Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images: Blog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog en-us (C) Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images [email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Sat, 20 Apr 2024 07:19:00 GMT Sat, 20 Apr 2024 07:19:00 GMT https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/img/s/v-12/u231046202-o512919903-50.jpg Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images: Blog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog 120 86 We're not done yet! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2023/8/were-not-done-yet Contrary to what I wrote on this blog twelve days ago, here, it seems we still have swifts overhead!

We saw two on the 26th of August - circling over our house for at least an hour, at around 1930hrs... and another last night (on the 27th) at about the same time.

Now, the latest I've ever seen a swift (other than a pallid swift of course) in east Berks, was on September 5th, about a decade ago.

Well... we're only just over a week out from that late date, this year.

And on closer inspection of the photos I took of the two birds circling our house for at least an hour on the evening of the 26th, you'll see one of the birds (the one with a slightly skew-whiff secondary wing feather by the look of it) has what is clearly a swollen throat - full, I'm sure of many midges etc it is catching and pressing into what is known as a food "bolus" to take back to its young.

So... we have adult swifts still hunting for aerial insects and taking these hundreds of insects (pressed into a bolus in their throat pouches) back to young - in late August!

That's pretty amazing - something I've not seen before so late in the year. I guess they were a fortnight or so late in arriving - and we've had a pretty mixed season, weather-wise - so that might explain it I suppose.

I wonder where these birds are bringing up their young? I don't think it would be south of here, but I'm pretty sure it isn't in the immediate vicinity.

I guess I'll never know.

But what I DO know is that I'm very happy INDEED to still be watching breeding swifts in East Berkshire in late August!

Photos below (cropped an awful lot... these birds were flying well above the house, feeding). You'll see the bird's swollen throat pouch (and a comparison with its mate in the last photo - note the non swollen, pale throat).

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2023/8/were-not-done-yet Mon, 28 Aug 2023 11:41:57 GMT
The lucky ones, 2023. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2023/8/the-lucky-ones-2023 For me (this may change of course - I HAVE seen one pass over this house south in the first week of September before) the final fourteen swifts of 2023 all danced high above our house, in cloudy, gloomy skies at dusk on 3rd August 2023. Around our house, that is.

I did see two or three swifts on the Isle of Wight, but none after the 6th August I think.

Of course, last year I saw my last 2023 Berkshire swift on the 16th August (the day I write this a year later), so you never know - there may be a few Northern birds pass over our Southern garden in the next few days - they certainly did seem later leaving here than normal (I rarely see so many swifts in Berkshire in August as I did this year, even if it was just the first week of August). Then again, they were nearly ten days later arriving, in the unsettled start to May, remember?

Well... we've had a pretty good year for swifts this year at "New Swift Half". Plenty of prospecting from young birds and plenty of interest in the house (especially from the 3rd wave of visiting young birds)  in a mixed season, weather-wise (sunny and hot 2nd half of May and June - and a WASHOUT July).

Will we see "our" birds return next May? God, I hope so.

Will they breed across the road again - as they certainly did this year, successfully too by the look of the return flights to the nest spot in the first couple of days of August this year. Surely they will, after I managed to successfully delay the roofing project from destroying this red-listed species nest site.

Will they dry run with us? Or even breed in our house?

I remain hopeful. Always will be.

For now though....

I wish all the swifts nothing but good luck during their migration south and their winter sojourn in their proper home continent, Africa.... and as is traditional now, I play them my swift song (below) which I play each time they leave and each time they return (the lucky ones that is). 

Please do also listen to it  too - and think of these wonderful wee chocolate brown birds, arrowing back to the Congo like tiny bows and arrows right now, in their hundreds and thousands. 
 

Be safe you beautiful swifts - and roll on May 2024.

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) apus apus swift swifts the lucky ones https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2023/8/the-lucky-ones-2023 Wed, 16 Aug 2023 14:40:24 GMT
The most precocious of yearlings - the squadron leader. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2023/6/the-most-precocious-of-yearlings---the-squadron-leader 3rd wave swift activity around the house is still going strong. Frantic even.

We are visited multiple times a day now by at least one squadron of swifts, with one individual in particular, being noticeably more keen to investigate our main swift entrance hole - more so than its other members of the squadron.

I took a few photos of this bird this morning - and the photos are of sufficient quality and show sufficient detail for me to confidently state that this individual is a yearling  - that is to say it will have been born last Spring (perhaps late May or early June), and probably not too far from here.

It will have dropped out of its nest space at the end of last July and probably* not touched a surface since, until coming back to the UK to lead a squadron of screamers (and copycat-bangers) and prospecting swifts around this particular neighbourhood, in quite African weather (which is what, effectively it has been used to, spending the last 8 or 9 months in the Congo and sub Saharan Africa, after all).

*'Probably' as now swift experts believe young swifts may well cling to cliffs etc, temporarily, in periods of poor weather while in Africa - this has not been documented but is postulated after looking in detail at ringed-birds' toenails (yes... "toenails" NOT claws) which seem to get shorter during their time in Africa, suggesting they're being worn down by something other than air.

This squadron leader is certainly part of the 3rd wave of swifts - a wave which consists mainly of one year old birds - still perhaps two or even three years off breeding for themselves - but very much here to learn the ropes, so-to-speak - and join in the summer party.

Below are a couple of photos of this bird, this morning.

In the second, you'll clearly see light-tipped wing feathers (I've helped you out if you still can't see them) and a very extensive, pale throat patch. All swifts have pale throats but the yearlings exhibit large, almost white throats it seems.

All clear signs that this is a young or immature bird.

This squadron leader is also the one with very fluffy "pyjama bottoms" as described in my last post. "Summer air shows".

I'm, no... we're... thoroughly enjoying these birds with us this year. And yes... it may be a couple of years before they actually breed with us (if they survive that long - and chances are they may well not).

I hope you're enjoying them too.

Four or five more weeks and they'll be gone.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Apus apus swift swifts third wave yearling https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2023/6/the-most-precocious-of-yearlings---the-squadron-leader Sun, 25 Jun 2023 09:33:20 GMT
Summer air shows https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2023/6/summer-air-shows The third wave of swifts has arrived in full force right now in Berkshire - and are putting on a SUPERB show around our house.

Below are just some of the many images I've taken of these glorious birds, just in the last two or three days.

I'm even getting to know individuals now, by looking at these photos and watching these birds as I take the photos.

I can start to tell the difference between individuals.

One has scruffy pyjama bottoms on and is the most keen to explore the swift opening that I've built in our wall.

One is much neater and comes in from a height strangely (and not very well).

One seems to have a face-full of tiny mites.

One has pretty beaten-up primaries and tail feathers.

One is particularly vocal.

One has a very pale throat.

One has a MUCH darker throat.

I'm thoroughly enjoying this June - perhaps the best June yet (in what, eleven now) for these wonderful, wonderful birds here with us.

Enjoy them while they're here, eh?

For before you know it, the end of July will be here... and the swifts will be off.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Apus apus Swift Swifts https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2023/6/summer-air-shows Fri, 23 Jun 2023 08:52:02 GMT
Where's wally? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2023/6/wheres-wally I used to occasionally blog these sort of posts.

Giving you a shot of a seemingly empty view... and asking you to find something(s) of interest in the photo.

Well...

Here are two photos.

Taken in the last few days.

In our garden.

Nothing to see in these photos, right?

WRONG.

Try and find one item of interest in the first photo (relatively straightforward) and then TWO in the second photo (far harder).

NB. The answers will be at the bottom of this blog post - no cheating!

 

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Photo one shows a lime hawk moth.

 

 

 

And photo two shows TWO hornet moths. For the VERY eagle-eyed...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hornet moth lime hawk moth https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2023/6/wheres-wally Tue, 13 Jun 2023 15:05:39 GMT
Batesian mimicry. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2023/6/batesian-mimicry Regular readers of this blog may already know that we're NOT arboriculturalists, so are happy to have a thriving colony of hornet moths in our back garden black poplars.

Every June these moths erupt from the subterranean roots around our biggest poplar in particular, break free of their pupal case and quickly climb up the tree trunk (or ivy frond, or long grass stem nearby) to pump out their wings and begin their short adult life.

The males will pump up their wings, get rid of a lot of fluids built up in their body during their time underground in the tree's roots and then fly immediately if possible to a newly-emerged female - to mate her.

The bigger females will pump up their wings and then start to emit pheromones into the air around them. Powerful things are these chemicals - and within minutes of emerging and starting to emit their pheromones, the females will be mated after a passing male (or more often than not, a recently-emerged male from the same tree, on the same day in fact) homes in on that chemical attractant.

Mating is a long, drawn out affair (two adult moths can be linked together for an hour or more).

Eventually the pair will break their abdominal bond, the female will lay her eggs on a suitable substrate nearby (often the same tree roots that she emerged from) and the male will disappear.

Like many insects, the vast majority of the hornet moth's life cycle is spent as a larva - two or three years in fact, as opposed to perhaps two or three days as an adult, winged moth.

 

We're lucky to see these beautiful moths in the garden each June. Very often it's quite hard to see the adult hornet moths (that is to say if you *don't* have a colony in your garden) as they pupate quickly, scamper up the poplar tree trunks, pump their wings up and fly up into the canopy lickety-split.

Hornet moths also really are quite picky moths. Not every black poplar hybrid tree will do. They tend to demand older trees, often on their own, in full sunlight with a lack of ivy or long grass or nettles around the base of the stump (so they can lay their eggs easily and emerge easily into sun). These sorts of trees tend to occur on private land (private gardens, perhaps parks and golf courses - that sort of thing - areas of land that have kept their black poplar hybrids and MOW around them each year).

We have such a big black poplar hybrid. Which they love. 

They'll kill it eventually of course, but we've been growing a few more now for a decade. These younger trees we've grown are as tall as the older, mother tree now (poplar spreads and grows quickly if allowed to).

 

Each June I am very aware that these beautiful moths will start to emerge from the roots in the back garden, so I put myself (and my eldest boy, often) on red alert.

On a suitable June morning, around 8am-9am, if the conditions are right, (warm, sunny if possible, a lack of wind if possible), they'll emerge. Sure as clockwork.

This morning I was working from home, in the dining room, from which I can see the back garden (through the conservatory).

I had done a quick recce of the tree around 9am and couldn't find any shed pupal cases - so went in and carried on with my work - vowing to check again in an hour or so.

But at half-past-nine, I noticed three or four loud magpies dancing noisily around the base of our biggest poplar.

I KNEW what that meant.

The moths were erupting from the ground.

Magpies and great tits, as it happens, take no notice of the Batesian mimicry of the hornet moths. They aren't fooled and LOVE to eat these plump, juicy insects.

The hornet moth's scientific name is Sesia (moth) apiformis (bee-like) - despite them looking far more like hornets and not bees.

The strange thing is (I think, anyway) is that this mimicry is sublime in hornet moths. I mean, not only do they look just like hornets, they buzz like hornets too and even dangle their legs when they fly - just like hornets. Clever birds, magpies. And great tits too!

So... out I ran. To the big tree. With a camera or two.

The below is what I saw...

Have a lovely weekend, grapple fans. I hope the forecast storms miss you (if you'd prefer that) or smash right into you (if, like us, you probably need the rain after four weeks without).

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 2023 berkshire black poplar black poplar hybrid garden hornet clearwing hornet clearwing moth hornet moth june sesia apiformis https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2023/6/batesian-mimicry Fri, 09 Jun 2023 16:46:19 GMT
The (particularly) lucky ones are back! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2023/5/the-particularly-lucky-ones-are-back The regular reader(s?!) of this blog by now, I'm sure, will know that I am besotted by swifts.

Infatuated with them.

Addicted to them.

Last year, here they returned to the skies above our house on 9th May - and spent a late Spring and early Summer prospecting and dry-running in the walls of the school opposite.

Trouble is, the school opposite was due to replace its roofs, during swift breeding season.

I contacted all parties (the school site manager and bursar, the contractors, the ecologist surveyors (who unbelievably had missed the swifts) and the council) and asked them to stop any building work until mid August at the earliest (which would give the swifts the time they needed to do what they needed to do (dry-run) and set off back to the Congo).

Work did stop thankfully - but only until August 1st - on that day the scaffolding went up around one of the buildings due to be re-roofed.

Luckily for the council and contractors (among others) the swifts had left a few days before.

Unfortunately then, we think the roofers discovered asbestos (we assume) in the school hall roof, so work stopped before it even began.

That said the scaffolding that went up around the school hall, stayed in place (even though no work was taking place) for a full EIGHT MONTHS!!!!

We also assume the council was paying the scaffolding firm for every day/week that the scaffolding was up.

What an incredible waste of money (and time) if so.

It gets worse.

A fortnight or so before the swifts were due to return (eight or nine months after they had left, like I say) re-roofing work recommenced at the school!

Let me be clear here. The roofers/council/school (we assume because of asbestos concerns... we could be wrong) took the ENTIRE time the swifts were away and out of the picture (9 months) to start work on the roof of the school.

I mean.... you couldn't make it up, could you?

Sadly, this sort of thing epitomises the English way of doing things. At snail-racing speed while soaked in incompetence and wilful ignorance.


Well... on 17th May here, 8 days later than last year, after a miserably cool and wet Spring so far, the squadrons of my favourite birds of all, the best birds of all of course, returned in numbers over the house and school and were met by one of their school buildings having no roof at all other than an industrial tarp over scaffolding surrounding it.

At their arrival back with us each year I play the song below...

This year is no different.

Please do play the video below, listen to it with your eyes closed and then get outside and gaze at the lucky swifts, (if you're lucky enough to see them).

An old work/rugby friend of mine contacted me the other day to let me know that his sister and brother-in-law (Gill and Simon Fenton) had a very close encounter with one of the best birds of all the other day.

In Gill's own words:

"This afternoon, this little guy got knocked out of the sky by a magpie and landed on our lawn. It lay there for hours, protected by us. We assumed it was a starling until it clung to the wall and we noticed 2 swifts flying overhead. So I spoke to my RSPCA friend and attempted the launch manoeuvre! At first, it flew straight onto Simon’s shirt and refused to budge! Eventually, it soared off, high into the sunset, joined by the others. I am an emotional wreck!"

What a lovely story, what fantastic photos (from Gill I presume) and what a particularly lucky swift to be knocked out of the sky in a garden that belonged to two people who cared enough to get it back into the air again!

Right then.

Back to "our" school swifts.

I have now witnessed 3 (yes THREE) swifts entering the old pipe overflow hole on the side of the school building that as yet is not being roofed.

Swifts may be social birds, but in breeding season it is strictly two birds per nest  - and fights between established pairs and interlopers (wannabes) regularly happen. Occasionally swifts can die as a result of these fights.

What I'm now certain of is that the school opposite currently have NESTING swifts.

And also a nesting pair with an interloper involved too.

A real avian soap opera, by the look of last night anyway... when two swifts entered the hole in the wall - then the third (after screaming at the hole on a few fly-bys) entered too.

I can only imagine a BIG fight happened at the school last night. In the roof.

 

OK.

Time to get serious now.

VERY serious.

Swifts are protected by law in and around their roost and nest sites, by the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act.

No... the roofers are not currently working on the building that these protected birds have returned to - but I understand from the old school site controller that the building the swifts are now nesting in WAS (IS?) due to have its roof replaced as part of the works.

You can imagine, grapple fans, I am ALL OVER THIS.

I have once again written to the school and contractors.

I have yet to have a reply.   I expect better.  MUCH better. 

I'll wait until this week and then contact the head of the school directly (I'm not going anywhere - my eldest goes to the school in question and my youngest is about to) and the council AND also, most importantly of all, Natural England (plus the BTO  and BBOWT) too, as well as my friends at Swift Conservation and the press.

We simply cannot have these protected birds disturbed in their breeding season.

There was never any need to do so (the work didn't start for the entire time (9 months) that the birds were out of the country - but it should have started AND ended in that time).

 

I can only hope that the school ARE already aware that their schedule 1 swifts are back and have already made plans to ensure that they don't break the law and the birds access to their nesting site is not compromised and therefore they aren't intentionally nor  (and this is important) recklessly disturbed).

I hope that, but I am not going to assume that.

We'll wait and see if anyone gets back to me this week.

I hope they do, as I am of course hooked up to the authorities already (my job has its uses sometimes!).

Watch this space for more news soon, I'm sure...

on the (particularly) lucky ones...

SwiftSwift

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Apus apus swift swifts the lucky ones https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2023/5/the-particularly-lucky-ones-are-back Sun, 21 May 2023 14:39:41 GMT
40 years on. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2023/5/40-years-on Forty years ago, my family and new step family holidayed in Wales.

We travelled to the only wood at that time to hold any red kites in the UK. I think the UK red kite population back then was less than a dozen.

We didn't see any.

Wind the clock forward forty years and they're all over the UK.

So much so in fact, that we now have one landing in one of our garden trees - a favourite perch it seems, from which to call in potential mates.

I don't even have to leave the lavatory to see red kites now.

I wish this success story was the same for all our birds...

 

Puttock augmentationPuttock augmentation

(Photo of course taken by me, this afternoon. Canon 1Dx. 400mm f5.6 L lens. Hahnel Combi TF remote trigger. Camera and lens prefocused. I just pressed the trigger when I heard the kite calling from its favourite perch (I didn't even see it)).

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 1dx 400mm berkshire garden kite milvus milvus red kite https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2023/5/40-years-on Thu, 11 May 2023 16:26:38 GMT
A few thoughts on results of recent wildlife competitions (BWPA and WPOTY). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2023/3/a-few-thoughts-on-results-of-recent-wildlife-competitions-bwpa-and-wpoty Regular readers of this blog may remember that I used to cast my (relatively experienced) eye over the winning images in the British Wildlife Photography Awards (BWPA) and the Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPOTY) competitions each year.

The 2023 BWPA winning images were announced in Bristol last night and I thought I'd take a few minutes to look at a few of those images (spoiler... some make me uncomfortable... and not in a good way) and one commended "peoples' choice" image in the WPOTY, announced earlier this year.

Firstly then, the 2023 BWPA winning and commended images.

I was commended for several of my images in the first three years of this British photography competition, but found less and less time to take and enter images after those three years due to my sons being born for example... and to be frank, less and less inclination to enter, after it became pretty clear that the same professional photographers were winning categories each year, for less than stellar photographs in many of our eyes. 

Well... seems like ten years on, not a lot has changed. Ross Hoddinott is still winning awards each year for very pretty but very ubiquitous images of damselflies. We were taking images like this (some might say better images in fact) fifteen or twenty years ago. Hey ho.

Alex Mustard is still claiming winning/commended images for his underwater stuff. Good though it is, he is one of very few underwater photographers in the UK - and rather like Rangers or Celtic - if you end up winning every year, it all gets a bit tedious I think.

Andy Rouse, like Hoddinott, is still somehow getting his name mentioned as winner or highly commended each year for again, lilke Hoddinott, taking photos that many people were taking fifteen years ago and submitting every year alongside Rouse - and yet Rouse, Hamblin, Hoddinott, Danny green etc seemed to win each year. An anonymous competition? Nope. Never was.

Many of the images that won or were highly commended this year, seem at best to be the same sort of images as every year, (seal lying on beach, gannet fishing, a bee's face).

A bee's face?
Yup.

Remind you of a certain commended image from FOURTEEN years ago (by someone you might have heard of?!).

BWPA highly commended 2009 - Feather-footed flower beeBWPA highly commended 2009 - Feather-footed flower bee

 

Let's talk about the winning image. The photographer admits he was setting up a camera trap (or a remote release to be exact) but then suggests that he was there by the camera anyway, when the fox just ambled past (without even looking at him - my addition). Really?

Well look... that might have happened I guess... but to me, this photo REEKS of a staged, baited, camera trap photo. Urban life in the background, a pretty non-descript, messy foreground with tree stump and a low camera either triggered by the fox itself or triggered by the photographer, hidden somewhere very close by. I may be being unfair here, but to me at least, it appears that the photographer (a professional) knows about the understandable hoo-ha regarding winning wildlife photography competitions with camera trap submissions (you leave a camera somewhere hidden -the you bait the area with food, you leave, the animal. attracted by the bait, wanders in front of the camera and breaks an invisible infrared beam - the camera triggers, you get your winning shot).  I am pretty uncomfortable with this sort of image winning wildlife photography competitions for a number of reasons - the main one being the animal took its own photo.  The second reason being the whole area becomes a bit of a stage (and is altered to be a stage - more of that in a moment) But I'm even more uncomfortable with someone taking this sort of image and pretending they didn't.

And yes... I may be wrong. And if I am, I apologise. (I don't think I am, mind).

 

Let's continue with staged, baited camera trap images.

James Roddie makes a living from taking these sort of photos (among others, admittedly).

His Pine marten photo in "an abandoned cottage" makes me uncomfortable though too.

I would put some money on him stashing peanut butter or jam sandwiches under the cushions of this  *cough* "abandoned cottage". He has plenty of other photos of this marten exploring other parts of the cottage too, on his website.  Including indeed, even the lavatory pan of the cotttage. (The bait must be out of shot. Important that!).

Hmmmm. These then, to me at least, seem to be images designed to give the onlooker an insight into the secret, wild, hidden lives of these creatures.

I though, just see a stage. With a baited animal attracted to the stage. No real insight at all.

Again. I could be wrong. (I'm not!).

 

Remaining on camera trap images for a minute more - but moving competitions.

The image below was shortlisted for the "peoples' choice award" for the international Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition this year.

What do you think of it?

Let's put it another way.

What do you think of it when compared to another image. An image you may well, *ahem* recognise?

BWPA highly commended 2011 - Tabby cat with nestlingBWPA highly commended 2011 - Tabby cat with nestling No contest is it? (I'll blow my own trumpet, even if you won't!).

And I took my photo myself, with my fat finger, unlike the Polish cat - which took its own photo.

Nope... I'm really not that fond of camera trap photos.

(By the way... the photo of the Polish cat taking a chaffinch into a dirty shed didn't eventually win the WPOTY peoples' choice award, thankfully).

 

Right then.

Back to BWPA.

Another commended image makes me particularly uncomfortable. Really, really itchy.

A shot of a bittern, hiding in a summer reed bed.

Taken with a drone. it appears to look like?! A drone with a wide angled lens on - which makes the bittern look tiny - and the reeds hugely tall.

I can't tell whether the camera (on the drone?) has a flash too - but it appears it might have. Not sure on that.

What I AM sure of though, is that generally speaking, bitterns overwinter here in the UK. The reedbeds in winter do not look like those in that photo.

Which means the photo was taken in the breeding season and NOT in the winter.

Which would mean that bittern is one of the few that actually breed in the UK each year (and as such would be highly protected from being recklessly disturbed by a photographer, let alone one with a drone). The bittern is a Schedule 1 bird. HIGHLY PROTECTED by law.

Well... either that or the bittern isn't in the UK. And if that's the case, it is an image not taken in the UK and therefore outside the rules of the BRITISH wildlife photography awards rules.

See why this image, more than any of the others, makes me really uncomfortable.

Hate it.

Hate the fact that the judges chose a photograph of breeding schedule 1 bird, deliberately disturbed by again, the professional photographer (Tom Robinson) as a winning image.

The welfare of the wildlife I photograph is of paramount importance to me. (A quote from the front page of my website - this website).

I doubt Tom could (nor should) write the same on his website. (Check it out - tell me I'm wrong).

 

 

Are you reading this and thinking I'm just vomiting up sour grapes again?
You shouldn't be - especially with regards to that image of the bittern.

 

There ARE some photos I love in this year's BWPA competition.

 

I love the moody highland stag silhouette shot.

I love the honeybees shot.

I love the glow-worm shot too (although... yes... the cans of gin are very errrr... handily placed in the image, aren't they?!)

What do you think though?

TBR.

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bwpa photography competitions wpoty https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2023/3/a-few-thoughts-on-results-of-recent-wildlife-competitions-bwpa-and-wpoty Wed, 15 Mar 2023 16:19:49 GMT
December. (Munt) jac fox nipping at your heels. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2023/1/december-this-is-the-end-beautiful-friend-the-end WARNING. THIS MONTH'S BLOG CONTAINS A PHOTO WHICH SOME MIGHT FIND UPSETTING. If this might be you, please skip this month's post.

 

The final month of the year then - and the final ever monthly update on this blog, I very much suspect.

To be frank, running a website costs money and time - both I have very little of these days, what with twelve years of corrupt crony capitalist tories subjecting us to austerity 1, brexit and now austerity 2.

I'm also far from convinced I have many readers left on this blog who truly are interested in my ramblings. Whether those ramblings be me finding an ichneumon wasp on our kitchen window in November or even a pallid swift over the golf course in October. But... look... if you really are keen for me to continue waxing (not so) lyrically about moths and hedgehogs and the odd bird - then please let me know in the comments that you're out there and it's worth me continuing.

OK. For now then, and possibly for the last time...

December then, which started a bit like a lamb. A cold lamb, mind. Which had already been sheared. The first week brought us proper wintry temperatures (sub 5 centigrade) a bit of an easterly air flow, and some overnight fogs, if not frosts.

On the morning of the 3rd, I as usual, took my pre-dawn 5 mile walk and happened across an old friend in the road, at least two hours before the sun came up.

(Before you ask, no it wasn't "crossing the road" - old readers of my blog will know I've been there and done that!)

Why?Why?

Actually, whilst I love hens (having kept them for some years), it wasn't great news to see this particular bird out on its tod in the middle of the night. Bird flu is RIFE in the UK right now. Bird flu which has decimated (or worse, quite literally) many seabird populations (like gannets) across our shores since the summer, and now is moving through other wintering waterfowl like swans and geese. Indeed, the UK population of great skuas is threatened with extinction because of this dreadful disease - and if the UK's great skuas disappear - then the species might very well do also. 

So... yes... all domestic birds, including my old friend, should be kept completely and securely AWAY from wild birds currently. This hen on the road the other night was definitely NOT supposed to be there!

 

During the second and third week, December underwent what a radio presenter inadvertently (but accurately I think) called a "cold SLAP". Night-time temperatures got lower than minus six degrees celsius on a number of nights and hard frosts became a nightly occurrence. 

On the eighth, on my pre-dawn walk, I stumbled across a dead muntjac, which had (I presume) been clipped by a car, staggered 30 yards or so off the road in the freezing conditions, perhaps with a broken leg or pelvis and perished pretty quickly. When I got to it at around 6am, at the end of my walk, it was frozen pretty solid in frost and its hindquarters had been stripped to the bone by foxes - looking very big and fluffy in this cold weather, they were. Full of raw venison too, by the look of the below.

This (very) cold weather had its advantages. A lunar occultation of Mars (basically Mars seems to hide behind the moon for an hour or so) happened between 04:57am  and about 06:01am on the morning of the 8th. I got a reasonable photo or two, lucky in that there were no clouds at all over our part of the UK when this astronomical phenomenon (coincidentally an old nickname of mine) occurred.

This cold weather had more "advantages" I guess, too.

It was lovely to start seeing and hearing coal tits, goldcrests and wrens in the garden, as well as fieldfares rattling overhead. 

The bleeding cold weather did bring with it some disadvantages too though - and this is where the meat of this blog post will reside I think.

On the 7th of December, I set off for my pre-dawn walk at 04:50am and immediately almost tripped over a small(ish) hedgehog in our front garden, right by the hedgehog tunnel I'd drilled under our side door. The tunnel they'd been using for a few years now.

This was BRILLIANT news! The first hedgehog I'd seen in our front or back garden for almost exactly eight weeks! (See last month's blog post for that story).

It didn't take any food from our feeding station in the back garden that night (the night of the 6th/7th) and I discovered the next night (7th/8th) that it didn't remember or know how to get TO its food bowl (I make it cat-proof, so a hedgehog can only enter from one direction). 

But... a hedgehog HAD rediscovered our gardens AND was using out tunnels (again... please see November's blog post to read more on this story of or missing hedgehogs and neighbours' fences) and was TRYING to get some food from its old food bowl, but was denied that food by trying to get at the bowl from the wrong end of the tunnel.

The issue I (we, it) had of course was that most self-respecting hedgehogs would all be curled up in a tight ball, in a shed or woodpile or compost heap or what have you, during these very cold nights.

Ours though... was out... in HARD FROSTS and temperatures of minus five degrees.

It must be desperate I thought. Literally starving.

On the night of the 8th/9th, I rearranged the feeding station and videoed our hedgehog successfully eat about 50g of food during the night. At one point during the night, it even went to sleep ON the food bowl. (See short Youtube video clip below).

Bear in mind though, grapple fans, that it was again minus five that night. NO hedgehog should be out in those temperatures.

On the night of the 9th/10th I became very concerned about this small(ish) and desperate hedgehog which had finally managed to find its way back to our garden feeding station after 8 weeks or so of being trapped in a neighbour's garden.

Firstly, on that night (9th/10th December) it arrived four hours earlier than normal. We were all eating our tea in the dining room, with the wildlife camera monitor in the conservatory facing us. At 18:40 (ish) my wife, Anna, suddenly shouted "OH! Look!" and we all watched as this hedgehog suddenly appeared on the monitor and started to ravenously eat the food we'd put out for it.

Good... for now... although as I'd said before the previous two nights - there's NO WAY any hedgehog would be out for a few nights now as it's just TOO COLD! WAAAAAY TOO COLD!

It was great that this hedgehog was back eating at our feeding station, but now also really worrying that it was back eating at our feeding station in these temperatures.

It had 10 minutes of food then poddled off, THROUGH THE FROST... then returned... then walked off THROUGH THICKER FROST and this pattern was repeated for about an hour or so.

Regular readers of this blog may remember that my gorgeous and intelligent wife bought me a proper thermal camera for a recent birthday - THIS is the sort of situation where kit like that is invaluable. I used my HIK MICRO OWL OQ35 to follow the hedgehog around the frosty, -5C garden in the pitch black, without getting too close and without using a torch, to disturb it.

At around 9pm (ish) it became obvious to me that the hedgehog had simply stopped moving. It was exposed in the frost, NEAR my big woodpile (where it may have been headed - I don't know) in very, very cold temperatures. 

It wasn't curled up.

It wasn't moving (other than breathing).

It looked big and healthy enough to want to hibernate, but it just wasn't behaving like that. Something was up. Perhaps it was weak. Perhaps it was injured. Perhaps the cold had got to it. Perhaps it was being parasitized and its behaviour was therefore being altered.

Now my absolute golden rule with wildlife is NOT TO INTERVENE... but my wife Anna and I agreed that we would have no choice if it hadn't moved in 30 minutes  -  we would need to act. We would HAVE to intervene.

Well... it didn't move.

So We made the difficult (but ultimately sensible I think) choice to pick it up and move it into our empty chicken coop for the night (complete with nesting material, and food and water and even a hot water bottle in the dropping tray under the coop). I HATE caging wildlife, but if we hadn't acted, we had every reason to think that this troubled fella/lass would have simply frozen to death in the next few hours, where he/she stood.

I set up a trail camera in the coop and discovered the next morning that he/she had been walking around the coop and run for an hour or so during the night- and had eaten all the food  (about 50g again) we had provided and drunk quite a bit of water.

Hedgehog coop Dec2022 (for blog post)

Now, that all said, I really needed to call a proper expert for advice and perhaps an intervention or clinical assessment of this hedgehog - what on earth was it doing out in these temperatures and basically just remaining motionless in a frosty garden border?! Was it diseased? Injured? Or was it just the fact that its 'fattening-up' time during October and November had been constrained and delayed by our neighbours putting up a fence across its territory - and time had run out for it, despite me talking with our neighbours and re-digging tunnels?

I weighed the hedgehog and discovered that it seemed to be a relatively healthy (if not massive) 640g or so. (600g is often the weight that hedgehogs need to be to successfully get through hibernation) - so WHY wasn't it hibernating?!

My wife has a colleague, Clare, that I think has helped out at a local(ish) rescue centre, run by an excellent vet by the name of Hannah Tombs.

I gave Hannah a ring on Saturday 10th and dropped our hedgehog off with Hannah later in the day (Hannah is about 30 minutes away - I had our hedgehog in a box of leaves in the passenger footwell during the trip).

Hannah has a garage full of hedgehogs (30 or so!) and a few dove etc.

We established that our hedgehog was female firstly (I hadn't managed to do that really - although I suspected as much - see the first clip above - very often if its a male hedgehog and your footage is at hedgehog eye-level, you'll SEE the obvious penis of the male hedgehog - and clearly in this case, this hedgehog didn't have one. Yes... hung like a hedgehog isn't quite the slur you'd have thought it was!)

We also established that it was around 630g, perhaps losing weight still DESPITE having eaten 90g or so of food with us in the previous two nights.

I had speculated about some kind of endoparasite such as lungworm to Hannah over the phone, but I'm hardly the expert in this field - so Hannah sad she'd check her faeces (not hers Hannah's you understand, but hers the hedgehog's) out for lungworm larvae to see what was what.

Hannah gave her (yesss... the hedgehog) some fluid and electrolytes with an immediate injection and put her in a pen all night.

This morning (I'm writing this part of the blog on Sunday 11th) she texted me to say that our "girl" had eaten and taken water, put on a little weight AND had had one of her poos tested for lungworm.

Hannah did text me the next morning to tell me that she had found evidence of lots of lungworm larvae in our hedgehog's faeces and sent me a stock image of a(n adult as it happens) lungworm  - see above.

Now, as Hannah said, all hedgehogs tend to have a some sort of mild lungworm infection, but sometimes these nematodes flourish inside the lungs, bloodstream and gut of hedgehogs (not just hedgehogs either - read more on these nematodes here) and cause an issue - difficulty breathing, lack of energy etc. Our hedgehog seemed to have lots of lungworm larvae in her faeces, meaning she'd have to be treated.

Hannah said she'd start treatment immediately and monitor her progress.

I'm almost pleased, in a weird sort of way, that our poor female hedgehog has a parasite problem. Firstly it would explain a lot, secondly it means that she'll be treated to eradicate them from her system (moth hedgehogs don't get this treatment) and thirdly, whilst she is being treated, she'll be protected from these vicious overnight temperatures right now, in Hannah's garage.

How long will the treatment last? No idea to be honest. Perhaps a fortnight?

Will it be successful? No idea again (remember I'm writing this part of the blog on her first day at the vets).

If it is successful.... what happens next?

We'll get a call from Hannah to pick up our "girl" and release her back into her territory in milder temperatures I presume.

This is where I get a but twitchy to be frank. I'm often conscious of releasing animals back into the wild, into their old territories or not, and seeing them reacting badly, after being stressed by captivity or others in their "colony" (badgers especially) rejecting them.

I'm sure, unlike badgers of course, that the re-release of our "girl" will go well though if she gets better at the expert hands of Hannah. We're all set up for a release after all. It is her old territory (I assume they don't forget old territorial landmarks and routes after a week or two), we have an empty, cool (but not too cool) chicken coop to begin the release process, we have plenty of other more natural hedgehog homes and hibernacula (shed, compost heap, woodpiles) so I think we'll and she'll be OK.... as long as she responds well to treatment and we get to release her in more clement weather (not at minus five or six or even seven I hear tonight).

I also must remember to be more fastidious with my regular disinfecting of our hedgehog feeding station. I clean it very regularly but very possibly not regularly enough. I should move it more often too. Now its unlikely that my hedgehog feeding station caused this hedgehog to get overrun with lungworms (she's not been feeding with us for 8 weeks after all and I do clean our station regularly) but its things like this that we "wildlife lovers" often need to be aware of. Regular readers of this blog might remember I've written about this subject a number of times before.

More soon... (see * below).

On the night of the 11th/12th, a day after we dropped off our female hedgehog at the rescue centre, it snowed. Not heavily. But snow it did. An un-forecast snow too. I was suddenly even happier that we'd dropped off the hedgehog at the vets.

Well... the snow did what snow does - it looked quite pretty and gave me the opportunity to follow fox and squirrel footprints around town on my pre-dawn walk (can YOU see the squirrel tracks in all the fox track photos below?).

It was also nice to see my hastily-defrosted bird bath being used for once, by our local starling flock. My bird bath was originally put in place as a drinking tray for our hedgehogs, funnily enough - and certainly we've had hedgehogs drink from it regularly. We've even had frogs lay spawn in it once (bear in mind it's just an old rust-proof grill pan dug into the ground!). It's been in place for years now but not until the 12th December 2022 have I ever seen birds wash in it. I really was made-up when I watched a flock of ten or so starlings vigorously wash themselves in the bath on that morning!

The snow stayed around for six full days and nights - pretty-well unheard of in lowland, SE England in early-mid December (so yes.... not even in Winter!).

Finally on Sunday the 18th December, the northerly air flow which had sent temperatures plummeting all over the country to consecutive overnight lows of -8C here and sub zero during the day (freezing out washing machine pipes  and bursting water mains (see photo above) in the meantime) changed to a southerly - and we got two days of rain - and temperatures back into double figures here.

Quite a change. (I should point out that we don't live in Chelmsford, nor indeed Essex... this was just a BBC graphic on the TV, detailing the 20 degree warming the country would experience over two days).

 

Our local, young, female sparrowhawk put in an appearance on top of her favourite tree in the garden just before the snow disappeared. Anna (my wife for any new readers) spotted her first - I tried to get a few action shots, but shooting through dirty, double glazed windows, in very low light, with a crop sensor camera and a lens that doesn't appear to be very well right now, wasn't easy and the two or three photos below were the best of a poor bunch (and even these were out of focus).

I'm REALLY considering buying a second hand Canon 1DX to try and rectify this lack of speed and light in my cameras right now. More on that another day perhaps.

 

* OK... I'm writing this part of this blog post on December 27th - three days after we picked up our poor, lungworm-infested, female hedgehog (see above).

I got a text message from Hannah, the vet at Farnborough who I dropped off our hedgehog at two weeks ago, suggesting that as she had responded well to the lungworm treatment and had put on c.150g of weight, perhaps I'd like to come and collect her and release her back into her old territory (our back garden being part of that territory).

Ben (our eldest) and I drove down to Farnborough to collect her on Christmas eve, at dusk. Hannah explained that she had been tagged (see photos below) with a few yellow plastic sleeves glued to her spines, each with her number (H083) and Hannah's phone number, in case she was found again (dead or alive).

We drove her back home and popped her in the chicken coop nest again, to acclimatise to being back where she belonged. We opened the side of the chicken run and provided a ramp for her to make her way back into her territory proper, when she was good and ready.

It didn't take long, to be honest - no more than an hour in fact.

An hour after we left her alone, she made her way down the chicken coop ramp (inside the chicken run) and up and out of the chicken run (over a series of ramps I fashioned for her) and out into her old patch again.

I watched her on the thermal camera from a distance (and I could HEAR her noisily eating some crunchy stuff (a beetle or two at the back of our garden, in the undergrowth?), but very soon it was clear that she had left our garden and was exploring other gardens in her patch.

I recorded her on video (a trail camera) leaving our back garden through the side passage tunnel I had drilled through the concrete, at 03:10am on Christmas morning - and we've not seen her since.

Well... all I can say for sure is that we certainly saved her life in mid December. She'd have frozen if we'd have done nothing that night on the 10th. We may have saved her life for a year or two... and given her the chance to breed next Spring if we're lucky. We thought she had been spending her days under a shed up the road (see October's post) but perhaps now her main day bed (and hibernaculum now) is the other side of our land (nearer the main road). We certainly saw her leave that way and haven't seen her return, like I say, as I write this, on the 27th.

The weather has got a LOT milder since that blummin' cold COLD SNAP in mid-late December - I'm so glad she was in Hannah's garage during that period. 

Let's be positive.

Let's hope that within a night of freedom again, she, at 800g, decided that she knew her way around her old patch - and wandered off to her provisional hibernaculum. Let's hope she is safe and warm there - and stays there, wherever that is (under the shed up the road or nearer the main road somewhere out the front of our gardens) for the majority of the winter - and wakes up in March (or whenever) and finds her way back to our hedgehog (very)friendly garden for a slap up Spring breakfast. If she does, we'll recognise the plastic tags on her back.

Good luck H083. We hope to see you again in a few months!

 

So.

Is there anything else to report in the last (ever) wildlife monthly blog of the year?

Not a lot, to be honest.

I took a few days off over the school Christmas holidays and the family (my wife and our two boys) had a lovely walk or two around the local lakes.

We all saw our favourite ducks there (those ducks would be the spectacular Goldeneye ducks (OF COURSE!)) but we missed one or two bitterns that were allegedly there too, hidden in the reedbeds.

The lakes' footpaths were well and truly flooded, what with all the rain we've had over the last week or so of the month - but it was lovely to get out anyway on Anna's birthday on Boxing Day, in beautiful winter sunshine.

We also took a drive or two around the local countryside, after dark, to try and spot a tawny owl - a common bird that up until the last few days of the year was missing from Ben's "2022 Around the birds in eighty aves" project. Luckily, on Christmas day (of all days!) all of us were in the car, driving through a spot where I have occasionally seen them in the past... and one flew across the road in front of the car, in full view... meaning Ben finished his "2022 Around the birds in eighty aves" project on 126 species - starting with a barn owl on the 1st January and ending with a tawny owl on  25th December! 126 species of birds in a calendar year is no mean feat I'd suggest - and a full 16 species MORE than last year. Well done Ben!

 

That shallot then, grapple fans.

We started writing about owls and goldeneye in January - and ended in a similar fashion, in December.

I hope you've enjoyed reading a few of my wildlife blogs this year - please, like I say, tell me (via a comment or contact here) if you have - and if I get a few nice comments or contact messages, I'll consider writing a few more blog posts next year (otherwise I'll probably leave it to be honest - or at least cut the frequency of writing right down to just a few times a year).

Whether this website, images and blog is ongoing next year, remains to be seen then - but even if it all disappears... for now... I, and my whole family here, wish you all a happy and prosperous future - beginning on January 1st 2023.

 

Happy new year all.

TBR and family.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bird flu chicken coal tit December fieldfare fog frost goldcrest goldeneye hedgehog hen lungworm snow sparrowhawk tawny owl wren https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2023/1/december-this-is-the-end-beautiful-friend-the-end Sun, 01 Jan 2023 09:00:00 GMT
November rain. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/12/november-rain-draft Burnham beechBurnham beech

November started with a week of rain and mild temperatures. Very mild temperatures, to be honest and quite a lot of rain (although we and a lot of the country were still under a hosepipe ban for the month).

Pretty-well all the poplar leaves were down in the garden - and just like last November, a female sparrowhawk ambushed another collared dove in our garden, eating its breast muscles before I disturbed her (she flew off to eat in peace). 

Great big clumps of honey fungus seemed to spring up all over the place in the warm, wet, first week of the month.

On the 6th of November I noticed something I must have missed earlier in the year (or year before - difficult to tell). What appeared to be a wren's nest in the bottom of a lamp post (behind a loose plate) in an industrial estate on my daily walk. It's amazing where some birds will nest eh?

Sad news became apparent on the 9th and 10th of the month (albeit, tempered eventually with a little bit of hope).

 

I (as you know) have been logging and videoing and building hedgehog tunnels all over the borders of our garden and blogging about our local hedgehogs for over ten years now.

We live at property I in the plan below. (I live at "I". Easy to remember then).

All the tunnels I've dug over the last ten years can be seen as blue circles in the image below.

I've spoken with four of our neighbours (neighbours D,E,F and J in the satellite image below)  before mid-November this year, trying to help them learn about the marvellous (and now critically threatened) slug removers (hedgehogs) they have in their (and our) garden and when I open up a tiny wee hole under our fences, I'm doing it to allow these fantastic (and endangered now) animals to get around, feed and breed (and would they please consider keeping these hedgehog tunnels open instead of concreting them over all the time?!).

As I wrote in my October blog post, we've had hedgehogs visit our garden each night since the Spring like every year (in fact this year, for the first year ever, we had baby hedgehogs visit too - a HUGE success for us after ten years of "work"), but on October 16th these visits suddenly stopped.

We've had NO visits since that night... and it was only on November 9th that I realised that one of our neighbours (the "newest" neighbours on the "block" and also the most recent I'd spoke to regarding a tunnel that I'd dug between our and their property = that would be neighbours D in the image above and below) had erected a new fence to between themselves and their neighbours to their north (C). The pink fence in the image below and above.

A solid fence with concrete gravel boards sitting tight to a layer of concrete.

This (pink as opposed to yellow fence in the plan above and below) fence was put up on....

You guessed it.

October 16th.

With a horrible sense of dread, I realised that this simple action of putting a bordering fence in, with no thought at all to hedgehogs (even though I'd spoken to this neighbour not 6 months ago, regarding hedgehogs and even gave him a pen drive of videos of "our" (our and their) hedgehogs to show his children (all children are into hedgehogs, right?)) had at best trapped our hedgehogs in a small (but lovely) garden (C) to the north of his property for almost a month - and at worst KILLED THEM.

Luckily - and there is some good news here... it was beyond any reasonable doubt that the new fence had trapped "our" hedgehogs for 24 nights - so I went round to the house whose garden they were now trapped in. A lovely woman there helped me out, (C), and we have now dug a new tunnel under that new fence for the hedgehogs, which I have no doubt are sleeping under her parents' old shed in their rather lovely back garden.

I also dropped round some hedgehog food for C to put out for her animals - which I'm so pleased to say... was taken by the hedgehogs (C texted me to let me know)! They ARE still alive!

I also dropped round to our neighbours D (the neighbours between C and us) who erected that new concrete fence in the first place - they seemed OK in principle at least to keep the tunnels (plural) now that I'd dug under the fences (plural) now.

On the night of the 9th and 10th then, I desperately hoped the hedgehogs would find their way across their old stomping ground again - and as such I put up motion-activated infra-red cameras all over our garden.

Nothing. I'm afraid. No bananas.

But... as I wrote above ... C did text me to tell me that the hedgehogs had taken the food - so I hope, I really, really hope that now that I know they're OK... they do eventually find the newest tunnel that we've dug for them - and regain their old territory.

If they don't discover the new tunnel... like so many of our British hedgehogs, they will simply perish.

May take a month. Or three. Or even a year. But die they will.

And THAT is why, dear reader, whilst the population of UK hedgehogs in 1950 was estimated to be around 36 million... its now more like only 1 million.

We've lost 97.5% of ALL our British hedgehogs in 70 years.

97.5%

Let that sink in.

Tellytubby gardens. Concrete gravel boarded fences. Fake grass.

It's SO sad.

As I type this part of the blog, it's the afternoon of the 10th November.

C has texted me to let me know that the hedgehogs have taken the food we left out for them.

The tunnel is still in place, I think.

We are INCREDIBLY lucky that the last 3 weeks have been warm and wet (meaning even in a small garden, especially if it's so lovely, like C's, the hedgehogs will have been able to find food and water).

We now just have to cross our fingers that the new tunnel doesn't collapse (and C and her neighbours maintain it) and the hedgehogs reclaim their old stomping ground soon. They have a lovely shed under which they can base themselves in C's garden - but they need FAR more space to roam around and feed in.

More...

I popped round on the 12th, to ensure the new tunnel that C and I had dug was still OK (it was - thanks C!) and also managed to establish that C's Dad (the previous owner of the house) hac clearly noticed and catered for the hedgehogs that lived under one of his sheds, and even "installed" a hedgehog gate in the fence between C and B in the map above and below.

In summary - even though the hedgehogs had their southern and western territory (D,E, F, I and J) completely blocked off to them by the thoughtless (at best) actions of D, we (C and I) have re-established a route back for them into their southern and western hunting grounds (and with my tunnel under our side passage) a route back into the wider world, which I KNOW they have regularly used for 5 years or so now. The hedgehogs are OK, are feeding and would have had full run of lovely garden C with access to garden B (and even A possibly) in the map below.  So that does offer us some hope for these wonderful animals.

I expect it'll be some time after hibernation (so think April or so) before the local hedgehogs find their way back into their "southern territories" (D,E,F,J and I) ... but with C feeding them and hibernation coming soon... I think... I hope they'll be OK, despite the thoughtless actions of D.

More soon, I'm sure.

TBC...

 

Away from the hedgehogs, what else?

Ben and I were treated to another very much needed sight of one of our two secret site barn owls at about 7pm on the night of Saturday 12th November and then again on Sunday 13th. We've become accustomed to watching these spectacular owls each year, but generally only in the late autumn, all winter and sometimes early spring, as... well... it's just too light in the evenings and mornings at other times of the year, and Ben is in bed very often (and not owl watching!). The last time we saw one of our local owls was (I think) on the 6th March this year (at least I KNOW we saw one then as I recorded it) so we haven't seen Ben's favourite bird in 8 months now. Quite a stretch and always a great relief to see them again in the autumn - and know that they're still around - we're so lucky to have them, so so lucky!

An old back injury flared up again in the middle of November for me, incapacitating me somewhat (to the extent that I couldn't even get in a car for a week or so). (I slipped 2 lumbar discs about 6 years ago in case you're wondering, a result of having spent my youthful working years walking around with 90Kg sacks of flour over my shoulders - ruining my back over time, and I've never fully recovered).

I hear goosanders and goldeneye are beginning to return to our local gravel pits for the winter, but I haven't yet been to greet them.

We do have a few "winter returners" though.

For 5 of the last 6 years, we've had a coal tit use our camera box to roost in each winter, but last year nothing did and this year it looks like we might have a male house sparrow do so instead.

As well as the male house sparrow, we also have a pair of starlings now roosting under our north eaves each night - turning up and bedding down so-to-speak, at around 1530hrs each afternoon and leaving in the morning around 0800hrs. I (of course) have a camera in our eaves too. Of course I do.

The month continued to be very warm really, for November that is, right up until the last day or two - and even then, it hardly became cold, just average at around 7 or 8C.

In the final week of November not only did Ben and his schoolmates find a hornet in their class (Ben explained to everyone that there was no need to be scared (well done son!) but you know what we Brits are like don't you, children especially, so everyone ran around screaming in his class I hear), but also I found an ichneumon wasp on the inside of our kitchen window. So I took a photo or two with my phone. 

This lovely wasp is Ophion luteus. An ichneumon which can be found flying around until the end of November, but not often that late. It lays its eggs inside the larval cocoons of noctuid moths - no... it's not a "nice thing" really - going around and endoparasitising the 'sleeping' larvae of overwintering moths, but there you go - it was nice to see, at least for me.

Finally, this month, we took a family walk around the southern part of Burnham beeches woods in Buckinghamshire. My back injury and the boys' weekend activities had kept us from visiting the woods a fortnight earlier, when we should have (mid November is the time to go to see beech trees at their most glorious in this part of England), but we did see some beautiful things on our walk through the dank drizzle. One or two beech trees which looked on fire (see the photo at the start of this blog post and at the end), some lovely turkey tail fungi (see below)... and most unexpectedly of all, a party of about 6-9 (difficult to count - they seemed to be everywhere!) FIRECRESTS!

Sure, goldcrests are EVERYWHERE in England. When you know what goldcrests sound like, you'll realise that they genuinely DO seem to be in every leylandii spruce or fir tree. Just this month in fact, we again have a male goldcrest singing his tiny heart out in our smaller leylandii trees beside the lavatory window (beauty and the beast and all that).

But firecrests? No. They're FAR harder to see and hear. In fact the last time I saw a party of firecrests (or ANY firecrest at all for that matter) was at the summit of Mount Ainos in August 2007.  My girlfriend at the time (we married a year later) and I had just (inadvisably) driven an original fiat 500 up the 1:3 slope of Mount Ainos and completely fried its radiator and cooling system. We nursed it to a dusty car park near the summit, let it steam there like a geyser (no exaggeration!) as we sat under a pine thicket, NOT drinking from our water bottles (we'd need them to refill the radiator when we returned) and watching firecrests around us. (And an alpine swift overhead, as it happens).

Yes... I'd not seen firecrests for 15 years until Sunday November 27th 2022 in Burnham beeches. I made sure the Bucks Birds News website (and therefore county recorder) was informed...

Wonderful, tiny things which fly like hummingbirds around holly bushes and the like, picking off whatever flying insects are still around. For a few minutes we felt like we were in a Disney film or something - with these lovely wee birds hovering around our heads - completely unfazed by us.

A note here, to anyone hoping to or wishing to see a firecrest. The most obvious thing by far, when seeing a firecrest, is NOT the firey orange-yellow crest (like a goldcrest). They (like goldcrests again) only tend to raise and display their bright crests when breeding or shouting at each other etc. No... the white supercilium (stripe above the eye) is how I quickly ascertained these were firecrests we were watching and not goldcrests.

A brilliant treat though - completely unexpected and what a way to lighten up a really quite miserable day, where we felt like we were wandering around inside a cloud for most of our walk!

Also another lesson to us (should we need it - we probably don't) that you don't get to see firecrests, or anything else for that matter, if you just lie o your sofa, dribbling at the TV.

Get up and out.

Even in the miserable, cold, dark, wet winter.

You never know what you'll see.

TBR.

Burnham beechBurnham beech

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl Burnham beeches collared dove firecrest goldcrest hedgehog honey fungus house sparrow ichneumon wasp Ophion luteus sparrowhawk starling turkey tail fungus wren https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/12/november-rain-draft Thu, 01 Dec 2022 07:15:00 GMT
Pallid swift! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/11/pallid-swift Regular readers of this blog website may already know that Ben and I were lucky enough to watch what we're now convinced was a pallid swift, for a minute or so, over The Downshire golf club driving range at 16:22hrs exactly (I looked at my watch!) on 27th October.

I just wanted to give that sighting a little more attention than a few lines in my October monthly write-up, as well... I really think it merits it!

Firstly, I've never seen a pallid swift before - at least not knowingly and certainly not in the UK. I guess I may have seen them in Cyprus before (I certainly watched Eleanora's falcons chase hirundines  and apodiformes around that island in 1989 - I remember that well... so I suppose some of those hirundines or swifts might have been pallid swifts).

Pallid swifts breed on the Atlantic islands of the Canaries and Madeira, they are widespread throughout the European Mediterranean coastal regions and islands, including the Balearics, Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, Crete, the Dodecanese and Cyprus. Additionally, they have breeding grounds in Gibraltar, north Africa, Israel, the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.

They do, very occasionally show up in the UK in late October, when, around the end of their 2nd brood (they, unlike common swifts, get to their nests nice and early in April and have two (not one) broods per year), they get hit by strong southerlies blowing up from Africa. Southerlies which push them 100s or even 1000s of miles north of their comfort zone - into northern European countries like Poland and the UK.

This seems to be happening more and more.

I think the first recorded pallid swift in England was in 1978, but certainly there was a minor influx of a few dozen birds in 2015, 2018, 2020 and now 2022.

Look to the skies in late October (very late October) or early November (very early November) when there have been a few days of strong southerly winds from Africa and you may just get lucky enough to spot, like we did, a pallid swift flying around the UK in October skies (with bare trees underneath it - quite a bizarre sight - a swift over a bare tree!

I spotted it first. I would of course, being the exhaustingly hyperaware idiot that I am. I see everything because I feel everything!

We were hitting balls at the driving range after Ben had completed his fourth day at half term golf camp.

I looked out into the range, selected my target about 150 yards into the driving range and then saw it.

"THAT'S A SWIFT????!!!!!" I shouted at Ben. 

We both peered at it. And it was obvious. A swift (species tbc) was flying quite deliberately, north to south, over the range at a height of 50 feet or so (low) and was being lit up well by a low sun behind us.

At first, we naturally assumed it must be very (VERY VERY) late common swift.

But that just didn't feel right!

It seemed to be paler than a "normal" swift, with a noticeable white throat patch (very noticeable), a noticeable dark tail (less noticeable) and noticeable mottled or scaled effect on its belly (again... very noticeable). As I wrote on the Berks bird website, that very light brown (tan, really), almost scaly-looking belly could have been the darker, sooty brown belly of a common swift, illuminated brightly by the low sun behind us, giving us both the independent impression that it was tan in colour but was in fact just a brightly illuminated sooty brown belly ... but we just don't think so. 

It wasn't just the swift's belly that was tan. We got the very clear impression that the entire bird was just "lighter" or "paler" than a normal swift.

(Again... regular readers of this blog and anyone that knows me should know that I do know my swifts!).

It flew a little more deliberately I'd say than a common swift too. A little more gliding. A little more solid and chunky. A little less flitty and (as I said at the time) a little less like a bat.

It circled back over our heads for 20 seconds or so and then hot-winged it south, into a pretty fresh breeze.

I wasted little time reporting it.

At the time I was 80-90% sure that we had both seen a pallid swift, and if it wasn't a pallid (it was though!) then it was a common/pallid hybrid and if it wasn't that, then it was a very light brown common swift - two months (at least!*) later than it should have been.

* The last swift I saw over Berkshire this summer was on August 16th - almost two and a half months ago.

 

Anyway... since reporting it, quite a few pallid swifts have been seen over the country.  Unprecedented, Bird Guides calls 2022. All of them (at the time of the bird guides report here) at or near the coast - APART from our Berkshire pallid swift... which again at the time of the Bird Guides piece was the ONLY inland pallid swift to be reported!

Footnote.

Some chap called Fraser Cottington has now also reported what he thinks "can only have been" a pallid swift 120 foot above his house in Berkshire, although he only saw it for 3 seconds (his words). But if* that swift was a pallid, then that (Cottington's) would be the second Berkshire record in October this year and one of a growing number of inland reports after my first one.

* There is simply no way for someone to be 100% sure of a pallid swift identification after seeing it from 120 feet or so away for three seconds only, despite Cottington writing "it can only have been....".  It could potentially have been a common swift or a common/pallid hybrid or pallid. That's assuming it was a swift species at all. Cottington has recently publicly identified a town (or feral) pigeon as a stock dove after all, so his pallid swift could have very well been a blackbird for all we know!

 

Not so much doubt about our (definite swift and nearly definite pallid) swift though. 
We had a wonderful view for a good minute or so, in great light, really pretty close.

And HOO BOY do we feel fortunate to see it.

Fly well, wee fella (or lass!).

TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Apus pallidus pallid swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/11/pallid-swift Tue, 01 Nov 2022 19:02:32 GMT
October - and it was all yellow (again). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/11/october-draft October.

Historically, THE month which starts with pretty-well all the leaves on the trees and ends with pretty-well none of them on the trees - in between they all seem to turn yellow,

which is what I called my March monthly blog too, as (not so much all the yellow leaves but) all the yellow flowers appeared then.

Ben and I kicked off the month with a wee walk around a local gravel pit (well... cement works really) to see if we could spot any wading birds on their Autumn migration (October generally being a very good month for that sort of stuff).

We didn't see anything untoward really, (green sandpipers) in terms of waders, but we DID see two garganey ducks, which I've not seen in years. I would put one of my photos up here of these two ducks, but in all honesty, my photos were just dreadful - the ducks were so far away, I only really realised that they were garganey as they kept on flashing their green speculum

It was also lovely to see a load of house martins still in the country over the cement pits and a few hundred lapwing too.

Nice also to see a few insects - a colony of honeybees had clearly formed a hive inside one of the multitude of bat boxes in the oak trees.

Walking back to the car we found a superb HOP DOG (or pale tussock moth caterpillar) and a load of very active hornets too. I adore hornets, but unfortunately, we couldn't spend any time searching for their nest as I had to get Ben to golf academy that morning too.

In the afternoon, back at home, a superb young female sparrowhawk alighted on our recently trimmed leylandii tree. I think she's a regular visitor as jusr after it was cut a few weeks ago, I was sitting under the tree and a young, female hawk landed about 10 feet above my head for a few seconds.

This time though, I was in the kitchen with my camera - and I managed to get a reasonable photo through the double glazing, below.

On the 2nd, I went for my pre-dawn walk again and heard for the first time this season, the local foxes being pretty noisy. I managed to record one barking in the dark (around 5am) some 100 yards or so away from me in the woods, on my phone. (Clip below).

Despite an early morning of rain, the day soon cleared up into a lovely autumnal day. Ben and I spent the morning at a rugby tournament in Windsor and the afternoon on the golf course, where we heard and then saw two redwing fly over. Not quite the earliest I've ever heard or seen in the season, but pretty early nonetheless (ten years ago (in 2012) I heard two fly over at night, on the 26th of September - a full six days earlier than the pair Ben and I saw on the 2nd of October in 2022). Weird to see redwing share the sky with big hawker (I assume migrant hawkers) dragonflies.

We had a little drink after the golf, by the side of the final green and watched the omnipresent green woodpeckers perform aerobatics over our heads in the late afternoon sun, taking out what appeared to be hundreds or thousands even, of tiny white flies. Perhaps aphids. Perhaps someone reading this can let me know as to be frank, I'm not at all sure (see poor video I shot with my phone, below).

On the evening of the 3rd October, I noticed that our colony (*) of Segestria florentina (green-fanged, tube web spiders) at the back of the house at least, were doing very well, and sitting at the entrance of their hidey holes each night, waiting for a creepy-crawly or moth to trigger one of the trip-wires leading back to the spider's lair.  I first wrote about these spiders on this blog ten years ago... in fact... right at the birth of this website!  Ten years on, I naturally, took another photo (with my phone on macro mode). 

(*) These spiders, like all spiders, don't live in colonies of course, we just have many over the walls of our house, giving an appearance of a colony, so to speak.

The week between the 3rd and 10th was pretty dry really. Dry and warm. That said, this week seemed to be the first week of the Autumn when Daddy Long Legs (Crane Flies) seemed to bumble into the house, through the open windows. Meat and drink (literally) to our resident house guests, the Daddy Long Legs Spiders (Pholcus phalangioides) as this video (again shot with my phone) shows. 

Oh... by the way, within an hour of uploading that video, it had 550 views on Youtube and something like 20 likes. Which would make it my most-liked video and my fastest viewed. I have no idea why?!

I had BOTH my twin sisters over (yes... in case you didn't know, I'm a triplet) together for the first time in 14 years. The last time we were all together... was my wedding day, in August 2008! The warm, sunny weather brought to my attention again the lovely bow-winged grasshoppers in our front "meadow", a relatively small patch of lawn which I don't mow each year. The neighbours all have telly-tubby, plastic gardens, bereft of wildlife - so you can imagine they HATE our front garden. But WE love it. As do the burnet moth caterpillars that feed on the birds foot trefoil each year and the grasshoppers which stridulate from July to October inclusive each year. I think in my September blog I briefly mentioned that our grasshoppers in the front "meadow" are one of my proudest wildlife achievements here at our current home - and yes, I stand by that. I love having them, I love the sound they make, and I ADORE that I can show them to our boys (they love them too!). TThe photo below was again taken with my phone on macro mode. It's amazing how good phone cameras are these days. These lovely grasshoppers were present all month, by the way.

kA little rain on the morning of the 10th and a few dewy, cold nights before that, facilitated more species of inkcaps to burst forth from the ground. So, aalongside the shaggy inkcaps in the front garden (see the September blog post) we now had our fairy inkcaps, Coprinus disseminatus, in the back garden (all gathered around the roots of our biggest poplar tree)

and also glistening inkcaps, Coprinus micaceus, too (in the longer grass).

Both photos above were again taken with my phone. Fast becoming my camera of choice as its so portable!

That little bit of rain got the amphibs moving again. Whilst our 50 or so lily pads in the pond at the height of the summer were all dwindling, the pads that remained in October often seemed to have a wee frog or two sitting on it. Of course, the full HUNTERS' MOON on the 9th October would also have had the amphibs increase their activity. No... I'm not making this up. Lunar cycles tend to dictate a lot of zoological rhythms - especially amphibian rhythms. 

The 11th brought more sun and a noticeable number of (Colletes hederae) plasterer bees using ivy flowers (as they do) for their early Autumn food source. I videoed a clump of ivy on one of my walks around town below, and in it you might be able to make out a few insects - you'll have to take it from me that these insects are indeed ivy bees, with a few hornets patrolling the bushes around them - perhaps looking to take the odd bee!

I watched a few red admirals flying around the sunny garden and the odd small white butterfly and took a few photos (again with my phone) of the millions of dropped acorns in the road gutters and red pyracantha berries on bushes dropping under their weight.

I also noted that the local maple and sycamore (to an extent) trees were (ahem... obviously) coming out in support of Ukraine in the now, 8 month old conflict.

On the 11th of the month, I finally managed to not only get a really nice close-up shot of one of our omnipresent, neighbourhood red kites over our garden this time (photo taken with my 7d mk ii and a 400mm f5.6 prime lens)

but also a rather splendid female hawk (that at first I hoped was a goshawk, so big and impressive was she) putting everything that could fly, up into the air.

Incidentally, while I'm here, as soon as I saw the obvious and bold barring on the secondary flight feathers of the female sparrowhawk as I downloaded my photos onto Lightroom (my image developing and filing software of choice), I ruled out my brief, vain hope that it was a goshawk I was photographing. Goshawks do have faint barring on their secondaries, but only as juvenile birds - and if they're juvenile goshawks, they have streaked (not barred) breasts. When a goshawk's breast becomes barred (and not streaked) as an adult bird, they lose any trace of barring on their secondary flight feathers. (So yes... this was clearly just a very impressive female sparrowhawk and not a goshawk).

The middle of the month brought a fair amount of mixed weather. Some warm sunshine during the days (as well as squally showers and some breeze) but some really cool nights with heavy dew and mild air frost a couple of times. The leaves of course all continued to turn yellow and Ben and I spent most of the rest of the month raking up poplar leaves from the garden and trying to AVOID putting them on top of the still-active wasps' nest in the main compost heap. (Ben has been stung once by these wasps now, as have I).

My pre-dawn walks continued (I'm trying to do 365 days on the trot of 5 mile walks) and well... perhaps this is a measure of just how dull to many people this blog has become (I'm seriously thinking of knocking it on the head at the end of this year) as I can't imagine anyone other than me would be in any way interested in what subject I'm about to mention next.

That said, for my interest and reference only perhaps, on my pre-dawn walks I tend to follow a similar route each day and as I approach the end of mile 1 (of 5) my walk takes me along a relatively new path through a housing estate which up until about 5 years ago, used to be my local golf course.

I remember seeing Devil's coach horses MANY times as a wildlife-obsessed boy. But hardly any at all for the past 40 years. I can only presume that is because one of my hobbies as a small boy was turning over stones and logs to see what creepy-crawlies crept and crawled underneath and I guess, since discovering girls and alcohol and rock music and cars etc... I don't tend to turn over that many logs anymore. Perhaps that's why I don't tend to see Devil's coach horses anymore.

I say I don't TEND to see them anymore, as I ALWAYS see them on this 100-yard stretch of path at night (when I'm walking and they're hunting). I ONLY see them here and I ALWAYS see them here. It's almost bizarre.

This month I took a very bad photo of one adopting its characteristic scorpion tail defence pose, with my phone. 

Aggressive wee things, these biggest of all our UK rove beetles. Their scientific specific name, olens, literally means "smelling" - and if they still feel threatened after they've "scorpion-tailed", they'll produce a foul-smelling white exudation from the tip of their abdomen, which should finally see off their attacker.

Legend has it that they curse whoever they point their "scorpion tail" at. Means I'm scuppered, I guess.

 

On the 15th, Ben and I took a quick walk around one of our local gravel pits to see if any more migratory waders or ducks had dropped in. Nothing rare to note really - but it's always nice to see green sandpipers there and snipe. Apologies again for the poor-quality photos below. You'll make out the singular green sandpiper in the first photo - and the singular snipe in the second - but in actual fact that singular snipe in that photo isn't singular at all. Can you spot the other snipe in the frame? (It's not that hard, don't worry!).

I netted (covered with a net) our garden wildlife pond on October 16th, to try and ensure it didn't fill with dropped poplar leaves during the month. 

A sad time this, for me, netting the pond - but at least I don't leave it netted for more than four or five weeks - just until the poplar, lilac, ash and staghorn leaves have all fallen. The nearest tree to the pond in our garden is our oak which is doing well now (perhaps 20 feet tall after planting it as a sapling 8 or 9 years ago, and heavily laden with thousands of acorns this year) but in common with almost all oaks, it doesn't tend to shed its leaves like most other deciduous trees do - the old leaves just turn brown and crispy and are pushed off in the spring by the new, fresh, green leaves coming through). Because of this, I don't keep the pond netted all winter, even though the oak tree stands guard over it. To be honest, the pond is now probably full of acorns rather than tree leaves!

After weeks of frantic hedgehog activity around our hedgehog feeding station, from the night of the 16th/17th October no hedgehogs at all turned up to our feeding station. NONE!  I always tend to start worrying at times like this. Had they been run over or trapped in nearby tellytubby gardens again by environmentally ignorant neighbours (remember back in 2012 all our local hedgehogs were in that situation, trapped in neighbours' gardens by airtight walls or neat, ground hugging fence panels (THAT is the reason why hedgehogs will be extinct in the UK in our childrens' lifetimes at this rate). I mean, they have disappeared before for a week or two, but I'm not sure I remember them doing so in the Autumn, when they really should be feeding up.

There was to be no further hedgehog activity all month. I can only optimistically-hope that our hedgehogs have poddled off to pastures new to continue to breed like they did with us this year, or pessimistically-think that they've been killed (foxes, cars) or trapped (neighbour's fence imrovements). I have checked all our garden hedgehog runs and tunnels which I've implored the neighbours to keep - which (eventually) they all have done. Perhaps I need to think optimistically then. We all feel a little lost without our hedgehogs though, it's fair to say. 

The 18th brought us no wind at all, and therefore a dewy dawn fog (complete with glistening orbwebs in every bush)

and the 19th brought us strong easterly winds, bringing down a load of leaves.

On the week starting on Sunday the 23rd of the month, the Jetstream decided to throw us deep low-pressure system after deep low-pressure system. Sunday 23rd in particular was a wild day with torrential rain and thunder on my pre-dawn walk (where I photographed (with my phone) this toad below on the move through the dropped acorns)

continuing with torrential rain during the day (Ben and I got drenched at rugby training) and again thunder and torrential rain in the afternoon (which like the toad above, brought out the neighbourhood frogs (see below - again, photo taken with my phone) after dusk). Amphibs do like a bit of rain to get their limbs moving, that's for sure!

Tuesday 25th brought us a partial solar eclipse. I had, of course, to get a photo or two...

The incredibly mild weather continued until the end of the month really. We got up to 21C indeed, with very warm, southerly winds blowing up from Africa during the last week of the month, with big low-pressure systems sitting to the west of the UK in the main or rolling up the celtic nations.

On the 27th, a young woodpigeon flew into our eldest son Ben's bedroom window,

knocked itself out and landed on the conservatory roof as I worked below.

Took a while for it to recover (a good hour I'd say).

Later in the day (27th), Ben and I hit a few balls at the driving range after his half term golf camp finished for the day and I'd finished work. As I addressed a ball and gazed out towards my target at the range, I noticed a SWIFT fly through (well... over) the driving range. At first, we thought it was a ridiculously late common swift (the latest ever sighting of a common swift in Berkshire was on November 9th, 1988 - and the second latest was, strangely enough on October 27th again in 1990, over Finchampstead, a few miles SW of us here.
After we compared individual mental notes though (plumage colour, flight pattern etc) we both came to the pretty swift (HUR! HUR!) that what we had been watching for a minute or so, was in fact a PALLID SWIFT! I recorded it as such on the Berks birds website (see screen snip below).

A little more research after tea led me to believe that this swift was indeed a pallid swift - more and more so these days, the Mediterranean-nesting or Canary-Isles nesting (we're talking waaaay down south - these really aren't French birds) pallid swifts often get caught up in African southerly winds, just as they get ready to leave their nests after their second brood, in late October or early November. These strong, southerly, late October/early November winds can sweep up juvenile (and adult) pallid swifts and fling them as far north as Poland. 

Happened in 2015, 2018, 2020 and indeed 2022 (something like a couple of dozen were reported all over England and Wales in coastal counties mainly, in the fourth week of October 2022. And in this week..., Ben and I saw one over Berkshire!

We THINK that if our 80-90% suspicion becomes 100% and is effectively confirmed, well... that would (I think... I may be wrong) be the first confirmed pallid swift EVER recorded over Berkshire. As far as I'm concerned, I have basically little doubt at all it was a pallid swift we saw - quite incredible!

What a way to end the month. 

Until next time then,

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) acorns Bow-winged grasshopper Colletes hederae Coprinus disseminatus Coprinus micaceus Crane Fly Daddy Daddy Long Legs Spider Devil's coach horse Devil's coachman eclipse Fairy fox Frog garganey Glistening inkcap goldfinch green sandpiper green woodpecker hedgehog honeybee hop dog hornet house martin Hunters' moon inkcap" ivy bee Legs" Long migrant hawker oak Ocypus olens pale tussock moth caterpillar pallid swift partial solar eclipse Pholcus phalangioides plasterer bee pyracantha berries red admiral red kite redwing Segestria florentina small white Snipe sparrowhawk toad whitefly woodpigeon https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/11/october-draft Tue, 01 Nov 2022 07:30:00 GMT
(Baa-dee-ya. Dancin' in...) September. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/10/september In a typically (and depressingly) British fashion I will begin this month's round-up blog post by writing that "BLIMEY! Doesn't the summer heatwave feel such a long time ago now?!".

It does though, looking back at my July and August posts here. A long time ago.

Summer heat can't last forever though and as is very often the way, September 2022 brought us much cooler weather, a little more rain, proper and heavy DEW and even in a spot or two (not here, mind), a teensy-weensy bit of ground frost I hear.

 

September began in still, sultry fashion. On the 2nd, large flocks (50 plus birds) of starlings spent the afternoon taking what I presume were flying ants from the sky. Occasionally they would shout a "HAWK" warning as a sparrowhawk lazily flew past and half-tested them. I was sitting under our newly trimmed HUGE leylandii in the back garden when the starling HAWK call rang out - and shortly afterwards, a smallish female hawk landed in the tree about 10 feet above my head. There she stayed for about 10 seconds, peering at me below with her sulphurous eyes. Then, as Bob Mortimer might say... AWAAAAAYYYY!

On the 3rd, the weather was still sultry (or "close" *shudder* as some people would call it... CHRIST I hate that term) and it was lovely to see a very vocal coal tit in the newly chopped (in half) leylandii. I'm a big fan of the unassuming coal tit and was worried that cutting our big leylandii in half would get rid of them (and the goldcrests) ... so it a bit of a relief for me to see one in the tree so soon after we hacked half of the tree away. On my daily walk around town, I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of avian disturbance on a local pond. At first I thought some swans had been attacked during the night by some humans and dogs (I know this happens... I used to take calls from the public reporting this) as there were hundreds and hundreds of white feathers all over the lake and evidence of real disturbance too (snapped, marginal plants floating in the lake). That said, there were no dead birds, nor large, OBVIOUS swan feathers, which of course was a good sign. As the month went on it quickly became clear to me that far from a flock of swans being attacked at night... the pond itself was being used as a mass roost for dozens and dozens of canada geese, which I presume, were all preening throughout the night - nothing more than that! Phew! 

Between the 5th and 9th of the month, lots of thundery rain showers hit us. This felt particularly weird after weeks and weeks of hot sunny weather.  Real, heavy rain - and flooded patios etc.  During the night of the 6th (PM) and the 7th (AM) no hedgehogs visited our feeder for the first time in months, starting a couple of weeks of intermittent visits (the first such activity, or rather *lack of activity*, for months). Anna speculated that this might because the rains had reactivated their main food - slugs etc. She was very possibly correct. On the 9th, 10th and 11th for example, no hedgehogs at all visited our feeder - which to be honest concerned me a little (I spent a few mornings checking very local roads and pavements for flat hedgehogs and thankfully found none then).

On Saturday the 11th, Ben and I went to Wentworth Golf Club to watch the 2nd round of the BMW PGA Championship. It was originally scheduled to be the third round of course, but 'er maj' had the temerity to pop 'er clogs on the Thursday before, so the powers that be decided to call off play for a day. I have no idea why, but as I am a raging, ranting republican (and boy do I wish England in particular would finally grow up and have some self-respect rather than respecting some special blood sitting under a priceless crown) I wouldn't, would I?

Wentworth is a lovely place to be if you like golf AND wildlife and Ben and I enjoyed not only the sights and sounds of the best golfers in Europe smacking their wee white balls around the Surrey sand belt, but also the birds too. No-one else but Ben and I saw (or would be interested in) the tree creeper exploring the pines by the 10th green nor the coal tits in the same treetops, nor the flock of thirty or so house martins that flew over that part of the course in a big, talkative feeding party. Stunning birds, house martins, much prettier than swifts I admit, but nowhere near as impressive!

Sunday 12th seemed to be the day when I suddenly (I know not why) seemed to start noticing a lot more wildlife around me than earlier in the month. Firstly, two swallows (that I saw anyway, there may have been more of course) flew through the garden at lunchtime. Not together, but about 30 seconds apart, the first flying south and the second west. I mowed the lawn on the 12th for only the second time all year (it's been *that* dry all summer) after it suddenly seemed to turn long and green again (after summer of it being burned off and straw-coloured) and noticed a couple of rose chafers in the compost heap, not bothered by the wasp nest there of course.  The rose chafer and wasps were also joined by a robber fly on our rope washing line - unfazed by me and my phone on macro mode, taking its mugshot. 

I noticed a nice zebra spider sunning itself on the front of the house when I mowed a ring around our long, meadow front lawn and of course the dozens and dozens of bow-winged grasshoppers that live there. I honestly think that along with the pond (newts and frogs) and hedgehog tunnels (breeding hedgehogs) my greatest success, wildlife-wise, here at this house is our grasshoppers in the front garden. I never mow most of it... just a ring around the outside. Oh sure... the neighbours will hate it, but our neighbours are arseholes to be frank, so I don't care. The grasshoppers LOVE it though and therefore so do we! On the night of the 12th, a small, dark(ish) hedgehog visited the feeder for the first time in 4 nights (or pretty well exactly 100 hours). I have a feeling (I can't be sure) that this wee chap(pess) was one of this year's young.  To top it all, a frog appeared in our back passageway (matron) which was a bit of a surprise, as despite frogs appearing in our back passageway (MATRON!) very often (they use our hedgehog tunnel to when moving in and out of our garden), they normally do so, like most amphibians, when it's wet. It was again, bone dry, when this frog showed up. 

By the middle of the month, specifically the 13th, I was noticing LOTS of bats on my dawn walks and dusk patrols of the garden. Almost certainly common and/or soprano pipistrelles, as all the bats I was seeing were that sort of size, flying like pips and nowhere near notable bodies of water (other than our pond - over which one bat in particular seemed to enjoy feasting on the thousands and thousands of newly eclosed mosquitos above the pond and in between the poplars, oak and leylandii. 

On the 14th and 15th of September, it was clear that we had at least two hedgehogs visiting our feeder again - and not just in the wee small hours, as they had done earlier in the summer, but now like they used to, just after sundown too. Unfortunately, the hedgehogs, being solitary animals, did start to scrap a little over this food source again, which I videoed on the 20th. 

It was on the 16th September that first noticed a female sparrow occasionally roosting in our cedar swift box, which I again videoed on the 20th of the month. Looking at all the dried bird poo on the footage, which wasn't there in April, it's clear that birds (tits and or sparrows) have roosted in this box all summer perhaps - but I hadn't been aware as I (we) were getting live video feed to our portable TV from our attic swift space and tit box - neither was used by anything all year (for the first year that I can remember). 

On the 17th of the month, Ben and I played golf at Bird Hills Golf Club near Maidenhead and it was a pleasure to see quite a few swallows and house martins fly across the course, as well as a few pheasants run across it. They were ... the only birdies that we saw on the course that day (A HA HA HA HA HAAAA OHHH STOP IT).

On the 18th, I videoed a dozen or so more house martins drink from the watering lake at the Royal Berkshire Polo Club as Ben played rugby there.

I also took a little walk through Winkfield and discovered a wonderful badger sett alongside a deserted footpath, and watched roe deer and buzzards in the adjoining fields. A lovely little discovery! 

Finally, again on the 18th, I discovered a big patch of new parasol mushrooms on our local golf course. The sharp-eyed among you might be able to read the label on the inside of one of my clodhoppers in the second photo below... yes I have size 14 feet... these were BIG mushrooms!

At the end of the 3rd week of the month, specifically on the 21st, on another of my dawn walks, I watched a dozen or two bees swarm around an LED street light above a footpath before dawn. You may know bees DO sleep (generally) at night (or if you didn't, you do now!), but these bees were not sleeping - in fact they seemed very active, considering the sun was half an hour away from rising at the time. 

(1) Bees attracted to LED lamp-post at night - YouTube

There is an issue with honeybee parasitisation in North America at least (and I thiiiiink it's been seen in Belgium too) where honeybees are parasitised by Phorid flies, which effectively turns them into "zombees", and often makes them active at night and attracted to light. I don't happen to think this is what I was witnessing the other morning though - I assume all I was seeing is a few bees that had "bearded" around their hive in a tree at night - and these relatively new, bright LED streetlights erected nearby, had confused them meaning basic phototaxis has taken over and some of these bees were just attracted to the light, almost naturally.

Luckily, one of my sisters works in the Natural History Museum in London and has a few contacts which I hope she'll ask about what I saw. I hope the nasty zombie Phorid flies aren't now in the UK... we'll see eh?

Back to writing about our hedgehogs briefly now, and I witnessed (on automatically recorded footage on my tiny CCTV camera)  our boldest hedgehog fill its belly with a load of hedgehog food in the small hours of Friday 23rd September - and then curl up and sleep IN THE FEEDING BOWL for 90 minutes (between about 0200am and 0330am)! That would be the first time I've seen this behaviour. I hope it doesn't mean the hedgehog is ill or not quite right... it seems OK to me, other than having two or three big, swollen ticks behind its left ear. 

The last week of September brought us a mixed bag, weather-wise. Squally showers, cooler temperatures, some sun and some strong gusty winds meant my wildlife sightings were perhaps a little limited during this time.

Oh sure, I was lucky enough to see two swallows over our local golf course on the 25th, as well as lots of common darter dragonflies and what I assume were migrant hawkers too. Yes, I saw a lovely big buzzard sat on the corner of a local college's observatory on one of my walks (see the photos below)... but no I didn't go and see the juvenile marsh harrier that spent most of the month, including the last week of September, quartering over a local gravel works where Ben and I watch our winter ducks. Well... we're not "twitchers" you see.

By the final week of the month, the sloe bushes along my walk were DRIPPING with fruit, walking under oak or horse chestnut trees was becoming a risky affair (I got hit on the head twice by acorns and conkers) and the neighbourhood bramley trees were covering the roads in smashed, rotten fruit.

Earlier in the year (the Spring I think) a large house spider crawled over me in bed and on the 28th of September, in the early hours, a False Widow (Steatoda nobilis) did the same to Anna. I'm sure the reader(s?!) of this blog don't believe all the BS printed in the gutter press about these spiders, but in case there is anyone out there reading this that does believe that false widows are dangerous, WILL bite you and will rot flesh with their bite, none of the above is true.  Oh sure, they'll bite you if you're dumb enough to squash them, but the bite will be no worse than a wasp sting (if that bad) 99.99% of the time and much more often than not, the tiny, poor spider will try its level best to avoid you. Of bloody course it will. (sigh).

The spider that crawled across Anna's face originally and then her arm in bed was removed groggily by Anna herself, with her fingers - and then by me (it looks squashed in the photo below was fine, honestly).

Another shaggy inkcap came up in the front garden in the spot they always come up, (see photo below) and it was lovely to still hear and see the bow-winged grasshoppers in the front garden right to the end of the month.

Finally, depressingly-enough, the leaves were beginning to turn. As in almost every year (and despite the poor, stressed trees starting to drop their leaves (for a spell at least) in August this year during the end of the 2022 heatwave), we ended the month with 95% of the leaves on the trees, but we'll end the next month, October that is, with only around 5% of the leaves on our trees - and most of those 5% will be oak and beech!

Until November then....

TBR.

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) acorn bow-winged grasshopper canada goose coal tit common pipistrelle conker false widow flying ant frog hedgehog honeybee horse chestnut house martin house sparrow parasol mushroom pheasant robber fly rose chafer shaggy inkcap sloe soprano pipistrelle starling swallow treecreeper https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/10/september Sat, 01 Oct 2022 08:45:00 GMT
August. The lucky ones. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/9/august-the-lucky-ones This will be a very short monthly report, perhaps the shortest of the entire year  -  if only because other than all the great stuff we saw in our wonderful wild week in West Wales (see parts 1 and 2 on this website), I've been quite hard at work so not seen that much recently  -  coupled with the fact that quite often August is a very quiet month, wildlife-wise, or it certainly seems that way after everything has pretty-well finished breeding, the autumn feeding glut and movements hasn't really begun at all and of course the swifts have all pretty-well gone by now.

So... if you want to fill your boots with lots of August wildlife sightings, please do click on the links above (click on the numbers 1 and 2 in the paragraph above)... and for the rest of this monthly report, I'll briefly describe other comings and goings during the past fortnight or so.

First things first (and I'll not dwell on this, as it will NOT be news to you), July's prolonged heatwave dominated the month of August too. So much so in fact that we're all pretty sure now that the summer of 2022 will be this generation's 1976 summer. Well... that is of course unless climate change has already really taken hold and ALL summers from now on are like 2022 and 1976. 

Most grass was burned off during August (I've not mowed our lawns since May - not needed to) and even the poor trees (many of them) started to shed a LOT of leaves by mid August around here, so stressed were they by the lack of water in the soil. Our garden black poplars (for example) would normally drop a leaf or two in the final week of September and then spend all October dumping them so by November, they'd be bare. It happens like this every year. A full set of leaves (pretty-well) on the 1st October and NONE by Hallowe'en.

Not this year though. I'm writing this blog on the last day of August (another warm, sunny day) and even though I haven't yet, I could have raked a very large pile of leaves up off the back garden and put them on our compost heap -  that's perhaps 6 weeks early, or certainly 4 or 5 anyway.

Regarding the weather, the rains finally came in earnest on the morning of 24th August. By then of course, the pond had virtually dried up (got to about 25% full I think) and I'd exhausted all five of my emergency water butts, which were all full of rainwater for years. Just one morning of pretty heavy (at times) rain on the 24th August not only filled the pond again but also filled three emergency rain water butts, just in case we got another two months of no rain! Strange though... I hear we may be due some rain tomorrow (a little), but since that morning of rain on the 24th - we've had nothing again. Nothing at all to have ponds like the (deep, dangerous (normally - hence the lifebuoy!)) pond by the 12th green of a golf course I regularly play at even start to become ponds again (see the photo below taken AFTER the rains of the 24th!).

OK. Enough of the weather - you know all about that anyway (I expect you, like me, look like you've been sunning yourself in Greece all summer, even if, like me, you've not been further south than Cardiff!).

As the heat built over the country, hedgehog activity in our garden dropped off a cliff. In fact we had a couple of nights in mid August when for the first time in months, we had no hedgehog visitors at all to the feeding station. I did see our female (I think we have only one female) get pretty molested again by one of our males (we have several) so I'm half-expecting her to be made pregnant again and give birth to a late, 2nd litter.  We'll see. All I know right now is that multiple hedgehogs (and all males I think) are back feeding with us... so that's good.

On the 18th of the month Ben and I saw (and heard) two ravens cronking over the Oxfordshire countryside as we played golf beneath them and a couple of swallows too... although as many people will know, swallows will be here for a good few weeks yet, having two broods each year if they can.

On the 22nd, we had our HUGE (50 foot high and 50 foot wide) leylandii tree properly seen to. Cut in half in fact. Out came a couple of well-established squirrels' dreys and pigeons nests. But back, thankfully came a pair of goldcrests the very next day. (We have goldcrests most of the year in our spruce trees - always singing to themselves (and me!) even in winter!).

On the 23rd I decided to put a lot of the dropped spruce leaves (dropped when tree was cut in half the day before) into the compost heap. Two wheelbarrows of leaves in fact. Which immediately resulted in me getting my second-ever wasp sting as I angered a common (not German) wasp guarding its nest below the compost heap - a nest I hadn't seen this year as I've not USED the compost heap, having not even had the need to cut the grass and put the clippings in the compost heap all year!

After the rains of the 24th, we were visited by an always-welcome young green woodpecker. Hopping around the newly (but briefly) dampened garden, looking for ants and other creepy crawlies.

And that, grapple fans, other than a family of very tame bank voles that crossed my path on another golf course on the 29th of the month, is pretty-well that for wildlife in August. At least for me.

No.

No I've not forgotten.

My swifts.

The last swift of the year? For me (this may change of course - I HAVE seen one pass over this house south in the first week of September before) the final swift of 2022 danced across the sky south as Ben and I got out of a car having just played a local round of golf in the afternoon of Tuesday 16th August. We got out of the car at around 17:30 and my heart leaped when I saw it. I don't think I'd seen one in the previous ten days and I don't think I've seen one since.

I wish all the swifts nothing but good luck during their migration south and their winter sojourn in their proper home continent, Africa.... and as is traditional now, I play them my swift song (below) which I play each time they leave and each time they return (the lucky ones that is). 

Please do also listen to it  too - and think of these wonderful wee chocolate brown birds, arrowing back to the Congo like tiny bows and arrows right now, in their hundreds and thousands. 
 

Be safe you beautiful swifts - and roll on May 2023.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 1976 bank vole goldcrest green woodpecker heatwave hedgehog poor trees raven squirrel swallow swift wasp woodpigeon https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/9/august-the-lucky-ones Thu, 01 Sep 2022 08:30:00 GMT
Our wonderful, wild week in West Wales. Part 2. (Wednesday to Saturday). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/8/our-wonderful-wild-week-in-west-wales-part-2-wednesday-to-saturday This is part 2 of a 2 part blog post write up of our summer holiday in West Wales.

You might like to read these posts in order, so to read the part one first, please click here.

 

 




Part 2.

 

Wednesday 10th August. "NEWPORT SANDS".

  • Ben and I had a round of golf booked at 10am on Wednesday, at the superb Newport Sands golf club, with views (in this weather) over the bay and Irish Sea to die for. The sea looked like a mill pond all day (all week in fact). The only wildlife of note on this day (when we were concentrating on our golf and the wonderful views to be frank) were a pair of cronking ravens over the course (brilliant birds, ravens, I think) and small flocks of linnets bouncing noisily between clumps of gorse.
  • Anna saw a little egret on the estuary as we drove away from the course after our round (Anna and Finn spent another day on the beach) and we ate at Parrog, on the water front at a  very basic (fish and chip) cafe, The Morawelon Cafe.  I liked this a lot - LOADS of people around, kayaking and canoeing and swimming - the real hub of Newport, Parrog was. In.... yup... ridiculously glorious weather. By this point in the week everyone looked like they were on holiday in the Med. How lucky were we?!

 

 

 

Thursday 11th August. "STRUMBLE STROLL".

  • By Thursday I was becoming very much of the opinion that if you were to take a holiday near the coast of Pembrokeshire and NOT take a walk on a clifftop or two and NOT try to spot a seal or a dolphin or porpoise or gannet, then you might as well have stayed at home. So up I got, excited, at 6am - and out I sat, on the patio, overlooking the paddock and the river below, with a coffee. THIS is when I saw my (and our, in fact) only OTTER of the week. I was sitting there quietly, watching and listening - when three young ducks (that had been on this stretch of the river all week), hidden to me by the large willow tree in the garden,
  • became exceedingly agitated. I'm constantly telling people that if you want to SEE more wildlife, you need to LISTEN to your surroundings first. These ducks had been pretty quiet all week, and now they were alarm-calling and flapping about all over the gaff (I could hear that... not see it). Something must have upset them. And not a human (as we'd been close to them all week and they didn't mind). Something predatory. A fox? Nah... not in the river. A heron? Nah... I'd have heard that and anyway, herons don't tend to bother ducks when those ducks reach a certain size. A dog? A cat? I doubt it. So something else then. A mink? perhaps! An OTTER????!!!! Very possibly. Probably in fact! I kept watching the river and watched as all three young ducks quacked noisily and flew up stream in fits and bursts. Followed by a v-shaped ripple in the smooth river surface. As I watched, the ripple became a nose and then a head of YES. an otter... swimming upstream, leisurely it seemed. I saw the otter's head very clearly and watched it for about five seconds - then it submerged again and swam out of sight. All before the sun came up over the Eastern woodland and hit the river and paddock properly, all before anyone else had crawled out of their pits - and I (nor we... any of us) saw an otter again that week... despite getting up again at this time on Friday and quietly watching the river, in the vain hope that otters were more like their mustelid cousins, badgers, which often keep to predictable routines, and less like their mustelid cousins the weasels and stoats which are far more chaotic in nature. No photos nor videos of "my" otter I'm afraid - my camera(s) wasn't (weren't) with me and anyway... this was one of those times where I was far better just watching and forming memories, rather than worrying about aperture of lens and ISO film speed. I'm afraid I made Anna very jealous this morning as otters are her favourite animal, whereas badgers are mine - but there you have it. I just got lucky I guess.
  • When we had all had breakfast, we drove down to Strumble head for our cliff walk. It would give the boys a chance to see a lovely lighthouse (all children (and some adults too!) love lighthouses and tales of shipwrecks and mermaids eh?) as well as perhaps spot a big Atlantic grey seal or a porpoise.
  • Drenched in unrelenting sunshine again (you're getting jealous now too aren't you) we had a wonderful few hours gazing out to sea and we were lucky enough to see all manner of wonderful wildlife on this walk including: quite a few grey seals (calling to each other too - I told Ben about the mournful mermaids myth at this point), kestrels hunting in the sea breeze around the lighthouse itself on St. Michael's island, lots of shags, quite a few gannets out at sea, a pod of harbour porpoises checking out the bow wave of a wildlife watching pleasure cruise boat about half a mile off shore, some rock doves, some oystercatchers, lots of great black-backed gulls and some flocks of linnets. Anna saw a common lizard on the path and Ben found a bloody-nosed beetle too. It was just lovely to take the family to such a stunning coastline to show them seals. Anna was certainly very proud / thankful / relieved and glad that we decided to go "seal hunting" on our own and have a lot of success, rather than drive an hour up the coast to New Quay (for example) and pay for a boat to take us out. That would have been fun too I know, but all rather unnecessary if you just want some views and a seal or two - and you have a three year old who is a bit of a handful on land let alone on a boat!
  • Ben and I explored the observatory on the cliff top,
  • and then we drove home, full of smiles again after seeing the seals. We decided again that night to eat at the pub which was a very short walk away from Penwaun, the Trewern Arms. Even better it was this time, the chewy burger. Highly recommended!
  • The day ended with Anna and I being treated to the sight (and sound) of two badgers eating at our feet at dusk. I'd thrown caution to the wind regarding these lovely animals and offered them some food right by the cottage, after spending the week enticing them closer and closer. And HOOO BOY did it work! I may have been closer to badgers in my time (I've had cubs play on my boots whilst I was wearing them once after all), but Anna told me she'd not had such a close encounter with these wonderful wild animals before. They are just superb, badgers. And contrary to our government's insistence (after being lobbied by the rich NFU for decades) they do NOT threaten cattle farms' existence with bTB  - that's basically just poor animal husbandry by the farmers - which we basically force them to adopt after insisting on cheap food ourselves. You can see a video of our set up and these badgers at the end of Friday's section (when Ben watched them with us).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday 12th August. "DINAS IN THE OVEN".

  • We had all got up at 6am to try and spot "my" otter again, but alas no joy this time. Although we did see one or two dippers in the gloom before the sun crept over the trees to illuminate the river. One or two dippers and one or two kingfishers, so the dawn wasn't wasted at all (it never is!).
  • Our last moth trap morning produced a load of Black arches moths again and half a dozen Rosy footmen again but little else of real note.
  • Our last full day in Pembrokeshire - so we thought we'd walk around Dinas Island in the morning in oven-like temperatures and then wade, at our leisure, up the river in the afternoon.  If you are to do the same as us and explore the island (with just stunning views across to Fishguard and her ferries to the West and back to Newport bay to the East, then I'd really recommend you drive to Pwyllgwaelod beach in the early(ish) morning (the car park is free but fills quickly) and walk from there, rather than drive and park at the incredibly busy (from dawn it seemed - kayakers everywhere and parking charges) Cwm Yr Eglwys.  We had a brilliant (if steep and sweaty) walk up Dinas Head, where we also saw more seals from the cliff tops, a few fulmars, lots more shags and many stonechats too. The completely unexpected wildlife highlight of the two hour walk for us though was the sight of a juvenile cuckoo alighting on a fence for thirty or so seconds, before disappearing over the brow of a hill. Adult cuckoos left our shores weeks ago, having deposited their eggs in other birds' nests. This young (brownish/grey rather than airforce grey of the adult) would have never seen its true, biological parents, having been raised by a pair of reed warblers or similar - but now, perhaps six weeks after its real mother had flown back to Africa, this young bird was going to fly to Africa itself too. On its own. For the first time. An amazing sight for us all  -  and if you had asked me if I was expecting to see a cuckoo start its flight to sub-Saharan Africa in August on cliff top on an island (for all intents and purposes) off the west coast of Wales - I'd have said you were mad. But mad you would not have been. We saw it.
  • I loved walking around Strumble Head on Thursday and loved walking up Dinas Head today but equally, perhaps even more so, I absolutely ADORED wading up the sparkling clear river Nevern with our eldest boy Ben in the afternoon. We saw three dippers we think (really excellent views) a couple of kingfishers and quite a few grey wagtails. But just the feeling of wading up (to our waists at points - although we were all too aware that in most years and at ALL other times of the year, we would not be able to wade in this part of the river - we'd either be swimming or not entering the river at all, as the current would be too powerful - but not this week and not this never-ending summer, and not this week), was just glorious. We waded almost half a mile upstream before turning back. Ben really impressed me in this adventure too - he's becoming a proper little man! (sob! sob!).
  • Our last night at the cottage  - so we went back to our favourite eatery for tea - the brilliant (if expensive) Castle Inn
  • Because of Anna and my badger watch experience on Thursday night, we allowed our eldest boy Ben to stay up with us and hopefully watch the badger(s) from the kitchen patio balcony with us. On Thursday night the badgers arrived at 2140... but they didn't arrive until 2210 this night - but when they did arrive, WHAT A SHOW they put on for Ben. I don't think I've ever seen a 9 year old so quiet, so happy and so talkative afterwards. His eyes were like dinner plates! Well... he had badgers literally eating AT HIS FEET! (lit up my my red head torch - yes dear reader I came prepared with a macro camera, an action camera, a landscape camera, a pocket camera, a trail camera, a thermal camera, a pair of binoculars, a telescope, a moth trap, an extension lead AND a red head torch for wildlife watching!). You can see my edited video of this badger watch in the video below (all shot automatically with my static trail camera to our side, and also by me with my hand held thermal imager). You can also see in the photo below our "set up" for the badger watch - and just how close they came to us. In fact on the Thursday night, one badger even joined us on the patio. It got to within a foot of my feet!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday 13th August. "THE END".

  • Saturday morning was basically spent packing and cleaning the cottage as we needed to vacate the property by 10am (we saw the cleaners arrive at 10:01am too as we drove away  (wow!)) so I'm afraid, other than a tiny walk up the hill by Ben and I (where we gawped more at ancient oak trees) we really didn't see any wildlife of note. 
  • Just before we left we all walked around the plot to say goodbye to the nesting swallows, the black horse (we assume she was a mare and perhaps a pregnant mare too looking at the size of her belly (perhaps she was just bloated, who knows, who cares?!)) in the flood meadow, the otters, the dippers, the dragonflies and the bats.
  • We left pretty sad really. Almost tearful in fact. Oh of course the weather helped enormously but we had had a wonderful week.
  • The plot was just so quiet. So so quiet! I'd love to return without a 3 year old in tow, but even with a three year old with us (and a nine year old), the only real sounds from the land all week were the chittering of swallows and house martins above the cottage, the burble of the river below and the occasional drive by of a big tractor on the road behind (perhaps 5 times in the whole week). Oh and the church bells I guess. And what a lovely church it was.
  • We'd love to return one day.
  • Perhaps we will.
  • We'll see.
  • Thankyou Penwaun and the Robinsons (the owners). Your (incredibly quiet) cottage and land and most importantly of all, your bats and badgers are just wonderful. Please continue to look after them.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) badger banded demoiselle barnacle black arches bloody-nosed beetle blue tit brimstone moth buzzard canary-shouldered thorn cat shark egg-case common lizard common pipistrelle compass jellyfish cuckoo curlew daubenton's bat dipper dogfish egg-case fox fulmar gannet golden-ringed dragonfly great black-backed gull green sandpiper grey seal grey wagtail harbour porpoise heron herring gull house martin kingfisher limpet linnet little egret lugworm mermaid's purse minnow natterer's bat noctule bat otter oystercatcher pale prominent peregrine periwinkle pond-skater prawn ragworm raven razor clam robin rock dove rock pipit rosy footman rosy rustic sand eel sea anemone shag shrimp speckled bush cricket spider crab stonechat swallow swallow prominent swift tawny owl trout https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/8/our-wonderful-wild-week-in-west-wales-part-2-wednesday-to-saturday Sun, 21 Aug 2022 14:05:12 GMT
Our wonderful, wild week in West Wales. Part 1. (Saturday to Tuesday). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/8/our-wild-week-in-wales We've just returned from a wonderful, wild week in West Wales. 

Well... truth be told, we've been back for a week now, but we've been getting on with other things, so I've only just now got around to writing this blog post - something I promised I would in the visitors' book we wrote in before leaving our holiday cottage this year, in Nevern, Pembrokeshire.

I've had to split this blog post into 2 parts as the website wouldn't allow me to write such a large post. This will be part 1. Part 2 will be published at the same time.

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Yes... we stayed at a wee place called "Penwaun". About 3 miles inland from Newport in Pembrokeshire. (That's NOT the more famous Newport in Gwent or now Monmouthshire by the way).

This blog post will not form a review of the cottage itself - I'll not talk about the accommodation or state of the beds, nor the shower room/lavatories or facilities of our holiday cottage  (nor even the dog poo left in the garden from the previous tenants, nor the empty bottles of beer in the bins) - I'm pretty sure my wife will get to reviewing the cottage on google or tripadvisor or west wales holiday cottages.

No. This is a wildlife blog - so I'll basically just brief you, dear reader, on the basic lie of the land at Penwaun and then write about some of the wildlife we watched there.

If you *do* want to get a better idea of the accommodation itself after reading this blog (perhaps you even may be interested in renting the bungalow for a week) - you could do far worse than visit Penwaun's website HERE.

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We chose Penwaun, or rather Anna did, as the bungalow looked lovely and private - and it sat in a large plot of land, bordered by the sparkling river Nevern to the West (promising kingfishers, dippers and even otters on the website) and a thick, steep mixed woodland to the east (perhaps holding pied flycatchers etc) to the East.

After a pretty horrible drive across England and especially South Wales (it's *always* horrible driving through South Wales... they never really sorted the M4 past Cardiff and Newport (Monmouthshire) especially did they?) we arrived shortly after 3pm on Saturday 6th August (last Saturday as I write this). We all know that this summer has been very like 1976 across vast swathes of England and Wales, so I'll not bore you with any more weather related details in this write up, other than to say I don't think we saw a single cloud ALL WEEK in Wales - the week just got hotter and hotter each day, from 24C on Saturday 6th to 31C on Saturday 13th. The weather was SO un-Welsh in fact that sitting on the kitchen balcony patio during the afternoons was almost TOO hot. A ridiculous thing to write in a Welsh holiday write up! 

For the remainder of this blog post I think I'll bullet daily wildlife sightings. If I do any more than that, you'll need a flask of tea to get through all my prose, I fear!

 

Saturday 6th. "ARRIVAL".

It was immediately obvious to us that Penwaun might be a veritable goldmine of wildlife for us and before we even unpacked the car, we just had to explore the outside of the cottage and land (from woodland to river).

  • Swallows were nesting in the smaller holiday cottage (Penwaun Bach) next to Penwaun, which the owners had kindly not offered up to other holiday-makers whilst we were renting the bigger cottage, Penwaun itself. (All privacy would have been immediately lost if that was the case - so the fact that we had the whole plot to ourselves was immediately and greatly appreciated). This would have been the swallows second brood (most swallows try for two broods a year if conditions are right - and conditions were certainly right this season!)
  • House martins and swallows were thick in the azure sky over the plot. Chatting to each other and metaphorically making hay whilst the sun literally shone.
  • As Ben and I waded into the river, I heard and then saw a green sandpiper whiffle down to a stony beach about fifty metres or so downstream of where we stood. What a bird to welcome us! (We only saw and heard a few more green sandpipers during our stay at the cottage - all in the first two days as it happens).
  • Dragonflies were everywhere. Mainly golden-ringed dragonflies as it happened (as a couple of my photos below (taken with my phone!) will prove) but I expect there were also other big hawkers dogfighting around in the sun over the meadow and slower parts of the crystal-clear waters of the river Nevern. As there were banded demoiselles
  • It was also lovely to see my favourite birds of all - swifts, from West Wales, not only from the garden at Penwaun, but also high in the sky from the pub beer garden we had our evening meal at ("the Salutation Inn" at Felindre Farchog - just a couple of miles from Penwaun).
  • At the pub that evening, Ben and I were also lucky enough to watch a dipper in the river Nevern, under the bridge in the pub's beer garden. Lovely, lovey birds - and certainly something that we were keen to see during the week. Well... we'd seen one on the river Nevern at the pub (that's the same river that flowed past the cottage two miles away). An immediate score!
  • Back to the garden then, for a wee swing under the willow tree! Bliss!
  •  On sitting on the kitchen balcony patio after putting the boys to bed, Anna and I were treated to big Noctule bats (Britain's biggest bats) flying over the cottage, much smaller bats (I suspect Natterers bats or Pipistrelles - but I can't be 100% sure as I didn't bring a bat detector - I may well be wrong but they do look like Natterer's (originally called "red armed bats on account of their pink arms - see my poor photo below, where admittedly the bat is being highlighted by the strong, low sun) flying around our heads - and Daubenton's bats flying over the river below us. I adore bats and this was a REAL treat.
  • As the sun disappeared and the waxing full(ish) moon appeared from the wood to the south, the local tawny owls began their evening chorus (one in even alighted on the low telegraph pole by the boys' bedroom). 
  • Finally - something I (nor Anna) had even considered. I took my thermal imager down to the cottage - and just before we went inside for the night - I thought I'd scan the large plot of land for any life. The garden. The flood meadow (horse paddock really). The river bank. The woodland edge.... and I immediately saw a badger through my thermal scope, in the pitch dark, in the meadow about 100 yards from us. My favourite British animal of all. Here in "our garden" for the week.  I set up the moth trap in the garden as we headed inside (yes I brought that down to the cottage too!) and we went to bed smiling!

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday 7th. "CHEEKY GULL".

  • Ben and I emptied the moth trap on getting up and were a little disappointed to be honest. Our moth haul on the Isle of Wight (for example) was nothing short of spectacular, but here in Wales, and being the moth snobs we are (I know I know) only a few Black Arches, Rosy Footmen, Rosy Rustics and one Brimstone moth really got our attention. (The photo below is of a speckled bush cricket by the way, which seemed to like to use our bottle of sun-cream as a lookout perch, but I'm sure you knew that already).
  • One of the local herons (which probably fished for Sewin (Sea Trout) and Brown Trout) in the River below the cottage squawked its indignation at our moth haul too that morning. Or so it seemed.
  • On our first full day at Penwaun, we thought we'd quickly check out the nearest beach at Newport. Yes... of course... the unbroken sunshine of the week helped, but Newport sands certainly ticked all our boxes. Nice gentle shelving sand for the boys, warm(ish) water for us all to swim in if we wanted, a private cove type thing (Welsh black shale cliffs providing the privacy) for sunbathing - and most importantly for me at least - some brilliant rockpools to explore. During our rockpooling and in  among the limpets, barnacles, periwinkles and sea anemones (which were everywhere) we discovered a rather lovely, if hapless, compass jellyfish.
  • Lugworms, ragworms and razor clams were also everywhere on Newport beach - this was heaven to wading birds I thought to myself...
  • I spent sometime showing the boys the delights of popping bladder wrack and trying to impress on Anna the skin rejuvenating properties of the jelly in the seaweed bladders!
  • We ate lunch at the Cat Rock Cafe at Newport Sands golf club overlooking Newport bay in wall-to-wall sunshine of course, and the boys watched in delight as a cheeky Herring gull took apart the table next to us, after the diners had left.
  • On our drive back to the cottage we stopped at the iron bridge over the Nevern estuary to see if there were any wading birds around. Well... lots of crows and gulls and geese and then I heard a peregrine in the distance and pointed it out to the family as it arrowed overhead like a fighter pilot returning to its aircraft carrier.
  • We had tea at the Trewern Arms - the nearest pub to Penwaun (about a 5 minute slow walk). And very nice it was too - there was a Celtic folk band in the beer garden and the Fore-rib burger that I had was really, really good!
  • More badgers in the evening of course.  With thermal camera. And trail camera (yes I took a trail camera as well as my thermal camera and moth trap and landscape DSLR and sports/action DSLR!) overnight too. More on that later. Much more!

 

 

 

 

Monday 8th. "RIVER WADING".

  • I decided to put a little peanut butter and oats mixture out in the meadow on the night of the 7th/morning of the 8th, spread under (badgers would have no trouble turning over a heavy slate, but most other animals would struggle) a heavy, old, broken bit of roof slate. I had established on the 6th and 7th that badgers were coming out of the woodland at night to hunt for worms in the flood meadow/horse paddock and turn over the horse poo there, looking for insects to eat and also dropped apples to snaffle from the large(ish) apple trees in this part of the plot - all laden with fruit. There was quite a bit of evidence of badger activity in the horse paddock/flood meadow. Diggings. Badger poo. Badger paths etc. So out in the meadow went the slate with the peanut butter. And out went the trail camera too. Overlooking the peanut butter smeared slate. And what a set of video clips I managed to record. At least three badgers bickering over this sweet treat. Our badger watching would get better and better (read on) but this was a marvellous start to the week!
  • As the river Nevern below the house looked SO wonderful,
  • we thought we'd take a little time to explore it on the Monday of our holiday. We didn't see a dipper on this exploration, but we did see herons, kingfishers, pond skaters, grey wagtails, minnows, little trout (we assume), more dragonflies and demoiselles of course, with buzzards and swifts overhead.
  • Just a lovely day exploring the plot a little and then a wee drive around the area, getting to know where everything was (local shops, boozers, garages etc) - and then sitting again on the kitchen balcony patio, watching the swallows catch food for their young (one young swallow was ejected from the nest on this day by the way - I assume it was sick) and the fledgling blue tits and robins dance about in the apple tree below the patio. All again in quite ridiculous weather - we all had a Mediterranean tan by the end of the week!
  • Word of warning here to anyone visiting this site after looking in the Penwaun visitors' book. I'll not go into details as like I said at the start of this blog post - this is NOT mean to be a review of the holiday - whether that be a  review of the Penwaun accommodation itself OR the local pubs etc. That said... we ate tea at the Royal Oak at Newport on this Monday. Want a word of warning or advice? Just don't bother. The Royal Oak is no more than an Indian takeaway for the locals now, just *posing* as a pub or gastropub. We ordered food at 1730 (so hardly in peak food ordering time - but we didn't get served until nearly 1900, after asking twice what was going on. To add to that... the food was barely edible either. A gurt big dollop of luke warm, microwaved tinned spinach and tinned potatoes billed as "fresh seasonal vegetables"?! Hey... you probably won't know me if you're reading this as a holiday maker in Penwaun, looking for tips etc... but take it from me, I'm no food critic, I'll eat pretty-well anything - but I would strongly suggest you stay WELL clear of the Royal Oak at Newport - it really, honestly is one of the worst pubs I've ever been to - and again you won't know me... but I've been to lots of pubs!
  • Finally on the 8th, Ben and I set up the moth trap again - but this time in the "front garden"  (complete with small apple trees) of Penwaun, as the back garden's haul two nights previously, disappointed a little.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday 9th. "THE BEACH".

  • Ben and I emptied the moth trap after the sun came up. A much better result from the front garden it seemed, with a few Canary-shouldered thorn moths, a Pale prominent moth and a magnificent Swallow prominent (which I'm told is common and widespread, but to be honest I can't ever remember seeing before).
  • Ben saw a kingfisher dart down the beautiful, clear, sparkly river (as I packed the car for the beach), and I had heard a few during the previous two days (*all* my family now know what a kingfisher sounds like, so they never will need to tell me (like many people do) that they've never seen a kingfisher on the river - it's EASY - they literally TELL you that they're flying down the river each time they take flight!)
  • Tuesday was beach day - that was going to take up the whole day basically and why not?! A large, sandy beach with plenty of rockpools to explore for people that can't or won't sit still on a towel - plus we were convinced, all manner of coastal wildlife to gawp at. Ben and I took an immediate adventure up to the north end of the beach where we found a lot of peace and quiet as the sand turned to rock and pebbles and green seaweed. As we scrambled over this part of the shore, we found a mermaid's purse (or dogfish (in this case) egg case (incidentally the dogfish as I knew them, when I was dissecting them as an A level student are now classified as "cat sharks" *siggghhhhh*)) were treated to what we counted to be forty curlew all gathered under the cliffs in the rocks (occasionally breaking into flight in small groups to head inland) and quite a few noisy oystercatchers - piping their way low over the water to another rocky outcrop to hunt for something to eat. Rock pipits danced on the pebbles and cliffs around us and Ben managed to catch a prawn in a large rockpool, as well as the more common shrimps. There was evidence of spider crabs around us too on the beach, (as well as shore crabs of course) but we didn't manage to see a live example. 
  • One more thing to note regarding the beach was that we found quite a few dead sand eels in the sand and gently breaking waves on the sandy beach. I assume the tide just did for them - and I've read also that mackerel often chase them out. Nothing to worry about I guess - and Ben (like all small children and some adults!) was fascinated by them - so ended up collecting quite a few in a bucket.
  • We ate tea at the brilliant Castle Inn in Newport. The complete opposite of the dreadful Royal Oak - I can and will now thoroughly recommend this big gastro pub for eating and drinking. Yes... it's very, VERY expensive (£48 for one prawn salad and one crab salad  - WOW!!!) but the curries are superb (and we are aficionados of  Sri Lankan curries after all) but this was not going to be the last time we visited this pub during the week. Superb, it was.
  • When we returned from the pub to put Finn to bed (shortly after 7pm), we noticed wee bats flying from the garage of Penwaun, through what appeared to be ventilation holes in the eastern wall of the garage. Lots of them. We also noticed other bats climb down under roof tiles and from behind gutters of both the Penwaun cottage that we were staying in - AND the wee, one bedroom annexe, Penwaun Bach, that the garage was joined to. Again... LOTS of bats. In fact two or three bats started and ended their nightly flights from the roof tiles just by the clock on the kitchen balcony patio - as we sat there. If you are reading this, sat on that patio, and bats are almost brushing your hair for you each evening, know this - they WON'T ever touch you (their echolocation is far too sophisticated) but you ARE sitting right in front of their front door, sat there on the patio. You're in their porch (not the other way around).  We adored seeing these incredible animals all week - bats are right up there in the league table of my favourite British animals - they're basically super-powered, flying mice! I got a few very poor photos of them but I haven't (yet) managed to 100% establish that they were indeed what I suspect to be natterer's bats  (or perhaps the far more common pipistrelles (either common or soprano)). We certainly watched Pips and Daubenton's bats too at Penwaun, but these were hunting over the slower-moving parts of the river as Daubenton's bats do
  • - the bats that came out of the buildings seemed to hunt around the woodland in the main (as Natterers and Pips do). I also took a couple of videos of the holes of in the garage, as the bats were noisily-talking to each other all day long when they weren't flying. Just lovely to hear.
  • We were also intrigued to read in the "book of suggestions" at Penwaun (for holiday makers to offer suggestions to the owners of the cottage) that someone had suggested bat boxes and swift boxes? Well... the entire place is demonstrably and already a *perfect* bat box for them it seems (they simply don't need bat boxes - they just need their current homes under the roof and in the attic protected -which they should be of course - bats are VERY protected in UK Law. I should (of course) know). As for swift boxes.... not many swifts would want to nest in a box on a bungalow. Swifts need 5M or so drop from any nest box or nest site. Bit difficult that, on a bungalow. I assume the person writing that suggestion meant swallow or house martin nest boxes.... but they don't nest in boxes. Strange, but there you are. At least the suggestions were more thoughtful (I guess) than my suggestion of Bristol rugby beer glasses please, not the dreadful Bath rugby beer glasses that were provided! 

 

 

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If you like, please read part 2 of the blog post here.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) badger banded demoiselle barnacle black arches bloody-nosed beetle blue tit brimstone moth buzzard canary-shouldered thorn cat shark egg-case common lizard common pipistrelle compass jellyfish cuckoo curlew daubenton's bat dipper dogfish egg-case fox fulmar gannet golden-ringed dragonfly great black-backed gull green sandpiper grey seal grey wagtail harbour porpoise heron herring gull house martin kingfisher limpet linnet little egret lugworm mermaid's purse minnow natterer's bat noctule bat otter oystercatcher pale prominent peregrine periwinkle pond-skater prawn ragworm raven razor clam robin rock dove rock pipit rosy footman rosy rustic sand eel sea anemone shag shrimp speckled bush cricket spider crab stonechat swallow swallow prominent swift tawny owl trout https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/8/our-wild-week-in-wales Sun, 21 Aug 2022 14:04:13 GMT
July to me? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/8/july-to-me We're racing through the year now eh, grapple fans. Soon be Christmas and all that?

Sunrise during a heatwave in Cumbria. July 2022.Sunrise during a heatwave in Cumbria. July 2022.Sunrise during a heatwave in Cumbria. July 2022.

 

July then - the driest for 111 years I've read - and yes... it WAS dry wasn't it? And hot. VERY hot indeed. RECORD BREAKING hot, in fact (it got to 40 degrees here on the 19th, as I drove my eldest boy and me back from St.Andrews - but more on that later).

I've run out of emergency rain water, held for two years in five water butts around the garden, the pond is looking lower and lower and I hear we're not expecting any significant rain for a while yet. Hosepipe bans are imminent I'm sure.

Right. That's enough about the weather (and climate change). What have I seen in this hottest, driest ever July then?

I ended June's monthly summary with a rather sad note that our screaming, banging, prospecting swifts had not been visiting the house nor school for some time (at least not in the way they had) but luckily, at the start of July, they returned, as magnificently as ever. 

On the 2nd of July, our first pond water lilies flowered. There'd be a few flowering over the month (perhaps a dozen) but most were hidden by the rampant lily pads themselves.

On the 4th of July,  (isn't it interesting by the way, how Americans insist on saying JULY 2nd, July 5th, August 11th etc... UNTIL their Independence Day when they then (and only then) insist on joining the rest of the world by saying "4th of July" instead of "July 4th" (I don't make the rules)), I discovered a Gypsy Moth caterpillar on the underside of a flower pot 

... and the 4th of July was the night when I also was delighted to see that we had baby hedgehogs in the garden for the first time in a decade! This was to be the start of much hedgehog comings-and-goings which I'll go into in a minute.

On the night of the 5th, Ben and I were again made up when we discovered a shocking pink elephant hawk moth in the moth trap (I think we only set the trap up a couple of times in July). This moth has now already climbed to the lofty heights of number 2 in Ben's favourite moths (the top 3 being Gypsy moth, Elephant hawk-moth and Burnished brass).

During the 1st and 2nd weeks of July we were treated to the sight of at least three (I only saw three together... there may of course have been more that I didn't see) baby hedgehogs in the garden. They tended to arrive (from we suspect under the decking of our neighbours' to the east) well before sunset and I took the time to video them on my DSLR, my trail-camera and the thermal camera. Wonderful wee things. A few of these videos can be seen below.

In the video below, I've glued together footage of the young (and mother) from mid July to footage of the adults from the fourth week of the month. I noticed that we had at least three adults visiting our garden each night too, one being a female (the mother of the three young) and one very large, fat male with another smaller male... and perhaps another male with what appeared to be a hip or foot problem.

I'll carry on writing about hedgehogs and move to the end of the month (before returning to the middle of the month on other subjects below) by showing you one final video clip from this month of three of our adult hedgehogs in a courtship and or territorial dispute on the night of the 26th.

I should perhaps again bring to your attention that this blog is not Springwatch. So I'm not going to name these individual hedgehogs for you. Nor write about them being "friends" with each other. Or "in love". Or that they "wait" for each other or "miss" each other. That's for other British wildlife lovers to write about. You know me better than that.

It would be very fair to say that a lot of July has been spent watching these hedgehogs in our garden. The slightly worrying thing I suppose, is that I've not actually seen ANY of the three young since the middle of July. Admittedly I was away for 6 nights in the middle of the month - and at that time in the 2nd and 3rd weeks of July, we had real heatwave conditions... but even so, I'd have thought I'd have seen them at some point in the third or fourth week or recorded them on my trail camera.

Not a peep.

I assume they've already moved on (as I don't think they'd have starved or become dehydrated like many other animals would have done this month because of the heat) as we left lots of water and food out for them each night - as we always have done. I guess they might have died (fallen into the neighbours' concrete fish pond, been turned over by a fox, what have you) but I just like to think they've moved on and not all died!

From the video above you'll see their mother is being "courted" again by a small, aggressive male, and it's true that occasionally hedgehogs DO have two broods of young a year - so we'll see what happens in August and September (and October) won't we?

OK. That's enough about our excellent hedgehogs. What else have I (we) seen in July?

On the 13th  (at 5am... at the start of another dawn walk) I noticed an evening primrose flower burst out from under a wall on a pavement up the road. Life will always find a way eh?

And also on the 13th I noticed that at the site where I discovered our common spotted orchid last month, the council had designated a "roadside nature reserve". Good on them I say and I stand corrected with what I wrote last month ("On the 20th of June, a superb surprise greeted me at dawn on my daily walk around town - not a rare orchid but a first for me in town. A common spotted orchid. Proud as you like. Just by the side of the road. I only hope those bleeding council contractors don't strim this within hours too, just like they do with everything else.")

From the 14th to the 19th of July, I drove myself and my eldest son up to St.Andrews in Fife to go and see the last two days of the 150th Open Championship golf. We took two days to get up there (stopped halfway at Shap Wells hotel near Penrith) and two days to get back, again stopping at Shap on our way back down.

We stopped at the Shap Wells Hotel (photo below taken just after dawn)

as it was nicely around halfway on our route, it was in the middle of nowhere, so we could get out of the car and stretch our legs a bit...

and also that we could see red squirrels there (who doesn't like red squirrels?!) and more importantly for me I think, dippers!

Well... we  saw lots of red squirrels on our stay there on 14th (evening) and 15th (morning) but no dippers at all. 

Instead of dippers though, we did see some lovely common sandpipers. They were very much acting as though they were still nesting. May have been I suppose - they were certainly very vocal.

Poor old Ben kept on having to listen to me bleat on and on at Shap that he was getting to see one of the more beautiful parts of England in weather that it basically NEVER experiences.

I mean it was BOILING in the hills. Clear blue skies. All the moss on the dry stone walls becoming crispy. The keeled skimmer dragonflies (photo below) having smaller and smaller bodies of water to patrol over and almost no bogs at all!

On our return stay on the evening of the 18th and morning of the 19th we did eventually see dippers. Three of them. But I took no photos... it was one of those times to just watch the wildlife and enjoy it without thinking about focal length or aperture etc!

Would I recommend Shap Wells Hotel? Yes... if you like peace and quiet and wildlife. N=And... well... no.. if you don't!

Ok... back to the golf at St.Andrews then.

Did we see anything there?

Of COURSE we did!

On our bus trip to the campsite (we stayed at the camping village at the Madras rugby club, behind the Old Course Hotel) we noticed, from the top deck of the double decker bus we were on, hundreds of oystercatchers in stubble fields inland from the Eden estuary and as soon as we'd unpacked into the tent we had "rented" for the weekend, we saw that the camping village had not one but two hares on site all weekend too. 

To be honest, this discovery, within minutes of arriving at the camping village, was an absolute delight - and was undoubtedly my wildlife highlight of the trip and perhaps even the entire year. I ADORE hares, and the fact that we had two, darting in and out of the tents at a massively busy campsite (777 tents... yes we counted!) on Open weekend was completely unexpected and absolutely wonderful.

