May 2013 - Garden visitors

Below, I've summarised the visits in the camera captured during the 15 nights I had my Bushnell Trail camera out in May. I've allocated each visit to a 2 hour slot as shown below.

Animal visits while the camera was out in May 2013.

Oh dear. These results are quite frankly pathetic. The total number of visits (excluding cats) is down from 16 to 6 even though I had the camera out for the same number of nights, i.e. 15.  I have no idea why there were so few wild visitors. Maybe there were busy breeding, maybe I placed the camera badly. There was much less variety. No deer or badgers and just a few foxes.

A curious fox. I know it's a back view but it really amused me.

Exterminate! Ridding Hempstead Meadow of alien invaders

Each Saturday in June, starting today, there is a task day in the Hempstead Meadow Nature Reserve. The idea is to remove the pretty but thuggish Himalayan Balsam. A group of us located and pulled up seedlings to stop the adult plants overwhelming the native flora later in the year.

Himalayan Balsam seedlings, circled.

As the photo shows, at the moment the seedlings look small and inoffensive but later in the year the plants will be taller than me and causing all sorts of damage as described in TrUck's blog post on the subject. We have to be careful when doing this because we are 'invading' the nature reserve ourselves and are in real danger of tramping the plants and scaring the birds that live there. It was a rather lovely experience, methodically scanning the foliage looking for the slightly red tinged leaves of the balsam and listening to the bird song all around. Martyn Stenning, who was leading the group pointed out the song of several african migrants such as:

• garden warbler
• whitethroat

We have to be particularly careful not to disturb or damage the nests of these birds, which are found in vegetation close to the ground.

Balsam seedlings. Some of the tallest were already a foot high.

We took some time to peer into the clear areas of water next to the board walk.  I saw loads of wriggling tadpoles, about 3 sticklebacks, whirligig beetles, pond skaters and loads of caddis fly larvae. The latter are something I have often read about or seen on the TV but have never seen. They are strange little creatures that build an outer jacket out of bits of stick and debris. One, perhaps a caddis fly fashion victim, had decorated its brown coat with bright green disks of duckweed.

Further along the boardwalk we got a good view of Uckfield's primeval swamp.

Greater tussock sedges in Uckfield's primeval swamp.

Ancient plants like the tussock sedges and horse tail give the swamp a genuinely primeval feel. I almost expected to see a dinosaur lumber out from behind a clump of trees.  Returning to reality, we cleared the reptile basking rocks in case the resident grass snakes, slow worms and lizards wish to do a spot of sun bathing.  

There are more task days, running from 9am to 1pm each Saturday in June, so do come along. There is more info in my earlier post.

Springwatch - Who's nesting?

BBC Springwatch - 3 weeks of programmes tracking the progress of birds and animals through the spring - started today.  I thought that I would do a mini-springwatch of my own and see which birds were nesting and fledging nearby.

First out of the nest are - the starlings! The young birds have only been out of the nest for a day or two but they have already given me a terrific laugh.  This morning, a parent starling was clinging to a coconut hanging from the bird table pecking at the fat inside. Instead of the usual precise extraction of food, there was all sorts of flailing around, loss of balance and so on. Why? Because baby starling insisted on clinging to the adult's back. Kids!

Blue tit leaving box - taken in 1998.

Next up - still in the nest but I can hear the babies if I sit on the bench nearby - blue tits. These are really late this year. I had nearly given up expecting them. A pair did seem to start moving in at the beginning of April but the last cold snap sent them off again and we saw no real signs of birds going to the box until about the 12 of May.

Not quite sure but, I'm hoping, blackbirds. Or there had better be, the amount of abuse I get when I go to a certain part of the garden!

Hempstead Lane and Lime Tree Avenue in May

In my last post, I spoke about walking through Hempstead Meadow on the way home from the dentist. That, of course, wasn't the end of my little journey.

Hempstead Lane

Hempstead Lane is an old road that long predates the houses that line part of its route and the school hidden behind the trees in the photo. The grassy bank under the trees is covered in bluebells, cow parsley, stitchwort, alkanet and other wild flowers.

