May 2010

1st - Cloudy but lots of visitors to the garden; goldfinch, sparrows, robin, magpie, pigeons, blue tits, great tits and collared doves. Day ends with a thunderstorm.
2nd - Dawn chorus weekend- |lay in bed  with the window open so I could hear the bird song. I'm not very good at identifying the different songs but I do know the blackbird who was the loudest amongst the soup of song that rang through the air. Also heard the "teacher, teacher", of the great tit and the tawny owl. The male does the "twit"  part while the female does the "twoo".

The male sparrows have fluffed up their tails and are fluttering them at the females in a courtship display along the fence.
May bank holiday we went to a nearby bluebell wood. The bluebells need another week to come into their own but we did see a jay.

Jay (Garrulus glandarius).   Present all year in woodland.  Eats acorns, eggs, insects and lizards. lays 3-6 eggs from April .
The Jay, the Pie, and even the boding Owl
That hails the rising moon, have charms for me.
                                                     William Cowper
We also saw wood anenome in flower, blue and whit bells and a fungi with bugs jumping about on it!

Wood anenome (Anemone nemorosa). Like the blue bell it makes most of the sunlight before the leaves block it out.