Jersey Tiger

Grey day, glorious nature!

By lunchtime it was raining even harder and getting quite breezy. I walked into the kitchen just as a Jersey Tiger Moth fluttered gratefully to rest and shelter on the upright of the (open)window frame.

Jersey Tigers are strikingly attractive day and night flying moths with bright orange (rowan coloured!) hind wings. When they come to rest they become a perfect geometric triangle with a perfectly geometric design in black and cream. They don't, officially, live in Cornwall, at least not according to my Collins Gem guide to butterflies and moths, which gives their only winghold on Great Britain as Devon. When I first saw one five years ago, on brambles in Farm Lane just outside Churchtown Farm, I was so impressed that I contacted the local moth society, who said they knew of just one colony this side of the Tamar.

Two years later, a Jersey Tiger came in through my office window one summer night and knocked itself out trying to get into the ceiling light, landing with a crash on the carpet. I rescued it and when it came round transferred it to the hydrangea just outside the front door. Last summer and the summer before I have occasionally caught sight of one fluttering around outside the house, both back and front, but this is the first I have seen this year. I do so hope that they are making a go of it here in Cornwall...

Rowans are Ripe

Rowans were the decorative tree of choice when this houses were built; they are on every corner and along every path. A few years ago, one of my neighbours tried to get the council to cut them all down, claiming that they were poisonous and a danger to her children, and it was only when I went on the Internet and found recipes for rowan jelly (eat with pheasant) that she stopped complaining.

This morning the weather has reverted to 'normal' for this summer - steady but fairly
light rain. We went down to the creek as usual; tide was in, one egret on the shore, one swan over our side and a gang of five over the other, all very peaceful and normal in the drizzle. I was looking at the egret when I caught a flash of blue. A kingfisher swooped in near the egret from some distance away on the other side of the creek, landed momentarily on the shore then obligingly headed straight for me, veering off into the greenery on the bank at the other side of the stream. I know there are kingfishers around by the stream and the creek, but I going down there with the dog and just passing through I don't see them very often at all, perhaps three times all this year. It was kind of him to oblige this morning when everything else was so damp and grey.

The rowans aren't grey, though, they are very definitely hot deep orange, and ripe. I know they are ripe because on my way back from the creek I surprised a flock of starlings helping themselves to the berries. Perhaps the same flock as came into my garden the other day, but more of them this time, about twenty I would think. When they saw me they quickly scattered into the trees on the edge of the valley, but quite a few of them still had their beaks full!

Churchtown Summer Afternoon.

Today the weather has been fine - for the first and apparently the last time for a good while. When I took the dog to Churchtown in the afternoon it felt quite strange to be wearing sandals and a shirt. Last time I was there, a couple of weeks ago, the meadows had just been mowed and looked very yellow; after the recent rain they are now quite green again. There was a small flock of longtailed tits, about a dozen, in the brambles - the first I have seen there.

One of the 'arable' fields, which are planted with various plants to provide winter food for the birds (teasels, barley, millet, etc) is full of thistles this year, and the thistledown was drifting across the various paths and meadows like snow - in one or two places it was actually forming drifts on the ground. Many, many butterflies, buzzards calling overhead, swallows flying high... a 'proper' August afternoon, in other words. But for tomorrow they are predicting heavy rain again over the whole country.

More Sparrows

This morning at the feeder, one daddy sparrow with two demanding fledglings. I'd thought there was another brood on the way as I'd been watching a few adults carrying food over to where the nest site is, so I was very pleased to see them. They may well be the beginning of the third wave of babies this year; I do hope so.

Good News and even more Good News!

Good News #1:

I went to Derriford yesterday to the fracture clinic, and they signed me off. I don't have to go there again, only to St Barnabas over the road for physiotherapy. They sent me home with a leaflet of impossible wrist and finger exercises an that was that. I don't even have to wear the splint any more unless I want to, and should try (carefully) to use the fingers at least, if not the wrist, a little more each day. All quite liberating and satisfactory.

I can actually myself notice small bits of progress - typing is now more or less normal, although I do not appear to be using my thumb (still the most swollen and painful digit) for the space bar. Unless I actually force myself to do it with the thumb, the natural space bar presser seems to be the middle finger of the right hand. Truth is, I can't remember what I used to use, before...

Good News #2:

Even better, this. The bone scan results say that my bones are perfectly healthy, not even borderline osteoporosis, and the wrist fracture was a genuine accident, not a trend! This is such a relief that even the weather seems to have improved. I haven't quite come back down to earth yet, and still have a silly grin on my face!

Bird Feeder Frenzy

Another soggy day. I went into the kitchen at 4 o'clock intending to wash up but got distracte by a noise I didn't recognise from outside - a loud whistled argument, much louder and more musical than sparrows. It was nine starlings all competing for breadcrumbs at the same time! A couple of days ago I saw one juvenile, still with his soft brown coat on, but these were mostly older, immature but not babies. Anyway, they constituted a small flock, which was nice.

As I was watching them, they were joined by another flock, this time of mixed great tits, blue tits and chaffinches, who were based on the silver birches outside the fence but came swooping in mob handed for peanuts and seeds. At one time I counted three blue tits and two great tits all on the peanut feeder at the same time.

And it didn't stop there. Washing up forgotten, I watched in amazement as more and more birds came in. There were a few sparrows, of course, but for the first time they were outnumbered by other species. A collared dove, a couple of blackbirds, a jackdaw, two magpies... Nine different species in all, all in my tiny little garden at the same time. When I first put the feeders up, only a couple of months ago, I rarely saw any birds from the kitchen window. Today, in the rain, a good variety. Hopefully later in the year when there is less natural food I should see even more. It's quite exciting, if bad for the housework!

Butterfly Bonanza

After two days of almost solid rain, today is windy with short heavy showers but sunshine in between. Somehow some sort of a signal must have been put out to the butterfly pupae, because the air is thick with small white butterflies. They are in the woods, in the gardens, and most especially in the buddleias on the edge of the path, hundreds of them. How do they all emerge at the same time like that?