N O T E S AND OBSERVATIONS
Blankets for Blue Tits Here is one housewife who is pleased to see sheep returning to the fields of Suffolk. Blue Tits, perhaps because they cannot find natural wool to line their nests, have found a Substitute on the washing-line - blankets! In recent years I have seen as many as five or six at a time perched on the top of a blanket, busily pecking off the fluff and carrying it away. Last year I watched one pair make continual direct flights to my neighbour's nesting-box. Later in the year she found the unmistakeable remains of my blanket in the nest. Unfortunately, a Blue Tit can soon make a hole in a blanket. What I at first put down to 'clothes moths' is undoubtedly Blue Tit damage. Perhaps I should postpone the spring-cleaning and provide the Blue Tits with a suitably ancient blanket in the spring. E. M. Hyde Cherry or 'Myrobalan' Plum, (Prunus cerasifera Ehrh.) There has rarely been a year like 1985 for the fruiting of the wild, naturalised and ornamental varieties of Cherry Plums. Conditions during flowering must have been unusually favourable. Some trees and bushes were laden with fruit in September and October, and even into November. At Martlesham many colonies fruited for the first time during the many years in which I have kept them under Observation. The colours and sizes of the fruit varied considerably. On a few bushes the fruit were very similar to those of some varieties of cherries in size and colour, with long pedicels, and growing in small bunches. However, the majority, especially those bearing the heaviest crops, had much larger, yellow fruits. The varieties 'atropurpurea' and 'nigra' which are planted in gardens and on roadsides, and which have dark foliage, had plum or red-coloured fruits. Except for a few varieties, the fruits are good to eat and I was able to gather large quantities to make jam. Bullaces (Prunus domestica L., ssp. insititia (L.) C. K. Schneid.) also fruited well and some bushes were damaged by fruit-gatherers. The Wild Greengage (P. domestica ssp. ilalica (Borkh.) Hegi) is a rare tree in Suffolk which has fruit similar to that of the Bullace, but larger and rounder. I found one at Campsey Ash. For several years there has been a thicket of what I considered to be a hybrid between the Blackthorn or Sloe (Prunus spinosa L.) and a garden Plum (P. domestica) on the railway embankment near Derby Road Station, Ipswich. In 1985 there were fruit which confirmed this identification. They were dark in colour like a Sloe with the shape of a 'Victoria' Plum, although about half their usual size. Believing they would make good jam I gathered some fruit, but it was wasted effort. The jam was exceedingly sour and I threw it on the compost heap; the garden birds seemed to like it. The plums might have made better wine or gin. Francis Simpson