Native Bluebells survive against all the odds
Today, Monday 18th May 2015 and the first SWIFTS suddenly flew into view over the river in the company of low-flying Herring Gulls enjoying the strong westerly wind blowing away this morning's dreary rain and dark clouds. The air warmed up, filling with insects as soon as sunlight broke through, and the birds were onto them in an instant. Swifts had been seen before now but had been slow to move here, together with HOUSE MARTINS - but they arrived very recently too and were busy on Saturday calling to each other as they investigated last year's nest sites and potential new sites in the town centre. With all the rain there will be no shortage of building mud this year.
Hawthorn blossom weighs down the branches.
May is known for it's fickle weather and this year has so far been a fine example, with warm sunny dry days followed by cold and very wet days. Wildlife however can survive, adapting to changes, given varied habitats and the ability to move from one to another in search of food and shelter.
Friday 15th May was not very promising, being cold and overcast after 22mm torrential rain the previous day had rapidly cooled the atmosphere.
Hawthorn blossom and Cow Parsley flowering along the river was more prolific than last spring, the river was reasonably high, fast flowing but not muddy and formerly bare banks were now green with wild grasses and wild flowering plants, with Wild Garlic continuing to carpet the shady areas under trees. The breeze increased later but there were large numbers of insects such as Mayflies although the lack of sun meant no chance of butterflies or dragonflies.
Very noticeable today was the continuous background chorus of singing birds - just like the dawn chorus but getting on for midday! Blackbirds were playing a large part in the chorus with voices carrying far along the river course, linking up with the songs of local robins and restless chiffchaffs.
House sparrows (35) were active singing and chasing across the river into the Blackthorn and brambles - they will still be feeding on last year's blackberry seeds hidden underneath the fresh growth.
Cow Parsley on the river banks
Blackbirds were numerous today (32), many singing but most seen foraging on the damp banks and riverside grasses, on the lookout for predators, some from low horizontal branches of oaks extending over the river providing the means to move along a branch quietly without attracting attention or if necessary give an alarm call from the branch which would be heard clearly by others along the river.
Robins, also numerous (20) - although singing strongly, were mostly busy collecting food for their young hidden in deep undergrowth - fledged but still very dependent on their parents, or still in the nest.
Many wrens added their loud voices to the daytime chorus, 12 seen and heard along the river, with one singer in competition with a nearby whitethroat singing in dense brambles on the river bank. Six whitethroats were seen today - all singing, some continuously. Others would be present, but settled in now and nesting mainly in the dense nettle undergrowth.
One garden warbler was seen and heard singing - and two willow warblers not easily seen now the willows are in leaf but identified for certain by their song. Chiffchaffs were busy as usual collecting insects, ever restless and singing (16). Of all the warblers, chiffchaffs are the least concerned about nesting responsibilities, with the males not usually taking part in helping to rear young - hence the continuous song all summer.
With the chorus of bird song echoing along the river, song thrushes were not taking part - 4 were seen but only one was singing - softly. They will start singing again in the twilight hours.
Blackcaps, now busy with nesting were mostly quiet and out of sight although 6 were seen, foraging in trees in various places along the river. They are, unlike the chiffchaffs, very devoted parents, with both male and female building the nest, incubating eggs and feeding young, so no time for singing.
Many young starlings have fledged during the past few days and their raucous calls can be heard wherever they decide to land, in small groups, begging to be fed by the adults (24). Overhead 7 herring gulls called, circling, whilst carrion crows (10) flew across, one pair calling and one carrying a brown paper bag. It landed on grass and extracted a partly eaten sandwich, discarded on the school playing field minutes before. A magpie, also with a meal, flew over from the field, one of four seen.
A pair of collared doves called from the ivy whilst a woodpigeon pair sat together in an oak and several other pairs were seen, one preening each other and others cooing, 17 individuals in total, not many here as most head for the fields in the spring to feed. Two Jackdaws flew across calling but as with the woodpigeons, most are feeding on the arable ground or amongst cattle.
Chaffinches (6) and greenfinches (3) were visible and calling or singing but only 3 goldfinches were seen, most of the former groups having dispersed to nest. A single goldcrest was heard in a tall poplar, away from its nest.
Small movements in the leaves on the bank revealed a foraging dunnock, feathers quite wet from the damp undergrowth, whilst other movements amongst the fresh nettles, quite close to me on the bank, were great tits (10) foraging for flies and other insects for their young - a head would suddenly appear above the nettles as a great tit snatched a fly in its beak. Blue tits (22) were mainly foraging in the heights of the oaks and willows, making frequent flights back to their nests with full beaks.
Other mysterious movements in the undergrowth finally revealed a grey squirrel carrying its young one by one up from its drey in a multi-stemmed tree sited too close to the river to a safer location away from the recently risen river.
Long-tailed tits (9) were suddenly more numerous again, with fledged but still dependent young lining up on twigs to be fed, in the same willows as the warblers but much more easily seen amongst the leaves, athough sometimes hidden by fluffy catkins - the air today was full of flying seeds, ideal nest material, perhaps.
The non-singers were quiet - a great spotted woodpecker gave an alarm call in an old oak as a single jay flew across and a trio of quacking male mallard circled in the distance for quite a while, looking down onto the river for a likely place to land as a mallard pair paddled downstream under the trees (5 in total).
With the weather so cool, only one butterfly was seen, a Small Tortoiseshell in a warm sheltered patch. Although the sun failed to break through the clouds, they were thin and the earth was warming up, creating thermals - giving a fine views of a buzzard low over the river bank and a kestrel over the oaks on the field margin.
