A walk round the pond - Week 10

We'll see how this works out.  Last year I published a weekly post from the pond(s) each week from week 13 (late March) until week 44 (early November).  There was a lot to see and to report and it was fascinating to watch the season unfold.  I am starting a bit earlier this year and if there is enough to see I'll try to post a report each week.

The most striking thing about the pond at this time of year is how brown everything looks.  I am used to everything being green in the summer but most of the new growth has yet to emerge.  There is some colour as the alder trees are in flower.

Here are the (male) catkins and the small purple female flowers which will produce this year's cones.

Hazel trees are in full flower as well.

Here are the catkins plus the small red female flowers.

The flowers have already been fertilised as they are starting to swell to form new hazel nuts.

Although it has been a dry winter there has been a fair amount of rain in the past week and the water level is noticeably higher than last year.  The island in the larger pond is once again an island.

On my last couple of visits at the end of last year a pair of swans was in residence.  Almost the first thing I noticed on this visit was a lot of swan feathers plus a breast bone.  Obviously a swan had died or been killed.

Right across the other side of the larger pond, about 100m away, was a very large number of swan feathers.  Whether they came from the same bird or a different one is impossible to say.

When I got to the smaller pond the first thing I saw was a swan, a cygnet.

Then there were four, plus an adult.  If this was one of the pair I saw last year it must have fetched its young to join it. Of course, these may be different birds altogether.  And the good news is that there is no signs of Canada geese.

Two species I saw were new sightings (for me) at the pond.  A pair of widgeons - this is the female but the male flew off before having his photo taken.

And a pair of gadwalls - this is a very distant view of the male.

Other birds were heron, buzzard and coot.

I'll be back next week to see what has changed.  Soon there will be frog spawn and toad spawn.  The pussy willow will be in flower soon and I have to complete the first bumblebee walk before the end of the month.  Watch this space.

My first walk round the pond - week 13

My original plan was to walk round the pond once a week from April to October this year, mostly looking for dragonflies, and to put a weekly report on this blog.  But then I also registered the walk as a BeeWalk with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.  Their bee walks start in March so I went a bit earlier.  The protocol demands a fixed route of 1-2km to be covered in about an hour each month, recording all the bumblebees seen in a 4m square imaginary box in front of the observer.  I have seen lots of bumblebees at the pond in previous years, mainly red-tailed bumblebees (Bombus lapidarius) as far as I remember.

This was the first time I have been this early in the year so it was interesting to look around.   There are two ponds on the site, small and large.  Here is a buzzard's eye view taken in summer.

This is the view from the far end, beyond the smaller pond.

I chose a calm sunny day with a temperature of 9℃ but I didn't see any bumblebees (negative findings are also important).  After our fairly cold winter and early spring I expect the bumblebees are having a lie-in as I haven't see one yet at home either.  There weren't many flowers around for any bees.  I did see plenty of coltsfoot and a few gorse bushes.  I am not very good at naming wild flowers so this will be an opportunity to learn more about them.

The alder trees were in flower but they are wind pollenated so they don't need bees.  These are the male catkins (with the female flowers above)

and these are the female flowers which will produce the cones later in the year.

Hazel trees were also in flower.  These are the catkins (again with the female flowers above)

and these are the tiny red female flowers.

You can see they have already picked up some wind-blown pollen.

A pair of mute swans has built a nest in the smaller pond but there are no eggs as yet.  Swans have nested here in previous years.  Last year the female was dead the first time I visited and the male was swimming around sadly but had gone by my next visit.

Here is the nest in the reeds, front left, taken on the iPhone as my camera had a telephoto lens.

There was pair of Canada geese on the larger pond.  They also have nested here before and a pair raised five goslings here last year.  I didn't see whether these two have yet built a nest.

Other birds I saw included buzzard, bullfinch, chaffinch, little grebe and long-tailed tit.

There was lots of frogspawn in the larger pond but no frogs.  I guess the frogs have been and gone and have nothing else to do for the rest of the year apart from eating and avoiding being eaten.

Assuming I get there and there is something to see I plan to post here each week until week 43.

Alder flowers

Alder trees are now in flower, their wind-borne pollen contributing to the misery of hay-fever sufferers.  This photo shows  the male and female catkins and a pair of last year's mature cones.

Alder flowers form in the autumn and are dormant over the winter.  The male and female catkins and the buds all have a bluish purple colour.

The male catkins mature early in the spring.

The female flowers are small but attractive in close up.  Pollination is mostly by wind and it looks as though there is a lot of pollen on this flower.

The male catkins hang from the very tips of the branches to catch the breeze.