The camping village was very "festival-like" (I've been to six Glastonbury festivals, so I'm used to seeing turds in showers etc) but the hares made it all rather lovely, as did the oystercatchers flying overhead between hide tides and inland lakes. Unfortunately one of these oystercatchers made its home the rugby club during our stay there. It clearly had a very nasty injury to its right leg/foot. It couldn't even walk... it sort of hopped, with what looked like its foot hanging off. As is often the case with badly injured animals, it had been abandoned by its kind, and was left to well... die... on its own. Quite sad really. (A big difference between humans and the rest of the more highly-evolved animals that - we can and do (often) care for the chronically or acutely sick - animals don't tend to and can't risk it).

 

Other wildlife highlights from our time at St.Andrews included yellowhammers singing on the old course (which added to Ben's "Around the birds in eighty aves" total as we missed them down south when we walked along the ridgeway in the winter), curlews and more oystercatchers on the Eden estuary at low tide (behind the 11th and 7th shared green grandstand where we spent a couple of hours on Sunday morning)

and Sand martins with rafts of female and young Eider ducks on or from the West Sands, away from the golf course for an hour or so.

Our final wildlife highlight watching the golf was the sight of a young peregrine buzz the gulls and house martins and wagtails and pigeons at the Swilcan burn by the 18th and 1st fairways on the afternoon of Saturday the 16th.

The video below (shot by me on my phone - you're not allowed 'proper' cameras at golf tournaments) shows the view we had of the 18th tee and 1st and 18th fairways as we leant on the road wall behind the 17th green.

Please note the video below does NOT show the peregrine. I took the video a little later, just to show the view we had (the peregrine itself stooped behind the red flag on the 17th green from our (and now your) view. In the photo below we were standing behind the wall to the right, shooting the video.

On the highlight show (on BBC) we can be actually be seen by the road hole wall on 17. The below is a photo of the paused TV highlights programme. We (Ben and I) are actually in this shot. I'll leave you to work out where exactly!

There were DOZENS of THOUSANDS of people around. The young peregrine flew over from the old town and suddenly stooped over the burn. It seemed to just be testing itself and any potential prey rather than singling out something for tea as it came up with nothing and flew directly towards the town again... pursued by noisy, mobbing house martins.

At the time it stooped, I shouted "BEN! LOOK! A PEREGRINE!"

We both watched it... and even though we were surrounded by thousands of people... I honestly don't think ANYONE else saw it.

That sort of stuff makes me weep to be honest. I mean... I know I'm hyper aware, but really... what is the point of having eyes if you see nothing with them?!

Anyway... that was a really special moment for both Ben and I - I hope the trip and that moment in particular lives with him forever.

 

That was that for St.Andrews. Before we got the bus back to the car park, we said goodbye to the hares. They weren't interested of course.

We returned to the Shap wells Hotel to yes, see dippers and also Marsh Orchids (no photos) and the rather wonderful "Bog Asphodel". These yellow flowers appear all over the upland wetlands of the north and west and provide an abundant food source for many pollinators... including MALE horseflies... as their female counterparts try to feast on us instead (as they did on our walks around the hotel... I don't hate many types of wildlife but I really do HATE female horseflies!).

Bog Asphodel has a specific latin name of Ossifragum, by the way - which literally means "bone-breaking". It was given this name as it thought that the sheep that ingested a lot of Bog Asphodel on their upland pastures, developed brittle bones - and it was the yellow Bog Asphodel that caused this. All very unfair really as it simply is the lack of calcium on these upland pastures that caused brittle bones in livestock - nothing to do with the pretty Asphodel flowers at all!

OK. Back to birds now.

Before we left the Shap Wells Hotel, I thought I'd take a slo-mo video of the very pretty house martins that nested under the eaves of the back of the hotel. Now, house martins, unlike swifts, do leave a fair amount of mess under the nests each year, so I can understand why the manager of the hotel netted the front of the hotel... but I'm so glad he left the back for the martins to nest. They are such pretty birds - prettier than swifts I admit, even if they're far less spectacular and superb!

 

We'll end on swifts then shall we? No better place as far as I'm concerned, as you'll know by now.

We returned home on Tuesday 19th to (never experienced here before) 40 degree heat and (never experienced here before) mammatus clouds.

Our wonderful swifts hung around for a few days, screaming at the house every dusk but not really appearing UNTIL dusk.

On the evening of the 23rd, I thought I had seen them for the last time, as we had a little rain at sunset on the 24th (they didn't return at dusk therefore), nor did they return on 25th. 

One bird on passage, silently flew through on the 26th... but on 27th at 9pm I was so excited to see our full squadron of five swifts give me a persona display again over the house and school. Well... I felt it was personal to me of course! I'm sure these five were the five that had been prospecting around the house and school earlier in the summer. 

I took a few photos for posterity.

NB. We live quite close to Heathrow Airport and the plane in the shots below was a couple of minutes into an 8 hour flight to JFK airport, New York.

Its wheels would have touched down 8 hours after I took the photo.

The five swifts in the photo won't be touching down for another 9 MONTHS at least ... and much more likely another 21 MONTHS!

Absolutely ridiculous birds.

Absolutely awesome as my wife texted me that evening (she's away with the boys at her parents).

A couple of swifts (but not "ours" I think) flew very quickly over the house around 9pm on the 28th and didn't stop, so I think I was right, "our" swifts really did leave on the evening of the 27th... having made sure that they knew where to come back to next year, if they're one of the lucky ones...

Yes, a few swifts flew over the house up until the end of the month (although I didn't see any at all on the 31st, the final day of the month) and yes I KNOW there will be swifts up North still, which will fly south over Berkshire and potentially our house during August, but that really does feel like that for this year, as far as "our" swifts are concerned. As is traditional now, I'll give them their own blog post shortly.

There you go then, dear reader.

July.

Done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bog asphodel common sandpiper curlew dipper elephant hawk-moth evening primrose fox gypsy moth caterpillar hare heatwave hedgehog horsefly house martin keeled skimmer kingfisher lily mammatus clouds marsh orchid oystercatcher peregrine red squirrel sand martin stag beetle swift water yellowhammer https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/8/july-to-me Mon, 01 Aug 2022 08:45:00 GMT
We've done it! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/7/weve-done-it For ten years I've been trying to assist our local hedgehogs.

Originally trapped in neighbours' tellytubby gardens, I've been talking to neighbours, digging tunnels under fences, drilling tunnels under side doors, unblocking tunnels that neighbours filled in again, feeding and watering and giving hedgehogs shelter spots and hibernacula - all the while allowing the animals to come and go (permanently if necessary) as they please.

We've had up to four individuals coming into our gardens each night.

We've had hedgehogs squashed on the road.

We've had foxes turn them over and eat them.

But THIS year... we have three superb wee baby hedgehogs explore the garden before dusk in July - and throughout the night.

We've done it!

(Video made up of handheld thermal camera footage in first clip followed by a few trail camera clips, spliced together).
 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/7/weve-done-it Wed, 06 Jul 2022 12:49:03 GMT
They're back (again). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/7/theyre-back-again Just the shortest of posts this morning, primarily for the benefit of certain potential readers (specifically the staff of the school opposite and the ecologists' firm surveying the school's buildings for birds and bats before giving the green light to any work there this summer).

In June's blog here, I suggested that the prospecting swifts at the school opposite, perhaps seemed to have become less interested in their new potential nest and or roost and or dry run site over the past 3 weeks or so.

ALL CHANGE suddenly.

As soon as July started, we're suddenly back to where we where in late May and early June. A squadron of up to six swifts is once again constantly overhead and constantly checking out the school nest site and to a lesser extent our house opposite too.

This recent upsurge in aerial activity corresponds very nicely with the arrival (at the start of July) of the "third wave" of visiting swifts.

The 3rd wave comprising almost entirely of yearling birds, making an exploratory trip north from Africa well after their parents and grandparents and perhaps great grandparents flew north (to breed or seriously prospect) and then back down south to Africa with the main body of swifts.

That said, the way these 6 or so swifts are doing exactly what 6 or so swifts did at the end of May/start of June, suggests to me that they are, at least in the main, the same birds. Not yearlings, but 2 year old birds at their youngest and perhaps 3 at their oldest.

Whatever their age  -  to anyone interested (see above) reading this - there is once again a great deal of swift activity in and around the building that you did provisionally plan to re-roof in the school summer holidays, before I warned all parties that protected birds were prospecting and or nesting in that very building.

Please note. We are keeping a very keen eye on matters from across the road - but if any interested parties *do* require any more information - well... you know how to contact me - I'd be more than happy to hear from you.

That's all for now.

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Apus apus swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/7/theyre-back-again Mon, 04 Jul 2022 08:04:39 GMT
June buggy. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/7/june-buggy June suddenly - this June bringing real heat (34C where we are) as well as a month, for me, to concentrate on our local swifts. More on that later.

June began on the 4th, with the always welcome sight for me of bee orchids appearing on my daily walks around town.

These were of course mostly mown to the ground within hours, by the environmentally-ignorant council (and I'm talking WILFUL ignorance again here, unfortunately), but at least they accidentally left one standing, to be pollinated perhaps.

The very pretty pyramidal orchids also appeared in early June, at their traditional spot on a edge-of-town roundabout too. Fewer than last year and the year before, but always good to see.

On the 5th, in the drizzle, I noticed that for the first time this year, my swift MP3 call had attracted a prospecting squadron of swifts to our gable end and in fact one alighted at my internal swift box entrance. Always nice to see.

On the 6th I noticed for the first time ever (I think) a rogue bunch of crimson clover flowering between our nearest golf driving range (which my eldest boy and I are at a lot) and a building site. A lovely flower I think - hope to see more of these!

These crimson clover flowers were soon joined by post-box red poppies. I obviously had to get a photo, even if with just my phone!

On the 8th, in favourable conditions (relatively still, relatively warm) I noticed that "our" hornet moths had started to emerge from the roots of our biggest poplar tree.

Last year something like 60 emerged in June (mainly) and early July. June 2022 brought far fewer. Fourteen at last count - and at the time of writing this post, I've only found the discarded (shed) pupal cases of these wonderful moths. I've not even seen ONE adult this year, let alone many like last year. That may change of course as we get to mid July. I hope so.

On my walks the clover flowers in particular were looking rampant this year - whole waves of red and white blooms were washing over local meadows and SANGs.

June 9th brought with it the first swift of 2022 to actually explore our swift entrance tunnel.

My eldest boy Ben witnessed this before 7am as he practiced his golf swing in the back garden - but unfortunately I didn't see it nor did I see anything similar in the rest of the month, even if I did see a few swifts land on the wall BESIDE the tunnel. That's not it for swifts though. As I'd discovered that our local prospecting swifts HAD found a site they clearly liked on the 10th June - at the school opposite our house.

On the 10th of June, Ben and I actually WATCHED swifts enter an old overflow pipe hole in the bricks of his school hall. The overflow pipe itself (from a water tank you'd assume) had been moved a few bricks to the right, many years ago - but now the swifts had discovered a potential and vacant site where the old overflow pipe used to be.

I informed the school site manager, a brilliant bloke called Steve, who informed me that CALAMITY!!!! The school was due to re-roof that building in July.  Steve kindly copied me into an email he sent the ecologist who surveyed the school for bats and I then informed everyone involved that swifts were at least prospecting (or "dry-running") or even BREEDING in the building that they were planning to re-roof in July. Any work started on that roof before the protected birds left would be a clear offence under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act - and the Ecologist emailed me back to suggest that "I should be assured that no works will commence with active nests in place".

I am a scientist by qualification however (like the ecologist you'd assume) and try to look for evidence before being "assured" or "reassured" or forming opinions.

Fact is, many ecological surveys are just boxes being ticked not only by the owners' of the buildings being surveyed but also the ecologist surveyors themselves. Look... if a school can tick a (legal) box to demonstrate that they've undergone a (protected) bat survey (in April say) then that's pretty well that. That is all they are obliged to do. And the small firm of ecologists will duly turn up in April or even May and survey for bats, find none and no evidence of bats in the two hours that they're on site, and move on to the next paid surveying task.

They won't (often) return a few times. At different times of day (and night if necessary) on different months... INCLUDING (and this is important) on the months that the work is due to go ahead the following year. They WON'T therefore perhaps see or record protected migratory species such as swifts on their surveys at the site.

Strange this here is (and again this doesn't reassure me at all), that they DID allegedly find evidence of starlings roosting at this site (using the same entrance hole that the swifts were using in June - you can see the starlings' droppings in the photo below  -  swifts don't produce this sort of mess) and DID allegedly see what one ecologist surveyor "thought might be a swift" enter the entrance hole whilst they carried out the survey.

I'm less and less reassured now I'm afraid. They THOUGHT??!!! they saw a swift enter the entrance hole (then they must have carried out that survey in VERY late May or perhaps the first week of June) but thought nothing of it really and only found evidence of starlings.  But it took me to email them, remind them and the school and the contractors of their legal responsibilities with regards to (especially) swifts and also starlings.

I am told now that work will not take place until mid August (which I had to specify) which I've taken from  "I should be assured that no works will commence with active nests in place".  The key word is "active" here though - and so far I have little faith in ecologists who survey poorly  - this applies to many ecologists as far as I can see. (I've battled with other firms recently too who surveyed a local farm for barn owls, found none, so I had to inform them of just where ALL the owls were that they'd missed).

Be warned! I will watch with KEEN interest from over the road - as I think the swifts are  (at best) "dry-running" now, with sterile eggs, rather than actually bringing up nestlings. They're still exploring the school hall AND our house presently - they're clearly "planning" for the next years. But to disturb that planning is STILL an offence under the 1981 W&CA, any readers of this should note as this "planning" or "dry-running" is VERY much part of the breeding technique or protocol or procedure or whatever-you-want-to-call-it for the Swift. To disturb that wilfully or indeed recklessly would disturb very much the foundations being laid for these birds breeding at this site and still be a contravention of the law.

OK enough of the swifts. For now.

On the 11th, I saw the first hobby I'd ever seen from the garden, soar high over the house, checking out swifts as it did so. A real belter of a bird and Ben's 109th species for the year so far. (We're running another "Around the birds in 80 aves" challenge this year).

On the 15th I set up our moth trap in the garden in very warm weather. Weather that seemed to bring out all the "bugs". June bugs (summer chafers) which did what June bugs do each summer, buzz around the tops of trees in balmy nights then all drown in pools by the morning,

 

stag beetles:

 

Solitary, ground-nesting (mining) bees:

 

and of course the moths below (burnished brass, buff tip and buff ermine):

 

On the 17th, in (almost) record-breaking heat around 34C (photos below taken just after dawn at a favourite local meadow, the first and second with a DSLR, the third with my old phone):

...a pipistrelle bat found its way onto the floor of my wife's childhood bedroom in Shrewsbury. I learned about this unfortunate event from my mother-in-law who took the photo below

I never actually saw the bat as I was 150 miles away in Berkshire, looking at my second favourite bird - the nightjar with my eldest boy Ben on our annual "NIGHTJAR SAFARI"  - always an evening that we just love. I took a wee video of a nightjar churring and wing-clapping below. Just like barn ows in my opinion, we are SO fortunate to be able to regularly see nightjars where we live right now. Wonderful, wonderful birds.

The brief but very hot heatwave disappeared for a few days at the end of the third week of the month, so I took the opportunity to take a few more photos of a few more flowers - below you can see some birds foot trefoil (which again seems to be absolutely rampant this year) and a flowering rush.

 

I started this blog post with orchids and now I'll return to them. On the 20th of June, a superb surprise greeted me at dawn on my daily walk around town - not a rare orchid but a first for me in town. A common spotted orchid. Proud as you like. Just by the side of the road. I only hope those bleeding council contractors don't strim this within hours too, just like they do with everything else.

As June drew to a close, we returned to some heat  (28C) and sun (albeit interspersed with thundery showers) and watched not only one of "our" hedgehogs wander around our garden at lunchtime on a very sunny day (22nd) - always a bit worrying, but just as importantly, the squadron of normally five or six swifts return each day (primarily around 8am, once or twice during the day and again at around 930pm) scream around our house and the school opposite.

The month ended with a bit of an unwelcome visitor to our sitting room, in the form of an unexpected "pale giant horsefly" (Tabanus bovinus). I have no idea how or why it got in the house (well... other than through a window of course) but on closer inspection I realised that this was a male horsefly and not a female - so it was never going to bite anyone in the house as only the females (like mosquitos) drink blood from big mammals such as horses and cows (and occasionally humans!). 

No... the male horsefly doesn't have a great big penis dangling under its body. That's not how I identified this as a male.

Look at the first & second of the three photos below I took of this horsefly and tell me how I established this was a male?

Got it?

If you said this fly has HOLOPTIC eyes (the two compound eyes touch & meet in the middle at the top of the head) rather than  DICHOPTIC eyes (the two compound eyes are separated by a bridge or gap) and holoptic eyes are indicative of nectar-feeding males rather than blood-sucking females, then you'd be right.

But why do males' eyes meet in the middle as opposed to the females' eyes which don't?

Well... in short, the male needs bigger eyes (which are in effect, squashed together they're so big) as they need to look out for female horseflies.

Female horseflies however, basically just need to look out for HUGE mammals, which are of course MUCH bigger than horseflies.

There endeth the dipteran biology lesson for today students. Please ensure you read chapter 8 of "The Evolutionary biology of flies" published by Columbia University Press, before next week, as we'll be having a spot test on that then. 

OK, just quickly then, before I end with "my" beloved swifts.

It was nice to go on a wee walk with my eldest yesterday and have him point out interesting stuff to me for once, with his keen eyes. Firstly a knot grass moth caterpillar, clad in the beginnings of its pupal case by the look of it - although it'll do well to pupate under a tarmac road, which is where Ben found it and where I took the photo below. (We moved it to under a hedge by the way).

Also great (I think!) that Ben pointed out this rather lovely six-spot burnet moth (below) on a verge of flowers in an industrial estate that we were walking through. This moth is a big, perhaps the biggest reason why I leave our front lawn unmown - and so watch loads of birdsfoot trefoil come up under our windows. This moth LOVES birdsfoot trefoil, and we often have these beautiful moths (so much more beautiful than Cinnabar moths I think) breeding in our long front lawn.

I'm writing the end of this blog post at the very end of the month - and it would be very fair to say that the swifts that have been exploring the school opposite and our house have done so less and less as the month of June went on. I see them perhaps twice a day now, briefly, whereas earlier in the month I could see them every time I went outside and I could hear them from inside the house without even going outside!

I can only, very tentatively presume that they've seen enough of the local vacant nest sites for next year and are now just occasionally dropping by to ensure that nothing has changed. For next year that is. 

Look... I could be very wrong. We still know SO little about swifts - even the head of Swift conservation, Edward Mayer, admitted as much when I contacted him about the local swifts during June.

Anyway.... Only 4 or 5 more weeks or so and that will be that for another year. I'm already preparing to miss them you know!

I should pull myself together really eh? Live in the moment and all that. So that's what I intend to do with July.

I hope you have a great July too.

See you anon.

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bee orchid birds foot trefoil buff ermine buff tip burnished brass common spotted orchid crimson clover flowering rush hobby holoptic eyes hornet moth horsefly june bug knotgrass mining bee nightjar pipistrelle bat poppy pyramidal orchid red clover six spot burnet solitary bee stag beetle summer chafer swift Tabanus bovinus white clover https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/7/june-buggy Fri, 01 Jul 2022 08:15:00 GMT
I have to say... I'm more than a bit gutted, really. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/6/i-have-to-say-im-more-than-a-bit-gutted-really Regular readers of this blog will (or should, surely?) know that I am somewhat obsessed with swifts.

I used to film a breeding pair in our old pad in Reading and I've spent over ten years now desperately trying to get them to nest in our post-war house, something they very often just won't do, swifts.

I've spent hundreds of pounds on boxes and tools and materials. Given them four or five spaces and boxes (internal and external) to nest in, called them in with especially-recorded MP4 calls played on amplifiers bought from the far east and set on expensive timers.

And we've had some interested swifts over the years - especially in the quiet lockdown summer of 2020, when one swift (at least) explored our internal attic space.

But NO "dry runs"  (* 3 year old swifts go through the nesting motions without actually laying any eggs the year before they do it properly) and NO nestings.

For the last two years, certainly the last one, I've noticed "our" swifts that we've literally called and attracted into our area, checking out the school buildings opposite. School buildings also built in 1953. Like our house.

And this year... well... I only bleedin' well think they're nesting there in the school buildings opposite, don't I? Well... they're either nesting or they're "dry-running" (*see above for an explanation of what "dry-running" means in terms of swifts).

Look... I'm really glad they're now "locked in" to our post war area. Swifts are almost always very reticent to nest or even explore post war buildings for potential nest sites for a couple of reasons:

1) They are slow to colonise new areas and new breeders tend to breed where or around where they were born. And that, historically, obviously, is pre war areas.

2) Post war houses and buildings tend to be smaller and neater with fewer nesting spaces (plastic soffits, neater tiles etc).

Yes... I AM glad they are now have exploited a new breeding territory. And I have no doubt that my MP4 calls over the last 10 years have made that possible. Without me calling the best birds of all down from the sky each May - they simply wouldn't be anywhere near our houses and the school opposite, let alone breeding in the school opposite.

So yes... I am glad. I am glad I've helped a few swifts set up a new breeding territory. And I still get to see them from our house each Spring.

But.

I have to say.

In the main... I'm more than a bit gutted.

All my painstakingly-built swift spaces have wee cameras in them. All on motion-triggered recording. All are empty.

And less than 100 yards away... "my" beautiful swifts are breeding in a hole in a school wall, where an old outflow pipe once was. (I think... I'll need to ask the school caretaker about that).

Mixed feelings at best.

But still the best birds of all!

And yeah... at least I do get to enjoy the sight and sound of them now, for 3 months of every year.

That has to be a positive!

 

 

OK.... a few photos below.

Two of the hole in the school wall (left of the overflow pipe) where "my" beautiful swifts are now nesting (or at least "dry-running).

The rest of the photos below are of a hobby which passed over the garden today and a hobby looking very intently (hobbies' white frowny eyebrows always make them appear to be peering at something, angrily!)  at one of "our" swifts in the last photo.

Hobbies are pretty-well the only bird in the UK that can catch swifts (Eleanora's falcons can and do too in the Med), although in the main, they tend to prefer dragonflies - far easier to catch and probably far more juicy!

I hope "your" swifts are doing well.

Ten days to summer now...

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hobby swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/6/i-have-to-say-im-more-than-a-bit-gutted-really Sat, 11 Jun 2022 17:19:11 GMT
Look what... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/6/look-what ... just flew over our heads as we sat in the beer garden of the Bridge House pub, Paley Street, munching on whitebait and necking pints of shandy at lunch today...

Lucky I had my camera with me, eh?

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) platty joobs red arrows https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/6/look-what Thu, 02 Jun 2022 15:12:06 GMT
May. Flower. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/6/may-flower Without (much!) warning, we’re almost halfway through the year then… May always acts as a reminder to me to make sure I make time to really smell the flowers along the metaphorical and literal path each year – May is where the wildlife really kicks into top gear after all.

I’m not going to pretend that this particular blog post is much of a well-structured and focused piece – it instead will reflect the veritable plethora of all life  (wildlife I mean) that has hit me in the chops during what was my late mother’s favourite month of the year (and I can see why).

OK then… where to start? I guess on the 1st day of the month?

On the 1st, we took a wee family trip to a local childrens' farm and play park ("Jake's") and on walking through reception out into the farm beyond, I immediately noticed a pair of wagtails taking what looked like dragonflies (surely too early?!) to a nest in the corner of a farm outbuilding.

Now I LOVE wagtails. They would certainly appear in my top ten (perhaps five even) birds list. Yes... if I was ever invited to give my five favourite birds on the excellent "Golden Grenades" podcast, I'd have Pied Wagtails at number 3, with the other species being 1 - swifts of course, 2 - nightjars, 3 - pied wagtails, 4 - song thrushes and probably 5 - ospreys.

That said, I didn't bring my camera (other than my phone) to Jake's playworld, so didn't get any decent photos at all of the busy wagtail parents - just a a couple of the nest and building the nest was in. 

Talking of wagtails, closer to home I was also being treated to the VERY loud mating calls of a grey wagtail setting up shop under a bridge which crossed our local river ("The Cut"). I never knew wagtails (specifically grey wagtails in this case) were so loud. Lovely to hear (and to see!).

The  bird month had started very nicely thankyou very much then... but on the 5th... that was going to turn a little sour when the neighbour's starling nest was raided by a magpie. One unfortunate starling had clambered OUT from its relatively safe position in the nest under the eaves, and become stranded and exposed in the gutter. A week or so out of the egg, it was too young and weak to clamber BACK into the nest and was pretty expertly snatched by one of the very beautiful (but deadly) local magpies.  I photographed it of course, those of a sensitive disposition might want to quickly scroll through the next few photos without looking too closely...

 

 

 

On the 7th May, Ben and I took a walk around a set of local gravel pits and not only did we see little ringed plovers, but we were also treated to the always wonderful sight (and sound) of our first party of swifts of 2022. We were wandering down a woodland path and I suddenly stopped and said: "Listen!". On hearing my favourite avian sound, swifts screaming in full attack mode, we looked up, through a gap in the tree canopy and saw them! Five sooty brown bow-and arrows in the air. Zipping about. Screaming. WHAT A RELIEF! WHAT A JOY! It would be two more days before we saw them around the house - but there you have it - May 7th was the first day of 2022 we saw my favourite bird back with us after nine long months away!

Also on the night of the 7th May, I set our moth trap in the back garden for the first time in 2022. Not much to report on checking it on the morning of the 8th to be honest, other than one brimstone moth and EIGHT cockchafers. Well... they are known as Maybugs after all, so I guess that fits!


Regular readers of this blog will possibly appreciate that I don't tend to bang on about what the weather was like from month to month here. Other wildlife bloggers do that and to be honest, I find reading all those weather notes incredibly tedious. I KNOW what the weather was like last month, as do you, dear reader(s) (but you WON'T know what wildlife I saw last month, which is why, I presume, you flock here in your thousands (of cells)).

That said, I will this month give a brief nod to the weather in this particular blog post. April was VERY dry across much of England and it wasn't until the 11th of May that we got any appreciable rain here for WEEKS. After the first day, on the 11th, of proper rain for perhaps over a month here in SE England, the weather warmed up a little and in came the swifts in larger and larger numbers. But (and this is a rare thing for me) I hadn't seen ANY house nor sand martins by that time. Very worrying - more on that later.

 

On the 15th May, Ben and I returned to the local gravel pits where this time we were treated to both ringed AND little ringed plovers. I'm not entirely convinced I'd ever seen a ringed plover at an inland body of water before, so I was very happy to see these very sweet birds oocherin' about on the pretty dry, shallow concrete works pit. The photo below does actually show both ringed plover (front) and little ringed plover (rear) on the same part of the same pit.

 

The rains of the 11th in particular really jump-started the flowers and plants in May (they'd all been pretty quiet - dormant even with the lack of water in the soil until mid May) and on the 17th, the yellow-flag irises around our pond started to flower. Two flowers at first but by the end of the month we'd have three dozen or so - our pond, it has to be said, has been a spectacular success in our garden.

 

On the 20th of May, I set our moth trap again, having heard that in the previous few nights, the southerly winds had brought with them an influx of rare striped hawkmoths to southern counties of England. Well... we got no striped hawkmoths... but we did get a brilliant poplar kitten (photos below) instead - a lovely thing indeed.

 

On the 21st, concerned that we'd hardly seen ANY house martins so far in the month,  I drove Ben down to my old place of work in Alice Holt forest, Hampshire, where in summers gone by, there were always dozens of beautiful, bouncy house martins nesting under the eves of the main building. 

Alas, when we got there, apart from seeing the last few green-winged orchid blooms (late May really is the end of that flower's season) ...

 

we saw NO house martins at all. NONE. Nada. Zip. Zilch. I hadn't been down to this place since before the pandemic, but to find in that time ALL the nests (both natural and artificial) had been abandoned, was really, really sad. OK... whilst I still think that swifts are the best bird of all, both swallows and house martins (and to an extent sand martins I suppose) are probably more aesthetically-pleasing - house martins in particular are a joy to look at. I was... no... we both were (Ben and I) really quite upset that the birds of my work summers at Alice Holt had abandoned ALL their nests over the course of the pandemic (very possibly on account of a very large new build building being erected RIGHT in front of their traditional nesting site) over the past two years). You can see the abandoned artificial nests in the photo below, under the eaves - in years gone by when I worked here, each nest would be PACKED with beautiful, noisy, glossy house martins. So sad now that they're empty and it' so quiet there.

 

OK. Better news now after all that doom and gloom. Late in the month I photographed a dark arches moth caterpillar which I nearly stepped on during one of my daily 5 mile walks.

This is a very distinctive caterpillar I think, which looks rather like quite a few sawfly larvae. On those walks too, I managed to see a great scorpion fly, many roe deer, quite a few beautiful bullfinches (another bird vying for a spot in my top five I think) and an incredibly loud lesser whitethroat -  as well as a pair of buzzards that use a set of goal posts at a local school to roost on - I don't know why that amuses me so much, but it does!

 

By the end of the fourth week of May, 'our' garden hedgehogs were really getting quarrelsome over the singular feeding station I have set up for them. In the video below, you can see two hedgehogs below really getting waaaay too close to each other at the feeding bowl. So much so in fact that I rather think I'll need to devise a new way of feeding them where they don't have to tip each other on their backs to get a gobfull of hedgehog kibbles. I'm (as you may know) VERY conscious of trying to look after the wildlife in my area, rather than look after my view of the wildlife, so I think I should get on this (redesign of hedgehog feeding station) lickedysplit. I'm sure the way it's set up at present simply just stresses them out (and makes the passage of parasites such as fleas and ticks which you'll also see in the video below) far easier.

 

Finally then. I've saved the best 'til last.

Ben is playing a lot of golf with me at present, and is getting very good at it. On 27th May, I decided to book us a round at Pine Ridge golf club, near Camberley. A proper, grown-up golf course in the scots pines and heathy sand belt of north Surrey. The golf was good, the weather was blistering and the course was a real delight.

ESPECIALLY on the 14th tee!

Ben walked up to his red (juniors' and ladies') 100 yards further forward than my yellow (mens') tees and as I walked to mine, I noticed a big crow attempt to scare something at the back of the tee box, on the ground in the sun.

I walked over to it - and there, sunbathing on the tee was a little adder!

I think it was about 20-22cm long and pretty thin (not too stocky really) so I expect this was one of last year's young which hibernated as an 18cm or so youngster, and was this year, intent on starting to really feed properly to get bigger - a lot bigger with any luck. After it had indulged in a spot of sunbathing of course!

I didn't have any other camera with me than the one on my phone - so I got a quick photo and a few short videos (spliced together below you'll see) then I physically-suggested to it that it might like to carry on sunbathing right at the back of the tee box, where golfers following us around the course (that would soon be on the 14th tee after us) wouldn't see it, let alone step on it.

I've seen grass snakes on golf courses before (in fact the biggest snake I've ever seen in the UK was a 150cm long grass snake in a drainage ditch on Wexham park golf course, near Stoke Poges) but I've never seen an adder on a golf course before!

I fell in love with Pine Ridge golf course on the 27th May this year then (my first time I'd ever played at this course) and I absolutely fell in love with the 14th tee (even if I didn't score too well on that hole after getting all unnecessary about an adder on the tee!).

A wonderful way to end a wonderful month.

May 2022.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) adder brimstone moth bullfinch cockchafer dark arches green-winged orchid grey wagtail house martin lesser whitethroat little ringed plover magpie Pied wagtail poplar kitten ringed plover roe deer scorpion fly starling swift yellow flag iris https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/6/may-flower Wed, 01 Jun 2022 07:30:00 GMT
Two questions. The answers. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/5/two-questions-the-answers Six days ago I asked the reader(s?) of this blog two "what can you see?" questions.

I've left this long enough, so here are the answers.

 

1. Hundreds of black-headed gulls are on the island. Most facing to the left. But look closely and you'll see a large, proud gull with its white primary (flight) feathers (unlike the black tipped primaries of the black headed gulls which surround it), a proper black head (not like the chocolate brown head of the poorly-named black-headed gulls), some very noticeable white eyeliner and a bright orange beak (instead of the port-coloured beaks of the black headed gulls). This proud-looking gull is a Mediterranean gull. 

 

 

2. The three birds you can see in the photo are a) the obvious black headed gull feeding at the water's edge. b) A pied wagtail in between the two posts at the top left of the image and..... c) A little ringed plover too (see the pink arrow below).

 

Yes. You'll need better than eyes than that, if you want a shot at my title, you know!

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) little ringed plover Mediterranean gull pied wagtail Quiz answers https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/5/two-questions-the-answers Fri, 13 May 2022 18:27:52 GMT
They're back! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/5/theyre-back Yesterday evening, around six-thirty pm, just after tea, Ben saw two swifts screaming above the house.

We had seen a few over a local gravel pit at the weekend, but yesterday was the first time we have seen them over the house this season.

May 9th then. Exactly (almost to the minute!) a week later than last year - but then again, they have allegedly been held up by cool weather and unfavourable winds over France for a week or so I hear.

Ben and I sat in the garden for an hour after seeing those first two and we counted 15 (fifteen) more between us in the next hour.

They're back. Thank goodness.

"The lucky ones" - and as is now traditional, I present to you my song for the swifts, which I play each time they come back and each time they leave.

This song MEANS swifts to me... and gives me goosebumps at the start of each May when I play it after I see my first swifts of the year and at the end of July when I watch them leave...

Close your eyes and play the below. And think of the best birds of all. The lucky ones.

Enjoy.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) apus apus swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/5/theyre-back Tue, 10 May 2022 08:19:09 GMT
Two questions. What can *YOU* see? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/5/two-questions-what-can-you-see On this blogging part of my website, I'll occasionally put forward a question to intrigue my reader(s).

Today is one such time - only today I'll ask you TWO questions.

Two photos below. Both taken by me on a walk with Ben around a local gravel pit this morning.

 

1. One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just isn't the same. One of these things is a little bit different. Which one is it*, come and play my game.

 

* And what is it?

 

 

 

 

2. What can YOU see here. Look carefully... Clue... there is more than one bird in the photo. Possibly more than two in fact? You tell me!

 

Answers in a day or so.

 

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) question quiz https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/5/two-questions-what-can-you-see Sat, 07 May 2022 16:15:30 GMT
April. Purple reign. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/5/april-purple-reign Finally - we've made it through five or six months of depressing, dark dankness (in the main!) and We step properly now into Spring after arriving at what *I* think is perhaps THE most exciting month of all... April.

April is when many things are born (including me - I am (of course) an April baby). When frogspawn becomes tadpoles, when many birds start to fight for and build their nests and lay their eggs, when rose chafers start their helicopter flights around compost heaps and flowering photinia bushes, when leaves start to appear en masse on trees, when woodland floors are carpeted with purple bluebells, meadow and field edges are speckled with dog violets and lilac bushes erupt into flower. If March was the yellow month then April is when purple reigns for sure.

We have three (I think) hedgehogs visiting us each night. One, the smallest, seems to be suffering pretty-badly from an overload of parasites (fleas mainly I think) but the other two (I think) seem full of energy and life. At least two of our visiting hedgehogs are male - but if I'm counting the one healthy, big one, twice - then BOTH are male. (Pretty sure we have three though - two males and one female).

We have two house sparrows now nesting in our (so-called) "tit box". No eggs yet, but they are both regularly bringing in nesting material to the camera box, after spending very early April fighting for squatters' rights. (see short video below).

Our frog spawn is now tadpoles of course and the netting has been taken off the pond as there are no more leaves to fall into the pond any more (we always wait until the sticky oak leaves have dropped - and as many readers of this blog will appreciate, oaks tend to keep their leaves all winter as brown relics UNTIL they're pushed off by the developing green buds in April).

Ben and I are still running around the local countryside like blue-arsed flies, looking for birds to add to his year list. March, as you'll remember (I'm sure) ended with a very unexpected glossy ibis - but April has been much more standard, with Ben ticking off the newly arrived and singing blackcaps, cetti's warblers and whitethroats.

I have often seen swallows arrive in the shires by the last day of March, but it took us until 17th of April this year to see our first swallow of 2022, flying around one of the many horse stables that we are surrounded by here (near Ascot and Windsor), a day after we saw and heard our first common terns. 

Other birdie highlights this month have included a red-legged partridge on my childhood golf course on April 1st (see below)

woodlarks at the local heath (see photos below), 

 a common sandpiper and a redshank (we missed both last year), a rogue barnacle goose on the 30th as well as a lovely treecreeper which we spotted on our annual bluebell pilgrimage (see photos below).

We've also managed to see garden warblers, reed warblers, sedge warblers, common terns, oystercatchers and one of our favourites - nightingales - belt out their cut glass song at a local haunt, just yesterday (30th April). We needed to leave the house at 5am for thissun. Photos of the dawn over the lakes on this nightingale hunt can be seen below. Apologies for the poor quality of the photos - both were taken with my phone.

Our annual nightingale hunt has become a tradition like our annual bluebell pilgrimage to be honest. Another reason why I (in particular) do LOVE April!

Finally, regarding birds... Ben and I have already been down to the heath to see "our" local Dartford warblers, which are very active and vocal now, bouncing about as they are on the yellow-flowering gorse bushes. Whilst oochering around on the heath, unwisely in shorts, Ben unfortunately got bitten by a deer tick. 

Now I'm VERY conscious of Lyme Disease or Borreliosis, having been bitten myself by an infected tick about 13 years ago now and having suffered (we think) and (we hope) recovered from this disease, so we caught this tiny tick (see photo below) very early and have kept it, just in case a bullseye rash appears behind Bens' knee and we have to start the battle (it's ALWAYS a battle these days) with the NHS to get treatment in time.

Regarding the photo below - what you're looking at is the bottom of a clear plastic moth collection jar with the tick flattened against the plastic. The LARGE circle at the bottom of the jar is 8mm in diameter - so that should give you an idea of just how small this tick is. Perhaps 1.5mm across. That's all.

Whilst watching Dartford warblers, redpoll and woodlarks, I took Ben to see the local ravens' nest on a radio mast situated on the heath. Ravens nest at sites year after year - like many big birds, just adding to the nest itself each year which grows as a result.

Unfortunately this year I've been dismayed to discover that BT (I think) who own the radio mast (or at least did) - have strung up a number of plastic decoy crows around the nest, in a bid to deter these magnificent (AND PROTECTED) birds from nesting.

I think the majority of these decoys (I think there are about 6 plastic crow decoys hung upside down around the mast -  including right under the nest pile itself - and at least one plastic owl decoy  - see photos below) were put up in the last few weeks - and if that is so - then that is an offence.

I've been talking with the crime unit of the RSPB regarding all this, so I'd best not say any more here.... but all I'll say right now is that even IF the radio mast owners (BT I think) haven't committed a technical offence (if they for example, strung up these decoys in the winter, before the nest site was actively returned to), it's incredibly exasperating and disappointing to think that they felt they needed to do this in any case.

The nest itself is in the middle of the tower, very high up, and would have no discernible effect on any transmitters on the tower itself nor block access to those transmitters. The beautiful ravens would only be there for a matter of weeks - then they'd be gone.

Sure... if they were bothering or taking local livestock then I'd understand if BT approached Natural England for a licence to get rid of the nest. Natural England would probably grant this licence.

But... there is no livestock being bothered around the mast. We're talking about very populated Surrey here, not the wilds of Yorkshire.

Finally - as it stands, as I write, the ravens are still checking out "their" radio mast, if not their old nest itself just yet. They DO seem flustered. I hope the RSPB think that what I'm reporting merits a proper investigation and failing that I hope the ravens still use their traditional nest site anyway.

I'll let you know when I know.

 

OK... that'll probably do for now other than to say... hasn't it been dry for ages down here (SE England)? Doesn't feel like we've had any sort of rain for weeks?! So with that in mind, please keep putting clean water out for birds and hedgehogs etc. They'll need it right now.

Right. That is it for now.

Days now until the best birds of all return. 

Maybe they already have for you?

Keep 'em peeled, eh?

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barnacle goose blackcap bluebells borreliosis cetti's warbler common sandpiper common tern Dartford warbler deer tick dog violets garden warbler lilac lyme disease nightingale oystercatcher radio mast raven redpoll redshank reed warbler rose chafer RSPB Crime unit sedge warbler swallow tadpole whitethroat woodlark https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/5/april-purple-reign Sun, 01 May 2022 08:00:00 GMT
The lost sickle. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/4/the-lost-sickle Regular readers of this blog and anyone that knows me in "real" life, will know I don't even call myself a birdwatcher, let alone a "birder" (shudder) and certainly not a "twitcher".

I explained to my eldest boy the other day what a "twitcher" was in the car, as we drove all-of five miles to go on my first ever "twitch" to see a lost Glossy Ibis. Primarily to see it (I've never seen one before, having never "twitched" before, nor lived in sub-Saharan Africa (for example) at all.

Well... saw it we did (I took my pocket camera and got a very poor shot of it below so I could show Anna, my wife).

A Glossy Ibis.

Plegadis falcinellus.

Which literally means Sickle sickle. (Doesn't take Einstein to work out it has been so-named because of the shape of its bill).

We spent about one minute looking at this poor bird.

Oh surrre... there are a few dozen (I think) reports of glossy ibises appearing around the UK each winter (normally) - to satisfy any proper twitchers out there - and even though this species of ibis is the most widespread of all ibis species, it should be in sub-Saharan Africa with loads of its own kind right now. Or if not there, in  Australia. Or Madagascar. Or Cuba or the Dominican Republic. Or one of the "iStans". Or at a push, a nice warm spot in Italy or Southern France, Spain or Portugal.

But no.

Our Glossy Ibis was in a razor-wired compound in a sewage complex, just south of Reading, Berkshire, in the cold UK.

On its tod.

I felt quite sorry for it, to be honest, as we peered at it from 200 yards away through a razor-wired fence.

I also felt quite dirty for having "twitched" anything at all in my life - like I say, this, I guess was my first ever "twitch" after all.

And we had somewhere else we needed to be within ten minutes or so.

So we watched this glossy ibis poddle about in its puddle in the Thames water works outside Reading for a minute and then left.

I hope it finds its way south very quickly now and finds a few more of its kind.

TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Glossy ibis Plegadis falcinellus https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/4/the-lost-sickle Sun, 03 Apr 2022 08:22:56 GMT
March. And it was all yellow. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/4/march-and-it-was-all-yellow March then.

The month where I start to get excited.

The month in which Spring errr… springs into life.

The month in which days become longer than nights for the first time in six months.

The month at the end of which, the clocks go forward - and we officially enter “summertime”.

The month in which buds and nascent leaves...  ...appear on trees and grass starts growing with some vigour.

 

The month in which gorse bushes, daffodils, lesser celandines, dandelions and primroses erupt into a blaze of all kinds of yellow. A yellow which occasionally breaks off into the blue sky and floats away in the form of sulphurous Brimstone butterflies. I love these harbingers of spring (saw my first of 2022 on 22/3/22). Look closely and you'll see that they are actually shocking pink and yellow. Like a flying battenberg cake.

The month in which tawny owls reach their peak peskiness, in terms of loudly hooting mating calls to each other and breeding/egg-laying.

The month in which wrens and nuthatches (yes... wrens and nuthatches) battle amongst the bare branches for loudest song in the wood (I always surprise people when I point out singing nuthatches on walks and they simply never knew that those unassuming birds, together with wrens, are so DAMN LOUD!).

The month in which our frogs (in our garden) and toads (at the local toad crossing) all start (and finish in fact, this year) migrating to their spawning grounds (ponds and lakes) and spend most of the month embroiled in slippery, noisy orgies. (See photos below taken by me of a few frogs engaged in a mating frenzy with a poor? lucky? female). (Please note that the male frogs all have blue/white/grey throats and the female has a yellow, striped throat).

I’ve taken great delight this month to watch all the above. Not to mention taking Ben to see (and hear) his first singing chiffchaff of the year, and a couple of oystercatchers at a local gravel pit, en passage.  Oh… and the first Cetti’s warbler of 2022 too – belting out its song from a thicket near the water’s edge.

The bee-flies have appeared. The first white butterflies have emerged. Bluebells are almost here. The sparrows and blue tits are fighting over our camera bird box. The local jackdaws are taking beak-loads of crud off the roads with which they will line their nests.

We've had a lovely, sunny, warm week across the UK which has really gone some way to dry the ground up and stick two metaphorical fingers up at the weather of the last few weeks (oh God, I've gone and done it now, haven't I?!).

I’ve seen that there has been a white-tailed sea eagle reported nearby, briefly this month, and also yesterday a WHITE STORK OVER OUR HOUSE (I missed it… I was buried deep in a spreadsheet at work).

Finally… I’ve been acutely aware of the birds being reported waking up on my favourite local habitat – lowland heaths, with lovely photos of Dartford warblers and woodlarks spattered all over social media.

Won’t be long now, grapple fans, before the cuckoos and swallows are back. Then it’ll be the nightjars and then the swifts.

And it’s time to start getting out there and breathing it.

This is the time to get outside and drink it all in…. the chase is almost more fun than the catch after all.

I’m sure you, like me, enjoyed March. And the best two months of all are now upon us.

I certainly intend to take my time and enjoy this time of year and I hope you have the opportunity to do similar too.

More soon.

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bee-fly blue tit Cetti's warbler chiffchaff daffodil dandelion dartford warbler frog gorse house sparrow jackdaw lesser celandine March Nuthatch oystercatcher primrose Spring tawny owl toad white stork white-tailed sea eagle Woodlark wren https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/4/march-and-it-was-all-yellow Fri, 01 Apr 2022 08:15:00 GMT
Puttock augmentation. Part 4. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/3/puttock-augmentation-part-4 Getting used to these "Puttock augmentation" posts yet?

The photos below were all taken by me today from the garden... of our very vocal, very active kites... and yes... the last photo shows a kite with what I assume is a feral pigeon in its talons. 

Red arrowRed arrow KitesKites

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Milvus milvus puttock augmentation red kite https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/3/puttock-augmentation-part-4 Tue, 22 Mar 2022 15:04:02 GMT
February. Up go the larks. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/3/february-up-go-the-larks February then.

The daffs are (of course) up all over the place and the first crocuses are pushing through the garden (see the photo at the end of this post).

I should have known better really than to comment on January’s (almost complete) lack of rain, for February of course has completely made up for that with storm after storm scudding across the UK, bringing with it 80mph gusts and a shed load of floods.

Storms Dudley, Eunice (in particular), Franklin and Gladys all wreaked their terrible havoc locally – so much in fact, over a week (no more) that I got very worried about “our” local barn owls – which simply will starve during periods of wet and/or windy weather as we got this month.

I took a drive past one of our barn owl roosts after Franklin and I was completely made-up to see one of our owls alive (if not well) – ready, it seemed, to leave its roost in daylight hours between storms to desperately try and catch something to eat.

I don’t KNOW that both of “our” local barn owls made it through the storms but the one I know did make it was in the far more exposed roost – so I hope both did make it. I’ll see soon enough, I guess.

Barn (in particular) owls have little business breeding in the UK – so adverse are they to inclement weather of the more northerly latitudes of the northern hemisphere. I remember going to see what were billed as the most northerly breeding barn owls in the UK, perhaps in Europe, in the mid-80s, at a nest site near Inverness. Barn owls MUCH prefer the drier, warmer climes of (for example) the Mediterranean (don’t we all?!) so I never stop counting my blessings whenever I see our local barn owls – and better still, when I see they’ve survived another period of blummin awful weather here.

What else has happened this month then?

Ah yes. I also commented last month that we’d not seen any hedgehog activity at our camera feeder since December 19th. Well… at 2am on the morning of February 7th, one of our local hedgehogs ‘got up’ after 50 nights of (the first period of) hibernation and took some food from its bowl.

It has been back to the bowl a few times since, but it may be a week or four before it’s up and running again properly, i.e. every night and completely out of hibernation. I think last winter it hibernated for 100 nights in total. That all said, it’s lovely to have it back. I so feel very, very protective of our hedgehogs.

We had another visitor to the hedgehog feeding bowl in February, albeit a fleeting visitor. You’ll see from the video clip below that a woodmouse seemed to take a liking to hedgehog food during the month – although we didn’t see it that often.

Talking of woodmice, during February again I discovered another use for my wonderful HIK MICRO OQ35 OWL thermal camera – it can locate mouse nests at the bottom of those plastic tubes which protect young sapling trees from the local roe (and muntjac) deer. I had no idea mice (or voles I suppose) use these tubes to nest in – but they seem to. The video below shows such a nest. You can see the bottom of the plastic tube surrounding the sapling tree is glowing. That is to say that it is a source of heat. (You’ll know by now, I’m sure, that the videos I take with the thermal camera tend to be shot in pitch black conditions – so it was in this case too – I couldn’t even see the plastic tubes or saplings with my naked eyes).

I wandered up to the glowing base and shone a torch down into the plastic tube - sure enough I could make out a ball of moss and grass at the bottom of the tube – in which I *knew* a mouse or vole was sitting. Yup – my wonderful thermal camera is something else you know – and a LOT of fun!

 

 

As I’ve written about quite a few times now over the years, this month was the month, as it tends to be each year, when the nation’s toads (and frogs) start to hot-foot it towards their traditional breeding ponds, along their historical migration routes which often cross roads.  Our garden pond has just "taken delivery" of a couple of dozen (or so) frogs... and I hope for more of course. Give these amphibians an overnight temperature of 9C or more and a bit of rain, in February (or March if February is really cold and/or dry) and these stunning creatures will set off – storm Eunice started the migration this year and I moved a few of them off the road which crosses their migratory route nearest to the house. Spring is coming, dear reader(s?)!

Finally, as far as this monthly round-up is concerned, a little word on little birds.

Ben and I were very lucky to see both snipe and green sandpiper on a walk around a local gravel pit during the month. You’ll obviously make out the green sandpiper in the first photo below… but can you make out the TWO snipe in the second photo? You’ll do well if you can.

Neither snipe nor green sandpiper featured in Ben’s “Around the world in 80 aves” year-list last year, so we are really pleased to add these two lovely wading birds to his list this year (I think he ends February on around 70 birds – so he has around 30 to tick off to beat last year’s total).

Another walk for Ben and I on the top of a very cold Oxfordshire ridgeway one February dawn saw us tick off skylark, corn bunting and meadow pipit too.  We also watched a large flock of fieldfare taking worms etc from the surface of a ploughed field. I (at least) wondered if that would be the last time I saw any winter thrushes this season, as it won’t be long at all now before they all chuff off back to Scandinavia. I wish them well.

It was a really uplifting dawn stroll on top of the ridgeway as the sun came up as both corn buntings and more obviously, the skylarks were out in force and singing with all the gusto they could muster, in good numbers. A lovely sound to hear at any time, let alone in the most depressing month of the year, cold, dark February.

OK… we may not be there for a few weeks yet… and now that I’ve said all this, it’ll probably snow next week…. But Spring really felt like it was on its way on that morning up at the top of the ridgeway.

I just wish it would hurry up!

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl corn bunting crocus daffodil frog green sandpiper hedgehog meadow pipit reed bunting skylark snipe toad woodmouse https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/3/february-up-go-the-larks Tue, 01 Mar 2022 09:15:00 GMT
The animals went in two by two. Hurrah! Hurrah! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/2/the-animals-went-in-two-by-two-hurrah-hurrah The video below was shot by me using my superb HIK MICRO OWL OQ35 thermal camera in the pitch black of night, this morning.

I couldn't see anything with my naked eyes, but there's just no hiding from the thermal camera.

Two rabbits.

Two (roe) deer.

And.

Two herons.

All feeding in a field at night (yes, herons often feed in fields and will eat anything from beetles through worms to small rodents).

The animals certainly went in two by two this morning. Hurrah! Hurrah!

They'll need to tonight too... well... if they're going to get out of the rain, that is.

Regarding the forecast, tonight's going to be wild and woolly, just like two years ago (almost to the night)... and I fully expect "our" and "your" toads to get migrating tonight towards their breeding ponds. The conditions are perfect - a wet and warm (over 9C) February night (just after full moon too as it happens).

Good luck little ones... and good luck to us all on Friday when storm Eunice looks set to bring us severe gales, even in the built-up south.

More soon.

TBR

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) deer heron HIK MICRO OWL OQ35 rabbit toad two https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/2/the-animals-went-in-two-by-two-hurrah-hurrah Wed, 16 Feb 2022 21:13:28 GMT
January. Sick 'n' tired, you' bin hanging on me. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/1/january-sick-n-tired-you-bin-hanging-on-me Just a very quick update from me tonight, as the first month of 2022 comes to an end.

January seems to have gone on forever this year, although to be fair it often seems to for me (and many others I'm sure).

Have we seen any appreciable rain this month? I can't remember any to be honest... and as such... even our back garden lawn, comprised entirely of heavy clay loam, is for once at this time of year, useable! We've been practicing tackling rugby tackle bags and static biking - normally the lawn is a veritable quagmire each January.

Talking of the garden, whilst our hedgehog(s) hasn't(haven't) been seen since just before Christmas, a pair of house sparrows AND a pair of blue tits have been investigating our nest box this month. I suspect like most years these days, the house sparrows will win the battle for occupancy. We'll see.

All the (five) jays I've been feeding during the autumn and early winter have disappeared, so I'm saddled with something like 10KG of monkey nuts, which the couple of jackdaws and magpies aren't really getting through to be honest. A shame... I miss "my" beautiful jays... but they certainly have been all gone for about two weeks now after being CONSTANT visitors for the first fortnight of the month.

Very occasionally I feed other, smaller birds in the garden... just so we can see if we can attract a siskin or brambling or something like that, for my eldest boy's bird year list - and in that respect I have put up a couple of sunflower heart feeders which have, in turn, attracted a handful of goldfinches into the garden. Seems strange to think these days that back when I was a wee nipper, hardly ANYONE had goldfinches in their gardens, but instead they had greenfinches... but wind the clock on 40 odd years and those tables are definitely turned.

Regarding Ben's year bird list, yes... we are re-running last year's "Around the birds in eight aves" challenge. Last year we finished on 102 birds (flushing a lovely big woodcock from the 2nd hole at a golf course we were playing just before Christmas, which became our final species of the year) and this year Ben has said he'd like to try and beat that total. We're doing OK I guess. I took Ben to our local barn owls before dawn on New Year's Day, with his eyes closed UNTIL I spotted a barn owl and told him to "open your eyes now!" so he could chalk up "BARN OWL" as the first bird he saw in 2022 - who else can say that?! 

Now, regarding Barn owls - we've (Ben and I) seen both local owls interact with each other at dawn in January. They are using separate roosts at present, mind, about 400M apart. I've also found a new (3rd) barn owl pretty locally too... in pitch black conditions - with my wonderful thermal camera. We are SO lucky to have these beautiful owls so close to us.

NB. More than one person has written to me via this blog, asking for directions to see these owls. If those of you that wrote to me are reading this please know this - I made a terrible mistake of showing one "birder" (shudder) another barn owl roost a few years ago - and instructed him not to tell anyone or disturb the owl. I caught him and one of his "birder" (shudder again) friends sticking a camera into the barn owl's roost a few days later.  I politely (using all of my 200lb and 75 inches) "asked" them to leave and never come back. They haven't been back.  Just as well. So... sorry "birders" who write to me asking for barn owl directions, because of the actions of one of your own (a "birder" that is), I vowed never to tell anyone where certain birds are again. My family know where I watch the owls... and that will be that. Sorry.

Other notable birds for Ben's 2022 check list in  January have been GREAT WHITE EGRET, MARSH TIT, MANDARIN DUCK, GOLDENEYE and GOOSANDER. We've also been lucky enough to see LITTLE OWLS very locally (regular readers of this blog may remember I used to film breeding little owls in 2012 and blog here about them, but they disappeared a year or so after that and up until a couple of years ago, they seemed to be permanently gone - so it's lovely to see them back with us).

We've finished Ben's 2022 list for January on 67 species - with grey and then red-legged partridge. Always nice to see I think. Both birds.

There's really only more thing to say I think, regarding January.

During the summer, I occasionally see a noctule bat hunting in straight lines, high over our garden on warm, still, clear evenings. I'm always excited by that sight. I do happen to know (of course I do) that when we moved here about ten years ago, a colony of noctule bats lived in the roof of an old Scuba diving shop, just up the road. 

That Scuba diving gear shop closed down (as it would really... there's not too much scope for Scuba diving adventures in East Berkshire) and became a vets surgery instead. Now... when the surveyors checked the attic of the old shop, they found the colony of bats - and so took the roof off, tile by tile, brick by brick, by hand - as of course all bats are protected species.

This is MEANT to mitigate any disturbance to the bats... but rather like those bumblebee boxes you can buy (no bumblebee has EVER nested in any shop bought bumblebee box... in case you didn't know) ... and the bat bridges that developers are TOLD to erect when they disturb bats (NEVER WORK) this never works. The bats just bugger off and you just have to hope they find somewhere else to roost.... or... yes... they die, to be blunt.

The vets are (obviously) interested in animals, so were probably feeling quite guilty about disturbing the protected and rather handsome noctule bats in their roof... so they put up a bat box on the telegraph pole next door... hoping to attract the bats back.

Look... I don't *know* if the attic bats all decided that this tiny bat box on a telegraph pole was a suitable substitute for their destroyed attic roost, but let's be frank... I doubt it. 

I only mention this as I've known that there was supposed to be a bat box by this vets' for a few years (having been interested to know where the occasional noctule above our house comes from) but only looked for and eventually found this bat box this January.

Like I said, I don't think for a second any self-respecting bat would shack up in this rather exposed bat box, next to a busy road... but you never know I guess. I'll have to watch it in the summer, with my thermal camera eh?

Right then.

That's January done.

Less than 100 days now until the swifts are screaming around our houses again...

Until next time...

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 2022 barn owl bat box goldeneye goosander great white egret grey partridge January jay little owl marsh tit red-legged partridge https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2022/1/january-sick-n-tired-you-bin-hanging-on-me Mon, 31 Jan 2022 19:50:48 GMT
Bat and buzzard. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/12/bat-and-buzzard Just got home at 16:35 from another busy afternoon (which might explain the lack of blog posts recently), to see a BAT fly around the garden in the gloom!

I occasionally see winter bats, in fact I saw a few with my eldest boy two years ago almost to the day, but they're pretty rare things.

The last few days have been bananas though, weather-wise, haven't they? 16 Centigrade? At the very end of December? Come off it?!

Actually this is relatively worrying. Not only is this becoming a trend (see again this post two years ago), plants (especially) and many animals NEED the cold for a few weeks. I hope trees don't start budding etc soon, as any new growth will almost certainly be killed by the frosts and cold "snap" if and when we get one.

Our hedgehogs seemed to start to hibernate in the fourth week of December this year (so around the 22nd). I wonder if they're already getting a bit warm and restless and we'll see them on the hedgehog cam again this week?

One other recent garden point to note - we've recently had a big, beautiful buzzard alight (for the first time that I've seen) IN our garden a week or three ago (photos below).

Finally - Ben (my eldest boy) made the end of his "around the birds in eighty aves" challenge tonight.  We were lucky enough to see a few goosander the other day on a local lake and then accidentally flush a beautiful woodcock from the 2nd hole at Greys Green golf course in Oxfordshire the other day... those were his one-hundredth-and-first and one-hundred-and-second species of this year's challenge. 102 it is then. Which he hopes to beat next year.

OK.

That better be it for now.

Happy New Year, grapple-fans.

Let's all hope (I'm sure) for a far better, far healthier 2022 eh?

TBR and family... and jays...

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) around the birds in eighty aves bat buzzard happy new year hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/12/bat-and-buzzard Fri, 31 Dec 2021 17:08:58 GMT
Jpegs. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/11/jpegs I know. Hardly the most aesthetically-pleasing perch and feeder for "our" local jays in the garden, but I don't feed the jays to make the feeder look pretty. I give the jays what they want and give very little thought to what my (bespoke, unique) jay feeder actually looks like.

I've fed no other wild birds in the garden for years now. Just jays. Stunning birds.

Today we had five visit the garden all day (five at one time at lunch) but my record for the garden is eight at one time, a few years ago.

We had a bumper acorn crop locally last autumn, so my jay feeder didn't attract any jays back to the garden for the winter. This season though is very different. No acorns at all locally, meaning I'm going through sacks of "jay food" and they're flocking to my "yard" at present.

All good. I do adore these garrulous, gaudy crows.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Garrulus glandarius jay https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/11/jpegs Sun, 28 Nov 2021 19:51:13 GMT
Ton-up! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/11/ton-up The regular reader(s) of this blog may remember I set my eldest (8yo) boy a challenge this year to see 80 different bird species from January 1st to December 31st - a modest target yes, but a modest target built on January 1st to encompass any potential limiting lockdowns on his avian quest.

He saw 34 species on January 1st, got to the 80 (target hit) by my birthday on April 14th and today... made 100, with the sight of three female goosanders on a local gravel pit.

Ton-up then.

With over a month to go before he can stop counting!

Congratulations Ben - well done son. I'm very proud of you!

Next year we'll have to try for 120 eh?!

 

NB. This challenge was devised with my basic birdwatching rule in place - don't go out solely to "birdwatch" or god forbid "bird" or Jesus Christ, "twitch". Go out and enjoy the countryside, keep your eyes and ears open and see what you can see. Plants, insects, mammals, fish, scenery, whatever! I think he's pretty-well managed that - and that just makes me even more proud. 

I suppose the highlights of the list are: barn owl (the 8th bird seen on the list - seen on January 1st!), kingfisher (Ben's favourite bird, despite me insisting it should be swift!), nightjar, Dartford warbler, great white egret (the rarest bird at least in Britain on the list) and finally goosander for being the 100th bird.

The full list can be seen below.

TBR.

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) around the birds in eighty aves https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/11/ton-up Sat, 20 Nov 2021 20:16:26 GMT
Certificate 18. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/11/certificate-18 The last time I blogged about a hawk killing a pigeon or dove we were pre pandemic and pre Brexit even. Remember those heady days?

Eight years or so on, at the weekend, a female sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) took and killed a Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocta) in our back garden.

It did so, very helpfully in front of our conservatory - and even though the outside windows of our conservatory are pretty dirty right now, shooting through them with a combination of Canon 6D and 7Dmkii and a 400mm f5.6 lens, I managed to get some pretty decent shots (below).

Now, before you look at my photos, a word or eight or ten about the title of this post. "Certificate 18".

If you click on "Accipiter nisus" above, you'll be transported to my old website on zoological nomenclature, in which I started to go into the meaning behind the classical names of some of our bird species - the sparrowhawk and its scientific name of Accipiter nisus being one example.

I never got around to explaining the origin of the scientific or classical name of the collared dove, Streptopelia decaocta, though. I'll remedy that now if I may?

Streptopelia

Strepto. From the Greek Streptos for collar.

Pelia. From the Greek Peleia for dove.

Decaocta.

Deca From the Greek Dec for Ten.

Octa From the Greek Oct for Eight.

The specific name (Decaocta) for the collared dove has its roots, like many avian scientific names in classical Greek mythology.

"Decaocta" was a sad housemaiden who tirelessly cleaned after her masters - and was only paid eighteen coins for her work in the entire year.

She was constantly complaining to the Gods about her work and salary and taking pity on her, they freed her from her earthly slavery by turning her into a dove. A collared dove, as it happens.

However she would have to spend all eternity sadly singing her salary amount, constantly throughout her life.

Now, as we all? know, the collared doves' song consists of a basic "ku kuuuuuu ku"  (3 syllables, with an emphasis on the second).

If they can though, and they're not disturbed mid-song, collared doves like to repeat this 3 syllable song six times.

Making.... you've got it.... 18 syllables in total.

18 syllables for 18 coins.

Decaocta. Eighteen.

The sad-calling collared dove meeting a very certificate 18 death - having her chest muscles removed by a hawk, whilst she was still very much alive.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Accipiter nisus Collared dove sparrowhawk Streptopelia decaocta https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/11/certificate-18 Mon, 15 Nov 2021 16:45:28 GMT
WPOTY. All at sea now. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/10/wpoty-all-at-sea-now Last October I repeated my 2019 dismay about the results of the 2020 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

I'm afraid I'm even more dismayed this year.

I honestly think this prestigious competition has completely lost its way now. 

As last year, I'll quickly talk about this year's Grand winner, then give one word critiques of a few shots I think shouldn't have been included as finalists, let alone been commended or win categories - then I'll give you a link to my favourite image of the finalists.

Please note, as always... these are just my personal opinions. You're more than entitled to disagree of course.

OK then. 

Firstly the Grand Winner.

I find the image uninteresting, uninspiring, dull and messy. I think the fact that two of the subjects are half-in and half-out of shot to be accidental and not deliberate. I find the composition (or lack of thought behind the composition) unnerving - again... I would strongly suggest that is accidental too...

I assume that is moonlight filtering down from above... but now I think of it... it can't be can it? It's just another lamp or flash held above the water by the photographer's "team".

Even the subject itself, the (French Polynesian) Camouflage Groupers are far from being interesting or exciting or spectacular fish.  I'm not told anything new by this photo. I'm not interested in it. In short I honestly think this is a bad photo. A bad image. 

Finally I think the title of the image itself is contrived. Treacly. Why not just call it "MILT". Or "All at sea". As that is what I think of the image.

 

Next.

A few one word critiques:

Drone.

Trailcam.

Tortured

Snapshot

No

Dull

Messy

 

Finally then... a couple (not just one) of links to my favourite two images.

UNIQUE.

PERFECT.

 

TBR.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 2021 wildlife photographer of the year wpoty https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/10/wpoty-all-at-sea-now Wed, 20 Oct 2021 11:51:54 GMT
A hot mouse. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/9/a-hot-mouse I know, I know, I've not blogged for a month now. Truth be told it's been helter skelter at work over the last four weeks and evenings & weekends have been spent just sorting out the boys and drawing the odd breath.

So... just a quick post today, just to let the regular reader of this blog know I'm still alive. Just!

A few nights ago, just before we retired to bed at around 2230hrs, I stepped out of the back door into the inky black of the night, with my thermal camera pressed to my eye. On the lookout for hedgehogs primarily, as we are, I think, down to one hedgehog visiting us each night now, down from four (I think) earlier in the year.

I didn't see any hedgehogs through the thermal camera, but I DID see an interesting small, bright, heat source at the far end of the garden, 40-50 yards away (we have quite a large garden) sitting on top of the chicken coop in our chicken run. Again, the regular reader(s) of this blog may know that whilst we used to keep hens, and we intend to again when the boys can help look after them and themselves to an extent, we've not kept hens for a few years now and the chicken run is presently full of bikes, garden tools and bits and bobs - no hens live there at present.

I walked up the garden videoing what I saw through my thermal camera - and the short video can be seen below.

NB. There is NO sound on these thermal clips. The quality of footage isn't 4K or even HD either.

That said, I think (hope) you'll agree that this clip shows the stunning power of my wee HIK MICRO OWL OQ35.

Please understand, I couldn't even see the chicken run or coop in the pitch black 45 yards away when I shot this video, let alone a mouse sitting on the chicken coop.

Incredible - the stuff I can see in total darkness, with this bit of kit!

OK that shallot for now - I'll try and return soon with a little blog post on the return of "my" jays to the garden - the first time we've attracted jays to our garden for two years now after they failed to return at all last winter.

More soon.

TBR

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Apodemus sylvaticus HIKMICRO OWL OQ35 thermal camera woodmouse https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/9/a-hot-mouse Mon, 27 Sep 2021 11:21:58 GMT
Watching owls with an owl. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/8/watching-owls-with-an-owl

Late last night, in the pitch black (the low, orange, full moon was touching the horizon and casting no shadows at that time) I thought I'd take the opportunity to drive to our local barn owl site and see if any were still around.

We tend to only get to see them in the winter as from April to saaaaay October, it's often too light at the times we can get up to their place and as such they're tucked away in their roost, asleep.

This week though, my wife and boys have taken a week in the midlands to see their parents/grandparents so I have a little time to myself AND the opportunity to take my wonderful thermal telescope which my wife bought me for my birthday this year up to "owl-ville" to see wha g'wan.

Long story short is we DO have two adult barn owls hunting very close to their roost* and calling to each other, at the tail-end of breeding season, surrounded by tawnies, by the sound of it last night.

*Yes. Two adult owls hanging around their roost at the end of breeding season and calling to each other *does* perhaps suggest young are being brought-up. That said, adult barn owls often hunt away from the nest when taking food to the young, so when the young DO eventually fledge, they can learn to hunt right next to the safety of the nest site and roost. They did seem to be hanging around their roost or nest so perhaps they don't have young... or.... maybe... the two owls I saw and heard last night WERE this year's young birds? I got a very short thermal video of one of the owls checking me out last night in the pitch black and I'm pretty sure it was an adult and not a fledged youngster - but of course I could be wrong - it was pitch black after all and the "OWL OQ35" thermal camera, stunning though it is, couldn't reveal that sort of detail to me.

By the way, I know the thermal footage below makes it LOOK quite light when I recorded the flying owl. It wasn't. It was pitch black. These cameras are something else!

I'll leave the owls alone now for a few weeks - I certainly didn't disturb them last night in the dark (I was quite a way from their roost or nest) but I don't want to tempt fate, even with a thermal scope rather than something far more intrusive like a big camera and flash guns (I see these sort of photos all over social media - terrible really - these are, again might I remind people, Schedule 1 birds with special protection!).

Lovely to know they're still around though - and wonderful to perhaps think they may be bringing up young this year.

We'll see eh?

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl HIKMICRO OWL OQ35 thermal camera https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/8/watching-owls-with-an-owl Tue, 24 Aug 2021 13:00:25 GMT
It's like a Disney film here right now. Just beautiful. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/8/its-like-a-disney-film-here-right-now-just-beautiful There are yellow butterflies dancing around our borders.

Blue and scarlet metallic-plumaged swallows chirruping overhead.

Bumblebees busying themselves on our flowers.

Bank voles climbing into our hedges.

Red kites soaring overhead, whistling to each other in the blue skies.

Oh.

And a pile of dog vomit (slime mould fungus (Fulgio septica)) on our wood-pile & a dead pigeon hanging off the neighbour's gutter for some reason*. 

Beautiful.

Just beautiful.

 

* I assume it got its beak or head caught in the gutter grill rather than it consciously decided to sod it and end it all (as its life had become unbearable).

I could of course, be wrong.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) dead pigeon dog vomit Fulgio septica slime mould https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/8/its-like-a-disney-film-here-right-now-just-beautiful Mon, 23 Aug 2021 09:33:06 GMT
Twenty wildlife facts. No. Not opinions. FACTS. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/8/twenty-wildlife-facts-no-not-opinions-facts Feel free to disagree of course. Everyone has the right to be wrong!
TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) wildlife facts https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/8/twenty-wildlife-facts-no-not-opinions-facts Sat, 21 Aug 2021 09:33:39 GMT
The Hawk Conservancy Trust (again). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/8/the-hawk-conservancy-trust-again Two years ago (almost to the day again) my eldest son and my wife and I visited the wonderful Hawk Conservancy Trust, outside Weyhill, near Andover, Hants.

Today we did so again.

Some photos that I took today are reproduced below (all taken with a Canon 7Dmkii or a Canon 6DMki and a Canon 400mm f5.6 lens).

Please note that I've not "removed" the background in the photos of the birds with white backgrounds... the light was so bad today (or good, depending on your viewpoint... it was overcast all day anyway) that when I shot photos of birds with the grey sky in the background, I deliberately overexposed the shot to bring out the detail in the subject (the bird) and also blow out the background (make it very light).

The result is a load of "clean" images, which I'm afraid either are your thing (in many cases they are my thing) or they're not.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) The Hawk Conservancy Trust https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/8/the-hawk-conservancy-trust-again Fri, 13 Aug 2021 18:25:17 GMT
I see grayling. Again. But can YOU? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/8/i-see-grayling-again-but-can-you Two years ago, almost to the day, I blogged here that my family and I took a walk through our local HUGE forest (Swinley Forest that is) and we chanced across a few of our largest of brown butterflies, the cryptically-camouflaged Grayling butterfly.

Today, we happened to do the same.

But can you see it?

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Grayling grayling butterfly Hipparchia semele https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/8/i-see-grayling-again-but-can-you Thu, 12 Aug 2021 17:21:18 GMT
Each year. Just like clockwork. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/8/each-year-just-like-clockwork Sigh.

I've just read again on my news feed that the daily express, who seem to do little else than write about the weather and princess Diana (still) have forecast another "Indian Summer" in August and September this year.

Goodness me.

Again.

Really?

Yes. Really.

This happens every year these days. The dribbling morons all get together and call late summer (in ACTUAL summer) an "Indian Summer".

Look, I'm all for the evolution of language. That's fine.

But. (Here's the but).

1) You LITERALLY cannot have an Indian Summer IN SUMMER.

 2) Nor can you have an Indian Summer before the first killing frost (around October, perhaps even later).

Indian summers CANNOT occur in August, nor even in September (at least not in the first three weeks of September) despite the Express writing that  the definition of an Indian Summer is :

Astronomical Autumn starts this year in the UK on 22nd September, in forty-five days as I write this.

Even "Meteorological autumn" (A (false) concept purely brought into existence to satisfy those people wishing every season started on the 1st of each month rather than the 21st or 22nd or 23rd depending on which year and which season it was) doesn't begin for another twenty-four days.

But even if you are one of those knuckle-draggers who thinks that Autumn truly begins on the 1st September and therefore box 1) above is ticked -we've moved out of summer when we leave August, we STILL can't have an Indian summer before the first killing frost (often no earlier than October and not even early October) - so I'm afraid you've not ticked box 2).

 

I know. We all know why these warm spells in September or even August sometimes, are described by those with very pronounced Neanderthal brows as "Indian summers". It's because they think an Indian summer literally means a warm period in the second half of summer.  But it doesn't mean that. It really doesn't.

 

Indian summers don't happen in August. Nor even September. And not often in October.

They're much more likely to happen in November than any other month here in the UK. And perhaps as late as December.

Yes.

You heard me.

December.

NOT AUGUST.

 

 

Finally (until next year) then.

The period of warm weather that has been forecast again can be described again, NOT as an Indian summer... but just a period of summer warmth (in the 2nd half of (actual) summer).

And whilst I'm here... that big iron bird in sky that you are pointing your club at... no that's not an iron bird either.

That's an AEROPLANE.

Say it with me.

A E R O. P L A N E.

*Hurrumph*

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) indian summer https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/8/each-year-just-like-clockwork Sun, 08 Aug 2021 10:39:53 GMT
Oranges, raspberries & cream... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/8/oranges-raspberries-cream My wife, eldest son and I went for a fifteen mile mountain bike ride around Swinley Forest this week - in the beautiful weather (where's that gone?).

When we (eventually?) move from this generally God-forsaken part of the world, south-east England that is, lowland heathland and forests like that of Wildmoor heath and Swinley Forest is what I'll miss most about the area. In fact it may well be the only thing I miss. I feel INSTANTLY at home on lowland heaths and forests - and I love being in such places in warm weather, hunting for Dartford Warblers, Wasp Spiders, Nightjars, Adders, Hobbies, Redstarts, Grayling butterflies, Tiger beetles, Crossbills and Emperor Moths.

Oh.

And Silver-washed fritillary butterflies.

Amongst the loveliest things our eyes feasted on during our day in the forest this week were the big, fast-moving, bright orange Silver washed fritillary butterflies - dancing around the hemp agrimony together.

These spectacularly-pretty butterflies are pretty-well a butterfly of south-east England and whilst they can often be seen in the height of summer flying quickly down sunbathed forest rides, they breed in the wood proper, in the shade. I used to watch them a bit around the Alice Holt arboretum in Surrey (I used to work alongside the arboretum) - but it was very nice to show them to my wife and eldest boy this week, even if he did prefer watching the more-obviously-spectacular Peacock butterflies!

We have nine fritillary butterfly species in the UK and with a wingspan of around 7.5cm, the silver-washed fritillary is our largest of these striking orange and black butterflies of high summer. SWFs suffered a big population decline in the 1970s and 1980s but perhaps at least in part due climate change and our warmer(?) summers, numbers are now on the up once more.

Yup. All very well. But what of the weird title to this blog post?

Well... the Silver-washed fritillaries are large, bright orange butterflies that as I've written above, can be found flying powerfully down woodland rides in the summer - pausing mainly only to check out bright orange things to see if those orange things are females that can be mated. 

Take a walk through Alice Holt forest, or Swinley forest for that matter, wearing a black or green shirt with orange patterns on it, or holding some orange toys on a piece of string - and you'll be IRRESISTIBLE to these big, randy, orange butterflies.

There's something else that these beautiful butterflies find irresistible too - "raspberries and cream".

No. Not ACTUAL raspberries and cream, but hemp agrimony - also known as raspberries and cream.

I got a load of photos of the SWFs gorging themselves on their RAC - I just wish I'd bought my better camera with me on our bike ride, as these butterflies were being the perfect models and the photos I took with my pocket camera didn't really do them justice.

 

Now.

Before I go.

A little about the SWFs scientific  (and indeed French) name (you know I can't resist).

Argynnis paphia.

Argynnis  (Argynnos) was the beautiful boy who King Agamemnon fell in love with as he watched him swim naked across the Boeotian Cephissus river. Poor Argynnis drowned during his swim and Agamemnon was so distraught he buried him and built a shrine to Aphrodite Argynnis. (The boyhood love).

Argynnis was, in 1807, the family name that Fabricus gave to all the large fritillary butterflies, which had earlier (in 1804) been called 'perlati" by Latreille, on account of the pearly markings under their hind wings. One could reasonably assume that Fabricus chose the name "Argynnis" at least in part due his fondness for wordplay and the fact that Arguros means silver in Greek - the silvery, pearly, colour of the markings on these butterflies' underwings would make this play on words very apt.


Paphia literally means from Paphos (Cyprus). In this case it could also mean Aphrodite, the goddess of love too. Aphrodite came to be near Paphos on the island of Cyprus (at Aphrodite's rock actually, where I was lucky enough to be as it happens, watching a total lunar eclipse in  August 1989, a few weeks after my A levels). Aphrodite is sometimes referred to as Paphia, the goddess from Paphos - and this would certainly fit in with the Aphrodite Argynnis shrine that Agamemnon built for his dead boy love.

 

OK.

Finally then.

The French name for the Silver-washed fritillary is the Tabac d'Espagne. (Spanish tobacco).

No.

I don't get it either. 

Perhaps someone reading this veritable word salad penned by me today on these butterflies, can help me out.

Until then.

Get out(side).

TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) argynnis paphia silver-washed fritillary spanish tobacco https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/8/oranges-raspberries-cream Fri, 06 Aug 2021 14:55:29 GMT
Ninety-two days... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/8/ninety-two-days ... since I saw my first two lucky ones over the garden, exactly three months ago to the day on May 2nd ... and they're still here... just.

The photo above was taken by me (of course) last night, just before dusk. I see around a dozen or two each night in the hour between eight and nine pm. I need to say goodbye each time they leave, you know!

And they ARE going - we may well not make one hundred days.

It took them a month and ten days to start exploring the tunnel to our attic swift space this year (on 12th June) and as I said at the time, those would almost certainly have been two (or less likely three) year old birds prospecting for a year or two in advance.

We've seen swifts every day around the house or over the garden since May 2nd, but in contrast with last year, the season as a whole has been very disappointing to be honest. As far as I can tell, we've had NO visitors INSIDE our attic swift space, unlike last year, even if we've had a good two or three or four alight on and in the entrance tunnel to the attic swift space.

I had very high hopes that this year, our tenth (yes, tenth!) go at attracting my favourite birds (by far) back into our attic would finally produce the goods this year, but alas, those hopes were misplaced.

The weather didn't help to be honest (again unlike last year which was scorchio). We've had a pretty dreadful May, weather-wise... and I know that many swifts were either late back to their nest sites this year or didn't breed again because of the lack of half-decent weather and food therefore.

Swifts eventually had a reasonable year across the country, even if they were a little late off the mark. Much better than the swallows and house martins I hear which were VERY late back to nest sites, if they returned at all in some places.

But... never mind eh.

On the upside, we've had the best part of a hundred days watching these magnificent wee beasties scream around our house in their chocolate brown racing colours and like the last year or two we've had them shout back at our MP4 calls all season and at least land at the entrance tunnel to our swift space.

We live in a post-war town and I'm far from convinced swifts have ever lived in any numbers in the area (unlike our place in Reading which was swift central it seems!).

We keep going.

We try again next year.

And we live in hope.

 

For now... I wish all the UK swifts good luck and very safe passage back to sub-Saharan Africa - and then even better luck on their return to our shores next April and May.

I will be waiting.

Watching.

For the lucky ones....

I'll leave you with my swift song - which I play each time they leave and again... each time they return. I hope you do so too now...

TBR.

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) apus apus swift swifts https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/8/ninety-two-days Mon, 02 Aug 2021 16:14:55 GMT
The "Destroying Nun" and the "Ochre-anointed red lead". https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/7/the-destroying-nun-and-the-ochre-anointed-red-lead We've run our fancy new garden moth trap a few times this summer and picked up a few nice specimens so far.

Last night we picked up two firsts for the garden which I thought I'd briefly write a little bit about today.

OK.

Moth 1 - Black Arches Moth. Lymantria monacha. Which literally means The Destroyer (Lymantria (Grk)) Nun (Monacha (Lat)).

Rather like the Gypsy Moth, which we caught in the old trap last September and I blogged briefly about here, the Black Arches is sometimes thought of as a "pest" species as its larvae can strip trees (often oak trees) bare - and that is why it has a Generic name of Lymantria  -  it is a tussock moth species that can and does do real damage in large numbers.

That said, I love these Black Arches moths, rather like I love the pesky, pesty Hornet moths. I first saw a Black Arches (male) when one came to our campsite lantern in the New Forest a few years ago when Anna and I spent a few nights at our favourite spot in the forest - but until today I'd never seen one here in Berkshire.

The males do often come to light at night, less so the females, and they are STUNNING moths I think - in their black and white colours - which also give them their specific name of monacha - meaning Nun (as their black and white colour reminded naturalists of nuns' habits).

 

Moth 2 - Rosy Footman. Miltochrista miniata. Which literally means "Anointed with" (Christa, yes, like Christ, the anointed one) "red earth or miltos" (Milto) Red lead (miniata from minium).

This wee moth is simply stunning - and is yet another example, should you need one, that moths are at LEAST as fantastically-coloured as butterflies - if not more so, to be honest.

It isn't red as such though, is it?

It's more of a salmon pink.

Never mind eh?

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) black arches lymantria monacha miltochrista miniata rosy footman https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/7/the-destroying-nun-and-the-ochre-anointed-red-lead Mon, 19 Jul 2021 15:06:48 GMT
Exuviae... while I kiss the sky. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/7/exuviae Just a few photos of some of the Southern Hawker dragonfly exuviae removed from our pond yellow flag iris or water lily leaves this week.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Aeshna cyanae dragonfly exuvia exuviae southern hawker https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/7/exuviae Wed, 14 Jul 2021 12:41:50 GMT
Two more SPECTACULAR firsts... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/7/two-more-spectacular-firsts A very quick blog post today (which I may add to if time allows).

Two lovely firsts for me (and my eldest boy) in the last two days.

1) Yesterday we (my eldest boy and I) took our mountain bikes onto the trails of Swinley Forest, to test his new speedometer/odometer, to get some fresh air and also to see if we could add to his bird tally of 94 (for his (original) "Around the birds in eighty aves" quest, which we actually completed in April this year, so have increased the total target from 80 to 100).

We were I suppose, specifically on the lookout for Crossbill, redstart, hobby and if at all possible, Dartford Warbler.

Well... we didn't see any Crossbills. Nor Redstarts. Nor any hobbies. But we DID see THREE Dartford Warblers - and they were... magnificent! I'd never seen Dartford Warblers before in my life, but the last time we mountain biked around the heaths of Swinley Forest, I certainly HEARD one - so I thought we'd return and really try and FIND one.

No photos unfortunately, but a lovely sight to see - and yet another reminder for me, if I needed one (I don't!) that I really LOVE lowland heaths in England - with the right weather, I really feel like I'm on holiday in the Med, each time we visit!

 

2) I dug my (our) garden pond nine years ago. About 5 months after we moved in. And a few months before my eldest was born. I was roundly told by more than a few people that I was MAD to dig a pond in the garden with a baby on the way. I regarded them as mad NOT TO, to be honest. It's not like I would allow any baby or toddler access to the pond on their own. (And I fenced it off from the rest of the garden too - not even our chickens, which we kept at the time) could get close to the pond). Ben loves looking for frogs and newts and lilies in our pond -I'd have LOVED one myself as a boy - and I'm sure little Finn will enjoy it too when he gets a bit older.

It's been a stunning success our pond. Especially for frogs and newts (dozens and dozens of newts this year). But not so much for dragonflies.  Oh sure, I've seen hawker and darter and chaser odonates zip around the garden each summer, but these wonderful insects never seemed that interested in our lovely pond. I'd never seen any large dragons emerge from our pond. Only damsels. And to be honest, not too many of them either.

That all changed last week when I noticed at least TWO hawker-shaped dragonfly nymphs explore the surface of the pond.

And this morning.... this happened.

 

I DID (you'll see) get a photo or two of this - and I'm very pleased to report that ten years (or so) after digging our pond, we DO finally have large dragons (Southern hawkers I think... but my famous Uncle would know at a glance) emerging from our pond - a first for us.

Have a lovely week.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Aeshna cyanea Dartford Warbler southern hawker Sylvia undata https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/7/two-more-spectacular-firsts Mon, 12 Jul 2021 11:36:36 GMT
The speedy spotty body https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/7/the-speedy-spotty-body The golf course that I used to play a lot at, as it was about 60 seconds away from the house, was bought by developers a few years ago and now has a school and dozens of new "hyses" built on it.

That said, a significant part of the old golf course has been left to "re-wild" as such, but with a few ponds dug in for good measure - and to be fair, this part of the old golf course is really lovely at this time of year. 

The whole area is awash with wild, natural flowers and it hums with insects, presently.

I happened across this chap(pess?) on my brief 'poddle' through the flowers this morning.

A moth caterpillar.

A "White Ermine" moth caterpillar to be (literally) specific.

But how can you tell? I hear you cry. (Well... I obviously can't hear you cry that right now, but generally whenever I identify a beastie, people around me immediately tend to say the same thing: "How do you KNOW that"?)

I'm tempted, at times like that to answer along these lines:

"How do I KNOW you're a human? Because, well... you obviously are a human. Clearly".

"How do I KNOW that big flying thing up there in the clouds is a jumbo jet?  Simply because it LOOKS like a jumbo jet. Nothing else looks like that".

After 40 odd years of arseing about in the countryside, learning to identify many things, those sort of answers are tempting, sure, but not very helpful to anyone.

So.

To expand a bit.

Caterpillars can often be identified by what plant they're on.  Actually, this reminds me of a wider point which I'm constantly pointing out to my eldest son. Don't identify things by their appearance firstly.  Before looking at what they look like look firstly at:

a) Where they are. What habitat. What plant.

b) What they are doing (are they eating, mating, calling, flying, hiding, displaying)?

c) When you see them (what time of year) and indeed under what conditions. Is it windy? Dry? June? December? Wet? 

OK... to return to our caterpillar - it was on ragwort. Which would often point to a cinnabar moth caterpillar of course. But this clearly is no yellow and black stripy cinnabar moth caterpillar. So it is a species of moth which is a bit generalist and CAN take the poison of ragwort.

It was sunny this morning and early July. Peak time for many moth caterpillars to be honest, so that doesn't help much.

Now.

Appearance.

It's hairy. Very hairy. Furry to be honest. But not in a giveaway fashion (like a pale tussock or a vapourer or even a drinker). So we're possibly looking at something like a tiger moth (of some description), a fox moth or an ermine moth (of some description).

Ah.

And it has a pretty-obvious orange dorsal line, running down the length of its body.

Yes.

This then would make it a "White ermine" moth, as no other ermine moth has this distinctive orange (or red or dark cream) dorsal line.

That's how I know what it is, in this case.

A very nice find.

 

But.

What of the title of this blog post? What am I banging on about now?

The regular reader(s?) of this wildlife blog may know I like my scientific names and should probably briefly go into the scientific name of this moth.

The white ermine moth's scientific name is : Spilosoma lubricipeda.  

Lubricipeda from lubricipes. Swift-footed. (Speedy). The caterpillar doesn't half get a wriggle on, unlike many more ponderous larvae.

Spilosoma from  the Greek spilos (a spot) and soma (the body). Many ADULT ermine (and tiger moths) have obvious spots or blotches along their hidden abdomens.

There you have it then, the "speedy spotty-body". ("speedy" referring to the caterpillar and "spotty-body" referring to the adult).

The (beautiful) white ermine moth.

 

Have a lovely weekend,

TBR

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Spilosoma lubricipeda White ermine moth https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/7/the-speedy-spotty-body Thu, 01 Jul 2021 12:03:52 GMT
Horrible (natural) histories (and introducing the "kairomone"). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/6/horrible-natural-histories Hmm.

Not sure I am settled on the title of this blog post as I often baulk at calling some less aesthetically (or otherwise) -pleasing nature "horrible" or "evil" or "nasty" as many do.  

Hey ho. Let's proceed anyway.

OK then. As Max Bygraves might have once said: 

"I wanna tell you a storrrrry".

About a horrible fascinating biological relationship, or perhaps, a set of biological relationships to be exact.

Grab a glass of your favourite poison and I'll begin.

Ready?

Right.

You'll recognise the below (I'm sure) as a few Large (or "Cabbage") White butterfly (Pieris brassicae) caterpillars - on what is nothing more than a Hedge Garlic plant (Alliaria petiolata). Normally, it's the Orange Tip butterfly that lay its eggs on this plant (one egg per plant) but in this case, the Large Cabbage White beat the Orange Tip to it, clearly. But other than that, nothing out-of-the-ordinary here. Well... nothing too strange, other than the caterpillars don't seem to be eating the leaves of the hedge garlic - and are a little... err.... exposed at the top tips of the plant, you might say (and if you would say that - you'd be dead right A).

Fast forward a few days - and the below has happened.

The caterpillars have all died (or are dying) and up to eighty tiny yellow (wasp) larvae have crawled out of their bodies and formed cocoons underneath the dying caterpillar. The ants, by the way, are almost certainly there to feed off the dying caterpillars.

So what IS the story here?

 

Let's start from the beginning. And in order:

 

  • The Large Cabbage White butterfly laid a load of eggs on the underside of the leaves of the plant. In this case hedge garlic, but more-often-than-not cabbages or nasturtiums etc.

 

  • The adult butterfly buggered off (no parental-care in butterflies) and a few days later her eggs hatched.

 

  • As SOON as they hatched, the tiny caterpillars began eating the leaves of the plant that their eggs were glued to.

 

  • As SOON as this happened, the plant sent out a distress signal in the form of a powerful (to insects anyway) pheromone or more accurately, a "kairomone". B.   Now. The plant will detect which insect species is attacking it by chemically-analysing the insects' saliva. If it detects (for example) Cabbage White butterfly saliva, the kairomone is sent out immediately. But if it detects (for example) Cabbage moth (Mamestra brassicae) it tends NOT to send out the kairomone.

 

  • Now, in our case, the hedge garlic detected a Large Cabbage White (Pieris brassicae) attack, so yeah - it sent out the distress flare in the form of a kairomone - and this distress flare attracted not one but two parasitic wasps.

 

  • The first parasitic wasp it attracted was a tiny endoparasitic wasp called the glomerata wasp or Cotesia glomerata. The second wasp it attracted was very probably an even tinier ichneumon wasp going by the catchy name Lysibia nana - a hyper-parasite C

 

  • OK.  We're getting there now. The first wasp that this plant sent out its distress flare to, the glomerata wasp, flew in and laid between 16 and 52 tiny eggs INSIDE the body of the developing caterpillars, using its needle (or hair)-like ovipositor (literally - "egg placer"). These eggs are all covered with a virus which disables the caterpillar's rudimentary immune system.

 

  • These tiny endoparasitic glomerata wasp larvae would have grown from microscopic-sized things to wasp larvae about the size of a small grain of rice INSIDE the body of the unfortunate caterpillar - by eating the caterpillar from the inside but... and this is important... keeping the caterpillar alive by avoiding eating its vital organs. All the time, the unfortunate caterpillar would be rushing around eating as much leaf matter (perhaps over one and a half times the quantity of leaves it might normally eat D) as it could to sustain both it and the developing parasites within it.

 

  • Right then. IF the hedge garlic's kairomone distress signal DOES attract C , the hyper-parasitic wasp, Lysibia nana, as well as the slightly larger but basic endoparasitic glomerata wasp, this is where the whole story goes bananas. Lysibia bananas in fact. These wonderful wee wasps will fly in and they will chemically-analyse the caterpillar's saliva in the same way the hedge garlic plant could. The nana wasps can detect if the caterpillars are "infected" with glomerata wasps because the glomerata wasps alter the smell of the caterpillar's saliva.  To reiterate then, the nana wasps, like the glomerata wasps, have been attracted in by the plant's kairomone distress signal, but unlike the glomerata wasps, the nana wasps ALSO then taste the caterpillar's saliva and only continue their attack IF they detect the presence of the glomerata wasps in the caterpillar's saliva.

 

  • If the nana wasp arrives on the scene and detects glomerata wasp larvae inside the caterpillar, it lays its own eggs INSIDE the developing glomerata larvae, INSIDE the poor old caterpillar, using its supersensitive, even more hair-like, ovipositor - and THESE are the parasites that will eventually win this particular battle of chemical warfare - the hyper-parasitic nana wasps that is, rather than the endoparasitic glomerata wasps.

 

  • At a point where the wasp larvae (probably just the glomerata wasps in our case) need to leave the caterpillar's body to pupate into adult wasps, approximately two weeks after being "injected" into the caterpillar's body,  the wasp larvae, now the size of a small grain of rice chemically alter the caterpillar's behaviour and force it to climb as high (A) as it can up the plant that it has been eating. The caterpillar, now little more than a hollowed-out zombie, obeys, stops eating and climbs. 

 

  • When the caterpillar reaches the top of its plant - up to 52 wasp larvae chew their way out of the caterpillar's side. Like something out of the "Alien" film. These wasp larvae start to spin silken yellow cocoons around themselves, right under the (very much alive still) unfortunate caterpillar, which completely "zombified" now, spins a further layer of protective cocoon, using its own silk, around the wasp cocoons. With regards to this - the wasp larvae have chemically-forced the butterfly larva (caterpillar) to exhibit parental-care effectively. Behaviour that is indeed completely alien to a Large Cabbage White butterfly, whether it is an imago (adult) or indeed a larva (caterpillar).

 

  • The caterpillar hasn't fed for a while and other than a few vital organs hanging from the inside of its body, is pretty-well a shell of a caterpillar now, after it has helped form a protective cocoon around the pupating wasps.  That and the fact that its side has been ripped open by up to 52 emerging parasites, might be the end of the unfortunate caterpillar. And to be fair, often that will be that - the caterpillar will simply die. That said, in many cases, the caterpillar doesn't die immediately. Not for a good while. Not, indeed until a week to ten days have passed and the wasps have all "eclosed" (that is pupated and become adult wasps). During that week, the zombified caterpillar sits still to guard over the developing glomerata wasp pupae and attacks anything that comes near them by violently thrashing about and throwing attackers off the cocoon mass.

 

  • But why and how would it do this? Why on earth would a caterpillar that has been opened up by up to 52 parasites and have them burst out of its body STILL sit there all meek and compliant, help its grisly murderers to form a protective cocoon and then aggressively fight attackers of these wasp larvae, the larvae after all that have basically all-but-killed the caterpillar? Surely after the endoparasitic glomerata wasp larvae have burst out of the caterpillar, it can't  still be chemically "zombified" by them any more?  No... probably not. But recent research suggests that a couple of wasp larvae STAY BEHIND, INSIDE the wasp - to continue to chemically-alter its behaviour, so it does help form a protective layer around the developing wasp pupae and does fight off potential attackers. So you have the situation here where one or two wasp larvae stay behind and take one for the team, so to speak. They will never pupate. These (one or) two wasp larvae continue to exist inside the dying caterpillar simply to ensure the rest of the brood which have left the caterpillar, have the best chance to make it to adulthood. These two wasp larvae will soon die with their caterpillar host.

 

  • Now, eventually, after about a week or so, if the caterpillar has managed to survive that long (ours haven't by the way) and has managed to protect the developing young from any would-be attackers, the glomerata (or  C nana) wasps "eclose" (emerge from their pupae), males first (as tends to be the way) then the females, which are pretty-well immediately set-upon by the waiting males - and therefore the life cycle continues.

 

  • Of course it might not be the endoparasitic glomerata wasps that emerge from the pupae to complete their life cycle. It could instead be the hyperparasitic nana wasps. That said, it could even be a smaller, meta-parasitic wasp which parasitized the hyper-parasitic nana wasps. No. Nothing in nature is safe and nothing is a given.

 

  • Finally I should perhaps point out this story above is far from rare. It is a story played out all over the land. Indeed, something like around 70% of ALL Large Cabbage White butterfly caterpillars meet their ends before getting the chance to pupate into adult butterflies themselves because of the actions of their parasitic glomerata (and also perhaps nana) wasps. A fact to errr.... chew on, perhaps?

 

 

Notes to the above.

A. The caterpillars are  chemically-brainwashed by the glomerata wasp larvae developing inside them to climb as high as they can when it's time for the wasp grubs to emerge from the caterpillar's body.

B. "Kairomone". A (chemical) call-to-arms, (if you like).  As opposed to a "Cairo Moan". An (audible) call-to-prayers. (From an Egyptian mosque's minaret?).

C. Lysibia nana. The hyperparasitic wasp.

D. Hmmm. Why would the hedge garlic plant send out a kairomone to attract a parasitic wasp to attack the caterpillars - only for the caterpillars then to have to eat 150% more (than they would normally) of the plant's leaves to sustain the caterpillar AND the developing wasp larvae inside it?  Doesn't make sense does it? If you ask me, the plant should send out a far better kairomone, which attracts a gurt big insect which simply immediately eats the tiny wee caterpillars, rather than fudge around laying eggs in them but keeping them absolutely ravenous.   But hey. I don't make the rules...

 

Finally then.

All that writing (above) a struggle?

Can't say I blame you.

Watch the below then .... then read my words above.

Have a great weekend.

TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Alliaria petiolata Cotesia glomerata glomerata wasp hedge garlic Large Cabbage White Lysibia nana Pieris brassicae https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/6/horrible-natural-histories Thu, 17 Jun 2021 19:27:58 GMT
Hornet moth natural histories https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/6/hornet-moth-natural-histories I was going to blog about "horrible (natural) histories" today with a post about a fascinating endoparasitic wasp - and I will - soon - but as "our" garden hornet moths seemed to choose today to emerge en masse and begin mating - I really had no option but to take a few photos and drop them here as a blog post.

We're incredibly lucky (I think) to have these beautiful moths in our poplar trees - and as long as the poplars remain standing, I keep strimming the long grass from the base of the trunk (thus giving the moths access to their "home") and the moths keep coming, then I'll keep photographing them and gawping.

"Horrible (natural) histories" these hornet moths most certainly are not ( well... not unless you grow poplars as a crop for a living) but do please look out for my "horrible natural histories" blog post, coming soon...

Have a good week.

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hornet moth Sesia apiformis https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/6/hornet-moth-natural-histories Tue, 15 Jun 2021 08:19:04 GMT
A wonderful wildlife and weather weekend. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/6/a-wonderful-wildlife-and-weather-weekend No time for a lengthy, flowery write-up.

So, in a bulleted format.

What I (and we) saw this weekend.

  • I found a (n unexpected) little egret on my Saturday morning walk around the 'hood. At a newly-developed SANG lake. 
  • Ben and I were treated to TWO hares running full tilt towards and then right past us on the outside mat of the golf driving range yesterday.
  • Also yesterday we can report that the first of the 2 or 3yo swifts landed IN our swift tunnel at the house. 
  • Ben found a June bug in the garden yesterday afternoon.
  • I saw my first (garden) adult cinnabar moth yesterday and also my first (garden) cabbage white caterpillars.
  • My wife and I watched stag beetles and hedgehogs emerge at dusk last night - alongside a stupendous aerobatic show from "our" swifts.
  • Ben and I went for a superb bike ride through Swinley Forest today and watched little grebes (below), banded demoiselles, beautiful demoiselles, black-tailed skimmers, southern hawkers and broad-bodied chasers.
  • and photographed a woodlark below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • We also heard a Dartford warbler and a peregrine (but saw neither) - we MUST return to hunt down that Dartford warbler!
  • Finally, I think... the first of this year's hornet moths appeared in the garden today. The photos below are of a female sending out her pheromones at dusk - very rare - we normally see these emerge in the garden in the morning.
  • All in all... what a wonderful wildlife and weather weekend.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) banded demoiselle beautiful demoiselle black-tailed skimmer broad-bodied chaser cabbage white caterpillar cinnabar moth dartford warbler hare hornet moth june bug little egret peregrine southern hawker stag beetle swift woodlark. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/6/a-wonderful-wildlife-and-weather-weekend Sun, 13 Jun 2021 18:31:55 GMT
Today's partial solar eclipse. PHOTO. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/6/todays-partial-solar-eclipse-photo For the interested:

Camera: Canon 6D. (not Mkii).

Lens: Canon 400mm F5.6 L

Manual settings:

ISO: Minimum. L(ow) (50).

Aperture: Minimum. F32.

Shutter speed: Minimum. (1/4000s).

Locked focused to a distant-flying aeroplane (pretty-well infinity).

Photo taken as sun disappeared behind clouds (important!) at approximately 11:10am BST (3 minutes before peak eclipse).

Developed in Lightroom Classic (2.6)

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 2021 eclipse https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/6/todays-partial-solar-eclipse-photo Thu, 10 Jun 2021 10:34:56 GMT
Another. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/6/another Ten months ago, I blogged here that I had recorded the first ever instance of a Toadflax brocade moth in our 10KM square (SU87) of vice county Berkshire. 

Today, after Ben and I rootled through our moff trap, as part of "30 days wild", I can announce that not only did we record the first instance last August, but we've today recorded the only other instance too. Ten months later.

These (very pretty) toadflax brocade moths CLEARLY think our garden is a shingle coast in Sussex. Or something.

 

OK then.

To end with, we caught another beautiful moth last night.

A pale tussock moth. 

Calliteara pudibunda.

Calliteara literally means "Spring beauty" and as the regular reader(s) of this blog may remember from my "hop dog" post, pudibunda means "bashful".

So... the pale tussock has a (new) scientific name which now literally means "bashful, Spring (May) beauty". 

Yes. I'd go along with that.

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Calliteara pudibunda Calophasia lunula pale tussock toadflax brocade https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/6/another Sun, 06 Jun 2021 12:27:40 GMT
A,B,C and D https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/5/a-b-c-and-d Wow. What a dreadful May so far (weather-wise, at least). Our blue tit nest has pretty-well failed entirely (more on that in due course) and my swifts are few and far between so far this year.

But.

In better news.

The regular reader(s) of this blog may know that this year, we have four (I think) hedgehogs visiting or living in and around our gardens this year.

Three males (A,C and D) and one female (B).

We have had a fair amount of protracted and very noisy "courtship" in the back garden this year. I'm talking about the hedgehogs of course. Stop it.

No pitter patter of tiny hedgehog feet yet, but we live in hope.

Now, this all said, last night I recorded four wee clips of our four (I think) hedgehogs at their feeding bowl. With four screenshot mugshots.

 

  • Male hedgehog A 

 

 

  • Female hedgehog B 

 

 

  • Male hedgehog C

 

 

  • Male hedgehog D

For a full(er) description of these four hedgehogs, please do (re)visit this blog post of a month ago and then please do enjoy this short video of all four hedgehogs feeding in our hedgehog feeding station last night.

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

TBR.

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hedgehog hedgehogs https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/5/a-b-c-and-d Sat, 22 May 2021 08:08:34 GMT
Crewe Station. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/5/crewe-station The regular reader(s?) of this blogging website may well know that, no, I'm not the urban or suburban foxes' biggest fan. 

The regular reader(s?) of this blogging website should also certainly know that I have been trying to increase the local population of hedgehogs over the last ten years here - by digging tunnels (lots of them) and providing bespoke food bowls for them and also going to some length to stop other things (cats, rats, foxes etc) getting to the hedgehog food.

I thiiiiink we're up to at least four hedgehogs this season - and they appear to be mating in our back garden. Well... a' courtin' anyway.

Last night however, our hedgehog peace was rudely interrupted, for the first time, by the local fox cubs which seem to have started exploring our garden now.

The video below is 16 minutes long. Short it is not. But it should give you a little idea of what went on in the early hours of this morning in and around our side passage and hedgehog feeding area.

Incidentally - when my wife left the house via the back door to see what on earth the magpies were shouting about - she stepped INTO the side passage WHILST one of the two fox cubs was actually still curled up IN the side passage. The shot at the end of the video was a screenshot from the video clip that my trail camera recorded of the wee cub walking past Anna back into our back garden.

157 clips, my trail camera recorded last night.

And my hedgehog feeding camera recorded a few dozen clips also.

At least 4 hedgehogs AND at least 2 fox clubs and one adult vixen last night. Oh and a pair of VERY shouty magpies.

It was like Crewe Station out there this morning.

Enjoy your Sunday.

TBR

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fox hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/5/crewe-station Sun, 16 May 2021 08:54:06 GMT
Three little birds. Revealed. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/5/three-little-birds-revealed You needed Steve Austen eyes to see these wee things in yesterday's post.

But if you did spot them... TOP MARKS.

Little ringed plovers.

Lovely wee things and a joy to see again. 

Just quickly then, as I must go... a couple of facts regarding little ringed plovers or more specifically, their generic and specific name - as I do have a little interest in zoological nomenclature.

The scientific name for the LRP is Charadrius dubius.

"Charadrius" - A nocturnal, dull-yellowish bird, found in ravines and river valleys, originally thought perhaps to be a stone curlew - but what was for sure is that merely the sight of one would cure jaundice. Yep... you heard me.

"dubius" - so called as early zoologists weren't entirely convinced that the Little Ringed Plover was indeed a separate species from the ringed plover and were instead perhaps more likely to be juvenile ringed plovers in slightly different plumage.

I know. I know.

 

TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Charadrius dubius Little ringed plover https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/5/three-little-birds-revealed Thu, 13 May 2021 08:30:00 GMT
Three little birds. Thirty-five years. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/5/three-little-birds-thirty-five-years Thirty-five years ago, I was a gangly, spotty teenager - a gangly, spotty teenager that liked birds. (Uh huh... both kinds, pop-pickers).

I owned a white Peugeot racing bicycle and used to get around ANYWHERE on it - after completing my paper round on it earlier in the day.

My bike looked very much like this.

It's probably half the reason why my calves are so massive  - I've cycled thousands and thousands and thousands of miles in my life (I still do, by the way - but nowadays my cycling comes in the form of mountain biking and static biking).

Thirty-five years ago I lived in Hazlemere, near High Wycombe - and I used to occasionally bicycle the 7 miles down the A404(M) Marlow bypass MOTORWAY (I assume it was illegal - I assume it still is ... as I've never seen anyone else do it) from High Wycombe to Little Marlow to go and peer at the gravel pits there  - and look for such feathered fancies as water rail and oystercatchers (etc).

I've popped up a screenshot from google maps of my cycle route 35 years ago, from my home then, to this gravel pit. Note I've had to suggest to google when requesting a route, that I was driving, not bicycling, as if I'd have said I was bicycling, I'd have been given a legal (but longer) cycle route.

I think the last time I was there was around thirty five years ago.

And I saw a three little birds there I remember quite clearly. Three quite exciting little birds.

A few days ago my eldest boy (the one taking part in the "around the birds in eighty aves competition") suggested we go to a Little Marlow gravel pit as he wanted to try and see some wading birds to add to his list (up to over 90 now). Oh... and the fact that his hero, Steve Backshall, lives a stone's throw away from this particular gravel pit in South Buckinghamshire and there'd alwaaaaayyyys be the chaaaaaance of bumping into Steve around there, wouldn't there?

So off we popped.

Not on my racing bike this time, but in my car. A big, black estate I call "the hearse".

Steve Backshall wasn't there.

But the three little exciting birds that I last saw there thirty-five years ago, were.

(Of course they weren't the exact same individuals... but I'd not be at all surprised if they were direct descendants, at least one or two of them).

It genuinely was quite emotional - taking my eldest boy back to my  '80s "birdwatching haunt" and introducing him to the exact same species that I'd last seen there, thirty-five years ago and in fact I've only EVER seen there.

So.

What are these birds then?

Well...

I took a very long range shot with my new 400mm lens.

See if you can see them.

All three of them.

No... not the coot. Nor the heron.

Below.

I'll post later in the week perhaps with a "zoomed in and ringed (cough)" version of the photo above so you can see if your eyes are still up-to-the-job.

 

 

For now... I'll leave you with a few other snaps from our wee trip back to Little Marlow - a reed bunting, a common tern, a crow on the Marlow donkey railway line and a mother and young great crested grebe.

Do keep your eyes peeled later in the week for my 3 little birds reveal.

TBR.

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) common tern great crested grebe little marlow gravel pits mystery bird reed bunting south Bucks spade oak three little birds https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/5/three-little-birds-thirty-five-years Wed, 12 May 2021 08:30:00 GMT
A teaser for you - the answer. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/5/a-teaser-for-you---the-answer Eight days ago now I posted THIS teaser and wondered if you could guess what two species I think I am the first to ever photograph.

Did you guess correctly?

The three photographs I took from the house, to the top end of the garden (forgive the background of lurid pink garden trug and tripod legs) are below and show...

 

 

A male great spotted woodpecker taking a HORNET MOTH LARVA (caterpillar) from an exposed poplar root in our back garden.

Try to find a similar image on Google (of a woodpecker taking a hornet moth caterpillar). I think you'll struggle.

 

OK.

A little more meat on these bones, then.


Q: How do I know it's a male great spotted woodpecker? 

A: Because of the scarlet patch on its nape. (A female lacks this and has an all black nape).

 

More importantly, perhaps...

Q: How do I know this is a hornet moth larva?

A: Because our poplar trees in the back garden are RIDDLED with these beautiful (if pesky, if you are a tree person) insects. You may remember me blogging at some length about the emergence of these moths in our garden last summer. We have a steady stream of woodpeckers on many days, doing what this woodpecker did above - flying down to our poplars (our biggest poplar is the most popular) and tapping away at exposed roots or near entry holes at the base of the trunk. When the sound that "comes back" to them is NOT a "hollow sound"... that means the grub (or in this case, the hornet moth caterpillar) is feeding in a tunnel just below the bark or root's surface. A few insistent digs and chisels from the woodpecker and the caterpillar is exposed and plucked from the root or trunk. 

Amazing to watch - and I was lucky enough to have a camera to hand this time.

 

You know.

Most people go their entire lives without seeing ADULT hornet moths.

And only a tiny, tiny few (mainly tree surgeons etc) will ever see a hornet moth caterpillar - as it spend that entire part of its lifecycle hidden below the bark of a tree or inside the roots of a tree, rather like a goat moth caterpillar... which we've also seen (you may remember?)

Well... we're not tree surgeons here... but also... we're not most people, either.

We use our eyes.

We really use our eyes.

So we see everything.

And boy... do we know how lucky we are.

I hope you enjoy what remains of your weekend...

TBR

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) great spotted woodpecker hornet moth caterpillar https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/5/a-teaser-for-you---the-answer Sun, 09 May 2021 14:40:32 GMT
They're back! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/5/theyre-back Oh come on.

You know what "they're" signifies.

The best.

Back high over the house tonight at 18:45. Just two of them.  The first two back here.

Welcome back.

Time to play the song again.

Their song.

The lucky ones... that is.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/5/theyre-back Sun, 02 May 2021 18:03:47 GMT
A teaser for you. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/5/a-teaser-for-you Right.

First things first.

In a few days (perhaps less than a week) I will post a photo (three in fact) that I took this morning, in the garden, of two wild British animals that I don't think anyone has photographed (together) before.

In the world.

Ever. 

OK. I may be wrong on that assertion, but an extensive google search suggests that I may actually be correct.

Am I the first person to photograph this species interaction?

Perhaps.

Here's a teaser for you - guess away if you like - and all will be revealed in the next week.

 

Now.

Talking of teasers.

I got some lovely footage last night of two a male and a female hedgehog "a-courting" in the garden. Well... the male was "a-courting" and I'd call the female a right tease, to be honest.

These protracted dances can last all night and quite often they fail to end in successful copulation - the male simply gets bored of the female giving him the run-around (actually the male ends up running around the grunting, snorting, I'm-not-having-it female, but you know what I mean) and wanders off.

I watched two of our hedgehogs dance around each other in the pitch black last night - but I could only do so because I was using my wonderful HIK MICRO OWL PRO OQ35 thermal camera (again... I will review this thing in full when I've given it the full black rabbit treatment).

That's how I watched (and filmed) the hedgehogs "a-courting" last night in the pitch black - but I certainly didn't need any electronic gadgets to assist my hearing of their shenanigans.  The female is incredibly noisy in these meetings - grunting and snorting her (one would think?) disapproval for hours as the male poddles around her and she point-blank refuses to let him come at her from behind, matron.

As I think I've described before, the footage from the HIK MICRO OWL PRO OQ35 thermal camera has no microphone, so no sound will be recorded on its footage, but the footage itself below is of superb quality (dare I say so myself) and shows just what this piece of kit can do. I've added "anti-shake" to the video clip, which makes it look a wee bit wobbly, so please take some seasickness pills if you like, with your cup of tea, as you settle back to watch the dance of the hedgehogs - all in thermal vision. No... no light was used to record this footage - it's all recorded by looking at HEAT. (Yes.. the camera is superb!).

 

Just to round off this prickly story, my motion-activated camera by the hedgehog food bowl, picked up quite a lot of activity too, later last night (or should I say early this morning). 

It's exceedingly rare to see two adult hedgehogs use the same food source at the same time around here, so I assume these two hedgehogs (below in the clip) doing just that - are the same two that were dancing around their metaphorical handbags five or so hours earlier. I actually hope the clip below shows a post-coital cigarette being smoked meal being eaten, but the continued snorts and disgruntled grunts from the female in the clip below, may suggest otherwise.

 

Oh. In case the regular reader(s) of this blog would like to know WHICH of the hedgehogs (A,B,C or D) were filmed in the clips above... well... obviously B (as that's our only female) and I would have to guess... male C. I may be wrong. Please re-read this post and guess for yourself.

 

Finally then, talking of guesses.

Do return to the teaser photo at the top of this post - and have a think about what on earth I've photographed in the garden today that I don't think anyone else ever has (together) - or if they have... they've not publicised their photos.

What COULD I have snapped then?

In the GARDEN?

 

 

The answer will be with you before long. See if you were correct then. Good luck.

TBR.

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) courting hedgehog HIK MICRO OWL PRO OQ35 teaser https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/5/a-teaser-for-you Sat, 01 May 2021 19:13:48 GMT
A few recent observations https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/4/a-few-recent-observations Afternoon all.

Just a few recent observations from me - as we're heading, helter-skelter into my favourite time of year, so I thought I'd hastily get a few scribbles down here, before I busy myself outside more and more.

  • We're a week (approximately) away from the best birds of all returning en masse. Oh sure, small numbers have been seen up and down the country in the last few days (and I remember that TODAY in fact... well... on THIS DAY in 2012, I saw my first swift back for the year over the house), but they've faced a chilly UK and battled a northerly or north-easterly wind to get here, the early ones... and on Monday of next week - THAT wind changes to a much more favourable southerly or south westerly.  My swift set-up is ready... and as I'm sure you can imagine, I'm CHAMPING AT THE BIT right now. Boy have I missed "my" swifts.
  • Talking of weather - we've barely had any rain at all so far this month. Of course I'm typing this as it rains outside - but I think that today's rain is the first for about a month. I'm pretty sure that the only precipitation we've had (until today) this April was about 6mm of snow a few weeks ago. Whether (weather!) or not this (cold, frosty and dry month) has delayed the 2021 bluebell season, or whether or not this has ruined the 2021 bluebell season is something I'm not learned enough to comment on - but what I CAN say is that at present the bluebell season looks at least delayed or worse, a non-event this year. The photo below was taken by at dawn me a few days ago that normally, at this time of year is stained PURPLE with millions of bluebells.
  • We have had a pair of stock doves visit our garden regularly over the last three weeks. I've never seen stock doves in the garden before and even though I can hardly be described as a fan of pigeons and doves, these two are very good-looking birds and I'm almost pleased to see them.
  • We've also had a lovely wee "sun jumper" (as I call them) come into our house this week. It would be fair to say that this sun-loving jumping spider won't find much sunlight on our landing, but when the temperature increases outside again I'll pop it back outside if it's still around. This tiny spider is a Heliophanus species. And a male. Probably H.cupreus (the "copper sun jumper") too as H.auratus (The "golden sun jumper") doesn't live around here.  The last time I found a sun jumper here, you might remember, was about this time last year, albeit it in a heatwave on our south-facing porch - a much better place for these sun-loving beasties. That was the "yellow-footed sun jumper", H.flavipes. Anyway - a couple of photos of our male golden or copper sun jumper are below. I've included a photo of my hand and the spider, just so you get an idea of how small these spiders are (an idea you don't get from the first photo).
  • Finally - I'm still testing my super-duper thermal camera and last night recorded a short clip of one of our (OBVIOUSLY (look at the clip!)) male hedgehogs  ( I think this one is male hedgehog C) wandering around the garden just after dark. I'm still getting to grips with it (the footage is a bit shaky and I'm struggling to quickly focus) but I'm SERIOUSLY impressed with this kit - and will write a full review as-and-when. As for this particular hedgehog and indeed our hedgehogs in general. I still think we have four visiting the garden(s) each night and now I also think that THIS male (hedgehog C) (video below) sleeps (for now) in our compost heap. Which is fine by me... even if I did originally hope for grass snakes there! 
  • More soon. TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) April bluebells coppery sun-jumping spider hedgehog Heliophanus cupreus stock dove sun-jumping spider swift weather https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/4/a-few-recent-observations Wed, 28 Apr 2021 14:52:06 GMT
First blue tit egg laid this morning. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/4/first-blue-tit-egg-laid-this-morning The regular reader(s?!) of this blog may know that alongside my swift camera(s) I also have a blue tit/house sparrow box with a tiny HD camera fixed to the internal roof, looking down into the box - to document our regular nesting sparrows (last year) or blue tits (the year before last and now this year too).

For the last five winters we've had a great tit roost in this nest box. We assume the same individual. I blogged here about this bird's return to its winter roost on November 25th last year. It was swiftly ousted by a pair of house sparrows, which I blogged about here, a week later, on December 1st.

We didn't see (nor therefore record) much footage from the house sparrows' nest in this camera box last year, as house sparrows, unlike blue tits, completely FILL nest spaces with nesting material, thus often obliterating any view a tiny camera might get. 

That said, you might like to know that five of seven house sparrows nestlings successfully fledged last year - in two broods.

In the middle of the winter this year (so... January and February really) two sparrows again set up shop in this nest box, fighting off two prospecting blue tits as they did - and started to build a nest - but they had clearly abandoned it by mid March- and at the start of April (VERY late for blue tits 'round 'ere) the blue tits moved in themselves and built a nest in double quick time.

Even though we're not that fussy as to which species of bird nests in our tit/sparrow box, to have blue tits  (like this year and the year before last) nest in it certainly does present us with a good season of viewing - we can see eggs being laid and young being raised - unlike the sparrows nest where all we get is sound and a picture of a mass of nesting material.

OK then.

This morning - at 06:05am... our female blue tit laid her first egg.

In the clip below you'll see the clock says she did so at 05:21 (or so) but that is because the clock is set incorrectly  (about 44 minutes early) on my hard drive recorder, and believe it or not... there's NO way to change the clock on this Chinese DVR! (I know... I still can't believe it either).

The very short clip below is a wee test video from me today. Set to 10x normal speed. As a test to see whether a much longer clip of the select moments from the entire season, set again at 10x speed... might be something I like to try to record and edit this spring. We'll see.

Anyway... for now... may I present to you our female blue tit laying her first egg of the year this morning.

More soon I'm sure.

TBR.

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) blue tit https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/4/first-blue-tit-egg-laid-this-morning Wed, 21 Apr 2021 16:20:42 GMT
On manoeuvres. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/4/on-manoeuvres "Manoeuvres".

Good word, innit?

Good to use in a game of hangman too. Like "rhythm". Or "jazz".

Anyway... Where was I?

Oh yes... 

Manoeuvres.

The regular reader(s?!) of this blog will I'm sure, know, that I have taken great pleasure in and gone to great efforts to do my bit for the local hedgehog population since we've been at our current house - and I've documented much of the comings and goings of these "Shakespeare's urchins" in and around our gardens for almost a decade now.

At present we seem to have at least three (definitely) and (almost certainly) FOUR hedgehogs in our gardens and using our (deliberately dug or drilled) hedgehog tunnels.

I have been following these four hedgehogs all season using my Browning Trail Camera (please... if you are to buy a trail camera, buy a Browning and not the TAT that are Bushnell trail cameras (and they are you know)) and now... with my super-duper thermal telescope.

Just a few short weeks ago I thought we had two hedgehogs in the garden - two males - and very recently we've had a female visit for the last week or so and now I think we have THREE males and a female visiting most nights.

I've spliced together (more than) a few short infra red clips shot by my trail camera in the YouTube clip below. For brevity's sake I'll annotate the clip below. Just for the record, I will not give these wild animals (nor any wild animals for that matter) "Disneyfied names" as such. But you know that already if you've been visiting this website for any length of time. For now, so you can tell them apart - I'll just call them A,B,C and D.

 

  • We have four (I think) hedgehogs that use our gardens and tunnels each night. Three males (A, C and D) and one female (B).

 

  • I'm pretty sure that at least one or two of these hedgehogs used the garden last year. In fact I think male hedgehog A lived in the back garden last year (well... under the next door neighbour's shed bordering our fence).

 

  • I can tell (and you can in some of the spliced clips below) which hedgehogs are male and which are female because I place my trail camera on the ground - and the male's penis is often very visible (obviously not so with the female).

 

  • Male hedgehog A has a prominent penis, is very quick on his feet, and constantly sounds like a wee steam train. (02:18- 02:29) Like I say... I'm pretty sure he was around in the garden last year - but he doesn't seem to live in our back garden our even our neighbour's back garden this year as he enters under our side passage from the front garden each night.

 

  • Female hedgehog B is a newcomer. In the last two weeks. No penis (obviously) and quite hesitant, slow and unsure. Smells everything on her manoeuvres around the gardens and tunnels. She has spent the odd day somewhere in our or our neighbour's back garden, but like male hedgehog A, she tends to come into the back garden each night FROM the front garden, under our side passage door. She, as far as I can make out, still has not even discovered the hedgehog feeding station in our back garden, which her male counterparts most certainly have. No... for now... she *seems* to have followed a scent trail left by male hedgehogs (you'd think it would be the other way 'round wouldn't you?) into our gardens. This female hedgehog almost "whistles" as she moves. A bit like a badger cub. Quite sweet... if you appreciate that sort of thing?! (Listen to 02:38- 02:40 in the clip below)

 

  • Male hedgehog C is large and sexually active with a prominent penis. Male hedgehog C wipes his chin (you'll see in the clip below) along the flagstones. Read more about hedgehog chin and genital wiping here. I have a feeling that if hedgehog C really is a separate hedgehog and not for example male hedgehog A all puffed up and slowed down... nor actually a quieter male hedgehog D (which I thought it was for some time), then this male does live in and around our back gardens. I may be wrong here.

 

 

  • The extended clip below shows all four (I think) hedgehogs on manoeuvres around our "hood". In our side passage and using the tunnel that I chiselled out of the concrete floor under our side passage door. 

 

  • Yes that's one of my muck boots in the side passage. And yes,  it's not that these hedgehogs are that small - the muck boot is that large. I have big feet. Size 14, if you have to know.

 

  • The noise that suddenly starts at around 02:11 and scares the bejayzus out of the female hedgehog B in the clip is the tumble dryer that my wife has set to delay. No. I don't know, so don't ask!

