DCW 3

Here's another set of nine common birdsongs for you to practice with before the Dawn Chorus Walk on Monday 2nd May at 5.00 am.

Woodland Trust birdsong guide 

We may hear most of these 17 birds:

Blackbird, Robin and Songthrush

Wood Pigeon & Collared Dove

Blue Tit & Great Tit

Dunnock, Wren

Chiffchaff & Blackcap

Goldfinch, Chaffinch & Greenfinch

Pheasant, Crow & Rook

image: scarlett of the fae

SHELL SHOCK

After hatching their nestlings, birds carry the egg shells away from the nest so as not to betray the nest's location to predators.  If you're lucky you may find an almost complete example. 

This one is a songthrush's, I think.

The songthrush is one of the many birds to be heard in the dawn chorus.

If you can, join me on a dawn chorus walk on Monday 2nd May.  We meet by the field gate of Thornbury Leisure Centre and set off on the walk at 5.00 am.

 

LADY'S SMOCK

Lady's Smock or Cuckoo flower is present in drifts in the fields behind the Mundy Playing Field, low down where the ground is damper..

You can also find it in damp ditches like the one alongside the football pitch, and near post 10 in Filnore Woods.  There are usually a lot in the skateboard field but it has just been mown.

The flowers are white or pale pink and carried in bunches at the top of the stem.  Like Jack-by-the-Hedge , it is a foodplant for Orange Tip caterpillars.

It is also sometimes called Milkmaids.

The name Cuckoo Flower was given because it used to announce the arrival of Cuckoos from Africa but they seem to be much rarer now.

It's worth a stroll to the further field, the one with the seat under a red horse chestnut tree, to see these graceful flowers.

 

JACK IS STANDING TO ATTENTION

Jack-by-the-Hedge is so called because it grows alongside hedgerows and, unlike most plants that lean away from competing vegetation it stands straight up.

Its other name is garlic mustard.  It's one of the few plants that smells of onions but is not an Allium.  

The round scalloped leaves help in identification before the white flowers appear.

This is one of the foodplants for caterpillars of the Orange Tip butterfly.  The eggs are laid singly beneath the flower buds and turn bright orange so they should be easy to spot.  But I've never found one.

Male orange tip nectaring on a dandelion
Photo: Alan Watts

 

ALKANET & COW PARSLEY

In the field between Castle Court and Stokefield Close there is a brilliant natural display in blue and white.  Hurry along while it still lasts.

The blue is Green Alkanet, a plant introduced probably in the Middle Ages when its roots were used to make a red dye.  The large leaves are hairy and, if you handle them, at first you think you have been stung but it wears off immediately.

The white is Cow Parsley or Queen Anne's Lace.  It has quite a strong perfume which you can smell as you walk by. 

 

KESTREL or WINDHOVER

dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding

    Of the rolling level underneath him steady air

The Windhover, Gerard Manley Hopkins

 Another wildlife adventure from Jo's trail camera: 

This female kestrel caught a vole in her yellow talons.  

" Is somebody spying on me?"

She hid the prey in the honeysuckle on the wall and came back for it later - presumably when she thought the peeping tom was away.

Kestrels are the falcons you sometimes see hovering over the motorway verge, hunting for voles.  The female has a brownish head while the male's head is grey.

10: BLUEBELLS

Bluebells have increased enormously at Filnore Woods since they were started from agricultural land in 1998.  This is partly because they had been lying quietly dormant under brambles and overgrown hedges, and partly because they have spread by seed.

The pictures don't do them justice so do visit the woods and see for yourself.

 

SPRING FLOWERS 9: MEADOW BUTTERCUP

The Meadow Buttercup  (Ranunculus acris)  is the tallest of our commoner buttercups, reaching up to 90cm (3 feet).  As its name suggests, it grows in meadows and pastures.

The leaves are finely divided - see the clear example bottom left in the photo below.

The shorter Creeping Buttercup  (Ranunculus repens) has much broader leaves, often with a white spot in each of the three parts of the leaf.   It spreads by rooting runners and is therefore very unpopular with gardeners.

And don't forget that their relative with heart-shaped leaves and many more petals to each flower is the Lesser Celandine  (Ranunculus ficaria).

 

SPRING FLOWERS 8: DANDELION

I know dandelions are really common and I've posted them before on this blog

BUT

 they are truly beautiful and at this time of year they make a real splash of sunshine colour in fields, alongside roads and 😠 in my garden.

