End of May Visit to Herefordshire - Part 1: Hatfield

 

We returned to Herefordshire last week for 4 nights and this time D came too :)  We arrived on the Wednesday and stayed until the Sunday. I'd had to go to the GP's before we left as yet again cellulitis has raised its ugly head. Although the locum I saw seemed to think it may be another condition which sounds even worse than cellulitis!  The weather was lovely if a trifle too hot at times!!! We had a good journey and spent the rest of the day relaxing at the site.

There has been little change in the Herefordshire Oak, Octopus and Constable Trees since the last visit.

On the last morning (Saturday) we were lucky to see a Painted Lady nectaring on the perennial wallflower in the border. It stayed around for about half an hour.  I know there has been an influx of this species into the country but this is the first I have seen this year.

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D re-potted a dahlia and geranium I had bought and also sowed nasturtium and calendula seeds in pots.

Spiderlings on the car door!

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The family are all huge Aston Villa supporters. I have supported them since my father took me to my first match at Villa Park when I was around 11.  Sadly, we don't go to matches these days but the Europa League Final was on tv Wednesday night so we watched the game.  We were thrilled when Villa won the match 3-0 and thus the Cup.

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Warning don't look at  the next photo if you don't like spiders!

Zebra spider on one of the caravan windows.

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I used the bat detector most nights and we also had quite close views of the bats foraging right by the caravan.  We put out hedgehog food and saw the hedgehog one night. Record shot by D.

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2026 Wild Plant Challenge

We continued with our quest to see 100 plants this year and managed to add several species to the list.

Not sure what this thistly type plant in the lawn is though!

If you enlarge the photo you may be able to make out tiny yellow flowers below the daisies. This plant is Lesser Trefoil.

Ash and Hazel

Clover

We also added Mistletoe (no photo as it is now mainly out of sight due to leaves on the trees) and Greater Stitchwort.

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One evening D and B went a walk around the pool and lower field.  I didn't go as I had been walking round Leominster with D that day and my ankles and feet had swollen up again! So these are D's photos from the walk.  The mannequin dressed in red by the pool is quite frankly scary and I can only assume it has been put there to frighten away Canada Geese.

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D also walked to the Hen House at  the end of the drive to buy some eggs. 

Cow Parsley

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Nuthatch on the feeders and a Swallow.

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On the Thursday we went to Tesco in Tenbury Wells to do a food shop.  The verges of the lanes are full of Cow Parsley and Buttercups. Hawthorn is past its best now but Elderflower is starting to flower - another new species for the Wild Plant Challenge.

On the Friday D and I went to Stocktonbury Gardens which I will write about in the next post.

All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera and those marked *D taken by my son with the Canon SX50HS bridge camera. (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one of mine or my son's I would be grateful for an email first - thanks)

Theatre Trip and the Prospect of a Nightmare Managerial Appointment

Although the Birmingham Rep is currently closed whilst renovations and rebuilding take place, they are still putting on productions at various venues around the City.

We went to see their production of "The Wiz" at the New Alexandra Theatre on Tuesday evening as David was lucky enough to be offered some tickets.




Publicity photo for the play from the Rep's website


The play was based on a famous Motown Production Movie that starred Dianna Ross as Dorothy, Michael Jackson as The Scarecrow and Richard Pryor as The Wiz. The storyline more or less follows the Wizard of Oz but is set in Birmingham with a completely different set of songs.

It was a great, entertaining evening out with great music, dancing, songs and special effects. The Rep certainly know how to put on a polished, professional performance.


At least the trip to the theatre took my mind off the looming disaster of the soon to be appointed Villa Manager. Totally underwhelmed and unconvinced by the candidate who appears to be the choice of the Villa Board. And there I was a few weeks ago entertaining thoughts of Ancelotti, Hughes, Jol or even Benitez although to be honest alarm bells started ringing when the news of Martinez broke last week!

Here's "Clarrie Blue" contemplating that the realities of the appointment will be even worse than the ignominy of having to wear a home-made Villa scarf and jumper!




Next post I promise I will be returning to natural history and the moths trapped earlier this week! There is at least one new tick for the year and I'll post as soon as I have attempted to work out a worn, "nightmare to identify" noctuid.

More on Moths

Two posts in one day - I don't think I've ever done that before! Anything to take my mind off the Villa result today - I can't believe how close we are coming to possible relegation. Any why was Albrighton (one of the better players on the pitch) substituted?