 

 

In the clip (recorded on my lovely new thermal camera) below, you'll see two hedgehogs in an "encounter" in our back garden at around 10pm a couple of nights ago. I think this is male hedgehog C and female hedgehog B, though that would be complete speculation. It could (for all I know) be a large male and small male checking each other out. There is no sound on this clip (there is never any sound on these thermal video clips). Let's hope it is a male and a female, the female eventually succumbs to the male's charms and we have a few small hedgehogs bumbling around before too long.

 

OK.

That had better be that for now, as far as blogging about "our" garden hedgehogs is concerned.

I'll finish with a disclaimer.

I KNOW we have three hedgehogs in the garden (2 males and 1 female) but looking at all the clips I've shot over the last month or so, I'm cautiously confident that at present we do, indeed, have four. 3 males and 1 female. That said - I could be wrong. They do look (and act) quite similar to each other.

More as and when...

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/4/on-manoeuvres Tue, 20 Apr 2021 18:38:05 GMT
io. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/4/io

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Aglais io butterfly eye peacock https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/4/io Thu, 15 Apr 2021 14:50:40 GMT
This owl watches nightjars... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/4/this-owl-watches-nightjars My wonderful wife has only gone and bought me a dream milestone birthday present, hasn't she? Something that she KNOWS I've been after for some time - but never could justify the outlay to be honest.

She's bought me a HIK MICRO OWL OQ35 Thermal camera. The PRO version (OQ35 not OH35).

I'm so excited about the things I can do with this, I can hardly begin to tell you.

I've been looking longingly at thermal cameras for a while now  -  and whilst I know Pulsar Helions are widely considered to be the best - they are also the priciest these days - but as I often maintain - you're buying the badge with "known" brands like Pulsar - something I try to avoid doing if you can do just as well elsewhere, but at a considerably lower price point (must be the Scottish blood in me).

My new HIK MICRO OWL OQ35 does what Pulsar Helions do - but for a lot less money.  Job done as far as I'm concerned.

The pro (OQ rather than OH) in this model means the sensor is larger (and so therefore is the pixel pitch) than in standard models  (640×512 pixel sensor with 17um) and rather like DSLR cameras - I'm ALL about a larger sensor and larger pixel pitch - I  REALLY appreciate the difference with this - and always have done.

I need the sensor to be sensitive enough to make (well insulated with feathers) BIRDS visible at night as well as (the larger and more obviously-warm) foxes, badgers and deer for example. 

What I'd ideally like to do with my new toy, is take it down to the local heath in late Spring and early summer and try and watch nightjars with it - I also hope to show my eldest boy some nightjars this year.

That's pretty-well the primary reason why I had been looking at these thermal cameras for some time (this model in particular) - to watch nightjars with it - as it can literally see in the dark.

I do love nightjars you know. Only swifts beat them in my "bird charts" (if I ever made a list that is).

And I do wish this thermal camera instead of being an "OWL", was actually called a HIK MICRO NIGHTJAR OQ35!

Ok, that's all for now as I've been on the computer far too long already today.

I'll leave you with a few short videos I shot this morning with my new "OWL" before dawn. EDIT and one I have just shot this evening (well after dark) of a hedgehog in the garden (clip 7 below).

All videos shot in the dark (or near dark).

All tests (sorry about the shaky footage).

I'm sure there'll be more night videos soon.

VERY SURE.

And perhaps of a review of this TASTY bit of kit?

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) birthday HIKMICRO OWL OQ35 night vision tech thermal camera https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/4/this-owl-watches-nightjars Thu, 15 Apr 2021 12:44:47 GMT
"Around the birds in eighty aves". Done. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/4/-around-the-birds-in-eighty-aves-done The regular reader(s?) of this blog may know that I set my eldest boy a challenge on 1st January - a challenge to try and 'tick off' eighty bird species in 2021.

By March 21st, he had reached a total of 75 and ... on Tuesday of this week (that's the 13th April) , he managed to chalk up his eightieth bird species with the sight of a swallow (the first of the year for either of us) through the car windscreen on the drive home back from the first round of golf of the year (for both of us).

Eighty birds done.

We may have to extend the target to ninety?!

1

Magpie

2

Woodpigeon

3

Carrion Crow

4

Jackdaw

5

Blackbird

6

Song Thrush

7

Robin

8

Barn Owl

9

Starling

10

Kestrel

11

Red Kite

12

Fieldfare

13

Cormorant

14

Jay

15

Mallard

16

Herring Gull

17

Buzzard

18

Canada Goose

19

Tufted Duck

20

Redwing

21

Black-headed Gull

22

House Sparrow

23

Feral Pigeon

24

Blue Tit

25

Great Tit

26

Grey Heron

27

Moorhen

28

Egyptian Goose

29

Pied Wagtail

30

Goldfinch

31

Stonechat

32

Wren

33

Collared Dove

34

Ring-necked Parakeet

35

Grey Wagtail

36

Green Woodpecker

37

Sparrowhawk

38

Mute Swan

39

Wigeon

40

Coot

41

Long-tailed Tit

42

Dunnock

43

Chaffinch

44

Gadwall

45

Great-crested Grebe

46

Shoveler

47

Greylag Goose

48

Teal

49

Little Egret

50

Grey Partridge

51

Linnet

52

Meadow Pipit

53

Skylark

54

Yellowhammer

55

Pheasant

56

Rook

57

Nuthatch

58

Lesser black backed Gull

59

Pochard

60

Red-legged Partridge

61

Bullfinch

62

Great Spotted Woodpecker

63

Goldcrest

64

Tawny Owl

65

Kingfisher

66

Coal Tit

67

Peregrine

68

Common Gull

69

Lapwing

70

Stock Dove

71

Mandarin

72

Chiffchaff

73

Mistle Thrush

74

Siskin

75

Greenfinch

76

Willow Warbler

77

Blackcap

78

Shelduck

79

Cetti's Warbler

80

Swallow

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) around the world in eighty aves aves birds https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/4/-around-the-birds-in-eighty-aves-done Thu, 15 Apr 2021 12:15:16 GMT
Bird news. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/3/bird-news Just a few bits of bird news tonight, for my interested reader?

1 - On January 1st this year, I devised this year's wildlife game for our eldest boy. "Around the birds in eighty aves". (Try to see 80 bird spp. in a year - a relatively modest total perhaps, but remember our eldest is only eight years old and we can't be sure about lockdown  rules this year.  Anyway - on January 1st he managed to clock up 34 species (on the very first day of the year!) and since then, we've managed to "bag" another 41 species - meaning we (he) sit(s) on 75 species come the 4th week of March - needing only 5 species for a win. I may have to increase the target to 90 - just to keep it interesting?! The current list (as of 21st March 2021) can be seen below.

2 - Two very unexpected visitors turned up to the garden yesterday - a first in ten years for this garden (well... we've often kept hens here, so rarely do I feed wild birds, as I am a little hot on biosecurity when my hens are around). These two visitors, a male and a female siskin became Ben's 74th species of the year so far - and like I say, we weren't really anticipating seeing any siskins this year (we are not "twitchers" or even "birders" (shudder))  - so this was a real bonus. Ben and I were engaged in a mighty tussle of Wii golf in the conservatory at the time that these siskins alighted on our very temporary wild bird feeder - I did have my camera with me, so took a few VERY poor shots through blown and dirty conservatory windows. These photos can be seen below.

3 -  Ben and I took a 6 mile dawn walk around the 'hood on Saturday morning, to see if we could hear and then see the our first chiffchaff of the year. We managed to hear one in a local bluebell wood and then saw it - which was lovely. Good to see we were only two days later than the earliest seen and heard in this neck of the woods (Berkshire) this year.

4 - On our walk, we also spotted an obvious pair of buzzards, sitting together on the edge of a very quiet copse (full of roe deer as it happens) very close to our house. Oh it would be brilliant if these beautiful birds nested there this year. We are spoiled for red kites here (they're everywhere - we've become blasé about them) so we love seeing our preferred (to be honest) buzzards. A couple of (again poor) photos below. 

5 - Finally (I think), I've been preparing my singular (now) swift space in the attic. I've bought a new swift call sound system with mini tweeter speakers, some black sugar paper from my wife's school (to darken up the interior of the space - well... that's what swifts prefer after all) and Ben and I will shore it all up during the Easter holidays this year in a (perhaps vain) hope that the best birds of all will return to us this year, and this time ACTUALLY NEST. 

That all said, we have an intruder in our swift space at present. A very inquisitive starling - that has investigated the swift space TWICE last week, around the time I dropped Ben off at school. 

I rig my wildlife cameras up to a motion-activated hard drive recorder - and this starling recorded its own mini clips therefore (see below).

I should perhaps point out that in the YouTube clip below, you, the viewer are looking through the lens of a very wide angle mini camera screwed into an attic beam about two feet directly above my self-built swift space on a shelf in the attic. The camera looks directly DOWN into the swift space from above.

You are getting a "birds eye" view, so to speak. 

You're looking down the interior breeze blocks of the attic wall (bottom of the screen) onto the floor of a swift box I've built and screwed onto a shelf (which I also built) in the attic space.

The box is open at present (no ceiling) but the walls are a foot or so high - high enough to keep swifts in the box rather than falling out into the attic proper.

You'll also see in the clip below to the left of the box is a wooden swift "round", in which I hope any visiting swifts lay eggs and a few bricks on their sides, to make parts of the box VERY dark - which the swifts prefer. I'll need to, as I say, tidy all this up before the end of April. 

The starling (and swift last year) enter and leave the space through a foot-long tunnel I've diamond drilled through the breeze block and brick exterior attic wall and lined with a carpeted flue pipe.

Now... whilst I think starlings are lovely things - I can't have them upsetting the apple cart as far as nesting in my swift space is concerned - I've put too much time and effort and money into swifts - so I'll keep an eye on this starling and if it becomes too keen - I'll block the flue pipe for a month or so, to persuade it to look elsewhere to nest.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) buzzard chiffchaff siskin starling swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/3/bird-news Sun, 21 Mar 2021 19:50:29 GMT
Encounters. 2: "The bird with TWO dark sides?" https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/3/encounters-2-the-lady-judge-and-jailer Oh about six or seven years ago now, I decided that I'd perhaps start to pen a few wildlife blog posts on this website, detailing some of my animalian "encounters" over the past few decades.

I was inspired at the time by a couple of stoats I saw on a drive earlier that day, so decided to write about another time, the first time in fact, I saw stoats in the wild - and I had in mind, like I say, six or seven years ago now, that I'd write about a number of past "encounters" each year.

Wind the clock forward these six or seven years then - and I never did add to my first "encounters" post.

Until today that is.

You see, on today's pre-dawn walk around the 'hood' (as has been my way during the "Covid year") I listened to a wildlife podcast as I walked - and was reminded of a wonderful encounter I had over thirty years ago - and pretty-well exactly 2000 miles from my English childhood home. Grab a mug of tea and I'll tell you about it if you like. I'll wait.

 

OK?

Right.

It's mid August 1989. 

Jive Bunny was number one in the UK charts and the UK Prime Minister at the time was still (for another year only) Margaret Thatcher.

Richard Marx was number one in the US charts and its president was George Bush (Snr) in his first year as president 41.

"Sex Lies and Video tape", "Uncle Buck" and "Nightmare on Elm Street FIVE" were movies released that year.

F.W. de Clerk was just about to take over from P.W. Botha as the final state president of South Africa.

Mandela was still in prison at this time, by the way.

The Ayatullah Khomeini had just died in Iran  (after calling for a 'Fatwa' against Salman Rushdie and his "Satanic Verses" earlier that year, remember?) and there had just been the student protests in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.

The dreadful Hillsborough tragedy had happened in the Spring of 1989 and the last golden toad was recorded in Costa Rica in May. It's now extinct, sadly.

OK. It wasn't all bad in 1989, you know.

The Berlin wall was about to be pulled down in a month or three. It was still in place in August of 1989, mind - and if you want more... well... important world events... to really remind you of that time... "Baywatch" was still a month or so away from beginning its very first season on our televisions, as was "The Simpsons", as was... "Challenge Aneka". Ahem.

 

I have no idea what you were doing in mid August 1989 - but I can vividly remember what I was up to.

I was a gangly 18 year old, on a "coming-of-age" extended holiday with similar-aged youths on the Greek (and Turkish) island of Cyprus at the time. We were based in my cousin's large villa in a traditional Greek Cypriot village called Pissouri, just inland from the south coast. I was waiting for the phone call to discover my A level results* that summer on the island... and was waking up each morning with a thick head after another late night of Brandy Sours and general debauchery.

We, as a group of ten or so young adults (5 or so women and 5 or so blokes), had spent a night on Aphrodite's Rock off the south coast of the island, watching the total lunar eclipse over a bottle (or three of) 'Ouzo' and the encounter I wanted to write about here, happened the next day, 5 miles down the coast from Aphrodite's rock.

Several of the lads on this holiday, me included, and tomboyish Kiwi woman called Liz, decided to walk westwards along Pissouri beach then swim around the headland ... (the headland pictured in the middle of this photo below, taken from Pissouri beach itself)

to the see the white cliffs of Cape Aspro. (Aspro literally means "white" in Greek).

I don't quite remember WHY we decided to do that, as the swim around the rocky headland was far from easy - in fact at the time it felt pretty dicey.

I expect that I had suggested it, as I've never been the best "sitter around" on beaches on holiday. My wife Anna calls such activity "being days" and what I like to do on holidays as "doing days". Yeah - I've never been much good at "being days" on beach holidays.

Anyway... a few of us boys and Liz walked for about an hour  (the trail has been washed away now I hear)

then dived into the wine-dark (you've not read Homer have you?) sea and swam for five or ten minutes around the towering white cliffs to be pretty-well washed up onto a deserted shingle and sand beach hidden from the Kap Aspro trail high above on top of these limestone monsters.

I looked up and immediately found myself looking into the piercing dark eyes of several (perhaps five or six) medium-sized, rakish falcons - which had flown down to investigate me. I was, I suppose, trespassing in their 'hood.

I knew exactly what they were - having read up on them before we got our flight. (The furthest I'd been before then was The Black Isle so I was excited not only to see a lot of "birds" in bikinis on holiday in the Med, but also some exotic, feathered birds - and had researched them with my 16th birthday present  -see below (my handwritten notes in that 1987 book, alongside the bird were written by me in September 1989).

They were the rare and exotic and dashing ELEONORA'S FALCONS! And the cliff that we sat below just happened to be one of their few strongholds on the island of Cyprus.

Now, looking back, knowing what I do now, I expect that even though we didn't stay long on the beach below this colony of rare falcons (there was nothing else on the beach - and to be honest I think it was really only me that was interested in the falcons at all anyway!) we probably still temporarily disturbed them - and it was something that I'd probably not suggest YOU do now. (The entire area is now an "IBA" (an Important Bird Area) and is almost certainly protected as such).

But at the time. I was blown away.

These MAGNIFICENT birds - much more exotic than our hobbies or kestrels.

Were RIGHT ABOVE MY HEAD  -  on a sun-baked Mediterranean island.

Surrounded by tanned, bikini-clad women, cocktails and crates of Keo beer.

Heaven.

At least to me.

 

Now.

Forget the bikinis and beer for a few minutes. Yep. Hard I know. 

Let's concentrate briefly on the falcons.

If you don't know much about these wonderful birds, please allow me to tell you a little about them. I don't think you'll regret it. I hope not, anyway.

 

Admittedly - I'm often into strange or unique wildlife.

I do like my swifts for example. 

And my nightjars.

And toads, bats, glow worms.

This sort of stuff.

The weird stuff.

The different stuff.

The wonderful stuff.

The stuff that sadly, natural history TV producers often deliberately fail to fill our screens with, instead concentrating on the glory boys - you know... the big cats and monkeys and crocodiles and penguins.

Eleonora's falcons are indeed, weird birds. 

Wonderful birds.

Perhaps even EVIL GENIUS birds?

 

They're named after the Lady Judge (a Queen really, rather than any administer of justice as such) and Sardinia's most famous heroine, Eleanor of Arborea.

Eleanor, like many nobles of the time around Europe, was bang into her falconry - and it was indeed her that passed into law the protection of falcons' nests and eggs during the 14th Century - the Eleonora's falcon, which would have been nesting on Sardinia at the time for sure (and still is of course) was so-named after her.

Regarding her name. I've always (incorrectly) known these birds as ELEANORAS FALCON (Two "As"). But their name actually is "ELEONORA'S FALCON".  (Two "Os"). This is because whilst in Sardinia, her name would have been: Elianora de Arbaree, in Italy (FAR more important as far as zoological nomenclature would be concerned) it would have been: Eleonora d'Arborea (two "Os").

The falcon itself is a handsome bird. A little smaller and more athletic-looking than the peregrine and a little larger than the hobby, which it looks very similar too, with its russet pyjama bottoms.

Eleonora's falcons could be considered strange for a few reasons.

1 - Eleonora's falcons nest in loose colonies. Rare indeed, for raptors. They nest solely on islands in and around the Mediterranean.

2 - Eleonora's falcons exhibit dimorphism. Not sexual dimorphism... but just simple dimorphism. That is to say there are two types of Eleonora's falcons. A pale type - typical falcon colours of a dark back with pale striped underparts and a visible "moustache" - and a second type which is basically dark all over. Almost black. A cool, gothic raptor. This should explain the first "dark side" to these wonderful raptors I mentioned in the title to this blog post.

3 - Eleonora's falcons are migratory raptors. Not as rare as colony nesting raptors but notable nonetheless. EVERY Eleonora's falcon breeds on Mediterranean islands but overwinters over the central plains of Madagascar, hawking for large insects, primarily.

4 - Eleonora's falcons breed in the early autumn each year - long after most migratory birds have bred in the spring or early summer. There is a reason for this... keep reading.

 

So.

Why do Eleonora's falcons wait until late July or even August and September to breed then? What on earth could be the reason for that?

The answer is relatively straightforward.

Each April or May Eleonora's falcons  leave Madagascar and return to their breeding islands in the Mediterranean.  They spend a few months hawking for cicadas, beetles etc - large insects in the main - but also take the odd bird and lizard etc. Quite often they fly vast distances from their island homes to hunt these insects. They often need to.

They start to court in the heat of the summer (July) and egg laying happens as late as August often and in September (generally) their whole modus operandi changes.

They become BIRD EATERS.

Migratory bird eaters.

Yes. They've waited until all the smaller migratory birds have finished breeding oop north, in mainland Europe and started their migration south again towards central Africa.

Eleonora's falcons then, and only then, using their rocky white Mediterranean islands as "air bases" fan out across the Med like jet fighters, and take down these small migratory birds (often birds such as willow warblers and whitethroats ( but they can take much larger birds)) as food for themselves, but much more importantly, their developing young.

They've cleverly waited until the sky literally delivers millions of food parcels past their nests, each September and October.

That isn't all though.

In 2014, it was allegedly discovered, on a Moroccan island called Mogador (which is really an Atlantic island not a Mediterranean island)...

...that the population of Eleonora's falcons there... sure... caught small, migratory birds... but instead of biting their heads off and caching the small avian corpses near their nests, for their young to eat in leaner times.... they plucked the tail feathers and primaries from their hapless prey, wedged the live birds into fissures in rocks near their nests and were therefore disabling and caching LIVE avian prey for their young. They were disabling small birds, so they couldn't fly away or escape - and keeping them alive and imprisoned or captured... so they would remain as fresh food for their young and not dry out or rot in a few days, under the hot sun. Wow and indeed, wee.

That. In case you'd not worked it out. Would be the second VERY "dark side" (of my title to this blog post) to these birds.

Now.

This caching of live prey by Eleonora's falcons has only been documented formally by researchers, once.

And quite widely poo-pooed by most other Eleonora's falcons researches who had spent years watching and documenting the more Mediterranean birds and not seen this "evil" live caching behaviour once. Not at all. Ever.

These (slightly disgruntled) experts regard this "evil falcon behaviour" to be nothing more than a hoax perpetrated by the Moroccan researchers and perhaps... on I don't know, the Mogador Tourist board.

I suppose it's entirely possible of course that the falcons of Mogador island could have learned to become evil geniuses and to cache live prey for their young - but it does seem a little unlikely, doesn't it?

Makes for a good story though, eh?

Anyway - if you are interested, do read more on this subject here and  here. Please be warned though - there are photos on those links, which show disabled (by the researchers, or fishermen of Mogador, or the falcons themselves as the researchers still earnestly-maintain) warblers, trapped on Mogador Island - as live food for the young falcon nestlings.

 

OK.

There you have it then.

The colony-nesting, small dark fighter jets of the Med.

The wonderfully-strange, dashing and perhaps "evil" Eleonora's falcons.

The bird with two "dark sides"?

Something I'll never forget seeing whilst swimming off the coast of Cyprus, 32 years ago this August and something I hope my boys get to see one day for themselves.

TBR.

 

 

* I got an A and a B and a C by the way - and started my Zoology degree at Bristol university a month later.

Oh... and if you'd like to listen to the (quite excellent) podcast that I listened to the other day, which inspired me to write this latest blog post - you can do so here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Eleonora's falcon encounters https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/3/encounters-2-the-lady-judge-and-jailer Fri, 12 Mar 2021 11:09:31 GMT
Two. Again. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/3/two-again Between two and three weeks ago I blogged that one of "our" hedgehogs from last year had awoken from its hibernation and trundled to its traditional feeding spot in our back garden, where I've provided food for them for the last few years - food which foxes and cats cannot get to.

Well... it has only been up feeding since then a couple of times- but last night (very early this morning really) it was joined by a second hedgehog - and the ensuing disgruntled "grunty" battle was captured by my motion-activated miniature camera placed inside the hedgehog feeding tunnel.

The clip can be seen in its entirety below, but be warned, it is twenty-five minutes long - and this length (the longest clip by far I've ever uploaded onto YouTube) is a result of "quickly" splicing 14 separate clips together, without much editing at all.

Now, I should perhaps point out that I think, like last year, that these two hedgehogs are male. It's always quite difficult to tell what sex a hedgehog is, even if you see them engaged in courtship behaviour - as this often appears to be grumpy fighting. You could always get a video of them mating I suppose, but generally... unless you place a trail camera on the floor and get a shot of their genitals (male hedgehogs have very obvious penises, but of course you need to take a photo or video at worm's eye level to see them), it will be very difficult to sex your garden hedgehogs.

The two hedgehogs were both stubbornly-determined to either keep the food to themselves or queue jump so-to-speak - but having looked at all the footage (there's nearly two hours of it - be thankful I've trimmed it down to twenty-five minutes for you!), I don't think the second hedgehog to the food (turns up around 0215am - an hour and twenty minutes or so AFTER the first hedgehog starts eating) actually gets any food at all - nor does he (or she -I'll (re)confirm this again soon) return to get any food after the first hedgehog leaves.

I may be wrong with the above - but it appears to me that our "first" hedgehog, which we (my wife and I) both believe to be the smaller male from last year (no more than one year old) can be identified by a nick out of its left ear. Clearly visible at times on the clip below. Of course the other hedgehog could have a similar nick in its left ear too - but... well... I doubt it.

 

A brief, bulleted timeline of the clip below then.

 

1255am. hedgehog 1 arrives. Starts eating.

0216am hedgehog 2 arrives behind hedgehog 1. Tries for 30 minutes or so, in vain, to GET TO THE FOOD!

0247am hedgehog 2 gives up and leaves.

0249am hedgehog 1, knackered after the extended battle, leaves too.

0439am hedgehog 1 returns. 

0516 hedgehog 1 finally leaves for the night.

 

As I must have said many times on this blog, and certainly to my sons and wife - hedgehogs are incredibly noisy wee things, even when they're not battling or fighting or courting - but the noises captured in the clip below will demonstrate that for you in case you weren't aware.

The fact that we have two (at least) hedgehogs back in our gardens is a wonderful fillip. Our back garden is quite large and borders four others, two of which have recent movers-in and are having extensive work done to them (hard and soft landscaping, fencing, tree-felling etc) so we are relieved that at present, "our" hedgehogs seem to be fine.

That all said, and again, as I've written before... having witnessed this battle between two of our hedgehogs right at the very start of the season, immediately-following hibernation, I'm very mindful that I may need to provide TWO food tunnels for these hedgehogs this year - to try and avoid a situation where I unnaturally cause unnecessary competition or aggravation or even injury (by fighting or disease) to these hedgehogs, in my efforts to do well for them. Something that MANY (most?) wildlife "lovers" in the UK always seem to overlook.

Right.

That shallot for now.

Here's hoping for a MUCH better Spring and Summer 2021 than 2020 eh?

More soon I'm sure.

TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/3/two-again Wed, 10 Mar 2021 12:26:45 GMT
110 nights. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/2/110-nights Regular reader(s?) of this blog may know that we have a few (at least two) hedgehogs that frequent our (front and back) gardens each Spring, Summer and Autumn - these wee visitors' visiting rights being somewhat facilitated by me digging tunnels under our fences in the borders and even through concrete under our side door.

Our hedgehogs disappeared in the fourth week of October 2020 - to begin their hibernation we thought - even if at the time, that seemed early - particularly so as it was hardly cold then - I'm not sure if we were close to our first frost of Autumn or Winter 2020 at that point.

Anyhoo - I've been keeping an eye on their old traditional feeding station since then (a cat-proof tunnel made from an old soffit board leaned up against our wall, and held in place with bricks) even though I've not left any food out for them since early November.

Yesterday morning, so Friday 19th February 2021, we had our smallest (we think) hedgehog awake from its hibernaculum (we aren't sure where that is although I suspect I may know) after c.110 nights - and check out its old feeding station, for a bit of a pick-me-up.

Of course, I'd not left any food there - so it quickly left.

I have a small infra-red camera in the tunnel which records any motion in front of the lens - the below is the footage that this camera shot before dawn yesterday morning.

I did leave food there last night but it failed to return for whatever reason. Perhaps it got up for a pee, a bite to eat and a stretch and has returned to its hibernation for a week or two - we'll see... the camera is still there and the motion activation software still err... activated, for want of a better word.

Anyway - lovely news from our gaff this week - all feels better in the world when "our" hedgehogs are doing their nightly rounds.

Spring.... it's coming....

TBR

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/2/110-nights Sat, 20 Feb 2021 18:57:46 GMT
A pregnant vixen? You tell me. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/2/a-pregnant-vixen-you-tell-me It's been six weeks or so since I blogged last.

You know the score I'm sure.

Work is busy.

Then there are the regular CoVid-19 tests for the weeuns. (Our most recent was this week).

The home schooling.

The lockdown.

I hope, come the late winter to start blogging with a little more frequency... but until then... I thought I'd quickly stop by and play you a 10 second (or so) video clip that I shot on my trail camera in the garden a couple of nights ago.

I pointed the trail camera at our side passage, with a view to getting clips of our cats stealing each others' food - so we could act accordingly.

Anywaaayy.... the trail camera picked up a rather rotund fox.

Now I know its winter, so the foxes' coats are thick. And it's breeding season so they're in fine form. But this fox (which I think I've seen before hanging around our garden - the dark spot at the base of the tail is a bit of a giveaway) seems at least to me, to appear to be a pregnant vixen.

Far as I was aware, foxes tend to enter peak mating season in January, be pregnant come February and give birth around late March - so if this is indeed a pregnancy and a visible one at that (rather than just a heavy set fox with a belly full of poultry for example), then this is a fox which has been pregnant for some time and is therefore looking to give birth a fortnight or more earlier than late March I'd speculate (wildly).

Look.

I may be wrong.

I am certainly no vulpine expert. Not really a fan at all of foxes if I'm honest.

Maybe someone who knows more about foxes than me (that would be pretty-well anyone) can comment below or email me and let me know if this is indeed, a pregnant vixen.

I hope you're all doing well. Coping with the cold. (I've wrapped old pairs of my pants around our exterior water pipes, in case they burst in this cold tonight. The pipes that is. Not my pants).

More soon.

TBR.

 

Pregnant vixen?In early February? Seems a little early to me to be showing this much errr.... girth.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fox https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/2/a-pregnant-vixen-you-tell-me Wed, 10 Feb 2021 19:43:35 GMT
Around the birds in eighty aves. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/1/around-the-birds-in-eighty-aves I've come up with a game this year. A game for our eldest who (surprise surprise) is really starting to get into his wildlife and birds in particular.

So.The local barn owls and kingfishers all clubbed together  this year - and got him a wee pocket bird book for Christmas (the RSPB one as it happens which is EXCELLENT, by the way) and I've challenged him to try and spot 80 different species of birds this year.

Each time he spots a species, he puts a wee red numbered sticker on that page in his bird book (and so, "ticks it off" effectively).

The three rules are simple. 

1 - He (or I, if I'm with him) must be 100% sure of the ID of the species.

2 - it must be SEEN (rather than only heard).

3 - Just because he's ticked off a bird from the list of 80, that does NOT make that bird "boring" or "irrelevant" for the rest of the year. (For kerreist's sake don't you dare turn into a "twitcher" or "birder" because of this game!).

 

Look I'm NO "birder" (shudder) or even a "bird watcher" let alone a "twitcher". I don't know how many species of birds I've seen nor do I count them on a list of any kind.

But.

I do know a little about aves and I can help my eldest boy with his quest to get to 80 bird spp. this year (a total that I came up with which should be doable if we're not all confined to barracks by this dreadful government).

Now.

I'll not blog about every species we find but I thought I'd quickly post tonight on what we found today, to kick off his "Around the birds in 80 aves" quest.

If we get the odd surprise (as we did today) then I may also blog about that too.

For now though.

January 1st 2021. Target 80 spp.

34 species seen today (in order of seeing them):

1

Magpie

2

Woodpigeon

3

Carrion Crow

4

Jackdaw

5

Blackbird

6

Song Thrush

7

Robin

8

Barn Owl

9

Starling

10

Kestrel

11

Red Kite

12

Fieldfare

13

Cormorant

14

Jay

15

Mallard

16

Herring Gull

17

Buzzard

18

Canada Goose

19

Tufted Duck

20

Redwing

21

Black-headed Gull

22

House Sparrow

23

Feral Pigeon

24

Blue Tit

25

Great Tit

26

Grey Heron

27

Moorhen

28

Egyptian Goose

29

Pied Wagtail

30

Goldfinch

31

Stonechat

32

Wren

33

Collared Dove

34

Ring-necked Parakeet

Meaning we have 80-34  (46) species left to see in 364 days.

The nice surprise of the day (today) was watching a (young, female) stonechat on the edge of a new-build housing estate on my favourite local golf course (which is now, as I say, not a local golf course any more but a housing estate and a SANG instead). At first I thought it could have even been a black redstart (I don't think I've ever seen one of them) but the wee white wing patches, visible as it flew away from us, confirmed it as a stonechat - very unexpected mind and lovely to see.

Only two disappointments really today - no peregrines (we'll definitely see them within the month though, I'm sure) and no kingfisher either (ditto).

Anyway - a great start from a very local drive (30 mins) around Binfield and North Bracknell and also a 45 minute or so walk up and down a local river in the neighbourhood.

More soon I'm sure...

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) aves birds https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2021/1/around-the-birds-in-eighty-aves Fri, 01 Jan 2021 19:50:54 GMT
A little something to cheer you up. Maybe? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/12/a-little-something-to-cheer-you-up-maybe I know.

We're all having a crap year.

So, this morning, a wee blog post to cheer you up.

Perhaps?

 

Any regular visitor to this website will probably know by now that I am besotted with swifts - they are demonstrably (and by far), the best birds of all - and to that extent, I'll have no debate thankyou very much.

Now of course, it varies a little, up and down the country, as to when our breeding swifts arrive each year and indeed when they leave, but a handy average would be to think of them arriving on the first day of May each year, staying for three full months and leaving on the last day of July.

(No need to write a comment and say WELL MR RABBIT, MYYYY SWIFTS ARRIVE ON APRIL 23rd and DON'T LEAVE UNTIL AUGUST 7th! This 3 month average I've just described above is a good rule of thumb for swifts - that's all).

 

OK.

So.

Swifts stay with us for 92 days each year (May 1st to July 31st inclusive).

Then they are gone for 273 days. (August 1st - April 30th inclusive).

273 days divided by two equals 136.5 days.

Now.

Let's say our swifts left us at 10pm on the last day (31st) of July. Plausible.

31st July 10pm add 136.5 days equals:15th December 10am. 

 

In summary.

Swifts are not with us for 273 days of each year.

Now that we've reached (or passed as it happens, today) December 15th, our swifts have broken the back of that 273 day period. We're closer in time to the date that they return to us, than the date they left.

And that, for me at least, in these miserable dark days of mid or late December, is at least a spot of light in the distance.

 

Keep on poddling, eh?

They'll be back soon.

TBR.

SwiftSwift

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/12/a-little-something-to-cheer-you-up-maybe Wed, 16 Dec 2020 09:43:03 GMT
The selfish gene and huge genitals. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/12/the-selfish-gene-and-huge-genitals Not withstanding the fact that I have, for years now, thought of Richard Dawkins, (one of my earliest heroes in zoology) as an arsehole these days; in his marvellous book of 1976, The Selfish Gene, he nicks Tennyson's "..nature. Red in tooth and claw" to describe the behaviour of all living things which arises out of the "survival of the fittest" doctrine - and that's a superb quote which I'll not forget.

I was reminded of it this week whilst I watched footage of two female house sparrows fight for nesting rights (one presumes) in our sparrow/tit camera box.

We, as dull-sensed, blinkered humans, don't get to see, let alone appreciate, this sort of behaviour very often. I mean... this was a REAL battle in the box. All beak and claws. Nothing gentle about this at all. Very much red in tooth and claw.]

Many humans tend to anthropomorphise other creatures in Kingdom Animalia - or worse, "Disney-fy" them.

Some people see a hedge-full of sparrows and think they're all "friends".  (Social media is FULL of this sort of stuff - and sometimes I wonder if it's peculiarly British, or American too perhaps?).

Then, I suppose, there is "bird song".

I know, some "bird song" is lovely to listen to - most "song birds" have "songs" that yes... relax us. 

But "songs" they are not.

Not really.  

Not even music.

And for the birds themselves, these "songs" are FAR from "relaxing".

Imagine as a human, if you will, walking through a town or village (or worse still... a city)  at dawn. Or dusk. All the town's men (and some women too) of breeding age (so what... from 16 (ish) to 50 (ish)) are sitting on lamp-posts or walls or on tree branches, or on roofs or leaning out of their cars parked outside their houses or flats, or for that matter flinging their house windows open.

All have megaphones, or loud hailers. Or microphones attached to amplifiers.

And ALL are shouting at the top of the voice, about the HUGE SIZE OF THEIR GENITALS.

And how if you dare look at them or even start to approach them, they'll KILL YOU.

Unless you're a breeding-age woman of course. And up for breeding.

And they do this over and over and over again. For HOURS. For days. And weeks. And months.

As LOUDLY as they can.

 

That.

Is exactly what our "song birds" are "singing".

 

 

So... the next time you're wandering through a lovely meadow of flowers and you marvel at the musical trilling of a male skylark high in the blue sky above you, consider the FACT that the foppish little twit is actually shouting as loudly as he can - that he has a MASSIVE WILLY! A MASSIVE WILLY! A MASSIVE MASSIVE MASSIVE MASSIVE WILL WILL WILL WILL WILL WILLYYYYYY.  (Also that he is the biggest, best-looking of all the birds and he will beat the proverbial out of anything and anyone that says different).

Same for that song thrush sitting on your rooftop TV aerial at dawn.

And even that nightingale "singing" with CUT GLASS clarity from inside that bush on your dawn dog walk on a May morning.


I wonder if you'll ever hear bird song in the same way as you used to....

 

 

 

 

 

______________

 

Footnote.

I do appreciate that most birds don't have willies, by the way, but instead, cloacae.

But "I have a massive cloaca!"  (or a "lovely tiny cloaca" for that matter) didn't sound right to me, when I started writing this blog post.

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bird song house sparrow sparrow https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/12/the-selfish-gene-and-huge-genitals Tue, 08 Dec 2020 17:37:38 GMT
Avian squabbles. On film. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/12/avian-squabbles-on-film Last week I briefly wrote about the return to our sparrow/tit camera box of our old (very old now) friend, our winter-roosting male great tit.

By now I would have expected it to have spent a week of nights with us in his customary winter retreat.

Alas no though.

The next morning (26th of November) after our male great tit had spent its first night of the season in its box and returned briefly in the morning after - the box was furiously defended by a female house sparrow (who had, to be fair, been  revisiting and nosing around the box during recent days after actually nesting in it last Spring).

You'll see in the clip above that our male great tit beats a hasty retreat from the box. It actually hasn't been back since.

You'll also note in the clip above that the aggressive defender, the female house sparrow spends a little time fighting off another visitor after she's seen off the male great tit.

At the time I speculated that this bird was probably a male house sparrow (you can hear it if you listen carefully, even if you can't see it in the clip above).

Well... a day later and the female house sparrow again fought and chased off what I'm pretty certain now is a male house sparrow (the thumbnail to the video below on YouTube should confirm that to you if you're at first unconvinced).

In the clip below then, the first bird sitting in the box is a MALE sparrow. He's quickly seen off by an angry female.

No. I have no real idea what is going on here. I could speculate I suppose and suggest that the female sparrow is staking an early claim to her old nest site. She probably wants it to herself for now - certainly no great tits roosting it in over the winter and excitable males (sparrows) can probably take a hike for now too.

All this would indeed be speculation though. (I was of the opinion before last week that it was the MALES that reclaimed territories and nest sites each winter or early spring and it was therefore the MALES that defended the territories and sites and persuaded the females to (re?)join them when ready in Spring. I guess that may be wrong.

We'll keep the camera running - and the DVR recording - and see what happens as the weather gets worse.

Will our male great tit return?

Will the female house sparrow start roosting in the box overnight?

Will a male house sparrow do so instead (like last year)?

Time will tell...

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) camera box great tit house sparrow nest box https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/12/avian-squabbles-on-film Tue, 01 Dec 2020 12:10:12 GMT
The return of a (very) old friend. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/11/the-return-of-a-very-old-friend We've had a great tit use our tit/sparrow camera box as a winter roost, each winter since 2016/2017.

It returned in the winter of 2017/2018.

And again in 2018/2019.

And again last winter, in 2019/2020.

And at the end of each winter, I naturally assume  (what... I'm a realist not a Disney-ist!) it will sooner-or-later die at some point during the breeding season (or shortly afterwards) and sadly not return the following winter to roost with us again.

Great tits on average will live around three years, after all... even if they can, at best, make ten.

There had been no return yet, this November, so I confidently told the family that our wee friend had probably died (at last) during the year - and wouldn't be back this winter.

Then this (below) happened this afternoon at dusk...

 

I've got a few cameras now hooked up to a hard drive CCTV DVR system which record movement  -  and as I was watching the news in the sitting room, Ben bounded in and said "THERE'S SOMETHING SLEEPING IN ONE OF THE BOXES!!!"

We ran back into the conservatory (where the TV monitor and CCTV DVR system is) and sure enough - our tit was back!

Now.

I should point out I suppose, that I'm pretty confident the great tit that is now spending a 5th winter with us is the same bird that has spent the last 4 winters roosting on the north face wall of of our mountain house, under the eaves.

How can I be sure?

Well... I can't be "sure", but I'd put some money on it.

You see (and I know you know this about me) I am pretty "up" on what animals are to be found in and around our garden in any given week. Birds especially.

We've been here for 9 years now and I've NEVER seen great tits around the house, or house box, other than one great tit roost with us over the last 4 winters.

Sure... it could be that it's a different individual of the same species that I've not ever seen near the house or camera bird box, other than during the winter at roost time - but the chances of that being the case are pretty low I'd say.

Nope.

This is the same bird as the bird that found the box in the late Autumn of 2016 and therefore if it makes it to May 2021, our great tit will be AT LEAST 5 years old.

And that's a grand old age for such a bird. (As I've already stated, great tits live around 3 years on average... but can make it to 10 or so years old - in extreme circumstances).

So.... we're all rather happy here this evening - welcoming our old bird back for the winter.

This year though, he (or she) has brought back to the box, for the first time that I've seen, a considerable cargo of hen fleas  (Ceratophyllus gallinae).

Ben and I watched these hen fleas bounce around the box from our handykam camera screwed into the roof of the box. They didn't stay long off the tit - jumping back into the downy feathers pretty quickly. If you're as eagle-eyed as me (and YouTube) hasn't compressed the video clip above, you may see a flea at the top of the box, very briefly).

Reminds me of when I cleared out the starling nest space in the eaves and got COVERED in fleas for my trouble.


Anyway.

Thought I'd let you know about our returning old friend tonight.

Another 4 or 5 winters with us and it might well be a record-breaking tit.

Cross your fingers...

TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) great tit hen flea https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/11/the-return-of-a-very-old-friend Wed, 25 Nov 2020 20:27:32 GMT
Black and white. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/11/black-and-white

My eldest boy and I went out to see a white bird at dawn this morning. A barn owl.

But we saw it not.

We didn't see much bird life to be honest because -

what we did see was a beautifully-foggy dawn.

And a black bird.

A raven.

Cronking high over our heads and high over the fog.

A first for me away from the coast and a first for my eldest (that he'll remember anyway (he has seen some ravens on the Isle of Wight but he was only 4 or 5 at the time and he doesn't remember that).

We had a lovely walk around our foggy local countryside this morning (listening to tawny owls, grey partridge and redwing in the gloom).

A few photos I took at the time can be seen above and below.

Perhaps I should have made the photos black and white (the conditions certainly would have made monochrome photos suitable)?

Perhaps not.

You decide.

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) raven https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/11/black-and-white Sun, 22 Nov 2020 12:26:31 GMT
An avian SITREP. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/11/an-avian-sitrep A few feathery notes, whilst I have a few minutes spare...

 

A) I found a dead greenfinch on the roof of our chicken coop, in our chicken run, yesterday.

Now, I should perhaps point out that we've not kept hens for a couple of years now, so the covered run (in which the coop sits) is empty - but wee birds can get in and out (as the walls of the run are covered in chicken wire).

The finch was an adult female greenfinch and looked in pretty good nick other than she was lying on her back with her eyes closed.

As I said to my wife and eldest boy - it's not often you happen across dead passerines just lying around - as they tend to be snaffled up by passing foxes, badgers, cats, rats, squirrels, crows, kites, buzzards, dogs, what have you. Of course in the case of this greenfinch, nothing could get into the run to carry off this free meal. I think it had been lying on the roof of the coop (UNDER the roof of the run) for a day - perhaps two. That's all.

 

B) Me and my eldest boy went for a dusk walk last night  - and as well as seeing our favourite local barn owl (how lucky are we to have these birds so close to us), we also saw SIXTY-SEVEN grey partridge in two "super coveys" of 22 and 45. What an incredible find that was.

Again, as I explained to my boy on hearing these (quite noisy) partridges about half a mile away from the field they were squabbling in, in order to see birds you very often need to rely on your EARS first, rather than just your eyes. We followed the sound and eventually got to see these birds flying low into a very dark field.

These partridge flew into this particular field at dusk and even through my super-duper (at light gathering) binoculars, no details on the birds could be made out OTHER than the dark horseshoes on the males' chests.

I've probably only seen a couple of handfuls of grey partridge in my life until last night, in two small coveys  - one of which in a neighbouring field as it happens. Coveys of grey partridge usually consist of around 6-8 birds, so to see two SUPER COVEYS of 22 and 45 is almost unheard of. It's like seeing a dozen or fifteen or so jays in an oak tree. Just doesn't happen.

 

C) Finally - I'm testing a new Defender CCTV system in several bird boxes around the house at present. My old pals at Handykam sold it to me a week or so ago - and at present I think it's just what the doctor ordered.

I bought it mainly to perhaps record swifts in our attic space after this year's partial success and thought I'd test it on a few boxes over the winter. So far it's passing the test with flying colours.

I've set it to start recording (on its hard drive) any motion in the swift attic space, the blue tit box, the cedar swift box and the hedgehog tunnel.

And over the weekend its picked up a wren visiting the cedar swift box (bet that doesn't happen again in a while) and a blue tit exploring the very cobwebby blue tit / sparrow box. (The hedgehogs were around up until about ten nights ago so I assume they've moved on or hibernated).

Yup. At present I'm very happy with my motion-activated cameras and hard drive and even though I've probably got the compression all-messed-up in the brief YouTube test video below (technical details for nerds like me are in the video description on YouTube), I think this system may become very useful in the Spring.

More soon perhaps.

TBR.

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl blue tit grey partridge wren https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/11/an-avian-sitrep Mon, 09 Nov 2020 17:13:33 GMT
Burnham beeches. Don't. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/11/burnham-beeches-dont A little tip today, grapple fans.

If you're thinking of visiting Burnham beeches at this time (you know... to marvel at the colours of the trees), I'd advise you to give it a miss this year.

We went this morning and wished we hadn't.

The woods are completely PACKED with people (we're talking thousands... and no... I'm not exaggerating) and we don't think we've seen the famous beeches look less colourful this November, than any Novembers gone.

Up to you though of course. 

But if you do go, and are exasperated by the crowds and crowds of people meeting other households in the woods as some sort of anti-lockdown activity (yup... that behaviour was obvious and RIFE there today) and are also disappointed by the dull beeches this Autumn, then don't say I didn't warn you.

The below is the one tree in the woods I think merited a (poor) photo today.

TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Autumn beech Burnham beeches colour https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/11/burnham-beeches-dont Sun, 08 Nov 2020 13:00:28 GMT
You say comaytus. I say comartus. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/10/you-say-comaytus-i-say-comartus A wee post today to doff my cap to our annual Coprinus comatus, or "Shaggy ink cap" or "lawyer's wig" that pushes up through the front lawn each October.

They never last long these fun fungi - and although (allegedly) delicious, if you were to leave one on a plate in the kitchen overnight in readiness for breakfast, you'd come downstairs to a small puddle of ink in the morning and that's all. Once they've produced a fruiting body, they basically drop their black spores (the ink) and then melt away to nothing in hours.

Our Coprinus comatus has already all-but-disappeared back into its subterranean mycelium for another eleven months, but before it "melted away" - I managed to show Ben its ink - and I rather th-ink this "shaggy mane" has now become his favourite mushroom.

Not a bad choice I'd say.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 2020 Berkshire Coprinus comatus fungus lawn lawyer's wig shaggy ink cap shaggy mane https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/10/you-say-comaytus-i-say-comartus Sat, 31 Oct 2020 09:00:00 GMT
A secret in the night. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/10/a-nightly-secret-in-the-garden T'other day I was on the turbo trainer in the garden and again I noticed something about the mock orange bush we have at the back of the back garden.

Yes... my eyes weren't deceiving me - the lower leaves of our Philadephus were spattered in bird lime.

Something was probably roosting in our mock orange each night. 

(I was thinking of a small passerine, grapple fans, not a bleedin' EAGLE or something).

So I took my wee camera up to the bush last night and a torch - to see what I could see.

The resulting video is below.

But before you watch it - have a guess.

Do I find anything - and if so.... WHAT?

A clue you say?

OK then.

There was something ORANGE in our MOCK ORANGE.

NB.

I don't recommend shining a torch into something's eyes at night (ESPECIALLY not something nocturnal like an owl or hedgehog).

Luckily for me, this particular animal wasn't *too* disturbed by my nocturnal investigations. It actually stayed put after I made a hasty retreat at the end of the video, realising I'd disturbed it. It's back again tonight - and I used a red LED head torch tonight to ensure I didn't disturb it.

Phew.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Erithacus rubecula mock orange mystery rooster philadephus https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/10/a-nightly-secret-in-the-garden Wed, 28 Oct 2020 20:15:00 GMT
2020. The strangest summer of all. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/10/2020-the-strangest-summer-of-all We're all a bit low right now, what with CoVid-19, Brexit and to rub a few grains of salt into those gaping wounds, the end of British Summer Time this morning.

So.

A photographic blog post, containing 30 or so images which I took on our walks around the area, between May and August (only) this year.

Some of these you may have seen on this site before.

Many you won't have.

Hover your cursor over an image to get a caption and click on an image to dim the light.

 

I hope you enjoy looking at them - roll on Summer 2021, eh?

TBR.

Grey squirrel in Great Spotted Woodpecker's holeGrey squirrel in Great Spotted Woodpecker's hole. 20th May 2020. 06:24hrs Beautiful demoiselleBeautiful demoiselle by the back garden pond. 26th May 2020. 14:25hrs

Female house sparrow feeding young in nest boxFemale house sparrow feeding young in nest box. North wall of the house. 27th May 2020. 17:20hrs Pyramidal Orchid among OaksPyramidal Orchid among Oaks. Bracknell industrial estate. 31st May 2020. 09:25hrs I've got a brand new...Combine Harvester, Sileage field. Buzzard, Ben and Kites. 1st June 2020. 16:12hrs. Ben and Daisies.Ben in Frost Folly Meadow. 9th June 2020. 15:53hrs.

Empress.A female Emperor dragonfly ovipositing (egg-laying) in a pond in Frost Folly meadow. 9th June 2020. 16:03hrs The Ox-eye familyOur boys, Ben and Finn, walking through the daisies at Frost Folly Meadow, 6th June 2020. 16:23hrs. Possibly my favourite photo of the year.

Grey HeronGrey Heron at Farleymoor lake, Bracknell. 11th June 2020. 08:53hrs Hornet MothA female hornet moth emerges from the exposed roots of our largest black poplar in the back garden. 21st June 2020. 12:52hrs Grange FarmGrange Farm, between Widmer End and Hazlemere (Buckinghamshire). Where I spent A LOT of my childhood free time, watching badgers, little owls, yellowhammers etc. I've even climbed the radio mast in this photo. 23rd June 2020. 11:53hrs. The best.Swifts alighting in our attic nest space. 24th June 2020. Photo is a merging of 30 or so photos taken between 15:00hrs and 16:00hrs.

Frost Folly Flowers.My eldest boy Ben's composition idea. My photograph. 25th June 2020. 09:56hrs

Young WhitethroatYoung whitethroat calling for an adult to feed it. In the stubble at Frost Folly Meadow, 25th June 2020 11:19hrs

Swift alighting3 photos merged into one of our boldest young (yearling I think) swift alighting in my attic nest space on 25th June 2020. 18:38hrs. Billingbear Park Golf ClubBillingbear Park Golf Club in very photogenic light. 28th June 2020. 18:43hrs SWARM!A honeybee swarm outside the 3M HQ in a Bracknell industrial estate on 7th July 2020 at 11:13hrs. Poplar hawkmoths mating.Poplar hawkmoths mating on a tree in our back garden on 12th July 2020 at 07:26hrs Slow wormMoving across a pavement in a Bracknell industrial estate. 13th July 2020. 11:49hrs Female kestrelOn barn owl post. Garth Meadows, Bracknell. 16th July 2020. 08:58hrs Frog and Lily.Frog and Lily in the back garden pond this summer. 18th July 2020. 14:20hrs Three bees.Two male buff-tail bumblebees fighting over a queen. On the London road (pavement), Bracknell. 19th July 2020. 12:51hrs Dawn.Dawn (ish) at Garth Meadows, Bracknell. 22nd July 2020. 06:02 Oxpecker?Starling on cows. Garth Meadows. 22nd July 2020. 06:07hrs SwallowsSwallows at the river Kennet, Calcot, Berkshire. 9th August 2020. 10:44hrs Kennet chub.River Kennet chub, surface feeding. 9th August 2020. 12:14hrs. King of the castle.Grey Heron at the river Kennet, Theale. 9th August 2020. 12:31hrs Finn in paddling poolBack garden fun during another "heatwave". 10th August 2020. 14:11hrs Ben in paddling pool.Fun in the back garden during one of the 2020 "heatwaves". 10th August 2020. 14:48hrs

"Eating out to help out?""Tea" at the Cricketers (pub), Warfield. 10th August 2020. 17:05hrs.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Summer 2020 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/10/2020-the-strangest-summer-of-all Sun, 25 Oct 2020 17:45:00 GMT
You think I'm harsh? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/10/you-think-im-harsh Someone suggested to me yesterday that my opinion (here) of the winning image in this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition might have been a little harsh. A tad unfair?

Perhaps.

I stand by it though.

I think that if camera trap images are to be allowed in WPOTY, then put them all in their own category. You could call it the errr.... "camera trap category" if you like (you can have that for free).

But I don't think the grand winner of the most prestigious wildlife photography competition in the world should be picked from the "camera trap" category.

 

So then. A few (more) explanatory notes for you, which might explain my itchiness at awarding this particular image (good though it is) the grand title...

 

 

I see in the accompanying blurb to the image, the photographer allegedly scoured the Siberian forests for ten months, in a bid to find the best place to leave his camera trap (note the singular nouns here... place and camera trap, not places nor traps).

 

Then look at the photo below, of Serge, the photographer, setting up his camera traps. (Plural).

There are 6 camera traps in this photo. And these are the ones that we can see. There may be more.

"He (the photographer, Serge) knew his chances of photographing one (a tiger) were slim..." 

Really?

I'd suggest his chances were actually pretty high, considering he had multiple camera traps to work with, in a national park (admittedly a HUGE national park) that is well researched and documented (in terms of Amur tiger and leopard movements - the rangers KNOW how many cats are in the park and where they are often likely to be - in fact I'm sure (I can't (re)find the link right now) that the tigress he photographed is named and numbered. The rangers know them).

Now.

Each camera trap set up (that's EACH ONE) would cost the average punter c.£3500 here in the UK.

The £3500 would be made up of a  £2500 Nikon Z7 camera, a  £200 50mm 1.8 lens and a fully functioning £600 quick release, powered, hooded scout cam box, plus various SD or CF cards and batteries etc.

Serge has six in the shot above.

So that's £21,000 of kit right there in that photo above, laydeez and gennelmen. (Although admittedly for 6 cameras, that's pretty cheap these days!).

Which he will leave in 6 places (I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt here and limiting his arsenal to 6 cameras although he may have more) to try and get the money shot that he wants. And if he failed at those six places, then he'd try another 6. Etc etc etc. He'd have the rangers' experience to draw from, to find places to leave his cameras. As well as his own, of course. But remember, the rangers have numbered these cats. They know them.

And then, after all that... he'd be reliant on the light being just right (unless he uses  expensive wireless flashes too) to get the photo(s) he wanted as the big cat took its own photo when it broke one of the infra red trigger beams.

 

OK.

To summarise.

I think the photo is perfectly fine.

Quite lovely.

Another commentator suggested the power behind the image was in the fact that it made the onlooker desperate to save the world's wildernesses and the wonderful wildlife in those places.

Yup.

MOST wildlife photos make me think that!

But to have it win and perhaps to suggest it took REAL skill and fieldcraft and god-like patience and then finally, swiftness of technical finger out in the field, with just one millisecond-long chance to get it right (like many wildlife encounters with camera)?

No.

Not for me, I'm afraid.

 

 

 

OK.

Enough of the negativity. I know I'm barking up the wrong tree (pardon the pun) with trying to tell the UK public that a photo of a furry tiger hugging a tree isn't "all that".

You love it and that's fine of course.

I don't. That's fine too.

I'll toddle off now and promise you that the next blog post I pen will come around the time the clocks go back - when we all feel a bit down - and will consist of a fair few summery photographs that I took with my wife and boys this summer (often during lockdown).

Maybe that will balance this moany post out and lift our spirits somewhat. I think we may need it this winter...

 

TBR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) WPOTY https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/10/you-think-im-harsh Thu, 15 Oct 2020 19:08:07 GMT
WPOTY 2020. Oh no. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/10/wpoty-2020-oh-no Last year, I (reluctantly - I don't enjoy doing so) tore the WPOTY 2019 competition results apart, labelling it as I did, "the worst ever".

This year I actually think I'm equally as disappointed.

It seems as I'm alone though - the winning image of the tiger hugging the tree seems to have been met with universal acclaim.

So.

Why don't I like this year's competition results?

A brief rundown then... if you'll allow.

 

The grand winner.

It's a perfectly-lovely image. Very detailed. Looks like an oil painting (as the judges said). But it was taken by the (known and numbered) tiger (the photographer left a camera trap (a hidden camera ) in place).

I use camera traps to take videos of owls and hedgehogs etc. My camera traps are very cheap Browning camera traps (as opposed to the very expensive infra red trigger boxes housing a several thousand pound camera that professional wildlife photographers use).

Call me an old misery guts - but I don't think camera trap images should win top awards in photography competitions. That's all.

And there are a LOT of camera trap images in this year's WOPTY.

This one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. (I could probably go on... you get the picture (pardon the pun)).

I know, I know... there is a fair amount of skill needed to obtain a really great camera trap image - and an awful lot of time and patience - but if you are eventually reliant on the right light being in place when the camera triggers (the animal breaks the infra red beam) when you are literally miles and/or days away from your hidden camera - then most of the result is down to pure luck and not a lot of skill.

Ah but Doug.... you make your own luck in life eh?

Yeeaaahhhh.... you know what I mean.

So the fact that a lot of winning and highly commended images in this year's competition were taken by the animals themselves, irks me a bit.

Remember the crested macaque copyright saga?

And the disqualified leaping wolf image from 2009 (disqualified for being a model animal... but another camera trap image)?

And as far as the grand winner goes - look it's a lovely photo of an endangered Amur tiger. But that's all. To me anyway.

It doesn't make my heart beat faster. It doesn't shock me. It doesn't show me anything new or interesting. It doesn't repulse me. It's a nice photo of a big furry tiger in a wood, taken by the tiger itself.

And that... for me... isn't good enough to win THE top prize of THE world's most famous wildlife photography competition.

Finally... it's another bloody tiger. Or Lion. Or elephant etc.

There are SO many other FAR more interesting and beautiful forms of wildlife (than big mammals), to take photos of!

 

Other one word critiques of winning or highly commended images.

Dull.

Messy.

Frightened.

Contrived.

 

Look. I'll leave this blog here and return to the WPOTY results page a few times in the coming days to see if I change my mind about this year's results.

 

For what it's worth...

These are my four favourite images, personally.

(And yes... I AM aware that the first... my favourite of all... was also taken effectively by the wasps themselves too, as they broke an infra red camera trigger beam).

Never mind.

TBR.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 2020 WPOTY https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/10/wpoty-2020-oh-no Wed, 14 Oct 2020 14:12:13 GMT
You talk the talk but fail to walk the walk. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/10/you-talk-the-talk-but-fail-to-walk-the-walk About two years ago I wrote a blog post which may (I hope) have opened a few peoples' eyes - "Are British garden wildlife lovers HARMING wildlife?".

I'm sure it will have offended a fair few too.

I know, I know.... 2020 has been an exhausting (so far) year hasn't it? - and there are probably far more important things to get flustered by than British garden wildlife lovers demonstrating to me very clearly that they really don't love wildlife at all - they just say they do.

  • They vote Tory and then bemoan the fact that the party they've literally voted into government extend (ad infinitum?) the unscientific and desperately cruel badger cull.
  • They vote for Brexit and then wail and wring their gnarled hands in protest that a lot of the environmental (and food now) protection and standards we currently "enjoy" will be ripped up as we leave the EU  - which again... they literally voted for.... because, well... you know... asylum seekers.
  • They cover their gardens in bird feeders - and never move them nor clean them - ensuring that the avian zoonoses are passed quickly around the local bird populations resulting in many birds (some declining quite worryingly now) such as greenfinches, chaffinches and doves dying slowly from preventable diseases such as trich.
  • They put up bee hotels and  screw them to a fence facing the prevailing weather - and without thinking that the way they've screwed them to the fence will ensure that rain will collect in the larval cells (they've not pointed the hotel slightly downwards (see the photo below of one of my older bee hotels -  it's pointing down deliberately) to allow rainwater to escape.  Then they leave them in situ for year after year after year after year to get covered in fungus and parasites, thus condemning the bees that use these hotels to a particularly unnatural competition just to survive.

Bee hotel (composite)Bee hotel (composite)

  • They dig "wildlife" ponds and fill them with tap water and non native plants. Oh. And fish.
  • They mow their monoculture lawn (a desert to mist wildlife) and imprison hedgehogs in their tellytubby gardens by ensuring bottoms of border fences are impenetrable to newts let alone hedgehogs.
  • They'll happily kill all wasps and bees and hornets nests and any spider anywhere NEAR precious little Timmy and Jemima.

 

I could go on.

 

I don't vote Tory nor did I vote to leave the EU, nor do I feed birds in the garden with bought food (other than monkey nuts for jays sometimes) but I DO provide bee hotels for the non-social bees such as leafcutters and mason bees which I do find absolutely fascinating.

Yup. I wrote that blog post two years ago when I wasn't taking my bee hotels down each autumn to keep them dry and fungus free each winter.

This year though... I've decided to behave far more responsibly (at last). With the actual BEES in mind, rather than just me.

Hotel residentsHotel residents

I've taken all my bee hotels down (many with mason and leafcutter eggs in) and put them in my deserted chicken run for the winter.

Come the spring I will put them all inside a covered, empty water butt, already set up for the purpose, with an exit "hatch" cut into the side of the plastic water butt, so when the bees emerge in the late spring/summer - they can leave the covered water butt but NOT go back to their hotel to lay their own eggs etc - as their old hotel cells will still be at the bottom of the dry, empty, covered water butt - invisible to the new adult bees.

I will of course have screwed NEW hotels to the fence post right by the water butt - where the old hotels were last year.

Everyone with bee hotels should do this.

Everyone who has bee hotels screwed to walls and fences in their garden has a RESPONSIBILITY to do this.

Some may, of course. The tiniest minority.

The vast majority though, will just leave the poor bees to effectively drown or have their cells swamped in fungus or parasites.

All the while proclaiming to their friends and family and internet just how much they LOVE THEIR GARDEN WILDLIFE.

 

Please grapple fans.

If you DO really love your garden wildlife (and there's nothing wrong with that at all of course - far from it) ... then please ACT like you do.

 

  1. Buy (or make?) bird feeders and baths that are very easy to take apart regularly... to thoroughly clean them. With hot water and detergent. If they aren't easy to clean - believe me... before long you simply won't bother cleaning them at all. It takes too long. It's too awkward.
  2. MOVE your bird feeders and baths. REGULARLY. I'm talking every single week.
  3. Don't fill your pond with tap water. 
  4. Don't put fish in a wildlife pond (permanent ponds don't tend to exist outside gardens and if they do (they don't) they certainly don't have fish in them).
  5. Stock your garden with native plants that probably don't look too great - but that's what the wildlife WANTS.
  6. Leave great swathes of your garden (if you're lucky enough to have great swathes!) pretty untidy.
  7. Stay away from the chemicals (roundup and slug pellets etc).
  8. Dig hedgehog holes under your fences
  9. Take your bee hotels down over the winter (as I have done this year - see above) and put up new ones next year.

And finally....

      10. Please be honest enough to admit that you're wildlife gardening as much for yourself as the wildlife you hope to attract.

 

 

Thanks

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) a plea bee hotels garden wildlife lovers UK https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/10/you-talk-the-talk-but-fail-to-walk-the-walk Tue, 13 Oct 2020 19:44:06 GMT
BWPA. 10 years. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/9/bwpa-10-years Maggie Gowan, the organiser of the British Wildlife Photography Awards since its inception in 2009, wrote to me recently and told me that my (now infamous) photograph of a tabby cat with a blackbird nestling will be featured as part of the  touring "Ten years of BWPA" exhibition.

 

I am, of course, pleased. I took that particular image almost ten years ago now - and remember attending the 2011 BWPA awards ceremony at Alexandra Palace and being somewhat bemused that MY image was the talk of the town that night.

BWPA highly commended 2011 - Tabby cat with nestlingBWPA highly commended 2011 - Tabby cat with nestling

Good photography is more than just taking a snapshot of a moment in time - good photography is ART. And by art, I mean the image provokes a reaction in an onlooker. Often a strong reaction. Whether that reaction is joy or delight or horror or revulsion or intrigue.

My cat and bird image stood out in 2011 among many of the entries and award winners as provoking a VERY strong reaction from all who saw it.

Most people told me (and my wife - who attended the award ceremony with me) that they didn't want to look at my image. But HAD to.

Many photographers will talk of a "power" their image has - I had no need to big that image up, personally.

It shouted.... no....SCREAMED.... LOOK AT ME! YOU DON'T WANT TO. YOU'LL LOOK AWAY.... BUT YOU'LL BE BACK. YOU KNOW IT. I KNOW IT.

I thought BWPA were quite brave to include it as a commended image, but I also think (I wasn't alone, far from it) that it should have won on the night  - at least in its category of "Urban Britain".

It's slightly strange though.

12 years or so ago, when I first started taking photos, I thought my "WHY" photo below, would quickly become and remain the photo I was most associated with.

Why?Why?

Or perhaps even my (unique) shot of a flying white (leucistic not albino) bat. Still unique on the web. Sure... people have taken waaaay better photos of normally-coloured bats, both flying and stationary and they've also taken waaaay better photos of (normally stationary) white bats (often in places like Costa Rica or Honduras or the Philipines) - but no-one, to this day has taken any photo of a FLYING, leucistic (not normally white) bat, other than me. (I think!).

Heavily leucistic batHeavily leucistic bat

Nope. Not to be. My chicken and white bat images were both eclipsed by my tabby cat and nestling shot.

I've neither had the time, nor the inclination over the last 8 years or so to enter any photography award competitions. I expect that fatherhood and various other responsibilities have hammered that home a little more than I perhaps anticipated.

But I am still taking photos. Just not as projects as such.

I do therefore sometimes wonder if I'll ever take a shot that knocks my infamous cat and bird image from its lofty perch.

Hmmmm...

Watch this space....

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) art awards bwpa exhibitions images photographs tabby cat and nestling https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/9/bwpa-10-years Mon, 21 Sep 2020 18:02:00 GMT
Use your eyes. To sex hornets. Instead of watching Strictly? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/9/use-your-eyes-to-sex-hornets-instead-of-watching-strictly A couple of weeks ago now, Ben and I found a nice big hornets' nest in a hollow tree, on one of our wildlife walks - only the second nest I've ever chanced upon - and the nest presented me with another opportunity to teach my progeny (gawd 'elp 'em) that British wildlife is not to be feared - as long as it's respected.

Hornets for example, won't sting you, unless they feel exceptionally-threatened. (Even then, hornets, (as opposed to wasps), will probably try to bite you first, before using their sting).

We took a few photos and videos and left these beautiful insects to their tree.

Wind the clock on two weeks and I found a dead hornet on a local road (yes... my eyes are that ridiculous) about ten miles away from the nest we found, so I stopped to pick it up and took it home to Ben, so he could get a closer look at it.

Below is a photo of the (pretty mangled, I admit (must have had an argument with a car windscreen I assume)) hornet in question.

But is it a male or a female hornet?

Ben used his eyes (I'll teach him to use his eyes if I teach him nothing else, gawd 'elp 'im again) and confidently told me it was a female hornet.

*Photo of Ben's left eye (taken by me today) is below.*

 

He was correct.

Female hornets have stings (males don't). 

Female hornets have 6 abdominal segments (males have 7).

Female hornets have noticeably shorter antennae consisting of 12 segments (males' antennae are longer and made up of 13 segments).

Straight to the top of the class Ben!

 

OK.

A quick footnote.

Why is any of this important? I mean who GIVES a monkey's .... whether or not a hornet you find is a male or a female?

That's a viewpoint I suppose. An opinion. (Of sorts).

But it's one I don't think I'll ever understand, nor would I particularly want to.

If I see something, pretty-well anything.... I'll want to know what it is, what it's doing there, where has it come from, where is it going, have I seen one before, am I likely to see one again - is it amazing or interesting or weird or rare or beautiful, does it have a fascinating back story or life history, does it make a sound I can recognise if I hear that sound again, what does it smell like even?

You, on the other hand might like to errrm... watch TV?

Strictly come dancing, probably. 

Knowing you.

Hey. Each to their own I guess.

 

With specific regards to hornets though. If you DO learn to differentiate between male and female hornets in the field (easier than it sounds - once you've counted a few abdominal/antennal segments of a few hornets, you do quickly realise they do look quite different, males and females), you'll amaze people with your knowledge and confidence around these animals. You'll intrigue people. You'll interest people. Because.... well... you'll (yourself) be interesting.

So...one day a hornet flies into your house - you'll now be able to tell whether your beautiful visitor is a female with a sting (and best not to pick up gently in your hands to remove from the house) or a male without a sting (easy to pick up gently in a pair of cupped hands to remove). 

'Course. Knowing you... you'll just swat it with a copy of HELLO! Magazine, won't you? And settle back down to Strictly...

If this is you, can I suggest that you might like to watch a rerun of "Extinction, the facts" on BBC i-player, as soon as you can.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hornet use your eyes https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/9/use-your-eyes-to-sex-hornets-instead-of-watching-strictly Sun, 20 Sep 2020 14:59:21 GMT
Like chuffing clockwork. Unfortunately. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/9/like-chuffing-clockwork-unfortunately I first (I think) blogged about this in September 2012, a couple of months or so before my eldest boy was born and now, eight years on - I again see we're are being told (by our meteorologists) to expect temperatures getting very near 30 centigrade on Sunday or Monday coming.

  • This Sunday will be the 13th September and the Monday will be the 14th in that case.
  • And as yet, not since the Winter  (Jan, Feb and a lot of March) or early Spring (the rest of March and a bit of April) have we had a "killing frost" in 2020.

 

I mention those two points as, like bleeding clockwork, many people (whether weathermen/women or not) on and off social media and in our gutter press, will be calling the brief period of "heat" next week an....

"INDIAN SUMMER".

Does my chuffing head in, this.

 

Look.

This is easy, everyone.

 

You cannot have an "Indian Summer" IN SUMMER. (Autumn begins this year on Tuesday 22nd September).

You cannot have an "Indian Summer" before the first 'killing frost'. ( I expect that to happen in late October perhaps. Perhaps later than that).

We (yet again, *sighhhhh*) are ticking NO box at all, to call the two or three days of heat at the end of our summer, an "Indian Summer".

 

But that won't stop the lazy dribblers calling Monday an "Indian Summer" anyway.

 

Just please note, good reader, that a far more accurate description of the coming two or three (or more) days of heat at the beginning of next week, would rather than "InDIAN summer" be simply... "INdian summer".

 

*poddles off back under the bridge, muttering to himself* 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Indian summer https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/9/like-chuffing-clockwork-unfortunately Fri, 11 Sep 2020 07:34:29 GMT
My eldest boy and I are grand mothers. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/9/my-eldest-boy-and-i-are-grand-mothers I've been meaning to write a mothy post for a wee while now - and as I found a lovely moth caterpillar in the garden today, I thought, well... today might as well be the day I pen a few notes on three species of moths my eldest boy (Ben) and I (errr... me) have found in the garden this year.

We've found more than three species of course... but I'll quickly write about just three species in this post.

 

OK.

First up then.

Our wonderful hornet moths - which I've been waxing lyrical about now, all summer it seems.

Ben and I have been collecting the discarded exuviae of the hornet moths since it became obvious that perhaps a dozen or more moths would emerge from the roots of our largest poplar this summer.

The photos below (taken a few minutes ago - in early September - now that this year's cohort of emerging hornet moths have all definitely emerged (and left)) shows that between us, Ben and I collected TWENTY SIX exuviae (and three cocoons - top right of the photos).

I don't suppose for a second that we found ALL the discarded exuviae of these rather wonderful moths this summer in our garden; I mean, they're often hidden in long clumps of grass or under leaves etc; so I'd guess that perhaps forty or more hornet moths emerged from our poplar trees in our garden this year.

Amazing eh?!

We'll CERTAINLY be on the lookout for these moths next summer. But we won't be driving to a potential site ten miles away. Oh no. We'll just be poddling up the garden in our PJs.

 

 

Now.

Secondly.

The owner of those superb antennae that provided the cover photo for this blog.

Laydeez and gennelmen, may I present to you, a male Gypsy moth. (Yes yes, a bit like Francis Chichester's GIPSY MOTH if you're of a certain age).

Gypsy moth (male)Gypsy moth (male)

The gypsy moth's scientific name of Lymantria dispar literally means "spoiler" or "destroyer"  and "unalike".

This is because this moth is well known as a pest and a defoliator of certain deciduous trees (it can kill the tree if the tree is small) and exhibits sexual dimorphism (the males and females look very different).

Well... Ben and I aren't too bothered about finding a few gypsies in the garden - Ben loved seeing this big male moth with its huge antennae - and has named this, his "long-eared owl moth" as his favourite moth of the year. Each to their own I guess!

 

Finally then. Today's moth.

I finished my static bike session in the garden after work and noticed a caterpillar crawling around the hundreds of bonnet mushrooms that have all appeared overnight around the base of the thick trunk of our biggest poplar.

This is a poplar grey moth caterpillar - we've caught quite a few adults in the moth trap all summer.

The poplar grey (moth) has a pretty poor (if you ask me) scientific name of Acronicta ("nightfall"... but as these moths aren't crepuscular, what Oschenheimer really meant was Noctua) megacephala (big head - of the caterpillar that is, rather than the adult moth).

So... this moth was named the "big headed moth of dusk".

Even though it's larval head isn't really that big and it comes out at NIGHT, not at dusk.

Well... when I become Prime Minister (surely just a matter of a few short months now) - I'll put all this silly scientific naming right, dinna fash yersel.

 

 

Three moths then.

And what they all have in common, other than being moths and Ben and I finding them in our garden this year... is that they all LURVE poplar trees.

A bit like our other HYOWGE mothy highlight from this summer eh?

 

So.

Might I take this opportunity to big-up the humble poplar tree.

Not many peoples' garden tree of choice - but the  wonderful, indicative sound of the leaves rustling in the wind is something you'll never forget if you're sitting under a poplar tree and lots of wildlife just loves black poplar.

 

That's all for now then.

Hope you're well.

And as grand at mothing as my eldest boy and me.

 

More soon.

TBR.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) acronicta megacephala gypsy moth hornet moth lymantria dispar poplar grey moth sesia apiformis https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/9/my-eldest-boy-and-i-are-grand-mothers Thu, 03 Sep 2020 19:03:45 GMT
Noisy blighters. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/9/noisy-blighters We have noisy hedgehogs... noisier than most (and most are noisy after all).

But recently our hedgehogs... well.... they've been taking the mick as far as I'm concerned... pegging it around our garden of an evening, putting their blues and twos on for no reason.

Taking the mick I say.

See what I mean below.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/9/noisy-blighters Tue, 01 Sep 2020 15:28:01 GMT
33 weeks. 33KG or 73lb or 5.2 stone. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/8/33-weeks-70lb-32kg-5-stone Not so much a wildlife blog today but a quick blow of my own trumpet (matron) if you'll  briefly allow.

 

On January 9th 2020 (exactly 33 weeks ago), I read THIS blog post from an old pal of mine.

And thought... I'm going to have to use this inspiration and do this myself.

33 weeks ago... I looked like this:

 

Today..... 33 weeks on from that date of 9th January....

I've lost 5.2 stone.

Or 33KG.

Or 73lb.

 

And look like this:

 

(Apologies for the hammer house of horror mug shots  - I don't have many photos of my face for obvious reasons!)

 

Without going into too much detail (this is meant to be a wildlife blog after all) - I achieved this feat of weight loss by counting calories (not really by eating less) and exercising enough so that I would be in a calorie deficit each day.

 

Look... I eat like a ravenous horse, so I've had to do some SERIOUS exercise each day.

There are no shortcuts when you're my age.

You need to move more.

MUCH more.

If you want to pig out that is.

 

And you may want to change a few things in your diet too.

I, for example, have stopped taking sugar in my coffees.

Stopped drinking coffee after noon. 

Stopped having hunks of cheese as a snack.

Stopped having lots and lots of bread as snacks. (I still eat bread mind, I just limit it to a few slices a day).

That's about all I changed in terms of what I actually eat.

 

As for exercise and movement...

I tend, at present, for example, to WALK (not run, walk) at least 7 miles EVERY DAY (not just walking around the house and garden - walking at pace - 3.5 miles an hour through the local area and countryside). So I walk (to WALK only) for two hours every day. Often at dawn. But when I can. Each day.

I also cycle for 25 miles each day. You heard me. TWENTY FIVE MILES. Often on a static bike set at uphill resistance (yes... 25 miles UPHILL!) in the garden but also often through the local forests with my eldest boy.

I also started swimming regularly too last year (a mile at a time) which helped with my mental health and sleep I think - this kicked start this whole lifestyle change this year and got me in the right mental place to really start exercising a lot. I haven't kept up the swimming this year but might start again soon.

I often burn 2000kcal on exercising (just walking at pace and cycling) each day. 

I often tend to eat between 3500kcal and 4000kcal of food each day.

As long as I'm in deficit, I'm OK.

 

Now.

I weigh myself each Thursday and today, for the first time I've hit my target (below 100KG). Yes... I am a big, tall bloke, but I was SERIOUSLY overweight.

I have no doubt I've lost this weight too quickly. (see the graph below). I originally gave myself about 60 weeks to  get to my target weight and have hit target WAAAY too early really.

But I have to admit, I'm rather chuffed with myself.

It's been hard.

The walking has been a pleasure in the main (did a lot in lockdown with my boys) although walking for hours in the driving rain through Bracknell's deserted industrial estates wasn't exactly fun.

I (and my boys) have seen a lot on our walks.

We've seen egrets, herons, kingfishers, peregrines, foxes, deer, toads, terns, orchids, bluebells, ox-eye daisies, barn owls, buzzards, hobbies, cuckoos. And much more. (There... this blog does have some wildlife in it!)

But to be honest, the 80 minute workouts on the bike (static bike especially) haven't been much fun.  At all.

Those sessions have been BRUTAL - and only soundtracks from the Prodigy (in particular) and Portishead have kept me going during those heart-pumping hours.

 

The result?

I've lost 33KG or 73lb or 5.2 stone in 33 weeks.

I've lost about 7 inches around my waist and the same sort of mark around my chest.

I've probably lost around 2 inches from around my neck.

I've had to replace most of my wardrobe and also am considering having my wedding ring size reduced as I'm worried it may just fall off my finger these days!

I also, unbelievably.... have a VO2max of 48 and a Garmin Connect measured fitness age of 20! (That can't be right surely!)

 

Now there may be some people reading this thinking. You're 99KG. And you're celebrating?!!! You're bleeding massive mate - you wanna eat less you know!

Hey... I'm 6 foot 3 and I am built like a brick outhouse - I'm never going to be 70KG. Never am. Never was. I AM one of those people who make the BMI method of ascertaining your healthy weight window to be utterly ridiculous as even when I was 92KG and at "fighting weight" as I used to call it (I was very much in great shape throughout my twenties and early-to-mid thirties) the BMI scale had me down as "overweight". Daft as there was no fat at all on me during those years.

 

Anyway...

That's stage 1 completed then.

Stage 2 is to not be so obsessive about calories, exercise and weight (it's been pretty strict for these past 8 months) but to try and keep these healthy habits (to a lesser degree admittedly) as much as I can to try and stay below 100KG as best I can.

Stage 3 will run alongside stage 2 and involves a little flexibility work and a little strength work, more than just cardio, which is what I have been pretty-well concentrating on for the past 8 months. 25 mile cycle rides for 6 days (at least) a week aren't sustainable to be honest and nor are 8 mile walks. As long as I stay active though... that will be fine. I'm teaching my eldest how to play golf and tennis at present and of course have, post lockdown, restarted coaching the town's U8s rugby team. All that will help I'm sure.

 

Right now.

I feel better.

I think I look better.

My back and hips feel MUCH better.

And despite me being 92KG for most of my adult life (each time I weighed myself in my 20s and early to mid 30s I was 92KG!)... I've not been this light since I left London with my girlfriend at the time (now my wife of course) in 2006. See the photo  (on the "about" page of this website) of Anna and myself in 2006 on the island of Kephalonia - that was me at my standard weight of 92KG... 14 years ago as I write this.

Of course I was working physically back then, and smoking... neither of which I'm doing now (I've not worked physically (for a job) since leaving London and I've been cigarette free for 4 years now, almost to the day).

 

Anyway.

That had better be all the trumpet-blowing I do today.

Stage 1 complete.

Now all I have to do is ensure I don't run out and bury myself in the biggest blackforest gateaux I can and put it all back on.

I didn't feel like I was on a weight-loss diet and exercise regime from the 9th January.

I felt like I was starting a new life, employing a lifestyle change that I could keep up... perhaps for the rest of my life.

Sure, I'll only count calories in my head for now (instead of record them all religiously on an app on the phone) and sure I won't feel the need to cycle 25 miles uphill each day... but I WILL continue the desire to just look after myself and weigh myself regularly to make sure I'm still where I want and need to be.

So again...

Stage 1 complete.

Stages 2 and 3 (see above) start today and finish ... well... when I'm finished.

 

A final message then to my old mate who inspired me back in January.

Thanks pal.

You gave me all the impetus I needed.

Cheers!

 

And a final, (final) message to my long-suffering wife, who has weighed (or helped me weigh) much of my food for me each evening so I could record calories consumed each day and who has also given me the space and time (a LOT of it) to disappear and exercise, sometimes for hours each day.

Thanks honey.

I hope (and think?) you'll agree... the effort was worth it, eh?

I'm back to the size (and shape) when we met in that pub cellar bar in London all those years ago!

Just a little more mileage under the bonnet these days. That's all!

X

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) weight loss https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/8/33-weeks-70lb-32kg-5-stone Thu, 27 Aug 2020 06:06:30 GMT
The second of two firsts... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/8/the-second-of-two-firsts Four days ago now (sorry!) I wrote about the first of the two firsts I'd seen this week... a toadflax brocade moth in our moth trap on 10th August. Not only a first (EVER) for me - but also a first for SU87 (our 10KM ordnance survey square).
 

So.

Now to reveal the second first - a bird remember?

In Swinley Forest. (My most favourite local spot - about 3 miles from our house).

 

No. 

Not a nightjar. (Seen them quite a bit locally - they are my second favourite bird after all).

No.

Not a firecrest. (Seen them up Mount Ainos in Kephalonia).

No.

Not a Dartford Warbler. (Still haven't seen one - although I KNOW they do live in the local lowland heaths around Swinley Forest and I'm sure I'll see one eventually).

No.

Not even a woodlark (ditto above).

 

All the above are real local specialists in Swinley Forest - which is a real stronghold for them in this county. But I've left one bird out.

Got it yet?

That's right!

A REDSTART.

 

Now be honest. Did you guess that? Probably not, I'd say.

 

Ben, my eldest and I were exploring the 2600 acres of forest on our mountain bikes when we found ourselves at two of our favourite dragonfly ponds. We stopped, and dismounted from our bikes, as I'd heard a bird call in the canopy that I didn't think I'd heard (EVER) before. (I'm pretty good identifying birds from their calls and couldn't remember this one).

Suddenly not one but two of these birds flew down to the pond, disappeared for a bit then strongly flew back up to the canopy showing me their orange tails (if nothing else really - just LBJs or little brown jobs, but with orange tails). No time for any photos I'm afraid - not this time.

I immediately thought redstart (female or young) but as I'd never seen one before, I couldn't be 100% sure.

But I confirmed it when I got home.

Actually... on that subject (bird identification) - here's an ordered checklist tip for anyone reading this.

 

If you have trouble identifying birds (or any organism for that matter) - the below may help.

 

1) WHAT TIME OF YEAR AND WHAT TIME OF DAY IS IT? SUMMER in the bird's case. (Perfect for our summer visiting redstart). And middle of the day. 

2) WHAT HABITAT ARE YOU IN? Large mixed forest and heath. AND the county stronghold for redstarts.

3) WHAT DOES THE ORGANISM SOUND LIKE (IF IT'S MAKING A NOISE). That call  I'd not heard before.

4) WHAT IS IT DOING? HOW IS IT DOING IT? Incessantly calling then flying down to the ground (from the canopy) to feed. VERY redstart behaviour.

Then and ONLY then... move onto 5 below...

5) WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? ANY OBVIOUS FEATURES OR COLOURS? Orange tail. That's all I saw really.

Never... repeat NEVER... try to identify anything that you see on its own (that is to say without any other organisms around for comparative purposes by size - a mistake that loads make).

 

The above order for identifying anything you're not sure of (or perhaps have not seen before) is SO important - almost all misidentifications that I've seen people (including friends and even family) make are made because people go to point 5) first and often talk about size too. Schoolboy error.

 

 

Anyway... I'd not seen a redstart before last week. Ben and I have been back twice now (once with my wife too) and we've since seen two more of these lovely but quite secretive birds. And now that I know what they sound like, and where they are... I'm sure I'll see many more in the summers ahead (if we stick around in this area... which we really aren't sure we will).

 

 

Oh.

Whilst I'm here.

This is probably just me... and today I've probably picked trees and views to photograph with confirmation bias....

But aren't the trees dropping their leaves early this year?

I mean it's barely mid August and look at the below (all photos taken this morning on my power walk around east Berks).

Surely this is too early to start sweeping up leaves?

Just me then? Or have YOU noticed this too, this year?

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) redstart https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/8/the-second-of-two-firsts Sun, 16 Aug 2020 19:02:14 GMT
Just the 46,000 then? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/8/just-the-46-000-then Before I reveal the second of my two recent firsts (that being the bird (species) that I saw for the very first time (ever) in the Swinley Forest t'other day) -  I thought I'd quickly draw your attention to the below - something I was alerted to by the BTO a few days ago.

 

Please do take the time to watch both short video clips and visit the hyperlink provided - quite the eye openers.

The best birds of all.

By MILES.

And I miss them dreadfully, already.

 

Large movements of Swifts moving east along the south coast of Britain are a well known phenomenon, occurring between mid June and mid July. Counts during these movements can regularly exceed 10,000 birds. The origin of these is unknown, but the general consensus appears to be that the majority of Swifts noted are likely non-breeding adults and immatures.

 

This year a large passage was noted between 27–29 June, especially at sites in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. At least 16,000 Swifts were counted moving south on 28 June, but it was the following day that broke all records with over 46,000 noted at Gibraltar Point, Lincolnshire. The latter count represents a new British record, and video footage from the site gives an impression of the incredible numbers involved.

 


 

Gibraltar Point Common Swift passage from BirdGuides on Vimeo.

 

Gibraltar Point Common Swift passage from BirdGuides on Vimeo.

 

 

 

https://www.birdguides.com/articles/general-birding/a-british-record-day-for-common-swift-passage/?dm_i=NXN,6ZKGW,7TAY69,S5CUC,1
 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/8/just-the-46-000-then Sat, 15 Aug 2020 18:53:21 GMT
The first of two firsts... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/8/the-first-of-two-firsts I was originally going to lump in both these reports together. In fact I was going to lump them in with a few other reports, to be honest.

I've given this some thought, though - and I think each of these two "firsts" deserve their own blog entry.

This is the first then, of my two "firsts".

 

Two days ago, on Monday 10th August 2020, I saw two animals locally that I've not seen before. AT ALL. Anywhere.

Tomorrow (or very soon anyway) I'll tell you about the second, which you'll see below, is a bird I saw in Swinley Forest.

But tonight - I'll talk to you about the first first - a moth.

Not only a first for me - but a first for the 10KM square (SU87) that we currently live in - as confirmed by Martin Harvey (the Berkshire moth recorder and biological records guru who kindly confirmed my tentative ID when I asked him to). 

 

I occasionally set up my battered old moth trap (a very weak 15W thing) in the back garden - and have done twice  (or thrice) over this recent heatwave - as my eldest Ben likes to see what moths are around - as does his Daddy, to be fair.

On Monday morning, we realised we had a beaten-up Toadflax brocade (Calophasia lunula) moth in the trap -  on the red database, not at all common in the UK (likes southern coasts and that has been that for some time to be honest ... although Martin Harvey also suggested to me via email when confirming my ID that he had had quite a few reports this year, suggesting the hot spell had been beneficial to their movement north and colonisation around the home counties perhaps?)

The scientific name for the toadflax brocade moth, by the way, is Calophasia (meaning [looks like a piece of] wood) lunula (little moon (from the dorsal half of the postdiscal fascia - lunate shaped , or like a wee moon - see photos below or better still HERE)).

 

Well... after Martin kindly confirmed my ID and also told me that he had never seen one  himself before... I enrolled on i-record and submitted my report. (I also added my report of the bird that I saw for the first time later in the day too).

 

I know our toadflax brocade moth was a little beaten up - but it was a little gem too - and I'm more than a little proud to be the first person to report one in this particular 10KM ordnance survey and therefore biological records square.

OK.

That's the first first then.

I'll reveal what my second first (so to speak) was tomorrow. A bird, remember? In Swinley Forest. 

Have a guess if you like - and I'll reveal all very soon.

TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Calophasia lunula firsts toadflax brocade https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/8/the-first-of-two-firsts Wed, 12 Aug 2020 19:25:15 GMT
Three hedgehogs again? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/8/three-hedgehogs-again This year I've been keen to establish how many hedgehogs are visiting our gardens again each night - especially as we've had at least one killed on the road last year and also new neighbours move in to a house adjacent to the bottom of the garden who have taken out ALL the cover in their small garden  - a garden which I know the local hedgehogs (and foxes) used to love.

I've not put my best trail camera out much this summer though. (In the garden that is, to see whagwan). But I did last night. I positioned it near the house, pointing towards the hedgehog food bowl hidden behind a water butt and a pile of junk basically that prevents foxes and cats stealing the hedgehog food (I know it looks like a mess, this hedgehog food "den" behind the water butt - but it serves a purpose, and it's not like we've had many human visitors in 2020 to show off our errr... pristine patio to, eh?).

The short video of four clips spliced together can be seen below.

In summary:

12:27am. Hedgehog 1 (white)  with a noticeably pale (marked or scuffed) arse. Ignores food behind water butt. Leaves through tunnel under door.

 

02:01am Hedgehog 2 (black)  no pale arse. Deliberately ignores food behind water butt. Leaves through tunnel door - and more importantly the sensitive trail camera does NOT pick up its return over the patio. There is NO other quick way back into the back garden other than back under the door again and through the side passage. Any other return would involve a trip around the block and through at least three neighbouring gardens (I'd estimate quarter of a mile trip and well over an hour ... even for a hedgehog not stopping much to feed at all).

 

02:51am Hedgehog 3? (Yellow). Look. This COULD be hedgehog 2 again (no pale arse), but for that to be the case, why is was its about turn by the door and return over the patio NOT picked up by this very sensitive trail camera and why did it deliberately ignore the food at 02:01 only to clearly and deliberately head straight to the food 50 minutes later and eat for five minutes. No... I'd say the chances are overwhelmingly in favour of this being a third hedgehog then.

 

02:56am Hedgehog 3? (Yellow). Finishes eating and leaves under side door tunnel like hedgehogs 1 and 2 before.

Hmmm.

Have we, at present, got three "snufflers" each night? 

You decide.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/8/three-hedgehogs-again Wed, 05 Aug 2020 06:48:13 GMT
Neowise was NO Hale-Bopp. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/7/neowise-was-no-hale-bopp Mars, Saturn, Milky Way, Jupiter from the Isle of Wight.Mars, Saturn, Milky Way, Jupiter from the Isle of Wight.

Let me take you back 23 odd years.

To 1997.

(I know... that was indeed almost a quarter of a century ago now. Ridiculous, eh?)

Before Brexit.

Before Covid-19.

Before Trump. (Bill Clinton began his 2nd term in 1997).

Before Boris Johnson. (Tony Blair won a landslide in 1997 remember?)

A gurt big comet hung in the night sky for over a year during 1996 and 1997 as you may well, like me, remember. It became part of the nocturnal furniture as far I was concerned, as it hung above my three-floor flat, during my hard-drinking, hard-smoking and hard-partying time of my life (I was a bachelor bakery manager at the time, without wife, kids, mortgage or any responsibilities to be honest - and so enjoyably lived life virtually feral).

But even through the beery-haze of the 1990s, I remember comet Hale-Bopp.

Back then though, I had no camera and wasn't therefore taking any photos of anything.

In fact, back in 1997, I'm pretty sure I didn't even have a mobile phone - let alone a "smart phone".  I think I got my first mobile phone in 1999 in case you want to know. And I "got" my first email address a couple of years later I think.  (I genuinely wish we could go back to a time without emails and mobile phones by the way... I DREAM of starting work of a day WITHOUT logging on and sighing at another load of blessed emails).

 

Anyway... I do remember Hale-Bopp and AM interested in comets and eclipses and moon phases and space stations and meteor showers.

And I DO have a camera now.

And I have some experience of taking photos of the night sky (see above - the milky way, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter (can you spot them all?) taken from the south coast of the Isle of Wight).

 

So... I went out at 2230hrs last night, to take a few photos of the stunning comet Neowise, that I've been reading so much about and seeing images of, everywhere.

 

Well.

The two photos I got are below.

Have a look at them.... and see if you can spot the spectacular comet Neowise. It's in BOTH shots by the way.

Having trouble seeing the SPECTACULAR comet Neowise?

Yes... so was I last night.

I was very disappointed to be honest - Hale-Bopp was truly SPECTACULAR - but Neowise well... just isn't, even if, in its defence, it is almost faded beyond visibility now as it heads towards the sun.

Scroll down to the end of this post to see the images above again, only this time with the comet pointed out and enlarged.

Anyway... even though I'm glad I saw it (and to some extent glad I took a photo of it), no....

Neowise is no Hale-Bopp.


TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) comet comet Neowise neowise https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/7/neowise-was-no-hale-bopp Fri, 31 Jul 2020 16:12:15 GMT
The lucky ones. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/7/the-lucky-ones  

Many people (retailers generally) would try to have us believe that Christmas is "the most wonderful time of the year", but I'm afraid I've always disagreed. Christmas for me is the worst time of the year. Always has been. Well... since my late mother was  (typically, I'm afraid) kind enough to tell me on one Christmas eve in the early '80s (perhaps 1981, I can't quite remember) that she was splitting up from my father, who, at the time, I think, like most young boys, I probably worshipped. 

No. Christmases for me were days spent with people I probably didn't want to spend time with, in areas of the country I probably didn't want to be in, sat in clothes I certainly didn't want to be dressed in, often eating food I really didn't want to eat, on the shortest, darkest, wettest, coldest days of the year.

Then of course, since the early '80s (for me at least) there has been the constant pressure to bankrupt oneself buying people expensive presents. I could tell you some (all-too-true) heart-breaking stories of (again my mother in particular) being pretty nasty to me on unwrapping her Christmas present from me - often bought with paper round money I'd earned for months. 

Ready to swing from the nearest oak yet?

Well... this specific, current time of year for me runs Christmas a pretty close second, for being the worst time of the year.

The fourth week of July.

When my beautiful swifts abandon me.

For nine long months.

 

I absolutely HATE it when the best birds of all leave our skies - skies that seem so noisily-full of life on one day in July can feel SO empty the next.

I'm reminded on these days (and evenings in particular) why swifts are so amazing - and to me at least, make all other birds look second or third rate.

To me, there are swifts. And then there are ALL other birds.

I try not to be too besotted or obsessed with any one thing in life - but I'm afraid that principle is shattered as far as I'm concerned, with swifts. I fully admit I'm completely besotted with these birds  - and I suffer for some time at the end of July, when I watch them (as I ALWAYS do) leave.

This year I became acutely aware that they were "orf" last Thursday evening, when the regular evening screaming laps around the house felt very different and brief and on Friday evening I watched dozens head south, high above the house, with only one or two low sorties and screams at our house.

My wife saw a swift yesterday and has done again today (I've been a little busy) and I'm sure I'll see a few before the first week of September (September 5th is the latest I've EVER seen one in Berkshire) but for now, around the house, the skies seem horribly empty - and will feel like that to me, until early May next year.

 

On the flip side though - and this large, black cloud does have a silver lining.... we've had the best year ever at new "Swift Half" for swift visits. Since late May and certainly early June we've had swifts visit the house every day, sometimes all day - and for the first season ever, we've had at least one swift actually enter and explore the attic roof space I've created for them and have been hoping to attract them to (to breed) for almost ten years now (as regular readers of this blog will appreciate).

I think those explorers were 2nd year birds so may (if they survive the trip to and from the Congo this and next year) do a dry-run nesting attempt next year with us if we're incredibly lucky - and if they manage that and survive another year, then (and only then) will they actually breed properly in our attic.

But... they may not survive that long. And they may have found somewhere else anyway. And remember, we had visitors to our attic space (or at least the tunnel TO our attic space) in the heatwave of 2018 too - and yet we had basically NOTHING last year.

So... who knows?

My hope has been reignited after this fantastic swift year here - and perhaps that is why I'm feeling even sadder than normal for the 4th week of July - because the skies around the house this year have indeed been so full and noisy (screams of up to half a dozen swifts for WEEKS now), that suddenly now, it really does feel so bloody quiet and empty.

Maybe it's that, as well as 2020 being just a bleeding awful year all round - what with CoVid19 and Brexit, not to mention the bleeding clowns in charge of our government at present.

Anna and I are SERIOUSLY considering our futures right now and whether we even HAVE a future in this shameful country of thick, selfish, deluded, arrogant, nasty, racist charlatans and liars. (NB - that's just England I'm talking about - not the UK as a whole).

I honestly wish that I could leave with the swifts right now!

This feeling won't last too long I'm sure. Well... I hope not. But right now, silly as it seems, I need to be kind to myself. In about two weeks I won't have smoked a cigarette in FOUR YEARS. And for the first time in years, I really missed sitting in the garden with a beer and a ciggy, toasting the departure of my swifts. 

Oh look... I'm not going to take up smoking again and I'm not going to hit the bottle nor comfort eat (I've worked very hard and lost nearly five stone since January and am thoroughly enjoying being my old shape again) ...but I am going to make time to do a few things I enjoy over the next couple of weeks - just to get over this most acute of annual mental slumps, this particular year.

 

 

Finally then.

God speed to all the beautiful, amazing swifts leaving our shores now or very soon.

Be safe.

And I will see you again next May....

 

 

 

***

 

I took the photo below of our swifts leaving us last Thursday evening - you might also want to consider playing the YouTube clip below,

"Lucky ones by Luttrell (Leaving Laurel remix)" as this is the music I listen to when the swifts leave us.

It will also be the music I'll listen to when (and it will be a 'when', not an 'if') they return next May.

 

The lucky ones, that is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/7/the-lucky-ones Sun, 26 Jul 2020 14:58:02 GMT
More hornet clearwing moths. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/7/more-hornet-clearwing-moths I think that Ben (my eldest son) and I have between us, found about fifteen pupal exuviae and/or mud casings that surrounded the exuviae of emerging hornet clearwing moths this summer, around our largest black poplar - and we have between us, found three adult moths whilst they've been emerging.

Lovely wee beasties - and the latest, yesterday, I filmed and photographed in detail (see photos and extended video clip below).

Hornet (clearwing) mothHornet (clearwing) moth Hornet (clearwing) mothHornet (clearwing) moth Hornet (clearwing) mothHornet (clearwing) moth

I should point out that in the video below, I slow the moment of first lift-off of this hornet clearwing down to 5% speed and write that it will make it sound like a helicopter. As it DID when I edited the video. That said, I must have ticked the "no sound" box in that particular clip for the finished, edited video, so in the video below, that slowed-down clip is silent I'm afraid and doesn't actually sound like a helicopter. You'll just have to take my word for it, that when you DO slow down the video (and sound) of a flying hornet moth - it really does sound like a "WOP WOP WOP" helicopter.  Honest!

I keep saying to Ben that I really don't think we can expect to see any more emerge now - as it is late July after all. But who knows? We're still checking each morning and will do I think, until August arrives...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 2020 Berkshire black garden hornet clearwing hornet clearwing moth hornet moth July poplar Sesia apiformis UK https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/7/more-hornet-clearwing-moths Wed, 22 Jul 2020 13:57:41 GMT
370 days. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/7/370-days A year ago (almost exactly), you may remember that I blogged about a leaf-cutter bee nesting in our side-passage wall outside the kitchen.

That was July 9th, 2019.

On July 14th, 2020, one of the bees (possibly the only one) that spent the winter in its drill hole in our masonry, sealed in by its mother, with a locked, leafy door, emerged.

I admit I didn't see it emerge - but I did notice the hole it had made on emerging.

370 (full) days it had been in that hole.

As an egg. And a larva. And finally emerged as an adult.

Circle complete.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) brick hole leaf-cutter bee megachile wall https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/7/370-days Mon, 20 Jul 2020 12:57:00 GMT
Now that's a first! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/7/now-thats-a-first As we get to the last week or so of swift activity around the new "Swift Half" and I become genuinely inconsolable for a wee while because of this inevitability each year - something of a surprise this morning and most certainly a first.

As is the way, these days, I tend to try and find time to complete a seven mile walk around the area, at some point, every day. Often I'm with my two boys but sometimes I'm on my own (at weekends generally). 

This morning, my seven mile walk was a solo affair - and began at 0645am.

As I walked alongside a thick(ish), tall hawthorn hedge, running down a lane which bordered a very large school field (which used to be my local golf course up until a few years ago), I noticed something about 8 foot off the ground, in this hedge. Something organic. Something that looked like one of those toy rubber chickens or perhaps a baby wryneck. All stretched out and elongated... and motionless.

Unlike one of those toy, rubber chickens though, this thing had feathers - feathers indicating it was a moorhen (the feathers were grey in the main, but the moorhen's white "petticoat" feathers were clearly visible.

Now... this hedge is NOWHERE NEAR any water - and as the moorhen was something like eight foot up the hedge, stretched out (long neck) and completely motionless... I assumed it was dead. Perhaps it had flown into this hawthorn hedge (by accident) and died. Perhaps a dog had killed it ealier in a walk and the dog's owner, somewhat embarrassed, had tossed the dead moorhen into the hedge, where it now effectively, hung.

I had my camera (my wee pocket panasonic), so I moved towards the motionless moorhen, stretched out inside a hedge, eight foot off the ground and raised the camera to take its photo.

And the moorhen suddenly flapped and flustered and popped out of the hedge a few feet away from me, ran down the path in front of me and disappeared. 

I got no photo

I've occasionally seen moorhens fly, sometimes quite high in the air - and I've often heard moorhens fly overhead at night. Those strange sounds you may sometimes hear, at night, made by birds clearly (but which birds?!) are very often made by rails or moorhens or coots or grebes - birds that one doesn't often see fly during the day - but I don't mind admitting - until this morning, I'd never seen a moorhen in a hedge, nowhere near water, pretending (as I'm sure it was) to be dead or a branch, so it wouldn't be noticed by me.

I've read since this morning, (here for example), that moorhens can and DO enlongate their bodies to get through dense vegetation and can and DO eat haws and roost/nest occasionally in hawthorn hedges.  But I still am confused by this particular moorhen this morning, high up this hawthorn hedge, doing its rubber chicken impression - as there genuinely is no water around that hedge - for at least half a mile. Not even a drainage ditch of any real merit.

Well... you live and learn don't you?

Next time... I'll be quicker on the camera.

Until then.

Keep 'em peeled.

TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hedge moorhen https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/7/now-thats-a-first Sat, 18 Jul 2020 14:14:17 GMT
The mimicker meets the mimicked (and thus its maker). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/7/the-mimicker-meets-the-mimicked-and-thus-its-maker Just a wee one today.

Two days ago whilst looking at the flowers on our "back lawn" (more like a meadow really full of white clover, birds foot trefoil and self-heal), I found a median (or french) wasp, Dolichovespula media, attacking and killing a hornet hoverfly (Volucell zonaria).

This king of hoverflies, Volucella zonaria, is superb at mimicking hornets or I suppose, median wasps, which are themselves, sometimes confused with hornets by inquisitive humans. They need to be good at mimicking the wasps and hornets though; as female hornet hoverflies must lay their eggs in wasps' (and hornets' and bees') nests and have their larvae develop inside these nests as commensals.

This adult, wasp-mimicking hoverfly was meeting the wasp it was mimicking though - not in a good way - and so ended up meeting its maker too.

 

Incidentally - 

The median wasp (Dolichovespula media) is easily recognised as such (as opposed to being a common wasp (Vespula vulgaris) or a German wasp (Vespula germanica)) because of its long (that's what "dolicho" means, dontchano?) body, two of its four (dorsal) thoracic spots are brown (the other two are yellow) and it has brown and yellow "inverted 7" marks on the sides of its thorax.

The median wasp is also known as the "French wasp". Again, as opposed to the German wasp.

French wasps nest in trees very often, in suspended paper nests, whereas German wasps nest underground. In *cough*, bunkers.

French wasps are also (I'm not joking!) easier to chase away and less aggressive than German wasps.

I' think I'll leave you with that thought.

TBR.

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) dolichovespula media french wasp hornet hoverfly median wasp volucella zonaria https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/7/the-mimicker-meets-the-mimicked-and-thus-its-maker Fri, 17 Jul 2020 09:45:00 GMT
Slow-ly does it. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/7/slow-ly-does-it I've seen quite a few grass snakes in the wild, without deliberately looking for them, that is to say by deliberately lifting up old bits of corrugated iron placed as reptile homes in nature reserves). I've seen them on golf courses and in London rivers and in Berkshire peat ponds. Grass snakes that is. 

But up until a day or two ago, I honestly don't think I'd ever seen a slow worm without deliberately setting out to search for one (using the same corrugated iron technique described in bold above).

I was walking around Bracknell Forest (the town and countryside) again yesterday, as I've done pretty-well each day for months now.

And happened across this wee thing - crossing a bridge over a SUDS pond in a (deserted) business park.

A young slow-worm.

And, like I say, a first for me, in that I've only ever seen slow-worms before seeing this one, after DELIBERATELY LOOKING FOR THEM.

A lovely, unexpected treat - and just to finish this post, I'll leave you with  a very short video of my encounter - here.

Keep 'em peeled, eh?

TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) slow worm https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/7/slow-ly-does-it Wed, 15 Jul 2020 18:12:18 GMT
In the buff. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/7/in-the-buff At present, I am using a "turbo trainer" to get 1000 calories burned off quick as you like in the back garden. Easier than I make it sound, mind.

I've screwed my old racer bike to it and to be honest, even though it's quite hard work - it's also quite fun, in an "I like to birch myself" kind of way.

I bought it (the elite fluid turbo trainer) from ebay for a couple of dozen quid, as a cheap replacement to my all-singing-and-dancing static bike that broke under my immense mass* about two weeks ago.

* (Actually I've been on a real health kick since January 9th this year and have lost... wait for it..... well over FOUR STONE since that day in January where I read a blog post from an old pal and thought on that very day... you know what... I need to do that too!).

Anyway... I digress.

I was in the garden t'other day, under our largest poplar at the far end of the garden, well away from the house and on my turbo trainer, when I noticed a mouse-sized moth fluttering under one of our mock orange shrubs. I immediately recognised it as a poplar hawkmoth and thought I'd dismount from my bike and have a look at it. (You don't get this sort of distraction in gyms do you?!)

A closer inspection revealed this moth to yes, be a poplar hawkmoth, but a buff (or pink) form - so almost certainly a female - and freshly emerged from her subterranean pupa, where she had been for the previous nine or ten (more like it) months.

Most poplar hawkmoths are grey in colour, certainly the males anyway and most females, but quite a few females are much more colourful - buff or even pink in colour - and this was indeed the colour and form of our freshly-emerged female poplar hawkmoth.

 

She was floundering a wee bit though (poplar hawkmoths can't fly for the first day and night of their adult (winged form) lives), so I helped her onto a trunk of a tree where she could hide, sit still and pump out her pheromones  overnight. Ben, my eldest, was transfixed at the sight of such a large moth and proceeded to take photos with his new wee pocket camera.

She seemed to climb about ten feet and then settled down amongst the ivy. So I got back on the bike to finish my 25 miler (that's the length of my sessions these days) and Ben went back inside.

I didn't think much of her that evening or that night - but I did wander back up to the tree the following morning, to see if she was still OK (she wouldn't yet be capable of flying).

And look what I saw!

Ben was beside himself with excitement - as I suppose, in a mothy-way, was the male moth that she had enticed down to her, overnight.

Her pheromones had done the trick alright - and sucked in, like a tractor beam, a passing male, who fancied a bit of female moff, in the buff, quite literally.

There they stayed for a full 24 hours, locked together in a mothy carnal embrace.

And the following night, last night that is, as the flying ant swarms settled and were replaced in our garden at least, by two HUGE male stag beetles, these two moths, flew away.

I hope that the female is now laying dozens of eggs on the undersides of our millions of poplar leaves in the garden - I may not find them... but I bet I see a caterpillar or two or if not a caterpillar... an adult, maybe next year.

Keep 'em peeled, eh?

 

 

Footnote.

The scientific name for the Poplar hawkmoth is Laothoe populi.

Laothoe was one of the concubines of the famous King Priam (king of Troy during the Trojan war) and the name Laothoe literally meant (at the time):  "nimble people".

Poplar hawkmoths are interesting for a number of reasons, not least of all in that they lack a "frenulum" matron, (a series of bristles or hook-like structures on the wings of most moths, which keep hind and forewings locked together at rest and synchronise wing movement when flying). This means when the poplar hawkmoth is at rest, it can hold its hind wings much further forward than most moths can - which provides a unique look to a resting poplar hawkmoth - all four wings are spread like a bunch of four small leaves.

But you knew all that already, I know.

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 2020 Berkshire buff form garden Laothoe populi mating poplar hawkmoth poplar hawk-moth summer UK https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/7/in-the-buff Mon, 13 Jul 2020 19:24:09 GMT
SWARM! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/7/swarm This has been my daily (pretty-well) view, during this pandemic - as I've pushed my younger son around Bracknell Forest whilst my elder son has walked alongside me.

Today, I managed to push the buggy through a swarm of honeybees. (Not by design I hasten to add!).

I THOUGHT I had my wee pocket camera on "video" mode and set about videoing this swarm of bees, only the fourth (or fifth?) aerial swarm I've ever chanced upon (away from their home in a tree or hive that is).

But as the swarm disappeared into the grounds of the 3M building (RG12 8HT)  in a Bracknell industrial estate, I realised my camera WASN'T set to video, but to Aperture priority (my mode of choice) photo mode instead.... so I quickly got off one shot (below) and that was that - the swarm disappeared.

Please note. My wee boy and I were in NO danger from this swarm of honeybees and (of course) neither of us was stung.

I also have reported this swarm on the beeSwarm website (as should you I suggest, if you see one).

Keep 'em peeled, eh?

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) honeybee swarm https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/7/swarm Tue, 07 Jul 2020 11:37:10 GMT
The three waves of swifts. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/7/the-three-waves-of-swifts First things first. In case you weren't aware, this week (if you're reading this between June 27th and July 5th, 2020) is Swift Awareness Week.

I know, I know.... you've tired of "left-handed awareness day" and "brown sauce month" and "movember" and smurf appreciation week", haven't you... but swifts... well they (of course) deserve an awareness week. In fact, if you agree with me, you'd say they need an awareness week.

Covid 19 has put the kaibosh on a lot of the planned, physical activities, but there is still a lot going on (see the end of this blog post for a few details).

 

Secondly - I thought I'd put a little more meat on the bones of the story this year of our visiting swifts - swifts that have now THREE TIMES (this week) entered and explored my attic space - which regular readers of this blog will know I got very excited about t'other day.

I also got excited about swifts entering my (swift) tunnel (matron) in 2018 too - but no joy at all (of any description) last year - so what IS going on?

The wee picture below will explain all in terms of the three waves of swifts each year, but please remember that these wave dates are based on a site at altitude, by Lake Geneva (several 100 miles south of us) - so you can add a week or two (at least) to these rough dates below.

 

 

Now. What of my visiting swifts?

 

2018.

These interested swifts (above) arrived on 8th June. Bearing in mind the above (and my dates alteration) and also the fact that this swift pictured (above) only has a wee pale patch under its gob - well... that would suggest (not guarantee, suggest) that this is a second wave swift. A two or three year old swift. These interested swifts did NOT pre-breed, but just were "bangers". (Flying up to the swift entrance and banging on it). Which would make them two years old, not three.

Why didn't they return last year to pre-breed and this year (when they're four years old) to breed?

You tell me.

 

 

2019.

No visitors of any sort really, other than a couple of swifts flying by at dusk, every so often, giving a wee scream to the swift call MP4 playing from our roof.

 

 

2020.

LOTS of interest in my attic space. (I took down the habi sabi swift boxes as to be blunt... they're awful - read my comment to this blog).

But how old are these visitors - and which wave do they belong to - will they finally breed in our attic next year?

OK... our first very interested swift  (below) arrived on June 15th.

 

Which... as per all the above, could make it wave 2 or perhaps wave 3. It has what I'd call a medium white throat... (young swifts have a very noticeably-white throat). But... it didn't pre-breed... it just "banged" for a bit. So.... if someone put a gun to my head... well... I'd guess (bit of a stab in the dark really - I didn't get great photos of these swifts) it is two years old again - rather like the swifts that arrived and entered my tunnel (matron) in 2018. So... if this swift (these swifts... there were a few) survive this year, get back down to the Congo again and return safely next year, they may then be three years old and "pre-breed". Enter the attic as a pair. Produce sterile eggs. Have a first go at it all, basically. Lots of big ifs there, mind - the biggest of all, of course, being that I'm calling these swifts two years old but I don't know that for sure. And if they do that, maybe they'll be back in 2022 to properly breed at four years old? If they survive that long, can avoid the Mediterranean guns and all that migrating - and of course we are still here at the new "Swift Half" to see them back?!

 

Finally then.

The most recent excitement came just a week ago now - and continued for a few days in good weather (nope... I don't know where all that hot sun went either).

These swifts arrived around the 25th June, maybe a few days earlier. Generally in a squadron of three-five - and this was the squadron that alighted in my swift tunnel and then EXPLORED inside the box (we have a camera in the box, piped wirelessly down to an old portable TV in the conservatory - and Ben, my eldest, noticed a swift in that box (a box built INSIDE the attic - for bird ringing purposes eventually), first.

I got a great photo of this bird, see below - in strong sunshine.

You can see this bird has a very white throat - and the lateness of its arrival would strongly suggest to me that this bird was born last year. If that is the case AND it survives another few years and trips to and fro' the Congo, it may not properly breed with us until 2023, i.e. when it becomes four years old. 

Blimey! 

Can I wait that long? 

Guess I may just have to!

 

I will have been desperately trying to get my favourite bird of all breeding with us here since 2012, after filming them in our attic at our old house in Reading in 2011.

Next Spring will be my tenth spring at our current house, the new "Swift Half", calling them down from the skies.

2023  (if I'm right about the bright swift above - and that is the year that it actually breeds with us, if it survives that long) will be my twelfth year at it.

TWELVE YEARS.

TWELVE.

YEARS.

Wildlife doesn't half teach you patience, eh?

 

***

 

 

 

 

Swift awareness week. Some details...

Edward Mayer was interviewed by David Lindo (The Urban Birder): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68a0nrJgWjo

Hampshire Swifts are encouraging records of nesting swifts, have a self-guided trail round Lymington and doing social media work.
Tideswell, Derbyshire: promoting swifts in the village and via the recently set up Environment Group there.

London (Mike Priaulx): The swift spotting hour was 8-9pm on 28 June, Search for #LondonSAW2020 on Twitter or Instagram or view LondonSAW2020 on Facebook for sightings.

For those in London, submit your sightings: https://islingtonswifts.wordpress.com/2020/06/21/swifts-spotting-hour-28-06-20-how-to-take-part/

Ely/Dick Newell: a sign installed drawing people's attention to the Swift boxes on various key buildings there. actionforswifts.com/2019/02/parapet-wall-swift-boxes-in-ely.html (Dick adds: “The Swifts can obviously read, because they are already going in and out of 6 out of the 12 boxes!”

Taverham (Norfolk) Swifts - leaflet drop.

Hull and East Yorkshire Swift Group working with Hull City Council & Yorkshire WT have installed 6 Swift boxes on the Guildhall in Hull.  Press release this week.Plus  leaflet drops and five boxes to be installed too.

N. Norfolk Villages (Thornham area) - leaflet drop in areas where swifts are thought to be nesting.

Truro: leaflet drop

The Guardian’s Country Diary Tuesday 30th was about swifts, written by Mark Cocker:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/30/country-diary-are-all-our-swifts-out-for-the-count .

 A guest blog by Mike Priaulx will be on Mark Avery’s blog:
https://markavery.info/2020/06/30/guest-blog-swift-awareness-week-2020-by-mike-priaulx/

 Hackney Swifts (Henrietta Cole) - online quiz plus a swift spotting hour. (Open to all but you need to register for the quiz 8pm 2 July).

London (organised by Islington Swifts/Mike Priaulx). Unguided Swift spotting 8-9pm 28/7.

Bradford on Avon (Rowena Baxter) letter in The Wiltshire Times ( for 26/6)

Altringham (Tanya Hoare) webinar on swifts with a local natural history group. 30/6.

North Wales Wildlife Trust (Ben Stammers) swift feature on Radio Cymru’s natural history programme 27/6.

Macclesfield (Tina Hanak) a series of activities for the local Wildlife Explorer group members and see #MaccSwiftAdventure to follow the giant swift called Emily!

Adderbury & Deddington, Oxon, (Chris Mason) - local articles about swifts promoting self-guiding trails.

Landbeach (Dick Newell) - see http://actionforswifts.com/p/swift-viewing-in-landbeach-church-2020.html   Date Tbc.

Holland Park & Edward Mayer - online Zoom talk about how to help Swifts - Thursday 2nd July at 18-30 To book contact by e-mail = [email protected]

Bolton & Bury (Louise Bentley) live event on Facebook re. swift boxes. Tcb.

Kingsteignton Devon (Alistair Whybrow) 28/6 a stall at the church with leaflets/nest boxes etc and an article in a local paper.

South Normanton (Helen Naylor) exciting range of activities for infants at her school.

Ludlow (Peta Sams) article in Ludlow paper

Shropshire Wildlife Trust (Sarah Gibson): press release and social media work. https://www.shropshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/news/love-your-swifts .

Derbyshire: blog on DWT website, local radio interview (26/7), social media activity, press release.

Aldeburgh Swifts video sent to those who have had Swift boxes fitted (over 150 boxes so far!)

Isle of Man: A reading of the book 'Screamer the Swift' is on YouTube https://youtu.be/6nokw5m0vgo and a worksheet (Screamer the Swift Q&A) plus 29 questions are linked to the story.

Huntly Swifts, Aberdeenshire (Cally Smith): a piece in the local paper, mention on BBC Radio Scotland Out of Doors this weekend plus Cally’s swift artwork at reduced prices (proceeds to her swift group) are on the Huntly swift group facebook page for purchase & via https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/colourworx ;
Plus a Swift window display in a village where we propose putting boxes in the church. Also a few swift videos and a ‘commentary’ on the Scottish WL Trust website.

Herts & Middx WL Trust held a webinar on swifts (65 attended) and will be tweeting about swifts/SAW next week.

Totley Group (Sheffield) Sally Goldsmith (and her 9 year old niece Bronwyn) will be interviewed by BBC Radio Sheffield on Tuesday about swifts.
Yorkshire Dales National Park: call for sightings of swifts. See https://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/park-authority/living-and-working/wildlife-conservation/swift-conservation-project/

Bradwell Group, Derbyshire, further promotion of swifts in the village and linking with a new wildlife group there.

Hastings & Rother Group: article in Hastings & St Leonard’s Observer, launch of new Jonathan Pomroy logo.

Truro (Thais Martins): Action for Swifts leaflet drop around the town

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/7/the-three-waves-of-swifts Thu, 02 Jul 2020 15:25:47 GMT
REAL hope for next year now... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/real-hope-for-next-year-now Sure. 2018 was a good year here for the best birds of all, swifts. (Unfortunately, last year was bleedin' awful).

But this year is even better than even 2018.

By some way to be honest.

I have REAL hope now for next year after this season - we have up to five swifts buzzing the house constantly now, each day - and several alighting on the entrance to my swift space I've created in the attic (see photo below, taken yesterday at around 7pm).

Fingers crossed now for next season  - in the hope that one or more of these screamers and bangers will return next year to nest with us.

Oh... by the way... next year will be the 10th (TENTH!) year I've tried to get the best birds of all, back nesting with us, after moving here from Reading, all that time ago.

Fingers and toes and everything else crossed now...

 

EDIT AT 17:00. WE HAVE NOW ALL SEEN A SWIFT ENTER THE TUNNEL I'VE DRILLED THROUGH THE ATTIC WALL AND SHUFFLE ABOUT THE NEST SPACE INSIDE THE ATTIC THAT I'VE BUILT FOR SWIFTS. THIS SWIFT EVEN SHUFFLED ONTO THE NEST ROUND. WE THINK IT SPENT ABOUT 2 MINUTES IN THE SPACE.

WONDERFUL WONDERFUL NEWS AND A FIRST HERE. LET'S HOPE IT LIKED WHAT IT FOUND AND RETURNS SAFELY NEXT YEAR... TO NEST.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/real-hope-for-next-year-now Fri, 26 Jun 2020 12:29:10 GMT
We're up to SEVEN now! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/were-up-to-seven-now Since Ben found our first hornet moth t'other day - and more pertinently, our first hornet moth pupal exuvia a day later - we've been checking the base of the biggest poplar in the garden... and now found SEVEN exuviae!

They're everywhere!

Our hornet moths seem to prefer the exposed roots of our largest black poplar - and clearly are liking this sunny, hot weather.

We've even found two exuviae sticking out of the ground (see photos below) with adult moth long gone though, unfortunately.

Wonderful stuff.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hornet moth https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/were-up-to-seven-now Fri, 26 Jun 2020 12:17:23 GMT
Love 'em. Just LOVE 'EM. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/love-em-just-love-em The image below is a composite of around 35 images taken this afternoon.

We're having our best swift year ever here.

Omnipresent, always screaming and also, this year, like 2018, actually 'alighting' (never been happy with that word, mind) in my self-built swift space in the attic.

Love 'em. Just LOVE 'EM....

Swift Half Composite 2020Swift Half Composite 2020

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/love-em-just-love-em Wed, 24 Jun 2020 17:36:03 GMT
Ben gets better and better. A story about "adminicula"... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/ben-gets-better-and-better-a-story-about-adminicula Yesterday, my eldest boy found a newly-emerged hornet moth pumping up its wings at the base of our back garden's largest black poplar - a wonderful father's day present for me!

He's been bitten by the bug (hur hur) now - and is constantly looking out for more hornet moths.

No adult moth today... but again Ben has produced the goods, by today, almost unbelievably, finding the pupal exuvia of the adult moth he found yesterday.

He asked me to come to see something he'd found this afternoon - claiming it looked like a caterpillar but was probably a stick.

I immediately saw that it was a moth's pupal exuvia, lying on a leaf at the base of the large black poplar tree in our back garden - at a spot no more than 10cm from where I took a few photos of a newly-emerged hornet clearwing moth only yesterday.

This exuviae just HAD to be the one that the hornet moth emerged from. SURELY?

A close up photo would confirm.

So... below is the close up photo - and the eagle-eyed amongst you will notice the rings of backwards-facing chitinous spines, or "adminicula" to give them their proper zoological nomenclature, along the segments of the pupal case.

These "adminicula" are there for a good reason on hornet moths' pupae.

You see, they allow (assist or facilitate) the movement (or slow shuffling) of the pupa from its place of concealment (below the bark of a poplar tree), along the bored tunnel, into the great outside - where the adult can pupate. These adminicula act like rows of wee grappling hooks, to give the wriggling pupa purchase along the walls of the tunnel the caterpillar bored through the poplar tree.

REAL experts would be able to count the number of adminicula on the segments of this pupal exuvia and tell you (and me!) whether the adult that emerged from this particular pupa was a male or a female - as the number is specific and different for males and females. But I'm afraid to say, I'm not an expert on these things - and to be honest, even if I was, I wouldn't bother counting anyway.

Why wouldn't I count the adminicula to determine whether our moth was a male or a female?

Because I KNOW our moth was a female.

Bigger and more boldly-marked than the males, our female displayed these bold colours and thick black stripes and also displayed VERY female behaviour when we were taking photos of her - raising her abdomen into the air and emitting powerful pheromones with which to attract passing males (they only have a very short mating window, do these females).

 

I couldn't stick around yesterday to see whether a male took the bait so to speak but I expect one did - when I returned later in the day - there were no moths to be found nor any errr.... lipstick-tipped, post-coital cigarette butts, for example.

Anyyywaaaayyy...

This is 100% the pupal exuvia of our (female) adult hornet clearwing moth then.

