Midsummer

Here we go again!

Saturday 20th June, 2015

Less than two weeks ago, I resolved to spend less time on writing and more time on gardening and cleaning the house.  As happens with most of my resolutions, it didn't work out as planned and the resolution didn't last long.  I did spend less time writing but the time that I "saved" was just used for pointless activities like playing killer sudoku or feeling sorry for myself because I had a cold.  

I am starting a new garden-themed blog because Walking the Bayr ny Geayee has been closed to public readership and mothballed.  I started worrying that I had not been discrete enough about our various activities.  Even feeding wild birds in Ramsey is apparently taboo.  Last Sunday, while I was taking a photo of a cormorant, a rather officious man told Tim that he could be prosecuted for feeding the gulls on the quay.  

Also the pro and anti pheasant shooting factions in the glen are on the warpath and I don't want to be caught in the crossfire.  And I am too lazy to go through a few years' worth of posts in order to delete the bits that I should have left out in the first place.

I have done practically nothing in the garden since TT started apart from mowing the grass each week.  The garden doesn't seem as inviting when one has a cold and the midges are out in force.  There are three types of weather that midges hate . . . hot sunshine, heavy rain and wind.  And all have been in short supply recently.  We have had a series of still, overcast days mixed with sunny spells and drizzle.

There are still very few butterflies around.  Just the occasional green veined white, but I have seen a hummingbird hawkmoth on three separate occasions.  The third time I managed to get a photo - not a good one but good enough for proof of identity.  I had seen the moth on the sage flowers but it flew up to the centranthus under the hawthorn before I got my camera.  So I just took a few shots at full zoom through the dining room window.  It was a miracle that the photos were not even worse - given the distance and the state of the windows.  

I have frequent debates with myself about cleaning windows.  On the plus side they would look more respectable and any photos taken through the glass would come out better.  On the minus side more birds might crash into the windows if they were cleaner.  I usually decide to give it a bit more thought before doing something and end up doing nothing.

There has been a lot of bird activity in the garden.  Tim saw a male blackcap hopping about in the shrubs outside the living room window week ago.  This is earlier than expected as the blackcaps usually only arrive in the garden when the raspberries are ripe.  We also saw a young wood pigeon which had just left the nest.  It is the first time that I have seen a juvenile.  They can be distinguished from the adults because they lack the white neck patches.

Then I saw at least two longtailed tits on the bird feeder which is also unusual because we have only seen them in winter previously. 

Later I heard them in the front garden.  They were up in the top branches of the white flowering cherry.  They may have had juveniles with them but I couldn't see well enough to be sure.  

I don't think the tits have had a very successful breeding season this year.  I have hardly seen any baby tits on the feeder.  Our great tits built their nest in the nestbox as usual but abandoned it before laying eggs.  We opened it to have a look after it became certain that they had gone.

On the other hand the siskins have done remarkably well.  They are almost as numerous as the chaffinches now.  It is difficult to distinguish the juveniles from the females but the centre bird feeding on the saucer was obviously a baby because it kept begging the male (on the right) for food and being rebuffed.  The father had decided that it was old enough to feed itself.

This afternoon I saw two baby robins up at the top of the garden.  But, even though we have had more adult goldfinches visiting the feeder than in previous years, I still haven't caught sight of a juvenile goldfinch.

The blackbirds and thrushes have been collecting worms and slugs again.  They must be feeding second broods already.  The thrushes prefer to hunt in the morning and evening when the light is rather dim for photography.

One male blackbird took time off to indulge in some weird activity.  I wouldn't have know what it was doing if I hadn't happened to read a short of report on "anting" on the internet the day before.  He was standing on a patch of grass which was swarming with small ants and kept fidgeting around - apparently picking ants off his feathers, preening and then and eating them.  The behaviour is not fully understood but I read that the ants release formic acid on the feathers before being eaten.

The young chaffinches find life out of the nest rather tiring at first.  This one was having a rest in the mesh food bowl.

While our son was staying with us he asked whether a rather scruffy male chaffinch was a fledgling.  I thought it was more likely that it was an adult male which was moulting but decided to check on the internet.  I found one scientific paper with too much jargon for my simple mind - about research into “Photoperiodic Control of the molt cycle in the chaffinch”. I was amused by a reference to "the postnuptial molt" which conjured up a rather frivolous image of chaffinches in white meringue dresses and top hats. But I did manage to find out that juveniles do not moult until autumn - only adults moult at the beginning of summer. Another bit of interesting information about moulting is that chaffinches only have one moult. The brighter colours on the heads of the males in spring are just due to wear and tear. The tips of the feathers are not as bright as the lower part and some birds deliberately scratch their heads in order to accelerate the abrasion and onset of the brighter colour.

As far as the plants are concerned, I have to report that sadly my blackthorn did not survive being transplanted.  It looked quite spritely for a while but gradually wilted.  But it is not all bad news because our kind neighbour found a nursery garden that had a few blackthorns in stock at St John's and we drove down this morning and bought two plants.  I sincerely hope this is a case of third time lucky.  Many years ago we dug out a very tiny blackthorn which had sent up a shoot in the middle of a path.  It survived the move - but didn't survive being accidentally raked up with the autumn leaves.

The warmer weather has accelerated the rate of growth of both plants and weeds and now my cold is almost better I shall have to brave the midges and do some serious work outside.  It is even starting to look like summer at last with the oxeye daisies and foxgloves in full flower.

A week ago the oriental poppies and wisteria were still looking good . . . 

. . . now but the poppies have shed most of their petals and the wisteria flowers are being overwhelmed by rampant leaf growth.  The rhododendron flowers are also past their best but there is always something new.  The viburnum opulus is flowering well this year.  It must have enjoyed the cool spring.

The pieris which lost its first crop of bright red new leaves to the late frost has decided to try again.

The red hot pokers which were demolished by slugs last year have managed to produce a few flowers.   The slugs prefer eating the flower stems and the buds so the leaves survive more or less unscathed.

And I had just one perfect iris flower.

PS  I checked the Ramsey Commissioners Byelaws and found this information:

19 Feeding of animals and birds (1) No person shall feed, or attract the gathering of wild birds, other wildlife or vermin, by providing any food in a manner likely to cause nuisance, inconvenience or to give reasonable grounds for annoyance to any person. (2) This byelaw applies to the areas shown in the plan in Schedule 3.

According to the plan in Schedule 3 we are only prohibited from feeding the swans on the south side of the harbour - so we could always cross the swing bridge and feed them perfectly legally on the other side of the river!