerow jelly making time

Not for the hedgerow jelly, these are poisonous, however thrushes can feed on the berries, as they are immune to its poisons, and scatter the seeds abroad.

27th August

Clare found, if not a fairy ring, at least a fairy semi-circle, in the Scrub near to the driving circle.

Fairy semi-circle

John moved the hare’s carcass and saw two Common Sexton beetles scuttle away into the grass. A hare would seem to be a bit too big for them to bury, however they may well have been feeding on the corpse. Apparently the beetles can sense rotting flesh at a distance of two miles.

John began flooring the west end of the classroom.

I’m not floored

John and Clare were most surprised to see footage of a Woodcock in the Scrub. Readers may remember that there were clips of Woodcock in the Scrub last winter, however John and Clare had always thought that the birds were migrants rather than resident. You can hear a Tawny Owl calling in the background. Shortly after the Woodcock had left, a stoat appeared.

On their way to the hide, John noticed a frog sitting in the roadside pond Clare wondered if it was optimistic about the prospect of water, in which case it could be a Froghoper.

While John progressed with the classroom, Clare turned her attention to the damp section of the Wildflower Meadow and dug out the mint that was beginning to take over again. She also lifted and split Yellow Iris and Purple Loosestrife to replant round the ponds.

28th August

More activity in the Scrub. A Tawny Owl appears in front of the camera, then about twenty minutes later, the buck comes through. John has always said that after the rut, the bucks seem to vanish, however this one is still around.

A Great Tit flies at the camera. This happens again round about midday. The bird can’t be looking for a nesting site at this time of year.

Meanwhile, John decided to put a trail camera on the Meadow. He and Clare have seen deer on and nearby there quite often. His choice proved successful and a doe appears several times, again challenging the received wisdom that roe are crepuscular. The camera is pointing east.

29th August

Clare worked on the big pond again while John began the doorway for the classroom. They both spotted a new bit of excavation on the path near the hide. Best guess is a vole hole.

While at the hide there was a moment when there was a flurry of alarm calls, all the birds flew for cover and before Clare had finished saying, “Where’s the Sparrowhawk?” a female flew across the feeders. No birds were taken however it was a while before they reappeared, led by two Marsh tits.

Kathryn arrived with a trailer full of hazel seedlings which had germinated in pots in her garden, possibly from nuts buried by squirrels.

Manmade doorway

Mammalmade doorway (the tunnel is about 6-7 centimetres wide)

When Clare checked the trail camera she found several clips of a grey squirrel in the Scrub. There are often clips of grey squirrels and normally she would delete such footage muttering darkly, however, this time the videos raised a grudging smile. The squirrel’s activities lasted for a couple of minutes; John has stitched the videos together. The animal seems to be playing in a way reminiscent of stoats gambolling.

July - discoveries, neither hellish nor boring

There are more than usual video clips this month - roe kids are very cute. Remember that you are unlikely to be able to access these through the Blog email. Go to www.liddells.co.uk click on the Blog and watch them through the website.

John and Clare have been waiting and hoping for sightings of this year’s roe kids, and the first glimpse was towards the end of last month, however retrieved too late to include it in the June blog post.

1st July

Kathryn L came to plant trees she had kindly donated - a beech, an oak, two birches, a rowan and a holly. Cutting gorse for protection revealed a birds’ nest tucked deep into a gorse bush near the top gate. The nest hasn’t been feathered so may not have been used this year.

Kathryn planting ‘Son of a Beech’

2nd July

The trail camera in the Scrub is showing at least six hare appearances in any twenty-four hour period.

The trail camera in the Pit Wood shows another tantalising glimpse of a roe and kid.

Earlier in the year, and on the way to check on one of Juno’s bird boxes, Clare had noticed an unfamiliar plant growing near one of the signposts to the hide. She had kept her eye on it and wondered if it might be an orchid although since the flowers have been late emerging, she dismissed the idea. More on this story later…

3rd - 6th July

The repair work from Storm Arwen continues. John finished restoring the fencing behind the sheds and started on the stretch at the east end of the Top Strip. Clare was delighted to see a pair of Bullfinches below the Scrub - she had remarked yesterday that it was a while since she had seen any. So gratifying to know the birds are listening.

At last there is a proper view of the new kid. Then one of the doe and kid together. Take a look at the shape of the doe’s muzzle. More on this story later…

The old buck chases another deer through the Scrub. John says it is a bit early for the rut (mid July to mid August), so more likely the buck is chasing another buck off his patch in readiness.

The hare is investigating a fern frond. More on this story later…

The doe appears with the kid. Then another kid. Then another kid - triplets again!

7th July

Obviously footage of the kids is irresistible. This doe’s muzzle markings are clearly visible. The edges of her muzzle are squared off.

A little later, still in the Pit Wood, a doe with a different muzzle shape appears. This muzzle tapers to a point at the sides.

8th July

The hare checks the frond again. Or it might be a different hare.

Clare and John set about collecting Yellow Rattle seeds from the Top Grazing. They were pleased to see how well the plant is establishing there.

