Throstle, Mistle and Crampball

 Every day, as I sit in my living room, I can spend ages just staring into my garden, procrastinating and putting off things on my 'to do' list. This old ash tree takes up a large space just outside the window and I watch it change with the seasons, loving the shadows it creates as the sun moves around. Ash are not recognised for their massive benefits to wildlife. There are many trees that are better for encouraging birds etc into the garden but this one is a good 60 to 70 feet tall and has been around long enough for it to get cloaked in ivy ..... concealing ivy......

 In truth I didn't realise it was concealing anything at all until a couple of weeks ago, just after I'd completed the annual garden birdwatch for the RSPB. During the watching period I was really pleased to see a Song Thrush as they are a particular favourite of mine. We see the occasional single bird but not on a daily basis. Then I noticed I was seeing it every day, and one day, noticed two in the ash tree. Over a period of days it dawned on me that this pair were doing something as they frequently attacked any other bird that deigned to alight on the branches.

Now this tree is frequented by a crow family and a pair of jays but these thrushes dive bombed everything fearlessly. Given the time of year I had to check as it did not seem right that they were breeding surely. Then, after a bit of quick research it dawned on me that these were not Song Thrushes but Mistle Thrushes. Never quite seeing the difference between the two before it suddenly became obvious that they were a bit larger than the norm and marked slightly different.. The mistle thrush is also an earlier breeder, sometimes before the end of February it seems, often choosing the fork of a tall tree for its large untidy nest. At this time of year cover is scarce and mistle thrushes nests are highly vulnerable from raids by crows etc but this pair are not afraid of our resident corvids at all. Not surprisingly the birds are very wary and one seems to be on guard but when I see both of them together I question whether there is a nest or not. If there is, they're not brooding eggs all of the time, and if there are fledgelings around they're not always protecting them either. I shall be keeping a vigilant watch with my binoculars in hand as I am fascinated by the whole process.

 It has made me search out some printing plates that I made at the tail end of last year. The one above was my attempt at a collagraph of a Song Thrush but it was too small and too detailed. My friend Sue gave me sound advice afterwards as I had stupidly used carborundum to get the dark spots and it was too fiddly. I should have cut the darks from the surface of my card, so I am going to go back to this idea and try again. Similarly, when I was revisiting this, I found a drypoint plate that I had etched last year too.

 I made a couple of prints of this plastic plate but it they were a bit wishy washy inkwise so I discarded them. Now I can't find the prints which is a shame because I think it would be interesting to draw into them and liven them up. So, time to make a new collagraph plate and revisit the drypoint I think. I have an idea running around in my head about working with the phrase 'Fine Feathers Make Fine Birds' and combining the images. Trouble is, my head is full of other things too so don't hold your breath.....

 The other things taking up my thinking time include getting the house and garden ready for an estate agent's valuation. We're in the throes of deciding whether now is the time to move or not and I suppose the valuation will give us a direction one way or another, but we need to get some garden issues resolved first. Last October, I awoke one morning to  heifers trampling all over my garden and frantically trying to get out through my closed gates onto the road. It was an alarming experience to find 70 cows licking your back door, bellowing and leaning against your car, rocking it from side to side! Luckily, a local farmer responded to a telephone call for help at 7.30 in the morning and came up and moved them away for us with his herdsman. They belonged to a local lady farmer who rented nearby fields for her animals. We were left with a muddy mess, and, when we got hold of her, a tearful lady farmer telling us how sorry she was but life is too short to get angry isn't it? Nature is resilient and the garden has bounced back but it is pretty rutted thorughout and needs rollering, something she is going to get done with a tractor very soon.

As we are fighting off rabbits and mole visitations too at present  I go out to survey the territory every now and again, keeping my fingers crossed that there's no more damage to contend with. It was on one of these forays yesterday that I noticed these queer protruberances.

Now I guessed it was a fungus of some sort but when I touched it (with a stick, just in case...) I found it was solid and very hard. I don't need to tell you how I described it to the other half I'm sure, but I was amused when I looked it up and found it was called 'Crampball'. Apparently, these inedible, hard lumps grow almost exclusively on dead ash stumps. The name comes from an old belief that they might prevent night cramp if placed in your bed; another name, King Alfred's cakes is more descriptive since they look just like burnt cakes (amongst other things) They live a long time and release their spores at night after a year's growth. The book I read said they are very hard to dislodge from the tree but I have no intention of trying it as they are quite intriguing and something new to me.

Finally, here's a poor photo of another regular visitor at present. He's without a mate every time I see him but he's having a whale of a time nibbling the buds on our trees. I think he's made light work of the damson and plum trees but he is such a beauty we don't mind. By the time I grab the camera he has disappeared so this was taken through glass whilst sat looking out at that ash tree one day. So the wheel comes full circle.

I shall keep my eye on that Mistle Thrush nest and if there are any developments I shall be so excited, I shall have to post about it again!