April 2009 Archives

Well , the nice weather  ( too hot, too dry , too soon) is certainly accelerating the
flowering of many plants : it's as if April is already the latter half of May.
And it really is very dry : I was actually blinded by dust the other day.

New Flowerings :

Both these two had culinary uses in times past :

Jack-by-the Hedge , or Garlic Mustard :



Strong mustard flavour with a hint of garlic.
Everywhere along the verges.

Ransoms, or Wild Garlic : used to be used as a garlic substitute.

 
Very much a woodland species , we don't have many places it likes,
but these are in the shaded area south of the boatyard


The first Wild Arum , or Cuckoo Pint :



Coltsfoot : going over rather now : I missed this one.


The flowers appear before the leaves.
Formerly dried and smoked as a herbal tobacco to relieve coughs. Cycle track.

Persian Speedwell :a delightful tiny flower tumbling through the grass:




And I've discovered another patch of Marsh Marigolds, north of the Crematorium,
which is good news.This is the main patch, out on the Ings , just coming into perfect flowering now :



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Insects :
Many will have heard the sudden ominous drone of something alarming indoors , with the windows open .
Queen wasps are now seeking spots to build their nests, inappropriately in my house
in a wooden bookcase. I sent her out, three times.

The Queens , which have hibernated in many cases in a corner of your house, are now seeking somewhere with a raspable wood supply to give them the paper building material for their new nests, which they make on their own before they can rear the first brood to help out later in the season.

Don't be too hard on them : the wasps are actually the gardener's friend , since they feed on all sorts of pest insects.




On the Insect topic , there has been a little outburst of metallic green beetles:




A certain enthusiasm for rarity sees these as Tansy Beetles... which these are not.
They are from the the same family , the Chrysomelids, but not the Tansy beetle ,
which appears a bit later and is much bigger: this one is about 5mm long.

Someone said, " Well,  don't they grow ? "
Well , no , they don't . The adults don't grow at all : all that is done as a larva,
which then pupates to produce the fully grown adult, which is really just the form
that does the mating and egglaying.

Most metamorphosing insects have this life cycle : you have to regard the adult
as just the larva's way of making another larva.

Brief research suggest that this one is Gastrophysa viridula ,mating and laying its eggs on docks. The one above is a female ,with a hugely distended abdomen, ready to lay eggs :



Here laid on a dock leaf.

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Walking along the riverbank north of the ring road , a pair of Lapwings.
These once numerous birds are another victim of the changes in farming .
Large flocks of 100 plus were common around here 20 years ago : now there are only a couple of pairs within a 2 mile radius.
Their current status is bad : on the way out.





Their increasing rarity makes one look again at them : a very beautiful bird , with a heart-rending call and a superb display flight.

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If anyone knows of anything more beautiful , and more fleeting, than Crabapple Blossom ,
 I should like to know of it.......



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So many plants starting to flower now : I can't keep up with all of them.

A walk round on Easter Sunday with a more botanically knowledgeable friend
showed up several things I'd not noticed.
Along the hedgerows :

Greater Stitchwort :




The Lesser Periwinkle :




The Forget-me Not :





And out on the Ings :



Milkmaids , called sometimes the Cuckoo Flower, because its supposed to come out
when the Cuckoo arrives ( fat chance round here ! ):

And of course the Blackthorn is now out everywhere:






Birdwise, the Swallows are in rather small numbers ,
in company with a couple of Martins. I would expect the air above my
house to be full of Martins by now .
Maybe something has gone wrong with the migration .

One bird I have seen along the rivebank is the Grey Wagtail:



We seem to have a couple of resident pairs , which tend to work along the
water's edge. Can sometimes be seen on the boat pontoons.

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Graham H has been out and about with his camera and sent in these pictures that show some of the sights you can see without venturing too far from home.

It's good to see that Tony's entries have stimulated a bit of interest, so keep it up. There's plenty to see if you look around.

If you have any interesting wildife shots of your own, or need an excuse to go and take some, send them in and we'll publish them here.

Here's what Graham's seen...

 

Frogs seen in Brunswick Pond

Young male silka deer in Stubb Wood, near Acaster

Flowers in the sensory garden near the library

A wood carving in Stubb Wood

And another Stubb Wood carving

 

TUESDAY :~
We had the Frogs three weeks ago : well now the Toads are at it.

Just been watching about twenty Toads conducting their rather chaotic nuptials in the drain on the Ings.
The larger females are very dark ,almost invisible against the dark bottom of the drain ;
the males much lighter,scrabbling about pursuing any unclasped females .
Periodically one surfaces , giving a little chirp .pic BBC.



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THURSDAY


Bumblebees are now everywhere, charging about visiting the flowers to get
enough pollen to set up their new nests. If you have a scrubby untended lawn as I have,
you may even see them emerging from their holes.

More flowering cherry :


And the Wild Plum :


Another plant just starting to flower : the Alkanet , on Acaster Lane :



"Perennial, member of the Boraginaceae Family.
Native to south-west France, and the Iberian Peninsula, but is now naturalised throughout the British Isles.Prefers shaded, damp areas. It was brought here for the red dye which can be extracted from the roots, but escaped from cultivation.
They have bright blue, forget-me-not-flowers with two small leaves behind them.
They are edible and are sometimes used to decorate salads."
Might give it a try.....


And a bird sometimes seen flying over, obvious both by its appearance and its bubbling call:
The Oystercatcher  : pic Chalto.

Everything is now starting to happen so fast it's going to be difficult to keep up.

The village is entering on its most attractive period : the blossoming trees and the new green growth
everywhere really really show the place at its best.

The first Chiffchaffs are here : the unmistakeable little song can be heard almost anywhere
there is tree cover, and I had a good view of one yesterday , singing and eating buds alternately.



PIC RSPB.

The Hawthorns are about to burst into leaf, and everywhere the ground cover plants are showing , and growing apace.
I'm pleased to see that our clumps of Marsh Marigolds in a certain spot on the Ings are looking healthy , and with more clumps than last year.These are now a rare plant , and we are lucky to have them.

Otherwise , the Violets are out : most of them in flower at present are the white variety :




And this tiny Ground Ivy on a tree stump is flowering :



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The Ings along the river, although they may not look much to the casual eye ,
are the latent wildlife treasure of Bishopthorpe.

Since grazing stopped there some years ago , the area is trying to revert to its natural state , with
burgeoning reedbeds, stands of Reedmace , and many other interesting plants appearing.
The Watervoles and Snipe I mentioned recently are there , and we have a thriving population of Reed Buntings.
The Kingfishers are also back along the river this week.

We need to look after it , and encourage it : wetlands are the most declining habitat in the country.

If it's left alone , it might be a worth taking the kids round in ten or twenty years time.
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The first hibernating butterflies have appeared with the sunshine : I expect most will have seen one or two
in their gardens.
I have seen Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshells and Green-veined Whites this week.
These adults have overwintered , and will now lay eggs to get the new generations going.



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Stop Press : one Swallow does not make a Summer , but I saw my first one at 5.45 today.
Friday 3rd April.


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