|
|
 |
|
Welcome to
Wildliferanger.com
....a sort of overspill site for
www.wildliferanger.co.uk It's a strange thing, but if you've come to this site via Windows Internet Explorer, then you may notice a certain amount of non-alignment of caption headings with some photographs! I don't know why this has started happening or, indeed, for how long....nor do I seem to be able to fix it! Stranger still, is the fact that there doesn't seem to be a problem at all if you access the site via Google, Firefox, Ask or Yahoo or, in fact, anything other than Internet Explorer!
 Rudbeckia Sonara
 Male Common Red Darter
These beautiful, but fiercely territorial Dragonflies like to spend a great deal of their time on the ground from where they will launch attacks on passing insects or on other Red Darter males. Despite their colour, they are surprisingly difficult to see however and I was actually very lucky to spot this one while walking around the margin of a field near Abingdon in Oxfordshire. The field itself had attracted me because it was completely covered in Redshank (the plant that is, not the bird) which itself, is something that you don't very often see these days. Redshank (shown below) is considered a weed, but there was so much of it (and only in the one field) that I was tempted to think it was being grown deliberately as a crop for some reason.
Redshank (AKA Persicaria, Lady's Thumb and Willow Weed)
So, what's at all interesting about Redshank....Well, in this instance, there was so much of it growing in one field, I'm inclined to think that the topsoil is likely to be completely deficient in lime and that the sheer quantity of the plant will eventually prove to be a major headache for the farmer when he decides to use the field for a different crop. Redshank seed, for example, is extremely difficult to eliminate from the soil, where it can remain viable for up to fifty years. Meanwhile, seed still occurring on the plant can cause significant impurities to the harvest of any crop grown where Redshank persists, including to most types of Cereals, Clover, Flax and even Grass.
In times past, people believed that the plant was nutritious enough to feed to their livestock and certainly did so from time to time. We were taught from a survival perspective however, that, although the leaves are quite rich in vitamin C and can be eaten in an emergency, they contain a high proportion of oxalates and may well prove toxic if consumed in large enough amounts. Children, for example, would be at far greater risk compared to adults, but it's also worth remembering that some adults would react less favourably than others. All in all, Redshank is best left well and truly alone!
 No Bovver with a Hover
Myathropa florea I think....the one that looks a lot like a Drone Fly wearing a jet pilot's helmet!
 Large White
I've added this specimen and the Small White below to compliment the Green-Veined White a few pictures further down. I had an interesting conversation with an ageing allotment owner the other day about Large Whites. He must have been in his eighties and said he'd had an allotment since the 1960s. He also recalled an argument he'd had last summer with a young couple who'd just taken on a plot of land adjacent to his. "They're two of the new breed" he said, "don't know nuthin' about anythin'! Instead they siz sump'un on telly an' thinks thers nuthin' to it!" He went on to explain that the couple were concerned about an infestation of tiny flies in their little allotment shed and had set about eliminating them with a chemical insecticide. The old guy had spotted this and wandered over to see what they were killing. "They wuz killin' a whole loada Cotesia glomerata!" he said incredulously, "Hundreds of 'em....Bloody hundreds!"
Just as with many of the new-wave wannabe "Good Life" amateur Bee-keepers keen to set up their own hives in their back gardens and inadvertently creating problems that have enormous implications to all of us, the new generation of allotment owners seem to be mostly comprised of people who, while being great fans of the current trend of TV gardening programmes, actually know nothing about the very thing they're undertaking....in this case, maintaining a healthy allotment....and especially when it comes to paying attention to whatever's being grown on the various plots around them! It's all part of the modern mindset, the rallying cry of which appears to be "Me, Me, Me and Mine and to Hell with all the Rest!" Cotesia Glomerata? A tiny fly that lays its eggs in the caterpillar of the Large White Butterfly and is estimated to be responsible for destroying more than 50% of those voracious devourers of cultivated Brassicas, Nasturtiums and wild Crucifers. The elderly gent explained that he manages to earn a few bob supplying cabbages and the like to a local farm shop and had a glint in his eye when he told me how angry he'd been with the couple....and then he said something that I'm always going on about on these websites...."Balance and connections" he said...."It's all about balance and connections, but try telling them that!"
 Small White
Like its Large and Green-Veined cousins, the Small White is yet another member of the Peridae family, which also includes the Brimstone, Clouded Yellow and Orange-Tip Butterflies. It's larvae represent a significant pest to Brassica crops and is one Butterfly species whose population levels are not considered to be under serious threat due to the huge increase in the growing of such Brassicas as Oilseed Rape.
 Red-Eye Fly
The patterns of the veins on the wings, the gap between the eyes, the silvery hairs on the thorax and its overall size all seem to suggest that this is the rare and very localized Leucophenga maculata (a male in fact), but it probably isn't....especially as it was on the Buddlea bush in my garden! I've seen them many times before around where I live, but I've always preferred to call them "Red-Eye Flies".
Little Blue
I've always had trouble getting anything like a decent photograph of a Little Blue....they're quite tiny, very quick, nearly always on the move and rarely in a relaxed state of mind. However, I took this shot on a really warm, sunny day in North Cornwall and only shortly after this particular little imp had been trying to land on me! Little Blues are sometimes attracted to human sweat (on hot days) and will often hover close to your face and arms while following you for quite some distance if they feel it's necessary!
 Ten-Spot or Eyed Ladybird?
Years ago I looked up this species in two different Insect books (in fact, I have them in front of me right now) and, while one book identifies it as an Anatis ocellata, the other claims that it's an Adalia decempunctata (which I thought was a Ten-Spot Ladybird)! The result is that I've been totally confused ever since! Well, I'm opting for this particular individual being a variety of the Ten-Spot (though not one I've seen outside of the book before), whose markings can vary quite considerably. To qualify as an Eyed Ladybird, it needs to have yellowy-white rings surrounding each of its spots (hence the name) plus the fact that this one was sheltering from the rain in the Buddlea bush at the top of my garden rather than being up a Conifer tree somewhere....which is where you tend to find the Eyed Ladybirds most of the time. By the way, I didn't have the heart to disturb it just to see if it had the yellowish legs diagnostic of the Ten-Spot.
Mmm....Isn't Nature wonderful the way that it not only manages to confuse complete idiots like me, but frequently refuses to conform to the text books written by all those clever experts as well!
Red Bartsia
 Green-Veined White
Following a few sunny spells, there seemed to be a fair showing of Butterflies generally in Cornwall in July/August, 2008 and my best moment had to be when I spotted a White Admiral in a small woodland not far from the place I was staying. Disappointingly however, it was up and away long before I could manoeuvre myself into a position to get a decent photograph.
