Whilst Hedgehog numbers are plummeting nationally it has been most pleasing to see this last week at least four in our small garden. Each night we have put out a handful of Hedgehog pellets and then we have sat close by to watch and listen to their antics. There is a considerable amount of grunting and snorting so we are hopeful that in a couple months we might see some young hogs as well. Click here
What a fantastic three weeks of weather we have just had with the heat and sunshine producing a phenomenal number of Orange Tip butterflies. A walk on Arnside Knott near Silverdale had us admiring the masses of Cowslips and Early Purple Orchids. On a roadside verge nearby were two Fly Orchids, the first we have ever seen and aptly named. click here
While you would expect Long Tailed Tits to eat caterpillars and grubs not many people realise that Little Owls also enjoy them, together with worms, mice and voles. During the warm, sunny weather of this week I have watched a male Little Owl, for three hours early each morning. He has provided some wonderful filming opportunities as he provided prey for his female , who was still incubating eggs. Enjoy this weeks gallery. Click here
Once the eggs of Long Tailed Tits have hatched the adults have to find enough food to feed up to ten young. It is an enormous task and to help them they sometimes enlist other Long Tailed Tits that have perhaps been predated earlier on. This is what has happened with the birds in this weeks blog and gallery, the same pair that I showed weeks earlier collecting feathers. As many as four adult birds were bringing a great variety of grubs and insects to the young and always trying too avoid the unwelcome attention of Magpies. With a week to go to fledging lets hope they are successful. Click here
One of the most charismatic bird-songs of late spring is that of the Wood Warbler. They love mature Beech woods and were once to be found all over Greater Manchester. Sadly, not any more, with the male in this weeks blog and gallery being the only one in the County. He has been singing now for more than a week, within three miles of the Town Hall, but to date has not found a mate. The problem is repeated throughout the whole country and no one has the answer so the Wood Warbler continues to decline. click here
The hot weather of the last couple of days produced five different butterflies in a 400 yard stretch of our local canal. Hedgehogs have now returned to our garden with two feeding most nights.
Its hard to believe that a pair of Herons in my local Heronry have just fledged three y oung despite the Spring that we have just had. Laying their eggs in January, in a nest fifty feet off the ground, has left them open to all the elements especially the regular snow showers that this year has brought. Somehow they have overcome this with the female covered in snow on several occasions as she incubated. This weeks photo is from the same Heronry in 2005. It was the first digital photo that I ever took and I have never bettered it!! Others are in the gallery.Click here