Our annual birdwatch

Each year the RSPB ask people to spend an hour making a note of the birds they see in their garden and then upload the results to their website.  We like to take part and do our bit to help out as we feed birds in our garden all year round.  I think last year's bird watch was the quietest day bird wise in the whole year, but it was soon after we had snow so they had an excuse. 

This year was far busier, although the blue tits we usually see every day were a little shy.  The idea is that you make a count of the most of each type of birds you see in the garden at one time over the course of one hour.  This is to stop you counting the same birds several times!  We fed the birds and went back inside and started our count.

Our count came to:

1 crow
2 wrens
1 robin
5 blackbirds
3 collared doves
9 starlings
5 goldfinches
2 magpies
1 woodpigeon
1 sparrow
2 blue tits

 Those little nimble musicians of the air, that warble forth their curious ditties, with which nature hath furnished them to the shame of art. 

Izaak Walton

Wildlife at Hazel Cottage

Autumn seems to bring out the wildlife here at Hazel Cottage.  We were particularly happy to see a squirrel is back in the garden.  Seeing as we have a large hazel tree we were a bit sad when we seemed to be without a squirrel for a while.  But the lure of the hazelnuts brought one back into the garden - he is spending every single moment running about the garden at high speed hiding food.  The squirrel hides nuts everywhere - no doubt we will find several hazel trees in time!

The robin is also far more visible at this time of year - after his summer hiatus.  We see him every day now, and hear him constantly tik tik tiking.

Of course the other wildlife are the hundreds of spiders all over the garden.  I tried taking some close up pictures...

 

For someone who is a little afraid of spiders, I do find them really fascinating as well. 

 

They appear to work so very hard at building their webs this time of year that I end up feeling guilty if I have to break a bit of web.  Insane especially when sometimes I have to break a web to get out of the back door....

Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves,

We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!”
Humbert Wolfe

Swereee swereee!

We've been waiting for the swifts to return.  We've heard rumours that they are back and even heard a very faint sound very high in the sky.  Did I imagine that?  Was it a distant finch or a hoarse sparrow?  Sitting in a pub garden a couple of weeks ago, a friend said "Ah the swifts are back again!".  We turned to look but saw nothing.  Spring has taken its time this year and this last week has been rather cold and wet again.  To use a local word, I even felt completely shrammed* the other day and hid under a blanket.

Then, this morning, the sun was out again, the air was warmer and over my head with a swereee swereee, darting low over the houses were the swifts! 

Swifts always signal the start of summer to me.  These remarkable birds migrate between Africa and Europe every year, coming back to us in April or May and leaving again about August.  They have very short feet, as they rarely settle on the ground, mostly flying or clinging to vertical surfaces.  Even into Medieval times, they were drawn as having no feet at all.  They can spend entire days on the wing, only landing to feed their young or to roost. 

The sight of the swifts screaming across the sky really lifted my mood.  The cold grey rainy days will return soon enough no doubt, but because of the swifts in the blue skies this morning the air was full of possibilities and new life.

"It was an ideal spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white clouds drifting across from west to east.  The sun was shining very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, which set an edge to a man's energy."
-  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle  

"Every spring is the only spring - a perpetual astonishment."
-  Ellis Peters  

*Southern English dialect word for being very very cold

Easter weekend and the missing simnel cakes

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter, when I thought about my post I had to add in a picture of a lamb.  This one belongs to my sister in law.  It was being taken for a walk a few weeks ago.

A year ago the spring bulbs were out in our garden and looking resplendant in the spring warmth.

This year they are still tightly in bud and despite the increased daylight hours, nothing is warm for very long and they remain closed.   We've read that this has been the coldest Easter weekend for some years, and I must agree as I sit here typing with a blanket on my knees!   I was very pleased to help our church flower ladies this Easter and am really quite proud of my first major display.

I don't know whether its the cold weather, but we've seen some different birds in the garden lately - a pair of wrens flitting around our herb pots near to the back door, and a small group of chaffinches feeding at the end of the garden with the blackbirds.  Mr C has taken a few pictures which I hope to post soon.

We did a lot of cooking over Easter, and instead of my usual large simnel cake I did mini simnel cakes.  I would have taken pictures but they were so lovely most of them have been eaten! I did take a picture of our Easter tree though

I must also continue with my patchwork cushion... 

Goldcrest excitement!

