Cheerful Colour and a Continental Cormorant

Several local walks recently showed definite signs that Winter is starting to lose his cruel and icy grip and that Spring's gentle hand is reaching out to make her tentative mark upon the landscape.

'WITH rushing winds and gloomy skies
The dark and stubborn Winter dies.
Far-off, unseen, Spring faintly cries,
Bidding her earliest child arise:

March!'

(Bayard Taylor)

The Snowdrops won't be here much longer.

Snowdrops

'Snow-drop, earliest flower of Spring !
Array'd in spotless white;
O hither come, and with thee bring
What must all eyes delight.'

(Catherine George Ward Mason)

There were lots of Blue Tits enjoying the sunshine and examining every twig and branch for insects. The more yellow the male's breast is the more he is attractive to the female as the yellowness indicates high levels of carotene pigmentation due to the amount of yellowy-green caterpillars he has eaten. This tells the female he will be good at feeding chicks!

In the West Country the Blue Tit is sometimes known as 'Little Billy Biter' as it is a staunch defender of its nest and will peck at an intruding finger!

Blue Tit

This Great Tit had its feathers fluffed up to keep itself warm on what was a sunny but cold day.

Great Tit

I was thrilled to see my first Violets of the year.

Violets

'The violet in her green-wood bower,
Where birchen boughs with hazels mingle,
May boast itself the fairest flower
In glen, or copse, or forest dingle.'

(Sir Walter Scott)

There is one particular place where I can usually be guaranteed to see our tiniest bird, the delightful little Goldcrest but photographing it is not guaranteed, they are such busy little birds, always moving from branch to branch and tree to tree in their quest for a meal of tasty insects. On this occasion I managed a couple of photos (the one at the top of this post and the following one) although neither are as well focused as I would have liked. This one shows how it earned its name.

Goldcrest

It was also lovely to see the cheerful, golden flowers of the Gorse which looked beautiful in the sunshine against the blue sky. If you look carefully you will see at least three Ladybirds, another sure sign that the year is moving forward.

Gorse

'And over-head in richer gold
The gorse's hardy flow'rs unfold.'

(Mary Russell Mitford)

I was fascinated by this Lichen.

Lichen (Bushy Fruticose)

Lichen is a primitive plant species, strands of algae linked with roots and branches of a fungus that together absorb minerals from the ground and conduct photosynthesis. They first appeared about 400 million years ago!

It can grow almost anywhere, from moist bark to recently cooled lava to frozen rocks. Its body, called a thallus, can be made of different types of fungi and blue-green algae, which will determine how much water it needs or to what it can attach.

Three major types of Lichen grow into different shapes on various surfaces. Crustose grows into unique flat plates that look like mushrooms. Foliose looks leafier, with small, green lobes, and grows in wetter climates beside moss. If you see lichen that resembles viney clumps hanging from branches, it is probably fruticose which is what I think the one above is although I am not sure of the exact identification.

As it is very sensitive to pollution, especially sulphur dioxide, environmentalists use it's presence as a gauge of the cleanliness of the air. Incidentally, Beatrix Potter was one of the first people to postulate that lichens are a symbiosis of fungi and bacteria!

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It is always a pleasure to see Long-tailed Tits flitting from tree to tree. This one was doing an impression of a Treecreeper :)

Long-tailed Tit

'Like feathered dart, the long-tailed titmouse flies'

(Allan Ramsay)

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On our latest visit to Draycote I spotted a Cormorant which looked slightly odd to me. I took several photos of it and did some research when I got home and found it was the Continental Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis This subspecies is uncommon in the UK and is usually found inland. While the white head is an indication that it is P. c. sinensis, the only reliable feature that can be used to separate them from the British subspecies, P. c. carbo, is the angle of the gular patch (the yellow patch at the base of the bill). I was pleased I had noticed it was different and found later that it had been mentioned on the Draycote website.

Continental Cormorant (above and below)

Finally, these Daffodil buds were a welcome sight. In the next few weeks, as these lovely flowers open properly, they will be brightening the gardens, parks and roadsides all across Britain, with their colourful and cheerful faces.

Daffodils

Have a lovely weekend and ... enjoy the beauty of Nature, wherever you are.