Bluebells, stitchwort and cow parsley

Turning right took me into Lime Tree Avenue. This wonderful avenue led up to the long gone Uckfield House. I feel very privileged to have worked there, removing unwanted growths from the feet of the magnificent trees. Over the last couple of weeks the new leaves have been bursting out of tight buds that protected them from the winter weather. Cow parsley, alexanders and other wild flowers have created white, frothy clouds below the trees.

Lime Tree Avenue, with cow parsley at the feet of the trees.

It was only a 30 minute walk from the dentist and was so much nicer than taking, and trying to find somewhere to park, the car.

Hempstead Meadow in May

An unexpected bonus of today's visit to the dentist was a walk through the Uckfield Town Council owned Hempstead Meadows Local Nature Reserve. I didn't have to go out of my way or take much time. I just swung through Waitrose car park and walked though to the Hempstead Lane playing fields.

Jack-by-the-hedge growing on the railway embankment.

As if to emphasise how close this little oasis of nature is to my normal working life, a London-bound train left just as I was walking through the reserve. It was partly screened by ash trees that were just starting to come into leaf and its emerald green Southern Rail livery contrasted with the fresh yellow greens of the surrounding spring foliage. Even so close to the train, I could see Jack-in-the-hedge, cuckoo flower, forget-me-nots and wild garlic.

Spring blossom.

There are so many other flowers to see now. Tiny jewel-like germander speedwell flowers vied for my attention with startling white greater stitchwort. The last of the king cups were fading out but there were plenty of buttercups and, I think, lesser spearwort, coming. The more subtle tones of ground ivy and crosswort added to the rich tapestry.

As I admired a clump of cuckoo flower growing in the stream, I noticed pond skaters and whirligig beetles on the water surface. Above birds flitted and twittered amongst the branches.

Wild garlic by the notice board, near Hempstead Lane playing fields.

The Uckfield news tells us that plans are afoot to tackle the pretty but thuggish Himalayan Balsam. A notice on the board says:

Task days will be held every Saturday morning in June,

from 9am to 1pm

If you want to help, you can come along to one of the task days and do as much or as little as you can. Meet at 9am Waitrose car park entrance to the reserve.

Full training will be given.

You can also support the Nature Reserve by coming along to the Advisory Committee's AGM on Thursday 6th June from 7.30pm, in the Green Room, Uckfield Civic Centre.

I hope to get along to some of the task days. It should be good fun and will help preserve the variety of damp-loving wild flowers by removing some of the Balsam.

Views Wood - spring on fast forward

We took advantage of the lovely spring weather and the May Day bank holiday to walk though the Woodland Trust's Views (Williams) Wood today. The much delayed spring is now on fast forward. 

Wood anemones and bluebells in Views Wood

Because of the cool spring, the last of the wood anemones have hung and are now combining beautifully with the first of the bluebells.  Other flowers such as yellow archangel and cuckoo flower are appearing too.

The lovely carpet of wild flowers was animated by little birds - wrens, robins and blue tits - flitting around as they collect food for hungry nestlings.  Amongst the gentle spring colours, there's the dazzling flash of an orange tip butterfly's wings.

King cups in a soggy dip

One of the hidden treasures of the wood is the gold of king cups that gleams from the bottom of a soggy dip. They are surrounded by banks of bluebells.  

When we reached Buxted Park, this sunny bank holiday had one more treat for us. The sound of cuckoos, who must have recently arrived from Africa.

April 2013 - Garden visitors

Below, I've summarised the visits in the camera captured during the 15 nights I my Bushnell Trail camera out in April. I've allocated each visit to a 2 hour slot as shown below. 

Animal visits while the camera was out in April 2013.

 The total number of visits (excluding cats) is up from 14 to 16 but I had the camera out for 15 nights rather than 9.

Fallow deer visiting on the 8th of April. The deer is not white, the security light has fooled the IR.

So what have I noticed?

• I now have fallow deer visiting as well as foxes and badgers - I was surprised not to have captured them before as, in previous years, they had been regular visitors, but they are certainly making their presence felt now.
• peak time is still the 1 to 3 am slot.
• there is a more varied pattern - with some bumper nights and some with no visits before - previously the visits were more evenly spread.

In previous posts, I noted the number of garden visitors in February and March.