A slithery surprise at the bottom of Mum's garden

It's going to be a long blog, so pull up a chair, pour yourself a drink and sit back and read my ramblings. By the way if you don't like snakes read down until you reach the photo of the frog, then quickly scroll down until you reach the photo of the rose.........

 

As always at this time of year, a few days can show a lot of changes. I wasn't at Mums on Sunday and Monday, so after arriving yesterday morning and getting my orders for where to plant some more shrubs in the garden, I was able to kick back yesterday afternoon and this morning, and take some photos, most of them from the comfort and seclusion of my little portable hide.

 

So before I begin an update on the garden of Marks Mansion, a brief update on the Lady of the Manor herself...........

 Mum's actually doing much better than I thought she would this week. I was fully prepared for her to be practically bedridden, as she was for part of last week, and for her to be experiencing more side effects from the second batch of chemo. But she's surprised me. Her appetite is coming back, she's quite mobile (which is a surprise in itself considering how much pain she is in from the radiotherapy treatment) and she's bossing me around instead of asking !! So looks like I've got the old style Mum back then, ha ha.

Her main issue at the moment is sleeping. She's barely getting more than two hours straight sleep at any one time, but as she doesn't have to get up for work it's not a major issue. When I'm there I keep on top of any washing up, sweeping floors, general tidying etc, and if I'm not there then it can wait until I am there. But the biggest signs to me that she's feeling better is that on Monday, for the first time in weeks and weeks and weeks, Mum made home made bread, and then last night (even though I'd already washed up, cleaned surfaces, swept floor etc etc) I caught Mum going around and finishing off behind me.

There is still a long way to go yet. As I said, she is often in pain and having trouble sleeping and on top of that Mum has now got a cyst as well, which will possibly mean another hospital visit soon. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Cancer can do a running jump. It wont beat my Mum.

 

So back to the news from the garden. Our Blackbird family are doing really well. They laid and hatched five eggs (hatching was on 19th May). One poor little nestling was taken from the nest, we think by a Jay, and found dead on the front garden path. After the nestlings fledged, one was caught and killed by a rat. Which left us with three. And all three are doing very well thanks to Mr and Mrs BBs attentiveness.

 

Number one I found sunbatheing at the bottom of the garden.....

Number two I found hidden amongst the pot plants on the patio......

and number three, I reckon, is the one that left the nest first. It's going to be a male looking at the adult feathers that are starting to come through on its back and tail, and this one was the only one NOT still being fed by Mr BB.

And this is the proud, and somewhat scruffy, father. Mr BB. I did see Mrs BB on a couple of occasions, but it was always Mr BB that was around when one of the fledglings called.

 

There are other juvenile birds around the garden too. The Blue Tits, although they haven't nested in Mum's garden this year, have been busy exploring the garden......

 

 

As with most adult birds at this time of year, they are looking very worn and scruffy......

 

The Great Tits are also doing well. There are a few that are feeding by themselves now, but there are newer and younger broods that are making that distinguished call 'feed me, feed me, feed me'.....

 

 

The Great Spotted Woodpeckers are definitely still around. You cannot mistake it when you hear their alert call. Yesterday and today with my binoculars, I found them on next doors Birch and Oak trees, on the other neighbours Apple tree, and even on a very old Buddlia at the very bottom of Mum's garden. We've been providing them with nuts and fat balls, and this morning at 7.30am I could see two feeding from my vantage point in the conservatory, on the same feeder. However, after positioning myself in my hide, I had to make do with just one individual visiting.

 

It is still impossible to tell if there is more than one juvenile. The calls I heard today, suggests that there is, but I wasn't lucky enough to photograph more than one at any one time. I saw no adult birds today. It's nice to see that the above juvenile has a beak of equal lengths (like our adult Ben), but that still doesn't mean that it's not an offspring of either Bill nor Bob. If none of that made sense to you, then I suggest you scroll back to some of my other blogs from Mum's garden. Through photography alone, I have managed to distinguish three individual males that regularly visit the nut feeders.

 

The juvenile House Sparrows are starting to colour up. I'm 99% sure that the individual below is a juvenile male.....

