Tune Into A Quiet Winter

In mid December, so the guide books say,  the natural world turns silent. Or at least it did in my younger days in the North East of England. Somerset on the 15th of December was quiet, but not silent. I like this time of year.

It has been nearly two months since I've managed to head out for an afternoon of wildlife watching.  A combination of being busy at work, very enjoyable though that is producing Radio 4's Tweet of the Day, a poorly father and other commitments meant spending time outdoors had dried up completely. However in a moment of wild abandon I headed off to Catcott to spend an hour or two observing nature. 

Rarely these days do I take much equipment with me. I travel light now. Gone are the back breaking rucksacks brimming with scopes and tripod. These days just my trusty Nikon binoculars and (hopefully) enough knowledge to remember the names of that which I observe.

And a mobile phone, such remarkable things. The image above is not perfect, but for me good enough to illustrate winter wildlife. Catcott Lows comprises of seasonally flooded grassland. It is a winter wildfowl spectacle. Wigeon, lapwing, shoveler in good numbers; teal, pintail, snipe, egret, grey heron, mallard. In summer the site is drained leaving a lush grassland often deserted, unless the determined observer, quietly observes. I've heard grasshopper warbler here, watched hobby hunting dragonflies, barn owls drifting by on summer evenings and even on one occasion a mega-drop of passage swallows in their hundreds possibly thousands one spring.

It is in winter however that I visit more frequently especially a quiet area of the reserve rarely used by visitors. An unobtrusive track which vehicles use is a good start, with mixed species in the trees, today enriched by two greater spotted woodpecker plus a smattering of winter thrush. After half a mile an old peat workings track diverges off and is home to roving tit flocks, chaffinch, wren, blackbird as I observed today. Sometimes siskin and redpoll are to be found, goldcrest and rarely firecrest too. Not today though. Today gently unfolded as a quiet walk listening to birds.

In the distance the whistling of wigeon was ever present, with the 'pee-whit' of lapwing providing the lead vocals. But in the trees family parties of long tailed tit noisily foraged the alder. A number of blackbirds tik-tik'ed away at some imaginary intruder, a heron 'franked' his displeasure on being disturbed, a bevvy of wren scolded the air, chaffinch pinked their presence, robins announced the sunset, wood pigeons cooed and members of the crow family noisily flew by calling their species name. There was neither silence nor stillness today.

I had to pinch myself it was mid December, and to be honest the 12oC temperature did not help disprove the illusion of early spring. The only silent encounter, three roe deer resting within tall grass before, having noticed me, pronked away silently to safety, a solitary chiffchaff foraging upon high and a little egret performing leg stretches. Everywhere else the signs, strictly speaking the sounds, of the natural world were evident. 

Gorse was in flower, goose grass, as it is sometimes called was growing strongly, winter gnats were on the wing, even flies buzzed nearby. And today's weak sunshine had warmth. It was a perfect day for a walk, the penultimate day before the sunset times inexplicably lengthen from the 17th. 

The track gradually narrows from a few meters wide at the beginning to at its end just wide enough for one person. In it's latter stages wet woodland flanks its route. I've never seen woodcock here but I'm sure they will be in there. In the same vicinity a Cetti's warbler erupted and a water rail recreated the victims squeal.

In two hours I'd seen many bird species but the remarkable engagement was one of quietly observing. I wasn't walking quickly, two miles in two hour will break no records, however that slower pace allows time to stop and stare. The three roe deer were an illustration of this. It was only by chance while idly scanning the field did I spy three sets of ears, ostensibly looking like those of a brown hare. One deer then raised itself off the ground, stretched, yawned then stared directly at me. Deer do this. We think we're clever, skilfull, stealthy and unobserved. In reality the deer will have seen us from a long way off well before we've seen the deer. However they do have a blind spot. 

I didn't believe the myth that you could walk towards a deer (slowly) until I witnessed it for myself decades ago. The head warden I worked with at Cragside proved this to me. I remained motionless someway off but step by step he walked towards a roe deer head on until he could only have been six feet away. Then the deer saw him and bolted into the woods. The warden told me in his younger days he controlled deer for the Forestry Commission as it was then, that experience taught him the skill of being unobserved but only if directly head on, and due to the position of deer eyes. I've not tried this myself.

