Tipton's Croft

A field in Shropshire, England

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    The damp winter has helped the cuckoo flowers this year – proof that spring has arrived at last.

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    All going well, with the male hunting well at night in the good weather.

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    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.

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    Three eggs so far, the owls are doing well with good hunting thanks to the good weather at night.

    Proud mother on the left, father on the right.

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    The female can’t go hunting now, so the male does it for her, bringing back a nice fat field vole, but expects and gets something in return: but he’s so keen he doesn’t even wait for her to have her meal first.

    (warning: scenes of a noisy and graphic nature!)

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    At last the two barn owls have done what comes naturally and we now have two eggs in the nest box. Hopefully some more to come over the next few days, then a month of waiting before the first one hatches. At least something good is going on at the moment!

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    Here’s the stock dove minding its own business on the nest when a jackdaw comes in and tries to get the eggs. Dove 1 Jackdaw 0.

    Update 2020.04.11 Unfortunately the jackdaw eventually won when the dove decided enough was enough and abandoned the nest.

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    At last the new nest box is being used properly, but not by the owls. A squirrel has spent the past few days filling it with nest material and it has now laid an egg. Hopefully the first of a few (squirrels lay up to eight each year). Won’t be long before we have lots of cute little baby critters!

    OK, squirrels don’t lay eggs, except on April 1! Just for clarity, the squirrel did make the nest, but the egg is due to a stock dove who took it over when the squirrel left.

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    The frogs and toads have been busy as you can see: clump of frogspawn on the right, strings of toadspawn on the left.

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    Lots of frogspawn in the lake, and now happy toads all over the place too.

    A toad
    Four toads
    (yes, four!)
    Happy toads

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    There have been no owls in the new nest box for a few days, so others have taken advantage of the opportunity. Not sure who’s going to win the bidding war for this desirable location

    Jackdaw
    Squirrel
    Stock Dove

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    The two barn owls are spending a lazy Sunday in the old nest box. They’re staying in the old nest box more now, hopefully a sign that they’ve chosen it as their nesting site this year.