I just had to post an exciting development at Hazel Cottage this past weekend.  Whilst we were in the garden clearing up and digging, I was stood near to our old Christmas tree, which is stood at the back of the compost heap waiting for us to chop up.  For some reason our tree this year hasn't lost its needles, and looks pretty much alive still. As I was wondering if we could reuse the tree this coming Christmas, I looked up and saw something darting in and out of the tree, with the odd flash of yellow.  It was so tiny, smaller than than a robin, and it danced about up and down the tree, and then stood in an empty coconut shell hung on the hazel tree.  In spite of its size, the goldcrest didn't seem to be worried by me at all.

Goldcrest
(http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Regulus_regulus_60North.jpg)

Of course I didn't have a camera nearby, so I've had to find a picture to show you what I saw.  When I came back in later on, I had to look it up.  It seems that the goldcrest is the smallest bird we have in the UK and it is often seen in a group of blue/great tits in winter.  It likes coniferous woodland - our Christmas tree was obviously an attraction!  Luckily there are other fir trees in the area including a tall fir tree that the robin likes to stand on and sing noisily.

It was a wonderful highlight of a good day digging and cutting back.  It seems that our little plot still has so many secrets still to tell.

The Gold-Crested Wren by Charles Tennyson Turner

When my hand closed upon thee, worn and spent
With idly dashing on the window-pane,
Or clinging to the cornice -- I, that meant
At once to free thee, could not but detain;
I dropt my pen, I left th' unfinished lay,
To give thee back to freedom; but I took --
Oh, charm of sweet occasion! -- one brief look
At thy bright eyes and innocent dismay;
My lesson learnt -- thy beauty got by heart:
And if, at times, my sonnet-muse would rest
Short of her topmost skill, her little best,
The memory of thy delicate gold crest
Shall plead for one last touch, -- the crown of Art.

Birds and baking

The snow has disappeared from Hazel Cottage already, almost as soon as it had arrived.  This meant that Mr C managed to dig over his veg patch and start preparing for the new season.  I had a look to see what was growing in the garden and noticed the beginnings of the bulbs just poking through last years dead leaves.  I have grand plans to grow a lot of flowers this year and am hoping that the slugs and snails don't thwart my plans completely!

We took part in the RSPB's Great Birdwatch this weekend and studiously wrote down the highest number of each kind of bird we saw in our garden over about an hour.  We chose the time after we've replenished food and stood back.  And I don't think I've seen so few of our regular birds!  We often have a full garden of birds after feeding but they obviously don't want to be part of the birdcount and hid away.  It was an interesting thing to do however.  Our eventual count was 4 blackbirds, 1 robin, 2 goldfinches, 2 blue tits, 2 woodpigeons, 1 collared dove, 4 crows, 2 great tits and 1 dunnock.  After we had finished the watch, a group of woodpigeons and finches fluttered into the garden.   Of course the robin was around most of the time as he seems to appreciate our gardening efforts.

I also made a date and walnut traybake from my new Mary Berry baking book.  This was actually great fun and rather straightforward and tastes nice too.  I'm hoping to work my way through the book and eventually attempt the more complicated recipes.

Here is one of my favourite pictures from last week of the snow

The missing dead tree

When we moved into Hazel Cottage one of the things we loved so much about the garden was the number of trees in neighbouring gardens; apple trees, pear trees, hawthorns, seedlings from our hazel tree, a very tall fir tree, and amongst it all, stark leafless dead tree.

Part of the thicket in winter with the dead tree

This little thicket provides a lovely home to the birds we love so much - robins, sparrows, magpies, crows, goldfinches, pigeons and doves, blackbirds, great and blue tits and the seasonal visitors that some and go.  We would often be in the house listening to the birds outside, wandering into the garden only to find large numbers of magpies and crows congregating in the dead tree.  There was a mass meeting once where we counted almost twenty corvids chattering and arguing and flapping about in the dead tree.  The sound was deafening!

Without warning, suddenly this week the dead tree has gone.  Even though all the rest of the trees are there, and the birds still make a racket around us, we felt inexplicably sad at its loss. 

To A Dead Tree by John Clare

Old tree thou art wither'd--I pass'd thee last year,
And the blackbird snug hid in thy branches did sing,
Thy shadow stretch'd dark o'er the grass sprouting near,
And thou wert as green as thy mates of the spring.
How alter'd since then! not a leaf hast thou got,
Thy honours brown round thee that clothed the tree;
The clown passeth by thee and heedeth thee not,
But thou'rt a warm source of reflection for me.

I think, while I view thee and rest on the stile,
Life's bloom is as frail as the leaves thou hast shed;
Like thee I may boast of my honours awhile,
But new springs may blossom, and mine may be fled:
Fond friends may bend o'er the rais'd turf where I'm laid,
And warm recollection the past may look o'er,
And say by my life, as I say by thy shade,
"Last spring he was living, but now he's no more."