Tipton's Croft

A field in Shropshire, England

Category: Animals

  • Voyeurism can be subtle…

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    …or not subtle!

    One, two, three, four toads!

  • The toads have arrived

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    A little late to the party but at last the change to warmer and wetter weather has brought them out of hiding. They’re everywhere already (and it’s only the first night).

    (photo editing: cropped and resized)

  • Working camera, empty nest

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    Finally we have a working hootycam (after the old ones were disabled by a squirrel), but an empty nest box and looks like it has been empty for a while. Plenty of time though: it wasn’t until March last year that barn owls first appeared.

  • Spring is in the air

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    After a long winter in hibernation frogs have started to appear in the pond. Not many yet but over the next few days they’ll be joined by toads and then there’s going to be one heck of a party!

    Common frog

  • A surprising find in the pond

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    One swan mussel. No idea where it came from because we haven’t put any in, but a welcome sight: swan mussels are native and good for the water quality. We hope there are more but they are quite shy, normally hiding in the mud at the bottom.

  • Winter resident

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    After a few weeks of no cameras in the nest box (thanks to something nibbling the cables up in the tree) we have fixed the technical issues and now have a good view of the inside of the nest box, where the new barn owl is settling in for the winter. She (see the black dots on her front) isn’t ringed and doesn’t look like our previous owls, so is likely new to the area.

  • We have a visitor!

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    The black blob on the bottom of the nest box is a fresh barn owl pellet and the first sign that an owl is around and might be interested in settling in.

    A search back through the nest box camera’s saved clips reveals all. The barn owl has been visiting for a couple of days and even rested all day on Friday. We don’t know if it’s male or female, or if it is one of the adults from this year (it is unlikely to be any of the fledglings). We can’t see if it is ringed yet either. Will let you know more when we do.

    Almost exactly to the day a barn owl starts to visit the nest box. It was 1 October when we first spotted one last year https://tiptonscroft.org.uk/blog/new-tenant/.

  • Pond-loving birds

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    A week of filming the new shallow end of the pond shows how popular it is for birds.

    In order of appearance: carrion crows, jackdaws, magpies, wood pigeons, moorhens, a snipe and a sparrowhawk having a bath.

  • Sparrowhawk

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    A female sparrowhawk has started visiting the pond to drink and bathe. The local pigeons had better keep a good lookout otherwise they’ll be breakfast!

  • And then there were none

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    The youngest owlet has finally dispersed and the nest box is now empty. It’s been a successful year and there are now three new barn owls somewhere out there in the Shropshire countryside. This brings our total owls bred to 11 since we started in 2018.

    The nest box shouldn’t be empty for long, but hopefully we have enough time to clean it out and make any repairs needed before another (or possibly the same) couple of barn owls settle in.

    Three great tits take an interest in the empty nest box.

  • New red and yellow resident

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    The young moorhen that has been visiting is growing up and has developed the distinctive red and yellow beak, and now may be settling in its new home in a clump of bulrush.

  • And then there was one

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    The owlets have spent the past few days gaining their independence and the older two have now left the nest box and dispersed, to who knows where, as they do at this age. The youngest is still here and still being fed by the adult female, but it won’t be long before he too will fly off into the distance.

    The owlets at twelve weeks old