nature notes

This evening I went to close the Velux windows in my glass studio & spotted & heard a family of goldcrests in a conifer, begging food from mum. So cute, and the first time in 17 years that I've seen goldcrests in our garden. They were less than 6' from me, as I was upstairs at nearly treetop height.

To cap all, when I sat out in the garden with the "girls", I found the abandoned nest on the lawn. A work of art. Sorry I don't know how to post photos taken on my phone...
 
I love goldcrests. I havn't seen any finches, blackbirds, bluetits etc for at least 2 months!! Not sure if it because of this heatwave, or the fact that they have had their babies and gone somewhere else. They were certainly well fed by me during the first half of the year.
 
We had some American family staying, the Dad is originally Portugeuse. He saw a European Goldfinch in our garden and it made him so happy, as he said he hadn't seen one since his childhood in Portugal.

Yesterday I saw a green grasshopper on a green hollyhock leaf, slowly eating it. We also have leaf cutter bees who cut such perfect circles in leaves - I was not pleased to see the rose bush eaten, but highly delighted to see a bramble being attacked. We watched a bee, with a leaf, take it into a large log where I presume it is making a nest or burrow or whatever bees live in.

I also saw a female blackbird hopping about on the ground under the trees. Then there was a constant tapping noise, coming from a forsythia bush. She went to investigate, and so did I, slowly. She went to roost in the bush, and I couldn't see in well enough. It went on for several minutes and was a bit like the sound of a thrush bashing a snail shell on the ground. I still don't know what it was, but I think it was bird related.
 
Dinnertime is turning into a bit of a do here. After seeing a snake with a sparrow in its jaws, a couple of nights ago a sparrowhawk swooped down low over our heads and into the clementine tree and came out with a sparrow, its one of their roosts. We think the birds were spooked as they were flying about en masse and making a racket about 5 mins before the incident. I don't think the hawk knew we were there as we were hidden by shrubs and an umbrella. It was like having your own wildlife film!

Then yesterday I saw the snake again slither out from underneath the clementine, the day before was a feral cat shade bathing under the same tree and this morning a vole scuttled from one patch of foliage, past the tree, to another. The sparrows have been very quiet and absent, unsurprisingly. Normally they have a communal racketty dustbath every evening when the heat has died down, but not at the moment! Also, Mrs Blackbird is still about, she uses the water bowl as a bath, so I am pleased I took your advice about putting it down on the ground.
 
Was stopped from scything, first by a pretty blue butterfly sunbathing in the path of the next swing, then by a large preying mantis. Gave up there and went on to sickle some brambles in long grass only to spook a female European Whip snake about 1.5 metres long which went across some lawn and into the laurel hedge. had a Humming Bird Hawk Moth in the kitchen earlier- took about an hour to find its way out having sniffed at all the photos and pictures on the walls; clearly they can see colour.

Very quiet here at the moment as all the forecast showers have narrowly missed us and water for the birds is in very short supply.
 
Well I seen a horsefly,
And I seen a housefly.
But I ain’t never seen a European whip snake fly.

But a large Ocean Sent gin with Fevertree tonic and two slices of cucumber sure can distort ones impression of what is funny.

But more seriously I’ve never seen as many wrens as we have this year. Clearly a very successful breeding season. It always amazes me how such a tiny bird can generate such a loud song.
 
That's surprising. My list of species seen in our Hampshire garden this year is now up to 32, but includes only one sighting of a single wren, a few weeks ago in the heat. There are many places where wrens could nest and roost in our old shrubs and ivy, plenty of insect food, and they used to be quite common here, even nesting in an extractor duct for a old tumble drier one year, but apparently they've recently crashed, I don't know why.
Last year the duct was taken over by a colony of bumblebees, Bombus Hortorum I think but shall have to check with Tony.
 
Warwickshire Wildlife Trust have reported Otters spotted in the Rive Leam! Where I walk the dog in the morning! Happy days! :)
 
Great excitement!

A few days ago we were sitting inside when a noise started inside the woodburner (which is off). Thinking it might be a trapped bird OH carefully opened the door. It wasn't a bird, but a rather large bat! It was hanging upside down and we had a very good look at its bared teeth (quite a lot of them) as well as the rest of its lovely little furry body and wings. We tried to coax it out and into a fishing net, but it was hanging on for dear life. Eventually it let go and took to flying about the room. Cue me, OH and my elderly mother bobbing about as the bat swooped low and all over the place. We opened all the windows, which it studiously ignored, and eventually OH managed to scrape it off a bit of wall and took it outside, hopefully undamaged and it took off.

We still don't know what sort it was, but it was very large, about the size of a martin in flight.
 
Gosh, that's a bit of excitement MrsB. How unusual. I would have been tempted to take a photo, just to get it identified. Makes a change from the ususal Autumn visitors i.e. daddy long legs :-) Would have loved being a fly on the wall, watching all of you, ducking and diving.
 
