Last week's 30 Days Wild was mainly garden based (I just didn't have the time to go out).
I found Cinnabar Moth caterpillars on Ragwort in the no mow zone of the lawn. I spotted a pair of moths in this area of the garden a month or so back so am assuming that was when the eggs were laid.
I watched a female robin taking nest material into ivy on the patio. I think she is now sitting on eggs as I have seen the male taking the occasional insect in there. I will try and get some photos when they start feeding young and are making more visits.
I found two new species of wild flower that have colonised the garden. I thought the first was Birdsfoot Trefoil but am now having second thoughts and wonder if it is Meadow Vetchling?
The second species is Travellers Joy or Old Man's Beard.
Edit - Huge thanks to John Scurr (see comments) for pointing out that this plant shows more of the characteristics of White Bryony - still a new species for the garden :)
I set free a House Sparrow trapped in the garage
I spotted a stunning sunset (sorry about the telegraph poles and wires!)
One day I spent 10 minutes looking up at the sky and saw a Buzzard soaring over, a screaming Swift and Black-headed Gulls. I also looked for bats, without success, at dusk.
There is a large office block not too far from here where I know Peregrine Falcons have for several years used one of the nest boxes provided. They were there when I went a few years ago but no sign this time. Although to be fair I didn't linger for long as they have changed the car park which now has barriers which I decided not to attempt to pass in case I couldn't get out again!
I spent 10 minutes counting butterflies in the garden - 2 Large White, Speckled Wood and a new species for the year Large Skipper were spotted.
Here is the Green Man pot I planted two weeks ago. To be honest they are not the plants I would have chosen but they were left over from purchases B made for the front garden. On the positive side B and Q have stopped using neonicitinoid pesticides on the plants they grow and sell so at least any insects can forage in safety.
I paid a brief visit to Elmdon Nature Park but have to be honest here and say the main reason for going was to see a Red Arrows fly-past to celebrate Land Rover/Jaguars 70th anniversary. Unfortunately I chose the wrong park! Elmdon is right next to the vast Land Rover complex but the main festivities were taking place in Solihull Town Centre and Tudor Grange Park and that is where the jets flew past!!! I was not happy with myself - should have researched it more carefully although quite a few other people were caught out too and there were many disappointed faces!
Recent Reading
If you like Jane Austen's novels I am sure you would enjoy this book.
I really do enjoy nature writing by John Lewis-Stempel and if you liked The Running Hare and Meadowlands you would also love this book.
The Poldark book is a re-read - I first read all these novels about 30/40 years ago. I suddenly realised the new tv series was about to start and had to race to finish this one. I've also just started re-reading the next in the series. I can't believe I got rid of all my hardback Poldark books in one of my clearing out sessions - some look now to be worth more than what I paid for them!
"Beloved Warwickshire" was a real find in my favourite second hand bookshop in Coleshill. I first came across this author at the same bookshop a year or so back when I bought and read a delightful fiction story called "Good Harvest" - a charming romance set on a local farm earlier in the twentieth century.
Mary Rose Hadfield was born in Marston Green, Warwickshire. Her father was the second master at Coleshill Grammar School and when Mary was three years old the family moved to live in a farm near the market town of Coleshill. Mary married into a local farming family and she and her husband ran a dairy home in rural Wales for many years before finally returning to Warwickshire when she began to write.
Beloved Warwickshire is full of charming poems of so many places in Warwickshire that I know and love (many very local) and illustrated with her beautiful paintings of wild flowers, grasses, leaves and seeds.
D and I were in Coleshill last Saturday to pay one of our regular visits to the same bookshop and also to take some photos of grotesques on the parish church.
Beechmast on Copper Beech
The Church of St Peter and St Paul
Stone carvings
Stone Angel
Grotesques - it is amazing how many you can find when you look hard.
Stone Deer
A friendly Wood Pigeon
Baking
I love meringue roulade and I love strawberries so when I saw the competitors in Britain's Best Home Cook having to bake in 45 minutes a Strawberry Meringue Roulade I just had to find the recipe and make one.
I would have been voted off the contest for appearance and for taking longer than 45 minutes! but it was delicious.
You can find the recipe here
I will certainly be making it again :)
18 comments:
I really hope that the Peregrine Falcons have been able to retain their hold on their urban nesting site. Following the dire consequences of the DDT era urban nesting opportunities have become critical to Peregrine Falcon recovery. As for the yellow flower, I am pretty sure it is not Birdsfoot Trefoil.
David Gascoigne - Thank you. I was very pushed for time when I went looking for the urban peregrines. I will try and return I know of several other nest sites in Birmingham - the Post Office Tower and the Clock Tower at University of Birmingham and I am sure there must be others.
Thanks re: id on flower. Birdsfoot Trefoil was my first thought too - it was just I made the mistake of going through one of my wild flower guides!
