Category Archives: Bird Watching

Bird counts

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The Bird count went as well as could be expected when you’re working with a group that is prone to loud voices and jerky movements. I think they are all great people in their own ways, but as companions in quiet birdwatching they leave a lot to be desired

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I wasn’t very successful with the camera. The greenfinches seemed to know when I was about the press the button and the yellowhammers flew past and hid in the hedge several times without pausing on the feeders.

At least the chickens seemed to like it. After a shaky start (where the brown hen appeared to be interested in one of the younger cockerels) they made it up and spent the early afternoon basking in the sun. It’s alright for some!

The group made needle cases from a selection of hearts Julia provided, only managing to lose one needle in the process (though we’re still a bit nervous about finding it again!)

And finally, a couple who come on the farm metal detecting popped by for a cup of tea and brought us some nice mistletoe for us to “plant” on our apples trees. It’s a project for next week now as we’re busy for the rest of the week, but it will be interesting to see how it goes.

Meanwhile we are having to clean up quickly and prepare for an evening meeting at the centre. Julia has an evening meeting in Nottingham and I am to be left at home to cook shepherd’s pie.

It had better be good because last night she left me at home to cook tea while she visited a neighbour to do some handicrafts. At 10 pm she returned to find me asleep in front of the TV and the oven devoid of shepherd’s pie.

I am, it is safe to say, in her bad books.

It would be nice to insert a picture of a shepherd’s pie here – unfortunately I can’t. ;-(

 

 

Gardening

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It’s been the first day of the year we could get out in the garden and we’ve done quite a bit this afternoon. Not all of it has been structured or done well, but it’s the thought that counts and we needed the exercise. Well, I needed the exercise.

We’re still in the process of planning the vegetable garden, partly through lethargy and partly through not knowing what the plans are for next year. Hopefully we will find out in the next week or so.

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The sheep are carrying on, with two more lambs born over the weekend. They’re not very cooperative when it comes to posing for photographs at the moment. Unfortunately we had someone walking a dog without it being on a lead – that always makes them a bit jumpy. Makes you wonder what people are thinking. Or if they are thinking.

At the moment we’re practising for the bird watch this weekend. I’m having to answer a large number of questions, including the difference between a pied wagtail and a magpie (they are both black and white with long tails, which causes confusion) and why it might be better not to sit there sniggering at the common name of Phalacrocorax aristotelis. (It’s a shag for those of you who aren’t familiar with the poem, or with juvenile humour.)

Despite what the poem says, the common cormorant is not another name for shag, and what I always thought of as the common cormorant is now the Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo). Tricky things these bird names, which is why we need the Latin names too.

The Common Cormorant

The common cormorant (or shag)
Lays eggs inside a paper bag,
The reason you will see no doubt,
Is to keep the lightning out.

But what these unobservant birds
Have failed to notice is that herds
Of wandering bears may come with buns
And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.

Christopher Isherwood

 

 

 

 

 

 

Staring at the screen in search of a title

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We’ve had a productive day – collected eggs, listed, cleaned and maintained tools,  ditto for gloves (but it involves more complaining as we pair them up and work out how many we’ve lost), admired lambs, written up project folders, sharpened massive numbers of coloured pencils, looked at goats, cut back old herbs and, in my case, been generally cheerful in the face of adversity (working with a bunch of sneezing hypochondriacs can be very wearing). I am very good like that.

Then we looked at the lambs again and checked them against the standard for the Badger Face Welsh Mountain sheep. One of them definitely has the black stripe along the belly that is distinctive to the breed. It’s a bit of a mess as stripes go, but it is there. It’s neither good news or bad, but it’s human nature to enjoy finding something new.

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There was a buzzard sitting on a fence post by the side of the A46 this morning, looking very spick and span. We followed that up with good sightings of 30-40 Fieldfares and 10 Redwings. There were also about 20 Jackdaws in the same field and a handful of Starlings. The next field had a couple of pairs of red-legged partridges (there’s a shoot this weekend and one in two weeks, after which they will be safe for the spring and summer). Sadly I don’t have photos of the birds, which is something I will try to address this year.

