An After Christmas Stroll

 

Well after the hub-bub of Christmas, I decided that a little wander on my local patch was in order.  

It is an area of farmland with a couple of patches of woodland; the woodland comprised of oak, beech, chestnut, ash, hazel and alder with a couple of big spruce trees as well.  Along the edge of the woods there are an abundance of brambles, hawthorn and blackthorn, as well as plenty of elderberry bushes.  

It was a lovely clear sunny day, albeit a little on the fresh side!  Anyhow as I entered the woods I was pleased to see a possible old acquaintance on the little pond, a grey wagtail. I'm not sure if it is the same one as I've seen previous years, however one is back after a long absence


A further surprise, along the edge of the woods, was my first sighting of a Marsh tit -  seen them elsewhere, however never before on home territory!  I have seen Coal tits up there, as wee as currently having a pair visiting the feeders in the garden, however the Marsh tit is a first!


Throughout the woods there are Blackbirds, Great, Blue and Long Tailed tits and a flock of rather shy chaffinches. We also have a sizeable flock of goldfinch, which can be heard chattering away in the tops of the trees or as they fly over the back garden. 
 


Along the edge of the woods, I heard one of the Great Spotted Woodpeckers, after peering up for a while, I spied her having a forage, whilst keeping a lookout for predators. Over the past few years, I have watched them at the nest, the year before last though, the male disappeared part way through raising the young - probably fell victim to one of the local sparrowhawks.  The female carried on feeding the youngsters and they all fledged; respect to her as until then I never realised how much hard work goes into keeping the youngsters fed.

Meanwhile, a few of the squirrel community were keeping an eye on me as I passed by, they have been chasing around the woodland after each other, so I think 2015 is going to see a lot more squirrels!


I could also hear the nuthatches 'pinging' their way through the trees, amidst chasing squirrels. There is at least one pair and if I am up there at certain times of the day, I can almost guess which trees they will be in.  This is one of their late afternoon haunts.

I also saw muntjac tracks along the side of the field, often hear them 'barking' but rarely ever see them. 

Vegetation wise, much of the meadow on the north side of the woods is full of shooting hogweed and there looks like there will be a lot more thistles, as these are coming through as well.  I was not surprised to see many leaf buds on the trees, but on the row of willow, between the woodland patches, furry buds are starting to appear already.  Here and there, along the edges of the fields, the brambles are already blooming.



 





Popular posts from this blog

Big Garden Birdwatch January 2020

Image
  One of the first things I do when I get my new calendar every year is to add a reminder for the Big Garden Birdwatch; as well as it being a little bit of Citizen Science (which snowballs into LOT of Citizen Science with so many folk across the country taking part) it is also a perfectly reasonable ‘timeout’ to just sit, wrapped up warm and with a big mug of something hot, watch and be entertained by our garden visitors.  The first arrival was one of the Robins, appearing in the remains of an elderly Ceanothus before darting across the garden into the depths of the Bay Tree.    A familiar bubbling chatter was heard and a pair of Long Tailed Tits appeared next to the feeders in the middle recently we have had a pair visit as well as a little family group. Within the ivy along the fence and the branches of the Field Maple, as well as from the depths of the Bay Tree, the local flock of Sparrows could be heard discussing whether to approach the feeders… Gradually they appeared, pe
Read more

Magic Moments 2019

Image
  Well now that the dust has started to settle on 2019, I had a browse back through my Nature Diary to try to choose my favourite moments….  There were A LOT of moments!  I’m not entirely certain where the year went – it seemed, once again to pass in a flash, however thank heavens for the camera with which I was able to record more than a few magic moments through the year. Those of you who follow and read regularly will know that I will happily take pot luck with what I watch and am definitely not a ‘tick and click’ person; unless I’m at a bird reserve, where I’ll lurk in a hide for a while, pretty much everything watched has been ‘on the hoof’ so to speak, so watching ‘new’ or ‘firsts’ are special moments indeed. I managed to lose the first part of the year due to a nasty bout of lurgy, however towards the end of January I managed to venture, somewhat wonkily out, first on my local patch  where as well as watching the regulars I also spotted one of the elusive Redwings which I ha
Read more

About ME!

