Great crested newt in the garden hibernating under bricks!
I once received a single-sentence memo at work along the lines of “Can’t we once and for all do something about these GCNs?”… from a mindless surveyor who was getting irritated at newt-led delays and obstructions to quarry extensions.
I came across a cluster of King Alfred’s Cakes in the woods on Edge Hill yesterday. Also known as Cramp Balls or Coal Fungus this black, ball-shaped fungi has a hard shiny fruiting body.
According to legend, King Alfred fell asleep when he was baking cakes – this fungus is said to resemble his burnt offerings.
Sadly, the autumn fungus forays with experts have been cancelled this year.
I don’t think I’ve seen a starling in Kineton for months (though only a couple of years ago they used to noisily queue up on a wall outside the kitchen) so it was a nice surprise to see a minor murmuration by the big open fields on Lighthorne Road this morning. Better still, it was still there when I came back an hour later.
Countryfile this week featured Risby Wildlife Friendly Village, and it has prompted questions and interest in rewilding. Here are a few links for more information. Do get in touch in the comments if you would are interested in making Kineton an even more Wildlife Friendly Village.
Risby Wildlife Friendly Village, featured on Countryfile in East Anglia: https://www.wildlifefriendlyvillage.co.uk
The Blue Campaign – Rewilding Britain’s Garden Using Blue Hearts https://bluecampaignhub.com
For a bit more background about wider countryside rewilding, here is Kingfisher Bridge, in East Anglia, which has been rewilding some of the fenland using water buffalo and pigs since 1995, and has seen a remarkable increase in birds and other wildlife. http://www.kingfishersbridge.org
Also have a look at Knepp Wildland, in West Sussex, rewilding since 2001: “The aim is to show how a ‘process-led’ approach can be a highly effective, low-cost method of ecological restoration – suitable for failing or abandoned farmland – that can work to support established nature reserves and wildlife sites, helping to provide the webbing that will one day connect them together on a landscape scale.” https://knepp.co.uk/home
A nice surprise… Bullfinches nesting in the garden – look forward to meeting the fledglings.
A few days ago the glorious parrot-like male fluttered up and down our kitchen window! I’ll never have a better view than that.
Up early this morning to see what was going on… a bright male bullfinch at the kitchen window!! It made two visits to peck at flower heads before fluttering up and down the glass like a vivid little parrot – such striking plumage. A young greenfinch too – the first sighting for what seems like several years. Song thrush quite active, three or four baby robins and a family of frenetic blue tits at the peanut holder.
And then along come the young jackdaws (maybe up to one hundred wheeling overhead at times) and all the other birds dive for cover!
I was at Stratford’s fisherman’s car park at 8.15 this morning, just as the first swimmers of the day were coming out to dry. A dip was tempting! A cuckoo called in the distance, then from much closer by – so close, I saw it swoop away from the large dead willow just beyond the northern boundary hedge. It continued to call from the caravan park.
Then, a scream as two paddle boarders took to the water: “A snake! A snake! I tell you, it’s a xxxxxxx adder! It’s got adder markings! It’s swimming!”
More screams, more shouting – I wandered down to the sheet piled edge and saw a pencil-thin six-inch long baby grass snake wriggling along the water’s edge. I tried to reassure the lady: “It’s a grass snake, it’s harmless but it could grow to be three feet long. They sometimes eat frogs and that’s one reason you might spot them swimming.”
“Frogs!! In the river? In the water!!”
I hope they didn’t see a newt… “Help! Help! A giant lizard!”
The first hawk moths of the season last night – elephant hawk and small elephant hawk in the trap this morning.
The two minute silence was observed this morning – in the garden – accompanied by a (very) musical blackcap, a busy blackbird, a mewing buzzard and the incessant coming and goings of blue tits at their nestbox.
Kineton Wildlife 