LOCAL WALK IN THE MEADOWS
WEATHER: a breautiful sunny morning, but a cold easterly wind took the edge of it. 8C
More birds were singing today and I'm not surprised: what uplifts me more than a clear blue sky and sunshine??? The Villa winning a game - that's a real rarity!!
I spent most of my time watching a pair of Eurasian Nuthatches completing renovations to a hole in a tree, what they were doing was filling in the hole with mud to suit their specifications, i.e Nuthatch size instead of Woodpecker size. There was one slight problem.............the hole was fresh as a daisy, very recently dug out. It was Green Woodpecker size and sure enough said Woodpecker was shouting loudly from a nearby tree. I didn't see any interaction between the two species but I can guess who will come off worse. Watch this space its gonna end in tears!
the male Nuthatch was singing from a nearby tree whilst the fermale was doing all the work at the nest hole
this is the hole - if you look closely you can see a layer of mud along the top edge on the inside of the hole
you can also see howe freshly made the hole is!
this fellah was watching every move the Nuthatches were making.....there will be trouble, I'm sure of it
Further along the track I heard my first Common Chiffchaff singing and then a second, wow! spring must be on its way. I got good views of one of the Chiffchaffs.
Common Chiffchaff singing
What I haven't seen during these past few days is a Raven there was always a couple pairs here during the last few years. I did find a second pair of Common Buzzards and I think they have a nest in an ivy-clad oak at the far end of the valley. A second Green Woodpecker called also from the far end and a Great Spotted drummed.
I decided to walk the senic route back which took me to the top of the hill where I got stunning views of Stoford and the surroiunding countryside.
This shows the delerict building where the Grey Wagtail is building a nest - the row of trees mark out the route of the river
the nearest and largest building is a block of 12 flats where we live
I didn't see a Red Kite fly over, I was looking all the time, apparanetly dozens of them passed through Dorset today and many were seen in Somerset but not by me.
I was out for 2 hours and apart from watching the meadow and the garden feeder I never saw much else.