Category: Blog

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Sldeshow of the gardens at Mottisfont

We broke our journey back home from the New Forest by stopping at Mottisfont, a romantic house and gallery set in beautiful riverside gardens in the Test Valley in Hampshire, which is run by the National Trust.

We didn’t have time to visit the 18th-century house with its 20th-century art collection and major exhibitions in the top-floor gallery (the National Trust continues the artistic traditions of Maud Russell who made Mottisfont her home in the 1930s, bringing artists there to relax and create works inspired by Mottisfont’s past). I’m sure we will return here another time for a fuller visit and to discover the  local area, including the nearby market town of Stockbridge, Stockbridge Down and Marsh, and Curbridge Nature Reserve (more a note for myself).

In the time we had we did enjoy the gardens and, in particular, the stunning walled gardens. Mottisfont has a world-famous collection of old-fashioned roses and, although we were a little early for most of them, there were enough in bloom to show the beauty of the collection; and certainly worthy of inclusion in my nature blog.

Mottisfont

Riverside walk along the River Test

Fish were easy to spot in the shallow river bed

The shepherd’s hut among some of the splendid trees (by all accounts there are more than 35 species of trees).

Some of the roses in the walled garden

Irises are a main feature at this time of the year.

It’s not all roses

Still room for birds (which I found difficult to photograph with a wide angle lens)

Mottisfont in the spring sunshine

 

 

 

 

 

 

RSPB Arne situated on Poole Harbour on the south coast of England  is one of the few places where all six of the UK’s native reptiles can be found but today it seemed much too cold to look for reptiles (both for us and them). However, we enjoyed the walks on the heathland and in the ancient oak woodland and saw some interesting birds.

We were staying near to Corfe Castle on our way to a Golden Wedding anniversary in the New Forest and as we looked down on Corfe Castle from our accommodation we could see how gloomy a day it was to be.

The visit started promisingly when on our approach to Arne we saw a kestrel sitting in a tree.

 

 

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As we did the second part of our walk we went down to the estuary where there were Canada and Brent geese, shelduck, plenty of gulls, little egrets. oystercatchers and cormorants.

The previous evening we had gone down to the pretty seaside resort of Swanage and saw the beautiful white cliffs in the distance and close-up views of black-headed gulls.

 

With a group of “senior” members from the Old Colstonian Society (the association of the alumni of Colston’s School in Bristol, UK) we visited The Savill Garden, an amazing garden in Windsor Great Park near London which describes itself as Britain’s finest ornamental garden.

Windsor Great Park with Windsor Castle in the background

The start of the tour

The Savill Garden is an enclosed part of Windsor Great Park, created by Sir Eric Savill in the 1930s. It is managed by the Crown Estate. The garden includes woodland, ornamental areas and a pond. However, at this spring time the speciality was the exotic azaleas, rhododendrons and magnolias.

Eric Savill (1895–1980) was the grandson of Alfred Savill the founder of a large firm of estate agents and was involved in managing Windsor Great Park from 1930 to 1970, being Director of Gardens from 1962 to 1970. He opened the Savill Garden to the public in 1951 and left it as a heritage to the nation.

There were a few birds which you would expect to see in gardens and woodland (such as blackbird, robin, jackdaw, Canada goose, pheasant) and a few surprising ones (such as a red kite, a parakeet and a family of Egyptian Geese). We even heard a cuckoo.

European robin

Family of Egyptian geese

Pheasant

Jackdaw

Jackdaw

Female blackbird

A very out-of-focus photo of red kite (which surprised me as it flew very close overhead)

Parakeet (now quite common in London)

The whole experience was enhanced by the superb modern visitors’ centre with  restaurant, café and even retail opportunities.

The modern visitors’ centre

But today was not really about the birds, it was the flora which was truly magnificent in the beautiful sunshine.

 

 

 

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Well I know it’s not the most obvious of bird blogs but I felt I had to publish the “nature” photos of this morning’s visit to The Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden in St Ives which was truly memorable. I hope my photos do it some justice.

A few of my favourites:

 

 

 

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Another beautiful day in Cornwall with sunshine and blue skies all day; however, the wind was a little fresh and so not a T-shirt and shorts day, although a lot of people had not worked that out.

In the morning we walked along the coastal path by the Godrevy Lighthouse and had good views of birds at sea and inland. The best at sea were guillemots and inland we saw common  whitethroats, rock pipits, stonechats, skylarks and swallows.

Whitethroat

Rock pipit

Rock pipit

Stonechat

Stonechat

Stonechat

Stonechat

Shelduck

Guillemots

In the afternoon we crossed to the south coast to visit St Michael’s Mount but it wasn’t open so we spent time at RSPB Marazion Marshes where there were more stonechats, various warblers including Cetti’s, dunnocks, house sparrows, little egrets and grey herons.

