30th May 2021

Pignut: These are showing well at the moment, usually growing on unimproved grassland, verges or at the edges of fields. A member of the Carrot family they are named after the way pigs can track them down by smell and root them out, much like they do truffles. We used to love finding these as kids, digging the tubers out with our penknives, rubbing the dirt off and eating them there and then. The tubers are a little way underground, brown and knobbly, a bit like small Jerusalem Artichokes to look at, and taste nutty and lovely. In Shakespeare’s time they were well known as a country food. In the Tempest he has the monster, Caliban, saying to the shipwrecked servants: “I’ll show thee the best springs, I’ll pluck thee berries…. and I will, with my long nails, dig thee pig-nuts”. At one point there was an attempt to cultivate them, but they don’t grow well in ploughed land. Look for a delicate unbelief, up to around 12 inches /30 cm, and sometimes, in poor ground, much smaller, with narrow leaves growing from the stem (see photos). Follow the stems right down and dig around a little way underground- probably not for a while as the tubers need time to develop. Conditions: Dry, still, settled hot weather for a few days after one of the wettest, coolest May’s ever. Temperature: Max 18 Min 9C.

25th May 2021

Long-tailed Tits: I love this time of year, when young birds start to fledge and one of the earliest small birds is the Long-tailed Tit, which have been bringing their fledged ones to the garden over the last few days. They build their nests early and start laying the 6-8 eggs in April. With the female incubating the eggs from 8-12 days and the young being fed in the nest for 14-18 days it’s not surprising they are already about, even in Sheffield. Although the ests are built to expand, using spider-webs, as I described a while ago, by the time they are ready to fledge the nests are bursting. You can usually tell young of birds by their ‘fluffiness’ and soft colouring and with Long-tailed Tits the red rim round the eye often shows up well, too. Unusually, long-tailed Tits support each other as wider family groups, with those without young often helping to feed those with young. You will often be alerted to their presence by the amount they vocalise with each other- a lovely ‘tsee-tsee-tsee’ social contact call. I was lucky to watch these in the garden the other day, some a bit far away but still showing pretty well. Conditions: still cool for the time of year. Temperature: 13- Min 7C.

21st May 2021

Female Blackbirds- you have to feel for birds that breed at this time of the year, and the female Blackbird is no exception. She does virtually all the nest building, making a rough cup of small twigs, straw and grass, usually low in a shrub or bush, before lining the cup with mud and fine grass. She then has two or three clutches of eggs, depending on the weather conditions, laying 3-5 eggs each time (more when the nests are in woodland or woodland edges than when in gardens) and she alone incubates them, which takes around two weeks for each brood. The male and female share feeding the young that hatch and then, once fledged, she returns to building or repairing the nest and laying the next clutch, while the male oversees the fledglings until they are fully independent. All this ends with only 30-40%, at most, of the broods reaching maturity, sometimes less than this in woodlands. There are lots of things that go wrong, including changes in the weather, being inexperienced and making insecure nests, and of course, predation by the Crow family, birds of prey and cats. Still, if she’s lucky, she will live long enough to successfully raise a number of adult Blackbirds in her life-time. Conditions: grey, wet, windy and cold these last few days. Temperature: Max 12 Min 7c.

17th May 2021

Meadow Pipit- following the Skylark I covered the other day, here is the other brown, streaky ground-nesting bird you are likely to see almost anywhere.. The BTO do a good video that helps tell them apart from Tree Pipits and Skylarks but here are a few pointers and photos. Smaller than Skylarks they are about the same size as a Sparrow, though slimmer in build. They have white tail-edges but no white wing edges, and no crest. Meadow Pipits fly in short bursts and without the fluttering, hovering flight of a Skylark, and they don’t rise high in the sky, singing, as Skylarks do. Meadow Pipits often flick their tails while on the ground or their singing posts, a bit like wagtails. They are one o the most predated of our birds, party because of their size, and because they are so common and widespread. Their call is very different from a Skylark- you may hear the Meadow Pipit call ‘zip-zip’ as it flies off, or you may notice the short Pip Pip call that gives it its name. On the amber list, they are not as endangered as Skylarks, and, though often dismissed as one of those ‘little brown birds’ they are an important part of our ecosystem. Conditions: Mild with heavy showers. Temperature: Max 12 Min 7c.