And once again, my eldest boy has amazed me - and made me incredibly proud!

Aw shucks...

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) clearwing moth exuviae hornet clearwing moth hornet moth pupa pupal exuviae https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/ben-gets-better-and-better-a-story-about-adminicula Mon, 22 Jun 2020 19:37:52 GMT
Were you correct? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/were-you-correct Yesterday I posted that Ben, our eldest boy had found SOMETHING on the largest of our poplar trees in our back garden... but I had no time to blog further on the matter, so asked any reader of this blog to guess what he'd found.

But... did you guess correctly?

I've been searching (in vain) for these wee things for some time now. Turns out in order to see them, I barely needed to leave our kitchen!

I knew that they were almost certainly in the garden, after finding lots of evidence in the exposed roots of our big black poplars (see 2nd photo below) but up until yesterday, I'd only seen a red-belted clearwing moth on our (sadly, late) apple tree about 5 years ago - and not the cousin of the red-belted clearwing we've actually been looking for. (*That said the red-belted clearwing is far FAR rarer than the moth found yesterday - just far less impressive too).

Yesterday. Ben found a ...

 

Hornet (Clearwing) moth on an exposed root of our biggest black poplar in the garden.

That was my father's day present he proudly told me.

And to be honest.... I couldn't have wished for a better father's day present!

Oh sure, I know they're regarded as pests, these beautiful moths - and sure, I expect that one day, their larval activity in this tree will eventually, probably kill it.

But we have other black poplars (we're deliberately growing quite a few) and I still can't help thinking that this moth species is perhaps the best moth in the UK.

How on earth people consider butterflies to be more beautiful and more interesting than those awful grey or brown moths is completely beyond me.

Have a good week.

TBR.

 

(Photo 1 above and 2 below taken with my 15 year old Panasonic FZ50 bridge camera).

 

 

(Photos 3,4,5 and 6 below taken with my tiny wee pocket camera (the Panasonic TZ90))

 

(Photo 7 below taken with my pretty terrible 2018 Samsung J3 phone)

 

(Photos 8-15 below all taken with my 15 year old Panasonic FZ50 bridge camera).

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) clearwing moth hornet (clearwing) moth hornet moth https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/were-you-correct Mon, 22 Jun 2020 06:18:42 GMT
My eldest boy REALLY produces the goods this morning! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/my-eldest-boy-really-produces-the-goods-this-morning I've not got any time to post about this today, but after starting to teach my eldest boy how to REALLY use his eyes t'other day - well... he's knocked it out of the park this morning!

I got out of my "gym" at lunchtime, to find this note (below) from my wife, on the dining room table...

 

and a few photos on my WhatsApp account on my phone.

I've covered up a couple of words with a pink brush in photoshop...

So...

For now...

WHAT WAS IT THAT MY ELDEST BOY FOUND ON OUR BIGGEST POPLAR THIS MORNING (whilst I was "at gym")?

Have a guess.

The answer... with LOTS of photos... very soon.

TBR

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) mythtery https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/my-eldest-boy-really-produces-the-goods-this-morning Sun, 21 Jun 2020 13:06:10 GMT
Nine photos merged into one. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/nine-photos-merged-into-one

No words necessary...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/nine-photos-merged-into-one Sat, 20 Jun 2020 15:15:57 GMT
Two peregrines and about two thousand toadlets. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/two-peregrines-and-about-two-thousand-toadlets At present, I'm trying to teach my eldest son what real awareness is outside;  and why perhaps it's best NOT to become a "birdwatcher". (I know... there'll be some "birdwatchers" reading this who I will shortly offend. Again).

By that I mean (I always have) birdwatchers (or as they often call themselves, "birders" *cringe cringe*)  tend to look upwards, very often skywards - and miss everything interesting at ankle level or below - worse still... stand on and crush the tiger beetle / bee orchid that they've not seen beneath their feet as they peer at a "lifer" in the sky high above their £3000 spotting scope.

Again, I've been labelled many things in my life, some of which I can't put in print here... but I've always recoiled at being thought of as a "birdwatcher". I'm just not. Never have been. I watch EVERYTHING outside - and that, more often than not, is crawling in nature, rather than flying.

I see and LOOK at things in the sky and on buildings and under logs and in ponds and in the grass and on leaves, close up and at distance. Very different to a (n often-blinkered) birdwatcher.

So yes.... my eldest is taking "awareness lessons" from me right now (God help the poor sod). Where he needs to look. What he needs to listen to. Where he needs to ALSO look. How to really USE his eyes. And his ears.

Will he notice that dead rose chafer wing case in the long grass over to his right?

Will he hear the nuthatch calling in the oak tree behind him?

Will he spot the ripples on the surface of the levelling pond to his left, ripples thrown up not by a carp - but by a grass snake.

Will he smell that nearby badger latrine?

Will he see those swifts, 500 foot above his head?

Will he notice those dark clouds on the horizon, scudding this way?

 

He's fortunate in some ways that his father is hyper aware. And.... unfortunate in others.

 

Today's lesson was to watch out for things right under your feet (hundreds and hundreds of toadlets) and also (at the same time!) things in the far, far distance.

Ben took the photos below of the toadlets (I'm teaching him how to use my wee pocket camera too) and I took the photo of the two peregrines.

Same town.

Same hour.

Same day.

Our "patch".

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) peregrine toadlet https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/two-peregrines-and-about-two-thousand-toadlets Tue, 16 Jun 2020 13:52:58 GMT
"It's not the despair, Laura... I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand." https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/-its-not-the-despair-laura-i-can-take-the-despair-it-s-the-hope-i-can-t-stand Two years ago (almost to the day) I blogged about the best birds of all (of course) finally returning to a NEW "Swift Half"after seven years of trying to attract them into the attic.

Then last year, in a true annus horribilis for swifts, I had to report that we basically had a nil year here.

But today.… HOOOOOOBOYY today - they're BACK! (Photo below taken just before 7am this morning).

For only the second time ever (here) and not since the heatwave summer of 2018, the best birds of all have been lured back into our attic. 

I assume the squadron of three screaming swifts that have been lapping our house in wide loops for a week or three now are young, non-breeding prospectors - and if that is the case... then once again - I can only dream about one or two of them returning next year to FINALLY breed.

I (I trust) will be ready - and so will my cameras!

Cross your fingers and toes please!

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/-its-not-the-despair-laura-i-can-take-the-despair-it-s-the-hope-i-can-t-stand Mon, 15 Jun 2020 15:17:31 GMT
Toadlet. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/toadlet It was mid February that I posted about this year's annual toad migration - when the 2000 (or so) local adult toads leave their woodland home and cross the one road they need to, in order to get to their traditional breeding pond a mile away from their wood.

Yes. A lot has happened since mid February eh - including several weeks of very warm, very VERY dry weather - so you might have forgotten that last winter was warm and wet (and windy) and as such, the nation's toads migrated back to their breeding ponds en masse, a little earlier (mid February) than is commonplace (early March).

Normally, one might expect to see all the tiny wee toadlets leave the pond in which they were born, in early July - but this year, we can start looking now.

I took a solo, 7 mile walk at 06:30am this morning (for 6 days a week I try to do this sometime in the day - although normally it's with my boys and later in the day) and lo and behold, look what crawled in front of me on the local toad road.

At first I thought it was a wolf spider - not a tiny wee toadlet. (No... it's a common misconception that wolf spiders are the massive spiders that race under your sofa when you turn the sitting room light on in the morning - those are just house spiders - proper wolf spiders on the other hand are actually tiny, penny or halfpenny-sized spiders that seem to sunbathe outside on logs and scurry for cover when you get close).

Anyway, on closer inspection, I ascertained it was of course a tiny wee toadlet and not a wolf spider, and rather like its parents (very possibly), four months ago almost to the day, I scooped it up on my pocket camera case and helped it cross the road in the direction of its adult home - the patch of wood about a mile from the pond it had just left a day or so ago.

Please do look out for your local toadlets. They'll be on the move right now, I'm sure.

They, even more so than their parents (hundreds of times bigger than their progeny at present), have a "herculean (to use the phrase du jour) task" to get to their woodland homes from their birth ponds - so if you can help them across any roads - well... all power to you, I say.

They won't thank you. In fact they'll look particularly angry and grumpy that you've seen fit to assist them. But that's toads all over. Angry-faced. They can't help it. And anyway.... their beautiful gold leaf eyes more than make up for any miserable mouth they have.

 

 

 

Photo below is of one of the adult toads I helped cross the road towards their breeding pond in mid February this year. This toad (I helped nineteen) could perhaps be the ACTUAL PARENT of the tiny wee toadlet I helped cross the same road (but in the opposite direction - i.e. towards its adult woodland home) this morning.

I guess I'll never know.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) toadlet https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/toadlet Sun, 14 Jun 2020 14:37:25 GMT
The ox-eye family. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/the-ox-eye-family No words.

Just photos.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) ox-eye daisy https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/the-ox-eye-family Thu, 11 Jun 2020 07:29:56 GMT
"Beautiful priestess of the Argive plain". https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/-beautiful-priestess-of-the-argive-plain

Mid June.

The best time to see peacock butterfly caterpillars in clumps on nettles - which we did today on our walk around the local countryside. (Short video below shot on my phone this morning and all photos taken by me (of course!) over the past few years).

 

The peacock butterfly's scientific name of Aglais io literally means "beautiful" (from Gr. 'agloas') and "io" (or priestess daughter of Inachus, river god of Argos).

Turned into a heifer by Zeus, to protect her from Hera's jealousy, after he fell in love with her, she (Io) was watched over by the hundred-eyed, all-seeing Argus Panoptes, until Hermes (sent by Zeus) killed the many-eyed monster.

After Argus was killed, Hera put his hundred eyes into the tail of the peacock (bird) and sent a horsefly (which, incidentally, I also saw my first of this year, today) to torment Io, who wandered all over the known world until settling in modern-day Egypt.

Linnaeus had adopted Petiver's name Oculus pavonis* (eye of the peacock (bird)) for the peacock (butterfly) for obvious reasons (see all my photos of the imago butterfly on this post) and the link between Io, Argus and the peacock may have influenced him.

Anyway - do keep your eyed peeled whilst walking past patches of nettles right now...

* Pavon (Paon now) from Levaillant's "Pavaneur". See plate 388 here.

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Aglais io peacock https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/-beautiful-priestess-of-the-argive-plain Tue, 09 Jun 2020 13:35:38 GMT
"Puttock augmentation" (part three). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/-puttock-augmentation-part-three Whilst we are stuck in Royal Berkshire at present, it seems only fit to again report on the Royal County's Royal Kites.

On our walk the other afternoon, the three boys (me and my sons) of the house, watched a sileage field be cut and twenty kites (and two buzzards) also therefore make hay whilst the sun shone.

A few photos and a video below.

On August 1st it will be thirty-one years EXACTLY that these birds were reintroduced (5 individuals from Spanish stock) to the Chiltern escarpment a dozen or two miles away from us - and I think we're up to c.5000 pairs now.

 

KitesKites

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) buzzard red kite https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/-puttock-augmentation-part-three Wed, 03 Jun 2020 15:13:27 GMT
Corvid-19? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/corvid-19 Just having a quick coffee in the garden  (before the first rain in weeks I hear?) - and a magpie just dropped dead from the sky and fell into our small "hedge honeysuckle" bush by the shed.

Stone cold deid.

Eyes wide open.

Beak agape.

No. I don't know either.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) magpie https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/corvid-19 Wed, 03 Jun 2020 08:34:08 GMT
An environmentally-ignorant council. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/an-environmentally-ignorant-council This morning, the council (that's Bracknell Forest Council by the way) mowed and strimmed their way around the business park (or industrial estate - call it what you will) and completely destroyed the bee orchids that we discovered only a couple of days ago.

I found one of the knuckle draggers - complete with strimmer in hand.

To his credit, he at least apologised - but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't recognise a bee orchid if I rammed one up his jacksie.

Such a dreadful shame.

 

NB.

EDIT @ 19:30hrs. 

Walked my two boys around the town this afternoon and we found ONE surviving (new) bee orchid which had been missed by both strimmer and mower a hundred yards or so from the destroyed orchids. (Photo below).

A spot of luck and better than nothing I guess.

TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bee orchid bracknell forest council https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/6/an-environmentally-ignorant-council Mon, 01 Jun 2020 13:33:59 GMT
More orchids... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/5/more-orchids My eldest joined me on my 5 mile walk around Bracknell today - and after taking some close-up photos of the bee orchids that I blogged about yesterday, (you'll absolutely get why they're called "bee orchids" when you look at my photos below) ...

 

we also found some very unexpected pyramidal orchids, in the same industrial estate.

 

Lovely to see and as I've already mentioned - more than a bit of a surprise!

Have a sunny Sunday...

TBR

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bee orchid orchid pyramidal orchid https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/5/more-orchids Sun, 31 May 2020 09:41:17 GMT
3M and the Romans' eyebrows. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/5/3m-and-the-romans-eyebrows What do you think of, when you think of 3M?

The 3M Corporation that is. You know... the "Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing" company?

 

Do you think of post-it notes?

 

Or (pretty-well ALL) road signs?

 

Nah.... you'll think of Scotch tape, eh?

 

Oh.. hang on.  Of course!

Face masks!

Amirite?

 

Currently, we have the utter, unbridled "joy" of living in the tiny, sleepy hamlet of Bracknell and therefore very close to the UK base of 3M.

As a Bracknell resident for almost a decade now, I used to think of peregrines when I thought of 3M, as two birds (both falcon (female) and tiercel (male)) used to roost each night on a high ledge on the old 3M building in the centre of town - I used to watch them there regularly.

Now that the old 3M building has been pulled down and replaced by a block of flats (which to my eye doesn't look much different, skyline-wise) these birds of prey have taken to roosting on the nearby Fujitsu building on the outskirts of the town. 

3M still have their large UK HQ in Bracknell though, situated on a huge plot of land in the western industrial estate. This is where I'm teaching my eldest to ride his bike on roads and also forms part of my government-sanctioned 5 or 6 or 7 mile walk around the area. I walk as often as I can - you'll see me pushing our 1yo around in his buggy with my 7yo by my side very often, striding around the picturesque industrial estates of Bracknell!

 

Anyway... until yesterday... I used to think of peregrines when I thought of 3M.

Yesterday on my walk past the 3M "estate", I noticed something interesting.

Now when I think of 3M, I don't think of peregrines. Nor post-it notes. Nor road signs. Not even face masks. 

No.

Now when I think of 3M.... I think of bee orchids.

 

The bee orchid or Ophrys apifera is a wonderful wee plant that, in common with all its Ophrys cousins, mimics insects or spiders (a bee in this case, obviously) to attract pollinators.

Incidentally, the name of Ophrys literally means "eyebrow" - Pliny the Elder so-called these plants "eyebrow" plants as Roman women would use these plants to darken their eyebrows.

Have a lovely weekend.

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bee orchid https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/5/3m-and-the-romans-eyebrows Sat, 30 May 2020 09:19:37 GMT
Why? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/5/why OK. OK. I'll put you out of your misery.

The short, 30s video below, shot with my smartphone two days ago, will reveal to you the mystery animal that crossed the road in front of me, on my walk on Tuesday.

 

Did you guess correctly, then?

You'll also, I hope, understand after watching this video, why I titled this blog post "Why?"

I also called this photo below  "Why..." - a photo that I hoped would make me a million pounds. But sadly that didn't happen in this day and age of photoshop!

(For the record, the photo below, which is printed onto a large canvas, hung on our hall wall at home and always gets a nice comment or two from visitors (corrr... remember them? Visitors?!) is not a photoshopped photo. The hen was my champion egg-layer a few years ago. "Couven" was her name. And the photo was shot just after dawn, on a summer's morning about ten years ago, on Swainstone Road, Reading - about a mile from where my wife and I used to live at the time...

Why?Why?

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) chicken road why https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/5/why Thu, 28 May 2020 11:00:00 GMT
What? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/5/what A quick question for you this morning - and I'll reveal the answer at noon tomorrow (with a blog post containing a 30s video, that I've already written and scheduled to be automatically-published tomorrow).

 

So...

On a walk yesterday, something crossed the road directly in front of me.

Something very unexpected.

But what was it?

As described in bold above, I managed to get a short (smartphone-shot) video of the fantastic beast that crossed the road in front of me ... and a screenshot from the start of that video can be seen below (not that this will help you!)

 

Have a think.

Have a guess.

See if you're right, tomorrow, from noon.

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) mystery https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/5/what Wed, 27 May 2020 09:15:37 GMT
Beetlemania. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/5/beetlemania Little did my eldest son know, on waking up this morning, that he'd be manhandling two of our biggest UK beetles in the day ahead.

First up... a handful of cockchafers (or May bugs, or Doodlebugs or Billy Witches) in our moth trap.

The more zoologically-minded amongst you will note that there are seven "fingers" to each of the May bug's antennae on Ben's hand - so that makes it a male May bug then of course, because as you'll know - female Billy Witches have six fingers to each antenna.

You'll also note that we found a couple of Doodlebugs canoodling, so to speak.

A "special kiss", as Ben calls it. Hmmm....

 

Then, later today, I spied another male (big "antlers") stag beetle marching purposefully across our garden. We, as I'm sure you're also aware by now, have a couple of colonies of stag beetles in our gardens (one in our front garden and one in our back) so we are almost used to seeing gurt big stag beetles helicoptering around us every May.

Here are a couple of videos I've taken of some of our stag beetles over the last few years. I know. We're very lucky. 

 

 

There we go then. 

Beatlemania. Beetlemania here today, on the scorchio Costa Del Berkshire.

Keep well.

More soon.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Billy Witch Cockchafer Doodlebug May bug stag beetle thunder beetle https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/5/beetlemania Wed, 20 May 2020 18:29:00 GMT
Progeny. Probably. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/5/progeny-probably Regular visitors to this, the most scintillating of all websites, may know that I am not particularly fond of foxes - for a well-documented reasons.

That said, at present we don't keep hens ( I do miss keeping hens!) so for now, as long as I can keep "my" stag beetles as safe as I can, I will tolerate the presence of these vulpine varmints.

This morning my eldest boy witnessed the local dog fox ooch about by one of the holes it has dug under our "western border" at 06:20am (yes, like his father, he rises at sparrowfart too) and the dog was followed by one of his cubs (probably) ten minutes later.

Both clips can be seen on the short video below.

I have no idea how the next few months let alone the next few years will pan out (if it was solely up to me I'd be on a plane to New Zealand ASAP after this pandemic), so currently I(we) have no immediate plans to restock our chicken run with birds - and therefore, for now, I will continue to tolerate our foxes. For now.

(With all that in mind... even I think the cub looks pretty sweet in the clip below!).

Stay safe.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fox https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/5/progeny-probably Sun, 17 May 2020 15:27:31 GMT
Everything's gone a bit "purple sandpiper" this Spring? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/5/everythings-gone-a-bit-purple-sandpiper-this-spring I'd like to briefly take you back to August 1985.

Madonna was at number one in the UK charts with "Into the groove" and whilst taking a "Young Ornithologists Club" (YOC - does that even exist any more?!) holiday at the Aigas Field Centre, Beauly, Highland, I was driven, with about twelve other young teenagers to Nairn, overlooking the Moray Firth, to go look for Bottlenose dolphins.

Dolphins we saw, as well as a pomarine skua if I remember correctly - but it was the young purple sandpiper that flew in off the sea and landed on my boots (I was wearing them at the time) that I remember most from that day.

Purple sandpipers breed in the far north - on Arctic islands, the tundra and some remote Scandinavian coasts. The young basically don't even see humans, before they spread their wings and fly south for the autumn or winter - and as such, rather like other wading birds such as turnstones, seem to be particularly "friendly" or "tame" during their formative encounters with humans.

The purple sandpiper that flew in off the Moray Firth in August 1985 and alighted onto one of my boots on the pebbly shore of Nairn, had probably been born on the shores of Svalbard (or somewhere similar) three months earlier - and I could well have been the first human it had ever seen. Perhaps. 

 

Over the past few weeks of lockdown, it has struck me that many of our birds (and mammals) have become a little more obvious. A little more approachable. A little "friendlier". A little more "tame". A little more "purple sandpiper".

I saw that Steve Backshall (president of my local wildlife trust these days) who lives locally on the Thames, has noticed a superb breeding year for the river's birds. No wash-creating boats to flood nests and no walkers to disturb young you see.

I've certainly also noticed a LOT more wildlife than I would have expected perhaps to have seen in more "normal times".  Now I walk like a countryman (I've been told) and tread very softly - far more softly than you might expect I can, being a 250lb gorilla - AND I'm hyper-aware, so yeah... I tend to notice more things than most  - but this Spring, so far, with many humans and their vehicles on lockdown - I'm noticing crazy amounts of stuff - a lot of it at far closer quarters than I'd have normally seen it.

I try to take a walk each day still (quite hard with my two boys needing me constantly) - and when I do, I'm bowled over by all the birds (especially) I'm seeing - at very close quarters.

Of course, this is the time of year when all birds are frantically breeding  - and you'll (we'll) see all kinds of young birds close up right now. I had to pull a fledgling house sparrow out of our kitchen sink drain a few days ago (it had flown into our kitchen window and stunned itself - then got trapped) and there do seem to be a lot of fledgling birds 'oochering' about right now  - but this year they all seem to be acting like young, first season, purple sandpipers - they just don't seem to be at all bothered by us humans at present - or far less than years gone by, I'd say.

Well... that's a nice plus for me I guess. In all this gloom. And with that thought in mind, I'll leave you for today with a photo I took on my dawn walk this morning. Of a fledgling robin that again, seemed completely unfazed by me and my (pocket) camera.

Stay well.

TBR.

Fledgling robin in hawthornFledgling robin in hawthorn

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) robin https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/5/everythings-gone-a-bit-purple-sandpiper-this-spring Fri, 15 May 2020 09:46:53 GMT
Fight night(s). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/5/fight-night-s Maybe like me, you've just watched our wretched Prime Minister deliver his pre-recorded garbage to the nation and are now, also like me, itching for a fight?

In which case, I can give you what you need.

Perhaps.

You see... I've been recording the antics of our garden hedgehogs over the past few nights and I think I can conclude that...

a) We certainly have two hedgehogs. Both male. And I think we have three. ALL three male.

b) One of our (bigger) male hedgehogs doesn't seem keen to share its food (we feed them hedgehog food behind one of our water butts) with anyone else.

c) Two (or perhaps three... but I think two) are noisily fighting each night.

 

This snorting behaviour (see my video below) is common amongst hedgehogs - both in terms of hedgehogs meeting other rival hedgehogs and expressing a physical reaction to let the other hedgehog know it needs to back off (in my video below) and also when a male "courts" a female - although in that case, the male doesn't tend to barge the female across the ground (as in my video clip below where an act of aggression can be seen, rather than anything amorous (even brutally amorous!)).

So... do have a little peep at my short video below. And if you hear these noises in your garden hedges or borders any time soon - you now know what creature is making them.

 

Oh... and before I go. Talking of creatures. If YOU were one of the creatures that voted for Brexit Boris and his band of Tory brothers (and sisters) in December's election please know this BEFORE you step out of your porch and again clap your gnarled, hypocritical hands next Thursday.

Matt Hancock (yes... the current health secretary) and Demonic Raab (yes, incredibly the foreign secretary) and Priti Vacant Patel (yes, unbelievably, the home secretary) AND the buffoon in chief (yes, ridiculously the Prime Minister) ALL voted AGAINST NHS workers getting a fair (most would say) pay rise in Parliament in 2017 - and then cheered and laughed when the results of that vote were announced in parliament - the result meaning NHS workers got no fair pay rise.

Yup. If you voted for this shower - can I suggest that instead of clapping your hands and banging your pots and pans on Thursday night, you do the right thing instead - just pop your head out of the window, hang it in REAL SHAME - and say "sorry" - then solemnly promise not to vote Tory ever (EVER) again.

(Uh huh. I'm still itching for a fight).

Good night.

TBR.

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/5/fight-night-s Sun, 10 May 2020 20:01:01 GMT
Eight eyes make me worry less about my two. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/5/eight-eyes-make-me-worry-less-about-my-two-eyes Since turning forty-five, I've had to wear reading glasses as well... basically... I just can't read any small text on books or on product labels any more. It's a bit of a drag to be honest, especially for someone who has banged on and on about "using your eyes" on this website in particular.

That said, my two ageing eyes can't be in too bad shape still - I noticed a tiny wee jumping spider on our porch this afternoon in the sun. Can't have been more than 5mm long the wee thing - but notice it I did... INCLUDING the colour of its even-tinier pedipalps -and they (its pedipalps) can't have been more than 1mm long.

Yup - still got it! (Eyes-wise).

Anyway - the lovely wee jumping spider this afternoon that I spied (and then showed Ben, our eldest) was a "Sun jumper", a Heliophanus ("sun-loving") jumping spider.

If someone put a gun to my head and said name the actual species, I'd plump for Heliophanus flavipes ("yellow footed") rather than Heliophanus cupreus ("coppery") but it was certainly one of those species and a female to boot.

Anyway - a lovely, yellow-pedipalped sun jumper - and a quick, impromptu lesson into tiny jumpers for my eldest boy - who was made to stand guard and watch the spider whilst his Daddy fetched his old camera! (My actual photo below).

Hope you're all OK in this lockdown.

I'm better now that today I spotted my first swallows and swifts of the year from the back garden...

More soon perhaps.

TBR.

"Yellow-footed" jumping spider"Yellow-footed" jumping spider

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) first swift of the year Heliophanus cupreus Heliophanus flavipes jumping spider porch south facing spider sun lover tiny yellow footed https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/5/eight-eyes-make-me-worry-less-about-my-two-eyes Mon, 04 May 2020 18:04:20 GMT
If you can... *do* try... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/4/if-you-can-do-try Cruddy, innit.

This "lockdown" I mean.

Oh sure, I understand that there are many (thousands? Millions?) who are fine with it. For these people, the "lockdown" has given them time to start baking their own bread, or learn a language, or get some jobs done around the house, or to take up a new hobby such as painting.

But those are the INCREDIBLY fortunate ones. Often with garden. Probably without small children to watch over 24/7. And with a little money behind them (mortgage paid off?), and indeed a little money in front of them perhaps, too.

For many millions of others though, life is FAR harder than that right now, FAR less comfortable and far, FAR less certain.

It struck me the other day as I was watching another 3 hours of awful 24hr news from around the UK and around the globe that unless I was very careful, I'd not, this year, take the time to notice the stuff around me. I'd be too busy looking after my 1yo all day long, suddenly. Or home schooling my 7yo. Or watching the news all the time. I'd not take the time to notice the bluebells. I'd not take the time to notice the tawny mining bees excavate their wee volcanoes at the back of the garden. I'd not take the time to notice the swallows arriving. And the bee-flies probing the forget-me-nots in the garden. Nor the appearance of the oak leaves.

I'd hate to get to the end of the summer, having drowned in 24hr news coverage and not even tried to take the time to notice all the wonderful stuff around me, in the garden if nowhere else, which I so enjoy each spring and summer.

 

With that in mind, I altered my daily walk (and cycle ride today) to take in three of my local bluebell woods, this week.

I normally take the entire family to a bluebell wood at the end of April, each year, as you'll perhaps remember. I call it the annual pilgrimage.

But this year, as these woods are each about three miles away from the house, in varying directions - and our seven year old would struggle to walk (or cycle) that far let alone our one year old (who can't cycle yet and can only just about toddle), then this year the annual pilgrimage is a solo odyssey, unfortunately.

They're not too bad this year either, the bluebells. The photos I took below (in three different local woods) were taken for my family's benefit as well as mine.

And of course, if you don't have my good fortune of living near several bluebell woods during this lockdown, then these are for you too.

Stay safe, grapple fans.

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bluebells https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/4/if-you-can-do-try Sun, 19 Apr 2020 15:43:22 GMT
Shouting at shrews.... (and spiders). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/4/shouting-at-shrews-and-spiders I'm writing this post after finding this (below) on my government-sanctioned daily walk today.

 

Now.

Many, many moons ago, I used to be a paperboy (do paperboys even exist any more?) and as such I was often cycling around the roads of High Wycombe around dawn, delivering newspapers. From about 1982-1986, if you really want to know.

And... being hyper-aware, I was often noticing and cycling around dead shrews on pavements.

Not so much rodents like mice. Or rats. 

Shrews.

Always shrews.

(Shrews aren't rodents by the way - in case you didn't know).

And not bloody corpses. Just nice whole, plump shrews.

 

I was led to believe back then that it was always shrews (rather than mice or rats for example)  that you'd see lying dead on pavements as shrews liked their environment to be very, very quiet indeed... and if they just had to cross a road to get from one hedge to another, or from one patch of woodland to another - and a loud motor vehicle roared down that road as they *ahem* waited to cross the road on the pavement, they'd simply drop dead of a heart attack. The noise would be too much for them. It would SHOCK them to death.

Explained why these dead (pavement) shrews seemed otherwise uninjured, you see. No missing limbs or head. No chewed body. No blood or entrails visible. Just a perfect-looking shrew, on its back, with its feet in the air. A heart attack then. OBVIOUSLY.

 

Fast forward a few years to the late 1980s and I was to be found carrying out my own shrew survey in a wood near Hughenden, High Wycombe.

OK then. Millfield wood, if you really want to know.

My shrew survey consisted of me taking my mother's nail scissors (nope - she didn't ever find out) up to the wood where I would use them to trim the fur of shrews I'd caught in the leaf litter of the wood. I'd trim the fur in different spots for each shrew I caught and therefore know if I caught them again, not to count them again in my population data.

I got quite good at catching shrews during that.... what...? Month. In the summer of 1987. Although to be honest, it isn't that hard, if you have hearing like me. Shrews are noisy little buggers at the best of times. And as long as you didn't SHOUT at them (see above) then it was a relatively straightforward operation.

Find a suitable patch of leaf litter. Stay still. Wait for a shrew to come wandering along under the litter - you'd see the litter move and hear their constant chittering. Then jump on them like a big bald fox, making a circle (with you arms) around the leaf litter spot you last saw move. Then start digging.

I must have caught... ooooh….  thirty... shrews in that month. And given them all little haircuts. The poor sods.

The hard part was explaining to the dog walkers who'd wander by on the paths, just what on earth I was doing - leaping into piles of leaf litter with a pair of nail scissors held between my teeth - in a wood in the middle of nowhere - as a SIXTEEN YEAR OLD!

Although to be honest, I probably had something of a local reputation by then. I spent almost all my free time in the countryside behind our house. I basically lived up there all summer. In a pair of shorts and boots and a bottle or two of water (with a packet of cigarettes too, in my twenties). I clearly remember crouching shirtless, smoking on a country path in the summer once (probably around 1992), deeply tanned after spending the previous three months up there, breaking the neck of a big carrion crow that I'd found with shotgun damage to both of its wings. Which would have been fine - if I'd done it BEFORE the very middle class family (mummy and daddy and two be-alice-banded girls, came round the corner with their pic-a-nic basket and saw me. This hulk of a man, half naked, crouched over a crow, snapping its neck and then letting it go to flap around for a bit as all the nervous impulses went berserk for a while, post-mortem. I don't think I've ever seen anyone's eyes open as wide as that family's - they LITERALLY ran away from me before I could explain!

Anyway.... where was I?

Oh yeah.

Shrews.

Yes... I've had a little experience with shrews. Although I've now, somewhat reluctantly come to the conclusion that it probably isn't traffic noise that makes these pavement shrews keel over in shock and have a fatal heart attack.

It's unfortunately more to do with the fact that shrews, a bit like their moley cousins, taste bleeding awful. They're killed by a fox or a cat and dropped shortly afterwards, as their foul taste starts to become apparent to the animal that's killed them. It just so happens that you find them on pavements -as that's where YOU tend to walk, isn't it? They are actually dropped all over the gaff - the world is literally FILLED with dead shrews, dropped in disgust by the foxes and cats that thought that long-nosed mouse would fill the gap nicely between meals, only to discover that it tasted so BAD! But you won't come across those shrews dropped off woodland paths or in long grass. You wouldn't ever see them, would you? But you certainly WOULD see the dead animals on roadsides and pavements. And you might well notice that the little dead mammals on pavements are almost always shrews. Not mice. Shrews.

So, boring though it is... shrews can be found on pavements NOT because the sound of a motor car makes their wee hearts stop but instead... because that's the place you're most likely to walk by and see them, having been dropped by a fox or a cat that suddenly thought that thing in their mouth is starting to taste a bit rank.

 

Now.

That all said.

The next time you see or hear a live shrew, "oochering" around in the leaf litter in front of you (you may need me there to point this out to you?) suddenly stop and shout at it if you like.

Shout anything you want at it.

Shout anything.

LOUDLY.

VERY LOUDLY.

And abruptly.

Shout something like "BANG!"

Or "HEYYYYY!".

It'll be fine. 

I promise.

Its wee heart can take it.

Honest.

 

 

Finally - a tip for the arachnophobes amongst you.

Shouting at shrews will have very little effect. Probably.

But shouting at spiders will have a very handy effect.

Spied an incy-wincy (or less incy-wincy to be honest, and more GURT BIG RACING) spider on the wall of your bedroom, or perhaps on the carpet - and want to get rid of it oot the window, but every time you get near it, it races under the sofa or behind the wardrobe?

Then SHOUT AT IT.

SHOUT something LOUD and ABRUPT.

Shout something like:

"HALT!"

(You can even add a German accent if you like and  "VER ARE YOUR PAPERS?!" As long as it's loud and staccato).

Spiders instantly freeze when shouted at.

(I don't mean their haemocoel (that's spiders' blood by the way - you're learning more and more on this website aren't you?)  immediately solidifies into ice.... no I mean they instinctively freeze... they stop stock still).

It's all to do with their wee hairy legs you see - very sensitive to vibrations they are - for obvious (insecty) reasons. 

So.

Want to drop a glass over a spider so you can hoy it out of a window?

Shout "HALT!" at it - as you go to get the glass over it.

Like taking candy from a baby.

Try it.

You'll see....

 

TBR.

Female fencepost-jumping spiderFemale fencepost-jumping spider

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) shrew spider https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/4/shouting-at-shrews-and-spiders Thu, 16 Apr 2020 09:44:53 GMT
A Greek tragedy. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/4/2020-doesnt-get-any-better-does-it-awful-news-from-greece 2020 doesn't get any better does it? Awful news from Greece yesterday.

And yes, I know this may seem completely trivial at present, what with CoVid-19 literally killing dozens of thousands of humans around the world.

But this *is* a wildlife blog.

And you will remember … I *do* adore "my" swifts.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) house martin swallow swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/4/2020-doesnt-get-any-better-does-it-awful-news-from-greece Sat, 11 Apr 2020 10:38:01 GMT
Watering hole. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/4/watering-hole Oh to be a fox right now.

Or even a hedgehog.

Or better still.... some kind of bird (we have a pair of house sparrows nesting in our camera box this year).

More soon...

Stay safe.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fox hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/4/watering-hole Sat, 11 Apr 2020 10:25:07 GMT
Reclamation... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/4/reclamation The geese are reclaiming the deserted local business park...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) canada goose https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/4/reclamation Tue, 07 Apr 2020 09:12:42 GMT
When this old world starts a getting me down... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/4/when-this-old-world-starts-a-getting-me-down …and people are just too much. For me to fa-ace...

I've seen and heard a fox on the garage roofs behind our back garden a few times last month, so thought I'd pop a trail camera up there last night.

The spliced-together video above is what the trail camera picked up. 

For now I assume the lame fox (the first fox in the video) is probably a dog and all the other clips are of the (only) vixen. 

Up on the (garage) roof.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fox https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/4/when-this-old-world-starts-a-getting-me-down Thu, 02 Apr 2020 15:03:14 GMT
Hedgehogs in our side passage. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/3/hedgehogs-in-our-side-passage Just a quick post tonight with a spliced-together video of the hedgehogs in our side passage last night.

Stay safe.

TBR

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/3/hedgehogs-in-our-side-passage Tue, 31 Mar 2020 18:11:03 GMT
A message to joggers. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/3/a-message-to-joggers I'm going to try and be as polite as I can with this wee post, but if I stray into screaming obscenities, then please forgive me.

 

For the love of God, will you effing joggers out there begin to appreciate that this current time is NOT the best time to continue to puff and pant and sweat and spit your way down your traditional jogging routes, that is to say narrow kerreisting pavements.

I understand (HOO BOY do I understand) that you need to take your daily exercise. Whilst we are allowed (for how long I wonder) I try to get a walk in each day too. But what I will never understand is that YOU feel it's OK to run towards people down a narrow pavement - and worse, get salty when those people you run towards stop and scream "WTAF!" at you.

Some advice -as you clearly need it, you effing selfish, arrogant imbeciles.

1 - Just don't jog.  I dunno... buy a bleeding skipping rope or something.

2 - If you absolutely HAVE to jog, choose an open area or a WIDE path or pavement.

3 - If you can't even do that, then YOU MUST prepare to get HYPER AWARE and then zig-zag across roads YOURSELF, to avoid people who SHOULD NOT be expected to get out of your way.

4 - If you can't do that then return to point 1.

 

It is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS the faster person's (or vehicle's) responsibility to ensure the safety of the slower road/pavement/space users and move themselves to get around those slower people or vehicles safely.

Cars should not expect cyclists to get out of their way.

Cyclists should not expect joggers to get out of their way.

Joggers should not expect pedestrians to get out of their way.

This really is SIMPLE (despite Naga Munchetty's inane witterings on BBC Breakfast the other day and despite also the indignant protestations of Andrew castle on LBC too).

 

Now OK. Sure. This may affect me harder than many as I'm clinically hyper-aware or if you like, hyper-sensitive.

No, by that I don't mean that if you tell me I have big ears, I'll immediately burst into tears -  but what it does mean is that I will be sitting in the garden talking to someone and I will have already noticed the rose chafer flying around the trees 50 yards away to the south, over your shoulder - and the KLM aeroplane flying into the wind, high in the northern sky ... and the fact that in thirty seconds a sparrowhawk will fly overhead as I've heard the starlings' alarm calls in the western valley below not to mention I've heard a squirrel getting angry at I presume a cat or a dog or a fox from a poplar tree 100 yards to the east that I can't even see as there's a house in the way.

I see stuff and hear stuff and FEEL stuff before you even know its there. You may never know its there. But I see and hear it ALL.

I don't go outside to have a spot of "me time" and mull over a few things - I spend my time outside being completely mindful. Aware of everything around me and IN the moment. It's quite exhausting sometimes - as two TV producers will attest to as they interviewed me in my garden a few years ago and I demonstrated to them ALL of the above (rose chafer, sparrowhawk, KLM plane, squirrel, cat) in five minutes, WHILST chatting to them about their TV programme.

So.... yes... I WILL spot people on the roads waaaay before they spot me - so in some cases I get exasperated with these people before I even give them a chance to get out of my way - I'm already crossing the road to get out of their way!

That all said, even our local postwoman (who really is a nice woman generally) takes a daily run down the pavements at present - and as she does so she unthinkingly scatters people into the road and hedges - be those people be healthy men like me or old women or even people like my wife and my two small children. It would be fair to say that I don't think I'll be as polite to her as I used to be when all this is over.

 

Finally, whilst I'm on one - a note to 99% of the British public who (incredibly) believe that on a road with no pavements, you should walk down the side of the road on which you would be driving if you were in a car - i.e. with the traffic, rather than towards the oncoming traffic.

Jesus did indeed PIGGING WEEP. 

That is the EXACT opposite of what you should do. And what you should do (walk on the side facing oncoming traffic rather than facing away from it) makes PERFECT sense, if you, for one millisecond, engage your pea-sized brains to think about it.

 

So.

To summarise then.

KERRRREIST!!!

 

(Stay safe grapple fans, and as far as possible... calm).

TBR

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) covid 19 hedgehog joggers https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/3/a-message-to-joggers Sun, 29 Mar 2020 10:42:08 GMT
Two hedgehogs again https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/3/two-hedgehogs-again A quick post tonight - we're all a bit frazzled after all, aren't we?

Regular readers of this blog might remember we had two hedgehogs in the garden(s) last year - a large one, which we KNOW was run over and killed late in the season and a wee one, which wasn't.

Well... as you know, the wee one has woken from its slumber again and is taking food from my hedgehog feeder - but now it has been joined by a very fast bigger hedgehog - video below shot last night on the Browning trail cam (PLEASE buy Browning trail cams - they're SO much better than the garbage pumped out by Bushnell!).

So... we have two hedgehogs again in the garden(s). Which I'm very happy about - as we have FAR fewer frogs this year than any other year since I dug the pond - more on that soon.

Stay safe all.

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/3/two-hedgehogs-again Wed, 25 Mar 2020 17:58:51 GMT
Strangely... joyless. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/3/strangely-joyless This should be the BEST time of year. (No... that really isn't Christmas - that's the worst time).

The leaves are unfurling. 

Poplar leaves in our garden.Poplar leaves in our garden.

The ground is drying.

The ladybirds and bee-flies are sunning themselves.

The celandines are filling ditches.

 

The hedgehogs are waking from slumber.

The mornings (and evenings!) are getting lighter.

The days are now finally longer than the nights.

Bluebells will be with us in a fortnight or so.

And swallows too.

The warmth of the sun almost literally warms your heart at this time of year.

 

But 2020... well... seems quite joyless right now.

We're lucky we have a big garden I suppose - a garden where our boys can play and see and touch all kinds of amazing stuff (from frogspawn to hedgehog poo - I know, I know... we're weird - deal with it).

Stay safe grapple fans.

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 2020 spring https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/3/strangely-joyless Sun, 22 Mar 2020 07:03:03 GMT
Look who's back... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/3/look-whos-back

Going for a wee bowl of cat food that I've hidden behind one of our water butts, in a place where no cats (or foxes) can get to it. Last night.

I think this is our single surviving hedgehog from last year (the small one - the large one was sadly run over, remember?).

Welcome back!

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/3/look-whos-back Tue, 17 Mar 2020 15:47:56 GMT
Not as planned. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/3/not-as-planned Mid March then, and as normal this is EXACTLY the time of year that "our" frogs start spawning in the garden.

Only THIS year at present, we have no spawn in the pond as yet. And no biblical plague of frogs yet either, it seems...

Instead, our first lump of spawn was laid in our.... birdbath (well... more of a drinking tray for the local hedgehogs).

Not really what I'd planned!

I presume that with the weather significantly picking up this week (that's what the forecast says, Anyhoo) that "our" frogs will start to spawn en.masse from this week - although to REALLY get their juices flowing, they'd need a full moon - and they'll not get that for three weeks or so.

Watch this space...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/3/not-as-planned Sat, 14 Mar 2020 13:30:02 GMT
Accidental weasels. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/3/accidental-weasels How many weasels have you chanced upon?

One?

Two?

Three?

Very possibly none, I expect.

I've seen four or five stoats now and attracted (called) a few weasels (much harder to see I think) in my time, after hearing them in long grass - but I've only accidentally chanced upon two weasels. Ever. In my life.

The first "accidental weasel" I chanced upon was in the year 2000.

I worked at a craft bakery in Hazlemere (Bucks) and lived in Beaconsfield at the time.

At the start of a summer's evening in that year, as I cycled through rural(ish) Penn to start work at around 7pm that evening, a weasel (definitely a weasel not a stoat) raced across the single track road in front of my bike.

It left a hedge and crossed the road westward into someone's drive.

By the time I reached the drive (it was a hill I was cycling up!) it had gone. But it was lovely to see and I remember it like it was yesterday.

But it wasn't yesterday.

It was, in fact, twenty years ago, this year!

 

Today, twenty years later, I chanced upon my most recent and only my second ever "accidental weasel".

I was nearing the end of my daily five-mile-walk (to keep my back muscles in check after slipping two lumbar discs a few years ago) in Binfield, Berkshire - and again it (a weasel again, definitely not a stoat) raced across the busy (this time) road maybe 70 yards in front of me into someone's front garden hedge.

 

Two "accidental weasels".

Twenty years.

Some people reading this may know me quite well and know very well that I tend to see (or notice I suppose) EVERYTHING.

So if I've only seen two accidental weasels in twenty years... well... I guess that tells it's own story.

These delightful wee animals are awfully hard to see.

 

How about you then?

How many accidental weasels have you seen?

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) weasel https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/3/accidental-weasels Mon, 09 Mar 2020 17:58:28 GMT
Just two weeks to go. Waiiittttt.... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/3/just-two-weeks-to-go-waiiittttt The weathermen and women on TV will tell you that Spring sprung on 1st March - but that is weatherman (meteorological) Spring - and really means nothing - only March, April May is easier to remember than a varying day in the 2nd or 3rd week of March each year, to a varying day in the second or third week of June each year. But that IS what true (astronomical) Spring actually means.

So... Spring this year starts in two weeks. 
Exactly.

Hold on now. We're nearly there...

(Photos taken a few days ago)

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Spring https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/3/just-two-weeks-to-go-waiiittttt Fri, 06 Mar 2020 11:30:00 GMT
Neither "accreditation" nor "exposure" pays our bills. (Please PAY photographers). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/2/neither-accreditation-nor-exposure-pays-our-bills-please-pay-photographers I (honestly) hope this post doesn't upset the chap who was yesterday, the most recent person (in a long line over the last decade or so) to ask me for permission to use my images for a scientific publication (or for other purposes), without paying for the use. 

At least this chap (the latest chap) asked me... (some don't) and he seems to be a nice chap.  

So I've blacked out his name and the name of the organisation he works* for in the screenshots below. (*Yes.. he is an employee of his organisation, not a volunteer).

 

This chap's email to me yesterday. (Again I hope he isn't upset by this... this is why I've blacked out his name and organisation).

 

And my rather short (I'm sorry to say now) reply, today:

 

 

Look.

As photographers, we're all more than a little peeved with this stubborn notion that whilst other artistic work commands a price (sometime a heavy price) - photographers will give away our work for free. For "full accreditation" or "exposure" etc.

My mortgage provider doesn't accept "accreditation" as a payment. Nor "exposure". 

Not only that, but my (and others') photographers take TIME. And SKILL. And.... wait for it... MONEY.

Now I don't intend to lie to you and tell you that I own a £1000 camera and a series of £500 lenses.

I don't.

But I do own two DSLRs (about 7 years old, both of them - and a couple of lenses (older than that!) and some expensive batteries and chargers and a tripod or two and a remote trigger - and a laptop and a cataloguing and basic editing bit of software (Lightroom Classic) and a monitor and two external hard drives on which to store and backup my images. Not to mention a trail camera and a few articles of clothing that make me blend into the countryside. And a pair of binoculars and a sturdy car which needs to be insured and taxed and MOT'd and fuelled  before I can take it into the countryside to spots where I take my images.

Then I spend HOURS and HOURS and DAYS and WEEKS and MONTHS in the field. Always have done.

All this costs real money.

None of it comes free.

If I painted an oil painting of what I photograph - you'd pay dearly for it. 

If I wrote a lyrical piece on the wildlife I photograph - ditto.

If I photographed your wedding - would you ask me to consider "exposure" or "accreditation" as your payment?

No?

So why do you continue to believe that I will give my other photographic images away for free?

 

These images, again, take time and money to produce.

 

The go-to-card for people asking for free-use of my images is often that they are charities or third-sector organisations.

I'm afraid now that doesn't matter to me.

I've had a recent run-in with someone giving away my "swift photos" for free over the last few years, without even asking me. 

This is unacceptable I'm afraid.

He should have known better.

He does now.

 

I'm now sick and tired of being asked to give away my work for free - and have changed my "about" page to reflect that (did so several months ago in fact).

I just wish all photographers would follow suit.

Our work costs money to make - like everyone else's work.

Please, please now extend us the courtesy of acknowledging that and offering us real money for their use.

TBR.

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) photography use https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/2/neither-accreditation-nor-exposure-pays-our-bills-please-pay-photographers Tue, 25 Feb 2020 15:36:45 GMT
Wet wind worry https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/2/wet-wind-worry A quick post today to see despite the great news of our local barn owls pairing up properly in the last week and now very much roosting together - I remain really worried about them at present.

We seem to be living in a stuck Jetstream right now. Produced and strengthened, I hear, by the cold air mass over North America (whether that is directly attributable to anthropogenically-accelerated climate change would be another discussion) and this has resulted in a very strong Jetstream sat right over us, for weeks.

High winds (20MPH plus and gusting regularly at over 40MPH), driving rain and floods seem now, after the last month or so, to be an everyday occurrence.

And this is a REAL problem for our barn owls.

 

Firstly, our British Barn owls are pretty-well the most northerly examples of their species (Tyto alba alba) in the world. In fact... I think I was taken to see the most northerly breeding barn owl pair in the world at the tip of north Scotland, when I was about 16. They're right on the edge of their range here.

And there's a reason for that.

They're basically pretty cr@p in the rain. And cr@p in the wind too. Which is all they get for days (or weeks, currently) at a time here in the UK!

 

Wind.

Barn owls are especially reliant on their superb hearing to hunt. They need to hear their vole prey rustle in the tussocky meadows they hunt over. Which is fine, most of the time. Unless it's blowing a hoolie - in which case, ALL the tussocks are rustling and they can hear bugger all voles over all that racket.

 

Rain.

Barn owls fly silently. Like small, round, floaty ghosts. They manage this because of their exceptionally-soft feathers, which are not very oily and therefore not very waterproof. These feathers don't tend to work well in the rain. So barn owls really don't hunt well in the rain. They'd rather not even get wet to be honest... let alone wet for any period of time, whilst hunting in a mon-pigging-soon.

 

Again, at present it feels like we have been living in a wet wind tunnel for the past few weeks - so much so in fact that I am constantly remarking to my eldest son (who watches the local barn owls with me) that I'm amazed they're still alive. They must be STARVING every other night at least, right now - and I'm convinced that if this bleeding awful* weather doesn't change soon, they'll (our local pair) give up any attempt at breeding this year before they've even started - many birds do this (including my favourites, swifts) - what's the point of risking everything to bring up a family if you can't even find enough food for yourself.

 

I'm even, right now, tentatively considering breaking the golden rule with wildlife watching - that is to get involved. I'm starting to consider buying a bag of frozen weaner rats from a pet food store - with a view to defrosting one or two and wedging them on top of one of our owls' favourite posts during windy nights.

There are inherent risks with that sort of idea though - as there are with any "feeding wildlife" ideas. 

Firstly you are getting involved, unnaturally - you are unnaturally managing a natural system. You are therefore OBLIGED to not have that wildlife reliant on your actions. Nor should you effectively lure your wildlife out to your unnatural food and therefore put them at risk.

With regards to feeding wild barn owls defrosted weaner rats, you should realise that barn owls probably won't take unnatural, dead, white, cold baby rats at first anyway - unless they discover by accident that they're edible.

They need to be defrosted safely. Overnight, in a fridge. Not at room temperature or hotter or worse still in a microwave. Then they should be put on the owls' favourite perch within 24 hours.

Finally you should never get the owls used to the idea that they could come out in the driving rain to pick up your food from the perch. This could waterlog their feathers and kill them.

A lot to think about eh?

But right now... with this awful* weather seeming to be never-bleeding-ending - I am considering it...

TBR

 

 

*awful weather:    Someone (Christ knows who) once said "There's no such thing as bad weather. Just a bad choice of clothes".

What bull.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl weather https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/2/wet-wind-worry Mon, 24 Feb 2020 11:52:22 GMT
Our barn owls have paired up! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/2/our-barn-owls-have-paired-up Yes. This morning, on my walk, I watched sparrows take straw up into a local roof.

And today I also saw a magpie taking mud from our saturated garden and packing her nest with it... in our big fir tree.

But that's NOTHING compared to what Ben and I saw yesterday.

 

Regular readers of this blog might know that my eldest boy (Ben) and I have been watching the local barn owls (a mile or two SW of Binfield village) for a couple of months now.

We've noted a male and a female owl. Interact with each other a few times, over a favourite stubble field.

But not roost together.

Well... not until yesterday.

Yesterday, I drove us up to their patch and we saw both the female AND now the male too in the (female's original) roost for the first time this year.

They were both there this evening too - with the male leaving the joint (now) roost a good half hour earlier than the female.

The clip below (on YouTube) is audio only  - I've blacked out the visuals to protect the exact location of this schedule 1 bird.

I hope you enjoy it anyway - you'll hear my boy almost keel over with excitement and joy at seeing BOTH his favourite birds "team up" in the female's roost.

Now. Whilst it really is superb news that these owls have paired up - all barn owls are going through HELL at present what with all this wind and rain.

They are having HUGE trouble hunting, reliant on dry weather as they are, to keep airborne and still(ish) weather to hear their prey.

I desperately hope they catch some voles tonight... because if these inclement conditions continue, as I rather depressingly explained to Ben in the car tonight - these owls will abandon any attempt at breeding this year, before they even start. (No point risking everything in a breeding attempt if you can barely catch enough food to survive yourselves). 

Or... as the old joke goes: "It's too wet to woo, for owls..."

Cross your fingers, dear readers.

And your toes.

More soon.

TBR

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/2/our-barn-owls-have-paired-up Tue, 18 Feb 2020 20:22:28 GMT
...The Menace. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/2/-the-menace Dennis (really? Dennis?) has been (is being) pretty wild eh?

Even our local birds are being blown out of their trees...

Yes, OK. That's a plastic eagle owl … or at least the body of one - I couldn't see the head.

No... that grey blob behind the plastic owl body isn't its head, but one of a dozen or so dog poo bags chucked into the brambles by all you oh-so-considerate dog owners who nonsensically bleat that it's only the minority who behave like that.

The owl was nailed/tied to a big branch on an old oak tree outside someone's house just up the road. For some reason, they had nailed 2 owls to this tree (there's one left - see the photo below) but it seems Storm Dennis (really? Dennis?) cruelly ripped this avian couple apart last night.

It started raining here on Friday night and doesn't seem intent on stopping any time soon. To that extent, our flat roof (covering our side passage and two "outbuildings") has developed another leak this weekend (to go with the one that I knew about) - and the flashing around our chimney has developed another (to go with the leak that I identified last week after storm Ciara).

None of these are really serious leaks. I've put a bucket or two down in the attic (well... a mop bucket and a litter tray) and that seems to be doing the trick until we can get a roofer in.  But we will eventually (this summer probably) have to look to get these little niggles looked at.

And in the garden - well the fox (and hedgehog) tunnel under our tallest fence has been completely flooded. The local foxes have dug two big tunnels under our fences - big enough for a relatively big dog (I'd say... not just a big fox) to squeeze through, if it felt it had to. But looking at the photo below, nothing's gonnae use that tunnel for a while.

Finally, I, of course, went down to our local toad crossing last night (and this morning on my 5 mile walk - to photograph the road so you lucky, luck readers get an idea of what our "toad crossing" road looks like (below)) and helped nineteen of the little blighters cross the road.

Plenty more were squashed last night though - including one or two by the only car that went down that road in the forty minutes or so that I was there. At speed. Not even noticing the toads all over their road. *sighhhhh*.

I think I'm going to contact the local biodiversity officer of the council and suggest (strongly) that they need to put a toad sign up. 

Right, that shallot.

I'll leave you with photos of three of the nineteen toads I helped on their way last night...

Keep dry eh?

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) toad https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/2/-the-menace Sun, 16 Feb 2020 12:59:56 GMT
It's going to be a WILD night. Literally. (A post NOT for the squeamish)... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/2/its-going-to-be-a-wild-night-literally  

Toad crossingToad crossing

 

_________________________________________________________

 

EDIT: 15th Feb at 0930hrs. Please note - the original post below was written by me YESTERDAY (14th Feb) at around 1900hrs and put down as scheduled for automatic (delayed) publication at 0800hrs this morning.

I wrote it in such a way yesterday, so it would *read* that I wrote it this morning - I simply scheduled it for publication this morning as I didn't want to post twice in one day and I knew I wouldn't be able to get down to our local toad crossing last night.

Well... I did walk along our toad crossing this morning - after the predicted (below) few toads used their toad crossing last night - and what I saw there was very sad.

I'll continue this edit after my original post below...

 

_________________________________________________________

 

Quick one today, grapple fans.

I've already predicted (and seen) the start of the annual toad migration this year (last weekend) and while last night would have seen a few toads making their traditional annual journey from wood to breeding pond, as it was damp and about 10C here.... (I was busy so didn't get out to check our local crossing) - TONIGHT will be HUGE for the toads at my and your local crossings.

We're expecting Storm Dennis to bring lots of rain of course AND very high overnight temperatures for February (something like 13C here tonight I hear).

Now, wind aside, (toads aren't really affected by wind - stop sniggering at the back) those conditions are PERFICK MA, PERFICK for toads to get their crawl on, en masse.

Tonight's the start of toad season proper. Mark my words.

Get down to your local toad crossing after dark. But do stay safe too, out there.

It's going to be a wild night. Literally.

 

________________________________________________

 

Continued edit. 15th Feb at 0930hrs.

Yes, I did do my 5 mile walk around the area early this morning, taking in the toad crossing as I walked.

And I'm afraid to say... this (below) is what I found.

Now... I'm pretty sure that was a relatively quiet night at this particular toad crossing. Yes… I predicted a few toads would be moving last night (and so they did - perhaps more than a few, as it happens) but TONIGHT WILL be the big one.

Please, please, if you can. Find out where your local toad crossing is (use my hyperlinks above), get down there tonight (stay safe mind) and help these beautiful creatures avoid Pirelli and Goodyear for another year.

Thanks

TBR

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) migration rule da nation toad toad crossing with version https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/2/its-going-to-be-a-wild-night-literally Sat, 15 Feb 2020 08:00:00 GMT
"Station squabble". My intrigue. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/2/-station-squabble-my-intrigue You may have recently noticed that  Sam Rowley's "Station Squabble" below won the "Peoples' vote" in this year's Wildlife Photographer of the year competition. Not the overall prize, the peoples' vote (perhaps even more important then!).

And you might have noticed that yet again, *yawwwwn*, the keyboard warriors have started pouring scorn on this wonderful photo above.

 

Want my thoughts?

No?

Oh well... you're gonnae get them anyway (as you must be here for a reason?)

 

I think it's a superb image.

For many reasons - not least of all it's an image that we can all relate to. (Well... we Brits anyway).

I also love it because unlike many other award-winning wildlife photographs, the subject of this particular award-winning photograph, (i.e. the wildlife, in this case the two mice) only fills a tiny, tiny proportion of the whole frame. At a guess... 0.66% (1/150th)? I LOVE that.

I also like it as it really intrigues me.

When I lived and worked in London (ohhhh over a decade now) not that I was taking any photographs at the time (I didn't have a camera) but I was certainly aware that one wasn't allowed to take photos on or in London Underground land.

I guess that's changed now that everyone has a camera on their phone - it would be a bit weird banning photography on the tube now - although I wouldn't be surprised if it still wasn't allowed.

So how did Sam take this shot?

It was with a bona fide camera, a pretty standard Nikon (not a £5000 D5 or anything though),. and a pretty standard lens (again... not a £10,000 500mm f4 prime lens or anything) - but obviously a "proper" DSLR around Sam's neck - as he went into the Tube.

Also did he really lie on his belly on the platform for hours and hours, waiting for the perfect shot?

Well... if he did, he has waaay bigger "cojones" than me - I don't think I'd lie down for more than five seconds on a central London tube platform (as that's where he did shoot this - although he hasn't publicised exactly which station).

But that's my point really.

He may well have laid down on the central London tube station platform for hours and hours - so I can only assume he got permission for this. From TFL (Transport for London). And are we to assume therefore that this shot was taken in the middle of the night, when either no trains were running or very, very few passengers were about?

Finally - on the subject of passengers - WHO IS THAT in the background (the mice are almost pointing to this blurred person, sitting on a bench at the far end of the platform - a person wearing what looks like blue jeans and a green top)?

If it is a passenger waiting for a train - then I'd be amazed if they were OK with the photo being taken of them (they wouldn't know that they were out of focus in the shot).

Or....

is it....

the photographer himself?

With a remote shutter switch in his hand -triggered just at the right moment when the two mice wander across his Nikon's field of view 40 yards or so away down the platform?

Well... I don't really suppose it is Sam, the photographer, to be honest (as he'd have said it was if it was him... and of top of that it appears to be a woman doesn't it?) - but my intrigue is still boiling over with this wonderful image.

It's SUPERB.

I love it.

But purely from a technical and logistical (and legal!) point of view - I'd just LOVE to know how he got this shot.

Wonderful stuff Mr. Rowley.

A very, very well deserved award!

 

 

Oh and by the way... Sam Rowley, just like yours truly, graduated from Bristol University's biology department, although Sam looks like he graduated about twenty years after me!

Hmmm.... I think, as a fellow Bris biology (well... zoology for me... (same department though)) graduate, I might just give him a bell and ask him for his "Station squabble" shot secrets....

_________________________________________________________

 

EDIT. 15th Feb at around 0930am.

Well well well.... looks like Sam DID lie on his belly on a central London tube station for hour upon hour. Whilst the station was open - and full of drunk punters! Big, big cojones indeed! Although when I was his age, (early mid 20s ish) I'd have probably done similar!

What inspirational stuff eh?!

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bristol unveristy peoples choice station squabble wildlife photographer of the year https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/2/-station-squabble-my-intrigue Fri, 14 Feb 2020 15:51:28 GMT
Super moon toads. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/2/super-moon-toads Just the quickest of posts this evening to say Ben and I are having GREAT success following our barn owls recently - the photo below is of Ben looking at last night's "Snow supermoon" on another of our (successful) owl hunts.

 

Also - please be on the lookout NOW for toads at their traditional toad crossings.

As I've blogged here once or twice (or thrice!) before, all the toads need in February or March (generally) is a little wet in the air and night-time temperatures to be over saaaaay 9C - and they're on the move.
Storm Ciara (or whatever) today brought those exact conditions here, so Ben and I went on our first toad patrol of the season at our nearest toad crossing and we managed to spot our first toad of the year and help him across the road.

Toad crossing (2)Toad crossing (2)

Keep 'em peeled grapple fans...

More soon.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl supermoon toad https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/2/super-moon-toads Sun, 09 Feb 2020 19:40:48 GMT
Giving thanks and thanks for nothing. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/2/giving-thanks-and-thanks-for-nothing Disclaimer: The two (massively-cropped) photos in this post were taken by me this morning with my tiny wee pocket camera. I know they're awful. Barn owls are schedule 1 birds and it is an offence in the eyes of the law (1981 wildlife and countryside act) to deliberately OR recklessly disturb these birds at or near their roosts or nests. My boy and I watch these birds from a large distance and generally don't even take photos (there's no point from the distance we put between the owls and us).

 

It struck me this morning, as my eldest boy and I watched "our" two local barn owls quarter over a stubble field near Wokingham, SW of Binfield village in Berkshire, just before sunrise, that what I was experiencing was, I suppose, one of the greatest pleasures I could hope to experience in my life and I should be thankful for that.

I stood beside my boy and watched the delight creep over his face as he gaped through my new binoculars at these beautiful white owls, in the gathering dawn, with not a soul around, other than his dad. He was privileged to see these owls this morning, I was privileged to be able to show them to him (again) and I am truly thankful for that.

I should say he nearly exploded with joy when we watched the female owl drop onto a big vole just before 07:55am (so about fifteen minutes after sunrise this morning) and then fly back to her roost with it in her beak (terrible photo below).

It also struck me this morning, on the first day in what … nearly fifty years... when we are at least legally out of the EU, rather than actually out, that I should also perhaps be a little sad, watching these beautiful owls with my eldest son, who is only just seven years old, after all. 

Sad?

Yes. Sad.

We're all agnostic I suppose, but I would also chalk myself up as an atheist - but I see little point debating the subject of whether God exists or not with anyone really. It's futile. You either believe there is bearded, supernatural, all powerful, omnipresent being sat on a cloud in the sky or you don't.

An all-loving supernatural being by the way, kind enough to give some children bone cancer... and loving enough to ensure there are insects in some part of the world which do NOTHING ELSE but burrow into childrens' eyes and blind them.

If you do believe in the above, then you also probably see the merits of ensuring there are spaces in our law-making establishments left open to be filled by leaders of your religion (you know... that religion about the all-loving bone cancer-giving supernatural being I mentioned above) and you may even believe that your all-loving God (yes... the same one that "designed" those eye burrowing insects) gives the human race a good "moral code" to stick by. Hmmmm.

You may even believe that your religion doesn't hold back progress.  OKaaaaay….

Yes... you either believe that (palpable) BS... or you don't. You are, of course, entitled to hold your opinions, whether they're demonstrably ridiculous or not.

 

Likewise, I'm not going to resurrect the argument (academic or not) surrounding Brexit after this post. To do so would be futile.  You either believed the BS spouted by Farage et.al. or you didn't. Personally, in what....almost four years of Brexit... I've not heard ONE intelligent argument which adds any real weight to the notion that leaving the EU is in any way a good idea.

People often vomit up their vapid clichés of "sovereignty" or "freedom" without knowing what either word actually means, when asked to defend their Brexit mentality. 

Actually. Worse still is the argument that "I voted out because I don't like how the Northern powerhouses are treating countries like Greece in the EU". That is nothing more than a coward's reasoning - and it would be fair to say that if you've always thought like that, you wouldn't have been my friend in the school playground -  and nor would you be now.

Rather than walk away, I'd suggest you try to quickly grow a pair - and whilst you're at it, a spine - and then start challenging what you perceive to be bullies.

Bit too late probably for you now though, eh?

 

No, it strikes me that the vast majority of people who voted "out", also still find the "Carry On" films funny (rather than the embarrassing garbage that they are) and find people like Greta Thunberg intolerable. They'll often invariably be hysterical monarchists, quite content (over the moon in fact) to prostrate themselves in front of those they think have the "special blood" and call those special-blood people (with no smirking) "your majesty" or "your highness". Oh we'll grow up one day and disestablish the church AND ALSO then abolish the monarchy - but not in my lifetime I fear.

Look, I wouldn't go as far to say that in general, the people who voted Brexit are stupid -  although I certainly would firmly apply that label to the handful of Scots I know who voted AGAINST the proposal for Scotland to leave the UK in 2014 (so a vote to stay in the UK) and also voted for the UK to LEAVE the EU in 2016. Wow! If you voted that way, then there's little hope for you I'm afraid. I don't think I could describe blind stupidity any better.

No. The majority of people who voted FOR Brexit probably aren't stupid. Ignorant possibly, but that's fine. I'm ignorant about 99% of everything I'm sure. Ignorance only becomes problematic where it is wilful ignorance.

 

That all said, what they (you?) did do when you voted OUT - is (stupidly? You're reading this wildlife blog because you enjoy wildlife no?) vote for less environmental protection for everything in the UK.

Including less protection for our beautiful barn owls that my boy(s) and I (and you?) take so much pleasure from watching.

(Think I'm spouting hyperbole? Read this then).

You also voted to give my boys less money in their pockets, fewer rights and far less freedom in the future.

Freedom that you yourselves HAD - but have now denied my boys.

So.

Today. 

On behalf of my boys and also on behalf of the owls that they love:

Thanks for that.

Thanks for nothing.

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/2/giving-thanks-and-thanks-for-nothing Sat, 01 Feb 2020 19:14:00 GMT
Daffy. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/1/daffy January then.

When cultivated varieties of daffodil (so Narcissus agg. rather than the wild Narcissus pseudonarcissus) start to flower on roadsides and on suburban roundabouts (as in the photos below - which I snapped today on my very small mobile phone).

Of course, January is also generally the month (but sometimes it'll be as "early" as December) when people start noticing these "early daffs" and start shouting about them on soeshul meedja, proclaiming that they've never seen daffodils flower in January before and that these winter-flowering daffodils are proof positive of climate change etc etc....

*Sighhhhh*.

*E  v  e  r  y     s  i  n  g  l  e     y  e  a  r*

The fact that they've not seen daffodils flowering in January before is more of a nod to the fact that they've not really noticed them before, rather than they didn't exist.

These January-flowering daffodils are cultivated, after all, to flower IN January. Or February. Or even December sometimes.

They are literally designed to flower now.

And have been doing so for years.

And years.

And years.

 

There is a lot of demonstrable, observable evidence of moving or shifting phenological datasets in the natural world - and many of these shifts do indeed point to climate change (or anthropogenically-accelerated climate change, to be more exact) being an incontrovertible fact.  Yes... 'CC' really is a given these days.

But varieties of cultivated daffodils, bred to flower in January, actually doing just that, i.e. flowering in January, on a Bracknell industrial estate roundabout does NOT form part of this evidence.

And like I say, if you've not seen daffs flowering in January before... you've just not noticed them before. They always have been. They always were.

That's all.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) daffodil https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/1/daffy Thu, 23 Jan 2020 15:50:20 GMT
"Balance" and "Natural order" (sighhhhh). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/1/-balance-and-natural-order-sighhhhh I was reading this piece in the Grauniad today...

as I wanted to get a view on plants for birds...and I came across this comment from someone calling themselves TuityFruity.

I know, I know... one shouldn't read the comment section in online newspapers' pieces.

I read TuityFruity's comment and sighed.

TuityFruity's comment has now received a dozen "likes" or "markups"... the most well-received comment to the column I think - not that surprising really as most British wildlife lovers (and Guardian readers also) will think that the comment seems to make the most sense, mentioning "balance" etc, as it did.

TuityFruity's comment is BS though of course - and I started penning a response.

Then I remembered that I'd not be falling into the trap of commenting on online forums (fora?) this year as it really doesn't do me any good.

But I wrote my response anyway... and I reproduce it below. (I didn't add it to the comment section however).

Happy new year again, grapple fans.

 

 

"Redressing the balance"?

Oh dear.

A facile cliché often used by those who use other clichés like *shudder* "the natural order" (of things).

 

There is no order, no balance either.

Natural order is disorder. Some people might call this entropy.

Life and all the zoological and botanical (and mycological!) relationships within, is constantly fluid in nature. Dynamic. Moving... and in competition even.

The whole point of life is to perpetuate that life... and NOT to keep any balance. That's a particularly human concept.

 

There may be an *illusion* of order and balance - but this is just that - an illusion based on a momentary observation of a fluid system in chronic dynamic competition with all others.

Field voles haven’t evolved (or worse still, weren’t “designed") to hide well from barn owls so that the owls and voles can live in a balanced (or worse still “harmonious”) stasis. Likewise, “balance” isn’t the highest priority of owls.

This notion of balance and stasis is at best, nonsense.

Tuityfruity seems to exhibit all the hallmarks of someone only considering macro biology in her (I assume with an online moniker of TuityFruity, it’s a her) warped notion of balance, too.

What about the myriad of micro biology that she doesn’t see and therefore won’t often or ever consider? The beetles or nematodes or annelids or arachnids or fungi or bacteria or anything else that doesn’t make an obvious noise outside TuityFruity's window. Does bringing in large numbers of (hungry) birds to a small area - and covering the ground beneath the feeders with a load of highly alkali bird poo or food-drop or probing (for other things) beaks “redress the balance” for this unseen life. Of course not.

TuityFruity not only has tunnel vision. It’s filtered too. And myopic.

 

Even if there was "balance" (there just isn't), to suggest that because people have put decking up next door, your feeder full of fatty sunflower hearts which bring 30 greenfinches to 3 square foot of tree, for months on end, with all their associated diseases and predator-attracting results, redresses this errr… “balance” is simply, demonstrably, unequivocally, unambiguously incorrect.

 

Conservation is good of course. But it only conserves (or preserves really) the present (perhaps short lived) state of affairs. It does NOT keep any permanency of *shudder* "balance" or "order".

 

After reading my diatribe above, some may think I'm suggesting that you shouldn't feed birds as it's a bad thing to do and doesn’t help the birds.

I'm not saying that at all.

Feed the birds by all means... help the odd bird in times of need – and also get a load of personal pleasure from it – but…. be honest enough to admit that the primary reason for you feeding the birds is YOUR OWN pleasure – and not the birds’ wellbeing or any redressing of any perceived “balance”. (Sigh).

If you REALLY want to help the birds, plant more trees and bushes all over the place ... outside your tiny suburban garden. Oh - and try to live a somewhat less consumer led life whilst using thoughtless, vapid phrases like "balance" and “natural order” far, FAR less often.

 

Recommended further reading for TuityFruity and anyone else who believes in “natural order” and “balance” and “stasis”:

 

"Are British garden wildlife lovers harming wildlife?" (A blog post by me in November 2018).

 

The Red Queen by Matt Ridley (yes yes, I know we all think Ridley is a bit of a plonker these days… just read his early stuff… like Dawkins… and forget the rest).

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) balance natural order rant sigh https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/1/-balance-and-natural-order-sighhhhh Sun, 19 Jan 2020 19:12:49 GMT
2020 vision. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/1/2020-vision

 

Happy new year to all my reader.

I thought I'd kick off this year with a review.

A binoculars review.

Well... it is 2020 after all, so this optical equipment review is certainly apt!

 

I'm sure the regular reader of this blog will know I've never been comfortable with people calling me a "birdwatcher" or worse still... a "birder". (shudder).

Sure, I've been watching birds since I can remember (4 or 5 years old?) but then again I've been watching everything since that age.

Not just birds.

But insects too.

Mammals.

Fish.

Spiders.

Reptiles.

Amphibians.

Planes even.

Motorbikes.

Cars.

You get the picture. Pretty-well anything outside … that moves.

So I'm more of an "outsider" (in every sense) than a "birdwatcher".

From quite an early age, when I thought of your typical "birdwatcher" or "birder" (shudder), I thought of some middle-aged (or older) bloke (almost always a man), white, often called Nigel (apologies to any nice Nigel reading this), who spoke using his nose more than his mouth and often banged on about how many birds he'd seen in his life and why his £1000 pair of binoculars or spotting scope was so much superior to my second-hand TASCO rubbish.

I also often got the impression, after coming across these Nigels all the time, that they weren't really interested in the birds they professed to be interested in, missed a lot of other wildlife and sights and sounds whilst "birdwatching", bored me rigid... and to be frank they weren't the sort of people I wanted to associate with. At all.

The snobby optical equipment thing was a real stumbling block for me when I met "the Nigels".

I have never owned a pair of expensive binoculars. I couldn't possibly justify spending so much money on something like that. I couldn't afford them even if I could justify the expense!

So I lugged around my Grandfather's beaten up, old, heavy 20x50 whatever-they-weres for years... and basically got sneered at by the Nigels with their Leica or Zeiss binoculars.

For the last decade or so, my wife and I have been sharing a dirt-cheap pair of TASCO 10x42s, which were at least new when I bought them.

But now, after a little research, I decided to buy a new pair, as those TASCO binoculars have got badly scratched over the years and filled with all kind of gunk.

The pair I decided to buy is a (wait for it... you may not have heard of the brand before) pair of CARSON RD 8x42 binoculars.

I know. I know. I hadn't heard of them (Carson) before my research, either.

Look... the whole point of this blog post is to quickly review these EXCELLENT binoculars and demonstrate that you DON'T have to spend north of £500 or even north of £150 to get a decent, a very decent pair of binoculars - despite the protestations of the Leica and Zeiss Nigels, banging on about their ED glass.

 

So.

Why did I choose this pair - and what do I like about them?

 

 

  • I wanted a pair of good light gathering binoculars.  When you're looking at the light-gathering capabilities of binoculars, remember to divide the diameter of the objective lens (42mm in my case) by the magnification (8 in my case), giving you a figure (of 5.25 in my case). This is the effective exit pupil figure (EPF) of the binoculars in millimetres.  I didn't want this EPF to drop below 5.25 (even 5.0 would have been too low, so 10x50 for example would have been out for me). I actually think this is the MOST important figure to consider when looking at technical specs of binoculars for watching wildlife. Especially in dull old Britain. Wildlife tends to be most apparent at dawn or dusk (or night of course!) and without a good light-gathering capability in your pair of binoculars (so yes, an EPF of at least 5.25 if possible), then it doesn't matter that you have a 12X magnification or a 20X magnification in your binoculars - you won't be able to see that owl in the gloom, as you'll have an image that's too dark to see anything much and too shaky (more magnification means MUCH heavier binoculars).

 

  • I didn't want to spend more than £130 (I know, I know... I have a large amount of Scottish blood in me - what can I say).

 

  • I wanted the ocular lens diameter (the lens which you look through) to be at LEAST 20mm, if not more like 24mm. This makes looking through the binoculars and lining your eyes up to "get" the image, far easier for you - and also easier for kids who aren't used to binoculars. These Carson RD 8x42s have an ocular lens diameter of 23mm. MUCH better than my old TASCO binoculars.

 

  • I wanted all the lenses to be multi-coated, rather than some single coated. The Carson RD 8x42s are all multi-coated.

 

  • I wanted the prisms to be silver coated, making the efficiency of light reflection within the binoculars to be maximised. Tick there also.

 

  • I wanted them to be relatively light, easily adjustable and have lens covers which can remain attached to the binoculars. Final tick!

 

  • Finally... which wasn't on my list... these Carson RD 8x42s come in a very well-made, sturdy hard case - which will be GREAT for packing in  suitcases etc if we ever go abroad again - but not so good for putting in the driver's door compartment of my car I'm afraid. I drive a gurt big estate car which I call "the hearse". It's a big black Octavia Scout and generally it has plenty of space to store things. I always have my binoculars in my door cubby hole - but I'm afraid the rigid Carson RD case won't fit in that space. So they now go in, nekked. So to speak. That said, I think the Carson case is a plus point generally - like I say, I'm sure I'll be very happy about the sturdy case when I bung my binoculars in a suitcase.

 

I ordered these binoculars from Amazon and paid £120. 

So... no... these aren't cheapy cheap binoculars like ohhhh I dunno… Celestron or yes... Tasco.

But they are INCREDIBLE value for money I think. 

They arrived yesterday and I've already tested them out in the field.

 

  • Chromatic aberration and fringing is superb (for non ED glass), close focusing is great too, field of view isn't too bad (it's never going to be too bad at 8x magnification though - much more problematic at 10 or 12 or 20x magnification) and compared to our old TASCO 10x42s, it's like shining a torch on the subject. Chalk and cheese.

 

  • I'm blown away by the large ocular (where you put your eyes) lenses too. I am aware that as I get older and older, like everyone, I simply won't have the ability to open up my pupils as much as I could when I was 18 for example, (maybe I could've opened up my pupil to 7mm at 18yo, it will be more like 5mm now I'm past 45!), so perhaps 8x50 binoculars (with an EPF of 6.25 (that's 50/8 remember) would be wasted on me these days). Something around 5.25 is perfect (like my new Carson RD 8x42s) but also with a nice big ocular lens (of 23mm in this case).

 

  • Finally the eyepiece adjustment is great (I've started wearing reading glasses, or varifocals to be precise) since I turned 45, so it's handy to have 17mm of clearance for when I'm NOT wearing my glasses (most of the time in the field as my long range vision is still UNSURPASSED at present!) or when I am.

 

Grapple fans. The point I'm trying to make here is that these relatively cheap (you can probably pick them up on ebay for £100) binoculars are honestly SUPERB.

If these binoculars were available in the 1980s or 1990s, they'd have cost closer to £1000 than £100, believe me.

So no... you really don't have to spend many hundreds of pounds to get a nice set of binoculars that do the job really, REALLY well.

Oh sure, the snobby Nigels may still sneer. 

But I'm too old to care these days and even if I  did care, I'd honestly think it was they that had wasted their money, not me.

 

Right then. That's all for now.

If you get a chance, do read THIS review of these (award-winning I now see!) binoculars, which is far more detailed than my review above.

And do consider buying these excellent jobbies, if you're looking for a cheap(ish) new pair.

Or if not my Carson RD 8x42s, might I also recommend (even though I've not bought them, these also ticked all my boxes above):

Helios Nitrosport 8x42. Even cheaper than my Carson RD 8x42s at £80! With phase corrected lenses too! And no, I don't suppose you've heard of Helios binoculars either? Again... I'd not either - until I looked into the subject in detail over Christmas.

 

Of course... you could still consider buying these binoculars instead, especially if your name is.... Nigel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) binoculars carson rd 8x42 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2020/1/2020-vision Thu, 09 Jan 2020 10:31:16 GMT
A bit batty? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/12/a-bit-batty My eldest and I are having great fun this winter "holiday" looking for and finding barn owls in the local countryside at dusk.

Yesterday was no exception - and our latest barn owl performed marvellously in front of us, silently quartering over the winter stubble field in the gloom as we crouched down, holding our breath(s).

Also... and it's worth noting this - yesterday, my eldest boy spotted the owl first - if it wasn't for him I may well have missed it! (My eyes and awareness are legendary generally... but I'm not superhuman and I LOVE IT when he sees something before me - it means I'm training him to "use his eyes" (a nod to long-standing readers of this blog there) well).

At dusk yesterday we also watched three roe deer and the usual big covey(s) of red-legged partridge and roosting jackdaws and two v-formation skeins of geese flying just over our heads to their roosts in a quite stunning sunset.

Then there were the rabbits of course and the tawny owls waking up and proclaiming their territories.

What we DIDN'T expect to see on the 30th December though... were BATS.

My eldest is 7 years old so is always in bed when bats tend to emerge (after dusk in the spring, summer and autumn) and told me last night that he'd never seen a bat before (despite us being luck enough to have TWO pips hunt in our garden each dusk during the typical "bat season").

Yesterday though, we watched two bats (common or soprano pips) hunt around a local church and then saw another on our walk back from watching the barn owl a few miles away.

Three bats out in the day (effectively) and in the winter (definitely).

Mad. Or... *ahem* batty?

I reported this as a footnote to my latest barn owl report on the "Berks bird sightings" website and a local young birdwatcher kindly emailed me to tell me that he had seen two soprano pips at Windsor Great Park on the same day (yesterday).

Whether this is a sign of global warming or not is debatable - but it certainly is a sign of a very mild couple of days in late December and a few hungry local bats hoovering up the odd winter moth and gnat that is around....

 

Happy 2020, grapple fans.

 

 

 

Below. Moon. Belfry. Venus. (last night).

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl buzzard canada goose common pipstrelle egyptian goose rabbit red-legged partridge roe deer soprano pipistrelle tawny owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/12/a-bit-batty Tue, 31 Dec 2019 09:54:59 GMT
Floody great! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/12/floody-great Merry Christmas to the reader (s?!) of this wildlife blog.

A quick question to start this wee blog post.

The photo below was taken by me at our local farm yesterday, after we had had our Christmas lunch at a local pub.

The photo is of a flooded single track road around a winter crop field at the farm.

That said, the flooded single track farm road is not quite how it appears in this photo.

But why not?

Answer at the end of this blog post!

 

 

My eldest boy and I spent the afternoon (well... hour at dusk anyway) on the hunt for our local barn owls, which we've not seen for months and have had such a dreadful autumn.

In case you weren't aware (I'm sure you were... but anyway....) UK barn owls are at the northern edge of their worldwide territory in the UK (in fact I think I saw the one of the world's most northerly (at the time) pair of barn owls in North Scotland in the mid eighties) because... well... basically... they just don't DO rain. In order to fly silently and hear their prey, barn owls have fluffy edges to feathers with very little oil in them - they basically can't afford to get too wet or they get waterlogged, can't fly, can't hunt and therefore can't eat and can't survive.

And we've had night after night of rain round 'ere this Autumn.

But like I say, at dusk yesterday, Ben and I decided to go hunting barn owls on foot, rather than by car... and we found one! HALLE and indeed LUJAH!

Not only that, but I showed Ben how to call one towards one, by mimicking a vole. 

My eldest boy now thinks his Dad is friends with all the barn owls!

Anyway... it's lovely to have seen one of our local barn owls again last night and lovely to be able to show them to my boy(s) rather than just go and see these things on my own, like I've pretty-well been doing for the past forty-odd years!

 

 

OK.

The photo of the flooded single track farm road then.

Did YOU spot what was wrong with it?

The photo is reproduced again below...

Only...

v

 

v

 

v

 

v

 

v

 

v

 

v

 

v

 

v

 

v

 

v

THIS TIME...

v

 

v

 

v

 

v

 

v

 

v

It's the RIGHT WAY ROUND (flipped vertically 180 degrees).

Just to clarify then, the first two times I put the photo of this flooded single-track road under a still, blue Christmas Day sky on this wildlife blog, I posted it upside down (the sky at the bottom of the shot and the reflected trees in the flooded road at the TOP of the photo).

The reproduction above is the right way round (flooded reflection of trees and sky at bottom of shot and actual sky at top) and I've added accompanying text and a red ring around a bit of floating flotsam in the flood to show the viewer that this photo is now the right way round. You'll see in the first shot at the top of this post that that bit of flotsam is still there... but at the top of the shot... in the supposed sky.

There were other visual clues of course, which you may well see a little better now that I've explained it all.

 

Right then.

I have tea to make.

Merry Christmas to you... and all of us here at Black Rabbit Towers (including the barn owls) wish you a peaceful and prosperous 2020.

Until then then...

TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl christmas flood https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/12/floody-great Thu, 26 Dec 2019 16:54:05 GMT
Watching one's carbos. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/12/watching-ones-carbos Everyone has a crow in their neighbourhood with a call that sounds like the ring of an old phone, amirite?  And when I say "old phone", I don't mean an old smartphone, but one of the first cordless phones or an old bakelite rotary phone with a handset complete with transmitter at one end and receiver at t'other.

Yes. Everyone has a crow in their neighbourhood that sounds like that. A standout crow, if you like. Shunned by its brethren and er... sesren? for NOT being able to produce a proper crow CAW like THIS.... but instead like THIS.

But we lucky folk in North Bracknell not only have an "old phone crow" but also a standout cormorant too.

 

Every day if I can, but certainly a few times a week at least, I try to take a five mile walk around the 'hood. These walks get me away from my computer, clear my mind, strengthen my back and probably do me the world of good I expect.

Regular readers of this blog may appreciate that whilst on my walks, I tend to notice the local wildlife.

And I've REGULARLY noticed a rogue cormorant flying in large laps around North Bracknell.  On its tod. Sometimes high. Sometimes quite low. But almost invariably (if that isn't an oxymoron... and in fact it is!) stubbornly just flying round and round in giant laps above North Bracknell. And never seeming to land.

 

It's weird.

It should be on the Thames with the others. 

Or on one of many large reservoirs  and/or gravel pits in this part of the world, where one can find (much to the anglers' disgust) dozens of these (former) sea or coastal birds.

But our rogue cormorant here over North Bracknell is a rebel. A loner. A maverick cormorant existing on the fringes of cormorant society.

It almost makes me wonder whether it's a real cormorant or not.

I watched it this morning doing laps in a rare blue sky over North Bracknell - and thought to myself...

 

"I wonder. I wonder if that weird cormorant (that doesn't behave like any other cormorant) isn't, in fact, a cormorant at all".

"Perhaps it's some kind of clever drone -put up over North Bracknell each morning to check on the traffic movement or local residents".

"Yeah. Perhaps it's a police cormorant".

 

As I finished my walk, I strolled past Farley Moor Lake

And as I strolled past this lake in North Bracknell... I amazingly saw this cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) actually land on the lake.

So "it can't be a drone can it?" I thought... 

... as a police car drove by me, very slowly, with both police officers inside looking at the part of the lake that the cormorant just landed on.

Hmmmmm…..

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) cormorant https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/12/watching-ones-carbos Wed, 18 Dec 2019 12:47:53 GMT
Did you catch me on LBC Radio yesterday? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/11/did-you-catch-me-on-lbc-radio-yesterday Well?
Did you?

Some chap rang into "Mystery hour" on the James O'Brien LBC radio show to pose the question:

"Why are goldfish so-called, when they're clearly NOT 'gold' coloured, but orange instead".

Now, regular readers of this blog may remember one of my more popular posts from seven years ago now, where I discussed a similar matter.

Anyway... I thought I'd ring the James O'Brien show and give the chap (and the listening nation... all on tenterhooks, I'm sure you can imagine!) the answer, live on air.

What?

You DIDN'T listen to the James O'Brien show on LBC, on Thursday November 7th, between 10am and 1pm?

Well...

Now's your chance.

Download the global player app to your smartphone, or tablet or listen on the webplayer on your desktop.

Go to LBC on the app.

Select Catch-up.

Select the James O'Brien show on LBC, on Thursday November 7th.

Press play.

The show starts with 3 hours left to play.

Fast forward to around 21 minutes left to play (I was introduced just after James says "It's 12:39")

And then enjoy three minutes of yours truly, talking about goldfish, robins, red kites, red-necked phalarope, red foxes, red squirrels, red grouse, the colours yellow, orange, red and gold, the 16th century, Sanskrit and Dravidian roots to words …. and..... Anglo Saxon.

I never got time to mention "red haired" people mind....

TBR.

 

Oh.... by the way... you have until November 14th (6 days as I write) to listen to my dulcet tones on the global player app catch-up of recording of yesterday's James O'Brien show - before the episode disappears into the mists of time, like a glowing-eyed, lolloping black rabbit. Beckonnnning yoooooouuuuu.

RobinRobin

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) colour fame at last gold goldfish james o'brien lbc radio mystery hour orange https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/11/did-you-catch-me-on-lbc-radio-yesterday Fri, 08 Nov 2019 18:53:04 GMT
"The wildlife daddies" - a year on the road. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/11/-the-wildlife-daddies---a-year-on-the-road Seems a bit crass, posting this, after the sad news a week ago, but here it is anyway.

Whilst most people record on their dashcams and then post online all their near-misses in their cars - my eldest boy and I ("The wildlife daddies") use our dashcam on our car we've called "the hearse" (it's a big black 4x4 estate car) to record all the animals we see whilst out on our drives.

The video below is a compilation of thirty-or-so clips of various animals (from barn owls to stoats) that "the wildlife daddies" have seen then, between early October 2018 and early October 2019 - a year on the roads.

You (as viewers) will do well to see all the animals that either I (or my eldest) point out in these clips - the dashcam is a VERY wide angle lens after all, so makes things appear MUCH smaller and further away than they were in real life - not to mention the fact that Youtube has compressed the original HD quality video.

But I hope you enjoy the video anyway and in it, you'll certainly be able to see a lot of the animals that we point out. A hint here.... as soon as the text (naming the animal in the clip) disappears, the animal does too, at the same time - i.e. the animal leaves the frame when the text naming it leaves the frame.

You may even start enjoying the rather eclectic sound track we often have pumping out of the car stereo on these wildlife drives!

More soon,

TBR

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl buzzard canada goose dashcam fox great spotted woodpecker green woodpecker little owl mole pheasant rabbit red-legged partridge roe deer stoat tawny owl the wildlife daddies wildlife https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/11/-the-wildlife-daddies---a-year-on-the-road Thu, 07 Nov 2019 16:59:10 GMT
Sad news. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/11/sad-news It is with a heavy heart that I should tell regular followers of this blog that our big male hedgehog who (I think) I first noticed in the garden in mid March this year, has died.

Regular readers of this wildlife blog will know that I try to get our local (garden(s)) population of hedgehogs moving around the 'hood as much as possible and am always digging hedgehog tunnels under our fences and even doors, to get them moving around and breeding.

I was aware that on digging the tunnel under our side passage door (through concrete) I was opening up the hedgehogs' territory to include our road - but that was a risk that I had to take on.

For some weeks now, we have had at least two hedgehogs in our garden, one larger male and one much smaller hedgehog (probably male, but still hard to tell). These two hedgehogs have been using my side passage tunnel each night.

I videoed our larger male hog chewing on my hat the other night.

I then videoed him leaving a food tunnel I'd created primarily for the smaller hedgehog, to fatten it up before any hibernation (see below)

So... the last time I videoed our big male hedgehog was at 2am (I forgot to put the trail cam's clock back in this clip) on the 30th October 2019. This will be my last clip of our big male hedgehog, we have to assume.

 

A few hours later  (about 8am) Anna found the body of this hedgehog fifty yards from our house, on the road - clearly hit by a car.

Very sad news.

I have left reporting this news for a few days, but it would be fair to say now that after a few nights of leaving the trail camera out each night in a vain attempt to keep videoing our bigger hedgehog (a nightly star on the trail camera video clips)… I am convinced that the dead hedgehog outside our house the other morning WAS indeed our large male - as the trail camera has not picked him up once since.

Really sad news.

 

 

Now.

Does this dark cloud have any sort of silver lining?

Well... perhaps.

Firstly, I can't be 100% sure that the hedgehog killed on the road outside our house in the small hours of October 30th IS our large male. I'm almost sure  -  but I can't be 100% sure. My wife and I have got previous here, finding a squashed hedgehog on our road, 100 yards from our house, thinking the worst and then being nicely surprised nine days later.

Secondly - even if was our large male on the road... we still have our small hedgehog each night in our garden - who is eating lots of hedgehog food in the tunnel I've built for it.

Thirdly - even if it was our large male on the road, perhaps the smaller hedgehog that we have visiting is his progeny (it is almost certainly not even one year old - it really is small) - so perhaps he did get to sow his wild oats before he got hit by a car.

All of this is speculation of course... but a small crumb of comfort perhaps.

Sad anyway though....

 

Footnote.

This is now the third hedgehog that has been squashed on our 20MPH speed limit road in the last two years, within 150 yards of our house.

I am still dumbfounded that on a 20MPH road, car drivers can still squash hedgehogs on roads.

Sure, I'm hyper-aware and am always looking some way down the road when I drive anywhere - but I thought other drivers at least tried to do the same. I guess not.

So. A plea then to all motorists out there... please, please try to be a little more engaged in the driving process when you're behind the wheel and try to be a little more aware of things on or by or crossing roads. One could perhaps forgive you for accidentally squashing a frog, or a stag beetle... but not a pint-glass (or bigger!) sized hedgehog.

Because if you don't fully engage in the job of driving well (and NOT hitting and killing things) and you all still continue to insist to brick up your telly-tubby gardens  - well... we will have no hedgehogs left in a couple of decades.

It's incredible to think that when I was a boy in the early eighties, doing my paper-rounds in the dark, I'd always see/hear four or five hedgehogs each night... without even trying - but fast forward a few decades and my sons may well not be able to see ANY soon. Or ever again.

How sad would that be?

Too sad to think too much about, to be honest.

 

Until the next time then.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/11/sad-news Sat, 02 Nov 2019 15:47:27 GMT
You tell me! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/10/you-tell-me

Regular readers of this blog may know that we have two hedgehogs wandering through our side passage each night - a large male and a smaller female.

At this time of year they'll be looking to seriously fatten up before settling down in a suitable hibernaculum for the winter.

But last night our male hedgehog decided to have a right go at my old Bristol University Rugby beanie hat - and I mean a RIGHT go at it!

Have a look at the video below and you tell me what is happening!

 

Is he looking for bedding material for his hibernaculum?

Does he find the smell and taste of my old UBRFC hat irresistible?

And what is all this excessive licking and cleaning about - is he suffering (more than many hedgehogs) from ticks and fleas etc?

Strange days nights...

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bristol university Bristol University Rugby Football Club hedgehog strange UBRFC https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/10/you-tell-me Tue, 29 Oct 2019 11:43:34 GMT
WPOTY. The worst ever? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/10/wpoty-the-worst-ever I know, I know. Six years ago now I moaned about the lack of invertebrates in winning/commended images in the prestigious WPOTY competition, run by the Natural History Museum in London.

That changed pretty quickly when invertebrate categories were included (the organisers of the competition CLEARLY read this blog!) but the following year I was even more damning of the earnest commentary to the winning photo (and not just the overall winner), penned by the photographer(s) himself (themselves). I mean... they called THEIR OWN IMAGE.... "almost biblical". Come off it!

 

Those two years aside, I try NOT to criticise the world's most prestigious wildlife photography competition, as the winning images are invariably breath-taking - and we all (four of us now) do visit the gallery at the NHM each year.

We won't this year though.

Because... and whisper this quietly if you need to... the quality of images that won or were commended are the worst ever. Easily.

I'll run through a few and what I find disappointing with them... but remember this is a subjective critique. You are entitled to disagree in the same way as you have a right to be wrong!

OK?

Ready?

Let's go then.

Prepare to see the world through my eyes...

 

 

The overall winning shot. "The Moment"

Which has been reported the world over as a marmot being "surprised" or "spooked" by a fox.

I look firstly at wildlife photographs as a zoologist or amateur naturalist I suppose. I firstly try and ascertain (if it's not immediately obvious) what it is that I'm looking at, when I look at a successful image in the competition. And THEN I look at the artistic merit of the image.

And I'm BORED stiff of photographers (not videographers - you'll see why in a moment) ascribing human qualities/emotions/behaviours to their wildlife photograph - capturing a millisecond of action and then basically MAKING UP what the result of that image depicted.

Many people I know (who are admittedly less "into" wildlife than I am) will, if asked to say what was going on in the winning photograph, would agree with the hacks who have said "the groundhog/marmot/lemming/whatever it is.... is indeed being shocked/surprised/spooked by the fox/wolf/whatever it is".

Even the photographer said so. "This Himalayan marmot was not long out of hibernation when it was surprised by a mother Tibetan fox."

The image does seem to depict a surprised marmot.

But it isn't an image of a shocked/spooked/surprised marmot is it?

No. No it isn't.

It really isn't you know.

If it WAS a photo of a spooked marmot, the fox would be in the air, millimetres from the marmot with its own teeth bared.

But the fox isn't in that position at all!

No....what the image actually shows is a snap shot of a marmot FIGHTING FOR ITS LIFE. With mouth open wide either as a result of barking in pure fear/aggression/defence at the fox and or sheer muscular effort at the need to act IMMEDIATELY and with SPEED... just to survive.

The fox is the giveaway in this.

The female fox is not jumping on the marmot or even heading in its direction, even though it is almost on top of the marmot.

It has BEEN SEEN. And It KNOWS IT. It is now either circling 'round or backing off. The game is up. 

If you look at the image that way (the way I describe, the CORRECT way), you'll see the marmot isn't at this moment, "surprised".

It's MID FIGHT (and probably, shortly, flight).

The photographer doesn't tell us what happened to the marmot. Or the fox.

My mortage goes on the fact that THIS marmot got away. Purely because it WASN'T "surprised".

 

 

Now.

"A Taste of Peace" by Charlie Hamilton James.

Look, perhaps I've never forgiven Charlie for marrying one of my childhood sweethearts (Philippa Forrester) but I ask you... do YOU think  this image merits a commendation in the competition? It's a messy jungle with part of an elephant in the background. I look at it atnd I think... "meh".

The image itself, or rather the title of the image itself, only really makes sense when you read Charlie's accompanying explanatory notes.  I'd suggest that if you need to read the notes to "get the image" (and even then I don't think the image is at all interesting to be honest), it should go on the "meh" pile of submitted images, rather than the "shortlisted" pile.  

 

Another?

"Little Leapers".

A lovely image you'd perhaps at first, think.

Until I tell you that you might like to read the photographer's notes again and realise (as I suspected from a quick glance at the tarsiers) that the photographer basically shone an LED torch at these VERY nocturnal mammals, to get his image. That sort of thing makes me very uncomfortable. Nocturnal animals have eyes that really shouldn't have torches shone into them - something that British wildlife photographers might like to remember when they take their cutesy photographs of hedgehogs/foxes etc.

 

More?

OK then... two together.

The Personality category is always a little fraught for me. What do you mean by "personality"?

Do albatrosses have "personalities"? Or Pike. Or Nudibranchs?

Now, even though I'm ALL FOR invertebrates doing well in these competitions, SPIDERS simply don't have "personality"... so you can rule out this photo and this one too, from what I think is even apt in this category. Technically-superb shots for sure, (even if I've been taking similar types of images for a decade or more now) but these shots do not depict "personality". At least not in my view.

 

One more?

Oh go on then.

"Dinner Duty".

Your turn.

You tell ME what's so terribly wrong with this image.

(Answer at the end of this blog post!)*

 

 

Like I say, I try not to write about wildlife photography competitions on this blog, or if I do, I wax lyrical about some of the wonderful winning images that I picked out as my favourites. This year though, I have no favourites. I'm genuinely disappointed by most of the images.

That all said, I do want to find a thin silver lining to this particular gurt big black cloud.

For me, the inclusion of images of predators actually eating their prey ALIVE is something to be celebrated.

When I entered my (now infamous) photo of a cat eating a nestling, it was met with shock - across the board. It was no pretty image. It was awful to be honest... but you HAD TO LOOK AT IT. You couldn't NOT look at it. It (I'll blow my own trumpet here) had a remarkable power that image - although at the time I certainly didn't include that notion in my accompanying notes. And nor did I call it biblical!!! I was also told by very experienced wildlife photographers at the award ceremony that they loved that photo as it proved that a photo of something eating something else COULD do well in a competition - rather than just turn the judges and public off.

So I'm really pleased that THIS image "A bite to eat" did so well... and yes, I guess this IS my favourite image of this year's winners.

 

That's that then.

My thoughts on this year's 2019 WPOTY.

 

 

Oh.

Nearly forgot.

*What's wrong with the winning (or highly commended) photo of the great grey owls?

Got it?

No?

I'll tell you then....

The adult owl on the right has the end of its tail out of shot (whether it was never included or cropped out - it's unforgiveable).

Now I'm all for breaking the rules of photography. The golden ratio. Empty space. The rule of thirds etc.

But that, laydeez and gennelmen, is your basic CRIME against photography, so it is.

It's like a wedding photographer taking a group shot... but cutting off everyone's feet.

You just wouldn't pay them, would you? Let alone give them a prize!

 

TBR.

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 2019 natural history museum nhm wildlife photographer of the year wpoty https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/10/wpoty-the-worst-ever Tue, 22 Oct 2019 14:16:03 GMT
A quick SITREP https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/9/a-quick-sitrep Yes... I know... I've been AWOL for almost exactly a month now, but... well... I've been busy, eh?

Work has been silly.

We're all a bit exhausted here to be honest - dodgy tummies and ulcerated throats, headaches etc. All due (I'm sure) to sleepless nights thanks at least in part to our 7 month old boy. So nothing serious but exhausting nonetheless.

My boys have been keeping me busy.

I've now agreed to help coach the U7s at the local rugby club.

I've been busy going to rugby matches and golf tournaments...

AND the rugby world cup is on.

Oh yes... and BBC Parliament is avid viewing these days too (who'd have thunk that four years ago?).

 

So... Anyway... I thought I'd just drop by to say "hello" and to let you know I'm still here, sometimes... and then I'll booger off again for a week or so I expect.

 

What's been happening then, wildlife-wise, over the last month? I'll bullet the main points for as much brevity as I can now muster...

  • We've had a pretty dry month (very dry  indeed bone dry to be honest) until the last day or two.
  • Ivy bees have started to feed on our large, dead, ivy-clad damson tree.
  • The leaves have started to yellow and drop - I'll need to net the pond by October 1st.
  • "Our" jackdaws have found our jay feeder (I resurrected it at the end of August after I knew the swifts had gone).
  • But "our" jays have NOT returned yet to find my jay feeder. (I only have it up between September and March each year).
  • I'm still seeing the odd wee flock of swallows and house martins moving south.
  • I haven't heard my first redwing yet (surely only a week or two now).
  • I was the only one (I'm sure) of several thousand rugby fans to see the Kingfisher fishing on the river Crane in Twickenham as we all trooped from the station to The Stoop to see my beloved Bristol Bears play Harlequins t'other night.
  • For the first year in a few now, I've NOT found a hawkmoth or pussmoth caterpillar in our garden, so I could raise it over the winter.
  • Foxes are still nightly visitors to our back garden despite are most northerly (of four neighbours) bulldozing all the overgrown area at the back of the garden bordering ours, where I thiiiink the foxes denned in the Spring.
  • My eldest boy and I have been on a few wildlife drives during the day (not at our preferred night time) and seen our local barn owl and a few pheasants plus a dead mole... but that's about it really.
  • Finally.... we have TWO hedgehogs (I say two... there are AT LEAST two but there could possibly (I doubt it) be three) visiting our garden each night... and I'm proud to say, using my concrete hedgehog tunnel under our side passage door each night.

 

Regarding our hedgehogs, you'll see from the first video clip below that our biggest flea-ridden, spiky friend is most certainly a male. A well-endowed male at that... and I think this is our original hedgehog.

The second video clip below shows our second hedgehog. Much smaller and much faster than the hedgehog above. This small hedgehog is NOT obviously a male or a female (in that I've not managed to get a gander at its genitals yet... ohhh my wife is a lucky so-and-so isn't she). This hedgehog, although smaller than the one in the clip above, has been MUCH smaller - I almost wonder if its not even one year old yet. I guess I'll never know.

And my final wee video clip from a few nights ago now, shows BOTH our two (I'm almost positive we only have two, not three) hedgehogs in our side pssage together. You'll note, I'm sure, when watching the clip, that the bigger hedgehog is nearest the camera, and is going about its own business when the smaller hedgehog walks into shot in the background and freezes on hearing a nearby hedgehog. All this means is that these two hedgehogs are not a pair. They undoubtedly will "know" of each other's presence in the territory from scent if nothing else - and I'm sure they'll regularly come across each other on their nightly wanderings. But to repeat, whilst it's obvious that the bigger hedgehog is male, I have no idea about the smaller hedgehog (it could be male or female... or even perhaps trans?).

On that last point, whilst it's tempting for enthusiastic wildlife reporters/bloggers to ascribe sex (in terms of gender!) to their regular garden visitors (foxes, hedgehogs, mice, squirrels etc)  unless its obvious (chronically-visible suckled teats on foxes or squirrels, a visible penis on a hedgehog) it is probably best not to guess. Invariably you'll be wrong!

 

OK.

That shallot for now, grapple fans.

I hope, like me, you're enjoying the Rugby World Cup and I hope like me you're getting over the fact that summer, once more, is no more this year.

More soon.

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl hedgehog house martin mole pheasant swallow https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/9/a-quick-sitrep Thu, 26 Sep 2019 16:39:01 GMT
"Operation Yellowhammer". https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/8/-operation-yellowhammer You'll remember the Whitehall dossier which was written a year ago and leaked a couple of weeks ago - detailing warnings of food, medicine and fuel if a "no deal Brexit" came to be... yes?

You may remember also that the dossier's name of "Yellowhammer" was (allegedly) a random choice.

So...

Is it only me that thinks that the name "yellowhammer" fits this dossier PERFECTLY?

I don't think it was named randomly at all.

I think the choice of that name was spot on.

 

Permit me to explain...

 

Look, I had my nose in bird books for a lot of my youth... and if you're my sort of age (middle-aged) and were as into wildlife and birds as I was/am - then you'll remember, like me, I'm sure that bird calls were written as English phrases in some identification books, so if you heard them in the field (but didn't see them) you'd KNOW what bird was making that call.

One example might be:

"TEACHER! TEACHER! TEACHER! TEACHER! TEACHER!" (The call of a great tit).

 

Another example might be:

"Di-vorce. Him. Di-vorce. Him". (the call of a collared dove).

 

But the most famous example of all was:

"A little bit of bread and NO cheese". (the call of a yellowhammer).

 

Now ... if "a little bit of bread and NO cheese" isn't a perfect one line description of post no-deal Brexit food shortages, I don't know what is.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally.

You probably have done so already, but if you've not...
Please, today, sign the petition to stop Boris Johnson proroguing Parliament.
The petition can be found here:  https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/269157

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) yellowhammer https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/8/-operation-yellowhammer Wed, 28 Aug 2019 14:42:06 GMT
"The octopus in my house". Sublime television. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/8/-the-octopus-in-my-house-sublime-television Look... we all LOVE wildlife programmes on TV don't we.... and sublimely-shot natural history programmes are almost expected these days, on our gurt-big plasma screens eh?

But it's actually quite a rare thing to watch a scintillating natural history TV programme which relies not on beautiful HD and or slow motion shots of wildebeest cavorting the raging Zambezi etc etc but instead the human-animal relationship, interaction and to some extent, eccentric devotion.

One of my favourite EVER natural history programmes which did just that (the above) was a programme aired about 8 years ago, entitled "My life as a turkey". It was a BBC2 Natural World programme and if you haven't seen it... I urge you to find a way to.

Eight years on and I was slumped on the sofa last night and decided (last minute) to watch "The Octopus in my house" - another BBC2 Natural World (I think) programme. I'm HUGELY glad I did.

Now I may have a very soft (indeed) spot for cephalopods, (I'll blog about my encounter with a cuttlefish in the Med when I get a chance) so yes, I may be biased - but if you've not watched this programme last night - again... I urge you to find a way to. You'll not regret it. I promise. 

The only downside may be that you may take octopus (and calamari more widely) off your meal choices in future.

Anyway... please watch it if you can.

TBR.

 

(The shot below of course was taken by me, on holiday in the Maldives, about ten years ago, and shows a wild, adult cuttlefish sitting in the crystal clear waters of the Indian Ocean right by our seaplane pontoon).

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) BBC2 Natural World octopus The octopus in my house TV https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/8/-the-octopus-in-my-house-sublime-television Fri, 23 Aug 2019 08:15:56 GMT
Swifts - It's not just the hope that hurts... it really IS the despair too. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/8/swifts---its-not-just-the-hope-that-hurts-it-s-the-loss-too After last season, I was really hoping that 2019 would finally bring back my favourite bird of all to actually NEST with us again - 8 years after filming them in our old place, "Swift Half", in Reading.

SwiftSwift

But last year was a different kettle of fish, weather wise , at least here. (Well... it was unlikely to be the same as last year's prolonged heatwave eh?).

That said, this year, the weather in the Med at migration time was quite similar to last year - and when I say quite similar, I mean much worse than normal, with storms and cool temperatures. Last year that unseasonable weather lasted a few days.... this year, unfortunately it lasted a couple of weeks or more and there were many reports of dead and dying swifts all over the Med - dying as they attempted their annual northerly migration. Some of those unfortunate swifts could have been ours. By that I mean the young birds that explored our attic last year. The birds that I hoped might return to nest with us this year. A horrible, horrible thought.

Again, you may remember that last year I wrote about this and wondered if it would be a blip last year or a sign of things to come - has climate change already made this "unseasonable" weather in the Spring in the Med, quite normal? Well... two years on the trot is still a blip at present... but if we get  more years like this in the next few... then I'm afraid to say that it may be the case that we may have to get used to not seeing swifts in any numbers at all in our British skies in a couple of decades or less.

I know.

A dreadful thought.

But look... if we continue to blast all insects with pesticides and tidy up our soffits and fascias… we give swifts no food and no shelter. And that's IF they get over here at all, after we've buggered up the climate, meaning that their ancient window of migration north to breed, in late April... is blocked by low temperatures and storms.

This year though, despite what Nick Brown absolutely incorrectly says in this piece, we had a warm, reasonably-SETTLED May here and a reasonable June too... albeit worse than last year's scorcher)

We've just got to hope that last year and this was a blip - in terms of poor weather in the Med JUST when the swifts migrate north.

 

And as for the new "Swift Half" here. Well... I fear it may be back to square one. It's taken me 7 years to get swifts to explore our attic boxes last year - and we had NO swifts explore our boxes this year. NONE.

Oh sure... we had regular swifty fly-bys in the last three months and each fly-by was announced by the familiar scream - and they DID seem to be screaming at our house (and Mp4 call!). They were here most days (dawns and dusks)… it's just that NONE banged on our roof... and they've been doing that for at least four years and exploring the attic for the last season.

 

I occasionally see a swift high in the sky over the house in early September, moving south - but if I see no more this year, then the last I saw im 2019 was a week ago - at dusk, giving the house a fly by again.

I'll try to be positive now, at my LEAST favourite time of the year, when my swifts disappear... but this year in particular, it won't be easy.

We've lost HALF our breeding swifts in the last decade or so.

Last year was quite poor across the country (admittedly not here at "Swift Half") and this year has been REALLY poor - and the worst year ever here at the new "Swift Half".

Graph below courtesy of Bird Track and the BTO.

Last year provided me with a gurt big steaming ladle of hope (see photo below).

But this year.... well....

 

We'll just have to try and save some of that hope, if any's left.  We can't lose hope! This is too important!

May 2020 isn't that long away....

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Apus apus swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/8/swifts---its-not-just-the-hope-that-hurts-it-s-the-loss-too Thu, 22 Aug 2019 06:30:00 GMT
Bird Photographer Of The Year 2019 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/8/bird-photographer-of-the-year-2019 A quick post this morning - and a nice, upbeat post... before I drag you through the pits of despair later in the week I'm afraid, when I blog about this season's swifts.

That post (coming) won't be a pretty picture... unlike some of the photos below...

This week saw the winners of the BPOTY (Bird Photographer Of The Year (2019)) competition announced.

Most of the photos are superb... just superb, including the overall winner.

Have a look at the winners yourselves here... and also have a look at some of my favourites on that website and below.

Wonderful stuff....

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) BPOTY https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/8/bird-photographer-of-the-year-2019 Tue, 20 Aug 2019 07:30:00 GMT
What I did with (the rest of) my summer holidays. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/8/what-i-did-with-the-rest-of-my-summer-holidays  

We didn't go away this year, but instead took two weeks of day trips to places less than an hour and a bit away (or so) in "the hearse".

Highlights included The Lookout Centre, Swinley Forest, Blackbushe Airport, Marwell Zoo, Beale Park, Bucklebury Farm, The Hawk Conservancy , The British Wildlife Centre and Bird World.

I've already posted a fair few photos here , here , here and here... but below are some more photos with brief captions visible (I hope) if you hover your cursor over an image...

Our youngest boy looking (dare I say it) very photogenic indeed in this shot.

Red Squirrel at The British Wildlife Centre

Another red squirrel at the British Wildlife Centre

Our eldest boy getting close and personal to his favourite British mammal (we took him to see real WILD ones at the Isle of Wight last year) at the British Wildlife Centre

An otter at The British Wildlife Centre

Our eldest boy watching his mummy's favourite wild British mammal at the British Wildlife Centre, near Lingfield in Kent.

My favourite wild British mammal - at the British Wildlife Centre

Barn owl flying at BirdWorld, Hants.

Our eldest boy's favourite wild British bird, a barn owl, flying at BirdWorld, Hants.

Our eldest boy's favourite wild British bird, a barn owl, at BirdWorld, Hants.

A wonderful (laughing) Kookaburra flying at BirdWorld, Hants.

A (pretty beat-up) male black-tailed skimmer dragonfly at Beale Park

A nest of swallows at Bucklebury farm park. One of about 15 nests we think.

A HUGE female sparrowhawk in our garden in a rainstorm.

The eastern sky above our garden at midnight on the night of peak Perseid activity. I saw two lovely meteors but didn't get any on "film" this year.

Hartslock nature reserve, a photo taken from Beale Park. Hartslock Nature reserve is one of two (only two!) public sites in the entire UK where one can find monkey orchids in late May or early June.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) beale park bird world blackbushe airport bucklebury farm marwell zoo swinley forest the british wildlife centre the hawk conservancy the lookout centre https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/8/what-i-did-with-the-rest-of-my-summer-holidays Mon, 19 Aug 2019 13:29:48 GMT
The Hawk Conservancy https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/8/vultures-watching-vultures Yesterday, I took my wife and two boys to a place I've been visiting every few years for the past thirty-five years... The (wonderful) "Hawk Conservancy" near Weyhill, Andover, Hants.

Unlike London (or Marwell for that matter) zoos, I always voluntarily donate to The Hawk Conservancy when I visit - as I think it does quite superb work on behalf of raptor conservation worldwide.

Below are a few photos I took during our time there yesterday (the last photo being included on my eldest son's insistence - and yes after yesterday he STILL has the barn owl as his favourite bird) - and honestly, if you've never been... do yersels a favour and go. I promise you won't regret it.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) The Hawk Conservancy https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/8/vultures-watching-vultures Thu, 15 Aug 2019 19:51:34 GMT
I see grayling. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/8/i-see-grayling

We (me, my wife and two boys) took a wee walk through Swinley Forest and Caesar's camp t'other day, as the heathers (bell and ling 'round here) both tend to look pretty good in August  - and anyway, I do LOVE my lowland heathland

Not often do I see grayling at all, let alone away from the coast...

 

but I managed to spy one sunbathing on a path through the forest (ACTUAL path in the photo below).

The grayling is a bit of a success in the local forest - as you can read here. (Although I think I saw them in this part of the world before that particular report was penned - but then again I have RIDICULOUS eyes so would back myself to notice these things before many lepidopterists might and journalists certainly would). Nationally I hear this butterfly's population has declined by almost two thirds in the last decade or so.

Graylings (Hipparchia semele - named after a mistress of Zeus) can be difficult to see anyway sometimes, as they tend to sunbathe with their wings closed (NOT showing their "eye" patterns on their forewings) and therefore blend in to patches of bare earth. That said, if you DO manage to spot one, as I did, it often will allow you to get quite close, so confident will it be in its camouflage cloak. As long as you don't cast your shadow over it, mind.

Lovely to see though, as was the heather and views and walk itself (some more photos of the forest below).

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) butterfly grayling hipparchia semele swinley forest https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/8/i-see-grayling Wed, 14 Aug 2019 15:37:14 GMT
BBC1 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/8/bbc1 The more zoologically-knowledgeable among you will know my photo below is of a Broad Bodied Chaser. (Just the one).

Spotted by my eagle-eyed elder son.

Takes after his old man then....

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) broad bodied chaser https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/8/bbc1 Wed, 07 Aug 2019 18:19:52 GMT
What I did (so far) on my summer holidays... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/8/what-i-did-so-far-on-my-summer-holidays Due to the fact that we have a 6+ month old baby in tow as well as a six year old and three cats to look after at home, we have decided to keep to mainland UK for our annual fortnight holiday this year, or, to be more specific, to be based at home and take day trips to various places within a short drive from the hyse.

These places should (already have, in some cases) include zoos, nature reserves, pubs, rivers, canals, woods and heaths, farms, dinosaur golfing, foot golf, boating, cinemas, a big city or two and various tourist attractions. Oh... and more pubs.

I've set our eldest boy the challenge to find animals during this fortnight that begin with every letter of the alphabet apart from 'X'. I'd prefer wild British animals to populate this list but it would be fair to say that going to the zoo helped with this list yesterday ("Zebra"). Then again, he is hugely helped by the fact that his father can literally take him to see a badger or a barn owl or a buzzard and even if he couldn't, his father could tell him that the beetle that he found isn't just a beetle, but a "bloody nosed beetle" or a "blister beetle" or a "brassy willow beetle" (or for that matter a "blue willow beetle"!).

Anyway... below are a few shots I've taken on our trips over the last few days...

I think the boys are having fun.  What  kid DOESN'T like bugs and creepy-crawlies and lions and tigers and tropical butterflies and leaf cutter bees and barn owls and foxes and rabbits and stoats and red kites and spiders and bats and eagles and piranha fish after all?

Animal highlights so far have included the ostrich below (at the zoo of course, although lovely to see her on an egg), bloody-nosed beetle (photo below too), emperor dragonfly (Yes... "E" for Emperor dragonfly - my zoological mind won't allow any child of mine to just call it "D" for dragonfly I'm afraid), leopard (zoo also of course), tiger (ditto) and the omnipresent (currently) cinnabar moth caterpillars in our local meadows (photos below again).

All this and our fortnight together is only two days old so far! 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) animal alphabet challenge summer holiday https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/8/what-i-did-so-far-on-my-summer-holidays Tue, 06 Aug 2019 18:15:27 GMT
Puttock augmentation. Today marks the 30 year anniversary. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/8/puttock-augmentation-today-marks-the-30-year-anniversary I first blogged about this in April.

But today EXACTLY marks the day, thirty years ago now, on 1st August 1989, when five Spanish red kites were reintroduced to the leafy southern Chiltern escarpment.

This day, August 1st, thirty years ago, kick-started a remarkably-successful reintroduction programme up the spine of England and in Scotland too.

Thirty years of bird. Never stopped me dreaming.

KitesKites

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) red kite https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/8/puttock-augmentation-today-marks-the-30-year-anniversary Thu, 01 Aug 2019 09:36:30 GMT
Brown hawker - two close-up photographs https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/7/brown-hawker---two-close-up-photographs

The beautiful (but dying) male brown hawker dragonfly that moy woyf and boy brought in off the road for me to identify yesterday sadly died overnight, outside on the sunflower stem.

So I thought I'd bring it in and take two more close-up photos of this beastie, before lobbing it onto the compost heap and thus returning it to the earth. Maybe in fact, I should lob it back into the pond - at least then it'd be returning to its home of a couple of years, before it grew wings and terrorised the skies above the pond.

Not the best photos I've ever taken (taken in a hurry with my old bridge camera) but at least you can see the bronze hue to the wings now (this is the colour that gives this dragonfly its "brown" name, even if I think "bronze" might be better) and the blue in its eyes.

A lovely wee beastie, now being taken apart (I expect) by ants in the garden.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Aeshna grandis brown hawker dragonfly https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/7/brown-hawker---two-close-up-photographs Tue, 30 Jul 2019 13:37:14 GMT
A bit of a waist? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/7/a-bit-of-a-waist After my eldest son insisted, my wife brought in (from the road) a beaten up dragonfly for me to identify, this morning.

A lovely brown hawker, so it was.

And a male, to boot.  (I think the best way to differentiate between male and female brown hawkers is to look at the abdomen, and if there's a noticeable waist (a wasp like constriction), it's a male you're looking at... (and if there isn't a "waist".... yes.... it's a female).

Poor thing looked a bit knackered by the state of its frayed wings. I hope it had a chance to find a mate in the last month, or its brief adult life would have been a bit of a waste (or waist in this case of this male) to be frank.

 

I popped it on our sunflower stems, took a few photos... and waited for it to either fly away, or a bird to find it.

Probably the latter to be honest though.

Anyway... a lovely thing to see this morning. These bronze-winged dragonflies surrre are purty.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) aeshna grandis brown hawker dragonfly https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/7/a-bit-of-a-waist Mon, 29 Jul 2019 11:09:40 GMT
What is YOUR first thought on seeing this image? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/7/what-is-your-first-thought-on-seeing-this-image

Be honest now and please quickly answer (without thinking too much)… this question.

What's your first thought on seeing the image above:

a) What a lovely owl.

b) What a lovely owl in a lovely field of what? Bluebells? That's a great photo! Superb!

c) What a pretty picture! I love it!

d) What a marvellous photo. How on earth did the photographer get this photo? Stunning job!

e) Oooh! I bet that owl has just caught something, as it's on the ground. Great shot!

 

Or.

 

Like me.

 

Was your first thought on seeing the image above...

1) That's a nocturnal (black rather than orange or yellow-eyed) tawny owl, photographed from a perfect viewpoint (blurred blue of bluebells creating an aesthetically-pleasing soft blur of colour to the bird portrait) at a time of day (the tawny owl is STRICTLY nocturnal) when it should be asleep in a hole in a tree in a perfectly-lit colourful habitat in April or May (flowering bluebells) when it should almost CERTAINLY be hidden in a hole in a tree because it would probably be at the end of its breeding season - and pretty knackered to boot. Not only that but the owl is looking up into a milky sun (partially covered with a decent layer of cloud). You can see that reflected in the owl's black eyes.

In short... this is clearly an image of a kept bird (in this case a tawny owl) at a photography day or event or workshop in the UK (bluebells).

Which is fine. I suppose. Although a little problematic for me, if I'm honest.

Firstly it has been entered and shortlisted in the annual SIWNP (Society of International Wildlife and Nature Photographers) Bird Photographer of the Year 2019 competition.

And that's fine too. Sort of. In this case, in this competition at least.

The rules of the "SIWNP" competitions can be seen below and, unlike the more famous NHM Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition and The British Wildlife Photography Awards rules (also below), there is no ban on entering photographs of animal models in the SIWNP competitions. And that is exactly what this owl is - an animal model.

I'm glad that the more acclaimed NHM wildlife photographer of the year competition (the gold standard and benchmark for true wildlife photographers out there) and to a lesser extent the BWP Awards stipulate that no animal model photographs can be entered. (Although famously, the BWPA awarded a prize or two to the photographer of a captive fox once, a keeper at I think the British Wildlife Centre in Kent).

And yes, the BWPA has had its detractors over the years for seeming to be pretty clearly biased (in terms of awarding prizes to images) towards known and or professional photographers' entries (not anonymous entries) over and above equally (or more in some cases) competent amateur or unknown photographers' entries, but at least it seems to value its integrity as a WILDLIFE photography competition rather than a money-making-machine for the RSPB amongst others, like the SIWNP competition.

A glance at the entries in this year's 2019 SIWNP bird photography competition demonstrates that many of the entries are of captive birds. A shame I think.

