6th July - It's The Simple Things in Life, Like When and Where

It has been a while, and I apologise to all those regular readers of my blog that come to the site only to see no new posts.  At the start of the year I started to wind down the time taken walking around Four Marks.  This has been partially due personal constraints such as work, the want to enjoy more of the county I live in, and unfortunately the changes that have occurred around the village.  The latter has had a big influence.  Farming practices have changed, the border strips ploughed up, wild flower meadows cut short, and of course any available piece of land being turned into a building site.  All this has definitely impacted the wildlife, and my enthusiasm to continue search around the patch.  You can though continue to follow my trips and photography on my other blog, "Away from Four Marks".  Here you can experience my trips throughout Hampshire and farther a field around the world.  The most recent post being my encounter with the "Imperial Majesty" in Alice Holt Forest.

The garden though continues to entertain, and the star attraction is the Blackbird families.  As regular followers will know we have been feeding a male Blackbird for some time now.  This is in fact the fourth summer.  It started when we noticed this bedraggled male Blackbird, and we felt by feeding mealworms it would help it regain its plumage.  The Blackbird became quite tame, and during the breeding season would even come into the kitchen to beg for the worms.

This year it took some time, but he eventually had a brood with a female who had similar plumage challenges.  They have raised two juveniles, but just lately we have not seen the female at all.  Our male though continues to diligently look after the two juveniles, and when we come down in the morning he is there on the lawn, and eventually on the back door step.

He looks quite dapper with his fluffy pantaloons.

Once again the plumage is suffering, and is a result of moving through hedges to get to the nest.  But to be fair he shows a certain amount of fluffiness before the youngsters came along.

At first we though his heart wasn't really in parenthood this year, as he would eat as many worms as he took away, the female scolding him when he took his time.  But over the last few weeks he has looked after those young birds completely on  his own.

There are different calls, he will cluck if he wants something and close to sunrise this will turn into a full alarm call along with wing and tail flicking.  When the two of them were feeding he would guard the dish and call with a high pitched whistle until the female appeared.  There was definitely communication between them.

Other behaviours we have noticed is the way he would allow the Robins to take the mealworms when they had young, but is not so comfortable with the House Sparrows who will even take the mealworms from his bill!  During the hot weather he will seek out the shade, taking advantage of the smallest shadow.

There have been close shaves though, one morning as he flew towards me he was chased by a Kestrel, the Kestrel pulling up as the blackbird flew straight into me.  The Kestrel has been around and we see it and a Red Kite over the garden.  In these situations the Blackbird will take cover in the trees, and watch the sky by tilting its head.  This is how he does it, but in this case there was no danger present.

One of his favourite spots is the bird bath the uncontrollable feathers getting a wash quite frequently.  He also like the perch behind the bath.

The two juveniles he is bringing up are different, this one is more brash and forward.  I watched it pulling at the grass today, so probably can feed itself but immediately begs when father is close by.

The other is much shyer and cautious, using the cover of the trees and bushes.

Here are both of them together.

But this year he is not the only Blackbird coming to collect food for youngsters in the garden.  There was another pair coming to the right hand side of the garden, the nest though over the road somewhere.  Again the female has gone missing, probably to moult and rest, and the male is bringing up two juveniles.  He is distinctly different from "our" Blackbird, although he is now showing signs of wear, and there is every possibility it could be an offspring of "our" Blackbird.

It will come and take mealworms, when allowed.  If seen there then ensues some posturing with both birds squaring up, and running alongside each other like a synchronised dance.  In extreme cases they will clash and feathers will fly as they jump up at each other.  In the most though they stay to their side of the garden as if there is an unwritten rule.

Just recently though we have noticed one of his juveniles sitting out in the open on the lawn, and even begging to "our" Blackbird for food.  It would also beg at its real father but the Blackbird seems to ignore it, concentrating on the other juvenile.  As a result we have started to feed this juvenile, and it will come to worms thrown on the lawn.  At one point I watched the father come in, and take the worms before the juvenile to get them.  The juvenile would then beg only for the father to fly off.

It looks in good condition, and can fly, but has the appearance of being a little slow.  In the mornings it seems to prefer to sit on the lawn or path over the road, right out in the open and vulnerable to the local cat, and even the Kestrel that is still about.  We have now started to usher it back into the garden, we are a soft touch

"Our" Blackbird is also not too keen on us feeding the  juvenile, and will rush over to interfere and attempt to take the worms we give it.  We don't know what will happen now, it is vulnerable, so lets hope it does manage to survive, if it does I think we will have two Blackbirds to feed this winter.

On the subject of mealworms, there has been a national shortage this summer due to the weather.  This has meant we have had to vary the diet supplementing what few mealworms we had with Moiri Worms which are huge, and Butter worms, which the pet shop told us were not good if you are watching your weight!

So far it has been a wonderful summer, and last weekend I put out the moth trap, and was fortunate to get a good catch of hawkmoths, including one that was new for the garden.  One disappointment was that the poplar Hawkmoth escaped me, flying off before I could photograph it.  First though some of the supporting cast:

A Buff-tip, the amazing camouflage allowing to look like a broken twig.  

I was also able to experience the camouflage working, as a Great Tit found some of the other moths close to the Buff-tip, but completely ignored the Buff-tip.

A Buff Ermine.

And a Shark, so called for the "fin" on the back of the thorax.

Now to the Hawk Moths, first out was a new moth for the garden.  I have been hoping for one of these for sometime, but when I thought I had caught one it turned out to be its slightly larger cousin.  This is the Small Elephant Hawkmoth.

Separated from the Elephant Hawkmoth by the lack of pink barring on the top of the thorax, and the fact that it is slightly smaller.

Fortunately I had also managed to catch an Elephant Hawkmoth to allow comparison.

Here you can see the stripes.

The fourth Hawkmoth was the Privet Hawkmoth, one of the largest.

I have posted quite a few pictures of this moth over the years, and it is quite impressive.

Here you can appreciate the size as it sits on my first finger.

Finally, this week Helen and I managed to get a walk through Old Down Wood in the early evening.  I was really surprised to find so many butterflies flying at this late hour.  The most numerous were the whites, with both Small and Large Whites all over the bramble, and Green-veined Whites gathering together on the exposed mud in Swellinghill Pond.

In addition to this I managed to see my first Gatekeeper of the year several Red Admirals and many Meadow Browns and Ringlets.  The biggest surprise of all though was a couple of White Admirals, again attracted to the bramble flowers.

Frustratingly I didn't have my camera with me, and had to resort to using my phone.  As well as the admirals there was also a pair of Silver-washed Fritillaries, again not the best photograph with my phone.

Other butterfly news was a Purple Hairstreak in the garden on Saturday which takes the list up to 28 for the patch.  It was most unexpected but very welcomed!

That is all for now.  I will continue to post here, hopefully once a month if there is something of interest, but in the meantime please do check the Away From Four Marks Blog, hopefully you will find something of interest there.