Frogs and Feeders; Bullhead and Butterbur

 Spring really seems to have got underway. Already I noted Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage in flower and not too far away a frog orgy producing lots of frog spawn

 

I usually start reducing the bird food I put out once spring begins. I checked one of the bird feeders and found after six years it was no longer fit for purpose. I will need to buy a new one in September.

Still on Cuerden Valley Park, we had our first education visit of the year delivering river studies. Our Education officer covers the river geography and I don wellies to help the school children search for river invertibrates. 

     

It was a nice dry day, except for those who forgot they only had short wellies and had the river come over the top of them despite our several warnings. Good job they brought spare dry socks. Lots of Mayfly nymphs and a rather gorgeous Bullhead fish. It's an indicator of a clean river and was returned back to the water once the photo was taken.

 

I decided to walk home and spotted some Butterbur just in flower at the bottom of our Meadow Path.

 

Tyto, Toads and other critters

 A colleague mentioned they had seen a Barn Owl emerging from a nearby building. Enthused, I went to see if I could discover any owl pellets. This serves two purposes. First confirmation of the bird's presence and second, examination of the pellets helps us to see what prey the owl has been eating. We found at least three pellets plus the farmer kindly allowed us to have a camera installed temporarily to try to obtain more evidence of the bird. Here is a photo of the pellets. They may look disgusting to some, but remember the owl ejects them from its mouth, not its backside.

 

I had a good week in the middle of February with a few surprises. At a meeting of the Lancashie Wildlife Trust Speaker Team, I was given a special certificate in recognition of 35 years volunteering for LWT. Only a few of those were on the speaker team. In the afternoon, the Friends of Cuerden Valley Park gave me a Lifetime membership for the work I do for them over the year. Finally when I arrived home, I checked the mail and saw that someone had sent me a Valentine. It is a Leap Year after all.

At the weekend I went to say a sad farewell to one of the Watch Leaders who has felt it right to retire after 30+ years of running the group. It was a great session. She had  asked https://crittersinteractive.co.uk/  to bring some of their animals. There were snakes, stick insects, toads and a slow worm. My favourite was this large frog. 

 

The day after this I went checking round Cuerden valley Park and found Lenten Rose flowering and also  Lungwort. Spring seems to be getting earlier.

     

 A visitor to Cuerden had noticed some bees going to and coming from a tree that had recently been blown down in a storm. She asked if she could contact a bee expert to see what they could do. As a result a lady from the Bee Centre, which is based not too far away came to rescue the bees and take them to a place for TLC and placed in a new hive. We are very grateful for their involvement. I believe caring for creation involves insects as well as cuddly creatures.

  

Mammal Checks and moving cameras.

 It has been a frustrating couple of weeks with incessant rain and a poorly laptop meaning my blog writing has been curtailed. On the earliest drier day I went away from my local patch on Cuerden Valley Park to check out reports of badger acivity. Some supposed paths were only tracks made by dogs entering a bramble patch in a ditch, and snuffle holes on careful examination, proved to be roe deer slots. 

We did find some King Alfred Cakes fungi and some Yellow Brain fungus, so our trip was beneficial.

We returned to Cuerden Valley Park so that I could change the position of one of our trail cameras. During winter I have it over the reservoir to monitor winter visiting birds such as these sleeping wigeon and often a Goosander. 

 

 

 

I move it once the bluebell shoots start to show so I do not cause any disturbance for these gorgeous flowers. The camera then goes to our hedgehog feeding station to monitor their emergence from hibernation. This means we can then increase our provision of food when applicable for these 
wonderful creatures.

Bearded Tits, Bitterns and Big Garden Birdwatch.

 For the third time this winter some friends and I decided to go to rspb Leighton Moss to search for Bearded Tits, our previous visits having been unsuccessful. The first part of our walk took us past the moth trap which was still in its winter quarters. Scanning the trees there enabled us to note Siskins, Bullfinch, Blue Tits, Robins and a solitary Greenfinch. 