You are right, that would have been an excellent idea.....now why didn't I think of that! Tonight's installment was also quite interesting, if less exciting. We watched a praying mantis lay her eggs, on the back of an outdoor chair, making the cocoon as she went. It took maybe 30-40 mins all in, and when she had finished she levered herself upright, walked along the edge of the table, jumped off and flew to the ground, scuttled along, stopped, looked just like an olive leaf on the ground, and then jumped onto an olive tree and got lost in the foliage. A few days ago I found the shed skin of a different mantis, in the same general area, so possibly we have a whatever the collective noun of mantis' is!
 
A congregation of praying mantises?

Its been incessantly wet here all autumn. Last week we ventured outside at night for some reason, around the same outdoor furniture which was home to the praying mantis cocoon (which has disappeared). And we found a fire salamander. It was incredibly brightly coloured, obviously a warning. Its the first time I have seen one properly although my OH says we have something similar in the woodshed as well.
 
Lucky you having a Fire Salamander in the garden, I have only seen pictures of them.
We currently have some very vocal Tawny Owls around the garden, two males and a female, they get very vocal from about 5.30am.
How about a clergy of mantis ?
 
it's RSPB Birdwatch this weekend - see https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/25/bye-bye-blackbird-rspbs-big-garden-birdwatch-marks-40-years
it would be very interesting to hear what people saw in different areas of the country - and abroad, if you have an hour to spare. We keep a tick list of birds seen in our garden, starting afresh from Jan. 1st, and are up to 23 species so far this year. It finished up at 34 in 2018. The trouble with the one-hour Birdwatch count is that, whilst all the 'regulars' will get recorded, the less common but sometimes seen species won't make an appearance. One of our rarer birds here is the wren, despite the article saying they're recovering. We only saw one last year, and this year we were delighted to see another skulking around in the border under the big window, from where we sit and watch them.
The instructions for Birdwatch say that birds flying over don't count, but the article says you can claim Red Kite if one is overhead, as often happens here, they're very common. For our own list, we count birds that are 'earthed' by perching in trees or bushes, or on the ground or visiting the pond, and we include any we can see in neighbours' gardens either side, on the grounds that birds don't observe boundaries. There was a bullfinch in a tree next door on New Year's Day, rare here. We also include birds in our 'airspace', i.e, flying overhead in the space immediately above the garden, but we have them in a separate list.
Here's the RSPB link with all the info, in case you're not registered yet - https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/?channel=paidsearch&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIl6Ld8L6I4AIV75XtCh2riwytEAAYASAAEgLO3vD_BwE you can do it all online, no need to have the pack unless you want one.
 
OH is ready to go, she has done the big garden Birdwatch for years and also does the weekly BTO garden bird watch which also includes mammals, butterflies, insect and reptiles.
The garden total for this year is 34 at the moment, although surrounded by farm land and having a lake does bump the list up somewhat especially when the local pheasants and partridges work out when duck/goose feeding time is. we have yellowhammers visit the feeders in the hedge and they brighten up a dull day.We have a pair of Egyptian Geese that used to visit daily withe a flock of Canada Geese then thought " why the hell are we flying in and out every day when we could just move in" they are real characters and come up and tap on the kitchen door or just lurk around near the chicken run in the hope of extra food and roost time.
 
Silly me hadn't realised you were discussing this on here. ?

I've only seen 6 bluetits and 1 male blackbird during a 1 hour stint today. So disappointed, but it's my own fault for not feeding them through Autumn and winter. Ive put the fatballs and seeds out today and hope I attract some different species tomorrow.
 
You'll attract more species if you provide a more varied menu, Tweetipie - and also, of course they need a bit of time to find what you're offering, as you say. I put out 4 feeders, one mixed seed which has dried mealworms added, one sunflower seed for goldfinches, one kibbled peanuts for bluetits and one of fatballs. (Autospell keeps on giving me 'footballs'!) I also scatter some mixed seed on the ground, especially on very cold days, for the ground feeders such as blackbirds, and quite a variety comes to investigate this. I've had to put feeder guardians round the feeders as the woodpigeons, collared doves, jackdaws and starlings were just clearing everything out by lunchtime and not giving the little birds a chance. The mixed flocks of tits that come through at intervals during the day like the kibbled peanuts and fatballs particularly, and the bluetits fly in, take a bit of peanut and fly away with it to eat in safety and privacy elsewhere. They definitely prefer their peanuts in easy-to-grab little bits, rather than having to cling on and keep nibbling away at whole peanuts. I do also provide a large shallow dish of water, though they mostly use the pond edge for drinking and bathing. If there's no pond, this is essential especially if the weather is freezing.
 
Very impoverished here at the moment. Lots of birds go south, or beyond, for the winter and seabirds, well, they stay on the sea.
But common visitors to my garden ie a lawn are hooded crows, ravens, redshank, rock dove, blackbird, starling, house sparrow, herring gull and lesser black backed gull. The corvids and the gulls only come when the left over Sunday roast is put out.
When I kill young cockerels in the summer I always put them out for the birds who fall on them like a flock of vultures.
The only finch type bird is the twite and they are far to wary to approach civilisation.
So no tits, other finches, thrushes, robins etc.
 
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