The very prestigious International Bird Photographer of the Year Competition (BPOTY)  (certainly far more prestigious than the SIWNP) stipulates (see below) that if you are to submit entries of captive birds, then you should at least admit that.

OK. 
 

So at least the photographer of the owl in the bluebells shot has entered it into the correct competition. The "wildlife" photography competition that DOES accept photos of captive birds and trained birds and model birds.

So why is it slightly problematic for me?

Well.... for a number of reasons, I think.

1  - I'm really not sure a nocturnal owl should be trained to fly during the day and pose for paying photographers. There is a REASON why the tawny owl has big, inky pupils (black eyes, rather than yellow/orange eyes). The same goes for many other nocturnal birds/animals. Each time I see a photo of a nocturnal animal in the day, my first thought often is either a) The poor thing is ill/stressed or b) The poor thing is kept/trained.

2 - If you bill yourself as a "wildlife" photography competition, then I think you should be obliged to only accept photographs of wild animals. Not images of kept animals and birds on photography days that are designed to make the final image look as natural (and wild) as possible.

3 - Many (most?) people, if they're honest, would have firstly, simply thought "what a lovely photograph of an owl in bluebells" when looking at the first photo of this blog post. These people might then come to my (or many others') websites and think... " Well... these images are OK, but NOTHING compared to that lovely bluebell owl photo that I saw the other day and I think should WIN the wildlife photography competition it's been entered into". That is to say that false expectations are put onto the whole field of wildlife photography, with "wildlife" photographs like this.   This is the entire reason that I write "All my wildlife (fauna) images on this website are of truly wild animals - not captive or tame animals." on my about page, on this website.

4 - Linked to 3, above. The majority of the wildlife photographer's skill comes BEFORE the shot is taken. Learning about the animal's behaviour and habitat. Getting close to the animal, whilst respecting the animal's welfare and of course the law. FIELDCRAFT. All this takes real effort. Time. Patience. YEARS of work. And it's a real skill. Rocking up to a bluebell field with a van full of owls hugely detracts from that - and the end result is DESIGNED to do that.


I've visited the photographer's (who took the owl and bluebell shot) website

and at least he's generally honest about his photography workshops. Most (almost all it seems) of his bird of prey photographs were taken on photography days, with trained birds. He's been honest about this most of the time, explaining that he even cropped out jesses and falconry paraphernalia to make the birds look more natural or wild). Hell or Heck (as Americans might say) he's even uploaded a photograph OF an (owl) photography workshop, in Slovakia I think, onto his website.

 

But as I've explained (at length, sorry!) above, I'm just a bit, more than a bit to be honest, uncomfortable with this method of taking "wildlife" photographs and then entering them into "wildlife" photography competitions. Frankly I think it's a con and a cheat and damaging to working, REAL wildlife photographers... and although this particular photographer is relatively honest about his methods (if you look at the "story" details of his images), many, MANY others aren't.

A trained, or kept, or even (semi) domesticated animal doesn't mean "wildlife" to me.

And the trouble is, for me, once I see that several dozen or several hundred even of your thousand images of "wildlife" on your website are of "kept animals" (even though that might not be clear nor even admitted), then I'm not sure that I can believe that any of your "wildlife" shots are truly of wild animals. Animals that you got the shot of thanks to your fieldcraft and skill and time and effort, rather than a hundred quid and an hour in a car.

 

OK.

That's all for now, grapple fans.

I'll leave you with a few (a lot) more photographs from this photographer's generic website and after each one (or set) I'll give you a line or two of my immediate thoughts if I was to see these entered into any future "wildlife" photography competition.

I hope that these immediate thoughts of mine may make you think differently about certain "wildlife" photographs when you see them in the future. I really do. OK... don't think badly of ALL "wildlife" photographs - there are many stunning (and REAL) photographs out there... just be a little more critical towards some (staged) photographs than you may be currently.

 

Have a lovely weekend.

TBR.

 

Above, four photos. Same bird (female kestrel) taken at same photogenic spot, from different angles, relatively close-up, in the right month of the year (almost certainly August), with the legs of the bird hidden (and therefore any jesses too). Workshop photo (as thankfully the photographer does state if you click these images on his website and read the story behind the image).

 

 

Above. Wow. The photographer got a photo of a woodland specialist (goshawk) on a pheasant in the same heather field as the kestrel shots above, in the same month!  This (already dead) pheasant is bait therefore, and the (red-ring on leg) hawk is kept. (Again I think the photographer was at least semi-transparent about this shot).

 

Above. Righto. A buzzard now too. This is a van full of birds isn't it? 

 

Above. This fly shows that this is a long-dead mouse, a (frozen) 'pinky' as falconers call it, being fed to a captive bird (barn owl).

 

 

Finally, above, a nocturnal (tawny) owl perfectly-posed in SUNLIGHT by a perfectly-still pond, at the perfect, colourful time of year (orange autumn foliage) means this is a staged shot, at a workshop, where I'd suggest the welfare of the owl is not being prioritised.

 

+++

 

Footnote. 

Just in case there's any confusion here, all the photographs of birds on this post are copyright this particular photographer (who I'll not name here - that name is easily found online). This chap is at least generally honest about the photography workshops he attends. Most (almost all it seems) of his bird of prey photographs were taken on photography days, with trained birds. He's been honest about this most of the time, explaining that he even cropped out jesses and falconry paraphernalia to make the birds look more natural or wild. 

Many others aren't that honest though. 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) widlife photography https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/7/what-is-your-first-thought-on-seeing-this-image Sun, 28 Jul 2019 08:46:15 GMT
Absolutely ANYTHING.... for the shot. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/7/absolutely-anything-for-the-shot I'm going to begin this short(ish) blog post with a request... please visit THIS link and read the entire piece in that link. 

(The link will take you to the Petapixel website, and a piece bemoaning the utter lack of respect or thought or consideration of the modern "photographer", in their singular, blinkered quest to get their shot, at all costs, in this instance at the famous lavender fields of the plateau of Valensole, in  Provence).

If you're not a photographer... let's clarify that as these days, EVERYONE takes photos.... if you don't think of yourself as or call yourself a photographer or at least, like me, own one or two semi-professional or "prosumer" DSLRS (or the mirrorless equivalent now) then that piece in Petapixel will, or should open your eyes very wide, to the state of play these days at photography "honeypots" around the world.

And if you ARE a photographer (or tick one or more of the boxes that I mention above (I don't intend to again)) you may have already read the piece about Valensole, and sigh as you're again reminded of what occurs at many photogenic viewpoints across the globe.

Everyone had to get their shot these days. 

No matter what.

And then immediately upload to social media.

And that is just ONE of the reasons I've pretty well abandoned ALL (facebook and twitter) social media over the last few years including now Instagram, a website (or social media site) which I believe has pretty-well KILLED photography.

 

As a nascent wildlife photographer ohhhh maybe nine or ten years ago now, I came across this sort of behaviour in "wildlife photography" circles, where it was reported (it didn't need to be) that award-winning photographers were getting their (fast-becoming-standard) shots of seals on colony beaches such as Donna Nook in Lincolnshire, by trespassing and disturbing the seals. ANYTHING for their shot.

Likewise, when, about six years ago, I naively showed a fellow (I thought), local owl 'appreciator', the exact tree location of our local barn owls, on the strict promise that he would show no-one else, and happening across him and one of his "twitcher" friends at the owl's tree not a week later, all trying to get their cameras INTO the tree. I explained to them both there and then, that if I ever saw either of them anywhere NEAR this tree again, I'd take their cameras and... well... I'll draw a veil over the rest of my diatribe there, dear reader. (I've not seen anyone there since... and my long suffering wife isn't too surprised!).

 

It's sad, isn't it?

This, ANYTHING for the shot, mentality.

ANYTHING goes.

 

And I'm afraid to say, dear reader.... it's an attitude which is growing exponentially.

Google image "Valensole" and see what you are confronted with!

And please, DO read that quite excellent Petapixel piece.  One of the best insights into this modern malaise I've ever read.

 

Stay cool.

TBR.

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) photography https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/7/absolutely-anything-for-the-shot Wed, 24 Jul 2019 16:38:23 GMT
Ten years.... but maybe now... thistle be the year? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/7/ten-years-but-maybe-now-thistle-be-the-year What do you remember of the summer of 2009?

Me?

Well... I had been married for almost a year and my wife and I were at that time without children and that summer moved into a rented house in south Reading, a house we called "Swift Half", on account of the swifts nesting there (which in 2010 and 2011 I filmed).

I also remember a huge influx (or "irruption" (no... not an "eruption", an "irruption", like an implosion rather than an explosion)) of great numbers of the very pretty "Painted lady" butterflies.

I was doing a lot of "work" in our new, rented garden all summer - improving the land for wildlife etc, and I remember LOADS of painted lady butterflies that summer.

Both the photos below were taken by me during that summer, on our garden path, with my first bridge camera  - a Panasonic FZ20. I was just getting into (insect) photography at the time and looking at the photo directly below this sentence, might I say, rather successfully too!

 

Painted Ladies have the scientific name of Vanessa cardui (literally meaning lit-up like a torch (Vanessa), of the thistles (cardui)). Well... Painted ladies ARE almost iridescent in certain light (and therefore 'shining') and one of their favourite food plants IS indeed nectar from the carduus (thistles) genus of plants, so I guess that sort-of fits. Another "Vanessa" butterfly, the Red Admiral, has a much more romantic scientific name though. Click here to read about that!

Anyway, so impressed was I by these stunning butterflies, that I vowed that when I bought my own (our own) house, which we did two years later, in the summer of 2011, I'd plant plants specifically for butterflies and moths, (plants such as red valerian, buddleia etc) and leave wild areas of any garden we had bought for nettles and thistles to grow (nettles for the small tortoiseshells and thistles for the painted ladies).

Like I said, in 2011 we bought our current "Swift Half" house, complete with the biggest garden we could afford (for my hens as well as my wildlifey-wellbeing) and I set about planting red valerian and buddleia and leaving thistles to grow etc.

Don't get me wrong - we've done marvels for wildlife in our garden and all our efforts have resulted in lots of lovely lepidoptera - including hummingbird hawkmoths, poplar hawkmoths, elephant hawkmoths, small elephant hawkmoths, red-belted clearwing moths, hornet moths , common blue butterflies, small coppers, holly blues, orange tip, red admirals, peacocks, commas and ringlets to name just a few - but NO Painted Ladies.

Not one.

Even though my beautiful big buddleia was pretty-well planted JUST FOR THEM.

And I grow my thistles each year JUST FOR THEM.

 

But now.

Suddenly.

A full TEN YEARS on from that last (most recent) Painted Lady year of 2009, and eight years after we took out a mortgage on our current house ten miles east (ish) of the first "Swift Half" house, and I keep hearing that, finally..... we may be about to experience our next big Painted Lady year.

This summer!

I say I keep hearing that it's gonnae happen again this year (that is to say millions and millions of Painted Lady butterflies are gonnae flutter over here from the Med) as I first heard this a few times about a month ago, but I've only seen one Painted Lady butterfly so far this summer.  Now even the national news is cottoning on.

 

I've just dead-headed my big, blossoming Black Knight Buddleia, and checked on my thistles, (photos taken today with my phone, below) as I hear that this week is gonnae produce a 'totally-tropical' (you need to say those words in a certain way, or should I say with a certain 'lilt' *cough*) southerly wind, pushing temperatures up to the mid-thirties in this neck of the woods... and I would assume facilitate the passage across the Med and Europe and then The Channel, of all those millions of Painted Ladies I keep hearing about.

Fingers crossed, grapple fans, that my ten years of preparation and patience, and religiously-dead-heading my buddleia and encouraging my thistles, finally... FINALLY... pays dividends.

Ten years.

That's all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) butterfly painted lady vanessa cardui https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/7/ten-years-but-maybe-now-thistle-be-the-year Sat, 20 Jul 2019 10:17:52 GMT
Flying-Ant Half-Blood Thunder Buck Moon Eclipse.... Or something. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/7/flying-ant-half-blood-thunder-buck-moon-eclipse-or-something I always get a little sad as the Wimbledon tennis* championships end. It's like summer has finished before it has even begun - and I know my beautiful swifts will be racing back to The Congo in a matter of a couple of weeks (if not days in some cases).

Luckily, the weather yesterday, two days after this year's Wimbledon Championships finished in spectacular style on Sunday, snapped me firmly back into reality that OF COURSE summer isn't even a month old yet - there's plenty more to see and do before we all have to don long trousers and woolly hats again.

It was a steamy 28 Centigrade here yesterday. You could have fried eggs on our patio.  And with that came what I think was our first "flying ant day" of the year - at about four o'clock in the afternoon, it seemed like every wee fissure in pavements and patios nearby, erupted with hundreds of the sexually-active flying ants - which then flew around in huge numbers, bumping into windows and hedges and walls and the eager, open mouths of hungry house sparrows and starlings. 

Then at around ten o'clock in the evening, just as we went to bed as it happens, an orange (half blood) thunder (or buck) moon (the "name" for July's full moon) rose in the Southeast sky, with a large chunk missing (in the earth's shadow).

I'm sure there will be plenty of people who took FAR better photos of this partial eclipse last night. Perhaps they gave their photo some foreground context or perhaps they took their photo at around ten o'clock, when the moon DID look orange, rather than at around half-past-eleven like me, when all the orange colour had disappeared.

Anyway... it was lovely to see and for what it's worth, my photo of this flying-ant half-blood buck (or hay or thunder) moon can be seen below.

Yes, this IS a full moon. In a clear sky. Last night.

 

 

*Tennis is (I think) about the purest form of sport there is - and when someone like Roger Federer plays, it is nothing short of beautiful. Far more beautiful than "the beautiful game"....

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) buck moon flying ant hay moon moon" partial eclipse thunder https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/7/flying-ant-half-blood-thunder-buck-moon-eclipse-or-something Wed, 17 Jul 2019 05:50:04 GMT
I'll be(e) at the hole in the wall... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/7/ill-be-e-at-the-hole-in-the-wall Regular reader(s?!) of this blog will know that I like my bees.

My blue mason bees especially... but also my leaf cutters.

I have bamboo "hotels" up for them all over the gaff... but sometimes they ignore the hotels and nest in old practice (dry-run)  drill holes that I've occasionally made in the outbuilding walls, before I choose the correct-sized SDS bit and drill something, somewhere on porpoise purpose.

In the past, my dry-run drill holes in our external walls of the outbuildings have been used as lairs or, to use the proper, zoological term, "hidey-holes", for Segestria Florentina.

But this particular hole I happened across this afternoon, is being put to another use.

A few photos for you, then, below. All taken with the old Panasonic FZ50 and a snap-on Raynox DCR150 filter.

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) leaf cutter bee Megachile willughbiella https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/7/ill-be-e-at-the-hole-in-the-wall Tue, 09 Jul 2019 15:57:54 GMT
Front and back https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/7/front-and-back A very quick blog post this morning to show you 

a) Our front "lawn".  (Or a small part of it anyway in the photos below). I've not mown it for weeks now - so it's a foot high mass of cats' ears, self heal, clover and birds foot trefoil (amongst others). It's kept deliberately unlike every other closely-mown lawn on the street (at least the bits of the street I've looked at) and as such its THICK with pollinators (you can actually hear them from yards away, so numerous are they). I'm pretty sure the neighbours look at our front "lawn" with horror, not realising this is quite deliberate and I look at theirs and think "biologically sterile".

 

b) Our back lawn. Complete with one of the pesky tree-rats cleaning and sharpening its teeth on a cigar-shaped bit of wood, watched closely by a cat who is of course, errr.... hiding behind one of my golf clubs.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) birds foot trefoil cats ears clover self-heal" squirrel https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/7/front-and-back Sat, 06 Jul 2019 10:02:28 GMT
"What three words". What fun! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/7/-what-three-words-what-fun After the rather aggressive post t'other day, I thought I'd lighten the mood somewhat and introduce you dear reader(s?!) to a fun little "app" I discovered today.

"What three words" is a useful... well.... fun little mapping tool, available for iPhone and android. The clever software people have divided the entire planet into fifty-seven TRILLION 3mx3m squares and assigning each grid square a unique, individual 3 word location phrase, based on a 40,000 word vocabulary. 

It may not be the future for post (actual PHYSICAL letters and parcels) as how one earth would you sort such stuff (our property for example has 40 or so 3M x 3M grid square locations you could use as our address, each with a unique three word phrase to identify and pinpoint it.

But it probably does have some uses. GPS and travel directions for example. I'm fed up of my car's sat nav asking me for a postcode of somewhere, then only allowing me to enter half the postcode and then asking for a property number on the road - even if the property HAS no obvious number.

This three word system sounds far more like it!

Anyway, serious uses aside for a moment - it's a lot of fun! (Forgive me, I love maps and words - this therefore is perfect!)

As I said, you can download the app for free, on iPhone or android. 

Give it a go  - it's a lot of fun!

Some screenshots from my app - and my list of (sometimes aptly named) favourites....

Above - my hastily-compiled list of saved "favourite locations" -some of which are below...

Above - Where I proposed to my girlfriend at the time, Anna, in the summer of 2007. On the most beautiful beach in the world - Myrtos Beach in Kephalonia, Greece. I won't tell you if we massaged abdomens afterwards... *cough*.

Above - same beach... and a lovely three word name for where we lay on our sunbeds. But were there weasels there at night, walking around under the stars? Probably. I dunno. We were elsewhere at night. Probably sipping Mojitos or Mythos beers at a taverna somewhere nearby.

 

 

Above. Where Anna (now my wife) then honeymooned in August 2008, near Aluthgama (Bentota) in an opulent, private (family-owned) cool (air conditioned), colonial, marble-floored, four poster bedded, palace in the steamy Sri Lankan jungle surrounded by giant geckos, leaf monkeys, flocks of fruit bats and huge, lurid-pink tropical dragonflies. No. I won't tell you whether or not we errr... "participated in improper dominance" there. *ahem*.

 

 

Above. My favourite place (so far) in the entire world. And very probably Anna's too. The impossibly-quiet (northern end) of pebbly Cirali beach, Lycia, Turkey. Where loggerhead turtles breed each year in their hundreds. And holidaying couples can be found backlit and intimately frolicking. But not us of course. *cough*.

 

 

Finally. Above. My and Anna's Maldivian hideaway. A Palm-roofed hut on a pure white beach, on a tropical atoll. In the middle of the Indian Ocean. And no... I'm CERTAINLY not going to tell you we spent a fortnight there "multiplying from underneath". *ahem*.

 

 

Look. Smut and innuendos aside, "WHAT THREE WORDS" is probably quite useful and a LOT of fun.

Download it and see what three word locations are special to you!

 

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) app what three words https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/7/-what-three-words-what-fun Fri, 05 Jul 2019 16:58:53 GMT
Birds 1. Dogs 1,000,000. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/7/birds-1-dogs-1-000-000 I read yesterday in The Independent, that a cocker spaniel swimming in a duck pond in Dublin (exact location below) was killed by a swan protecting its cygnets.

Cue outrage and horror from our dog-obsessed nation.

I'm afraid I read the piece in the Independent, originally reported in the Irish Times and laughed. (I know, I know... I couldn't help it).

 

Lines like: 

"The man said the swan attacked the dog, beating it “with one wing and then the other”.

And 

"He said: “That stunned the poor thing. Three or four more slaps and she was gone.”"

And even:

"The owner was so distressed, his phone fell into the pond, he added."

Just made me laugh. 

To be honest, it's the funniest tit bit of news I've read for months.

I actually guffawed with laughter on reading it!

 

NB. The rest of this blog post contains offensive language and may upset some readers. It is printed below, but typed in a white font. If you wish to read it, you'll need to copy the post from your PC, paste it into a word document, and change the font to black. If you can.

 

No. I'm not going to apologise for laughing at the story. If it was a human that had been beaten to death by a big swan protecting its cygnets I probably wouldn't have laughed... ('probably' being the key word there), but this was a shitty little cocker spaniel - let off its lead near breeding birds.

 

I'm sick of dogs at present. Let me be more specific. I'm sick of dog owners.

I regularly take 5 mile walks around the local area to keep my back strong - and if I'm not barked at or gone for or jumped on or all three by dogs let off their lead by their shitty-little dog walker owners, I've had a successful walk.  It's got that bad recently that I was walking around our local meadow, looking at the flowers and dragonflies and kestrels and seeing whether my eldest son's beloved cows had been returned to the field and I was jumped on and barked at by ALL THREE dogs I walked past on my five mile walk. 100% strike rate.

The crap these owners come up with too. It's so tedious.

"Ohhh don't worry... he won't hurt you" they whine, as their German Shepherd puts its paws on my shoulders and barks at my face, covering me in dog shit and saliva.

"BRUNO! BRUNO! COME HERE! BRUNO! Oh I'm SOoooo sorry! BRUNO! BRUNO! WILL YOU COME HERE!!!"

"Oooh! Don't you like dogs then?"

 

Well.... I grew up with dogs. I don't like small dogs (they, like ALL (yes... ALL) their owners are pathetic little runty things). But I DO like big dogs.

BIG DOGS THAT ARE TRAINED TO BEHAVE that is.

Big dogs that the owners can and DO control.

But I haven't seen any of those dogs recently. 

I'm not sure if they exist now - or they're all actually working dogs.

 

The Irish times went on:

They need to put up signs telling people to keep their dogs on leads around the pond. The swan was just protecting its cygnets.

"The incident occurred shortly before 11 am, at a time when dogs are allowed to roam off-lead in the park, which was busy at the time."

Uh huh.

In my recent (and when I say recent, I mean in the last four decades or so) experience, it matters NOT A JOT if you put signs up on land, saying "Please put dogs on leads. Livestock present (Or ground-nesting birds present in this area" etc.

The dog owners, who are ALL (yes, ALL) controlled by their dogs it seems, regard it as their (more specifically their dogs') absolute sodding right to be let off their lead and run around scaring livestock or ground nesting birds such as woodlark and nightjar.

I (especially) but also my wife (occasionally) have gone up to people whose dogs (often plural) are off their lead in an "ON LEAD" area (with signs everywhere) and the saliva-spraying indignation I've (we've) been met with is something to behold.

Two years or so ago, I did so at our local lowland heath nature reserve, where woodlarks and nightjars DO nest on the ground at this time of year, my wife and I and our eldest boy were walking along a boardwalk

through the heath - and a huge great Alsatian came racing down the boardwalk, baying. I pulled my son into my arms and turned my back on the dog. And waited for the owner. The dog ran a few rings around me and then bounded off into the heather, scattering lizards and woodlarks and wasp spiders and nightjars and silver-studded blue butterflies and golden-ringed dragonflies and tiger beetles etc etc...

The owner walked up the boardwalk after his dog about twenty seconds later, with the usual icy-cold torrent of drivel issuing from his mouth.

"Sorry mate. He won't hurt you. He's just being friendly!".

The dog's owner was taller and bigger than me (rare - I'm 6'3" and 200lb) but I've never been phased by that sort of thing.

I put my son down, walked up to the Alsatian's owner and quietly said:

"I'm sure. Now. Would you like to somehow ****ing explain that to my (****ing) four year old. And while you're at it, would you like to ****ing explain that to the rare birds which are nesting on the ****ing ground, right here, right now, which the signs you've walked past all ****ing tell you about".

I assumed that particular dog owner doesn't get challenged much - he was a VERY big bloke with a VERY big dog - but again, none of that really matters to me. Never has.

The bloke's eyes went like dinner plates as he stuttered and blustered and professed what he was doing was fine and I was in the wrong.

I just looked him very, VERY coldly in the eyes and said.... very quietly...

"Put your ****ing dog on a ****ing lead".

And I walked away. (I was, in effect, just protecting my cygnets).

 

This is not a rare occurrence for me.

And this was on a nature reserve with signs EVERYWHERE, telling people that rare birds were nesting so please keep your dogs on a lead and under control.

Dog owners in general (and let's not muck about - it's NOT the small minority) are pretty terrible at all this.

They let their dogs off leads when they are TOLD they shouldn't. They whimper to walkers, joggers and anyone else around that their dog that just noisily covered them in shit and mud and drool is "just being friendly". They think it's fine for large dogs to run at small children because "they're jussst being frrriendly!" They allow their dogs to crap and piss everywhere and only pick up their dog sh*te WHEN people are nearby. Watch out for this when you're next out and about - watch for a dog to start crapping - and then look at it's owner. Very often the owner will immediately look around the vicinity - to see if anyone is around and has seen their dog starting to crap. If they notice you, they'll visibly sigh as they then realise that this time, they'll have to pick up their dog's freshly-laid warm turd and put it in the plastic bag that they've been carrying around with them for months now. Of course they'll walk away with the bag, around the corner and toss it into a bush - where it'll hang off a branch for the next ten years.

So yes.

I say good on you, swan.

That's one for all the other swans, geese, ducks, woodlarks, lapwings, partridge, nightjars I say.

 

 

Footnote.

Now, if (as a dog owner) this blog post offends you …

Ohhhh I'm sorrrrreeee. I'm just being friendly! 

(Couldn't you telllllll?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) dog swan https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/7/birds-1-dogs-1-000-000 Wed, 03 Jul 2019 05:53:36 GMT
Tiny wee things. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/6/tiny-wee-things Just a couple of shots of tiny wee things taken with my tiny wee old camera and tiny wee snap on Raynox DCR150 filter in the last couple of days.

 

A (female I think) "house jumping spider" (Pseudeuophrys lanigera) on our lavatory windowsill.

 

 

A froglet (Rana temporaria) on one of our pond lily pads. Soon to lose its tail and leave the pond.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) froglet house jumping spider pseudeuophrys lanigera rana temporaria https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/6/tiny-wee-things Tue, 25 Jun 2019 17:23:32 GMT
New image uploaded to "Landscapes" gallery. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/6/new-image-uploaded-to-landscapes-gallery I've not uploaded a new image to this website for some time now, so thought I'd upload an arty-farty landscape image of sorts.

It can be found (to look at or to buy of course, in pretty-well any format you like from a design on a mug or apron to a double-decker sized fine art print) at my "landscapes" gallery HERE.  It actually looks far better when it's at it's full (HUGE) size. (I used my full frame 6D and then enlarged the image in "perfect resize"). It can also be seen below, although at a much reduced size, which doesn't really do it justice.

I rather think it would be perfect printed up to 6 foot by four and hung on the reception wall of Thames Water at Reading Bridge, Reading.

And for them.... and the sum of say £1000 - well they can have it!

Reading bridge in the ThamesReading bridge in the Thames

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) reading bridge reflections river thames https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/6/new-image-uploaded-to-landscapes-gallery Tue, 25 Jun 2019 17:09:18 GMT
The (biological) clock is ticking! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/6/the-biological-clock-is-ticking Regular reader(s?) of this blog website may know I found a lovely Puss moth caterpillar in our garden, early last July (on 5th July to be exact).

Admittedly this was quite early for a thirty day (roughly) old Puss moth caterpillar to be found wandering around looking for a place to pupate, as it will have hatched from its egg thirty days previously (around the 5th June) and been inside the egg on a poplar leaf for a couple of weeks before that - so will have been laid as an egg by its mother around the 22nd May.

You may also remember that I gave this caterpillar a nice bit of wood to pupate on, which it duly did - and its been residing in our empty chicken run since then.

I expected it to "eclose" forty or so days ago - in mid May - but it was only two nights ago now, around 1am on 22nd June that it finally broke out of its pupal case as a fully winged adult puss moth. (I check the pupa each morning and yesterday morning I found the below).

This puss moth adult will probably only live for a couple of months tops (if its not eaten by one of the bats that use our garden as their supermarket) - but it need to get its clogs on if it wants to breed (and ALL animals want to breed - it is after all the whole point of their lives).

If it manages to find a mate in one month say, the next generation will be laid as eggs on or around the 23rd July.

Two weeks to hatch makes that date 6th August.

Thirty days of caterpillar development makes pupation date 5th September.

And remember, pupation date last year for the moth I found was the 5th JULY!

 

No... my puss moth that "eclosed" two nights ago and flew orf into the big night sky as an adult puss moth simply does not have that time to find a mate and produce the next generation.

It's already between forty and fifty days (ish) LATER this year in its life cycle than last year and a good twenty or thirty days later than an "average" year I'd suggest.

It doesn't have a month to find a mate and produce the next generation as 5th September is TOO LATE for Puss moths to pupate. Probably.

My Puss moth needs to find a mate in the next week or two.

It really needs to get going NOW!

 

Footnote.

Some may be reading this thinking "well... that's a measure of just how bad the weather has been this year". But they'd be wrong.

My puss moth from last year did pupate early for sure - and that's more of a measure of just how good the weather was last year, but the weather this year here, especially in May, which is when my Puss moth should have emerged from its cocoon as an adult, was very nice and settled. It's only really been the last fortnight here that it has been wet and miserable.

So no... the wet weather in mid June here had nothing to do with the late eclosure of my Puss moth.

Perhaps it just wanted a long lie in.

The lazy get.

And now... NOWWWW... it's got to desperately make that time up.

Instead of a month or two to find a mate and produce eggs... it has a week or two. Tops.

The (biological) clock is ticking!

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) puss moth https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/6/the-biological-clock-is-ticking Sun, 23 Jun 2019 06:08:57 GMT
Bin a long time, bin a long time, bin a long lonely lonely lonely lonely lone-ly time. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/6/bin-a-long-time-bin-a-long-time-bin-a-long-lonely-lonely-lonely-lonely-lone-ly-time A few days ago after finding a dead hedgehog on the road 100 yards from our house and seeing what both my wife and I think is the vixen carrying three baby hedgehogs back to her cubs (on my trail camera footage), I wrote here that I thought that may be it for our garden hedgehogs, again. (I've been here before).

But I also wrote I hoped I was being a little premature.

Well... perhaps I was (being a bit premature), as a whole nine nights after all hedgehog life disappeared from our garden - look who snuffled up to its old den last night!

 

 

(It entered the garden via the (what I call "Irish") tunnel at half past ten, went back to its old den at half past two in the morning (a weird time for that behaviour, historically) and left again via the "Irish tunnel" at three o'clock - curling itself into a ball as the vixen stood over the tunnel for a while at the time). 

(The blue highlighted text above highlights the brief hedgehog clip in the youtube video above - the two other "Irish tunnel" clips were shot by my Bushnell* camera, so of course are of terrible quality and I won't be uploading them here. 

 

 

* Please... if you are considering buying a Bushnell trail camera... DON'T. They are terrible bits of kit. (Genuinely). Buy a Browning instead.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fox hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/6/bin-a-long-time-bin-a-long-time-bin-a-long-lonely-lonely-lonely-lonely-lone-ly-time Tue, 18 Jun 2019 06:38:40 GMT
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah! Zip-a-dee-ay! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/6/zip-a-dee-doo-dah-zip-a-dee-ay It's like a furr-eaking Disney film here tonight.

I've just put our eldest to bed and thought I'd pad 'round the garden to see wha g'wan.

As I approached our big poplar tree (with plenty of dead branches in it) I noticed a couple of young great tits, three young blue tits, one young robin and THREE young nuthatches... all singing and dancing around my head like a Disney medley.

I watched them for a while and then thought I'll try and get a few short video clips - with my tiny little camera that I can't really see to use without my reading glasses (and God knows where they are).

So I went back inside, fetched my matchbox-sized video camera and tried my best.

The (half decent, bearing in mind I was shooting blind) results are below.

 

It was clear that the three (recently-fledged) nuthatches were taking bird cherries from our tree by the chicken run and jamming them into crevices in the big black poplar that shades the rear of our back garden - great fun to watch - as I did for a good twenty minutes.

And yes, as I've already written above, it occurred to me as these delightful wee blue and buff birds danced around my head that to onlookers it'd have looked like a Disney film, at the back of our garden. Like Brer rabbit or something!

I finished my videoing, the birds finished their tea, bounced off through the foliage and me? Well... I skipped back inside, clicking my heels together and whistling the tune below. Well.... until me arthritic hip started clicking and me plantar fasciitis kicked in...

Have a lovely evening grapple fans.

And remember...

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah!
Zip-a-dee-ay!
Me oh My 
What a wonderful day.

Plenty of sunshine
Headin' my way
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah!
Zip-zip-a-dee-ay!

Hey, Mr. Bluebird 
On my shoulder
And if that's true
And actual
Everything is gonna be
Satisfactual

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah!
Zip-a-dee-ay!
Wonderful feelin'!
Wonderful day!

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) nuthatch https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/6/zip-a-dee-doo-dah-zip-a-dee-ay Mon, 17 Jun 2019 19:28:37 GMT
Is that it? Is that the (sad) end? (WARNING NOT FOR THE EASILY UPSET). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/6/is-that-it-is-that-the-sad-end-warning-not-for-the-easily-upset Regular reader(s?!) of this blog will know all about "our" hedgehog(s) - and the fact that I spend a lot of my time digging tunnels under our fences and doors to allow these hedgehogs the chance to move around freely and breed and escape foxes if possible.

I know that comes with a risk - these hedgehogs are then exposed to CARS and ROADS.

And with that in mind today it is with a (perhaps prematurely?) heavy heart that I bring you bad news.

 

I record the nightly nocturnal shenanigans in our garden with the help of two infra red video trail cameras.

For the past five nights I've not recorded any hedgehog activity in our gardens, apart from what LOOKS like the vixen fox taking three baby hedgehogs back to her cubs for food (I can't be sure that's what they are and won't post THAT video clip here) but again, that's what it LOOKS like.

Four mornings ago now I also noticed a newly-squashed hedgehog on the road outside our house, albeit 100 yards or so from our house (no distance at all for hedgehogs - ours used to regularly run the 40 yards of our garden in a minute).

 

 

Look... I've written "our" hedgehogs off before, at least twice.

But I've also SEEN previous hedgehogs in our gardens been EATEN by the local foxes and also SQUASHED by cars (and we live in a 20MPH zone!).

I may be premature again with my writing off of our local hedgehogs - but it really doesn't look good at present.

The video clip below is a compilation of the last four or five clips of our hedgehogs ("O" was our original, older, more "well-hung" male who seemed to disappear some time ago... and "P" was the taller, smaller, less well-endowed male I think).

The video clip does NOT include footage of the local vixen taking three (what looks like) baby hedgehogs back to her cubs across our garden, because I can't be 100% sure that's what the items in her mouth are. (She takes them across our garden one at a time).

The video also gives a little advice for anyone interested in helping our beleaguered hedgehogs.

Although I would add here, please don't encourage foxes into gardens. They really aren't great for anything else in the garden. In fact, that's putting it politely.

To be more frank, they're bleeding awful things, as far as the rest of "your" garden wildlife is concerned.

They'll EAT anything and everything - stag beetles, hedgehogs, newts, moths... the lot.

Of course the neighbourhood moggies will be blamed by the (often wilfully-) ignorant for killing millions of birds, (this has NO documented, appreciable effect (AT ALL) on garden bird numbers - garden birds in general are INCREASING in number unlike their specialist (farmland, heathland etc) counterparts), but cats simply aren't the problem in the UK like they are in (for example) Australia. 

FOXES are FAR more devastating in suburbia. And not towards birds of course.... but a problem to EVERYTHING ELSE.

 

Anyway... that's all for now.

Like I say, I HOPE I'm being very premature here and our hedgehogs are OK and perhaps even still around.

I'll keep putting the trail cameras out...

And I'll keep my fingers crossed.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fox hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/6/is-that-it-is-that-the-sad-end-warning-not-for-the-easily-upset Sat, 15 Jun 2019 07:01:47 GMT
Debt well and truly PAID. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/6/debt-well-and-truly-paid "The drought""The drought"

At the end of April I blogged HERE and speculated that generally, as the weather tends to "pay its debts" pretty reliably - and as such, bearing in mind we'd had such a dry April.... then we might perhaps expect a wet May.

May duly came and behaved itself - in fact May was very dry indeed.

But now... with June... comes the debt repayment.

In style.

I've just seen on the news that many places in England have had TWICE the expected rainfall for the whole of June in a couple of days - and a few places (like Pennerley in Shropshire, close(ish) to my inlaws), have had THREE TIMES the expected rainfall for the whole month in a couple of days.

Yep.

I think the debt has been well and truly paid off now.

(I also think that this year may well go down as another avian annus horribilis, at least as far as my beloved swifts are concerned... perhaps as bad as 2012 or 2007 or 2008 - all pretty terrible years for the best birds of all.  I'll give the "swift season"  (May-July inclusive) another month and blog about what I find).

More soon.

TBR.

Cloud burstCloud burst

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) june may rain swift weather https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/6/debt-well-and-truly-paid Thu, 13 Jun 2019 14:46:54 GMT
Ticking boxes... TODAY. RIGHT NOW. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/6/ticking-boxes-today-right-now

I'm regularly asked by people how they can see certain things. And "how come you have (seen x or y) Doug? You're SOOOOooo lucky!" (etc etc).

I suppose I am lucky generally, but very often this sort of thing is nothing to do with luck. You just need to put the hours in firstly and then make sure you've ticked certain boxes BEFORE putting those hours in.

Permit me to explain...

Commonly, if you want to see a specific beastie - and you set out on a day (or night) to see that beastie, you'd do worse than to learn about that beastie, compile a list of boxes to tick which would maximize your chances of seeing said beastie and try and tick as many of them as you can at the time of your trip into the wild to see that beastie. You'll still have to put the hours in mind, but fewer hours, MUCH fewer hours than if you'd ticked no boxes beforehand.

 

So.

For example, if you want to see a nightjar (and who doesn't it, let's face it?), you'd tick the boxes below:

Box 1 - Find a suitable area (large if possible) of lowland heath with areas of heather AND birch/chestnut/pine trees.

Box 2 - Go there at dusk (or just before dusk) during a warm, still June evening.

Box 3 - Keep listening....

 

And if you want to see a toad (and who doesn't... etc etc?), you'd tick the boxes below:

Box 1 - Locate a suitable, nearby "toad crossing" on the frog life website.

Box 2 - Wait until there's a night time temperature of at least 9 degrees Celsius with a little rain (or at LEAST moisture on the ground) in February (or if February is too cold (rare these days) March. These figures, conditions and months are SPECIFIC. Honestly.... it's like CLOCKWORK.

Box 3 - Get to your local crossing by dusk on that specific night.

 

 

We as a family decided t'other day to go and "hunt" hornet moths - lovely big moths that look like.... you guessed it.... giraffes. *cough*

Now - the boxes that need ticking to see hornet moths are pretty specific too.

If YOU want to see hornet moths (and who.... etc etc) then you need to tick the boxes we ticked last week below and it would be even easier to tick TODAY. RIGHT NOW.

 

Box 1 - Find a suitable clump or gathering or well established poplar trees. (We have these in the garden, but I know of a MUCH better spot by the Thames, about ten miles from us). Concentrate especially on poplar trees that have no thick vegetation growing around the base of the trees (the hornet moths don't like that).

Box 2 - Look for the tell tale signs of hornet moth infestation at the base of the poplar trunks (see my photos below).

 

Box 3 - Wait for a warm(ish), sunny, still morning in early June (June 1st-15th ideal) and go to your poplar trees before 10:30am on that morning. (a morning like TODAY, RIGHT NOW, would be absolutely ideal.

Box 4 - Keep walking around your "holey" poplar trees looking at the trunks no more than a couple of feet above the holes. The moths should emerge on these mornings, climb a foot or so up the trunk to find a little more warmth, pump up their wings and fly orf.

 

Tick those 4 boxes grapple fans, and you can see these lovely moths too.

DON'T tick those boxes though... and you'll probably never see a hornet moth in your life.

 

(NB - I should point out that we DIDN'T see any hornet moths last weekend - as we ticked the boxes and set off for the secret spot on the Thames, the clouds rolled over and the wind got up (see the windswept willows photo at the top of this post - taken on last Sunday's hornet moth hunt)  and all the lovely hornet moths thought "sod this for a game of soldiers" and kept under the bark of the poplars. Today would be a MUCH better morning mind - but we're all doing other things this morning. Are you?

Well?
Wotchoo waiting for? 

It's early June. (9th). It's warm and sunny. You know where your local established poplar trees are don't you? And it's nearly 10:30am......

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hornet moth https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/6/ticking-boxes-today-right-now Sun, 09 Jun 2019 07:46:42 GMT
Did you guess correctly? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/6/did-you-guess-correctly
Two days ago I blogged a question to you dear reader(s?!).

I asked you to look at the clip below and tell me what I saw, what I therefore feared and finally what (of course) actually transpired to happen a couple of nights ago, in our garden.

 

Did you guess correctly then?

The answer is in the extended video clip below...

Stag nightStag night

Sure, we're very lucky to have not one but TWO large stag beetle colonies in our garden(s)…. although I do culture that particular luck by managi8ng those colonies pretty well (adding nice logs from friendly local tree surgeons, to our beetles' wood piles every year).

Anyway.... you may begin to appreciate then, that I have more than a few good reasons to not appreciate foxes being in our garden.

They're pretty destructive things all round, I say - and to that extent, it may be worth reading that blog post I wrote three years ago on the subject of our local foxes digging up our (front garden) stag beetle colony. You can read it again HERE.

 

Nope.

Apologies to all "Disneyfied", British "wildlife-lovers" out there, but I'm really not a fan of foxes generally... and that doesn't look likely to change any time soon.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fox stag beetle https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/6/did-you-guess-correctly Sun, 02 Jun 2019 16:03:44 GMT
Can you guess what happens next? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/can-you-guess-what-happens-next Morning.

I'm going to write a quick post and upload a short video today - and leave a question for you, for a day or so.

Then I'll upload another post during the weekend, to show you the answer...

OK with you?

 

Right.

Here we go then.

 

I would put money on many people being at best, confused by my well-publicised dislike of foxes (being that these people might often pigeon-hole me as an "eco warrior" or "environmentalist" or "green" or "animal lover" etc) and at worst, quite upset.

It matters not to me however - I'm afraid, rather like grey squirrels and rats - I don't really like to have foxes in the garden - like some people don't like to have cats, for example, in their garden.

Sure, right now I tolerate them, as a family seems to be using my hedgehog runs each night and at present we aren't keeping hens (we've kept hens for about ten years but currently have none - our chicken run is used as a tool and lawnmower store right now).

All I can say regarding the foxes right now, is that I hope they don't eat our hedgehogs - something I've recorded here TWICE in the past eight years.

 

Anywaaaay.

Last night I set the trail camera up in the back garden again, behind our pond - and it recorded some footage reminding me of yet another reason (if I needed one) why I don't like foxes in our garden.

The first 20 sec video in a set of five is below - I'll upload the next four 20 second clips as one 80 second clip during the weekend.

Your question on this clip is as follows - 

 

As soon as I saw this FIRST 20 second clip (above) on the laptop, I noticed something (you may need my eagle eyes to notice it too) in the clip and then immediately feared something would then occur in any following clips.

Unfortunately - that something then DID immediately occur -  and my trail camera recorded it.

 

So.

What did I notice and so what did I fear and so what then occurred?


I'll post the answer in a new blog post with that 80 second video, over the weekend....

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fox https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/can-you-guess-what-happens-next Fri, 31 May 2019 09:06:42 GMT
Foxes again https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/foxes-again Just a 20 second video clip, shot early this morning by my Browning trail camera, of the vixen (I assume) and ALL THREE of her cubs entering the garden last night.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fox https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/foxes-again Wed, 29 May 2019 11:13:48 GMT
Foxes https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/foxes No.

I'm no particular fan of foxes. I think of them as mangy, smelly, filthy, noisy, damaging wild dogs, in the main.

But.

I know I've had a particularly good day, like I did yesterday (I played some absolutely sublime golf at a local course in the afternoon for example; and had a nice few relaxing beers afterwards) when even I look at some of the footage I shot of the garden last night (see short video below) and think to myself... "Awww... those wittle foxes look soooo cute!"

NB. This is just a tiny part of the footage I recorded last night with the rather good (WAAAAY better than Bushnell) Browning trail camera.

We have three cubs and two adult foxes visit our garden during the nights right now, but if I'd have uploaded all the footage from last night, the clip above would have been about 30 minutes long, rather than 1 minute.

 

So.

Whilst we currently don't keep hens (we'll start again before too long I'm sure) I'll put up with foxes - as long as they don't start eating the hedgehogs!

Enjoy your Bank Holiday Monday, grapple fans...

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fox https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/foxes Mon, 27 May 2019 08:41:22 GMT
An unexpected visitor this bank holiday... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/an-unexpected-visitor-this-bank-holiday Look what just dropped into our garden...

What looks (to me) to be a young diamond dove.

Must have escaped from a nearby private collection, I assume.

A first for me though, nevertheless.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) diamond dove https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/an-unexpected-visitor-this-bank-holiday Sun, 26 May 2019 10:03:33 GMT
Two hedgehogs now? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/two-hedgehogs-now I think this is a new development (but it may not be).

I think we now have TWO hedgehogs use our garden.

The video below (shot last night)  is annotated accordingly.

Enjoy the long weekend, grapple fans.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/two-hedgehogs-now Sat, 25 May 2019 07:03:17 GMT
Nine ... or eight.... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/nine-or-eight Today, all of our blue tits have fledged. On day 21 out of the egg.

 

I think eight of the nine will be OK, but the 'runt of the litter' (see last photo below) will perish this afternoon or tonight or tomorrow morning I think - it can barely fly and is staying FAR too close to the ground, separated from its MUCH better developed brethren (and errr.... 'sesren'). Oh it's still being fed by its parents as it's constantly shouting at them - but there are magpies and jays and jackdaws and squirrels and hawks and cats in the hood.. and I honestly think it needed another day in the box.

 

Aw well.

Let's all cross our fingers and toes - and it may make it, but even if it doesn't - eight out of nine fledglings (out of ten hatched eggs, out of thirteen laid eggs) isn't too bad eh?

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) blue tit https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/nine-or-eight Sun, 19 May 2019 14:13:56 GMT
The sun has got his hat onnnn. Hip hip hip.... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/the-sun-has-got-his-hat-onnnn-hip-hip-hip … Hooraaaay! The sun has got his hat on and he's coming out to plaaaaaay.

 

And no... I'm not going to give you all the (rude) lyrics to this song... you'll just have to use google if you don't know what I'm talking about.

 

 

The photos below are of (in order)

 

a) A skylark singing against the burning May sun in a clear sky. (The white specks are bits of floaty seed heads, insects etc). I love taking these sorts of photos even though the end result doesn't appeal to many apart from me (and moy woyf!).

b) Frost's Folly Park countryside.

c) A swallow and a house martin taking a lunchtime drink and a bath at one of the wildlife ponds at Frost Folly.

SkylarkSkylark

Frost's Folly ParkFrost's Folly Park

 

 

And I'll leave you with a dreadful (quality) short video of a lovely lark singing its backside off, on a fencepost.

Dreadful quality as it was shot on a camera that I could easily swallow whole - and at full zoom.

Never mind.

I've never seen a lark singing from a fencepost before, so I thought I'd video it and now you can see it too....

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) frosts folly house martin skylark swallow https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/the-sun-has-got-his-hat-onnnn-hip-hip-hip Mon, 13 May 2019 16:05:16 GMT
You MAY remember JULY? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/you-may-remember-july You MAY remember that I found a puss moth caterpillar in our garden last July - a puss moth caterpillar clearly looking for a piece of suitable wood on which to pupate.

So I gave it that piece of wood and it duly spun (span?!) a cocoon.

It's been there since then. For about 10 months.

And still is.

(I now have it wedged in the chicken wire covering our chicken run (we have no chickens at present) to facilitate its emergence and first flight into the night sky).

 

I'm only drawing your attention to this now, as MAY is the month when 'our' Puss moth should emerge. And should leave a hole in its old cocoon like this.

May is the month.

May be upon us.

Watch this space...

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) may puss moth https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/you-may-remember-july Wed, 08 May 2019 13:14:34 GMT
A little more clarity? HedgehoG (sing.) & foxES (pl.) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/a-little-more-clarity-hedeghog-sing-foxes-pl A little more clarity now, after my three trail cameras picked up footage of the larger mammals in our garden last night.

In short  - I am pretty confident we have our single male hog, "HA" back with us - and he, (I think), is still alone.

Plus we also have at least three foxes visiting the garden now. Two adults (including one clearly lactating female)and one cub.
 
More soon, I'm sure.
 
 
 
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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fox hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/a-little-more-clarity-hedeghog-sing-foxes-pl Tue, 07 May 2019 09:44:31 GMT
Confused now... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/confused-now “There’s one antidote to gloom and despair that never fails: the wildlife that got us all going in the first place. It’s brilliant, beautiful, bewildering, intriguing and inspiring. We’ll probably do a lot more good if we spend more time outside engaging with it, rather than inside reading about or watching things (on TV) that make us angry (like Brexit, for example)….”

 

Six days ago I blogged that our single male hedgehog had gawn orf.

Six nights - no hedgehog activity in the garden - nothing on any trail cameras. NOTHING AT ALL.

But now, after last night's activity in the garden (picked up by two trail cams in the video below), I am completely confused.

So...

Please watch the video below. Accompanying text is in the video itself (so you know what you're looking at).

I am not sure WHAT to make of all the hedgehog activity in the garden last night.

So all I can say for sure is that:

 

1) We certainly did have only one single male hedgehog in the back garden which let itself out, 6 nights ago and hasn't been back since.

2) We think it returned last night (although the first hedgehog "HA" by the door in the clip above, does seem smaller and nippier than our original male hedgehog and more significantly- does NOT appear to have a great big penis, unlike our original male - although that might be because the footage is slightly fuzzy and thus unclear).

3) We think also at least one (probably just one) hog appeared at the other end of the back garden (although again... that cooouuulllld be just our original hedgehog ("HA") on its own).

 

It's always very difficult to put any sort of narrative to wildlife using just trail cameras and one really should avoid jumping to unevidenced conclusions with trail camera footage, even though... I know... it's tempting, isn't it? 

Trail cameras are unreliable and even if they are suddenly 100% reliable (i.e. they trigger without fail) because they are static (and the animals aren't), little can be deduced from footage.

Almost invariably if you're puzzled to what is happening in your garden (or wherever you've set up your trail camera or cameras), the obvious answer and most likely answer WILL be the eventual answer, you know.

So... your hedgehogs won't have all suddenly multiplied and broken down walls. 

And your foxes won't have all grown wings or been taken by a local cat/monkey/squirrel/tiger. 

 

The obvious and most likely answer about our situation last night after a year or so with just one hedgehog seemingly trapped in our gardens and now, 6 nights of NO hedgehog activity followed by a night of lots of activity from multiple (seemingly) hedgehogs is that quite simply, our original male hedgehog "HA" has indeed returned and is running around all his old haunts. NOT that he buggered off for six nights and suddenly six night later all the hedgehogs in the Parish have all, simultaneously discovered all my hedgehog tunnels under our fences.

I hope he has returned 'avec femme'. That'd be great. But I massively doubt it.

 

An old neighbour and friend of mine is having this same sort of problem (making sense of limited trail camera footage) in Reading, albeit with a family of foxes, rather than my small number (perhaps just one still) of hedgehogs. Also - it's a LOT easier to see the difference between male and female foxes than male and female hedgehogs at this time of year - although size is NOT … repeat NOT... to clarify - NEVER... an indicator of sex in foxes or hedgehogs (or many other animals for that matter).

So.

Tonight I'll put out three trail cameras and see what is happening in the garden.

I think I'll get footage of one hedgehog - maybe two... but unless I get footage of two hedgehogs TOGETHER in one clip, I'll be hesitant to draw any inferences from any clips I do get.

Again... all I can say fo sho, after 6 nights of NO hedgehog activity in the garden, is suddenly again, there's rather a lot. But I have no idea if all the activity last night was the result of our original hedgehog ("HA") returning, or whether there are suddenly two hedgehogs in the garden somehow ("HA" and "HB", despite only one entrance into and out of our gardens as far as I thought) or even perhaps THREE hedgehogs in our garden suddenly now, "HA", "HB" and "HC").

It's worth reiterating that point again.

I've been CONVINCED that the only way into our gardens (the five gardens in our "patch") was via tunnels I'd dug between our garden and our four neighbouring gardens and the tunnel under our side passage door, which allows any hedgehogs in or out to the wider world (and was, I thought, the ONLY exit to the wider world or entrance in FROM the wider world).  I may well have to rethink that theory after last night...

Watch this space....

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fox hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/confused-now Mon, 06 May 2019 18:04:55 GMT
He's gone. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/hes-gone “There’s one antidote to gloom and despair that never fails: the wildlife that got us all going in the first place. It’s brilliant, beautiful, bewildering, intriguing and inspiring. We’ll probably do a lot more good if we spend more time outside engaging with it, rather than inside reading about or watching things (on TV) that make us angry (like Brexit, for example)….”

 

 

Regular reader(s?!) of this blog website may know about our single male hedgehog.

Trapped in three, perhaps four* of our local back gardens because like most Brits, our neighbours like their gardens neat and tidy and airtight (and DEVOID of wildlife), and all alone as the hedgehogs that had got into and used and bred in our gardens over the last 8 years had all moved on or been eaten by foxes.

*I say trapped in three or four of our back gardens but unless I'd dug tunnels under our fences it would have been trapped in just one (our western neighbours).

Well... a single male hedgehog is no use to the species - and it became obvious to me over the Spring this year, on waking from its annual hibernation, our single male hedgehog wanted to escape to pastures new. Find a mate. Raise rugrats etc.

So I dug a tunnel through concrete under our side passage door, with an SDS hammer drill.

At first, indeed for the last few weeks, our hedgehog used the tunnel most nights - but only explored our front garden for a minute or ten -always returning to our back garden and then under our fence to its home under the western neighbours' shed.

Over the last week, it stopped using our "concrete tunnel" at all.

And then suddenly... two nights ago, he (again) pegged it down our side passage, hesitated at the exit (so to speak), then squeezed through the concrete tunnel - and he never came back.

"How do you know he never came back?!" I hear you indignantly splutter through a mouthful of soggy cornflakes. "We've been here before, haven't we?"

Well, yes - I thought our male hedgehog had perhaps disappeared for good a few weeks ago, but my brace of trail cameras picked up the little shuffler the very next night  - but that HASN'T happened now for two nights.

Not one of my trail cameras has picked up any movement from 'our' single male hedgehog for two nights now - and I've put the cameras in ALL his favourite old spots.

So.

He's gone.

And whilst we are a little sad, the whole REASON I dug that final tunnel through the concrete is to give him that chance to go. 

To get out, find a mate and fulfil his desttttttinnnyyyyyyy. (To be said with a James Earl Jones voice, or similar).

 

I hope he returns.

With a female in tow?

But to be honest, right now, I'm chuffed he's gone and my main concern is that he doesn't get run over on our road (he's almost certainly not seen one before) before he has a chance to make himself immortal by passing on his genes to the next generation.

Good luck old chap.

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/5/hes-gone Thu, 02 May 2019 07:13:36 GMT
Be it dry or be it wet... the weather'll always pay its debt... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/be-it-dry-or-be-it-wet-the-weatherll-always-pay-its-debt As April ends then - and with that the swifts arrive...

It's worth noting that on average, where we live, we would expect to have 'received' c.22cm of rainfall so far this calendar year.

But so far this calendar year, we've actually only had less than 15cm of rainfall. 

Approximately two thirds of what we should have had.

 

You know the old adage.

"Be it dry or be it wet, the weather'll always pay its debt".

So.

Are we in for a soaking this May then?

"The drought""The drought"

Or will this May be as "scorchio" as last year?

Time will tell....

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) average rain sun weather https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/be-it-dry-or-be-it-wet-the-weatherll-always-pay-its-debt Tue, 30 Apr 2019 19:04:58 GMT
Watch the birdies... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/watch-the-birdies A brief(ish) post today as I've been rugby coaching and gardening all day, plus showing Ben a barn owl (a proper, live, WILD barn owl - he's a lucky boy innee?), pheasant and red-legged partridge families in the farm's hedges, buzzards and kestrels aaaaaannnnnd several hundred red deer on the Windsor great park

 

- so... well... we're all a bit cream crackered to be honest.

First bit of news... Our 13 blue tit eggs laid in our camera box below started hatching today.

A day or so earlier than I predicted. Well... it has been warm eh? That's great news for the 7 (we think) eggs that have hatched today. I expect the other 6, or most of the other 6 anyway, to hatch by tomorrow. We're all already having a lorra lorra fun watching both tits (FNAR! FNAR!) bring tiny wee brown and green caterpillars to the already ravenous tiny tits.

Talking of pairs of tits birds, it is with immense pleasure that I can report that as well as nesting magpies, woodpigeons, blackbirds and blue tits in the garden this year (pretty standard fayre to be honest), this year we ALSO have SONG THRUSHES doing the same.

It almost feels ridiculous to say this, but these wonderful, chevron-marked fruity-songed birds were EVERYWHERE in my yoof. I remember doing my paper round and watching them and listening to them belt their wonderful songs out from every other roof TV aerial (in the days of just three channels mind - how OLD am I?!).

The photo above I took in Reading during a snowy winter about ten years ago of two thrushes in a neighbour's garden... but as far as I was concerned as a boy... well... song thrushes nested in our garden in the Chiltern hills of South Buckinghamshire EVERY year.

But wind the clock forward thirty-five odd years to this year... and I'm sad to say that THIS pair of thrushes nesting in our garden, will be the first pair I've had nesting in ANY garden of mine, since the mid 80s.

I would never have guessed that as a boy in the 80s. (Incidentally we also had spotted flycatchers in the garden each summer (I've hardly seen one since) and also lesser spotted woodpeckers in the garden all year round (and I've NOT seen ONE of them AT ALL since)).

Anyway.

Wonderful news about the pair of nesting thrushes (picture and video shot through our kitchen  window below (yes yes dreadful quality I know - shot in haste with my tiny wee matchbox-sized camera) and the tits. The tits, all being well, now should fledge around the 17th May.

Watch this space.

 

 

 

Finally, in case you weren't aware, the best birds of all are NOW zipping back to blighty to spend the late spring and early summer with us....

Get your boxes up and your MP3/CD swift calls dusted down.

Now's the time!

SwiftSwift


 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl blue tit buzzard hatching eggs red deer red-legged partridge song thrush swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/watch-the-birdies Sun, 28 Apr 2019 19:19:43 GMT
A hideous, spectral, Moorish vampyre of old. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/the-hideous-spectral-moorish-vampyre-of-old On one of my poddlings around the town today (I needed a haircut and thought I'd walk 5 miles around the area afterwards), I happened across a big brown caterpillar on a pavement.

I picked it up and quickly realised it was a caterpillar of an "Old Lady" moth.

 

Now... various books or web guides or indeed pieces in the Telegraph will tell you that this moth was so-named because when it was named, it was fashionable for older ladies to wear long dark capes or cloaks or dresses.

Well. 

That would be a reeeeasonable assumption I suppohhhhse - although an incorrect one, even though EVERYONE says that IS the reason.

 

Look.

The REAL reason that this moth is called "Old Lady" in English, is on account of its scientific name - Mormo maura.

 

Now.

"Mormo" was a hideous she-monster. A bugbear. A spectral-bogeywoman of  Greek and Roman and (Mediterranean) North African myth. A mysterious female vampire which would visit naughty children at night and then BITE THEM.

She would of course be dressed in dark, flowing robes... and was generally depicted as old (not like in this image).

"Maura" on the other hand literally means of (old) Mauretania, of Moorish descent. (NB> Old Mauretania was further north than modern Mauritania).

This is where the Greeks and Romans told their children that the monster, Mormo, came from. (North Africa basically).

So... this moth is basically named after the vampire bogeywoman moth of the Moors (note the capital M) and not because Edwardian and Victorian laydeez wore dark capes.

Like a lot of things grapple-fans, you heard that here first.

 

Keep your eyes peeled for this large caterpillar right now.

You'll recognise it I'm sure by the fact that it is:

a) Quite large (incidentally - the adult Old Lady moth is VERY (for the UK) large)!

b) Has a black line across its rump. A thin, black line and NOT black tooth marks as in the lesser yellow underwing for example).

c) Has orange "spiracular" (write that down for your scrabble games) marks along its flank (see my close up photo above).

 

And you might like to resurrect the "Mormo myth" (I've briefly described above) if one of your bairns finds this caterpillar before you!

(Mwah ah ah ah aaaaaah!)  <- Maniacal laughter....

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) caterpillar old lady moth https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/the-hideous-spectral-moorish-vampyre-of-old Thu, 25 Apr 2019 15:39:12 GMT
The annual pilgrimage. The best yet. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/the-annual-pilgrimage-the-best-yet Bluebells (abstract)Bluebells (abstract)

I must have blogged here over the last however-many-years I've been running this website that I have a lifelong-fascination with woodlands. It's more of an addiction, to be honest.

Woodlands are genuinely where I feel most at home. Where I feel most at ease. Where I feel most relaxed and yet also where I feel most alert and alive too.

I spent A LOT of my youth in local woods, watching badgers, foxes, owls, deer etc - and that includes all-nighters, alone - something that most "normal" people would probably find terrifying.

To be honest, I've spent quite a lot of my adult life walking around woods too - without being too pretentious (I hope), it's almost PRIMAL with me - an attraction to woodlands. It's genuinely like the woods are my home. I feel FAR more comfortable in a wood, for example than a house. And when I was shift working in the 90s, I regularly slept, hidden in a local wood during the day, rather than go back to my HMO (at the time) and try to sleep there.

I know. I know. Ridiculous eh? It's just ONE of the thing even my closest friends find a little strange about me!

Right. Now that that's all said - these days, with a wife, two boys, a few animals and a mortgage - I can't enjoy woods as I used to, for hours and hours and hours on my own - but I DO try to lead the family to a suitable, beautiful local piece of woodland each April (or May) to see the spellbinding display of British bluebells.

Blurbell woodBlurbell wood

I say "British" bluebells, as we, in Britain have something like 126% of all British bluebells in the whole of the Britain. Or something like that.  

The wood that I've been taking the family to for the past seven years has been hacked to pieces over the winter. And I mean that. Dozens of trees have been illegally felled. We don't know who by nor why. A real, dreadful shame.

This is what it USED to look like (below) - but I'm afraid to say it doesn't look like this any more...

Bluebell wood at dawnBluebell wood at dawn

Secret copse at dawnSecret copse at dawnA small copse in a hidden Berkshire valley (which hardly anyone knows about and which erupts in bluebells each April and May - but only a very few ever get to see them).
This photo was taken just before dawn, from a car, in the rain - and even then the bluebells seemed to glow in the gloom.

Bluebell copseBluebell copse

 

So this year, I had to find another wood.

Which I did.

And to be honest, it's even better than the old wood  certainly much more extensive (in terms of area (acres) and indeed pure number of bluebells) - and it's nearer too.

I'll not write any more on this blog - I'll just leave you with a few images I shot yesterday on our annual bluebell pilgrimage.

Happy Easter, grapple fans.

TBR.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bluebells https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/the-annual-pilgrimage-the-best-yet Mon, 22 Apr 2019 06:34:03 GMT
Puttock augmentation. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/puttock-augmentation KitesKites

We (and by "we", I mean my family here in East Berkshire, England) are used to seeing red kites, constantly.

To be honest, if it's not raining and we are outside and we DON'T see at least two or three red kites, something's (literally) amiss.

They're absolutely (bloody) everywhere.

Very different in the mid-80s, mind.

I remember holidaying in mid Wales in around 1986 and as a "bit of a birdwatcher", getting driven to a dark wood in deepest, darkest Wales in order to perhaps get a brief glimpse of one of the handful of kites that resided ONLY in that part of Wales at that time and in no other part of the UK. We didn't see any though. 

It struck me watching the kites in the blue sky yesterday, as we sat in a local beer garden having a pit-stop during our marathon 4 hour village Easter egg hunt, that even though WE see kites more regularly than buzzards or kestrels or sparrowhawks here (in fact unlike those birds, it's very difficult NOT to see kites here), we are incredibly fortunate to do so - across vast areas of the rest of the country - you'll see NO kites.

There's a reason for this.

On August 1st this year, it will be thirty years ago EXACTLY that five young (Spanish) red kited were released into a quiet valley in the Chiltern hills. A tranquil piece of countryside near the Chiltern escarpment at Stokenchurch to be more precise.

Me (before I got married and had children)? I was raised in the Chiltern hills (south Buckinghamshire) and my father (once divorced from my mother) lived for some time in Watlington, on the Oxfordshire / Buckinghamshire border, near Stokenchurch. He's back in Fife these days, by the way - and has been for a decade or so.

I returned to the Chilterns for a while in 1993 after living in Bristol for a bit (and somehow getting a zoology degree whilst there) and by the time I did, red kites were often visible around High Wycombe (where I lived and worked) and certainly, ALWAYS visible in and around Watlington and Stokenchurch where those five birds were originally released. (I think something like 88 were released in that valley in the five years between 1989 and 1994).

We regularly visited my father in Watlington and drove through FLOCKS of red kites... that sort of experience has been quite normal for me for what? Twenty-five years now.

But again, I was struck by the notion yesterday that the constant sight of kites soaring around in the sky above our heads is just not a thing for most people in the UK, despite the red kite being reintroduced in other areas of the country like the Black Isle (Morayshire) etc.

I thiiiiink in Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire we have something like a third or more now (perhaps even half?), of ALL the UK's 4200 or so pairs of kites - in fact we have "so many" that young Chiltern red kites are regularly used to kick-start other reintroduction programmes elsewhere in the country.

It should be said, especially this year, exactly thirty years after those cinco Milanos Real (five Spanish red kites) were introduced into the leafy Chilterns, that this three decade old reintroduction programme has been a staggering success - for the kites as well as Natural England and the RSPB.

 

Footnote.

This is all very well, innit.

But why the title of the blog post "Puttock augmentation"?

Why didn't I just call it "Thirrrty years of bird.... nehhhhver stopped me dreaming" (or something).

Because "Puttock" is an old English (and to a lesser extent, Scottish) name for a red kite (or buzzard or harrier).

And the puttock's UK population has certainly been augmented over the past thirty years.

That's why.

 

Happy Easter, grapple fans.  And I hope you enjoy these blue skies as much as the kites down here are enjoying them.

TBR.

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) red kite https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/puttock-augmentation Sat, 20 Apr 2019 07:39:35 GMT
A premature "so long" then? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/a-premature-so-long-then Yesterday I blogged that I thought that perhaps our single male hedgehog had (at last) made a break for it.

But last night, to try to discover whether that notion (above and yesterday) was correct (or not), I set up all THREE of my trail cameras - only to discover our hedgehog was still VERY MUCH still around.

Video below… including a surprise (and not entirely welcome, it has to be said) vulpine visitor...

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fox hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/a-premature-so-long-then Wed, 17 Apr 2019 12:39:41 GMT
12 or 13. Then 13 or 14. Then 18 to 20. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/12-or-13-then-13-or-14-then-18-to-20 We have a pair of blue tits nesting in a nest box which I've screwed to a north-facing wall by our bathroom window. A box in which we have a wee camera.

Today our hen laid her twelfth or thirteenth egg (12 or 13). I can DEFINITELY count 12 and I thiiiink it's 13, but I can't be 100% sure as the nest cup is often covered by feathers.

The blue tit hen will lay an egg a day for about 12 days and only when she's laid her final egg, will she start incubating properly. That's a 1p piece below, by the way, NOT a 2p.

 

 

Today she started incubating.

She'll incubate for about thirteen or fourteen days (13 or 14) - and then the eggs should hatch. Pretty-well all on the same day.

Then she'll (and her mate if he's still around) feed the developing young until they fledge (leave the nest) at around eighteen-twenty (18 to 20) days old.


Long and short of it, if all goes to plan, we have 12-13 eggs  which should turn into nestlings after 13 or 14 days which I hope will all fledge successfully after a further 18 to 20 days.

 

30th April - predicted hatching day.

19th May - predicted fledging day.

If. (Big IF). All goes to plan.

 

NB. As usual... all photos on this post are taken by me.

The photo of the TV screen is of our current nest.

The photo of the eggs (and yes that's a 1p piece (NOT a 2p) is from a failed nest brought to my attention when we lived in Reading about 9 years ago now.

The photo of the young, newly-fledged (yellow-faced) blue tit, was one of our successful fledglings the last time we had a blue tit nest here in our current house in Berkshire (near Reading). And yes that is my hand. The wee thing needed a little help from me to fledge successfully. That was five years ago now!

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) blue tit nest https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/12-or-13-then-13-or-14-then-18-to-20 Tue, 16 Apr 2019 17:09:13 GMT
Has our hedgehog finally taken the plunge? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/has-our-hedgehog-finally-taken-the-plunge Regular reader(s) of this blog will know all about our single male hedgehog and my efforts to try and cajole him to leave our garden (where he ain't gettin' any) to explore pastures new, (the front gardens of the road) where as long as he avoids the cars, he maaay just get to sow his wild oats with a purty lil laydee hog - and so pass on his genes.

I've been leaving one of my trail camera out each night, and recording him leaving the back garden via my tunnel (matron) under our side passage door, but always returning within a few minutes (often as little as one minute and a maximum of fifty-odd minutes later).

Last night however,  whilst my camera recorded him leaving the garden as usual...

...my trail camera didn't (for once) record any footage of any return to our back garden, of "our" male hog.

Now... my trail camera isn't infallible. It takes 20 seconds or so for it to "recharge" after shooting a 20 second video and be in a position to record another 20 second video - soooo... our hog could have shot back into our back garden within 20 seconds or so - plausible... especially as the next video shot after the one above, did contain some soft hedgehoggy noises that could have been made by our hog as it sprinted back into our back garden, avoiding the trail camera firing again as it did so.

Or... it could be the case that the hog has had enough of poddling 'round our back garden(s) on his tod - and has finally decided to go huntin'. Huntin' for a mate. 

If that is the case, then... well... I'll be sad to see him go. 

But the WHOLE reason that I dug that tunnel is to give him the chance TO go.

I'll leave a camera or three out tonight to see wha g'wan.

There's a good chance that one of the three cameras will record his nightly meanderings as normal (and that'll be fine)… but there's also a chance that he really has gone - so my cameras will be recording nothing - and in that case, well... good luck to the prickly little thing.

Watch this space.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) back garden concrete door front garden genes hedgehog life male randy side passage single tunnel https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/has-our-hedgehog-finally-taken-the-plunge Tue, 16 Apr 2019 16:45:00 GMT
UNGAWA BUNGARRA! (In "The Emerald Shitty").... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/ungawa-bungarra-in-the-emerald-shitty Although I HAVE seen my first swallow of the year at the golf course t'other day, I've not been able to get out as much as I'd have liked so far in my week off.

This is primarily because I've been doing some jobs around the hyse.

Like deep cleaning our lav (nice!) and painting it an emerald green colour. (The last time it was painted was about 8 years ago when we moved in - and painted it blue).

 

The paint I used is actually called "Emerald Glade".

 

And as I've painted the lav (room) with it - I'll now refer to that room as "The Emerald Shitty".

 

At present we have a painting of three giraffes in "The Emerald Shitty"... as well as that photo of that crested macaque.

 

But neither of those lived in "The Emerald City" did they?
 

Which is why I'm going to take (at least) the giraffe painting down (and put it elsewhere - as I like it) and replace it with this lovely original aboriginal linen print of a couple of Sand Goannas (or "Bungarras". Just as well Tarzan lived in Africa eh, as if he'd have lived in Australia, he would had to have cried "UNGAWA, BUNGARRA!" at these lizards, I guess)?

 

But why am I going to put this aboriginal print of a couple of Bungarras in our newly-named lav (room) then?

 

Some of you may be there by now, but go on then... for those that aren't....

 

THE EMERALD SHITTY WAS THE HOME OF THE LIZARD OF OZ, wasn't it?

 

Thangyew. Thangyew very much. I'm here all week. Try the fish.

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bungarra sand goanna https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/ungawa-bungarra-in-the-emerald-shitty Wed, 10 Apr 2019 18:21:11 GMT
Browning > Bushnell. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/browning-bushnell As regular reader(s) of this blog might appreciate, I've been using trail cameras to record videos of wild animals for some time now - be those wild animals be little owls

Owl watch 26th February (1)

or tawny owls

Owl watch - Tawny drops onto new barn

or even barn owls

(Barn) owl watch 1st Feb 2014

or roe deer

Deer watch - 30th October 2011 at 04:13 GMTThis short clip was recorded on only the second time my trailcam has been left out in the "joan wilders", rather than in the garden.
I'm particularly fond of roe deer and hope to obtain more footage, as and when.

 

or badgers (and badger cubs and foxes and fox cubs and muntjac deer)!

May 2012 Badger watch (and other mammals) early May 2012

or hedgehogs (and woodmice)

Hogwatch - 11th Oct 2012 - A.Sylvaticus drops in

 

or even kestrels

Breeding kestrels (1)

or how about red-legged partridge?

Owl (and partridge!) watch - 20th June 2012

And I've had some success, it has to be said.

But that (dare I say) came thanks to a lot of what people call "fieldcraft" from me, rather than the superb technology of trail cameras - in fact many times I thought I've got good footage DESPITE the trail camera, not because of it.

Not many (no-one?) apart from me has filmed breeding kestrels and little owls on a trail camera throughout the season.

And during those seasons, it became acutely obvious to me, watching the birds and my trail cameras from afar (100M or so away), that whilst the birds were performing well for me and my Bushnell trail cameras... the cameras themselves weren't at all - I was missing HOURS of footage as the cameras just wouldn't trigger.

And even when they did trigger at night - the footage was barely watchable (see barn owl clip above).

 

I also became painfully aware at the time (we're talking between 5 and 10 years ago now) that fellow, let's say "wildlife enthusiasts"... were "reviewing" (promoting) Bushnell trail cameras, after they were seduced (for want of a better word) by Bushnell, with freebies.

 

The problems with Bushnell were numerous and I've almost certainly gone into them at length before on this blog, but in a nutshell...

a) The trigger speed was SILLY slow. OK for slow moving (American!) beasts like Moose etc. Not great for smaller, faster things generally.

b) The trigger didn't even fire, many many times.

c) The night footage was almost unuseable

d) The power supply (batteries) was unstable.

e) Last but certainly not least... the design was incredibly user unfriendly (for loads of reasons which I won't bore you with here, again).

 

Well.

I still own two old Bushnell trail cameras (because they were expensive and I don't want to throw them away) and as you know, I've still been using them. With limited success.

But now, I also own a Browning Special Ops Advantage trail camera, bought from "Nature spy" in North Wales, a few days ago.

Unfortunately the first camera I bought was a dud (screen didn't work and the camera had what I call "runaway flu" (took videos constantly -that is to say the PIR sensor was constantly triggering even in a cool cupboard) but the good peeps at Nature Spy sent me another yesterday, whilst I was at Twickenham with my eldest boy watching the rugby... and I have to say... compared to my old Bushnells - it's like chalk and cheese. 

Sure, I've only used it once in anger so far (last night). But right now, I'm VERY impressed.

a) The trigger speed I think is about 10X faster than my Bushnells. Maybe 0.5 secs instead of 5! Makes a WORLD of difference.

b) The trigger  seemed to fire every time. Although it maaay be too sensitive. Time will tell.

c) The night footage was SUPERB. And the day footage too was SO much better than the Bushnell.

d) The power supply (batteries) so far has been stable AND well designed. 

e) Last but certainly not least... the design was incredibly user FRIENDLY (So much better than Bushnell).

A video of our hog in our side passage can be seen below (taken with TBR 26 - the Browning camera).

Hog passage. (Browning trail camera)

 

Now compare that to a similar video taken by an old Bushnell  (search for "teebeearr" in YouTube to see my channel).

Chalk and cheese like I say.

 

Again, I know... I've only tested this Browning trail  camera once so far... and still remain concerned about the trigger being too sensitive perhaps. I think it maaaay be triggered by moving grass or leaves etc... but again. So far I'm so much more impressed with Browning than Bushnell.

Another example, from where I'm sitting, of a company thinking they are the only players on the field... resting on their laurels and being overtaken by hungrier newcomers.

Well done Browning.

I think you have a convert in me.

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) browning bushnell trail cam https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/browning-bushnell Sun, 07 Apr 2019 06:15:27 GMT
Hedgehog indecision https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/hedgehog-indecision Far from disappearing forever to the land of milk and honey, after discovering the tunnel I chiselled under our side door for it (as I suggested might happen in my blog post yesterday) - our male hedgehog spent a grand total of about 4 minutes on the other side of the door last night. He seems unsure...

 

 

He first left at 0113hrs last night.

 

 


And then was back 2 minutes later….

 

 

Then again left at 0125hrs

 

And was back again just 2 minutes later – this would be the final time he used this tunnel last night - after leaving us a present in our side passage from his back passage at 13 seconds into this 45 second clip below...

 

 

NB. I think this may be the last hedgehog/door/tunnel video blog I post here... unless something definitive happens (he leaves for the night, or he leaves permanently (doesn't come back) etc).

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) door hedgehog indecision poo side passage tunnel https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/hedgehog-indecision Wed, 03 Apr 2019 05:56:06 GMT
SUCCESS! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/success A couple of days ago, I blogged about our randy, but frustrated (if hedgehogs get frustrated as such) male hedgehog.

I blogged that I drilled and chiselled a tunnel under our side passage door, so it could explore* pastures new.

* I should remind reader(s) that whilst I've dug tunnels under our fences, which it uses each night, to explore our garden and the gardens on each side of us, it's clear that our neighbours haven't done similarly, so it is, in effect, trapped in our three gardens - one of which (our arsehole Eastern neighbour's garden) is what I call a "Tellytubby garden" (manicured and not good for wildlife).

We have had a family of hogs before, but I think old age or a fox did for the female (I found her hollowed out spiny pelt by our fence a year or two ago now - clearly eaten by a fox, although I'm not sure if she'd just died of old age / illness before the fox found her... or whether or not the fox did for her).

It matters not any more - the fact is... we have a singular male hedgehog trapped in three gardens here.

Until last night, that is.

Yes I took my SDS drill and dug out a tunnel for the hog a few days ago - and last night... HE USED IT!

 

 

He didn't seem interested at 0337.

 

 

But then at 0414... took the plunge!

 

 

And returned at 0508 after exploring the front garden(s?) for about 55 minutes. I also videoed him returning home under our (good, Western) neighbour's shed three minutes later.

NB. That is a junior size rugby ball next to the door in the videos, so viewers get an idea of size of the hedgehog. (Of course that would necessitate you knowing how large a junior-size rugby ball is... but you ALL know that don't you?!).

 

So.

We have a result!

And this shows what a little observation and a little effort can do for your local hogs.

Now.

The bad news.

Our hog WAS trapped in three gardens, away from any road, until last night.

But there was little point him being alive really, without any real prospect of breeding - after all, like it or not... the whole POINT of life is to CONTINUE life.

So we've provided him an escape route to perhaps find a mate - and do what he's meant to do.

But that ALSO means we've provided an escape to the road network - we, like (pretty-well) everyone else in the UK, live on a road... and we've already seen one of our front garden hedgehogs squashed a year or two ago.

Yes... look... at my darkest, I'm half expecting him to explore our front garden(s) more and more this year and quite quickly be squashed on the road.

But before then, I hope he manages to pass on his genes - again... that's the whole point of (if not human) animal (and plant) life.

He may of course disappear under the door tonight and never come back.

But as far as I'm concerned, although sad (as we'll miss having a hog or hogs in the garden), that will be a result.

I'm doing this for the wildlife after all... and NOT the humans.

 

Anyhoo... we're made up here. Our efforts to provide escape routes for our hog(s) have again paid dividends.

And I can't help thinking that our male hedgehog has gone to bed today, excited about a new world suddenly being opened up to him.. a world where beautiful lady hedgehogs waddle around invitingly - and whole supermarkets of slugs and beetles await.

I know.

I'm getting all Springwatch on yo ass, aren't I?

I'll leave it there then.

More soon...

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hedgehog success https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/success Tue, 02 Apr 2019 06:45:50 GMT
What if we're ALL just flies on a leaf? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/what-if-were-all-just-flies-on-a-leaf I was sitting under one of our poplar trees in the garden today, at lunch.

I was sitting in a garden chair - soaking up the early Spring sunshine - and watching various insects (mining and mason bees, wasps and flies) soak up the sun too, way above me... on the nascent, lime-green poplar leaves unfurling from their sticky brown buds (and growing nicely now), twenty feet or so above my head.

I thought I'd take a photo or two.

Here's one.

This is a simple shot taken from ground level, using my new(ish) Panasonic pocket camera, of the small-but-growing poplar leaves, from below, one of which has a fly sunbathing on it (looks like a flesh fly or a greenbottle perhaps  - but I can't be sure).

I then started thinking (dangerous I know).

This fly sitting on the new poplar leaf twenty feet above my head, couldn't possibly KNOW that there was another organism FAR below the leaf, invisible from its viewpoint, taking images of it (or at least its shadow) from way below.

I doubt whether the fly would have the cognitive abilities to begin to even grasp such concepts of other invisible organisms taking still images of a moment in time in its life on technology that would be completely out of its world, in so many ways.

Of course it wouldn't.

It couldn't.

It's just a fly, after all.

 

But....

 

What if I'm just a fly. Or something like that.

And you are, too. (Don't think you escape my random witterings!)

We're on a leaf.

A leaf that we call "Earth".

And something, somewhere, unfathomable and invisible to us, is sitting there recording moments of our "lives" on a camera or video recorder or something else that we (as flies after all), couldn't even begin to comprehend.

 

You know.

My mother once said to me (after I probably wittered on about an idea like this) "Douglas, we can only live on the planet we live on". (Meaning.. "why don't you keep your feet on the ground, you halfwit!"

Fair point I suppose... but it is occasionally nice to wonder isn't it? It sometimes makes your problems seem quite small, too or at least it makes you temporarily forget them!

 

 

Now that that has made you think. (Or drool?!)

I'll leave you with something else that I photographed today.

A lovely rose chafer.  (And before you ask, no... that isn't rose chafer poo on my wedding ring finger - its the remnants of a blood blister, caused my wedding ring chafing against my finger at speed as I drilled/chiselled a hedgehog tunnel through concrete t'other day).

I know tomorrow looks decidedly dodgy, weather-wise, but for now grapple fans, at least here, Spring has most definitely sprung!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fly rose chafer https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/4/what-if-were-all-just-flies-on-a-leaf Mon, 01 Apr 2019 16:16:42 GMT
Arseholes, penises and tunnels. (This should get some views!) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/3/arseholes-penises-and-tunnels-this-should-get-some-views A wee while ago I mentioned here that I've noticed a hedgehog return to our garden, despite our arsehole neighbours (at least on our Eastern side, the "Westerners" are just fine - see below), blocking up the tunnels that I've deliberately dug under our fence for the hogs.

You may be thinking that it's our neighbours' "right" to block up tunnels under our fence.

Well. I guess it is. It's also their "right" to be arseholes of the highest order, too.

Firstly, it's OUR fence (not theirs), we've paid for it and maintain it - and secondly I've TOLD THEM about the (tiny) tunnels - which they, at first, (at least to my face - like all cowards), agreed was fine.

No... I'm afraid they really are arseholes and have demonstrated that many times over the 18 months (only) that they've been living in the house alongside us.

That all said, a hedgehog has returned to our garden, from our (much older) Western neighbours, who I've also talked to about the local hedgehogs (since discovering one literally trapped in a neighbour's garden when we moved here almost 8 years ago now) and have kindly facilitated a hog tunnel (bridged by a clay half pipe) under our fence (on my suggestion) - see video (shot last night) below.

 

 

I'm always keen to provide as many opportunities for hedgehogs to get around and breed … as I regard the current situation regarding hedgehogs to be tragic - this is why I am constantly digging tunnels under our fence(s)… and now (see below) doors!

 

Regarding this year's hog(s) -I needed to establish firstly, whether it was just one hog - or two or more - and also sex it/them if possible.

It's very difficult to sex a hedgehog* (MATRON!) without picking it up and unfurling it (as it will have rolled into a ball of course) and then looking at its genitals - but then it's relatively easy, as male hogs have a noticeable penis halfway up their tummy it seems.

*Reminds me of that joke - How do hedgehogs have sex? Caerphilly. Carefully.

Anywayyyy…. I've been recording these hedgehogs'/this hedgehog's movements over the past week or so and have ascertained that:

 

a) We only have one.

b) It's a male.

c) It's a well-hung male!

d) Whilst it uses all of my extensive garden fence tunnels (apart from the one that our a-hole Eastern neighbours have blocked again) it seems to want to run down our side-passage and get out to the front garden and therefore the wider world, under our side-passage door. It seems to have got the strong urge to continue its genes, if you know what I mean? 

 

I discovered points b) and c) above ( that it is a male hog (and pretty well-endowed male at that)) by placing one of my trail cameras on the flag stones of our side-passageway and videoing it from hogs' eye level.

You can perhaps see from the videos below (and certainly from the stills) that this is clearly a male hedgehog!

 

And I discovered point d) by videoing it over several nights, running down to our side passage door

 

and then  running back.

 

 

Now... our side passage door does have an inch or two gap under it - but certainly not a big enough gap to allow passage of a quite large, randy male hedgehog... so last week I took my wonderful SDS drill to the concrete floor under the door and drilled (well... chiselled on SDS hammer setting) a tunnel in the concrete to allow the hog to escape our garden from the front, as well as the sides. See photos below.

 

 

I've been videoing it (since drilling this tunnel), with varying degrees of poor success (so I won't put a clip up yet) - but it would be fair to say that at present, the hog IS visiting the tunnel under the door, but hasn't yet attempted a "squeeze through". I think it may need widening.

The tunnel that is, not the hog.

So that's what I'll do today with my lovely big drill (MATRON!).

 

I hope this works and our poor old randy male hog can squeeze through the new tunnel under our side passage door, literally dragging his penis along the ground with him - and yes I do understand that if he does manage to leave, he may never come back - and we will perhaps lose ANY hedgehogs in our garden for some time.

But I'm doing all this, laydeez and gennelmen, for the wildlife - and NOT us humans.

If our hog needs another tunnel to escape to find a mate... and therefore deserts us... then so be it.

I'll be sad to see it go... but go it probably needs to.

Watch this space... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/3/arseholes-penises-and-tunnels-this-should-get-some-views Sat, 30 Mar 2019 08:22:26 GMT
Hidden in the Holi. (A quick bird call ID test). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/3/hidden-in-the-holi-a-quick-bird-call-id-test A short post today, as it's waaaay too nice to sit inside tapping away at a 'pooter (which seems to be on the blink anyway).

The park is full of people in shorts, having pic-a-nics.

Full of colour too.

Bright yellow forsythia.

Soft pink and white magnolia, blackthorn and cherry blossoms.

And the first nascent green leaf buds on trees and hedges all over the shop.

Plus today a wonderfully-colourful bunch of Hindus celebrating "Holi" by bunging a load of bright pink, orange and blue dye powders around and on each other (I asked them what it was they were celebrating and they were very happy to tell me all about it).

I'm teaching my eldest boy how to really control his bike at the park at present.

Uphill. Downhill. In the saddle. And out. Tight turns. At high speed. At low speed. Cross country. And on tarmac.

Thought I'd video him today and at the same time record (in the background) a lovely bird, calling loudly and repetitively.

My eldest boy in this video can (certainly!) name the bird calling in the background (I make it my business to point this sort of stuff out to him, so it doesn't get missed by him)...

But can YOU?

Have a go...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) call can you name it holi mystery bird https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/3/hidden-in-the-holi-a-quick-bird-call-id-test Sun, 24 Mar 2019 15:11:35 GMT
Four days before (astronomical) spring starts - and the garden springs into life. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/3/four-days-before-astronomical-spring-starts---and-the-garden-springs-into-life “There’s one antidote to gloom and despair that never fails: the wildlife that got us all going in the first place. It’s brilliant, beautiful, bewildering, intriguing and inspiring. We’ll probably do a lot more good if we spend more time outside engaging with it, rather than inside reading about or watching things (on TV) that make us angry (like Brexit, for example)….”

 

 

Just a quick garden "SITREP" if you like, this morning - as there's quite a bit going on at Black Rabbit Towers at present.

 

  • Our male (I think) great tit, which roosts in our tit camera box each winter has been ousted by an insistent blue tit, which has cleared out the hundreds of great tit droppings from the bottom of the box and now has spent a week or so filling up the box with moss. We've been here before with this box. When I fixed it to the back wall of the garden, at the end of the 45 yard garden, it was nested in - and most of the fledgling blue tits survived into adulthood I think. (I know that one didn't make it past day two though). But... ever since I fixed it (the camera box) to the north-facing wall of the hyse, under the eaves, even though blue tits have shown an interest, they've never actually nested in it. Anyway - at present these blue tits DO seem intent, this year, on nesting in this box - which as it has a camera in it, might be fun to watch for us all here.

 

  • Talking of nesting birds, we've got a large dead damson tree in our back garden, all covered in cheese, ivy, in which a pair of magpies have been building a nest now for over a month. I know, I know, magpies are like the local bird mafia - but they are stunning to look at, aren't they?

 

  • Talking of the magpies... as I was tepeing between my teeth last night, I heard the pair of magpies shouting at something from their ivy/damson nesting tree. I assumed a cat was making a nuisance of it itself up the tree - but I assumed incorrectly  - as I then heard a very distinctive male tawny owl call from the same tree. Now I can't be 100% sure that that's the first time a tawny owl has been in our garden... but it's almost certainly the first time I've heard one in our garden. Oh I regularly hear them around our garden, but I'm pretty sure I've never heard one IN our garden - so that was a little bit of excitement last night, before bed! (But no... I don't expect it to stick around by the way).

 

  • Taking of predatory birds - I noticed a dead dove by the pond, from the kitchen window t'other day. On closer inspection (see photo below) I deduced pretty quickly that it has been hit by a female sparrowhawk (a dove would be too big for a male hawk to take on) and the hawk had killed it and immediately started plucking its chest, as they do, to get to those two juicy bits of breast muscle. There were a few feathers lying around in the long grass surrounding the pond and some pluck marks in the dove's chest. But.... the hawk had gone. Well before it had had a meal. So again, I deduced that it had been spooked by something. Perhaps a magpie (which are nesting next to the pond in that dead damson tree - see above), but much more likely by a cat.  The hawk didn't come back for its meal (it must have been well spooked!) but something polished off the dead dove a night later (see below).

 

  • I left the dove in the garden, expecting a red kite to swoop down for it (as they've done with dead birds in our garden in the past). No kite did come down - but a fox clearly found it during the night (or more likely next morning before we got up), took it to the secret den part of the garden and ate it ALL. See photo below.

 

  • Taking of creatures of the night - it is an absolute JOY to report that despite the best (worst) efforts of our arsehole neighbours, a hedgehog has appeared again in our garden. (See videos below). Christ knows how, to be honest, with neighbours both to our east and to a lesser extent the west, displaying the worst type of environmental ignorance (not to mention intellectual barrenness). But it IS back and I hope, boy do I hope that it finds a mate somehow, perhaps using one of the tunnels that I have (obviously!) dug under our borders. 

 

 

  • Finally, we of course, again have a pond full of rampant ranids at present and quite a lot of spawn (see very poor photos below taken in a huge hurry from distance this morning). I hear it may get cold on Sunday (coming) night - but I hope there's enough frogs movements (writhing in their orgy ball) in the pond to avoid the pond freezing over and killing some of that spawn.

 

OK.

That shallot.

Spring is about to spring eh?

And I can't wait!

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) blue tit collared dove female sparrowhawk fox frog frogspawn great tit magpie male tawny owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/3/four-days-before-astronomical-spring-starts---and-the-garden-springs-into-life Sat, 16 Mar 2019 11:17:00 GMT
What do I love... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/2/what-do-i-love In an online world often seemingly filled with what we hate or criticise or what we have a problem with, or what makes us worried or anxious or furious... today, I'm going to write a short blog post about nothing more than what I love... and that's all.

Of course, this being a wildlife blog, I won't mention things I love like my wife. Nor boys. Nor hens. Nor cats. Nor Bristol rugby team. Nor cottage pie. Nor ACDC. Nor the Lycian coast.

I'll try to keep to natural, wildlife things found in the UK. 

Some you'll agree with. Some you won't. But that's fine.

This is my list and whilst certainly not exhaustive, is comprised of things that I could think of that I love, pretty-well immediately.

I expect I'll add to it in the days ahead...

 

Here we go then...

 

The solitude of dawn. The best time of the day. Always.

The magic of dusk. When the humans retire and the animals stir...

The prettiest-feathered of all our owls I think - tawnies - and their wonderful, winter mating calls which cut through black, skeletal woods.

The first appearance of celandines in glades and verges, as winter draws to a close.

The magnificent, explosive exuberance of blackthorn blossom, turning whole hedges white.

The unassuming, omnipresent daisies - so often overlooked.

The heads of brimstone butterflies - like tiny miniature Battenberg cakes (look closer!).

The alien, hovering prowess of bee flies and drone flies.

The zippiest of all our bees - the feather-footed flower bees and their frantic feeding flights between lungwort flowers. 

The Hawaiian tropic smell of crushed gorse flowers.

The flashy white rumps of the dandy wheatears.

The gold-leaf eyes of our much maligned toads.

The frantic fury of frogs at spawning time.

The first lime-green leaves unfurling against the first real blue skies.

The first truly warm day of the year - when you can feeeel the sun on your face/back/arse (delete where applicable!).

The hedgehogs' ambling run - like a tiny, wee old Citroen car, raising its shocks and suspension (legs) and then poddling off at speed.

The deciduous woods in spring and summer. Where I've always felt most at ease. Most at peace. And most alive.

The May dawn choruses in those above woodlands. Almost overwhelming to me with my eyes closed.

The English bluebell displays. Just the colour!

The smell of wild garlic - I know I'm in my woodland "happy place" when I smell this warm, green smell.

The roe deer. I think our prettiest British mammal.

The badgers - endlessly fascinating to me.

The craziness of stoats and weasels - such amazing wee things to see.

The clarity of the (hidden) nightingales' song.

The swallows' metallic-ruby throats.

The perfectness of house martins' black and white missile look.

The swifts of course. Just THE best.

The mass dance of mayflies over sparkly slow-moving water.

The brilliance of bats - I mean... properly flying (not gliding - FLYING) mammals. And they're basically blind too! Ridiculous!

The pine trees. Make me feel like I'm abroad, in the sun. I don't know why.

The lowland heaths of southern England. See above.

The crickets. Be they speckled bush cricket nymphs or the more locust-like Roesel's bush crickets. And the sounds they make! 

The devilish nightjars - 2nd only to swifts as my favourite birds of all. Their plumage, their uniqueness and of course... their nocturnal call!

The prettiest, biggest and most impressive (I think) of all our snakes - grass snakes.

The dashing hobbies with their russet pyjama bottoms, fierce, pale eyebrows and black moustache. I think more amazing than peregrines!

The dragonflies. Speak to my uncle about these ridiculous things - but... you know he has a point!

The blue butterflies from silver studded to adonis. Filling our downland and meadows with dancing bits of shattered sky.

The little owls - and their fierce-stared sunbathing on the baking asbestos roofs of cattle sheds.

The buzzards and red kites thermal soaring in giant, high circles on long, hot mornings.

The peregrines which turn a drab tower block into a constant source of amazement - red in tooth and claw.

The sound of pine cones cracking open on trees under the warmth of the sun.

The visible pollen clouds from fir trees. The actual stuff of life (and no... I don't suffer from hay-fever).

The metallic bottle green rose chafers and their audible, whirring flight around photinia flowers.

The dusk-helicoptering stag beetles before Spring (and summer) thunderstorms.

The smell of algae on lock gates.

The leaf cutter bees antics - ferrying bits of rose leaves and sometimes petals to their tubular nests.

The flying golden grains of rice, blue mason bees, with their spectacular eyes (look closer!).

The bright orange tawny mining bees. A perfect bee!

The made up (they CAN'T be real can they?) metallic green and blue and crimson and yellow ruby-tailed  (or jewel) wasps.

The song thrushes  -which in my youth, sang on every TV aerial, but now are hidden spotty gems in hedgerows.

The sound of kingfishers... giving a staccato, high-pitched intercity PEEP as they arrow down a river, 3 foot above the water.

The smell of cut grass. 

The lurid-pink elephant hawk moths. And people say moths are boring.

The hummingbird hawk moths dancing around red valerian and buddleja at dusk. See above.

The ginger and white tree bumblebees. The coolest bumblebees around - and the ONLY bumblebee that will accept a human-made home.

The gentle giant wasps - the hornets. So much nicer than their Germanic cousins.

Jumping spiders. All jumping spiders. The PR face of arachnids.

The west coast beaches. Give me the Sands of Woolacombe, of Croyde, of Newgale, of St.David's head, of Freshwater west and of Saunton.

The most underrated (I think) sea birds of all. The 'top of milk' gannets.

The swallows of the sea - the terns. All terns.

The Labradors of the western seas - grey seals.

The southern and western part of the Isle of Wight. Heaven on an island.

The Scottish highlands on a (the!) beautiful day in the year.

The red squirrels. Their ears in particular. The only delightful squirrel. 

The view from tall cliffs.

The sparkly, dark, lowland rivers. The river Dart in particular.

The enigmatic dippers. No-one knows why they "dip". And that's fine by them.

The hares - so much more than rabbits.

The wagtails. ALL wagtails. Almost human in their mannerisms. And comical to boot.

The jays. Everything about them. Their perky crests. Their pink and blue and black and white feathers. Their intelligence.

The panicky fast-walk (away from you) of disturbed partridges.

The firework colours of beech trees in the Autumn.

The New Forest. Probably one of two or three spots in the UK that I'd like to retire to. One day.

The fly agarics. Stuff of fairy tale!

The way big, bold, laughing green woodpeckers bounce around meadows looking for ants with their beady pale eyes...

The rattle of winter Fieldfares.

The excited tinkling of a flock of waxwing that has discovered a berry feast.

The spectacular goldeneye drakes' displays on our February gravel pits.

The whistling wigeon - just the most perfect of winter sounds.

The animal tracks in fresh snow, before it (the snow) is ruined by people or cars or warmth.

The Spring equinox - the end of winter. The proper end!

The unexpected.

The unfinishe

 

 

ReflectionsReflections

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) love https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/2/what-do-i-love Tue, 26 Feb 2019 13:15:09 GMT
A few snaps with my new (old) tiny wee camera... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/2/a-few-snaps-with-my-new-old-tiny-wee-camera A couple of weeks ago I blogged here that I had bought myself a tiny wee Panasonic TZ90 compact camera, to take with me everywhere.

I've been primarily using it as a video camera so far (to video our eldest boy play rugby) but also taken a few photos with it.

Here are some of the photos I've shot with it so far...

Admittedly only one wildlife photo so far (for this "wildlife news" blogging part of my website), of a male dotted border moth in our side passageway last week, but I'm very glad it handles (quasi) macro shots well enough.

More soon, I'm sure.

TBR

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) panasonic tz90 test photos https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/2/a-few-snaps-with-my-new-old-tiny-wee-camera Mon, 25 Feb 2019 15:17:45 GMT
Not quite there yet (remember last year?) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/2/not-quite-there-yet-remember-last-year You'll know by now I'm sure, that I'm bored of people telling each other (on soashul meedya these days) that "isn't it INCREDIBLE - LOOK! THE DAFFODILS ARE OUT ALREADY!!!!" in January or February despite, surely, surely, SURELY by now, KNOWING that there are many hybrid varieties of daffodils/crocuses etc deliberately BRED to flower before their traditional flowering time of late February. Indeed there are several varieties of hybridised daffodil which flower every year in December and January - and yet the same people announce their amazement each year at the sight of these flowers - which clearly demonstrate global warming (and not errr.... at all.... horticulturalists' skill and business acumen).

Look. I'm not saying global warming doesn't exist - it clearly does... and we (humans) are clearly facilitating its (terrifying) acceleration, despite what the *cough* famous climatologist Nigel Lawson (among others) says.

But... it (AGW) isn't demonstrated by hybridised (by a human hand) winter flowers.

Now.

That all said, it was again a lovely late winter's day today (we're a full month away from Spring springing). I went for a long walk in the warm (15c) sunshine and photographed a couple of flowers (Blackthorn blossom and marsh celandines - see below... complete with a tiny wee pollen beetle you'll see in the last photo of the marsh celandine).

 

It was wonderful to get a bit of colour in my eyes and to my face today - but I'm mindful that these temperatures are a bit weird in mid February.

Of course, this time last year we had endured the "beast from the east" earlier in the month - and as late as the middle of March 2018, after our frogs had spawned en masse, we had a VERY cold "snap" - which froze our pond and killed a lot of the spawn.

These days, the old adage "ne'er cast a clout 'til May is out", might be a little bit pessimistic - but I'll not count my Spring chickens (so to speak) until my birthday... in mid April.

I hear the weather will be nice this weekend too.... we (me and my eldest boy) are off to watch my beloved Bristol rugby club play Harlequins at Twickenham (Stoop) - so that spot of nice weather is well-timed (it's much nicer sitting in a warm, dry stadium than a frrrreeezing, wet one!).

Whatever you're up to this weekend, have a good one, eh?

TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) blackthorn marsh celandine sun warmth winter https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/2/not-quite-there-yet-remember-last-year Fri, 22 Feb 2019 15:52:30 GMT
The first and the last https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/2/the-first-and-the-last As the mornings and evenings start to (at last) get lighter... and the frogs and toads all start sweeping majestically across the plains crawling back to their mating ponds (I counted a dozen in our pond two nights ago … with two already in amplexus!) I thought I'd take a photo of a very nice display of crocuses (croci?) outside the local church today, in the watery late winter sunshine.

The crocuses are always the first flowers to push up through the last of the leaves, the oaks', to fall).

And then of the church itself. (All saints' with St.Mark's in Binfield, Berkshire, with its squat tower made of pudding stone, if you really want to know).

By the way… OK... I admit... neither of these photos show my photography skills off particularly well... they're not my finest photos I know... but both were taken with my tiny wee new pocket camera I blogged about here... and both will do me fine I think.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) croci crocus crocuses https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/2/the-first-and-the-last Wed, 13 Feb 2019 22:37:56 GMT
The best camera in the world.... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/2/the-best-camera-in-the-world … is NOT a huge, professional DSLR which costs £5000. With a £20,000 lens attached to it. Which you've left at home as it weighs the same as a baby rhino.

No.. the best camera in the world is the camera that YOU'VE GOT WITH YOU (wherever you are) and which you can use easily and quickly.

 

And with that in mind...

 

 

I know I blogged recently that my next camera would almost certainly be a (three year old technology) compact (tiny really) Panasonic LX15... and that was on my shortlist of three models, one of which I wanted to have as my "go anywhere tool".

Well.

Yesterday I bought a second hand compact camera (from a lovely bloke on eBay)… and whilst it IS a Panasonic Lumix, it's NOT an LX15.

 

Enough with the twaddle - my new (old) camera is a 2nd-hand Panasonic Lumix TZ90 (two year old technology).

And I'm VERY excited about it!

 

Yesterday I drove through the Badlands of Berkshire (drive around the countryside surrounding Stratfield Saye and you'll see what I mean about "the Badlands") to pick up this TZ90 from Mr.M, who incidentally takes superb wildlife photos with his Fujifilm camera(s) - check them out here!

 

My shortlist of three compact cameras were always as follows

1 -  Fujifilm X70 (although this is bordering on not being compact with an APSC sized sensor - HUGE for a compact camera).

2 - Panasonic LX15 (1" sensor - big for a compact camera)

3 - Panasonic TZ90. (1/2.3" sensor - that is to say smartphone sized (SMALL!) sensor).

I also had in mind (for a while) the Canon G5X. Which would have ticked all boxes, fo-sho… but also been a bit too big and clunky, even though I think Canons are built like TANKS... and you know... just work. (Unlike sonys for example).

 

Bottom line is I need(ed) a small camera which

  1. I can take EVERYWHERE with me, and
  2. has a flip up touch screen and
  3. a flash and
  4. perhaps as well as an LCD screen, a viewfinder.

Don't tell my wife will you, but I actually submitted a bid on eBay for a second hand Fuji X70 whilst my wonderful wife was in the last stages of labour a fortnight ago... but I was outbid a few minutes before my second son was born - you'll be please to know (on both counts).

I then spent ten days or so realising that whilst the Fuji X70 with its HUGE (relatively-speaking for a compact(ish) camera) sensor would have been very nice, I didn't really need a large sensor in any compact camera that I would be taking everywhere with me. The small size, flip screen, video capabilities and viewfinder if I could get it... were FAR more important. 

Bearing in mind that I've used three Panasonic Lumix cameras before (the FZ20,30 and 50, in fact I still use the FZ50) I then decided to go for a second hand Panasonic TZ90 - which ticked all my "needs" boxes - and then some to be honest - even if it does have a tiny sensor.

 

And yesterday, Mr.M was kind enough to sell his to me, for a pretty good price I think. Thanks Mr M!

 

OK.

Photos of my new toy can be seen below - I've placed the TZ90 next to a soft ball which is just slightly smaller than a standard sized cricket ball, so you get the idea of its size.

 

 

 

You can read all the tech specs on the TZ90 which I've bought here... but in short, its a very small (TINY) superzoom camera with a small sensor, a superb flippy touch screen LCD and an electronic viewfinder to boot. Plus it shoots pretty good video too.

 

Oh sure... I'll use my DLSRs a lot still.

I ADORE the IQ (image quality) of the full frame 6D and am really starting to appreciate the speed of the 7D mkii.

Yes... if I want a detailed, big shot of something in particular - I'll take those photos with my full frame Canon 6D or bigger APSC Canon 7d mkii sports camera - but other than that - I'll take quite a few photos, day to day, with this wee TZ90.

And believe me... I'll push this TZ90. I used to have something of a reputation amongst photographers as someone who could take certain photos with a camera that was never designed to take such photos!

 

  • It  (the TZ90)will go with me wherever I go.
  • I'll probably leave it on "auto" mode quite a lot - something I've NEVER done before with any camera (I invariably shoot in either "manual" mode or "aperture priority").
  • I'll almost certainly only take JPEGs with it and not RAW images (I've purely been shooting RAW images for almost a decade now so that'll be a change too).
  • And quite often I'll be shooting in dynamic black and white  (see below for a test shot with the camera on one of our cats this afternoon) with this new toy - with the hope of getting more gritty, urban and or documentary-type shots.
  • It has a ridiculous zoom (which I really don't want - but it's there anyway), can take great close ups (to 3cm!), has in built wifi (for remote shooting and automatic downloading to the "cloud" (BONUS - see my last photography based blog here!) and should be a lot of fun to use!

Like I say, it will be with me everywhere I go - but looking at the 300 page instruction manual - I've got a lot to learn about it!

That's all for now grapple fans.

Stay out of the weather today, eh?

TBR.

 

CatCat

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) auto compact dynamic black and white go anywhere jpeg new camera panasonic tz90 photography small https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/2/the-best-camera-in-the-world Fri, 08 Feb 2019 12:16:18 GMT
Sing-along with "the wildlife daddies"! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/2/sing-along-with-the-wildlife-daddies Come on.

You know you want to....

(The clips below were all shot yesterday as we "wildlife daddies" carried out our latest wildlife drive around the (snowy) local countryside).

 

For the record (and in case you didn't know - nor read the video clips descriptions on YouTube -

I call my big black estate car "the hearse".

We (just my eldest boy (at present) and I) call ourselves "the wildlife daddies".

We drive around the local countryside after dark, on "wildlife drives", looking for owls (we regularly see three species), deer, foxes, badgers, bats, rabbits and anything else.

Sometimes we sing along to one of the playlists that I have set up on the car's hard drive.

The playlist we sang along to last night is called "Chillin' in the hearse". (Although I really should have called it "Singing-along in the hearse".

I think there are about 40 songs on the playlist - below are a few we sang along to.

We're expecting SONY (or whoever) to call us any day now and offer us a HUGE record deal.

 

Oh... and we saw a tawny owl last night, a few wabbits and a robin on our "wildlife drive".

Enjoy.

TBR.

 

BAKER MAN (LAIDBACK)

 

FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH (BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD)

 

MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI (NEW CHRISTY MINSTRELS)

 

MONKEY MAN (TOOTS AND THE MAYTALS)

 

RUN FOR HOME (LINDISFARNE)

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) chillin' in the hearse sing-along the wildlife daddies wildlife drive https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/2/sing-along-with-the-wildlife-daddies Sun, 03 Feb 2019 09:43:28 GMT
Pink-pelaged patagia! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/2/pink-pelaged-patagia In the "wildlife blog" part of this website, I generally try to occasionally write about "where I've been and what I've seen", but in this morning's blog post I'd like to again break with tradition and briefly draw your attention to a recent zoological discovery, that I hope may educate you and even then go as far to bewitch you.

Scientists in America have discovered that the Glaucomys spp. of flying squirrels, GLOW PINK (under UV light).

Uh huh.

You heard me.

The North American flying squirrels (or "squirls" as they call them there) are FLUORESCENT!

That is to say the pelage (fur) on their patagia (gliding membrane between fore and hind limbs) is pink. (Feel zoologically-educated yet?)

 

No. It's not April 1st.

And no... you're not drunk. (That's elephants you're thinking of).

I mean, flying squirls are weird anyway (in a good way) - see the NG video below, but to think that they are actually fluorescing pink when gliding around North American forests (to evade the similarly pink glowing owls??!! REALLY???!!!) is something that surely only LSD-facilitated hallucinations are made of, no?

So.

To reiterate.

In North American forests, glowing, fluorescent, pink flying squirrels are being chased around by glowing, fluorescent, pink flying owls.

And that is the NORM! (Feel bewitched yet?).

 

Look. I don't know about you... but to me... this makes me think that there's SO MUCH stuff we (still) clearly DON'T KNOW about the natural world.

There's SO MUCH stuff to be discovered.

And once again, fact is FAR stranger and FAR more incredible and FAR more beautiful than fiction.

Know what?

When I was six years old I found that notion exciting.

And to be honest, (especially after reading about fluorescent pink owls and squirrels) even more so now.

 

Have a good weekend, grapple fans.

TBR.

Purple hazePurple haze

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fluorescence flying squirrel glaucomys glowing north america owl pink ridiculous https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/2/pink-pelaged-patagia Sat, 02 Feb 2019 08:26:13 GMT
A new recruit! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/1/a-new-recruit A short blog post today, announcing a new recruit to the warren here, and to "the wildlife daddies" soon I'm sure.

About six years after our first son Ben was born, my beautiful and amazing wife gave birth to our second son, Finn, on Sunday gone, 

With that in mind, I'm sure you'll forgive me if my blogging becomes (temporarily) less frequent.

I AM still around - I'm just a little busier than a few weeks ago.

More soon...

TBR

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) baby finn new https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/1/a-new-recruit Thu, 31 Jan 2019 13:12:49 GMT
"The Wildlife Daddies" strike again... on the night of the blood supermoon... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/1/-the-wildlife-daddies-strike-again-on-the-night-of-the-blood-supermoon … with a beautiful tawny owl, on their latest "wildlife drive club" drive around the farm just after it got dark tonight and about eleven hours before the blood supermoon ended the world as we knew it...

 

Look, we (Ben and I) are "The Wildlife Daddies"... so we spotted the owl of course.

It IS in this clip.

But can YOU (mere mortals) spot it?

Well?

Can you?

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) tawny owl the wildlife daddies wildlife daddies https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/1/-the-wildlife-daddies-strike-again-on-the-night-of-the-blood-supermoon Sun, 20 Jan 2019 18:48:46 GMT
Prince Philip and the Photographers' ephemeris. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/1/prince-philip-and-the-photographers-ephemeris I don't really want to dwell on this recent bit of news as any sane person will tell you (in a heartbeat) that any 97 year old should not (of course) be driving on public roads, especially if that 97 year old has spent much of the last 70 or so years being driven around by a chauffeur.

I'd go further than taking his licence off him to be honest, I'd abolish the monarchy at the same time... but that's a different story.

What I DID want to briefly draw your attention to is the notion that the 97 year old was "dazzled by the winter sunshine" as he attempted to join the A149 south, from the B1439 from the Sandringham Estate at about 1500hrs last Thursday.

I happen to use an app on my phone called "The Photographer's Ephemeris" (or TPE).

It's a superb wee thing to show any landscape photographer where the sun or moon is likely to be in the sky at any given time on any given day at any given place.

I use it to get shots a bit like this:

Winter dawnWinter dawn

Or this

Fly me to the moonFly me to the moon

You (or I?!) get the picture.

It's incredibly useful and I use it regularly.

Yesterday I saw that the Sun (newspaper) reported that the Duke was dazzled by winter sun and even gave us a handy diagram of HOW he was dazzled by the sun.

It seemed quite strange at the time to me that he was dazzled by the winter sun in the PIGGING NORTHERN SKY.... so I checked for myself on my TPE app.

The bottom line is that whilst the Duke of Earl (or whatever he's called) was perhaps driving towards the low sun along the B1439 from the Sandringham Estate, intending to stop (obviously?!) at the T junction with the A149 to head south along the 60MPH speed limit A road towards Kings Lynn, there is no way he could have been dazzled by the winter sun at the junction LOOKING NORTH up the road he was intending to join to see the oncoming traffic. The sun was in another part of the sky - and the Sun's (newspaper's) diagram is (again, of course) completely incorrect.

And OK, whilst its fair to say that my Google map streetview screenshots (below) of Prince Philip's view from his Range Rover at the crash site junction were taken in the summer, it was his view at the time of the crash last Thursday, minus the foliage of course.

Reminds me of a near miss I had t'other day as I crossed a petrol station forecourt on foot and had to jump out of the way of a car which suddenly reversed towards me at speed.

I tapped his driver's window with my hand as he went past, pointed to my eyes and mouthed at him "open your eyes please".

Instead of him apologising though... he wound down his window and shouted "I COULDN'T SEE YOU AS YOU'RE WEARING BLUE!" to me.

I laughed and said " YEAH? I'm 6 foot 3 and wearing a stripey hat and you REALLY can't see me?" and walked away shaking my head, smiling.

 

 

 

Like I say, I hope they at least take Philip's licence from him and better still, abolish the monarchy whilst they're at it.

But you know what... with us forelock tugging, cap-doffing Brexit Brits... I don't think I'll ever see that happen.

Shame.

 

Anyway, there you go - forget the royal crash t'other day. This was not meant to be a rant against 100 year old drivers nor a rant against the royal family.

But.

If you  DO photograph a lot of landscapes - you probably already know about TPE.

And if you hadn't heard of it before now - what are you waiting for? Download it! It's free!

TBR.

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) crash moon numpty Prince philip sun the photographers' ephemeris https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/1/prince-philip-and-the-photographers-ephemeris Sat, 19 Jan 2019 11:27:01 GMT
The future of photography - what Canon and Nikon (in particular) need to do.... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/1/the-future-of-photography---what-canon-and-nikon-in-particular-need-to-do A belated "HAPPY NEW YEAR!" to you all, grapple fans.

 

 

Right. Now that's done...

 

I watched a very interesting short video on You Tube t'other day - and you can watch it if you like, below.

There may be a few people reading this who will know more than a little about photography and You Tube and therefore also Tony and Chelsea Northrup (who are the You Tubers in the clip above) - but there may be a few more who don't.

Both Chelsea and Tony Northrup are quite "famous" (at least online) Photographers on You Tube, and they regularly have clips on the site which are worth watching, if you're into your 'togs.

With this clip though they have surpassed even their (pretty) high standards.

I think they're SPOT ON with all they say regarding megapixels and why aren't the big (two) camera companies (that'd be Canon and Nikon) doing more regarding computational power for their new cameras, instead of relying on the old, megapixel and sensor size race.

 

I use four (soon to be five?) cameras still.

My 12 year old 10MP Panasonic Lumix FZ50. For telephoto snaps.

My 12 year old, 10 MP Canon 40D. For wide angle stuff quite often (with its 10-22 mm lens)

My 7 year old, 20MP Canon 6D (for most things that don't move quickly)

My 5 year old, 20MP Canon 7d mkii. (for fast-moving subjects).

And my next camera (if I get it) will almost certainly be a 3 year old 20MP Panasonic Lumix LX15 (to be with me constantly).

I KNOW I don't need more than 20MP - to be honest, 12 is often enough - and I DO regularly make large prints (for the walls of our house).

But all my camera are SO slow.

I don't mean in their ability to take a photo - I mean in terms of the work flow.

I need an SD card and a buffer and tether the camera to my laptop and then upload (slowly) my RAW images and then edit (develop) them slowly in lightroom and then save them slowly on a massive hard drive and periodically (INCREDIBLY slowly) back them all up etc... etc...

All I want to be doing really is taking photos. Not sitting on my cute little tush messing around with laptops, hard drives, cables and bits and bobs of different software.

 

Canon and Nikon (in particular) and Sony and Olympus and Panasonic and Fujifilm all need to get with the programme now and start to COMPETE with Apple and Google (in particular) who, with their smart phones, are quickly demonstrating that "traditional cameras" are fast becoming obsolete. And by "traditional cameras", I'm not just talking DSLRs. I'm talking mirrorless cameras too.

The future of photography must surely be...

Automated uploading of images.

Automated Focus stacking.

Automated Interval stacking.

Automated Panoramic shots.

Automated video processing.

Automated editing, developing and enlarging etc.

All done on a super computer in the cloud, rather than our constantly outdated desk and laptops.

We don't need an 80MP expensive, heavy camera with a £5000 lens if we can take a flurry of photos with average glass on a reasonably-priced 16MP camera with a fast autofocus system - and do magic on them in the cloud - converting them to a 100MP detailed image, with a correct focus point and a removal of haze and blur.

We need a return to dumb camera bodies but with fast sensor readouts, with some onboard cache and a USB-C tethered smartphone.

We need 5G wireless connectivity, full, seamless wifi usability (and not just to transfer images to our phones), to connect to the web and the cloud.

 

Look... we do already have this technology.

It's just that Nikon and Canon (et al) consistently REFUSE to embrace it. Unlike Apple and Google (et al) with their smartphones.

 

I guarantee you this... whichever camera manufacturer does start looking properly to the future by using technology from the present (not the past, after all), will CLEAN UP in the long term.

I thought Samsung would do this first (until they took themselves out of the camera market a few years ago) - so I can only assume it will be another electronics company (like Sony?) who take this all on - and in doing so, they'll leave the old dinosaurs behind.

You heard it here first, grapple fans...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) cameras the future of photography https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2019/1/the-future-of-photography---what-canon-and-nikon-in-particular-need-to-do Fri, 18 Jan 2019 15:50:49 GMT
What wonderful, early Christmas presents for the "wildlife daddies"! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/12/what-wonderful-early-christmas-presents-for-the-wildlife-daddies During these long, dark, winter nights, I often take my (now) six-year-old boy, Ben, on a wildlife drive in "the hearse" (what I call my black estate car) around the local countryside to see what our (both our, proven) eagle eyes can spot in the headlights.

This evening (well... late this afternoon I suppose), I think we peaked.

We did so well and saw so much wildlife tonight that my son Ben couldn't help but fart with excitement! (See clip 2).

All the very short videos embedded below were recorded on my dashcam during our 40 minute wildlife drive tonight.

Clip 1.

Deer roe deer roe deer.

 

Clip 2.

Barn owl number 1.

 

Clip 3.

Tawny owl (less than a minute or so after the first barn owl) - and Ben farts with excitement!

 

Clip 4.

TWO barn owls. Yes. TWO barn owls in front of the December full moon!

We were VERY lucky boys tonight  with not one but TWO barn owls, a tawny owl and a roe doe (with the wonderful December full moon as a backdrop) - and as a result, have named ourselves "the wildlife daddies".

Merry Christmas grapple fans, and if I don't catch you before Hogmanay - hey... go a little easier on that sherry than last year eh?

TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl december full moon roe deer tawny owl wildlife daddies wildlife drive wildlife drives https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/12/what-wonderful-early-christmas-presents-for-the-wildlife-daddies Sat, 22 Dec 2018 20:24:24 GMT
It's not the critic who counts. (Teddy's right!) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/11/its-not-the-critic-who-counts-teddy-s-right The marvellous winning images of the 2018 Panorama Landscape Photography competition have been announced. You can see many of the winning images by clicking THIS link (takes you to the Daily Mail online unfortunately, but hey ho).

And the images ARE stunning, aren't they?

Well.

No.

No they're not... if you read some of the comments posted by the Daily Mail (online) readers, some of which I've provided for you below.

 

OK OK… I agree. It takes a special kind of turd to even read the Daily Mail, let alone comment on a piece... and I shouldn't read the comments... but I did, so you'll have to deal with that fact.

These people are just awful aren't they?

I mean, they just HAVE to criticise.

And you know, this criticism has been levelled at me over the last ten years (about the time I've been taking photographs) too. By friends, strangers and even a few times, extended family.

It's a story that will ring true to many people reading this who have been known to take the odd good photo or two. And perhaps win an award or two.

And it's a story played out many times.

 

The first thing your critic will do is tell you that you "must have a fancy camera [to take such a nice shot]". I haven't.

Then they'll attempt to tell you that "you've photoshopped it, obviously". "You've obviously edited it [Not like myyy photos which are straight from the camera]!"


If you dare to suggest (as I have once or twice) that "their [straight from the camera] photographs HAVE [of course] been edited by the very camera that their podgy fingers have covered in grease, BEFORE they've downloaded them to their Instagram (or whatever) account", they just won't understand.

You see. They'll be taking JPEG images.

Almost certainly.

Which are digital renditions (generally completely camera controlled in terms of sharpness, colour vibrance, contrast, noise reduction, white balance etc).

The camera that they are using will, ALWAYS will edit their photos for them. Sometimes badly. And the resulting image will hardly EVER be a true rendition of what they saw over the top of the camera. (It will be a rendition of what they saw on their camera's LED screen - but that's edited by the camera too).

Whereas.

I (and millions of other, dare I say, better, photographers) will oftentimes take RAW images (digital negatives) and then develop them in software such as "Lightroom" and then perhaps (only perhaps) "Photoshop".

Look... it's no coincidence that Lightroom is so-called. It's a nod to the old film photographers' "Dark rooms". 

It's a basic developing tool.

Only without the hydroquinone.

I rarely use Photoshop these days - just Lightroom and then Perfect Resize (if I wannae blow the image up to billboard dimensions).

But that still doesn't stop my (and others') detractors from telling me that I over-edit my photographs, I photoshop them and anyyywaaaay… I have a fancy camera. (And they don't).

Jealousy innit?

That's all it is.

I'm heartened to say though, that this blind jealousy, whilst common, isn't universal.

I received a lovely compliment from an old friend this year, as we spent an barbecue afternoon with each other's (and another old school friend's) families this summer.

This old school friend of mine will happily criticise me for many things but even he said about me when the subject came 'round to photography...

"No... No... I couldn't take photos like Doug. Doug just knows how to manipulate and use light".

I was quite taken aback to be honest.

 

Look. I'm no expert and I'm no pro.

But.

Certainly compared to him (and many others), I do know how to occasionally "write (well) with light".

And "writing with light" is the literal definition of "photo-graphy" after all.

 

So.

Don't let the critics grind you down grapple fans - and as a reminder, I've put Teddy Roosevelt's famous speech (or part of it anyway) below.

Incidentally, just so you know, I have a BIG printout of this speech put up on the inside of our lavatory door.

Just to remind me to wind my neck in... you know... if I get a bit critical of something I really have no right to be critical of.

And also to remind me that many times those who (constantly!) criticise my actions or efforts should have no place in my head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/11/its-not-the-critic-who-counts-teddy-s-right Wed, 21 Nov 2018 19:58:32 GMT
Are British garden wildlife "lovers" HARMING wildlife? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/11/are-british-garden-wildlife-lovers-harming-wildlife A strange question you may think.

Are wildlife gardeners (I'm specifically-talking about Brits who create wildlife habitats in their back gardens) actually very often HARMING this wildlife?

And do they (the "wildlife gardeners") actually, deep down, look to attract wildlife into their gardens for the sake of the wildlife, or for their own sake?


I asked this question on an internet wildlife forum many, many moons ago (before I became seriously disillusioned with it for a number of reasons - and before it folded) and only one "wildlife lover" of hundreds on the website, was prepared to be introspective enough to even consider such a terrible accusation.