 

We continued towards the Causeway and were pleased to see two Marsh Harriers gracefully hunting over the reeds. Two of us then took a quick look for Sweet Violets near where the Causeway meets the road. They are one of the early flowering plants but not yet visible. I suspect it was a little too early for them. We walked down towards the Public Hide, pausing at the grit trays hoping for Bearded Tit. None arrived while we were looking. A glimpse of a Great White Egret gave us the motivaation to carry on to the hide until I heard the "ping" of a Bearded Tit. Everyone was suddenly quiet listening for more. Then there it was right in front of us. A lifer for many in our group. 

At the hide we noted Mute Swan, Cormorant, lots of Coots with a couple of Gadwall  amongst them. Two more birds which we didn't see but were able to recognise the calls were Little Grebe, and the squeal of a Water Rail. We had planned on going to Lower Hide but for some of us, our footwear was lower than the water level on the path. We decided to return to the Centre for lunch.  After lunch to the feeding station and enjoyed watching Goldfinches, Blackbirds, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Marsh Tit (pictured) and Coal Tit.

 Straight on then to Lilian's Hide to search for the reported female Ringed Neck Duck. In this we were unsuccessful. More sightings of Marsh Harrier, plus Snipe, Goldeneye, Wigeon,( pictured) Teal, Shoveler and Lapwing still made us very happy.

 

Eager for more delights we then carried on to Grisedale Hide. A Marsh Harrier was flying slowly in front of us with Shovelers, Canada Geese and the ubiquitous Mallards. We were about to leave when suddenly there it was, almost invisible, a Bittern. It had dropped in almost unnoticed. I am so glad that some of the younger members of our party have much better eyes than I. Then to cap it all the Great White Egret flew over our heads just as we left the hide. All together a wonderful day. 

The following day I helped to lead a Bird walk on Cuerden Valley Park, to coincide with the rspb National Big Garden Birdwatch 

 

As we were setting off we could already hear a Great Spotted Wood Pecker drumming and a Song Thrush starting to practise his courtship performance. Suddenly in the wood nearby, we saw the white flash of a Jay's rump 

 The bird stayed for about two minutes then departed allowing the Song Thrush to occupy the same spot. On the nearby bird feeder were Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Chaffinches and Nuthatches all busily consuming the sunflower seed. Continuing down the hill towards the river we noted a few Wood Pigeons and Carrion Crows in the field along side us. A Robin seemed to think that we might have some food and followed us for about ten minutes. We climbed the steps to the reservoir where I set up my telescope. This enabled us to have good views of  Mallards, Canada Geese, Coots, a couple of Moorhens , a single Lesser Black-backed Gull and several Black Headed Gulls. One of the latter already had its head starting to turn to summer plumage. At the far side of the reservoir we noted both male and female Goosanders. 

  

 In the trees on the island one Grey Heron was easily seen and a second one that was alittle more difficult. Returning to the stone bridge we went up the hill to the pine woodland. It was here I heard some Siskins and the unmistakable call of Long Tailed Tits. Another Robin, a Wren and a few Blue tits maintained their alarm calls as we continued our walk towards Cock Cabin Wood. I checked the Nuthatch holebut there was no activity there.A couple of Moorhens on the pond, a Blackbird and a few more Wood Pigeons were the only birds I noted. Back to the main path southwards with more raucus calls from a couple of Magpies and a good view of couple of Redwings. We speeded up a little as time was going far too quickly. I did hear a Mistle Thrush making its "rattle" call. We then climbed the winding path through our Wildflower Meadow and back to Cuerden View Cafe.

 To finish our walk, I checked the large feeder near the Walled Orchard and noted Dunnock, Bullfinch and Stock Dove. A hot chocolate drink was the perfect ending to a lovely morning.  

Snow, songs and snowdrops

 I have a couple of trail cameras in remote locations on Cuerden to monitor any wildlife that may visit when I am not there. This fox is a regular in one of the woodlands especially as it checks out the rabbit holes. You will see at the bottom right of the photo that the temperature reached -7 C. It is a still photo taken from a video clip.

 

The day after this we had more snow. The first day I stayed in mainly because I coukdn't get my vehicle out of the road in which I live. I managed to walk onto Cuerden Valley Park with the help of "YakTrax" on the bottom of my boots. I can assure you that though the fox clip was taken in black and white, the photo below of the stone bridge was taken in colour.

