New Year resolution

In case you wondered why I uploaded a post about summer and autumn yesterday, I can confess that I made a resolution to try and do at least one blog post per month this year and realised I still  had a post in draft form from last year, so thought I'd publish it and then start afresh.

Now I am just in time to catch the end of the first month and keep my resolution going, so, here are some of my latest sightings!

Snowdrops have been out since at least the first week of January and although they are not perhaps as prolific as last year, they still make a welcome sight in the gloom of the depths of winter. I was particularly pleased to see them in Underway Meade, where some of you may know I am now involved in its future upkeep. (A separate blog post on the Meade will be uploaded soon.)






We have been doing some pruning of a small goat willow tree in the garden recently and I stacked the branches by the fence. It seems "Onky Donkey", in the neighbouring paddock, has a liking for the bark which he has stripped off every branch in a very efficient manner! Apparently it contains salicylic acid, the active component of willow extract which is used to make Aspirin, so perhaps he was self medicating!

Even though we still feel as though we are in the depths of winter with a very chilly wind blowing over the last few days the birds are already thinking about pairing up. The blue tits have been prospecting the bird boxes and the males of many species, including this lovely wren, find themselves a high perch to sing from and try to attract a mate. The rest of the time this one has been busy collecting spiders which have been dislodged when our windows and soffits were cleaned recently.

I did the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch last weekend but was a bit disappointed in how few birds visited in the hour I sat counting them. My usual Coal tit and Nuthatch remained elusive so, to cheer myself up on Monday I took myself for a walk around Nimmer. I was therefore delighted to see this chap, a Dipper, perched on a rock in the stream near the bridge next to the trout farm. A clever bird that lives by fast flowing streams and rivers and can swim underwater to catch its food of insect larvae and freshwater shrimps. Pity I don't have a stream in my garden so this bird is never likely to feature on my garden list either!

Summer progresses into autumn

The weeks in late May, June and July brought much hot sunny weather and the  local wildlife, including  insects and flowers seemed to flourish as a result.

Whilst weeding a border in my garden ( not something I do often enough!) I had to abruptly halt when I nearly speared this huge toad with my hand fork. A gardeners' friend, eating a diet of  slugs and snails, what an excellent excuse to stop for a cuppa! By the time I returned it had hopped off to find another shelter from the heat of the sun.

Toad in the undergrowth

Ringlet butterfly

Butterflies and moths  have seemed to do well this year too and I "captured" a few on film including the small tortoiseshell below which flew round the village hall one day in autumn looking for a warm spot to hibernate before alighting on the Shortmat bowls club's programme!

Small tortoiseshell 

Spring flowers and sad sights

The dreadful flooding over much of the Somerset Levels and Moors in the early part of the year meant that trips to many of our favourite local reserves, such as Greylake, were curtailed, either because they were under water or the access routes to them were closed. We can only be thankful that in most of Combe we escaped the worst and the first spring wild flowers were a welcome sight.
In SSW the snowdrops and daffodils made an early appearance, then the cowslips followed by the yellow rattle which has really established itself in the un-mown areas now.

Yellow rattle

This has been a really good orchid year, perhaps the wet winter had a part to play and the local  pyramidal orchids were lovely.

Pyramidal Orchid

I was saddened though  to see that someone had been stealing these delicate plants and the land owner, quite rightly put up signs noting their concern.

Another sad sight during June was this young fox which had, unluckily for it, chosen the narrowest part of the cross bars to try and jump over a gate and got itself stuck. It must have been a frightening death, struggling to get a foothold to push through but finally strangling itself. A fluke accident if ever there was. (Though I am sure some people will not be sorry to see one fewer fox in the locality, it was not a nice way to go).

Travels overseas since January

Those who know me will be aware that already this year we have been on quite few overseas trips and so this blog has been somewhat in abeyance. This post will try and do a catch up and then further posts will follow shortly, relating once more to Combe St. Nicholas.

Costa Rica Our first trip this year was in February / March to Costa Rica, a very small country about the size of Wales, which is located between Nicaragua and Panama on the narrow strip of land between North and South America known as Central America.

We first visited Costa Rica in 2007 when we did a tour of the southern part of the country down as far as the Panama border. We enjoyed it so much, with its fantastic bird life, colourful scenery and friendly people that we vowed to return and when the opportunity to tour the northern part of the country arose we decided to go.

Bare throated tiger heron

In a two week trip, which saw us staying on both the Pacific coast and the Atlantic coast, as well as beside the Arenal volcano in between, we saw over 400 species of birds, many mammals including sloths and capuchin, howler and spider and monkeys, butterflies, reptiles and beautiful flowers. It was a really lovely holiday, though the high temperatures and humidity might not be to everyone's liking!
Here are just a few of the many hundreds of 
pictures we took whilst there.... 

