Bad Garden Birdwatch

It's the same every year.

For days either side of the last weekend in January, the garden positively flutters with avian activity.  Little tits peck the peanuts, chirpy flocks of sparrows throw the seeds they don't like out of the feeders for dunnocks and chaffinches to peck at below.  Goldfinches sweep in, sometimes eight or more at a time, twittering and squabbling to get to the niger seeds.  A flock of long-tailed tits, chippering and chiming, might surround the fat balls for a lively feeding session, before going on their way.  The robin sings, the wren darts about in the hedges.  Keen-eyed blackbirds hunt for worms on the lawn, collared doves call from on top of the chimney pots and the woodpigeons, nicknamed Hilary and Tom, get romantic under the pear tree*.

Sometimes, a magpie or a pair of jackdaws drop by.  Crows have nested in the birch tree in the garden that backs onto ours (I'm not saying their nest was a mess, but I don't think they watch Grand Designs).  A greater spotted woodpecker puts in an appearance a few times a year.  Occasionally, we've seen a fieldfare, feasting on the cotoneaster berries, and once - the day after BGBW day, of course - a pair of siskins.  Greenfinches were regular visitors but sadly, no more.

Yesterday, one coal tit, one blue tit, a dunnock and three sparrows were 'it'.  To be fair, that wasn't our worst ever birdwatch - in 2013, I saw nothing at all, as you can read here.  Meanwhile, on Twitter, someone posted a photo of a kingfisher in their garden.  I retweeted it, somehow without adding the words 'smug b*st*rd!', although I could have ticked off two Kingfishers this time last week - not in the garden, but along the Macclesfield Canal as we made our way back to base from Congleton on our little narrowboat.  One of the kingfishers has apparently become almost resident at the Heritage boatyard near Scholar Green.  We also saw a stunning male kestrel on that journey - all too quick for the camera, of course.

It'll be interesting to see what turns up tomorrow!

*Welfare rights lit spoiler!

An Early Spring

A brief spell of snow

I've recently started using Twitter and, since I understand 'little and often' is the way to make this work, have been browsing through old posts on this blog - and 'the political one' and 'the writing one' - to see if any are worth recycling.  There are a few likely candidates, especially after the revelation on the 'Indy's' site that a photo of a tater recently sold for $1.  While 'The Million Dollar Spud' sounds like a very good title for a short story, the tater in the photo seems a fairly undistinguished example of its kind and I'm sure that with a little more attention to lighting, one of my Highland Burgundy Reds or Kestrels, or the notorious Pink Fir Apples, could look a good deal more exciting. 

One thing I noticed was that my early posts tended to be shorter than the more recent ones, more frequent and with more photos, as their main purpose was to promote the gardening business.  With gardens already bursting into bloom in the wake of our mild winter and the axe hovering over funding for my 'indoor' job, that seems a sensible format to revive.

First snowdrops

Clusters of snowdrops are already in flower in the back garden borders though not yet in the front, which is a little more exposed.  There are at least two distinct cultivars but, as both were growing here when we moved in, I haven't confidently identified either.  Those above are the slightly shorter of the two.

Double hellebores

This year, they complement the hellebores rather nicely.  These have been starting to come into flower since before Christmas but are now in their prime, very early.  This time last year, despite another fairly mild winter, they were only just coming into bud.

One of the main advantages of doing this blog is that I can keep track of when particular plants bloom or fruit from year to year to see if things really are changing.  I see my best hellebore photos from 2014 were in a post from 11th March - 2013 and 2012 also have the hellebores in full flower in mid-March, a good six weeks later than this year. 

That they are doing so well so early is both a concern and a relief as the plants seem to have settled well after being split and moved in the autumn.  Some are now visible from the kitchen window, rather than being tucked away out of clear sight in the herb garden.  If I had remembered, there was a special offer on for more (from T&M) at the weekend, but we got back from a couple of days on the narrowboat to unusually good telly on Sunday evening and I forgot.  I'll have to be patient - hopefully the new plants in the front garden will be big enough to split in a few years, if I look after them properly, and there may be another opportunity to snap up some bargain plugs before spring is out.

