At last caught on camera: the fish thief! This grey heron has been visiting for a while, leaving big footprints in the mud around the pond, but today’s the first time he’s triggered the trail cam. Does seem to be limping though. Hopefully will get more footage soon with a better view.
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A gaggle of geece
Five greylag geece visited the pond this morning; lovely to see but the the appetite of geece can be rather destructive to fragile pond plants. They didn’t stay long, treating the pond rather like a motorway service station, and once they had their fill off they went, heading north.
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The happy couple
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Category: Barn OwlsA rare chance to see both barn owl faces. They don’t often look up at the camera but another bird landed noisily on top of the nest box and disturbed them.
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The first egg of the year
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Category: Barn OwlsThe barn owls haven’t wasted any time this spring and the female has just produced her first egg! She’ll stay in the nest box now as she lays more eggs over the next few days and the male will now do all the hunting for them both, so they’ll both be kept busy.
It’s early in the year still and the weather is unpredictable, but so long as there isn’t prolonged rain or snow covering the ground they should be fine.
Two eggs 
Three eggs Update 24 April 2022. Only three eggs this year (compared to six last year). It might have been the warm weather early this spring that started the female laying earlier than usual and the subsequent cold weather that stopped her after three. Whatever reason, three is what she has, and so far things are going well with the male bringing back plenty of prey. The first egg should hatch this week, fingers crossed.
Four eggs Update 1 May 2022. 31 days since the first egg was laid and it should have hatched today, but we find the female has laid a fourth egg instead. Very strange behaviour: it might be she was waiting for the weather to warm up, or it was too cold for the first three and she’s started again. We’ll know over the next few days.
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Kestrels wanted
We have a new nest box on one of the old oak trees on the edge of the field: this one for kestrels. Thanks to John and Mary from Talon Nest Boxes. Now we wait…
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Toad time
And now it’s time for the toads: unlike frogs they’re quite happy to be out on dry land.
Dry warty skin, crawling instead of hopping and out on dry land = toad!
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Oystercatchers
A long way from home* but these three oystercatchers seem happy enough rootling around the edge of the pond.
*Shropshire isn’t renowned for its coast, or oysters!
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A hare and its predators
Filmed over two nights on the same camera at a busy crossroads: a hare, a cat, a fox and a badger.
And here’s a composition of all four to show their relative sizes (the hare is closer to the camera so it looks bigger than it is).
Hare, fox, badger and cat
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How baby barn owls are made
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Category: Barn OwlsWARNING. Do not watch if you have a nervous disposition. It’s not pretty and there’s not much romance involved but it’s what barn owls do in spring!
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Daytime owls
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Category: Barn OwlsAnd now we have a pair of barn owls in the nest box, busy attending to each other and waiting the day out until they get get back out in the dark to hunt.
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Hare
We spotted this brown hare a few days ago running at full pelt into the distance but this morning filmed it on the trail cam undisturbed in the early morning sun. It is coming into the field (we hope looking for a nesting site) through the holes in the hedge that the badgers make. Unfortunately badgers and hares don’t mix well together but there’s not way we can let one in but not the other: we’ll have to leave nature to do its thing.
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Daytime owl
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Category: Barn OwlsIt’s the first time one of the owls has stayed the day. It’s a bit early to be too optimistic but a good sign that they might be getting ready to nest. We hope!
