Sunday 5th.April 2009

Bit better morning today , but still cool when the hazy sun went behind cloud .

The female Blue Tit is still frantically adding material to the nestbox , and I think the male appeared once , just to make sure things were going well , before going down the pub with the lads . The ringed Jackdaw seemed to take a close interest in all the activity , but I don't think there are any problems , at this stage . The soft early morning light caught the contrast in plumage nicely , I thought . Also interested , was one of the garden's resident Dunnocks , but not interested enough to show it's face .

As the day started to warm up , I decided to go back up onto the Common , and see if I could get a shot the female Brimstone egglaying , that eluded me yesterday . Well , it eluded me again today . I did see a female Brimstone , but just then the sun disappeared behind cloud , and she settled in the vegetation , not to be seen again . So , I thought , if I can't get a shot of her egglaying , I'll get a shot of her egg . As it happened , the sun remained behind cloud for some time , so the half hour I spent searching didn't matter . Eventually , I managed to find two eggs which are layed on or very close to the freshly emerging leaves of the Buckthorn , they are the two white dots about middle picture horizontally . Hopefully , after a few days , the caterpillars will hatch of these eggs , and their food will be right in front of them .Close up , they look like a torpedo shaped sea urchin . The cloud cover built through the day , but the softer light , without the strong sunlight , enabled richer colours in the subjects photographed .

When the sun did appear , the hazy sunlight helped with other opportunities . I also spent about half an hour trying to track down a very soft drumming . Obviously a Woodpecker , but which one . Every time I got close the drumming stopped , and no call was made at any time . Whilst waiting closeby in a stand of young Holly , I was amazed when a Sparrowhawk came screaming through at about knee height . I often find the aftermatch of Sparrowhawk kills around the Common . I also tried to get close for a shot of two Bullfinches 'pewing' to keep in contact with each other , but they eluded me as well . The Great Tits and Chiffchaffs are still the noisiest birds around .

Heading back to the car , I found a ' garden escapee ' , Mahonia , a member of the Berberis family , most of which produce small berries , much liked by birds , which

probably arrived here when a seed , having passed through the gut of a bird , fell to the ground and germinated . In the car park itself , Common Comfrey , a member of the Borage family , is getting ready to flower . This one will be cream , but they can be mauve as well .