Frosting the Dog

Well, it wasn’t really much of a frost and I think we may have to put off declaring a “State of Emergency” for a day or two.

There was some frost on the little things.

Frost can be quite destructive and Spindle berries were dropping off the tree as I was trying to photograph them.

A few of the remaining flowers were totally frosted and I don’t think that they will last much longer.

It feels a bit like we are saying goodbye to the colours of Autumn and hello to the greyness that is Winter.

Today wasn’t very cold.The Puddles were not frozen…

(There is nothing like a cool drink of mud to set you up for the day)

There was no frost at all under the trees. They have a warmth of their own, trapping warm air and protecting their surroundings from exposure to the cold night.

I am not really sure that this is frost on the grass and not just cold dew.

But Winter is coming…. and the Sloes will taste sweeter.

Fizz got an extra walk and she has got insulation so she doesn’t mind the cold and when we got home I had some toast (In case it gets bad later)

 

 

Last of the Summer Whine?

Don’t worry this isn’t another post about a Dog. Today we have got wildflowers, fruits, butterflies, wild animals and some pretty tame ones but before I can get started…..

My day always begins with a plaintive whine. She hears me moving around in the kitchen and positions herself under my window and cries.

“Hurry up! I want to explore nature and discover wonderful new things.”

Shut up! I am making my breakfast.

Today we are going to climb over the fence and look for the new Badger sett in the next field along. My camera is currently tied to the other side of this tree looking out on a field full of sheep.

Try and guess what it is filming….

You don’t have to watch all of this video (unless you are looking for a date) . Having a field full of sheep hasn’t given me too many problems so far  but it was pretty obvious that I would get some of this.

The next field along is a corn field.

I know that there is going to be some confusion about this so let me take a moment to set the record straight.

In England when we talk about cornfields we usually picture (quite correctly) fields of wheat. In Scotland they often see oats. Corn is a word derived from the Latin granum and it means grain.

When Christopher Columbus landed in Cuba the natives there presented him with a grain that they called mahiz and Columbus promptly corrupted that to maize but the name corn also stuck.

To most of the world the words corn and maize are interchangeable and mean the same thing but in the UK we still think of corn as meaning grain, any grain.

Either way this is a corn field.

This abundance of food might be the reason that the Badgers switched fields. Some animals have been helping themselves.

While some animals are obviously eating the corn I don’t think that they are having a major impact on the value of the crop, It is just a little bit here and there.

I had noticed that my Badgers were looking particularly well fed, portly even.

Did you notice the little blue flowers?

They are Common Field-speedwell, Veronica persica.

I started photographing these at the beginning of March, long before the traditional Spring flowers like Wood Anemones and Bluebells and they have flowered everyday since.

They are very good value for money, especially if like me you don’t actually have to pay for them 🙂

So I am bumbling about looking for a Badger sett. I never did find it, there is at least forty acres of maize here and most of the hedgerow is inaccessible to me. I kept bumping into other things.

This little Comma. At this time of year we can’t afford to pass on any butterflies, they won’t be around for very much longer.

This is a young butterfly and it is fresh and beautiful. The Comma is one of the butterflies that overwinters here as an adult. This delicate little animal will spend the whole winter sleeping outside, through all of the terrible weather and it will survive the frosts. It will take flight again around the second week in March, that for me is the end of winter, when the butterflies return.

Winter is still a way of yet and the  hedgerow is full of autumn fruit.

On a bramble leaf I see another butterfly. This one is a Speckled Wood. These butterflies are unique amongst British species because they can overwinter either as a caterpillar or a chrysalis. Those that reach the chrysalis stage will be amongst the first butterflies that we see next year and they will be newly emerged and beautiful.

Well that is about it for today. Did you have a nice walk?

Oh I nearly forgot Foggy,

Foggy was a character from the British sitcom “Last of the summer wine” and also something that happened to my Badger and Fox last night.

So that is it. Sleep tight and mind the bugs don’t bite.

The colours are coming

The colours are coming and it is all starting to look a little bit Autumnal. 🙂

Bramble

This morning my WordPress interface has changed. I have read about this happening to other people. So I have to test it out. I don’t like this layout but does it still work? I have a preview button but it doesn’t show me a preview it just tells me that I have saved a post.