 

I asked then and I ask again now because, if I'm truly honest, yes... I love watching wildlife - I'm endlessly fascinated with it -  and even though I've stopped feeding ANY birds in the garden myself, apart from Fieldfares and jays in the winter, I honestly think I possibly (or regularly) do so for reasons that are more selfish than is obvious at first glance.

You see... I take a great deal of pleasure from attracting jays and fieldfares into the garden. The key words there are "I" and "pleasure".

Likewise, I take pleasure from watching the antics of solitary bees in the bee hotels I've bolted to our huge, framed compost heap.

And I take a great deal of pleasure from watching the life cycle of all our frogs in the small pond that I dug into the back garden.

And I LOVE to get photos of these things. Award-winning photos in some cases. (You know which photos I'm talking about I'm sure).

But this really is all about me still, isn't it?

 

Jay 1Jay 1

You see, the jays would be fine I'm sure, without me putting out monkey nuts in my self-designed, squirrel-proof jay feeder. They probably become dependant on my monkey nuts and I have had five jays before, tearing strips off each other at one time, in a frantic bid to get all the scran. If I REALLY cared about their long term wellbeing, I'd probably do better to plant an oak tree on the edge of woodland every year. But no - I've not planted one oak tree on the edge of a local woodland (even if I have planted one in our back garden - for the jays of course), let alone one each year. I just force-feed them TESCO monkey nuts all winter and create quite probably a very stressful area of the countryside for them, in a particularly unnatural location with an unnaturally high number of jays in this one, tiny area.

Ditto with the fieldfares. I had thirty or forty in the garden when the "Beast from the East" hit in March this year. Although, I suppose I can console myself somewhat with the fieldfares that they (unlike jays) are known for flocking and being arsey with each other when snow covers their worming fields.

 

What about the bee hotels? Surely I'm HELPING bees by putting bee hotels up.

No.

Not really.

Air freight (2)Air freight (2)

Once again, I am creating a HIGHLY unnatural environment for these delightful bees (red mason bees and my favourites, blue mason bees and leafcutters) to breed in. Dozens and dozens of solitary bees become almost social in my bee hotels. I say solitary bees, but a better way to describe them would be "non social". Non-social bees are not meant to nest and breed in great groups of dozens and dozens. 

Bee hotel (composite)Bee hotel (composite)

What happens in my bee hotels often is that the red masons emerge and breed first, brick up the nest holes with mud, which is torn apart, often by the leafcutters which emerge in the same hotel later in the year, in order to take the mason bees' holes for themselves.

Then there are the parasites which are attracted en masse to my bee hotels. The beautiful ruby tailed wasps and less-than-beautiful ichneumons. All wanting a piece of my gargantuan platter of bee eggs and or eventual young.

Finally, (regarding the bee hotels still), non-social bees are not generally used to (or designed to if you like) nest and breed in permanent spaces. Generally speaking, these bees will nest in very temporary structures such as dying or dead, hollow branches or stems of plants. Those nests might survive one winter, but generally not more than one. So there will be very little chance of the nesting spot being soaked each winter and overrun with example, bee-killing fungi. But my bee hotels are almost certainly covered in fungus and spores after years of being bolted to my framed compost heap each winter.

Hotel residentsHotel residents

The best thing to do for non-social bees, if I REALLY wanted to help them, rather than satisfy my own craving for lots of nice wildlife in my garden, would be to design and build a bee hotel that I could take apart each winter, stow the young bees in a suitable container in the dry (with their pollen stores) ready to emerge after winter, wash and disinfect and dry the disassembled bee hotel and put back up, EMPTY the following spring.

Do I do that? 

Nope.

But I really should you know. And so should YOU. If you really want to impress on anyone (especially me) that it's the wildlife you care about, really.

 

Now.

What of the frogs?

I CAN'T be harming them, can I?

I am very proud of my pond (our boy loves it too), which I fill with rainwater and keep as natural (we'll come back to that) as possible. As well as newts and damselflies, I have about a hundred or so frogs that come back to my pond each February now.

And most of them have ranid herpesvirus.

Ranid herpesvirus 2Ranid herpesvirus 2

You see, there's NOTHING natural about a PERMANENT pond.

Nothing.

Nothing at all.

Ponds, other than garden ponds, almost by definition, are in no way, shape or form.... permanent.

And I strongly suspect that I have facilitated the spread of ranid herpesvirus through the local population of frogs with the "rampant success" of my pond.

 

Oh sure.

I'm not as bad as some Disneyfied Brits who would first call themselves as "wildlife lovers", but actually really are killing the wildlife that they attract to their garden to "help them" by....

 

1 -  Creating very unnatural, permanent bird feeding areas with multiple, static feeders in small spaces. Feeders which they never clean properly nor move regularly (or at all) and so act as breeding grounds and vectors for fatal diseases such as Trich. Not to mention the very unnatural and highly-stressful overpopulation of birds in a tiny, permanent area. Near cats. MUCH nearer cats, probably.

2 - Feeding "their" nightly hedgehog a saucer of milk and bread or eggs or all manner or human foodstuff or even worse, mealworms. No... mealworms KILL hedgehogs. (They really do you know... google "mealworms, phosphorus, hedgehogs and metabolic bone disease"if you don't believe me).

3 - Filling their unnatural (see above) garden ponds with tap water and non-native pond plants - no good for our native plants or our native, temporary fresh (not chlorinated tap) water pond dwellers.

 

 

Look, grapple fans. I'm not having a crisis here. Don't worry. I may be a little more scientific in my trains of thought than many British "wildlife lovers" and certainly FAR less "Disneyfied". I KNOW I treat wild animals as just that  - wild  (not pets and not domesticated) animals (not anthropomorphised animals with uniquely human feelings and sometimes even names) and I KNOW I've been of some real assistance to some wild animals in the past - animals that I have provided shelter/food/habitat/protection for. At the top of that list would be swifts and stag beetles at our current home, along with some jays, red-belted clearwing moths, pipistrelle bats and yeah... all things considered, everything that uses our pond - including frogs.

But.

(Here's the but)…

 

I'm also very mindful that if I (or YOU) DO take steps to attract wildlife to your garden (be that hedgehogs, foxes (WHY???!!!), squirrels (WWWHHHHHYYYY????!!!!), bees, birds, beetles or bats)… then it is your RESPONSIBILITY to educate yourself to understand what REALLY is in the wildlife's best interest.

And what really IS NOT.

No matter how much it might APPEAR to be.

 

You could start, you know, by admitting, just a little bit, that your wildlife garden is set up as much for YOU as for the wildlife.

That bird feeder near the window. So you can see it better. You know. From your breakfast table.

The pond that you make FAR more aesthetically-pleasing by removing all that long grass from around its edges.

Those nice pink flowers that seem to flower all year, and the bees love - but have somewhat taken over the bed a little.

That bird box on the garage wall. With the camera in it. Which is infra red. At night. (Think about it....)

 

Look.

Keep trying to help wildlife. 

Please.

But please also do so with a great big wheelbarrow of sensible, pragmatic, educated responsibility beside you, eh?

And do, please please PLEASE....

LISTEN TO THE EXPERTS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/11/are-british-garden-wildlife-lovers-harming-wildlife Sat, 17 Nov 2018 20:29:57 GMT
Autumn of solace https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/11/autumn-of-solace My only solace in Autumn, a season I generally regard to be a sodding miserable time of year (the end of glorious summer and a dreadful realisation that we have six odd months of cold, wet darkness to come), is...

The colour.

The fantastic colour.

All the photos below were taken by me today on my tiny little old phone (apologies... it has a terrible camera on it - but who needs a great camera when you're surrounded by colour like we are right now).

My boy and I spent an hour and a half this afternoon, walking around the area, learning (well... he was learning) which leaves disappear in the winter and which stick around (and how to predict which leaves will do what), what colour cows' eyelashes are, how to age cow pats and why old pats look the way they do, why ducks and drakes (mallards) look different and why do rivers exist, where they come from and where do they go.

It's a big, big, fascinating world when you're nearly six! 

Or twenty six, thirty six, forty six etc etc (if he's anything like his father)…

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) autumn beech sycamore https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/11/autumn-of-solace Sun, 11 Nov 2018 16:33:39 GMT
.... and the (2018?) amazing technicolour dreamcoat? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/11/-and-the-2018-amazing-technicolour-dreamcoat Dunno 'bout you, but each year I hear that THIS year's autumn foliage may well be the most spectacular ever because of the weather during the earlier parts of the year. That is to say we've had a cold/wet/sunny/boiling hot spring followed by a miserable/superb summer (delete where applicable - none of it seems to make any difference!).

This year I heard the same thing of course.

But IS our display of multicoloured autumn foliage any better than normal this year?

I can't make my mind up.

I mean, our garden Joseph (Rock Sorbus or rowan) (above) has never displayed more of a technicolour dreamcoat (well... a ruby red dreamcoat anyway) and all our poplars in the garden (below) have certainly pumped out more bright yellow leaves this year than in previous years, when most of their leaves turned a muddy black before floating to the ground.

And some of the beeches in Windsor forest look pretty stunning right now - but to be honest, they ALWAYS seem to look stunning at this time of the year.

 

What do you think?

Are we experiencing one of the best Autumns for a while, at least in terms of leaf display?

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) joseph rock poplar https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/11/-and-the-2018-amazing-technicolour-dreamcoat Tue, 06 Nov 2018 14:15:04 GMT
Remember remember... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/11/remember-remember … to give your dogs/cats/goldfish/sifaka lemurs (delete where applicable) their annual glug of zylkene/whisky/night-nurse/boot polish (delete where applicable) before the fireworks kick off in earnest tomorrow night. And please remember to check any bonfires for hedgehogs (etc) before lighting them.

Actually, I'm probably a little late with this blog post as there's not so much a "bonfire night" any more is there? More of a "fireworks season" these days.

I, for example, attended our son's school fireworks display last week and took the first two photos below (both of which contain moy woyf and boy for the eagle-eyed amongst you).

I do quite enjoy taking photos of fireworks - even more so now I have a "full frame" Canon 6D to mess around with - although you still need to sort-of know what you're doing to get half decent results and I'm happy to say I sort-of DO know what I'm doing these days - although there's always something new to learn!

My favourite firework photo of all was taken last year at the same school's "firework night" - a more abstract shot than the two above, using the same lens zoomed into the crowd with the base of the fireworks as a background rather than the subject. I like the (below) shot so much in fact that I've blown it up (pardon the pun) and hung (and drawn and quartered) it from our sitting room wall.

The watchersThe watchers

Do spare a thought for the wildlife at this time of year though. I was thinking this whilst setting up the camera for last week's fireworks display at the school and hearing lots of redwing thrushes fly over our heads in the dark, just before the first rockets went up.

Not only is it cold, and wet and dark and food is scarce. Each night for weeks and weeks it seems these days, the whole sky seems to be exploding around them. It must be bleeding awful.

Anyway... have a great bonfire night.

Go easy on them sausages though eh?

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) redwing https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/11/remember-remember Sun, 04 Nov 2018 18:52:59 GMT
Something for all hallows' eve? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/10/something-for-all-hallows-eve Firstly - let me immediately say I HATE Hallowe'en.

Actually... that's not true.

I quite like Hallowe'en itself, but I deplore and abhor "trick or treating", which basically I regard to be little more than promoted and organised extortion by little turds (I'm talking about the parents more than the kids).

Yes, grapple fans, I'm your less than friendly neighbourhood curmudgeon when it comes to all hallows' eve.

I'm the grumpy old sod who will very happily sit in our garden with a hosepipe and literally hose down anyone dumb enough to ignore our "NO trick or treating here thanks" sign.

I'll go for the adults first and if they get uppity after getting soaked, I'll just stand up - that's generally when they tend to leave (as people that know me will tell you - I don't need a Hallowe'en costume to scare the bejaysus out of most people).

(I should also point out that if I come across as errr... slightly uncharitable about all this.... it's with good reason. I've lived in some pretty dodgy places in my life  - areas where no treat to gangs of teenagers (often) had given them a green light to ACTUALLY carry out vandalism to my and others' property.

Oh sure, we (my wife and I) are well aware that we're basically the only ones around here that ACTIVELY rally against this annual night of extortion and vandalism - but look... I'm (for one) well used to being the only one doing something about anything.

Right.

Now that's out of the way...

A clip of an owl for you for Hallowe'en.

This was shot from my dash cam a couple of nights ago, on a wee drive around my local barn owl (and tawny owl and little owl) patch.

No barn owls yet this season (have they all buggered off I wonder?) but a nice tawny t'other night.

See if YOU can spot it.

Forgive the music. My sweetheart  (NO... NOT Lionel Rich Tea!) growing up (who I've never really grown out-of despite meeting her once in Crouch End in London a few years ago and being horribly disappointed...)
 

Tawny owl over car from Doug Mackenzie Dodds on Vimeo.

 
There you go then.
 
A Hallowe'en owl for you.
 
And that's ALL you're gonnae get.
 
I have a hosepipe you know....
 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) tawny owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/10/something-for-all-hallows-eve Wed, 31 Oct 2018 11:17:02 GMT
Ruby Ruby Ruby Rubyyyyy... (video) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/10/ruby-ruby-ruby-rubyyyyy On a walk around my "patch" (which I'll blog about one day) this afternoon, I happened across this chap(pess).

A small but fully grown ruby tiger moth caterpillar.

This furry wee thing will overwinter as a caterpillar, rather than form a hard pupa like any sensible moth would do.

Daft if you ask me, but hey... I don't make the rules.

Ruby tiger moth caterpillar. from Doug Mackenzie Dodds on Vimeo.

The above video you'll note is on Vimeo. (Not my 'normal' YouTube).

I've made an executive decision recently to come off YouTube and post my little video clips on Vimeo instead - as to me... well... they look like they're compressed less than YouTube videos and therefore 'praps' better quality.

Finally. Please forgive the heavy breathing on the clip above - it's not JUST that I'm excited when I find a caterpillar (although I am of course!) the heavy breathing on this clip can also be explained by the fact that I shot the clip with my very basic phone, with earphones in (I was listening to a talk show on the wireless phone-radio at the time) and therefore the microphone picking up sound for this video clip was RIGHT NEXT to my cake 'ole, when I pressed "record", rather than on the phone itself, as it would normally be.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) ruby tiger moth caterpillar https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/10/ruby-ruby-ruby-rubyyyyy Thu, 25 Oct 2018 15:39:17 GMT
Summer sticks around but now in come the winter thrushes.... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/10/summer-sticks-around-but-now-in-come-the-winter-thrushes Yesterday as I picked up the boy from school, I heard my first two redwing of the season.

I reported them to Berks birds (the local reporting website) and it seems that, yesterday was in fact the first day of this season that redwing were being heard or seen over Berkshire.

(For those of you that don't know - there can't be many  (that don't know) reading this blog can there - redwing are Scandinavian thrushes that come to the UK in huge numbers, followed a few weeks later by their larger, fieldfare cousins, each Autumn, to overwinter here and leave in the Spring.

Redwing can be heard migrating overhead, very often at night, as they constantly give their migratory contact calls to each other as they fly in. Go outside on a calm, dry night at this time of year... be quiet and listen for the "TSEEP" occasionally sounding overhead. You'll hear it. Promise.

Redwing normally start to arrive into the UK at the beginning of October each year (so jussssstttt after summer (proper) officially finishes around the 22nd or so of September), but even so... hearing my first two yesterday afternoon was quite a shock, even though I've often seen swallows leaving Berkshire and redwing arriving... on the SAME DAY!

That all said, it was a bit of a shock yesterday to hear winter thrushes arriving as we seem to have been stuck in summer since they left in April - we're still almost stuck in summer down here this week, with sunshine and temperatures exceeding 20C forecast!

Keep 'em peeled, grapple fans.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) redwing https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/10/summer-sticks-around-but-now-in-come-the-winter-thrushes Tue, 09 Oct 2018 06:39:57 GMT
What can YOU see.... (The answer is now revealed....) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/10/what-can-you-see … in these photographs (I snapped with my tiny camera phone today) of the same bit our long back garden fence, this afternoon.

Anything interesting?

Look hard.

Have a guess (as a comment if you like).

And I'll post later today or this week to tell you what you should be seeing....

And so therefore, what to look out for on your various walks alongside fences in the future....

Go on then.

A little closer...

 

 

 

OK.

As promised, a few days later... I'll reveal the answer now below.

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You may remember earlier this year, I discovered a puss moth caterpillar in our back garden, clearly looking for somewhere to pupate.

So I gave it a piece of wood on which to do just that.

And it did. (Video clips).

The puss moth pupa is now residing in our empty chicken run. This will be the case all winter and with any luck, the puss moth will emerge from its pupa (or chrysalis) in the Spring (in May I'd guess).

And THAT, laydeez and gennelmen is what you should have seen in the photos above.

An empty puss moth pupa  - on our back garden fence.

From which, clearly, a puss moth had emerged in  the Spring (of this year I'd say).

The great thing about our puss moth (empty) pupa is that I walked by it all summer, and only discovered it a few days ago, by chance, RIGHT NEXT to the spot where I happened across the puss moth caterpillar in July. The chances are that the caterpillar I found...

...was very possibly one of the offspring of the adult moth which had emerged from this pupa.

 

The circle of life (and all that).

Anyway… if you now see this sight on a fence near you... well... you'll know what it is now eh?

There's pretty-well not much else it could be - it's certainly one of the Cerurinae moths and it's  too big for a sallow kitten or any other kitten moth.

It's the empty pupa of a puss moth, you can tell your amazed audience who will wonder how on earth you know.

Just tell them "The Black Rabbit" told you....

 

Later.

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) puss moth use your eyes https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/10/what-can-you-see Wed, 03 Oct 2018 11:08:46 GMT
This is the end. Beautiful friend(s). The end. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/9/this-is-the-end-beautiful-friend-s-the-end Now look(y) here.

Unless you're a weatherman meteorologist trying to simplify the natural world for the thickos, you've not been in Autumn since September 1st.

Proper* (astronomical) Autumn doesn't begin until Sunday. This Sunday, that is. On 23rd September.

*OK. OK. For people (and there'll be a few) that regard me to be more than a little precious about this, Autumn for the Northern hemisphere, can only truly start when the sun, on its 'journey' from northern to southern hemisphere, lies directly above the equator each September.

Invariably this will be either the 22nd or 23rd of the month - this year the sun reaches this spot in the sky on the 23rd.

You can, if you like, have the Gregorian calendar months of June, July and August to be summer (and therefore for you, Autumn would begin as soon as September does), but in that case (and there's no polite way to write this), you'd simply (literally) be wrong. 

Yes.

Autumn only begins at approximately 3am on (this) Sunday morning.

And don't the beautiful hirundines seem to know it.

There was a STUPENDOUS spectacle of house martins over (west(ish)) Berkshire today.

Perhaps as many as 8,000 house martins, feeding up over the Theale gravel pits (where I used to watch high peregrines on the pylons and listen to low nightingales in the shrub) today.

I was at work so didn't see this wonderful sight - but truth be told, it would have saddened me as much as impressed me if I had.

When my beautiful swifts just disappear overnight (in very late July normally - or perhaps August), I am very sad. I miss them awfully.

But when the swallows and house martins all form large migratory flocks during the day and then push obviously South en masse, I'm almost inconsolable.

I hate it.

Oh I knowwwww they'll be back fo-sho. And we have had a lovely summer, haven't we?

But even though the whistling wigeon and rattling fieldfare will try to cheer me up during the dark, cold months ahead... my mind will always be on the next equinox (March 20th in case you'd like to know), when Spring starts her engine and the beautiful hirundines start to return once more.

Six months to wait, grapple fans.

Just six months....

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) autumn equinox house martin spring https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/9/this-is-the-end-beautiful-friend-s-the-end Fri, 21 Sep 2018 16:59:10 GMT
C'mon baby. Do the loo commotion. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/9/cmon-baby-do-the-loo-commotion Regular reader(s) of this blog site (and my last for that matter) might know that I regularly bang on about "using your eyes" - but occasionally I remind reader(s) that "using your ears" is just as, if not more important than "using your eyes".

I did so (blog a reminder about "using your ears" in particular last April, when I explained in some detail how I manage to see so many goldcrests and kingfishers and bullfinches and nuthatches and SPARROWHAWKS compared to some - who lament that they never get to see any of the above.

To summarise that blog post - you WILL see these birds EVERYWHERE if you learn to use your ears first.... and only then, your eyes.

 

This morning I used my "ears" technique again - when sitting on the lav (I said sitting), reading a book (now that's a lovely image to give you as you consider what to eat at your next meal), I heard a commotion outside. 

A commotion from the loo then.

A loo commotion. (Blimey that's tortured).

 

Two (at least) magpies were kicking up a stink about something predatory outside in the garden.

Well. I finished what I was doing, and snuck outside to see if it was just a cat (probably!) that the magpies were shouting at.

A quick scan of our (large) garden provided the facts that a) the shouty magpies were in our huge leylandii and b) there was no cat around.

 

Now. Invariably when one asks oneself a question about wildlife (that is to say... WHAT is that x? when you can't actually see x) the answer is the obvious one. Or one of the most obvious ones.

For example, if you're walking through a wood in lowland, southern England and there's a rustle in the leaves under a tree or bush next to the path you're on... if you'd like to know what is producing that rustle - I can guarantee you that:

c.75% of the time its a blackbird.

c.15% of the time its a (grey) squirrel).

c.9% of the time its a shrew. (If you have hearing like me and the experience of being paid to actually catch shrews once, you'll know this to be true).

c.1% of the time its something else. Be that a pheasant or a muntjac or a fox or a woodmouse or something other.

 

Now I mention my rule-of-thumb above as I was again faced with the "what is x" in the garden this morning.

The magpies were shouting at something in our leylandii.

It's not nesting season, so it would be unlikely to be a cat in the tree, after a nest.

There was no cat below the tree . In fact nothing below the tree. No fox either, for example.

So the obvious answer here, a cat, was quickly ruled out. As was a fox.

The next most obvious answer by far round here is a hawk.

And only when that had been ruled out do we start to consider other things like stoat, or kite or peregrine or weasel or Tasmanian devil, or ghost, or the lorrrrrd jesus.

 

As I walked slowly up to the leylandii, firstly the two magpies kicking up the acoustic stink, exploded out of the tree like two ballistic football rattles.

I continued and invisible to me (on the other side of the thick leylandii) another big bird jumped out of the tree and flew away. I couldn't see what it was, but it didn't take me long to establish that, yes, it was indeed a sparrowhawk - and a male one at that - and a male sparrowhawk that had caught and killed a goldfinch  - but....  I saw neither the hawk nor the goldfinch.

So how did I know?

 

That's how.

 

I found a few of these small feathers in the long weeds under the leylandii, almost hidden from view (luckily, one feather with a wet-with-blood-quill was caught in a cobweb, which I saw - which got me looking for more).

Now granted you need to know what bird these feathers come from to be able to immediately ID them as primaries and tail feathers from a goldfinch - but that's not hard with feathers like these. More dull brown feathers (from sparrows or dunnocks or robins etc) would be harder to ID of course.

OK. A goldfinch was being plucked in the leylandii in our back garden, by something that was being harassed by the local mafia magpies.

That would (of course) be a sparrowhawk then.

But how do I know it would be a make hawk?

Well... I don't know for sure, but again, as a good rule-of-thumb, your average small, pretty, orange-breasted and slate grey-backed male hawk will take small passerines like goldfinches, tits, robins, maybe a very small thrush - that sort of thing. Whereas your average big, dull, brown-breasted and brown-backed female hawk will prefer to take starlings as a minimum, or adult blackbirds and thrushes, or even (best of all) collared doves and woodpigeons.

The killThe kill

 

So.

Huge odds-on (Ladbrokes would close the book on this) that my unseen avian predator that plucked this unfortunate goldfinch in our leylandii this morning was a sparrowhawk and 2/1 ON that it was a male hawk.

I may be "hyper-aware" (and I am  - it's quite exhausting for me and those around me sometimes!), and I may have a few decades of experience of this sort of thing behind me, but if I hadn't have heard (and listened to, i.e. processed that sound in my brain!) the magpies shouting outside whilst I was "at toilet" this morning and NOT gone to investigate, and not then found the few wee feathers hidden in the long weeds under the tree and before they blew away, I'd never have known a male hawk took a goldfinch in our garden this morning.

Use your ears first, grapple fans... and THEN your eyes.

And there endeth todayth thermon.

Away you go.

No honestly. Away you go now.

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) goldfinch sparrowhawk https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/9/cmon-baby-do-the-loo-commotion Sat, 08 Sep 2018 08:33:36 GMT
What of the swifts? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/9/what-of-the-swifts Because of my (understandable and correct!) fascinations with swifts, I'm regularly asked "how are the swifts doing" by friends and family, throughout the summer months, but especially so this year it seems - as people have heard that swifts have perhaps had a terrible year.

Cloud burstCloud burst

Well... I've still yet to attract BREEDING swifts ( I have attracted lots of non-breeding swifts though) to our post-war house in a very non-swift part of the world, but as far as I am concerned we had a SUPERB year here at "Swift Half".

Yes, ever since I filmed our breeding swifts in Reading in 2011 (and put all the clips on Youtube) I've been desperate to do so again at our much newer house 10 miles East.

Regular readers of this blog will know I've put lots of internal and external boxes for swifts on or in the roof and played various attraction calls to them via a variety of means (MP3, CD, tape, Bluetooth etc) for the last 6 years - with some success - every year I've had swifts visit - pretty well all summer.

This year though seemed a little different. Yes... late they were (but yearling swifts as I think these were are always a few weeks later than the breeding adults), but this year they came in numbers and finally landed in and explored my internal swift box - the one I hope they eventually choose to breed in (if they eventually breed) as it will be far easier to ring the chicks in the attic (rather than up a ladder to get to an external box).
 

Time will tell (the next year especially but also perhaps the year after that - as swifts aren't thought to breed until they're a few years old) if these visitors DO finally breed in our roof (and then finally I can relax!) but yes... for me, 2018 was a good year for swift visitors at the new "Swift Half" -and because it was so good - I've become excited again about next year, rather than slowly slip into my normal lament of "they'll nevvvver breed here, sob sob" each September.

That was just me though - what of others?

Well... swifts did make headline news at the start and middle of May 2018 - and when I say headline, I mean NATIONAL headlines. BBC Breakfast ran at least one story suggesting that swifts were perhaps not coming back to the UK at all this year, although thankfully an ornithologist (and "swift fancier" like me) put them right on that one.

There is little doubt, looking at the BTO Bird track graph below (Credit to BTO and BTO Bird Track for this invaluable tool) that swifts started to come over from Africa via Spain and France in good time, in late April as normal - but then May came and they suddenly seemed to be "held up" for some reason.

They never really recovered from this week-or-so stall, but they did arrive back in the UK this year as normal, albeit a little later than normal in many cases - and not in the historic numbers we might have expected.

We've had a marvellous summer here - not so for example in 2012 (especially) and 2013, so why were the swifts "held up"?

The answer probably has something to do with the fact that Spain (in particular) and France had a truly dreadful last couple of days in April and first week in May (PEAK swift migration season) which might well have held them up or even killed them (no food).

The table below (I've added the cyan asterisks) shows the temperatures around Madrid at that time (NB I've not included 28th April - but that was just as chilly too).

Whether this late and less numerous arrival was just a blip - or an actual sign of things to come will become clearer over the next few years. Our summer swifts in the UK are pretty-well at the most northern part of their breeding range (rather like barn owls) and if they can't get here easily (like this year perhaps due to the continental weather) or feed here easily (due to our less-than-clement summer weather some of the time), then they will get fewer and fewer one might predict?

This year, 2018 will go down as bit of a missed open goal for some of our breeding UK swifts it seems then. We've had a superb summer - dry and warm and those swifts that did make it over (the majority it needs to be said - look at the BTO graph again, above) would have had a very successful year I'm sure (unless the swiftlets overheated in their hot nests!) - but those that didn't make it over at all, or didn't make it over in time to successfully breed (swifts really should be mating and laying eggs in May as their young take so long to develop and build up their flight muscles - when a young swift takes to the air for the first time -it has to keep that first flight going for perhaps four years!) missed out on what could have been a superb year I think.

All this is underlined by the fact that our UK breeding swift population is declining - and declining worryingly quickly.

We 'swift fanciers' can't bear to think of a summer in the UK without the best bird of all, but we're heading that way at present and could do with a superb summer next year (both here and a good early May on the continent too) to try and buck this trend.

For now though, you KNOW what to do, don't you?

Take the next 8 months to build or buy your own swift nesting spaces in/on your house - and start counting the days until May 1st next year eh?

SwiftSwift
 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) apus apus swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/9/what-of-the-swifts Fri, 07 Sep 2018 08:59:26 GMT
Back to (old) skool. For now. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/8/back-to-old-skool-for-now I've long bored people dumb enough to listen to me, that the DSLR has had its day and in my last-but-one blog post, I reiterated that opinion (of mine and perhaps others) and suggested that whilst I might keep my full frame Canon 6D DSLR, I might well also have to save up for a new, mirrorless (so not a DSLR) all-singing all-dancing, (speedy for action shots AND full frame for image quality) new(ish) Sony RX10 mkiv camera - mirrorless IS (I'm sure) the future for cameras, I'm sure.

Then.

Less than a fortnight later.

I actually go and buy a second DSLR (a 2nd hand Canon 7Dmkii) from ebay and shelve plans (for a year or five) to jump DSLR ship, sell everything if I can and start climbing up the mirrorless tree, with, probably that Sony RX10 mkiv.

The advantages of mirrorless are many - but for example:

1 - Smaller and lighter in size (at least in terms of camera body if not lens - but to some degree lens size too).

2 - MUCH quieter action - even silent  (for timid wildlife, precious golfers and event photography (weddings etc) for example).

3 - Faster, theoretical shutter speed (for freezing high speed action better) and faster flash synch speed (for REALLY freezing very high speed action).

4 - Zebra stripes (on overexposed images, LIVE IN the electronic viewfinder) as well as LIVE histograms and focus peaking.

5 - Preview of the image in the Electronic viewfinder - good for anything really but especially low light photography.

6 - Talking of low light photography - it's often MUCH easier to focus for low light shots using a mirrorless (and not a DSLR) camera.

7 - No blackout during a burst.

8 - Talking of bursts - a much higher burst rate (perhaps up to 20 or 30 (or even higher) frames per second, as opposed to 10 in a top spec DSLR).

9 - Better and faster autofocus (often) with tools such as face or even EYE (in Sony mirrorless cameras) recognition.

10 - Invariably a larger spread of autofocus points covering the entire frame of the shot in many mirrorless cameras.

11 - Discrete (good for street or event photography where you don't want to draw attention to yourself and your camera).

12 - Future proof (as far as we can predict) - mark my words, DSLR will eventually be replaced by mirrorless.

 

SO.... even more now.... why did I buy another DSLR in the form of an old (well... 4 year old) Canon 7d mkii - reading all the advantages of a mirrorless camera above?

 

Well... as described in my last-but-one blog, I have always hankered after a speedy camera for action shots, which my wonderful full frame Canon 6D DSLR cannot deliver easily for me. It can deliver quite well in this respect (see shot below of my son on a water slide at a friend's house t'other day) but the sort of shot I got below would be SOOOOooooo much easier to take with a fast (speedy) camera rather than my wonderful but slow full frame Canon 6D.

I KNOW the old 7d mk ii DSLR and current crop of (for example) Sony mirrorless cameras are SUPER speedy, so that's that particular box ticked … AND if I'd choose Sony - I'd choose a full frame Sony Mirrorless Camera (unlike the smaller- APSC sensored Canon 7d mkii DSLR), so that would be THAT box (image quality and low light capability) ticked too.

So.

Again.

WHY didn't I pull the plug on my own DSLR "habit" and go mirrorless?

 

My reasons, right now, can be summarised in a few points below:

 

1 - The only company right now, doing FULL FRAME (important to me) mirrorless options well is Sony - and I've bought into the Canon, not Sony gear "ecosystem" for almost a decade now - all my chargers, lenses, remotes etc are Canon and I'm "used" to getting Canons to work, physically (ie where the buttons are ON the camera - and what the buttons do) and also navigating the Canon digital menus (settings) IN the camera.

2 - Sony have a TERRIBLE (I mean potentially catastrophic) reputation for customer service, customer care and aftersales. There basically is none with Sony. Sony's business model is well-documented - pump out technology and updates (in terms of NEW, updated models) as quickly as possible -and make your old (less than a year old in many cases) products OBSOLETE - and that goes for all the parts and repair services too. FORCE your customers to buy a new product every year or two.

3 - Sony cameras' ergonomics (both in terms of physical layout of buttons and switches - and even more so in terms of electronic menus in the camera to change settings) are truly abysmal. The average Sony camera is about as user friendly as a space shuttle is to a chimp. Now... you might say... sure but after a while you'd get used to the nonsensical button layout and menu configuration wouldn't you? No... Not as far as I hear from experienced professional photographers - who tend to all (mainly) still use Canon and Nikon (Canon especially) because Canon cameras just work as you'd expect!

4 - Sony camera are like cheap, plastic toys. They're often not even weather proof. That's almost a deal breaker right there for me. I'd be scared to take one outside the house. And outside the house is where I like to BE (and take photos!).

5 - Sony cameras tend to break. Easily. Internally (poor, cheap electronics) or externally (see point 4).

6 - Mirrorless cameras have often overheated (generally as the battery is constantly being drained when the camera is just "on", (unlike DSLRs) and especially so when the camera operator is shooting 4K video for example, which in some Sony Cameras you can't shoot more than 5 minutes of before the camera whines that it's hot and it needs a rest (and then shuts down).

7 - The battery life is AWFUL on mirrorless cameras (think of your smart phone or even a point and shoot or bridge camera).  OK... battery life for mirrorless camera has improved over the last decade, but as an example, I was regularly getting only 100 shots MAXIMUM from my old (and beloved Panasonic Lumix FZ50 bridge camera), whereas even in my first, old Canon 40D, I often would only charge it at the end of each month (as a habit, rather than it needed it) as it would take a thousand or more photos on a single battery's charge - A HUGE HUGE advantage for DSLRs.

 

There you have it then.

Points 2,3,4,5 and 7 above are all deal-breakers (pretty-well) for me, to be honest.

I still say Full frame (or even medium format like Fuji are into right now) mirrorless cameras ARE the future for enthusiast and "prosumer" photography.

 

Right now, Sony at least - and to a lesser extent perhaps Fujifilm, are STREETS ahead of the big dawgs like Canon and Nikon in terms of giving the photographer the electronic bells and whistles they need to take great photos relatively easily. Canon and Nikon have to wake up - and wake up quickly.

Nikon have started to wake up to be fair, launching their first two new, full frame mirrorless cameras, the Z6 and Z7 this week - but personally speaking, I'm not sure these two cameras will be enough to save the financially-haemorrhaging Nikon.

Canon on the other hand are playing, as usual, a slow hand.

They WILL announce a full frame mirrorless camera within a year fo-sho - and that may be good enough to compete with Sony (in particular) for the mirrorless pie.

It may well be, mainly because even though Sony are (as I've written above) STREETS ahead of Canon in terms of mirrorless and sensor technology  - Canon have some things that Sony will never (it seems) have.

A) RELIABILITY. (My Canon DSLRs are ALL built like tanks and (touch wood) have NEVER let me down yet and NEVER will).

B) USEABILITY. My Canon DSLRs all just work. They're easy to use. They're intuitive. They're.... USER FRIENDLY.

C) CUSTOMER SERVICE and AFTERSALES. 

D) A HUGE RANGE OF LENSES. Possibly the best of all camera firms in terms of variety, quality and price. 

 

For those four reasons above (and for available capital reasons of course!) - two days ago I decided to shelve my current fascination with mirrorless cameras and buy an old TANK of a Canon 7Dmkii for action shots.

I'd LOVE to have all those advantages of mirrorless cameras (above) at my fingertips - but I can't get past the four big current drawbacks (above) right now. I just can't.

My new (old and 2nd hand!) 7D mkii takes the same batteries as my 6D, the same chargers, the same remote, the same lenses, it works with my non-subscription version of Lightroom (the Sony cameras will do NONE of this)… and more importantly than all that...

 

it just BLOODY WORKS....

 

...and I'm sure will just continue to work, until Sony or Fuji or even perhaps Canon (I hope as I don't think Sony ever will try) sort out the current robustness, reliability and user-friendliness issues of mirrorless cameras.

 

Yup.

They are (already) much more advanced (than DSLRs) -  so one day we'll ALL be using mirrorless cameras.

Even me.

But.

Not.

Just.

Yet....

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) camera dslr mirrorless https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/8/back-to-old-skool-for-now Sun, 26 Aug 2018 11:08:09 GMT
Under the boardwalk... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/8/under-the-boardwalk The three of us went on a wee walk this afternoon, to our favourite local area of lowland heath - on a dragonfly and lizard (and tiger beetle and hobby and sliver studded blue butterfly) hunt.

 

Lots of wildlife has "suffered" over this very dry, warm summer - dragonflies, butterflies and moths being quite obvious examples - and all the peaty bodies of water at the heath this afternoon had long been dry.

We even managed to walk across a "pond" that I've never seen the water level lower than a foot or two deep before - crunching on dead Ramshorn snails as we trod - all very sad.

That's not to say there weren't any dragonflies on our walk today - but instead of hawking over the water - they (migrant hawkers mainly) were to be found amongst the gorse and broom and bracken rides.

The reptiles seem to have done EXCEEDINGLY well (Mr.Kipling) this year, however. I (we) have never seen so many viviparous common lizards all over (and under!) the boardwalk as we poddled around the dry heath. Many were clearly this year's young too - and very tolerant of us - even allowing wee Ben to get a very close peep at these beautiful lizards.

I reckon there may have been hundreds (or certainly a hundred) skulking under the boardwalk at the heath this afternoon - regularly coming "up top" to get some warmth through the larch planks warmed in the milky sun today.

(We're trying to establish early with Ben that wildlife is endlessly-fascinating and there is absolutely no need to be scared of any of it (here in Blightly) ever!)

 

Other than about three dozen beautiful lizards and a handful of migrant hawker dragonflies - we didn't see much else.

No tiger beetles, no hobbies, no silver-studded blue butterflies, no adders, no grass snakes, no deer, no Dartford warblers, no nightjars (bit early in the day and late in the year).

A lovely afternoon's stroll though - and we (I hope) have ensured Ben is already au-fait with the lovely lizards of wildmoor heath.

All photos above and below taken by me with my new (2nd) camera, NOT the new Sony RX10 mkiv (as I described briefly in my last blog post), but the OLD (2nd hand) Canon 7d Mkii which I picked up for a STEAL this week from ebay.

More on this (camera stuff) soon, but right now, all I'll say is that I now run TWO Canon DSLR camera bodies - the 6D for sweeeet, detailed portraits and landscapes in good to low light - and the 7Dmkii for action shots (sports and wildlife) in OK to good light. Both use the same batteries and lenses and chargers and both work with my copy of Lightroom - so I'm all sorted really - AND to a (somewhat) thrifty budget!

Like I say, more soon.

For now - batten down those hatches. It's gonnae get woolly tomorrow, I hear.

(Dinna fash yersel though - the lizards will be fine I'm sure - under their boardwalk).

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) common lizard https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/8/under-the-boardwalk Sat, 25 Aug 2018 17:45:27 GMT
Brief camera thoughts - a new direction? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/8/brief-camera-thoughts---a-new-direction As I blogged HERE and HERE, I believe that the DSLR has probably had its day (as soon as they (they being Canon and Nikon) start making "full frame mirrorless cameras", which they have JUST started to do this year) but.... my main camera of choice at present is (still) my full frame (original) Canon 6D.

I love my 6D - it can gather SO much more light (and detail) than my APS_C Canon 40D, which in turn can gather so much more light and detail than my SUPERB old tiny-sensored bridge camera, my Panasonic Lumix FZ50 - which I used a lot on our holiday to the Isle of Wight this year.

I don't think I'll ever sell my 6D - as only it can get shots like the below (taken today as I took my boy to a local wildlife park). And these, I might add, were just snap shots - with a pretty bog standard lens.

 

Cropped (and rotated slightly) from above:

And another shot:

I expect this website has compressed the photos of my boy above - so just in case it has (I'm sure it has!) let me tell you the detail in these shots is SUPERB.  And full size (which again, I'm sure (on this website) they're not), - MINDBLOWING. OK... OK... it helps that I nailed the focus perfectly.

Yes...  my Full frame Canon 6D is wonderful for detailed, poppy, shots like the above - or even milky way shots like the below.

Mars, Saturn, Milky Way, Jupiter from the Isle of Wight.Mars, Saturn, Milky Way, Jupiter from the Isle of Wight.

And I ADORE being able to take detailed shots on a full frame (35mm) sensor which gathers light like a vacuum cleaner. I love it.

But.

(And here's the but).

Ever since I re-took up photography about 10 years ago now, with (firstly) a wee Sony Ericsson mobile (non smart) phone, I've really wanted to capture fast action - as well as detailed, static shots.

I've lost track of the amount of shots of flying birds or running cats/hens etc that I've missed, either because I could never afford a big DSLR sports camera (like the Canon 1DX) or because my bridge cameras (FZ20,30,50) have WOEFUL contrast detect autofocus, rather than the MILES BETTER phase detect.

Even the shot of the flying barn owl I took on the Isle of Wight last week was the only shot in focus from a burst of about 6 on my Canon 6D - a wonderful camera for sure... but in no way built to take photos of moving subjects. (Here's where I blow my own trumpet - I used to be quite well reknowned in photography circles for PUSHING my cameras (plural) to beyond what they should be capable of. Give most people my 6D and they couldn't get one shot out of twenty of a flying bird in focus, let alone one in five).

Likewise.

Give someone my 40D with an APS-C sensor and they just wouldn't be able to produce a shot like I did below, in near NO light. It shouldn't really be possible. Not this clean.

Anyway.

Sony have just changed that game.

And have probably made all my (and others) dreams come true.

Sony, last year, put the first phase detect autofocus system (from their full frame sports A9 camera) into a bridge (or fixed lens superzoom) camera.

Yes... the Sony RX10 mk iv is at present the first and ONLY bridge camera with anything other than contrast detect autofocus in it.

I'm sure Canon and Nikon (and others fo-sho) will HAVE to respond by, for example, Canon putting their truly excellent dual pixel autofocus system into their next range of compact or bridge camera. Just like Canon and Nikon HAD to react (as they are jussst doing now) after Sony started making absolutely superb mirrorless pro cameras - which is spelling, I think, the end of DSLRs.

But for now, as I've just written - like a moth to a UV lamp - I am being sucked into the world of Sony right now - I don't see how I can buy a pocket (or bridge) camera with contrast detect autofocus, knowing as I do that that system just WILL NOT focus on anything moving  - but knowing that the Sony RX10 iv does - and does so , so unbelievably well.

At present I think I'm going to have to keep my Canon 6D for low light shots, or detailed shots, or specific shots like landscapes or sea scapes or night sky shots - but for anything else - ANYTHING ELSE - I'm just going to HAVE to save up and buy the Sony RX10 mk iv.

JUST GONNAE HAVE TO....

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) camera contrast detect full frame one inch sensor phase detect https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/8/brief-camera-thoughts---a-new-direction Tue, 14 Aug 2018 19:58:39 GMT
What's brown, steaming and comes out of cow(e)s? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/8/whats-brown-steaming-and-comes-out-of-cow-e-s …. The Isle of Wight Ferry of course.

Doesn't really work as a written joke that... as when written, one needs to add an "e" to "Cows".

That said, it reminds me of another joke.

What if Isla St.Clair married Barry White, then divorced him and married Brian Ferry.

Would she then be known as Isla White Ferry?

 

I digress.

Last August, me, my wife and boy took our summer holiday on the Isle of Wight - at "The Little Barn", on the only sunny and hot week of the entire summer it seemed (the rest of the summer was a washout if you remember?).

Last week, we did so again. And once again had a heatwave during our stay (although this summer, that's nothing special it seems). The only wet day was when we left the island this year!

I'm not going to do what I did last year on this post and detail the Little Barn in particular, or the ferry crossing or our thoughts in general about the Isle of Wight - if you're interested in any of that then please read last year's post here.

What I will quickly mention in this blog post though, is that we've had a WONDERFUL week again and seen EVEN MORE wildlife and taken even better photos of the milky way (above) if not the wildlife (below).

In note form then....

 

  • I hired a 20mm f1.8 lens from a local lens hire firm to take the photo above from "Whale Chine" on the south west coast of the Isle of Wight at 2240hrs on Sunday 5th August. You'll see Mars left and Jupiter right and those in the know will be able to make out Saturn too and the "C" of the core of the milky way.

 

  • We finally saw a red squirrel (got GREAT views in fact) at Alverstone mead Nature Reserve near Sandown. Apologies for the terrible photo below (I didn't take a decent camera and spent most of the time just watching the squirrel at pretty close quarters, and holding my boy up so he could see it too).

 

  • I took my moth trap this year and caught some wonderful moths (a few of which can be seen below) including four poplar hawk moths and two garden tiger moths in one night! Also ruby tiger moths, swallow prominents, pebble prominents, silver ys, sallow kittens, a drinker, an oak eggar and others...

 

  • There were a few more dragonflies over and around The Little Barn's pond this year, including this rather lovely golden ringed dragonfly (below).

 

  • We managed to get to Yarmouth again and spotted two Whimbrel feeding at low tide in the harbour (One of which you can see below), in amongst the dozens of black tailed godwit, curlew and redshank etc.

 

  • We had the pleasure of seeing and hearing two young buzzards mewing in the little wood next to the Little Barn all week.

 

  • I spotted a weasel run across the road in front of the car on the way to Shanklin beach and then as we left to get our ferry home, a stoat running across the country lane outside the Little Barn as a wildlife treat to end our week! (Anna managed to see this mustelid too!)

 

  • I managed to locate and photograph one of the many common blue butterflies roosting in the meadow outside the Little Barn at night (below).

 

  • We visited Robin Hill Country Park and loved the owl show (photo of our favourite owl which the falconer kindly got to fly at me) and the falconry show.

 

  • We visited Shanklin beach a couple of times again. Perfect for Ben to get confident in the water and perfect for a nice, de-stressing swim for me (Ben in first photo) (Ben on beach in second and me swimming "total immersion style" behind him).

 

  • I even managed a round of golf at the stunning Freshwater Bay Golf Club and got to play amongst wheatears, kestrels and rabbits! You'll be able to appreciate the weather we had all week (well... until the day we left) looking at my phone photo below!

  • Other wildlife(y) highlights might be the hobby (falcon) over the house once, the rabbits in the garden at breakfast (Ben loves rabbits) and of course the great green bush crickets singing to us each night, like last year. A covey of red legged partridge in the cabbage field next door was a bit of a treat too. Then of course there were the swallows at the Little Barn, and the house martins and finally two (of the last I'll see this year) swifts flying south over the Little Barn during our first sunset on the island last Friday.

 

Another wonderful week in the sun, on the Isle of Wight, during Cowes week (as it 'appens - although away from Cowes, as we were, you'd not have noticed any extra people really).

Packing and then leaving your holiday home for the week is always miserable - and made doubly so this year by the quite atrocious weather on the Ferry back to the mainland and then the drive up the M3. (see below).

Never mind - our holiday itself was taken under relentless blue skies - and those are once again the memories we'll take with us from the island.  We've now spent 14 days on the Isle of Wight over two years and only seen rain on two of them - with the other twelve days being very hot and very sunny indeed! How lucky are we!

Anyhoo…. you didn't read any of this. It ALWAYS rains on the Isle of Wight. And there are no red squirrels. Or any other type of wildlife.

Nothing to see here.

Move along please....

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) black tailed godwit buzzard common blue curlew drinker garden tiger golden ringed dragonfly great green bush cricket hobby house martin kestrel oak eggar pebble prominent poplar hawk-moth rabbit red legged partridge red squirrel redshank ruby tiger sallow kitten stoat swallow swallow prominent swift weasel wheatear whimbrel https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/8/whats-brown-steaming-and-comes-out-of-cow-e-s Sat, 11 Aug 2018 16:26:16 GMT
Just two photos of garden plants... from today. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/8/just-two-photos-of-garden-plants-from-today Both taken this morning, as the "heatwave" returns.

 

The first is a photo of our rambling dog rose, which the leaf cutter bees love as much as me.

Leaf cutter bee activity on dog roseLeaf cutter bee activity on dog rose

 

The second is a photo of our... urrrmmm….  back "lawn".  We need more rain BADLY here.

 

Enjoy the heat whilst you can, grapple fans. As it'll soon be Christmas you know what...

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) activity detail dog rose grass heatwave lawn leaf cutter bee plant practice golf ball https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/8/just-two-photos-of-garden-plants-from-today Thu, 02 Aug 2018 15:53:09 GMT
The many-eyed Icarus. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/the-many-eyed-icarus Today - and another lovely result of NOT mowing our lawn(s), presented itself to me.

Look... I generally don't tend to mow vast areas of both our large back and smaller front lawns but this year, I've not even needed to leave a lot of lawn uncut. With only a dozen or so millimetres of rain since mid May - the grass has stopped growing (I've not mowed anything at all since May) but then again so have the little flowers that dot our "lawns" in their hundreds - flowers like birds foot trefoil and white clover - both of which are KEY food plants for the larval stage of the butterfly that I noticed (again) in the garden today.

I'm rambling - but look at the photo below and see whether (or not) YOU can spot the superb visitor to our scorched garden this morning.

 

Let me help....

OK?

No?

A little closer then... (Not the best photo I know... but I wasn't carrying the right kit at the time!)

 

This is a 2nd generation, female, Common Blue butterfly, Polyommatus Icarus, coming into our scorched garden to lay her eggs in amongst the pretty burned (this year) trefoil and clover.

For the record, the literal meaning of this beautiful butterfly's scientific name is "adorned or furnished with many eyes" (Polyommatus), Icarus son of Daedalus of Greek myth (Icarus). The "many-eyed" part of the scientific name of this butterfly refers of course to the many marks or spots or eyes on the underside of the wings of many of the blue or Argus butterflies. Incidentally - the Argus (or Argos!) butterflies are similarly named after their many eyes - Argus was the "all-seeing, 100-eyed giant" in Greek mythology.

Many of our butterflies (and moths) as briefly described here, will be suffering because of this summer's dry, hot weather - and the Common Blue will be no different I fear. I watched this 2nd generation female flutter daintily through our scorched grass for a few minutes today, stopping on suitable burnt-up trefoil fronts to lay her eggs (see photo below of her ovipositing in our garden this morning).

If I couldn't see her egg-laying this morning, I could've told she was female as she had brown/blue wings with orange marks along the back edges. Males are far bluer and brighter.

I could also tell she was a Common Blue (rather than a similar brown argus for example),

by the fact that she exhibited the characteristic extra spot on the ventral side of her forewings. (See my photo above again below, with this extra spot (or "eye") pointed out) and a webpage photo demonstrating this too.

 

Anyway - it was a delight to see this Common Blue butterfly in our scorched garden again this morning. Common they are not any more - especially in gardens, which are invariably mown (and sometimes even rolled!) to within an inch of their lives in Britain.

Both our lawns are normally awash in June with yellow birds foot trefoil and white clover flowers - and I leave them quite deliberately  - for animals such as this to exploit.

A reminder to me too.... even if we do get a wet August (highly doubtful) and/or September (more likely) - to leave the "lawns" unmown - for there'll be hidden wee common blue caterpillars that I need to look after!

 

Finally - if you, like me, leave big patches of grass unmown -or mown like a sheep would graze (mow once or twice a season) - and you have meadow flowers like me, growing in your "lawn" - now's the time to look out for the 2nd generation Common Blues - especially if you live in the south of the UK (further north and there tends to only be one generation).

Invariably people will see a blue butterfly in their garden and immediately call it a Common Blue (as the name implies that butterfly is most-often seen) or a Small Blue (as ALL blue butterflies are small), but 90% of the time, the blue butterfly that they'll have seen is the VERY common HOLLY BLUE butterfly.

The Common blue is almost always FAR harder to spot in gardens (or anywhere!) than the holly blue - and dare I say it... is a far more superior butterfly all round!

Keep 'em peeled grapple fans.

Use your eyes!

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) butterfly common blue https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/the-many-eyed-icarus Tue, 31 Jul 2018 13:46:22 GMT
The wee bee detective. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/the-wee-bee-detective Our little garden detective today (below) found a tall climbing rose frond, COVERED in holey leaves.

Holes produced of course by our garden leaf cutter bees. (Photos below were taken a few weeks ago).

They've had a wonderful summer so far, but sensibly, took today off.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) leaf cutter bee https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/the-wee-bee-detective Sun, 29 Jul 2018 17:00:23 GMT
ES REGNET! ES REGNET! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/es-regnet-es-regnet I've almost certainly mentioned (on this website) before, the fact that I am bored rigid by bloggers giving us a daily account of what the weather was like yesterday. 

A heads-up for those bloggers - WE KNOW. We experienced it too! 

That said, today's weather IS notable here - because for the first time since May 18th (I think), it's RAINING. And I mean PROPERLY RAINING.

I mention this today as even on Friday evening and yesterday, when a great swathes of the country had rather a lot of rain in the form of thundery downpours - here we had nada. Nuffink. Zilch.

Yessss.… we all know we've been enjoying an extended heatwave in Blighty, for much of May, ALL of June and all but a day or two of July - the "best" (early) summer since 1976, without doubt.

I've loved it - I ADORE the heat - but we have had plenty of animalian losers over the past 10 weeks or so.

My wildlife pond, full of frogs, newts and all manner of insects has probably lost half or two-thirds of its volume over the past couple of months. Unlike some fellow "wildlife ponders", I NEVER top up my pond with tap water. EVER.  All the life in the pond has been under severe stress over the last four or so weeks - with less water, less oxygen and FAR more toxins in the water. I expect we've lost a fair bit of our "pond life" this summer.

Other animals which have suffered this summer will be butterflies and moths in particular (and anything that eats them, like bats for example). 

Many people might assume our lepidoptera woule "enjoy" dry, sunny weather - and to an extent, the adult moths and butterflies do - until the plants giving them nectar dry in the constant heat. But the real problem for our leps in extended dry weather is that the caterpillars struggle to eat. Their host plants dry out or die - and along with that, many millions of caterpillars will do too.

Ragwort is pretty-well drought resistant normally, but even our ragwort (we have lots in the garden) struggled this year and as a result, so did our cinnabar moth caterpillars.

Some experts believe that the summer of 1976 hit many of our lepidopteran species so hard, that they are STILL recovering. I'm afraid 2018 may be almost as bad - not quite as bad because of our wet spring this year (very unlike 1976), but almost as bad, nonetheless.

Three weeks ago we were promised thundery showers, which like yesterday and two days ago, all conspired to hit everyone around us, but not us.  Not knowing that of course, I constructed a temporary 70 foot aquaduct (of sorts -  see below)

to take any rainwater directly from our roof, straight into our pond, 70 foot up the garden. We do have water butts normally, but I am trying to save my back at present and not HAVE to lug bucket after bucket of rain water from the butts up the garden - I thought I'd try and get gravity to do that job for me this time.

Three weeks ago we were promised thundery downpours. My aquaduct remained dry.

Two weeks ago we were again promised thundery downpours. My aquaduct remained dry again.

On Friday gone and yesterday (Saturday), we were promised yet more thundery downpours. Again it all JUST missed us.

But this morning.

This morning....

We have ORGANISED heavy rain!

My aquaduct doth floweth -

and the frogth and newtth and inthecth in the pond doth rejoith.

I hear we're due a return to settled, sunny and even hot weather again by the end of the week.

Well... whatever will be will be.

But for now..

After a basically dry May (apart from a couple of days) and a virtually BONE DRY and HOT June and July  - we finally have a little rain. Actually - more than a little.

I'm off out now, to a rain dance around the pond! (Actually - as I type... I'm watching quite possibly DOZENS of frogs take this (wet) opportunity to hop out of the pond - to our borders - something they've been waiting to do for weeks - a wonderful sight - rather like the migration of wildebeest across the plains of Africa, only in reverse and in a much, MUCH smaller manner. And my frogs are hopping of course, not sweeping majestically across the garden on thundering hooves - but you get the picture!).

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) butterflies frogs heatwave moths rain weather https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/es-regnet-es-regnet Sun, 29 Jul 2018 06:57:09 GMT
The 147th Open at Carnoustie. MY highlight from round 1. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/the-147th-open-at-carnoustie-my-highlight-from-round-1 Regular readers of this wildlife blog may remember that I've been playing golf for nearly 35 years now.

I love it.

And this short video clip (below) shot by Sky Sports, of a brief moment in time during Rory McIlroy's 1st round at the sun-baked Carnoustie Championship golf course, reminded me (if I needed that?!) just why.

So.

Can YOU identify Rory's six-legged "friend" in the very short video clip below, shot at Carnoustie yesterday? 

Answer at the bottom of this blog post. (No cheating now!)

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nearly there....

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Six spot burnet moth. (And a BELTER too!)

 

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) golf not-so mystery insect https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/the-147th-open-at-carnoustie-my-highlight-from-round-1 Fri, 20 Jul 2018 09:30:27 GMT
A short-lived chance for YOU to see the "nascent west wind of the oaks". https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/a-short-lived-chance-for-you-to-see-the-nascent-west-wind-of-the-oaks A quick blog post today on a wee butterfly that RIGHT NOW is much more visible than it usually is. If you've not seen one before - THIS is your time.

 

I'm writing about the Purple Hairstreak butterfly - Neozephyrus quercus - a very small butterfly with grey/silver underwings and a dark copper top side to its wings - which spends almost all of its time, usually, dancing around the tops of oak canopies, feeding on honeydew.

I took the photo above last night, on a golf green. The Purple Hairstreak is (of course) on the right of the shot - and on the left is a flesh fly - this should demonstrate to you the small size of these wee butterflies - they are small!

This butterfly is named after the Greek God of the (gentle, fructifying) West wind (Zephyr), Zephyrus - and the oak tree (Quercus) where it spends pretty well all of its time. Neo (of course) means young, new or nascent.

Sure, if you look up to the tops of oaks on warm, sunny, summer evenings in July and August, you may see these very small butterflies engaged in their courtship dances around the tiny developing acorns - but you'll be seeing them from a (vertical) distance of course - and they ARE small!

Your best chance to get a really good look at these delightful wee things is to go to an oak woodland (or area of countryside with a lot of oaks) during a prolonged dry spell, like we are going through (at least in the SE of England) right now.

Then (and generally, ONLY then) these tiny butterflies are forced down to ground level, to any green patch of ground, in a desperate search for nectar or water.

Yesterday evening I played 9 holes of golf at a local golf course, (Billingbear Park, near Binfield in Berkshire) in a fair amount of heat still - and was surrounded by these butterflies on every green. I must have seen dozens and dozens.

Billingbear Park Golf Club is a little golf course parked right next to the M4 in East Berkshire, but has plenty of woodland (including oak woodland) around and on it. Right now, as in many golf courses, 2 months of pretty-well bone-dry, hot, sunny weather has turned the fairways and rough into parched, yellow areas of ground - but as the greens are watered (automatically with sprinklers) each night - the greens have remained … well.... green.

Your average Purple hairstreak butterfly then will come down from the oak canopies, desperately seeking moisture (in the form of water or nectar or similar) and be very attracted to these islands of green in a sea of dry yellow.

Yesterday evening (around 6pm) on each of the 9 greens I putted on, I was probably joined by half a dozen purple hairstreaks (and maybe the same number of flesh flies weirdly enough). 

I've seen a purple hairstreak before. Once. I was trimming our privet hedge in the sun once, a few years ago and as my hedge trimmers ran along the hedge, up jumped a purple hairstreak from a privet flower. But... I've never seen dozens before, like I did last night!

I would think that 2018 will go down as a good year for these sort of sightings of this butterfly - almost entirely due to the fact that we've basically had no appreciable rain since the first fortnight in May.

I would also assume that since 1975, there have only been five summers bringing about sights like I witnessed last night, in terms of sheer numbers of purple hairstreaks forced down from the oak canopies in July or August days - these being this year (2018), 2003, 1995, 1992 and 1976 (the most obvious "heatwavey" summers that I can certainly remember).

So, grapple fans.

This week (if you can) head to your nearest patch of oak trees (preferably with a body of water right by them) at around 6pm - and I'd put money on the fact that you'll see these wonderful small butterflies dance around your feet. Perhaps for the first... and perhaps for the last … time.

TBR.

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) flesh fly neozephyrus quercus purple hairstreak https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/a-short-lived-chance-for-you-to-see-the-nascent-west-wind-of-the-oaks Mon, 16 Jul 2018 07:56:38 GMT
Hot water https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/hot-water The early summer heat continues... with its scarcity of water.

We've barely had any rain at all since mid May (1.2mm I think) and our pond has never had less water in it.

I've taken to put out a low tray of water for the wildlife... which seems appreciated.

Below are four videos taken at night (with a trail camera) in the last 10 nights or so... showing a few of the nightly visitors to this little tray of water left out for the wildlife (you'll do well to spot the visitor in the last clip though....)

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fox froglet garden heatwave hedgehog tray water wildlife woodmouse https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/hot-water Sat, 14 Jul 2018 07:15:48 GMT
A heavenly start to summer. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/a-heavenly-start-to-summer Wowzer.

They (whoever "they" are) say "There's no such thing as good (or bad) weather. Just the wrong type of clothes".

They'd be wrong then. 

(Photo below is of part of our back garden this afternoon).

This current weather is GREAT weather. For me at least.

I am in my element in this sort of stuff  - the heat seems to breathe life into me.

That said, I have the fortune of NOT having to commute into or around a big city such as London to work. I did that for about a year, about a decade ago now - and have only just recovered!

Yep.

For me... I simply can't get enough of the heat, the sun and the dust underfoot. The big, lazy, tropical-looking dragonflies and stag beetles that seem to love the south east of England. The shimmering lowland heaths, the nightjars and huge, noisy bush crickets. And of course the flocks of swifts, both non-breeders and newly-fledged, hoovering up as much insect life from the air as they can, before their depressing (for me) journey back to the Congo until next May.

Today was a perfect example of heaven for me.

I thought I'd not swim at the indoor pool (the big building in the background of this shot - but LOOK at the state of the field in the athletics track!) in my lunch hour (I often do) but had worked out the route of the RAF 100 flypast after the Mall at around 1pm - and so I thought I'd head up to Maidenhead golf club (a 15 minute drive from us) to intercept the planes and maybe take a photo. (I do love my planes, me!).

It was slightly weird having to work the flypast route out though. I thought that would have been published, but all any website said was that some of the planes (not the WWII planes unfortunately) would be flying over Windsor Castle and then Maidenhead.  I knew that their final landing spot would be at RAF Benson, so took to drawing lines all over Google maps to work out (as best I could) where would be the best spot nearby (to our house) to go and try and see the planes.

 

The best spot seemed to be Maidenhead Golf Club, very near the car park. And that ALSO gave me the excuse to go and see the course (which my father played at for a while, decades ago) and see if it would be worth me playing a round on, as I hear it's being turned into a housing estate before too long.

So... up to Maidenhead I drove, and apart from the unfortunate fact that I know Maidenhead Golf Club is a snooty old mens' club, I was in heaven at lunch time today.

Blazing hot sun.

A burned golf course (it looked absolutely LOVELY!)

Emperor dragonflies lazily flying about the tinder dry rough.

Roe deer suckling their young in the shade of the trees.

(In the shot below there is a roe deer AND an emperor dragonfly... spot them if you can!)

And WONDERFUL fighter planes to gawp at overhead.

(The photos below, in order are of Lightnings (F35s), Tornadoes, Hawks and finally, Typhoons (spelling out '100' for 100 years of the RAF, but by the time all those Typhoons came over in formation, I was too excited to look through a viewfinder to see my planes - so I put the camera down - hence why I got no good photo of the '100' formation!)).

We were lucky to (STILL... after 6 weeks or so!) have blue skies over Berkshire, for the fly by - as I gather it was quite cloudy in London, for the bigger fly-by up the Mall.

Anyway... yes I ADORE days like this.

Poddling about in the great outdoors, under never-ending blue skies and hot dust beneath my feet. Watching dragonflies and planes.

People do seem to be comparing the summer of 2018 to our old favourite, 1976.

Well... we're a little premature with that comparison of course, but I certainly think this is the "BEST" late spring (May and June) and early summer (last week of June and first two of July) that I can remember since, well... since 1992 I'd say. (My graduation year).

I've even had to provide water for our garden hog, something I rarely do.

Unfortunately, this water has attracted another visitor... this time unwanted though. (I'm afraid I don't share the British wildlife "lover" fondness for foxes (and nor would you if you kept poultry or had foxes dig up your stag beetle colonies!))

 

I do hear that this long, seemingly-never-ending heatwave may end (temporarily at least) next week. If that is true, well, so be it. What a wonderful few weeks we've had eh... and let's hope the kids (and teachers!) get a half decent summer holiday too, with a return to the weather we've had over the last six weeks or so.

Right.

A few photos to end this post - of bits of our garden(s).

We had little rain in May.

Only 1.2mm in June (and all in two days, in the first two weeks).

And NONE since!

I haven't even mown the grass in a month - the grass is just being burned away!

Three weeks ago (EXACTLY) our front "lawn" (of cat's ears) looked like this...

Now it looks like this.

And here are a few more photos of our gardens today taken with my phone. The first photo shows our pond area - the only "lush" part of our gardens at present - but truth be told - I've never seen the water level lower in the pond. The developing froglets and newts (and all other pond life) DESPERATELY needs some rain soon...

 

Not just me that loves this weather then, eh? The leaf cutter bees are working hard whilst they can in this dry, sunny early summer.

I just hope you too get to make hay whilst the sun still shines.

Catch you soon.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) emperor dragonfly heatwave raf fly-past roe deer summer https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/a-heavenly-start-to-summer Tue, 10 Jul 2018 16:22:26 GMT
Spinning class. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/spinning-class You may have noticed that I found a Puss moth caterpillar in the garden this afternoon - and it was clearly looking for somewhere suitable to form its cocoon.

I've had a little experience in raising moths from larvae (and cocoons) over the years, some recent examples being a couple of elephant hawk moths, a poplar hawk moth and a sallow kitten (see my photos below taken 8 years ago now, at our old house, the first "Swift Half").

 

Different moth larvae need different conditions and substrates on (in) which they spin their cocoons but I do know (from raising my sallow kitten above) that puss moths need a nice bit of wood and bark to spin their cocoon on (or in). Puss moths are quite like large sallow kittens, in that they form very hard  (rock hard!) cocoons on wood, in which they overwinter - in all conditions.

Anyway - I gave this afternoon's puss moth caterpillar a nice bit of 'barky' wood and wondered if it would start spinning.

It did.

Within a couple of minutes.

I shot the first video on my phone below at around 16:30 and the seventh at around 18:30.  Each clip is about 15 seconds long.

 

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OK... all those clips were taken over a period of about 2 hours this afternoon/evening ... I'll not take any more now... but I will edit this post tomorrow morning (or tomorrow sometime anyway) to pop up a photo here of the finished and hardened cocoon.

 

PHOTOS of finished cocoon (taken at 08:00 the following morning)

The plan is to let the cocoon harden over the weekend and then nail the bit of wood (on which the caterpillar has formed its cocoon) under the shelter of our chicken run tomorrow (out of the worst of the winter weather and the summer sun).

I know. I know. I'm good to our moths aren't I?
Truth be told... I'm still a big kid at heart and find all this metamorphosis stuff absolutely fascinating!

Plus it also gives me a great excuse to actually SHOW our boy the process which he first read about as a toddler, in "The Very Hungry caterpillar".

As soon as he came home from school yesterday, I asked him "What do caterpillars do before they become butterflies?"

He immediately said: "Eat loads, form a cocoon then turn into a beeeeauuuutiful butterfly!" (A succinct distillation of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar").

I said: "Yep. That's right. Now... do you want to SEE a caterpillar forming a cocoon right now - in our shed?!"

He got very excited and said: "YEEEEEAAAAAAH".

So I showed him (had to lift him up to see... as the caterpillar was on a shelf in the shed) and he actually FARTED with excitement!

I'll leave you with that mental picture, I think!

TBR.

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) cocoon puss moth https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/spinning-class Thu, 05 Jul 2018 18:30:38 GMT
Another superb caterpillar. 'The horned wine'. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/another-superb-caterpillar-the-horned-wine  

Last August, I blogged about our longest UK caterpillar, which Anna and I found on one of our favourite walks.

Roll on 11 months and I've only gone and found another ipsolute byoody. But this time in our garden.

This is the final instar larval stage of the Puss moth (Cerura vinula), so distinctive because of its:

1 - Size.

2 - Saddle mark on its back.

3 - Wine (or rather... port or porter!) colour.

Regarding point number 3 - this colour in fact gives the Puss moth its specific scientific name of vinula. (i.e. from the vine, black grape). Incidentally, while we're on the subject of the Puss moth's scientific name, its generic name of Cerura, means "horned". Look at its elongated anal claspers (in the video above, shot by me with one hand this afternoon - excuse the quality!) and you'll see why "horned" is an apt name indeed.

The Puss moth is so-called because it's... well... furry.

Some say the adult moth looks like a cat - but those people are clearly talking nonsense. 

Cats are furry. This adult moth is furry. So we'll call it a cat (or puss) moth. That's the entirety of the logic there. Not this moth looks like a cat. We'll call it a puss moth then.

Could've called it a fortnight-old-dog-turd moth, to be honest. Looks more like a furry dog turd than it does a cat. At least to me.

 

Aaannnnnyyyywwwaaaaaaay...

 

As I've shown today - this is about the right time of year (and weather) for these big, fleshy, wine-coloured (vinula, remember) larvae to start dropping off poplar and willow trees and start to weave their incredibly strong cocoon  on a piece of wood, bark or post - in which they'll stay for the next 9 months or so -  before emerging as an adult furry dog turd puss moth next spring.

We have a large number of (quite large) poplars in our back garden, so I hope to see more of these lovely caterpillars over the next few days, if I'm lucky.

And again, this afternoon, I think I've realised I am very lucky!

Make the most of this amazing weather eh, grapple fans.

And keep using your eyes!

TBR.

 

Footnote.

I'm quite used to raising caterpillars into moths. Been doing so for a few years now.

I also know what the larval puss moth needs, in order to begin spinning its cocoon. Bark (or wood basically).

So this afternoon I provided it what it needed.

And within minutes... the caterpillar began spinning.

(I've literally just recorded the video below).

More soon.

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) caterpillar Cerura vinula puss moth UK https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/another-superb-caterpillar-the-horned-wine Thu, 05 Jul 2018 15:32:38 GMT
Crab spiders? PAH! Crap spiders, more like! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/crab-spiders-pah-crap-spiders-more-like Crab spiders.

You know 'em, right?

Those wee spiders which have the ability to change colour to match the (generally) yellow, white or green flowers and buds they lurk on.

You know. Those little, bald, pale, cream, yellow or white spiders, sitting their on the end of pale flowers, with their front legs outstretched, ready to quickly embrace any insect that fails to spot their camouflage.

Camouflage honed over millions of years of evolution, that is.

Well.

Our crab spiders are crap at all that.

Yep.

Crap spiders, here.

See?

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) crab spider https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/crab-spiders-pah-crap-spiders-more-like Thu, 05 Jul 2018 13:48:25 GMT
Rather like... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/rather-like … this jackdaw (they're always present like the kites), flying over our garden a few minutes ago...

I'm a bit of a sun seeker too.

What wonderful weather eh?

Sun seekerSun seekerA Jackdaw. In case you're interested?

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) clouds jackdaw sky sun https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/7/rather-like Sun, 01 Jul 2018 15:25:47 GMT
Speaking words of wisdom... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/6/speaking-words-of-wisdom  

...Little bee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(I'm here all week. Try the fish).

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bee leaf-cutter bee https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/6/speaking-words-of-wisdom Sat, 30 Jun 2018 07:33:12 GMT
Pontiac... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/6/pontiac One of six of our omnipresent red kites - and the sun.

Pontiac (Firebird) 2.Pontiac (Firebird) 2.

Taken from the back garden about 30 minutes ago.

Pontiac (Firebird).Pontiac (Firebird).

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) firebird red kite sky sun https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/6/pontiac Sun, 24 Jun 2018 12:04:52 GMT
This IS the shortest blog post I've ever written - a record that I'll not beat. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/6/this-is-the-shortest-blog-post-ive-ever-written---a-record-that-i-ll-not-beat  

 

 

 

BULL.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) attack bullshit clapham england fox london https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/6/this-is-the-shortest-blog-post-ive-ever-written---a-record-that-i-ll-not-beat Fri, 22 Jun 2018 16:24:22 GMT
Two recent bits of gorilla news. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/6/two-recent-bits-of-gorilla-news Which may (should) interest you...

1  - I was confused like this once (but in the opposite way) at a notorious bar on Boat Quay, Singapore, once.

2  - Koko was my age - but to be honest, far more intelligent.  And better-looking. Sleep well, old chap.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) gorilla news https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/6/two-recent-bits-of-gorilla-news Fri, 22 Jun 2018 16:19:36 GMT
The first "Swift awareness week" in the UK. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/6/the-first-swift-awaress-week-in-the-uk Most people that know me, know all-too-well that I am besotted by swifts.

This is (now) the shortest blog post I've ever made.

But please, in this, the first "UK Swift awareness week",

Read THIS.

And then THIS.

Then THIS.

Then click on THIS.

You know it makes sense.

TBR.

SwiftSwift

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 2018 apus apus swift swift awareness week swifts https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/6/the-first-swift-awaress-week-in-the-uk Tue, 19 Jun 2018 17:21:14 GMT
Two days before summer officially starts.... I give you our front "lawn"... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/6/two-days-before-summer-officially-starts-i-give-you-our-front-lawn This is very likely to be my shortest blog post ever.

Two days before summer officially starts (I'm talking astronomical, i.e. ACTUAL summer, not meteorological, i.e. the met office's idea of summer - which started 19 days ago) - I give you  a quick snap shot of our front "lawn".

Thick with bees and other insects.

And I'm not going to mow it for a few weeks yet....

Have a lovely summer, grapple fans.

Catch you soon.

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) flowers front lawn lawn summer https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/6/two-days-before-summer-officially-starts-i-give-you-our-front-lawn Tue, 19 Jun 2018 09:30:13 GMT
Finally? The NEW Swift Half! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/6/the-new-swift-half-finally I'm going to try and keep this brief, because if I start spewing up my excitement too much right now on this blog post, it'll quickly become a never-ending sickly mess.

So.

In short.

My wife and I bought and moved to this particular house from our old, rented house in Reading, in the summer (late summer) of 2011.

I left behind a pre-war house in which I'd been filming swifts breed for a couple of years. I named that house "Swift Half".

SwiftSwift

If I'd have had the money and the opportunity, I'd have bought  "Swift Half", (that old tumbledown house in Reading), if only because I'd completely fallen in love with "my" swifts by the time we left Reading.

I KNEW I'd be moving to a post war (just) town, with no real prospects of swifts nesting in our house - or even entertaining the potential to nest in our house.

But.

I also knew what I had to do to get the BEST birds of all back with us again.

Over the last six and three quarter years, I've been spending a lot of time and money and energy trying to get swifts back with us.

I've given them a variety of spaces to land and nest - in the attic, in the eaves and with external swift boxes of various designs - and I've played them a whole variety of "Mating calls" via a variety of media (tape, CD, SD card, hard drive) to tempt them down from the skies.

And in that time, fo-sho, we've had plenty of interested swifts spend a lot of time near our house, screaming at it and occasionally landing on the walls - but nothing else really - nothing concrete to show for all my "swift attracting efforts".

UNTIL YESTERDAY that is.

Yesterday brought a real breakthrough I think - and it's continued today.

For yesterday - we had real parties of "screamers" and "bangers" (google "screaming" and/or "banging swifts" if you don't know what I mean) LANDING in the entrance to my main internal swift nesting space (which I've created in the attic and drilled through the attic wall to give the birds an entrance/exit).

Today - and THEY'RE ONLY GOING IN TO THE ATTIC ENTRANCE!!!!

Look... these will be young swifts (perhaps yearlings) not ready to breed this year - (they're too late anyway to breed this year) - but they're CERTAINLY prospecting HARD here now - for the first time here EVER.

I REALLY think we've turned the corner here now. "Experts" (there's no such thing as a "swift expert" as so little is known about these magnificent birds, still) suggested I might have to put 5 years of "work" in before I got swifts nesting in a town they never had nested in before.

Well... we're almost seven years in now - and we still haven't got nesters.

But after the activity of the last 6 years - and in particular... the last two days.... I really think we're nearly there now.  Maybe next year will be the year.

And if I'm right -  well... you won't be able to wipe the smile off me gob for about a decade.

Wonderful stuff here today.

And I hope it's the same (for whatever reason!) with you.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) swift swift half swifts https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/6/the-new-swift-half-finally Fri, 08 Jun 2018 12:19:16 GMT
Kids stuff. Good kids stuff. But kids stuff nonetheless. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/6/kids-stuff-good-kids-stuff-but-kids-stuff-nonetheless I'm sure I upset some people when I mention (in conversation or in text on, for example, this blog) that I regard the Spring/Autumn/Winter Watch programs to be for kids. Not that that's a bad thing at all. They're SUPERB programmes for kids, in the same way as Harry Potter books, I'm sure, are WONDERFUL reading. For kids that is. (But kids alone, mind).

I don't tend to watch the Springwatch (or Autumn or Winter... is there a Summerwatch?) programmes primarily... well... because I am an adult, but I do occasionally watch a few minutes of the live cameras - and admittedly do occasionally see something interesting or fascinating or beautiful or fantastic - but prefer it almost always to be unaccompanied by Chris Packham's sickly or Michaela Strachan's anthropomorphic musings.

But yes. I do appreciate that A LOT of adults watch Springwatch, in the same way as a lot of adults will read Harry Potter books - and these adults will quite often strongly argue that Springwatch is (really!) for adults as much as it is for kids and defend it vigorously (becoming quite upset with me if I continue to maintain that its target audience is demonstrably children).

 

Last night, I again tuned in again (as I do once or twice every few years) for a couple of minutes.

And this is what I saw -  (click HERE).

Screenshots from the above video hyperlink can be seen below.

 

You know what?

No further questions your honour.

I rest my case.

 

 

 

 

Footnote.

For those that (really??!!!) continue to be upset with me regarding my views on this matter - again, I tell you  - I think the Springwatch (etc) programmes are WONDERFUL for kids. I can't wait until my boy starts to watch them with real interest (he's a little too young at present - he's in bed when they come on air*) so it's not that I think they're "bad" programmes as such - not at all - they're excellent - but  (come onnnn now) really meant only for kids.

* Also - see asterisk above - I think quite a lot of their target audience (kids) should perhaps be in bed by 8 or CERTAINLY 9pm - so I also think they're televised a little later than ideal (that is to say for the target audience).

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) springwatch https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/6/kids-stuff-good-kids-stuff-but-kids-stuff-nonetheless Tue, 05 Jun 2018 13:25:46 GMT
I CAN'T feel it co-ming in the air to-night. Oh Lor-ord. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/5/i-cant-feel-it-co-ming-in-the-air-to-night-oh-lor-ord I was texted by my Chicago-living sister a couple of days ago.

She asked me (or should I used the modern parlance and say "arksed me"?) "Where were the swifts [this year]?"

I replied back and said... "They're here". (As they are - and have been for a fortnight or so now).

I'm guessing (but with history on my side) that she had seen various news reports from British TV (she still watches British TV in the States) and on the web that our British avian Spring migrants were missing in action this year.

And to be fair to my sister, there are quite a few reports of this, worrying phenomenon (or ,I suppose, lack of a phenomenon) over the last week or so here.

I rarely watch Spring/Autumn/Winterwatch these days, as rather like the Harry Potter books,  I regard Springwatch to be an absolutely wonderful thing for kids, but not (at all) for adults - but I did catch a few minutes of the first (I think) Springwatch TV program this year (a couple of days ago) and saw Chris Packham suggest that "our swifts had a couple of DAYS to get here now or they'll be too late to breed".

Then on BBC Breakfast this morning I was informed by the newsreaders (the almost unwatchable Charlie Staid Stayt and Naga Nunchaku Munchetty) that (and I quote) "There has been a DRASTIC fall in the numbers of swifts arriving here this year, from Sub Saharan Africa".

Luckily BBC Breakfast then cut to a live report from a garden in Bristol, where someone like me, Mark Glanville, had transformed his house into a swift colony and told the reporter that all of his swifts had returned and he even had a new swift turn up. He then did suggest that "this was bucking the national trend this year" though admittedly.

A sensible chap from the BTO then fleshed out the rather sensationalist headline from the BBC though with a few very scientific thoughts - "swifts are in decline generally, they're difficult to survey, they may just be late" etc.

 

Regular readers of this marvellous *cough* blog, will (of course) know that I am besotted by swifts and look out for them after St.George's Day each year, having desperately missed them for the previous nine months or so.

And yes.... "our" swifts were later than usual here and fewer in number. But nothing that I thought that was particularly notable. They were perhaps a week later than I'd have bet on  -  and maybe down by 25% in predicted numbers (but then again, I'm attracting them to a part of the country they are CERTAINLY not used to returning to at present (a post war town) so numbers and return dates so vary considerably here).

I also should say that for the WHOLE of April (well... for 4 Sunday mornings in the month), I (and twice my 5 year old son with me) walked down a country lane that I know well as a hot spot for swallows... to welcome in the first swallows of the year. The long and short of that was we didn't actually see a swallow in April. (It took them until May to return - and that certainly is a fortnight or so late for them).

 

That all said, I thought I'd look at the quite excellent BTO Bird Track website, to see just how our avian Spring migrants were faring this year - and was it just swifts that were reported to be arriving a fortnight late or as the BBC shouted at me this morning, basically NOT AT ALL.

I reproduce a few sightings graphs from the excellent BTO Birdtrack website below; a few being 16 or 17 of some of the more common of our Spring migrants that I could think of, off the top of my head.

You'll see the historic data (red lines) and this year's data (blue).

Please do note though, that these graphs don't actually represent the EXACT numbers of birds returning to our shores, but as a proportion of how many times they've been seen, recorded and most importantly of all, then REPORTED as a (specific!) species on a list of all species by pretty-determined (on the whole) birdwatchers, or as they call themselves these days, "birders" (cringe).

I have HUGE misgivings (generally) about "phenology" and "citizen science" - it is open to massive abuse and huge error (in short, it really isn't at all scientific) but I put my large misgivings aside for something like BTO bird-track (which does appear very rigorous and robust) rather than something like "the Great British garden birdwatch" which again, is superb for kids (to get them into appreciating garden birds) but that really is all.

Anyway.

I digest digress.

Have a peer at the graphs below - and you'll see a pretty stark pattern emerge.

I'll give you my two-bobs worth after you've had a peer.

I apologise for uploading a set of graphs that you may have to enlarge to read properly (if you don't know how to... hold down CTRL on your keyboard and spin the wheel on your mouse forwards (to return to normal, hold down CTRL again and pull your mouse wheel back)).

OK.

For what it's worth.

A rundown of the above.

  • Swifts - two weeks "late" and perhaps (but not conclusive yet) fewer numbers returning. 
  • House martins - fewer numbers (it seems right now).
  • Wheater, whinchat, sand martin, nightingale and cuckoo - not late as such, but fewer numbers, it seems right now.
  • Turtle doves - FAR fewer numbers. Will ANY return next year?
  • Garden warbler and common tern. Not really much to talk about here. About normal really. Perhaps a little fewer than normal.
  • Spotted flycatcher - see swifts. At least two weeks late and perhaps FAR fewer numbers than "historically-recorded".
  • Swallow and redstart. A little late and a little down on numbers.
  • Finally - nightjar and reed warbler - on time (or even early) and normal (or more!) numbers returning.

 

 

The overwhelming pattern from the above is everything (almost everything) is two or so weeks late and returning in fewer numbers - the obvious anomalies to me at least being nightjar and, I suppose, reed warbler.

I should at least point out again here that this data represents percentage of birdwatchers' reported tick lists that contain these species above on any week - rather than ACTUAL numbers of birds  - and as such you could easily explain  the nightjar anomaly quite easily.

Nightjars are wonderful, mysterious birds of mainly lowland heath. They arrive in May (often) and on warm, still(ish) nights in May they can be heard "churring" on these lowland heaths at dusk.

Until the last few days, the UK has experienced quite superb weather throughout May - I'm typing this with a healthy tan and we're not even into June yet. We've had many days of well above average temperatures here since mid April (we've hit 30C twice in the last few weeks).

This will have been a) heaven sent as far as nightjars are concerned and also b) heaven sent as far as birdwatchers walking lowland heaths at dusk to HEAR nightjars are concerned. It really is no surprise at all (to me) that the nocturnal, heat-loving nightjar is the exception to the rule as far as the pattern above is concerned.

 

But what OF the pattern demonstrated so starkly, above?


Why are (pretty-well) all our Spring migrants late?

I haven't much idea to be honest, but you'll hear many lazy journalists point to the "Beast(s) from the East" in March as a reason.

That's nonsense though, to be frank.

Whilst meteorologists insist we all call the start of Spring as being March 1st - in reality, Spring doesn't really 'start' (as such) until the vernal equinox three weeks into March and our Spring migrants don't really start errr.... migrating to us..... until then. At the earliest really.

No animal (bird or otherwise) can, (despite our hysterical tendency to vomit up old country myths/sayings and wallow in much anthropomorphism,)  PREDICT weather and take proactive action to avoid "beasts from east" etc.
And anyway, the "beast(s) from the east" as far as astronomical (day length) Spring is concerned were in Winter!

No... the weather over the UK in Spring proper (from late March onwards) was pretty good. VERY good in fact you might say. 30C in April?!

If there are reasons that perhaps millions of birds didn't make it over to our shores in their historically-recorded average window, those reasons would have FAR more to do with environmental conditions on the continent or in Africa than weather conditions here.

Perhaps the good (food-rich) weather conditions in these birds' wintering grounds was extended. Perhaps their journey across Africa was interrupted by 'bad' weather. Or perhaps their journey across Europe was similarly disrupted.

We all know about the dangers ALL these birds face from the guns lined up all long the Mediterranean - and this will continue to affect all these birds - particularly birds which are critically endangered and fly during the day - like (see above) the Turtle dove.

 

That's all I have to go on really.

It IS true (or at least seems to be) that the vast majority of our avian Spring migrants are about (on average) two weeks late due to weather elsewhere. And often have arrived (and will do) in fewer numbers than historically-recorded. These weather events (not historically normal) might be more and more prevalent in years to come - and that may well be because of "anthropogenically-accelerated global warming" (otherwise now known simply as "climate change").


Right.

That shallot for now.

I hear at least two swifts outside screaming at the house - so I'm off out to gawp at them.

Have a lovely evening....

TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/5/i-cant-feel-it-co-ming-in-the-air-to-night-oh-lor-ord Wed, 30 May 2018 18:57:10 GMT
Wonderful, weird things in the sky https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/5/wonderful-weird-things-in-the-sky I'm not going to spend any time blogging purely about the weather today (as everyone is doing that - and I'm sure like me, it bores you rigid) - but I will take a few minutes to at least give a metaphorical nod to the weather in this post.

I adore this time of year.

Wildlife is at its peak - or seems to be.

Everything is rampantly breeding or feeding or growing - and my favourite birds of all (swifts of course) are slicing up the big skies with their scimitar wings and screams.

We've had a pretty warm six weeks or so now and at present we're undergoing very humid, thundery weather - which is so exciting at night.

Both the (admittedly poor) photos were taken by me last night. The second photo shows a plane seemingly head into the heart of a flashing cloud, a thunderhead. Both the photos were taken around 10pm (so in the dark).

Yes.... last night was one of those weird nights that I love so much here.

The completely still (weird enough here at "Swift Half") evening sky firstly was filled with our screaming swifts buzzing the house, long after all their other avian cousins had called it a night, then lit up by a 97% moon (it becomes full tomorrow), then filled with our helicoptering thunder beetles - then our (two pipistrelle) bats (which only seem to hunt in our garden - nowhere else on the road - and finally thunder and lightning!

I'm sure the lowland heath down the road was reverberating to the sound of calling nightjars too.

I don't think evenings get better than this around here.

Humid, still, steamy evening skies filled with... well... weird stuff.

Wonderful!

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bat bats berkshire exciting full moon humid lightning night nightjar stag beetle stag beetles still swift swifts thunder weather https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/5/wonderful-weird-things-in-the-sky Mon, 28 May 2018 08:14:57 GMT
A bit of a sad tale. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/4/a-bit-of-a-sad-tale I love this time of year – for many reasons – not least, the bees all start getting buzzy – and I do love my bees!

I’ve been spending a few minutes/hours (who’s counting?!) watching the red mason bees

Mating red mason beesMating red mason bees

 

...emerge from my bee hotels and the tawny (and other) mining bees dig their nests into our fast-drying soil and collect pollen and nectar from the spring flowers in the garden.

I’ve also stumbled across a queen tree bumblebee – who had clearly been interested in starting her nest in our kitchen wall. She probably already had started to be honest, before I spied her crawling into a hole in the outside wall where a water pipe emerges from the kitchen, to take water to our washing machine (in an out-building) off our back side passage.

 

And this is the sad tale I suppose.

She could have started her nest ANYWHERE else as far as I’m concerned (we’ve had tree bumblebee nests at the house for most of the 7 years that we’ve been here – and almost always in the roof.

But to start a nest in the walls of our back side passage (and kitchen), right beside our back door and where we walk every day, many times – well – I can’t really have that I’m afraid.

You see I’ve watched a good dozen or so tree bumblebee nests over the last decade or so and all are really quite obvious -much more so than “normal” bumblebee nests, to “normal people” (without my particular awareness).

Firstly, tree bumblebees, as opposed to normal bumblebees will nest above the ground (in a roof space, in a bird box, in… errr… a tree!).

Secondly there will be a visible, constant stream of bees in and out of the nest entrance (which is often visible as a hole in a wall, or nest box or tree etc).

Lastly (but not, urm… leastly), there are very often what appear to be sentry bees hovering around the entrance of the nest. Hornet nests have this sort of system too, but that’s well documented – I suspect the tree bumblebee nest sentries aren’t really sentries at all to be fair, but normal worker bees about to go into the nest (and stacked up in the skies like a busy day above Heathrow).

As many readers of this blog that know me might appreciate – I’m hardly one to get hysterical about this sort of thing – I warned some colleagues at work just the other day about their nascent and unnecessary hysteria with regards to the TERRIBLE THREAT (*sigh*) of Asian hornets and our house walls here are covered in the EEEEVIL Segestria florentina funnel web spiders and DEADDDDLYYYYY False widows.

I’m also keen to get the boy onside pronto too – I would rather not have any of my offspring grow up in the traditional (and dare I say… pathetic?) way of being pretty-well petrified of anything that moves.

He’s lucky in that respect I think (our son). He has a “head of biology” for a mother and a father with a pretty superb knowledge of British wildlife and the eyes and ears to notice the wildlife too (I am not surprised for a second that I spotted the tree bumblebee yesterday entering her nest via a hole in my back, sorry side passage – and I wouldn’t be surprised if no-one else WOULD notice that sort of thing).

Anyyyywaaaaay…

I texted my wife (well… I “whatsapped” her to be exact) and explained that I had considered this pretty carefully and decided that in order to avoid a back side-passage full of tree bumblebees this summer (potentially defending their nest against our cats and our constantly-passing-shins), I’d have to wait until the queen came back OUT of her hole – and then block the entrance to the nest with a paper towel.

Neither my wife nor I were particularly happy with this (the queen tree bumblebee may have already started her nest in earnest (“her nest in earnest” – nice choice of words there -ED) inside the walls – but it was act now or regret it later.

So, block it I did, when she emerged, yesterday

And the poor queen has been trying to get back in a number of times – I wonder if she’s already laid eggs in the wall cavity?

 

Anyway…

The deed is done now. And this sad tale is almost over.

I just hope she finds the energy, eggs and time to find another nest site in or around our house

If she’s reading this, might I suggest our old great tit box, which although acting as a winter shelter for a male great tit this year, seems destined to NOT act as a great tit nest site this spring.

Or failing that… ‘owz about the roof again? Served you little bees OK last year?

Wherever you want, Queen bee.

Just NOT in my back side passage!

TBR.

 

 

NB.

Again, all photos on this blog post were (of course?!) taken by me. 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bee bees entrance hole house nest nests queen tree bumblebee tree bumblebee queen wall https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/4/a-bit-of-a-sad-tale Thu, 26 Apr 2018 15:37:42 GMT
Don't all bi(r)d at once... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/4/dont-all-bi-r-d-at-once Never seen this before.

Someone on ebay trying to sell an old nest.

We live near Wokingham in Berkshire – and it does seem to be a bit of a strange place – a lot of money there and not a little attitude to be honest.

But maybe this is how the good people of Wokingham make their money? By flogging loose bundles of twigs covered in bird sh1t, and parasites.

Oh loooook, I understand that the ‘odd’ local school might appreciate having a dirty old magpie’s nest to pour over in a biology lesson (I regularly donate owl pellets to my wife’s biology classes (she’s head of science at a local secondary school) for example) but to try and SELL it in an auction – even for a starting price of 99p?!

I was too busy doing other things (anything else to be honest) than to enquire - but if I had, I might have INSISTED that they post it to me, as I couldn't collect, just to see what the seller would say.

 

I have no idea whether it sold or not - and whether the nest's rightful owners (Mr. and Mrs. magpie) were rightly-compensated.

 

Actually - I have rather a good idea of whether it sold.... or... ahem... not.

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) ebay magpie nest https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/4/dont-all-bi-r-d-at-once Tue, 17 Apr 2018 12:45:32 GMT
The DSLR. 1985-2018. RIP. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/3/the-dslr-1985-2018-rip A year or so ago, I blogged about my 'return' to "FULL FRAME photography" with my purchase of a second hand Canon 6D but people that have known me and been brave enough to have listened to any of my opinions on the future of cameras per se, will know that I've been of the firm opinion for at least five years that the day of the DSLR was almost over. (The DSLR being the type of camera with a mirror in front of a sensor and an optical (rather than electronic viewfinder), which flips up to expose the camera's sensor when the shutter is opened, rather than a mirrorless camera).

Well.

I think we're pretty well there now.

I think the (mirrored) DSLR will die this year. (2018)

Perhaps completely.

Perhaps forever.

 

Since getting 'back' into photography about 10 years ago, I've always said that Canon and Nikon are primarily GLASS manufacturers (or were I suppose) and the real BIG boys on the camera bodies and electronic fronts would be firms like Panasonic, Samsung, Sony etc. That's primarily why I chose a Panasonic bridge camera to start my journey back into photography with - an electronics firm making my camera body but partnering with Leica, one of the top lens manufacturers, for the glass on the body.

I, as you may know, then bought into the Canon ecosystem (with an APS-C 40D and now a full frame 6D mk I) but I was always very aware of the rise of Sony in particular - with their alpha cameras.

This year, Sony, with the recent release of the Sony A7iii (which comes on the back of the Sony A9 and Sony A7riii - and just before the Sony A7siii) have effectively killed off any hope of reviving the big DSLRs from any camera manufacturer I think - including of course, Canon and Nikon.

The Full frame Sony A7iii is billed (almost tongue-in-cheek?) by Sony as a "entry level camera" but this entry-level camera blows top of the range full-frame cameras from the big two (Nikon and Canon) out of the water I think - plus its a few thousand quid cheaper than them!

It's pretty simple for me.

If I had £5000 to blow on a camera, I'd blow it on the performance Sony (the A9). 

If I can somehow gather up and blow £2000 on a camera, I'd (IN A HEARTBEAT) buy a Sony A7iii NOW. I may find a way to do so even now!

It's full frame.

It's light and small.

It doesn't overheat (old bugbear with mirrorless cameras).

It has an excellent battery life (another old bugbear for mirrorless cameras).

It has focus points covering something like 93% of the frame (rather than the 5% at the centre like most DSLRs).

It has almost uncanny autofocus (AT LEAST as good as much more expensive DSLRs, if not MUCH better).

It has a backlit sensor and is the new king of low light (high ISO) photography.

It can be silent (WONDERFUL for wildlife photography or weddings etc - unlike the tommy gun DSLRs).

It even takes 4K video including slow motion footage.

Finally - with a Sigma MC-11 adapter, it can even work with Canon lenses (but not Nikon though - I won't bore you with the reasons why not).

It's EVERYTHING I've ever needed or wanted in any camera. And its only 2x the price of my (now) dinosaur, the Canon 6D.

 

I cannot now think of a single reason why Canon owners in particular would want to remain using a Canon DSLR  body with their Canon lenses.

Nor can I think of a single reason why Nikon owners would want to remain with Nikon at all any more.


Well.

OK.

There may be one reason.

Both Canon and Nikon will this year HAVE TO release their own full frame mirrorless cameras. 

If they don't.... they will die - at least as far as camera body manufacturers are concerned.

And even if they do release their first proper full frame mirrorless cameras - AND those models are a success - this will STILL mean the end of the big, stone-age, noisy, heavy, slow, expensive DLSRs.


Oh alright then.

The other reason might be that Sony, with the release of their A7iii, have effectively halved (or worse) the value of my and everyone else's currently-owned Canon/Nikon DSLRs  - we won't be able to sell them to upgrade to Sony!

 

There you have it then.

The first proper DSLR was the Minolta Dynax Maxxum 7000 in 1985.

We had 21 odd years of DSLRs before Sony bought (Konica) Minolta in 2006 I think.

And 12 years after that, now... in 2018... laydeez and gennelmen, Sony (who bought the company that made the first DSLR) have jussssst about killed the DSLR off for good.

Perhaps the rumoured 5DX will be the last DSLR of significance made by Canon at least.

Perhaps.

 

 

RIP the DSLR.

1985-2018.

 

 

 

NB. I perhaps should point out (in case of any confusion) that I don't think the demise of the DSLR is a bad thing. Far from it in fact. Read my post again.

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) cameras https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/3/the-dslr-1985-2018-rip Wed, 21 Mar 2018 12:30:10 GMT
The Biblical plague. Again. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/3/the-biblical-plague-again Last year I wrote about the biblical plague of frogs that befell us in mid March - and this year is no different.

Well... no different apart from the fact that we are forecast freezing conditions again this weekend - and this will come AFTER all our dozens (and dozens) of frogs have spawned this week - which is more than a slight concern.

Anyway - a couple of photos of our boiling pond - try and count the number of frogs in the 2nd photo - I'll help you by putting a pink dot over one eye of each frog I counted below.

At the end of this post, I'll tell you how many I counted... (and even I may've missed one or two!)

It looks like we're hosting the entire neighbourhood's frog population at present - primarily because I NEVER use tap water to fill my pond (too much chlorine) and also because our new neighbours have decided to keep fish in the old frog pond they inherited and they've also covered it with a net.

No... I don't understand some people either.

Stay warm this weekend, grapple fans - and let's all hope our frog spawn makes it through to next weekend...

TBR.

Now.

If you want to know how many frogs are in the shot above.... in our pond yesterday... keep scrolling down!

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67!

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) frog frogs pond https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/3/the-biblical-plague-again Wed, 14 Mar 2018 15:44:54 GMT
'tis toad time tonight. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/3/tis-toad-time-tonight Just a very quick blog post today (as I have no laptop at present so am doing this on a tablet).

Each year I try to write a quick report on this annual phenomenon... this year is no different, despite having no working laptop.

Today, (Friday March 9th 2018)... right NOW (18:40hrs) will be the first night in 2018 here and across large parts of the country when conditions are just right for toads to migrate en masse from their winter woodlands back to their traditional breeding ponds.

Toad crossingToad crossing

All they need is a night time temperature of at least 8 or 9 centigrade and some rain.

BOTH criteria are fulfilled tonight here (and across large parts of the country as I've said) for the first time this year.

Drive carefully grapple fans - and do look out for our wonderful toads tonight...

TBR.

 

Toad crossing (2)Toad crossing (2)

Eye of toadEye of toad

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bufo bufo bufo toad toad crossing toads https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2018/3/tis-toad-time-tonight Fri, 09 Mar 2018 18:30:08 GMT
Veni. Vidi. Virid. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/11/veni-vidi-virid All go here in the (usually) drab, leaden November weeks – but this November it’s all gone... well.... "virid".

Virid.

From Viridis.

From Vireo.

Verdant. Bright green. Sprouting. Fresh. Virile.

 

Firstly, we have not one but TWO green woodpeckers visiting the garden daily these days. An adult male (which has been visiting us since it was a youngster, clad in juvenile barred plumage) and now an adult female – which our male, for now, seems to insist on chasing away. I’m sure that will change!

I’ve always thought green woodpeckers are belters of birds – like jays and wagtails, they just seem to ooze character – so I’m chuffed we have green woodpeckers (as well as great spotted) visiting the garden.

The green woodpeckers like to “ant” in our back garden (basically probe around in the wet soil for anthills (of which we have many – by design from me!) rather than look for grubs in our trees like their smaller, great spotted cousins do.

Green woodpeckers have the scientific name of Picus viridis in case you didn’t know.  Viridis I’ve already explained (above) but what about Picus?

I don’t get time these days to add to my “zoonames” website where I started to investigate the classical nomenclature of our birds but if I did, Picus would be a good entry on that website.

You see, Picus, in Roman mythology, was a King. The first king of Latium and himself son of Saturn. He was a bit of a pretty-boy by all accounts and a bit of a dab hand at hunting too – even though he liked to wear his red cloak and gold cloak ring out whilst hunting. The bleedin’ dandy fop!

Aaaaaanywaaaay… one day, whilst out hunting, the local witch-temptress and goddess, Circe (pronounced sursee), saw the foppish King Picus and thought to herself “I’ll have a bit of that, don’t mind if I do”. So, she cast a spell whereby an illusion of a boar running into the woods would tempt the handsome King to follow her into her honey-trap.

King Picus spied the boar and followed it on foot into the tangled forest – when suddenly the boar disappeared in a puff of smoke – to be replaced by the lusty temptress.

Picus rejected her carnal advances (insisting he only could love his wife, the nymph Canens) and so angered by this was the witch-goddess, she turned poor King Picus into a woodpecker. Many woodpeckers of the world these days still exhibit King Picus’ red (or purple) cloak in their plumage.

 

There you have it then – our virid, green woodpeckers are named after the handsome yet tragic King Picus of Latium

 

The videos and photos below are all of these royal birds in our garden, yesterday (and today).

 

 

But the viridity (is that a word like virility?!) doesn’t stop with the green woodpeckers in our garden at present. Oh no!

Regular readers of this blog miggghhhht just about remember a post I made a few years ago, about the gurt big colony of rose-ringed parakeets at a sewage farm not so far from us. ("Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough").

The rose-ringed (or ring-necked) parakeet is a lurid, virid bird but it’s scientific name of Psittacula krameria just is a nod to an Austrian biologist (Kramer) who died in the mid-18th Century – and unfortunately doesn’t even begin to offer a nod to their ridiculous green colour.

We’ve often had one or two in the garden but as I don’t tend to feed any birds other than jays in our garden, they (the parakeets) don’t tend to hang around.

UNTIL NOW THAT IS.

Look at the poor photo below and tell me how many parakeets you can see in the bare ash tree at the end of our garden.

I’ll tell you if you can’t count past five or so (I know what you lot are like!).

11!

ELEVEN of the screeching, squawking lurid, virid beasties.

I know they’re not well-liked by people on the west-side of London (where the majority of them live – think Kew, Richmond, Barnes, Esher etc) these days but for now they certainly brighten up our damp, grey garden.

OK grapple fans, that shallot for now.

I hope you aren’t *cough* green with envy at my tales of our virid woodpeckers and lurid parrots…

I’ll see you soon.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) green woodpecker ring-necked parakeet rose-ringed parakeet https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/11/veni-vidi-virid Thu, 09 Nov 2017 16:28:38 GMT
800 yards of 'mac. 12) October and summary of the year. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/10/800-yards-of-mac-12-october-and-summary-of-the-year We're there.

A full year of reporting on the 800 yards of 'mac - the 1/2 mile country road that I have driven on, run on, walked on, crawled on and lay on, hundreds of times in the past six years now.

There's not a lot to say this month other than so far, October has been a wet, warm, windy month (more than usual). I drove my French(ish) sister along the 800 yards earlier in the month to show her the barn owl (which is still there in its tree) but all we saw was a lovely tawny owl instead. Finally, the council have not yet contacted me about my concerns regarding the SANG proposal alongside "my" 800 yards of 'mac.

OK grapple fans. 

That's shallot.

Thanks for continuing to read this weird series of blogs (which I thought I'd have far more time to put down on paper (so to speak) when I started writing about these 800 yards of tarmacadam which are so close to my heart, a year ago now.

We've come full circle and whilst we started this blog a year ago now with talk of fieldfares alongside the 'mac, as of yet, even though I've heard the fieldfares' cousins, the redwing, I've not YET heard or seen fieldfares on the 800 yards. They'll only be a fortnight or so away now.

The video below I shot today whilst driving along the 800 yards and I'll leave you with that and a list of descriptive links to ALL my "800 yards of 'mac" posts over the last 12 months.

Thanks for dropping by.

TBR.

Nov 16 -  Fieldfares, redwing, hawthorn berries, stupendous yellow leaves

Dec 16 – Male barn owl back in tree, chocolate-coloured buzzard, rabbits, jackdaw colony, all leaves (bar oak) down

Jan 17 – Little owl in oak tree. Barn owl still in its tree.

Feb 17 – Little owl gone, TWO barn owls courting, catkins bullfinches, a fox in the sheep field.

Mar 17 – Fieldfares gone and redwing about to go, bullfinches, larks, red-legged partridge, roe deer.

Apr 17 – very dry but roadside flowers explode (mouse ear, bluebells, wood anemones and celandines), blackthorn blossom, trees starting to leaf, barn owl, kestrels nesting, roe deer, buzzard feeding and pheasant (video), honeybee tree, toads moving

May 17 – Brambles and nettles, hawthorn blossom, rush of leaves, swallows, martins and swifts arrive, pied wagtails, bullfinches, nuthatches, song thrushes, goldcrests, goldfinches, blue tits nesting. No barn owls nesting. Rabbits, honeybees, tree bumblebees.

Jun 17 – Heatwave, sileage production, umbellifers, horseshoe vetches, marsh mallow flowers, golden-ringed dragonfly, drinker moth caterpillar, linnets, whitethroats, disappearance of female kestrel (assume sitting on eggs), little owl, bone-breaking crow.

Jul 17 – Heatwave breaks and summer ends when schools close. Flowers peak with St.John’s Wort, vetches (both purple and yellow horseshoe), umbellifers all topped with cardinal beetles of course, mallow (both white and lavender coloured), thistles (sow, creeping and spear) and ox eye daisies, swifts disappear at end of month leaving the swallows and martins on their own. Strange disappearance of all owls and kestrels?

Aug 17 – Rain all month. Rots the wheat in the field (ruins harvest) but turns rest of countryside a rich green – bit strange for the heat of the summer?!

Sep 17 – Other than the wheat, nature’s harvest is ON – with big nettles and marsh woundwort (it’s been that wet!) hips, haws, sloes, blackberries, honeysuckle and acorns. Hobby filling up before migration attacks martins over 800 yards, SANG notice put on 800 yards gate – I contact council with my concerns. Barn owl returns to its tree.

Oct 17 – Nothing to add other than it’s been a warm, wet, windy month with a lot of the leaves down already. Took one of my sisters to see the barn owl (as it returned last month and is still there) but all we saw was a tawny instead and as yet the council haven’t contacted me regarding the SANG proposal alongside the 800 yards.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 800 yards of 'mac https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/10/800-yards-of-mac-12-october-and-summary-of-the-year Tue, 24 Oct 2017 13:40:05 GMT
800 yards of 'mac. 11.) September https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/9/800-yards-of-mac-11-september Lots of news in this penultimate month of the twelve “800 yards of ‘mac” blog posts – good news and bad.

 

Firstly, as we head into Autumn proper (‘though it feels like we’ve been in Autumn anyway since mid-July), it’s a pleasure to say the 800 yards of ‘mac look superb – even if the plants and wildlife on the 800 yards have taken a right battering this summer.

The hedgerows lining both sides of the road (but especially the NORTH SIDE (I’ll come onto this later) are bursting with big nettles and marsh woundwort (it’s been that wet!) hips, haws, sloes, blackberries, honeysuckle and acorns – so much so in fact that I WAS going to call this penultimate 800 yards blog post, “Hip Hip Haw-ry!”.

 

 

I was driving the boy back from rugby the other morning, with Anna beside me in “The Hearse”, and as we turned into the 800 yards of ‘mac, a TRULY SPECTACULAR SIGHT became apparent through the windscreen (in the bright sun that morning, as it ‘appens).

A group of chattering house martins (mainly, with one or two swallows) was being repeatedly dive-bombed alongside the 800 yards of ‘mac, by a very hungry hobby – again and again, very low in the sky – so low in fact that at one point I thought the hobby would hit our windscreen and if we’d have had a sun roof, and it’d been open – the boy would’ve had a hobby in the car!

I stopped the car to get a photo or video (I only had my phone on me), and the hobby kept dive-bombing above my head – at one point I felt I had to duck!

Unfortunately, by the time I’d found my phone (it’s NEVER on me in the car) and fired it up, the hobby had grown tired of stooping unsuccessfully and flown low due east away from the mixed flock of hirundines.

The photo below shows (if your eyesight is as good as mine!) at least some house martins at the location, if not the hobby!

I’ve been back there since that morning, to see if the hobby would return (as I’ve seen a hobby there (which surprised me as its just farmland really and I wouldn’t expect hobby there) before this year, in early summer). But no – no hobby since that morning. Hobbies will all be feeding up now (like house martins and swallows) ready for the migration south – so they’ll be hunting small birds if they think they can catch them. Hobbies are pretty good at this – being one of the only birds that can catch swifts and dragonflies in mid-air.

Well… that’s been the wildlife highlight of the month up at the 800 yards of ‘mac – the good news – but there’s also bad (or at least concerning news).

The land to the north of “my road” (the ‘800 yards of ‘mac) has been designated as a SANG, because of a large amount of housing developments relatively close by. (If you don’t know what a SANG is – please “google it”!)

On my run along the 800 yards of ‘mac t’other day (yesterday in fact), I saw the council notice pinned to a gate (behind which the tree bumblebees were STILL nesting I saw!).

Now that’s not that bad news. At present the four large fields to the north of the 800 yards are farmer’s fields but are pretty-well unused apart from growing grass for sileage sometimes. Skylarks nest in the grass (a few pairs anyway), barn owls and little owls are present. Foxes, stoats, weasels, crows, bullfinches, song thrushes, jays, jackdaws, whooper swans (yes… whooper swans!), Egyptian geese, Canada geese, mallard, pheasant, roe deer, kestrels (of course) and red-legged partridge are ALL present, along with rose-ringed parakeets, tawny owls, swifts, swallows, house martins, pipistrelle bats, drinker moths, tree bumblebees, a honey bee colony and all kind of other things (specifically, many wonderful veteran oak trees) – most of which I’ve photographed and blogged about HERE (just read any of my "800 yards of 'mac" posts).

They’ll “Telly-tubby” the site for sure, so the dog walkers are presented a “natural site” which is palatable to them (meaning “unnatural” really), but at least the site should be safe from development and the wildlife there may (after the initial disturbance in any implementation phase) even benefit from the change in land purpose?

The BAD news is that as is mandatory for these proposals (any development or change of use proposals), an ecological assessment needs to be undertaken -  to see if there is any protected or important wildlife on the site that MAY be disturbed without mitigation.

The trouble is, as I saw after investigating the WHOLE proposal on the council website when I got home, the ecological assessment was carried out in a short time (they always are of course) and carried out about thirty months ago! A LOT has happened up there, wildlife-wise, in that time – and I should know!

The worst part of the proposed development is a piece of (necessary) hard landscaping is provisionally destined to be placed RIGHT BY the pair (this year, remember?) of barn owl’s favourite roost/nest tree. Unfortunately, the two people carrying out the ecological assessment almost three years ago now, considered this tree to be “medium probability of bat roost” when they saw it – but if they’d actually looked inside (with an endoscope) they’d HAVE SEEN a barn owl inside – and as long as that was the case, they’d be NO bats there.

The ecological assessors did find barn owl pellets under one veteran tree (one of their preferred trees but not the one that concerns me) – but I don’t think they saw a barn owl.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I’ve seen three barn owls at one time at this site and two together in one tree (the tree that concerns me most).

Now. The council biodiversity officer at the time (he’s not in post now) of this ecological assessment was informed of the (SCHEDULE 1) Barn owls and has suggested in the planning proposal that a barn owl nest box would be put up on one of the mature (but not veteran or ancient) trees – which would ALL be kept anyway.

 

That’s all fine and dandy. But if I was a barn owl (or one of a pair of barn owls) which prefer to roost in veteran (ancient) oaks at the site and suddenly discovered that my favourite tree was being disturbed by diggers and dumpers and workmen for a month or six, I’d bugger off. And not to the nest box in a mature tree 100 yards away – I’d bugger off out of the site (SANG). (I have a feeling I know exactly where I’d go actually – as I know of TWO more barn owl roosts within half a mile or so (each in different directions) of this SANG.

So… reluctantly, I’ve had to raise an objection to this SANG in its current proposal (which I’ve looked at in detail).

I think the final, operational proposal may be OK (even if it does mean that there will be no more skylarks nesting on the site as no bleeding dog owner in the country understands “Please keep your dog on a lead – ground nesting birds!” sign it seems. (The subject for another blog perhaps).

It will mean the site won’t be developed on. It might also mean a more varied habitat (including ponds etc) meaning perhaps MORE biodiversity (but only like I say, if dog walkers are FORCED to keep their pathetic stinking little friends on leads).

But at present, I am very concerned about the effect the implementation of the development of the SANG will have on the local barn owls in particular – they’re so picky, barn owls.

I feel SO unbelievably fortunate to have not just one, but perhaps up to five barn owls which I can see within a couple of miles of my house – and I’d hate it if this SANG development disturbed them enough to leave (perhaps permanently).

I also enjoy the current peace and quiet up at the 800 yards of ‘mac – and this would almost certainly go too – but that’s OK I guess – wildlife and areas like this should be for everyone – not just me!

Anyway… I’ve lodged my sole objection as you can see below (I’ve blurred a few lines (the council may want  to broadcast my address - * sheeesh,thanks a lot!* - but I don't!) and changed the location to land north of “800 yards of ‘mac” (rather than the actual road name).

I hope someone from the council (perhaps the new biodiversity officer) gets in contact with me, so we can meet up at the 800 yards, I can show her the EXACT trees that are SO important to the owls (and therefore just WHY one specific aspect of the current proposal concerns me so much).

More next month perhaps grapple fans, in the final instalment of the twelve “800 yard of ‘mac” blog posts.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 800 yards of 'mac acorns barn blackberries blackthorn brambles hawthorn honeysuckle marsh woundwort nest nettle oaks objection owl roost rose-hip sang schedule 1 sloe veteran oak trees https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/9/800-yards-of-mac-11-september Wed, 13 Sep 2017 16:37:55 GMT
The longest caterpillar in the UK.... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/8/the-longest-caterpillar-in-the-uk ... of resident lepidopteran species that is, (i.e. NOT the convolvulus hawk moth nor the death's head haw moth which are BOTH longer but both non-resident) belongs not to a hawk moth at all, but the lowly goat moth.

I say lowly - the adult goat moth is about the size of a typical poplar hawk moth but quite a bit chunkier (heavier) - it is one of the heaviest moths in the UK for sure and DOES hold the title of the resident moth with the longest larva in the UK.

Anna, the boy and I were taking advantage of this superb period of late August weather by taking a walk around our favourite piece of local lowland heath yesterday afternoon - where I go to see/hear nightjars when I feel the need.

It's lovely to see the sun again. Sure... we got lucky  (weather-wise) on holiday on the Isle of Wight but it's great to have great weather back home now too. It's lovely to see the return of the leaf cutter bees in the garden, the return of the potter and spider-hunting wasps, the appearance of 22-spot ladybirds and the re-blooming of the buddleja and water lily.

It was also a delight to walk around my favourite habitat (probably) in my favourite weather, yesterday. Dragonflies were what we were hunting (we found emperors and golden-ringed dragons) but it was the HYOWGE caterpillar that crawled over the boardwalk (built over the peat bogs) that took our breath away.

 

This BELTER of a caterpillar belongs to the goat moth (Cossus cossus) and IS Britain's longest (and largest) caterpillar that belongs to a resident lepidopteran species. I didn't have a tape measure with me yesterday (hardly a surprise) but I'd say this IPSOLUTE BYOODY was about 100mm long.

Goat moth caterpillars are rarely seen and there's a reason for that. In common with a few moths and certainly the Cossidae species (leopard moth, reed leopard and goat moth), the larvae (caterpillars) burrow INTO their food plant (in the goat moth's case, broad-leafed deciduous trees such as willow trunks) and eats that food hidden from view. With food so low in nutrients (the wood of a willow for example) the goat moth caterpillar digests this food very slowly indeed and needs to eat inside this tree for perhaps four years before dropping to the ground and finding somewhere to pupate underground in August of their fourth or fifth year.

The caterpillars will therefore be hidden INSIDE a tree for four years, visible for a few hours in their fourth or perhaps fifth August as they crawl along the ground looking to burrow under the surface of the soil and pupate. They will then overwinter  (in their 4th or 5th winter generally) hidden underground as a pupa and emerge in the next June, their 5th June (probably) as an adult.

You'll understand now I'm sure that this moth's life cycle lasts about 5 years of which about 3 months is spent as an adult, and all the rest bar a few hours is spent as a hidden larva or a hidden pupa.

Yes... Anna, the boy and I were very lucky to have seen this goat moth caterpillar yesterday and even luckier to have filmed it (see very short video below). We think it was an egg AS we moved into our current house five years ago and has spent that ENTIRE time inside a birch or willow tree on my favourite lowland heath and the ONLY time it broke cover  for a few hours perhaps to look for a spot to pupate in those five years - we were there to see it.

Before I go - I often like to go into detail about the names of moths as they're often so beautifully-named.

I'll be brief in the case of the goat moth though but in case you were wondering, the goat moth is so called because the larvae allegedly smell like male goats. That is not a compliment as I'm sure you know (even if I LIKE the smell of goats!) and I assume it's some kind of defence mechanism to avoid being gobbled up by woodpeckers etc.

And talking of being gobbled-up - the scientific name of the goat moth, Cossus cossus stems from the fact that in ancient times, a Cossus was an edible grub which Romans loved to eat. Invariably these were ALL stag beetle grubs but this caterpillar (in common with a few others, but CERTAINLY this goat moth caterpillar) DOES look a bit like a big grub (large, fleshy and shiny) and DOES behave like one (burrows into wood for its food) although it really DOESN'T look like a translucent and white beetle or chafer grub really.

Anyhoo - that's the goat moth caterpillar.

A very, VERY lucky find for us yesterday and certainly the highlight of the family wildlife walk.

Keep 'em peeled grapple fans - you never know WHAT may turn up at present....

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) cossus cossus cossus gets" goat moth goat moth caterpillar spawny uk's largest caterpillar https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/8/the-longest-caterpillar-in-the-uk Mon, 28 Aug 2017 18:51:12 GMT
800 yards of 'mac. 10) August https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/8/800-yards-of-mac-10-august  I'm afraid, as in recent months and more and more so it seems, I've hardly had time to visit the 800 yards this month, as we enter the last quarter of this blog year (I started this blog last November you may remember).

Firstly, for the first two weeks of August I was run off my feet at work and we had another wet wet wet fortnight, meaning my free time was mainly spent inside.

Then we (Anna, myself and the boy) went for our week's summer holiday on the Isle of Wight, which of course kept me away from the 800 yards then too.

I HAVE visited it once or twice since returning from the Solent though (see video below, shot today for example) and it's clear, like the rest of SE England (or England as a whole perhaps this summer?), the 800 yards is very verdant and lush indeed after something like four normal summer's rainfalls in seven and a half weeks of summer this year.

The only thing that looks brown up at the 800 yards this August is the knackered horse chestnuts (disease I reckon) and the pelts of all the rabbits - the rabbits don't seem to mind the rain at all!

Even the wheat in the field along a part of the 800 yards has gone from being honey-coloured to black - I am left wondering if the farmer has missed his harvest - was he hoping to get it (the wheat) in in mid July - but it really hasn't stopped raining since about then here. 

Can that happen these days?

Can farmers miss their harvests and leave their wheat to basically turn black in the fields?

Surely not you'd think?***

Anyway, other than rampant green foliage, grass, weeds and brambles lining the 800 yards, rampant rabbits and black wheat - there's not a lot to say this month.

Apologies if you were expecting a big update on the kestrels and owls - I can't provide you with one this month (yet!) as I've just not been around to see them.

OK... two months left in this slightly disappointing project - let's hope I have more to say in September when I assume, the frosts might return, the dewy cobwebs surely will and all these leaves may start dropping eh?


Until then, grapple fans....

 

 

 

*** Spooky.

We were watching the local news today and yes.. it seems like a farmer CAN lose their entire wheat crop in summers like this. First the quality of harvest is downgraded from use for beer and bread to animal feed.... and then (as I think is the case up at the 800 yards of 'mac), it's downgraded to worthless - and the farmer watches it rot in his field. How terrible is that (and how terrible has our "summer" been this year, after a wonderfully-hot and sunny Spring?).

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 800 yards of 'mac https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/8/800-yards-of-mac-10-august Tue, 22 Aug 2017 18:23:01 GMT
Funky warm Medina https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/8/funky-warm-medina Last week, the boy, Anna and I took our annual summer holiday – on the Isle of Wight – and a good week we had too.

I could talk (or write) for hours about the Isle of Wight now (it was our first visit but is a small island and we pretty-well covered it all during our seven days there), but this is meant to be a wildlife blog, so I’ll try to concentrate on subjects relating to wildlife. Please forgive me though if I occasionally stray!

On the 11th August, after what felt like five weeks of continuous rain over East Berkshire, we boarded a ferry by the name of “Red Osprey” at Southampton ferry terminal, at about ten minutes to eleven o’clock on a bright Friday morning.

 

 

An hour later (after we'd recovered from hearing what my car's sat-nav had said to us - see the video above!) as we’d sailed up the Medina (now you understand the title of this blog?) estuary, we drove off the ferry at East Cowes and headed Southwest for about thirty minutes (pretty-well as far Southwest as one can drive from Cowes) into rural Southwest Isle of Wight (a mile or two south of Shorwell – for those that know the island well).

 

We were holidaying at a place called “The Little Barn”, a delightful, relatively-modern barn conversion on the Atherfield-Shorwell road with a HUGE, private superb wildlife wetland area to explore, right alongside the barn.

As we started to unpack the car we noticed a great green bush cricket crawling up the barn’s black timber exterior and we decided to photograph and video it for posterity.

Please note in the video below, shot on arrival at The Little Barn, I refer to the cricket as “him” but it is of course, clearly a big female, looking at her MAHUSIVE ovipositor.

 

Great green bush crickets are the UK’s largest crickets – this one was indeed a big, BIG female. They are only found primarily in south England but also sometimes in South Wales. You’re supposed NOT to handle them as they can (allegedly) give you a nasty nip, but what the hell… I don’t remember ever seeing such a large cricket in the UK before (apart from perhaps a Roesel’s bush cricket I once found in Reading), so I had to pick this one up!

You’ll know when great green bush crickets are around if you are near meadows in the South of England in the summer, as you’ll hear what sounds like old Singer sewing machines working away all night in the vegetation – these crickets are LOUD! 

The Little Barn was very remote (well, apart from the owners’ (Richard and Susan Perkes) thatched house (itself perhaps a larger barn conversion?) a hundred yards or so away, so we did hear these crickets all night – and NOTHING ELSE. Bliss!

Our first afternoon was spent watching the swallows fly around both The Little Barn and the owners’ house in the sun (and wind – it was windy most of the week, but thankfully dry and sunny too) and the kestrels hovering over the nearby fields.

 

A little about The Little Barn.

This delightful holiday rental can be found on the web HERE and on Dungewood Lane, off the Atherfield-Shorwell road in Southwest Isle of Wight.

