BIG GARDEN BIRDWATCH

Don't forget to join in the Big Garden Birdwatch today or tomorrow. 

Every watcher's count is important, even if it's negative.

One hour in the garden or looking out of the window.

Full instructions from the RSPB website.

Download the details including an identification guide here:

https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/

WINTER GNATS

Sitting in the warm sun on one of those cold, crisp mornings recently I became aware of lots of little flies drifting about apparently aimlessly.  They were like tiny golden fairies, lit by the sun behind them,  but unfortunately I was unable to catch this phenomenon on camera.

Some of them gathered in small clouds, dancing up and down.  What could be happening?

Photo: University of Wisconsin

Well a bit of research showed me that these were Winter Gnats.  They are pretty well the only insects that brave the winter cold.  They are closely related to crane flies but much much smaller, between 5 and 10mm long.

The dancing clouds are apparently males showing off to passing females in the hope of a mating partner.

Here is a male.  You can see the two claspers at the end of his body, which are to help hang on to a mate when he finds one.  The scale on the right is millimetres.

 

And below is a female with a pointed ovipositor at her tail end, with which she would have laid her eggs in rotting vegetation, the ideal home and diet for the larvae.  Both photos are of dead insects and as they are so small and delicate some of the six legs are missing.

Two photos: Erica McAllister for BBC Wildlife Magazine

I compiled this yesterday morning and then there was a brief bit on the last ten minutes of Winterwatch last night, which showed them beautifully so do check it out.

BBC Wildlife Magazine had this picture of the little guys highlit by sunlight.

So ethereal

ROOKS

One of the good things about winter is the chance it brings to admire the structure of braod-leaved trees.  It also gives us the chance to see things in trees like the round balls of mistletoe and the nests of some birds, usually corvids like crows (a nest of twigs on its own), magpies (a domed nest often with a roof) and rooks who nest communally in rookeries. 

As I live near the Mundy Playing Fields, I enjoy seeing the repair and rebuilding in the hybrid poplar trees by the stream every year.  They usually manage about 14 nests.

 As you can see in the photo above, they are building in one poplar but not the one on the left.  And they don't like the upward branches of the lombardy poplar, nor the alder to the right.

Unfortunately one of their favourite poplar trees fell over this year.

But nothing daunted they are building in an oak - four nests so far.

  

And in a nearby ash tree - three nests.

 

So together with six in the poplar that makes 13 already and they are still building.  

"We build up high, away from predators but we feed down low in fields where animals graze. Kaaa"

 

MUTE SWANS, COB & PEN

A pair of mute swans by the canal near Frampton-on-Severn

The male, or cob, has a slightly bigger black knob at the base of the bill than his mate, the pen.

They do not hoot or whistle like bewicks or whooper swans but the sound of their wings as they fly by is very evocative.

 

PATH EDGING

 

Friends of Filnore Woods Volunteers set about path repairs last Sunday, in the Valley Woodland, near posts 9 and 10.  Derek is also sawing down a dead elder by the path.

Poles have to be fixed on the downhill side to prevent erosion of the path.  Both the poles and the pegs to hold them in place are made from wood harvested on site.  The pegs are nailed into the poles to hold them in place.  Here are Jim and Peter at work.  Note lump hammer in Jim's hand and Silky saw in red transport device.

The path is then built up with woodchip, when we can get enough.

Derek, Andy and Eric with, respectively, lump hammer, drill and refreshment.  

Half a dozen sharpened pegs on the floor.

Photos by Alan, who was also the man in charge.

WINTER TREES 5: HAZEL

Hazel is more of a shrub than a tree as it produces lots of stems from the one root.  This makes it a very useful coppice plant providing a load of poles if cut regularly.  

It is also one of the ways of identifying hazel.

But at this time of year the numerous male catkins are clear identifiers, whether silhouetted against the sky or shining golden in the sun against a darker background.

  

Alders also have catkins early in the year but usually with last year's little conelets still hanging on.  And alders are usually recognisable by the way they grow on just one main stem.

 

 

WINTER TREES 4: BLACKTHORN

2nd January was sunny here.  Blackthorn twigs against a blue sky look very prickly.  The side shoots with the thorns at the end stick out more or less at right angles, with flower buds waiting to hatch.

In March blackthorn (Prunus spinosa)is covered in white blossom on bare twigs before the leaves come out - an excellent early supply of pollen and nectar for insects.  It is easy to confuse blackthorn with all the various wild plums, myrobalan, cherry plum, bullace etc (Prunus cerasifera) but these blossom two to four weeks earlier, the leaves coming out with the flowers, on green twigs.

Blackthorn is best known for its very tart fruits, the sloes - see my post of 28th September 2022.  But what I remember most about it are the thorns.  It's habit of suckering and spreading into a thicket, ideal for small birds to nest in, makes it an excellent plant for hedges.   BUT when you come to trim or lay a blackthorn hedge the thorns will penetrate the toughest of gloves.

As well as sheltering birds, the leaves are essential food for the caterpillars of two of our threatened butterfly species, the black and the brown hairstreaks, and over 200 other invertebrates feed on the leaves, so I will forgive its prickly nature.

Blackthorn wood is excellent firewood.  Although it is usually a shrubby bush, it can grow into a tree about 5m tall with black bark - hence the name.  Its black bark looks well on walking sticks, Irish shillelaghs and magic wands.

JAY

These attractive members of the crow family are rather secretive but you may hear them scolding each other like so many Donald Ducks.  Their fluorescent blue wing feathers or even whole wings were at one time used to decorate fashionable ladies' hats !!!

  They are responsible for planting many oak trees in grassland.  They store the acorns in underground caches in autumn and those surplus to requirements have a good chance of growing into oaks.