Sunny Times in Newark and Mansfield

I will make as much use of the sun as I can while it is there, whether I'm at home, or at the hospital. Managed to get a run in this morning, and a walk around Sutton in Ashfield Reservoir in the afternoon. Butterflies fluttering, bees buzzing, flowers in bloom and mummy mallards taking the little ones for a walk.

Out of town, the warm weather has produced thermals for the buzzards to soar upon, mocking the pitiful earthbound humans tied to their microlights and gliding machines. Rabbit kittens watch from the roadside, and the cows cross the road to be milked by the oilseed rape field.

Bluebells in the cemetery

Forget-me-nots at London Road lake

Lesser celandine at London Road lake

First tree bumblebee, on a cowslip

FLowers at the castle (Azaleas)

Honey bee at work

Peacock

Huge queen red tailed bumblebee, Sutton in Ashfield reservoir

Bees, Butterflies and my own Paris - Roubaix

No hospital visit today, so took advantage of the nice weather to relax, drink tea in various places, and not be made to feel nauseous by my stepfather's rickety smelly Peugeot 205 or the chemical stench of hospital.

This morning I headed off for Sconce Park and the fun little Rumbles cafe project. I took my tea outside and investigated the flower bed.

All sorts of goodies were present. Ranging up from tiny flies, through big buzzy bumblebees, to butterflies, there was a lot of life to take in amidst the colourful blooms. Potentially the most interesting, and the most impossible to photograph, was a large ginger bumblebee I took to be a carder bee. The all black specimen I have no idea about at all, in fact bumblebees are a very weak area for me. Hopefully readers of this blog will have an answer.

Small tortoiseshell at Sconce Park

Peacock showing wonderful subtle colouring and tonal changes in the eyespots

Bumblebee that matches the flower perfectly

Perhaps a non bumblebee species?

All black bumblebee

 After an enjoyable sojourn watching the famous cobbled Paris - Roubaix cycle race, I headed out for my own 15 mile bike odyssey, ostensibly to have a look at Cotham FLash to see if any yellow wagtails or wheatears have arrived, but really just for the love of being outside on a nice day. 

Unlucky! 

Cotham Flash paddocks was entirely devoid of bird life, and a little nearer Hawton, I had a great view of a malicious buzzard that watched me struggle to get my little field glasses out, and then flew off the moment I had done so. It would have been killing itself laughing when it was said field glasses fall out of my pocket, and smash themselves to bits on the road.

Not expensive ones, and there may be a spare pare, but an annoyance. THis prompted me to put some speed on, and head to Farndon to off road cycle back along the river, swooping past the peacocks and small tortoiseshells and occasional small white, and wondering where all the brimstones are all of a sudden.

The sun was low and shining bright. People were out walking the dog, cycling, sitting in beer gardens. It was just a lovely afternoon.

Sutton in Ashfield Reservoir Sandwiches

Have had cause to spend time at Kings Mill Hospital, and while Mum eats in peace, we are kicked out to chomp down on our sandwiches elsewhere.

So, we have spent pleasant times by Sutton in Ashfield Reservoir, enjoying the singing (and inevitable these days) chiff chaffs; the antics of the swans, mallards and cutely tame great tits; the vigorous sexual habits of tufted ducks; a great crested grebe courship dance.

Best of all, we had a good chance to compare brown rats and water voles, and seeing my first swallows of 2014 - a flock of 20 that suddenly arrived to skim the waters for food.

Water vole

Water vole gets scared by mobile phone wielding hospital visitor

Handsome, always, male pochards

Loch Ness pochard

Swan makes nest alterations

The Cemetery Changes Again

Daffodils are over. Squill gone. And now blue bells and forget me not colour the low ground in shades of blue.
And in the air, small white and speckled wood have taken flight. Yet still no orange tips.

Energing bluebells

Forget me not

Cowslips on Sustrans 64

Fresh out of the packet Speckled Wood

The World has Turned Yellow

An early run, and all-a-sudden the oilseed rape has blossomed, and the air is full of their cloyingly sweet oily smell which actually makes it quite hard to breathe. Brimstones, peacocks and small tortoiseshells still had the skies to themselves - no orange tips or holly blues in this part of the world yet. No buzzards around beacon hill, but others were seen over the river over the farmers' fields towards Kelham.

