The English Countryside

 Nothing beats the views you get in Spring while walking around in the good old English countryisde. The sight of blue sky, green trees and grass with tiny white (and black) lambs playing cards (gamboling!) and all manner of wildlife in and amongst.

Mon 29 April

Green-veined White butterfly

Walking towards home along the Mere south side I saw an egret coming in to land.

Little Egret landing

I got a little giddy as this was the first Little Egret I'd seen at the Mere all year. While I was taking pics of said egret I didn't notice that a Great White Egret had landed just a few yards to its right! When I glanced up from the camera I soon got my eye back to the viewfinder 🤣🤣

Little Egret and Great White Egret on the south side

I took lots of pics but they are all pretty similar. Nothing much happened apart from the GWE departing in the same manner as it arrived - unseen by me as I had the camera glued to my eyes again. At least I saw the LE take off and fly south west.

Little Egret

Tue 30 April

I had two walks along the south side, one in the morning as usual and one in the afternoon as my car was ready to pick up from the garage.

Female Bullfinch

Barn Owl twixt first and second field

Common Footman caterpillar

Green-veined White on Forget-Me-Not

Male Orange Tip on Forget-Me-Not

Handsome bird, the Jackdaw

As I arrived home at lunch time I had an unpleasant sight of a dead Whitethroat in one of our wall planters. I'm guessing it had flown into the kitchen window as the planter is just below it.

Late Whitethroat

Lesser Whitethroat

We seem to have more Lesser Whitethroats at the Mere this year than we have had before? We've only had last year and this year to date of adding records to BirdTrack for the Mere so it's difficult to quantify.

Singing Sedge Warbler in Heslop's

Wed 1 May

The car wasn't right so I took it back to the garage early on and walked into town then on to the sea front. The couple of Purple Sandpipers that have been around there were still feeding along the steps, even though the tide was in.

This pic and three below - Purple Sandpipers

I walked back to KP and got a reasonable view of a singing Sedge Warbler, much better than yesterday's.

Sedge Warbler

I also had my best total of Common Sandpipers - eight of them. Two were hanging around the jetties and six flew out of Bull Hole towards Swan Island.

Common Sandpipers on KP 

Four of the six Common Sands flying west

Thu 2 May

Another walk to pick up the car and another unpleasant experience - a dead Blackcap this time. In the middle of the path with not a mark on it?!

Blackcap

Much better sights were to follow though with colourful butterflies to lighten the mood.

Peacock

Red Admiral

Long-tailed Tits are busy feeding their young or sitting on eggs at the moment so I don't see many. A couple appeared this morning though, feeding in an alder on the south side, looking worn and knackered 😉

Worn Long-tailed Tit

All Along The Lee Shore

 A strong, cold NE wind and driving rain wasn't a pleasant backdrop to this morning's walk. Still, a walk is a walk no matter the weather, and it was enjoyable in parts. I only met one other hardy soul all morning, and he didn't really have a choice but to be out in the rain as he was going to work.

In second field by the shore line, between 50 and 60 Swallows were feeding in the lee of the wind and rain behind the taller trees and willows - hence the title for today's post. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's 1971 live album "Four Way Street" was the first published recording of The Lee Shore.

Yesterday and Friday delivered better weather for wandering about with the camera.

Bumblebee Blacklet hoverfly

7-spot Ladybird on a bluebell

First ducklings of the year - Mallards

Egyptian Goose

Friday morning's walk through the fields brought a new species for the year in the shape on an Egyptian Goose. Cue silly walks and the Bangles song.

Egyptian Goose with Canadas and Greylags

Egyptian Goose with a single Pink-footed Goose

EG and Pinkie again

EG, PF with Canadas and Greylags

Last pic of the Egyptian Goose

Having written in the previous blog post that I hadn't seen any butterflies for a while, Friday produced 2 Speckled Wood and my first Orange Tip of the year.