Red Admiral
Not the much scarcer White Admiral that I would so dearly have loved to photograph, but I took this shot to illustrate how well camouflaged the Red Admiral can be when sitting on an old piece of wood or amongst dry leaves with its wings folded.
 Hover Fly on a Wild Carrot Umbrel
It was absolutely *issing down when I took this picture and the light was bleepin' awful, but if you ever want to know where Hover Flies go when it's raining...well, I guess they just carry on regardless!
Gerbera Pink
Tiger Slug
Small Tortoiseshell
The Small Tortoiseshell is a very common Butterfly and one familiar to most of us and, for that reason alone, it's all too easy to overlook just how beautifully marked this species actually is! By the way, any self-respecting wildlife gardener should always include a Buddlea Bush or two in their garden for the adult Small Tortoiseshells and a patch of Nettles somewhere or other for the Larvae.
Mosquito
This is a daylight-loving female Culiseta annulata and is entirely dedicated to sucking the blood from almost any vertebrate it happens across (I used to go out with someone like that). The male of the species on the other hand, which is distinguishable by its feathered antennae, only feeds from nectar and honeydew and can often be seen in large dense swarms during the winter. I photographed this one as it was investigating a pool of extremely polluted water, probably with a view to laying its next batch of eggs. Almost any pool of relatively still water will be considered suitable for egg-laying purposes and the eggs will soon hatch into larvae universally referred to as "wrigglers".
Although completed a fortnight ago, my new wildlife pond at the top of the garden is already alive with wrigglers and so yesterday, I set off with my net and caught a dozen or so Water-Boatmen in a nearby lake. I then added them to my pond....and that should take care of the Mosquito larvae problem in next to no time!
Meanwhile, don't confuse this species with the malaria-carrying Anophiline Mosquitoes. Certainly, the one shown here will be keen to bite you and sometimes cause a nasty blister-type reaction, but it wont give you malaria. However, several of the Malaria- carrying species are gradually making their way northwards as climate change results in milder European winters and increasingly damp summers.
Pollen Makes the World Go Round
Are you one of those people following the current trend to be a little bit more self-sufficient? Have you just put your name down for patch at your local allotment? Thinking of growing your own fruit and veg? Keeping a few Chickens and a Goat? Making enquiries about buying a hive and getting yourself a few honey Bees (possibly via the internet)? Mmm....Good luck, but just bear in mind that in the last few years, amateur so-called apiarists who were completely new to the art of Bee-keeping have managed to cause and are continuing to cause incalculable devastation, not only to their own hive, but to hives right across the UK! Failure to understand the dire consequences of not maintaining a completely healthy and totally disease-free hive, of failing to appreciate the extent of the damage that a single infected hive can cause on the wider stage and a total inability to comprehend both the needs and the vulnerabilities of the average Honey Bee, have all been major factors in contributing to the desperately worrying decline in the populations of ALL species of Bee in the UK!
So, if you are considering becoming an independent producer of honey, then think again....You may get a few jars of golden delight for all your trouble, but you are far more likely to do untold damage in the wider scheme of things! Experienced Bee-keepers will have learned their trade over decades, but even they are failing to cope with the problems currently facing the industry. Bees are dying in their millions, entire hives are being wiped out in their hundreds and, if you're seriously thinking about setting up your own hive(s), then DON'T! You will only add to the problem, not solve it!
Water Forget-Me-Not (Pink)
The texture and colour of this tiny flower (about the size of a pea) reminds me of those pink sugar mice that you used to be able to buy from old-fashioned sweet shops when I was a kid. I think they cost a penny and came in pink, white and blue versions with a bit of string for a tail. You can still buy them these days, but with five major differences....1, Now they come wrapped in cellophane with a label so that we can all be reassured that yes, we really are slowly poisoning ourselves by not heeding the health warnings about artificial colours, e-numbers and sugar....2, No string for a tail any more, presumably for fear of litigation should some idiot accidentally swallow it (serve 'em right in my book for being totally stupid!)....3, The fact that they do now have artificial colours and e-numbers, despite the Human Race getting along without such things just fine and dandy for the last three million years....4, They don't cost a penny any more. In fact, I saw some in a fudge shop in Cornwall recently for 60p each....that's twelve shillings in real money....and when I was a boy, twelve bob would have bought you 144 sugar mice....and a clip round the ear from your mother for wasting her hard-earned cash! Today, if my maths is correct, 144 sugar mice would cost you £86.40! Finally....5, The modern ones taste like cr*p!
A "Pauline"
No, that's actually the name given to this particular variety of flower, but there are also varieties of Iris, Rose, Cactus and many others all called "Pauline".
Pink Dahlia
The unfurled petals in the very centre of a Dahlia always remind me of someone's fingers holding on to something precious or fragile.
The "Hub" of a Snow Lady
Seven-Spot Ladybird....AKA "The Aphid Muncher"
I took about a dozen pictures of this fascinating insect, during which time she ate three of those tiny Black Bean Aphids....and that's why experienced gardeners so actively encourage little Coccinella septempunctata into their gardens and allotments.
Ladybirds incidentally, are always brightly-coloured to warn predators that they are either poisonous or foul-tasting and, in a photo like this, I think they also look like a bit like a cycling helmet!
Woolly Thistle Vortex About to Erupt into Flower
This is one very large and seriously aggressive species of UK thistle and probably just about edges it as my favourite.
 Impossibly Beautiful Creatures Feeding on Pieces of Fruit
Pagoda Primula
Iridescent Blue
Guinea Pigs or Cavies (Above and Below)
As you'll doubtless be aware, Guinea Pigs do not hail from Guinea....nor are they a kind of pig! They are, in fact, a type of rodent originally native to the South American Andes. Sadly however, they are no longer extant in the wilds of their homeland, but I do think it's safe to argue that the all too familiar Guinea Pig is practically guaranteed long-term survival, at least as a caged pet species forced to reside in the bedrooms of young children all over the planet, simply because they have a fluffy-wuffy, cuddly-type cuteness factor pretty much on a par with that of Bambi!
Shower
Poppy Field
When you see Poppies like this, it's not difficult to see why they ultimately became synonymous with warfare and, in particular, with the Somme and Flanders Field during the First World War.
"Hungry-Hippo
I know that some of you are concerned to know about the progress (or lack of it) of the various birds that visit my garden, so here's a photo of Hungry-Hippo taken almost a week after the one below. As you can see, he's doing just fine, but he is now having to manage entirely by himself due to the fact that Two-Tone has finally kicked him out! In fact, by returning to this particular feeding station, he's actually re-entering Two-Tone's territory and is running a very real risk of being given a good going over!