Stonechat

Sedge warbler

Grey heron

Little egret

Grey heron

Grey heron

Dunnock

House sparrrow

 

 

 

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It was a bright and breezy day in Cornwall. We spent most of the day on The Lizard Peninsula; firstly at Kynance Cove and then at Lizard Point (the most southerly point in England). There were lots of small birds around, the most common of which were stonechats.

The spring flowers were quite amazing and more like we had seen in Portugal at this time of year than any where else in the UK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The 200 mile journey through Somerset, Devon and Cornwall to St Ives, where we are spending a short holiday, passes through some beautiful lush countryside and wasn’t particularly spoilt by the regular periods of torrential rain that we encountered en route.

Having seen the weather forecast we didn’t really expect to have much opportunity for nature photos but we are able to stop briefly at the Hayle Estuary where we saw whimbrel, curlew and little egrets;  later in the afternoon we got out for a walk around St Ives when it brightened up a little. There we were particularly pleased to catch sight of a pair of gannets.

The flora here is certainly different from what I saw in our local park yesterday.

Whimbrel

Curlew

Little egret

Gannet

 

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As the birds become more difficult to see the butterflies begin to appear in good numbers; in the park this morning there were plenty to see.

The only  birds I managed to photograph were grey wagtails, a robin, a grey heron (skulking underneath the road bridge) and the first ducklings I have seen in Eastville Park this season (one pair of mallards with ten ducklings).

Grey wagtail

Robin

Ducklings

Grey heron

Small White

Green Hairstreak

Speckled Wood

Orange Tip

Green-Veined White

Ramsons besides the River Frome

The trees are beginning to look their best.

And pollinators too:

The Snuff Mill

 

 

 

 

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There was a sharp wind but it remained sunny for our visit to Goldcliff Lagoons on Newport Wetlands on the other side of the Severn Estuary from Bristol. The highlight of the visit were the avocets but there were also lots of Greylag and Canada geese with their goslings. There was a report of a glossy ibis but we didn’t see it. I took lots of photos but only ended up editing a few as most of the birds were too far away for my lens.

Greylag goose

Canada goose

Gadwall

Black-tailed godwits

Lapwing with oystercatcher and a redshank

Redshank and oystercatcher

Avocets

Tufted duck

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It was a lovely morning in Eastville Park where it was generally warm and occasionally sunny. There was lots of bird activity too with the best being several views of a  female kingfisher, mute swans mating and the first of the Canada Geese goslings. There were still no ducklings though. You could also just make out a tawny owl in a nest box on the kingfisher island.

The trees are quite magnificent

If you look closely you can see a tawny owl

The first “babies” I’ve seen in the park this year – Canada geese goslings

I was assured this pike in the lake could probably eat one of the goslings in a mouthful

Mute swans mating (although only the male is above water)

Emerging from the water

… and a tender kiss

A wary mum with her goslings

Close up of the goslings

Female kingfisher

Robin

Grey heron on the cricket nets

Grey heron

Stock dove

The flora was  quite spectacular too.

 

 

 

 

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There have been reports of two rarities at Pilning recently – a Citrine wagtail and a “Channel ” wagtail and so on Sunday we joined lots of “twitchers” to see them.

I did manage views through the telescopes of some kind twitchers who had their telescopes trained on them but didn’t manage to get any photos.

There weren’t many birds around but we did get quite decent views of wheatears, a small flock of linnets and a little egret but all of my photos were disappointing.

 

 

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We dodged the April showers (the French call them “les giboulées de mars” – they must happen earlier in France) on our morning walk around our local park.

From April showers to spring sunshine

The birdsong was magnificent but, although we spent quite some time trying to spot the originators of these beautiful sounds, we spotted only a few birds. The noisiest of them all seems to be the blackcap and we saw both a male and a female. We are getting better at identifying birds by their songs and calls and we can certainly now recognise the noisy and gregarious long-tailed tits as they dart about in their small excitable flocks. There were very few ducks on the lake (clearly, like us,  sheltering from the rain). What is strange is that we haven’t seen any ducklings here this year whereas just across the road at Duchess Pond in Stoke Park there have been many.

Male blackcap

Female blackcap

Long-tailed tit

Despite the rain the park was looking very pretty as the ramsons (wild garlic – allium ursinum) have joined the bluebells and there was even some very attractive greater stitchwort (Stellaria holostea).

Ramsons

Greater stitchwort

Bluebells (proper jobs – not the Spanish invaders!)

Grey wagtail on the weir

Woodpigeon looking very much at home in the greenery of the park

The swans seem to have displaced the grey heron from its perch by the lily ponds