The seedheads too are an architectural miracle.  

I'm happy to let my grandson blow the dandelion clock while out on a walk but not so keen over my vegetable plot !

 

SPRING FLOWERS 7: HERB ROBERT

Herb Robert or Stinking Bob (smell the crushed foliage) is a cranesbill or Geranium.

Very common in woods, gardens and even on walls, the stems and leaves turn red when not in the shade.  Like all despised 'weeds', it repays a closer look for its lacy foliage and small but pretty pink flowers.

 

SQUIRREL ASPARAGUS

To appreciate the wonder of trees it is usually helpful to look up.  

But trees also drop clues on the ground.

If you see something like this on your path you immediately know 

you are passing under a horse chestnut or 'conker' tree.

 BUT . . . it also shows that squirrels have been at work.  They seem to like nipping the new young shoots off horse chestnuts, but they only eat a tiny bit before they drop the rest on to the floor.

Squirrels these days eh?

SPRING FLOWERS 5: RED DEAD NETTLE

Got these two dead nettles out of order.  Doesn't matter but if you ae following the numbers it might seem confusing.

Red deadnettle grows on waste or disturbed ground like roadside verges, the edge of the football field fence on the Mundy Playing Fields, or in your veg plot.

The flowers are pink but the newest leaves are a purply red.

   

 

SPRING FLOWERS 6: WHITE DEAD NETTLE

Much grander than the red deadnettle here's a reminder of the white deadnettle, which flowers from March to November and right through this last rather milder winter.

'Deadnettle' because the leaves look like sting nettle leaves but have no stinging hairs.

 

SPRING FLOWERS 4: GROUND IVY

and back to the spring flowers

A more striking purplish blue than the violet but still quite small 

so keep your eyes peeled along the edge of hedgerows.

Ground ivy is no relation of ivy but it does hug the ground.  

It's closer to the mints and dead nettles.  

The leaves are nothing like ivy either 

but slightly tinted purple and  almost round with scalloped edges .

It spreads by its long trailing stems that root as they go.

 

BADGER

As you can see, as recently as March14th this badger was boldly padding around near Jo's trail camera.

(You'll have to draw in the eyes yourself as the flash has concealed them!)  

 They are very wary of people but not cameras apparently.

Their senses of smell and hearing are very acute but there vision is not so good,  So, if you are downwind and very still and quiet, you can watch them quite closely - if you know where they regularly go on their nightly feeding travels, that is.

But be careful who you tell about their whereabouts; they are often persecuted by badger baiters with dogs - not to mention government employed cullers (and David Archer).

SPRING FLOWERS 3: VIOLET

A favourite spring flower.  

Although beautiful, violets don't make as much of a show as some.

In fact it's quite easy to overlook them amongst the other greenery.

But when you do get close they are a charm.

The several species of violets are essential food for a number of the fritillary butterflies' caterpillars.

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STOP PRESS: Today I saw this cute little Holly Blue butterfly warming up in the sunshine.

Note the tiny black dots on the underside of the wing.

Their caterpillars feed on holly - or ivy, depending on the season.

 

SPRING FLOWERS 2: COLTS-FOOT

This is not a dandelion although it is related.  The centre of the flower  is a disc rather than all ray florets.

There are no proper leaves, just scale leaves on the flower stem.

 The name 'colts-foot' comes from the shape of the leaves, which appear when the flowers are dead and gone.

It was formerly used as a cough cure.

 I'm posting a lot of spring flowers in close succession on this blog before they all disappear.

SPRING FLOWERS 1: MARSH MARIGOLD

'And winking Mary-buds begin to ope their golden eyes'

William Shakespeare

At the edge of the hilltop pond at Filnore Woods, there are a couple of plants of Marsh Marigold or Kingcup.  The flowers don't last long so hurry if you want to see them.  Hopefully they will increase year on year.

They were known as Mary-buds because they were holy to the Virgin Mary, and used to be placed on window sills, doorsteps and around cows' horns to protect them from evil, especially just before May Day or Beltane.

In the play Cymbeline the phrase 'winking Mary-buds' occurs in the song 'Hark hark the lark'.

Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings

And Phoebus 'gins arise,

His steeds to water at those springs

On chaliced flowers that lies;

And winking Mary-buds begin

To ope their golden eyes:

With everything that pretty is,

My lady sweet, arise:

Arise arise.

 I'm going to post a lot of flowers in close succession on this blog before they all disappear.