Single Siskin

 By this date last year I had found two Treecreeper nests. This year I haven't found any yet, but I saw a pair of TC's feeding together and staying together as they moved through the wood this morning so fingers crossed.

One of two Treecreepers

As I was watching the Treecreepers a bird landed in a tree between me and the object of my attention. I moved the camera and got a Siskin in view. Just one strangely, as they are normally in quite large flocks when I see them in the wood.

Single Siskin

Ear worm time followed as I started to sing Single Pigeon by Wings 😂 

Birds are collecting nesting material now and although I've seen Rooks carrying big stuff, I saw my first birds actually collecting material today.

Long-tailed Tit pulling moss for its nest

Greenfinch with a small twig

I watched the Greenfinch working on a small twig that had smaller twigs attached to it, so it bit them off and flew away with a nice, clean twig!  I find that Greenfinches always look cross 😀

Over the weekend (Saturday) I was in the right place at the right right time to get a Red Kite flying west over the Mere through Decoy channel. A distant shot as usual but a record shot anyway.

Red Kite west over the Mere

Common Buzzards have been very common recently and I watched 3 of them as they sorted out either a pecking order or which two of three were going to pair up. A male and 2 females by the look of them.

Common Buzzards

Buzzards have very variable under-wing patterns and if I can get enough photos of good enough quality, I hope to be able to identify our local birds. It's very much a work in progress but it'll keep me occupied if nothing else.

Insects are slowly making themselves seen and heard more and more and I saw at least 4 bumblebees yesterday.

Buff Tailed Bumblebee

There are numerous Lesser Celandine in flower but I've not seen any bees on them yet, so hopefully they'll find enough dandelions to tide them over until other flowers appear.

From The Sublime (Buzzard) To The Ridiculous (Yellow Dung Flies)

 Another wonderful morning as I sauntered along the south side of Hornsea Mere once again. I'm stopping more often and for longer these days, but whether I'm seeing more wildlife or not as a result I'm not sure 😀

Roe Deer, Brown Hare and Grey Squirrel were the mammals on offer today:

Roe Deer relaxing

Brown Hare

Brown Hare and Lapwing

Grey Squirrel

There were lots of Chiffchaffs singing as I walked my 6 and a bit miles in the sun. It was a bit breezy but warm too.

Singing Chiffy

Chiffchaff

Wrens were also in profusion (well, 4 anyway).

Small but damn loud

Raptors were certainly the most stand-out moments of the morning's creatures. A pair of Common Buzzards came over quite low and 3 Marsh Harriers were high up and soaring.

A soaring male Marsh Harrier

Female Common Buzzard

Ditto above

...and again

Male Common Buzzard

Getting down and dirty there were plenty of Yellow Dung Flies on the fresh sheep poo. Quite photogenic really 😉 I wonder if birds eat these flies?

Yellow Dung Flies

On the fence post in first field was a Zebra Spider. After I togged it, a midge(?) came along and settled on it. Possibly a meal.

Zebra Spider

A late Zebra Spider, attacked by a midge of some sort

We're done (or dung) for today methinks.

The Scribble Lark

 The Scribble Lark (aka Yellowhammer)

As the Yellowhammer is a member of the bunting family, why isn't it called Yellow Bunting? 

Well, it is really, because "ammer" is a German term for bunting. Yellowhammer is an Anglo-Saxon name dating from well before 1066. English is a Germanic language and lots of old words from those days still persist. There were attempts to change to Yellow Bunting, but the old country name held sway.

So where does Scribble Lark come in then? The Yellowhammer isn't a lark either.

The term Scribble Lark comes from the appearance of the Yellowhammer's egg - it looks as though someone has scribbled on it. Apparently the country folk who gave it this name weren't up on bird families 😂

Yellowhammer eggs in the nest

I had heard of this old English name because Roy Harper mentions it in one of his songs -  "Forget Me Not" from "HQ", a favourite album of mine from 1975.

Can you remember, my love, the day we began?
The grass in the meadow was long, the scribble lark sang

4 birds in the bush

Yellowhammers have been singing for a while now locally and although they sing from perches in trees or bushes, they are ground feeders. Like other birds, they will be pairing up and looking for nest sites soon.

When I got my first book about birds, the Yellowhammer was the very first entry in it, and having been born in a town I used to dream of seeing one.

My first bird book!

The first entry - The Yellowhammer

This was where I got the mnemonic from for its song "a little bit of bread and no cheeese". It still works for me today and takes me back to those early days.

Catch Up On The Week

I keep meaning to post updates but time just slips away from under my feet, so here's a quick run down of the last 6 days. In my usual manner I'll start with today and then go to whichever day fits best.

Today (Friday 17 March) was mild and sunny with a slight SW breeze. I walked up the old railway line to Hatfield then wandered along the footpaths over to Wassand and then home through the fields.

Yellowhammers, Skylarks, Song Thrushes, Chaffinches, Linnets, Dunnocks, Robins - everything seemed to be singing as I sauntered along enjoying the mid-morning chorus. A Little Egret and a pair of Stonechats were the highlights of the morning.

Little Egret landing near the railway line

Blue Tit checking out a nest box

Linnet

Dunnock

Dunnock

Song Thrush

Weatherhill rookery

Meadow Pipit in first field showing long hind claw

Stonechat in first field

Stonechat in first field

Female Reed Bunting in first field

Wednesday 15 March was a bit drab but good walking weather so I did a brisk 8 miles along the south side before elevenses 😉 at first everything seemed to be in threes:

3 Buzzards over the Mere

3 Roe Deer chilling

1 of 3 Mistle Thrushes

Another Mistle Thrush

A pheasant ran past, as fast as a Roadrunner

 I remembered from last year that there was a small patch of Coltsfoot along the south side, so as this is the time of year they flower I went to have a look. Unsurprisingly it has been wrecked by the tidy countryside mindset of land owners/contractors/farmers or whoever decides how the field margins should look. Instead of a healthy patch of wild flowers I saw just a single stem with a poor looking damaged flower 😢

A single Coltsfoot flower

Sorry folks, but I seem to find more things to annoy me as time goes by. I really love to get out and enjoy the open air, wildlife and countryside but things aren't the same as they used to be, even 5 years ago never mind longer than that. More fences, more ignorant people, more restrictions, more cutting back of trees and habitat, fewer insects, mammals and birds (and wild flowers).    Hey ho, on we go.

Tuesday 14 March was sunny, dry and cool and I walked through to the hide at Decoy channel. I love walking through the wood early in the morning before others are out, as I see and hear so much more. Not much at all to see from the hide apart from a couple of Marsh Harriers, as wildfowl don't seem to visit in the numbers they used to. Spring and summer will change that with other wildlife instead.

Brown Hares are active in the fields now

Lesser Celandine

A common dog violet I think

Small groups of violets are showing in the wood but despite my best efforts I can't say 100% which species they are. I think they are common dog violets as they don't have a scent at all, whereas Sweet Violets do. 

Monday 13 March  was windy and rainy but I went to the hide anyway. A quiet day with not much showing apart from a Treecreeper, a couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers and my first Red Dead Nettle of the year. It has a square stem and is quite small at the moment but they can grow much bigger than the 3 inches this specimen was.

Red Dead Nettle showing square stem

Red Dead Nettle flower

Treecreeper

That brings me up to date with things so I can rest content that I don't have a backlog of photos to sort through.