Pheasants

Glancing out of the window today, I was delighted to see the emperor strolling across the lawn with a female pheasant in tow. They were heading toward the feeding station. She was very nervous and as soon as I spotted her so she noticed me, she turned on her heel and in a hurry and scurry she was across the lawn and hidden amongst the shrubs.

Fortunately she came back later and resumed feeding.

Creatures who certainly always eat well are the squirrels -- they feast on currants, mixed fruit, suet, biscuits and mixed seed. They are always first at the window, ready and waiting in the morning, and throughout the day they turn up to clear any scraps left over from the birds.

Hertingfordbury

We recently visited Hertingfordbury, a small but pretty Hertfordshire village. It was well worth visiting as it has a variety of old and interesting buildings for such a small place. Some are beautiful and others fascinating.

The village sits in the middle of the countryside and although there is a busy road nearby it didn't spoil the peace of the village. My attention was caught by the huge balls of mistletoe hanging from some of the trees and there was also a splendid conifer, darkly green and covered in enormous fir cones.

During our entire visit the song of birds filled the air. A very pleasant afternoon.

Brimstone Butterfly

Saw a large yellow butterfly in the garden today. It must have been the warm sunshine that drew it out. It was a beautiful Brimstone.

Daffodils

Time to celebrate -- the daffodils are in bloom!

True it is only the miniature ones, but they are so bright and cheerful, and the regular sized ones will soon be following on because they are in fat bud with long stems.

Cole Green Way

A glorious day: twelve degrees and dry. So we walked a little of Cole Green Way -- formerly a disused railway line connecting Welwyn Garden City and Hertford. Such a pretty walk.

With horses grazing and beautiful views.

The Emperor and His Son

The two male pheasants seem to have spent the winter keeping each other company. Most days they turn up together at regular intervals to be fed. If they aren't noticed waiting by the side kitchen window they hurry along to the patio windows. Once there, if they are still not noticed, the younger one will climb on the step and stand with his beak against the glass or just settle down on the step, patiently waiting to be noticed. His father "the emperor" is not half as patient; he will strut from the kitchen window to the patio doors where he will rise up on tiptoe, flap his wings and loudly crow. This of course brings the attention straight to him and as soon as he sees a movement from within, he scurries back to the kitchen window as fast as he can, anxious to be first and not to miss anything.

Today was much the same, except as they finished feeding and wandered away across the lawn, the emperor turned on his son, and fluffing his feathers out and dropping the wing facing his son, then lowering his head, he slowly advanced, with a sideways motion, toward his son, who immediately backed away. The emperor resumed a normal posture and moved to where his son was standing, once again he adopted the "aggressive" stance and again the youngster retreated. This behaviour continued until the older one had driven his son far away.

This gentle aggression is a sure sign that it is mating time. The first time it happened the younger pheasant appeared not to understand, with the unfortunate circumstance that he became a victim of much stronger aggressive behaviour and feathers flew. Now he understands and makes himself scarce!

We occasionally have other male pheasants wander into the garden, but no mercy is given and the older pheasant instantly becomes very territorial at any time of the year, flying at them and attacking them with no or very little warning.

Late February Flowers

I long for some bright days -- this winter seems to have lasted so long and been so cold, but each time I look in the garden I find more and more flowers open and bravely facing the cold.

Today I was delighted to find mauve, yellow and white crocuses and heliborus feotidus or stinking helibore as it is commonly known. It has green stems, leaves and flowers and as the flowers open fully the bottom edge of the petals becomes edged with red. There are also mauve and white violets; aconites; daffodils in bud; chinodoxia or glory of the snow; the wonderfully perfumed vibernum bodnantense; and cascading down a bank, a veronica with tiny deep blue flowers and masses of buds showing promise of much to come.

Alas no sign of my beloved primroses yet.

The rhododendrons, azalias and magnolias are all heavy with bud and promise of much future enjoyment, together with the rosettes of foxglove leaves standing all around the garden, wherever their seeds happened to fall.

