Week 29: Watch Out, Frogs About!

It is now peak season for Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus) and Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) migrant butterflies and they could turn up anywhere. I spent a morning at the Brickworks searching. If nothing else, I hoped I might come across a partial second brood of Dingy Skippers or my first Hawk-moth species but I struck out on all counts, and, instead, as I walked the shaded path back towards the Buddleja, I narrowly avoided the utter horror of standing on a substantial soft-bodied creature. A glistening, vital Common Frog (Rana temporaria). Unfortunately, it didn’t unleash its long, sticky tongue to catch any insects whilst I was watching but it did hang around for some photographs.

At both Dellfield and the Brickworks, there are good numbers of Common Blue butterflies (female, below, left) and each site had at least one fresh Small Copper butterfly (below, right). Other flutterers included Meadow Browns, Speckled Woods, Gatekeepers, Small Skippers, one or two Small Tortoiseshells; Southern Hawker and Emperor dragonflies; and a couple of very worn five-spot Burnet moth species.
 
Every pair of socks I own and quite possibly my walking shoes as well is in danger of hot-housing the development of miniature wild flower and grasses meadows. No matter how carefully I tread, or the number of times I stop to empty my shoes, I always come home from Box Moor outings with shoes and socks full of seeds from the meadows and moors. I don’t think that’s quite the intended outcome but short of wearing wellies all summer (and cooking my feet) it's unavoidable.

Out on Bovingdon Reach this week, during another inadvertent seed collecting mission, a juvenile Green Woodpecker was digging for ants. A small group of House Martins were catching insects over the meadow and back at Dellfield, a juvenile Great spotted Woodpecker stayed still long enough for me to grab a distant shot. It's great to see both woodpecker species have bred successfully this year. Earlier in the week, I’d caught a female Green Woodpecker perched on a fence post at the pond on Preston Hill. The very short video clip below is a little shaky as the camera was resting on the fence railings (no tripod to hand).

Finally, this week's Oak photograph…

Week 12, Take Two: Sparkly Spawn & Sparring Songsters

I needed a second bite at the cherry. You probably guessed that I wasn’t altogether convinced by my Wednesday effort at the Oak photograph. With improving health this week, I returned to the scene of the crime yesterday morning. I give you “Dellfield Oak and Cowslips”....take two.

Length: approx 8mm. Dellfield, more Life amongst the Common Nettles 

The other itch that needed scratching was a desire to get some singing Blackcap footage. They really are little tinkers. Either, he tucks himself away in a bush, sits still, and sings his tiny heart out. Or, he flits from branch to branch, bursts of his discordant song left in his wake, and no sign of him settling for more than a second or two. Either scenario is entirely soul destroying when it comes to shooting video. Yesterday was no different! Almost.

At Bovingdon Brickworks, in the same area as I filmed the Chiffchaff last week, I came across 2 male Blackcaps going toe-to-toe over territory and mate. There is clearly something desirable about this location as Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Dunnock have all set up territories here. Lots of insect life, I expect. Anyway, the two male Blackcaps were chasing one another in and out of bushes. Up and down branches. From one tree over to another tree. Into the open. Then back into cover. Explosions of song from both contenders filling the air. I tried and failed miserably to get anything on film and walked on to see how the Common Frog spawn were doing. At least they couldn't fly away.

The tadpoles look as though an over enthusiastic 5 year old has come along with a tub of gold, silver and bronze glitter and made them All Pretty. The speckled appearance at this age is a sure sign that they are the Common Frog species.

When I returned to the Blackcaps, they had stopped chasing one another (a good start!), and, eventually (meaning, after getting lots of wobbly images of empty twigs and skinning my knuckle on the tripod, trying not to miss The Moment), I managed to get the footage below. Unfortunately, I was the wrong side of the gate when the bird flew into the bush beyond. It was a case of catching some distant footage....with an awkward viewpoint....through heat haze, or likely get nothing at all. If you spend the whole video wishing you could move the twig out of the way, you're not the only one! The sound of the brickworks in the background doesn’t help...and the Chiffchaff above my head drowned out the Blackcap at one point....but, hey, I think it’s better than nothing. Incidentally, a lady Blackcap arrived on the scene this morning so hopefully one of the males did enough to impress her.  Not to be left out, the Chiffchaff features at the end of the clip. Ironically, the Blackcap tried to sing over him! The Chiffchaff's reaction was priceless…complete indignation. I don't think the death stare was fatal but it made the point.  Singing louder seemed to be the weapon of choice.



