What have you seen

Did wonder where the Redstarts where and a male Common Redstart appeared on top of our wooden gazebo complete with his white bar across the top of his head then 10 minutes later a male Black Redstart appeared on the end of ours clothes line must have heard me talking to OH.

Then earlier today saw a movement in one of the garden troughs only to look closer and see a vary small Grass snake so will keep looking to see where it goes as I am not keen on snakes close to the house hopefully if the weather warms up it may move elsewhere.

Still no Swifts seen around here yet.

Well at last just had 2 Swifts flying around a bit late here this year also see 1 Small Pearl Border Fritillary butterfly and Southern White Admiral butterfly and yesterday 3 Black Veined butterflies so things are moving in the right direction as weather improves.

Doing some gardening and looked up just in time to see a Goshawk flying over me, very quickly. We do see one every so often in the area but always a pleasure. They look so much bigger than the garden loving Sparrowhawk.

Only heard Swifts up to now, not seen any. Very unusual, especially as I was in town at the market today and they are normally wizzing around there.

We visited Balgavies Loch today and we were fortunate to see both of the resident Ospreys in flight. The female was on the nest when we arrived at the bird hide, and shortly afterwards the male flew in and perched on his favoured branch on a dead tree close to the nest. Then the female took off and flew around a couple of times, probably for a comfort break, before landing back on the nest. We then had a walk around the reserve and heard lots of birds song including Blachcaps, Chiffchaffs and Garden Warblers.

We get a lot of wood pigeons in our garden but for the last three weeks or so they have been attacked - by a crow! I've never seen this behaviour before. The crow doesn't make physical contact, it just swoops in very low and closely follows them as the pigeons fly off. Very strange.

More about 'gardening' than wildlife but something unusual. A new road was built near us and is about a quarter mile long. All along one verge the council seeded with wild flowers. Last year it was a mass of white daisies, something yellow, and red poppies. It really did look good. However, this year there is not a poppy in sight. A mass of daisies and whatever the yellow flower is, but no poppies. However, all along the opposite side of the road at the bottom of the fence that runs the length of the road there are thousands of poppies, not there last year and presumably not seeded there by the council, but why none whatsoever on the opposite side of the road?

When the A11 Barton Mills to Thetford was opened a few years ago the first year for poppies was wonderful however driving on the stretch the mowers were out cutting the verges before the poppies and daisy’s had seeded.  Obviously no gardeners employed 

Poppy seeds have a specific germination process. They need ground disturbance of the soil and aggravation to ‘shake’ them out of their natural dormancy. This means the seeds can lay dormant for several years hidden in the soil. Hence they flourished in the fields after the shelling of the Somme and hence its place in Poppy Appeal. Some other wildflowers also have other specific germination, some need periods of frost while others need to pass through animals. Some seeds also germinate on a rota of several years ‘hibernation’ in the soil until conditions are right. 

Exactly right, but if they are cut down before they come to seed they will never germinate 

Walking alongside the bay towards Conway from Llandudno today, passing by a golf course. We were surprised, to say the least, to have a female Merlin fly about 12 feet above our heads and then disappear back onto the edge of the course. Hope it didn't spot the lovely pair of Stonechats that were nearby or the Whitethroat that was holding forth from various gorse bushes.

The wild dog roses and ox-eyed daisies were everywhere. Very pretty.