I found the Meadowsweet in bloom ...

In her entry for June 26th, 1906, Edith describes a long country walk. She tells us of a breeze bringing her the scent of honeysuckle and roses. She says:

"I found the Meadow Sweet in bloom in many places, Gathered Self heal and Great Burnet ..."

Meadow Sweet.

Once again, I found myself looking for Edith's flowers along the stretch of road from the station to the office. There is a great deal of Meadow Sweet, but most of it is yet to bloom.  I found a sprig to photograph.  I also found the following flowers.

June 30 - Pink centaury, knapweed and other wayside flowers.

June 30 - Willowherb.

June 28 - Hypericum

June 30 - Pink Mallow.

June 30 - Agrimony

June 30 - Spear Thistle.

Later Edith says:

"Saw a great number of beautiful little Dragon flies - pale blue, with black markings, at a wayside pond."

On Thursday, I visited the pond next to the office, As I walked round, I startled a Damselfly, much like the ones Edith saw 110 years ago. 

June 30 - Female Tufted Duck and ducklings.

I looked across the lake and saw some of the resident birds including two female Tufted Ducks with their families. Each had about 8 ducklings. The tiny, fluffing ducklings were already diving below the surface.

For June the 28th, she says: "Second day of continuous rain" and describes the earthquakes around the country. For the 3 days I was in Birmingham, there has been a series of heavy downpours. When the rain stops, the sky remains grey and heavy.

June 28 - Young Canada Geese.

On Tuesday, I had a late night wander round Pendigo Lake. Great, flickering screens were showing tennis from a washed out Wimbledon. Near the entrance to my own hotel, the Crowne Plaza, I found a family of Canada Geese. One, presumably the male, was guarding the others, which were happily grooming and resting beside a busy path.

Resorts World

I tried out my bat detector and detected at least one bat at the South end of the lake, I was able to see it against the light of Resort World.

Horse-Chestnut Trees are a mass of white blossom

In her entry for May the 16th, 1906, Edith noted that:

"Some of the Horse-Chestnut trees are a mass of white blossom". 

Horse-chestnut flowers, May 15th - in the evening sun.

Horse-chestnut leaves, May 15th.

110 years later, I am staying in the Arden Hotel, which is surrounded by trees and bushes including both red and white Horse-Chestnut trees. Their scent drifts over me as I examine the strange, complicated blooms. In her diary for this time, Edith painted many tree flowers and I've paid special attention to them in this post.

Hawthorn, May 15th - late moring.

Pine flowers, May 15th.

Earlier, as I walked to work from the station, I found a variety of tree flowers including great swags of May (Hawthorn) and the odd but attractive flowers of Pine.

Male (brown) and female (green) Birch Catkins, May 19th.

Later the same day, as I was looking at the trees near the hotel, 7 House Martins flew overhead. In the car park, I found birches with catkins and briefly played hide-and-seek with vivid green but camera shy Polydrusus Weevils.

Crab apple blossom, May 15th.

Clouds of Crab Apple blossom floated above the car park as the setting sun made their delicate white petals glow.

Young Ash leaves and tiny 'aeroplane' seeds.

The last rays of sun tured the young leaves of an Ash tree into a fiery bouquet.  Once dark had fallen, I visited the Trinity Park pond. I was thrilled to detect a bat at approximately 47 and to catch brief glimpses of it hunting over the pond.

Coot, May 17th.

Over the next couple of days, I returned to the pond, snatching a few minutes from the working day to watch the birds. 

Watercolour and ink sketch of Moorhen chicks, May 19th.

One lunchtime, squeaking attracted my attention. I saw 3 black fuzzy Moorhen chicks clambering and tumbling around in the reeds. I watched, amused by their antics. Tiny wings flapped as absurdly huge feet grasped strands of old reed.  They were soon joined by their parents who seemed to tell them off for straying so far and making so much noise.

 Other birds that I saw at the pond included:

• 6 Mallards - 2 males, 1 female and her 3 ducklings
• 5 Tufted ducks - 3 males and 2 females
• 2 coots.

