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| sun picking out the reeds |
Despite being a bright sunny day the temperature was only 6 degrees at 10 a.m. today as I arrived at Ballachurry. As I was putting on my wellies at the car ( essential footware at Ballachurry just now!) I could hear Long Tailed Tits and glancing up there they were just over the wall in a willow close to the road. No camera at the ready of course, so no photos. With nice symmetry they reappeared by Ginnie's Bench just as I was leaving. Here is what else I saw during the course of the morning:
Birds:
SC210694 3 x Long Tailed Tits; Wren in ivy; 8 x Goldfinch taking Alder seeds
SC209694 Blue Tit; Robin; 3 x Long Tailed Tits; male and female Chaffinch; Song Thrush; male and female Blackbirds;
SC209695 Song Thrush
Other:
SC208694 hibernating 7-spot ladybird in gorse
SC210694 2 x Yellow Dung flies in nettles
SC209695 Calliphora species fly in oak tree
SC208694 Probable Calliphora species fly in gorse
SC209694 berries on holly for the first time
SC209694 Noon Fly
SC209693 and SC208694 various fungi on compost heaps, as recently identified by the IOM Fungus Group.
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| male Chaffinch |
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| we think Blue Tits are acrobatic but this Goldfinch fed upside down for quite some time |
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| yellow Dung fly |
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| Possibly Calliphora species fly |
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| Noon fly |
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| Calliphora species fly |
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| I deliberately looked for and found this 7-spot recorded last week hibernating in the gorse |
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| fungus on compost near the road |
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| showing the gills |
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| quite a lot of them |
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| these are the fungi on the other compost heap Tawny Funnel |
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| again, quite a lot of them |
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| previously photographed Wood Blewits colour now fading as they age |
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| our Hollies have grown a lot this year and one is suddenly producing a few berries for the birds |
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| the meadow waiting to be cleared of vegetation on Saturday |
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| the usual view of the hide |
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| will take a while to barrow all this cut vegetation to the compost heap |
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| a different view of the hide |
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| just before I left, these trees behind Ginnie's bench had 3 Long Tailed Tits in them, probably the ones I saw earlier by the gate when I arrived |
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| a silvery view of the Church |
With thanks to Steve Crellin for fly identifications.