Later on, had cause to visit Kings Mill Hospital, and in the bit where they kick you out to let the patients eat in peace, me and my stepfather visited Sutton in Ashfield reservoir. I taught him the call of the chiff chaff, and we looked at the coots, moorhens and usual ducks. A trio of swans flew past, their wings swising audibly through the air, a slight whistle thrown in too.

There was an interloper or two; first up, a solitary and very dashing male pochard did his thing - his chest nut head noble upon the water, before he too gave us a fly past, showing off his smart plumage to even better effect.

And then, diving about close to shore, a couple of little grebes, or dabchicks, splashed about, diving in the water before energing covered in glistening droplets of water, flashing in the sun before it hid behind a cloud.

Looking North

Looking South

Peacock on dandelion in my garden. Beautiful

Coots and Moorhens. Some Birds are an Island

A very slow run today, after a fast 5km yesterday, with the prime intention of photographing some of the fascinating little "island" platform nests the coots and moorhens have built. The results are below, all pictures as ever taken with a mobile phone camera.

The weather was cold and grey; having the sugar factory here means we're all used to Sulphur Dioxide fogs and orange skies. No butterflies on the wing today, and definitely no hirundines yet. Still there were plenty of things to see; sporty mallards, the first spring cowslips, the "tseeeping" blue tits in the trees, and everywhere there was a tree of any kind, the sound of singing chiff chaffs.

Coot on a nest

Moorhen nest, the moorhen in question had just vacated

Hissing greylag goose next to Balderton Lake

Cowslip

A bower of sorts on Clay Lane

Common Scoter, the Black Black Duck of Farndon

Today, feeling determined, decided to tackle the 9.5 mile hawton farndon home route. It was such a lovely spring day, I really wanted to make the most of it, so tuned into 6 Music (later Radio 4, I'm getting old!), grabbed a drinks bottle and headed out.

Early on, it was apparent that I wasn't the only thing enjoying the weather. Brimstones were plentiful on Boundary Road, let alone Sconce Park where today a chiff chaff could be heard singing in the oak wood. Peacocks and small tortoiseshell were also plentiful, but I still haven't seen a comma. Forget-me-not grew wildly from under garden fences.

At Hawton, oil seed rape is beginning to flower, and in Farndon Willow Holt, a number of chiff chaffs were singing loudly, and as ever, invisibly, in the trees. Either that or one bird was an expert ventriloquist. Still no sign of the lovely wood anemones of last year however.

It was at the end of the Holt that I first saw something that really caught my eye. As you leave the river path via the gate, I noticed that the little dyke that leads to the river near The Boathouse was full of toads. I haven't seen a live toad until today his spring, although seen plenty of lifeless unfortunates on the road near Coddington Pond, and this little dyke was full of them, some in mating amplexus too. There were also matts of frogspawn.

I had only been talking last night with a friend about how you never see frogs and toads by London Road lake in the ditch any more. She theorised it was disturbance by the ducks.

So, I carried on trucking, the longest run I've had for a while with my injuries, the sun warming my back. As ever the last few outings by water I've had, I was hoping to see sand martins or perhaps a swallow - they've now been reported in the county, but I saw something, actually two things, even better.

The first was on the power station reach. As I came opposite those big orange cylindircal buoys that perhaps mark the approaching weir to boats, I noticed three very strange ducks. Two were black, jet black, with rather pointed tails and a yellow beak. The other was a uniform dark brown with a pale patch on the side of the face under a dark cap.

A black duck? What could that be? I suspected at the time - for once, I didn't have my little field glasses when I actually needed them - that they might be common scoter. That certainly seemed to be the case when I looked them up back home, but surely these are marine ducks?

The answer is that indeed that they are a marine species, but make use of inland waterways when migrating. A proper birdwatcher confirmed my sighting later on. I was rather proud of myself.

As I came further round the river, I noticed a metal detectorist rooting along the bankside; it transpired it was a friend of mine who had a very old 2p as a poor result for his efforts. But his treasue hunting aided me, because as he approached, he flushed a dazzling kingfisher from a near side of the river bush; it then headed North into the reeds on the other side. It was a metallic turqoise, glowing like a jewel in the mid afternoon sun. It looked like a hummingbird at first.

Such a wonderful sight they are, and how rarely I get to see them.

Oil seed rape coming into flower at Hawton

Frogspawn at Farndon

The common scoter. Obviously.

Spot the cormorant

Small tortoiseshell

Peacock, slightly second hand