December 2023 - A Year in the Valley

Little Egret

I was really happy to see a little egret in the valley yesterday! It’s been a long time since he paid us a visit.

The little egret is a member of the heron family. Its plumage is white, and it has a black beak, black legs, and yellow feet. In the breeding season, it has long white plumes from its head and neck.

The little egret used to be a visitor from the Mediterranean but began breeding in the UK on Brownsea Island in 1996 and has continued to make a home in the UK, gradually spreading northwards. It lives along the coast and in estuaries and wetlands, where it feeds on crustaceans and small fish.

Daisy D

24 December 2023

Birds

Little Egret

Magpies mobbing a buzzard

In case I don’t get a better photo of a magpie, I’ve included this little drama. The buzzard gets mobbed by crows and magpies on a regular basis.

I later got a good view of the pale undersides of the buzzard’s wings.

Daisy D

22 December 2023

Birds

Magpie

Buzzard

It was always going to be difficult to get a good photo of a bird in flight. But here is a buzzard circling high in the sky as it searches for prey on the ground. Notice the wings – rectangular and fringed with ‘fingers’ – and the fan tail, which you can see angled in the picture. Buzzards are brown with white on the undersides of their wings. They have a distinctive mewing cry, so sometimes you can hear them before you even spot them.

Buzzards, like a lot of raptors, have eyesight that is far better than a human’s. They are typically looking for small mammals and birds, but they will also eat carrion and earthworms. You can often spot them sitting on top of telegraph poles etc. along country lanes, presumably on the lookout for roadkill.

Buzzards are relatively common, and according to the Woodland Trust, numbers have quadrupled since the 1970’s. They can be found in a variety of habitats as long as there is enough green space around them.

Daisy D

20 December 2023

Birds

Common Water-starwort (Callitriche stagnalis)

We had a mystery a couple of months ago. Mr C spotted a small plant sprouting out of the long grass and across the footpath (see below)

I took a photo but was having trouble identifying it – rosettes of oval leaves on a fleshy stem. I gave up for a while, but recently we noticed a round patch of leaves floating on top of the flooded Diagon Alley, and another two patches have popped up in Little Venice. I managed to get a closer photo of the patches now that the water is subsiding a little bit. And I think I have identified them as Common water-starwort.

I’m overjoyed at having a ‘new’ plant at this time of the year. Of course, it isn’t new – it’s been there all along. I just haven’t been able to identify it. This plant is found in mud or shallow water that is stagnant or slow-moving. The leaves have five veins and are nice oval shape (neither too rounded nor too elongated, which eliminates some of the other types of water-starwort). It is not the insignificant white flowers, but the rosettes of leaves which form the mats of stars on the surface of the water. And that’s where the name comes from.

Common water-starwort prefers cooler weather and is most active in the spring and autumn, going dormant in the summer and winter, which is why we didn’t spot them till after the summer. They flower May-September and drop their seeds into the mud after flowering. We haven’t spotted flowers yet, but perhaps we will notice them in the spring.

Daisy D

17 December 2023

Aquatic and other plants

Common Water-starwort

House Sparrow

This was a bird that I had down as ‘unidentified brown bird’. I have now identified it as a female House Sparrow. I mean, I call most ‘unidentified brown birds’ sparrows by default – though I’m still convinced about the dunnock that I saw earlier. This splashy-striped, brown bird is a female sparrow because she has a chubby beak, almost finch-like in its chubbiness. Also, the grey throat and pale eye-stripe sandwiched between two darker lines and the pale flash on her wings.

You can’t see her front, but it will be grey, as hinted at by her throat, with just a touch of texture.

The dunnock on the other hand had most definite speckles on its breast. I will try and get a better picture of it. There was a small brown bird with a slim dark beak in the top garden. It may have been the dunnock. It was grubbing around in the undergrowth, like a wren, but without a sticking-up tail. I will keep watching and waiting.

There isn’t much else I can do at the moment, as the watermeadow is still under water! Will we see dry land again before March??

