• About my Blog
  • GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) and This Site
  • My Life in a Suffolk Lane

A Suffolk Lane

~ A diary of my life in rural north Suffolk.

A Suffolk Lane

Tag Archives: Blue Tit

Avian Visitors

28 Monday May 2018

Posted by Clare Pooley in Rural Diary, wild birds

≈ 103 Comments

Tags

Barnacle geese, birdsong, Blue Tit, Fieldfares, Firecrest, Garden birds, goslings, greylags, mallards, moorhens, nesting, Redwings, song thrush, Springtime, starlings, Suffolk, Swallows, Tufted Ducks

We have had some warm periods of weather at last, after a long, cold spring.  Spring flowers have rushed to bloom and set seed before summer arrives and the trees have clothed themselves in delicate green leaves.

Any warm days we had in early spring were quickly followed by much cooler and wetter weather and the returning birds were confused, I am sure.  I saw a couple of vanguard male Swallows (Hirundo rustica) at the beginning of April but the ensuing wet and windy weather must have sent them back south because I didn’t see them again until mid May!

Two Swallows on the electric cable above our garden in April

Swallow number 1

Swallow number 2

We are pleased to say that the Greylags (Anser anser) did arrive in our garden, a little later than usual and spent a couple of hours a day inspecting the place…..

Greylag male and female

…..until they were ready to set up home here for the duration.  A nest was built on the island and the female began to sit on her eggs at the end of March.

The geese taking up residence.

The island

The goose on her nest. She lowers her head to become less noticeable.

The gander patrols the water…..

….but often went off elsewhere to eat and meet his friends, though was within calling range.

The goose sat and sat and sat, only leaving the nest for a couple of minutes in the morning and evening to snatch a quick bite to eat.

Eventually, right at the end of April the goslings hatched.  There are four of them but I have had great difficulty photographing them.

Retreating Greylag family

As the goslings have grown the parents have become a little more relaxed but still beat a hasty retreat if anyone gets too close.

Gander on the lookout

Four fat babies eating our grass

These photos were taken at dusk and with my zoom at full stretch!  The goslings are on the move all the time and it is very difficult to get them in focus.

This photo was taken a few days later from Elinor’s bedroom window

I managed to get the whole family in this one!

While the goose was still sitting on her nest we had some surprise and unexpected visitors in the garden.

Barnacle Geese! (Branta leucopsis)   They had the cheek to land on the Greylags’ island while the goose was on her nest!

They appeared to want to set up home there too.

Richard saw them visit a few days later when the Greylag goose decided she didn’t want them there any longer.  She called her mate who arrived very quickly and saw them off.  These photos were taken from Elinor’s bedroom window again.

The pond has also had many visits from Tufted Ducks (Aythya fuligula).  There have often been two pairs of them swimming together.

Male and female Tufted Ducks

Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) male and female

Mallard drake

A pair of Moorhens (Gallinula chloropus)

The Moorhens again; one displaying its white feathers under its tail.

Before the leaves appeared on the Ash tree we had frequent flocks of Starlings visit in the evening

Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)

We also had Fieldfares (Turdus pilaris) and Redwings (Turdus iliacus) congregate in that same tree before they flew north and east to their breeding grounds.

Once the winter birds had left, Spring decided it ought to do some catching up.  Flowers appeared, summer birds arrived despite the cool temperatures and I took this rather shaky video of our pond, mainly to record the birdsong (and the lambs!)

I managed to photograph a Blue Tit (Parus caeruleus) in our Rowan tree.

Blue Tit. There is also a crescent moon behind the tree

The next photo is a bit sad.  Sad in one sense that it shows a dead bird and sad in another that I am strange enough to want to photograph a dead bird!  I apologise to anyone who is upset at seeing these photos which were taken to record the presence of the bird in the area.  I buried the bird as soon as I had finished looking at it.

A Firecrest (Regulus ignicapillus).

I found this poor bird in the flowerbed under one of our windows and I assume it had flown into the glass and killed itself.

It is a tiny bird as you can see when compared with my hand.

Here is a link with information about Firecrests

We get Goldcrests in our garden but this is the first time I have seen a Firecrest here and am sorry that it had died.  It proves though, that there are probably other Firecrests about so I must be more observant.

A Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos) singing at dusk

I also made another poor video of this lovely bird singing.  I had to balance on one leg while peering round the corner of our house to make the video which is my excuse for the poor quality.  The video is dedicated to Richard Sutton of A Listening Heart blog who lamented in a recent post that he hadn’t heard a Song Thrush for a while.  Please do visit Richard’s blog.  He writes beautifully about the countryside where he lives and about poets and writers too.

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • Print
  • Pocket
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...

A Walking Week Part One

05 Monday May 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in domestic animals, fish, Insects, plants, Rural Diary, trees, Uncategorized, walking, wild birds

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Adrian Bell, bird-scarer cannon, Blue Tit, buttercup, comfrey, cow parsley, cows, cut-leaved crane's-bill, daisy, fairy ring, field maple, fish, Germander Speedwell, goosegrass, great yellow-cress, greater spotted woodpecker, Greater Stitchwort, greefinch, Hawthorn, Herb-Robert, Lords and Ladies, May, orange-tip butterfly, perch, pineapple weed, pond, red campion, ribwort, sheep, St Mark's fly, stinging nettle, wedding ring, wild rose

I have managed to do a little walking this week and have enjoyed it very much.  Monday and Tuesday’s walking was mainly round the shops so doesn’t count as enjoyable walking.  For some stupid reason I mistook the time of E’s hair appointment and we arrived in Halesworth an hour early on Monday.  E kindly said she was happy to wait for an hour at the hairdressers but I thought she might go mad with boredom so we did the supermarket shopping and then I got more petrol for the car.  She then went for her hair appointment and while she was there I called in at the jewellers to see if anything can be done to my wedding ring to stop it cutting into my finger.  Twenty years ago we hadn’t thought that my ring would wear away so quickly.  Apparently, we chose the wrong ring – a 9 carat D-profile ring – and should have had a round-profile ring and something of a better quality.  Well, too late now!  This is my wedding ring, bought for me by my husband and blessed at our Marriage Blessing Service.  We weren’t able to be married in church as we had both been married before, but we had a beautiful Blessing Service after our Registry Office wedding.  The jeweller said either we could buy a new ring or have my one built up which would cost the same as a new ring.  A dilemma which we are still thinking about.

Both Monday and Tuesday were mainly cloudy days and no good for drying washing outside so I decorated the inside of the house with wet clothes.  I had more shopping to do in Bungay so drove there on Tuesday afternoon and I made my purchases.  On the way home I got stuck in a traffic jam!  This is quite out of the ordinary, living where we live.  The vehicle in front of me was a supermarket delivery van and not much holds them up usually!  I couldn’t see what the problem was as these vans are quite wide, so I edged round a bit and saw….

Image   Image

The cows took their time to leave their field and amble down the road to the farmyard.  The stockman had a busy time trying to get the cows out of people’s gardens where there were lots of interesting plants and trees to eat.  I took the photos with my phone and then enlarged the pictures so the quality isn’t that good.

E asked if we could watch a DVD together during the evening which I thought would be nice but no-one thought to tell my eyes to watch too.  As soon as I sat down they became extremely heavy and so I dozed most of the way through the film to the disapproval of my daughter.  This is not the first time I have done this.

Wednesday is ‘shopping with mother’ day which went very well as Mum was on top form and we had a real laugh together.  The weather on Wednesday was lovely too – a hazy start and then lots of sunshine.  When I had had some lunch at home I decided to walk down the lane to take advantage of the bright weather and to see what was to be seen.

Image

Lots of stinging nettles and goosegrass.  Goosegrass is a relative of coffee and quinine and has many medicinal uses.  At one time the seeds were roasted and used as a coffee substitute and apparently the young shoots are edible and can be cooked in soups as a vegetable.  All I know about it is that if I touch it, it brings me out in a rash!  The seeds are hooked and stick to hair and clothes – hence the plant’s other name of Cleavers.

Stinging Nettles are very useful, if painful plants too.  They can be used for making cloth, food and medicine.  My plant book says that the Roman belief that stinging nettles cured rheumatism still persists in Britain.  I can say that there is some truth in this as when I am stung on my hands my rheumatic joints there become less painful.  I can’t say I would care to roll about in them unclothed as some people recommend!

Image

These are Hawthorn flowers – May blossom.  ‘Ne’er cast a clout til May be out’ – either don’t leave off your winter clothes until the end of the month of May, or, don’t leave off your winter clothes until the May blossom is on the trees.

