Another First

It doesn't matter hugely that these are the first bluebells of the 2026 spring except if one allows oneself to wonder whether these might be one's last 'first bluebells of spring', at which point they suddenly become rather more important and more worthy of a moment or two's close attention.

I feel so fortunate to be able to have these deep thoughts as I wander the footpaths and tracks around this small village, and to be able to notice the changes as they happen. For example, the rabbits are back in the two extensive pasture fields just above our house, with one or two being visible at any time of day. This rabbit has taken possession of the warren which, last summer, was crowded with rabbits of all ages. It seemed unworried when I approached. Perhaps it is that the buzzards, through a lack of rabbits a month or so ago, have disappeared having, hopefully, found enough rabbit prey elsewhere to raise a family.

While many of the small bird species have almost disappeared from the garden feeders, having much more important things to do in the woods, the blackbirds are back, the males quarrelling while the females gorge on the fat cakes we put out for them. It's evident that they now have young to feed - and if a blackbird is to feed its young it needs a territory which is worth singing about, even if the song is, at times, rather less tuneful than the local song thrush's.

Not that the weather is helping anyone. One minute we're enjoying warm sunshine, the next we're savouring a sharp hailstorm; and today's temperature, if it reaches the giddy heights of yesterday's midday - 7C - is forecast, as the wind goes round into the north, to drop tonight, perhaps below 2C. We might even have a sharp ground frost - in May!

Harry

The last two evenings, both times at around 7pm, Harry the sparrowhawk has been on his favourite perch on the balustrade of the ramp that leads down from the house to the garden. From it, he has a good view of the back garden and of the comings-and-goings of the small birds that come to our feeders.

I'm not sure how well Harry fares out of our garden as I've only found two small piles of feathers on the ground around the ramp.  This may explain why we've been seeing much less of him recently. He's been reported by neighbours as visiting their gardens as well, and one told us that she saw him with a female.

This must be a fairly tough time for him. The small birds are coming into the garden much less at the moment, presumably because they're too involved in pairing up and nest-building, though only the blackbirds seem to have young as they're flying off with beak-fulls of food. The one time the small birds are busy at our feeders is the early evening, the very time when Harry's been visiting. 

We're a bit surprised and disappointed that we haven't seen the female but it may be that she has a quite separate hunting area.

Return of the Rain

All good things must come to an end so, sadly, we've lost the brilliant sunshine and warm temperatures of earlier in the week, replaced by the customary grey skies of these northern parts. However, the warmth has....

....done a wonderful job of speeding up the coming of spring. In our now two-year-old garden the very deliberate planting of insect- and bird-friendly plants, such as the early-flowering aubretia, has paid dividends though....

....we do have some worries. A couple of chaffinches have been behaving oddly, not flying off when we approached. This may have been that they were suffering from heat exhaustion but another grim possibility is that, despite trying to kept the feeders clean, we have an outbreak of the dreaded trichomonosis, a disease which particularly affects greenfinches and, to a lesser extent, chaffinches.

The cowslips have spread even further across the meadow down by the A9, and are obviously having a good year. The seem to come out shortly before the primroses, so are one of the bright flowers of early spring.

Then there are one or two wildflowers out which I associate with full summer, their arrival providing a glorious splash of colour. This very lonely common vetch seemed to glow on our walk yesterday, just as the rain was arriving.

Speckled Wood

Speckled Wood is the name we've given to a section of our frequently used route down to the village shops. We like it because, although it is a plantation, it's entirely of several species of deciduous trees, and it therefore has its own special populations, one of which is....

....the butterfly after which we named the wood - the speckled wood.

It's far from a gaudy butterfly like the peacock and red admiral, but we think it's very pretty. It's also rather special because it seems to be thriving so, when we saw this season's first ones in flight on Thursday, it wasn't the paltry one or two we're seeing of all the other species, but an extravagant dozen or more, all already very actively competing for mates.

We also like Speckled Wood for the other wildlife it offers. For example, it used to be one of the best places to see roe deer. So it seemed quite natural this morning to find this structure by the side of the path. It's about a foot across, and in many ways looks like an open nest - except it has a deep hole at the back of it. There are more of these structures close by.

