Pond life and Bee Orchids

I've been making regular visits to the Trinity Park pond as part of the Wildlife Trusts' #30DaysWild challenge. On the 19th of May, 2016 I visited the pond and saw "3 black fuzzy Moorhen chicks clambering and tumbling around in the reeds".  Nearly a month later, I returned to see how the family were getting on. This apparently predictable area was to give me a few surprises.  First - as I approached the pond, I saw a small mammal, a vole or a mouse, run into the vegetation near the pond.


Moorhen and young.

Almost a month after I last saw them the moorhen family were doing well. I saw two of the young birds with a parent, which was carefully ushering them round the edge of the pond. The youngsters were larger and now soft-looking rather than fluffy. I spent some time sketching the scene, which was almost absurdly "chocolate box" with white water lilies in the foreground.

Female Mallard and ducklings.

While I was sketching the Moorhens, I also saw:

• two Coots
• a second adult Moorhen
• four male Tufted Ducks, two of which had rather grubby looking white markings and was being chased by a more dominant male, whose white patches were clear and bright
• a female Tufted Duck, keeping company with one of the males with clear white patches
• a female Mallard with 3 well-grown ducklings.
• two male Mallards.

Reedbed, where Blue Tits and Reed Buntings found foot and nesting material.

The water birds often hid in the feet of the reeds. While I was watching them I noticed small birds going to-and-from the shaggy reed mace (also called bullrush) catkins.  A Blue Tit was digging deep into the catkins, maybe searching for insects.  I managed to get a good look at a small brown bird gathering nesting material. I think it is a female reed bunting. 

Blue Tit at the mouth of its unusual nest.

I was baffled when, walking past the office building near the pond, I heard a lot of excited twittering. I looked up and around but there were no birds nearby. Then a bird shot out of a slot between bricks immediately above the carpark. In a tiny gap in this hard and hostile-looking surface, a Blue Tit was bringing up its family.

Bee orchids on vacant plot.

In early July, Edith wrote that:

"Miss F. gave me some Bee Orchids this afternoon, which she had gathered growing wild in Berkshire."

I've found Bee Orchids on the Trinity Park business park, which is only a few miles from Edith's home. There are some on a rough piece of grass by the bridge that cross the railway to the NEC, on the waste ground that I explored in my previous post and by the pond where the moorhens live. 

Bee orchid near the NEC bridge.

On my way from the office to the station, visitors to that week's Gardeners World Live show were amused to see me scrambling round taking photos of these little flowers. One lady, whose fondness for orchids was evident from her purchases was pleased to see someone else taking an interest in them, and pointed out some that I had missed.

A postscript - an article in the Birmingham mail tells us that the Bullring's last traditional flower-seller, Kate Kelly,  has died aged 89. She had worked there for 47 years alongside her two sisters.  The article says:

The well-known siblings came from a dynasty of traders who first pitched up to sell blooms at the famous marketplace more than 150 years ago.

I wonder if Edith ever shopped in the Bullring because, if so, she would have seen these flower sellers.

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.