A field in Shropshire, England
A careful drone flyby when the mother was away feeding shows two intact eggs in the middle of the nest. There may be more to come as four or five are a typical clutch for a greylag goose.
Update 21 May 2023. The two goose eggs disappeared a few days later, then two more appeared but the female crushed one. The remaining one survived and just two hours ago hatched and the gosling is already happily swimming around the pond!
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The male has clearly learned how to do things right, as the female has just laid her first egg which she is now tenderly caring for.
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The male barn owl is a little inexperienced. It’s good he brings back some food for the female but he has to learn to put it down before he can get on with the business of making little owls.
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Six Five new wildflowers identified so far this year. They may not be rare but they’re joining a growing list, now up to 106 different wildflowers her at Tipton’s Croft.
Make it seven six! Here’s garlic mustard (but not in flower yet).
Update: we have misidentified the yellow archangel as a native wildflower. This one is actually an invasive non-native subspecies (Lamiastrum galeobdolon spp argentatum) so we are now busy removing it from the edge of the field. The pale patches on the leaves are what makes it distinct from the native variety.
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Extra camera fitted on ledge to try to read the leg ring number on one of the owls. Let’s see if it works…
Success! We now know the whole leg ring number and have identified the barn owl having hatched last year at a nesting site only about four miles from us.