Clare busied herself trying to photograph a wood wasp on one of the log piles, however it found a way down to the bottom and out of the camera’s view. On the way home from Liddells, John and Clare realised they had a longhorn beetle in the car which probably decided to hitch a ride while they were distracted by the wood wasp.

9th July

The buck is marking in the Scrub again. This is probably preparation for the rut, as would be chasing off any other bucks.

John and Clare are watching the footage of the new kids carefully and are a bit confused by what they are seeing - sometimes one, sometimes two, sometimes three. It is perfectly possible that sometimes a kid or two is off camera. However, the doe’s muzzle in the second of the three clips below, is just visible, and looks to be pointed at the sides. The kid on its own in the third video, may well be the third kid, following a little behind.

John and Clare are reaching the conclusion that there are two does with kids, one with three, and one with one. The doe with one kid is likely to be a youngster, no more than two years old. John says it is unusual for two does to be appearing to share the same territory.

10th - 14th July

Activity on the Top Grazing. John starts putting in the posts for the outdoor classroom. The hay is cut. (7th - 11th July is 温風至 Atsukaze itaru - Warm winds blow - in the Japanese microseasons. Good hay-making weather.)

Clare was surprised to find that the bees in the first colony she split are once again thinking of swarming. Nothing ventured, she decided to execute another split, putting the swarm cell and four other frames of brood into a nucleus hive. More on this story later…

Clare began digging reeds out of the roadside pond while it is empty, and using the opportunity to add a little more depth to the pond.

One doe and one kid appear in the Scrub on two occasions; one kid appears, and leaves, independently. Then a doe goes through with three kids.

A hare nibbles at a rose stem in the Scrub. When Clare looked closely at the stem later, she found that it had no leaves (the hare doesn’t seem to be eating leaves), and concluded that the hare must have been eating the thorns. Rabbits are known to eat all parts of roses, including the thorns; as with deer, they are drawn to plants in the Rosaceae family, so it is likely hares are too. In a later video one hare jumps out at another; the first is noticeable smaller than the second, so probably one of this year’s young being surprised by an established resident. The next clip shows the hares apparently not in conflict.

15th July

After a long interruption, Clare and John were delighted to organise a Green Gym Day. They had over 50 trees to plant - donations and their own successful germinations from acorns and conkers - however as the forecast showed days of very hot, dry weather to come, planting trees with no means of watering them seemed to be a bad idea. The other task was to harvest Yellow Rattle seeds from the Wildflower Meadow. All good plans… There was rain. Off and on, quite a lot of rain. With the hot weather still in prospect, planting was out and with the rain, seed collection was out. What to do? John and Clare had been thinking about taking up the path at the west end of the Top Strip to make it possible to cut with the flail mower. The first job was to remove all the edging logs and the stakes holding them in place.

Clare arrived early and decided to catch up with the weekly email from the Northumbria Natural History Society. The email featured a short video on the Broad-leaved Helleborine. Clare was excited to realise that this very closely resembled the mystery plant near the hide and set off to check. Helleborines are also part of the orchid family. Bingo!

The Green Gym team arrived and set about tackling the Top Strip path. They created several piles of pleasingly rotting wood that will no doubt be appreciated by the local bug life. Gratifyingly, there seemed to be no need to pull up all the membrane underneath the path as there is sufficient weed growth for the chip, which is composting anyway, not to compromise the flails. There were gaps in the rain almost long enough for a picnic lunch. Clare noticed that for the first time there were nuts on one of the hazels planted as understory several years ago.

After the work was done, Clare took Pat with her to examine the plants again, and Pat noticed that some flowers had begun to open at the base of the spike, and agreed with the identification.

The doe and three kids are seen on the trail camera, as is the lame doe who hasn’t appeared for a while.

17th July

Although they are two days apart, the clip of the limping doe is followed by a video of a limping fox.

Clare was rewarded for her frequent visits to monitor the Nettle-leaved bellflower in the Scrub, and found that it had come into flower. In spite of the plant allegedly producing copious amounts of seed, there has only ever been one plant in this area.

The Alder Buckthorns from Tim and Jane have grown beyond the tops of their tubes.

Mel had been excited to hear about the Broad-leaved helleborine, saying it was a plant he had been looking for for many years. He went to see it and reported back that there were another 15-20 plants downstream of the first. So not a random occurrence but more likely an established colony that had just gone unnoticed all these years. It is thanks to Juno’s bird boxes that they were seen at all.

Clare inspected the nucleus and hive from which it had been split. There was another queen cell under construction in the nucleus, so Clare took that down, leaving the original. The hive will remain in purdah for a month or so until any new queen has had time to emerge, mature, mate and start laying. More on this story next month… There were eggs in the other hive so it would seem as if the bees have given up on the idea of swarming. It is now late in the season for them to do so, although bees have never been known to read the text books.

Clare was pleased to see a male Linnet in the Scrub - another bird that hadn’t been noticed around for a while.

A hare breaks off a piece of the bracken frond, then leave it uneaten. Some ferns are toxic to rabbits and hares. Maybe this hare remains unsure about this particular plant and takes the safe option.

