Nature Diary #3

This week’s big nature news is that on 5^th April I saw our first returning swallow! Apparently, it is always the males who arrive first and scope out the available nest sites and the females follow on a few days later. So far, our boy has been all on his own, but I have high hopes that the rest will return shortly! This year, in an attempt to stop our huge local flock of jackdaws from predating the swallow chicks, we plan to close the barn door to exclude them, but cut a letterbox-sized hole in the door to allow the swallows free entry – let’s hope it works and that there are many more swallows by summer’s end. Here’s a piece of trivia for you – when the male swallows start on their homeward flight from Africa, their tail feathers are short, to make them more aerodynamic but, as they near journey’s end the feathers grow to the familiar length that we know to aid in their courtship rituals!

My long walk!

I haven’t been out on many walks this week, for three reasons: firstly, I have been waging war on the brambles in the pony paddock; secondly, there seemed very little difference day-to-day in what I was seeing on my usual walk to the lake; thirdly, when I walked to the lake on Monday there were three blokes in a car, acting very suspiciously, which rattled me a bit and put me off going!

However, I did do a rather ambitious walk on Wednesday as the weather was so gorgeous. I didn’t intend to walk as far as I did so, starting off at 10.00am, I felt the need to wear a lightweight fleece and my very useful waistcoat that has many pockets for carrying camera, binoculars, etc. It wasn’t long before I had to take the fleece off and tie it around my waist as it got so warm!

I’d been intrigued for a while by a track that went off uphill from a lane that I travel often, but it is usually like a stream bed, so I reasoned that during this prolonged dry spell would be the best time to tackle it. Once out of sight of the road, I had great fun trying to divert the stream back into its proper channel by making mini dams and deeper channels using the end of my trusty thumb stick! You sometimes just have to nurture your inner child! The track was quite boggy still with sedge growing down the middle, but there were tyre tracks so something had been down or up it relatively recently. 

Flowering sedge

Bluebells

Eventually I came out onto a metalled lane that led to a farm in one direction and the ridge lane in the other. I then had to walk along the A37 for a short stretch before turning right at the old toll house on the summit of Wraxall Hill. Originally, I was going to turn next right, back down the hill into Pylle village and home down the A37 but it was such a lovely day that I just kept on walking!

The lane took me to the little village of East Pennard where I took a right turn and headed downhill, crossing the old Somerset & Dorset Line at Cockmill, 

Original pedestrian crossing on the S & D

before skirting the Glastonbury Festival site on my left and emerging onto the road back to Pylle on the outskirts of Pilton. 

Pedestrian bridge over the ford near Pilton

By this time I was really regretting the decision to leave my bottle of water at home, as it was just too awkward to carry! 

Wild Garlic

However, at least I was on the last leg of my epic walk. I just had one more thing I had to do – return to the part of the disused railway to take more photos of the two filled-in arches that I spotted the other day, so that a friend of mine could try and identify what they were used for. After scrambling up and down the large pile of rubble in front of the arches and getting some photos I continued along the route I’d taken last week, but in reverse.

She's got a long wait for the train!

 Imagine my surprise when I came across a young cow lying in the middle of the track, contentedly chewing the cud! All her friends were in the field above the cutting looking quite concerned, so I decided to drive her along a lane at the side of their field towards the farm in the hope of finding a gate I could let her through to rejoin the herd. After a couple of hundred yards she took the initiative and jumped through the fence back into the field!

I finally made it back home four hours after I left and made myself a very long drink!

Spring has definitely sprung in the last week and I saw so many wildflowers, birds and butterflies on my walk, but very few larger animals (apart from cattle, sheep and a very few humans).

Birds: wrens, robins, goldfinch, jays (2), buzzards (4), magpies, rooks, wood pigeons, blackbirds, dunnock, great tit, and at least one unidentified warbler.

Flowers: bluebells, celandines, primroses, wood anemones, stitchwort, white and red dead nettle, white and purple violets, campion, speedwell, ground ivy, dandelions, wild garlic, lesser periwinkle.

Stitchwort

Butterflies: Peacock, Large White, Brimstone, Orange Tip (male)

My friend, Mary, has lent me a copy of the RSPB Guide to Birdsong complete with accompanying CD, so I hope to be able to identify more of the wonderful birds that I hear on my walks.

Peacock butterfly