Image

This is the wild rose and already there are large flower buds as you can see.  This is early, as the rose usually flowers at the end of May and into June.

Image

A fine crop of old equipment and other rubbish in this field.  At the beginning of Adrian Bell’s book ‘Corduroy’ he talks of the Suffolk farmers’ habit of leaving implements in corners of fields or yards covered in nettles until they are needed for some particular function.  They are then returned ‘to some out-of-the-way corner, to be a sleeping Gulliver for the grass again’.

Image

These are the boys – male sheep, tups.  A bit stinky – sleeping and snoring in the sun.  Wandering about having something to eat now and then – not a care in the world.

Image

 

Common comfrey.  In medieval times the roots of this plant were dug up in the spring and grated to produce a sludge which was packed round broken limbs.  It hardened to a consistency similar to that of Plaster of Paris.

Image

A view over the fields.

Image

Cut-leaved Crane’s-bill.

Image

Great Yellow-cress.

Image

The lane.

Image

Herb-Robert.  In the Middle Ages they believed that a plant showed how it could be used through its colour or shape – the doctrine of signatures.  This plant turns a fiery red in autumn so they thought it should be used in the treatment of blood disorders.  It has a strange odour and in some places it is known as ‘Stinking Bob’.

Image

Daisies.

Image

Daisies and Germander Speedwell.

Image

Greater Stitchwort.

Image

A Buttercup.

Image

Pineapple Weed.

Image

A female orange-tip butterfly.  Note the lovely green-marbled underwing.

Image

The signpost at the end of our lane.

Image

A male orange-tip butterfly.  I have been trying for over a week to photograph these fast flying butterflies!

Image

Lords and Ladies.  This is specially for Heather!  At last these strange plants are flowering here.  I have some in my garden but they are hidden by tall grass and difficult to photograph.

Image

Cow and calves.

Image

This is the pond at the side of the lane.  I’m not sure what the fish are – perhaps perch? – but we have the same fish in our big pond.

Image

The pond next to the lane.

Image

Field maple leaves and flowers.

Image

A St Mark’s fly.  They usually appear about the same time of year as the Feast of St Mark – 25th April.

R and I went out for a walk across the fields when he returned home from his trip to Gloucestershire that evening.

Image

Red Campion and cow-parsley growing at the end of our lane.

Image

A Red Campion flower.

Image

Ribwort flowers – Turkish Caps,

Image

A ‘fairy ring’ caused by toadstools.

Image

A bird-scarer cannon.

Image

More stitchwort.

Image

St Peter’s Washes.

I’ll end with some photos of birds seen in my garden during the past week.

Image

A female Greater-Spotted Woodpecker.

Image

A bluetit.

Image

Male and female Greenfinches

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • Print
  • Pocket
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...

Pollution and Other Matters

03 Thursday Apr 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in Gardening, plants, Rural Diary, trees, Uncategorized, wild birds

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

amelanchier, belemnite, blackbird, Blue Tit, claypipe, Garden Warbler, ground-ivy, Jacob's Sheep, jonquils, Mistle Thrush, pollution, rhubarb, tulip, violets, woodpecker feather

The warmer weather that was forecast certainly arrived bringing with it hazy sky – and pollution.  Everything outside was covered with a coating of fine yellow dust – from the Sahara Desert – and this was especially noticeable on our cars.  Here in East Anglia our air isn’t as pure as we would like.  As we live in the countryside many people think that the air is fresh and clean here; but they would be wrong.  The prevailing wind from the south-west brings pollution from London and winds from the south-east bring pollution from the Continent – mainland Europe.  The cleanest air is on winds from the north-east but that is also the coldest!  East Anglia is a mainly agricultural area with plenty of agricultural vehicles and large trucks delivering feed, grain and other supplies on the narrow lanes.  The farmers use herbicides and insecticides and the crops are sprayed at least two or three times a year.  Because there is very little public transport we all have to drive everywhere that is too far to walk or cycle.  R and I are fortunate to live in an area where the local farmers are trying to make the land better for wildlife.  Wide strips of land are left fallow around each field with the hope that wild flowers will colonise them and animals and birds will find more food and shelter there.

Since coming to live in Suffolk twenty-six years ago I have developed asthma, hay-fever and other allergies that I didn’t have in south-east London and Kent.  R also has hay-fever and E has asthma.  This morning both R and I woke feeling quite unwell with headache, sore throat and other hay-fever symptoms.  Fortunately we always have a stock of anti-histamine tablets in the house!

