The Last Adders
I fear that this last cold, wet Spring will be another nail in the coffin of my local Adders. Last week produced the first warm day which they require before emerging and basking in the sun. Despite a thorough search only one female was found and there were no moulted skins of males which they shed prior to breeding. However, the good news was that I found a young Adder, born last August, so hopefully all is not lost.It is sad though that only seven years ago I added a tick to my wildlife bucket list when I filmed two male Adders ” Dancing” at this very same site. It is an event that very few wildlife enthusiasts ever see so I enclose some of those photos in the gallery as I am unlikely ever to see it again.That same day I had four courting Adders in a ball – enjoy – but don’t get too close!
On a visit into the hills during the week it was good to see hunting Long Eared Owls. The incessant rain will have had a serious impact upon them and even more impact on Short Eared Owls who have no way of hiding from the conditions. Time will tell whether they are able to rear young this Spring but lets hope so.
Is it the fact that we have not seen the Sparrowhawk for the last eight weeks or just the cold and wet weather that has produced a massive influx of birds feeding in the garden? Record counts of twelve Siskins and eight Bullfinches have added to the five Redpolls, four Reed Buntings, seventeen Goldfinches and even three Jays but the star bird has to be a female Brambling that has only just left for Scandinavia. All the photos shown have been taken in the last couple of weeks. www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife
Three nights of pouring rain is all it would take to produce a starving Barn Owl.Unlike our other Owls the Barn Owl is unable to hunt in prolonged periods of rain, which is all we seem to get nowadays. To compensate it is forced to go looking for prey at dusk and dawn or even during the day. Lots of people rejoice in seeing a hunting Barn Owl but in truth this is a bird on the point of starvation that is forced to find prey when it is not raining – that’s not very often in recent times! I have spent months this last winter waiting and filming my local pair of Barn Owls. It is always a delight when they use an appropriately placed old stump!! www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife
Every March for more than fifty years I have filmed Long Tailed Tits searching for feathers to line their nests. This year they started early and I had already found four nests by the 10th March which equals my record over all those years. Since then rain has delayed them but I did have one good session – enjoy what are delightful birds!
One of our commonest and most colourful winter visitors is the Brambling. In some years they arrive from Scandinavia in their thousands but this winter they have been very illusive. So the half dozen that we came across in North Wales were an absolute bonus especially in the six inches of rain that fell upon us! www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife