Old Hat

December is turning out to be a funny old month. After a horrible day yesterday it was really nice today.

It was windy but it was nice.

We went out to play in the fields behind the farm and while she was messing about, I was thinking about how much we have enjoyed these fields over the year.

This isn’t the most species rich habitat that we explore but it does have it’s own character and sometimes it is spectacular. We see things here that we would never see in the forest or down the little country tracks that we wander.

In April it was Dandelions… Thousands of them.

In May they went to seed.

A couple of weeks later the field was yellow again, this time with Buttercups.

These fields are rented out to a local farmer. Sometimes he will graze animals here (There are sheep on them at the moment) but this summer he was allowing them to grow to produce silage for his animals.

By June the grass was so long that finding our ball was becoming a bit of a problem.In June the grass was cut and there was our ball.

That wasn’t the end of the story. By July the fields were full of Clover.

Now it is December and we are still enjoying these fields.

Today it was a bit windy.

I wrote about two wildflowers today but I think that I will save them for a rainy day 🙂

Say NO to the Duvet!

Just say no.

Clover Fields

These are just a few images that I need to hold on to for ever.

I have seen these fields full of Dandelions and after that it was Meadow Buttercups. Today it is White Clover.

Absolutely beautiful.

Shamrocks

The symbol of Ireland. The Shamrock isn’t actually a species. The name comes from the Irish word Seamrog which literally translates as little clover.

There have been two serious botanical surveys to try and find out what a Shamrock is, both surveys involved asking people from across Ireland to send in samples of Shamrock which were then potted up and their species determined.

About half of the respondents voted for this species.

Trifolium dubium, Lesser Clover or Lesser Yellow Trefoil.

About a third voted for Trifolium repens the White Clover,

And a mere handful went for Trifolium pratense or Red Clover.

Whichever species it is I am sure that we have got Shamrocks growing here. Take your pick.

Is Clover good food? No and Yes.

The leaves are what they term a survival food and that just means that there isn’t any point in eating them. They won’t kill you they just don’t taste very nice.

The flowers are completely edible and add a nice bit of colour to dinner.

Now I have just got to find a four leafed one.

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…..