Ave Atque Vale to the Green Revolution...for Now...

Here in Newark we have, unbelievable, just concluded the May 7th election process. A candidate in my local council ward had died just before the vote, and so it was postponed until last Thursday.

The consequence of this was that anyone who had missed out locally first time round piled into this ward, and thus we had a ballot paper a yard long and 6 crosses to spend on it, like the world's most politicised "Spot the Ball" competition.

A strong slate of local Greens and Independents all stood, but in the end, they were wiped out of existence by the Conservatives, who took all 6 seats to end up dominating the council even more than they had done previously. All this in the ward with the fewest registered Tory supporters too.

And so the 2015 political process finally ends, one that had promised much for the Greens, but one where hatred of Scots and the hatred of White Van men for the unemployed and poor finally won out. One seat and a couple of narrowish defeats.

Still the much vaunted UKIP surge didn't happen, and unlike the Green Party, UKIP's whole raison d'etre will be oblivionated one way or another by the EU referendum. The environment issues won't go away, and nor will a whole lot of other scientific and rational ones in a world where mania and madness seems ever more prevalent.

These are the issues the Greens will have to visit to be actually large scale relevant. Opposition to GM food needs to be dropped, likewise nuclear energy can't still be seen to be the great demon of our time. People need food and energy more than they need brown rice rhetoric. They need science more than they need Arthur Pendragon.

There are still massive gains to be made, and many people that can be won over, if you appeal to their brains.

Enjoy the latest garden discoveries!

Si

The Vixen by Night A-Callin' Comes

I had another stereotypical late night visitor last night. To go with my tawny owl of a few weeks ago and endless cats, last night brought a fox to my driveway.

It was an odd sort of encounter, because the fox began it by pretending to be a cat. I had been having a little pre-midnight stargaze, watching Aquila rise over the church hall and seeing the darkly blazing ruby of Antares twinkling angrily between the trees. I sensed rather than heard soft footsteps, and turned round to see one of the local white-and-tortie cats skulking in the darkness.

As usual it ignored my "ch-ch-ch-ch" entreaties and sauntered off down the drive. I returned to my stargazing, and thought no more of the cat for a few minutes, until I turned again and saw a pair of ears protruding from a shadow on the crumbling tarmac. I thought the ears were rather long - comically they reminded me of Snoopy's ears in a Peanuts cartoon about "The Great Pumpkin"! - and it was only when the animal moved out into orange streetlight glow that its true nature was revealed.

It was another late night fox, another vixen judging by the rather undistinguished brush, and although she wasn't as bold and brave as the one I watched in town, she was quite happy to let me get to about 10-15 metres and take a couple of sadly not terribly amazing photos before she trotted across the road and was lost to sight under a bush.

Astronomy...it pays to be an observer! That's how you have encounters like this.

Si

The Glorious Poppies of Newark

The poppies I've photographed below have had a lot of attention in town lately, making the cover of the local newspaper and also being featured on endless twitter feeds and local instagram accounts.

With good reason too, they are stunning.

Last year was a bit of a poor year for poppies, this field was empty, and the half poppy half oilseed half buttercup field that looked like a Zimbabwean flag at a distance - off Clay Lane - was also very subdued. I don't know how that field is looking this year yet, but these Hawton Lane poppies have suddenly exploded into fiery glory in the last few week, compared even to the attractive sight they made a few weeks ago when I last photographed them.

It's a pity the butterflies are struggling to match them. The only ones I'm seeing at all the last few days are speckled woods here and there; orange tips have had a disastrous year with the cool spring and second flight small tortoiseshells and peacocks have yet to emerge. Hopefully the expected blizzard of painted ladies will even things up.

My tree bumblebee nests are incredibly busy. Today, managed to get a photograph of the little ginger buzzers!

Enjoy!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 18.06.15

Polish cornflowers getting the customers again

Tree bumble factory clocking in

4 woodpigeon eggs broken in my garden this morning

Bumbles love this garden plant

Abandoned blackbird egg

Look at the colour of this field

Beauty from a lower angle

The Abandoned Blackbird Nests

I've had a very busy few days wandering around, and yes! hooray! running again, albeit very slowly.

We've had three unexpectedly warm days in a row, and although today has been humid and occasionally slightly damp, it has still been pleasant. The bumblebees have been out in abundance, especially the tree bumblebees in my two nests in the roof. The nest above my front door in particular is very busy, and from dawn till dusk the bees are buzzing around in a ginger cloud.

They are very fond of the aphid sap found on the underside of the holly and privet leaves.

I've been pottering in the folks' back garden tonight, admiring the new botanical additions. At one point I saw the naughty cat from next door climb guiltily down from one of the cloud trees, so my bird senses started tingling; that cat is an expert bird botherer.

Sure enough, there was a new nest in one of the trees, and devil cat had been having a look for blackbirds to harass. However, on a hand based inspection, there was a single blue speckled egg within, as cold as a stone. Such a beautiful thing, but devoid of life.

On a hunch, I checked the old pergola nest, and that too had a single cold blackbird egg in it. The cat had obviously driven both birds - or was it the same one each time? - away. The owners had put a bell on it, but it has been taken off, seemingly.

I love cats, I miss our family cats terribly, but I wish owners would bell their collars to protect bird life.