I've digressed. This recollection of my afternoon walk seems to have developed into memories and encounters. Simply because I took time to observe, from water droplets on grass stems to a marsh harrier lazily quartering the assembled waterfowl. Not bad skies either.

Birding Return

 

It is such a strange sensation returning to blogging, and indeed strange returning to nature watching after a near half year away. Mid-May was my last blog post, since then a combination of booking too many events during the summer, writing my daily blog (now ended), becoming membership secretary of the Richard Jefferies Society, joining the John Moore Society after being invited to be a guest at their AGM and unplanned hospital fiddling's by surgeons, somehow the summer passed me by without a single day out watching wildlife. And then like busses, this weekend I partook in two days back-to-back outdoors. Steart Marshes on Saturday and WWT Slimbridge Sunday.

I have something of a love-hate relationship with Steart Marshes. Every time I've visited I've seen maybe 5 or 6 species of bird, mostly dark specks miles away on the mud of the Bristol Channel. This reserve is best at high tide, therefore on Saturday I found myself there just before a very high 4.7m tide. That brought the birds in, but they are still an awfully long way away from the various viewing platforms dotted about.  Not that I was complaining as Saturday was warm and sunny after a night of torrential rain. 

Starlings are now beginning to gather with small murmurations taking place as I walked about. Good numbers of gulls, lapwing and mixed corvid flocks much in evidence too. I could hear redshank somewhere but never really saw them, small flocks of meadow pipit and linnet too. Overhead a solitary skylark sang, which was welcome for mid October.  In total I walked about 5km, the most I've walked for months and it felt good to be out again watching the numerous dragonflies buzzing around me.

To be honest I had planned to do a morning sitting still and watching, but on this perfect autumnal day, walking continuously was the end result of my endeavours. I even abandoned thoughts of sitting watching the River Parrett from a welcoming bench half way through the ramble. The river was full, that was a high tide indeed.

Once again the rain came overnight Saturday and it hammered down, as it seems to do every two days at the moment. Sunday dawned dry but everything was dripping wet. I was on a pre-planned visit to Slimbridge with my ex-NHU radio friends. We'd arranged to go to Bredon Hill to look for ring ouzel, however the forecast was for Storm Ashley to barrel herself across the countryside today - Bredon is not known for offering any shelter so we rearranged to visit Slimbridge (the café, facilities and watertight hides a bonus at our advanced time of life). I got to Slimbridge at about 9.30am and, though overcast, it was very pleasant, not least as a flock of redwing seep-seep'd across the car-park. I've been hearing them for about a fortnight at home. 

My friends arrived half an hour later (I'd not seen the email saying 10am start) and we set off. I'm assuming the media attention for Storm Ashley meant that the fear of Armageddon conspired to keep everyone away - Slimbridge was gloriously quiet all day.  Birding wise it was excellent as always, 50+ snipe just metres away from the Rushy hide, where good numbers of black tailed godwit, pintail, mallard, redshank, coot, moorhen, teal, wigeon, greylag and Canada geese were enriched by a passing marsh harrier, lapwing and starling. It is still a little early for the winter swans, mid November is when the Bewick's return.

We then wandered up to the Estuary Tower where high tide at 11am was bringing everything up onto the fields, including Storm Ashley. We'd only been there about ten minutes when I noticed Wales disappearing behind advancing rain. At that point we were on the open viewing platform at the very top and had been having superb views of three spotted redshank. Within five minutes the rain began, joined at the hip by very strong gusty winds. A squally front was on it's way through - so squally that the fire alarms in the Estuary hide were triggered, not once but twice. We hunkered down and sat it out, it was like being inside a huge washing machine, it's a long time since I've seen such violent rain bursts, the hide windows were dribbling onto the floor which soon became quite wet. But then as quickly as it arrived, the rain front left and the sun came out, remaining with us until 5pm when I left. 

