Belmont – Monday, 23 Feb 2026

This morning a Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo) was circling over the north-east quadrant of the Downs. As I watched it cruise low over a portion of the woodland it alarmed a feeding flock of around 50 Redwing (Turdus iliacus), which scattered very quickly. There also seemed to be rather a lot of Jay (Garrulus glandarius) activity this morning too.

Following my post of Tuesday, 17 Feb 2026, in which I reported on and posted images of the first male catkin buds on Goat Willow (Salix caprea), I found today the first female catkins.

Finding a dead and decomposing, but still standing, oak (?) trunk I peeled back a loose flap of bark to reveal three different spiders within inches of each other. These were Hammock Weaver (Neriene montana), Wood House Spider (Tegenaria silvestris) and Green Crab Spider (Diaea dorsata).

Also found under the same flap of bark there were inevitably some Common Rough Woodlouse (Porcellio scaber) as well as a single overwintering adult Hawthorn Shield Bug (Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale).

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