 

 

Next doors Robins have produced their second brood, and one of the fledglings is spending quite a bit of time at the bottom of the garden......

 

The regularly visiting Jay (the leg ringed one), is also starting to look a bit worn and scruffy.....

 

 

You have to feel a bit sorry for the adult birds at this time of year. They go from looking pristine and photogenic, to looking like they've been dragged through a hedge backwards, which of course many of them probably have done ! It can't be easy making a nest, then producing young, then constantly providing food, then coaxing them to leave the nest, and then still providing them with food whilst they find their way in the big wide world. Oh wait, that's humans isn't it.........?

 

So, onto some other little critters that found themselves in the garden of Marks Mansion today. 

I found this gorgeous Wasp Beetle on the Wisteria trunk.....

 

 

A species of Hornet was feeding off the geraniums......

 

 

and lastly, Mum found this exhausted and very large, Bee, on the floor of the conservatory. I suggested she tried putting a sugary solution down for it. So one jam jar lid topped with sugar stirred into water later......

 

 

and this Bee was back outside feeding off another hardy geranium....

 

And so my blog post comes to the high-lights of my day. This morning at about 8am, I positioned myself in my portable hide discreetly hidden at the bottom of Mum's garden.......ooops sorry, I mean at the bottom of the expanse of Marks Mansion grounds.

The Estate was looking magnificent. Heucheras, Mints, Roses, hardy Geraniums and various Clematis species were all in flower. The gorgeous Dicentra Spectablis was just going over. The newly potted old Olive tree was giving out new shoots. The species Allium were just opening their buds. The Jasmine and Buddlia had finished flowering and were throwing out glorious new green leaves. Our favourite tree, the Prunus Serrula, was showing off it's magnificent peeling red mahogany bark. The air was alive with singing and calling birds. I had my cup of coffee, my fags, and my phone in case Mum needed me. And what could I see ? A ruddy Bullfinch !!!!!! I was completely dumbfounded and mesmorised by a male Bullfinch, that chose to land so close to my hide, that my camera, with its 75-300 zoom lens, could not focus on it !!!!!! For those that don't know me well, the Bullfinch is my 'bogey bird'. It's a bird that I have often travelled to see over the last few years, but always failed, until earlier this year when I got my very first good view of one (and even then I wasn't satisfied with the photos I got).

 

And now I had a stonking full plumage male just two feet away from me........

 

and STILL didn't get a photo !!!!!!!!

 

But what a fantastic garden tick for the Marks Mansion team.

 I kept watching out for it for the rest of the day, but alas, with no luck.

 

So what else kept me happy today.......? Something that I was completely not prepared for......

 

After the Bullfinch sighting, and not getting another one, I was feeling quite low. The Woodpeckers weren't coming to the feeders, despite hearing their noisy calls so close by. Even the juvenile and photogenic Blue Tits were noticeable by their absence. In fact, the garden seemed to have gone very quiet. I popped indoors to see Mum was okay, made her a cuppa and made sure she had plenty of water, tidied up a bit, and then tried for another hour in the hide after moving it back by a metre, so if the Bullfinch did re-appear, I could get a decent photo without disturbing it.

 

Well I didn't get a Bullfinch. But I did get another Marks Mansion garden tick......

 

The garden has rats. I've blogged about this before, and they don't really bother me. Mum's garden is only a small field away from the canal, and I don't think it matters what we do, the garden is always going to have a rat, or two, wandering around it. As I said, I'm not overly bothered about the rats, though when I saw the 'villian' rat take one of our Blackbird fledglings, I wasn't amused. But that's nature for you. Rats have to survive too, as do Jays, Magpies and any other corvids that predate fledglings for food. It's a chain of events. The rat will probably be prey to the many Buzzards and Red Kites that are seen above the garden, sorry I mean the grounds. And as I sit in my little hide (which is basically a fold up chair with a tent-dome thing with spokes, that you can throw-flip over you), I feel generally safe from any thing that might bite my toes or peck my eyes out. But, and Mum knows this, I wasn't overly comfortable with the idea of a rat, or two, getting under the edge of my hide and running up my trouser leg. So earlier today, when I could distinctively hear a rustling around my feet in the old leaves around the base of my hide, and thinking it was a rat, I quickly flicked back the hide ready to scare it...............

