Stealth Hunter over the River

Sunday 28th April was a fine spring day after a slight frost. Signs of spring after such a long wait and several false starts  are appearing in leaps and bounds. The most colourful heralds of spring are the butterflies and it was very fortunate that a Comma butterfly chose a warm sheltered area of the river bank amongst last years dried out nettle stalks to bask for a while.

Normally restless and wary the Comma butterfly needed time to warm up

in the sun on the river bank after a cold and frosty night.

Many birds were singing and setting up nests or had already built nests along the banks.

The popularity of the river environment naturally attracts predators too.

Looking down onto the water, one such skilled hunter suddenly appeared, flying very low over the water following the river course - a female Sparrowhawk, silent and generating no alarm calls from the numerous inhabitants of the banks - somewhere downstream it will make a dash for an unwary bird

of any size even a woodpigeon taking a bath could be the chosen prey. 

The fields, in the recent past lying for so long uncultivated and dead, any growth soaked and smothered in herbicides but with good mature hedgerows surviving, have this spring, as soon as they became less waterlogged, been ploughed, tilled and sown with wheat. Today sprouting shoots had turned these fields green again.  Some of the hedgerows have been partially trimmed in parts and others left to blossom.

Along the river a fine view of whitethroats, one amongst the old nettle stalks on the bank, bouncing up in its display flight, two more foraging amongst the Blackthorn blossom and others flitting and bouncing above the brambles and singing, joined by a fresh Peacock butterfly nectaring on the blossom and warming up in the sun.  Wrens were trying to out-sing the warblers but the warblers were winning with a fine singing sedge warbler  and a willow warbler in the chorus but the chiffchaffs were the most numerous and heard continuously. Two blackcaps chose more isolated location in which to sing their varied and beautiful songs.  A song thrush was also singing, together with nearby blackbirds. Others were quiet, carrying beaks full of nesting material - they outnumbered robins today but the latter were still singing strongly whilst dunnocks added their tuneful songs from high perches in the trees.

Greenfinches, great tits and blue tits were calling too and even a coal tit was heard amongst the pines that also held a foraging goldcrest. House sparrows were chattering as they do all year round but males adding a rather plain persistent breeding call now. Long-tailed tits were very quiet, busy nesting, careful not to attract attention whilst chaffinches did the opposite and goldfinches sang from under the cover of ivy where they roost and retreat if the weather is cold. A nuthatch was seen amongst the trees collecting food, silently.  From out of nowhere a large flock of herring gulls descended onto the field, a single lesser black-backed gull amongst them and on the perimeter a single magpie and a few woodpigeons and crows waited. A cock pheasant marched purposefully along the fence at the margin.

The river was flowing swiftly and clearer than it has been all winter and it was getting colder fast with an old willow creaking in the wind when two mallard flew over the river and a flash of bright yellow and dippy flight gave away a smart grey wagtail darting along the river.  

Looking up, hoping to see a buzzard I saw instead a kestrel making a sweeping glide over the river, its fine colouring showing brightly as it turned.

Bumblebees in the blossom

Yesterday, Sunday 21st April was a fine and still day, with Blackthorn blossom appearing almost overnight all along the river where the sun warms the earth.

A profusion of Blackthorn blossom with a very bare old oak in the background but a fine blue sky. Some Blackthorn, in more exposed and cooler areas has yet to flower, with only tiny buds visible on the branches

The Blackthorn blossom was buzzing with Bumblebees, White-tailed and Red-tailed mostly, foraging amongst the pollen-laden blossom as the usual wild flowers are only just appearing on the river bank, the warmest spot for the first flowers.

Bright and fresh Hawthorn leaves with another old bare oak as backdrop

A very welcome sight - a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly, looking very fresh, was basking on the debris of the past winter deposited by recurrent flood waters on the river banks  which have never looked as bare. There are signs of life however, with shoots appearing through the dead wood and mud.

A male Mallard paddles along the river, wary that the bare banks provide no hiding place yet.

A view over to High Wood Hill with the newly tilled fields across the river and bare trees

Birds were present in good numbers all along the river banks: 15 robins some singing and others nesting;  52 house sparrows in several colonies, chattering and calling,  25 wrens easy to see and hear, 48 blue tits,  23 great tits, all busy foraging,  7 long-tailed tits,  1 siskin,  4 goldcrests,  5 dunnock, 22 blackbirds foraging in the damp mud of the banks,  3 song thrushes,  2 nesting nuthatches, 

2 great spotted woodpeckers,  1 treecreeper,  3 green woodpeckers,  2 jays,  1 bullfinch, 

10 chaffinch, 4 goldfinch, 1 starling, 7 magpies, 38 woodpigeons, 1 carrion crow, 3 mallard,

 1 pheasant, 2 buzzards

 - and the new arrivals:

10 chiffchaffs,  2 willow warblers, 4 whitethroats

and butterflies newly emerged:

Brimstone, Small Tortoiseshell and Comma together with many Bumblebees and Hoverflies.

Mid April - Another attempt at The First Day of Spring

14th April 2013 - Today Spring has arrived at last.

The first Chiffchaffs have arrived and are now singing - a very welcome sound on the riverside. Only short  'chiff  chiff  chiff  chiff chiff' calls at first but the bird I was watching, perched in this willow, warmed by the sun, soon broke into the traditional song 'chiff chaff'  'chiff chaff'  then took off  to feed in characteristic chiffchaff mode moving rapidly from branch to branch around the willow, pecking at the catkins in the company of several blue tits.

Blackcaps too have arrived and are now singing after settling into their favourite habitat of thickets along the river, appearing more numerous than last year but probably just all arriving together after being delayed by the continuous freezing north winds. 

 The day was mild, breezy with hazy sunshine which brought out some 'early spring' wild flowers:

Lesser celandine shining through the old oak leaves under trees

on the river bank

Wood Anemone at the base of an old oak over the river - surviving

the repeated floods in the shelter of the massive roots.

with the muddy river flowing swiftly past, very high

for this time of the year.

The day also brought the first sighting SINCE one single sighting on March 5th this year of Comma butterflies - just one pair basking and chasing on the river bank nearby. They are hibernating butterflies which usually choose holes and bark in old trees to hibernate in over the winter, so they will usually be seen first close to the place where they spent the winter when they first emerge, basking in a sunny spot to gain energy.