To return to moths here's a summary of the moths trapped last night

Summary of Moths Trapped on Friday, 18th March, 2011

Minimum Temperature -2.1 degrees centigrade

6.30 p.m. until dawn

15w Actinic Skinner Light Trap

1 x Dotted Border
1 x Common Quaker
1 x Clouded Drab

All species new for the year and Dotted Border was also a garden first.

Common Quaker



Clouded Drab





My moth identification skills still leave much to be desired! So if I have misidentified either species please let me know. No photo of the Dotted Border which is a shame as it was a garden first but it was very flighty and flew away before I could click the shutter.

Total number of species trapped/seen in the garden 2009-2011 = 100 (finally reached a century!)

Total number of species trapped/seen this year = 4

Total number of individual moths trapped/seen this year = 4

Took another photo of the Super Moon as it is actually the Full Moon tonight although it doesn't look a lot different from last night's photo!

A Wild Goose Chase

I chauffeured my daughter to south Birmingham this morning and, rather than waiting in the car reading for an hour, I remembered that 5.5 miles away in Kings Norton there was the possibility of a flock of waxwings. A local bird forum had reported 25birds on Tuesday and they were still there yesterday afternoon. Too good an opportunity to miss, I thought.

On a good day the journey should have taken about 15 - 20 minutes which would allow up to half an hour to search for the birds in the road where they had been seen. But, of course it was a Saturday morning 2 weeks before Christmas and I had to queue through 2 shopping areas on the journey so it took me almost half an hour to get there. I reckoned I could still spend 15 - 20 minutes there even if I did incur the wrath of my daughter if I returned late to pick her up.

I found the road and a row of trees with berries without any problems and managed to park right opposite. But was there a waxwing anywhere in sight? Of course, not!!!I kept scouring the trees and nearby house roofs with binoculars (feeling as conspicuous as one does in the middle of a housing estate!!) but the only birds I could pick out were a pair of blackbirds eating the berries. To be fair I suppose I would have been lucky to spot waxwings in the 15 minutes I was there. Luck does not seem to be on my side in my waxwing quest!

There have been several sightings in Dorridge so I may check that area out within the next few days but there again it would probably be yet another fruitless search so perhaps not!

There is nothing new to report from the garden birdwise just the usual species feeding - blue, great and coal tits, robin, blackbirds, house sparrows, dunnocks, greenfinch, magpie, wood pigeon, goldfinch, great spotted woodpeckers and plenty of these



hoovering up all the food as soon as I put it out. Although having read an article a few months ago in BBC Wildlife Magazine by Steve Harris extolling their virtues and usefulness, I have tried very hard to learn to love them. I must admit their plumage is colourful and fascinating in its variety and I'm trying to watch their behaviour closely - some of their antics are very amusing if you can drag yourself away from thinking of them as "flying rats".

Oh and well done to Villa for beating the "Baggies". Nice to see some players back from injury and, at least, Villa played a lot better today than they did on Monday.

Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens in the Snow

We've already had two power cuts today one lasting a couple of hours so I am keeping my fingers crossed I can get this posting finished! Have stocked up on candles and nightlights in case we get another one tonight! Although at least a power cut would prevent me watching the Liverpool Villa game which I am dreading - I only hope Villa can at least get a point from this match otherwise we could enter the "relegation zone" this weekend.

I'm sure everyone is fed up of photos of snow and I am conscious I have done an awful lot of postings on Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens and I wasn't planning on visiting the Gardens again until nearer Christmas. However, I just couldn't resist the temptation on Friday to visit and get some snowy photos. It was really cold - about -2 - but the gardens looked really magical and, apart from bumping into two gardeners when I arrived, there wasn't another person in sight.

I saw a lot of blackbirds feeding on apples and berries together with 3 mistle thrushes. There was a party of long-tailed tits foraging amongst shrubs and trees, dunnocks,a wren, robins and a flock of twenty+ redwings flying over. You won't be surprised to hear though that there wasn't a fieldfare or waxwing to be seen!

I am hearing a lot more reports of waxwings in the region now and I am keeping my fingers crossed it won't be too long before I eventually catch up with this species! I hope so because I am beginning to think I will soon be the only birder in the country not to have seen one!



























There were lots of blackbirds feeding on holly berries along this holly walk which runs between the Green House and Summer House