Provided that he can stay clear of my neighbour's dreaded cat, I think he'll be ok from now on. He's a strong bird and quite wilful towards most other species, so now all he needs to do is find a territorial niche and, as long as he has the sense to avoid Two-Tone and DT (especially DT who I saw chasing a Mouse off the lawn briefly yesterday!!!), then I reckon he's got a good chance to live long and prosper....we'll just have to wait and see.
"Hungry-Hippo "
....Well, that's what my daughter suggests he should be called and I can't see why not. He eats for three and drives Two-Tone, his father, to distraction....He just doesn't stop demanding to be fed....Ever!
The Last Sibling
Not so long ago, "Two-Tone" the Blackbird was a proud husband and the father of four bonny eggs....everything looked rosy and tickety-boo. Two weeks later, the young fledgling in the picture above is all that remains of his family!
One egg failed to hatch, two of the fledglings were taken by a neighbour's cat and seemingly killed for the fun of it and now his mate has gone missing and I've not seen her for at least three days!
Nevertheless, he struggles on, determined to raise his last remaining offspring. He was out there this morning at about 0500hrs, feeding the infinitely voracious youngster anything and everything he could find and he'll still be out there until late this evening!
Perhaps in a way, it's not such a bad thing that he only has one youngster to feed as he doesn't seem to eat much himself. Meanwhile, he practically has a conniption fit every time he thinks he hears or sees something threatening (which is most of the time) and I do feel sorry for him because his stress levels must be through the roof! Interestingly, I have begun to notice a subtle difference in his alarm calls and I can now predict with about 75% accuracy whether it will be a cat, a dog, a gang of Jackdaws or people before I go outside to check!
Banded Demoiselle
Also called the Banded Damselfly or the Banded Agrion, I've placed this incredible creature here (above and below) for two reasons....1, to compliment the picture of the beautiful Beautiful Demoiselle on the "Home" page of the co.uk site and....2, to act as a stark contrast to "Captain Ugly" from the planet "Ugly" in the "Ugloid Nebula" in the photograph below these! Mind you, the Banded Demoiselle is every bit as vicious as the Scorpion Fly, except that it prefers to hunt rather than scavenge and waits patiently in the undergrowth for something tasty to fly by before launching itself into the air in pursuit of its prey. Then it will tear its luckless victim apart with its jaws as it devours it alive....a bit like the Inland Revenue I guess!
Foxglove From Above
Scorpion Fly
So there you lie....a poor hapless Crane-Fly all tangled up in a Spider's web, secure in the knowledge that, at any moment, good old "Spiddy" is going to come along and wrap you up all cosy and snug in a cocoon of silken thread! You might even be able to cope with the knowledge that she's then going to inject you full of toxic venom designed to both paralyse you and turn your insides into a mushy gloop ready to be sucked up like some kind of macabre Margarita cocktail! In fact, you might even be able to accept your fate because you know full-well that things can't possibly get any worse!
....Then, right out of the blue, you suddenly find yourself face to face with the principal inspiration for half the insect cast of "Starship Troopers" and soon, very soon, he's going to start eating you alive....but without the benefit of a Spider's paralysing venom! Mind you, at least you get to watch all the gory details from a really up-close perspective!
Scorpion Flies, despite their ferocious appearance and the male's sinister-looking upturned tail, are quite harmless and were always great for catching and using to scare the living bejeebers out of Marjorie Bolton when I was about seven or eight years old (see "Slices" on www.wildliferanger.co.uk)! They're also fairly common in the UK and have a scavenging talent that baffles even the best of the bug experts (the Scorpion Flies that is, not Marjorie Bolton....but then, on the other hand!)!....They can actually manage to land on any Spider's web without getting stuck, extricate a trapped insect from the sticky threads and then fly off with it to eat elsewhere....and all without the Spider appearing to notice....Mind you, if I was a Spider, I don't think I'd be too quick to notice either!
Blue Beauty
Dandelion Forest
DT Junior
This poor little scrap was at the centre of great dramatic happenings in my next-door neighbour's garden early this evening (12th May 2008)! For the full story, see the diary entry on the "Brown" page.
Dent-de-Lion
As with the likes of Silverweed, Plantain, Bristly Ox-Tongue, Bittercress and Alexanders, the good old Dandelion (or "Lion's Tooth) has been a very important plant to me in times past. The leaves have quite a high vitamin A and C content when young and are fairly tasty in salads (older leaves have less value nutritionally). Even the roots can be dried and ground up to use as a coffee substitute. Most adult members of my family used to make Dandelion wine when I was a boy, including my Dad who enjoyed making wine out of almost anything and which usually supplemented his half crate of Double-Diamond delivered to the door each week! How did it go? "A Double-Diamond works wonders, works wonders. A Double-Diamond works wonders so drink some today"!
My Gran used to make a kind of Dandelion soup (which I didn't like much)....something she'd done as a girl to give to her Mother who suffered for many years with consumption. I loved her home-made Dandelion and Burdock drink....the real stuff, not the crap you buy these days....and her lemonade made with real Lemons was pretty good as well. I personally think that today's kids miss out on such things, though I suppose modern parents more than make up for it with copious amounts of E400-ade and Crappa-Cola!
Please Note....
Despite this being a designated .com site, there's not actually anything for sale here and, therefore, nothing for you to buy. Nor is it intended as a work of reference....In fact, I don't know Jack Squat from his bum-bone about anything much, so if you're so desperate that you need to consult something published here, then you really are in a very, very bad way!
What there is however, is a bunch of pictures of mostly birds, flowers and landscapes taken with a couple of different cameras that I nearly always have set on "Auto".
For this reason (amongst others) I don't consider myself to be much of a photographer and, although a few of the photos might be deemed pretty enough to appear on the lid of the odd box of chocolates....and bearing in mind that I do try to be a bit arty-farty sometimes, I'm fully aware that I simply don't have the talent of the professionals.
Nevertheless, people do keep logging-on to both this and its sister co.uk site in their tens of thousands (for reasons best known to themselves), often from dark and shady places in countries all around the world....and with almost two million hits already by June 2008 * (possibly as many as three million depending on how you split the site links), I can assure you, no-one is more gob-smacked than me about the ever-increasing amount of interest being shown!
* According to stats provided daily by my web-hosts Netbenefit. 
An Old Cornish Tin Mine Near Chapel Porth
Beauty and the Beast
Stressed-Out Wood Ant
I saw a Green Woodpecker today, jumping up and down excitedly to one side of the woodland trail about fifty metres ahead of me. Every few seconds, it would suddenly leap forward and stab at the ground with its beak! I knew what it was doing....it was feeding on Ants.
