A Garden Warbler, appropriately enough in the Magic Garden, along
with a singing Sedge Warbler were new birds for the year and the first Swifts were
also reported in the village yesterday. This only leaves Spotted Flycatcher as a
‘guaranteed’ summer migrant yet to make
an appearance. Things are still slow though and the Swallows that breed in the
village hall have only returned this week…
On the river this Grey Wagtail was carrying nesting material,
the first potential breeding record for some years…
It's also noticeable that every hedgerow seems to have a pair of Long-tailed Tits this year,
including this gravity-defying one…
Presumably this is an effect of the mild winter. And talking
of commoner than usual this seems to be the case with Lords and Ladies…
I’ve always been interested in this faintly exotic plant,
not least because of Rosemary & Clifford Ellis’s brilliant New Naturalist dustwrapper…
The even commoner name is of course Cuckoo Pint although I’m
sure it should be pronounced Cuckoo ‘Pinnt’ rather than ‘pynt’ given what it refers to! Certainly in the
Magic Garden it is definitely more widespread than I have ever seen it. This is
one of the plants in front of a rather fine collection of Dryad’s Saddle fungi.
Despite the sunny weather the winds have kept the
temperature down this week but there were occasional warmer spells and this led
to double figure counts of Green-veined White and Orange Tip butterflies in the
garden, plus Red Admiral, Brimstone and my first Holly Blue of the year. This individual
was particularly compliant as I took this on my phone (which doesn’t have a
zoom).
I also photographed this moth which I think is a
Silver-ground Carpet, although this seems quite early for the species..