19th July

John went out for an evening’s deer watching, armed with a video camera and a squeaker that mimics a roe kid’s cry. He wondered if the squeaker would attract a doe and kids. Instead the sound attracted the old buck who came barking and leaping around the Wetland. The buck would be looking for does to mate.

John also saw a Tawny Owl fly out of the North-east Strip.

20th July

The hay was baled yesterday. Barry advised that the bales are left standing to cool down for about 10 days. If they are stacked while the hay is very warm, and in this heat, there is a risk of combustion.

Knowing that the big pond was gradually getting choked with rush and Branched Bur-reed, Clare decided to face her dislike of wading through mud and to order waders so that she could tackle the task of reducing the numbers of these plants. With the dry weather the water in the pond is fast disappearing, offering the perfect opportunity to wade in. Clare began by working round the edges of the island which has slowly been increasing in size. She has decided to call the island St John’s, not to beatify John but to reflect the increasing number of St John’s Wort plants that appear there each year.

The doe with one kid appears in the Pit Wood. There are four clips of a kid foraging on its own in the Scrub, over a period of 8 minutes.

21st July

Clare spotted a pair of mating Red Soldier beetles on Hogweed. It isn’t a very good photograph, however she wanted to use the caption.

A kid leaps off into the Scrub, and then a doe emerges from the direction in which it leapt.

Bonkers.

(Red Soldier beetles are commonly known as Hogweed Bonking beetles. They are doing what it says on the tin.)

22nd July

A fox with gait unimpaired trots through the Scrub. A couple of hours later a badger goes through with a passing interest in the fern. Another couple of hours and a badger comes towards the camera.

23rd July

More pond work. Clare noticed what appeared to be a newly emerged and not fully uncurled male Common Hawker Dragonfly very near where she was working. It obligingly moved onto her arm where John was able to take a photograph. Clare then replaced it on rush where she kept an eye on it. It straightened up over the next few minutes. Clare looked in vain for the exuvia - the cast skin from which it had emerged.

While on her way up through the Pit Wood near the hide, Clare spotted another 4 Broad-leaved Helleborines. They are several yards away from the original finds. She then went to top up the feeders and thought to have another look at the plants on the way out. Curiously they weren’t quite where she had remembered. That was because this was yet another different patch although closer to the one found earlier. Altogether there are another 9 plants; today’s finds are more fully in flower. Not including the ones that are sitting still unnoticed.

There is a sequence of four videos showing the doe, the doe with one kid, with two kids and a bit of grooming, then again a third kid appears a couple of minutes later. In the first clip, you can just see the pointed edges to her muzzle. She is being bothered by the flies.

24th July

It is the season for discoveries. Today Clare spotted another plant in the Pit Wood that she had not noticed before. She thinks it is Lesser Burdock.

On her way through the Orchard she saw two juvenile Chiffchaffs in an Elder, and on the path leading up away from the Orchard, she found a Thrush anvil.

Lesser Burdock

Empty broken snail shells by the Thrush anvil

26th July

Mel came to help dig reed and rush out of the big pond. Clare decided that as well as the phrase ‘mud in your eye’ there should be ‘mud in your ear,’ ‘mud up your nose,’ ‘mud in your mouth’ and ‘mud in your hair’. The OED Word of the Day came up with a timely offering: goopy, ‘That is viscous or semi-liquid, often in an unpleasant or disgusting way’. Clare regretted not taking a ‘before’ photograph of the pond, however she did manage an ‘after’. There were plenty of dragon flies and damselflies about, particularly emerald damselflies, and a Common Hawker laying eggs.

Mel and Clare went to visit the ‘new’ helleborines and found not eight, but thirteen. On the way Mel noticed that the red clover in the Pit Wood is Zigzag clover. The leaves are longer and more pointed that with the usual red clover, the flowers are redder and more open, and where side shoots emerge from the main stem, the main stem goes off at a slight angle, hence ‘Zigzag’.

Tim has noticed that butterflies are fewer in number and diversity this year, however at the moment there are a large number of Small Skippers around.

Zigzag clover

Small Skipper on Hogweed

29th July

The day began with rain, then warmed up, the perfect illustration of the start of 土潤溽暑 Tsuchi uruōte mushi atsushi: Earth is damp, air is humid, 29th July - 2nd August. John began fixing boards to one side of the classroom. Clare dug out some more reeds and rush and spotted an azure damselfly by her foot.

30th July

John did further work on the classroom while Clare mudlarked about in the big pond and dug out more of the roadside pond. The big pond looks a little fuller after two days of heavy rain; the roadside pond remains empty. There was plenty of life in the big pond with water boatmen, pondskaters, pond snails, water beetles all visible, as well as damsel and dragonflies flying around.

June - 30 Days Wild

First, apologies to Tim for forgetting to include his charming photos of hares last month. He took these on the 14th May, on the Top Grazing.

