June 5th

Back home Goldfinch in garden on feeder. The hedgehog is still visiting (is it me or is she thinner?)
6th Fledgling starlings in the garden while the blue tits and great tits are working hard collecting food for their young. Damselfly butterfly and ladybird briefly in the garden.
8th |First fledgling blue tit in garden -beautiful .
10th The young starling thinks the bird table belongs to him. That is until the adults arrive. The hedgehog is feeding around 10pm and comes right down the steps to the door , scaring a frog on the way.
18th Lot's of noisy sparrow fledglings being fed in next doors trees.
21st Longest day - very sunny. Saw the mouse on the bird feeder.
22nd Spent an amazing 10mins in the evening with a bat flying over head, the hedgehog near my feet and the mouse at the feeder.
The met office have said it has been the driest first 6 months of the year for 80 years!

June Shropshire part 3

On a visit to a beautiful garden (with the best chicken sandwiches I've ever tasted) we sat by the large pond and took pictures of the dragonflies.

Broad - bodied chaser (libella depressa). they will take over a small pond or pool defending it fiercely, using the same perches each day.

Common Blue damsel Fly (Enallagma cyathagerm). Spends all year as a larvae before emerging as an adult.
 the picture shows a pair mating, making a heart shape with their bodies. The male will then fly the female to the water to deposit the eggs in under water vegetation.. They fly between May - September in over grown gardens.

June Shropshire part 2

Each morning and at intervals in the day we hear the unmistakable sound of the Buzzards. They soar in the sky screeching, laying claim to the territory they fly over. A magnificent sight. The couple below seem to be flying just for the enjoyment of it and who can blame them. The female is the largest of the two.

Buzzard's ( Buteo Buteo ).  Found in wood's,  moreland, mountains and sea cliffs. It is the most common of our birds of prey. Usually lays 2-3 eggs. They feed on small animals, carrion, birds, earthworms, caterpillars, lizards and beetles.

I spotted a small bird up in the tree that I've never seen before, it turned out to be a Spotted Fly Catcher.

Spotted Fly Catcher (Muscicapa striata)
"If you scare the flycatcher away, no good luck will come your way."
Visits Britain in May - September. Lays 4-5 green/blue eggs heavily freckled with red/brown. Feeds almost entirely on flying insects, flies, crane flies, butterflies and wasps, but will eat worms and rowan berries.

June 2010

First week we spent at a beautiful in Shropshire taking lots of photo's. Here are some of them.

Male Chaffinch (fringilla coelebs). While this male was singing in the tree the female (not as brightly coloured) was collecting nesting material. Feeds on grain and seed. Lays 3-6 eggs.
 One of our most common birds, sadly not at home in my garden. They can gather in large numbers and amazingly regional dialect's have been recorded.
                                            Oh, to be in England
                                            Now that April's there,
                                            And whoever wakes in England
                                            Sees, some morning unaware,
                                            That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf,
                                            Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
                                            While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
                                            In England - Now!
                                                                      R. Browning

 

Thrush fledgling being fed. I think it's a song thrush but I don't know for sure .They lay 2-6 eggs and can have 2 broods. Eats fruit, berries, worms, insects, larvae, seeds and snails.

Male Greenfinch (Carduelis chloris) The female is duller in colour. As a child I used to see lot's in the garden but no longer sadly so this was really nice. Fond of feeding from birdtables on seed fruit and berries. They nest in loose colonies and usually have 2 broods.
                                           Thou Linnet! in thy green array,
                                           Presiding spirit here today.
                                           Beneath these fruit-tree boughs that shed
                                           Their snow-white blossoms on my head
                                           With brightest sunshine round me spread
                                            Of springs unclouded weather..
                                                                                             W.Wordsworth.

Pied wagtail (motacilla alba yarrelli). it was amazing watching him catch insects in the field opposite the cottage. They are very agile on the wing. The 3  fledgling's tails bobbed up and down as they waited for the food to arrive.  Eats flies, beetles, moths and other insects. Can have up to 3 broods a year. The female is duller in colour and the male is browner in the winter months.

May 14th

14th - Sparrows dust bathing next door.

Andrew saw a fox down the road.
20th A hedgehog in garden.

Hedgehog (Ennaceus europacus)
Britain's only spiny mammal. Eats worms, caterpillars, eggs, slugs and snails. Hibernates in winter. Most babies are born in June - July. This one turns up about 10pm and eats the meal worms I'm putting out.

21st- A Squirrel scared a pigeon on the bird table today. He jumped from the fence.
22nd- 3 nights in row now the hedgehog has come to the garden. She I think because she is fat (I'm hopeful it's babies) is quite happy to have her photo taken.
23rd Garden is full of sparrows and starlings. The adults are collecting food and flying off to feed their young nearby.
26th - Sparrows in the loft have fledged and are being feed in the trees. The hedgehog is still coming for food.
28th Young Robin feeding itself on seed. Sunny but not too hot.
This has been a month of dandelions as they seem to be on every spare  piece of grass.
29th - 3 fledgling starlings on fence. I watch as they pester their parents for food. The young robin seems to have adopted the sparrows - when they feed in the garden so does he. I wonder how long that will last?
Rainy end to the month.





 

6th May

We have a very brave sparrow in the garden. She comes very close to me to get meal worms and, if I'm not there she lands on the door handle and looks into the conservatory as if to say where's my food? She has me very well trained feeding her on demand. As it turns out her nest is in our loft. Ahh. The babies fledged on the 26th. The one above is sitting on our fence waiting to be fed.

                                                 This one is being fed by mum.
                                        "In busy mart and crowded street,
                                            There the smoke-brown sparrow sits"            E .Cooke

11th Conker trees in full flower. Goldfinch briefly in garden before going next door to eat the groudsel.

                                   " I love to see the little Goldfinch pluck,
                                       the groundsel's feathered seed;
                                      And then in bower of apple-blossoms perched.
                                      trim his gay suit and pay us with a song.
                                      I would not hold him prisoner for the world.
                                                                                            J Hurdis"


Great tit , blue tit, sparrows, pigeons and starlings in garden today. Dunnock displaying fluttering behaviour as seen during mating and in  fledgelings at feeding time.
12th - Hail fell today.
13th- Goldfinch feeding today, and a collared dove was fighting a pigeon twice his size. The fledgling sparrows are in the garden feeding.

May 2010

1st - Cloudy but lots of visitors to the garden; goldfinch, sparrows, robin, magpie, pigeons, blue tits, great tits and collared doves. Day ends with a thunderstorm.
2nd - Dawn chorus weekend- |lay in bed  with the window open so I could hear the bird song. I'm not very good at identifying the different songs but I do know the blackbird who was the loudest amongst the soup of song that rang through the air. Also heard the "teacher, teacher", of the great tit and the tawny owl. The male does the "twit"  part while the female does the "twoo".

The male sparrows have fluffed up their tails and are fluttering them at the females in a courtship display along the fence.
May bank holiday we went to a nearby bluebell wood. The bluebells need another week to come into their own but we did see a jay.

Jay (Garrulus glandarius).   Present all year in woodland.  Eats acorns, eggs, insects and lizards. lays 3-6 eggs from April .
The Jay, the Pie, and even the boding Owl
That hails the rising moon, have charms for me.
                                                     William Cowper
We also saw wood anenome in flower, blue and whit bells and a fungi with bugs jumping about on it!

Wood anenome (Anemone nemorosa). Like the blue bell it makes most of the sunlight before the leaves block it out.