Slimbridge never disappoints despite being a focal point reserve. The captive areas, such as the avocet-ruff-redshank combination above are fascinating and great for allowing families to get close to birds. But it is the wild areas which bring in a lot of interesting passage migrants, we even found a greenshank, in amongst some redshank. Actually that was one of the highlights of the day, in one single view, redshank, spotted redshank and greenshank next to each other. Another highlight being a fence hosting 30+ rooks, one perched on every post facing the wind and sitting it out.  We were told that a curlew sandpiper was out on the estuary somewhere, we never did try to find it, but did see the Ross hybrid Snow goose which has been about for a while.

All in all though it was a very good day and a very good weekend being out again. I was tired though by the end of the day at Slimbridge.  I've been used to comfy chairs, afternoon naps and tartan slippers for too long this year. But it felt good to be getting buffeted out there, sun blasted or pummelled by rain. It must have good as it had the affect of inspiring me to write again after all these months. As my consultant said to me over the summer, sadly you are now medically classed as a geriatric, things will happen to you. Well that may be the case, but it's good to be alive, even if I continue to struggle to get my socks on in the morning.

The Dukes of Hairstreak

 First off, I do believe there is a rabid-madness in wanting to walk up and down very steep hills in Dorset looking for butterflies. Especially on a hot day. But that's what we adventurers do, after a leisurely hot chocolate beforehand of course. 

It's been a busy few weeks, but with the weather set to be warm and fair I took the decision to take Friday off as leave and head down to Hod Hill in Dorset with Mrs Wessex-Reiver. My quest of course, the Duke of Burgundy butterfly. One had been seen here the day before, it promised to be a new site to explore. Which it was but by the time we'd trundled along in the car for nearly 2 and a half hours to get here the promised land yielded nothing more than many a brimstone, orange tip, speckled wood and a single very sleepy wall brown. Two butterflies were scrapping as we entered the hill but they flew off and were never to be seen again. Had they been the Dukes?

What were seen were skylarks, it's a long time since I've seen so many, very good views too and their song pierced the afternoon air. I like Hod Hill but realised after climbing up the only-a-goat-could-climb-this steep slope that I'd been here before. On that one other occasion the hill was alive with yellowhammer. Funny how the mind forgets where the body has been. Despite no Duke of Burgundy today it was lovely to just sit on the hill and take in the views towards the Cranborne Chase, a superb part of England.

Wall Brown at Hod Hill

The weather continued fair on Saturday but after our ten hour day the day before we needed a quiet at-home Saturday. I however woke on Sunday feeling fidgety and decided on the spur of the moment to head to Giant's Hill at Cerne Abbas, just on my own this time as sensibly Mrs Wessex-Reiver couldn't face another long hot drive to then stand on a hill and slowly roast. I set off and she went back to bed. 

Burnet Companion moth

After last years adventures here I knew where the Dukes would be. Like a seasoned professional I donned my butterfly hat, loaded my kit-bag and set off up the slope from the car park. That said, I'm sure this hill is getting steeper, but eventually after ten minutes of impersonating the Flying Scotsman I arrived at my spot. 

Prime Duke of Burgundy habitat

Duke of Burgundy butterflies are really a woodland edge and glade species, they've simply moved to the lesser habitat of chalk grasslands as woodlands have stopped being worked properly, i.e. coppiced.  On first arriving at the site there were a few tantalising glimpses of something but they turned out to be burnet companion, grizzled and dingy skippers, and setting up a right old rumpus along the brambles green hairstreak scrapping madly. More on those later. No Dukes though.

Dingy skipper

I sat down, the sun was warm and what better way to spend a Sunday morning than dozing on a Dorset hillside waiting for the Royal Family to arrive, and arrive they did eventually, or at least he did. Male Duke of Burgundy have two pairs of legs and are often conspicuously perched on a tall piece of vegetation where they buzz and harry anything that passes. Females are seen less often and though they look similar to the males, as females have three pairs of legs identifying the sexes is easy, as long as you obtain a good view. That is why binoculars are so important. I like my images for a historical record but sitting there viewing what I saw through my binoculars was the order of the day and allowed behaviour to be observed closely.  