Yesterday, after getting home from taking Mum out, I had a letter to post so walked down the lane to the postbox.  I was hoping to see the Jacob’s sheep in a field close to us as I had heard them arrive there on Monday.  They always bleat a lot when they are in a new field but soon settle down and if I hadn’t heard them arrive I wouldn’t have known they were there.  It was quite difficult to see the sheep and lambs as the hedge is high and thick but I managed a couple of photos.

 

 

004Jacob ewes & lambs (640x480)

Jacob ewes and lambs

003Jacob lamb (640x480)

Jacob lamb

I then took a few more pictures of the garden, fed the birds and watered the tubs of flowers.  More and more birds are singing and the dawn chorus is getting louder and louder.  Yesterday I woke to hear what I thought was a Garden Warbler, our second summer visitor, singing in a tree across the lane.  As I was still sleepy I wasn’t sure whether it was a Garden Warbler or a Blackcap, the songs being quite similar, but having heard it again today I am sure it is a Garden Warbler.  We do get both birds here in the summer but the song I heard yesterday and today was definitely the faster more garbled song of the Garden Warbler.  The Song Thrush has been singing all day, every day for some time now and yesterday he was joined by the Mistle Thrush.  We now have a wonderful chorus of birds in the garden – too many to mention without it becoming a long and boring list.  Here is a photo of a male Blackbird and a Blue Tit on the peanut feeder.

008Blackbird (640x480)

Blackbird

009Bluetit on feeder (640x480)

Bluetit on the peanut feeder. A Chaffinch is in the tree at the back.

 

 

 

 

Today I took some more photos of the garden and also of some objects I have found in the garden.  The belemnite I found in my herb garden on Monday.  I remember finding lots of these when on holiday with A when she was little at Charmouth on the Dorset coast.  They are fossils of squid-like creatures.

010Belemnite (640x480)

 

The feather I found a couple of weeks ago.  No doubt from a Greater Spotted Woodpecker.

012Spotted feather (640x480)

 

The broken old clay pipe I also found in my herb garden but about five years ago.  I can’t bear to get rid of it!

013Clay pipe (640x480)

 

The rest of the photos are of plants, flowers and trees.

White violets in the grass verge near my mother’s cottage.

001White violets (480x640)

 

Ground ivy.  This is an evergreen wild plant and if the leaves are bruised they smell minty.  Also known as Alehoof, the leaves used to be added to ale during brewing to clear the fermenting liquid and sharpen the flavour.  Even after hops were introduced to England in the 16th century liquor flavoured with ground-ivy was still made and sold for a time.  Another name for ground-ivy is gill and a drink called gill tea was made by infusing the leaves with boiling water and adding honey.  This was supposed to alleviate coughs and other chest disorders and was still being sold by street vendors in London in the 19th century.   Culpepper says ‘The juice dropped into the ear doth wonderfully help the noise and singing of them, and helpeth the hearing which is decayed.’

006Ground ivy (640x480)

 

Some jonquils.

014Jonquils (640x480) 023Jonquil (640x480)

 

 

A pink tulip.

022Pink tulip (640x480)

 

Rhubarb!

024Rhubarb (640x480)

 

The Amelanchier is just coming into flower.

025Amelanchier (640x480)

 

R and I discovered another goose nest in the undergrowth on the other side of the pond yesterday.  Unfortunately, today the goose was no longer there and all the eggs gone.  The good thing about nesting on the little island is that foxes and other predators cannot get to you so easily.  The bad thing about our island is that it isn’t big enough for more than one goose nest.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • Print
  • Pocket
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...
Follow A Suffolk Lane on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 526 other followers

I talk about what it's like living in a quiet part of Suffolk. I am a wife, mother and daughter, a practising Christian and love the natural world that surrounds me. I enjoy my life - most of the time!