Julia is currently showing a teacher round with a view to us having a visit in February, and I am sitting staring at the screen in search of a title.

 

 

Good day for birds

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We’ve already had a good day for birds, with a flock of 30 Fieldfares on the fields down Lodge Lane,  a Green Woodpecker on the cherry trees by the centre and  a pair of Robins on the willow archway. You can tell they are a pair because they aren’t trying to kill each other – they really are unpleasantly aggressive birds despite the cute depictions on Christmas cards.

Sorry the picture isn’t more relevant but I don’t have many bird pictures to select from.

It’s the Big Garden Birdwatch on the weekend of 30-31 January, followed by the Big Farmland Bird Count two weeks later. We will be doing both though our garden isn’t very good for birds at the moment – more work needed. We will be making fat balls from lard and paper cups later today, so it’s a start. We must also get the second bird-feeder rigged up to provide more variety. I suspect that’s one of the benefits of the bird counts – not just getting data but reminding people to feed birds.

Thinking of birds naturally leads on to worms – so check these out. It’s just the thing to help get over “Blue Monday” though how anyone could be depressed on a day like today, I’m not sure. I suppose if you don’t have  a job that allows you to see woodpeckers it’s harder to be cheerful.

Of course, when you read that made “Blue Monday” is up by a holiday company without proper evidence things start to fall into place. For me, it’s the first happy day I’ve had since Christmas. I don’t like my routine being disrupted, and I don’t like the short days. Now that I’m back in a routine (or a rut as some people would describe it) and the days are getting significantly lighter I’m happy

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Good week for the birds

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It’s been a good week for birds this week. Apart from the normal visitors we had a Great Spotted Woodpecker on Monday and a Jay on Thursday. The Jay was chasing a magpie, which makes me think the magpie was trying to raid the Jay’s nest. I’ve seen a buzzard and barn owl facing off before, which was quite eerie in the fading light, but never seen a Jay chase a magpie. With them being closely related it seems a bit strange, though with the Magpie being a renowned robber of nests I suppose it isn’t that unusual. What I do know is that I missed a dimension by being in the car, because it wouldn’t have been a quiet pursuit. We regularly have magpies quarrelling in our street and they are quite vocal, with jays also being well known for their calling.

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OK, I confess it’s a poor photo…

We’ve had two good sightings of buzzards this week too, both standing on fence posts next to the A46 – one virtually white on the breast and the other almost all brown. I don’t know why they select the posts they do as they are usually a bit below the level of the road. I’m used to seeing them on lamp posts and telegraph poles so the fence post seems a bit unambitious. It’s strange to think that when I was growing up we had to travel to Devon or Wales to see buzzards.

Finally we saw the yellowest yellowhammer I’ve ever seen. It’s the sunlight – everything looks better in the sun.

As a last sighting for the week – driving to Hobbycraft after picking  Julia up from work we saw a Common Tern flying along the canal, and actually diving to feed. It’s not rare, because they breed in the gravel pits along the Trent, but it was nice to see.

Peregrination – a bad pun for a title

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Sorry, not been as regular as I’d like with the writing, and now that I’m back I’m wandering off subject.

This is an interesting link, though it can be a little short on action. Just had a look to see what was happening and the most exciting thing was a fly buzzing round. I imagine there will be a few of them about as it isn’t the most hygenic of nests. Can you imagine having that on a window ledge outside your office? I’m all for nature but I’d draw the line at having pigeons dismembered while I was trying to concentrate on a spreadsheet or whatever office workers do – I’m hazy on what office work involves as I’ve never done any.

This is another local example though the feed isn’t quite so good.

To be honest, I’ve never quite trusted peregrines – it’s the moustachios. Stick an opera cape and a top hat on them and they’d soon be off evicting widows and orphans.

Goshawk here. They seem to be becoming fashionable after H is for Hawk. I haven’t actually finished the book so I just spoiled the ending by reading the review. If you don’t want to spoil the ending don’t read the review. The book seems OK so far but from what I just read the ending isn’t up to much – it’s full of hope, and I’m not in favour of hope at the moment: it’s one of those days.