Male Duke of Burgundy above and below

I had to sit for about ten minutes before the first Duke of Burgundy arrived, and it always catches me out how small this butterfly, with such a grand sounding name, actually is. The skippers are about the same size and with these plus the burnet companion wafting back and forth finding the Dukes required patience and a lot of checking, I was glad then to be just relaxing and taking in the view until a Duke finally came into view. A couple of other butterfly people came past but generally it was a quiet day on the hillside, just the butterflies and me.

Grizzled skipper

His Grace poised for combat

I'd been sitting for about twenty minutes and the activity was slowing down. The green hairstreak had stopped fighting, the Dukes had disappeared, even the skippers hid from view. I rose and went for a little wander, peacock, orange tip, a lot of brimstone, a 'blue' briefly appeared which I'd assumed was a common. In the shady woodland at the bottom of the slope a number of speckled wood and large white were in evidence, and a red admiral. It was nice in here, shady and well hidden. There was a cattle trough nearby, I had a look, the water was clear and devoid of plant life but full of lesser water boatmen. That made me wonder why they come to these troughs, there's little cover and being a trough they'll be trapped here until they die, or get eaten by cattle while having a drink.

I walked back to my earlier observation spot, sat down again and waited. Before too long this obliging male Duke of Burgundy alighted on top of a dandelion. A perfect look-out, it repeatedly flew off to chase away anything which passed before returning again. I like that. I liked sitting quietly and just observing this male defending it's territory, going about its business in it's own quiet way. 

I've included these two images below as an example of how butterflies are usually seen. We've all observed that close-up image of a butterfly, every scale or hair pin sharp and perfect. Well in reality it is not like that, most images are obscured by vegetation and distance. Try and get closer and the butterfly will fly off in a nano-second. No these two images of a male are very much the norm. 

Speckled wood underwing

I needed to stretch my legs once more so arising I went for a bit of a wander, not really looking for anything simply looking about the hillside and find a spot to have lunch. (one banana and a flask of water). Suitably perched I sat for half an hour looking over the valley towards Telegraph Hill. Over there is the best Duke of Burgundy site in Dorset but it is on private land. I've walked the footpath across the hill before but not seen anything. The best habitat is off limits but I did wonder whether these largely sedentary butterflies fly between these two sites, maybe a mile apart?  Lunch over, with the heat really starting to kick in I thought of returning to the car, but before that one last look at the place I'd been to earlier. What a difference.

I was watching this male, for once not obscured by grass leaves when a whirling dervish pair of scrapping green hairstreak caught my eye. They separated and one perched on a bramble stem, which, when I looked closer, also contained a pair of mating Dukes. What a surprise to discover these and they mesmerised me for nearly 15 minutes. In the image below the male is on the left. Such a treat to see as this, the next generation of what is now a rare butterfly, being consumated right in front of my eye. The population of Dukes on Giant Hill isn't huge anyway, I maybe saw a handful individuals during three hours of continuous observation today. There are many primroses and cowslips around here too, suitable sites then for egg laying afterwards.

One of the other identification tips for the sexes is the female has more rounded wings compared to the male. That may be the case with perfect specimens or views, but it's a lot more difficult in real life, even when this close. I was fascinated however on how they remained embraced and motionless for such a long time, around fifteen minutes before they separated, leaving them quite vulnerable to predators in many ways. But actually if I stepped back a little they blended superbly into the brambles, remaining motionless is an advantage too. Lets not forget either that bramble is such an important plant in the British landscape.  

More fighting by the green hairstreak close by reminded me I'd not paid them much attention. They really are stunning, like miniature flying emeralds, though when in flight they look a pale olive-brown. But once settled, with wings closed their underwing reveals an outrageous Day-Glo zingy green, yet they blend in perfectly with the surrounding vegetation.  Even viewed close to they're often hard to see at first, especially if seen head on, even harder to photograph well. Lucky then that the males after aerial combat return to a promenant perch at about head hight to await their next battle. They really are beautiful, the underwing, which is all you'd ever see while they are resting, is like a green mother of pearl, it sheens with an iridescence, like an oil drop on water, yet with that thin brown wing edge delineating the warm brown upper wings which are virtually impossible to see.

