Along the leafy lane

I took this photo back in March to show a nice lane where I sometimes walk during my 1/2 hour lunch break at work. As you can imagine by the sign, there's not an awful lot of traffic down this lane, perfect for strolling down.Today I decided to revisit. As you can see it is quite a bit more leafy now and the only traffic I met was a nice lady on a horse (sorry I didn't take a piccy).Most of the wildflowers I photographed earlier in the year have gone over, nevertheless it was still a lovely peaceful place.As I called it leafy, I thought I should photograph some leaves! (-: I think these are Sycamore.I thought this burry Oak tree was a great character. It must have seen some good history in its time!I can't resist ferns and this Hart's tongue fern wanted its photo taken so I obliged.At the bottom of the lane where the road ends and it becomes a pathway, there was this gorgeous house! I want to live there!!!Such a peaceful position and as you will see in a moment, there is a lovely river at the bottom of the garden.This pathway over the bridge leads to the little village of Tellisford.It's a beautiful little wooden bridge laid with cobblestones and straddles the River Frome.As I stood on the bridge and took in the peace and quiet, I watched a family of Grey Wagtails feeding on and around the stones in the river. Too far away for photography I'm afraid. Unfortunately time was against me, I had to get back to work, so I made my way back up the lane.At the top I found this lovely Field Rose. This is different from the more common Dog Rose in that it always carries white flowers and its hips are more rounded.I'm sure this is a Knapweed, but I'm not sure which, probably Common Knapweed. I need my brother to tell me for sure....or anyone else?

Pond time

When I was taking photos of Poppy cat around the pond the other day, I also managed to take some photos of what was going on in and around the pond too. These Large Red Damselflies had got it together and were ovipositing in the pond. A third one was trying to get in on the act, but never managed it and I didn't manage to get a decent photo of that either which was a shame.The common newts are still pretty active in the pond. I love the way they splay their feet out when then want to stop in the water! (-:Here's a couple taking a stroll, sorry swim around the block. There is an out of focus pond skater in this photo too.I love primulas, but they don't seem to like the soil here so I'm trying to grow them in pots and place the pots around the pond. Seems to be working so far (digits crossed)!Evie from Sunny Side Up requested a photo of our visiting Hedgehogs poo, so here it is Evie! Good eh? That is about 3 inches long in case you were wondering. (-:On that note, I shall end this post! (-:

Garden surprise!

Chris, being a cabinetmaker has to keep his stock of wood somewhere. So we have a couple of piles of planks in the garden to 'air dry'. The other day Chris had to check on one of the piles to get some wood out and found a surprise under the polythene cover!This young hedgehog was taking a snooze in our cosy woodpile! We haven't seen a hedgehog in our garden for years so this was a real thrill. I would love to have seen its snout and got a photo, but I didn't want to wake it up so I just left a pile of sultanas under there and we put the polythene back. Luckily, Chris didn't need to actually get any wood out on this occasion.

Oh dear!

I've gone and done it again! It is West Somerset not North Somerset. You'd think I'd know my own county wouldn't you! (-:

Chetsford Water, North Somerset!

Our second stop on this birding day out in North Somerset took us to Chetsford Water. I LOVE this place. I would imagine it could be quite bleak in the winter, but at this time of year it is a lush small valley with a tinkling stream and stunted Hawthorn and Rowan trees dotted along the path.It's not often in this crowded country where you can go somewhere and experience an absence of any mechanical or human produced sound. Here we were lucky enough to have just that experience and it was bliss!

The only sounds we did hear were the babbling stream which kept us company along the valley floor and the occasional bleating sheep and 'seeping' call of the resident Meadow Pipits.One of our target birds to see here was the Whinchat and here is a beautiful male. Again, these photos were taken from a distance and well cropped as both the male and female appeared to show signs that they were nesting nearby.Some birds just make the heart race faster when you see them. This is one of those for me!This is a little streamlet that runs down a side gully to the valley floor. I could spend alot of time just sitting here. It's just too pretty!Here is a beautifully sculptured old Hawthorne tree. I wonder how old it is?The stream that runs along the valley is perfect for Grey Wagtails. I snapped a couple of shots of this male while he was fly catching in a Hawthorn tree.

To finish this walk, here is a photo of the heath covered hills on Exmoor National Park. In September this will be a riot of purple heather! Maybe I'll do a return trip in the autumn to see that.

