Surprise Buzzard & Sparrowhawk

On 04/08/2015 By TontowilliamsIn Being Positive, Birds, Dogs, Wildlife/Nature

My morning dog walks are tending to be a little longer at the moment as there is no train to catch to work (at least for now). The chance to take a little longer and walk a little further is good for my mental health if nothing else. When I get back I tend to sit down and look through the job alerts that have come through, earmarking any that I am going to submit an application for, and if there is nothing else to do (the last two days, I’ve been preparing a proposal for a client), get on with the applications.

This morning, just as we were heading for home, I heard a bird of prey calling. When I turned and looked up I saw first one and then a second buzzard circling. As I continued to watch a Sparrowhawk appeared.

I wonder whether she was hoping for some smaller birds to be spooked by the buzzards and then be able to swoop in for a meal.

Quite pleased with the camera phone photos above, cropped in google photos.

Little Brown Job

On 30/07/2015 By TontowilliamsIn Birds, Wildlife/Nature

Little Brown Jobs (LBJs) are birds that are often difficult to tell apart at first glance, either because they are similar in marking or are juveniles and have yet to develop their adult plumage.

I was sitting at my desk this morning, glancing out of the window, trying to find some words to describe my mornings walk and deer sighting, when a butterfly passed under the window and paused on the grass outside. Basking in the sun it opened and closed it’s wings and seemed to settle for a period, to absorb what heat there was. I picked up my phone, to try and snap a picture.

I went into the garden, and carefully stalked my intended model, trying not to cast my own shadow across the scene and scare of my muse. Photo complete I returned indoors.

Now there was a time, when I could recognise most British butterflies on sight. Over the years, I’ve spent less time outdoors, and my skills have gotten more than a little rusty. As I was walking back inside I can remember thinking, that my muse was a Meadow Brown. As I posted the photo to Instagram and I was looking at the wing spots I realised that it wasn’t.

My muse was in fact a Gatekeeper, similar to a Meadown Brown, but with additional spots on the hind wings. My butterfly had become a LBJ of the Lepidopteran variety, and I am ashamed of my identification skills, although I did spare myself any embarrassment of posting a misidentified photograph online.

More time in the field I think.

Deer, Oh Deer

On 30/07/2015 By TontowilliamsIn Dogs, Simple Things, Wildlife/Nature

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about not seeing deer on my way to work in the mornings. I’ve been on “leave” the last couple of weeks, my official last day in my current job is tomorrow, which has obviously given me more time to take longer morning walks with the dogs.

This morning we were on our way around the fort when I heard something crashing through the bottom of “the moat”. Being Summer the vegetation is now green and lush, and it is difficult to see any distance, but I did glimpse the bouncing white tails of two Roe Deer. I’ve seen deer here before, but not that often as there are just too many people about. We’d obviously spooked them, and they weren’t hanging around, but it’s good to know that I still might see deer in the mornings.

Book Review: Common Ground by Rob Cowen

On 21/07/2015 By TontowilliamsIn Book Review, Wildlife/Nature

Common Ground by Rob Cowen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It has taken me a while to read Rob Cowen’s Common Ground, because I’ve wanted to savour it. It reminds me of classic natural history books such as J A Baker’s “The Peregrine” and Richard Mabey’s “Nature Cure”, both of which I’ve reread this year, and so are fresh in my mind.

Common Ground takes the reader through a journey of the area of land on the edge of town. Rob Cowen takes the reader there through a series of chapters on different aspects and through different points of view. It is both incredibly well written, but also captivating in it’s description of the nature and of mankind and our attitude to an increasingly pressured natural system.

I’ve taken my time with the book, dipping in now and again to read a chapter or two. To savour it, as I didn’t want it to end, and I will miss it now that it’s over.

Recommended to anyone who enjoys natural history books.

View all my reviews

Who’s Been Digging My Potatoes?

I paid an early morning visit to the allotment today. It’s the first time that I’ve made it down there since last weekend, due to other things going on, but everything at first glance looked okay. Or at least so I thought, because then I noticed that there were a few potatoes sitting on the surface of the plot, when really they should be still buried under ground. It looks as though something, my guess would be a fox, has been digging them up.

I don’t really mind sharing some of my crops, however they haven’t been taken away, just left on the surface, so obviously they’re not tasty unless cooked!

I think tomorrow, I will dig up the remainder, which is a job I need to do anyway, as I don’t want to loose the crop, from an over curious visitor 🙂

On 10/07/2015 By TontowilliamsIn Fork To Fork, Garden / Allotment, Wildlife/Nature

Deer Watch

On 08/07/2015 By TontowilliamsIn redundancy, Simple Things, Wildlife/Nature

Every morning as my train to work cuts through the countryside I look out of the window for sightings of deer. There are particular spots where they gather along the way, so often I know where to look.

In less than two weeks my redundancy happens and I will no longer be getting the train to work. At least not as far as I know at the moment. So I won’t have my daily deer sightings. I will miss these simple things in my day, even if I won’t miss that particular job. I know I’ll get my wildlife fix in another way, but deer have always held a special place.

Allotment Catch Up Sunday

On 05/07/2015 By TontowilliamsIn Birds, Garden / Allotment, Uncategorized, Wildlife/Nature

I spent this morning on the allotment as I hadn’t spent much time there yesterday with having to pick Ruby up from the vet. As she was clearly much better I took a couple of hours to do some weeding and watering, as well as harvesting a few things – broccoli, red gooseberries and loganberries in particular.

It was an overcast morning, which thankfully kept the temperatures down, there were also a number of birds about, in particular blackbirds singing and my robin friend was back, keeping a check that I was doing the weeding right and uncovering insects for him to eat.

Neither Black or Pink

On 02/07/2015 By TontowilliamsIn Garden / Allotment, Wildlife/Nature

Last year we had both black and pink Hollyhock in our garden. This year we have neither but we do have the red one pictured above. I can only assume that it is a hybrid of the two former colours.

Allotment Video Update 20th June 2015

On 20/06/2015 By TontowilliamsIn Fork To Fork, Garden / Allotment, Video, Wildlife/Nature

Robin Update

On 12/06/2015 By TontowilliamsIn Birds, Garden / Allotment, Wildlife/Nature

The Robin in our garden is still faithfully sitting on her eggs. Having done a bit of online research I now know that it is the female that sits on the eggs alone, and it takes 13 days for them to hatch. So assuming that when we first noticed her was last Saturday, 6th June, we are likely to have baby birds sometime this week.

As she is so exposed, we’re keeping watch but from a distance, so as not to disturb her. Her preference for this nest is completely different to the blue tits who we had nesting earlier in the season. They managed to find a gap in the side of the garage, and chose to nest there. It means we have no idea how many young they had, as other than the chirps of the young, and the parents tooting and froeing you wouldn’t have known they were there, unlike the blue tits from last year, who used the sparrow box, and you could see the young, sticking their heads out, now and again.

Electronic Scrapbook

Category: Wildlife/Nature