Daisy D

15 December 2023

Birds

House Sparrow

Wren

Although the photo was taken in the top garden. The wren also frequents the watermeadow. Usually found hopping around in the undergrowth or at the base of trees, this little bird will perch in a willow tree and broadcast the most amazing and powerful song full of trills and warbles.

The wren is easily recognised by its perky tail that sticks up from its round, little body, and its pale eyestripe.

The Latin name for the wren is Troglodytes troglodytes which means cave-dweller and refers to its elaborate domed nests found deep in the lower branches of trees.

Daisy D

13 December 2023

Birds

Wren

Common Ivy (Hedera helix)

Common Ivy can be found in a variety of habitats – from woodland to wasteland. They do not like extremes – arid or waterlogged. Common Ivy wraps itself around the fences and walls of our garden. The watermeadow is no exception. This ivy can be found twining round the wooden fence.

There are two types of ivy in the UK – Common Ivy and Atlantic Ivy, which is more common in the West Country. This is Common Ivy. There are two types of leaf. The immature leaves have 3-5 lobes (5-7 for Atlantic Ivy), as shown in the picture, but the mature leaves do not have lobes and tend to be oval or heart-shaped.

The flowers appear in the autumn and are dome-shaped clusters of small white blooms which turn into black berries.

Ivy is a valuable food source for many types of insects and birds. The berries are eaten by birds, including woodpigeons and blackbirds. The nectar and pollen are food for wasps, bees, hoverflies, and caterpillars. The structure of the evergreen plant provides shelter for bats, small mammals, birds, and insects.

Ivy clings to trees, walls, and fences, but is not parasitic, so it does not kill trees. It has its own root system and can fend for itself.

The Latin name Hedera means ‘clinging’ and helix is Latin for spiral, so Hedera helix means the clinging plant that spirals. It is in the same family, Araliaceae, as the False Caster Oil Plant. The flowers have a similar appearance.

Daisy D

10 December 2023

Aquatic and other plants

Common Ivy

Broad-leaved Dock (Rumex obtusifolius)

The broad-leaved dock can be found in a variety of habitats – gardens, roadsides, and farmyards. Clearly it doesn’t mind damp conditions as it is still flourishing in the flooded watermeadow. It has large, long-stalked leaves and tall spikes of flower, turning into seedheads, which are slow to keel over. It is a perennial, so that is why it is still lush and green in December. Dock is a prolific disperser of seeds and has a tap root (a thick main root, like a carrot) which can be up to 3ft long. For these reasons it is hard to eradicate and is classed as a pest by serious gardeners. However, it supports a number of species – butterflies, moths, beetles, and bugs – in particular, we have become acquainted with dock bugs over the summer, which is no bad thing.

Given the number of nettles in our watermeadow it is not surprising that we also have dock, as the two plants often grow near each other. Dock is well-known for its ability to soothe nettle stings and, in fact, insect stings and bites, as well as sprains, soreness and scalds. Dock is edible and can be cooked and served as an alternative to spinach.

Daisy D

08 December 2023

Flowers

Broad-leaved Dock

Today in the Watermeadow

The watermeadow is living up to its name, still flooded after over a month. I feel it’s unlikely that it will dry out now till the spring unless we get a prolonged dry spell over the winter. Much like the rest of the valley, our patch is mainly green foliage topped with dried Reed Canary Grass. The foliage that is thriving includes dock, nettles, buttercup, and bedstraw. Also, there is the suggestion of pussy willow buds forming along the greeny-orange stems of our ‘tall’ willow (left of picture).

Below I have pasted June, September, and December pictures to compare.

Daisy D

06 December 2023

Views

View

Today in the Valley

It’s a dull day today. Heavily overcast, but the grass and nettles are bright green clumps, cut through with swathes of pale dried grass and bright orange and dark green of bare branches.

Below you can see June, September and December side-by-side.

Daisy D

05 December 2023

Views

View