 

But it wasn't a rat. It was the back end of a snake that I could see curling itself around an old terracotta pot just to my right. First thought was to let Mum know. So with one eye on the fast disappearing tail of the snake, and one eye on my phone, I texted her 'SNAKE'. Within seconds she was out of the conservatory door (my Mum I mean, not the snake !!) and had joined me at the bottom of the garden, sorry the estate grounds. Just as Mum reached the bottom step a frog jumped between us. Without thinking Mum grabbed the frog and went to place it in the stream. But froggie didn't want to go in the stream, instead it placed itself on the furthest bank......

 

 

I described to Mum what I had seen whilst we both watched froggie. It seemed very alert and not at all happy. But the snake had disappeared, so what more could Mum and I do ? We stayed there for some while, with me starting to think 'did I imagine that ?' Had I really seen a snake ? I could only describe the colour and size, I hadn't seen it's head. After a while we decided to have lunch. I was getting even more peeved off  by this stage. Two mega garden ticks for Mum, and I hadn't been able to either show her, nor photograph them for proof.

 

So as I depressingly lent against the conservatory open doors, chumping on my cheese on toast whilst Mum sat at the table chumping on her left overs from last night, when I nearly screamed as I saw the snake slither over a large stone at the end of the stream. It's a good job I'm good with my aim as Mum very nearly wore my last slice of greasy toasty cheese as I threw down my plate and raced up the garden.......

 

The snake had emerged. And, as suspected by Mum and I, it was a Grass Snake......

 

We just caught sight of it (above) as it swam up the stream before emerging and disappearing amongst the geraniums.

 

After all that excitement, we finally looked around for the frog.........

but to no avail. It had either been caught by the snake, or had hidden itself really well. I really hope its the latter. Mum hardly ever gets frogs in her little stream....but maybe we've found out why....We also had a look around for our snake, but could see nothing.

 

So after lunch, and with Mum feeling tired and ready for a horizontal rest, I resumed my position in my hide. The Woodpeckers were calling and I really hoped I would be able to finally photograph two juveniles at the feeders, instead of one. But as the many minutes went by I laxed into checking my phone for messages and having a few puffs of a fag. As I turned my head to my right through the mesh window, I caught sight of the Grass Snake, and it was just centimetres away from going under the curtains of my hide......

 

So here is the part where I sound like a complete wimp !! It wasn't intentional, but as I saw the head of the snake appear less than a half a metre away from me, I threw back my hide covering and had my camera switched to 'on' all in one movement. The snake froze. I froze. But somehow I managed to text Mum 'QUICK'.

 

And so we both saw this beautiful, magnificent, and regal creature.....

 

 

After getting home and comparing this photo to several other websites, I'm pretty sure this is a female Grass Snake. The head is fairly wide and it was almost two metres in length, which are all good indications that this is a female, rather than a male.

 

Mum and I watched as she slowly decided to take a different path, and eventually doubled back on herself disappearing amongst the hardy geraniums.

 

And I apologise to anybody with a snake phobia, but here is one last shot of it. What a fantastic creature. I feel so priviledged to have come so close to such a beauty.

 

 

And for all those of a squeasy nature, here is a photo of one of Mum's newest emerged roses.....

 

 

And lastly, as regular followers of my blog know, if I'm out birding with Sue I normally end my post with a photo of our Jasper, Sue's bird-dog, but as I haven't been able to recently, I bring you our Tilly instead........

 

 

Tilly belongs to my favourite Aunty, my Mum's sister. And she's a very photogenic lady (Tilly that is, not my Aunty Linda ! - ahhhh bugger, I should have phrased that sentence better !! Ok, lets try this again.....Tilly belongs to my favourite Aunty, Mums sister, and for the record both my Mum and her sister are stunning ,act young for their age, trendy, look years younger than they are......................... do you think I've got a reprieve yet....? ) And Tilly is pretty cool too.....

 

But (and it's a big BUT), I took the first photo of Tilly as she was running towards me, and my fav Aunty Lin took the second one while she was playing around with my camera..........

 

Hmmmmph. Nuff said...........Aunty Lin wins hands down :)