Even something that green seems camouflaged

The white dots in a line giving it it's name on the underwing are visible here. 

I checked on the Dukes - still at it.  

But I can't get enough of these green hairstreak 

What a wonderful day with possibly the best part of it being time spent sitting quietly watching the butterflies going about their business, no photographs, no making notes, no trying to get closer, simply sitting and watching.  While doing this a couple walked by me and asked if I was okay. I replied I was but after they'd left it struck me no other people on the hill during the time I was there had actually stopped and watched wildlife for more than a few seconds, they just kept on walking, even if slowly. Such an important lesson to learn, inactivity and observation can reap rewards, I suggest sitting for no less than half an hour in one place, wildlife will come to you, what a treat awaits. 

Dorset Rewilding

 This visit to Mapperton House near Beaminster in Dorset actually happened a couple of weeks ago however I've been so busy I'd not had a moment to write it up. 

The Knepp estate in Sussex is well known these days for the work they have put in to create a profitable estate while also encouraging a return to wildlife friendly farming,  Interestingly the Knepp revenue topped £1 million from eco-tourism alone in 2023 with sales from their organic free-range animals around £300,000. Seemingly there is money to be made in wildlife friendly farming and tourism, and less mucking out or vet's bills I should imagine.

A couple of years ago the Earl and Countess of Sandwich embarked on a similar venture at their 2,000 acre estate in the most Hardyeske landscape imaginable. I'd wanted to visit here for a long time, mostly as it has featured in a number of films as a homage to a bygone bucolic England, most recently the 2015 adaptation of Far From The Madding Crowd. I wasn't disappointed.

Mrs Wessex Reiver and I were booked onto a Wildlands walk with the ranger Ben Padwick, a brilliant communicator from a farming background in Norfolk. In many ways it was a strange experience for me to be paying to visit such an enterprise having spent years visiting farms and estates for work. Just four people on this walk which was excellent, the other two being a couple on holiday from Berkshire. Coffee and biscuits served while the introductions took place, and a quick resume of the long term plan. Sadly, as we were to discover, we'd not see the two beavers brought onto the estate as they'd escaped in the flooding this winter and no one knew of their whereabouts. But we did get to see beaver poo and a chewed stick, which was as an admirable a start as any.

Ben warned us we'd have a long ascent up to the top of the estate to begin with but after that it would be easy going. He was not joking. Following Ben who took off like a mountain goat we traversed what must have been the steepest hill in Dorset for fifteen minutes. Ben, being young and fit, was chatting away pointing out this and that and talking continuously. I was seeing stars, couldn't breathe, legs buckling, but somewhat comforted when looking about me to see all three of my younger and fitter companions were puffing away. But it was worth it to get up onto the ridge and look back down the valley towards Golden Cap on the horizon with Beaminster in the mid distance. What a landscape.

Not all of the 2,000 acres is being returned to nature friendly farming at the moment, only around 950 acres split into two parcels, in between which the rest of the land is being farmed as sympathetically as possible through tenant farmers who have lifetime tenancies.  Nearly 1,000 acres it is still a huge area as we were finding out. After our visit and as a result of a conversation with Ben, I worked out Mapperton is rewilding the equivalent of 1500 football pitches or 250 Country cricket grounds. I sent an email to Ben. He returned my email a week or so later to say those facts I'd unearthed went down well with a sixth form group he'd taken around the estate. 

So what is their plan and rewilding model? In simple terms it's a softly softly approach for the next five years. A baseline environment and ecological survey has been made and the ecologist who ran that is now creating management plans to be implemented. The estate runs a herd of park cattle who roam on a no-fence system using transmitters around their necks.  Not all of the fences can be removed at the moment but over time as much of the estate as possible will be range-lands for these cattle. Two large arable fields, used until recently to provide winter food for the cattle, have now been left after the harvest last year and the ecological management is aimed to see what successional growth takes place and what mammals, birds and invertebrates arrive to the area just by doing nothing. I'd noticed these fields as we drove in, how they were 'weedy' and as we exited a pair of red-legged partridge crossed our path.