A tale of two partridges

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We had a red-legged partridge at the bird feeding station yesterday. They can tell when the shooting season is over and gradually begin to appear around the yard mooching for spilt grain and chicken food. We’ve not had one by the feeder before so it’s a first for the list.

The grey partridges they reared for the shoot all disappeared by last autumn and everyone thought they had wandered away or fallen prey to predators.

However, since the end of the shooting season we have started seeing them again.

They have a brain the size of a pea. They have no formal education. But they seem quite intelligent to me.

 

It must be spring!

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We had a meeting today, and for once I didn’t mind.

Whilst staring intently at the chair and seeming worryingly attentive, I was able to keep an eye on the centre’s wren. It was carrying immense loads of garden rubbish in its bill. Once we finished, I had a look outside. There were leaves scattered around under the spot in the verandah roof where the wren roosts at night. Sure enough, if you a squint up at the beams you can just make out where it’s been stuffing leaves in a convenient gap. I’ll get a photo tomorrow, which will explain things better.

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Typical, we put up half a dozen nest boxes but the best nest of the season is going to be in an accidental gap.

I felt so good about it that I still don’t notice that the meeting was compiling a long list of jobs for me. I really must pay proper attention in future.

 

Friday Feeling

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It’s Friday and that’s time for quiet reflection on the computer again – Level 3 catering this time as part of the soap opera that attends the running of the Saturday Cafe on the farm.

I’ve seen the lambs, I’ve had a word with B (though she may be Bea – I’ve never been sure) at Shipshape Arts, I’ve watched an empty bird table and I’ve fired off a couple of emails. I’ve also eaten lunch and doughnuts, done some proof-reading and wrestled with a spreadsheet that won’t save the work I do on it. Either I’m an idiot who can’t use Excel or the sender is an idiot who can’t use Excel. As I don’t usually have trouble entering a few details I’m coming to an inescapable conclusion about the sender, but don’t let me influence you…

I’m rapidly running out of excuses so I’ll load some pictures and try to put off the evil hour. Note the kestrel picture – we have someone making a nest box which we’re going to place in the statue, so fingers crossed we get some interest.

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Days of contrasts

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I did an internet course on Food Allergies on Friday. It was nothing spectacular – a couple of hours of reading followed by 15 not very searching questions and a button to print out a City and Guilds accredited certificate.

It isn’t so much about Food Allergies as about the legal requirements around food allergies that we need to know about when running the community cafe on Saturday mornings. So after a weekend of domestic servitude I was faced with a day of admin and lists, hence the lack of posting yesterday. I like learning, but to be honest, I really don’t like the grind of putting it down on paper so that people can advise me on how to improve it or how to make it into the subject of a meeting.

Talking of which, we dodged the bullet last night and didn’t have to hold a weekly meeting, though we’ll pay for that today as we’re having a quarterly meeting. Yes, the farm is run on the principle that more meetings make for better management. Shame it’s a misguided principle – more meetings make for more talking and, in my case, more danger of falling asleep.

It wasn’t all admin and lists to be fair – we also had visitors. Beth who used to work in the farm ofice came to see how we were. She’s happy with her new job in catering and hospitality, up for promotion and even seems to have grown, though I suspect that’s due to higher heels. You can wear higher heels in hospitality than you can in farming. The group found her a set of wellingtons (a size too big) and made her go out to see the new piglets, the pregnant goats and the obstinately non-lambing sheep.

Bea the sculptress visited for a working lunch. She’s going to be helping us make a tree sculpture for use with the Woodland Trust project we’re doing and, later, for the Education tent at Flintham Ploughing Match.

This morning (Tuesday) julia has just completed the new flyer for school visits – it features a watermarked picture of a small tortoiseshell butterfly and brought back memories of summer. For a moment I felt quite summery.

That lasted until I looked out of the window and saw a goldfinch hanging on to the nyger seed feeder for dear life. There’s a  20 – 25 mph gusting wind outside and the feeder is at a fair old angle so the bird is really having to work for its seed.

Roll on summer.