It's good to have some winter colour and I'm optimistic that late summer will no longer be the usual dull lull, now that I have my young penstemon plants to plug the gaps (last summer's cuttings are still doing well in the cold frame).  I'm going to take some verbena bonariensis cuttings too, since the mild winter has resulted in masses of new shoots on the stalks of last autumn's plants (see above).  I'm glad I wasn't too quick to tidy them up and I haven't got the heart to give the roses the prune they ought to have just yet, as they are still producing flowers!.
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Breaking Bud

Hawthorn flower buds ready to break at Westport Lake, Stoke-on-Trent on 28th December 2015

Happy New Year!

It's resolutions time and one of mine was to spend less time randomly browsing the Internet finding Tory policies to get angry about and more time on my blogs.  At this time of year, this blog tends to get neglected in favour of the 'welfare rights lit' one, 'Benefits, Books and Biscuits', as I allow my fictional characters to chill out in their favourite pub, where they relax between novels, telling tales (making movies this year) and, in the process, keeping keen readers up to date with developments in their lives.  After all, it's not as if there's much going on in the garden...

Except this year, there is a surprising amount of growth.  We seem to be experiencing a peculiar hybrid season with some autumn flowers and fungi still in bloom amid early signs of spring everywhere.  It was a shock to see a dusting of white frost on the garden when I drew the curtains this morning since it hasn't been properly cold at night since,,, probably July, actually.

Rudbekias in flower, South Bank 19th December 2015

We don't have daffodils in bloom up here but, on a pre-Christmas visit to Hampshire and Sussex, found them out in parks and gardens across the south, while rudbekias continued to put on a show under the gaze of the London Eye. When we used to visit family in Cornwall at Christmas, we got used to finding primrose flowers peeking from the hedgerows, due to the mild microclimate of the Lizard peninsula.  This year, they are out much further north and east, along with bright yellow celandines, spotted in the verges of the A24 near Dorking.

Primroses - Southwater, 20th December 2015

In our garden, there are roses still flowering but also 'Christmas roses'.  I split and moved some of my hellebores this year, hoping for a bright display through early spring, but they have been blooming for over a fortnight already.  The winter jasmine is also out and looking much less spindly than usual.  The veg plot continues to produce as if it were autumn - we had a picking of fresh salad leaves from the cold frame with last night's dinner and plan to serve calabrese and romanesco with tonight's meal - unless the purple sprouting broccoli is already ripe.  They surely won't fruit but there are flowers on several strawberry plants.  Again, I despair of a decent rhubarb crop...

Fresh salad for dinner, North Staffs, 31st December 2015

Our recent winter walks have also shown mingled and mangled seasons.  Great crested grebes in fine breeding plumage skim across lakes fringed by woodlands full of fungi.  Hawthorn flower buds await no more than a touch of sunlight to burst open.  On our narrowboat over Christmas we heard blackbirds and thrushes serenading well into the evening and as part of a distinctly spring-like dawn chorus.  Nature is thoroughly confused.  The woodpigeon couple we've nick-named Hilary and Tom (followers of the Solent Welfare Rights Project books will get the reference) certainly think it's time for romance!

Flourishing fungi, Westport Lake N. Staffs 28th December 2015

We're promised a cold snap this week.  Whether this will reset the clock for plants and animals alike, or simply strike down those brave bulbs that have pushed through the soil too soon remains to be seen; most early spring flowers are able to handle a little frost and snow.  Animals and insects that should be tucked away for the winter may suffer badly; migrating birds and the bugs they predate are likely to be out of synch too. 

Great crested grebe, Westport Lake, 28th December 2015

2016 is certainly going to be an interesting year and, as I may have to resume commercial gardening again before long, I must resolve to keep better records of what thrives and what fails in these unpredictable times.