Nature Notes

[Treecreeper]

Just watching 12 long tailed tits on bird feeder outside he kitchen window.

 

[puppet]

10 wee birds at the feeder and a red squirrel 20 yards away. They have just appeared in our woods last year.

 

[thorpe]

blue tit great tits coal tits longtailed tits all on our feeders, when the endangered sparrows will let them in. also robin wren dunnock chaffinch.

 

[homefarm]

25+ Red kites slowly spiralling skywards off a ploughed field an hour before sunset.
Different from gulls chasing the plough...

Have you noticed less wood pigeons around with more red kites ?
Just something I heard and looking for an answer to our huge wood pigeon problem.

 

[thorpe]

less pigeons no red kites.

 

[Y Fan Wen]

The snowdrops are beginning to make quite a show now, but I cannot see any crocuses yet.
The tawny owls were in fine voice last night, preparing for breeding and discussing the refurbishment of home sweet home no doubt.

 

[Av Gorritt]

Fewer magpies , no starlings , fewer sparrows more blackbirds , more (many more !) pheasant , but not to plague proportions as yet . And quite a lot more partridge , especially when they've migrated after a shoot further up the valley . A few green woodpeckers , quite a big "charm " of goldfinches , but they seem to have moved on . A few resident robins . Also I never see anything like as many visiting neighbour's cats !

 

[thorpe]

blackbirds singing at 4 30, long tailed tits on the feeders loads of linnets and goldfinches. no fieldfares or redwings this year!

 

[upnortheast]

Big discussions among the Tawny Owl population as I came up the road at 5.30

 

[andyt87]

Nice to see a flock of 30-40 lapwings flying over this morning. Another bird which looked like a hawk broke off as they passed overhead but I'm google says it was a curlew.
Not my photo, but definitely what it was.

 

[Kidds]

Used to see and hear Curlew regularly but hardly ever these days. Lapwing went scarce for a while but have seen some good big flocks more recently, nice to see them.
My nature notes for today are I have Pheasants in my fields that are more tame than my own domestic geese and I found two new Mistletoe plants in my orchard.

 

[Buggerallbandwidth]

These two goldcrests were squabbling in flight last weekend and crashed into our kitchen window. Both dazed and stunned but after 5 minutes recovered and took flight again. Biggest feet I have seen on such a small bird !

 

[Y Fan Wen]

Found my first frogspawn this am and not where it normally is and where I've been checking every day this month.
In a ditch on the side of the road so I don't think it has much chance.
This afternoon there were a pair of mergansers going downriver. They are regular breeders here now.
I can remember the first time I saw one and asked Dad what it was. He knew all the birds and their songs.

 

[Agrivator]

Found my first frogspawn this am and not where it normally is and where I've been checking every day this month.
In a ditch on the side of the road so I don't think it has much chance.
This afternoon there were a pair of mergansers going downriver. They are regular breeders here now.
I can remember the first time I saw one and asked Dad what it was. He knew all the birds and their songs.

Frog Spawn, Jam Jars, Freezing cold hands.

 

[upnortheast]

Hopefully this will benifit nature in the long term
600m new hedges finished planting today over 3500 plants
Lads have done well in crap conditions

 

[Buggerallbandwidth]

Hopefully this will benifit nature in the long term
600m new hedges finished planting today over 3500 plants
Lads have done well in crap conditions
View attachment 939206

Hope they are willows

 

[Buggerallbandwidth]

We have had three fallow trapped in the top barbed wire over the last 18 months. New fencing seems to catch them now and again. This one sadly had to be dispatched last w/e. Is there a "safe" distance between the barbed strands and the stock netting? For next fencing job to try to prevent this.

 

[upnortheast]

Hope they are willows

We can be fairly sure we will be watering them in a few months to stop them droughting off

 

[Y Fan Wen]

Out fencing this week and there were a pair of choughs pottering around and checking up on my work.
Any time I'm out working on the tops and there is snow on the ground, they are sure to turn up and check up on what I am doing.
Never see or hear them unless there is snow about.

 

[capfits]

Grouse coming off the heather hill and into bit where any vegetation is poking through.
Woodcock hiding in numbers in woodland and saw one cowering under a house hedge today.
Snowy weather makes a lot of stuff move down.