You might be interested to know that Birdsfoot Trefoil is an invasive species here, and is prolific. At this time of the year it is everywhere - very beautiful but it does tend to crowd out native plants.
Lovely post. Your yellow flower looks like the vetchling we saw in the meadow at Coombes Valley on Saturday. There was an information panel about it. I did take a photo of the flowers amongst the grass but it wasn't good enough to use for my post. Such a shame about the Peregrines - there are some urban ones nesting on an office block up in the city centre here, I haven't seen them yet this year but have spoken to someone who has. I enjoy Lucy Worsley's television programmes and have a couple of her books the Jane Austen one looks good. I'm reading The Running Hare at the moment and enjoying it. Beloved Warwickshire looks a lovely book too. The carvings are wonderful with such interesting, soulful faces:)
David Gascoigne - It is native here I believe and a food plant for a lot of butterfly caterpillars e.g. Clouded Yellow, Wood White, Dingy Skipper, Green Hairstreak and Silver-studded Blue. But as you say plants and other species can wreak havoc when they are introduced to a country where they are not native.
Rosie - Thanks so much. Thanks for your vetchling suggestion - I will have to take a flower guide in the garden and a magnifying glass and really examine it well. It is great news the way Peregrines have spread to cities.
Lucy Worsley has an engaging style of writing - you feel as if you are engaged in a conversation with her. I have enjoyed some of her tv programmes too :) So pleased you are enjoying The Running Hare. I though the expressions on some of those stone faces were wonderful - such skill in the stone masonery :)
Hi Caroline, i would say your yellow flower is Greater Birdsfoot Trefoil.
Dean Stables - Thank you so much Dean - I was so hoping you would come to my rescue :)
You've had some lovely moments (we'll not mention the red arrows moment :/), I really like the sunset with the buildings :) I don't know if i'm remembering rightly but you were talking about Willughby in one of your posts and were looking for a book about him, I don't know if you've seen - The Wonderful Mr Willughby: The First True Ornithologist by Tim Birkhead, it came out last month, it's on my wish list!
You're welcome Caroline.
Pam - Thanks so much. A very special thanks too for the information about the Willughby book - am thrilled to bits. Will be off to Amazon in a few seconds and add it to my wish list too!!! Someone else was interested in getting a Willughby book too - if only I could remember who it was! Will check comments on the Middleton Hall post and if no mention there will just hope they see your comment.
Dean Stables - Thanks again Dean. As always your id help is much appreciated.
Pam - It was David Gascoigne who mentioned a book but on John Ray. I will, however, pass on your Willughby book news when I next leave a comment on his blog in case it is of interest to him. Right!!! Off to Amazon now! :)
Ah I thought i'd read something somewhere! The book kept popping up as a recommended read and I remembered your post :) Hopefully it will be of interest to David too!
Pam - I really am grateful that you mentioned it as somehow it had kept below my book radar! I may have to wait though until it comes out in paperback. Tim Birkhead's book on birds' eggs was very good. I am sure David as he is so interested in John Ray and they were contemporaries will be interested.
Not sure I have seen Travellers Joy or Old Man's Beard, great to have it in your garden.
Lovely selection of books, have been looking for something to read while the weather is hot. So nice sitting in the shady part of the garden and reading, while watching the birds.
Some nice carvings on the churches, I love how they took the time to create Grotesques.
Amanda xx
Amanda Peters - Thank you so much. I usually notice Traveller's Joy in the autumn in hedgerows where you can see the wispy seed heads.
Sitting under a tree in the shade and reading is the best thing to do this weather! :)
So glad I have the bridge camera - I could never have zoomed in enough with the Olympus if it had the 15-42mm lens on.
John Scurr - Thanks so much for the id. I have looked at White Bryony and yes I think you are right. To be honest when I searched the first plant I found was Old Man's Beard and it is a plant I usually notice in the autumn i.e. the seeds or as for Bryony the berries. I am really grateful for your correction. I have asked B not to dig it out so hopefully will be able to check in the autumn but I am sure you are right and I will edit the post. Iam always grateful to people correcting my id's so thank you again. It is still a new species for the garden :)
Glad you liked the grotesques :)
I am, slowly, catching up on blog reading!
I would have been so excited to see the Cinnabars on the Ragwort I hope you see lots of the moths.
I think the houses and wires enhance the sunset - in that Nature is magnificent in spite of humans
I have, of course, ordered the JL-S book.
Those carvings of faces are so sublime; you can see that they were taken from live models I think.
Toffeeapple - Thanks so much - you have my sympathies on catching up on blogs! After a week away I am going to struggle too!!!
Forgot to take a newer photo of cinnabar caterpillars before we went away :( Will have to check them although I suspect they may have pupated!!
Love your wise comment on the sunset.
I do so hope you enjoy the JL-S book - I find his writing superb.
I think you are right about the stone face carvings.
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