Tipton's Croft

A wild field garden in Bomere Heath, Shropshire, England

Category: Birds

  • Growing up fast

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    The greylag gosling is now two weeks old and growing fast. The adult male has disappeared, leaving the female to bring up the gooselet (no, this isn’t a real word) on her own, but she seems to be doing a good job.

    Update 12 June. Three weeks old and doing well!

    Update 16 June. Unfortunately it looks as though we’ve lost the greylag gosling. We last saw it a week ago and briefly saw the mother fly off a couple of days ago (she never leaves the gosling on its own). Such is nature, though whether it was a predator like a fox we’ll never know.

  • Four hungry mouths

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    There are now four hungry noisy pink wriggly things for the female barn owl to feed. That field vole won’t last long.

  • Dinner time

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    The barn owl mum has to multitask, keeping the three owlets under control while sitting on the two remaining eggs, holding dinner (a mouse caught during the night) under a claw while pulling it apart with her beak to feed the hungry pink wrigglers. It won’t be long before they can each down a whole mouse themselves, but in the meantime it’s hard work for the mum. We’re not sure where the dad is: if he’s not around then it will be hard for her to provide enough food for the growing brood on her own..

  • Little owls

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    Two eggs have hatched so far and the little pink scrawny owlets appear to be doing well. Three eggs to go (we didn’t realise there were five!).

  • Two goose eggs

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    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!

  • First egg!

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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.

    Update 25 April 2023: there are now three eggs.
    Update 29 April 2023: there are now four eggs!

  • Still learning

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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.

  • Geese!

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    We now have a pair of greylag geese taking residence on the pond with the female making a nest on the floating island. These birds are HUGE!

  • A long way from any oysters

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    Oystercatchers today at Tipton’s Croft.

  • Automatic number plate recognition?

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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…

    ANPR in action!

    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.

  • Spring is in the air

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    The barn owls are at it already and there’s no doubt which one is the male. Several times a day too, so at this rate we should be seeing the first egg in a few days.

  • More owls!

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    It’s now getting a little confusing. Today there are two owls in the nest box but one of them doesn’t have a ring on its leg so isn’t one of the two owls who have been visiting this week. So we now have at least three owls.