Image
  Some years ago,   I decided to learn my way around digital photography so that I could keep pictorial records of the wildlife and nature on my local patch as I began to explore it – an area of   of woodland and farmland near to where I live with a fallow field.  To say I was surprised at the variety of birds, insect life and flora would be an understatement.     When I was considerably younger (a mere Tween!) I had thoroughly enjoyed a bit of birdwatching, so with the interest very much re-awakened, this time with different eyes and taking a very different approach with an appreciation now of seeing the natural world far more, observing and wondering at how, from the soil upwards, through plants and insects to birds, reptiles and mammals, everything fits together in an incredible way with an important place in the huge Nature Jigsaw.  This time around, no tick lists, instead, everything I watched and or photographed I was going to learn something about it – lifecycle, name, habit
Read more

Looking Back at 2015

Image
  Well as 2015 draws to a close, I was having a browse through my Nature Diary and thought I'd share some of my favourite moments.  For me, it has been an exciting year, with quite a few sightings of creatures I have not seen before, or of moments of watching old favourites and as I learn more about the natural world, having more appreciation and wonderment at seeing them.   We start off back in January, when we had a day out at RSPB Lakenheath.  We'd been there briefly before, but decided to have a 'proper' walk round.  It was a bright, but chilly afternoon with plenty about to see, from Reed Buntings up clo se and sunbathing outside the visitor centre, to a far off view of the Cranes, however the highlight of the afternoon were our first ever sightings of Bearded Reedlings.  These tiny birds live in reedbeds and are extremely agile amongst the reeds, feeding on seeds and insects and were very busy that afternoon, feeding up against the cold.  Bearded Reedlings, whil
Read more

Big Garden Birdwatch January 2018

Image
Well I seem to have blinked and a year has disappeared! This year, I managed only one #Biggardenbirdwatch, we were at my Dad's on the Saturday having a belated Burn's Night lunch to celebrate his 90th birthday, so all attention was on the Birthday boy and not on his garden birds, although a Wren was spotted in the Philadelphus along the fence during lunch!   Next morning, I filled up the bird feeders; I use kibbled peanuts and sunflower hearts in one, fatballs in two others and a standard 'high energy' seed mix in two others.  Once I'd got my cup of coffee and camera to hand, well wrapped up, I settled on a chair just outsode the back door to watch and count.  The weather was markedley different from the previous day, cold, but with sunshine and quite a bit of blue sky, it was quite breezy from time to time as well!   The first birds to arrive, in the Hazel at the end of the garden were the Blue Tits, three of them.  One paused amongst the catkins, watching the
Read more

An Alternative Day Out...

Image
  Well recently I decided to forgo a Company trip into town and take the time instead to visit, to me at least, a far more appealing environment;  for some time I've had the Fens in Cambridgeshire on my wishlist of places to explore, so I decided to start with Wood Walton Fen.     Wood Walton Fen is one of a few remaining areas of the ancient fen which covered the area and is a haven for many wildlife species.  Charles Rothschild had already purchased part of Wicken Fen, whch he had gifted to the National Trust and had intended to do the same with Wood Walton.  The National Trust were unable to take the site on so he maintained it as a private reserve for some time before donating it to the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts.  Today, Wood Walton is maintained by Natural England and is classed as a National Nature Reserve, a RAMSAR site and a Special Area of Conservation.     After an interesting drive (navigation is not one of my strong points, however I did have an unexpecte
Read more

A Big Garden Birdwatch And a Catch up on My Local Patch.

Image
  There’s a Dunnock singing outside…   They’ve been flicking and flirting around the front and back garden for the past week or so, Robins have also been chasing about in the garden for territory rights and I’ve watched Blue Tits flying ‘tag’ in the garden as well as hearing Great Tits beginning to declare…  The weather since November has mostly been on the mild side, a bit damp with (for here) a smattering of snow and a couple of frosts.  In the local woods, the Bluebells are a couple of inches through the soil, the Elderberries are all bursting into leaf and there is a carpet of young Stinging Nettles and hopeful Ground Ivy.  Here and there on old wood, toadstools and brackets have appeared as well as a few slime moulds. There have been plenty of Jays about in the woods and I have seen them on their regular winter commute across the back garden as they go back and forth prospecting for food.  We have even had one stop by the garden feeders on several occasions, having a fine meal
Read more