Wildlife is good and necessary for a healthy ecosystem, we know that, but there are some species that are less welcome than others. Top of my list of Unwelcome Visitors this week is the horsefly (Haematopota pluvialis, which means ‘blood-drinker of the rains’), also known as the cleg or clegg fly.

Picture from Wikimedia Commons
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Last July a juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) started visiting the garden and we watched as it ate peanuts from the hanging feeder and clambered about the Magnolia tree. The tree is only a few paces from the kitchen window, so we had a good opportunity to get a close look at this fine bird. As its adult plumage came in we saw that it was a female, the back of the head being black rather than with the red markings of the male Great Spotted Woodpecker.

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To protect the raspberries and strawberries last year, we put up a frame of bamboo canes held together by tennis balls and fitted some netting over it. The protection worked and the frame has remained standing since last autumn when the netting was removed.

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Knowing that birds fight over resources in winter, what I found yesterday wasn’t entirely a surprise. Going through the side gate of the garden I was visiting, I noticed clumps of black feathers scattered about and then came upon a rather grisly sight – two dead blackbirds (Turdus merula) laid side by side and they had obviously died fighting. They were lying close enough to be touching each other, both were bloodied and one had feathers in its beak and claws. One was certainly an adult male, shown by the black feathers and yellow beak, whilst the other may have been a female or a younger male that had not yet developed a yellow beak. It wasn’t very easy to tell as both birds were frozen solid and covered in frost.

I tried to imagine what might have happened for both birds to end up dead and yet be lying side by side. Except for on their bodies, there was no blood to be seen. Did they die of exhaustion, did they both die of their injuries at the same time, or could they have somehow knocked each other unconscious and then died of cold? Without thawing them out and investigating more closely, which I was not inclined to do, there was no way to tell.

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It seemed that as soon as I mentioned the mild winter weather being good for watching the activities of worms, half the country turned white with frost, sending the worms deeper into the soil. Thankfully, it’s warmed up and the worms are active again. After reading some more about earthworm middens, I’ve been out looking for them. Not hard, as I spend much of my day outside, so there isn’t far to go. Sure enough, once you actually start looking, you can see that there are a great many leaves standing upright and half way into the soil, all pulled in by worms. This led me down to the end of the courtyard at home, where there is still a layer of fallen leaves that haven’t been cleared away. I got a rake out and started raking gently to see what was under the leaves. Sure enough, while most the leaves were easy to rake up, small mounds were left that didn’t want to shift.

These mounds of old leaves were 6-10cm across, pretty much circular and fairly evenly spaced. Pulling at the bits of leaf, I found resistance, as they were partly embedded in the soil under the layer of gravel. Was it a worm midden?

I carefully pulled away the top layer to see what was underneath. When the ‘cap’ came away, you could see the worm’s tunnel in the middle of it and see where the entrance was blocked up with partially composted leaves.

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This mild winter is a good time for looking at the activity of earthworms. The soil is moist and our lawns are a mass of worm casts, a mix of worm excrement and soil. The number of small coiled piles of worm casts tell us that there is indeed a great deal going on under the surface and it’s interesting to think about just what is happening under there. What are they doing?

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The garage was given a tidy up the other day. In a corner, tucked away against one wall, on top of a box was a neat, spherical mouse’s nest made of straw. The straw had come from a big bag of it standing in one corner, so wasn't brought in from outside.

Whole nest with a lime for comparison.
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Visiting a lady at her garden last week, she told me about an unusual pigeon that had been coming in to take advantage of the moistened dog food biscuits that she puts out and which attract many birds throughout the year. As it happened, the bird turned up while I was there - it even turned around to show me all its plumage, so I took some pictures. This handsome bird is a feral pigeon (Columba livia), showing partial albinism or leucism.

I wonder where this bird came from? There are pigeons in the town centre, but this one was a distance from there. It was suggested that it might have been a racing pigeon that had become lost, but it has no rings on its legs. Maybe it had escaped from an aviary?

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More dragonflies are being seen - this time it was a Common darter, Sympetrum striolatum, spotted at the vegetable garden and, like last week’s Brown hawker, it was resting and therefore not difficult to photograph. This one was on the ground, rather than up in a tree, so at least no step ladder was needed this time.  