This is defining Green Woodpecker behaviour that I've wanted to photograph for years, but unfortunately, the wily bird must have seen me approaching at some point because he waited and waited and then flew off just moments before I'd managed to manoeuvre close enough to get even a half-decent picture! Oh well, I decided to take a good look at the Ant's nest instead....Understandably, the little insects were in a bit of a tiz to say the least, but were already beginning to focus on repairing the damage inflicted on the nest-mound caused by the wilful bird!
Red Dead-Nettle
Extremely common on grass verges up and down the country, but so easy to overlook, the Red Dead-Nettle is, nonetheless, a strikingly attractive plant when studied closely. I took this shot from slightly beneath the plant to emphasize the extraordinary and quite beautiful nature of the flowers. Sadly (though possibly not), most people are hardly aware that they are even there.
Slender Speedwell
As with the Wood Anenome and Lesser Celandine, I can't remember the humble, lawn-loving Slender Speedwell being as prolific as it seems to be this Spring (2008).
Wildlife Refuge
Many more farmers these days are leaving the borders of their fields uncultivated for the benefit of wildlife and I'm totally convinced that we're already beginning to see huge benefits from this with regard to the future survival of many species of plants, mammals, birds, invertebrates and reptiles....not to mention more insects than you can poke with a pointy stick....so I wont....mention it that is!
Reach for the Sun
Scenic Cotswolds
And the snow lay like icing sugar
Dusting the land
Sprinkled by Angels
At God's own command
(From "The Gift" by Daisy W, 1937)
Another Daffodil Interior
Crazy Bird + One
Senetti
Lily Stamens
....another well-known 1920s actress, jazz-lover, whirlwind socialite and all-round flapper.
White-Eye
Robins love to sing at all hours of the day and night and it was about mid-day when I took this shot of White-Eye vocalising for all he was worth in the front garden. However, he's just as likely to be heard singing at three in the morning from one of the trees beneath the street lamp just over the road! Robins actually have good night vision and, as a result, can be quite active during the dark hours...particularly in well-lit areas and during full moons. Their song can also be quite rich, melodic and varied, especially in the Spring, leading to some people occasionally mistaking them for Nightingales!
Yellow Primrosy Primula Thing....21st March....the first day of Spring 2008
I wanted to take a picture in my garden today of something to help celebrate the official "First Day of Spring", but as I searched around for a suitable subject, it began to snow....just lightly at first, then much more heavily!
Most of the snowflakes fell upon the ground of course, but a few caressed and kissed the petals of this Primrose/Primula flower....and melted in their passion almost instantly.
This continued for a few minutes and, for a while at least, it looked as though we might be enjoying a white Easter high up here in the Cotswold Hills....but then it stopped snowing just as suddenly as it had begun and, within minutes, all signs of the snow had disappeared....except that is, for the tiny droplets of ice-cold water on the petals of this vibrant little flower!
Newly Emerged Marbled Butterfly on a Bramble Rose
I stumbled upon this picture in my Butterfly archives last night and, although it may well be featured elsewhere on one or other of my websites, to be quite honest, I can't be bothered to check!
The sites themselves are getting so large these days and filled with so much inane rubbish that I even find myself saying the same things over and over the same things over and over!
Anyway, it's of a Marbled Butterfly and was taken last Summer in a hedgerow near the pretty village of Chedworth in the Cotswolds.
Great Grey Owl
"Little Frog"
It may not look like it, but this is one of the larger members of the Buttercup or Ranunculus family and is the cultured version of the Marsh Marigold....and just as poisonous! Ranunculus is Latin for "Little Frog" (no, I don't know for certain either, but I do have a vague recollection of an old story involving a frog, a kiss and a prince who died of guilt) and has always been a popular bloom to give to someone you admire because in the Victorian's "Language of Flowers", a Ranunculus is supposed to signify a richness of attractions.
Hubble Primula
One from my garden and looking a bit as though it was photographed using the Hubble telescope!
Foraging Wren
I have a selection of full-grown and miniature fir trees in my garden, planted with the intention of attracting foraging Wrens and the occasional passing Goldcrest (below)....and it works! On the other hand, while encouraging Wrens to adopt your land as their own isn't too difficult, it's a much greater challenge to get them to nest there! In fact, my own resident pair of Troglodytes troglodytes have always preferred to raise their families in the same place each year....just beyond the back fence. This time however, it looks as though they're breaking with time-honoured tradition and building a nest in the little Wren-basket that I nailed to the side of the shed last Autumn. To be on the safe side though, I leave them well alone....apart from taking the odd picture or two (above) as they scramble for food amongst the branches of the Firs
Hen Goldcrest
Goldcrests must surely be one of the most infuriating species of bird to photograph as they never sit still for more than a second or two at most!
This tiny scrap of nervous energy is, along with the much rarer Firecrest, our smallest British Bird (even smaller than a Wren). They visit my garden every once in a while throughout the year, but at least several times a day during the Spring. The bird in the picture is the female of a pair currently nesting very close to my garden. It's possible to tell that she's female by the yellow streak on her crown....the male has a slightly more orangey version.
Primula Garden Display
A beautiful, sunny blue-sky day with hardly a breeze to stir the trees, but barely twelve hours after I took this photograph, Southern and Western Wales and the entire South and South-West of England were being pounded by one of the the worst storms ever recorded for the month of March!
"DT"
Another shot of "DT", but taken with the Ricoh. This bird has become very tame with me!
Infra-Red Yellow Mongoose
Not recent, but it's surprising what you come up with when you ferret about in the virtual attic....I couldn't resist taking a quick shot of this little Yella fella keeping warm under an infra-red lamp at the time and now here it is!
Early Primrose
This is the first Gloucestershire Wild Primrose I've seen in 2008 (spotted on 27th February), but
I did see a few last week as well growing on a grass verge in South Wiltshire.
Black-Winged Stilt
Not exactly up to much as a picture, this is another one for Mr Dowde, the "real" birder, who doesn't much like all the "garden rubbish" I keep putting on my websites. The trouble is, I get just as much of a buzz from taking a good shot of a Blackbird as I do from something a little more rare....though I can assure you Mr Dowde, there's a lot more where this BWS came from....and who knows, I might upload some of them as time goes by....I've got to be careful though, the last thing I want is for people to think I'm a "real" birder like you!
White-Eye the Robin
This photograph is dedicated to Mrs Werther of Chipping Norton whose favourite bird apparently is the good old British Robin. It shows a bird I call White-Eye chancing his luck in my back garden where another male Robin named Uppity Bill reigns supreme.
Hen Greenfinch
A generally much gentler-looking (and less yellow at this time of year) version of the usually far more aggressive male of the species, the hen Greenfinch can be just as ferocious towards all and sundry at the bird-table. I caught this particular lady (the same bird as in the picture below) looking almost wistful, but she was simply checking around for any other birds who might attempt to chase her from her hard-won place at the food supply!