I have no idea what built it but, if I were pushed, I might suggest it's about the right size for a rat.

The Hut Circle

I set off for the Drummuie hut circle this morning in stunning weather, with hardly a breath of wind and the sun gloriously warm. 

The insects were out in force, with peacock, orange-tipped, white and tortoiseshell butterflies much in evidence and....

....more tiger beetles than I have ever seen. My experience has been that if you see one, you're lucky; today I must have seen fifty.

The birds were celebrating the warmth with their songs, the most common bird up on the moorland now being the willow warblers with their beautiful, cascading refrain.

More of the summer flowers are beginning to appear. This lousewort is the first of its species to flower.

This is the hut circle. I sat for some time on its wall, looking out at the view and savouring the weather. I didn't see a soul and, were it not for the distant murmur of the traffic down the A9, humans might have disappeared from this planet.

The circle of stones is very clearly visible at the moment but, sadly....

....the first of this year's bracken is beginning to sprout, so in a few weeks this ancient and remarkably well-preserved dwelling will be buried again, not to reappear until the bracken has died back early next year.

The builders of these huts, some over 2,000 years old, chose superb sites for their houses. The Drummuie hut circle is exceptional in having wonderful views in almost every direction.

So I sat on the stone foundations of their home and wondered what those ancient people would have made of the frenetic world in which we, their descendants, choose to live. 

Africa's Small 'Game'

On the four safaris we enjoyed in Namibia and then Tanzania between 2010 and 2013, the emphasis was always on seeing the big game. Most of the tourists we went out with in search of excitement wanted to be able to go home and describe their encounters with such animals as lion, buffalo, elephant and leopard, so that is what the tour company provided.

I spent a fair bit of time trying to get away from the presumption that 'big game' was the main interest. I loved the smaller 'game', like this blue-banded swallowtail sipping the flowers of a poinciana, and I have written before about....

....Tanzania's kingfishers: while I become very excited indeed if I see the one British species, Tanzania has no less than eleven to offer.

I wish now that I had been firmer about not going out for the scheduled morning and evening game drives, bouncing around in a big 4x4 for a couple of hours or so when just sitting by the lodge's waterhole and watching the small things that came to drink might have been far more interesting.

And while it is quite right to say that there are a few African countries, which include both Tanzania and Namibia, where it is possible to see animals such as elephant and buffalo in large numbers, there are many more which can boast large numbers of smaller things, such as this mixture of waders and other birds on a beach in Tanzania.

So, if I ever did go on another safari which, at my age, is highly unlikely, I would do some serious homework on these smaller creatures so that I could appreciate them fully while my fellow-travellers enjoyed sore bottoms from bouncing around for hours in their 4x4.

First Swallows

I was standing by the sink making our early morning cup-of-tea-in-bed when I glanced across the road and saw a roe deer not twenty metres away looking back at me. It was shortly joined by....

....another, at which point they seemed to panic as, somehow, they had managed to get themselves on the wrong side of the fence.

After breakfast we set off up the hill for a brisk walk but stopped to watch the 'white rabbit' which was evidently enjoying its breakfast at the top of the Rabbit Field, and it was as we were watching it and then admiring....

....a very smart male chaffinch that we spotted two swallows swooping across the field.

I can't believe that they will stay with us. We've seen these early swallows before and have wondered whether they're passing through, heading for remote northern places like the Orkney and Shetland Islands.

The number of willow warblers seems to increase every time we walk up the hill but they're also increasingly difficult to photograph as so many of the singing trees the males favour, such as birch, are coming into leaf, so shortly they'll 'disappear' completely.

The gorse is now in exuberant flower. I don't think I have ever seen such a mass of flowers and I really do wonder what its purpose is, for there seem to be very few insects attracted to it - in fact, the only butterflies we saw, which I think were....

....green-veined whites, were concentrating on the dandelions.

As we were on our way home we registered another first for the year, a common lizard. That it was out and about suggests that the adders may also be making an appearance. I would like to see some adders this year.