Magpie & Squirrel Hide and Seek

This morning I once more watched the squirrel feeding with amusement. When the squirrel was replete, the magpie who had been watching him feed, and patiently waiting for this moment, boldly walked up to the squirrel who was crossing the lawn with a piece of biscuit in his mouth. I knew what was coming and fortunately had my camera to hand and was able at last to photograph the whole sequence.

Now, where shall I hide this piece of biscuit?

                           Ah yes, nobody will find it here...

How odd -- that magpie's always following me around.

Thank you very much my friend.

Goldfinches

The goldfinches who have delighted us all winter by visiting in flocks, are now visiting the garden in pairs

Robins Displaying

The robins have spent a great part of the morning displaying to each other, this has mainly been from the cherry tree. I have seen them displaying several times in the last week or two, but this morning it was almost non-stop. A third robin showed up at one point ,bur he was quickly driven away.

Pear Tree Nesting Box

I have been watching the bird house in the pear tree with interest. It has a small opening for blue tits and they have already started collecting nesting material. This morning when I looked out I saw not the blue tits but a great tit, he was very busy pecking at the hole, obviously trying to enlarge it. As I watched, I noticed a blue tit on a nearby branch flapping its wings and leaving the branch to fly at the great tit, then returning either to the same branch or another nearby. After an hour the blue tit was nowhere to be seen and the great tit had also given up!
Although I kept a watch neither returned the rest of the day.

N.B. This bird house is the one that the bees nested in last year, however there has been no sign of them yet this year.

Catkins

When I walked into the lane today I was struck by how pretty it was looking. It had cast off the dead gloom of winter and the freshness of spring was upon it. On the bank opposite, there was a fresh green look caused by the new leaf growth of wild plants, and hundreds of snowdrops all in flower. Daffodil plants have swelling buds and the Rosa Rugosa has tiny new shoots showing.

Further down the lane the sycamore trees are flaunting their pretty new pink growth, and the hazel bushes have produced a wonderful show of catkins this year. I love catkins and am always fascinated to see the tiny red female flowers tucked  tightly away against the branch, waiting for the wind to blow and speed pollen onto them from the attractive catkins dangling nearby. There are always plenty of hazel nuts to follow, however the squirrels usually beat us to them as they start gathering the nuts to eat and store well before they ripen.

Winter Trees

A real chill in the air today.

I took the opportunity to photograph two of my favourite trees silhouetted against a really wintry looking February sky as the sun went down.

Moorhens and Goldfish

It is a while since we saw the adult moorhen, we are still visited daily by last year's youngster, who seems to spend less time in the pond now and more time wandering round the garden. He still occasionally eats from the feeding station, but doesn't make a habit of it.


Throughout this winter the fish have been in hiding and we have, at times, wondered if they have been gobbled up by the heron, however looking in the pond today I saw not one, but two fish. Hopefully, as time passes and the weather warms up more will show themselves.

Sunset and Crescent Moon

A breathtakingly beautiful sunset this evening. I took photographs and turned back to go indoors when I noticed a reflection of the sunset in the kitchen window, it was beautiful and I photographed that as well.

Looking up I saw a crescent moon. It was interesting to look from the moon to the sunset and back again, and fascinating to be caught between such a magnificent sunset and the reflection of it, and then to look up and overhead see the crescent moon in a seemingly plain stretch of sky, with no hints of sunset at all.

Quite magical.

A10 To Papwworth

The crocuses are out in the front garden, I saw them as I was leaving home. It is a beautiful day, only eight degrees, but so bright and sunny.

The deciduous trees are still bare, but the roadsides are lit up by the many catkins hanging from hazels. They vary in colour from greenish yellow to brownish yellow, and they not only make my heart sing but also bring a smile to my face. The sun is shining, spring is coming, the birds are singing, and I feel so blessed to have eyes to see and ears to hear.

It is a pretty ride between my home and Papworth. In places, the fields stretch for many miles until they reach the horizon, they gently undulate and are made up of so many shades of green. Here and there are newly ploughed fields of broken mud, dried to a light brown in the sun. The section of the A10 we travel along is such a pretty road I wish I could capture it and properly share it.

