Mixing the Seasons

It has been very quiet in the garden lately and I haven't had to fill all of the seed feeders daily, as I usually do. I think the Sparrowhawk may be around but of course there is also an abundance of hedgerow fruit to keep the birds happy.

I took quite a lot of photographs in the Summer which I haven't posted yet so I hope to include some of them over the next few weeks. Among the butterfly photos I was pleasantly surprised to find a Small Copper which I don't think I have ever seen before and which I didn't realise I had even photographed!

Small Copper Butterfly

Comma Butterfly

This lovely butterfly (Polygonia c-album) was almost extinct in Britain 100 years ago. It is unclear why this was but there were only one or two sightings in the southern counties of England between 1830 and 1920. Thankfully their numbers started to increase again around 1930. It gets its name from the small white comma or 'c' mark on the underside of its wings.

In Winter it hibernates on the lower branches of trees and with its wings closed it is perfectly camouflaged as a dead leaf! When Hops were commonly grown in this country they were the host plant for the Comma caterpillar, hence its nickname hop-cat. Now there are far fewer Hops grown they make do with Stinging Nettles. The black and white caterpillars resemble bird droppings!

Peacock Butterfly

'Fair Child of Sun and Summer! we behold
With eager eyes thy wings bedropp'd with gold;
The purple spots that o'er thy mantle spread,
The sapphire's lively blue, the ruby's red,
Ten thousand various blended tints surprise,
Beyond the rainbow's hues or peacock's eyes.'

(Joseph Warton)

Common Blue Butterfly

The next two photos are pretty awful but are of a bird I have always longed to see. They were taken in August in a small wooded area in the grounds of a National Trust property we were visiting. I suddenly heard a slightly muffled tapping noise behind me and taken completely by surprise I hastily fired off some shots. These two were the 'best' of a bad lot and I have been sitting on them in the hope of seeing another and getting a much better photograph but so far to no avail. I know some people are lucky enough to have them visit their gardens but I have never seen one in mine. I assume the slight tapping I heard was its beak as it probed the bark of the tree for insects.

Nuthatch

'In summer showers a skreeking noise is heard
Deep in the woods of some uncommon bird
It makes a loud and long and loud continued noise
And often stops the speed of men and boys
They think somebody mocks and goes along
And never thinks the nuthatch makes the song'

(John Clare)

On one of our visits to Draycote Water I took this photo of a Lapwing and while it doesn't portray the bird itself very well I was pleased with the way the colours of the bird and its shadow are echoed in the ripples of the water.

Talking of unexpected effects the next photo almost looks like it is in black and white. It was taken in the daytime and I haven't done anything to it but I quite like its moody look!

On our last visit to Draycote I was thrilled to see another bird which I have never seen before (at least not knowingly) it really is a place rich in bird life. The Lesser Scaup is still there but has eluded me so far. Every time I hear of its current location, I find that by the time I get there it has been moved on to a different part of the water by the fishermen or boats and as it is about a five and a half mile walk all the way round it is not easy to locate one bird! There has also been a Black Redstart there recently but I have not been able to visit since it was spotted. It is more difficult now with the shorter days.

Anyway, back to my new bird, which I nearly missed as I was so busy scanning the water. I suddenly heard twittering sounds coming from the grassy bank, to the right of the path which runs alongside the water, and saw a flock of Meadow Pipits foraging amongst the grass, presumably for insects, and every time they were disturbed they would soar up en masse and land again a little further on.

Meadow Pipit

This lovely Robin posed beautifully for me near the feeders at Draycote on what had been quite a dull afternoon. I spotted it perched in a hedge with a sudden burst of late afternoon sun shining directly onto it.

Robin

'I wonder how a robin hears?
I never yet have seen his ears.
But I have seen him tip his head
And pull a worm right out of bed.'

(Anon)

This Black-headed Gull was showing off its acrobatic skills! Unfortunately the light wasn't good and the photos aren't very sharp.

I always find Pied Wagtails difficult to photograph probably because they are rarely still but this one posed long enough for me to get a half decent shot.

I think there is something delightful and rather elegant about the Great Crested Grebe although on land they are clumsy due to their feet being so far back on their bodies!

They get their name, of course, from the elaborate head feathers which appear during the breeding season. This lovely bird was almost extinct in the 1800s due to demand for the head feathers as decoration for hats! By 1860 there were less than 100 breeding pairs in the UK. Thankfully attention was drawn to their plight by conservationists and the Great Crested Grebe made a successful comeback.

They have a rather spectacular courtship display which involves beak to beak head shaking which enhances the appearance of their crest feathers and both sexes dive underwater to fill their beaks with pondweed. Then raising themselves out of the water they paddle rapidly breast to breast, heads swinging from side to side.

Young grebes are attractively zebra-striped and capable of swimming and diving almost as soon as they hatch. For the first 2 or 3 weeks of their lives they ride on their parents' backs but are soon discouraged and thrown off to fend for themselves!

While on one of our walks the Shield Bug in the following photo attached itself to the back of HLH's sweater!

Forest Bug (Pentatoma rufipes)

Finally two more photos from Draycote, the first is a Coot looking as comical as they usually do

and this one which shows that people go there for many diverse reasons, here is just one of them!

I hope he wasn't exceeding the speed limit!