So, at the end of the first week...

I have a grand total of 154 species (and one pending identifacation)! Including:

32 birds
31 invertibrates
2 mammals
88 plants
and 1 amphibian

 Happy Days! ;)

Day 3 - If you do one thing this summer...

... read this book

 

it will change the way you look at the world

Day 2 - more of a wandering

Count total: 137
Day total: 25

As is always on the second day of a project like this, things slow down quite considerably, due to the exhaustiveness of day 1. However, that doesn't mean the following days aren't as rewarding. Today, I took the dog for a walk on the local limestone crags, it was stunningly beautiful: hot sunshine tempered by a strong, cool wind, clear blue sky and a view which seemed to go on forever.

The short, sheep-cropped turf was studded with wildflowers, dancing in the breeze, all manner of bright colours from hazy purples to soft grey-greens and star-like yellows.

The geology of this area has always fascinated me, it was once underwater (by 'once' I mean millions of years ago!) and this has left a myriad of marine fossils. The rocks are studded with corals and crinoids. I used to spend hours up here, in all weathers, and many of the smaller stones have ended up in my garden - probably one day I should take them back!

But today it was the living world the filled my senses: we - me and the dog - stopped for a break at the top of a limestone crag and sat for a while looking up. The sky was dotted with swallows and, especially exciting for me, swifts and house martins. Even two years ago, I would never get swifts on my patch and to see them scything through the perfectly blue summer sky seemed so special. As for house martins, I have never seen them on the patch, so that was a nice treat of a patch 'life' tick!

As we leave the crags, I smell the unmistakable fragrance of elderflower - my favourite summer scent. It holds so  much nostalgia for me. The memories of long, hot summer days spent with friends in the garden, running around, drenching each other with hosepipes and sprinklers, then stopping for ice creams and elderflower cordials. I rejoice each year when the elderflower buds start unfurling!

Elderflower

Dog rose

Perennial Cornflower

    

 

Day 1 Highlights

Day total: 112 Species

23 Birds

19 Insects

70 Plants

Fly on Caraway Head

Blue Tit Parent and Juvenile

Greater Stitchwort

7-Spot Ladybird

Lesser Stitchwort

Common Field Speedwell

Spider

Spotted Flycatcher

Male Red-Tailed Bumblebee

Prologue

As I walked out one June afternoon, I am greeted by the cool, refreshing air my exam-fogged brain craves. It has been raining, the hard and heavy June rain that suppresses and keeps you inside with its closeness. But now it has eased, only the verdant grass remains testament to the deluge, so I set off down the field to the 'damp corner' I call my nature reserve.
Around me, the air is filled with birdsong, blue tit and house sparrows chatter and chunter and a collared dove coos gently, then a sound that stops me in my tracks. Is it? Could it possibly be? I strain my ears again for the soothing disyllabic call of the male cuckoo, but no, he has gone quiet. I continue down the field, crossing from where the donkeys graze to the sheep-cropped land, from where the dazzling lemon of the buttercups creates a haze of gold to where buttercups are few, growing close to the turf like bright stars beneath my boots.
Reaching Pooh's Corner, I am greeted by a shock: the grass, which I only cut recently, has grown so it now reaches far beyond the tops of my wellies. I sigh, sacrificing my dry jeans, I make to wade in. But again something stops me. This time it's a pellet lying on top of the gate. I crush it with a stick: no bones, so not a raptor or owl pellet, but it does show my little haven is being used by wildlife.
I am halfway through checking the trees are not swamped by the recent profusion of foliage when once more I am brought to a halt. There it is again, faint but unmistakable this time, those two notes "cuc-coo... cuc-coo", coming from across the valley.
A sense of relief floods through me, I thought it would be too late for this particular harbinger of spring to be calling now it is mid June. It is also a comfort as each spring I listen intently for the cuckoo, dreading the year when I don’t hear it, evidence of another nail in the coffin of this sub-Saharan migrant.
I pause. Should I start my count now, just to include cuckoo on my list? Should I bring forward my start date, just to satisfy my compulsive listing habit? Mentally, I slap my wrist: no! I will start on Sunday, as I have always planned, once exam season is over, to record each and every species not only in Pooh's Corner, but on my whole patch this summer.
Birds, beasts and butterflies, insects and amphibians, all varieties of wild flora and fauna in fact. (Provided I can identify it, of course!) I have decided on this challenge, inspired by the 1000 Species Challenge, to keep me busy through this long and blissful summer. Not only this, but it will also put me back in touch with nature in all its forms since my enforced sojourn away dedicated to more academic learning, and widen and fine-tune my knowledge and ID skills. I intend to learn about plants and insects as well as consolidating up and expanding my somewhat limited recognition of bird calls and song. (I am currently reading Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo, by Michael McCarthy and his chapter about 'warbling' with Mark Cocker has left my feeling both awed and inadequate!)
I know this will be challenging, and at the moment my tired head cannot quite fathom how I will do it, but it will be fun and insightful, I hope, and I cannot wait to get started!

But right now, I think it is tea time! :)

conversations

blackbird

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was stood today helping my friend clean out nest boxes and listening to two dueting blackbirds, and it struck me that they don't just 'sing' - their voices are structured into a conversation. As each bird finishes his serenade, the other begins. Sometimes they sing at the same time, harmonising. At other times both are quite, as if to pause and gather their thoughts.It just goes to show how even things that seem simple, when you look a little deeper and actually pay attention to your surroundings, they are really quite complex. Look. Listen. Understand.

summer photos