Also from last month, the trail camera in the Pit Wood showed a different buck from any seen here recently. This one is what is called a ‘murder buck.’ A murder buck is a mature roebuck that has antlers devoid of any tines. That is to say the antlers will resemble two long spikes, without the traditional brow and rear antler tines. The reason that this type of beast is called a murder buck comes from the damage that this type of buck can cause to an opponent when sparring. John has seen them in the roe deer population on Holy Island.

Clare decided to log her 30 Days Wild this year and make these activities the main focus of the Blog. She has enjoyed taking a creative approach to her 30 wild days. Every day she has read a passage from Nature Writing for Every Day of the Year, ed. Jane McMorland Hunter, a delightful gift from Kathryn. Footage from the trail cameras has been added to these activities.

1st June: 4.15 am, thinking the bees would be quietly asleep, attempted to add a special entrance to one of the hives to help the bees defend themselves against robber bees - the bees detected the intrusion and objected strongly; finished reading The Wisdom of Trees, Max Adams.

2nd June: search for Yellow Rattle in the west end of the Top Grazing showed that the seeds sown last year had taken in many places; baby Blue tits at the feeders.

3rd June: planted trees - 7 Bird cherries + 3 Hawthorn (kindly donated by Keith) as hedging on the west boundary below the Wetland, and one Oak (also from Keith) nearby; walked home and identified 56 plant species in flower on the way.

4th June: another walk home from Liddells by a different route and saw 3 curlews in a field. Trail camera - fox and moths

5th June: evening walk round Liddells, nestlings seen still in J2.

Trail cameras - Great tits still feeding nestlings in J1; old buck seen in Pit Wood.

6th June: prepared a piece about the honey bee waggle dance for this month’s Rat Arts (a bimonthly meeting at a local pub to share songs, poetry, prose, etc., on a chosen theme. This month the theme is Dance).

7th June: Eileen came for lunch on Liddells and noticed a hare come up really close while we were talking; reference to the Ghost moth in Nature Writing - ‘A common sight at this time of year…[it] hovers above the fields and hedges at dusk - at one moment a pale, floating shape flitting across our path, then suddenly vanishing. It is usually still within reach of your hand, although invisible, for it has only to alight and fold its wings to disappear in the half-light. The upper side of its wings is mealy-white and glimmering, coming into view when poised, a most perfect disguise of brownish grey.’ (from The Peverel Papers, Flora Thompson, 1923)

Trail camera - hare in the Pit Wood; juvenile crow wing-flapping for food.

8th June: Bullfinch pair were perched in a Hawthorn near the first willow arbour; took photo of Corsican pine cones developing. Frustratingly the trail camera focussed on J1 had failed to capture footage of the Blue tits fledging. Heigh ho.

Trail camera - limping doe and two others, neither of which seems to be the old doe.

9th June: Pat and Sue came for some botanising and found Heath Speedwell, aka Common Gypsy Weed, Common speedwell, or Paul's betony, on the Crag.

Trail camera - in spite of the many broken pheasant eggs lying over Liddells, this hen has raised a pair of chicks.

10th June: learned the word ‘nemorous’ from a newspaper article - it means ‘full of woods or groves, wooded, woody. A passage from Edith Holden’s Diary in Nature Writing refers to the Yellow Bunting [the bird we call the Yellowhammer], and writes that, ‘in Cumberland they say it says ‘Devil, devil dinna touch me-e’. This bird is called Yeldrin and Yellow Yowlie in Scotland.’

11th June: today’s Guardian has an interesting article about Mugwort - there is some coming out near the Wildflower Meadow which might find its way into one or two of the recipe ideas suggested.

Trail camera - the juvenile crow still wants feeding

12th June: photographed a Buff-tailed bumblebee on Water Avens; saw Early Purple Orchids and a Stonechat while walking home

13th June: visited the Peace Labyrinth at Walltown; saw Common Spotted and Early Purple orchids; wondered about creating a tunnelled willow walk this year on Liddells with Sylvia’s willow prunings.

14th June: went in search of orchids on Liddells and found some out in the north-west corner and on the Meadow.

15th June: much activity at the feeders today; identified lots of juveniles - Tree Sparrows, Great tits, Marsh tits, Blue tits, Chaffinches, Great Spotted Woodpeckers.

Trail camera - young hare in the Scrub

A bit of shuteye

Redpoll

Juvenile Great spotted woodpecker - this is a male, the female has less red on the forehead. By next spring all this year's juveniles will have lost their red heads and young males will develop red on the nape but the females will remain plain black and white

An explanation for the recent rapid emptying of the nyjer seed feeders

Goldfinch and male Siskin

Pond snail in the Big Pond

16th June: another search for Creeping thistle on the Meadow - only 12, so this year’s total is 118, a big reduction; several Guelder rose plants in flower for the first time in the Orchard.

Trail camera - wary doe in Pit Wood. She may have had her kids and is therefore being particularly alert to possible threats.

17th June: opened the nucleus hive after leaving it in purdah after spitting to find 3 frames of capped brood - this part of the splitting exercise has been successful.