Error

A friend has just told me that Horner Wood is in fact in the county of Somerset rather than North Devon which is quite a few miles further west. Many thanks for pointing this out John.
More from North Somerset tomorrow! (-:

Horner Wood, North Devon

Today I went with my friend Jane on a two hour drive due west to Exmoor National Park in the county of North Devon. Jane was leading a bird walk there for the Bristol Ornithological Club. We visited two areas. In this post I will write about our first stop at Horner Wood.
This is predominantly a Beech and Oak woodland in the gently rolling hills of the Exmoor National Park. The woodland here tends to hug the steep valleys (coombs) while the hills are mainly heathland/moorland.We come to this area to target mainly western specialities like Wood Warbler, Pied Plycatcher and Redstart that favour this type of woodland. It wasn't too long before we heard the distinctive 'pew pew pew pew' call of the Wood Warbler. The other half of this beautiful warblers song is a pulsating trill which it delivers while shivering its entire body! This is without doubt my favourite 'old world' warbler with its pure white underparts and lemon yellow throat with greenish back. A very 'clean' and smart bird. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any photos.Below is a heavily cropped photo of a male Pied Flycatcher. This male and the female below were attending a nest of young so we didn't want to get too close and cause any disturbance.Here is the female with one of the young birds begging from its hole in this English Oak.There were quite a few Foxgloves in this area (you'd have loved it Christine) (-: I took this one against the fast running stream at the bottom of the valley.This juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker was trying out his pecking skills on a dead tree. The juveniles have that red on the top of the crown whereas the male just has a small patch at the back of the crown and the female no red on the head at all.Just a photo of a Fern frond, because I like them! (-:I also liked these birch trunks on the steep climb back up to where the cars were parked.It may not look it from this photo, but this is a killer climb at the end of our walk through these wonderful woods.My next post will cover the other place we visited today a little bit further along the coast at Chetsford Water.

Poppy and the pond

Our Poppy kitten cat seems to have an empathy with the pond area of our small garden. She can often be found in various poses around our aquatic haven as the following photos show.....

Er...obviously the first photo isn't around the pond, but I couldn't resist putting it in. I've called it 'Amongst the bubbles'. (-:'Intent''Leaning over''Chilling out''This is my seat''Hug a rock'She's also started eating my Runner Bean leaves!!! The cheeky rascal, though I haven't had my camera in hand so far when she's been doing it!

Second half of Stourhead bird survey

After leaving the footpath (from my last post) I made my way down this lane towards the lake at Stourhead. There was plenty of bird song in the trees here, Winter Wren, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Dunnock, Blackbird, Song Thrush (who was trying to drown them all out!) and a Jay making a racket! At the bottom of this lane there is a swathe of conifers where I came across a small Grey Heron rookery. Too far away for any decent photographs, but I was chuffed to see them with chicks in.This is my route down to the lake area (seen in the distance there). This lake was teaming with waterbirds in the two winter survey walks I did, but today all I could manage were some Mallards and Canada Geese and the bird below....It was great to see this pair of Great Crested Grebes on the nest. This bird certainly goes into the 'definitely breeding' category for the bird atlas!When I looked at the photos on the computer, I noticed the weird change in the colour of the lake as I moved further around taking photos (from a distance). These are cropped quite a bit.Maybe Steve B from shooting my universe blog or anyone else could tell me why this happened? I'm guessing it's a photography phenomenon?Finally, I took this photo because I liked the red and orange together and because I took a photo of it back in the winter too. These are our old style telephone boxes and you don't see many of them about nowadays! (-: Maybe I'll have some different photos to take when I have to go and do this survey again in the next couple of weeks.

Final bird survey for Stourhead tetrad...or is it!

On Sunday I decided to do the last of four bird surveys for the area around Stourhead which lies about 15 minutes drive south of Frome. As I've mentioned in previous posts on this particular tetrad there is a great diversity of habitat around my planned two hour walk. The photos I took for this blog post are along a short stretch of bridleway (permissive footpath including horses) which links the farmland part of my walk to the lake area with both deciduous and coniferous woodland. I came across a pair of Golden ringed Dragonflies which surprised me as it is a bit early for them and also their favoured habitat is moorland or heathland. This one is the female with its long pointed ovipositor.Over the past couple of weeks there has been an invasion of Painted Lady butterflies across the country. They have migrated up from Africa and southern Europe in their thousands which is most unusual. Most years I would be lucky to see one at all, but this year I've seen them in droves, making a steady and determined flight northward. Most have looked quite tatty, but the one I photographed here doesn't look in too bad a shape.Further along the bridleway I came across this startled rabbit. He let me get off a couple of snapshots before bouncing away into the foliage.Finally, the Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea). The local common name in Somerset is Fairy Bells. This is a very poisonous plant, but is used in small doses as a stimulant to the heart. I don't see it often around here, but it reminds me very much of time spent birding in the county of Cornwall in the extreme south west of England were it is abundant along the country lanes there.
The reason I say 'or is it' in the title is that I did this survey on the Sunday 31st of May, when officially I should only have done it after the 1st of June! So, I should really do it all again sometime in the next couple of weeks which I wont mind at all as it is such a lovely area! (-:
PS: Something I keep meaning to mention. At the moment we have our yearly three week program on the BBC called Springwatch were the BBC sets up live cameras to watch all sorts of nature going on in the country. It is on for an hour each evening from Monday to Thursday which is a real treat. Anyway, if you're interested in watching webcams of nesting birds etc then click on this link to watch various nests live. Of course, to my blogging friends in foreign parts, don't forget the time difference. www.bbc.co.uk/springwatch/webcams . The actual webcams are on every day for the next two weeks now and shut off at midnight British time.