Sunday, 23 March 2014

You can eat the leaves.....

First full site visit of 2014 and first warbler count....

Initially sunny though cold but still, turning scattered cloud, cold with WSW f1-2

Theres just no stopping it....Spring that is.....

Found plenty of these flowers in a few places.....Ladys Smock, Cuckooflower, Milkmaids....whatever you would like to call it.....and apparently you can eat the leaves as part of a salad....though im not too sure you would want it as the main constituent as you would need an awful lot of them and I reckon if this was so in the past they would have become extinct....anyway...next time im out and about I am willing to eat one and will report back (hopefully!!??).
Heres some interesting reading about this flower and other flora/fauna, copy and paste this link:
 http://www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk/news/806082.why_picking_a_milkmaid_or_ladys_smock_is_just_asking_for_trouble/

One good thing about the clocks going forward next Sunday, 30th (Mothers Day), is that dawn will arrive an hour later for a while.  I have to report that I missed it again, pretty poor for a bird ringer used to beating dawn and opening or setting nets.  No excuses.  Ive been rubbish, but....I dont think that I have missed anything yet.  The dawn chorus is not really going that strong just yet, so once the clocks do their thing (well, our thing actually, the clocks just do their own thing and wouldnt be bothered if we moved them or not) I will make more effort.

The coming of the birds....always hopeful of new migrants and reading about the Sussex 'white arse' (Wheatear) and the 'bomb site bird' (Black Redstart) I was hopeful of the former passing by today....but no luck....

Instead.....House Sparrow, Song Thrush, Collared Dove Starling, Blackcap, Great Spotted Woodpecker all before I had left the car.
Chaffinch, Magpie, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Crow, Robin, Goldfinch, Dunnock, Wren, Pied Wagtail across the orchard.
Skylark, Mute Swan, Greylag Geese, Buzzard, Mallard across the field.
At the pit: Jay, Chiffchaff, Reed Bunting....2 Grey Heron, 25+ Mute Swan, 18 Coot, 60 Tufted Duck, 8 Great Crested Grebe (4 displaying), 1 Little Grebe, 7 Mallard, 2 Mandarin, 7 Snipe, 3 Moorhen, 8 Cormorant, 6 Gadwall, 1 Shoveler, 7 Black Headed Gull, 4 Herring Gull....

Mandarins, not a great shot but they are so flighty they land for a few seconds

....and Linnet, Green Woodpecker, Yellowhammer, Jackdaw, Grey Wagtail, Bullfinch, Great Tit, Long Tail Tit, Feral Pigeon.

Back at the orchard Kestrel and 1 rattling Fieldfare.

And the warbler count...............15 Chiffchaff around the pits, 3 Blackcap around the pits and one in Five Oak Green.
Cherry coming in to blossom and leaf

Not bad at all....not bad at all....

2 comments:

  1. Yep, spring is coming in fast now Graham, although i have yet to record a Blackcap here.

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  2. Lady's Smock is part of the brassica family, presumably why it is edible. It was once used as a substitute for watercress apparently.
    Boo to dawn going back an hour, as a very early riser I like the dawn as early as possible.

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