Home – Wednesday 1st April
Saturday's Sunset From The Garden
Jan is working all this week so it is unlikely that we’ll get out again until at least Tuesday (7th) what with Jan’s work commitments, visiting and visitors over the Easter weekend.
I don’t know if you listen to Farming Today on Radio 4 (5.45am Weekdays). Today they had an interesting piece on bird migration with Paul Stancliff of the BTO (British Trust For Ornithology) who monitors bird migration. He went on to report that many of the birds that should be here are not and in particular Chiff-Chaffs, Blackcaps and Swallows. He said that the reason for this is due to the weather, the fact that we have had strong winds from the NW coupled with Low Pressure. Apparantly the birds decide when to move on by changes in the barometric pressure and because of the weather conditions of late many birds are still across the Channel but he did say that it is still early days and a change in weather is likely to encourage them to cross the Channel.
You can listen to the programme here (the piece starts at 9.28 into the programme):
He mentioned Swallows, about a million of them are on their way here from South Africa and that at this time of year they should be here in their low thousands but all around the country he has only seen 20 sightings. He went on to explain that this may have consequences in the way they breed because the early birds get the choice of the best nesting places and mates. When they do arrive there will be more competition for both. We will just have to wait and see.
On the Osprey front at the moment there are just 10 birds that have travelled from Senegal which is not unusual as they will be arriving over the next four weeks but the surprise news is that the Osprey who is known as Lady has not yet returned to the Loch Of The Lowes; but a younger unknown female bird has and has already mated and claimed the nest. It would have been Lady’s 25th year and she might yet still return and claim the nest, again we will have to wait and see. At the Dyfi Osprey site they have had to move on two nesting Ravens from the nest. Apparently the Ravens started to mimic the nearby train announcements. They have a brand new visitor centre there and I’m not sure a pair of nesting Ravens has the same drawing power of nesting Ospreys (whether or not that makes it right is questionable). They are having the same problem at Manton Bay, Rutland Water but this time the offenders are a pair of Egyptian Geese! Ps. The Ravens were an April Fools joke!
In the garden we still have our resident House Sparrows about 15-20 of them, Collared Doves, Wood Pigeon, Stock Doves, Long Tailed Tits, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Robins, Dunnocks, Starlings, Reed Buntings, Wren, Blackbirds, Jackdaws and Rooks. We haven’t had any Yellowhammers yet but over the last couple of years we have had at least two pairs who have visited the garden.
We have had an unusual visitor to the garden today, a Rook but he appears to have at least a third, perhaps a half of his right wing missing. The Rooks are canny birds with keen eyesight, you normally only have to look at them and they’ll fly off, so it has been difficult to get a decent look at him to see what the problem is. He has been back to the garden at least twice and it doesn’t appear to hamper his flying abilities.
The Frog Spawn has sunk deeper in the water which may be an indication that some of it has hatched. We’ll have to try and get a camera on it to see what is going on.
Keep your eyes peeled and good spotting.
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