Orange Tip

Garlic mustard - Orange Tip food plant

Nettle-tap moth

In previous years there was always a good number of Reed Buntings in the reed bed at Heslop's, but over the last three or four years the count has been declining. At the moment I only see and hear one or two as I go through. Part of the overall decline of bird numbers in general unfortunately.

Sedge Warblers have taken up their usual residency in Heslop's and were joined from Thursday onwards by Reed Warblers. We've had a Grasshopper Warbler reeling in Heslop's since 17th April but only intermittently and for very short bursts. Normally Groppers reel for ages so they are easy to hear, but this one seems reluctant to sing at all, so you need to wait for quite a while before you catch a second or two of song.

Here are some photos of a Grasshopper Warbler, but not a recent one. I took these way back in 2015 at Cowden. Although I have taken more photos of Gropper since then, these are undoubtedly the best I've ever managed.

Grasshopper Warbler reeling

Grasshopper Warbler keeping its head down

Gropper reelin' in the years

The forecast for tomorrow is warm (15 degrees!!!) and dryish so let's hope that happens and gives us some joy for a while.

No Butterflies But Plenty To See

How our wildlife is managing to carry on regardless of the shocking weather is beyond me. Cold winds and heavy rain most days - it is most disheartening for me as a human, even  with cold and wet weather clothing to assist me and a centrally heated home to go back to.

These Brown Hares were looking bedraggled to say the least.

Seen through a hedge, three Brown Hares

One of them ran across the track in front of me,

but it soon went back again 😂

The weather is way too cold to attract butterflies to come out and play, and sure enough I haven't seen a butterfly for ages!

I hear Song Thrush singing every morning, come rain or shine, and it does lift your spirits when you hear a song as lovely as that.

Song Thrush

 Walking past the fields south of Heslop's I noticed a single Pink-footed Goose with the Greylags, Canadas and Mute Swans. Time it wasn't here I reckon.

Pink-footed Goose

I walked along the Trans Pennine Trail to Great Hatfield this morning, returning via Goxhill to the south side of the Mere. Plenty of warblers around and nice to see and hear a few Whitethroats in the hedgerows. I got a few distant pics of Whitethroat but they were very flighty. They will settle down after a week or so.

Distant first Whitethroat pic of the year

 I heard my first Reed Warbler of the year in first field reed bed, but no sighting. Sedge Warblers, Cetti's Warblers and Reed Buntings were keeping it company in the mid-morning chorus.

Cowslips are beginning to appear along the roadside verges and footpaths, adding to the profusion of mainly yellow flowers this time of year. Apparently the Cowslip is used to make a very potent country wine!? More research needed here 😉

Cowslip (Primula veris)

In the middle of a (very) wet meadow I saw my first Cuckoo flower of the year too. 

Cuckoo flower (Cardamine pretensis)

The cuckoo flower is allegedly  either named after the bird (that sings during April and May when the flower is out) or from cuckoo-spit - the foamy substance that is sometimes seen on the leaves or stem (which has nothing to do with cuckoos but is actually produced by Froghopper nymphs). Either way, the flower is a delicate and beautiful sight.

As we are due to move soon and will lose the lovely view that we have at the back of the house over open fields and hedgerows, I thought I'd finish this post on a self-indulgent note by putting up some pics taken yesterday...

First of a few Roe Deer that are seen daily browsing among the crops.

The view

The deer

Close up of the deer

Later in the day a fox ran up the far side of the field and briefly thought about sneaking up on the geese. The geese convinced it not to be so silly and it ran off.

Fox and geese

Fox having second thoughts, but ran off anyway

Inside the house, the Sundew plant we have in the conservatory (thanks Nick!) was treated to a nice fat fly and soon wrapped it up in order to ingest the goodness.

Sundew feast

We don't have a conservatory at the house we are moving to, so I hope the Sundew thrives as well on a window cill as it has in the glass house 🤞