Bird Update

The cuckoo was last heard two weeks ago but birdsong has continued well into late June. This morning, though, it felt different and quieter. That has coincided with the arrival of warmer more settled summer weather.

Bird behaviour is easier to observe than that of mammals but there are still new things to notice. At the Wall Caff feeding station it's now chaffinches that dominate.

At other times they have been only occasional visitors; now three pairs have become regulars. Meanwhile around the car park goldfinches are in occupation but no chaffinches; the goldfinch is now much more commonly seen - waiting whenever I raise the blinds at home, yet no appearances at the Wall Caff.

Tits, great, coal and blue, are rarely absent but now in smaller numbers than in May, while dunnocks remain among the first to appear.

Blackbirds have always been a favourite and they come regularly, but here there's been a change that I've observed before. They still collect food to take off to the young, particularly the female, but do so much more secretively. In May they were more conspicuous. It's known blackbirds can raise several broods in a season so perhaps a failure due to predation has led to the second attempt being carried on more covertly. The sight this morning of a jay being chased off by the male blackbird in the bushes might be some confirmation of this.

No bird does more to endear itself to us. It's a daydream of bleak winter days to see oneself sitting in the garden at the end of June, dozing with a  glass of cool wine beside and all the time accompanied by sublimely laid back music from the blackbird perched at the top of the pine. It happened yesterday.

Whitethroats or, more likely, lesser whitethroats are regularly seen among the bilberry and heather, along with the usual pipits showing off their aerial displays. This morning one whitethroat was giving a group of crows a very hard look from the top of a stunted rowan.

But it was the warbler ensemble that was notably lacking today. They've been a major feature since they first arrived, now reduced to a few scattered soloists.

Secret Place

It's rare that council functionaries display enough sensitivity to satisfy all the public. Sensitivity is not a core part of their remit. Things that are precious to some of us don't figure in job specifications. At the moment there is a big outcry in Sheffield about the destruction of roadside trees to facilitate street and footpath maintenance. Trees are also part of our concerns on Blacka, even on a place reserved for nature.

Nothing on Blacka is perfectly idyllic, but often we come close with the compromise easier to forget.

Sometimes it is road noise that intrudes, sometimes it's evidence of intrusive human activity. But all life is compromise and we can live with some things - up to a point.

But our more secret and near tranquil areas must not be given up without a fight. If that fight never raises itself beyond a bitter and lonely complaint  that should tell us something that we may not wish to hear.

One delightful place is just where multiple threats have already begun.  This little known and very small section of the neighbouring land is a wonderful place to spend time in spring. Despite its proximity to the road, audible in this recording, the overwhelming sense is of naturalness.

https://soundcloud.com/pastandpresent/hidden-valley

While taking this short recording I saw the doe below, tongue out as she was drinking at the stream. She had not seen me. A secret and perfect place.

Just a few metres from here a little known informal path is being converted into a bridleway at the behest of the Public Rights of Way unit of the Council. Tranquillity will decline.

There are other threats: SRWT's species agenda with its dislike for 'non-native' species (except cows and sheep) has already put sycamores, beech and horse chestnut at risk of 'ethnic cleansing' measures.

The trees here are sycamore, horse chestnut ........

and lime.
 

None fits the 'native only' plan so can't be guaranteed a future in the new pure-race community of their brave new world. Non native trees may survive in the short term - some of them- but unlikely in the medium/long term plan dedicated to only oak/birch woodland. Yet who could complain that what we have here now is unsuitable?

Very close by is, for Blacka, a rare elm.