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Country Matters 7th April 2003
As I write this the long dry spring period continues. There have been some very warm days which have brought out butterflies such as the Brimstone, Tortoiseshell, Peacock and Comma all of whom over winter as adults. Early warm weather can tempt them out into a world where nectar, an important food supply is not yet available. Then plummeting night temperatures mean they must find a suitable resting spot until it warms up again.I saw four hares courting near our house in the middle of February courting. They were in a small circle chasing each other round jumping in the air and standing on their hind legs. I have only seen them ‘boxing’ on a very few occasions during my lifetime. This year I did see a pair mating for the first time on a hot sunny afternoon. It must have been sheer exuberance at the early warm weather as I suspect this is one part of their lives they usually enjoy in private.
Judy Monk in Smithfields heard a Muntjac deer barking close by one evening. I also recently disturbed one close to our house one morning. It disappeared into part of the garden from which I thought it could not escape but I was not able to re-find it. They usually spend the day lying very still in cover during the day. I have already written about the one that used to spend the day in our garden under a Buddleia bush. They are very habituated to humans and I suspect many gardens in the village act as shelter to them during the day.
I have just finished cutting our garden hedges and despite the warmer days only found two nests. A mallards nest on top of our Leylandii hedge was lucky because if it had raised its head I would certainly have decapitated it. It must have been near to hatching as it only left the nest after I had cut over it. Birds will rarely desert or leave nests with eggs that are near hatching, they must sense or hear the developing chicks inside the eggs. The other was a blackbirds nest. Both females continued to sit on their nests after I built a wigwam of clippings over them.
Their biggest threat at this time of year are the magpies, jays, crows and squirrels that all eat both eggs and young. I have just sat in my office watching a jay go to a moorhens nest on our garden pond looking for eggs. It will continue visiting until the parents start laying. The moorhens will eventually realise all is not well and will build elsewhere. What the Jay does not realise is that if you leave two eggs in the nest you can keep taking the newly laid egg. Most small boys of my generation had a spoon on a stick and one could take well into double figures of eggs from a single nest. Luckily for the moorhen this is not such a serious threat these days. Actually the eggs have a deep orange yolk and taste far better than any chickens egg. But then they would if you had spent some time clambering out on a branch and getting a wet foot in the bargain just to get a mouthful of egg for breakfast.
The Little Owl that has been roosting during the day in a Leylandii tree in our garden has been coming out and sunning itself on the warm days this spring. It usually sits with eyes closed, facing the sun soaking up the warmth. The Stock doves are nesting in our Oak tree again this year and the Short Tailed Voles are busy thinning out my pea crop as it emerges from the ground. Luckily for them voles do no not yet form part of my diet.
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