Stormy Weather
Return of the Long Tailed Tits
At last Long Tailed Tits have turned up in the garden with eleven feeding together on the seventeenth at dusk. Still no Fieldfare but on the sixteenth three parties of Redwings (30, 33 and 40) flew over the Golf Course in a South West direction. The Siskin flock has now increased to thirty five, they […]
Time To Go
One night this week the young Tawny Owl was giving some very hungry calls from the trees in the garden and it may well be that the adults have now abandoned it. It will be a steep learning curve for it from now on The Green Woodpecker has re appeared on the golf course and […]
Four Days Late
On the third October the first of six Redwings of Autumn were feeding on the Hawthorn berries along the canal – four days later than last year’s early record. A Buzzard was hunting on the Golf Course and there are still Goldcrests present and Jays are everywhere with the good Acorn crop. Several parties of […]
Birds On Passage
What a spectacular week of Autumn weather with sunshine, no wind and no rain! Last weekend we had our Ruby wedding and a funeral to attend and covered more than six hundred miles on motorways. However, it did enable us to prove that the Buzzard is the commonest raptor in Britain with sightings of one […]
Amazing Record
Rain, rain and more rain can this Summer get any worse? A week of dry weather has been most welcome although sunlight has been at a premium A Speckled Wood butterfly has been seen plus Peacock and Red Admiral but a small consolation for what has been another appalling butterfly Summer I have been informed […]
The First Autumn Migrant
Rain, rain and more rain can this Summer get any worse? Much better weather this week and the first Goldcrest of the Autumn was in a pine tree in our garden. At 5.00am one morning the young Tawny Owl was again calling for food before settling in it’s diurnal roosting place. In the local woods […]
Weather For Ducks
Rain, rain and more rain can this Summer get any worse? Over our road one wet day there were forty plus House Martins desperately trying to catch any airborne insects. At the Golf club the Swallows have abandoned any thoughts of second broods and most have already gone South. On the only dry morning of […]
No Sun
With no recorded sunshine in the last seven days, this month has to be one of the dullest and wettest ever recorded. Over a dozen Greenfinches are now feeding in the garden and three Jays come regularly for peanuts. At dusk one evening a young Tawny Owl was calling for food in some beeches at […]
Last to Fledge
This weeks photo is of the last Barn Owl to fledge from the five that have flown locally. The tiny black specks down the flank of the young indicate that it is a female – the males breast being completely white. What with the extremely wet weather this week and the Olympics I have only […]