Twentyfirst of April and a couple of days last year

April 21

Our pair of great crested grebes

She's testing the nest, it apparently failed as they began to build another one about ten metres away today (22nd)

TF-AMR

Boeing 747-45E

Magma Aviation /Air Atlanta Icelandic

Heading for Doncaster from Cairo and on to Liege and thence to Hong Kong

22 April Hong Kong to Budapest
23rd Budapest to Liege
Gets about a bit

Green veined white sunbathing
The Green-veined white is a fairly small, white butterfly that is on the wing between April and October. A common butterfly, it is found in a wide variety of habitats, including hedgerows, woodland rides and meadows, as well as farmland, gardens and parks. It especially likes damp areas with lush vegetation. Water-cress is a very common host plant for the butterfly. The foodplants of the caterpillars are members of the cabbage family, including Cuckooflower and Hedge mustard.
The Green-veined white is white with black wingtips and one or two black spots on the forewing. Smaller than the Large white, it has less black in the wing. It can be distinguished from the very similar Small white by the thick, grey-green stripes along the veins on the undersides of its wings. It also tends to be found in damper habitats.

Alder leaf beetle is an 7-8 mm long dark metallic blue beetle that feeds on alder and is occasionally found on other deciduous trees such as beech, hazel and hornbeam. It overwinters as adults which emerge in the spring, sometimes in large numbers.

The black caterpillar like larvae also feed on the leaves of alder and other trees and reach 11 mm in length.  Larvae can be found on the leaves in spring and summer. The beetle has one generation a year. Adults emerge from soil and leaf litter where they have been overwintering in early spring, they are winged and capable of flight. New generation adults can be found from mid summer.  

Alder leaf beetle was considered extinct in Britain with almost no records of it between 1946 and 2003. In 2004 larvae and adults were found in Manchester and it is now widespread in north-west England. In 2014 it was re-discovered in Hampshire and is now widespread in adjacent areas. In some areas this beetle has become very abundant and can cause significant defoliation.
(Royal Horticultural Society)

Cuckooflower, also commonly known as 'Lady's-smock', is a pretty, springtime perennial of damp, grassy places like wet meadows, ditches and riverbanks, as well as roadside verges. Its pale pink flowers bloom from April to June and are thought to coincide with the arrival of the first Cuckoo - a sure sign that spring has arrived at last

Cuckooflower has a rosette of leaves at its base and an upright stem that bears the delicate, small, pale pink or mauve flowers. Each flower has four petals, although double-flowered varieties do appear.

(Wildlife Trusts)

Small white on garlic mustard.

A familiar thrush, the melodious blackbird is a common sight in gardens, parks and woodlands across the UK. Blackbirds are especially fond of feeding on lawns and can be seen with their heads cocked to one side, listening for earthworms. They also feed on insects and berries - leave out a few old apples or plant berry-producing bushes in the garden to attract these delightful birds.

Male blackbirds are unmistakeable - they are entirely black, with a yellow bill and yellow ring around the eye. Females are dark brown, with streaking on the chest and throat. Juveniles are also dark brown, but covered with gingery streaks.

Eighteenth of October 2019

Moon at nine in the morning

83% illuminated

Beast.

What beast I know not.

Now I've blogged this before but this pic is a new one.

Can you see what's wrong here?

The grey wagtail is a common bird of fast-flowing rivers and can be found in high densities in the hills of England, Scotland and Wales. In winter, they move to lowland areas and can be spotted in farmyards and even in towns. Grey wagtails eat ants and midges that they find beside rivers, and snails and tadpoles they find in shallow water. They nest near the water in hollows and crevices lined with moss and twigs.

The grey wagtail has a very long, black-and-white tail, a yellow rump and a yellow belly. It is grey above with black wings. Males have a grey face with a black throat bib and a white 'moustache'.

Hoverfly on ivy

Hairy fly on ivy

This is the other muscovy duck, this one's at Wood End near Rhodesia on the canal.

Tiny pink flowers of herb robert

Herb-robert is a type of crane's-bill that is found in a variety of habitats, including woodland, hedgerows, rocky or exposed areas, scree slopes and coastal areas. Its small, pink flowers mainly appear between May and September, and its leaves emit an unpleasant, mousy scent.

A low-growing plant, herb-robert has five-petalled, pink flowers, and reddish stems. The deeply divided, lobed leaves are also tinged with red.

White

Grey squirrel

One of our most familiar mammals, the grey squirrel can be found in woods, gardens and parks across town and country, and often proves to be very tame. It is a frequent visitor to gardens with bird tables and feeders, becoming a pest for many bird-lovers. Grey squirrels feast on hazelnuts by cracking the shell in half. You may also find pine cones that have been nibbled, leaving what looks like an apple core behind. They will cache their food in autumn if it is abundant. Grey squirrels make a rough nest, called a 'drey' out of twigs, leaves and strips of bark in the fork of a branch, high up in the tree canopy. Females may have two litters of three to four young a year.