Going through Repton we passed a large detached house with tall chimneys and four or five chimney pots on top, I saw a bird fly in amongst them and then noticed its untidy nest wedged up there, I guess if they burn fires in the house, then that's a warm place to nest.

February Flowers

I wrapped up and braved the cold February weather today to walk round the garden and enjoy the many spring flowers.

Everywhere I looked there were snowdrops in varying stages of growth, some were barely poking through the earth, just the very tips of their leaves, while others had already grown, shown themselves at their best and were finished flowering and are now swelling their seedpods. The ones in full flower were so pristine and beautiful, untouched by the extreme cold and prettily nodding in the wind.

Remember, if you have snowdrops in your garden to not let the clumps grow too large without splitting and replanting them in smaller groups or even singly (they will soon clump up), left undivided they may succumb to a virus and you risk losing them all. The best time to plant or split snowdrops is when they have finished flowering and still have a good show of green leaves.

The camellia buds have grown fat during the long, cold winter and I look forward to their pretty flowers. On the bank behind the camellia is a veronica cascading down, it is a mass of buds and already has a few open flowers. These flowers look nothing by themselves but when seen en masse they are breathtaking, and they flower for such a long time.

There are still drifts and clumps of aconites around the garden, like the snowdrops they like the shade. Another shade loving plant is chinodoxia or glory of the snow, a pretty snowdrop-sized flower, very pale blue and with a mid-blue stripe running down the centre of the outside of the petals.

Robins Nesting

Have noticed recently the moss on the lawn is very disturbed, looking out of the window I saw a robin busy collecting the moss, obviously for his nest. Unfortunately I didn't notice where he took it.

I am sure however that he was one half of the pair who live near the garage, often in the greenhouse, we also have a pair who nest inside the garage, another pair who nest on the bottom lawn area and the fourth pair who nest on the bank. So with spring coming I shall have to put food out in a much wider area to stop territorial fights, caused when they go into or through each others territories to access food.

Dunnock Interplay

Today I watched interesting aggressive behaviour between dunnocks. I put the bird food out as usual and a dunnock was first on the scene, as he ate, another dunnock flew at him very fast, stopped and settled just in front of him. He swiftly leaned down so his head was close to the ground and his chest was resting on it. Next he spread his wings slightly and slowly advanced, the first dunnock retreated a few steps before flying away.

The second dunnock gained nothing by his aggressive behaviour because as he picked up his first beakful of seed a robin flew down and chased him away.

I found this show of aggression interesting because this is the first time I have witnessed a territorial display between dunnocks, I have watched them for many years and they have always fed happily together.

M4 to Reading

A dull, grey, cloudy day, with haze in the distance and drizzle on the windscreen.

On the right we passed a field of sheep and thickly amidst them were an enormous amount of lapwings, curlews and although mixed in with the crowd, but standing out from them, were dozens of canada geese, some grazing but many standing heads held high as if alert and waiting for something.

Further along we passed the fields of little white ponies, they are sturdy looking beasts and always give us pleasure when we see them. A few months ago we read in the local paper of how they had escaped the field and made their way on to the motorway, causing it to be closed. They must have been as startled to see all the traffic as drivers and passengers must have been to see them.

As we reached the point where the huge reservoir-type lakes are on the left hand side, we were delighted to see a heron fly low over our car. Both lakes were devoid of all wildlife, except for a pair of swans in the first lake, and in the second was only one lonely swan gloriously white and well reflected in the dark cold water. I wondered what had become of its mate, as swans mate for life and there was no sign of another single swan.

On the right hand side we passed the tall trees with huge round balls of mistletoe still hanging from them, bringing remembrances of Christmases past and hopes of Christmases to come.

We were amazed at one point to see several huge flocks of gulls passing overhead, years ago we always knew these as sea gulls, but of course the pickings have become easy and rich inland and the gulls have moved inland. I read last year that there are now many gulls who have never even visited the coast!