18th June: dug some turves with Red Clover and Yellow Rattle to introduce into the lawn at home after ‘No Mow May’ revealed no wildflowers in the grass; walked home via Written Crag (so-called because Flavius Carantinus, a quarryman, left his mark there: “PETRA FLAVI CARANTINI”) and saw a Swift, a Linnet, several Skylarks and a Yellowhammer.

19th June: a trip to Holy Island with John who wants to see if he can carry out a roe census there; it was a nature extravaganza - Pyramidal, Early Purple and Common Spotted orchids, Marsh Helleborines, Stonechats, Reed Buntings, juvenile Starlings, butterflies, bees, dozens more flower species and at least 20 roe deer. And an owl.

Marsh helleborine

Juvenile Stonechat

Wooly bear caterpillar of the Garden Tiger moth

Roe doe in meadow

20th June: preparation for Tynedale Community Choir’s 20th Birthday picnic on Liddells, clearing paths, assembling pond-dipping equipment.

21st June: a day at the Burrell Collection in Glasgow to celebrate a friend’s 80th birthday - 10th century ceramic pigeon from Iraq, and an Egyptian green stone goose in a collection of grave goods, were among favourite pieces; not only the longest day today, but the start of another of the Japanese microseasons. From today until 26th June this is 乃東枯 Natsukarekusa karuru - Self-heal withers.

Self-heal withering

Trail cameras - longest day hare and the first glimpse of a kid (the mother seems to be one of the young does, so probably will only have one kid in her first year of breeding).

22nd June: hive 4 opened to reveal half a frame of larvae - the new queen has only just started laying so hive closed up again quickly.

23rd June: started reading Still Water: the Deep Life of the Pond, by John Lewis-Stempel, a gift from Mathilda; loved the description of summer rain by Edward Thomas in Nature Writing:

‘June puts bronze and crimson on many of her leaves. The maple-leaves and many of the leaves of thorn and bramble and dogwood are rosy; the hazel-leaves are rosy-brown; the herb-robert and parsley are rose-red; the leaves of ash and holly are dark-lacquered…in a minute the rain has traversed half a mile of woods, and…[there is the] pattering on roof and pane and leaf, the dance of leaves, the sway of branches, the trembling of whole trees under the flood…When it is over it has put a final sweetness into the blackbird’s voice.’ (from The South Country, 1909)

Rosy leaves of [Haw]thorn

…bramble

…Herb Robert

…and the darkening leaves of Elder

24th June: final prep for the choir picnic and time in the hide: Great Spotted Woodpecker, Siskins, Redpoll, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Great tits, Blue tits, Coal tits, Marsh tits, Tree sparrows, Bullfinch, Nuthatch.

25th June: extract from The Nightingale and the Rose by Oscar Wilde in Nature Writing, tells of how the nightingale pierces her breast on a rose thorn and sings until her life-blood has caused the rose to blossom and turn crimson. A tragic tale. Globe on Tour offered an outdoor performance beside Hexham Abbey, of Julius Caesar. Thunderstorms were forecast; swifts screamed overhead in a fittingly dramatic way, though no lions whelped in Beaumont Street.

No nightingales this far north, however here is a rose

26th June: Tynedale Community Choir’s 20th Birthday picnic and an opportunity to relax after the celebratory singing festival in Hexham the day before. 8 Bird Cherries planted in the Orchard - one for each voice (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) and one for each of the choir leaders (Jo, David, Kathryn and Bridie). Huw and Judith went pond-dipping with their grandchildren and found all sorts of things including a large dragonfly larvae and a small fish. How the fish arrived there is a mystery. A celebration bonfire rounded off the occasion. (Thanks to Mel and two Janes for photo contributions.)

Clare explaining that the saplings will be protected using Hawthorn brash; Mel waiting to plant the soprano’s tree

John talks to Tony the tenor planter

David plants his choir leader’s tree

The bonfire framework survives till the end

27th June: BBC Radio’s Add to Playlist offered a charming piece from the United Strings of Europe - Caroline Shaw’s ‘and the swallow’; the music is inspired by words from Psalm 84 -

‘Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young’

From today till 1st July we are in 菖蒲華 Ayame hana saku: Irises bloom. Japanese irises must come into flower later than in the UK, however here is one still blooming.

28th June: spent time digging pondweed out of the roadside pond and making it a bit deeper, while there is no water; honey bees were coming to drink from the wet mud; time at the hide - 8 siskins including juveniles (6 on one feeder at the same time - sixkins?), Sparrowhawk visited twice

Siskin kin

29th June: looked up this year’s Urban Wildlife Photography awards - this led to further investigations into Brolga and Rainbow parakeets; while removing the flowering heads of Hogweed on the Meadow, removed 3 more Creeping thistles (still only 121 this year, so pulling them out seems to be effective).

30th June: another hour digging the roadside pond which has gratifyingly held water since rain fell in the last two days; mud and petrichor (a pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather) to end 30 wildly spent days.

Trail camera - hare looking far from wild

May - doing the splits

1st May

John saw the two Mandarin ducks on the big pond in daylight. Unfortunately they were too far away for his phone camera.

