A field in Shropshire, England
—
Day 3. The female briefly left the nest last night, revealing the scrawny little two day old hatchling. Turn up the volume to hear it calling for her to return, which she duly does.
The male has been spending most of the nights hunting for his new family, successfully judging by the field voles lying on the left in the nest box.
—
Day 1. It’s been a long month of waiting, but this morning we had our first barn owl hatching. Both mother and baby are doing fine (father is wisely staying well out of it as you can see).
No view of the baby but turn up the volume and you can hear the egg cracking open and (we think) its first high-pitched call as the mother chatters to it.
—
Need more than flowering grass? Here’s some real spring colour.
—
OK, it’s not as pretty as other flowers, but Meadow Foxtail is the first grass to flower here in the spring, so we think it deserves a mention.
Swarms of them in the field, usually appearing on the 25th of April (St Mark’s Day) but a day late this year because it’s a leap year?! Weird-looking things dangling their legs in the air, but they don’t bite and are good pollinators so we’re letting them do their thing.
With few predators (no fish in the lake) the taddies have taken over. We might have a bit of a problem if they all turn into frogs and toads!
—
—
The female barn owl carefully steps around the eggs, then settles down next to the male: turn up the volume to hear the gentle chittering.
—
Doesn’t mean field is on fire again!
—
The damp winter has helped the cuckoo flowers this year – proof that spring has arrived at last.
—
All going well, with the male hunting well at night in the good weather.
—
A little incident today with a bonfire getting a little bigger than planned. Thanks to the amazing Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service it all ended safely with a scorched field but no significant damage. Lessons learned and someone at Tipton’s Croft has had his matches confiscated and is only allowed to use blunt scissors in the office.