Eye of the Greenfinch....Obviously not a very good photograph technically, but I believe that the potential for instant aggression in this little bird is there for all to see and that's what I tried to show!
Without doubt, current trends in bird photography demand that the subject be "contextualized"....in other words, that it should be depicted in a meaningful relationship to its habitat or surroundings and that (if at all possible) it should be depicted doing something behaviourally interesting.
Mmm....I'm afraid that such things don't really interest me very much, simply because (for me) the majority of such photographs, while often being extremely demanding technically and of great interest to the birding fraternity at large, rarely seem to capture the individual "personality" of the animal or its own particular sense of self-identity....and that's why I usually try to get 'much closer to my subject (a bit more up close and personal) before I take its picture!
The eyes in particular, are very important to me because I usually have an overwhelming desire to create a sense of "connection" with the bird and a need to draw the viewer right into the photograph itself, enabling them to experience at least some of the thrill I felt when I took it. Sadly however, it's not something I find at all easy to do!
I'm certainly not saying that I'm all that successful in achieving my aims....In fact, if I'm honest, I believe that I've only ever really managed to capture anything remotely like the "essence" of a bird's personality about half a dozen times in all the thousands of photographs I've taken over the years!
Oh well, rest assured, I'm reliably informed that due to my abject failure to "go with the flow", I shall ensure the continuation of two things....first, that my half-baked theory that birds have their own clearly identifiable individual personalities will always attract universal derision from those who know best and that, second, my own particular brand of "in your face" bird photography will never amount to anything more than a pile of over-sentimentalized cr*p!
Str-e-tch!
Scores if not hundreds of birds visited my garden today (16th February, 2008) in the bright and and unseasonally warm Winter sunshine and there were often times when behaviour at the bird-feeders was more reminiscent of a shark feeding frenzy! As the day wore on however and the shadows grew longer, the larger birds, such as the Jackdaws, Starlings and Blackbirds, began to settle in the trees, fly off to roost or begin defending their territorial boundaries in earnest, leaving the smaller species to continue eating. Eventually, the medium-sized types, such as the Sparrows, Dunnocks, Finches, etc also began to ease off the gas until pretty much only the smaller and therefore less energy efficient Tit species (and the Robins of course) were still taking advantage of the last few minutes of daylight available to them.
Many birds, particularly the Chaffinches, hung around in the trees at the end of the garden, their tummies full, apparently enjoying the sunset and it was then that my attention was drawn to the little hen Chaffinch in the picture above. As for why....I'm afraid you'll have to consult today's entry in the diary on the "Brown" page....
Apoplectic Blue Tit
The Blue Tits in particular get incredibly cross with me when all I seem to be doing is pratting around in the garden or up a tree with a blinkin' camera like some poor man's Eric Hosking instead of getting on with filling the bleepin' bird-feeders!
Louise
Early Daffodil
Not your usual shot of a Daff I guess, but I took this to show all the gubbins inside the flower head. This is one of my wife's early bloomers....in fact, I think the ones that have flowered in the garden this year are the earliest we've ever had them, first budding around the middle of January! Mind you, it's certainly no record for Daffodils in general, which have been known to push their way through six inches of snow as early as Christmas-time, but it's pretty good going for us!
Clanger Eggs
Until now it was generally believed that the incredibly trusting Whistling Clanger (Clangus rogerus whitakus) had completely disappeared sometime during the late 1970s or early 1980s....possibly filmed into extinction by the BBC! However, you can imagine my joy when I accidentally stumbled across these beautifully constucted Clanger nests, many of which contained a single egg-shaped....er, egg!
Needless to say, we immediately cordoned off the area and have begun a twenty-four hour
nest watch....I'll keep you posted!
January Heather
It's always a delight to stumble across a patch or two of Winter-flowering Calluna vulgaris....and especially at that time of year when most living things in the countryside have either completely died back or appear to have gone into hiding!
The above picture isn't of a truly wild Heather however, so I guess it would be technically incorrect for me to refer to it by its old country name of "Ling" (from the Anglo-Saxon "Lig" meaning "Fire")....a name which probably harks back to times gone by when Heather had significant importance rurally as an efficient fuel substitute.
In fact, Heather used to be a plant of tremendous importance in all manner of ways around and about the country-based home....bunches of the stems could be bound together to make brushes and brooms (Calluna derives from a Greek word meaning "to brush") or used individually to make woven baskets. It was also used for the thatching of roofs and even as a filler for mattresses. We take things like brushes and containers very much for granted these days, but it wasn't so long ago that any plant versatile enough to be used in the making of such things would have been highly prized as a natural resource and probably valued and protected as such!
In wildlife terms, Heather is desperately important, both as a food resource and as living refuge for a vast assortment of animal species....from Bees feeding on the nectar in the flowers to Lizards scuttling about, hidden beneath the foliage, to countless birds feeding on the seeds and Red Grouse feasting on the younger shoots.
Meanwhile, I have only ever encountered the mystically lucky "White" Heather a handful of times throughout my life....but sadly, not at all in the last twenty years!
Seed Case
Less than half the size of my little finger-nail, this tiny, but intricately detailed seed case was stuck in the
mud that I scraped from one of my boots. I liked the shape and texture of it and its colour....so I took a picture!
Orange Chrysanthemumemum....emum
Please Note....
The latest diary entries are currently being added on the "Brown" page.
Leaf Membrane
You see, this is obviously where I differ from "normal" men who use their cameras to take pictures of the kids playing in the garden and the new car on the driveway....Oh well, I can't help it, I find things like this infinitely fascinating....it's just the way I am!
Pink Valerian
A quick sortee into beautiful Dorsetshire this week and a wander round a few of the water margins down there in the pouring rain left me feeling quite damp from time to time, but I also took a fair few photographs of the many and varied plants still very much in flower at the moment, including lots of Red, White and Pink Valerian!
Blue Tit
I couldn't resist taking a quick shot of this little Blue Tit seemingly locked into position on the fat-ball feeder right outside my living room window....He just stayed there for ages. Meanwhile, literally dozens of Blue Tits visit the feeders in both my front and back gardens and I've counted as many as fourteen leaving the Sparrow terrace nestbox just before first light really early in the morning where they roost in numbers to keep warm through the cold Winter nights.
I'm very pleased with the successes I've had getting Blue Tits and Great Tits to use the nest-boxes in my garden throughout the year....for raising young in the Summer and for roosting in the Winter. In fact, I believe that it's the year-round availability of food, a plentiful supply of suitable nest-boxes and appropriate places to roost in the Winter that has resulted in a huge increase in the numbers of these vulnerable little birds in the immediate area around my home, if not throughout most of the village! Mind you, a handful of particularly harsh Winter days and nights in quick succession could undo all that effort in one fell swoop!
