Saturday 25 October 2014

An autumnal afternoon stroll around RHS Wisley

I don't have a garden where I live but I often potter around my Mum's garden and have an interest in all things growing. Therefore when Mum suggested an overdue visit to RHS Wisley this afternoon, I happily agreed. Of course I knew it would include a lengthy look around the shop. My lovely Mum can't come away from a place like Wisley without buying at least one plant !
 
 For me, October is one of the best times to visit. I was looking forward to photographing autumnal colours and fungi, but sadly was disappointed on both counts. The mild autumn weather meant not all of the tree leaves had yet turned into the wonderful yellows and reds that I expected, and apart from a couple of sorry looking specimens in the car park, we didn't find any fruiting fungi.
 
But I did get to see my favourite flowering bulb, the cyclamen. Wisley has the best naturalised collection I have ever seen. Todays visit was a bit late in the season for these beautiful little gems as some of the flowers had already died off and produced seed heads, which the stems had gently coiled around and lowered back to the ground. But there was still the odd patch still flowering well, and of course there was the under cover collection in the Alpine Houses to quench my addiction.
 My favourite are the Hederifolium varieties with their variegated leaves but we also saw Coums, Cilicums and Mirables today. Luckily Mum is aware how these tiny little plants affect me (imagine Chris Packhams reaction to a Sparrowhawk and that is the same feeling I get when I see cyclamen) and was happy to indulge me while I took loads of photos.
 





 
On our way to the Alpine Houses for my 'cyclamen fix', we came across this unusual plant.
 
 
We walked straight past it initially. The teeny tiny little flowers in the middle of the leaf bract at first looked like another plant had scattered it's seeds over them. It's called Ruscus hypoglossum aka the Mouse Thorn. Occasionally, but not very often, those tiny tiny little flowers turn in to a fruit called a red globose berry.

 
 
Elsewhere on site we found several bushes of a favourite berry plant of both mine and Mums, the Callicarpa. It can look quite boring during the rest of the year but in autumn the lovely purple berries appear.
The one below is 'Imperial Pearl', but we discovered today there are also white and pink berried varieties too.
 
 
I did get some autumnal colour photos eventually....
 


 
The planting around The Glasshouse was looking quite autumnal too....
 
 
and there was even a Little Grebe on the large pond.....
 
 
In The Glasshouse itself, Mum and I lingered the longest over our another of our joint favourites, the Orchids. Mum is very successful with the ones at her home. We joke that she is the Orchid Doctor sometimes as myself and others have given her our failed flowering plants, and within a year she's succeeded in encouraging flower spikes on them. So the next set of photos are just for Mum......
 



 
Back outside we made our way to one of my favourite parts of Wisley, which is Battleston Hill. There are mature trees in the dip at the base of the hill which have previously provided me with great views of Nuthatches. Today although we could hear them, we only got a fleeting glimpse of one as it flitted from tree to tree.
 
We found another unusual plant with stems over six feet tall and large seed heads at the top.  


 
This is Cardiocrinum giganteum aka the Giant Himalayan Lily. It takes up to seven years for this huge lily to flower, and once it has, it then dies. But it does leave behind these wonderful seed heads and underground it produces bulblets which will grow and flower three to five years later. Sadly we had missed the July flowering, but the stems and seed heads left behind were impressive enough.
 
On our way to the inevitable plant shop stop, we were both distracted by a late flowering aster down the Mixed Borders walk that was attracting lots of bees and wasps.
 

 
And after enquiring inside the shop we found the aster wasn't available to buy until May. Oh well, that's a good excuse to go back next spring for another visit then.
 
Of course Mum didn't leave the shop empty handed and after dilly dallying over a Callicarpa and some alpines, she finally walked away with two house plants plus two more Orchids to add to her conservatory collection. I'm pretty sure if she hadn't been so tired there would have been many more purchases.
 
So not much wildlife to show for a blog called Wino Wendys Wildlife World, but I did get to photograph a very showy Dunnock........
 
 
one of several singing Robins.......

 
and a bad record shot of one of at least three Grey Wagtails........

 
We also saw Jays, Blue Tits, Long-tailed Tits, Carron Crows, Jackdaws, Magpies plus the fleeting glimpse of the Nuthatch, and our journey on the M25 provided us with the usual Kestrels, Buzzards and Red Kites.
 
We were only there for the afternoon, and saw just a fraction of what Wisley has to offer. Once Mum is back to her full active fitness level, then a full days visit to the gardens will be on the agenda.

Sunday 19 October 2014

Charlie, Tom, Burt and me - aka a day out with special guests, the FaB Peregrines and the first Bittern of the season at the LWC

I knew exactly what I was going to do today, but I didn't know it was going to work out so well.
 
I'd already pre-planned to meet up with Nathalie (the Fulham and Barnes Peregrines Godmother) to give her a photo I had been saving for some time and also to see the infamous pair of Peregrines, Charlie and Tom, at Charring Cross Hospital. Regular followers of both my blog and Nathalies twitter and facebook page, know that Charlie and Tom are a pair of urban Peregrines who have made their home at the top of the hospital. Charlie is the female (the falcon) and Tom is the male (the tiercel).
 