Formal and water gardens at Shireoaks Hall (link)

Shireoaks heron

Ranmooor Piscatorial Society's pond at Shireoaks

Wooly bear caterpillar

Brancliffe farm's weather cock pheasant.

Evening primsose

Hips

Windhover hovering in the wind

Clump of mushrooms

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30th of October '19

Harvestman




Dock bug




Nursery web spider




Inside a concrete fence post




Wall flower
(herb robert)

When not on pond or canal herons mooch around the rugby field.
This particular heron has been around for some years. Identified by its short upper bill.




Here's a rowan tree growing in the fork of a silver birch.

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Thirty first of October '20

Floating




Rose bay willow herb gone to seed




"You get my back up"




Leaf
That's all: just a leaf!
Pretty  though, Innit?




Wood End's muscovy duck.

Lichen on hawthorn

Kestrel

Queen Anne's lace or wild carrot

(World Carrot Museum - worth a look!)

Shireoaks Woodland

Teasel

The teasel is probably best-known for its brown, prickly stems and conical seed heads, which persist long after the plants themselves have died back for the winter. Between July and August, when teasels are in flower, the spiky flower heads are mostly green with rings of purple flowers. Found in damp grassland and field edges, or on disturbed ground, such as roadside verges and waste grounds, they are visited by bees when in flower, and birds when seeding.

The teasel is a tall plant, often reaching the height of a person. They have thorns all the way up their stems and a cone-like flower head that gives the plant the impression of an oversized cottonbud. The flowers are tiny and purple, clustering together and appearing in rings up and down the flower head; the familiar seed heads turn brown in winter.

(Wildlife Trust)

'The value and importance of the teazle arise from the use which is made of its prickly flower-heads in our woollen manufacture, where it appears indeed to be absolutely indispensable, and not to be rivalled by any of the ingenious inventions which have been offered from time to time as a substitute for its use. Without any other preparation than that of a careful drying in the sun, the heads of this plant are better fitted than any other known material for raising the nap on cloth, removing knots and unevenness, without injury to its texture.’

(Saturday Magazine in 1839)

Woody nightshade berries

It is a perennial, shrubby plant, quite woody at the base, but throws out long, straggling, slender branches, which trail over the hedges and bushes among which it grows, reaching many feet in length, when supported by other plants. They are at first green and hairy, but become woody and smooth as they grow older, with an ashygreen bark.

The flowers, which are open all the summer, are in loose, drooping clusters, on short stalks opposite the leaves. They are of a bluish purple tint, with reflexed petals when expanded, so as almost to appear drooping. Their bright yellow stamens project in a conical form around the pistil, or seedbearing portion of the flower.

The leaves are chiefly auriculate on the upper stems, i.e. with little ears, having at their base from one to two (rarely three) wing-like segments, but are heart-shaped below. They are placed alternately on either side of the stem and arranged so that they face the light. The flower-clusters always face a different direction to the leaves. 'One may gather a hundred pieces of the Woody Nightshade, and this strange perversity is rampant in all,' remarks an observer of this very curious habit.

The berries are green at first, afterwards becoming orange and finally bright red, and are produced in constant succession throughout the summer and early autumn, many remaining on the plant long after the leaves have fallen.

The plant was called the Woody Nightshade by the old herbalists to distinguish it from the Deadly Nightshade. Its generic name Solanum is derived from Solor (I ease), and testifies to the medicinal power of this group of plants. The second name, Dulcamara, used to be more correctly written in the Middle Ages, Amaradulcis, signifying literally 'bittersweet,' the common country name of the plant, given to it in reference to the fact that the root and stem, if chewed, taste first bitter and then sweet. Another old name is Felonwood, probably a corruption of Felonwort, the plant for felons - felon being an old name for whitlow. We are told by an old writer that:

'the Berries of Bittersweet stamped with rusty Bacon, applied to the Joynts of the Finger that is troubled with a Felon hath been found by divers country people who are most subject thereto to be very successful for the curing of the same.'

In the days of belief in witchcraft, shepherds used to hang it as a charm round the necks of those of their beasts whom they suspected to be under the evil eye.

The older physicians valued Bittersweet highly and applied it to many purposes in medicine and surgery, for which it is no longer used. It was in great repute as far back as the time of Theophrastus, and we know of it being in use in this country in the thirteenth century.

Gerard says of it:

'The juice is good for those that have fallen from high places, and have been thereby bruised or beaten, for it is thought to dissolve blood congealed or cluttered anywhere in the intrals and to heale the hurt places.'

Boerhaave, the celebrated Dutch physician, considered the young shoots superior to Sarsaparilla as a restorative, and Linnaeus, who at first had an aversion to the plant, later spoke of it in the highest terms as a remedy for rheumatism, fever and inflammatory diseases of all kinds. There are few complaints for which it has not been at some time recommended.

(Botanical.com)

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