Tipton's Croft

A wild field garden in Bomere Heath, Shropshire, England

Category: Birds

  • The sootballs are growing up

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    There may only be three of them now but the moorhen chicks are getting bigger, losing their fur and gaining their true feathers and, gradually, their independence.

  • They’re not moorhens!

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    Out of nowhere (well, probably a quiet corner of the island) a gang of day old mallard chicks has appeared. We’ve not seen any adults for a few days so they have been very secretive about the nest.

  • Moorhens update

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    Five little sootballs spotted today with their parents teaching them life skills.

  • Sootballs!

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    We had almost given up on the nest of moorhen eggs (it has been well over three weeks since we first spotted them) but suddenly six little ‘sootball’ moorhen chicks have appeared, with both adults.

    Here’s one of the adults teaching the chick to feed (on water crowfoot).
    And three chicks closely following an attentive adult.

  • Early morning mist, moorhens, greylags and mallards

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    And tadpoles!

  • Eggs come and go

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    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!

  • Clever birds

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    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.

  • Egg surprise

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    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.

  • Counting moorhens

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    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.

  • Lights, camera, action

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    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.

    Ready for any passing barn owl.

  • Moving house

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    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 King of Bomere Heath

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    It took a while but at last we managed to get a close-up photo of the kingfisher waiting to catch a fish on the pond, just as the sun came out.