Oh dear! Thats all I can say about today! The early morning sunshine had all disappeared by the time I got out this afternoon, and a cool breeze blew, this had the effect of keeping all the butterflies hidden, not one was seen! Only two Damsels were about, both White Legged ( below) the second one, I reckon, is an immature White Legged, they were together in the Tree Nursery, where by the way the Oxeye daises above were photographed, a shame all this will be ploughed in over the late summer :-(
The lakes and Scrubby Woods were given the once over, only the COOT was notable on the Lakes, but still no sign of any young ones, have they failed in their attempt to breed I wonder ? A GREY HERON was seen flying over, but apart from that, not much else was about.In the woods, a CUCKOO called constantly from the overhead power cables, where it was joined by two TURTLE DOVES, only a couple each of BLACKCAP and CHIFFCHAFF were heard singing, plus a SONGTHRUSH. I checked up on the PHEASANT and COLLARED DOVES nests, and found both adults incubating eggs still :-)
I visited Migrant Alley a little later, but again disturbance was high, so all I could to was watch for flyovers, BUZZARD, KESTREL and SPARROWHAWK were all seen, and 3 single HERRING GULLS. A dozen SWIFTS were wheeling around the Tower over in the village, and a bit nearer to me 8 SWALLOWS zipped around the fly ridden sheep, of which one was lying dead with it's throat opened up, don't worry I didn't take any photo's :-) I wonder if someones '' Don't worry he wont hurt you'' pets had savaged it! Either way as far as i'm concerned, it's one less sheep to much the hedgerows and undergrowth, the whole perimeter of the sheep grazing is badly degraded as wildlife habitat now, such is the intensive nature of the Sheep stocking this year.
Anyway, that post turned into a bit of a rant didn't it!! So here's some photo's of some Young birds I took in my well run wildlife habitat of a garden.
Above and below a Juv. BLACKBIRD
Below is the first successfully confirmed breeding for HOUSE SPARROW this year on my patch, the 11th species to fledge young so far :-)
16 comments:
"fly ridden sheep, of which one was lying dead with it's throat opened up,"...you've obviously got one of thoe pesky golden eagles on your patch, guffaw guffaw - - time for a double dose of that highly illegal but very effective carbofuran methinks...carry on Jenkins there's a good man...
Cheers
Davo
Heh heh heh nice one dave :-)
Warren ,
I would agree with you re. the second damselfly , looks like an immature female White-legged in the lactea phase .
Great to see the Sparrow Warren, they are breeding nearby but haven't seen any in the garden for a while - in fact our feeder has been pretty much untouched for a while now....I guess those insects taste better.
Thanks Greenie,
They get confusing at the sub-adult stage!!
I like the look of those white legged chaps Warren. I'll make it my mission to see one this year.
Kieron,
House Sparrows have declined since I moved to my house in 1999. I used to get 30+ at my feeders, now i'm lucky to get 6, then only in the Autumn!
House Sparrows have declined dramatically here too Warren, the garden used to be teeming with them. Now it is quite an event when one or two visit.
Love the photo of the young Blackbird being fed. I noticed a young Greenfinch all aflutter in my garden today :)
House Sparrows remain one of the few successes in my garden here on Sheppey. The finches may have deserted me but for most of the year I get 25-35 sparrows most days on the bird tables.
Derek, Songbird,
It's a mystery to me where they have all gone, and what caused there decline. I know some of the older houses have been renovated, depriving the Sparrows of nesting places, but this cant be all of the answer, I remember when sparrows nested in colonies in hawthorn hedges, now that could be clue to their demise!
The House Sparrows are about due to fledge here in my garden, Warren.
There`s numerous factors why they`ve declined and the fascias & suffits fitting flush up against the houses is one of em as you say.
Swifts will be going the same way too.
Beautiful blog, and the photos, especially the damselflies.
Nice catch on the Blackbird shot.
Sorry I didn't manage to join you this afternoon, Warren. Another day... a sunny one! Thanks so much for your tip about Hadlow College gardens, had my best ever views of Beautiful Demoiselles. I'll be posting them on my blog shortly :)
You are getting youngs, while our birds are just starting to mate ;-) I almost walked on redshanks and black tailed godwitt nests today and I realize I should be more careful when visiting meadows closed to the sea...
Hi Warren, I'm not sure if you remember Norman Road in West Malling but if you walk along there around 18:30 you wont be short a Sparrow or 60. It reminds me of when I was kid - if we threw out seed the Sparrows would be there within seconds and would stay until the Starlings arrived.
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