In such a controlled, urban, environment, you would imagine that it would be difficult for me to find the type of agricultural weeds that Edith describes in entry for the 26th of May:

"Walking through the fields today, I gathered the pretty little Yellow Heartsease, growing among the grass and clover ... "


Field pansy, May 19th.

In fact, I am more likely to find such them in the unregarded edges of a business park or supermarket car park than amongst a heavily cleaned and controlled modern field crop. I didn't find any Heartsease but I saw, for the first time in my life, a Field Pansy. It was growing on a bank of rubble between the road and a car park. The bank was smothered white Cress flowers, Scarlet Pimpernel and Forget-me-nots.

Cress and Scarlet Pimpernel, May 19th.

A Bat Hunt at Birmingham NEC

After exploring the Bluebell wood and walking round the Birmingham NEC, I had a quick meal at the Crowne Plaza and then came out again in the hope of finding some bats.  The Bat Conservation Trust tells us that "Bat use high frequency calls normally beyond the range of human hearing to build up a sound picture of their surroundings. This echolocation system enables them to wing their way through the dark night hunting the tiniest of insects." I had a "heterodyne" bat detector with me, which makes these calls audible to my much less sensitive human ears. 

View of Pendigo lake from the Crowne Plaza - early morning.

The photo, taken from my hotel room gives an idea of the layout of the area.  The Resorts World hotel and outlet is on the immediate left and the big red building seen to the North of the lake is one of the NEC halls. The trees to the immediate right of the red building are the woodland that I explored earlier in the evening.  The path you can see in the foreground leads round the edge of the lake.

Pendigo lake from the South end of Pendigo lake - about 9pm.

At about 9pm, about half-an-hour after sunset I left the hotel. I turned right and followed the path round the South end of the lake. I had set the bat detector to 45, which is the frequency that our most common bat, the common pipistrelle uses to echo locate its prey in the dark.  While walking, I held the detector up and swept it round. Just a few metres from the hotel I heard some clicks coming from one of the trees at the lake edge. I couldn't see anything and swung round. There were louder clicks coming from a group of trees on a grassy bank between the lake and the car park. As I watched, I could see two and then three bats dancing in the air.

View of Resort World from the South end of the lake - 9:20pm.

They left the trees and flew in the direction of the lake. I watched for a moment then walked to the end of the lake-side path. From here I took nearly an hour to follow the path anti-clockwise round the lake, ending up at the entrance to the wood I had explored earlier.  I detected hunting bats nearly all the way round. The only gaps were in front of the Resort World hotel and the shingle beach at the North West end of the lake. The absence of bats in front of Resort World fits in Bristol University's web page, which tells us:

"Warren et al. (2000) found that when foraging over water, common pipistrelles prefer areas of smooth water surface with trees on both banks. These areas were found to be abundant in flying insects and low in acoustic noise."

Resort World from the North end of the lake - about 10pm.

Just before the end of my walk I encountered two young men who wanted to know what I had in my hand. I explained about the bats and pointed the detector over the lake so they could hear it click. They were exited to hear the bats and told me about the wildlife near their own homes - one had owls nearby and the other had foxes that visited his garden.

Wednesday evening

Sun dipping below the horizon - approx. 8:30pm.

This time I wanted to find out when the bats emerged so, before the sun set, I waited by the trees where they seemed to gather on the previous night. The sun set at approximately 8:30pm and I waited about half-an-hour for the bats to appear.

View from the South end - 8:45 pm

9:04pm - First clicks. One bat appeared and flew round the trees  for about 5 minutes before disappearing over the bank separating the lake from the car parks. A few minutes later it returned.

9:17pm - Second bat appeared and joined the first.

9:22pm - They were joined by a third and then all three went hunting over the lake.The bats are not the only ones hunting the insects that fly over the lake. Every minute or so I hear a plop and see rings spreading out over the water - presumably from hungry fish.

Great-Crested Grebe - 9:09 pm.

Birds were still active too. In the time that I was waiting, a heron flew over the lake into the woodland on the East side. A Great-Crested Grebe glided past and I decided to leave the dark lake to the creatures of the night.