News: No Adders

Well after a hastily eaten breakfast we sneaked down to the Shapwick Heath nature reserve early this morning to try to see an adder warming up in the morning sunshine. After much family discussion about what we would do if the adder spat poison at us or rushed up our trouser legs, and other such possibilities, we made our way from the parked van down to the place where they might be. 'Almost' like a Somerset episode of the excellent 'Deadly 60' we tiptoed to the concrete hard standing where the compost heaps were, aware that adders can feel you approaching. As stealthily as is possible, with excited 3, 6, 9 and 11 year old children, we arrived at the heaps of straw and mud carefully looking for basking adders but they were long gone or possibly not even up yet as the sun was largely absent this morning. We continued along the path to have a peek for otters but it was all calm and still with nothing about so we set off back home again to wait for a sunnier morning. Sometimes the anticipation alone is worth the little adventures, even if you don't see the things you set out to find, knowing they might be there is in itself exciting and I'm confident we should see one in due course.

April day on the Somerset Levels

April is here and there seems to be a battle, or a swinging arrangement, going on in the bird box. At alternate moments there seem to be sparrows inhabiting the box and then there are blue tits. The pair of blue tits seemed quite at home however this afternoon with one inside and the other passing things through the hole so they may have won.

This afternoon we all went down to the Peat Moors Centre, for the Avalon Marshes family day, and spent a great afternoon making bittern puppets, dismantling owl pellets and doing wildlife competitions. Terrific pond dipping and we found hog-lice, leeches, may fly larvae, flatworms, freshwater shrimps and a magnificent great diving beetle (*photo beneath), the great diving beetle was possibly the biggest UK native beetle I have ever seen, 3cm or so. After a picnic lunch we went on the tractor and trailer ride along the old railway line by the south drain and watched the birds, with the children sitting on the trailer floor watching hopefully for otters. Talking to the guide I have also established the best locations to see the marsh frogs and a spot where there are frequently basking adders to be found in the early morning sunshine.

There is an abandoned peat digger's hut now stranded in the middle of the water on an island where once it stood alongside the peat trenches and provided shelter for the workers. With the flooding of the digs this relic now provides possibly the best roost for a pair of barn owls, safe and isolated in the most beautiful location. The peat digging still carries on around the nature reserves, with the last of the extraction licences due to end in 2020.

Note: 'Ash before oak and we're in for a soak, oak before ash and we're in for a splash'

Well the ash tree leaves are now coming out before the oak and so it looks like it's going to be a wet summer. Also the rooks are nesting lower in the trees which apparently also suggests that they know it's going to be poor weather so they avoid the windy top branches, we shall see.

Hunter

At about 5-o-clock this afternoon I started tidying up my building tools and ferrying them back to the shed from where I'm building a wall. Silently and swiftly a bird flew past me at waist height and landed ahead of me in the low afternoon sunshine almost spayed over the tiles of the neighbour's roof. Clearly deliberately poised by the edge of the gable, so that it could peer around the side of the building, it sat motionless and within 10 feet of the nesting sparrows I watched only yesterday. I had time to call my sons over and to hold them up so that they could see it, sharp eyes and yellow feet, and then to run inside to find my camera. I managed to sneak up from behind the apple tree in the front garden to get some photographs quickly, having learned to shoot first and think later. I managed to get about 10 photographs before with a twitch of it's head it dropped off the side of the roof and flew low and away across the back garden again in search of other distracted springtime sparrows, clearly not enjoying the audience.

Hail to thee, blithe spirit

There is little point in trying to outdo Shelley's memorable description, and definitely not the bird itself, so simply, here is a recent recording of a skylark:

Feathering their nest.

We put up a new bird box a week ago, taking advantage of the scaffolding currently around our house, and today there are sparrows nesting in it already. I was alerted to the birds by their wonderful chirpy calls and watched, the male?, bouncing around on the scaffolding next to the bird box before jumping onto the front to peer into the hole. This continued for about half an hour actively with him returning every minute or so, presumably with grubs and worms for his partner inside. There was another sparrow clearly watching which seemed to accompany him and I only got very fleeting glimpses of the bird inside the house. For all I know they have been settling in for a week and I've been at work and oblivious and it was only on Saturday that I noticed them as I was sitting in the 8-o-clock spring morning sunshine enjoying the chaffinches and blackbirds calling away. I didn't see him bring any nest materials and noticed that the activity tailed off later in the day but that he was busy again first thing on Sunday morning also. I had initially drilled a hole and poked a stick into the front of the bird house, as a perch, but this has gone and clearly isn't needed as the little sparrow effortlessly fluttered up to the front and grasped on with its feet or rested on the house roof before dropping over the front. I also observed that although it poked it's head into the house each time, it didn't ever actually go into the house ?

Spring things

I've been rather distracted for a few weeks by 'acting' as I appeared and died in a recent Agatha Christie play, and alongside work and family it has rather reduced daylight hedge-finder opportunities. However I remember a few notable recent observations. Swerving to avoid mating toads crossing the road embraced and oblivious on the levels near Mere. Amazed to see a large crane, flying high over the trees as I drove into Bath to drop a sculpture off for an exhibition two weeks ago. A tired spring honey bee on the scaffolding plank next to my face as I lay painting a window frame, dopey with pollen laden legs. The sudden return this week of butterflies, with brimstones in the sunshine on the tree lined lane to the playing fields and pairs of the first tortoiseshells tumbling into the road and I think the first waking peacock this afternoon, fleeting past as I drove the back road into Ashcott. Suicidal baby rabbits bowling on and off the verges as I cycle to work and newly excavated holes and burrows in all of the ditches, the ground still bare but with plants just waiting to explode with green and hide everything.

Another day, another bumblebee...

I saw my first specimen of a Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) today, a queen. This bumblebee was only first seen in the UK in 2000 and has spread quite rapidly but I had not seen it until today. It's actually one of the easiest common bumblebees to distinguish with its 3 clear colour bands - ginger/orange thorax, black abdomen and white tail - so an easy ID even with a quick glance. Exciting stuff (must get out more...)

Also saw the first Brimstone of the year. Lovely signs of spring.