Yorkshire Dales Holiday Day 3

The Big Garden Birdwatch

Its that time of year again, and this year was a good year for the big garden birdwatch. Chilling from 10.07 to 11.07 with Andy Murry unfortunatly getting beat in the background, I was able to enjoy our birds. The only major downside was the weather; Cloudy, Too sunny, Rainy, Sleety, Dry, Calm, Windy, you name it we had it.

The Birds:
Blackbird: 3-we had four different individuals, two males, two females, one with a white patch on her wing, but sadly we only had three at a time in the garden
Blue Tit: 1
Coal Tit: 2-Something of a novalty, we don't get them often, and this week has been the first time ever we have had two at once
Dunnock: 2
Great Tit: 1
House Sparrow: 20
Robin: 1
Starling: 3
Woodpigeon: 2-This was unexpected to say the least, as we havent had one of these for some time, so to have two randomly pop in on the BGB day was a surprise, obviously after the limelight.

So we had a good representation of our garden birds, with the exception of collard doves, missing out on their chance of fame for the second year running. Our local sparrowhawk male flew overhead as well, but sadly your not allowed to count it.

scotland holiday-day 12

The last day on holiday in scotland! I Have truly enjoyed this holiday and loved seeing all the wildlife. I had one last one last look around new-england bay to see if I could find the male yellowhammer again but sadly he did hot show his little yellow head! luckily something else did and as a result I was able to get some more willow warbler photos!

In total I only saw the silluhete of the young male yellowhammer and even then only identified it by the noise that it was making. I was however rewarded by a stunning male stonechat that was sat on the seashore, my holiday first!

There was no time left to look round new england bay becuase we had to pack up and leave. We had decided that we would go to threave gardens today, after much persuasion by me. Why? well the views of woodpeckers and jays are quite remarkable, with frequent visits by spotted and pied flycatchers, plus the ever present red squirrels and the occasional wood warbler! The feeders in the hide, hidden way off the gardens in some thick woodland, are always busy and becuase they are in a clearing it makes it all the more interesting becuase the birds often rest on the edge of the clearing before flying to the feeder, so you can get a more "natural" photo! As you can see from the below photo there were plenty of birds, and this was just one feeder!

Soon after I arrived this young woodpecker turned up and, although he diddnt stay long, allowed me to get my first woodpecker shots of the day!

Not long after the first jay appeared. The jays here are quite flighty so if planning a trip I would advise waiting for the jay to settle, say 5mins, before whipping out the camera and taking some shots. This one however was really bold, unfortunatly I had messed the shutter-speed up so things diddnt go that well! still the photo directly below scored 17 thumbs up on birdguides so people obviously like it!

Soon an adult woodpecker came to join the fun and was posing for me on the birdfeeder!

Then came everybodys favourite creature at this reserve (but not mine!). I ahd already seen one, running away in a dark thicket on the way up, but this one, the cheeky monkey, was just sat there scoffing all the nuts left for the birds.

By now it was about 1.00 and reception was poor so I assumed that it must be lunch time.It wasnt and so I decided to have a look round all the ponds to see what was there.

Pond no.1-nothing, at all. Not even any birds!

Pond no.2-still nothing (but I can excuse this one becuase it is a decorative pond and so has no plants!

Pond no.3-I had only just discovered this one and its just as well because I soon found some delightful animals. A spotted flycatcher was hunting in the tree behind it, but it eventually drifted away before I could get any decent shots of it.

There was an annoying fence around the pond stopping me from getting a view-solution: climb over the fence! its just as well too becuase I managed to find lots of emerald damselflys which were a first for this holiday! Damselflys are such a joy to take photos of because they are so easy!

I eventually tracked down lunch and after it I returned to the hide. There was a second red-squirrel feeding on the nuts, I could tell that it was different becuase of its dark tail, possibly the very first one I saw whilst on my way to the bird hide!

After that my parents joined me and soon all the wildlife had gone! However a nuthatch arrived which has been quite a numerous species before, only this was the first and only one we saw today so maybe the threave nuthatches have been hit hard by the winter!

My dad then spotted a roe deer sat right outside the hide! I mean right outside. It was conviniently position so that it was hidden in undergrowth and that it was too close to take a picture. I managed this one but I think it gives credit to what I have just said.

After that we decided to head home so that we had ample time. So here end sthe scotland 12 day journey and off we head home. I will miss it but thats the way it is!

the garden recently-avenged!!

Plenty of garden action over the past week, probably due to the warm weather. luckily it has not been too hot and I have been out in the garden with the camera. I would like to announce the joyous news that there has been a shooting. yes that's right, a shooting, only with a camera. I finally managed to get that picture of a magpie. That given, the light was low, I was too slow and the birdbath was in the way but never-the-less I have finally managed to get that photo.

As you can see, there still not much but at least I have now got one in case I need to use it.

the warm weather meant that many birds and animals were quite sluggish and, as with the deer at hard castle craggs, not very flighty. I think that this picture of our local collard dove pair relaxing on the law sums up just about how everyone was feeling. They were the very essence of the word relaxed!!

The hot weather also had the bonus and bring all the frogs back to the pond so that they could remain cool. Normally the next time that we would see the frogs would be next spring when they return to lay more eggs so its great to catch up with them even now. On Sunday we had at least 5 frogs in the top pond and at least 1 was still around today.

No real reason why i included this apart from the fact that I love click beetles. this one didn't click, primarily because I didn't annoy it. I found this on the house wall resting from the sun. you might be able to see that the beetle is hiding on the side of the wall away from the sun.

speaking of laying eggs, our great tit parents have been working around the clock. I have named them Neat and scratty, mainly for those precise reasons. I think the top bird is the male (Neat) and the bottom bird the female. I'm not quite sure what happened to her but she does look a mess. still, she is doing a great job as a mum and, for that matter, him as a dad. I hope they don't nab the click beetle, see earlier, but if they do, it died in a worthy cause. this is our only remaining pair of birds in the garden since the robins move, their chicks were probably eaten by the wretched cat. This pair are quite safe from cats, almost 5m about the ground. they really are great parents. I stood near the box for about 20 mins and in that time both birds made a total number of about 15 trips. Its great to watch and photograph.

And another great addition to the garden wildlife is the return of our large red damselflies. there was only one but that's still a great sight, just look at the colours.

as you can see its been a great weekend for the garden wildlife. also, the stock dove returned this evening, keeping the bird biodiversity on a high