Soapbox away, enjoy the pictures!

Si

All images and text copyright CreamCrackeredNature 18.06.15

Tree bumblebee has heavy saddlebags

The strong oily smell of ceonothus seems to be a big attractor

Elderflower

Fungi on the Sonce

Geranium party!

Beautiful cinnabar moth, my first of the year

Bit out of focus, now we have a scabious party

Waiting to bat in the nets. When I did, I was dismal

Errr, pink campion

Solitary bee on library geranium

Another geranium bee

Railway ox eye daisies

Bee was a-visiting

Some writer called "Bronte Emily". Who?

New in the garden

Twilight bee out back

The Common Tern over the Pond

Today has been a glorious day, bright, sunny, and with the wind quietened down again it was a good opportunity to head around town and see what would be about.

 Certainly plenty of bees were in evidence. For a start I now have TWO tree bumblebee nests in the eaves of my flat, one in the corner, one over the font door. So glad about this, but sadly plenty of other folk here would be having kittens about having these harmless creatures move in.

My friend's foxgloves were also irresistible, but not to tree bumbles, who don't like feeding off deep belled flowers for some reason. No, it was buff tail and white tailed bumblebees enjoying the nectar from the pretty white, purple and pink plants.

 There was action on London Road pond too. Coots and grebes were showing off their little ones, and the family of canada geese were having a good old hiss and peck at any mallard that got too close to the rapidly growing goslings. But the best sight of all was above the water rather than on it.

It was the first common tern of the year in Newark putting on a show, quartering the water, occasionally offering to do a spectacular dive but always thinking against it before resuming its search, its deeply forked tail demonstrating its "sea swallow" nickname as it used it to expertly steer in the air.

 Such a recognisable bird, its flight is so different from a black headed gull, much slimmer in profile and also having the "pulling from the shoulder" sort of wing beat a swallow has.

 I was immediately reminded of the 10 year old me, watching my first tern on a school field trip to Hunstanton, being passed the binoculars of a birdwatching teacher. That trip I found a nest of ringed plover chicks, saw fulmars on the iron red striped cliffs, and found the body of a razorbill I carried back to "Le Strange" Hotel.

 Best school trip ever.

 Si

  All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 15.06.15

Sad woodpigeon with injured wing

Buzzy ceonothus today

Cross goose family

Love this stuff but no idea what it is

Coloured doors

Tree bumble at work

These tinfy flowers were very attractive to the bees

White / buff tail working too

Lovely view of a tree bumblebee

Boat looks like a happy Egyptian whale shark

In a wild planter by the locks

Native ladybird with tiny spots

The Philae Lander has Awoken!

Back in November, I wrote with sad eyes slightly shining, of how the Philae lander carried to Comet 67P by the European Space Agency Rosetta mission had finally run out of power after its landing on the comet's surface.

It had apparently settled in a dark ditch upon the surface, and was thus unable to properly recharge its batteries with its solar panels. After 60 hours of activity, the much anthropomorphised "plucky" little spacecraft finally went to sleep as its batteries dies, tweeting heroically all the while.

Here's what I wrote at the time.

But now, I read that the ESA have made contact with Philae again. As was hoped at the time - rather optimistically, I thought - the decreasing distance of the comet to the sun as it approaches perihelion has meant that the lander is now getting enough sunlight to charge its batteries and operate.

There is now the chance that we will see for the first time what happens on a comet's surface as a comet makes its closest approach to the sun, which could make for a heck of a spectacle as volatile gases erupt off the warming surface to form jets, and other material streams out to form the cometary tail.

But never mind the science, not when today's evens have given the ESA an opportunity to produce another cute cartoon!

Si

Dazzled by an Iridium Flare

I was having my usual late night potter around at midnight last night, taking a gentle late night tour of the sky.

I've been neglecting my astronomy I know, I keep saying! There just aren't enough hours in the day or night to do everything, and I have to rest occasionally. Using binoculars makes my eyes tire very quickly at night these days. But luckily, the sky has more than enough to keep the naked eye interested.

So it proved last night. Approaching low from the south, rising up to meet the bright orange star Arcturus, was a faint satellite. I could see however that it was brightening up, so I figured out quickly what it was.

The Iridium Satellites

These are communications spacecraft who's highly reflective panels direct sunlight onto a narrow strip of the Earth below as the satellite passes about 900km up. I've seen them before, the brightest ones reaching about the same brightness as Venus, around -4 for a few seconds before the sun-satellite angle becomes unfavourable for the observer and the Iridium craft fades away again.

This one, however, became almost as bright as a half moon. It cast shadows, had a halo lighting up a quarter of the sky, and it all but hurt my eyes to look at.  It drowned out the stars for a moment, and it almost felt like a celestial god was shining a torch on my face, it was dazzling.

Outside of the moon, this was the brightest object I've ever seen in the night sky.

A twitter contact down south thought it might have been a flash of lightning.

It was actually Iridium 32, and it had reached a magnitude of a shade under -8.

You can use the "Heavens Above" website to predict views for Iridium Flares - and also things like International Space Station passes. This is the pass I observed last night. If you enter your location, it will predict and locate bright Iridium Flares for you.

They really are spectacular.

Si

All text copyright CreamCrackeredNature 12.06.15