A Chance Encounter

 Well on a cloudy Good Friday afternoon, I decided to have a little wander on the local patch, as I fancied a 'catch-up' to see how Spring is progressing after a couple of weeks absence.

It was very overcast, but not too breezy and was reasonably mild, so I set off along the usual path through the top part of the woods.  There were two wrens 'declaring' on separate bramble patches, so I stopped to see if I could catch a closer look - no luck, they were both on a rather loud, high speed patrol of their chosen territories.  As I stood peering hopefully at likely spots that they might perch, I saw something scooting up a nearby tree; a busy Treecreeper on the forage. 

At certain times of the year, particularly during the spring and early summer, there are quite a few about busily collecting food.  There are plenty of 'holey' trees, although I've yet to spy where they may nest.

After watching it forage and spiral at speed up the tree, until I could no longer see it, I wandered on.

 There are several bramble patches along the route that I follow, with small clearings in between,   each bramble patch appears to be 'owned' by a wren.  Standing in one of the little clearings, I saw one flit into a favourite tangle and stood watching to see where it would reappear.  Now this clearing is not too far from the edge of the field and there are a lot of rabbit holes around it.  As I stood watching, a movement out the corner of my eye, caught my attention.  Something small, lithe and tan had appeared over the top of a fallen tree.  It wasn't a rabbit, wrong shape!  

Wandered over to the log and could see a little hole underneath, with a glimpse of black shiny eyes peeping out intermittently!

Well naturally this got my attention.  I stood well back and carried on watching the log, where I still kept getting a glimpse of a bright-eyed tan head popping up.  I focused the camera on the top of the log and waited.....

Then, in a blink - 

and pfft! gone again!

It was a weasel trying to get a late lunch home!  (I think it may be a young squirrel, or I have seen rats up in the ditches at the edge of the field).

Well, I've seen them before at a distance, but never anywhere near close up, so decided to wait about and see if I could get a better view.   

There are plenty of rabbits that live around the edges of the field and inside the woods as well as mice and an abundance of squirrels. Weasels are not especially rare, just small, fast and certainly on my local patch I've not seen one before, although apparently in some parts they are quite common. I did have a little bit of a read up and one weasel (family) can have a fairly large and exclusive territory, although this may be smaller if prey is abundant - for a small animal, they eat a lot! 

Anyhow, whilst I waited, a couple of local characters seemed quite oblivious to the small eating machine, although no less alert!

This rabbit was on lookout about ten meters from where the weasel appeared to be residing, 


And this squirrel, obviously doing some Bank Holiday weekend DIY scurried past with a large lump of bark....

But was in something of a hurry!

I could still see glimpses of movement over by the log, so I decided to change position and stood a little way away, the other side of the log from where I'd been watching previously.  

Well I waited..... and one of the wrens I  had been looking for, hopped up into the tree and began to serenade...

and listen for a reply...

But as I don't speak 'wren'....

Anyhow, I started to see some movement by the log, so got ready, to see if I could capture the moment....

The Weasel had come out in the 'open' and was trying to see if I was still standing in my original spot!

  'Where's the 'umanbean?'

After which, he shot off underneath the log and disappeared!

I did go and wait around the same area a few times over the weekend, but to no avail, however, late on Sunday afternoon I was about half a mile away on a path along the edge of the woods and a weasel shot across to a grassy area where there are plenty of rabbits.  A few seconds later I could see a rabbit breaking the land-speed record, although, I think the weasel missed out as I then spotted the rabbit catching it's breath before disappearing underground....

There was one other very welcome 'First' for the weekend, the past few years I have watched chiff chaffs along the edge of the fallow field, always on the same territory.  I even had a youngster visiting the garden in late summer of last year.  Whilst on 'Weasel-watch' I could hear someone chiff-chaffing away and went to investigate before going home - 

As though had never been away and back on his patch!


 

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

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

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

2020 A Local Patch Retrospective...

Image
  Where was I?  Ah yes, beginning of May 2020.  Apologies for the huge gap, but with concentrating on getting through last year, I somehow never had the words to go with the pictures, so, whilst things are still not great, am a bit more used to ‘hands, face, space’ so feel that am in calmer waters whilst in a holding pattern until things are safer…   Anyhow, I digress! In between working from home and trying not to lose the plot entirely, I did manage to get out for quite a few walks on my local patch and as always kept a photo diary of what I was watching, so I’ve been through the photos and pieced together some of the moments that were particularly special.  Very often, those walks were a saving grace in a life where routines and plans were suddenly in disarray and observing Nature’s unhindered progress through the season was strangely of comfort when I was feeling as though I’d somehow woken into a chaotic frightening disaster movie.   My local patch, last year, became exceeding
Read more

Then April Arrived...

Image
  Then April arrived.  With an overwhelming amount of news bulletins, statistics, frightening information and continuing to adjust to the new ‘normal’, my local patch wander has given something of a respite, reset and refresh – Nature really has become, for certain health aspects, the best medicine… There is something very comforting in watching a familiar clock ticking away the seasons with all the players, whether flora or fauna making their expected timed entrances and simply getting on with it…    Green shoots began to burst their buds, With more Wood Anemones appearing, now joined by the brilliant yellow of Lesser Celandine And Greater Stitchwort putting in an appearance. The Bluebell buds swelled, in preparation for a grand display, Whilst the Blackthorn came into bloom and provided food for Peacocks and Small Tortoiseshells as well as numerous Bees, hoverflies and other minibeasts. Here and there hints of brilliant pink appeared as Scarlet Campion came into flowe
Read more

A Few of my Favourite Things...

Image
  How do you decide what your favourite Nature photograph is (that you may have taken) ?  What do you think makes it a favourite?   I was recently asked if I wanted to supply some images for BBC Springwatch to use on their  Instagram page ,  with the brief being to provide ten of my favourites...  Well as I have a sizeable archive of nature photography - my 'diary' for the past few years, I had a bit of a task on my hands to choose!  That got me to thinking however, what makes and just how do you choose your favourites?   For me, everytime I go walking with the camera, it's usually on a 'see what I shall see' basis; sometimes a lot, sometimes it's quiet, or I see and hear masses, but the subjects simply are not up for being photograhed.  I've lots of memories of special moments with wildlife - most recently, two brief encounters with a local female Sparrowhawk, with glimpses caught of her in flight as she is vocally sorting someone out on her patch - but
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