Richard Bell's nature sketchbook since 1998
It looks as if it’s going to be our best year yet for our cordon apples, especially the Howgate Wonder which I recently had to tie in because of the weight of fruit and leafy growth. Summer pruning seems to suit them best, encouraging fruiting spurs to form.
In May 1834 Charles Waterton had himself lowered by rope down the cliffs at Flamborough by two local egg-gatherers:
‘The sea was roaring at the base of this stupendous wall of rocks; thousands and tens of thousands of wild fowl were in an instant on the wing: the kittiwakes and jackdaws rose in circling flight; while most of the guillemots, razorbills, and puffins, left the ledges of the rocks, in a straight and downward line, with a peculiarly quick motion of the pinions, till they plunged into the ocean.’
Charles Waterton, ‘Essays on Natural History’ (1835-1857)
My version of this scene was based on this Victorian engraving, artist uncredited except for the initials in the bottom left hand corner, which could be those of the engraver.
The weight of apples and leafy summer growth proved too much of our Howgate Wonder double cordon and one of the main branches collapsed forwards on the patio. It wasn’t broken so we tied it back in, pruned back the majority of this year’s leafy growth and picked up the eight or so apples that fell off during the process. They’re not ripe but we can stew them with a bit of brown sugar and water.
Kittiwakes nesting and a juvenile herring gull at Bridlington Harbour; a quiet corner of Bondville Model Village; harebells at North Landing, Flamborough and ring-tailed lemur and Humboldt’s penguins at Sewerby Hall.
Restharrow, pyramidal and common spotted orchids, sea plantain and kidney vetch at Whitby and Scarborough a couple of weeks ago.
The orchids and vetch were growing at the foot of a hummocky slope on South Bay Scarborough, the result of a massive landslide in 1995 which undercut the Holbeck Hall Hotel at the top of the slope. The slope has been stabilised using imported boulders and hardcore.
Stonecrop, viper’s bugloss, marsh woundwort, bream, banded demoiselle and a family of swans on our walk alongside the canal and the Calder today. Now we’re past midsummer’s day racken and bramble have grown up shoulder high, trees are in full leaf and on the riverside path, tall grasses are going to seed
There’s just time for one last sowing for late summer vegetables. Going through the packets of seeds that we’ve already got in, there are eight that I can try but there’s only a 4 by almost 8 foot section of raised bed that I can fit them into, so I’ve gone for 2 foot squares instead of rows to get more in.
| Calendula | Carrot | Kohl Rabi | Spring Onion |
| Salad leaves | French bean | Perpetual Spinach | Pea |
Some of the crops, such as salad leaves, will stay where I’ve sown them but as we clear the potatoes and other crops over the next few weeks I’ll be able to plant some on, such as the French beans and perpetual spinach.
Giant sequoia, hoverfly and bumblebee on hypericum and common spotted orchids at Brodsworth Hall this morning.
Our first attempt at the Great Yorkshire Creature Count got off to a good start with four elephant hawkmoths in the moth trap this morning, along with peppered moth, flame and heart and dart. I left the box wedged right up against the hedge under the crab apple so that they don’t get picked off by the birds.
I set up the trail cam on the bird table this morning but caught only the regular visitors.
Smooth newts are on the list of creatures that the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust would like us to count, so I did a bit of pond dipping. While I was at it, I skimmed off the duckweed and started taking out the slimy algae that has built up and sunk down into the pond, but this was where most of the newts were hunkered down, so I’ll leave that for another day.
Woodpigeon, dunnock, starling, bullfinch, chaffinch, magpie, greenfinch
Butterfly: Large skipper
Moths (UV trap): peppered moth, common swift, elephant hawkmoth, the flame, heart and dart
I know a lot of the species that the YWT Creature Count is asking use monitor are present but they didn’t show up on the day and I didn’t go digging about to find them.
I tried an overnight trail cam but whatever triggered it once in the middle of the night didn’t show up in the video clip.
A swarm of several hundred honey bees arrived late afternoon yesterday and found a cavity by the bathroom sink waste pipe. A few found their way into the bathroom.
We phoned a beekeeper who offered to come and remove them, using a one-way trap that would lead them out into a hive where eventually the queen would follow them, always the last one out. If we covered every bee-sized hole in the bathroom, we’d be safe using it. As honey bees can squeeze through a 6mm hole that involved a lot of masking tapes, scrunched up newspaper and one strip of cardboard under the sink.
Today though they’ve moved on. There was a bit of activity at breakfast time but nothing like when they arrived and we saw nothing all day. In the afternoon I kept watch for a full fifteen minutes, just to check we hadn’t missed them.
The beekeeper advised us to fill the cavity as soon as possible, using steel wool or aluminium foil and also to block any alternative holes they might use. Our group might have been the scouts and the main swarm might arrive later. It’s amazing how many drilled holes for aerial cables and former pipe fittings we spotted.