 

The main reason for my expedition was to fill the bird feeders we have in a number of locations on the Park. It took some birds as long as 4 seconds to get back to the seed.

One of the charities for which I volunteer, Cuerden Valley Park, has had help from the National Lottery. Beacuse of this the charity recieve tickets to the Lottery's "Big Night of Musicals" at the AO Arena in Manchester. I was one of those who went this year. It was superb with Beverly Night singing with a youth theatre. This was followed later in the evening by four tenors sharing the song "Bring him home", the fourth one being Alfie Boe. They did bring a couple of tears to my eyes Brilliant!! The girls you see in this poor photo are not part of our group. Because we drove there I made a donation to  https://www.climatestewards.org in order to offset the carbon. My colleague's good driving also made it a stress free journey both ways.

 

Most of the following week was wet and windy, but I had a short walk in the Kem Mill area of Cuerden Valley Park. Very few birds around and even fewer people. What did brighten my day was the sight of several snowdrops and crocus in flower. 

The flowers seem to think spring is on the way but my moth trap hasn't caught anything for about two weeks. This means my January Moth Challenge stands at 1. I will probably now wait until March before trying again

Little bit of mothing, Lots of planting

Sunday Jan 7 was an exciting day for me as I presented my local church with a Silver Eco-Church Award. Several members had put a lot of effort into achieving this. As part of the service we also planted some wildflower seeds from Cuerden Valley Park into some small pots. When they are a little more advanced we should then replant them back on the Park.

           

    

 

 I continued my January Moth Challenge during the following week. On the way to Cuerden Valley Park, I noticed daffodills in flower at the entrance to Clayton Brook village. I went straight to the moth  trap and was delighted to spot my first of the year. Not only that, it was the first Pale Bordered Brindle for the Park. I also spotted my first butterfly of the year, a Peacock had been disturbed from hibernation.

 

   It is turning out to be a busy January. I then had to speak at a local WI about the Wildlife of Cuerden Valley Park. I think they were more impressed by my singing of "Jerusalem" than my talk. I did point out to them that I had been part of the choir for the "Preston Passion" a few years ago. I did enjoy the parkin offered with my cup of  Redbush tea.

On Sunday the 14th Jan I went to speak on behalf of A Rocha UK at St Barnabas Church in Heapy, a village north of Chorley. They are Eco-Church Bronze Award holders and it didn't surprise me at all when after the service we planted some "whips" to complete a hedge which borders the church building. These young ones were ably assisted by their fathers. What was a pleasant surprise was a gift of a banana and sultana loaf. Was I supposed to inform the Inland Revenue?

 

 The final act of planting was more of a scattering than planting. I took some Foxglove seeds and put them into one of our woodlands on Cuerden Valley Park.

New Year re-start the blog.

 New Years Day meant the start of the New Year Plant Hunt. Organised by the BSBI we look for any plants in flower from December 30 to Jan 2nd. I chose to search my local patch which is Cuerden Valley Park. The first plants to note were some that I expected, Daisy, Groundsel, Gorse and Hazel. So many Hazel trees had large catkins which amazed us. Then approaching the river Lostock we startled a kingfisher which flew off quickly. This photo by Alan Graves one of our team

      

 

More surprises delighted us as we continued in the woodland, Scarlet Elfcup, a fungus and Goat willow with catkins showing.

           

We returned to the cafe area to look inside the Walled Orchard. The bird feeders were very busy with blue tits, great tits, coal tits, dunnock, bullfinches, nuthatches flitting back and forward. A mistle thrush was practising his song and a stock dove declared its presence nearby. At the Walled Orchard the outside wall hosted Ivy-leaved Toadflax in flower but inside we were surprised again by a primrose in full flower.

                              

 

As we were finishing it started to rain, but only gently so we decided to call it a day. In total we had 12 plants in flower. There were some locations in the south of England that had 70+ and one had an astonishung 100. It shows how quickly our climate is changing.

On January 4th I started another project - The January Moth Challenge. We'd had a couple of wet nights so I waited for the first dry..ish one. My experience was similar to that of the the disciples of Jesus in the period after the resurrection  - Simon Peter announced, "I'm going fishing."They went out and got in the boat. They caught nothing that night .

There will be more nights in January, so I will let you know how I got on.