Waiting . . . first for rain and then for dry grass.
Sunday 19th June, 2016.
Last Sunday I spent most of the day inside avoiding the midges and waiting for rain. There were eventually a few drops in the late afternoon but barely enough to wet the surface.
Monday was better though. We had half an inch in the north of the Island. I was very happy. It was getting depressing looking out of the windows and seeing thirsty plants.
We were also happy to see the first of this season’s baby birds visiting the feeder. Early in the morning there was a siskin fledgling on the ground frantically quivering its wings while its father was eating niger seed. After being fed it flew off. In the afternoon there was another male siskin being targeted by two babies. It is difficult to tell the difference between fledglings and females so we can only be sure by observing their behaviour. I have cleaned the kitchen window and will keep the camera handy in case we see any more youngsters.
On Tuesday morning there was more lovely rain but it cleared up in the afternoon. It wasn’t a deluge but it was enough to give the ground a good wetting - about 20mm over two days. I didn’t go out in the garden as it was too damp and midgy but I enjoyed watching some more baby birds visiting the feeder. There were at least four types of fledgling - a siskin again, a chaffinch, a coal tit and a blue tit. There may have been a great tit too because I saw a parent taking food up into the tree but any babies were too high for me to see.
I am wondering whether it is possible to distinguish young siskins from the adults by checking the length of the tail feathers. I am sure that this “short-tailed” siskin is a fledgling because I saw it begging for food and being ignored by the adults on the niger feeder.
Then it got bored and flew down onto the trellis and I got an even better view of its abbreviated tail.
And finally it got tired of waiting for hand-outs and decided to try feeding itself on the ground.
The niger seed is rather messy. I bought a special niger feeder with small holes, and suspended a plastic “saucer” underneath to catch some of the seed with spills out of the holes, but most of the seed still seems to end up on the ground . . . except when it is wet and sticks to everything.
This young coal tit and the chaffinch were both waiting for food up in the tree while their parents were busy on the feeders.
While I was watching the babies, I saw a scruffy robin and couldn’t decide whether he was having a very early moult or whether he was just very wet. It must have been the latter because later in the week our back garden robins were all looking sleek again.
On Wednesday I found that I wasn’t the only person with an interest in baby birds.
That unwelcome visitor was spotted lurking under the raspberries. I chased it away at least half a dozen times but it kept returning even after I watered the raspberries hoping that the wet foliage would put it off. I worry about the vulnerable baby birds, especially the siskins which often feed on the ground. I wonder whether the local toy shop stocks powerful water pistols.
In the evening I saw a much bigger “baby” - a young blackbird which had already learned to find its own food. It was working at the edge of the lawn for ages. I couldn’t see whether it was pulling at a worm or wiping a slug to remove the slime.
Thursday. I was planning to mow but there was an overnight shower and not enough wind to dry out the grass so I had a good excuse to put it off until tomorrow. Instead, I shall have to cut up bits of tree and creeper that have been littering the top of the garden since I murdered the old rowan last week. I started yesterday but it is probably a three-day task. I can’t cut up more than three muck buckets of bits without risking blistered hands and a sore back.
As soon as I finish clearing up the debris from the old rowan, I am planning to modify my “bird feeding enclosure” and block off the view of the birds from the raspberry bed. But mowing will have to take precedence over everything on the first properly dry day.
We got a letter from the Department of Infrastructure this morning to let us know that our road will be closed from its junction with the Glen Auldyn Road from Monday July 4 until Friday August 12 because they “intend to carry out essential river bank stabilisation works to the highway of Glen Auldyn Back Road.” This is a bit confusing because the river bank repairs were apparently finished early in spring. Perhaps the earlier repairs were just a temporary fix and they are going to do a definitive job.
The letter continues with the assurance that they “will endeavour to maintain residents’ vehicle access between 16-30 and 09-30 hours and wherever possible, pedestrian access will be available at all times during the works.” The first section of road between the bridge and our cluster of houses is nowhere near the river bank. I hope the slightly ambiguous wherever possible means that they will allow us access during the day.
It must be summer even though it is only 14 degrees C today because the ox-eye daisies and foxgloves are flowering. They self-seed and do a good job of hiding the unsightly dead leaves of the daffodils when they die back. If you aren’t too fussy about tidiness, large areas of a garden can be left to take care of themselves.
Lush double roses are already flowering in sunnier gardens in the glen and they are gorgeous but sometimes I prefer the lovely delicate simplicity of the wild roses.
Friday, and another overnight shower wet the grass too much for morning mowing. I took this photograph and wrote to a friend saying “I seem to be spending the week waiting for the grass to dry out enough to be mowed. But I can't complain when I have this view to enjoy from our kitchen window. Everything is growing so fast this year. Some of the foxgloves are almost as tall as me. I am so lucky to have all this space in this crowded world.”
We did the shopping and recycling before morning tea and then walked down to Poyll Dooey after lunch. As we walked down the last stretch of road towards Greenlands, I noticed that the two big trees, in an overgrown field, which I photographed in winter . . .
. . . were now in full leaf.
In winter I speculated that they might be oaks, judging by the shape and the fissured bark of the closer one, but I was wrong. In spring I saw that it was covered with unoaklike catkins.
I wondered whether it could be an alder although it was far larger than any other alder I have ever seen. The gate was open so I walked into the field to have a closer look. It was indeed an alder. There were still a few of the distinctive little cones from the previous year clinging to the lower branches. The second tree, which was half-hidden behind the alder, is just a sycamore.
Near the footbridge we came across a patch of perennial sweet peas Lathyrus latifolius They have no scent and are garden escapes, not native wildflowers, but they are very beautiful. This patch has been flowering every June for as long as I can remember.
We last visited Poyll Dooey three weeks ago. In the park the trees were leafier and the wild, unmown areas were wilder. There were some lovely patches of meadow cranesbill a native wildflower.
They are probably a distant ancestor of the blue perennial geraniums in my garden. My geraniums are a mauvy blue, purple really, but the colour never looks right in a photograph. The pink tinge in this photo is due to the sun shining through the petals.
Before we left the park I took a photo of this patch of white umbellifers. I wasn’t sure what they were. When I got home I found out that I was fortunate not to recognise them because they are ground elder which is a very invasive, although pretty, weed. It is almost impossible to eradicate because it grows back from the tiniest fragment of root.
Saturday was the end of the sequence of “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow . . .” days and I finally got the grass mowed. Now I can relax until next week,
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