P.S. The leaf buds on both the Oak and Ash trees are now just beginning to lengthen and/or expand, soon to burst. It feels as though almost every other tree has beaten them to it. More on that next week, perhaps.

Week 11, Extra: Singing in the Smog

In a rather dark, shady spot at Bovingdon Brickworks, a swathe of Forget-me-nots

Just a couple of videos from yesterday at the Brickworks. The light wasn't great for photography/video making but smoggy air couldn't stop the birds from singing. A Blackcap accompanied my frog spawn filming and, later, I grabbed some footage of one of the many singing Chiffchaffs. At this time of year, both birds are driven to establish territory and attract a female. I love how Spring is as much about the sounds as it is about the sights.

Singing Blackcap

Singing Chiffchaff

Elsewhere, over in Hay Wood, the first of the Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) are flowering.

Week 10, Extra: Just A Snippet

After a week spent mostly indoors and inactive, I sprang(ish) into action(ish) yesterday. Both my regular readers will, I’m sure, be bristling with excitement. By now, optimistically, firing on a quarter of a cylinder, I called in at Dellfield and at Bovingdon Brickworks. The life and times of tiny black specs encased in balls of jelly are irresistible (it’s got to be decades since I followed the progress of common frog spawn). However, before that, I stopped off at Dellfield and was lucky to enjoy 3 Red Kites soaring through the skies, over the Oak. One even landed in the neighbouring Scots Pine.  Two of the Kites were an obvious pair, staying close (one following the other), mirroring one another’s movements and displaying to one another. Unfortunately, I was in the wrong place to capture the action properly (shooting into the sun) but caught their silhouette’s over the Oak (below, right. I applied a blue gradient filter to enhance the image - it was either that or black birds against white sky). Having hurried back up the hill, I did manage a somewhat distant shot of one of the birds (below, left).

Courting Red Kites 

Red Kite (Milvus milvus)

Red Kite (Milvus milvus)

Developing Frog Spawn 

The frog spawn at Bovingdon is coming along nicely. Different clumps are at different stages of development. One section is now probably more than 5 weeks old, with the new tadpoles wriggling around in a large mass on top of the jelly. I am not entirely sure whether the tadpoles in the photograph below are Common Toad or Common Frog. I suspect the former but will hopefully confirm if/when I know.

Week 9, Extra: Bovingdon Brickworks Chiffs & Frogs

The green arrow points to numerous clumps of frog spawn.
The white arrow is the area shown in the top photograph, with the easy-to-miss frog

The alternative title was "Sneaky Frog seeks Blog Fame!"

This week, I'm largely confined to the immediate area so thought I'd have a wander around Bovingdon Brickworks. As the name suggests, this is outside the Boxmoor district of Hemel Hempstead, located in Bovingdon. In 2000, approx 40 acres of land owned by the Brickworks were gifted to the Box Moor Trust to be used as a conservation site. This afternoon, it was Chiffchaff central! I counted at least 7 singing birds, all of them clearly keen to drive me absolutely nuts. Getting a decent photograph proved beyond my capabilities (and patience) today, so, just a taster (below) which I hope to improve upon.

A number of shallow gullies are still full of water from the winter’s prolonged and heavy rains. Two of them (photographed right) are now home to developing Common frog spawn….and a visiting Common Frog which may well have been there to lay more eggs.

I’m all for happy accidents, in fact, most of my blog content is a happy accident. The orchestration of birds, butterflies, bees, worms(!?) or even celestial bodies, for that matter, has nothing to do with me. However, 99% of the time, I’m aware of what I’m photographing. Today was that 1% where I might as well have been shooting with my eyes closed. I was completely oblivious to the fact that I'd actually managed to photograph the frog. I had seen it whilst exploring the the edges of the gully but didn't know that it had secret desires to make its internet debut on my blog. I’m very glad it popped its head out when and where it did!

During one of my failed attempts at Chiffchaff stalking, I'd reached the brow of a particularly large and deep gully and come face to face with a beautiful Red Fox. I'm not sure who was more surprised. The Fox instantly lifted itself from its resting place and darted off into the scrub before I could catch my breath. And, the afternoon wouldn't have been complete without the calls and soaring of Common Buzzard (photographed below, right) and Red Kite.