Cornish Winter Light
As the days shorten and the last of the tourists seep back into the normal routines
of their lives back home, Cornwall begins to exhibit a very special kind of
beauty....a beauty created by a combination of the vast emptiness of the
landscape and the almost metallic quality of the Winter light.
Sunset from Watergate Bay
With miles and miles of coastal footpath behind me and about seven still to walk before
getting to Newquay, I was beginning to run out of daylight hours!
There were quite a few fairly spectacular sunsets during the time I spent in North Cornwall
in mid-November and I'm gradually uploading some of them
on the "Yellow" page.
Sunset Stonechat
By the middle of November, male Stonechats have usually lost the vibrancy of their Spring and Summer plumage. However, when I saw this tiny chap, I couldn't resist taking a quick snap of him as he sat amongst the Gorse bushes on the cliff-tops above Bedruthan Steps in Cornwall. He seemed to be quite happy just staring out to sea and was clearly enjoying the last of the day's sunshine as the sun set slowly beneath the Western horizon (see picture below) in a blaze of red and gold, adding warmth and texture to the russet and black of the little bird's colouring.
Have You Seen My Ducks?
The infuriating thing about this photograph is that, only moments after I'd taken the picture of the Stonechat above with my Nikon Coolpix 4500, I turned round quickly to take this one with my little Fuji Finepix pocket camera fully under the impression that I was actually photographing a long untidy skein of about thirty Common Scoter making their way about fifty metres above sea level (with the sunset as a backdrop) and perhaps no more than four or five hundred metres from the shore....As you can see for yourselves, my ability to take full advantage of what could have been the best shot of the week is without rival!
Autumn Twilight
Taken at twilight in the....er....Autumn.
Pretty Flamingo
"All of the guys on our block call her Pretty Flamingo...'cause her her hair glows like the sun and
her eyes can light the skies"
Checking my 1965 diary, I discovered that I went to see Manfred Mann perform that song live on stage that year. Jack Bruce was the bassist with the group at the time and it went on to be number 1 in the charts the following year....I was just sixteen!
Meanwhile....I guess most people probably think of birds like the Andean Flamingo (above) as being typically tropical, but In Flamingo lingo, the Andean, James and Chilean Flamingoes are three Altiplano breeds who make their home in the desperately cold and unforgiving high Andes Mountain terrain of Chile, Bolivia and Peru, They inhabit the shallow alkaline or saline lakes and lagoons rich in diatoms, brine-shrimp, copepods and fly larvae more than 14,000 feet above sea level. In fact, they live amongst some of the highest volcanoes in the world where the birds congregate in large flocks amongst the hot springs at night in order to survive temperatures of up to minus twenty degrees F.
I took this photograph at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre on a warm sunny day in October 2007.
Town or Feral Pigeon
A scavenging pest....an exploitational opportunistic nuisance....or perhaps just just one of those species whose behaviour reminds us (just a little bit) of ourselves? Well, whether you love them, taking time out of your busy schedule to feed them every day, or you absolutely loathe them, considering them to be little more than flying rats, you have to admit that, in the right light, good old Columba livia (domest.)
can be a very attractive-looking bird.
For the last goodness knows how many years however, I've been taking the time to check out their feet.....Why? Well, I've noticed that about 2% of them suffer badly from arthritis caused by eating too much bread and very little else. The arthritis can gradually cause their toes to turn inwards and they end up having to walk on their knuckles. This eventually causes their toes to wear away to little more than stumps....and that has got to hurt!
Anyway, next time you decide to feed the pigions, DON'T GIVE THEM BREAD OR PASTRIES!!! Buy some cheap grain from a pet shop or garden centre and give them that instead!
Cornish Dipper
The Dipper is hardly the most prolific of birds and is a frustratingly shy character at the best of times, but if you happen to know of an upland-type, fast-flowing river or stream with torrents of cascading clean, fresh water, plenty of turbulent pools, occasional eddies and a liberal sprinkling of large boulders....plus no shortage of over-hanging trees for extra shade and cover....then you could well be in with a very good chance of seeing a Cinclus cinclus or two.
On the other hand, if you want to actually photograph one, then be prepared to sit down and wait patiently (all day if necessary) about ten or fifteen metres from your subject's favourite chilling-out place....the specially chosen rock or sizeable flat stone where he or she likes to spend quality time digesting all those tasty aquatic invertebrates caught earlier on the river bed or, perhaps, where a quick, self-indulgent feather-preen will be the order of the day!
Finding such places isn't too difficult if you bear in mind that Dippers are pretty much creatures of habit and that they feel secure in returning to their same beloved rock time and time again. Such oft repeated usage tends to result in large quantities of bird poo splattered all over the rock....so, if you can find a suitably poo be-splattered rock, settle down out of sight with your camera to hand and wait....Besides, you can't do any worse than me
As with www.wildliferanger.co.uk all text, photographs, sketches, cartoons and poetry appearing on this website are protected not only by all the usual copyright restrictions, but also by hordes of deranged sword-wielding Ninja assassins.
Kevin Kettle, Ninja Assassin
British Association of Ninja Assassins Northern Area (B.A.N.A.N.A.)
(Fully Affiliated Member No. KKB319)
No job too small....Large groups catered for
Hurry....Two-for-one offer ends Thursday!
("Silent but deadly" a speciality)
Woodland Glade
I loved the way that the late afternoon sun was piercing its way through the leaves and branches of this beautiful Copper Beech! Meanwhile, below is a picture of the same tree taken six months later in January....for comparison.
Fleabane
Although the 17th Century herbalist, Nicholas Culpeper had nothing particularly good to say about this plant, considering it to be "an ill-looking weed" with flowers "small, very poor and of a dirty yellow", I actually find it to be quite interesting....(warning, sad old git alert!).
My Gran swore by it as a very effective insecticide and picked the leaves to dry and burn in little pots around her cottage during the late Summer to ward off flies. I also remember her once insisting that I should hang a posy of Fleabane flowers around the neck of "Slipper", my dog, to get rid of a particularly bad infestation of fleas....his not mine!
Fleabane was apparently much used in ancient Britain by the Romans in the making of wreaths and the specimen in the photograph above was growing very close to Chedworth Roman Villa. "So what?" you ask....Well, I believe that Fleabane is another one of those plants whose goegraphical distribution is often closely related to its popularity and usage in times gone by....The association of Common Comfrey and Burnet-Saxifrage with battlefields are two other examples. I think it's only fair to add however, that this is entirely my own theory and most definitely should NOT be taken at face value!