Sleepy Porcupine

Even sleepier owl looking like he had had a hard night!

Resplendent quetzal

Three toed sloth

Arenal Volcano

Arizona Our second trip this year was to Arizona, another wildlife watching holiday which started off in Phoenix, headed south to the amazing Chiricahua National Park with its organ pipe rock formation, 

 Chiricahua National Park

 then north via Tombstone ( site of the Ok Corale and locals still looking the part!)

Welcome to Tombstone

 and the Saguara National Park ( with amazing cacti) 

to the red cliffs of Sedona,

finally  ending up at the Grand Canyon. 

The scenery was spectacular throughout and anyone who thinks Arizona is mostly desert would, like us, be very surprised at the variety of landscapes and the amount of forest there were as well as wonderful wildlife, like this road runner, straight out of the cartoons of our childhood!

We were also surprised by the changing temperatures, from thirty degrees centigrade, to below freezing and snow thrown in all in the space of a day!

The Algarve, Portugal
Our most recent trip was to the Algarve in May and is a place we have been to many times over the last fifteen or so years as we have had a small time-share studio apartment on the coast there. This was the end of an era though as we have now given up our apartment but we have many happy memories of the trips we have taken at different times of the year.
Some of our favourite birds seen there are the colourful bee eaters and hoopoes and they did not disappoint this year.

So hopefully this post will have given a flavour of the exciting trips we have had so far this year and there are more to come, so watch this space!

Chard Reservoir, worth a visit!

I enjoy a walk around the Chard Reservoir, which is attractive at any time of year and in the winter it often attracts different birds on the water and the woodland ones are easier to spot due to the lack of leaves on the trees.

View towards hide from far end

Dipper

Last week the water levels were, not surprisingly, high, but so no doubt were the nearby streams and as a result an unusual sighting of a Dipper. The bird flew in and perched on one of the platforms which usually attract cormorants.

Cormorants on the platform with gulls

It then spent some time peering into the water as if deciding whether it was worth plunging in for food.In the end it gave up and flew off the other end of the reservoir, disappearing out of view.

Shall I, shan't I?

I have never seen a Dipper on this site, though frequently see Kingfishers. The trouble is the waters are both deep and murky, making catching their food quite a challenge.

Gulls and ducks were quite numerous, with Black- headed and Herring gulls and Mallard and Teal but despite a sunny start, the squall blew up and soon the surface of the water looked more like the sea than a calm lake, so we headed home.

For more information about the reservoir, including recent sightings see here:http://www.chardres.totalserve.co.uk/

Posted with Blogsy

Birds beginning to sing?

The weather over the last few weeks has been very wet, indeed the stormiest December on record (since 1969), together with windiest for 20 years. No surprise then that few birds have been frequenting the bird tables, only making an appearance on the few calmer days.
Robins were singing in early January, especially one bright, but cold morning such as this one in Combe Wood Lane. 

They do this both to claim a territory and to attract a mate for the forthcoming breeding season.Other birds that have made an appearance recently, both singing from high perches and feeding on the ground, have been song thrushes. Again I have seen one in Combe Wood Lane and whilst walking around Chard Reservoir last week saw 3 at once!

Another observation whilst walking around the lanes recently is the sight of hazel catkins, many of which seem much larger and/or more numerous than usual.

Snow drops are also making an early appearance, no doubt due to the mild weather, and the patch near the CME entrance is particularly good.
The birds venturing onto the bird feeders are increasing and I have noticed that greenfinches are quite numerous for the first time in a number of seasons. Once they find a suitable feed station they tend to defend it against all comers and one morning last week I timed one individual who stayed on one perch feeding for over 20 minutes!

Next weekend is the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch so don't forget to make sure your feeders are cleaned and topped up so you get the best birds to your garden!

Cat on the prowl

Whilst out walking along Combe Wood Lane this week I hear a commotion from a small flock of house sparrows. These birds are usually about along the hedgerows in this area and no doubt roost in the eaves of a number of older cottages along the lane. The noise alerted me to them as they were obviously making alarm calls so I thought there might be a sparrow hawk about. 

Male house sparrow

However, walking closer to the hedge soon identified the reason for the sparrows' concern. It was a black cat sitting in the middle of the field.

I noticed however that it wasn'tactually showing any interest in the sparrows in the hedge and then, only when it saw me and stood up did a pied wagtail fly up into the air in front of it. The sparrows had been a useful lookout for the pied wagtail and the cat gave up its hunt and stalked off.