So anyway Bramble, Rubus fruticosa. This is a good time to look at it because right now almost every stage of development is present on the bush. I love Bramble, it is one of my top plants. It provides year round cover and protection for all sorts of wildlife. Nectar, so many of my insect pictures are on Bramble and then fruit. This plant just keeps on giving.

These picture were all taken in the last couple of days. Everything is on the bush at the moment, even rain. These last couple of pictures are from yesterday.

So now I am going to press the publish button and then I may delete this post quite quickly. I really don’t like not having a preview.

Romany-ing around

I have been out for a nice walk this morning, on my own though and in a bit I will have to take Fizz out. It is raining at the moment.

I met a fellow this morning and he told me his name was Pete. A Romany Gypsy who has now settled in the local village. Pete knew a bit about Butterflies.

While I was talking to Pete I noticed the Bracken was colouring up nicely.

If you have ever wondered what Bracken is here for, it is to make me happy and it does it’s job well. I have started to take photographs but I am not ready to do a post about Bracken yet

I am also noticing that Blackberries are beginning to ripen on the Brambles, it is starting to feel like “Late Summer.”

Pete was walking the littlest dog that I have ever seen, it would have made Fizz feel big. So I politely commented, “That’s a little dog.”

Pete used to own and breed Lurchers, he is 77 and retired now but once he made his living off his dogs. He told me that he used to show them and also organise shows. In his heyday he would have 1500 people paying five pounds a head to enter a dog for the chance of £3000 in prize money but it has all changed now.

Don’t complain to me about that, I am not responsible for the conditions of Romany dogs fifty years ago, nor do I know anything about those conditions. I imagine that they were loved and cared for as one of the family. I just like meeting interesting people.

Pete told me that he missed his dogs sorely, the last one died last year having picked up a tick in the woods. He still has a little companion if and when he fancies a kick around in the field. Which reminds me that my little side kick still needs a walk.

It wasn’t a bad day for Butterflies, I got some pictures of the amazing and colourful Meadow Brown. (It is in this next picture somewhere)

I have felt that I had a duty to photograph the Meadow Brown and I did my best but I kept getting distracted by the more mundane little insects.

The best bit of this morning was that I got good pictures of the female Gatekeeper. I have been after those since I posted the male a couple of weeks ago. (Post coming up)

The biggest disappointment was that I didn’t see a Clouded Yellow, that was what I was really after. Pete had seen a few about last year but that didn’t help.

I also saw and photographed some beautiful wildflowers.

They all have posts coming up but maybe I can’t do them all today. I have a strong desire to wash my kitchen floor and take Poochy out for a game of ball.

So, sorry to do such a b-rambling post…

I just wanted to write about Pete and set a few things in my mind for the next time that we meet. Little details are important. 🙂

Animal Magic

“Just like that”

It’s your destiny

The Swallows have fledged, or at least they are fledging. They are still in the nest today but they have been out and they can fly.

It has taken me a few days watching and all that you get are a couple of short video’s but for me, my understanding and the pleasure that I got from watching them makes a few days just a drop in the ocean. It was time well spent.

Anyway you should be glad that you don’t have to watch the whole twenty hours of video, that I now have to sort and delete from my machine to free up space.

Here are the best bits.

Yesterday morning there were five birds on the nest, there were five birds on the nest and then there were four birds on the nest. I had missed the very first flight and only realised when number five returned to the nest.

This first video starts with the mother calling for them to leave the nest, there is a little comic interlude of the way that they follow flies, their little heads bobbing in unison and in the last bit the second bird to approach the nest is the returning chick. Does he bring food back or do the others just think that he has?

This next video shows them leaving the nest and returning. They spent most of the day fluttering around inside the little alley way that has become their home and by the end of the day they were all settled back on the nest but this is fledging. Today I think that they have ventured outside and seen the blue sky but they still return to the nest.

These birds have made me think a lot about nature as a whole thing and about life and death in the wild. The caterpillars that I am trying to raise are falling to the parasitoid flies that these Swallows depend on for food and survival. The parents have done a really good job of raising them given the wet weather we have been having. I have often looked out in the pouring rain and wondered how they are managing to raise a brood and now this, flight.

I am so in in love and in awe of them and so damned jealous.

I am jealous because they get to eat those delicious crunchy flies, or perhaps because they can raise offspring in a matter of weeks and not the 26 years it usually takes us. Maybe I am jealous of something else altogether…..