Myathropa florea (I think) Hover Fly on Shasta Daisy
Woolly Thistle
You only have to glance down the length of this web-page to realize that I have a strong liking for Thistles of all kinds. I guess it's the colour and vibrancy of their flowers plus their overtly prickly and ruthlessly independent dispositions that appeal to me more than anything....and, believe me, the Woolly Thistle (above) is as good an example of vibrant colour and a prickly disposition as any!
This is a plant that usually favours quite dry and warm conditions and has always been very localized in the Southern parts of the UK. However, I've begun to see it dotted around far more often of late and it appears to be significantly more widespread. It's certainly more prolific in the Cotswolds these days and appears to be extending its general range ever Northward.
The main reason for this is probably down to our increasingly mild climate and is yet another one of many examples of plants either taking advantage of changing conditions or simply adapting to overcome!
White-Eye the Robin
If you compare this photograph with the one of the Devon bird further down this page, you'll see exactly why I've given this little bird the name of "White-Eye"! His territory encompasses most of the gardens at the front of the houses in the Close where I live and he and his mate, "Ruby", are frequent visitors to the feeders that I place amongst the trees and bushes on my front lawn.
White-Eye is neither as strong nor as aggressive as "Upitty Bill", who totally dominates the line of back gardens leading up to the edge of the woodlet situated to the rear of my house....He is however, a little bit smarter....For example, while appearing to tolerate Bill's occasional sortes to the front gardens via the side passage to my house, White-Eye never chooses to openly engage with his arch-rival....instead, he immediately flies to the rear of my house to investigate the greater variety of bird-feeders situated there and then flies back again when either Bill returns or Bill's mate, "Stroppy Madam", challenges him! This little performance happens almost every single time and I'm inclined to believe that White-Eye actually looks forward to Bill's next invasion!
White-Eye's Little Girl
This picture was taken just a few frames after the one of White-Eye above and depicts his little girl, "Blink". I call her that because she appears to have a nervous "tick" which manifests itself mostly in the form of a continuous blinking of the eyes and is something I've not seen before in a bird, though I do remember a similar thing occuring with an over-affectionate Pigmy Hippo that I looked after briefly many years ago (I guess I always could pull 'em)!
Juvenile Robins do usually have a fairly strong hint of an eye-ring, but this little lady looks as though she may well have inherited more than a hint of her Dad's unusually diagnostic feature!
Oh....and before all you experts out there decide to e-mail me with either your usual objections to my shameful anthropomorphisationalism of birds and stuff or to tell me that there's no obvious outward difference between male and female Robins (or that there's no such word as anthropo....wotsitthingy)....I just KNOW that this is a little female....from everything about her....from the way she behaves with her parents (especially Dad), to the way she behaves generally....and I'm sorry if that's not in any of your books....but ya-boo sucks!
Red-Hot Lily
Lillies were amongst my Mother's most favourite of flowers and she wrote several poems about them during her life. She loved their scent and their shape and the way they would root in the shade, but strive to flower in the sunlight. Living out her final years alone in a small, one-bedroom, ground-floor flat in Tewkesbury, she still managed to grow several types of Lily, including Magic Pink, Red Night and Enchantment, in tubs on her tiny garden patio.
Please Note....
Three new and very badly drawn cartoons have been added to "Ranger Don's Fully Illustrated Country-side Survival Guide" in the past couple of days! 
Comma Butterfly
One of the most instantly recognizable of the British Butterflies with its "nibbled" wings effect and the distinctive white "comma" shape on the underside of the left wing (it appears as more of a "c" shape on the underside of the right wing). More pictures of this species can be found on www.wildliferanger.co.uk
Five-Spot Burnet on Spear Thistle
The lack of an extra red spot on its fore-wing distinguishes this pretty little Moth from the slightly more common Six-spot Burnet. I noticed it sheltering amidst the flower-heads of a Spear Thistle during a heavy downpour of rain early in July....though without a great deal of success by the look of it!
The most interesting thing about all species of Burnet Moths is that they contain cyanide, making them quite poisonous to most species of animal (hence their warning colours)....although I do have a photograph in my archives of a Pied Flycatcher with a Six-Spot Burnet in its beak and about to feed its young at a nest-box!
Dark Mullein and Caterpillar
I was really pleased to discover several spikes of Dark Mullein growing on a grassy bank in the Cotswolds. This increasingly scarce plant with its purply-haired filaments, is most easily found in the South of the UK, but becomes much more difficult to find the further North you travel.
The leaves are soft, like felt, and this gave rise to its name from both the French molien and the Latin mollis, meaning "soft".
Herbal potions made from the leaves were once widely believed to relieve chest complaints, ranging from coughing fits to the bringing up of blood!
Meanwhile, all of the Mulleins are poisonous to livestock, but are also foul-tasting and generally avoided by most sensible animals.
As for the Caterpillar shown in the above picture....at first glance, I thought it was that of a Large White, but it's far too big. Then I thought it might be some sort of Hawkmoth, but it's not depicted in any of my books. Now I'm stuck!
Once again, Nobby (aka "Lofty") has come to my rescue by phoning me to say that this is the caterpillar of the Mullein Moth and that I should have realized exactly what it was from the plant it's on and had I considered taking up a new career! I said that I can't know everything and he replied that maybe knowing something would be a good place to start!
He also says that this is a very good example of Nature bluffing itself....this caterpillar is very brightly coloured which suggests that it warns potential predators that it is foul-tasting. However, the adult Mullein Moth is one of the most effectively camouflaged of all creatures which tends to imply that it isn't foul-tasting at all!
A former Royal Marine, Nobby is today considered to be one of the world's leading authorities on camouflage and has made his fortune from both writing about it and advising a host of military agencies around the world. Typically for him perhaps, while so-called entomological experts and academics continued for years to argue the toss concerning, not only the Mullein Moth/Caterpillar taste issue, but other, similar cases concerning taste and camouflage in insects, he decided to settle the matter once and for all by actually tasting several of the more contentious examples himself....and he assures me that the Mullein Caterpillar is NOT foul-tasting at all and that its colour is most definitely a bluff! He also says that its taste is not dissimilar to that of a blended raw beefburger....which isn't much help to me because I've been vegetarian since I was kid and have never eaten a beefburger...raw or otherwise!
Anyhoo, thanks once again "Dr." Nobby for all your help....Oh yes, it's a little known fact that he's got more letters after his name than he actually has in it (and his real name is quite long), but he hates being called anything other than Nobby....even his business/ID card says quite simply
"Nobby"
UK National Ranger
Bugs and Stuff
Er....
Due to the fact that the back page of this site is now full, the "General Diary Stuff" entries are now appearing on the "Red, Pink and Orange" page! 