2nd May

The local Community Choir with which Clare sings, has the bonkers habit of meeting at the local bandstand to sing in the sunrise on the first of the May Bank Holidays. They then eat breakfast together. Three years ago this day coincided with International Dawn Chorus Day so Clare took several singers with her for a walk round Liddells after the breakfast, in order to listen to some birdsong. This year she repeated the offer and nine others joined in. She began the walk by suggesting people kept their eyes open for hares as it was very unusual to be on Liddells and not see one. They heard Pheasant, Blackbird, Crow, Song thrush, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Chaffinch, Willow warbler, Garden warbler, Great tit, Wren. Three Swallows flew over, the first Clare had seen over Liddells this year. Other identifications included a frog, jelly ear fungus, and several flower species. Maggie saw two deer as they jumped away over a wall. No hare appeared.

Later that morning Clare returned and saw two hares - they clearly have a sense of humour. She saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker twice at the hide. She planted a third Field Maple grown and donated by Mel. Now the saplings can have three-way conversations and encourage each other to grow.

Clare started a cowslip survey organised by Plantlife (if you have or know of cowslips nearby, go to Plantlife.org and consider joining in). Apparently cowslips are heterostylous - flowers which have style and anthers of different heights. Long style and low anthers = L-type, short style and high anthers = S-type. This is needed to prevent self-pollination and therefore ideally there will be an equal amount of both flowers in any location. An unequal balance might mean that the flowers are not doing so well. The survey began in Estonia in 2019, where a citizen science campaign, Looking for Cowslips began, in order to see if the landscape, grasslands in particular, was supporting the flowers’ wellbeing. The idea spread to Europe and the UK. The results showed that the balance was more skewed in smaller populations and in urban areas, indicating that human activity may be having a negative impact on the species. Grassland preservation and protection is imperative.

Clare was pleased to record that her survey of 100 plants showed 52 S-type and 48 L-type.

She also valued the experience as an example of ‘opsimathy’: Learning conducted or acquired late in life; an instance of this. Of course Liddells has been offering that for the last nine years.

Meanwhile John saw the pair of Mandarin ducks on the big pond again, however they flew away as soon as they became aware of him.

Listening and watching

‘[w}ild-scatter'd cowslips bedeck the green dale’ Robert Burns

‘Among the many pleasing purposes to which these favourite flowers are applied by children, none is prettier than the making of Cowslip Balls. The method, which may not be known to all my readers, is as follows:

The umbels are picked off as close as possible to the top of the main stalk, and from fifty to sixty are made to hang across a string stretched between the backs of two chairs. The flowers are then carefully pressed together, and the string tied tightly so as to collect them into a ball. Care should be taken to choose such heads or umbels only as have all the flowers open, or the surface of the ball will be uneven.’ Rev. C.A. Johns From Flowers of the Field, 1885

4th May

John has moved one of the cameras back to the middle of the Pit Wood. A hare showed up almost immediately. You can also hear just how much birdsong there is, even in the middle of the day.

5th May

John and Clare were joined at Liddells by three officers from the Northumberland Wildlife Trust to see how the site was doing (readers may recall that Clare and John intend to leave Liddells to the NWT), and in particular to see whether it might qualify for Local Nature Reserve (LNR) status. It is always excellent to walk round with people who bring expertise to the land and this was no exception. Duncan, Geoff and Alice - a curatorium: A group of curators (in various senses), typically acting as an advisory body, OED Word of the Day 18.05.22 - were very encouraging and although didn’t think that Liddells would yet have the required species richness over the whole site for LNR designation, there were pockets in which that richness was there or almost there. The amount of Adder’s Tongue Fern on the Meadow proved to be quite exciting, and the way Yellow Rattle has established. Duncan and Geoff puzzled over exactly which Lady’s Mantle they found in the Meadow, subsequently sending the identification Hairy Alchemilla: Alchemilla filicaulis subspecies Vestita. Geoff spotted moths mating on the outside of the hide, though wasn’t confidently able to identify them. As part of a general discussion at the end of the visit, Alice commented that the root plates exposed by trees felled by Storm Arwen are offering excellent opportunities for mining insects. More investigation called for.

Before he left, John saw Redpolls and Siskins, and a Greenfinch on one of the peanut feeders at the hide. Greenfinches have been notable for their absence for a while, however Tim had sent a photograph of one in his garden (half a mile away), this very day.

Pale Pinion moths - very many thanks to TrogTrogBlog Chris who responded to Clare’s identification plea. Chris added that this moth ‘is uncommon in the north but occurs regularly in Dumfries & Galloway (see http://www.dgmoths.org.uk/species/macro-moths/pale-pinion). Stewart Sexton sees it every year up the coast at Boulmer (https://boulmerbirder.blogspot.com/search/label/Pale%20Pinion?m=0). And this is the right time of year. This is the NBN atlas, not always the most reliable source’. As Chris pointed out, the moths are exquisitely disguised on the wood grain.