Other areas of moistly former sheep grazed grassland are being managed by five Exmoor ponies and two Tamworth pigs. These have been introduced in a low intensive way to begin with to see what happens on this heavy clay landscape. Already after just over a year changes are happening, with the pigs reducing bracken and by digging up the uniform turf they're are allowing other plants to establish like plantain, violet and celandine.  It was still a little early in the season, but this spring and summer will be a good indicator of what can self-seed into the bare soil left by the pigs. The ponies have a different role, mostly keeping the grass at a low level, though as they only number five, the grass is never grazed for very long.

Everywhere on the former sheep fields there is evidence of the power two Tamworth pigs can bring to the project as ploughing machines. It was fascinating for me to see this as I studied just these ideas at University three decades ago when it was then thought of as a strange somewhat niche theory. At first glance in essence nothing looks as though it has really changed since it was a traditionally farmed landscape. But look more closely and bare patches or pig footmarks are everywhere.  This rooting up of soil and removal of sheep trampling is vital for the establishment of an ecosystem which while in transition doesn't look in balance but with time and effort will re-balance. That was part of a conversation had by the ranger Ben and the couple on holiday, with the latter asking why the land needed managing if it is being rewilded? 

For me that's a real issue with the word rewilding, a word I'm no fan of. At University alongside traditional agriculture I studied Biological Conservation in Agriculture. in other words how we could farm profitably but in sympathy with the natural world. Nature friendly farming may I suggest be a better term, but rewilding is in the media's headlights at the moment so we'll stick with that. 

The many books now published and TV programmes just gloss over the amount of work needed, and the public perception of rewilding is that it is something farmers do by doing absolutely nothing. But a well managed rewilding project needs time and effort to succeed, soft intervention if you like to encourage wildlife to return, but at some point the estate needs to generate income, enough income to bring in a profit. In a crowded landscape such as Britain everything needs managing to a greater or lesser degree. It is a huge debate.

Ben works on his own with some volunteers. They still put up fences, and of course remove some. Hedges are being either being planted or laid. Ecological surveys are continuing, Ben also does deer culls, grey squirrel control, tree work, and presumably now and again wonders where his two escaped beavers are now.  It is a lot of work for one man and his volunteers. 

Plans also include creating a hub in the centre of the rewilding area where currently there are some derelict buildings, a glamping site has already been created (with composting loo), and eventually a butchery, farm shop and retail sales. It will be interesting to return in a few years to see what the changes have brought about, though possibly the highlight for that return may be as during this visit the two Tamworth pigs who were great fun and came to meet us. 

All in all a most interesting two hour visit. I hope they succeed. Ben mentioned that in canvassing the local population, overwhelmingly the people of Beaminster were in favour, not least having beavers which could reduce flooding. It's also hoped the venture will bring in much needed tourism income to what has been a very quiet corner of  Dorset. Some of the adjacent estates are not as keen, either due to shooting loss (Mapperton closed down its shooing business) or damage to woodland (fences needed on the boundary to keep cattle out of neighbouring land), or as happened in Knepp, traditional farmers worried about ' pests and weeds' coming onto their fields. It is not just the wildlife approach that is a balancing act. 

The Wessex-Sexagenarian-Reiver

Mr Bumble-Gnome - knitted for me for my birthday by a friend.

How on earth did this young naturalist-about-town born on April Fools Day 1964 (in the afternoon so it doesn't count), become a sexagenarian blogger. I began this blog in 2007, which made me 43 years of age, gulp was I really that young? Some of my school friends who I still keep in regular touch with were talking over the weekend about our time in junior school when we took part in a project - how old will we be in the year 2000 and what will the world be like? I can vaguely remember being part of this, the usual weirdness, we'd all be living in sealed bubbles or driving aero-cars, or have turned green and communicate with telepathy, but I can distinctly remember thinking, gosh I'll be 35 years old on January 1st 2000 and then 36 on my birthday. That age seemed very very old to a seven or eight year old. Yet now the year 2000 is itself 24 years ago. 

However as I nudged into my three score years on Easter Monday, I enjoyed the fact that my significant birthday coincided with Easter, and rain.  For a change then on this blog a brief resume to remind myself of this moment in the years to come, while sitting by the fire in my slippers. Though why there's a fire in my slippers is anyone's guess.