The owners are both very friendly but also leave you to enjoy your holiday in peace, which we greatly-appreciated.

The property itself is really quite large (not so “Little Barn” at all!) and is fully furnished, clean, tidy, modern and completely painted white inside, so very light and airy (lots of windows, patio doors and skylights complete that effect).

Sure, if you’re well over six feet like me, you’ll spend your time ducking from the low beams (EVERYWHERE) in the barn, or like me, smacking your head on the low beams when you forget, but it is a barn conversion after all -the beams are either painted white or honey-coloured wood, so not dark and oppressive like some low beams are in pokey little places.

Everything is provided, from towels to a washing machine, all crockery and cutlery, saucepans etc and even SKY TV in the sitting room, Freeview in the master bedroom and free Wi-Fi throughout (although that stopped for some reason after the second night, so we assume is metered).

There is a large decked area outside the property and a brick barbecue if that’s your sort-of-thing and also that wonderfully-huge and varied wetland wildlife are to the west of the barn which I videoed below.

The wildlife wetland area is huge and is bordered by brooks, which badgers cross each night to forage in the garden. There is a large pond (lake almost) in the garden, home to a family of very skittish moorhens and half-a-dozen mallard ducks and drakes which fly in at dusk each night to roost (leaving again each dawn to feed elsewhere I presume).

Susan and Richard (again, the owners) have clearly succeeded in making this area very wildlife-friendly – it is COVERED in a riot of many types of wild flower, from coltsfoot to vetch to ox-eye daisies, to purple loosestrife, gorse, all manner of umbellifers, yellow corydalis – everything you can think of. Although most of the flowers were over when we visited last week in mid-August, I can imagine it would have looked incredible in June.

 

Susan and Richard also keep bees at the northern point of the wildlife area – in five hives, which I took the boy to see once or twice. Wonderful!

The owners did tell us that kestrels have nested their before (and they were a constant presence around the area all week, along with the handful of swallows) and it was apparent that there has been a visiting barn owl in the wildlife area in years gone by (I gleaned this information by looking in the visitors book) but although I heard barn owl(s) calling in the fields surrounding the Little Barn and its wildlife area each night, I never saw them – a real shame.

The wildlife area (just the size of it, the privacy of it and the quietness of it!) was a real plus to our holiday at The Little Barn although to be honest, the weather was so good during our week, that I spent little time in the wildlife area itself, instead exploring the rest of the island it seemed.

I did hear shrews and stoats in the wildlife area (and as described above, barn owls from the wildlife area), did see rabbits, pheasants, moorhens, mallards, butterflies (mainly whites and small tortoiseshells), four bats every evening (probably pipistrelles) and a single dragonfly (a common darter) in the wildlife area, together with the bees and crickets of course and I did see clear evidence of the badgers (a territorial-edge latrine and path to the latrine) but other-than-that just didn’t give myself enough time to do a proper full-on bio blitz! Another time maybe?!

 

The most time I spent in the wildlife area it seemed was after dark when I became painfully-aware that this was a part of the UK and indeed part of the island with particularly dark skies – so I was photographing the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxy (see below) from the very dark garden, surrounded by those singing crickets and squeaking shrews – my kind of heaven!

Whilst I got a few good dark sky photos (see below) again I regard my time at The Little Barn to be a bit of a missed opportunity to be honest.

I was working like a dawg up to my holiday and had no time to research the Isle of Wight before setting off, let alone what I could expect to see or do on this part of the island. If I had, I’d have realised that this was the BEST part of the island for dark skies (perhaps the best part of the UK – see maps below) at the best time of year (summer – with clear skies AND the Perseid meteor shower peaking on a clear night during our holiday week).

I’d have bought a proper astrophotography lens with my  full frame 6D camera and really gone to town on the night sky photography. But I didn’t – I didn’t bring any bigger aperture lens than my f4 lens so had to make do with that - and unfortunately didn’t even realise we had the meteor shower peak whilst we were there (during one of three cloudless nights!) until the night after! D’oh!

All a real shame – but even so, I did get a few half-decent photos (below) – and I’ll just have to wonder what my photos would have been like with a proper astrophotography lens and a bit more time spent researching all this beforehand. Please note my website has "shrunk" my Milky Way photos below - they are in fact HYOWGE with hundreds of thysands of stars visible on both. I'll perhaps write a separate blog on photographing the Milky Way on this website.

 

Other than spending time photographing stars and wandering around the wildlife area, what else did I see on the island?

Well… we tried….in vain I’m afraid…. to see red squirrels. I’m fortunate I suppose in that I’ve seen plenty of red squirrels in Scotland, but Anna and the boy haven’t seen any - so the Isle of Wight (a haven for reds and no greys) is a good place to see them – and nearer than Scotland of course.

We only spent about an hour looking for red squirrels (in Borthwood copse near Sandown) but to be honest, with a wood full of dog walkers, mountain bikers and us with a bored, noisy four-year-old – we really didn’t stand a chance  (I’d say we would have certainly seen red squirrels if we’d have been on our own – in fact I’d have bet on myself and Anna doing so ahead of anyone I know) – so we quickly gave up and went to the beach instead (when in Rome).

The only other wildlife of note I think would be the buzzards (everywhere), the rabbits (ditto) the single (young, non-breeding) Sandwich tern which fished in front of me both days at Shanklin beach, the seventy or so black-tailed godwits at Yarmouth (see photo below), the big, bold, cronking raven at Alum Bay and last but certainly not at all least), the beautiful sight of two peregrines over the needles which displayed and even stooped over our heads as we climbed to the viewing point.

So, even though last week was far from a wildlife trip – I most certainly got my wildlife fix as such – with the highlight almost certainly being the peregrine pair at the needles in glorious sunshine (and a gale of a see breeze!)

 

OK.

Other than wildlife and The Little Barn, what else did I (we) make of the Isle of Wight.

In short, I loved it – but…. It does have its drawbacks.

 

We were staying at quite clearly the quiet part of the island, surrounded by farms (of sweetcorn it seemed and very little else!) and we only saw two cars on the nearby road (the road from Atherfield to Shorwell) all week – absolute heaven!

The island has a population of c.140,000 people – about the same as Blackpool then but in an area about eleven times the size of Blackpool. That doesn’t really do those figures justice though – outside Cowes, Newport, Ryde, Sandown, Shanklin and Ventnor I suppose (so think the 6 largest coastal towns from North on the island to Southeast), there’s no-one it seems – the island seems empty. It’s GLORIOUS!

The roads in general are awful and often single track (at least fun!), there is barely any public transport and it seems like most of the islanders are either farmers (outside the holiday towns) or retired.

Something like 45% of ALL islanders not only own their own homes but have no mortgage, which does indeed suggest that in common with many other seaside areas, the Isle of Wight is a bit like “God’s waiting room” in parts – at least it does feel like that.

Most working people it seems on the island own a pick-up – almost invariably a Toyota, whereas most other islanders (the retired?) own little city cars (Honda Jazz etc) which you need to watch out for. I lost track of the number of pensioners with their noses pressed to their Honda’s windscreens and their eyes screwed up behind their thick glasses, I had to avoid as they strayed onto my side of the road or nearly scraped my car on single track roads even though I’d basically pulled into a hedge for them!

I suspect the IoW has definitely had its heyday as far as tourism is concerned. Who, these days, wants to spend £200 on an 8 mile in total (return) ferry ride to the island (that's the full price red funnel will charge you if you DON'T book via a holiday operator like we did) when you can fly to the Med for that price and guarantee yourself a sunny week? There doesn't seem to have been much money put into the island and for tourism in particular, for years - perhaps decades dare I say?

But the scenery is wonderful – and away from the hustle and bustle of the east coast’s holiday resorts, I found the island delightfully-quiet. Perfect for us. Perfect for me.

I’d recommend Yarmouth to anyone – a lovely harbour full of interesting boats (including a nice big orange lifeboat for the kids) and spider crabs! Good pubs (DO go to the Wheatsheaf, not the Bugle) with REALLY nice seafood. Lovely tea rooms (who doesn’t like a cream tea every now and then?) and some interesting wading birds in the marshes if you’re into your wildlife.

I’d also recommend Shanklin – especially for kids – with a gently-sloping sandy beach, crystal clear seawater (quite warm water for the UK too!) and all the facilities you’ll ever need along the beachside esplanade (which you can park at too – a real bonus!). Just don’t visit the public lavs at Shanklin. Trust me. Don’t!

Finally, I’d recommend The Crown Inn at Shorwell. SUPERB food and a crystal-clear trout stream to gaze at in the beer garden, with WHOPPER rainbow trout on view all the time. (I guess it helped that I remarked that I enjoyed this to the landlady and she gave the boy and I some pellets to feed the trout from our beer garden table – the stream boiled for a while I can tell you!)

The photos below (in no particular order are of the Ferry at East Cowes (with my car at the bow), Shanklin beach (with my car parked on the Esplanade), Alum Bay, the Owl and Falconry Centre at Appuldurcombe House, "The Hearse" (my car) outside The Little Barn and the hearse parked next to a MkII RS2000 (just because I haven't seen an RS2000 since I owned a toy one when I was about 8 years old?! and the owner of this one allowed me a peer under the bonnet when I asked - a very nice bloke!)

Will we be back to the Isle of Wight?

In a word… Probably.

In more words… I hope so. I really do. It's so close to us at present and it's lovely.

We were very-luckily blessed with very sunny  (if windy) weather during the days (I type this with a peeling nose as evidence!) and we chose wisely in terms of renting a remote property on the quiet, dark side of the island. We got lucky with our local pub (the Crown at Shorwell, 2 miles away) being great -we ate there on all but one evening. We loved Yarmouth, liked Shanklin for the boy (and for us I suppose), liked the incredibly picturesque owl and falconry centre at Appuldurcome House, enjoyed The Needles (very much) …. but…. We need to return to see the red squirrels at the very least and return with a proper astrophotography set up at the very most.

 

So, we’ll be back for sure I think.

 

Thanks for now, Isle of Wight.


See you again soon I hope.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) badger barn owl black tailed godwit colstfoot gorse great green bush cricket honey bee isle of wight kestrel ox-eye daisy peregrine rabbit raven shrew stoat swallow vetch https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/8/funky-warm-medina Sun, 20 Aug 2017 16:39:36 GMT
800 yards of ‘mac. 9) July. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/7/800-yards-of-mac-9-july Not much to say really this month as I’ve not had much time to get up to the 800 yards all-in-all.

But… I will say this. At the time of writing, it seems to have been a month of two halves. The mercury topped 30 degrees celcius a few times in the first week of July, with no rain to speak of - and even the second week was warm(ish) – but we’ve also had some torrential rain and much cooler, windier conditions in the latter part of the month to date.

During the earlier part of July I did manage a couple of walks along the 800 yards of ‘mac and did see that we were in FULL flowering season along the roadside, with St.John’s Wort, vetches (both purple and yellow horseshoe), umbellifers all over the place (all topped with cardinal beetles of course!), mallow (both white and lavender coloured), thistles (sow, creeping and spear) and ox eye daisies all going bananas in the fallow edges to the roadside meadows.

All the photos below were taken by me on my phone whilst I walked along the 800 yards in early July on one of those 30C days (which seem so far away now!).

As I type again, the swifts which have been with us since the first week of May (and in small numbers above the 800 yards too) have (very sadly) all but gone in the last few days but the swallows which nest in barns alongside the 800 yards are still going strong – and on to their second brood in many cases. It’s just a shame they’re having to fly around at ground level during the last week to catch their insect prey, rather than soaring into the deep blue skies so often more associated with July.

No word on the owls (barn or little) as I’ve not seen them all month, nor the family of kestrels (strangely enough).

I think that’s all I really have to say this month (I do apologise – I’ve been very busy!)  - I’ll try and get up to the 800 yards of ‘mac more in August and give anyone reading this blog a little more depth to what many regard as the last month of summer, eh?

Until then grapple fans.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 800 yards of 'mac https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/7/800-yards-of-mac-9-july Mon, 24 Jul 2017 16:14:46 GMT
800 yards of 'mac. 8) June. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/6/800-yards-of-mac-8-june Flaming June then?

As it happens… yes!

June has been somewhat flaming, at least in parts, with a heatwave including the hottest June day (at 35C) in these ‘ere parrz since 1976 (the summer of which I just remember but my wife doesn’t as she wasn’t born until the end of that particular year!).

 The video below was shot with my dashcam, just before the heatwave hit, but with a suitable tune on the car hard drive of course!

The next video I shot AFTER the heatwave with my phone as I walked back along the 800 yards a few days later.

That sultry heat has disappeared as I type this monthly round-up but what else has happened on the 800 yards of ‘mac this month?

June is peak season for pretty-well everything along the road.

Plants, insects, mammals, birds – the lot.

Firstly, whist the blackthorn blossom disappeared at the start of May, the hawthorn has also now gone the same way, to be replaced in abundance by sprays and sprays of umbellifers lining the 800 yards – umbellifers backed up by thick, flowering brambles.

The wheat alongside the road is doing nicely (we’re only 5 miles from the Maidenhead constituency here, so I assume Theresa May may well be pegging it through these fields any time soon?)

The farmer has made hay, almost literally. Sileage to be exact which has been cut in the last week. I always feel a little sad about this as I’m convinced it’s not just insects that are killed en masse when the grass is cut – Anna and I counted harvest mice nests in a local field which never gets cut a few years ago – there were dozens!

 

In amongst the thick roadside vegetation, all kinds of meadow flowers are doing their best to get a piece of action, from pale purple marsh mallow flowers to canary yellow horseshoe vetches. All of course are literally humming with pollinators.

A walk along the 800 yards will be punctuated by rustlings from the thick grasses that line both sides of the road. A rabbit kit darting back into its warren, or just as likely, a (relatively noisy) shrew – always on the hunt for food.

The 800 yards at this time of year is thick with insects, from the honeybees (still nesting at the base of their traditional oak), to marbled white butterflies floating over the bramble flowers and indeed dragonflies.

Can YOU spot the insect in the shot below? A close-up is revealed at the end of this post if you can’t! Apologies for these two photos by the way (of this mystery insect) - both were taken with my phone only.

I normally happen across the cuckoos’ favourite food (drinker moth caterpillars) in June – almost invariably wandering across a track or path or road, on the hunt for somewhere to pupate and this June was (sadly) no different.

The below is a shot of a sadly squashed drinker moth caterpillar, squashed by Mr. Pirelli or Goodyear on the 800 yards. (Not by me I should add!)

As for the birds – it’s peak season for our feathered friends too.

I still regularly run into the bullfinches, who, I assume, have nested by now, ditto for the song thrushes and linnets and goldfinches.

My walks along the 800 yards now are always punctuated by the indignant raspy shouts of whitethroats hidden in the brambles and hedges but who are never happy to see me.

I haven’t seen the pied wagtail for a good two weeks now so, again, like the bullfinches, I assume his nesting work (or feeding his nestlings work anyway) is done at least for now.

The kestrels seem OK. I watched the male chase the chocolate buzzard around a blue sky above the 800 yards the other day (look hard at the photo below).

As for the kestrels’ nest – well… I assumed the female was on eggs in the box throughout May and caring for her brood almost full time for the first fortnight in June – but yesterday and today (23rd and 24th) I’ve watched her sit on the barn outside the box for some time. I now assume either the nest failed or the young are now big and old enough to allow the female out of the box to help her mate hunt for the nestlings. If that is the case, they’ll fledge in a fortnight or so.

The thing which worries me though about any young kestrels is that I can’t hear them. I have plenty of experience locating falcons’ nests by hearing them first – and I can’t (for some worrying reason) hear this nest.

Time will tell on that one I guess.

I’m not sure about the barn owls either right now. I never am to be fair, in the summer, as I’m almost always asleep in the 6 hours of dark at this time of year, when these birds are hunting. I’ll take a day and night off soon perhaps to check to see whether the two spots I KNOW barn owls (PLURAL) were roosting have produced young this year and hope to let you know -  certainly if the traditional barn owl tree on the 800 yards has produced a barn owl family anyway!

Talking of owls, a nice surprise for me yesterday as I chanced across an adult little owl on the 800 yards – which I’ve not seen since the winter, when the oaks were bereft of leaves.

This adult little owl was hidden in thick oak foliage, but a loudly ticking wren gave it away to me and as I sidled up to the large, hollow oak, the owl turned and glared at me with big black and yellow eyes and burst out of the foliage.

Finally, we seem to have a lammergeier on the 800 yards.

The zoologically-knowledgeable amongst you will know that the lammergeier is otherwise known as the bearded vulture or ossifrage; ossifrage because of its habit of eating bones, or bone marrow anyway.

The lammergeier will locate a carcass, fly high into the air with a bone, drop it from height onto the rocks below and then fly down to gorge on the delicious bone marrow which has been exposed in the shattered bones.

We have a local butcher (by the look of things) dumping skeletons (well, spines, leg bones etc but no skulls) of animals (I’m not sure which – perhaps deer, sheep or pigs) occasionally but regularly along the 800 yards.

This clandestine tends to attract down the omnipresent red kites and also excites the local foxes. But in the last month, the carrion crows, sorry, lammergeiers (whoops!) are now becoming bone marrow eaters too.

Clever birds, crows. The shot below shows one of these dumped thigh/hip bones after getting dumped onto the 800 yards by a crow as I walked below with a camera.

I don’t suppose this is the first documentation of a carrion crow behaving like a lammergeier in the UK by smashing bones on tarmac to get at the marrow -  but it’s the first time I’ve seen such activity!

 

OK grapple fans, that shallot for June.

Have a lovely rest of the month and an even hotter July eh?!

TBR.

 

Oh.

Yes.

The mystery insect?

A golden-ringed dragonfly!

(Photo taken with phone).

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 800 yards of 'mac https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/6/800-yards-of-mac-8-june Sat, 24 Jun 2017 20:46:10 GMT
800 yards of ‘mac. 7) May. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/5/800-yards-of-mac-7-may Before I start this month's update, I bet.... I bet you that after you read the post below and play the last short video (the song)... I bet you go around singing it for days.

Don't believe me....

Watch it and see...

 

Right. Where were we? Ah yes...

It’s becoming increasingly clear to me as we progress through the twelve “800 yards of ‘mac” blog posts that I’m struggling to find time to really explore (in the detail that I’d like) everything that’s happening on this stretch of tarmac at a local country farm – I’m just too busy!

That said, I do visit most days, if for no other reason than to begin my stumblings through the farm on my “runs”. Runs in quotation marks as most people that saw me wouldn’t call what I do through the farm “running”. More like slow wobbling, sweating, swearing and bleeding.

Anyway… what has happened on the 800 yards of ‘mac in the last four (or so) weeks?

Firstly, the driest April since the Cretaceous period (probably) broke as May arrived and we’ve been having a little of the wet stuff recently (with quite a bit forecast this week I hear). Together with a change in wind direction, if not strength (from an easterly to a south-westerly), this has resulted in a sudden rush of green around the 800 yards.

April’s bluebells are now pretty-well over and dwarfed anyway by the rampant nettles and brambles that have exploded into life over the last fortnight or so.

Gone also is the blackthorn blossom, replaced by the similar, if less spectacular (as it comes AFTER the leaves, not before like blackthorn) hawthorn blossom.

With the hawthorn have come the swallows, martins and my favourites… the swifts. Swallows are an integral part of the 800 yards of ‘mac from May to September as they nest in open horse stables which are EVERYWHERE in this area (East Berkshire and especially where we are – north of Bracknell, near Winkfield, Ascot, Warfield and Windsor… so think Polo (the sport) in particular).

Also nesting in a stable, albeit an alpaca “stable” (shelter really) just off the 800 yards, is a family of pied wagtails. On my walks up and down the 800 yards of ‘mac in May so far, I’m ALWAYS accompanied by a very upbeat-looking (I know I know, wagtails can’t be “upbeat” … that’s a human emotion) male wagtail, dancing up and down on the tarmac in front of me, picking off weak insects before bouncing away to the nest with them.

I do love wagtails. As I’ve mentioned above, I’m well aware wagtails aren’t “happy” … but they always make me happy for some reason – it’s just that they appear to be happy little birds.

I haven’t seen the barn owl(s) at its(their) hollow tree for a few weeks now. That’s not to say it’s(they’re) not there… just that I’ve not seen them (see the first paragraph of this piece). At this time of year, I do often (unless they’re obviously breeding) tend to lose track of “my” local barn owls as they only appear well after I’ve gone to bed and head off back to bed themselves well before I get up, generally.  Do I think they’re breeding in one of their hollow trees alongside the 800 yards of ‘mac? In a word – No. In a few more words – perhaps, ‘though I’m not convinced at all.

There are other birds breeding in the bushes and trees lining the road though. I know song thrushes are (it’s such a joy to see song thrushes these days… I never thought I’d say that as they were SO common when I was a boy). I know a pair of bullfinches are too, as are a few pairs of goldcrests. I’ve not looked for or found any of those birds’ nests though (no time) and nor have I tried to find the skylarks’ nests in the pasture meadows to the north of the 800 yards of ‘mac (ditto) but by these birds’ behaviour – it’s clear that they’re nesting.

I have located a nuthatches nest though and a blue tit’s nest – both in the same large ash tree near the end of the 800 yards. Regular visitors to this site may know I am seeing and hearing nuthatches EVERYWHERE these days, so it’s no surprise (to me anyway) that I’ve found my first nuthatch nest on the 800 yards of ‘mac this year.

I’m not sure where the chocolate buzzard is nesting (or even if it is nesting) but I’d think it wouldn’t be too far away.

Rabbits are more and more noticeable along the full 800 yards at present; rabbits of all sizes and right at the start of May I happened across a hare at the edge of a crop field alongside the road.

The only other thing worth mentioning this month (I think) are insects, specifically bees and even more specifically, honeybees and tree bumblebees – both of which have colonised different things along the 800 yards.

First, the honeybees. I must’ve mentioned before (in at least one previous post?), the fact that there’s been a colony of bumblebees using the same knot hole in the same tree trunk for 5 years on the road. This year these honeybees seem to be entering the tree from the base! I’ve never seen anything like this before with bees, especially because this is a large, solid, healthy tree – with no apparent access into the trunk let alone room for a large colony of honeybees! A terrible (but thankfully short) video of these bees gathering above the brambles at the bottom of this large tree can be seen below.


 

Lastly, the tree bumblebees.

Tree bumblebees are the only species of bumblebee to nest above ground (often in roof spaces or empty bird boxes etc). These tree bumblebees have chosen to occupy a threshing machine parked by a gate leading off the 800 yards of ‘mac to a private pasture and are therefore nesting just a foot or two off the ground.

How do I know the bit of farm plant that they’re nesting in (see short video above) is a threshing machine?

To be honest, I don’t know that. I’m no farmer after all. But I like to think it’s an old, rusty, defunct threshing machine, if for no other reason to leave you with the video below.

Onto flaming June grapple fans… and let’s hope it really is flaming, eh?

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 800 yards of 'mac May https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/5/800-yards-of-mac-7-may Mon, 15 May 2017 16:50:04 GMT
More kestrels manoeuvre in the park. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/5/more-kestrels-manoeuvre-in-the-park This long weekend gives me the opportunity to upload a few short video-clips (30 seconds each) documenting the mating behaviour of the (wild) pair of breeding kestrels that I’m filming at a local farm. (Yes a farm, not a park, but "more kestrels manoeuvre in the farm" wouldn't have the same ring to it, would it?).

 

All clips were filmed using a(n old) Bushnell trail camera in the last week of April 2017.

 

The pair seem to be nesting in a box that was originally designed for barn owls but has had little owls nesting in it a few years ago (which I also filmed).

I don’t think the female kestrel is laying eggs at present, but she may be. The two kestrels are certainly mating often each day and I’m lucky enough to have captured their “routine” several times with this trail camera.

The “mating cattle shelter” (on the roof of which my trail camera is placed) is a few dozen yards from their next box in a large oak tree, in the middle of an arable field.

There are hares in this field as well as roe deer and red-legged partridge. A roe buck and three hinds regularly shelter under the roof of this cattle shelter and last week I noticed three mandarin ducks (well… two ducks and one resplendent drake) roosting on the shelter roof too. Unfortunately, my trail camera didn’t record any footage of these birds as they sat directly behind the infra-red sensors.

The clips below show the general mating routine of this pair of kestrels.

You may need to double-click each clip to bring about a full screen format of each video.

 

This is the (wild) breeding female kestrel I'm filming this year. A smidge larger than her mate, with more camouflaged plumage (a striped brown(ish) tail and a duller, mottled head unlike the male's blue-grey head and grey tail with very few cross bars).

 

 

 

 

... and this is the male. A tad smaller than his mate but as is often the case in birds, a bit more colourful in plumage (blue-grey head and grey tail) than the female who often has to sit on the nest and stay put, as out-of-sight as can-be to predators.

 

Step 1 - the male kestrel (foreground of this video) brings in a field vole to the barn roof and calls the female in (if she's not there already).

She takes the vole and begins to eat.

 

NB. The dates and times imprinted on these short video clips are accurate but ignore them in this sequence as I'm uploading a select few over a few days to show the mating protocol in its entirety using different clips from different days).

 

 

 

Mating process Step 2 - She devours the vole. He preens, nearby.

 

Mating process step 3.

Another example of the female swallowing the vole (almost whole this time) as the male sits nearby and preens. She often calls him over to mate when she has finished eating.

 

 

Mating process step 4 -

Sometimes the female evacuates her bowels (well... her cloaca anyway) in readiness for mating.

The male... errr... still preens.

 

 

Mating procedure. Step 5.

The male jumps on his mate.

Mating occurs.

 

 

Mating process step 5 (or not) -

 

Sometimes the male doesn't seem interested or seems to get confused. More often than not, he mounts his mate, but occasionally, this happens...

Another chance to see my original close-up HD footage of these two kestrels mate a fortnight or so ago (using another trail camera with a close-up filter attached to the basic lens).

No privacy when I'm around. None at all.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) kestrel https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/5/more-kestrels-manoeuvre-in-the-park Mon, 01 May 2017 08:59:46 GMT
Kestrels mating. Close-up HD video. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/4/kestrels-mating-close-up-hd-video  

I know, I know... the photo on the front page of this blog post isn't of kestrels but of red kites, innit? You're right, but I've not got decent photos of kestrels whereas I have of red kites. (How ridiculous is that to admit - but it's true - these days red kites are FAR more common 'round theez 'ere parrz  than "windhovers").

Anyway... I digress...

 

As an aside to “800 yards of ‘mac”, which I blog about each month, I thought I’d quickly bring you a few 30 second videos of a pair of kestrels I’ve been filming – all shot within a few hundred yards of the strip of country road I write about.

 

These kestrels have set up a territory in what used to be little owl ville – regular visitors to this site may in fact remember the barn I videoed the little owls on appears again in these clips – it’s the same barn after all.

The little owls are still around (I regularly still see them), but they’re not obviously nesting in one of the three nest boxes put up in the three large oak trees next to this barn.

This year, the kestrels have taken over!

 

In fact, some of you may well remember that whilst I was shooting little owls a few years ago (I filmed them breeding in 2012, 2013 and 2014) I also took the video below of the female kestrel mobbing one of our adult owls before it bred.

As I filmed this five years ago, I’d suspect that the female kestrel I filmed yesterday is NOT the same bird as in this clip (kestrels often don’t live to two years old let alone five or six or seven although they can live into their early teens) but it may be I suppose – there’s no way of telling.

 

I’m particularly fond of owls (any type) so took great delight in finding and filming a pair of successfully-breeding little owls a few years ago – and would love to do so again… but kestrels are very pretty raptors, in a little trouble, population-wise – and are of course native to our shores, unlike the little owl – so I’m certainly very happy to film kestrels instead of owls this year.

On my walk through the farm yesterday I watched the kestrels from a few hundred yards away with a pair of binoculars, as my trail camera, already in place, two feet (yes, only two feet) from one of their favourite perches, rattled off 45 clips for me between 0530 in the morning and 1930 at night.

Luckily for me I’d set up the trail camera in pretty-well exactly the right spot to film the two adult kestrels mating – which they did at least twice during the day (once at 1135 - which I watched through binoculars from the field edge and at 1910 which I wasn’t there to see, but the trail camera filmed for me anyway).

In each mating, the male would fly in, give his mate a vole to eat, give her ten minutes to eat it (he’d sit out of shot, preening) and then jump on her for a bit of ‘ows yer farther?

For the clips above (this year), I used my newer trail camera with a close-up filter screwed into the main lens. This allows to me to focus on small things (smaller than kestrels ideally - it’s designed for blue tits rather than kestrels!) at a distance of between two and three feet ONLY.

This comes at a cost though – footage doesn’t come with a sense of surroundings; the birds HAVE to be on the EXACT spot the camera needs them to be in focus and they HAVE to STAY there.

Fine for static animals – but quite difficult to guarantee birds behaving so predictably (birds live in a very 3D world and can perch anywhere whereas us lowly mammals exist in a far more predictable 2D (if you see what I mean?) world.

Well... I certainly got lucky with the site I chose for the close-up camera, but I’ve now taken that camera down and replaced with my older trail camera which does not have a close-up lens and can focus on flighty critters at several spots in front of the lens as long as the subject(s) is(are) at least 8 feet from the trail camera.

All my little owl clips were shot with the old trail camera – you can see them all here – you’ll also note that the owls seem much further away in those clips than the kestrels in today’s clips – well… they are I suppose – 9 feet rather than 2!

 

I’ve waffled on enough. This was meant to be just a tiny sentence or two and a few clips to show you our beautiful pair of dashing kestrels gittin’ in awwwn at the local farm.

Have a lovely weekend grapple fans.

Catch you soon.

 

(Please note, with all the clips above, especially the you tube clips, please change your you tube settings (when playing the clip) to the highest quality to view the videos as they’re all shot in at least 720 pixel format, if not 1080).

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) kestrel https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/4/kestrels-mating-close-up-hd-video Sat, 22 Apr 2017 07:19:18 GMT
Horny nuthatches. Use your ears. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/4/horny-nuthatches-use-your-ears Regular readers (pl?) of my errr… “work” may know that I’m always banging on about “using your eyes” as it never fails to amaze me just how awful most people are at REALLY doing just that.

 

I’m regularly just-as-amazed at just how poorly most people listen to things too. Well… listen to and hear things and at these times I’m reminded that it’s not just our eyes we should use (if we’re fortunate enough to have a pair of half-decent eyes that is) but also our ears.

 

Throughout my life I’ve met (many) people who’ve told me that they’ve never or rarely seen a kingfisher / goldcrest / nuthatch / sparrowhawk / bullfinch (delete where applicable) and why or how do I manage to see so many?

 

It’s often in the hearing first rather than seeing and a recent event has confirmed that to me.

 

My wife, son and I were walking through Windsor a fortnight ago – a few hours showing Ben where our special ruler with her special blood lives in her special castle overlooking her not-so-special subjects below in the town. (You’re correct… I’m certainly no monarchist and one day desperately hope that we as a collection of people will grow up out of our “Dungeons and dragons” obsession and realise that we’re a little more evolved these days than to seriously allow Kings, Queens, Dukes, Princes and Princesses into modern society because what… their special blood? Whilst we are ruled by these poor sods, do the servile Monarchists amongst us still fear dragons and goblins and orcs?!).

I do remember a time before I sprouted secondary sexual characteristics that castles and crowns and bearskins interested me, so I thought I’d give the boy some of that naïve joy of youth too.

 

Annnnnywaaay, we soon realised that it was waaaay too expensive to get in to the castle proper and therefore the boy would NOT actually be getting to meet the Queen (see photo below) who was actually there at the time (said a jovial copper to us as he held his semi-automatic proudly).

The Queen, in Windsor Castle.The Queen, in Windsor Castle.

 

Disappointed, with our pox-scarred chins bowed onto our filthy smocks and followed by a cloud of flies we shuffled away from the castle, like the stinking rag-clad peasants we are and headed into town for some gruel and maybe a crust of bread if our search of the roadside drains proved lucky.

 

On shuffling past the church, outside which a rosy-cheeked, well-fed cleric shooed away the lepers and insane, I heard a strange avian noise coming from a large tree in the church’s graveyard.

 

It sounded like a young bird perhaps, calling for its parents. But not in early April and not in a (still) bare tree?

 

I’m pretty-good with bird calls (see below) but for the life of me I didn’t know what this bird was, so I asked Anna to wait for a second whilst I pushed past the sweaty priest to get into his graveyard to see just what this bird was!

 

About thirty seconds later I had my answer – a nuthatch, bold as you like was re-plastering up an old nest hole in a large branch of a big tree and before she (he?) set off again to grab some more plastering mud, she (he?) would belt out a mating call – and THAT was the sound I had heard from the cobbled streets below the church.

I made a mental note of that sound, what a nuthatch engaged in that behaviour (attracting a mate) sounds like, threw the priest a groat for his time and caught up with my wife and boy.

 

Now… since then, two weeks have passed and I’m hearing nuthatches EVERYWHERE!

 

I was walking to my local accountants (turf accountants that is, of course) to place a wager on the Grand National a week after my Windsor nuthatch moment, heard the same sound, went looking and there we had it – another nuthatch, 200 yards from the house!

 

On opening a bedroom window for some air t’other day I heard the same sound coming from a big ash tree at the end of our garden (just the other side of the fence) – another nuthatch!

 

I’ve stopped following the sound to confirm my identification now as it’s obviously a nuthatch I’m hearing - the sound is that unique!

 

The point of all this wittering I suppose, is that I don’t know if I’d previously learned what a horny nuthatch sounded like (and forgotten what I had heard), but I had now certainly taken the time to learn what a horny nuthatch sounds like and I don’t think I’ll forget this in a hurry.

 

 

I’m now hearing (and therefore seeing, if I wanted to) lots of nuthatches – something I wasn’t doing a month ago or a year ago, or in fact ever before.

 

It’s amazing what you can see, you know, if you know what you’re hearing (or listening to) first.

 

Let’s take a few more of that “kingfisher / goldcrest / nuthatch / sparrowhawk / bullfinch” list above.

 

Lots of people have remarked to me that they rarely see kingfishers, even though they may have spent several decades walking along rivers or canals.

It’s difficult for me to understand this really, as kingfishers, small as they are, actually announce their presence to anyone interested enough to want to see them.  Seeing them is a piece of cake and it’s not as if they sometimes announce their presence either – they ALWAYS do so! Like I green woodpecker that sometimes audibly “yaffles” its way into the sky from a tree trunk, a kingfisher will start one of its rapid, low flights up a river by peeping, very loudly, like a wee intercity 125 – and then, very often continue to peep during its flight. Learn what this kingfisher call sounds like (watch the short video below if you like) and when you hear it, stop and scan the water surface from a foot above the water to about five foot above the water, and within seconds a tiny neon-coloured bird will belt past you.

E V E R Y….. T I M E!

 

 

That’s the kingfisher, what about the goldcrest?

Goldcrests, like their gold cousins, the goldfinches, seem to be becoming more and more common in gardens these days. One could reasonably assume that this is a result of our obsession in the ‘80s and perhaps the ‘90s, for planting leylandii firs in our gardens – goldcrests like mature evergreens!

 

Goldcrests may well be in your gurt-big leylandii, but as they’re only the size of a pin head (or something) and only weigh the same as a mouse’s left testicle (or something), then how can you be sure?


LISTEN TO THE TREE.

 

Bill Oddie once described the sound of a chaffinch singing as similar to a fast bowler taking a run up and delivering a fast ball! Again, rather like the monarchy I fear, I’m no fan of the poison dwarf Oddie, but his description of a chaffinch song is spot on in my opinion!

 

 

Well… the goldcrest, to me, sounds a bit like a fast bowler too, albeit a sort of young, lanky fast bowler with a lolloping run up to the wicket before delivering the googly.

 

 

You may think the chaffinch and the goldcrest sound nothing like each other and certainly nothing like fast bowlers, but they may sound like something else to you. Remember that something else!

 

When you’ve remembered what a male goldcrest singing sounds like, believe me, you’ll hear them everywhere you go. EVERYWHERE there’s a fir tree, a leylandii or anything coniferous to be honest – you’ll hear ‘em, and you’ll be able to point them out to people who say they never see them!

 

We have goldcrests in our three leylandii in our back garden and I suppose I’ve learned what these delightful wee birds sound like because they, like wrens, LOUDLY BELT OUT their song for months and months!  Our three leylandii sit outside our lavatory window (I know you’d want to know that) and each time we ablute, we can listen to our goldcrest singing outside the window and pretend we’re sitting on a throne in paradise. Which… of course we are, grapple fans.

I’ve dealt with nuthatch above, so let’s finish with sparrowhawk.

 

Sparrowhawks, being ambush predators, are very often silent. Sure, they make a pretty distinctive call when they want to (look on YouTube for that – there’s bound to be a clip somewhere) but I’ve seen most of my sparrowhawks by listening to other birds.

 

Before I was old, fat, arthritic, knackered and married with child, I was once living in an HMO (house of mixed occupancy) on the northern side of the valley of High Wycombe. I had the use of a double room facing south, with quite a nice view over the gardens of High Wycombe in the valley below.

 

For many months in my early twenties, I used to while away the hours by my window, write poems of love and play my lute  (cough) whilst watching the birds in the big sky over the sleep hamlet of Wycombe. (I was a baker by trade and worked nights so often had mornings by my window, watching birds before turning in for the day!).

 

It was during these “lost months” that I learned to appreciate the “HAWK!!!!” alarm calls of starlings in particular, but also great and blue tits, sparrows and collared doves.

 

I literally used to watch birds explode out of successive gardens in the valley below, as a hawk powered through each garden like a heat-seeking missile, intent on grabbing any bird slow to react. I didn’t see the hawk itself unless it flew through our HMO garden at the top of the valley, having not nabbed a meal below. But this regularly happened and it was then that I put two and two together and realised the sight of these alarmed birds was joined by very distinct alarm calls made by the same birds.

 

In fact, brave starlings would often mob the hawk if it rose into the sky, all the time shrieking their “HAWK!!!” alarm.

 

So distinctive is the little bird “HAWK!” alarm call (especially from starlings these days – in fact I think I can tell the difference between a starling “HAWK!” alarm and a starling “PEREGRINE!!!” alarm, that I regularly surprise (and bemuse?!) people I’m with on walks or with in the back garden (ours or theirs).

 

We’ll be talking about something or other (perhaps about Bill Oddie or the Monarchy?), I’ll suddenly stop and say “STOP. HAWK! Starrrrrrrt loooooooking……”

Within seconds a hawk will fly by us all and those not used to my weird Doolittle ways will wonder how on earth I’ve managed to do what I’ve just done!

 

The answer is straightforward though. Forty odd years arseing about in the countryside looking at and listening to things.

 

For various reasons (some a blessing, some a real curse) I’m FAR more aware than anyone I know (I’m hyper-aware – always have been) and because of my interest in natural history, I’ve taken the time (LOTS of time!) to learn what some birds sound like so I know what’s around me without actually seeing any of it.

 

I’ve been able to show people hawks and kingfishers for decades now, purely by keeping my ears well and truly pricked whilst outside. Goldcrests have been a relatively recent addition to my repertoire (last 5 years I suppose) and in the last three weeks, I can add horny nuthatches to the compilation album.

 

Yes… it’s important to use your eyes, but in many cases, that only comes after using your lug ‘oles.

 

Use your ears, grapple fans. Then your eyes.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) ears goldcrest kingfisher nuthatch sparrowhawk https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/4/horny-nuthatches-use-your-ears Tue, 18 Apr 2017 16:10:19 GMT
800 yards of ‘mac. 6) April. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/4/800-yards-of-mac-6-april 6 months in.

 

I know, April isn’t six months in to a calendar year is it, but as I started “800 yards of ‘mac” last November (not this January), we are indeed 6 months into this 12-month long project – halfway through!

Previous 800 yards of 'mac blog posts can be found by clicking the links below:

800 yards of 'mac. 5) March.

800 yards of 'mac. 4) February.

800 yards of 'mac. 3) January.

800 yards of 'mac. 2) December.

800 yards of 'mac. 1) November.

 

There were quite a few signs of life stirring in March along the 800 yards, but April has brought with it a veritable explosion of activity, as it always does.

The flowers have erupted from the road verges (mouse ear, bluebells, wood anemones and celandines in photographic order below)

The trees/bushes along the 800 yards have either blossomed and are now beginning to leaf (blackthorn in the photo below with my old car) …

…or started to bud and leaf in earnest now, like the huge, gnarled oaks (see photo below with my new car in the distance) which line the 800 yards and give the bigger birds (owls, woodpeckers, jackdaws etc) somewhere to rest and perhaps nest.

I love the appearance of blackthorn (sloe) blossom. It coats our hedges all over the country in April, and is never hidden by foliage as happens with its sister, hawthorn. Someone has given each blackthorn bush or hedge a thick dusting in icing sugar I think each April, a dusting which only seems to last about a week, but a spectacular week it is, each April. As soon as an April wind blows, the blackthorn blossom gets blown off the hedges and bushes and it feels like you’re walking or driving through light snow when that happens.

Enough of plants – what about the animals along the 800 yards?

Well… the barn owls are still in their hollow stump. I mention this with a little caution as for about 10 days (up until yesterday in fact and I write this on the 13th April), I thought they’d left as I’d not seen them since the first few days of the month.

To be honest I expect them to leave for the summer. This has happened before – I see a barn owl in this stump all winter and as soon as the breeding season properly starts – it disappears for months. The stump is not a great spot to breed and raise young (as it’s RIGHT on the road) so I’d almost prefer it if they did leave to raise a family.

That all said, I’ve not seen BOTH owls in the stump for some time now. I assume they’re still together (I don’t think owls would pair up in such a spot (surrounded by other, very suitable roosts) if they weren’t intent on mating) but I’m not 100% sure.

Anyway… I know at least one barn owl is still in the stump and I assume both still are -  in which case there’s now a chance the female is sitting on eggs perhaps?!

The photo below shows the 800 yards at night – a time when I’m often driving or walking down it, looking for owls.

I’ve located yet another barn owl in the area on my “wildlife drives”, but not on the 800 yards itself. About a mile away from the stump, in a new, large, owl nest box put up quite deliberately (it looks like) to attract barn owls. The box is quite well hidden (about a quarter of a mile away from a road) but my eagle (owl?) eyes spotted it a few days ago, I watched it at dusk and sure enough, out flew a barn owl! Rather like the stump owl(s?), I’m not sure if there was another owl sitting on eggs at the bottom of the box – but I only saw one leave the box at dusk. Anyhoo, great news and I think that makes FOUR barn owls I’ve found in the local countryside near our house in the last five years – not bad going.

Back to the 800 yards now and whilst I haven’t seen the little owls for a month or two (although I think I know where they’ve gone too!) I’m happy to say that a pair of kestrels have set up shop in one of the nest boxes just off the road. In the photo below you’ll have trouble making out the kestrel in the shot (it’s the female and its sitting in the middle of the top of the cattle shelter) but you’ll just have to take my word for it.

Pretty little falcons, kestrels, once very common indeed but now far less so – so I’m more than happy to drop little owls this year for a pair of dashing falcons – I may even get ‘round to filming these birds this year (rather than little owls) if they stick around.

The video below was shot about 5 years ago by me, and shows a female kestrel (perhaps the current bird) mobbing one of the adult little owls I was filming at the time, on top of the same cattle shelter. Watch the whole (very short!) video as I've slowed the last part down to 10% speed to clearly show viewers both the owl and falcon.

 

Back to the photo above that short video clip from five years ago and I'm sure the eagle (falcon?) eyed amongst you will have noticed two roe deer in the image - although you’ll now be hurt to hear that actually there are three deer in that shot and your eyes aren’t as good as you thought they were!

The roe deer are always around the 800 yards of ‘mac and I always enjoy gazing at them. I still think they’re the most beautiful wild mammal in Britain. It’ll only be a month or two and the deer will be dropping foals into long grass in fields near the 800 yards, after about 5 months of gestation.

The buzzards are still around the road too – picking off something tasty from the first few of the 800 yards in this video, shot a couple of days ago, from the car.

April 11th 2017 gave us the April full moon, or pink moon as some people call it. Not because its pink in colour in April (although the photo below of the full moon, shot from the 800 yards of ‘mac, indeed shows a pink(ish!) moon) but because the April full moon coincided in North America with the blooming of (pink) wild ground phlox, or pink moss.

Other people call the April full moon the “egg moon” – for more obvious reasons and once again, along the 800 yards of ‘mac, in this month, life seems to be being re-born, everywhere I l peer.

Even the resident honeybee colony, which has been present in the same hole in the same tree along the 800 yards is being re-born at present. Not in the same knot-hole as they’ve been for the past five years, but now, weirdly, at the base of the same tree, in amongst the brambles. I can’t see an opening into this tree (which is FAR from dead) at the base of the tree, but I assume these bees have found one. I do hope they stick around, although I can’t help thinking they’ll move off when these very thick brambles grow and leaf properly, effectively making their entrance and exit flights from their tree-based colony far more difficult and energy-consuming. We’ll see.

Finally, in this April update, I’ve noticed several female toads on the move across the 800 yards of ‘mac, too. These will be the big females that have laid their strings of spawn in traditional breeding ponds in and lakes in March and are now hot-footing (well… crawling slowly) back to their woodland homes. (Toads are creatures of woodland really, not ponds). Do keep your eyes peeled for these lovely wee things – they may have done their bit for the circle of life, but it’d be a real shame to die on the way back to their wood, under one of your Bridgestones, eh?

OK, that’s all for April. I’ll try and establish whether we still have two barn owls in the stump, I’ll keep my eyes on the breeding kestrels, foaling-deer, nesting-buzzards and relocating-bees and catch you again for the May update of “800 yards…” in a month.

Before then 'though - and if I get 'round to it, I'd like to briefly blog twice - about nuthatches and the importance of listening when watching (or seeing!) birds and also a review of my new car (traditional on this errr... "wildlife blog" it seems).

Catch you very soon.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 800 yards of 'mac barn owl bluebell buzzard celandine honeybee kestrel mouse ear roe deer toad wood anemone https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/4/800-yards-of-mac-6-april Thu, 13 Apr 2017 07:03:14 GMT
Full (frame) circle. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/3/full-frame-circle I first started taking photographs in the late ‘80s with a second-hand Olympus OM-10 film camera (ahhhh film… those were the days!).

This was a “full frame” (of course, as it was a film) camera, meaning each film frame was 24mm by 36mm.

To be honest, shortly after buying that old, second-hand camera and taking shots of a few birds and stars (I distinctly remember taking shots of the Andromeda Galaxy with it) I probably discovered the err… non-feathered type of birds and headed off to University, having sold my Olympus OM10 for beer money I expect.

I don’t think I took up photography again in any serious way until the noughties, at about the time I hooked up with a woman called Anna, who’s now my (long-suffering) beautiful wife.

We lived in London for a short while, but it wasn’t until we moved to Reading in about 2006 (we've since moved twice) that I thought I’d like to learn as much as I can about invertebrates (I’m not sure why) so used my old Sony Ericsson Cybershot mobile phone (certainly not a smart phone!) to take photos of everything and anything six or eight-legged I saw and then document all my findings on various blogs (especially “Blue-Grey” in 2007).

The Sony Ericsson phone had a pretty good camera for an early camera phone, with “macro” capability (even though strictly speaking it was far from 1:1 macro) so it made a quite portable camera for someone like me.

The shot below was probably one of the best I took with my Sony Ericsson mobile phone in our garden.

In 2008 I contacted a fellow wildlife-enthusiast, Mark, via a website called “Wild About Britain” (which I would like to recommend, but can’t (at all – it was a bleedin' awful site)) to ask him about the camera that he used to take shots of his local wildlife (I remember some exquisite photographs of red squirrels and roe deer he’d taken).

Mark got me thinking about Panasonic Lumix Bridge cameras and I bought three eventually – an FZ20, an FZ30 (off Mark himself) and then finally in around 2010, an FZ50, which I still use regularly today and still regard it to be the best bridge camera ever made, at least by Panasonic, if not any company.

These little bridge cameras were SUPERB (mainly thanks to their fixed Leica lens) and I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of my FZ50 – if for nothing else, its macro capabilities with a dirt-cheap (£15) Raynox DCR 150 filter clipped onto the end of the fixed Leica lens.

The combination of Raynox, Leica and Panasonic meant I completely maxed-out this camera’s capabilities. I pushed the tiny Panasonic Bridge cameras to their maximum capability and then some.

The Panasonic bridge cameras I so loved were limited in two (main) ways – 1: the battery life was abysmal (I could take perhaps 100 photos with a fully-charged battery if I was lucky) and the ISO (digital “film speed”) performance and IQ (image quality) was truly awful. Bear in mind that the digital sensor in these Panasonic bridge cameras is about THIRTY TIMES SMALLER than the full frame of each frame of film in my old Olympus OM10 (therefore perhaps thirty times LESS light is hitting the digital sensor of the Panasonic bridge camera as hit the film of the old Olympus OM10)!

That said I’d always recommend bridge cameras to interested parties – and have done twice, relatively recently. They have two main limitations but many more pluses!

There are MANY shots still on this “DmackDimages” website which have been taken by me using the Panasonic bridge cameras (almost certainly the FZ50 or perhaps my first Panasonic, the FZ20) and indeed I won awards for several of my Panasonic bridge shots. It was always nice that, to turn up to awards ceremonies knowing that I was the only one there (or one of the very few) who had taken their winning or commended shot on a cheap bridge camera, whereas 99% of everyone else had used a “proper” DSLR and expensive lens costing perhaps thousands and thousands of pounds!

BWPA highly commended 2009 - Feather-footed flower beeBWPA highly commended 2009 - Feather-footed flower bee

BWPA acknowledged 2010 - cabbage white butterflyBWPA acknowledged 2010 - cabbage white butterfly

I did feel slightly limited by the two drawbacks of the Panasonic bridge cameras though and so decided to buy my first DSLR in about 2010 or 2011 – a second-hand (again!) Canon 40D with an expensive lens (a 70-200 F4 IS).

At the time, everyone around me (well… those that were getting into photography) seemed to be buying the Nikon D90 but true to form I chose my own path. I did so primarily because despite the Nikon D90 sensor being clearly better than the sensor on the Canon 40D (and therefore the IQ was better on Nikon images than Canon’s), the Canon “ecosystem” (as they called it, the lenses and accessories etc) was far cheaper and far more comprehensive – at least in terms of things I saw myself needing in the future to keep my interest in photography keen.

I’ve spent perhaps five years or so taking photographs with my 40D and added 2 more lenses to assist in that process - a 10-22 wide angle lens and a 50mm f1.8 portrait lens.

During those 4 years, my expensive 70-200 F4 IS lens has broken (I’m sure it’s fixable – I just haven’t got ‘round to sending it off to Canon yet) but the rest (other than the FZ50 and FZ20) of the shots (as I type) on this website are almost certainly taken with the 40D DSLR.

It is a great DSLR albeit a bit long in the tooth these days and was a great introduction for me into “proper” digital photography. It also produced another award for me in 2011 with, to this day, my most controversial shot.

I used to be known (in photography and wildlife circles) as a “macro photographer”, but for a while at least I was instead known as the bloke who’d taken that tabby cat and blackbird shot as well as that bloke who took that shot of the flying white bat shot. Both these shots are on this website and both were taken with the 40D and the 70-200 lens.

BWPA highly commended 2011 - Tabby cat with nestlingBWPA highly commended 2011 - Tabby cat with nestling

Heavily leucistic batHeavily leucistic bat

 

The IQ of the 40D was certainly a HUGE step up from the Panasonic FZ bridge cameras I’d been using (because of the sensor that was over eight times as large!), as was the battery life (I could get perhaps 1000 shots from one battery charge instead of 100 if I was lucky). I added a battery grip to the 40D (see the shot below) which as well as unfortunately increasing the size and weight of the camera, also increased that battery life to perhaps a full week of heavy shooting – I’d have had needed 15 or 20 batteries in my old bridge camera to have matched that!

A few things made me think I needed to upgrade from my Canon 40D.

The first was on holiday in rural Turkey (a few years ago now) when I wanted to take shots of the milky way – and did so – but found that even with a sensor eight and a half times as big on my 40D as my old bridge cameras, I couldn’t quite do what I’d envisaged. Or not easily anyway.

The second was having my first child (well. my wife having our first child… you know what I mean!) which meant I was often wanting to take indoor or low light shots of humans (or a baby!) without flash etc, rather than sitting in a hedge for a day with a lens trained on an owl roost, or taking macro shots of butterfly faces etc - I didn't (sadly don't!) have time for that stuff any more!

Last December I took the shot below of our son with his 4th birthday cake, lit only by one candle in a dark room, without a flash (I knew what effect I wanted and a flash was out of the question). Now the 40D or any APS-C camera (with a sensor about 2.5x smaller than a full frame camera) is really not designed for taking such images. Several of our friends after seeing that image have remarked on “how good it (the shot) is” and how “I must have a very good camera”.  

Many photographers (pro or otherwise) will know exactly how I feel when hearing that sort of stuff. It’s not the camera that takes the shot – it’s the photographer – and with this shot below, I was pushing the old 40D to beyond what it should be capable of shooting. Five years of messing around on manual mode (I’m NEVER in auto mode on any DSLR) and the experience that gave me resulted in the shot below. Nothing else. But with a full-frame camera, the shot could have been SO much easier and SO much better, I think. Taking the shot below with a full frame camera would have meant 20 or 30 useable shots of Ben and the cake, from 20-30 shots. But at the time of shooting the image below, I didn’t have a full frame camera, I shot the photograph a good two dozen times and only ONCE did I get a useable shot – the shot below!

The third thing (making me really consider an upgrade) was the fact that full frame cameras (with sensors over two and a half times bigger than my 40D sensor) have been dramatically dropping in price over the past few years.

Ten years ago, you’d have needed a second mortgage to buy a pretty-basic full frame DSLR. Or you’d need someone to buy it for you (i.e. you’d have needed to be a professional photographer). But now, you can pick up a far more advanced full frame DSLR for a half-decent sum of money rather than an eye-watering sum.

 

I made the decision pretty quickly eventually and three weeks ago found an ad for a Canon 6D DSLR for a reasonable price just around the corner.

After seeing it twice, testing it in detail (looking at the sensor, lens codes etc) I decided to buy it (and the accompanying lens – a 24-105 F4 IS L) – so I’m now a proud owner of my second full frame camera. My second, as my first was my full frame film camera in the late ‘80s – the Olympus OM10. This is my second full frame camera then, but my first full frame digital camera.

I’m not going to review it here, at least not yet, as I’m still trying to get to grips with it. It may be a Canon DSLR but the “operating system” is a little different to my old Canon 40D so I need to again start to work out which buttons to press and when, without thinking about it – and that’ll take a wee while.

What I will say is that it is smaller and heavier than my old 40D (although bear in mind that in the photo below with the 6D in the middle and the 40D on the left, the 40D does have a huge great grip on it which makes it look HUGE), but probably far more capable.

Its sensor is over two and half times the size of the sensor on the 40D, it has twice as many pixels – and those two facts mean the pixel pitch or size of the pixels (SO important!) is markedly bigger on the 6D too. That said, it also has double the resolution of the 40D. It doesn’t have a built-in flash (I’ll have to buy an external flash then), doesn’t accept my old 40D CF card (so I’ve had to buy a new SD card) and won’t accept the old 40D batteries or battery grip (new ones needed again then!).

Full frame digital photography, which I suppose is what I’m doing from now on, when I’m not taking insect close-ups with the FZ50) is a little different to APS-C or micro 4/3 or bridge or point and shoot or camera phone photography. I’ll not be as zoomed in as I have been with my 40D and the depth of field on my 6D is very small indeed – but that’s a plus I think.

I’m going to have a lot of fun with my new (old!) camera and before too long, I’m sure I’ll be adding to the images on this website (other than images on blog posts) that are taken by me with my new (old!) 6D.

Perhaps Anna and I (and Ben this time!) can return to Cirali to take a proper shot of the milky way there– with my full frame camera (and a suitable lens which I’ve already identified!) giving me everything I need, this time.

Just maybe!

So…Thirty years ago I was pointing a full frame (film) camera towards the night sky and now, thirty years on… I’ve gone full (frame) circle and will be once again pointing a full frame (digital) camera towards the night sky.

 

TBR

 

 

NB. At the time of writing this blog post, the zenfolio-based website seems to be experiencing all manner of problems, meaning you'll not be able to see some of the images on this blog post or indeed this website. Apologies on behalf of all at Zenfolio for a pretty poor service at this time.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 40D 6D Canon FZ20 FZ30 FZ50 OM10 Olympus Panasonic Sony Ericsson cameras https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/3/full-frame-circle Sun, 19 Mar 2017 15:00:17 GMT
800 yards of 'mac. 5) March https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/3/800-yards-of-mac-5-march  Pairing up.

 

 

We’re now racing towards the light (of Spring) at the end of the (Winter) tunnel* and it’s all happening along the 800 yards of ‘mac.

*Which may explain the seemingly random photo on this blog's header page?

Truth be told, I’d noticed the honeybees take their first shaky late-Winter flights (from their home in a tree halfway along the 800 yards) in the last week of February but now they’re emerging in good numbers. One assumes they’re getting their scran from the earliest of flowers – crocuses etc.

The honey bees have been living in this tree for at least 5 years now (my eagle-eyed wife spotted them first a few years ago on a drive-by) and don’t look like leaving any time soon. I’ll get a photo in the Spring proper (or perhaps Summer).

I've NOT been noticing the omnipresent (for months now) flocks of fieldfare at the farm and alongside the 800 yards of 'mac, so it's fair to say they all hopped on those strong westerlies in the first week of the month and started hot-footing it back to Scandinavia to pair and breed. Always a little earlier to depart than their daintier cousins, the redwing - but they're off quickly now too. Very often I will hear and see the last redwing head orf East on the same day as I see my first swallow of the year (invariably the last few days of March if I'm lucky and looking).

The bullfinches that are often hidden in blackthorn bushes along the 800 yards have paired up too, although to be truthful again, if I had to name one “songbird” that I ALWAYS see in pairs (at any time of year), rather than singly or in flocks, I’d say bullfinches. They’re spectacular birds (well… the male is anyway) and I’m always pleased to see them, especially as I still work with a few old boys who were PAID to SHOOT THEM (paid by the finch as it ‘appens) in the ‘60s (as they stripped orchards of their buds, so they did).

The larks are starting to pair up now – the males are rocketing into the blustery late-Winter skies and parachuting down towards the stubble, belting out their joyful song as they do, with a view to attracting a mate ASAP. Breeding is a risky activity at the best of times, but if you’re a male lark, fannying-around in the sky, singing non-stop – then you’re just ASKING to be predated by a passing merlin etc.

Below is a clip of Vaughan William’s lark ascending which I like to listen to occasionally at this time of year – it gets me motivated to go and hear the real thing.

 

Below is a video I shot with my phone (apologies for the poor sound quality) of one of the larks alongside the 800 yards of ‘mac, doing its bid-nid. Again, I’ll try and get a better video as Spring progresses – the eagle eyed amongst you may just spot this randy skylark as a fluttering dot in the sky, in the lower middle of the video frame.

Another bird that I often see along the 800 yards of ‘mac is the red-legged partridge, or Frenchman. I’ve not seen any partridges for what feels like years but is probably months on the 800 yards, but this month I’m seeing them more and more – and all in pairs already!

Below is a video at least in part of a Frenchman getting all pissy with my trail camera when I was filming the breeding little owls alongside the 800 yards of ‘mac five years ago.

 

Owl (and partridge!) watch - 20th June 2012

It’s also nice to see (as I did yesterday) the most beautiful wild mammal in Britain pairing up in the hedges surrounding the 800 yards of ‘mac. Two stunning roe deer (a young buck and a doe) froze in a field as I walked by yesterday and I’m always bowled over by their beauty.

So… the deer and partridge are pairing up. As are the larks and the bullfinches. Even the winter thrushes are off en masse to pair up back in Scandinavia now. But there’s one other bird that’s paired up in the last few days… and I am VERY excited about this pair, in particular.

I’m regularly walking up and down the 800 yards of ‘mac as a warm down (well… cool down I suppose) after my cycling reps which are meant to make my buggered back stronger. These walks often happen as dusk falls. The video below shows one such walk along 600 yards of so of the 800 yards of ‘mac and was shot in the first few days of March.

At the end of February, I was on such a dusk walk and I became very aware of two barn owls chasing each other down and across the road and around the fields by the 800 yards of ‘mac – right in front of me.

Now I’ve seen THREE barn owls at one time on this road and seen two roost together in their favourite hollow tree a few years ago, but the sight and sound of two ghostly owls on the road that evening (sound really… it was too dark to see much) was superb.

Fast forward a few days and a walk past the barn owl’s favourite roost (I know of at least FOUR hollow trees they roost in along the road but this one is their fave) and I saw TWO barn owls peering out from their secret hidey-hole!

This IS SUPERB NEWS! I assume that if two adult owls start roosting together in March, they are looking to breed? I add the question mark as I certainly have seen two barn owls in this roost before and they didn’t breed then. NB. Barn owls tend only to breed just ONCE in their life – and I’d written this particular barn owl (that frequents this hollow tree on the 800 yards of ‘mac) off as a has bred, won’t breed again, at least two years ago. But was I wrong? Are we about to have baby barn owls on my 800 yards of ‘mac? I hope so!

Please note – I’ve been asked before for photos and videos of the barn owls that I follow. I’m not going to take any (and therefore not going to show you any!) as the barn owl is a Schedule 1 bird, which means you need a licence to photograph or film them, especially at or near their roosts. Now I could obtain a Schedule 1 licence for these barn owls I expect but for now, I just want to watch, from a distance and give them every chance of raising a family, if that’s what they intend to do.

Cross your fingers and toes grapple fans – and hope that I was indeed wrong about the barn owl that I’ve followed for years on this road being an old dog – a non-breeder.

More… I hope… on this in April’s edition of 800 yards of ‘mac.

Catch you in a month....

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 800 yards of 'mac barn owl bullfinch red-legged partridge roe deer skylark https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/3/800-yards-of-mac-5-march Tue, 14 Mar 2017 06:30:00 GMT
Orgy. Orgy. Orgy. Oi. Oi. Oi. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/3/orgy-orgy-orgy-oi-oi-oi “There’s one antidote to gloom and despair that never fails: the wildlife that got us all going in the first place. It’s brilliant, beautiful, bewildering, intriguing and inspiring. We’ll probably do a lot more good if we spend more time outside engaging with it, rather than inside reading about or watching things (on TV) that make us angry….”

 

The ‘phibs are on the move.

On the move to jump into their slimy, boiling, writhing orgies of March.

 

I’ve written about toads on this website before  (five years ago to be exact) so please visit THIS BLOG POST to read about a much-maligned beastie and a real favourite of mine.

About two weeks ago I noticed that the night time temperatures locally were going to remain over 10C for the first time this year – AND we were going to get a little rain overnight – both would mean a certainty of toads moving en masse from their wintering grounds (woodland generally) to their traditional breeding ponds.

The video below (excuse the fruity language) shows my efforts in helping a few of our local toads (and a palmate newt) cross the road on their annual breeding migration.

It’s not just toads though – it’s newts and frogs too – and frogs seem to be spawning a couple of weeks or so earlier in 2017 than 2016, at least in this part of the world.

Our pond is a boiling mass of writhing ranids at present, and last night’s 98% full moon got them singing like their lives depended on it.

The photos below were both shot with my new camera (well… new to me anyway…a 2nd hand full frame 6D). The first photo shows 40 frogs in just part of our pond (the 2nd photo shows how I came to that number by putting a pink circle between the eyes of each frog I could see).

 

I think we probably have double that number of frogs in our pond at present and it really is a very small pond at around 8 feet by 5.

The sharp-eyed amongst you will note that a good number of 'our' frogs are exhibiting clear signs of ranid herpesvirus 2.

I blogged about this disease some time ago too – you can read more about it HERE if you so wish – please do check your own ponds for signs of this disease on your frogs.

Apart from the rampant herpes in our pond, I still think the digging of our own wildlife pond as soon as we moved in 5 years ago has been the most successful addition to our garden in terms of wildlife. A huge success which I’m very proud of.

This year, the boy has suddenly become very interested in the frogs in his garden – which was one of the biggest reasons to dig this pond after all – to get him experiencing, looking at and thinking about wildlife; and we spent a good time yesterday morning counting all the frogs that he could see - I think we got to twelvety.

Everyone who we spoke to when I started digging the pond (when Anna was pregnant) said we were mad – parents of babies and toddlers fill their garden ponds and certainly DON’T DIG THEM!

True to form, I disagreed. Strongly.

The pond is fenced off at present (but that’s mainly to stop hens and herons getting their pesky beaks in, although the ‘phibs can come and go as they please) and Ben will be able to get himself out of a garden pond should he fall in before too long, if he can’t already (pretty sure he can!).

The HUGE advantages (of getting outside and learning about other life forms in his own back garden!) far outweigh any supposed risks I’d argue… until I couldn’t argue anymore and I couldn’t imagine two better parents to teach him all about the wonderful wildlife that surrounds us all.

 

 

Anyway… enough trumpet blowing… the movement of the ‘phibs in March is an exciting, optimistic time of year – Spring is rapidly approaching and we’ve almost made it through another winter!

I hope your ponds are doing as well as ours!

 

TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) frog newt pond toad https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/3/orgy-orgy-orgy-oi-oi-oi Sun, 12 Mar 2017 14:58:08 GMT
800 yards of 'mac. 4) February https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/2/800-yards-of-mac-4-february Starting to stir.

 

I’ve never been a huge fan of February. A miserable month generally; often the coldest of the year, probably the month when any snow is most likely to fall and by this month it often seems like we’ve never felt warm sun on our backs, it's been so long.

But.

February means we’ve pretty well broken the back of winter and February is almost always the month when things… start… stirring again.


It’s not just the magpies, pigeons, owls etc starting to build their nests / defend their territories that starts in February – other things start stirring too.

Plants generally and the omnipresent imbeciles who (EACH AND EVERY YEAR!) announce proudly that they’ve seen daffodils flowering and “that’s SO early” and that “MUST be climate change” yadda, yadda, yadda.

One day they’ll realise that most of these daffodil strains WERE PIGGING BRED TO FLOWER IN WINTER – and they flower each winter… just as they were bred to do.

On the subject of plants though, a stroll today down the 800 yards of ‘mac revealed a good crop of catkins coming through...

 

So what else of the 800 yards of ‘mac this month?

Well… the little owl (reported and photographed last month) has (as I suspected it would) moved on. You don’t really want to build a nest right between two barn owl roosts if you’re a little owl and anyway, there are many, many other suitable nesting trees (gnarly oaks) and even bespoke little owl boxes within half a mile.

The barn owl is still on the 800 yards. Quite often I drive or walk by and see it almost in full view in the middle of the day – seemingly asleep, although once it did peer at me walking by and shuffled back into its hidey-hole like a grumpy old man. (Takes one to know one!).

I've also watched it hunt (from pretty-well exactly the same spot as my trail camera video clip recorded in February 2014) on a couple of nights this month.

(Barn) owl watch 1st Feb 2014

At present it is roosting in this superb, gnarly old oak (the biggest hole in the 2nd photo is jusssst about barn owl size and there is a lovely hollow space in the trunk, just right for a snoozing barn owl.

I’m sure I’ve said this before but I’ve seen three (yes three) barn owls on this road. (How do I know that it wasn’t just one owl that I saw three times? Because I saw ALL THREE in flight at the same time). I’m pretty sure there’s only one owl on the ‘mac right now, but this is one of about half a dozen old trees that these owls regularly roost in.

In case you’re wondering if they’re breeding or not – well… they are… but about half a mile away across the farm in a tall, hollow ash tree. I’m almost certain that 2 of the 800 yards of ‘mac barn owls are the breeding pair (or WERE the breeding pair anyway) at the ash tree.

(NB. I should point out here that barn owls tend to breed only once in their life. Miss that opportunity (as many do for environmental reasons) and that’s that I’m afraid. I’m also pretty sure that the barn owls that I regularly chance across around the ‘mac and greater farm are now non-breeders, although I’d be VERY pleased to be proved wrong on that score this year).

 

What else?

The big chocolate buzzard is almost always on the ‘mac at present. I’ve not seen two buzzards yet this year, but I hope that changes as Spring springs forth. The photo below is of the chocolate buzzard sitting on one of its favourite night time roosts at dusk (photographed from the first 100 yards of the 800 yards of ‘mac).

On my walk today down the ‘mac, it was very obvious that the local redwings were looking to get moving back to Scandinavia soon. These delightful winter thrushes tend to arrive in the autumn at night (“tseeping” overhead in the blackness), then spend the winter here, quite quietly fattening themselves on apples and berries but come mid-February and their behaviour changes somewhat.

Redwings in mid-February start flocking in large, mobile numbers and start “tseeping” (contact calling) manically, during the day. I walked up and down the 800 yards of ‘mac twice today on a glorious late winter day and the trees on either side of the road were constantly filling up and then emptying of mobile, “tseeping” redwings as I walked by.

That reminds me.

February is ALSO generally the month that I start tripping over bullfinches after not really seeing them for a year. There are reasons for this that are pretty obvious really (so I won’t bore you unnecessarily) but true to form, I followed a pair of white-rumped bullfinches down the 800 yards of ‘mac earlier this month. Twice!

I’ve waffled on for long enough. Far too long actually.

It’ll be March (and the REAL “Moving month”) before we know it, but for now I’ll leave you with two more photographs that I’ve taken from the 800 yards of ‘mac this month so far.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 800 yards of 'mac February barn owl bullfinch buzzard catkins fox little owl sheep https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/2/800-yards-of-mac-4-february Mon, 13 Feb 2017 18:09:44 GMT
Waxwings. (I got the poison. I got the remedy. I got the pulsating rhythmical remedy). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/2/waxwings-and-the-prodigy-the-link Regular visitors to this blog may know that I’m effectively in rehab (or recovery I suppose) after herniating a lumbar disc twice on the last day of September 2016.

This basically involves walking about 5 miles a day, swimming about 2 miles a week and static cycling (spinning people call it these days don’t they?) about 5 miles a day at mid resistance (so uphill effectively).

This is taking a huge toll on me – primarily because I’m having trouble sleeping because of the pain, so any exercise doesn't get much "damage recovery" at night. I'm slowly getting better... slowly aching less. I walked past a parked transit van t'other day and thought for the first time in MONTHS... I think I could push that over tonight... rather than thinking I can hardly even walk... so I know I am improving, physically and a little mentally, albeit at snail's pace.

That said, walking for 5 miles a day (I’m on a day off today after walking for over 100 miles in the last month – without a day off at all and my feet and legs are KILLING ME!) does have some advantages.

If I haven’t got my i-pod shuffle headphones in (listening to the prodigy (which may explain the blog title to you, (if not use this hyperlink) to keep me walking quickly) I can listen to the birds flying around the ‘hood.

Last week, last Saturday to be exact, I heard some waxwings tinkling (in a pulsating rhythmical way, cough) away in the tops of some tall birch trees near the house as I walked beneath.

I peered up and yes… 5 waxwings were there.

Very nice!

I hadn’t seen them in this part of the world (or at all for that matter) for a good few years (the photo below and this blog post details that experience in early 2013 - so four years ago now).

The BohemiansThe Bohemians

I walked on (I time my walks and listening to this song as I often do on power walks or workouts (it’s the BEST!) means I’m often on a mission to beat my record time) and as I approached home about 15 minutes later and got nearer an apple tree (detailed in my last blog post) I kept my lug ‘oles and peepers well and truly open for waxwings.

And LO! So it was! The apple tree (near the silver birches) was full of fieldfares AND waxwings (well… 5 waxwings anyway).

Wonderful stuff… such a pretty bird.

I reported the sighting to Berks Bird Club but unfortunately didn’t see them again on further walks that day.

Later in the week however, “my” waxwings were reported feeding from another apples tree in north Bracknell about 500 yards from where I first saw them.

They’ve now been at this alternative apple tree every day for the last few days now – and have drawn quite a crowd of retired male birdwatchers it seems. 

The photo below was taken this morning. I'm not sure if the birdwatchers even knew I was there taking their photo - and I don't think they even noticed the lovely blackbird dancing about in front of them, in a vain bid to take some attention away from the flamboyant waxwings no doubt!

They'll run out of apples there before too long and I hope then they return a few hundred yards west to my 'hood, to feast on a fully-laden cotoneaster bush that I've been watching all winter. To be honest I'm not sure why they're not there already!

 

This winter of 2016/2017 was billed as a “waxwing winter” where large numbers of these Scandinavian bohemians would “irrupt” into the UK (the east mainly) and delight twitchers and birdwatchers all winter as they gorged on any remaining apples and berries left by our thrushes.

Well.. this winter hasn’t been quite as good as the last waxwing winter (in 2012/13) as these local waxwings here have really been the only waxwings reliably reported in the whole of Berkshire all winter) but there’s clearly something about Bracknell which waxwings like.

Well… someone has to like Bracknell eh?

 

Keep ‘em peeled, grapple fans…

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) waxwing https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/2/waxwings-and-the-prodigy-the-link Fri, 03 Feb 2017 11:27:21 GMT
Cauld reekie. (Urine too deep). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/1/cauld-reekie-urine-too-deep Summer would win the smelliest season prize wouldn’t it? The smell of barbecues, sun-tan lotion and sweat (body odour!). Winter would probably come last in any such competition, most might say. But not right now, I’d suggest and probably not at all – it all depends on just what you’re catching a whiff of in your twitching, flaring nostrils.

I’m walking five miles a day at present, in a bid to give my back some sort of strength back after very painfully herniating a disc in my lumbar vertebrae TWICE at the end of September last year.

It’s not easy to walk such a distance with a knackered back and a set of back and hip muscles which have locked tightly into place to avoid any chance of repeating the violent electric shock suffered by people who slip a disc. I make the five mile walk easier by breaking it down into 1 mile laps, which I complete five times throughout the day. Each lap takes me about sixteen-eighteen minutes and takes in a mile of mainly suburban land surrounding our house.

I quite enjoy these walks at present (they’re getting easier and easier as my poor back learns to relax again) and they give me a chance to take a look at the local wildlife (birds and foxes mainly).

We’ve had a week of lovely winter weather now. Hard frosts at night, very little wind and sinking, static, almost stagnant air certainly after the sun has gone down – and gin-clear, sunny days which lift the spirits.

Temperature inversionTemperature inversion

Winter dawnWinter dawn

This type of weather brings with it though what I call “Cauld Reekie” (my paternal Grandfather came from Edinburgh -  forgive me) – and this has been more true than ever ‘round here during the last week, in this cauld reekie weather.

My night time walks (well… night time at present is any time after five o’clock!) are certainly pretty cauld and reekie. The mercury has already dropped below 0c by six or seven o’clock in the evening, and the cold air has sunk into low pools. No wind means anything smelly just tends to sit and linger. I can smell someone’s cigar from down the road an hour after they’ve gone back inside to watch the rest of the match. A randy (at this time of year) fox will have emptied its bladder on a low bush by the school and I’ll be able to smell that pungent stench fifty yards away. 

VixenVixen

The family down the road are tumble drying their clothes as the washing line just won’t get the job done in January… and I can smell the warm, wet, steamy, floral air from the tumble dryer outlet before I see it.

Dawn (what… seven a.m. now?) and I’m walking again. People are warming up their cars, pumping large, stubborn clouds of exhaust into layers over driveways and roads, which I breathe in. I can literally trace the movements of the local foxes from the previous night as the bushes, tree trunks and even gritting bins stink of fox urine. The local school caretaker is puffing on a cheap cigarette at the school gates – at this time of year in this weather I can tell when he’s lit up from the smell from 100 yards away, within a minute I’d say.

My afternoon walks take me under three apple trees on a local cul-de-sac. These low trees (no more than fifteen feet high I’d say) were heavily-laden with apples only a fortnight ago… until the weather changed and the winter thrushes descended en-masse to feed from this very rich energy source at this very cold time.

I walk under these trees five times a day, probably four times during daylight hours – and each time I get close, clouds of fieldfares and redwings erupt from these low trees in an explosion of chat-chat-chat-chatting. There’ll always be the odd thrush (generally the bravest or laziest redwing) that’ll just stay put as I walk under the trees and watch me as I eyeball it back from about six feet away. I’ve been lucky enough to see a bright pink bullfinch on these trees once too – and black caps aren’t uncommon either. Mainly though, its fieldfares and redwings and they’ve made serious inroads into the fruit over the past week. Fieldfares aren’t small thrushes and in their hungry-exuberance, they’ve knocked dozens of apples off the tree onto the unyielding pavement below. Below these trees now is a squidgy mess of apples, which ferment in the sun all day and then freeze at night – and I (of course) can smell this too. It’s not an unpleasant smell – rather like a strange sort of scrumpy – but it’s really only at this time of year, after years like last year (“apple years” (one year on, one off)), during cauld reekie weather like we’ve had for the past week that this particular reek is most reekie. I think it was Thursday last week when the mercury rose to as high as 8c by three o’clock here that these three trees and the mess below them made the whole road smell like a cider factory.

The short video below shows these trees and in this 30 second clip, at least a dozen fieldfares springing into the air. It was shot with my mobile phone (on its wide angled lens - in reality these birds are only ten feet or so from my head).

 

 

I hear we’ll have a few more days (and nights) like the last seven this week, but it may warm up a little by the end of the week, the blocking high pressure will move off a little and we’ll be subject to our more normal low pressure systems coming in off the Atlantic – and with them the rain perhaps and more importantly the wind and a movement of warmer air.

Cauld Reekie doesn’t last long – and even though we may get another snap before Spring, I always like to make the most of it whilst it’s here.

I’m off then. For another walk ‘round the block. With my nostrils flaring and twitching like an otterhound’s.

Don’t have me smell the air on my own though grapple fans. Get out there and smell it yersels.

And don’t just “Use your eyes”…. this time…. Perhaps only this time…. “Use your nostrils” too!

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Fieldfare blackcap bullfinch fox redwing smell winter https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/1/cauld-reekie-urine-too-deep Sun, 22 Jan 2017 12:54:29 GMT
800 yards of 'mac. 3) January. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/1/800-yards-of-mac-january January - and all is quiet on the 800 yards of ‘mac.

Well.

Almost all is quiet.

Old-timers to this blog may remember I used to follow our local little owls for a season or two (I filmed them successfully breeding) just after we moved to the area… but I’ve lost track of them for a year or two now.

Ready to fledgeReady to fledge

I was driving Anna and Ben back from a trip to see winter goldeneye drakes on a nearby gravel pit and we decided to go via the 800 yards of ‘mac (as that’s where the barn owl roosts – Anna (and Ben!) LOVE barn owls!).

As I turned into the road, on a sunny early afternoon (very sunny – clear as a bell actually, with a typically bright low winter sun) I casually remarked that I’d not seen any little owls “up here” (at the farm) for a couple of years.

I’d hardly finished that sentence when Anna suddenly said: “Isn’t THAT an owl?!”

I stopped the car, reversed verrrryyyy slowly and there we had it – a little owl! Doing what little owls do very nicely thank you very much – sunbathing on one of the ancient gnarled oak trees that line the full 800 yards of ‘mac.

I couldn’t believe it! I’ve seen (and filmed) little owls very close to the road, but not actually on it! This road as far as I had been concerned, was for barn owls only!

Even wee Ben strapped in the back seat saw this owl – and said “I see a baby owl!” We corrected him and he repeated: “A LITTLE OWL!!!”

I know from experience that the local little owls return to their first choice breeding site at the top of the year (tawnies are similar) if conditions are right, although they’ll delay breeding until the spring proper.

So. Is this battered, ancient, gnarled, semi-hollow oak tree going to be the site for this little owl’s breeding efforts this year?


Well... perhaps. The last time I knew of the local little owls’ breeding whereabouts was about two years ago – when they did choose to abandon their old nest box (in which I filmed them) and nest instead in a big old oak tree on the other side of the farm. (Took me AGES to find where they’d gawn orf to!).

I note that the old little owl box (which in actual fact was a barn owl box rejected by the barn owls) in the farm has been joined by two new little owl boxes over the last year, so I’d expect any breeding little owls to breed in one of those boxes – but you never know.

This sighting of a little owl in a sunlit oak tree has taught me a timely lesson too. A lesson I need from time to time.

Arrogant this may be, but generally I feel like my wildlife-spotting eyes and ears are unmatched. By anyone. I see and hear EVERYTHING. A skill I’ve learned I suspect, basically from arsing about in the countryside for months and months and months, just looking and listening.

But.

I clearly DO miss some things.

Perhaps a lot of things?

Sure, I had my eyes on the road t’other day, but I missed that little owl. Or I WOULD have missed that little owl on the 800 yards of ‘mac, if it wasn’t for eagle-eyed Anna sitting next to me, keeping her eyes wide open!

I doubt if this little owl will breed in this tree (I think too much of the hollow insides of the tree are open to the elements) and the little owl tree (as it will now be called) is RIGHT next to the barn owl stump which I KNOW has a barn owl in it right now.

Barn owls won’t eat adult little owls (although they WILL eat some birds if pushed) and whilst little owls do catch voles like barn owls, their main prey is beetles, worms etc, so barn owls and little owls so occupy different (but overlapping) niches – but I don’t think little owls would choose to nest in a tree next to a barn owl roost – which they will be aware of.

That said, I returned the day after first seeing this little owl on the 800 yards of ‘mac and it seemed intent on staying in this particular tree  (EDIT on 14th Jan: and I've regularly seen it for almost two weeks in the same tree now ) – so who knows?

I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on this little owl tree as well as the barn owl stump from now on – and update you in February’s “800 yards of ‘mac”.

(Other  (other than this little owl) goings-on for those concerned - the resident barn owl on 800 yards of 'mac is still VERY much in residence. I've seen it on most nights, including on a very foggy evening in January where it was looking very pesky sat on its stump and also a roadside fence post on the return drive. The chocolate buzzard is also often around, though less reliably-so than the barn owl).

 

 

Note.

The photos in this post (like all my posts) were all taken by me. The fledgling barn owl photo in its box was taken by me when I filmed them breeding about 4 years ago. Shots 2,3 and 4 from the car were taken by me with my phone. Shots 5 and 6 were taken about 20 minutes later than 2,3 and 4 after rushing home to grab my old bridge camera.

 

Older 800 yards of 'mac posts can be found using the links below:

1) Introduction and November.

2) December

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 800 yards of 'mac little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/1/800-yards-of-mac-january Sat, 14 Jan 2017 00:15:00 GMT
The milky birds are on me! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/1/the-milky-birds-are-on-me Regular reader(s?) of this blog may know that I’m blogging about a local half-mile stretch of (single track) country road each month, on which seems to live a dark buzzard. A quite beautiful buzzard as it happens – dark from a distance, but more rich chocolate-coloured a little closer.

Buzzards are pretty variable things (plumage-wise) and this one (I assume it’s just one at present that I’m seeing) does seem a little more chocolatey than other buzzards.

At present then, I’m used to seeing my chocolate buzzard each time I head up to my 800 yards of ‘mac.

Yesterday I photographed it soaring miles-up, in a beautifully-clear blue winter sky.

A drive back from my physio today took me along those 800 yards and yes, the chocolate buzzard was there (which was nice), but this blog isn’t an “800 yards of ‘mac” blog post (January’s blog on that subject is already written, is about little owls and is automatically scheduled to appear on this website mid-month).

So if this isn’t an “800 yards of ‘mac” post and isn’t really about that chocolate buzzard… what IS it about?

As I was saying… on my drive back from my physio appointment at Windsor this afternoon, through the rain and leaden skies, I drove along the 800 yards of ‘mac, saw my chocolate buzzard, smiled and drove on.

As I approached the house and in doing so, hit the more built up, suburban area in which we live, I spied a large bird on a low streetlight right by the side of a very busy ‘b’ road (might as well be an 'A' road to be honest) and above a pavement.

It was big enough to be a buzzard but it almost looked like a bald eagle or osprey to me as I drove along the road peering at it through the moving windscreen wipers and rain/muck-spattered windscreen as it appeared to have a snow white head.

As I peered closer and closer, I completely took my eyes off the road and careered off the road, onto a pavement, flattening someone’s bull mastiff which they had on a long lead.

It’s OK though grapple fans, the dog’s owner escaped unscathed and was very nice about the whole incident.

No… of COURSE I didn’t run over anyone’s dog as I peered at the bald eagle/osprey perched a couple of dozen feet over a busy pavement in a suburban area this afternoon. But I did park the car quickly as close as I could and walked up that pavement to try and get a terrible shot or two of this exotic raptor.

The shots are below (I’m sorry about the quality – I didn’t have long, the light was awful and I only had a bridge camera with me) and of COURSE it wasn’t a Bald Eagle (which I've never seen in the wild) or Brahminy Kite  (which I HAVE been lucky enough to see in the wild, on honeymoon in Sri Lanka) – it was just a quite spectacularly-pale buzzard.

A white chocolate buzzard if you like.

The palest buzzard I’ve seen I think, perhaps as beautiful as my plain or dark chocolate buzzard a couple of miles away and certainly the most “suburban”.

A nice end to a pretty dark, wet, miserable day and a good start to the weekend I hope.

Have a good, one grapple fans....

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) buzzard https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/1/the-milky-birds-are-on-me Fri, 06 Jan 2017 16:40:26 GMT
Deer roe deer roe deer. (Use your eyes) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/1/deer-roe-deer-roe-deer-use-your-eyes Whilst checking on the farm owls this afternoon (in the bright sun – what a delight today was), I thought I’d watch the fieldfares feed in the nearby pastures also.

They weren’t alone.

There are SIX roe deer in this photo (taken with my phone).

Can YOU see them?

 

 

 

 

 

Some help – they’re all on the hedge line, about 200m from me (or you) as a viewer – but I doubt whether this website will upload the full size image as part of the blog, so I’ll point to them for you.

 

See them yet?

 

Here they are.

The most beautiful wild mammal (I think) in Britain.

Use your eyes.

Deer 5 & 6Deer 5 & 6

Deer 4Deer 4 Deer 1,2 and 3Deer 1,2 and 3

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fieldfare roe deer https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2017/1/deer-roe-deer-roe-deer-use-your-eyes Mon, 02 Jan 2017 17:15:40 GMT
Our first Philomela in the garden. OR WAS IT? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2016/12/our-first-philomela-in-the-garden-or-was-it

These days, I get more excited spotting a kestrel or buzzard than I do when I see any of our omnipresent red kites. If you’d have told my young self (in the late 1970s and early 1980s) that I’d feel that way in the 21st century, I’d have scoffed at you.

Likewise, when I first became interested in birds about forty years ago, song thrushes were everywhere and I was only really excited by the arrival of the winter thrushes –  fieldfares more so than the redwings.

We had at least one pair of breeding song thrushes in our back garden (in the large laurel bush) and each time I set off on my dawn paper round, I’d be accompanied by at least a dozen song thrushes belting out their repeating ditties, from TV aerials up and down the streets.

Not so now though – and very sad too. We are surrounded by the noisy, football-rattling “storm cocks” (mistle thrushes) and also inundated with thousands of redwings and fieldfares each winter. Sure… it’s nice to see these thrushes, but these days it’s the formerly-far-more-common but now hard-to-see song thrushes that make my heart leap.

We’ve been at our current abode just over five years and whilst song thrushes may have visited our garden in that time – I saw my first garden song thrush here, only this morning.

63 months here without a song thrush (that I’ve seen) changed this morning, in the damp, morning gloom of New Year’s Eve.

The song thrush bounced (as is the way of all thrushes) around the long grass by the pond, about 20 yards from my viewing position inside the kitchen. I immediately thought it must be a redwing (for at this time of year it’s always a redwing if it’s a thrush in our garden) but very soon became apparent that a redwing it was not – a song thrush it most certainly was. A first for the garden and a very welcome if belated first too.

But why the “Philomela” title? The culture vultures amongst you might know of a Philomel(a) as a nightingale, after all. Shakespeare, T.S. Elliot, Milton and many, many others all write of the Philomel(a) – the nightingale.

Today’s song thrush got me thinking again.

I know.

Dangerous.

Permit me to explain (although you may need to put a kettle on – I’m not known for my brevity and this story in particular could take some time).

 

The scientific name for the song thrush is Turdus philomelos.

Turdus is the generic name (meaning “Thrush”) and Philomelos is the specific name which allegedly* means “song-loving” (from philos: loving and melos: song).

So that’s all fine and dandy then eh?

Philomelos.

Same as Philomela really. Same stem anyway.

“Song-loving thrush”.

Song thrush.

A perfect scientific (classical) name for this species then?

You’d think.

*Note though, my use of “allegedly” in relation to the meaning of Philomelos.

Philomela was a figure in ancient Greek mythology, widely used as a figurative symbol in literary, artistic and musical works of the Western canon. Sophocles (c.450BC) the ancient Greek tragedian wrote about her (amongst many other characters) as did Ovid, the popular, classical Roman poet sent into exile to the Black Sea by Augustus in 8AD.

But why mention both Sophocles and Ovid in relation to the myth of Philomela?

In short, their early renditions of the ancient Greek myth are the same, but for one, very important detail.

Philomela was a princess - the daughter of King Pandion of Athens (for all you avian classicists out there… yes… the Osprey was (badly) named after King Pandion).

Philomela’s sister Procne married King Tereus of Thrace (modern day Bulgaria/Greece/Turkey area) and whilst the myth varies a little in nature, basically Tereus, in a fit of unbridled lustful excess, rapes his sister-in-law Philomela, cuts off her tongue so she can’t tell anyone, banishes her to the woods and tells his wife, Procne, that her sister is in fact, dead.

Philomela weaves a tapestry detailing the terrible act of her brother-in-law (Tereus), which is seen by Procne. Procne and her sister (Philomela) obtain their terrible revenge by killing, boiling and feeding Tereus’ son (Itys) to him and then presenting Itys’ decapitated head to Tereus, his father.

Tereus (understandably) goes berserk and starts to chase Procne and Philomela with an axe.

The two sister princesses pray to the gods to assist them in their escape and are immediately transformed into birds by the gods, who also turn the pursuing Tereus into a bird too.

In the original Greek myth (a la Sophocles), Tereus was transformed into a (pursuing) hawk, Procne a nightingale and Philomela a swallow.

In the latter Roman variants of the Greek myth (a la Ovid), Tereus was transformed into the Hoopoe, Procne the swallow and Philomela the nightingale – and this (Philomela turning into the nightingale rather than the swallow of Sophocles) is the “accepted” version – well… at least as far as the Western Canon (from Virgil (BC) all the way to Ted Hughes, perhaps, in the 20th Century) is concerned.

Let’s consider that for a second though – the actual species that Philomela was turned into by the gods, in the ancient Greek myth.

As stated above, most classicists (post Ovid anyway) have Philomela down as becoming a nightingale. Which might be quite apt you’d think. A secretive, reclusive bird of dense thicket and powerful, haunting, sorrowful song – but only sung at night.

The trouble is of course with that version is that the nightingale is known for its song (nothing else really) and Philomela herself would be known for anything but her song, having no tongue.

Coupled to that the fact that early natural historians, through a combination of sexism and anthropomorphism I’d assume, thought it was only the females in songbird species (including nightingales) that actually sang. They certainly would have thought that it was the female nightingale that sang, rather than the actual case (single, unpaired males) being the reality.

Maybe the ancient natural historians and classicists thought it would be apt to give Philomela her voice back again in the form of a hidden, nocturnal-singing nightingale.

Maybe.

I rather think that Sophocles’ version may be more likely than Ovid’s though (as far as any myths go) – that is to say the mute Philomela was turned into the songless swallow and it was her sister, Procne, that was turned into the bird with the mournful night song – the nightingale.

As I’ve earlier-written though, as far as Western culture has it, Philomela is the nightingale and her sister, Procne is the swallow. In fact, many martins (similar to swallows in appearance) are now classified within the Genus Progne – the roots of which are clearly from the Philomela and Procne myth, with Procne becoming the swallow (or martin).

 

OK.

So.

Like it or not (I don’t), Philomela was turned into a nightingale by the gods – and her sister, Procne, a swallow.

So… is the Scientific name for the nightingale derived from Philomela?

In a word…. No.

The Scientific name for our nightingale is in fact Luscinia megarhyncos – meaning “Nightingale (Latin) Large beak (Greek)”.

No Philomela in sight.

Philomela (or Philomelos) is solely reserved as a specific name for the song thrush, Turdus philomelos, as described at the start of this ridiculously-long blog post.

But why is Philomela attributed to the song thrush then – and not the (more culturally-accepted (if not by me)) nightingale?

A fanciful misinterpretation I’d suggest. Or even a mistake.

Zoological nomenclature is full of such things; as well as more apt scientific names derived from relevant classical myths.

*Most scholars think Philomelos stems from the Greek φιλο (philo: love of) and μέλος (melo: song) rather than the probably more accurate Greek φιλο (philo: love of) and μῆλον (melon: apple, grape, fruit, sheep, goat or beast).

Philomelos may mean lover of song, but is just as (or more than) likely to actually mean lover of apples, grapes, fruit, sheep, goats or beasts.

The song thrush has been so-named by scientists because Philomela was thought to have originally meant “song lover”. But that probably is incorrect.

We’ve all been brought up (brainwashed?) to accept, unquestioningly that Philomela (from Philomelos) is the lover of song, the nightingale. But she may have originally been the lover of apples or grapes (cider and wine?!) or sheep and goats.

Ovid, Virgil, De Troyes, Chaucer, Raleigh, Shakespeare, Keats, Shelley, Elliot et.al. have all written of Philomela or Philomel as the nightingale, the hidden, mournful song lover.

None have had the swallow (or martin) in mind when talking of Philomela, even though that was probably the original myth.

Not one of the above had the song thrush in mind either - the actual modern-day Philomela or Philomelos.

 

Well.

We had our first philomela(os) in the garden today.

Not a nightingale (wrong time of year).

Not a swallow/martin (ditto – and anyway, we’ve already had swallows in the garden each summer).

A quite beautiful song thrush.

A grape loving, apple-loving, sheep and goat-loving song thrush.

A song-loving thrush too.

I do hope it stays.

 

 

 

Footnote.

You'd be forgiven for thinking the scientific name for song thrush (Turdus philomelos) would better describe a Thrush nightingale. Turdus after all meaning thrush and philomelos meaning nightingale (even though as we've seen above... it never really did).

You'd be wrong though.

That'd be FAR too sensible.

No... the scientific name for the Thrush nightingale is Luscinia luscinia.

Look.... I don't make the rules.

 

Happy new year, grapple fans.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) song thrush https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2016/12/our-first-philomela-in-the-garden-or-was-it Sat, 31 Dec 2016 20:16:42 GMT
Two birds on one stone. Falcon 'ell. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2016/12/two-birds-on-one-stone-falcon-ell If you read my blog yesterday, you'll know I rediscovered one of our town peregrines on a large local office block. "Rediscovered" as its old tower-block roost had been pulled down to make way for the town redevelopment project about a year ago.

Today I thought I'd drive by the new roost to see if the peregrine was still there.

Yep.

It certainly was.

But it was joined by its partner today - which got me thinking.

A lot of people (a majority?) refer to peregrines as "peregrine falcons". But this is, I’d suggest, incorrect. Or at least confusing.

Kestrels aren’t referred to as “kestrel falcons” are they? Nor are hobbies. Nor merlins.

That said, a lot of “true falcons” do keep “falcon” in their common English name. Birds like Eleanora’s falcon. Red-footed falcon. Orange-breasted falcon.

The falcon (rather like the “duck”) is the female bird, whereas the male bird is the “tierce”.

So this morning, whilst I was looking at two (true) falcons, only one of them was an actual “falcon”, that being the bigger female bird on the right of these images. The smaller male bird is a true falcon, but not an actual falcon at all… a tiercel instead.

 

 

Like “ducks” though… you don’t say I saw some nice “tufted” on the gravel pit today, nor I saw what I presume to be an escaped “Carolina Wood” on the river today… you include the word “duck” to avoid any confusion.

But… you’d have no need to add “ducks” to your sentence if you were watching goldeneye, or pochard or mallard or wigeon or gadwall etc etc etc.

So it is with peregrines…

If you KNOW you saw the female peregrine… “falcon” is correct. Otherwise, just “peregrine” will do.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) falcon peregrine https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2016/12/two-birds-on-one-stone-falcon-ell Sat, 24 Dec 2016 13:04:20 GMT
Three wheels on my wagon.... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2016/12/three-wheels-on-my-wagon …. But I’m still rolling along.

 

 

I’ll be glad to see the end of 2016 as will many I know.  I've lost 3 of my 4 hens this year (well... I've lost one to a fox and had to dispatch my last two only two days ago - meaning I will be hen free for the first time in 10 years this Christmas.).

Also forgetting (if you can) Brexit and Trump (that sounds like a shady estate agents’ business doesn’t it?), 2016 for me has been a never-ending series of health issues. Some age-related. Others not, but acute and worst of all, some chronic. All bleeding awful.

I started the year with 20-20 vision, a strong back (or so I thought), two working hips and a clear head. I end the year with glasses, a knackered right hip, a debilitating and sore back after a slipped disc in September and a foggy head pretty devoid of energy and vitality.

But… at least my long range vision is still the mutt’s nuts. So I still have something to be thankful for, in terms of my physicality!

I tested my vision today on the way back from the pool (I’m forced to swim 6 days a week now in a bid to prevent any further seizing-up of my locked back) … on the hunt for Bracknell’s peregrines.

 In case there are any people reading this blog that don’t know where I live, at present my wife, boy and I live on the northern edge of Bracknell. Some of our neighbours consider themselves to be “Binfield” or even “Warfield” residents, but that would be a little snobby really (rather like the residents of Henley, postcode RG9, complaining that they hated their Reading postcode!).

I rarely head south into Bracknell proper, although I’m forced to now, to swim at a private gym. I’m almost always to be found nosing around the farmland and countryside north of Bracknell (as close to us really as the CBD of the New Town).

Bracknell is undergoing a multi-million-pound redevelopment as I type and has been for a year or two now. Shortly we will have an industrial sized new Nandos and Primark (or something) which I’m informed I should be eternally grateful for.

In order to accommodate these behemoths of shopping (not just those two to be fair… the whole of Bracknell shopping area is changing), the old centre of Bracknell was pulled down last year. This included the very ugly 3M skyscraper in the centre of town.

I think I was the only local person to voice my opinion that I’d rather it was kept upright…. As I knew it was the roost for at least two peregrines. Pretty-well each time we headed into town for a big food shop, I’d look out for the peregrines… and pretty-well see them every time.

Of course, as soon as the 3M building was pulled down, these magnificent birds lost their roost. They’d have to move elsewhere.

So where did they go?

 

Well….

Look what I drove past today on my way back from the pool.

Nothing special. Just a huge great office block on the outskirts of Bracknell eh?

Wait a minute.

Look closer.

OK.

MUCH CLOSER.

This peregrine (a falcon I’d guess by the size of her, much bigger than the tierce or male) was tucking into what looked like an unfortunate town pigeon a couple of hundred feet or so above my head.

Not great photos I’m afraid (very windy here today, grey skies and almost dark when I took the shots) but it’s great to catch up with at least one of Bracknell’s peregrines and great to know that whilst the rest of my knackered-old-body rusts around me, my eyes remain very, VERY dependable!

Use your eyes, grapple fans.

Use them whilst you can…

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2016/12/three-wheels-on-my-wagon Fri, 23 Dec 2016 15:53:59 GMT
800 yards of 'mac. 2) December https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2016/12/800-yards-of-mac-2-december Doesn’t time fly when you’re not having fun?!

It was a month ago already when I started my monthly blog about life on half a mile of tarmac a couple of miles away from us, so I thought I’d best quickly e-pen the next instalment.

You may remember that in the middle of November when I wrote the first instalment of this series, the trees looked ridiculous. Ridiculous in the fact that they were a riot of autumn colour.

Four and a bit weeks on… and all change – basically it’s just the oaks that (as always) have hung onto some of their caramel-coloured leaves – all other trees and leaves have dropped now.

I was going to take some photos for December’s “800 yards of ‘mac” blog, but thought I’d shoot a quick video instead – taken this afternoon, of perhaps 400 yards (OK… 356 to be exact) of the 800 yards in the title. A boring video perhaps, with the road looking “at its worst” – but at least the video gives you an idea of the road itself.

As for the comings and goings of animals on this 800 yards of ‘mac this month – I’ve established that a male barn owl is back in his preferred (seemingly) tree and I’ve taken Anna and Ben to see him. Anna saw him twice but unfortunately Ben hasn’t quite managed it yet which has been a little disappointing as he does like his owls!

Along with the snowy-white male barn owl returning this month, I’ve also noticed a lovely dark brown buzzard frequenting the bigger oaks lining the road. Buzzards are very variable in plumage and this one is a superb, rich chocolate brownie brown colour. In my wanderings around that part of the local countryside I have often noticed buzzards (a pair for a while, a while ago) but this dusky raptor does seem to have taken a liking to my 800 yards of ‘mac this month.

Whilst December so far has been pretty-darned mild, hasn’t it, the local jackdaws are intent on roosting together in their big winter “rookery” at the western end of the 800 yards, near a sewage farm (I suppose the air around the sewage farm is a degree or so warmer than the surrounding countryside in the dead of winter).

Tonight… well… this afternoon actually at about 4pm as I watched the sun go down over the farm, I was treated to the daily sight and sound of perhaps 1000 jackdaws fly over the 800 yards of ‘mac, and very noisily settle in the biggest trees of the small woodland by the sewage farm.

It always is a spectacular sight (and sound) and this afternoon, in a crisp, clear, orange sunset, it was certainly something else. Everyone should go and watch a rookery or starling murmuration or even a colony of thousands of parakeets if they get a chance. Those types of sounds and sights are one of the few good things I can think of when I think of winter!

With the noise of the jackdaws still ringing in my head this afternoon, I padded back to the car… and as I did I was met with the constant rustly-flurry of rabbit feet in leaves on either side of the 800 yards. This road is THICK with wabbits – and therefore rabbit-hunting predators too.

Merry Christmas to anyone reading this, from the snow-white male barn owl in its tree, the chocolate brown buzzard watching everything from the top of the oaks, the thousand black ‘daws lining the trees of the sewage farm and the dozens and dozens of grey rabbits who have made this 800 yards of ‘mac their home.

See you in January.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 800 yards of 'mac barn owl buzzard jackdaw rabbit https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2016/12/800-yards-of-mac-2-december Wed, 14 Dec 2016 18:40:53 GMT
800 yards of 'mac. 1) Introduction and November. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2016/11/800-yards-of-mac-1-introduction-and-november 800 yards of 'mac.

Introduction.

 

Keen-eyed and very regular visitors to this blog website might know I take a country drive as often as I can, but don't have to drive too far to lose myself in little roads, farmland and bluebell woods.

Invariably on my drives, I drive up this particular road - have done for as long as we've been here. I've also used it as a starting point for runs around the countryside and may well do again if my back ever allows me a return to such activities!

It's a short, single track, country road. Its 800 yards long (exactly) moving from west southwest towards east northeast for the first 600 yards or so and then curving round to point south southeast for its last 200 yards. Its nondescript. You'd drive right by it if you didn't know it was there and didn't have to drive down it (not many do... it doesn't leas anywhere particularly exciting).

But with its large number of huge and gnarled ancient oaks on either side (providing a boundary to farmland) and with its distinct lack of human activity... I find it an absolutely beautiful road and has given me hours or even days (and nights!) of pleasure in the last five years. It's my very private escape. Its where I go to lose myself.

I've been lucky enough to see three species of owl on this road (in fact I've seen three individual barn owls at the same time on this road), two types of deer, foxes, rabbits, stoats, winter thrushes, spotted flycatchers, Egyptian geese in the trees and missile-like sparrowhawks.

Each year in the same trunk of one of the roadside's bigger, younger trees, a honey bee colony reforms - only to die back down again after 9 months or so and reappear in the same knot in the same tree in the spring.

If I want to see a song thrush, I only have to drive the two miles or so to this road and I'll invariably see one. A shame I have to drive at all to be honest, time was a few years ago now mind, when I only had to look out of my bedroom window to see these prettiest of thrushes.

The blackthorn blossom along this road is stupendous in early spring, the colours in autumn are spellbinding and I've even watched two escaped whooper swans graze from a field beside this very road - twice! Something no-one would expect to see.

You'd like to know where it is I'm sure.

You know what... it's closer than you think. It's probably that road that you've driven by for a decade. That road you've always wondered about but never driven down. That road only a mile or so away from your house.

That's the same road.... only my version is a little nearer my house... and I HAVE taken the time to wander down it. Regularly. With my eyes and ears wide, WIDE open.

 

Because I love this 800 yards of tarmac so much - and after it blew me away again yesterday with its stunning autumn colours in full blast, I thought I might start blogging about it (how it looked each month, what I saw on it each month etc).

I've decided to call this series of (very short) blog posts "800 yards of 'mac" and today's post will be the first of perhaps twelve, if I keep this up as I hope to!

 

+++++

 

800 yards of 'mac.

November (17th)

 

I slipped a disc in my back on the last day of September this year and have hardly driven (for obvious reasons) since. That said, I did manage to drive up to the 800 yards of 'mac yesterday and was bowled clean-over by the colours on show.

I've been visiting this particular stretch of tarmac for 5 years now and have never seen such spectacular yellows on either side of the road so I drove back home to grab my camera (another thing I haven't done for a month - I've been taking photos for seven years now but I've only had one month in that entire time when I've not taken a single shot - October 2016 - which probably demonstrates to you just how bad my back injury was!) and return to grab some autumn colours on "film".

It was sunny but a very blustery day indeed yesterday - in fact I heard a few mini tornadoes hit the midlands a hundred or so miles north of us here in rural Berkshire.

The yellow leaves were being ripped from the trees and blown through the sky like a ticker tape parade.

The honey bee colony was predictably devoid of life in November but the blue sky (with scudding clouds) was full of backbones. Noisy black-headed gulls in their white winter garb seemed to be enjoying the wind and the omnipresent and even noisier jackdaws were "dawing" their derision at these intruders.

It was lovely to see plenty of fieldfares fly down the road in front of me - they seemed to be taking hawthorn berries from the good number of bushes on either side of the road and resting en masse in the bare(ish) fields next to the road when their crops had been temporarily stuffed. Maybe I can expect waxwings later in the year if the fieldfares don't gobble all the scran beforehand?

No foxes today (not the right time of day), no rabbits (ditto), no owls (ditto), but a lovely thirty minutes or so spent on the 800 yards that I don't think I've seen look lovelier. At least not in the last 62 months.

 

I may blog again on this 800 yards of 'mac in December, but for now... four of my photos of the 800 yards in November (yesterday) can be seen below.

 

Autumn gold (3)Autumn gold (3)

Autumn gold (1)Autumn gold (1)

 

Autumn gold (4)Autumn gold (4) Autumn gold (2)Autumn gold (2)

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 800 yards of 'mac https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2016/11/800-yards-of-mac-1-introduction-and-november Fri, 18 Nov 2016 17:47:46 GMT
5th (and final) "garden wildlife report". https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2016/9/5th-and-final-garden-wildlife-report This (as described at roughly the same time last year) will be my 5th and last "garden wildlife report" for this house.

Primarily because it takes an awful lot of time and effort (and memory each day!) to record some of my more interesting or notable thoughts each day and then compile them into a report of sorts.

I am ashamed to say that for my final report (this one) I don't even have time to compile my notes (which I've made all year) into a summary - the below is EXACTLY how I've made my notes for the past 5 years - unedited.

It's (always has been) coloured coded  - Weather in normal coloured text, birds in blue, insects/arachnids etc in yellow, mammals in pink, plants in green, reptiles in bottle green and anything else of note in grey.

So, I do apologise for presenting my 5th year notes in note form here, but here they are anyway...

 

My 5th and final "garden wildlife report" (notes) from September 2015 to August 2016 inclusive.

 

________________________________________________________________________________________

 

September 2015.

Weather:

Week 1: Unsettled. Frequent rain. Cool.

Week 2: Jet stream loops north for 5 or 6 days giving a few days of warm, settled weather (up to 21c). Doesn’t last long though – jet stream moves again near the end of the 2nd week producing wind and rain for almost a week.

Week3:  Jet stream moves north again to make for mainly warm and sunny weather (up to 20c and sunny for example on Sat 19th and Sun 20th  - like summer again) but with a little rain here and there earlier in the week. Week ended with a shift in the jet stream again and a return to breezy and often wet weather with sunny spells.

Week 4: Jet stream moves again producing a large loop with a blocking high pressure system for the entire week. Chilly, dewy nights (5c ish), sunny days, quite warm (around 20c) and an easterly breeze which was pretty strong. Lovely weather for the last week of the month and indeed much of the first week of October.

 

8th sept – 2 goldcrests calling from and exploring garden.

8th Sept – swallow low through BH Golf Course.

10th Sept – first of the “winter flocks” of long-tailed tits in morning sun in garden (11 birds)

10th Sept – first of the “autumn yellow” chiffchaffs singing in the garden alongside the long-tailed tits above

11th Sept – swallow low(ish) south, seen from garden

12th Sept – 3 swallows (at least) moving south over garden in cool, damp, windy, morning weather.

13th Sept – another (or the same as the 10th)  “winter flock” of long-tailed tits in morning.

14th Sept – lots of hirundines (both martins and swallows) moving west over BH golf course in windy squalls.

16th Sept – chiffchaff in “ivy tree”.

16th Sept – flock of long-tailed tits in garden again.

17th Sept – young heron flies over garden at 7am in clear sky

17th Sept – lots of swallows flying south over BM golf course in the sunny afternoon

18th Sept – 14 swallows flying south over garden in a flock

19th Sept  - cormorant flies low over garden at around 8am. Not seen that before here.

24th Sept – lots of green woodpeckers on BM golf course with 2 buzzards and good numbers of swallows and martins still.

24th Sept – chiffchaff singing in garden during dawn rain.

28th Sept – sparrowhawk at BH driving range

28th Sept – chiffchaff singing in garden at dawn again

28th Sept – first redwing heard tseeping overhead at night? VERY early if that was the case – think it was.

29th Sept – buzzards, kestrels and woodpeckers at BM golf course.

8th Sept – what looked like a southern hawker exploring garden during warm afternoon

9th Sept – 2 brimstone moths and a silver Y in side passage.

11th Sept - #mothnight produces an “Old Lady” and lots of (various) yellow underwings. 1st Old lady of 2015 I think.

11th Sept – southern hawker still in garden, checking out pond in warm sun.

12th Sept – 2nd generation (south of England only) Light Emerald in side passage on last #mothnight of 2015 after a warm, sunny afternoon and a clear start to the night.

14th Sept – HUGE house spider in side passage and again on 16th Sept

17th Sept – Silver Y moth in side passage

19th Sept – three Megachile leafcutters still building nest in the “new” bee hotel in the warm sun

25th Sept – THOUSANDS of crane flies on BM golf course – press call it an “invasion” after wet summer.

25th Sept – new species of moth in side passage – FROSTED ORANGE.

28th Sept – three leaf cutter bees STILL nesting in the bee hotel in the warm sun

17th Sept - 2 roe deer on BM golf course on sunny afternoon

10th Sept - Frog seen in pond.

First week of Sept - Lots of white mushrooms appear under large Leyland Cypress – over by the end of the 2nd week. 4th Alba water lily flower of year.

Second week of Sept – ceanothus and both valerian types (red and white) flower again. Buddleja pretty-well over. A couple of mock orange flowers re-appear too!

28th Sept – last grass mow of the year?

Anything of note not covered by the above: Bloops urinary problem ongoing for first two weeks of September

Pond netted on 28th Sept.

Super blood moon photographed on clear night of 27th/28th at between 3am and 5am – what luck to have clear skies.

 

 

October 2015.

Weather:

Week 1: First half of the first week of October really nice. Warm (chilly nights) but sunny, up to 19c, gentle easterly light breeze – superb. All changed on the night of the 4th with the first significant rain for a fortnight or so (thanks to a blocking high pressure, static over the UK for over 10 days, moving off). Very wet on 5th and 6th of October too.

The end of the first week was like the start really – settled, warm(ish), dry, with a gentle easterly and good amounts of sun, if overcast at times.

Week 2: Second week began with a good amount of settled, fine weather – chilly, dewy nights but pleasant enough during the day (good amounts of sun and dry with a gentle easterly). As the week progressed the easterly wind became brisker, chillier and more from a northerly direction. Really pretty chilly during the days (in the wind) and chilly at night too. The week ended in a quiet fashion – a bit of sun, quite a lot of cloud and a gentle wind – on the 27th for example a southerly wind pushed temperatures up to 20c – pretty good for the end of October.

Week3: Mainly settled and dry and cloudy if a little cool.

Week 4: A little sunnier than week 3, mainly dry too. Last few days really quite warm at around 18 or 19c.

 

First coal tits for months seen and heard in big leylandii on 2nd – and from then on regularly in the month.

Chifchaff regularly singing in or near garden during first few mornings of October.

Long tailed tit flock regularly in garden in first few mornings of October and all month pretty well.

Three parakeets on top of yellowing poplar on evening of 5th October

10th Oct – coal tits again seen in garden (leylandii closest to house) – really nice to see – I do like these interesting wee birds.

27th – male sparrowhawk explodes out of brown beech hedge by school and missiles a foot over my head when we walked Ben to the playground at about 4pm.

13 parakeets seen flying in large (for here) flock on morning of 17th October.

Carder bee on one of two remaining buddleja flowers in warm sunshine on 2nd October.

Wasps still busy in and out of nest in first few warm, sunny days of October – all week in fact.

Big female false widow spider makes her home above back door in first fortnight of October.

Hornet through garden on afternoon of 27th in warm(20c) sunshine.

Melanic green brindled crescent moth (NEW SP?) in side passage on 30th and 31st,

Noctule bat hunting high over BH driving range just before sunset (around 18:30hrs).

Bloops eats a young woodmouse on night of the 11th.

Frog seen hopping across lawn into pond on 2nd October in broad daylight – luckily hens were right at the back of the garden and missed it!

Ceanothus and red valerian both flowering quite well again in the first week of October.

First real leaf fall from poplar in first few days of October  - first raking of leaves on 3rd, again on the 11th and 17th and 25th.Very yellow leaves by the 14th – the most yellow they’ve ever been (in 5years).99% of poplar leaves down by 27th.

Large white fungi reappearing around large leylandii and into lawn (under chicken fence) during wet weather of 4th (night), 5th and 6th October

 

Back lawn aerated (at the cost of a garden fork) on morning of 10th of October.

 

 

November 2015.

Weather:

Week 1: First week very mild for November (around 17c ish regularly) with very warm nights too – around 14-15c! Gloomy though. Hardly any sun. A few days of rain, a few foggy mornings when the wind dropped off, but mainly just gloomy with a SW breeze.

Week 2: Week 2 starts in the same vein – incredibly mild for November, with the warmest November night on record on the 9th. Still gloomy and breezy. All week it (pretty well) remained gloomy, warm (for November) and breezy.

Week3: Gloomy, mild, quite a bit of rain and always with a strong SW (ish) wind. Ending with a reasonably quiet, reasonably bright day on the 20th.

Week 4: Gloomy (REALLY gloomy), quite a bit of rain again and breezy… ending in a particularly windy fashion. Just one or two frosts but mainly pretty mild again for the last week of November.

 

Redwing and Fieldfare both coming in strong in first two weeks of month.

Male first winter blackbird engaged in soft subsong in largest leylandii on 19th (don’t think I’ve ever noticed that before).

THREE goldfinches in garden on morning of 19th, Most ever at one time I think.

Fieldfare in garden in last week of month (especially the 28th – a good view on the Ash tree in the morning).

Parakeets in garden often – one stole one of the few wee apples on the morning of the 29th (when Kath and Steve were over and ate it in the poplar tree.

TWO kingfishers seen at mill pond, popes meadow (at same time) on 30th.

Queen buff-tailed bumblebee in garden on 18th (Yala attacked it but it got away).

Mammals

Amphibians/reptiles

Photinia flowering quite well during the last week of November for some reason?!

Anything of note not covered by the above: Cleared pond again on 28th – lots of scum and quite a few leaves.

 

 

December 2015.

Weather:

Week 1: Windy. Very windy. Gloomy again. Mild again. Bits and bobs of rain. The odd bit of bright sun or clear sky but will go down as windy, mild and gloomy.

Week 2: Ditto for week 2 –silly mild for mid December really.

Week3: Even milder for week 3 – Almost 10c above average temperatures!

Week 4: Mild again (13 or so degrees). Wet in parts too (but not as wet as up north where record rainfall has led to flooding across Lancs, Cumbria, Yorkshire and Dumfries and Galloway).

 

Barn owl seen for first time in months on night of 1st in “big tree” at farm and again both in small tree and large tree (mid month) and a great view in large tree before dawn (at around 6am on 20th). Buzzard seen over popes meadow at dusk on 5th.

Blue tit checks out house box on 27th Dec.

Chestnut moth in side passage on night of 4th/5th

Winter moth seen in side passage on night of 17th

Angle shades moth adult seen in cat litter tray in second week, followed by a large yellow underwing caterpillar (green type) on evening of 19th.

Ophion obscuratus active in side passage.(photo).

Cats caught adult woodmouse in garden (hid near conservatory)  rescued by lobbing it over the fence,

Amphibians/reptiles

Photinia still flowering quite well?! Rampantly by fourth week of Dec?! (About 5 months early!) Great swathes of daffodils also around town (on roundabouts etc … very weird to see in December).

Daisies flowering on front lawn. Ceanothus still flowering a bit. This is all very weird.

Anything of note not covered by the above:

 

 

January 2016.

Weather:

Week 1: Same as the last two weeks of December really. Very mild. Windy. But very wet too.

Week 2: As week 1.

Week3: Finally a bit of “coolth”. Much colder. (Several frosts) and finally some winter sunshine. Not as windy either.

Week 4: Back to wet and VERY windy again with the odd, very rare day with any sun in it (like the 30th when we went to Marwell zoo).

 

Blue tits busy checking out next door’s (traditional) box each day of the month.

A dozen or more stag beetle larvae were killed in the front garden as below.

Segestria in side passage certainly slowed down in January but still had the odd leg out during warmer nights (not common at ALL in January).

Bastard fox dug out the tree stump in the front garden on the night of the 9th/10th January, killing perhaps a dozen or more stag beetle larvae in the process.

Amphibians/reptiles

1st crocus starts to flower in back garden near apple tree on last day of the month! Almost certainly the earliest ever.

1st dandelion flowering near herpe habitat on last day of month too. Probably the earliest ever.

Anything of note not covered by the above: Bastard fox then pulled off one of our hen’s heads from OUTSIDE the run?! On the morning of the 12th January (to check – see calendar). What a freak incident. RIP girl.

 

 

February 2016.

Weather:

Week 1: Feb started very windy AGAIN (its pretty-well constant these days, these high winds) and mild. 10c plus at night and the same sort of temperature during the day. Blustery showers too.

Week 2: Blustery winds again, dull. One day of stillness and sun (beautiful – played golf at BH in short sleeves). A day of constant drizzle and an easterly wind (13th) then the constant westerly changed to a north easterly bringing a better “winter’s day”.

Week3: Began with a couple of days of cold, crisp winter’s days with a north easterly wind.

Week 4: ?

 

Goldcrests singing in garden each day during the month,

Blue tits VERY busy in and out of next doors’ box.

Long tailed tits building their nest somewhere south and nearby (often in garden in a pair, collecting nesting material).

Jay occasionally in the garden.

Redwing in the garden (a nice view) on the 13th.

Insects

VERY loud fox mating bickering sounds for a few minutes on 13th evening (coming from West Jocks Lane Park somewhere).

Big, gravid female frog rescued from side passage on 22nd and put in pond – watched by a waiting blue-throated male!

Plants/Fungi

Anything of note not covered by the above:

 

 

March 2016.

Weather:

Week 1: A right mix to be honest. Some warm days (well… warmish at up to 13c, some sunny days, regular rain and a few frosts. Notably on the warmer side of average though

Week 2:  Windy, and wet (VERY wet on 9th). Cool overnight (couple of mild frosts) but ending in double figures and dry. (So mixed again!)

By the 11th though – a HUGE blocking high pressure system had set in meaning very light easterly winds (almost non existent), cool nights (2c), heavy fog in the mornings (until about 11am) and quite warm sun in the afternoons – really quite nice!

Week3: Gentle NE breeze foe entire week. No rain to speak of. Cool. VERY settled.

Week 4: As above until the 26th – when everything changed. Blocking high pressure moved orf, allowing wet and windy weather in for the easter weekend (after a glorious good Friday) to end the month – including STORM KATIE!

 

Goldcrests (pair) daily in garden – singing constantly too.

Long tailed tits still visiting.

Male green woodpecker on ground in garden on 4th March and 25th – first time I’ve seen that in YEARS!

3 buzzard first thermal soar above house in cool, clear skies (but quite warm sun) on morning of 6th March.

Woodpecker drummings begin on 12th March in area.

House sparrows starting to nest build in the cedar swift box on 24th and 25th and 26th to the end of the month.

Redwing heard overnight on the 25th – returning home?

 

Wolf spiders visible running over front patio in warm sun on 12th.

1st Hebrew Character flew into back bedroom on 12th March. PHOTO.

First queen bumblebee of the year spotted in back garden on 13th (not close enough to identify to sp. level).

First brimstone and peacock butterflies of the year in garden on 25th (good Friday) along with first drone fly and first andrena mining bee on a stunning, sunny (quite warm in the sun at around 15c) day.

Mammals

Frogs in pond during March but no obvious mating signs yet.

Lots of frogs in pond by 9th after very wet day.

1st lump of frogspawn laid in pond on night of 25th – WELL after singing had commenced and a few days later than last year,

HUGE amount of spawning activity starting after Storm Katie (from the 29th onwards. Ridiculous numbers of frogs (40 plus?) PHOTOS

Catkins appear on poplar by the end of the 1st week of March, first tiny leaves unfurling from one bud at the end of the 2nd week.

Huge Oak tree just up road felled in the week before Easter weekend – used some of the logs for the garden.

 

 

April 2016.

Weather:

Week 1: April begins (for first 4 days anyway) with settled warm(ish) bright weather (very sunny for a couple of days) with temps up to 16c and rain at night.

Week 2: Pretty warm really (up to 17c for a couple of days) and relatively dry (only 14mm rain in 1st two weeks of the month).

Week3: April showers after a very warm start to the 14th and a day of thundery heavy rain on the 15th. From the middle of week three a cold north-easterly wind started (see week 4).

Week 4: Cold northerly or northish continued until the end of the month, continuing the cool feel (in the wind), with April showers and really quite warm periods out of the wind in the sunny spells.

 

Sparrows, after nest-building in the cedar box for the last 7 days, inexplicably stopped (or disappeared) on the 4th April. No further activity?!

First 7 spot ladybird of the year spotted (hur hur) on back lawn on 1st and again on the front door mat on the 3rd. Lots from the 13th onwards  - including the 1st Harlequin in back garden.

First speckled wood butterflies of the year in the relatively warm sun on the 5th.

First queen wasp on the 5th too – on the dead apple tree in the sun.

Red mason bees noticed for the first time on 13th April.

First tawny mining bee in warm sun in the garden on the22nd.

First blue butterfly (I assume a holly blue) in garden on 27th in a bit of warm(ish) sun.

First bat of the year seen over garden on 12th.

Frogs still singing AND spawning until the 4th, when like the sparrows, almost all the very visible frogs disappeared. A couple of males were present on the night of the 4th/5th, occasionally singing – but a HUGE change from the nights before where there were dozens visible on pond cam.

Frog removed from behind the fridge on the morning of the 15th.

Good numbers of tiny leaves appearing on all trees and shrubs in the 1st few days of the month.

First marsh marigold buds yellowing up quickly in the pond by the 3rd and sort-of flowering by the 5th. Well up by 14th and knocked to bits in the rain on the 15th.

Ceanothus starting to flower quite well on the 14th.

Bluebells in front garden flowering quite well by the 5th April.

Anything of note not covered by the above: Girls (only 2 left now, (‘Ttila and Norris) let out onto grass again on the 2nd April in the warm sun).

First lawn mow of the year on the 13th.

Bluebells out in force in Stratton’s copse by the 23rd April.

 

 

May 2016.