Redpolls, male on the left

Two female Redpolls

Particularly rosy male Redpoll and male Siskin

Greenfinch

To add to the colours - Bluebell

‘We call wild flowers common because of their quantity. But this is just where we strike the great difference between productions of Nature and the productions of Man. When we produce many samples of the same thing they are of poor quality and we speak of them as mass-produced. The mass productions of Nature do not fail at all in terms of quality. Take the bluebell. There indeed is quantity. Yet every year we are freshly struck by their quality. Only a flower-snob could fail to see that any one of those bells on the uplifted belfry is as delicate a construction as any tulip or rose. I will not say more beautiful, or less, for in this realm of flowers we are actually in the presence of abundant examples of - perfection. I think that perfection is the key to the emotion that flowers cause in us.’ John Stewart Collis From Down to Earth, Part II, The Wood, 1947

6th May

Another example of the camera light transfixing a badger. The camera has recorded badgers going away from the camera several times. This one seems stopped in its tracks.

7th May

The two cameras recorded deer activity at about the same time in different places in the Pit Wood. The old buck is anointing again. Three minutes later and a hundred yards away, the young buck and doe appear by the bottom of the stream. Six minutes after that the doe appears where the big buck had been. The old buck shows no signs of losing his winter coat, while the two youngsters’ summer coats are clearly on their way.

10th May

Saturday’s Guardian suggested that one of the ‘60 Ways to Turn Your World Upside Down’ (should you feel the need), would be to tune in to the Japanese concept of micro-seasons. Today is the start of the five day 蚯蚓出 Mimizu izuru, or Worms Surface. Others might feature later in the Blog as appropriate. Prepare to be upended.

John has been investigating all the different plants roe deer will eat. The young doe here is eating Water Avens.

13th May

Here the young doe is joined by the young buck. The camera has captured excellent close-ups of both. The young buck is no longer in velvet.

14 -16th May

John and Clare returned from a few days in Cumbria listening for and watching cuckoos. Derek, who farms next to Liddells, says there used to be cuckoos every year locally.

A pair of Greenfinches turned up at the feeders.

Clare inspected the bees having done so on Sunday 8th before she went away, when she spotted that one of the queens had lost her marking. Clare re-marked her, feeling pleased that this would make swarm management easier. Today she was amazed to see that the stronger colony had taken advantage of her absence and created several swarm cells. One way of hoping to prevent a swarm is to remove the queen and establish a small colony - the theory being that this mimics swarming. So Clare set about finding the queen. After going forwards and backwards through the frames four times she gave up. She returned in the afternoon with John hoping that two pairs of eyes would solve the problem. It didn’t, even after taking each frame out three times. She returned the next day and was relieved to see that the bees still hadn’t capped/closed the cells (capped swarm cells means the bees have already swarmed). Three more goes at finding the queen proved as unsuccessful as the previous seven. Much harrumphing ensued. Fortunately her old bee-keeping mentors responded very promptly to a plea for help and suggested an alternative method of swarm control. Clare geared up to do this on Monday but was thwarted by heavy rain and hoped the bees would be too.

17th May

Barry came to help Clare split the colony with queen cells. As Barry’s bees were not thriving, he and Clare took the opportunity to see if they could create two new colonies. First they identified two large queen cells and brushed all the bees off the frames where these were; these frames went into a new brood box; all except one of the brood frames were added to this box having shaken off all the bees (so that the queen remained in the old brood box). It was important to check that this remaining frame had eggs from which the bees could create a new queen cell in case the queen swarmed anyway. The new brood box was placed on top of the old one with a queen excluder between them, and left till next day. The theory is that the nurse bees will move up to look after the brood. Next morning the new brood box, which had plenty of bees in it, was removed; the two frames with queen cells were put into two nucleus boxes (smaller than a regular brood box and suitable for raising new colonies); the remaining brood frames were shared between the boxes. Syrup was added in feeders. The nucs were then left for a few days. Any flying bees in the nucs would make their way back to the old hive.

18th May

Keith came to help Clare with the annual breeding bird survey. Clare is always surprised by the birds they don’t hear, and rather disappointed that they then can’t be included in the count, however as Keith says, this is only an audio equivalent of a snapshot - it could be repeated every hour on the same day, and the results might vary. One of the highlights was watching a Chiffchaff go in and out of brambles near the wall, suggesting there was a nest there.

19th May

Meanwhile the territorial disputes between the bucks continues - the old buck is captured marking again. John says it is unusual for bucks to share the same territory, although it can happen when the stronger animal doesn’t consider the other to be a threat, and will tolerate its presence.

20th May

Keith has often expressed his surprise that there have been no Whitethroats on Liddells, since the land offers ideal habitat for them - plenty of low vegetation like scrubs, bushes and brambles. Last year Clare thought she had seen one in the Scrub, however with no further sightings, concluded it must have been wishful seeing and more likely a Garden Warbler. Today she was thrilled to see a Whitethroat hopping about in the raspberries and brambles close to the hide, close and visible enough for there to be no doubt about identification, and thought that maybe she hadn’t been mistaken last year after all. She dared not move and scare the bird away, so couldn’t reach for her phone to take a photo.

