Last week I was away for four mornings but from Saturday to Wednesday I have been for my regular walk around Stanwick Lakes each morning.
There have been so few birds that I have resorted to looking at plants! Like this Coltsfoot – one of the few plants I recognise (at least on a good day).
It has been generally too cold for butterflies but I’ve seen a few Brimstones and Peacocks (but no Orange Tips yet).
There are very few Sedge Warblers around and not that many Willow Warblers either. Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps command the airwaves still. There are Sand Martins – but not as many as usual – and Swallows – but very few – and the House Martins are late. I’m now seeing Common Terns on every visit – although not very many! I’ve heard my first Lesser Whitethroat (quite an early record) but not yet a Whitethroat.
But there has been an adult Little Gull on one day – smart bird!
The winter visitors are slipping away. It’s quite difficult to see Wigeon now – just a handful around and I don’t find them on every visit and the number of Teal has dropped too. The Goldeneyes who were displaying like mad have gone north to get on with breeding and for a while a single female Goldeneye was present but I haven’t seen her for a few visits.
It’s Spring – but a very slow Spring. My next visit to Stanwick Lakes will now be Saturday morning – how will things have changed with the heat wave we are promised?
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In South Wiltshire, oddly, toothwort started to emerge in the forest at about the same time as ever. Perhaps sheltered from the persistent beasterly winds by leaf litter and twigginess. Or by being underground. Primroses are spectacularly abundant, and violets seem more intensely violet than usual.
Dearly Beloved Mrs C has no illiterates to copy edit this week so she is having a tidy. This included leaning out of the bedroom window and removing the nest material from one of last year’s flyscraper nests, “built” on the grapevine. This was v untypical for someone who wept for three days after knocking a longtailed tit nest out of a Jerusalem Sage bush last year. On interrogation it was because the nest material was a tangle of black plarstic strips that the flyscrapers had laboriously unpicked from the lining fabric underneath a sofa that hung around waiting for a match and a northwesterly breeze. How enterprising of them! – they preferred re-using evil fossil-fuel-derived plarstic to the wealth of biodegradable sphagnum, grass and Old Man’s Beard that was available. I have a good mind to retrieve the tangled mess from the kitchen bin while she is watching Miss Marple and put it back on the grapevine. Every little helps.
Re toothwort, perhaps it’s not late because it has no chlorophyll and leads a saprophytic life not much affected by soil temperature?
Here in West Sussex oak leafing, on a standard transect, appears to be ~ 10 days behind last year’s oaks.
Nuthatch song frequency should be peaking this week (wk16) but so far this week there’s been little song despite the sudden warm spring weather. Perhaps they will perform tomorrow, then Fri +Sat + Sun and produce a typical spike. Or are they delaying until wk 17 ? — that would be unheard of in 16 years of measuring their song.
Apologies:
the above Nuthatch singing phenology is RUBBISH. (memory malfunction)
The average for peak song is wk 15 — NOT 16
Just checked re any late peaks and yes, 2013 produced a significant late peak in wk 17. That spring was pretty wintry, especially March. Moreover, oak leafing was exceptionally late. E.g. 18th April 2017, oaks were ~ 20% in leaf whereas a similar level of leafing for 2013 did not occur until ~ 12th May – over 3 weeks behind 2017.
Because Toothwort is a hemiparasite it is likely triggered by the change in sap flow in it’s Hazel host. Plus woodland tends to be more protected from the temperature extremes.
It’s the same in North Shropshire. I have seen Swallows over water, probably passing through. But on the wires outside the farms where they usually nest I have not seen a single Swallow. Likewise I’ve seen Brimstones, Peacocks, Commas, and even a Small White yesterday. but there is only a smattering of butterflies, a few here, and the odd one here and there. I saw my first Brimstone on 25 March, but here were are nearly 4 weeks later and numbers have not built up yet. So yes, spring is late.