Nature Notes

[ErrolTheDragon]

There's a gardening thread which may overlap with this one but I thought people might like to share nature sightings as the season changes. What we see if we can get out for a walk, plants coming into leaf and bloom, creatures in the garden, birds flying overhead - whatever.

Yesterday along the canal: busy wrens, 3 butterflies (tortoiseshell I think). Lots of Lords and Ladies arrow-shaped leaves. A little bank of primroses, lots of celandines and some wood anemones. Yellow iris leaves starting to shoot up in the edge of the canal.

I can add a juvenile stonechat to the list of young birds I’ve seen this week. Not in my garden obviously. It’s not that much of a wilderness!

I’ve recently seen quite a few birds return to the garden feeders. The siskins that first appeared in January, never left and have weirdly become the most numerous bird in my garden. There have been a few other constants too, but there’s been a noticeable drop in other visitors.

But this week I’ve started to see the return of the tit family. This time of the year, they usually arrive in small mixed flocks, rather than pairs. They’ll quickly check the garden for green fly and caterpillars, before giving the fat balls a nibble. Usually they leave as quickly as they came, but thanks to their constant contact call, it’s pretty clear when it’s time to look out of the window to see some cute bird cuteness 😄

Some of the flowers in the garden

Lovely flowers @Thirstquenching

I have a few more juvenile birds to add to my list for this week.

Yesterday, on the salt marsh, I saw lots of baby lapwings. They are adorable. Little fluffy bodies, on legs that look way too long and flimsy to support them ☺️

Today, in the garden, I caught the first glimpse of a juvenile jackdaw. Bright blue eyes and a big fluffy head. I think jackdaws are striking birds anyway, but this juvenile was possibly even more beautiful.

Seen a few little birds in the garden today have no idea what they are. They were small fat little things with dumpy tails and what looked like yellow bellies. Anyone any ideas?

Hmm, the only garden birds I can think of with yellow bellies are blue tits and great tits. Green finches can look a bit yellow too, but their shape doesn’t match what you’re describing 🤔

Did you notice what colour other parts of their bodies were?

crazzzycat
A brown colour like a sparrow, that's why I thought a young bird maybe?🤔

Could it be a female sparrow? They have plain bellies that can look quite yellow, depending on the light. I have attached a picture.

If it’s not a female sparrow, but some kind of juvenile, this might help to pin it down:

www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2020/05/baby-bird-id/

It's bird central in our garden today. Blackbirds at the worms in the wet grass, so many sparrows, blue tits and around 6 goldfinches. It's been lovely watching them all.

crazzzycat
Think they might have been blue tit chicks

That’s good news @Thirstquenching. There have apparently been a lot of failed blue tit nests this year, so those chicks are extra precious.

I went back to the tern colony I visited a few weeks ago. It was a hive of activity with hundreds of chicks and parents flying up and down the coast to find food for their young. The noise was deafening!

I also saw quite a few butterflies, which was nice as I’ve not seen many of those around this year. I’m blaming that cold snap we had a while ago.

Well had an exciting day at work today a hedgehog was in the garden at work. Put it in a box in a shady spot and called sspca. They came out and said it was healthy and a decent weight. Gave it some cat food and told me to let it go once it had had something to eat. Went back to let it go and it had escaped anyway

How lovely to have such an experience with a hedgehog! It’s been years since I’ve seen one here. I’m glad the one you saw was healthy 🥰

I’ve been watching little jack (the juvenile jackdaw) all day. His parents have been showing him how to raid the bird feeders. I’m not too excited by that, but it’s lovely to watch him learn and become a bit more independent. I’m sure he’ll be a proper menace in my garden soon 😄

We finally got footage of our garden hedgehog on the wildlife camera. For weeks it had been sneaking past without triggering a shot!

Glad to hear yours just needed some food @Thirstquenching

Bit of cat food and it was on its way

In light of the upcoming board rationalisation, I'm going to ask MNHQ to move this thread to The Great Outdoors rather than Chat.

I assume that will suit us all better.

Meanwhile... we had a lovely walk on Tuesday including some moor alive with larks. When we were nearly back at the car, a curlew flew in a circle all the way round us, finishing by descending accompanied by its distinctive bubbling call.

And here we are, rehomed already! I must admit I forget to look at this board as often as I should.

I didn't even know there was a great outdoors section. I shall have to have a browse around the area later.

I'm confined to home for the next while as 2 of my children are home from school. Nature notes will be confined to the garden again.

There are currently 10 jackdaws stripping the fatballs in the bird feeder.

We got a caged fat ball feeder because of voracious jackdaws hogging them - I've got a couple of photos of it , one with long-tailed tits, the other with a mix. It's very sturdy, I'd recommend it.

Great Outdoors seems like the right place to be.

I saw a fox playing in the woods on my walk last night.

Also I was delighted to see lots of teeny tiny froglets.

The foxgloves are coming out round our way now too.

Some nights, I have over a hundred jackdaws roosting in a tree that’s on the edge of my garden. I’ve tried all sorts to keep them off my feeders, and have had some successes, but I’m in awe of how they still manage to work around whatever defences I put in place.

I can confirm that the fatball feeder @ErrolTheDragon posted a picture of works (and I love that picture with all the Long Tailed Tits Errol 🥰). I also use two metal hanging baskets around seed feeders. That’s moderately successful, except that the jackdaws just fly into the seed feeders until enough food falls out, which they then scoff off the ground.

They are a bit of a nuisance, but I still love them. This week I’ve seen them have some epic battles with a female sparrow hawk, who’s started visiting the garden. If they can keep her away and keep all the little birds safe, I don’t mind giving them some protection money!

We have a huge colony of jackdaws here too. I've given in and have 2 fatball feeders, one normal and one in a cage. There is a family of them nesting on the nook of the chimney breast

Today on the bird feeder we had a visit from a greater-spotted woodpecker. It was hopping up and down the pole sampling the types of seeds and chasing off sparrows until the jackdaws showed up.

It looks like some of the wading birds are starting to return, or at least move around a bit more.

A few days ago I saw a lone whimbrel on the beach, yesterday there were a few godwits. They’ve all been missing from the mudflats over the last few months, when they were off nesting in places much further north than here. It’s been ridiculously quiet, so it’s nice to see a few of them return/ pass through.

DH found a grass snake hiding in a wild part of the garden today. I'm gutted I missed it.