My Posts

February 2019
M T W T F S S
« Jan    
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728  

Pages

  • About my Blog
  • GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) and This Site
  • My Life in a Suffolk Lane

Archives

Blogs I Follow

Posts I Like

amphibians art churches cooking Days out domestic animals family fish Folk Traditions food Gardening holidays Insects Landscaping literature music Norwich plants poetry Rural Diary seashore theatre trees Uncategorized Villages walking weather wild animals wild birds wild flowers

Tags

'The Company' architecture autumn berries birds blackbird blackthorn Bungay butterfly church clouds common knapweed cow parsley crocus daffodils Diary dogwood family field maple flowers fungus garden gardening geese greylags Halesworth Hawthorn heather holiday Holy Week horse chestnut Hoverfly insects ivy Lake District Lent lichen Lords and Ladies mallards Minsmere moorhen moss music Norfolk Norwich Norwich Cathedral Peak District pheasant plants pond ponds primrose primroses Rain rooks Rumburgh Rumburgh Church sheep Sheffield snow snowdrops spring stock dove Suffolk Suffolk Wildlife Trust sunset the Beck trees viburnum bodnantense walking weather wild cherry wild flowers winter-flowering honeysuckle witch-hazel

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.com

Goodreads

Blog at WordPress.com.

Art in Nature

The Beauty of the Moment

The Strawberry Post

A Beautiful Mix of Posts on Many Different Subjects

A Druid's Life

An experiential journey of life through the eyes of a Druid.....

You dream, I photographe it !

Smile! You’re in Barnier World......

Dragonfly Gems

If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.

theinfill

the things that come to hand

Dr. Mary Ann Niemczura

Author of "A Past Worth Telling"

Provincial Woman

Life in Mud Spattered Boots

CREATIVE COUNTRY LIFE at SLAMSEYS

thepinkwheelbarrowcom.wordpress.com/

Colouring the Past

The Mindful Gardener

The sensory pleasures and earthy delights of gardening.

Luanne Castle's Writer Site

Memoir, poetry, & writing theory

The Family Kalamazoo

A genealogical site devoted to the history of the DeKorn and Zuidweg families of Kalamazoo and the Mulder family of Caledonia

everythingchild

TheBookOwl

Mainly non-fiction book reviews. Science, nature, memoirs, history etc. Also fiction

Canberra's Green Spaces

people, places and green spaces in Canberra

Schnippelboy

Ein Tagebuch unserer Alltagsküche-Leicht zum Nachkochen

Paul Harley Photographer

WALKS WITH PUMPKIN

bowlandclimber

Walks and climbs

M T McGuire Authorholic

Humorous fantasy fiction author... the books are quite funny too... seeking an agent, a publisher and my fortune.

Tails from a Norfolk cottage

Moments from a Norfolk Country Cottage. The furred & feathered & the worn and weathered. A Druid Herbalist with a Passion for Cats, Vintage, Dogs, Interiors, Nature, Hens, Organic Veggie Food, Plants & Trees & a Kinship with The Earth.

Woodland Wildflowers

Of the Wye valley and beyond.

East of Elveden

Hidden places, secret histories and unsung geography from the east of England and beyond

Ari Meghlen - Writer | Blogger | Bad card player

Tips, tricks and tutorials for writers and authors

Bald as Brass

Become who you really are

Slamseys Journal

Creative country living at Slamseys Farm

Fanny the Champion of the World

Recently widowed. Losing a breast. Swears a lot.

A Listening Heart

'Unearthly minstrelsy! then only heard when the soul seeks to hear; when all is hush'd, and the heart listens!'

derrickjknight

Ramblings

Let their light shine!

Bible stories, craft and creative ideas for toddler groups, children's ministry and families

I Bought A Camera...

...now what do I do?

Growing out of chaos

Living life differently

Annika Perry's Writing Blog

Join me as I edit my first novel and aim for publication

Patsy's Creative Corner

A Blog of a Wide Spectrum of Ideas

Just another travel blog

Language, mass travel and politics

Life Through A Blog

From Suffolk to London and beyond

Every number one

Journey through all the songs that topped the charts

Retirement Reflections

What I Wish I Knew Before I Retired

joshfspear.wordpress.com/

Josh Spear

Art Gowns

The Art of Glamorous Fantasy

My Peacock Books

Books, Art, Poetry & Peacocks!

Books, Books and More Books!

Read a Review, Leave a Comment!

Notes From the Hinterland

A blog about nature, home, community, books, writing, the environment, food, and rural life.

Memoirs of a National Trust Ranger

A year in the life of a trainee countryside ranger on the Bath Skyline

The World according to Dina

Notes on Seeing, Reading & Writing, Living & Loving in The North

The Wellness Prepper

Is Health Your #1 Priority?

Church of the Earth People

Research and Restoration concerning the Earth

Become Conscious

Cancel
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
%d bloggers like this: