Wednesday, 6 May 2015

First Young Fledgling In The Garden

Garden Update & The Arms – Little Cressingham – Monday 4th May 2015



Garden Update 


We had our first fledgling in the garden late this afternoon (4.30pm) a solitary House Sparrow being looked after and fed by Dad. 

The 6 Privet Hawk Moth Chrysalis that we have were put in the aquarium (no water obviously) and we’ll see if they hatch out into beautiful moths. There are supposed to be 3 male and 3 Females. They normally emerge from late May to July. 

The Arms - Little Cressingham

We left home to get some fresh air for a couple of hours. We left at 5.50pm, it had been raining during the night and day but it had now stopped, it was overcast and the temperature was 18˚C. 


As we headed towards The Arms, we saw a male Kestrel sitting on a wire but as soon as we stopped he was off. We saw a new addition to this particular route we saw about half a dozen Fallow Deer in a newly built enclosure in one of the big Country Houses. I don’t if it is a new farming venture or for ornamentation. There was a mature stag, an immature stag, 2 hinds and 2 younger deer. We’ll see how that develops.

We saw several Goldfinches, Robin, Pied Wagtail, Corvids, Wood Pigeon, lots of baby Rabbits and I fleetingly caught a glimpse of a Warbler in one of the gardens, I didn’t see it for long enough to identify it properly. We did see a few small birds moving, mainly Great Tits and Blue Tits but it was very quiet. As we made our way round to the range gates we saw a Hare in the middle of the field. At the gates we saw a Magpie and a Robin and Jan heard a Green Woodpecker. 


Robin

Making our way down to the bridge over the Watton Brook we saw and heard very little. There weren’t even the usual number of Corvids and Wood Pigeon about, it was very quiet, the quietest we’ve ever seen. We did see a Chaffinch, a few passing Corvids, Wood Pigeon and Mallards. 



We then found a diversion; when we were last in this location a couple of weeks ago the surrounding fields held mainly pregnant Ewes with a few Lambs but now the ratio had changed and in one field there were more Lambs than Ewes and every now and again some of these Lambs would group up and go on a victory lap of the field. You couldn’t help but smile, even for me the archetypal “Grumpy Old Man” it was difficult to hold back a giggle. 


I know that one should not anthropomorphise human behaviour on animals but you couldn’t help think that these Lambs were just running for fun but in all likelihood it was just the flocking instinct kicking in and they were just behaving as Sheep often do by following the leader. Whatever the reason it was good fun to watch and there is a video on our YouTube Channel which captures a bit of it. 

We moved on North up the lane seeing just a few small birds darting across the road, Jan could hear Skylarks but we couldn’t see them. I was beginning to think we were going to have another Buzzardless day when Jan spotted a raptor. At first I thought it was a Red Kite because it looked a bit too streamlined but then we got a good look at it we could see it was clearly a Buzzard flying low over the field. Then it all got a bit confusing because at first I thought there were two of them and then I thought I saw a third go into the tree they had been flying too and from. Eventually 2 Buzzards flew from the tree and began to gain height and fly towards Little Cressingham. I was just beginning to think I was seeing things as they disappeared into the distance when another pair of Buzzards flew out of the same tree but this time towards Hilborough. Not quite 5-a-Day but four Buzzards flying low is pretty spectacular. 



As we left this location Jan saw a Roe Deer cross the road in front of us and as we turned right into Fairstead Lane we could hear it barking. As we travelled along Fairstead Lane we could see a Hare in the field to our left and we could hear small birds in the hedgerow on our right but we couldn’t see them apart from a Chaffinch. We parked up by the side of the road to see if we could spot any movement. We’d been there a short time when about 30 metres in front of us a Hare came along the road towards us before going into the field. 

We made one last stop by the Watermill at Little Cressingham to have our coffee. Here we saw a Mallard with one duckling (I wonder how many she started off with) and she was being pestered by 2 drakes before making our way home. 


This is what we saw: 

Kestrel 
4 Buzzards 
Goldfinch 
Robin 
Chaffinch 
Pied Wagtail 
Great Tit 
Blue Tit 
Pheasant 
Partridge 
Magpie 
Rook 
Crow 
Wood Pigeon 
Green Woodpecker (heard) 
Mallard & 1 duckling 

Roe Deer 
4 Hares 
Rabbits 

Keep your eyes peeled and good spotting.

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