Incoming rain shower

Good Friday. We set off on a shortish (7 mile) walk along the Strawberry Line from the nearby village of Winscombe to Cheddar Reservoir and back. This occurred after being rudely awakened by the jackdaws making a nest in the roof above the bed. We've had sparrows and starlings roosting in this part of the house for as long as I've lived here. The house was only built in 1997, but I think being the former show home it was thrown up rather than built, I've had to rectify some quite strange things over the years, such as a window installed the wrong way around, and a strange electrical supply that had no obvious source.

The hole in the roof is where some flashing has come away, luckily it doesn't let the rain in, but the cavity behind the hole is of a fair size and sealed off from the loft. In past winters I'd hear starlings doing what sounded like a sand-dance as they shuffled about in there to keep warm. However about a week or so ago I heard an almighty clattering and banging coming from above the ceiling, accompanied by the tell tale jak-a-jak call of jackdaws. At first I thought it was coming from outside but when I heard what sounded like a small forest being dropped onto the floor over the following days I knew what was going on. Some acquaintances have suggested calling pest control.. really? Okay there'll be a mess in the roof space, but I feel very lucky to have this brilliantly intelligent bird choosing to live with me. Though I have to admit gingernut our cat is a little perplexed by the racket. As I type this the nest building has ended, replaced this morning with some lovely soft contact calls from the pair. Eggs soon I think.

Our walk was along the old railway line that once ran from Shepton Mallet to Clevedon, carrying goods and the product it became famous for, and from which the Sustrans managed pathway now gets its name, Cheddar strawberries. I've heard tell of the 'strawberry' trains running all day, in the season, filling the air with a fruity scent as they whisked these strawberries away from the Mendip slopes to London and Midlands markets. All of this ended with the Beeching cuts but over the last few decades more and more of the old railway route has been restored and opened up to walkers and cyclists, plus it is a fantastic nature reserve in its own right. We'd just set off when there was the most impressive hail storm, turning to rain. There was no shelter so we just pushed on into the wind trying to cover the half a mile or so to the Shute Shelve Tunnel as quickly as possible and out of the rain. This tunnel is a magnet for bats with many studies conducted  here throughout the year. We however reached the southern end of the tunnel to be greeted with sun. So odd entering in rain and exiting in sunshine. 

Cheddar Reservoir with a backdrop of the moody Mendips

Fortunately the rest of the walk was predominantly dry and with the sun up, the wildlife along the path sides as we walked was an added incentive. Violets (violet and white flowers) and primrose were everywhere, a few early bluebell, arum poking up, alexanders were growing tall,  even a patch of wild garlic had a few white flowerheads visible. Catkins adorned hazel and willow and the leaf burst was in full swing along the path, though the standing trees were still winter-bound. Chiffchaffs were everywhere, robin, chaffinch, blackbird, long tailed tit, wren and dunnock all flitted in front of us. Butterfly singles of brimstone, peacock and speckled wood added to the mix with a couple of small white too. Overhead a couple of buzzards wafted by, and a kestrel, and in the fields a smattering of corvids and gulls mingled with sheep. I'd hoped when we reached the reservoir I could do some birdwatching as it is a well known site for waterfowl.  However the wind had really picked up and while there was the usual coot, great crested grebe, mallard and tufted duck on the water with pied wagtail and meadow pipit on the banks, nothing else really was obvious other than a green woodpecker which flew to a fence post and clung on there giving remarkable views.  We got back to the car after about three hours, including a coffee in a café, just as the heavens opened once again. 

Saturday we were at home and pottered in the garden. The spring flowers are looking brilliant here at the moment, newly emerged, fresh and nothing much yet has succumbed to decay, it is a lovely time of year. The sun is warm too and I watched a dark edged bee-fly buzzing the daffodils and pulmonaria for ages. We've had these in the garden for a couple of years now, I love them, they're really funky. Sadly a peacock butterfly had died in the greenhouse overnight, but outside and  very much alive was a brimstone and a small white. There were hoverflies and solitary bees everywhere too. As we pottered in the garden a pair of raven cronked their presence overhead, these are a regular sighting now.

