A wild field garden in Bomere Heath, Shropshire, England
—
A quick visit to the island to see why there are no signs of ducklings reveals an empty mallard nest (no evidence of eggs at all of the eggs that were there) but nearby, very well hidden, a full moorhen nest.
We think there’s only one moorhen so it’s unclear whether the eggs will hatch. Island is now out of bounds for the next three weeks. Watch this space!
—
—
We’ve started using a temporary plug to block the entrance to the barn owl box during the day, so that other animals can’t nest in it. Unfortunately we didn’t take into account how clever jackdaws are, as you can see (skip to 2:00 if you can’t wait!).
Within a few hours the jackdaws filled the owl box with twigs and grass to form a formidable nest.
—
A quick trip onto the island to look for moorhen nests and instead we find a female mallard sitting on a clutch of six eggs in a nest made from dried bulrush stems and duck down.
—
One of the first signs of spring: a clump of lesser celandine in the corner of the field.
—
The cold weather held off the frogs and toads but now it’s warming up they’re on the march and getting busy in the pond making loads of spawn: a lot more than last year too. Listen to the video to hear the toads sing!
—
It looks as though we are one down on the moorhen count. Three elusive survivers, though hard to tell which are the adults and which hatched last year as the youngsters have now gained their grown up colours. Winter’s not over yet, but hopefully the worst has passed and these three will keep going until spring with warmer weather and more to eat.
—
We’ve finally managed to get one of the owl box cameras working so we can see inside the owl box in its new position on a large oak tree. No activity yet, but there’s plenty of time.
—
Exactly a year later, and the on the first warm evening, frogs and toads have started to gather at the pond, like early arrivals at a party. It’s going to get raunchy!
—
—
We’ve rescued the owl box that came down with the old oak and have put it up in place of the old owl box on a huge old (living) oak nearby.
No time to get the cameras inside it working yet but a trailcam by the tree has captured a barn owl already settling in to the new residence. It’s ringed and may well be one of the pair that were using the same box before. Not sure what it makes of the enforced move but it seems happy enough.
—
The storm last night brought down the dead oak in the corner of the field. A great shame as it was quite majestic. It also housed the owl box but fortunately it was unoccupied (the owls are currently residing somewhere else) and miraculously undamaged.
On closer inspection the tree had almost no roots left and so it was just a matter of time before it came down. We’ll cut back some of the branches to make it safer and easier to get around. It’s quite rotten so of no use so we might leave the main part where it is to gently decompose into the ground: good for the wildlife and much less effort. Vale quercu!