13th May 2021

Skylarks: We had the wonderful if increasingly rare experience of watching and hearing many Skylarks yesterday, in the meadows near Flagg in the White Peak. Usually just a loud song and a speck high in the sky, that’s my excuse for indistinct photos, but you may just be able to make out the streaky brown plumage, speckled chest, white edge-feathers on tails in flight, and the crest sometimes raised on their singing posts. A bit bigger than a Sparrow, the size and crest separate it from the smaller Meadow Pipit, as does the song which it sings as it rises high in the sky, hovers almost beyond sight, and then rapidly parachutes back down to the earth. They can continue singing on their perches, and the song can be continuous over several minutes (the RSPB site has a good recording if you aren’t familiar with the Skylark’s distinct song). Several changes in farming practice have led to this bird, once common throughout the UK, becoming endangered in most of North and West Europe- it is on the Red List. Cereals being planted increasingly in autumn, has meant that crops are too high by the time this ground-nesting bird needs to build its nest and raise its young. More intensive grazing, and the growth in the use of silage, where mowing happens more frequently than in the older style haymaking practices, has also caused more nest damage. Enjoy them where you get the chance. Conditions: Following huge storms in the week, the weather is quieter- sunny intervals. Temperature: Max 15 Min 7C.

7th May 2021

Wych Elm- along with the better known Elm, this tree too was devastated by Dutch Elm disease but it is still hanging on in places. If you aren’t sure about identifying it, this is a good time of year because of the distinctive round samaras, or ‘winged’ seed capsules which, like other samaras such as Sycamore airplanes, are dispersed by the wind. You can also identify Wych Elm when it is in leaf by its asymmetrical leaf-bases. Although it can grow to 30 metres it is now mostly found as small trees or bushes, in hedgerows etc as most mature trees have been decimated by the disease. The White-letter Hairstreak Butterfly caterpillar is dependent on elm leaves for food, so it, too has been greatly reduced in number. Many other caterpillars feed on the leaves but not so exclusively. The Wych Elm is our only truly native elm species and although scarce now its distribution is broader than other Elms, hence its other common name of Scots Elm as it is the only one found in the far north. Wych Elm has close-grained strong timber which is water-proof, and because of this it was used for parts of boats and, before metal pipes were widely available it was used in many of our cities and settlements or water-pipes and gutters. The myths of melancholy and death associated with Wych Elm may be due to its wide-spread use in the past for coffins, presumably because of its ability to survive longer in damp ground. Conditions: Still cool for the time of year. A good drenching rain the other day, at last, and occasional showers since. Temperature: Max 12 Min 4C.

Wych Elm

Wych Elm

Wych Elm

3rd May 2021

Nesting habits of Sparrowhawks– their nests are a fairly untidy affair, consisting of a platform of twigs, usually lower in the canopy and close to the tree-trunk. They take several weeks to build and are lined with bark-flakes. Territory size for Sparrowhawks varies from half a kilometre to 2 km, depending on the availability of small birds and fledglings to predate- Sparrowhawks are highly territorial. Female hawks are often larger than their male counterparts but the difference in size between male and female Sparrowhawks is that largest of any hawk, proportionally. It is thought the larger size of females allows them more reserves for forming and laying eggs (usually 3-6) and enables them to go without food for several days if necessary. The males being smaller and lighter are more agile for hunting. The female Sparrowhawk is also browner, as a camouflage for long periods sitting on the nest. Egg-laying is deliberately spaced over several days to ease pressure in the provisioning of food, and coincides with the emergence of more fledgling birds needed as prey. Studies have so far shown that the increase in Sparrowhawks numbers since persecutions ended does not affect the balance of small birds and hawks, but research is continuing. Conditions : Heavy rain predicted for the first time for weeks. It is sorely needed. Temperature: Max 9 Max 6C.

Sparrowhawk

Sparrowhawk

Male Sparrowhawk