Category: Birds

  • 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

    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

    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

    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.

  • Stonechat

    A new sighting of a stonechat: caught on the camera set up to catch the kingfisher (who is proving rather camera-shy).

  • Kingfisher 1 fish 0

    The kingfisher is proving an expert at fishing and the roach less expert at hiding.

  • Home viewing

    A brief visit from a female barn owl last night. She is ringed so has come from a managed nest but we don’t know where, yet.

    Update. On closer inspection we can just make out some of the digits on its ring, which match the adult male from this year. So he’s roosting somewhere else and keeping an eye on the empty nest box.

    (the oak leaves are from a squirrel who has tried to make a nest in the nest box)

  • A flash of blue

  • Moorhen update

    Three juvenile moorhens have survived (so far) and are now settled in with the two parents on the island. They are all quite shy and skittery so we never see them that close up, but they seem quite happy where they are, safe on the island and with lots to eat.

    Here’s where they live.