Today’s guest picture was sent to me by my sister Mary. She was joined by a jackdaw for breakfast at Kenwood House, but it came too late as she had cleared her plate.
The forecast was for rain in the afternoon so I might, if I had been energetic and well organised, gone out for an early pedal. What I managed was a leisurely walk round the garden instead.
Outside, on the front wall of the house, everything was abuzz. A cotoneaster horizontalis was attracting a lot of bees…
…although it hardly looked as though the flowers were open enough to let a bee in.
There was more buzzing at the other end of the middle lawn where the nectaroscordum had attarcted a different set of bees altogether.
In fact, wherever we looked, there were more bees on flowers….
…and it was very good to see several different types of bumble bee.
Mrs Tootlepedal has some pretty plants which she wants to put out in the chimney pot outside the kitchen window. Unfortunately, because of the nearby bird feeder, pigeons and other birds tend to come and perch on the chimney pot, crushing any plants there. We therefore decided to move the feeder pole to outside the dining room window, hoping that the birds would go with it and leave the chimney pot unmolested.
A blackbird soon arrived to check out the situation…
…and it was followed by a siskin…
…and then a goldfinch became the first customer.
Soon it was business as usual in the new position.
In between times, I mowed the front lawn and went up to the the health centre to get my three monthly vitamin top up.
When I got back, I had time to spot a white butterfly
…before we went off to the Buccleuch Centre to have a light lunch and listen to an illustrated lecture from the interesting young man who is running the Wild Eskdale project. Kevin, the project leader, has two aims, outdoor education for youngsters and environmental tourism for visitors. He demonstrated that there is more than enough wild life and scenery around the town to satisfy the most demanding visitor and we hope that his project is a great success. Those interested can see more here.
In spite of a gloomy forecast, it wasn’t raining when we got home and I had time to admire the 20cm flowers on the peony….
…and an even bigger bee on the nectaroscordum…
…before I decided to defy the forecast and go for a bike ride.
There are fields of buttercups to be seen…
…and the roads are still lined with cow parsley in places…
….and when I looked down as I took the parsley picture, I saw that there is a lot of English plaintain about too.
It was a much calmer day than yesterday so I cycled to the top of Callister before turning and coming sedately back down the hill back to the town.
I took a turn along the river and saw a lone gull…
…and pair of oyster catchers along the water’s edge…
…before deciding that the weather looked good enough to add another six miles to my total by going back up the road as far as Wauchope Schoolhouse.
I paused to have a look at my favourite little cascade at Bessie Bells on the way…
…and this may have been a mistake because the rain started when I was still two miles from home and I got quite wet in the last ten minutes of my ride.
Still, I was pleased to have got another 20 miles to add to my miles for the week and after a cup of tea and a slice of toast, everything was fine.
Fine indoors that is, because it rained steadily for the rest of the day outside. I kept an eye on the re-positioned feeder and noted a redpoll…
…and a mixed bag of chaffinch, siskin and sparrows…
…so it seems that the new position is going down well with the birds.
We were visited by our friend Bruce who brought with him a bird ringer’s band. He had recovered it from a siskin which had suffered a fatal accident when it crashed into one of his windows on the 10th May. I took a picture of the ring beside the tip of a ball point pen to show how tiny the ring has to be to fit on the leg of a siskin, a bird which weighs about 13 grams.
Bruce had read the number on the ring and had sent it to the BTO, the British Trust for Ornithology, the body responsible for bird ringing volunteers in the UK. In return he received a note saying that the siskin had been ringed (rung?) in Thetford, Norfolk, 386km away to the south of us. It had been recorded there on the 9th April so in spite of its diminutive size, it had flown 386km north in a month. Who knows where the siskin pictured at the top of this post has come from, though it might well be locally born and bred.
The rain is supposed to stop by tomorrow morning so I might get out for a pedal for the third day running. This would be very welcome, as my feet are still not up to much in the way of walking.
The flying bird of the day is a chaffinch, eyeing up the new feeder site.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
Love those bees! They look so fuzzy 🙂
I like the nectaroscordum. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it.
I’m glad you’re seeing so many bees finally. Maybe you can put the paintbrush away this year.
I think sitting beside a little waterfall like that one for a while would be worth getting rained on.
The Wild Eskdale project sounds interesting. We should do the same here.
Looking at the huge amount of plums on the plum tree, many of them out of my reach, I think that we must have had enough pollinators to do the job without my help but I like to make sure.
The information about the movement of the demised siskin is very interesting. We do not think of ‘our’ garden birds travelling such a distance – in a month too. One cannot help wondering why it felt the need to make such a journey.
Naturally it wanted to spend some time in Scotland. Who wouldn’t?
Good to see all those bees.
Interesting to hear about the siskin’s long journey.
Hope Wild Eskdale is very successful.
I can learn a lot about birds from you 🙂 That jackdaw looks well annoyed. I like the bird ring story
I have attended a few bird ringing sessions as an onlooker and it is extremely interesting work.
Yes, hope Wild Eskdale is successful. That blackbird has a bright, jaunty look. Amazing how far that poor little siskin flew. Sad to think of its death. But the buzzing of the bees is certainly cheerful.
We were very happy about the amount of bees.
The flying chaffinch looks like it pulled up short wondering where the feeders had gone.
Interesting story about the siskin, too bad it died so young. I also hope that the wild Eskdale project is successful. All it would take is one rare bird to be seen there, and the birders would come in droves.
That is true. We get quite a few looking for the hen harriers.
Well done to the Wild Eskdale project for such a good website it’s all very informative and I like the fact they provide coffee on the days out but the visitors have to bring their own smiles! Very interesting about the siskin ring and also the number of different bees visiting your garden. Love the blackbird photo and the feeder with the different birds enjoying themselves.
We all hope that the Wild Eskdale project takes off as it would be a great benefit to the town.