Swift Half update - 13th February 2011

• A pleasant day again yesterday (saturday) but more wind and rain in store I hear.



• Blackbirds seem to be nesting already (not unusual for blackbirds and woodpigeons to build nests and breed in February).



• First butterfly of the year yesterday - a rather tattered-looking adult red admiral which my wife's keen eyes plucked from the blue sky, as I trained my eyes on the three bickering woodpeckers we have visiting the garden each day still.



• The red admiral is very often the first butterfly you'll see in the UK each year (and the last) and like a few other species, often overwinters in sheds etc... as an adult.



• The butterfly landed on our very tattered gutter (needs replacing) and warmed itself in the blistering February sunshine! (see photo above)



• The daffodils are about 9" high now - no flowers as yet, but if the mild february continues - I think we'll have our first (and pretty-well last! (We've got hardly any flowers as such in the garden)) flowers in a week or so.



• The house sparrows have already taken to our swift nesting spot again - just like last year, but also like last year, when house sparrows and swifts used the same entrance hole to reach two separate nest sites in the roof, I'm not overly concerned just yet!



• The starling flock (1000 birds at its peak in january) has dispersed whilst its mild (I'm sure it will return in style if the weather gets colder again).



• Two birds of note in/over the garden yesterday - our little pied wagtail returned (always a favourite of mine) and a little egret flew overhead at dusk (I know they're not rare these days and I know they live locally, but I don't often see them overhead at dusk -so this was a treat again).



• As for our palmate newts in the pond - we have many. I counted 8 newts last night, visible at the same time, so I would guess we have many more - maybe a dozen, maybe two. They clearly love our shallow pond and have no fish to eat their young, or frogs this year yet (are we going to be frogless this year?). We have a mixture of male and female palmate newts in our pond, most quite young (I think these might have overwintered in the muck on the pond bed), but two fully-grown adults.



• I found a young female palmate newt on our back door mat last night, when I was wandering around in the dark. Almost squashed her! (She's back in the pond now).



• Spent a few minutes photographing her and watching a male greedily suck down a drowning earthworm (in the pond) like a string of spaghetti!



• I have still yet to see any smooth newts in our pond - only palmates - and many of them.