By the side of the Strawberry Line

Easter Sunday saw us walk a different six mile section of the Strawberry Line, this time from Congresbury to the new EDF sub-station on Nye Lane. Part of the planning approval for this feeder station from Hinkley Point, was to create a new permissive link between two parts of the existing Strawberry Line, each part of which ended at a farm who refused public access. And very impressive it is too. But not as impressive as I realised a raven pair were nest building in one of the huge super-structures carrying the electricity into the sub-station. 

I'd heard a cronk as we looked over the new site and saw a raven flying by carrying a sizeable twig. I wondered where it was going before it flew left at an angle, back on itself and into this gantry style metal structure. As it arrived, from inside the structure, a softer cronk-craw could be heard - its mate. One of the birds then flew out, did a Biggles style wing roll and disappeared into an orchard over the lane,  only to then reappear a minute or so later with another twig, this time flying directly to and into the gantry. Raven nests are huge so this may well fill the void in that latticework metal gantry, but it will be well hidden and protected. I'll have to pop back and have a proper look, but it seemed incongruous that this bird which extols wild places should decide to make its home in an ultra-modern electricity sub-station now hissing and fizzing with electricity from a nuclear reactor. And given there is a 3 meter electrified fence around the site,  I should think the raven are quite safe in there.

I also noticed that the outer fence, (thankfully not live wired), has badger holes cut into it wherever a badger track existed in the undergrowth. Someone has taken a lot of effort into wildlife mitigation and with a lot of tree planting on the site, and a large pond newly dug, it should mature nicely. On the route to and from Congresbury yet again the birdlife was astonishing, the same species as on Friday but with the addition of song thrush, bullfinch, greenfinch, goldfinch, Cettis warbler, little egret and a yaffling woodpecker. There are also a lot of badger tunnels along this path. We also startled a fox while trying to help an elderly couple retrieve their 'lost' dog who was running about a distant field - thankfully after half an hour Memphis the dog returned safe and well and looked very happy, as did his owner.

Elworthy Cottage Garden - spring meadow

Easter Monday and the birthday had arrived. For a few weeks now I'd said I'd like to visit Elworthy Cottage Plants on my birthday as while normally visiting is by appointment only, it was to open on April the 1st under the yellow-book National Garden Scheme. I'd recently been reading about this small specialist nursery, about an hours drive from home nestled in the Brendon Hills and thought it was worth a visit as I'd never been before. It is located in the middle of a lovely quiet part of Somerset betwixt the Quantocks and Exmoor complete with evocative wild-sounding west country villages such as Monksilver, Roadwater, Timberscombe, Higher Vexford and Wheddon Cross. We drove through torrential rain to get here and as soon as we arrived I thought, I've been here before. When exactly I'd been there before I can't remember but it was, like on this visit, with Mrs Wessex-Reiver. Oh well we're here now so best have a cup of tea and some cake.

As we consumed the tea and cake the clouds parted and for our entire visit the sun shone. Its quite a difficult place to find so there were only a handful of people here, in fact more people helping the owners than visitors I'd say. And on this April day it looked stunning, drifts of snake-head fritillary, daffodils still in their prime, wood anemones, hellebores, primrose and a host of pulmonaria. The owner is known also for her collection of snowdrops, of which there were hundreds of clumps round the garden, not in flower of course. I chatted to her husband asking at some point if they had Galanthus 'fly fishing' - they do but not for sale this year, though the suggestion was if I email them in the autumn then they may know if they can sell me one next spring. It is a difficult cultivar to source so I'm very happy to wait. After an hour mooching around in this lovely garden we headed back home, yet again in torrential rain, stopping on the way at Hodder's Combe to look at the rookery there and half an hour tree-bathing. 

Elworthy Cottage Garden in sunshine

All in all then an enjoyable way to shuffle into year sixty. We mostly managed to avoid the deluges and found ourselves immersed in some lovely wildlife encounters. Speaking of which I must go and see what those jackdaws are up to.

New book I bought on Good Friday with references to Richard Jefferies.