Tuesday 1 April 2008

A Miscellany

A smattering of birds seen this week, as the first flush of spring migration gets under way......
Quite a few Yellowhammers in various locations......

...a pair of Little Owls......

....a White Wagtail I think......

...and a gang of Tree Sparrows, still flocking together at the Grain Barn on Walland Marsh (where I met the Tattooed Twins - hi guys) and soon to go their separate ways to nest. Oh, and a House Sparrow on the left.



One of the plants that I had hoped to find this spring is the Butcher's Broom, and I stumbled upon a couple of examples today.
I found this bush too late to see its flowers, but the early fruit can be seen developing on what seems to be its leaves (they aren't leaves apparently - confusing).
As the year progresses, the fruits will mature into bright red berries, some of which are still on the plant as the next year's crop is emerging.
And finally, a Siskin kindly appeared by my back door this morning, singing and chattering away. Everyone else seems to have had these (normally infrequent) birds in their gardens recently, but I've not had the pleasure.

Unfortunately he was shy of singing for the camera, so just gave a littl;e yawn. It was early in the morning.

4 comments:

brucesc said...

I really like learning about the different birds you see there. Very nice photos today!

Mary said...

Nice post! I don't know how you can stand not to stare at those owls all the time...everytime you post them I think...wow! That Butcher's Broom is certainly interesting...wonder what the real leaf looks like? Your siskin video is cute, even if he is camera shy :-)

Kingsdowner said...

Unfortunately the owl stump is beside a narrow windy country lane.
If I'm tempted to take a photo there's the constant threat of a car (or worse) coming round the bend at any minute - which is embarrassing at the very least.

abbey meadows said...

It must be nice to have Butchers Broom growing as a native species. According to Swan's bible (the flora of northumberland) it grows in the Alnwick area as a garden escape. nice pictures. I am not really competetive but as the seasons progress I hope to post some specialist species that we have. We may be on the same latitude as Roxburghshire and Dumfries and Galloway but east of the Cheviots it is a couple of degrees cooler and the species reflect this. The good thing is some plants are at their northern limit here and some alpine species are at their southern limits which makes it more interesting.