Stonechat
I came across this little male Stonechat singing his heart out to the world from atop the highest twig he could find. Close to the coastal footpath on the cliffs above Gorran Haven, he was making the most of the sunshine peeking through the clouds during a few moments of respite between heavy rain showers.
"Ravens, Stoats and Fulmars"
(Seven Days in Cornwall)
on the
"Black and White"
page 
Wood Mouse
For almost a week now, someone or something has been nibbling holes in the bag of dried dog food we keep in the garage and helping themselves. Having already eliminated both my daughter and Sam, the dog, from my list of suspects (after all, I feed them nearly every day), I suddenly spotted the culprit earlier this morning as he sat in the garage entrance, peering round the corner to watch my wife mow the lawn!
Not normal behaviour for any Mouse, let alone a Wood Mouse I hear you say, but I could understand his fascination, if only because it's something that I enjoy doing myself....after all, I believe it's important that she gets out of the house and into the fresh air as much as possible!
Anyhoo, I nipped back into the kitchen to get my camera and returned just in time to take this shot before he realized that I was there!
By Lunchtime I'd managed to trap the cheeky little fur-ball in one of my own design humane traps and then I took him off to a location miles from the nearest human habitation to release him back into the wild. He'll have to take his chances now, but it could have been worse if he'd decided to take up residence in someone else's house!
Yellow Fungus
I've seen this strange-looking Fungus a few times over the years, though only ever in its more traditional Bracket Fungus form of an overlapping shelf arrangement on dead wood and not just as a "blob" on a living tree! I believe it's called Laetiporous sulphurous and is generally regarded as edible. It's also supposed to taste like, wait for it....chicken (hence its more colloquial name of "Chicken-in-the-Woods")! I've never tried it however and I'd have certain reservations about eating a parasitic specimen like this one, rather than a saprophytic version growing on dead wood! This one was clinging to the Northern side of the trunk of a very large and living Conifer in Chedworth Woods not far from the wonderfully preserved, eighteen hundred year-old Anglo/Romano Villa. There's a second shot of this "Fungus from another planet" on the "Yellow" page of this website.
Moody Blues
Prolonged Showers with Occasional Sunny Periods Throughout the Day....
Getting soaked two or thee times a day in the middle of May isn't quite as uncomfortable as getting drenched in the middle of January!
Marsh Thistle
Taken in the first half of May at Dowdeswell Reservoir, this fabulous Marsh Thistle was flowering about two months early! It's not often that I like my own photographs, but I am drawn to the almost painterly quality of this particular effort which, I'm certain, is far more to do with luck and the vibrancy of the flower itself rather than any technical ability on my part! (An illustrated account of my day in Dowdeswell woods can be found on the "General Diary Stuff" page).
Common Blue Damselfly
I'm opting for the above photograph being of a Common Blue Damselfly rather than an Azure (Coenagrion) Damselfly, if only because I think that I can just about detect the black "ball on a stalk" marking on the second abdominal segment. The Azure (below) tends to sport more of a black U-shaped, boy-racer, go-faster, decal-type marking! On the other hand, I'm probably wrong on both counts!
Azure Damselfly
Four-Spotted Chaser
The exquisite beauty and breath-taking complexity of many of our UK insect species just beggars belief sometimes....This Four-Spotted Chaser (a type of Dragonfly) landed out of nowhere right on the ground next to me beside a reservoir in Oxfordshire today (5th May). Just look at the detail in those impossible wings....unbelievable! There'll be another shot of this quite large "wee timorous beastie" on the "Diary" page later, together with a shot of a May-Bug that landed in my Daughter's hair last night (therapy was urgently required for the poor thing....and my Daughter wasn't too happy either!) and the biggest (and most er....pregnantist) Common House Spider that I've seen in many a year!
Male Grey Wagtail
No, this isn't the same Grey Wagtail as the one shown on the "Home" page of www.wildliferanger.co.uk. It is in fact, one of a pair of Greys who have built their nest alongside the Old Mill in Lower Slaughter. For more pictures, see the diary entry for the 1st May on the "General Diary Stuff" page.
Garden Escape
These glorious specimens (like a cross between Leopard's Bane and a Shasta Daisy) have to be as good an example of garden escapes as you'll be likely to find anywhere. Growing just inside the boundary hedge of a field only half a mile outside the village of Stokenham, South Devon, I only spotted them because I'd heard the soft whistle of a Redstart coming from the field-side of the hedge and had left the lane to go and have a look. I saw five Redstarts while in Devon by the way....all newly arrived from wintering in Africa and only the whistler was male. Oddly perhaps, I have only ever seen female Redstarts first as they arrive in the UK in Spring.
"Spring in Devon"
on the
"Survival Guide to the Country-side"
page 
Home-Maker
This hard-working hen Great Tit is one of the pair now occupying the nest-box cavity in the roof of the larger bird-table at the top of my garden (see the 15th April entry on the "General Diary Stuff" page).
Peacock Butterfly
Peacock Butterflies enjoy two basically separate flight periods....mid to late Summer and, as with this little sunbather I photographed on 6th April near Syreford, early to mid Spring.
Primula Pink
Redefining the word "vibrant" is about all I can say of this beautiful Primula growing in the church-yard at Great Whitcomb.
Little Egret
Nice to get an up-close half-decent shot of a Little Egret! Notice that this bird has grey lores. There are quite a few around with yellow lores all of a sudden (see the "Coastal" page of www.wildliferanger.co.uk).
Global What?
I may have mentioned it on the Home Page of www.wildliferanger.co.uk , but It's still strange how often I seem to be getting rained or snowed on considering all the global-warming-related droughts we're supposed to be having just lately!
Common Comfrey....is it May already?
Global-warming or some kind of long-term climate-cycle operating beyond the reach of written records....who can say for certain? All I know for sure is that Nature is in a real muddle and things are changing faster than ever before! Meanwhile, we suddenly have an entire flock of previously near-sighted politicians desperately competing with each other across the political divide to promote the advantages (mostly to themselves) of going "green"!
Yet I can't help but ask why it has taken more than twenty years for them to finally get the message? I suppose it's their own fault really, for listening to all those partisan, conglomerate-salaried scientists and "experts" telling them that there's absolutely nothing to worry about! Now it will probably be too little too late....and then there's China's hyper-rapid industrial and economic growth to worry about....and Asia's too! Ironically, all that our venerable leaders ever really needed to do was glance out of a window every now and again to witness first-hand any of a thousand, subtle little changes taking place throughout the Natural World. They could so easily have seen for themselves, the multitude of clues provided by countless plants and animals as they are increasingly forced to adapt to overcome in such a rapidly changing environment (the amazingly early Common Comfrey flowers pictured above are just today's case in point)! 
Sunlight Through Leaf
</ |