The old doe appeared in the Pit Wood looking decidedly pregnant. Roe does have their young between mid-May and mid-June. In Northumberland the births tend to be at the later end of this period. This is the doe that had triplets last year so it will be exciting to see what young appear this year.

21st May

Clare had to inspect the second of her hives today and again found queen cells - the evidence the colony is preparing to swarm. This time she decided against endless searches for the queen and repeated the splitting procedure. As it was early morning, she was able to return later in the day and move the new brood box into its new position.

And on the theme of boxes, a Greater Spotted Woodpecker has been showing interest in J2 where Great tits are raising a brood. John has made a metal cover with a smaller hole for the box to deter the intruder.

Clare began her annual thistle cull on the Meadow, removing 106 plants on this first go. No doubt there will be more.

Clare also saw the first damselflies out on the Big Pond. They were Large Reds and too far away to photograph.

22nd May

Clare returned to the apiary to check on progress with the first split. She discovered the queen present in the original hive and laying well. Phew. When she opened the nucleus however, the queen cell was open, so the queen had already hatched. Clare went through the frames extremely cautiously and destroyed the one further queen cell that the bees had made. This nucleus will now be in purdah for at least three weeks to allow for the queen to mature, go on mating flights and start laying eggs.

23rd - 24th May

There is much feeding activity at both J1 and J2. Clare is hoping the trail camera on J2 will capture the fledglings leaving the nest. So far it has recorded the earliest food delivery at 4.46am, and the latest at 20.37pm. This article from the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology), gives more detail about the birds and breeding, noting that an excess of 10,000 caterpillars might be delivered to a typical brood. Clare has noted that parent birds from both J1 and J2 take food from the hide feeders and deliver it to the nest boxes. The birds also remove material from the nest to keep it clean. Both birds are involved in managing the brood.

25th May

A badger makes its way through the Pit Wood and returns 12 minutes later.

27th May

Clare went for an evening’s watching, hoping to see the Whitethroat but saw a Spotted Flycatcher instead. She also saw a bat in The Pit Wood however it was too fast to make any clearer identification.

28th - 29th May

The camera in the Pit Wood, which John is hoping will capture the doe and any kids some time soon, shows that the doe is still pregnant; the older buck ignores the branch he usually marks.

It was time to check on the bees after the second split. There were a couple of new queen cells in the newly created brood box so Clare took one down and took the other to Barry to see if it would hatch successfully and provide a new queen for his failing colony. The original hive had no evidence of a laying queen so she may have swarmed after the split; it was puzzling that the remaining bees hadn’t raised another queen cell from the eggs left behind, so Clare took a frame with eggs from the thriving colony and will check again in a few days time to see if the bees have created what they need. ‘Swarm control’ is a phrase created by beekeepers to help them think they are ahead of the bees’ game. Hmmm.

Clare visited the pond again to find dozens of damselflies in the air. She managed to get a couple of shots with her phone though they are not of great quality. The most interesting was seeing a newly emerged damselfly. It clung to the rush but would move to the far side of it every time Clare tried to get close with her phone. TrogTrogBlog Chris - another of the curatorium - suggested waving an outstretched hand to one side can help to get the damselfly to move round a bit more - as Clare dropped her phone in the pond on the first attempt, she is not that keen to try again.

On 26th May, in Nature Writing for Every Day of the Year, ed. McMorland Hunter, there is a passage from Our Village, by Mary Russell Mitford, 1824:

‘Walking along these meadows one bright sunny afternoon, a year or two back, and rather late in the season, I had an opportunity of noticing a curious circumstance in natural history. Standing close to the edge of the stream, I remarked a singular appearance on a large tuft of flags. It looked like bunches of flowers, the leaves of which seemed dark, yet transparent, intermingled with brilliant tubes of bright blue or shining green. On examining this phenomenon more closely, it turned out to be several clusters of dragon-flies, just emerged from their deformed chrysalis state, and still torpid and motionless from the wetness of their filmy wings. Half an hour later we returned to the spot and they were gone.’

Mating Large Red Damselflies - usually the first of the Odonata to emerge each spring

Adult male Azure Damselfly - TrogTrogBlog’s Chris says you can see the coenagrion spur on the side of the thorax. (Yes, Clare had to look up coenagrian too.) Chris suggested this, from www.odonata.org.uk is a great help to tell the difference from a Common Blue.

Teneral (of, relating to, or constituting a state of the imago of an insect immediately after moulting during which it is soft and immature in colouring) female azure damselfly

30th May

Tims sent this article about Brimstone butterflies in the north-east. Apparently they are prospering. Clare is pleased that the Alder Buckthorns Tim and Clare donated are now in leaf.

31st May

There are fewer videos of hares this month and John and Clare have seen fewer hares, although they are still about and Clare saw a small one on the Top Grazing which would seem to be one of this year’s young. It may be the adults are fully occupied in looking after them.

Next month is the Wildlife Trust’s annual challenge to everyone to do one wild thing every day throughout the month. John and Clare hope Blog readers will be inspired to join in.