 Nathalie's dedication has meant we have been able to follow Charlie and Toms progress over the years, and this is the link to the Fulham and Barnes Peregrines Facebook page. Sadly there is a chance that next year will be their last year nesting at the site as the hospital is under serious threat of being closed down, which in turn might mean the site is demolished. Even if a new building is built, it may not be high enough for Charlies and Toms liking, nor have the nest ledge site that they have chosen as their current home. Only time will tell, and obviously I will post any updates here on my blog.
 
The Peregrines were very easy to find when I arrived. They were sitting side by side on one of their favourite perches overlooking the Margravine Cemetery.

Tom on the left and Charlie on the right.

Charlie
Tom
 After a pleasant and well overdue catch up with Nathalie, Tom and Charlie, I made my way to the London Wetland Centre. Before I left the cemetery Nathalie and I joked how the Peregrines always visited the Wetlands when Nathalie wasn't there, we just didn't realise at the time how right she was.......
 
I had my lunch at the LWC then bumped into Therese outside the café who informed me the first Bittern of the season had been spotted. Who was the spotter ? None other than our very own Birdy Phil. Well done mate :)
 
Within a short while most of the LWC regulars were back at the café making plans on where to go next to try and spot the Bittern again. It's quite a big deal when the Bitterns start arriving at the LWC. The centre is only 14 years old yet has been become the best place in London to spot a rare over-wintering Bitterns. Last winter at least five Bitterns chose to spend the colder months on site. The best time to see them is when it is very cold and the lagoons have frozen over, therefore the Bitterns have to come out onto the ice in order to feed. A few years ago I got some fantastic close up views of one of the Bitterns and nick-named him/her as 'Burt' and the name, for me, has stuck.
 
After much discussion and with checking from the Obs tower, the floor above the restaurant, the Dulverton hide and the WWF hide, we realised the only place to view Burt again would be from the Peacock Tower hide. En route to there I saw the below.....
 
juvenile Heron
Common Darter - probably one of the last sightings of the year......

another view of the Darter.....
and a Little Grebe with a small fish....
One of the first sightings from the Peacock Tower was of a larger bird with a larger fish......
A Cormorant had caught a Pike, and for several minutes the fight was on between bird and fish.......
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Cormorant won.....
 
Not great photos as I was looking down on to the lagoon from the first floor of the Peacock.
 
Another unusual spot was the sighting of a Yellow-bellied Slider Terrapin.
 
 
Again, not a great photo as the terrapin was out on the marshes. It's not a British native, in fact it's a surprise it's even survived at all considering these creatures prefer a hotter climate. Sadly sightings of any terrapins in our water ways are becoming quite common and it's all due to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle films that came out years ago. Irresponsible parents bought their children these little cute creatures, only to later dump them when they got too big for their tanks. With another film due out this week, no doubt  there will be another wave of dumped 'pets' in the future !
 
But back to the Burt the Bittern......
After the distraction of the Cormorant and the terrapin, all eyes were back on the last place that Burt had been spotted, and it wasn't too long before both Birdy Phil and John Cass spotted it at the same time, in roughly the same area as before...
 
 
 
As I couldn't even see it with my bins, and knew therefore it was pointless trying to photograph it, I done the next best thing and got photos of everyone else trying to see it instead !!
 
But at least we have confirmation that the first 'Burt' of the season is on site. Let's hope a few more join him/her.
 
Another distraction came when all the gulls suddenly went up off the lagoon.......
 
 
Not many birds of prey put gulls up, but one that does is the Peregrine, and sure enough both Tom and Charlie had come to visit..........
 
They both landed on one of the shingle islands in front of the Obs. It was a distance from the Peacock to the Obs but I managed one record shot of both birds on the island before quickly texting Nathalie.......
 
Very poor record shot of Charlie on the left and Tom on the right......
Nathalie soon replied with some choice language (turns out she was at the Wetland centre yesterday but neither Peregrines showed up) and then the real action began.......
 
Both Tom and Charlie treated all of us in the Peacock Tower to some fantastic aerial acrobatics and views.......
 
Peregrine being mobbed by gull....
 

 

 
The atmosphere within the tower was frantic and great. Spotters were calling out where the Peregrines were, where they were heading and whether it was Tom or Charlie.......the photographers amongst us were rushing from hide window to hide window........
 
and finally I somehow found myself in the best position as one of them flew around the tower at head level, then turned and started to fly straight past me......
 

 
 
It was a fantastic few moments even though most of my above shots are slightly blurred owing to the speed of these magnificent birds. When I got home tonight I sent Nathalie one of my close up photos to try and get identification on whether it was Tom or Charlie, and after much deliberation we think it was Tom, and this photo below is my favourite capture of him.......
 
 
So my day out started with the Fulham and Barnes Peregrines and finished with them.
What a great finale.
 
Thank you to Nathalie (and Charlie and Tom), Birdy Phil, John Cass, Therese, Martin, Michael, Joe, Maryann, Barry, Keith and Rick (and Burt), for a brilliant day out.