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There are plenty of dragonflies to be seen at this time of year. One took a siesta in the courtyard the other day, a Brown Hawker - Aeshna grandis. It landed in the lime tree and high enough up that, even with the lens of the camera at full zoom, a clear picture could not be taken. Feeling a little silly, we got out the step ladder and half expected that the clatter of it being opened up and then climbing up for a closer view, would wake it and it would fly off before a photograph could be taken. As luck would have it, the dragonfly stayed asleep. That or it just didn’t care.

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The nut feeder which hangs in the enormous Magnolia tree outside the kitchen window is attracting a juvenile Great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major). We first noticed it when we heard the rattle of the metal sleeve against that of the metal netting which holds the nuts and which suggested that something larger than a bluetit was having a meal. It was quite a shock, as we’ve never seen woodpeckers in this garden before. I was expecting a grey squirrel, so was pleased instead to see a bird.

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It was only when we moved to Oxfordshire that I first saw a Scarlet Tiger moth (Callimorpha dominula) but, being fairly widespread in this area, they’re now quite a common sight.

Scarlet Tiger moths fly during the day and are seen from May to July and, whilst they are said to prefer damp meadows and rocky cliffs, all the moths I’ve seen have been in town gardens, where I’ve come across them resting on foliage, walls or pathways. Unlike many butterflies, they don’t flit about but stay peculiarly still, as if sleeping. You can move the foliage and get very close to them and they just stay where they are and only fly away if you touch them. Most butterflies would have flown off at the first sight of your shadow.

Staying still is a good trait for these moths, because you can then linger and admire their beauty. The wings, with a span of approximately 60mm (2.3 inches), are an iridescent black-green and are variably marked with dark yellow – sometimes orange - and white, while the under-wings are a rich scarlet, marked with black. The caterpillars feed on a variety of plants, favouring comfrey (Symphytum spp), nettles and bramble, though none of these have been apparent in the gardens where I’ve seen the adult moths; I suppose they must lay their eggs elsewhere

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More blackbirds have now realised that a little tray of dog food appears in the courtyard each day and have been taking full advantage of it. We have gone from only a couple of birds to two sets of parents and their chicks, who arrive early each morning to take breakfast. Dog food isn’t as good as worms, of course, but as the weather has been dry for so long, there aren’t many worms to be found in the soil surface, so this supplementary food should help. The chicks are certainly growing quickly and some of them are starting to eat by themselves, instead of sitting there squawking and waiting for their parents to feed them. I’m still putting apple out, mainly for the pleasure of seeing the birds eating it, which they do with obvious enthusiasm.

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The long dry spell has broken in Oxfordshire. From the 30th of March to the 25th of May, I didn’t have to put my waterproofs on once, but we have finally had a couple of days of proper rain. During that time of dryness, many birds have come to gardens to make use of the fresh water put down for drinking and bathing and it seems that some of them have become more accustomed to humans. A young blackbird was pecking in the grass very close to me the other day and didn’t seem at all bothered by me scuffling about in the flower bed and just carried on with what it was doing. Of course, as soon as I went to take a picture, it turned its back on me. That happens a lot – a bird will be in the perfect pose, until I take the picture, when it will turn around and all I get is a picture of its back. That, or it will do something to make the picture blurred.

Typical

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Spending so much time outside in gardens, I’m naturally obsessed with the weather, even more obsessed than most people in a country known for constantly referring to what the sky is doing. The forecasts so far this year have shown very little rain – almost no April showers and very little since then and that follows a relatively dry winter. This means that there are fewer natural water resources for wildlife as there are no puddles, no shallow pools caught in curled foliage and ponds which have not been topped up by rain will be drying out.

It’s a worry. Not only birds, but small mammals and flying insects will be searching for water and may not find it. They all need to drink and birds need to bathe to keep their feathers in good condition. What to do? What I’ve done here is to increase the number of bird baths in the garden at home. They’re not fancy and don’t need to be; you don’t have to spend out on anything expensive, just find a suitable container to hold clean water. There's probably something in the shed or garage that would do the job.

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