Weather:

Week 1: At the beginning of the month after a week or so of northerly winds and very cool temperatures, the wind changed to a southerly and then a southeasterly and the weather dramatically “improved” with lots of warm (HOT!) sun and temperatures up to 26c for about 3 days. A tiny heatwave of sorts.

Week 2: On May 9th and 10th and especially the 11th the rains came. Still over 20c during the day but quite a bit of rain, especially on the 11th when we had over 20mm – quite a lot for the SE of England in one May day. Rest of week 2 was pretty sunny really, quite warm but with a gentle(ish) northerly wind.

Week3: Pretty warm and quite sunny really.

Week 4: As week 3 all in all but the month ended with 5 or 6 days of overcast cool conditions with a northerly wind.

 

First swifts seen over the garden on May 4th – coming in with the great weather and southerly winds.

Young 1st gen starlings feeding in garden in 1st week of the month (fledged already!)

Only the 2nd cuckoo ever heard from the garden heard at 04:50am on the morning of the 14th (from a spot somewhere well north of the garden).

Swifts checking out house a LOT in third week of May. REALLY good to see.

Rose chafers in garden during the hot sunny weather of the first week of the month.

Red mason bees active (and destroying old leaf cutter bee nests!) in first week of May in the good weather.

More holly blues in garden during 1st week of May, and common blues at the end of the first week.

First painted lady seen at the golf club on the 4th.

1st red damselfly on pond on 12th. 3 weeks later than last year but about the same as 2014.

Demoiselles in garden three times in the sun in 3rd week of May.

First stag beetles of the year also in 3rd week of May.

A colony of mining bees checking out bare ground under big Leylandii on 26th – NEW SP?

Hornets through garden and checking out swift fascia hole (once) in last week of May.

First blue damselflies and mason bees (blue) seen in last week of May.

Hedgehog poo? In middle of lawn on 30th May?

All the tadpoles completely cleared the pond of blanket weed during the 1st week of May in the sunny weather. Many adult frogs still visible in the pond too in May.

Flowers flowering by May – red valerian, white valerian (mid month), purple irises (10th), lilac (first week), yellow archangel (10th). Ceanothus rampant but jusssst going over by the middle of May.

Oak and ash beginning to leaf in earnest by middle of May.

By then (middle of May), poplars pretty-well fully leafed.

Ceanothus and Lilac well over by the start of the 4th week of May.

Caught magpie pecking girls’ roof eggs on 11th.

Apple tree clearly dead this year – no leaf buds by May.

 

 

June 2016.

Weather:

Week 1: 1st week very good really. Warm (hot even at 27 or so celcius). Humid and muggy. Not much wind at all. Bit of a brief thundery downpour on the 8th but other than that, no appreciable wind at all.

Week 2: Started with a very muggy few days and some pretty hefty downpours. Remained unsettled all week with lots of heavy downpours and bits and bobs of thunder (but we got off lightly compared to surrounding areas of the country).

Week3: Carried on as week 2. “Very mixed” in two words. Wetter than average undoubtedly.

Week 4:Mixed. Not cold (quite warm really) but windy and often wet but with warm sunny spells.

 

Swifts (after spending all of May it seemed screaming at the house), took a few days off in the first week of June.

Goldcrests and wrens both seemed to fledge from somewhere into the garden in the first few days of June, followed it seemed by coal tits on the 9th.

The young goldcrests seemed to roost each night (noisily!) in the big leylandii for many nights of June.

MASSIVE stag beetle night on 8th June (and 9th, and 10th) after the brief downpour at 5pm. LOADS in front garden all fighting and a few in the back garden too. Incredible to see (videos).

First big dragonfly of the year (female broad bodied chaser) hunting over pond (and perching on ivy damson) on 9th (PHOTO).

In the first week of June the insect life in the garden was rampant with wasp beetles, jewel wasps, mason bees, icheneumons, honey bees etc all very obvious in the garden – the only thing that seemed to be somewhat missing were moths – I ran the trap on the 6th and 7th and hardly got anything – apart from a very early Setaceous Hebrew Character which are found in much higher numbers at the END of summer, not the beginning!

First two big dragons in the garden on 9th in the warm sun – a hawker (migrant or southern I presume – couldn’t tell from distance) and a beautiful female broad bodied chaser (photos) – NEW SP?

LOADS of insects in the garden by 11th, in the muggy conditions – lots of ichneumons, honey bees, bumblebees and tree bumblebees feeding on the globosa buddleja, first 22-spot ladybird on marsh marigold plants on 11th, first ruby tailed wasp photo on the same day and first orange swift moth on the night before (still no moff trap being set though as I couldn’t guarantee a dry night at that time).

Speckled bush cricket nymphs photographed in the garden on the 12th.

First garden chafers of the year buzzing around the large leylandii (as they tend to do here) on the evening of the 18th.

First blood vein moth of the year arrived in the side passage on th1 17th – followed by the first silver Y on the 19th.

24th June – first poplar hawkmoth of the year with first common emerald too.

30th June – first adult cinnabar moth (photo).

More hedgehog poo (perhaps?!) noted on back lawn in first few days of the month – with a fox turd on the 9th in the front garden – next to a half-eaten male stag beetle.

What LOOKED like a mouse (or vole) was obviously nesting or resting in the long grass by the pond when I cleared a little foliage from the pond on the 9th – as it shot off away from my loppers! (But STAYED in the long grass).

Bat (singular this year?) still present over garden at dusk most nights.

Noted some tadpoles had their back legs on the 9th June.

First froglet (that I saw!) left the pond on the 24th June.

First yellow flag iris to flower did so in the first few days of the month.

Chives WELL flowering by the middle of the 1st week of June.

Nigella flowers by the front door which had flowered for quite a bit of May were over and forming seed pods by 6th June.

First mock orange flowers jusssst about starting to come through and flower on 8th June – and flowering well at the back for the first time ever!

Solstice on 20th – a entire morning of constant rain followed by a clear(ish) evening and a full “strawberry” moon.

BREXIT on 23rd.

Barn owl (nesting?) visible in farm tree all month.

Four spotted chasers at WMH all month – being chased themselves by hobbies.

 

 

July 2016.

Weather:

Week 1: Very mixed. Often cool, regular showers. Often windy. Some long periods (or days) of warm sun. Changeable would be the best way to describe week one and two!

Week 2: As week one.

Week3: Generally hot, humid (yet windy?!) and sunny. Up to 35c on Tuesday 19th for example and 30c on Wednesday the 20th with night time temps of no less than 20c on both those nights.

Week 4: Slightly cooler after the 23rd (23rd was still 30c and sunny!) with more cloud and even a little rain.

 

Swifts still over house regularly but as I hadn’t played my swift call for a month or so, less interested in the house than say, May.
Swifts still calling at house most evenings through the 17th July.

MASSIVE amount of swift activity around box when I set up my Bluetooth call on 19th,20th and 21st in the mornings (early as 0630am). Great Photos.

Big drop off in swift activity around house on 23rd. Still some, but nothing like the 19th,20th,21st and 22nd. Swifts still visible in sky passing over on 23rd.

Female hawk got young starling on the lawn at lunchtime on 13th.(PHOTO)

SWALLOW landed on our fence during a sudden hail storm at lunchtime on 13th! A first for our garden for sure! (PHOTO)

Thought the swifts had disappeared on the 24th but back they came on the 26th, in a smaller group of 2 or 3 admittedly but were still checking out the boxes and call regularly throughout the morning. 26th July WAS the last day of 2016 this happened though. Very sad.

Leaf cutter bees carrying leaves into bee hotels in earnest by the 2nd week of July and all month – great photos.

Ruby tailed wasps around in first week of July.

Two poplar hawk moths caught in moth trap on early July nights (when it didn’t rain!).

One hornet buzzed me in garden at dusk on evening of 8th July.

Several 6-spot burnet moths emerged and mated in bluebell patch in front garden on 12th (MANY PHOTOS!)

First migrant hawker (male) over pond and captured unfortunately by Bloopy on 21st July. Photos.

First cinnabar moth caterpillars appear from nowhere on the 18th July on the ragwort.

Moths of note in July (in trap): Herald, nut tree tussock, small ermine, early thorn (2nd gen), august thorn, buff arches, buff tip, ruby tiger,rosy footman (NEW SP), scalloped oak, shaded broad-bar, common carpet,sycamore. (Lots of photos).

HEDGEHOG appears for first time this year on night of 10th July! (PHOTO)

Possible hedgehog mating dance sounds coming from Joan’s garden at about 10pm on 12th.

First water lily flower of the year in first week of July.

Black Knight buddleja flowering properly by 10th July.

Ragwort jussssst about flowering by 11th July.

Mock orange flowers over by mid July.

Goldenrod flowering by end of July.

 

SHED erected at the end of the first week of July.

Black tailed skimmers, lizards and broad bodied chasers all visible at WMH in July.

Barn owl still in farm tree in July.

 

 

August 2016.

Weather:

Week 1: Mixed. We were in Devon for first week which was VERY rainy for 1st 3 days of August and then pretty warm and sunny really.

Week 2: A bit better to be honest. Mainly sunny and warm (24c plus) if a little breezy still.

Week3: Started considerably better than the 1st 2 weeks of the month with a few days of pretty-well wall-to-wall blue skies, sun and temps of 24-26c with a light easterly (yes easterly!) breeze as high pressure built across the UK.

Week 4: Similar to week three really (really quite warm, hot in fact, and sunny  - minimal rain and light winds). Temperatures peaked in week 4 on the 24th with temps in the low to mid 30s! (Car read 35c!)

 

Last “Swift Half” swifts of year on Saturday 6th  (2) and Sunday 7th (1 – very low) August 2016?

Grey dagger in moth trap on 8th.

Other moths during August – Light emerald, poplar kitten, copper underwing, August thorn, Dusky thorn and plenty of others. Ran the moff trap for quite a few nights in August due to the settled conditions.

Rose chafer spotted on 29th and 31st August in warm (hot) sun.

Southern hawker female and migrant hawkers in garden all month – the migrant hawkers flying as late as dusk and as early as 0600hrs (dawn) late in the month.

Mammals

Amphibians/reptiles

Goldenrod pretty well over by the end of August.

Cleared brambles and scrub throttling ceanothus in first week of August.

Anything of note not covered by the above: Southern Hawkers and brown hawkers at wildmoor heath on 11th. Bell and ling heather at peak.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 2015 2016 garden wildlife report https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2016/9/5th-and-final-garden-wildlife-report Tue, 20 Sep 2016 12:55:55 GMT
Sometimes, a little Chrysis is necessary to get the adrenaline flowing. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2016/6/sometimes-a-little-chrysis-is-necessary-to-get-the-adrenaline-flowing

Apologies for being AWOL from this  blog again for some time.

Anyway... I'm back (for now) and wanted to quickly write about our "bee hotels".

 

As described here (please visit that link for a good summary of our bee hotels with specific regards to our healthy population of leaf-cutter bees), I take great pleasure at this time of year from watching our bee hotels.

In fact I'd suggest to any young budding naturalist that one of the BEST things they can do to watch wildlife at home, in the summer at least, is buy or make and put up a bee hotel. ESPECIALLY in the southeast of England where non-social hymenopteran spp. abound (not so, unfortunately, in Scotland for example).

Yes. I love watching our non-social bees and wasps - the masons, the leafcutters, the miners, diggers and potters - and at this time of year especially, it's all GO at the bee hotels.

The red masons have pretty-well finished their nest building and bricked up their eggs and pollen with mud.

The blue masons (my favourites) are still fully at it though.

The digger wasps (mainly Ectemnius spp. here) are exploiting old wood (this year IN our old bee hotels).

The leaf-cutter bees are just beginning to emerge from their nests, having spent almost an entire year in their chambers, as eggs, then developing young. Of course, that is UNLESS the red mason bees haven't destroyed old (but OCCUPIED!) leaf-cutter bees' nests in May in their haste to get their eggs deposited in a suitable hole BEFORE the leaf-cutters emerge (I witnessed that behaviour myself this year).

And then, if you're lucky, your bee hotel will undergo something of a little crisis. Or "Chrysis" to be exact.

My heart leaps a little when I have my first Chrysis of the year.

Chrysis is the generic name of the ruby-tailed (or jewel) wasps and is derived from the Greek chrysis, "gold vessel, gold-embroidered dress", and pays tribute to the brilliant metallic appearance of wasps in the genus.

Beautiful wee things, with an iridescent, pitted, metallic green and blue thorax and a metallic ruby and gold coloured abdomen - the Chrysis spp. are my favourite spp. of wasps for sure. Well... other than hornets I suppose.

Ruby-tailed wasps are also known as "Cuckoo wasps". This is because they don't go to the trouble of collecting food for their developing young like other non-social hymenoterans. They find a suitable 'host' - almost always a mason bee (almost invariably red mason bees) and lie in wait near the mason bee's nest, watching her build it. They'll regularly dart into the nest when the female bee leaves to collect more pollen for her young to feed on when they hatch, to ensure each of the bee's nest chambers is fully stocked with pollen (so WILL have a singular bee egg laid in it soon), then simply lay their egg by the pollen heap.

The female red mason bee will return to lay her egg(s) and brick up the entrance to her nest chambers - but what she won't realise is that there's ANOTHER egg next to hers. A wasp's egg. Which WILL hatch into a developing wasp pupa, which WILL EAT the developing bee pupa. ALIVE.

No.

They're not the "nicest" beasties in the world are they? At least in terms of behaviour. But they are one of the nicest to gawp at I think.

 

Yesterday I spent a good couple of hours watching the to-ing and fro-ing of our masons and their Chrysis nemeses. I was also treated to the sight of the first leaf-cutters emerge from their hidey-holes. Those were the lucky ones though - other developing leaf-cutters had already fallen victim to being kicked out by the red mason bees or had the protective (but decaying) leaf doors of their nest chambers eaten by earwigs.

When you're watching an established bee hotel, you get the chance to see sex, death, territorial fights, predation, hiding, chasing, incredible construction feats and of course the "circle of life" come full circle when your young bees or wasps emerge in the spring or summer.

Better than any TV?
​I'd say so, in a heartbeat.

Quite a quick heartbeat too..... when the Chrysis arrives!

 

Some photos of one of our bee hotels can be found below. They're not titled, but you'll be able to recognise the blue mason bee I'm sure, leaf-cutters, ruby-tailed wasps and a digger wasp.

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Chrysis Chrysis ignata bee bee hotel blue mason bee cuckoo wasp digger wasp earwig jewel wasp leaf-cutter bee non-social bee non-social wasp red mason bee ruby-tailed wasp wasp https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2016/6/sometimes-a-little-chrysis-is-necessary-to-get-the-adrenaline-flowing Thu, 23 Jun 2016 14:26:42 GMT
Get your thieving snout out. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2016/6/get-your-thieving-snout-out The fact that I’m not overly-keen on suburban foxes (or foxes in general for that matter) often comes as a bit of a surprise for many people that know me. I’d perhaps argue that they don’t know me that well if my mild dislike of foxes surprises them.

That said, I wouldn’t go as far to say that I’m pro fox hunting, (the justification of that seems these days to be based around the notion that hunting with hounds controls fox numbers which is demonstrably ludicrous), but I think there are far more pressing issues in the world (not just in conservation or animal welfare) than fox hunting.

Yup. I’m no fox fan – and haven’t been really since Anna and I started keeping hens about 7 years ago. We’ve not actually lost any birds to foxes at either of our houses in that time, but I’m not sure how really – in both our houses over the last 7 years, we have had foxes breeding the other side of our boundary fence and also foxes encouraged by neighbours’ feeding them.

(All my photos as usual... this time of pesky varmint foxes bothering my birds).

 

Foxes DO (of course) take poultry (I would if I was a fox, for sure) but also do worse than that. Aware that the pro-badger-cullers are now citing badgers as the (main?) reason for the huge decline in our British hedgehog population (nonsense again), I’ll tread carefully here, but two of the breeding hedgehogs in our garden(s) at our current house have been eaten by foxes – I have found the evidence, unfortunately.

With the advent of tall, plastic “sulo” bins, the suburban fox doesn’t tend to tip over dustbins these days (or spread the bins’ contents all over the pavement or garden) but there’s still the fact that they’re not at all fussy about where they defaecate – or indeed dig for food or dig their earths.

I suppose the best things I can say about suburban foxes is that they may take the odd rat or two and also give (some?) kids a bit of a thrill if they see them skulking around the neighbourhood. A bit like a bigger, harder-to-see squirrel I suppose. Incidentally I am certainly no fan of grey squirrels either.

On the night of January 2nd (or more likely the early hours of January 3rd) our local foxes (we’re surrounded by them it seems) committed an act of atrocity* (their first mind – and we’ve been here almost five years) in our front garden I’m afraid.

An “act of atrocity”?! C’mon... whatever they did it can’t be that bad can it?

Yes.  I’m afraid so.

Regular readers of this blog might know that we are fortunate enough here to have not one but TWO stag beetle colonies in our back and front garden. I’m talking proper stag beetles here, not lesser stags or chafers of any description – although we have good number of those too (including the wonderful rose chafers that feed on our photinia flowers each year).

The back garden colony of stag beetles is the biggest and exists in a rotting eucalyptus root system that once belonged to a large tree, planted in haste in suburbia. I love eucalyptus trees – I think they’re fantastic things, but they’re not really a tree for a back garden, even if the garden is as big as ours.

When we moved into the house, four and a half years ago, the previous owner of the house who had originally planted the tree, had already cut it down, but we were informed of the stump’s origins and each summer it produces (and draws in) good numbers of these wonderfully-impressive beetles. I’ve since covered the stump and root system with a whole pile of logs to protect the soft larvae beneath from the attention of our hens.

The logs that now protect the back garden stag beetle colony all came from the hornbeam tree in the front garden, which had died before we moved in. I cut down that dead tree (thinking that it could fall onto the house at any time) about three and a half years ago – and wondered if any stag beetles would make their home in this new stump and root system too.

In fact they already had – and the dead hornbeam’s roots were already home to stag beetles in our front garden like the eucalyptus roots in the back garden. I regarded the covering up of this particular stump to be unnecessary however, as our hens are confined to our extensive back garden with no access to the front of the property. I hadn’t considered the neighbourhood foxes though – that was a mistake.

In the three or so years since removing the hornbeam, but leaving the stump (ohhhh maybe four inches or so above the ground), we’ve had no significant fox activity centred around the stump itself – a few snuffle marks, a light dig – nothing troublesome. The stump had begun to rot and was very soft throughout those three years – and covered in turkey-tail fungi at various times. But that was all.

Until two nights ago.

I woke early (as usual) and on the last morning of my ‘Christmas and New Year holiday’ before trudging back to work today, decided to go for one of my regular pre-dawn owl-drives around the local farmland. Again, regular readers of this blog might know that we are blessed with having good numbers of little, tawny AND barn owls locally and I’ve been concerned about the barn owls in particular during this wet month.

I managed to see the local male barn owl on my pre-dawn owl-drive yesterday morning and returned home with a smile on my face. That smile quickly dropped off my face when, in the growing light as I locked the car and walked to the front door, I caught sight of a right mess in the middle of the front lawn.

The hornbeam stump had gone.

Vanished.

And in its place, were a large hole and a heap of dark spoil – peppered with juicy stag beetle larva of varying sizes and developmental stages.

I was horrified – and yes, this was *“atrocious”.

I had clearly walked right past this hole and spoil heap in the pitch black at the start of my owl-drive, but you couldn’t miss it in the daylight.

It took me a few minutes to work out what had happened, under the cover of darkness. One (or more – but it looked like one from the few prints visible) of our neighbourhood foxes had dug into the soft stump and kept digging. On the hunt for larvae perhaps? Who knows?

There were seven larvae clearly visible on the surface of the spoil – all dead. One could assume perhaps there were more that were eaten by the fox – although I have no proof of that.

If you know a little about stag beetles, you’ll know that not only are they endangered (old buried rotten woodpiles are few and far between in managed Britain) but they also spend between three and seven years as soft-bodied subterranean larvae – and only spend one summer above ground as ‘fully fledged’ adults, before dying. The damage that this fox had done was considerable – and even potentially spelled the end of this front garden colony – that would be very sad indeed.

I immediately tried to rectify the situation as best as I could – by filling in the hole with the loose spoil (wonderful soil quality) and replacing as many live larvae underground as I could – I think I saved (with luck) as many as ten larvae that had been unearthed by not killed.

Then, a few sheets of chicken fencing, pinned tightly flat to the ground with tent pegs and garden staples protected the attractive (to foxes!) loose soil which I’d heaped back into the hole. A few gentle presses with the sole of my size 14 wellies – and I was done. That’s pretty well all I could do.

I’ll probably leave the chicken fence pinned to the top of the colony permanently to be honest. The neighbours (with their Telly Tubby) manicured gardens might not approve, but I care not a jot. They like the vast majority of the British public are happy to see wildlife, but don’t really consider where it comes from or whether it CAN exist in their neighbourhood. In any case, the grass on the front lawn will cover most of the chicken wire by May next year, rendering the mess pretty-well invisible to all but the most precious of neighbours.

Last night I did set up a trail camera in the front garden, overlooking the (ravaged but now-protected?) hornbeam stag beetle colony, to see if the stapled fencing would indeed dissuade the fox(es) from more digging. Unfortunately, for the first time in weeks, we had a cool, still night after a day of rain, so the trail camera lens steamed up within minutes of setting up  - but I did get a very foggy few clips of a fox (or two?) investigating the site of their previous night’s fun. But no further digging it seems.

There you have it, grapple fans. A real body blow to our stag beetles. At least in the front garden. I’ll keep watch on this colony in particular this winter and especially next summer in the hope that I have managed to save a few of these magnificent beetles. We may look at somehow protecting the colony further if that is the case – I’m not sure how at present (a loose log pile in the front garden may look a little strange), but that’s something for Anna and I to discuss this year.

At least we still have a very healthy colony in the back garden – a fox proof colony to boot!

As for the neighbourhood foxes – well with neighbours that insist on feeding them (WHY do people do that?!) they’re bound to be a permanent fixture around the ‘hood too - but as far as I’m concerned, my feelings towards foxes (a little worse than “Meh” I fear) are a little more understandable to some and might come as less of a surprise? Perhaps.

 

Footnote – The title of this blog “Get your thieving snout out” is a nod to one of my two twin sisters, who at the tender age of about seven years old, angrily told our maternal Grandfather just that, when he was offered a quality street from the “Christmas tin” of chocolates and started rooting about in it for his favourite. I’d like to report that she’s changed since then. I’d like to!

 

Stag nightStag night

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fox stag beetle https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2016/6/get-your-thieving-snout-out Thu, 09 Jun 2016 06:46:23 GMT
The eve of war. "Our souls" are up for grabs... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2016/6/the-eve-of-war-our-souls-are-up-for-grabs Up before dawn (as usual) and in the garden, looking to the “heavens” and optimistically-listening-out for the first of our winter thrushes to “TSEEP” their arrival to our shores from Scandinavia, I noticed something in the night sky, yesterday morning and today.

The planets seem to have lined up, in a very short line. (We’re not talking across the entire night sky here – we’re talking a few degrees apart).

 

Now, recently I have amused myself (and indeed bemused myself) by watching many of the Flat Earthers’ videos on YouTube – where they describe in some detail how we’ve all been hoodwinked by the powers that be.

Yes – there is a GROWING population of people in the world who genuinely believe that the earth is flat, the sky is a glass dome and all the heavenly bodies are projections onto that dome.

Amazing huh? But that’s not all.

I have also been amusing and bemusing (no… not abusing) myself by watching videos on YouTube which have attempted to tell us all that the world will END between September 23rd and September 28th – for a variety of reasons.

Either Planet X will smash into earth, causing an (overdue mind) extinction event.

Or Barrack Obama (who they say is ACTUALLY the antichrist AND Osama Bin Laden… yes….) will start world war three.

Or the good people at CERN in Switzerland will push the wrong button on their Large Hadron collider and suck the entire planet into a man-made black hole, or a gateway to hell, or something else (I can’t remember now).

Or the aliens will invade us. They’re already here of course, biding their time; they’ll just reveal themselves to us tonight or tomorrow.

These videos do exist in their hundreds on YouTube. Check them out if you fancy a terrifying look into the blind stupidity of some of our race.

 

Some of these videos point to clues we all have (allegedly) been given –clues demonstrating that the end of the world is nigh – and errr… “Rapture” is upon us.

 

Tonight for example. Or more accurately, very early tomorrow morning over the UK, there will be a “Super blood moon” for the first time since 1982 – a time when Survivor topped the charts with “Eye of the Tiger”.

A “Super moon” just means the moon is a few thousand miles closer to the Earth than normal, so appears about 14% bigger in the night sky. As now.

A “blood moon” generally means a total lunar eclipse – when the moon appears almost red or coppery for a while – as tonight.

A “super blood moon” happens when both the above conditions are met.

 

On the eve of this super blood moon then, which allegedly is just one of the clues that we’re all doomed – it was interesting (to me at least) to peer into the night sky and see a few planets lined up just above the Eastern horizon before dawn.

So I took some photos.

And a screenshot from my Android Stargazer app. Yes. I’m a spod. Deal with it!

I managed to get three planets in a bit of a wonky line in my photo, but it's not just Venus, Mars and Jupiter (as in my photo) - Mercury and the Sun have lined up (below the horizon of course) with those planets too! (See screenshot from my phone).

So….

The planets have lined up with the sun.

There is to be a “super blood moon” tonight.

An injury-ravaged Wales beat England at Twickenham in the Rugby World Cup last night.

 

The End of Days is here. Clearly.

This is the eve of war.

Rapture is indeed upon us.

Our souls (mind how you say that, “our souls”) are up for grabs.

 

Best you repent then, grapple fans.

And repent pretty darned quick.

 

Catch you on the other side though, eh?

 

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) night sky planets sun https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2016/6/the-eve-of-war-our-souls-are-up-for-grabs Thu, 09 Jun 2016 06:44:17 GMT
Commentators' curse. (Warning... GRAPHIC description... not for the squeamish). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2016/6/commentators-curse-warning-graphic-description-not-for-the-squeamish

I really shouldn’t have mentioned in my last blog post that we’d yet to lose one of our seven hens to a fox over the past seven years at two different houses.

 

Commentators curse, they call that, in televised sport.

 

This morning, about five minutes after I walked up to the back of our large garden to open the girls’ coop door (but not their run), in the dark, at around 7am, a fox struck and pulled off the head of our biggest, softest girl, (Hen) Solo.

 

I’m still trying to work out what on earth happened to be honest. The girls’ run is large (for four hens – you could probably put eight in there), sturdy, over 6 foot high and roofed. It is covered in chicken wire and for the bottom eighteen inches or so, also covered in a second layer of narrow gauge plastic fencing. 

 

In the four and a half years since we’ve been here, we’ve had no real issue with foxes being that interested in the hens (apart from once... photographed above, but to be honest even then the fox was not interested in the run... it had just got a bit scared after wandering into the garden and then seeing me running up the garden, wailing like a banshee) – Christ knows how though, as they have been denning in next doors overgrown garden for at least two of those four years.

 

Anna and I (in the house) heard a horrible set of screams coming from the run in the dark at about five-past-seven this morning – and I rushed up there with a head torch on to see what the problem was. Normally it’s a cat. Occasionally, in the light, when they are able to leave the run during the dry-ish 9 months of the year, it’s a woodpecker. Sometimes it’s even a peacock butterfly our girls take offence to.

 

As I ran up the garden, I heard a large animal (bigger than a cat anyway) take flight, jump onto the 6 foot larch fence surrounding our garden and make off.

But I still thought nothing of it really – I mean the girls were locked into their impregnable run.

 

When I got close to the run, I realised there had been a horrible incident.

Feathers matted a part of the chicken wire about two feet above the ground and a bundle of hen lay inside the run, next to the feather-matted chicken wire, twitching.

 

I opened the run door and saw that our biggest, softest girl, (Hen)Solo was the one caught by the fox, somehow, and was freshly-dead. She was in fact missing her head.

 

I ensured the other two girls (we only had three girls left after the Spring, as I had to dispatch one of the four last April after she suffered a catastrophic prolapse), were safe in the coop – they were… but were obviously incredibly nervous and took Solo’s body out of the run.

 

The next two hours were spent putting another layer of narrow chicken wire around the coop and also putting down a dig-proof border to the large run – as I’m sure the fox will now be back.

 

But like I say, I’m still not really sure how on earth the fox GOT Solo. There was no entrance to the run itself by the fox. No tunnel dug underneath the run’s frame. No entrance hole in the chicken wire. Nothing. Just a headless chicken corpse inside the run and a few feathers stuck to the chicken wire run fence.

 

I can only assume that the fox waited until Solo got right up to the chicken wire, perhaps and it thrust its snout or a paw in, caught her and pulled her head off through the chicken wire.

Just minutes after I walked back to the house! I’m still amazed that seems the most likely explanation as I still don’t see quite how that could happen – I mean its chicken wire… and I would have thought a fox’s muzzle would be too big to be shoved through that… let alone shoved through with enough gap to get a bit of tooth and jaw purchase around a hen’s throat – the hen would only have to take one step back to be completely out of reach by anything but a small snake!

 

That and the fact that for 9 months of the year we let our girls completely free range all over our large garden, from dawn to dusk – and its just a fortnight after we shut them into their covered, impregnable run for the winter when one of them gets nobbled?!

Bizarre.

 

Anyway…. Happened it has and it’s really quite sad.

 

Hen(Solo) was a very good girl for us. She was the biggest brown hen (Bovan Goldline, Warren, Ginger-nut Ranger… they’re all pretty-much the same hybrid type really) that I’ve ever seen, let alone kept.

Rather like our biggest cat (who is also HUGE), she was incredibly calm, very placid, seemed to exist outside the hen pecking order – she wasn’t hen-pecked nor did she hen-peck lesser hens and she gave us the most double-yolker eggs of all.

 

I don’t have many photos of Solo, but the photo at the  beginning and end of this blog post is one I do have.

 

Poor girl… I hope the end was quicker than I fear it was – and at least (I suppose) I won’t have to kill her (that’s never a pleasant thing to do) in the next year or two as her health fails.

 

I also hope the other two girls are fine without her. I’m never comfortable keeping just two hens – I don’t think it’s enough really – keep three and you tend to get a hen pecking order form after a few days – keep more if possible as they’re VERY social animals.

 

But two we are left with for now – and as soon as one of them goes (for whatever reason – be that ill health or another fox attack), I’ll have to kill the other too – I won’t keep one hen and to introduce pullets to a 3 year old hen in its own territory is no good either.

 

 

Anyway… thanks for over two years of eggs and a lot of fun, Solo.

You kept our wee flock grounded… were ALWAYS a pleasure to be around like your sister (Chook)Berry (the other two we’re left with are much more feisty, broody, aggressive, jealous etc) and Anna and I will certainly miss you very much.

The garden seems a lot emptier without you.

 

RIP girl.

 

 

Finally…

 

If there are any foxes reading this…

THIS IS WAR.

 

Be afraid, monsieur renard.

Be VERY afraid.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bastard fox hen solo https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2016/6/commentators-curse-warning-graphic-description-not-for-the-squeamish Thu, 09 Jun 2016 06:43:38 GMT
Christmas jumpers https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/12/christmas-jumpers I've not blogged for some time I'm afraid - mainly because I've had my time wasted for the best part of a month, but you don't really need to read the ins and outs of that nonsense.

I HAVE been meaning to write this very brief blog post for some time however, after stumbling across this youtube user's videos a couple of months ago and been blown away by them.

A few readers (perhaps?) of this blog may remember I used to take many photos of jumping spiders - I think they're fascinating wee things and quite attractive (dare I say?) to even the most arachnophobic of people. (I guess it helps that they're absolutely minute).

A selection of around 15 of my personal jumping spider photographs can be found below. I've tried (in vain perhaps) to make them as original as possible (images rather than photographs).

But... the real reason I wanted to write this blog was to introduce any readers to PEACOCK JUMPING SPIDERS - and a superb collection of short HD clips on youtube by "Peacockspiderman" set to great music too.

It's not easy finding these tiny spiders, let alone shooting them so competently and then again putting the mesmerising clips to music, some of it very apt (disco, funk etc).

I LOVE this set of clips - it's probably my favourite set of Youtube clips (other than my swift clips of course) and I urge you to spend a few minutes being transfixed by these quite wonderful, hypnotic peacock jumping spiders.

(Word of advice however... concentrate on the numbered clips, i.e. "Peacock Spider 7" rather than the 2 most recent "Spid-a-boo" clips which sully the playlist somewhat I think).

Anyway... a belated merry christmas to yule - and a VERY happy 2016.

TBR.

House jumping spider on CDHouse jumping spider on CD Female fencepost-jumping spiderFemale fencepost-jumping spider

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) jumping spider jumping spiders peacock jumping spider peacock spider https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/12/christmas-jumpers Tue, 29 Dec 2015 06:58:13 GMT
The queen is dead! Long live the queens (Part two). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/11/the-queen-is-dead-long-live-the-queens-part-two I originally blogged here about this superb hornets’ nest that I found when on a wildlife walk with Anna and Ben on October 11th.

A month later and we returned again to the same nature reserve to see if the hornets were still around.

 

I had at that time (mid October) speculated that the original queen of the colony would at that time be getting ignored (and not fed) then by the workers – whereas the new queens (“gynes”) would be growing and nearly ready to take to the skies for their mating flights with the sexual males.

 

The first frosts of the season would probably see an end to activity at the nest – the new gynes would have flown, been mated and found suitable hibernation spots (empty bird boxes etc); and the old queen, workers and males will have died.

 

That was then – and as you’ll all know as well as me – we’ve not had any frosts to speak of this season – in fact it’s been a warm October and November so far (I think we’ve had the warmest October day for 7 decades and the warmest November day on record in fact).

 

No surprise then when we made our way to the nest this morning to see sexuals (males with long antennae and sexually-active (new) gynes) on the wing – but I don’t think I caught sight of any workers (non sexual females).

 

I managed to follow a gyne to the ground after being mated (her, not me (bit cold and wet in the woods at this time of year for me!) and took a few shots of this new “queen”. I also took a few long-range shots of the “horny” males swarming outside the nest box, waiting to intercept a gyne and mate her.

 

These photos can all be seen below, with a comparison shot of a non-sexual female (worker) that flew into our house this August.

 

It really won’t be long now at all. A week. Maybe two? This warm weather can’t last all winter and when the first frosts DO come – this nest will then be dead.

 

I wonder if Anna and I can find the new nest(s) next spring – and I wonder if the queen I photographed today will be at the heart of it?

 

Anyway, I think it was a privilege to see the new queen(s) emerge from the nest and get lucky enough to be mated today.

 

Good luck girls. Find a nice winter hidey-hole and I’ll catch you next spring!

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hornet hornet nest queen hornet https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/11/the-queen-is-dead-long-live-the-queens-part-two Sun, 08 Nov 2015 14:50:57 GMT
The 51st Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition (2015). A breath of fresh air. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/10/the-51st-wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-competition-2015-a-breath-of-fresh-air Regular readers of this blog might know that I don’t seem to have the time or energy these days to take many wildlife photos of my own, like I used to before starting to raise my (soon-to-be three year old) son.

I certainly don’t seem to have much time to plan shots (train “our” jays like I used to, or hunt down secret local sites to photograph specific beasties like I used to also do).

As for entering competitions – nope – no time for that these days either, although I perhaps should also say I haven’t exactly been inspired to enter competitions for a year or two after being disappointed with many recent results of recent competitions.

Same old people photographing the same old stuff, in the same old way, that either they or countless others have been doing so for years.

You know… gannets, crocodiles, cheetah with antelope, bears, elephants, foxes, fish shoal, elephants, gannets, foxes, lion with antelope, elephants, gannets, crocodiles, fish shoal, sharks, elephants and crocodiles.

You’re right by the way. And that was deliberate.

 

But I always like to see the winning and finalist images of certainly the biggest wildlife photography competition there is – the Wildlife Photographer of the Year (which I never have entered – never thought my photos were good enough, despite what some very generous commentators have suggested to me).

Last night, at the Natural History Museum in London, this year’s WPOTY winners (and finalists) were announced.

I followed the announcements live on twitter and would very much like to take this opportunity to share my general thoughts on the results with anyone bored enough to read on…

 

 

The subtitle of this blog entry is “A breath of fresh air” and I truly mean that. As the results were announced between 8pm and 10:30pm (ish), it became more and more obvious to me at least that this year’s competition was the best yet.

Ahhhh Doug…. They ALL say “the best yet” don’t they?

I guess they do, but other than having a sister work having a pretty senior job in the Museum (who has nothing to do with the competition), I don’t have anything to do with the competition either – I can say what I like about it.

And yes… I really think this year’s results made this year’s WPOTY the best for years and years – perhaps the best ever.

 

I don’t remember a WPOTY where I have been so bowled-over by more than a handful of images- hoping that any one of them would win. Normally I pick a favourite elephant in the sea of sharks and big cats and sort-of hope that does well – but I had real trouble picking one favourite this year.

 

Why? What was so great about this year’s results?

See for yourself here.

But in a word for me – this year’s crop were so ORIGINAL.

In more words – Quirky (I love quirky images), unique, left-field, clever, alternative, bold, beautiful and…. original (have I mentioned “original”?).

 

I’ll pick a few to show here and explain as briefly as I can why I love them so much…

 

 

“Life comes to art”. Copyright Juan Tapia (Spain).

 

 

You may have to look at this photo… this PHOTO…. twice.

And then again.

Then once more perhaps.

Still don’t quiiiite get what you’re gawping at? Then click here to visit the description of this image.

Someone will certainly have to tear me away from this photo when I visit the exhibition.

Breath-taking.

A swallow, photographed flying through an oil painting to produce a sublime, an absolutely sublime work of art.

For the photographer to even think of this and then have the technical nous to pull it off is incredible to me – as incredible as the final image.

I have never seen a wildlife photograph like this… it’s completely unique – and I dare say I won’t ever see an image like this again.

Almost certainly my favourite of the bunch last night.

Brilliant.

 

 

 

 

 

“The texture of life” Copyright Juan Jesus Gonzales (Spain).

 

 

Bold, beautiful and quirky.

Again, a double-take might be necessary here, but once again, if you still can’t quite guess what you’re looking at… click here to see a description of the shot and how it was taken.

I adore shots like this. Even though a lot of this frame isn’t strictly-speaking covered in negative space, it might as well be. Just green texture… with something in the top left corner.

Something similar to the rest of the frame… but different, something recognisable…but something slightly alien.

Again the skill (and perhaps patience?) of the photographer here is jaw-shattering to me at least – and the final image ticks every one of my boxes.

I could look at this image all day long – if only for the rich green – but there’s SO much more to it than that.

 

 

 

 

 

“Shadow Walker” Copyright Richard Peters (London).

 

 

I’m exasperated with photos of urban foxes. Everyone is photographing foxes under streetlights and by discarded takeaway boxes or bins.  

THIS photo is different though.

VERY different.

I just cannot be bored with this photo of an urban fox – how could I?
Firstly it’s utterly unique again (I’m not sure, but I can’t remember a winning photo in a wildlife photography competition where the live subject of the photo ISN’T EVEN IN THE FRAME!).

Secondly, it’s very, very well done – everything is perfect. The wall is perfect (did the photographer clean the wall first?!), the stars are perfect, the lit window top left is perfect, the timing is absolutely perfect.

This shot will have taken a great deal of visualisation and planning – and the result is to die for.

Finally an urban fox photo that is quirky, atmospheric and utterly unique.

 

 

 

 

 

“Butterfly in crystal” Copyright Ugo Mellone (Italy).

 

 

Just a shot of a dead butterfly in snow right?

Well… yes…. I suppose so. (Although the ‘snow’ is actually crystalline salt).

But I have always maintained photography is ART – it should bring about an emotion or feeling or strong line of thought from the onlooker - be that an immediate sense of calm, or revulsion, or pain, uneasiness (see shadow walker above), sadness, introspection, extrospection, happiness or joy. Something. Anything.

Forgetting the notion that this shot might bring about a clichéd sense of sadness – this shot for me is SO much more than a sad shot of a dead butterfly in salt.

It’s more about life to me than death. About time. Life’s brevity. Purpose. Reason. And only then ultimate mortality.

This photo gets me thinking. Gets me really thinking. Not generally a good thing!

It’s a beautiful photo … of a dead butterfly in salt!

That’s all.

But utterly absorbing. Beautiful and completely unique.

The more and more I look at this shot, the more I notice the finer details and composition – it’s a belter of a shot but will be written off as a photo of a dead butterfly by many who might say “how hard can that be to photograph compared to a leopard grappling a gazelle for example”.

I could (again) look at this shot and be completely absorbed in my own world for hours.

And that… grapple fans… is ART.

How easy is it to produce really good art?

Not easy at all I’d say.

 

I’ve always maintained anyone, that’s ANYONE can draw (I remember walking around the SWLA winners’ exhibition at the Mall Galleries recently and saying that to my brother-in-law who didn’t share my opinion. I should have been clearer really – anyone can draw (and everyone SHOULD!) but not many can produce good art. Maybe we might have agreed then?).

Likewise with photography – anyone can take photos. Anyone can photograph a dead butterfly can’t they?

But would they?

Would they THINK of doing so?

And then would they shoot it so beautifully?

No I’d say. No chance. On both counts.

In fact I’d say they’d be more likely to photograph that leopard grappling that gazelle than the static butterfly. And they may get a half-decent shot. Which would do less for ME than a shot of the static, dead butterfly they’ve probably not even seen.

“Easy” then?

Oh sure… only when a very talented artist has done it first and opened your eyes for you.

Just my opinion mind…

 

Blimey, I’m really waffling now – this was meant to be a brief summary of a few thoughts!

 

Last one then (you're lucky... I could go on and on and on this year)....

 

 

 

“Still Life” Copyright Edwin Giesbers (Holland).

 

 

I’ve seen a similar shot win (or be commended) in another competition.

Might have been the BWPA (British Wildlife Photography Awards)… I can’t remember… but the shot was of a toad in that case, not a crested newt.

The skill involved in shooting a toad or newt from below, in water, with a perfect background is something I could only dream of.

What a fantastic inspiration this shot is then!

It’s basically a shot of a newt in a puddle, but taken with such care and technical expertise that it produces a spellbinding image – something again that almost looks unreal.

 

I have a pond.

With newts.

And trees overhead.

So I could do this?

Ha!

The newts in our pond are flighty wee beggars – I’d be out there for years – and still I’d not get a shot like this.

This is an immense shot of a tiny newt in little more than a puddle.

Brilliant.

 

____________________________________

 

 

Right, I’d best leave it there, as like I’ve already written… this was originally meant to be a brief blog.

 

I’ll summarise the above by saying whilst I’ve gone into considerable detail about a few winning or finalists’ shots above – I could have picked many more.

I haven’t even mentioned the overall winner – you can see all the shots here and pick your own favourites.

 

What I’m most pleased about with this year’s results is that the judges have picked many arty images rather than what I’d call purely subject-based photographs to make off with the prizes.

So -  this year, amongst the “oooh… that’s a nice elephant/gannet/penguin/whale/fox” shots we have a whole variety of images chosen which make us, the onlookers, THINK.

We have (for the first year that I can remember) a series of winning images that could certainly be described as art – and so right up my street.

We have images that provoke a strong reaction from the onlooker (shameless link to my most (in)famous attempt at something similar), quite often a reaction OTHER than “ooooh… that’s a purdy view”.

We have a series of bold images, left-field images, clever images as well as images that simply (only) need a £10,000 set up to take (with very little imagination behind the lens) – and have probably all been taken before anyway.

We have a bold set of judges awarding a bold set of photographers keen to push boundaries and look DIFFERENTLY at things.

We have real inspiration this year.

We are now looking at our cameras and thinking what WE can do with them.

How can we be different?

The bar this year has been raised several notches and...

we do indeed, this year, have…

A breath of fresh air.

 

 

 

***********

 

 

Footnote.

These are my personal views only of course. I fully expect most people to disagree!

 

Many, many congratulations to all the photographers who were shortlisted, won or were merely “finalists”. You have inspired this old dog for sure.

So many thanks for that.

Now just to find some time!

 

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) #WPY51 2015 WPOTY Wildlife Photographer of the year https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/10/the-51st-wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-competition-2015-a-breath-of-fresh-air Wed, 14 Oct 2015 16:22:28 GMT
The Queen is dead! (Long live the queens). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/10/the-queen-is-dead-long-live-the-queens I think it would be fair to say I'm no fan of autumn generally - and regular readers of this blog will probably know that by now.

The swifts and swallows have all packed up and headed orf - and everything else seems to be closing down for the colder, darker months ahead.

The sun is always in your eyes or not present at all.

Our clay garden begins to get water-logged and so needs hard, heavy, hand-aerating this month.

In October I start to rake up the leaves fallen from our poplar trees (see today's photo below), knowing that by November(ish) our trees will be skeletal for about 5 months - and our garden looks uninviting to me because of that.

Finally - I know deep down that I've just had the BEST 6 months of the year (by far!) and it will be another 6 months before I get anything approaching that again - I presume I get "S.A.D." but that would be a presumption - if S.A.D. exists at all?

 

But there are SOME upsides to autumn  - the arrival of winter birds and a great flurry of activity by all manner of things  - "endo" and "exoskeletoned" - to make as much hay as they can before the frosts arrive (THIS WEEK I HEAR?!)

If you don't live on or near a northern moor, mid October is a great time to walk around your local scrubby fields and see a short-eared owl heading south for the winter and mid October is also a great time to see passage waders drop onto local lakes and gravel pits.

 

Anna, Ben and I went for one of our regular weekend wildlife walks this morning, around a local(ish) lake I know very well, in quite lovely autumnal weather - I was on the lookout for winter ducks primarily - and wasn't disappointed.

As soon as we got out of the car, the whistling from arriving wigeon greeted me - always a nice sound to hear from these VERY pretty ducks.

There were wigeon and teal and shoveler and gadwall - but no passage waders through as far as I could tell. But I do like to see the arrival of the winter ducks - it gives me a lift as we near winter - when we get our best winter duck visitor of all down here - the goldeneye!

 

The woodland surrounding the lake which we walked around today is a VERY good place to see two things (other than wildfowl) at certain times of the year.

1 - Spring nightingales - although you'd do well to SEE these - you'll certainly HEAR them in the spring at this place. So much so in fact that I hear "proper bird watchers" travel for 50 miles or so to this lake in Berkshire to get their nightingale fix each year. 

2 - Summer and autumn hornets - less obvious than nightingales (well... they don't sing do they?) with a far more fearsome reputation of course (which they CERTAINLY DON'T DESERVE).

 

I saw my first ever hornet at this site a decade or two ago (I can't remember exactly when now) and have seen hornets here each time I visit in the summer/autumn. I have no idea why they like this particular spot - but they do.

We have hornets in the garden each year now we've moved from Reading, and one in the house this year too... see photo below, but I've never seen a hornets nest in our garden, unlike the pesky wasps' nests which we seem to attract each year.

I actually thought I'd blogged earlier this year about hornets after that worker hornet (above) flew into our house. I certainly mentioned them after our summer holiday camping in the New Forest - a few feet from an active nest.

They are delightful things, hornets - very impressive to gawp at and very gentle indeed - not like wasps at all in either respect as far as I'm concerned.

I won't bore you with a lot more information about hornets - but if you have time, please visit this link to find out more about these fascinating and gentle creatures. The link takes you to an American website but goes into great detail about OUR European hornet - it's well worth a read.

 

Today, as we walked around the lake, I spotted a few hornets in the air, and told Anna I thought I knew roughly where* they were coming from  - (I'm weird like that but my wife is probably used to it by now!) so we should see if we could find the "hornet source".

*Almost every time I have visited the lake during previous summers I have seen hornets on the other side of the lake (about 1/4 mile from where we saw them in the air this morning) so I was pretty confident I'd find more if we walked a little further.

 

Sure enough, a little way further around the lake, I spotted the nest - spilling out of a birdbox - and VERY active it was too. WHAT A FIND! - I may have regularly seen hornets at this site, but never found the nest(s) in the woods before here. I was (rather embarrassingly) completely made up!

At this exact time of year, the founder queen (or"GYNE")  of the colony tends to kick the bucket after getting ignored by the males (and so starves) - and the NEW young queens (which eclosed about 6 weeks ago) will be mated and then immediately begin looking for hibernation quarters.

It won't be more than a month or so (if that) before the colony dies - killed by frosts. Just the new hibernating queens are left -snoring peacefully away until next spring - when they'll form their own new hornet colonies - ready to be found by berks like me (in Berks) with any luck.

 

It's certainly been a very "hornety" year for me, 2015.  My most "hornety" year ever I guess.

I've entertained one in our sitting room briefly.

We've camped a few feet away from one in the New Forest.

We've had a few buzz through the garden as we do each year.

But the highlight of this "hornety year" for me undoubtedly was the nest I found this morning - a HUGE privilege to see.

I maaaay just return this week with a real camera (all the photos on this blog entry were taken with my phone as I didn't take my camera with me on today's walk) to get some nice shots of these beautiful insects and their impossibly beautiful (and fragile) home.

I just hope the frosts hold off this week - I do hear it might get decidedly chilly this week at night.

Fingers crossed then grapple fans,

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) gadwall hornet hornet nest shoveler teal wigeon https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/10/the-queen-is-dead-long-live-the-queens Sun, 11 Oct 2015 17:52:42 GMT
A last hurrah and the robin's "b-side". https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/9/a-last-hurrah-and-the-robins-b-side As we race towards the equinox, like leggy house spiders through an open door - & after a pretty dismal August, weather-wise, (all things considered) we thought we’d take a walk around our favourite lowland heath yesterday afternoon.

 

Certainly the beautiful warm sunshine reminded us of what the weather should have been like in August and perhaps this is summer’s last hurrah, this weekend? Autumn proper starts in a day or twos time after all. 

I keep thinking I’m hearing the first of the winter thrushes, the redwing, overhead at night. I think I’m about a fortnight early, so I must be hearing things… but they won’t be long now, that’s for sure.

 

Other birds certainly are on the move. Swallows and martins are very visible now as they all head off south – always a very depressing sight for me  - I watched fourteen head joyfully (well… they sounded “joyful”) south over the garden yesterday morning.

 

I also think I’ve (already) heard the first changing of the robins’ song in the last few days – from the slightly more upbeat trinkle to a much more plaintiff, almost apologetic warble. That "b side" will be played for months, sadly. (Or rather played sadly, for months.)

 

I’ve already noted that both our valerian types (red and white) have bloomed again, but so is our ceanothus and our mock orange.

The Megachile leaf cutter bees have been quiet for a while, but in yesterday’s morning sun, two busy individuals were determined to finish building their nests in my new bee hotel.

 

Our huge, subterranean wasps’ nest in the garden is very active indeed when the warmth hits it – I could count at least one wasp per second either flying into the nest or leaving – they’ll make hay while they can – for a few weeks yet I suppose.

 

Spiders are everywhere it seems and their webs have become more and more visible in the heavy dews of September. No frost yet… but that won’t be too far off either I expect.

Our false widows and Segestria florentina are also making their hay in this brief period of warmth – and the huge male house spiders are legging it inside to find mates now.

 

On our walk we stopped to watch a peaty-pond full of raft spiders and the beautiful wasp spiders in the surrounding tussocky grass.

 

 

There were dragonflies around too – migrant hawkers and common darters in the main – and these odonates should be around for a while yet, if it stays mild.

 

 

We still have a southern hawker in the garden. At least I think we do – I don’t think our hens caught and ate it yesterday, whilst I wasn’t looking.

 

 

This year seems especially good for fungi. We’ve had masses in the garden already this September after that wet August – and yesterday on our walk we were literally tripping over penny buns, fly agarics and purple russula. Normally Anna and I would head OFF the path to go fungi-hunting, but with the boy around, and with SO MUCH fungi everywhere… we didn’t need to bother. We just needed to watch out for the many, many daddy-long legs flying  (if you can call it flying) drunkenly towards our faces if we were taking photos of the toadstools.

 

This year seems good for fruit and berries also – maybe the wet summer helped swell the plants fruit – certainly there are LOADS of apples, rowan berries and acorns - the jays will be OK this winter - that's for sure.

 

What did Keats write about autumn?

Mists and mellow fruitfulness right?

I did enjoy a misty, autumnal sunrise this morning on a little owl hunt (photo below) and I suppose I can look forward to more sightings of the local little and barn owls as well as look forward to the arrival of the winter ducks – especially the beautiful goldeneye as the nights draw in.

 

 

Yes… I suppose I can see why some people have autumn as their favourite time of year, but personally, for me… no.

 

I’m already counting the days until spring.

 

 

TBR

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) acorns autumn ceanothus common darter daddy long legs fly agaric house little owl lowland heath martin mists and mellow fruitfulness mock orange penny bun purple russula raft spider red valerian robin rowan berries swallow wasp wasp spider white valerian https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/9/a-last-hurrah-and-the-robins-b-side Sun, 20 Sep 2015 09:09:12 GMT
End of fourth "year" garden wildlife report. Sept 2014-Aug 2015 inclusive. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/8/end-of-fourth-year-garden-wildlife-report-sept-2014-aug-2015-inclusive As some regular viewers to this website might know - at the beginning of each September I produce a (historically lengthy) “End of year (garden wildlife) report”, as we moved to this particular house at the end of August – in 2011.

 

We’ve been here four years now & I’ll try and summarise a whole lorra activity as best as I can below… (I apologise in advance for the length of this blog post).

Actually, I suspect that this blog post (like the three “end of year reports” before), will be only of real interest to me and anyone morbidly-interested in the garden wildlife of southeast Berkshire! All two of you!

 

This will probably be my penultimate “End of year report” for this particular abode (I think I’ll stop at the first five years), as with a toddler who’s becoming more and more of a handful and (thankfully) more and more interested in the world around him (including wildlife), I have less and less time to record my sightings during the year and a whole lot less time to write a lengthy year report in September.

But for now….

 

 

End of fourth year (garden wildlife) report.

September 2014 – August 2015 (incl.)

 

 

Weather.

 

Sept14: First two weeks – VERY settled. 20c plus. Lots of sun and lots of cloud. No appreciable wind. Pretty mild. Dry. Uneventful if warm for the time of year.

Third week similar but a bit murkier and with rain on Friday19th.

Fourth week– fresher but still warm(ish) at 18c, a little windier but still pretty well driza bone, warming up to 24c again by final weekend of the month. Just 14mm of rain all month for England as a whole in September, but far less than that with us – probably less than 10% of the average rainfall for the month.

 

Oct14: Weather: Warm and dry until the 4th – then all change with a cold front bringing in the first significant rain and cool temperatures (sub 20) since August or before that… May? Heavy rain on 4th and 6th. 14c instead of 23c.

Second week cool, windy, wet with a few sunny spells and lots of rain.

Third week wet and a little stormy at times.

Fourth week incredibly mild and quite sunny (with a little rain from time to time) – back up to 23c on the 31st for example!

Approximately 150% of normal rainfall in the month.

 

Nov14: Weather: First week MUCH colder than of late. Two frosts on mornings of 5th and 6th (scraping cars). Quite a lot of rain at the start of the month. Windy too, with a northerly wind at times.

Second and third weeks much milder. Lots of rain and wind.

Fourth week started mild, then we had a large amount of rain (rained all weekend on the 22nd and 23rd) followed by the first “proper” grass and air frosts of the year on the night of the 23rd/24th and again on the 24th/25th.

Dank and murky for much of fourth week but month ended in a relatively settled fashion with two/three days of dry weather

Approximately 150% of normal rainfall in the month.

 

Dec14: First week mixed (in terms of rain  - not much but a little) … but cold. A few significant frosts and the coldest day and night temperatures for 20 months!

Second week begins remaining cold. On the night of the 11th and onwards – STORMY AND COLD. Very high winds.

Third week a bit of a roller coaster – some cold days and nights broken up with very mild (for December) periods with SW winds and periods of heavy rain.

Fourth week same as third really but much colder on night of 27th.

Cold weather continued up until new years day, with night time temperatures reaching -4c and the pond properly freezing over for the first time since digging it almost two years ago.

 

Jan15: New year started very mild indeed (on new years day) – up to 14c – from a baseline of maybe around 3 or 4c for the last few days of 2014. First week mixed. Some nice sunshine but also periods of heavy rain. Some clear nights but some wet. Windy and wet (squally) on weekend of 9th/10th with a strong jet stream bringing two consecutive storms to W Scotland (100MPH gusts but still windy down south). Unseasonably mild at the beginning of the 2nd week of the month – with night time temperatures around 11-12c and day time temperatures around 15c! (Should be more like 6 or 7?) But a couple of days into the second week and all change – big winds, cold, lots of rainstorms – pretty dire weather.

Third week brought heavy frosts (-6.5c on night of 19th – coldest temperature here for at least two years).

Fourth week began cold again with a couple of heavy frosts… and ended in the same way – cold. MUCH colder than anything January 2014 had to offer.

 

Feb15: First week cold nights but hardly any rain. A night of snow at the very start of the month – maybe 2” settled but melted by lunch – our first “proper snow” albeit only lying for 12 hours in 2 years!

 Second week - Settled, dry, often clear during the day when overnight mist or cloud had burned off. Cool but warm in the windless sun. No rain to speak of.

Third week very mixed. Some sunny cold days and some days of rain (the first for a number of weeks).

Fourth week as the third, but with a couple of warm days and warm wet nights to really get the amphibians moving.

 

Mar15: First week mixed, but warming up compared to recent weeks. An Azores high built at the end of the week which provided settled, VERY (for March) warm temperatures of about 15c over the first weekend proper.

Because of the pretty dry first week, I let the girls out of their “winter quarters” on the 6th at 3pm.

Second week MUCH colder with an easterly wind and stubborn cloud. Little rain though.

Third week began a little “better” with a couple of days of pleasant watery sun and ran pretty dry for the most part and warmer than the 2nd week.

Fourth week pretty mixed, a decent amount of rain  with the month ending under a big anticyclone, with very strong winds indeed.

 

Apr15: First week pretty cloudy and cool… until the end of the first week when the jetstream moved and it became sunny and quite warm (albeit with cold nights).

Second week and beginning of third, superb weather. Regularly 19-23c (23c on my birthday), lots of sun, very little rain.

Third week cooler, with an easterly wind and far more cloud at times, but still quite a lot of sun also and very little rain (basically NONE) indeed.

Fourth week mixed. Not too bad. A bit of rain but not enough to make April anything else than very dry.

 

May15: First week not too bad. Windy. Mixed. Bit of rain now and again, but also some strong sunshine and southerly winds twice. Winds mainly strong (or very strong a couple of times). Second week also mixed – days of unbroken sun and then a day or so of unbroken rain. Not THAT warm, but hardly cold. Third week similar, with a bit more sun… but the main theme of May seems to be (so far), windy and plant growing weather!

Ditto the fourth week. May was wetter, cooler and less sunny than average it seems, so much so that swifts breeding was in dire straits all over the country I’m told.

 

Jun15: June started as a continuation of May for the first few days (strong NW winds and a mix of warm sun and rain – but cool in the main), until the 4th… when the jet-stream moved north temporarily and we got a belter of a day – blue skies and steamy pavements (24c). Hadn’t seen temps like that since mid April.

Didn’t last too long though – the wind got up again after a day although high pressure built at start of 2nd week, giving warm sunshine and gentle winds for a few days. By the end of the second week though we had another 2 glorious days (certainly one anyway), broken again on Friday night by humidity and promised thundery rain.

Third week was mainly warm, humid (hot even at 25c once or twice) and sunny with the occasional day of no or light winds, but ended in a more unsettled fashion (with the empty water butts being filled overnight), despite half the country referring to it as a heatwave!

Fourth week warm, sunny and hot by the end of the month – temperatures up to 28c by last day of the month.

 

July15: July started with the hottest July day on record – something like 35c on the 1st here. First week mainly warm, sunny but also quite windy with showers by the end of the first week. Second week mainly warm and sunny again but a little breezier and the odd day with light or brief rain showers. Back up to 27c by 12th. Third week similar really. Warm, muggy almost. Windy at times. A little rain. Typical summer really.

Fourth week much cooler, much wetter. Jetstream moved south and gave us blustery wet cold conditions a bit like the summer of 2007.

 

Aug15: First week warm(ish), light winds, drying out – ending hot almost (27c) sunny and completely dry.

2nd week very mixed, mainly warm (25c) but with a few days of 18c mixed in and quite a lot of rain from time to time. Some still days but some windy days too (even a couple of days of NE winds!) Quite disappointing for August, cloud and rain-wise.

3rd week a bit silly. Days of constant rain. Days of hot sun. Our week of camping in the new forest.

4th week begins with the hottest day since July 1st (at 30c on 22nd) followed by a particularly wet, unsettled week – windy and constant (or pretty constant) rain every day or night until the last Friday of the month. Not great for August caused by a shifted jet-stream again.

 

 

Weather summary (Sept 2014 – August 2015):

 

In a word – mixed.

In two words – VERY mixed

In five words – VERY mixed and often windy

A rollercoaster of a year from week to week quite often and certainly month to month.

September 2014 was balmy again, we had a FAR colder winter in 2014/15 than we did in 2013/14, a lot of March and April (again – April seems like a “good month” these years) was sublime.

May was mixed and windy, June was very dry and pretty good – as was the start of July but by the third week of July and all through August we were pretty-well sitting under an “unseasonably-southern-positioned jet stream and thus August was pretty dire really – with more rain in that month (to finish “the year here” than any month since November 2014.

 

 

 

Garden wildlife.

 

 

Birds.

 

Summary:  2015 will go down here as the 2nd best “swift year” (here at least) since 2012 (when we had many screamers and bangers – none really to speak of in 2013 or 2014). July was a month when lots of swifts (perhaps yearlings I guess) seemed (at last) interested in the house.

Other than that, the winter of 2014/15 as far as birds were concerned here, will be remembered for up to 5 jays regularly visiting my newly-designed, squirrel-proof (Vaseline and chilli powder!) jay feeder. In fact, jays were the ONLY birds I fed during “the year” (Sept-Aug).

Finally – notable mentions to the BITTERN and HONEY BUZZARD I saw from our garden (or house) this year – two new “garden species”.

But to summarise the summary – at least in terms of my favourite birds – I still can’t legitimately call this “new” house “Swift Half” yet, but unlike 2012 and 2013 where I was hugely disappointed in the lack of swift activity around our house, I am now looking forward once again to these stupendous birds returning to us perhaps in 2016 and one day… one day…. Perhaps next year…. NESTING!

The only strange thing for me this year regarding swifts was the complete absence of migrating swifts in August (or very early September).

I don’t think I’ve seen my last swift here before the start of September since we moved, but in 2015… my last swift here was on the 1st August! Almost 5 weeks earlier than previous years….

 

Sept 14: Chiffchaff SINGING in the garden on 13th  – seen most days in middle of month and singing again on morning of 21st to end of month. TWO by end of month.

15 Goldfinches in mobile flock in first two weeks (not feeding them yet)

Two swallows over garden on morning of 13th.

Goldcrests appearing in garden again on weekend of 13th/14th and most of month,

Final? Lone swallow seen on morning of 23rd September?

Nope – two seen in the afternoon of 25th (Over garden when I was mowing the lawn) and one (surely) final swallow over house at 730am on 29th?

Woodpecker tapping at ivy clad damson tree on morning of 28th and 29th and 30th.

First big winter flock of long tailed tits (maybe a dozen birds) in poplar on afternoon of 30th – 2 days earlier than last year.

 

 

Oct14: Chiffchaffs and goldcrests in garden until 12th each morning

Jays making recce flights through garden in first week and exploring the garden on the 10th. Fed peanuts from 12th. TWO jays on 13th. Regular visitors from then on.

SWALLOW flies through garden very low over my head, due south at about 08:30am on the 10th and TWO swallows fly over the house on the 15th. Latest ever?

Heron explores gap in pond fence whilst I was at park with Ben on Sunday 12th,

First Redwing of season at 21:50 on night of 13th October – a couple of days later than historically average (10th is average).

Hundreds (if not thousands) of redwing fly in over house during night of 14th

 

Nov14: Up to 5 jays being fed on “jay feeder” at the start of the month – and all month

First Fieldfare over front garden (heading south) on cold frosty, misty morning of 6th. Twelve of them.

Two goldcrests flirting with each other in back garden on 28th

 

Dec14: Heron checks out netted pond on 9th and aborts at last minute.

Female hawk rushes through garden on 3rd. No kill this time.

Male hawks glides ultra low through garden on 17th and lands on fence between Marys and ours. Not seen that before.

Pair of goldcrests visiting mid month.

Male tawny owl VERY loud and pretty close calling in mid month – must have been from a tall tree near back of house – THIS side of park.

Great spotted woodpecker on bare poplar tree on 22nd.

 

Jan15: Long tailed tit flock found fat balls on the 9th.

Redwing in poplar tree on 21st and male blackcap visiting newly erected sunflower hearts feeder from mid month (along with goldfinches)

Blue tit box re-sited on 17th and immediately two blue tits check it out.

Male black cap a regular visitor for last two weeks of January – feeding on feeders.

 

Feb15: Starlings tried to reclaim soffit nest space, so cleared it out and stuffed entrance holes full of netting or chicken wire on the 8th

Wagtails still moving south at dusk in numbers, heading to their communal winter roost in town during the last week of February.

 

Mar15: Last redwings of “winter” I think? Heard overhead at dawn of the 31st in very strong winds (gales even). I assume the thrushes were making the most of these westerlies to head back home east.

Hen blackbird building nest quite high up in trimmed leylandii (between us and Punch and Judy) on 22nd. Seemed to be lining with mud on 24th.

Starlings “locked out” of our soffits and fascias clearly building nest at other end of the fascias (on the end of Jenny and George’s part) by mid month.

Wren heard and seen singing loudly in garden in 2nd week of March.

Dunnocks courting near house for most of month. Quite fun to watch.

 

Apr15: Goldcrest singing in garden for first time this year on 6th, 7th and 8th.

BITTERN!!!! Flew low over garden at 20:15 in gloom when I put the girls to bed – no doubt about ID at all. Great views of underside. INCREDIBLE!!!

First swallows (2) low over Derek’s garden, lunchtime on 18th in sun with cool esterly breeze. SO much later than last year (11 days)!

 

May15: First swift seen from 71 on the 1st May. East of garden, heading north at speed in a strong wind. More swifts seen on 4th, 6th and numbers building well by the 9th and 10th when they were audibly screaming in the air above the house a number of times. Mainly helped north on southerly(ish winds). Started “calling them on the 1st.

Swifts seen most days I looked in May (but at HEIGHT) – but just not at all interested in the house, unlike 2012 and 2013. What have I done wrong I wonder?!

Goldcrests singing noisily in the leylandii most days – I do wonder if they’ve nested there?

HONEY BUZZARD seen at 7am on 19th, clear blue sky, flying due west, over jocks lane. 90% sure it was  a honey buzzard – and if so…. WOW!

Woodpecker (male GS) visiting poplar tree at least once a day, all month.

 

Jun15: Parakeets becoming something of a noisy problem for an hour or two after dawn during June, in neighbourhood.

 

Jul15: Swifts still around and buzzed the house a couple of times in first and second week of the month after playing phone call.

Lots of swifts overhead and buzzing house all day on the 18th. Best activity for two years.

Green woodpecker over garden, just after dawn on 9th in clear skies.

Lots of swift movement in last few days of the month (between rains). 30 or 40 seen twice at least, still investigating the house when called.

 

Aug15: Last swifts seen over house on 1st August?

HONEY BUZZARD seen over Wildmoor heath on 15th!

Three swallows seen flying south over garden on 23rd.

 

 

 

 

Insects and spiders.

 

 

Summary:  Whilst I’m now used to the annual appearance of good numbers of male (and female) stag beetles from our buried eucalyptus root system each year (and this year was no exception), I had some superb insecty highlights this year – some hoped and planned for and a couple certainly unexpected.

The highlight of the entire year for me I think was the singular (I think) appearance of a hummingbird hawk moth on my deliberately-planted (this year) red valerian – I’ve been planning that for years.

A repaired moth trap meant I was catching and identifying moths on and off all summer – those highlights being a lovely chocolate tip moth (new to the garden) and two big poplar hawk moths. No elephant hawk moths in the trap at all though (unlike previous years) nor any small elephant hawk moths.

The elephant hawkmoth pupa that Anna and I were “rearing” in our conservatory (for 9 months!) eclosed successfully in the middle of June – a proud moment!

Finally (re.moths) an rare sight of a red-belted clearwing on our dying apple tree (possibly DUE to its larvae) was an unexpected highlight certainly.

Other successes – blue mason bees (one of my favourites) finally found and used our bee hotels (that’s been over 3 years in the planning), and a good year also for our leafcutters.

All that was good (or great?!) news – slightly worse news was that as I type this, 2015 will go down (here at least) as not a great dragonfly (or damselfly) year.

Only fleeting, brief glimpses of a migrant and southern hawker alongside a singular common darter (although I know at least three darters emerged from the pond in August). No demoiselles (unlike previous years) and not that many damsels either.

 

 

Sept14  Migrant hawkers still hawking over garden up to end of month.

Silver Y moth in side passage on morning of 14th  - notable by their absence in 2014 -  they were everywhere in 2013.

Light Emerald moth in passageway on morning of 17th

Oak bush cricket on pond net on morning of 21st.

Common darter emerged from pond (released from pond net) on 27th.

Male SOUTHERN HAWKER flying low through garden on 30th – does that mean it was a Southern not a migrant that I’ve been watching all year…. Probably.

Common darter male still present warming itself on the pond path on 12th.

Big house spiders and crane flies coming into house from mid month.

Segestria florentina and false widow by front door – the false widow was eating WASPS on 22nd!

Carder bees still active in compost heap on 23rd.

Black and red-legged ichneumon wasp in borders on 23rd.

Lunar underwing appears in side passage (first of year) on 23rd.

 

 

 

Oct14  Southern hawker still hunting round garden until 4th in warmth but that was all for the year.

Green shieldbug in kitchen on 3rd.

Very rare 2nd brood swallow-tailed moth attracted to outside light on night of 22nd/23rd Oct. Almost always a moth of July – this is a notable exception!

Dead or hibernating wasp in cedar swift box seen on night of 23rd,

 

 

Nov14 Still pond skaters (about 15) on pond on morning of 6th after a frost and a cold night… and still present all the month.

 

 

Dec14 Still hardy pond skaters around in first week of month, despite the frosts – and all month, until the ice appeared in the last few days of the month.

Winter moth appears in side passage on 20th.

 

 

 

Jan15 First bumblebee of the year briefly in garden on the 5th – what LOOKED like a worker B.terrestris. Must have been. Seen again on the 8th and the 10th and the 11th. Queen rescued from Bloops on the 10th – the first queen bee of the year.

 

 

Feb15 “Hibernating “small tortoiseshell in internal swift box and also hibernating red admiral under “eaves” of coop.

 

 

Mar14 2 Hebrew characters 1st appearance in 2015 on warm night of the 7th/8th – two weeks earlier than last year (drier?!)

First shoulder stripe of 2015 on the night of the 23rd and another (bolder-marked) again on 26th.

First honeybee of year investigating battered crocuses in warm sunshine on the 7th.

First 2015 butterfly in flight (red admiral) on the 10th in warm still sunshine.

First pond skater “returns” to pond on 7th in warm sunshine.

Two stag beetle larvae unearthed when forking over new “buddleja bed” in the back garden on 15th.

First small tortoiseshells sunning themselves in the garden on March 12th and from then on each time the sun made a significant appearance.

First male feather-footed flower bee investigating ground nettles by front door (again) on the 24th – in warm sun.

First (weirdly-patterned) 2 spot ladybird in master bedroom (by window) on the 22nd evening.

 

 

Apr14  First early mining bee and bee fly seen in gardens (front and back respectively) on 6th

First holly blue of 2015 in milky warm sun on 8th (at lunchtime) - maybe a week earlier than last year. The first “earlier” appearance of anything so far this year…

First brimstone butterfly of 2015 on April 10th – a whole MONTH later than 2014, joined by the first small white on the same day.

First scorched carpet moth on night of 10th (6 weeks earlier than in 2014) along with the first  generation early thorn (really late!)

First tawny mining bee nesting in sandy soil near coop (when I made my woodpile) on 12th and first speckled wood butterfly on 12th also – same sorta time as last year.

First male AND female orange tips on 14th – ONE day (only) later than last year. first nomad bee on same date (14th).

Made new bee home on 14th in beautiful weather.

Woodlouse spider in side passage when sweeping out.

Dozens of bird fleas clustered on starling nest on 22nd – had to spray them when I unblocked nest for swifts…

First tree bumblebee (queen) on 22nd – on cherry blossom – very late for me!

First ichneumon wasp of year in sitting room on 21st.

First male red masons near new bee home in warm sun (out of easterly wind) on afternoon of 18th.

First large red damselfly in garden on 24th

First brimstone moth to back light on night of 24th/25th in bits of rain

First EVER engrailed to back light on night of 25th/26th along with the first (in 2015) waved umber.

 

 

 

May15 First Maybug seen on the 6th MAY!!! Much earlier than I expected – in cold very strong winds. Big Maybug night of 10th/11th – expected this one – warm and still.

First rose chafers seen interested in photinia flowers again on 13th and each time the warm sun came out one could be seen for the next 10 days or so – always photinia bound.

Garden bumblebees nesting in woodpile and clearly the potter wasps had been busy there again by the end of the 3rd week of May.

First male stag beetle seen (as predicted – a warm, humid, still evening – the first of the 2015 or at least the first at the right time) on evening of Friday 22nd May – about one week earlier than 2014.

One bee in my new bee hotel on night of 22nd – pretty unpopular with the masons it seems… hoping the Megachile bees prefer it like last year?

Orange tip eggs found on hedge mustard and cuckoo flowers on evening of 22nd (photos)

 

 

 

Jun15  Red vented mason bees etc all mating and finding new bee hotel in heat of the 4th.

BLUE MASON BEES (1st ever!) in warm sun on bee hotel on 7th, joined by the early, big male Megachile Willughbeias on the same day.

First ever Rhogocaster viridis in garden on 7th, first 14-spot ladybirds noticed on same day also, first azure and blue-tailed damselflies also.

Moth trap on night of 6th/7th provided a peppered moth highlight if little else of note. (cool night).

First REALLY good moth trap night of this year (and of course last as I wasn’t running a moth trap then) came on the very warm night of the 11th/12th – with a poplar hawk moth being the highlight as well as the first orange ladybird of the year, a tree bumblebee, a mottled beauty (1st ever in the garden?) and a first ever (in the garden) yellow-barred brindle. Lots of hearts and darts too and also the first (for 2015) buff ermine.

The same night brought out male stag beetles again (11th/12th) – perfect for them – 15c and humid.

Moths trapped in the first three weeks of June included: common swift (new sp), figure of eighty, common emerald (on 17th/18th), light emerald, small blood vein (17th/18th), garden carpet (lots), common marbled carpet (lots),barred yellow, cypress carpet, yellow-barred brindle, heart and club, flame shoulder, small magpie, brimstone, peppered moth, mottled beauty, pebble prominent (new sp),buff ermine, dark arches, Lychnis, setaceous Hebrew character, snout, bramble shoot moth (17th/18th) (new sp).

My elephant hawk moth “eclosed” from its pupa (kept since last summer) on the evening of the 15th/16th June!

The highlight of the mothy world of the whole year, perhaps four, was the arrival of a hummingbird hawk moth to my newly planted red valerian (for this reason ONLY!) on the evening of the 16th/17th. (NEW SP!) along with the first appearance of 2015 of summer chafers – in large numbers until the end of June (at least).

Other moths during June included a buff tip, beautiful snout, small yellow wave (new sp) and small angle shades

First leafcutter bee action notice on night of 22nd. Holes in rose leaves and one hole in home-made bee hotel filling up with leaves! Lots of leaf cutter action (hatching and laying) in last week of June.

2nd Poplar hawk moth on night of 23rd/24th

 

 

Jul15 Wee mining bees roosting on purple salvia at start of month.

New species – small skipper on lawn on 12th.

Leaf cutter bees busy all month but only in old hotels (didn’t use new hotel).

Many moths caught in moth trap in first week of July included highlights of: coronet, grey poplar, 2nd generation early thorn & swallow-tailed moth, beautiful hook tip, barred red.

First dragonfly (LOOKED like migrant hawker, certainly a hawker anyway) through garden in first few days of July.

First hornet of 2015 in garden on 9th July in warm sun.

What LOOKED like a green hairstreak through garden in warm sun on 9th – couldn’t have been though could it (bit late and wrong habitat despite lots of birds foot trefoil in the “lawn”).

Gatekeepers and ringlets in garden by start of the month.

Second gen. holly blues present on ragwort at end of the month.

Leafcutters busy all month.

Digger and potter and ruby-tailed wasps all visible in July’s sun in around bee hotels and goldenrod and woodpile.

New species on 18th – red belted clearwing moth (photo) on dying apple tree – think the larvae under the bark may well have done for the tree.

Cinnabar moth caterpillars on ragwort spotted in third week of July. New sp.

 

 

Aug15 First migrant hawker dragonfly of the year seen in the garden (photo) on 5thfirst common darter seen on the 7th.

Moth highlights of the month came in the form of a chocolate tip (NEW SP!) on the 7th/8th

Leaf cutters still busy in the first week of the month (and 2nd and 3rd weeks).

Hornet worker in house (photo) on 7th.

Big house spider in jeans on 23rd.

Tortoise bug (New sp) on golden rod on 23rd.

Nursery web spider and web in golden rod on 23rd.

 

 

 

Mammals.

 

 

Summary:  Mammalian news from this “year” was dominated by the omnipresent foxes, which den each year next door… but… more importantly than that…. THE RETURN OF THE HEDGEHOGS!

I ensured our neighbours knew that I was digging tunnels under all the fences and once again… they worked! Two hogs present at one time – one HUGE hog. I think (I hope… as the two adults I saw and heard were certainly male and female) they nested under our “western neighbour’s” shed. That’s where they seemed to come from each night. Superb news and once again demonstrated the importance of opening up ones borders and fences with hog tunnels for this unique, threatened mammal.

Other mammalian highlights – we still have our bats (pips), I saw a couple of noctules from the garden this year (always a treat) and my reluctance to feed birds other than jays saw an almost complete eradication of pesky squirls in OUR garden – a bonus!

 

Sep14 Two (at least) foxes (young I think and denning in border between Mary’s and Pips still venturing outside between 1900 and 1930 in first two weeks of month.

Two bats still interacting and hunting hard over garden at dusk on 16th September and most of month.

Squirrel (BOOOO) taking sunflower seeds from sunflower heads on 23rd.

HEDGEHOG appears from under Derek’s shed at dusk on 23rd! GREAT NEWS! Leaves Derek’s garden about 1945 each night and returns about 0600 each morning for a week.

 

Oct14 Squirrel(s?) in garden each day in early October. Hedgehog not seen since the end of September – nor foxes which might have been disturbed by the full-on tree felling and pollarding over two days in Pip’s garden right at the start of the month.

Fox (singular) a little more obvious in Pips garden a week after the tree surgeons disappeared and VERY obvious at beginning of 4th week after dusk.

 

Nov14  At least one fox still present (and noisy) in Jennys and or Pips garden at start of month

 

Dec 14Unbelievably at least one fox is still padding about at Pips – amazing as she’s had virtually all her cover cut back to nothing over the last few weeks  - there’s nowhere to hide in her garden at present. Must be hiding in Mary’s mess I guess.

 

Jan 15 Foxes still bickering and vixen screaming next door at times throughout month.

 

Feb 15 Fox prints clearly seen in back garden in snow at start of the month. Enter via compost heap (over fence from Pips) and leave via large leylandii (to Dereks).

 

Mar 15 One adult fox and one of last year’s young seen in Pips garden mid month. Quite noisy.

 

Apr 15 First pip (bat) of 2015 just after I saw the bittern. Seemed to come out of coop leylandii at 20:15 on 7th – almost a month later than last year!

 

May 15 HEDGEHOGS (TWO!!!) reappear in the garden in second week of May. Videos and opened up tunnels again! Superb news!

Every time I opened up the tunnel they used it each night (videos) but Derek did close it each day. Twonk. Sorted it eventually.

 

Jun 15 Noctule bat (2nd ever from garden) seen fly high and straight over garden on eve of 3rd (warm and still at last!)

One (at least) hog still using “Derek’s tunnel” and my new “Mary’s tunnel” early in the month. Great stuff!

Fox caught on trail cam on night of 6th/7th.

One (it seems) pip bat around all month in the garden.

One hog seen WELL after dawn (about 5am) on morning of 23rd. Bit worried about this hog – shouldn’t be out and about an hour after sunrise?

 

Jul 15 Bat still present on night of 19th.

Huge hedgehog present at end of the month – before dark and using “new tunnel”

 

Aug 15 THREE (first time ever I’ve seen three together) pips in garden on 7th at dusk with a noctule (3rd or 4th time I’ve seen that) overhead flying south.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amphibians or reptiles.

 

 

Summary:  Perhaps (still) the biggest success story of our years (so far) at the house – by some way. I dug a garden pond in March 2013, hoping to give a home to some of the many frogs that seemed to love our garden when we moved in (no pond in our garden then but plenty of undergrowth). I hoped for newts also.

This year we had a mixed year in terms of amphibians – lots of breeding frogs again (although spawning quite late – in the fourth week of March) but decimated by what I suspect was ranavirus in the early summer. Luckily as summer got underway, that problem seemed to disappear, but I suspect we lost perhaps a dozen or so frogs because of it.

This year I fenced around the pond to allow the surrounding grass to grow very long and offer the frogs some shelter AND protection from the hens. It seemed to work well.

We also have a healthy and growing (clearly!) population of smooth newts in the pond too – I’m very proud of that.

 

Sept 14 Frogs still present in the undergrowth mid month.

 

Dec14  Frog in pond still each night of December that I checked!

 

Jan15 Still at least one fwog in the pond during January’s warmer nights.

 

Feb15 Frogs seemed to begin the annual migration back to the pond in the third week of February (in warm(ish)) nights – matched by the first toad movement at Popes Meadow on the 19th with temps at 7c and rain.

I counted eight frogs in the pond on the 19th (the most since last spring) but as the nights became colder again, this figure dwindled to one or perhaps two.

By the last night of the month the pond was full again – at least a dozen in the pond.

Toads started moving at Popes Meadow as soon as the temperature got to around 10c at night and it was WET, right at the end of the month.

 

Mar15 Many frogs in pond on night of 1st, mating. (Photos on phone). By the end of the first week we had at least a dozen frogs (possibly 18 or so) in pond, mainly males but at least three pairs in amplexus (so one might assume 3 females) but despite the warm weather on the 5th,6th,7th and 8th – no spawn by then?!

First smooth newt (male) of 2015 on the night of the 4th.

Perhaps 15-20 frogs (at least 2 males with herpes) in pond by mid month still… but STILL no spawn!

On the night of the 19th the pond went crazy – and noisy, with lots of males singing and at least four females being mated – surely spawn in the next couple of days?

Spawn finally arrived on the morning of the 22nd – in warm sunshine. This APPEARS to be only after the males start singing at night and frogs are active at the surface of the pond during the day.

Several good lumps appeared over the next few days, mainly in the NW corner of the pond but also one lump in the middle.

Up to ten (?) lumps were laid between 22nd and end of the month – frog activity during the day tailed off markedly from the 30th, but still plenty of activity (singing etc) right until end of month at night.

 

Apr15 Tadpoles hatching en masse on Friday 10th and Saturday 11th. Still at least a dozen adult frogs in pond, mid month but 5 dead… very sad… Ranavirus?

Another dying frog on 25th (6 now).

 

May15 One more frog (virus) died on 2nd May.

 

Jun and July15 Frogs still present in pond – overgrown it now might be, but I’ve not seen any more evidence of dead frogs, red leg etc, so fingers crossed.

 

Aug15 Frogs of all sizes obvious during pond thinning on 23rd.

 

 

 

 

Plants and fungi

 

 

Summary:  This section is really for my records only – but to summarise – this was the year that I introduced two big buddlejas, quite a bit of red valerian, some French marjoram, oregano, chives, thyme and sage.

Both buddlejas did very well, and as I type are still flowering – the marjoram and oregano also flowered all summer (attracting lots of insects), the thyme struggled and the sage went bananas.

I also potted up some foxgloves seeds, ready to plant in a new bed near the conservatory in the autumn with the aim to have a few flowering ‘gloves next summer. This was also the year that the plants in the pond went berserk -  and needed thinning considerably in August. The huge leaves produced by the lilies, desperately straining for their sunlight hidden below thick irises, bedstraws and grasses along with a bloom of curly pond weed meant we basically had NO blanket weed in the pond at all this year – the first year I’ve ever had that delightful situation!

I suspect this might be the final year for our wee apple tree. A bit sad really but its had it I think.

 

 

Sept14 Apple tree losing leaves a little in first two weeks. Not much poplar leaf loss in first two weeks but by the start of the 3rd week – notable leaf loss to the black and yellow foliage.

Cars covered in fir pollen in 2nd week – from large fruiting fir on school boundary.

Pond netted at start of third week of September.

White valerian by house flowering again in September as was the water hawthorn?!

 

Oct14 Water hawthorn flowering in pond, as is the white valerian, still.

Most of the poplar leaves came down in the winds of the 3rd week.

Pretty well ALL poplar leaves and apple leaves down by end of month.

Bonnets up and down at base of poplar at end of October – also a ring of what I assume are standard field mushrooms under the garden leylandii (again) at the end of the month. They grew quite big before the hens ate them.

 

Nov14 Almost all leaves gone from apple tree and poplar tree by mid month, but false oranges, oaks, cherry and ash still plenty of leaves by end of month still.

Water hawthorn still doing well by end of month and flowering again

 

Dec14 Water hawthorn STILL flowering in first week of Dec – and all month

 

Mar15 First tiny catkins appear on poplar on the 6th – many in place (although small) by 18th, but no leaves showing by 18th, thick with medium-sized catkins by end of month.

Crocuses appear (late?) at beginning of second week in warmth.

Celandines and pulmonaria both out by 18th, pulmonaria for a week or so as have been the dog violets.

First daffodils flowering in warmth of front garden by mid month.

First buds on rear mock orange appeared by 25th of March.

Dug out west main bed in mid month (added 10 bags of sand and 5 of manure) ready for planting with buddleja etc…

Added Barry’s irises to pond (still potted) on 29th.

 

Apr14 Speedwell flowered in front garden  on 6th.

Forget me nots flowering well by 14th, ceanothus getting ready to flower by mid month.

Poplar leaves well grown by 14th (started budding in first few days of April).

Mock orange leaves by house just starting by 14th, whereas rear mock orange leaves well grown by 14th.

Two buddleja planted on weekend of 10th as well as a few red valerian.

First grass mow (front and back) on 14th

Cherry blossom by coop well out by 14th, as was damson blossom.

Cut half of the apple tree away on 12th – looked dead. Quite sad.

Goldenrod about 2” high and in good clumps by 14th.

Ceanothus begins to flower on 19th pretty well… almost two weeks later than 2014 and in good flower by 25th

Cuckoo flowers well in bloom by 23rd and yellow archangel flowering by then too.

Marsh marigolds flowering by end of first week and over by end of third.

 

May14 Ceanothus looking very good still by the 10th, but over (suddenly) 10 days later, by the 20th.

New buddlejas doing well… as are the red valerian (Late of course as I only planted the plugs in mid April). Pond plants superb with large numbers of cuckoo flowers pondside, water hawthorn spreading well also.

Photinia finally stopped shedding old leaves by the start of May with a few flowers.

Goldenrod up to mid-shin height by 10th May.

Ivy leaves that all the girls had pecked off the wall during the winter had completely re-leaved by 10th May.

Most of the bluebells that I sowed last autumn under the poplar had all flowered by the 10th May – great news! I hope they spread for next year.

Daisies START appearing in the lawn in more than singles, by May 10th.

Bluebells in front garden well over by May 10th.

Lilac pretty well over by May 13th as was the apple blossom.

First pondside buttercups appear in good numbers at the end of 3rd week of May.

All Irises, including Barry’s jusssst starting to flower at beginning of 4th week of May. New purple iris seems to have spread to circular flower bed unexpectedly – and was in full flower by the 23rd.

 

Jun14 Pond going mental –completely overgrown and all Barry’s irises flowering by 3rd June!

Yellow loosestrife jusssst about flowering at beginning of 2nd week, ditto mock orange near house.

Red valerian flowering well at end of 2nd week to join its older white cousin, which was over by the end of the month.

Mock orange jusssst coming into flower at start of third week of month. And flowering quite well by end of third week.

 

Jul14 Mock orange bush (front – rear didn’t flower at all) blooms over by 7th.

Grass hardly growing at all due to lack of rain (June only had less than a 1/3 of the average monthly rainfall and July started pretty bone dry too).

Apple tree now definitely dying, despite forming lots of apples this year. Will probably cut down in the winter and use as a bee des res from now on.

New buddlejas flowering quite well by end of first week of July – tied to train in 2nd week.

First white water lily appears in overgrown pond during second week of July.

Goldenrod flowering well by 20th July.

Buddleja dead headed on 18th and all summer from then on – which seemed to work well.

Great willowherb flowers 2nd week of July as does marsh woundwort.

Water mint FINALLY flowers on the last day of July.

 

Aug14 Is the goldenrod going over in the first week of August? Appears almost so. Over pretty well by start of 3rd week.

Buddleja still flowering (due to dead heading I think).

Pond “thinned” on 23rd.

The month ended with a huge “bloom” of fairy ink caps (fungi) under our largest poplar tree. I expect a considerable bloom each year but this year’s (a result of the very wet last two weeks of the month I presume) was MAHUSIVE.

 

 

 

 

Other garden-related shenanigans…

 

After replacing Conker, Couven and Trouble (our 3 hens for a year) with four new girls - Norris, Berry, ‘Ttila and Solo in the Spring of 2014, I had to dispatch our smallest girl (the champion egg layer mind) in the summer of 2015 due to her having a huge prolapse. A bit sad really.

Our supposedly bossiest girl at the top of our pecking order, ‘Ttila, became very broody in May – a real problem – and I had to cold-bath and segregate her for several periods. At the time of writing, she’s right as rain (the broody period probably only lasted for a week or so each time, about a week apart).

I also limited the amount of garden space they had from the entire back garden to approximately 2/3 of it with a sturdily-erected plastic-coated wire fence.

This kept them off the “lower lawn” and out of my newly dug herb and buddleja bed. It also kept them from standing outside our back door and on the patio, crapping everywhere.

 

 

 

Final summary.

 

As I’ve mentioned above, the highlights of 2014/15 for me were:

 

  1. The return of swift interest to our plethora of swift boxes – a result after two years of huge disappointment.
  2. The appearance of a hummingbird hawkmoth on my newly-planted (deliberately to attract this moth) red valerian.
  3. The appearance of blue mason bees (one of my favourite bees) to my bee hotels.
  4. A good moth year all round – thanks to a successful rearing of our elephant hawkmoth pupa, the resurrection (repair) of the moth trap and a few belters of new species such as red-belted clearwing and chocolate tip.
  5. The return of hedgehogs! Always a treat (sadly a rarer and rarer treat these days) to enjoy these things in your garden.
  6. A good jay year (hardly any acorns produced across the UK so my monkey nut Jay feeder was a huge success).

 

On the downside though –

 

  1. No nesting swifts still. I said it’d take 5 years perhaps. This is the report for year 4 after all.
  2. Not many odonates. A poor August (weatherwise) might have been the reason for that.
  3. Frogs suffering fatal virus in the spring of this year (red leg as well as ranid herpesvirus).

 

 

We’ve now been here four years.

I wanted to dig a pond quickly and get amphibians breeding here – done.

I wanted to attract hawkmoths, including hummingbird hawkmoths – done.

I wanted to attract one of my favourite birds – jays – done.

I wanted to get blue mason bees back in the garden – done.

When I heard (yes, heard) hedgehogs in the neighbours very enclosed garden(s) I wanted to get them breeding and moving – done.

I wanted to get swifts back nesting with us – getting there.

 

In short then, I’ve almost done all what I set out to do here – only one thing (the biggest thing!) left – breeding swifts….

Maybe that’ll happen next year…. Maybe….

 

Onwards and upwards!

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 2014-2015 end of year garden wildlife report end of year report garden wildlife garden wildlife report report" wildlife https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/8/end-of-fourth-year-garden-wildlife-report-sept-2014-aug-2015-inclusive Tue, 01 Sep 2015 05:30:00 GMT
What I did on my summer holidays. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/8/what-i-did-on-my-summer-holidays What I did on my summer holidays. 

By Mackenzie Dodds. Class 2B(R) 

 

I know. I know.

Most people really wouldn’t appreciate spending their hard-earned summer break (even if only a few days), surrounded by toads, hornets, bats and moths.

But I’ve never been “most people” and nor, thankfully, is my wife.

 

Anna and I (and Ben our 32 month old boy) were going to head down to Cyprus for a fortnight in August, (to be surrounded by mosquitos, tarantulas (yes, tarantulas in Cyprus) and geckos) but after realising that we couldn’t get any cat or hen-sitters in the house for the whole two weeks, we decided to go on a “stay-cation” instead – one that we have considerable experience of – and enjoy – camping in the New Forest.

 

To be honest a sweltering Cyprus (Nicosia reached 53c in the shade the week before we took our holiday) with a toddler wouldn’t have been much fun anyway – Anna and I love our heat and sun – but Ben is waaay too young for that sort of stuff – so we would have been stuck inside an air-conditioned villa, WATCHING the sun worshippers for two weeks – not much point in that!

 

Yes. Off to the New Forest we went instead – for a very British camping holiday in very British summer weather. All clothes for all seasons needed to be packed for 5 days in August!

 

I adore the New Forest. If money was no object and I didn’t have to work for a living – I’d probably live abroad, but if I HAD to live in the UK, I’d live in the New Forest I think.

I’ve always felt very, very comfortable in woodland. It might be a cliché to say I’ve always “felt at home” under a canopy (of cellulose), but it might not be too wide of the mark in my case – and the New Forest is just spectacular, at least whilst the trees are in leaf.

Anna has always been a little concerned that I “don’t like camping” though. Not strictly true as I tried to explain to her this time. I like camping – but I don’t really like “organised camping”. I don’t really like “campsites”. I don’t really like queuing for my morning’s ablutions outside a toilet blocks. I don’t like being told I can’t leave the campsite after 1030pm at night, nor before 0730am in the morning. I don’t really appreciate being told I am not allowed to build a fire, nor play a little music to listen to whilst gazing into said fire, or playing cards with whoever I’m camping with.

And I’m bemused by some of the traditional camping clobber and camping routines of my fellow campers on site – from sandals and socks to sitting outside a caravan all day every day, tea in hand, watching anything but the wildlife.

Then there’s all the STUFF people take camping. Gargantuan tents. Furniture. Barbecues. Tables. Benches. Everything from the kitchen (including the sink if they only knew how to un-plumb it I’m sure). WHY?!

You might as well camp in your front garden in that case, as far as I’m concerned.

I go camping to ESCAPE from people. Not to join them in a “number two queue”!

My favourite camping trip with Anna was the first time we went – maybe 8 years ago now I suppose. We packed a little tent, a spongebag and towel each, a few changes of underwear and a bottle opener and that was about it.

I remember clearly sitting outside our tent on a stump, watching a couple of burgers sizzle away on a disposable barbecue and thinking we haven’t got anything to flip the burgers with – so we used a couple of spare tent pegs.

Now THAT’S my type of camping!

 

I actually love (unorganised) camping and when single, used to take my tent on my own, on my mountain bike, find a suitable spot in a large wood and bed down for the night. I deliberately chose spots that were WELL off any beaten track and deliberately chose times that were warm and dry. And felt, like I’ve said…. VERY at home, surrounded by deer and badgers, roding woodcock and kewww-icking owls.

 

But now I’m not single and can’t really hide myself AND my wife AND my son in a local wood for a couple of days and nights – so off to Ashurst Campsite (near Lyndhurst at the top of the Forest) we went.

 

We’ve been before. Quite a few times. On our own and with family and with friends. We’ve even taken Ben before, last year, not even aged two.

 

What is it about the New Forest that I like? The scenery for sure (its soooo pretty) but also the weird and wonderful wildlife you might see there – from the fungi (not so much in August admittedly) to honey buzzards, goshawks perhaps, hornets, beautiful dragonflies and moths, snakes and lizards.

I like the fact the Forest is in south England, so the weather is often better than… oh… the Kielder forest for example and the lowland heath is there in abundance too – I absolutely adore lowland heath.

 

Anna and I managed to find our best spot yet at the campsite – under tall trees at the edge of the “wood”, overlooking the cow field, with not one tent pitched anywhere near us!

I have no idea why the vast majority of campers at this campsite (and others I’d assume too) prefer to camp in the open (no trees), as close as possible to the toilet and shower block as possible – but it seems they do. I hope they continue to do so too, for whatever warped reason, as it leaves the FAR more sensible option of camping under trees to people like me and my wife and gives us far more privacy too (Wink wink)!

 

We knew the weather might be a little…. errr…. mixed…. during our 5 days on site, but we wanted to get Ben to see the seaside for his first time ever during our stay – and go and see the Bournemouth Air show too – he seems to like planes and eh-wee-coppers – and finally we wanted a chance to unwind for short time, to visit the big pub next to the campsite, to not have to feed the cats or clean out the hens or even  NOT cook for ourselves (and wash up!) for a day or two.

 

Now whilst I might not fully appreciate “organised camping” (actually.... "organised anything" often raises my hackles), my lovely wife has no such hang-ups and actively enjoys camping – organised or otherwise.

I’m very lucky in that respect (and many many others).

Actually, on that subject, I saaay I’m lucky in that respect, but I don’t think I’d be with Anna (or any woman for that matter) who didn’t enjoy being outside and a little bit dirty. Luck probably doesn’t have much to do with it.

In my groom’s speech (seven years ago now) I remarked that I’d taken Anna to “Live Eight” on our second date (our first date was just lunch at “The Clachan” in London) and it was a bit of a test really – I wanted to see what this beautiful woman would make of spending 10 hours in a field (my “manor”!)  with me  and  indeed what I’d make of her in that environment. Would she be too cold? Would she be too hot? Would she be bored? Would she worry about how she looked?

I think the fact that we left the gig a bit early (but not because we were too cold!) that evening and are now married with child should let you know all that you need to know about how brilliant I found Anna to be on that day, outside in a field for so long (and dare I say, how utterly charming (cough!) she found me to be!

Anna loves being outside too – even if she has to queue to have a shower in the morning – and camping with her is a delight (even if she probably wouldn’t say the same about me!).

 

Anna also loves wildlife. Well… she’s a biology teacher eh, so she’d better!

It didn’t matter to her that we’d inadvertently pitched our tent RIGHT NEXT TO an active hornet’s nest. Nor the fact that our lantern on our card table at night attracted the most fluttery of moths. Nor even the fact that we realised we had spent the week with a toad hiding under our groundsheet as we packed up the tent on a beautifully-sunny Saturday morning.

 

On the hornets – I’ve always liked these big wasps. So much more mature, sensible and level-headed than their MUCH MORE ANNOYING little waspy cousins. Can’t stand wasps myself (this year doesn’t half seem “waspy” to me), but hornets are great. They don’t bother you – in fact even if you catch one (don’t by the way), they’d probably rather try and bite you rather than sting you.

It was a pleasure, a treat even, to sit by the hornets’ nest each morning (from where I took the photo above - can YOU find the nest entrance - have a go if you like - all will be revealed at the bottom of this blog), coffee in hand, watching these big insects just calmly go about their business (as we flapped and slapped at their little wasp cousins constantly hovering around our ears and coffee mugs – silly, bothersome things).

Apologies here, I did get a shot of a hornet entering its nest, but accidentally deleted it – so here’s a photo of that photo (which I used for a “tweet”).

On the moths – we played a game of forfeit pontoon over a bottle of vodka on our first night (less attractive to wasps than beer I’ve found), and our little camping lantern attracted a BELTER of a moth – a quite stunning Black Arches.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these moths before, even at that oak-tree campsite (big on oaks, the black arches moth), so I was very happy at attracting such a stunning visitor during our card game.

The moth flattered to deceive though, unfortunately. Pretty-well as soon as it appeared, I started losing every hand I was dealt in the cards, meaning all the dodgy forfeits (no… I won’t tell you what they were!) came my way all of a sudden.

Nice to see though – and we saw a few more during the following nights.

 

I shouldn’t have been that surprised about seeing lovely moths during our camping trip, but we were both surprised at seeing the toad. A big fat female toad she was, hiding under our groundsheet as we packed up. I’ve blogged about toads and their coppery eyes before, so I won’t bleat on here, but save to say that was a lovely leaving present from the forest. At least for me.

As for the 5 days themselves – well… Ben did get to see the seaside for his first time.

At Hengistbury in case you’re interested (where an old boy caught a beautiful red gurnard in front of us – so I had to get a piccy).

Ben also did get to ride on several “wains”, which he enjoyed in a wide-eyed toddler way.

He also did get to see lots of lovely planes at the Bournemouth Air show.

We went twice to see the show – the first day was rained off (BOO!) so we went again the next day and were treated to the sight and sound of spitfires (love ‘em to bits, the spits), hurricanes, red arrows and even a lovely B17 in beautiful, glorious sunshine all day.

I could waffle on all day about the Air Show at Bournemouth, but this blog is already (once again) far too long.

 

 

A day or two of miserable rain and two or three days of glorious sun in my favourite part of England.

Surrounded by huge oak trees, vast heathery heaths, the English Channel at her best, vintage planes, Ringwood beer, perfect pub steaks, hornets, wasps, magnificent moths, the noisiest owls I’ve ever heard, New Forest ponies, inquisitive cows, a quite beautiful toad, a pack of cards… oh… and a bottle or two of vodka.

 

That’s what I did on my summer holidays.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) black arches moth camping hornet new forest red gurnard summer holiday tawny owl toad wasp https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/8/what-i-did-on-my-summer-holidays Tue, 25 Aug 2015 16:46:40 GMT
The height of summer. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/8/the-height-of-summer I should adore this time of year, the “boy of summer” that I most certainly am – and in the main, I do.

 

Despite being almost six weeks past the summer solstice, the days are still long - the evenings and (more importantly to me) the mornings light.

I took a long, leisurely drive around the surrounding countryside in a gloriously-lit late dusk yesterday (around 9pm), “watching ting”. (Little owls and rabbits mainly).

 

Despite our week of so of rain after a month or two of little to speak of, pastures are long, dry and brown. In fact my nearby little owl field, with its grass grown for sileage, has been harvested for the first time (I think) this year.

 

Despite our day or five of what I regularly hear as being unseasonal, but seems quite seasonal these days) high winds, our trees are looking glorious – verdant in a dark green (rather than the exciting fresh green of spring) and fully-leafed.

 

Despite our earlier garden blossoms such as hedge garlic, cuckoo flowers, mock orange, lilac, photinia, poplar, yellow loosestrife, apple, ceanothus, cherry, bluebell, horse chestnut, iris etc having long-disappeared, others blooms have taken their place – goldenrod, buddleja, purple loosestrife, ragwort, marsh woundwort and willowherb.

 

Despite orange tip butterflies (our more obvious lepidopteran harbinger of spring and summer) having pupated (they’ll be like that for 8 or 9 months now), others have replaced them. Second generation holly blues are now on the wing and they’ll be shortly joined by the new “crop” of brimstones, furiously-keen to gorge themselves on nectar.

 

Everything seems to beginning what I call their “helter skelter mode” – insects especially.

A few minutes spent watching our big clumps of goldenrod (awful, non-native, invasive stuff but a pollinator magnet) can reveal all manner of species – many different bees, solitary wasps, weevils, flies and butterflies).

 

A few (or more!) minutes spent crawling carefully around pink-bloomed willowherb may well result in a sighting of an elephant hawk-moth caterpillar – chowing down furiously before heading groundwards to look for a suitable spot to begin to pupate in a week or two.

 

A few minutes spent watching the skies at dusk (at the right places) will invariably throw up a bat or three – making hay still, whilst the sun (hopefully) shines and the moths are (hopefully) plentiful.

 

Rabbit kits are everywhere. Fox cubs are out and about. Young badgers are noisily enjoying themselves. Hedgehogs are fat and busy.

 

Then of course, schools are out for the summer. Everyone’s taking their hard-earned holidays. Us Brits are smiling. Weekends smell of barbecues and best of all… the football season hasn’t started yet properly in England yet (next week, unfortunately).

 

So I should hold this time of year very dear – possibly as my favourite time of year even?

 

Hmmmm….

 

I do love the height of summer.

But for me, August seems always tinged with a great sadness. (I can’t just be completely happy or content now can I?!)

 

Adult cuckoos (a rare sight or even sound these days) have long gone, nightjars have pretty-well stopped churring round here (having had their only clutch of eggs or well into their second) and “my” swifts… well…. they’re off, basically.

 

Regular visitors (the two of you!) to this site will know about my obsession with swifts – and at this time of year, they’re all tending to head off south. In numbers.

 

Of course, they’re only here with us for about three-four months each year, a few in late April, then May, June, July and some in August.

(Chart below courtesy of BTO Birdtrack)

Each August, when our summer should peak, my heart sinks a little as I watch my favourite bird of all leave me again, for nine long months.

 

I think if I won the lottery (I should start playing really!) and my wife and son were up for it (and I could get someone to hen and cat-sit (that’s cat “SIT” by the way, you dirty child), I’d follow swifts all year long.

 

I’d spend 9 months in sub-Saharan Africa, marvelling at these small, chocolate-brown flying scimitar-winged devil-birds, return with them to Blighty at the start of May and head back to the Congo with them in August.

 

Or would I?

There’d be no joy in their return to me in May if I did that. No sense of anticipation. No jump in my heart-rate when I saw my first swift over British skies each year or heard my first swift scream in May.

 

Nope.

I’ll just have to bid them farewell now (I’ll see them until September possibly, in very small numbers – the most northerly-breeding swifts always head back to Africa later than “my” soft southern swifts), enjoy the other things about August that I’ve mentioned above and make hay like everything (and everyone) else whilst I can.

 

We’re (my wife, boy and I) are off on our holidays soon – a few days camping in the beautiful New Forest (I do love it down there) with maybe a trip or two to the Dorset seaside. It won’t be the boy’s first camping experience, but it will be his first view of the sea  - how exciting  will that be?!

 

No – there’s no time (nor reason) to be sad in August, despite “my” swifts disappearing en masse.

Fly well me old beauties. 

See you next May eh?

 

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) summer swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/8/the-height-of-summer Sun, 02 Aug 2015 09:15:20 GMT
Golf, me and Stunningdale. (Part two). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/8/golf-me-and-stunningdale-part-two This is a blog post that I originally started to write almost a week ago but have only now had a chance to finish it. 

 

 

In part one, I wrote an extended blog on what golf means to me (personally) and in this part, part two, I’ll blog a bit more about yesterday’s trip down the road to the Senior Open at Sunningdale – which reminded me what I love about golf, but also what I hate about it.

 

 

Golf, unfortunately, suffers from a reputation of being an elitist, stuffy old mens’ game. Strict, strange dress codes. Members only (male members only still in some clubs). Exclusive. Drenched in money. Private. Snooty. Pompous.

 

Having played a little in Scotland as well as England, I used to think that this was mainly a problem for English golf clubs, but it seems Scotland isn’t immune to this sort of guff either. I think the most expensive golf club to join in the UK is the Loch Lomond club (used to hold the Scottish Open each year). You’ll need over £50,000 to join in your first year, then pay through the nose per annum – IF you can wait a year or ten in the alleged queue for membership and IF you impress the captain and committee when applying.

Then there’s the R&A at St.Andrews also of course. Only recently allowing female members – blimey.

 

But it’s probably fair to say that many English clubs suffer a lot more than Scottish clubs with all this. Lots of people in Scotland play golf and CAN (or are allowed to) play golf at good courses. The dress codes aren’t as strict and it’s often much cheaper than south of the border. The home of golf (Scotland) is just more inclusive (in terms of golf) than (exclusive) England is, generally.

 

This reputation puts a lot of people off playing golf. I completely understand why. I have thought during the past twenty or so years that at least two of my sisters would probably enjoy playing (for the same reasons as I do, rather than just to score well or beat your opponents) and my wife would probably enjoy it even more than them. I expect Anna will come (again) to the local driving range and course with me and try her hand at the game – I hope so.

 

I also understand why millions of TV viewers up and down the land would regard watching golf on TV as incredibly boring. I don’t blame them at all – even I do sometimes and I play! I feel the same way about snooker and (less so) cricket on TV but yes… I understand why golf always tops the polls of the most boring sport on TV.

 

In all my playing days (since I was about fourteen) I’ve come across a dinosaur attitude in golf clubs (as I say… mainly English golf clubs). Cliquey nonsense as far as I’m concerned – and I’ve rebelled against it as best I could, regularly.

As a junior golfer I was treated like dirt at Hazlemere golf club – not allowed to play at weekends, always had to let adults through etc so my stepbrother and I regularly used to hit drives over their startled red faces if we felt like they were being snobs (often).

I was asked to leave a golf club once (with a mate), as we both had black jeans on (and golf shoes mind) – I was told we couldn’t play until we were dressed more appropriately.

Luckily both of us were organising ‘70s discos at a seedy nightclub in Soho at the time and had already bought ourselves ridiculous checked, flared Farah slacks and winged-collar tight polo shirts in which to groove away our Saturday nights and impress those ‘70s chicks!

So yes… you guessed it… we each went home, dressed in our ‘70s gear, were then ACTUALLY LET ON the course and so spent the day hitting balls over the heads of the old duffers who had complained to the captain that our (smart black) jeans weren’t the correct attire for their precious golf club.

Now this wasn’t a posh club, like for example Stoke Park (just across the road from where we were and where bits of "Goldfinger" were filmed) but Wexham – in Slough!

 

I vividly remember the first time I went to see professional golfers play the Whyte and Mackay PGA Championship at Wentworth, in 1985.

It wasn’t just the players I remember, hitting balls for MILES with no effort at all (or so it seemed), it was the whole place.

It absolutely REEKED or money.

 

Not only did the people seem ridiculously rich – the entire place did too. The Wentworth estate in Virginia Water is very exclusive, that’s for sure. You’d need several million to splosh on a big house, if you could get hold of one – and you were “accepted”, by those already there.


Then there was the golf course (of course!).

Everything seemed absolutely immaculate. It was as if each bunker had a full time member of the green-keeping staff employed solely to tend that bunker. Each green fringe must have been clipped with nail scissors. Each fairway rolled in lines to perfection. Each tee box looked like a normal golf course green to me. Again, for someone who had just started to get into golf – the place was spectacular.

But it did seem completely exclusive.

Completely out of my league.

I’d never fit in there. I’d never be allowed!

I’ve been back many times since and whilst it doesn’t amaze me like it did the first few times, it still seems like a different world!

 

Fast forward a few years and a couple of mates and I walked round the Sunningdale Old course, to watch a qualification tournament for the Open.

If anything, that course seemed even better. Even more exclusive perhaps? It was like an oil painting of the perfect golf course to me – and it still seems that way.

 

Now I adore lowland heathland (a very unnatural type of environment very often, very “man-made”), whereas upland moorland tends to depress me.

I love the pine trees of lowland heath, the heather, the sandy soil and the really interesting wildlife at such places.

Wildlife (at the right time of year) such as nightjars, emperor moths, silver-studded blue butterflies, wasp spiders, gold-ringed dragonflies, lizards, adders, Dartford warblers  coconut-smelling yellow gorse, bright purple heather and hobbies.

We currently live a few short miles north of the Bagshot sand belt, in fact Anna my wife, works at a school right bang on top of it – and I always adore poddling around that type of place in the summer at least. I feel like I’m abroad when the sun’s burning down on a dry lowland heath in the summer – heaven!

Sunningdale is set in such an environment – an environment that genuinely excites me.

 

I returned to Sunningdale last weekend, with my wife Anna and our two-year-old boy, Ben.

 

Sunningdale village as a place is pretty uninspiring. Only about 10 miles from where we live, it’s a world away really.

Like Virginia Water, (Wentworth, next door), the place reeks in money. Virtually every man we saw in the village (as we made our way from/to the station) had cherry-coloured or lemon-yellow coloured or lime-green coloured chinos on. And a jumper draped over his shoulders. And greased-back hair. And orange skin. And designer sunglasses.

The women were no different really. Think mandatory pashmina and perfectly-bleached hair (and teeth) and you’ll get the idea.

 

But the Seniors Open was being held on the very famous (but hidden from the village by giant pines) golf course on top of the hill - and I’d timed our visit perfectly – on the only dry, sunny day of the four days golfers were hitting balls there.

The Seniors Open is a chance for nearly-seniors like me (just 6 more years to go!) to watch some of the legends of the game – the people we grew up idolising (if we were into golf).

People like Sandy Lyle, Ian Woosnam, Tom Watson, Fred Couples, Howard Clark, Jose Rivero, Eammon D’arcy, Ronan Rafferty, Mark McNulty, Mark James and if you were like many English golf fans, (far less so in Scotland), Nick Faldo and Colon (deliberate spelling mistake) Montgomerie.

We had a superb day in the sun – it was Ben’s first ever wide-eyed (but very short – just ten minutes) train journey and his first time on a golf course – Sunningdale lived up to its name at least for us on the Saturday.

 

At one point, in a break in play, as we were making our way into the tented village for a fish lunch and a cider, two golfers wandered up to me (separately) and gave me a couple of freebies. I have no idea why.

To be honest that was a bit strange. The open-air tented village was packed – these two golfers came up to ME (no-one else) separately (about 20 mins apart – at different spots), both said to me “I’ve missed the cut – here you go” and then placed the freebies in my hand.

One gave me two of his (new, unused) Titleist Pro Vi balls.

The other gave me £25 of Sunningdale Senior Open catering tickets.

Anna couldn’t believe it (neither could I to be honest – why me?!), at one point she looked at me and said – “Do these people KNOW you? Are you secretly famous?!”

I said I think they just catch sight of my weather beaten face, bags under my eyes and Tesco trousers and think “there’s the charity case I can offload these things onto!”

I wish I could tell you who these generous golfers were, but I’m afraid I didn’t recognise them. Even if they did me?!

 

Onto the golf course and I managed to follow my (British) golfing hero (Sam Torrance) for a hole or two & point out his impossibly-glamorous wife to my even more impossibly-glamorous wife. We had the very good fortune of watching Tom Watson too, as he was playing alongside Sam – I don’t think I’ll ever have that chance again.

Unfortunately we couldn’t get as close as we would have liked (and used to) as Ben might have shouted “FART!”  (or something worse?!) at any given moment, as old Tom started his putt, The marshals wouldn’t have liked that really.


Actually, the marshals were superb. I got chatting to one about how/why he became one – and he said he only did it so he could play a free round on the course after the tournament! (£200 odd saved there, straight away!)

Another marshal was clearly stoned. I wandered up to him to ask him which hole he was on (to get my bearings) and he said, drawing on a very funny-smelling roll up and with big wet, bloodshot eyes: “I’m buggered if I know son!” and then proceeded to lie on his back in the heather and take another draw on his smoke! Never seen that before at a golf tournament!

 

I was reminded again of how exclusive the whole Sunningdale and Wentworth thing is though. Of course, it’s not just those two clubs around that particular area that are famous for exclusivity. Swinley Forest and the Berkshire also lie on the Berkshire/Surrey/Bagshot sand belt and they’re probably no different really – drenched in money and stuffy old men.

 

Actually, on that subject I hear the members of Sunningdale are up in arms about the fact that celebrities are “queue-jumping” their way onto the membership – recent memberships being given to Tim Henman and Bryn Terfel have especially upset the old duffers.

Strange. I was always of the opinion (thanks mainly to the inane, irrelevant, tedious TV golf commentary from the grandfather of all the old duffers – Peter Alliss (when will he retire please)) that Sunningdale was FULL of “celebrity golfers”.

People like Sean Connery, Jimmy Tarbuck, Bruce Forsyth. Kenny Lynch (You heard me… Kenny Lynch) and these days people like “H Hu… Hugh…. Oh Crikey…. Hu… Hugh Grant”.

 

I hate all that.

Absolutely hate it.

Only the exceedingly rich or well connected get to play the most beautiful courses in Britain. The “It’s not what you do – it’s who you know” thing.

And that certainly seems to be the case with Wentworth – you can’t ever just pay a green fee at Wentworth – you MUST be an invited guest of a member.

At least at Sunningdale you CAN pay (a lot!) and play the most beautiful inland course in Britain. Or at least I (and many others agree) think it’s the most beautiful inland golf course in Britain.

 

I’ve never seen greens like they are at Sunningdale. They make Wentworth greens look like a mess. They’re like polished green glass.

The fairways and tee boxes are as good as the greens I play on at public courses.

Bright purple (just about at this time of year) heather surrounds many of the immaculate bunkers and straight as you like, giant pines queue up on each side of many fairways. Then there are the views from the top of the course (you can see to the centre of London 20 miles away very easily on a clear day).

The fact that the ground itself (barren wasteland before Willie Park Jr (the designer) got his mitts on it) is almost like a links golf course (but without the constant gales, and the distraction of the sea which are replaced by beautiful evergreen trees instead), makes my golfing heart jump for joy.

The place is fantastic

Undulating.

“Duney”.

Beautiful.

Stunning in fact.

 

Now members of private golf courses like Wentworth and Sunningdale will say that the only reason their courses look like that is that they DON’T let anyone on.
The members look after the place, they’ll say.

Well… I suppose they could be right, although it's more likely that the members' money looks after the vast number of green keepers at places like this.

 

I now have started to play at what used to be a private members’ club about 12 miles or so from Sunningdale, a place sandwiched between Warfield and Maidenhead called Bird Hills Golf Club.

In fact I played 9 holes (+1, I played well) there last night (the two photos below show my approach to the par 3 15th and the stunning par 4 17th (although neither photo does justice to the quality of this particular course).

Up until this spring, members had it to themselves really, but the new Japanese Owners thought they were losing money that way and so stopped membership (membership with no green fees to pay that is) and invited the great unwashed public like me onto the course – effectively making it a pay and play course.

When I was investigating the local courses at the start of June this year I talked to a lot of people on a lot of courses to find out what they thought of the club they were at.

Without exception, (I obviously chose the wrong people), the golfers at Bird Hills were horrified “their club” had been turned into a pay and play. In fact I hear a lot of the past members had deserted the club and the ones that remained were not happy.

Even the starter moaned at me that “members used to look after the place (the bunkers etc), but now it’s going to the dogs”.

Nonsense, I’d suggest, after playing it a few times now.

No-one lost their job at Bird Hills when the new owners turned it into a pay and play.

The place has more money coming in these days (so say the staff).

The green keepers still look after the bunkers – the old members certainly don’t (and still don’t – I’ve watched a few totter round with their electric trolleys – it would be all they could do to climb out of a bunker, let alone tend to it).

I had the (mis)fortune of finding myself playing with a bona fide Wentworth member at the course the other day (he was practicing near to his house rather than driving to his big exclusive, expensive club to play).

He had all the kit and all the talk for sure. Constantly letting me know he thought the course that we were playing on was “crap”.

But he couldn’t hit the ball for toffee. And when he did make a divot (not that often – he tended to thin everything) he didn’t replace it. Nor did he rake any bunker he ended up in. I doubt that he would have repaired any pitch marks he left on the greens either, but as he didn’t make any at all (he really wasn’t great) he didn’t have to I guess.

 

So members look after golf courses do they?

Or just their own golf courses?

Or not at all really.

(The answer is obvious I’m afraid).

 

The course isn’t bad at all – the greens are superb, the bunkers even better and whilst I’m certainly still a fair-weather golfer, it sets up beautifully in the sun.

My only issue with it is that it’s quite open and always windy – situated as it is on top of a hill. It’s 25 years old I hear and still (strangely) looks quite new – the saplings planted nearly three decades ago don’t look that old to me – and compared to my VERY local course (about a 3 Wood from my house), it’s relatively straightforward and quite boring in terms of things to look at (lakes, wooded areas to hit over), types of shot needed to score well.

 

I’m VERY glad the new owners of Bird Hills have turned the course into a pay and play. Shortly (within a year now) my very local course will be turned into loads of houses and a school and I hope to play more and more at Bird Hills.

Bird Hills becoming a public course means I will still have somewhere really quite nice, within a 10 minute drive (in a car!) to play a game.

 

What I’m trying to say with this blog (in a painfully long, tortured way) is that golf should be for everyone.

Absolutely everyone.

There should be NO dress codes at any golf courses.

Trainers or golf shoes – that’s all that’s required.

Tailored shorts?! Knee length socks?! Collared shirts? Come off it!

Every pro-shop or starter should tell anyone with a tenner or twenty-pound note in their pocket and just wants a round with a few friends to “just look after the course please” – try to repair any damage you may do it – replace divots, repair pitch marks, rake bunkers etc) and if your slow play is holding up the group behind, please let them through, no matter who you THINK they are or how undeserving they may appear to you”.  (These days it’s pretty-well only the old boys (and girls) that have the time for a 5 hour round of golf – and they’re very invariably the people who play badly, slowly and stubbornly-refuse to let people through).

But that’s about it really.

I think golf may be going that way. I hope so. I really do.

Blackwater golf course (pay and play) near Yateley is a good example. I played the course with a few friends t’other day.

Very informal.

Very cheap.

No dress code.

No stuffy members.

But a very nice wee course with superb quality greens – much better than most clubs, private or not.

 

Golf is a healthy hobby to have I think.

Lots of fresh air.

Lots of walking.

Some beautiful things to look at whilst you’re strolling about.

Lots of wildlife (contrary to many conservationists’ concerns).

Most people on the courses are very nice, very friendly and helpful.

You just need to (still, unfortunately) ignore the harrumphing of the stuffy old members of a few clubs and courses.

 

As for Stunningdale – Yes, I adore (and hate) the place.  But I think I may try to be a marshal at their next big tournament – as I would LOVE to play it for free one day.

We’ll see eh?

 

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) golf lowland heath sunningdale wildlife https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/8/golf-me-and-stunningdale-part-two Sat, 01 Aug 2015 07:22:20 GMT
Golf, me and Stunningdale. (Part one). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/7/golf-me-and-stunningdale-part-one I had in mind to write a blog entitled “The height of summer” this week, as so much is going on all around us at present, but after a day or two of incessant rain (forecast again today I hear) and after a quite lovely afternoon spent on Sunningdale (Old) golf course watching the Senior Open yesterday – I thought I’d put pen to paper (or fingers to keys) on a different subject also dear to my heart (other than wildlife).

Golf. (I'll find time to blog about "the height of summer" soon perhaps).

 

Firstly, a little background.

 

I first picked up a golf club before I hit my teens. A Tommy Armour Silver Scot 7 iron which once belonged to my Scottish Grandfather. A couple of years later and my parents (my father still played at the time) kindly bought me and one of my new (at the time) step-brothers junior membership (for about £90 per year then – with no green fees to pay)  to a local golf club – Hazlemere, near High Wycombe. I upgraded to my Grandfather’s old full set of Silver Scots, including a hickory shafted wedge and putter!

 

So I’ve been hitting golf balls for about thirty years, on and off. I must have played ohhhh, I don't know... 500(ish) rounds of golf during that time,(when I was 15 or so I’d play every day if I could in the summer at least) but since getting married (7 years now), I’ve hardly picked up a club at all, until this June.

 

I firstly played alongside my stepbrother(s), then a friend or two at University, then when I started working for a living, with my work colleagues (fellow bakers mainly – plenty of time off during the “working day” (after OUR work had finished early in the morning) and also house mates (when I was single and living with friends).

I’ve also played alone occasionally (maybe 5% of my total rounds, i.e. 25 rounds (ish)) – something which bemused some of my friends or work colleagues who regard their golf (and therefore ANY golf) to be a social or indeed sociable pastime  - which I agree it is, but it doesn’t have to be. (I’ve tended to see FAR more wildlife on a round of golf, which I’ve played on my own –readers of this “wildlife blog” will know how important that is to me).

 

I’ve never had a single lesson (never could really afford to, nor really cared that much to shell out (a lot!)  to improve) but I’m not terrible at golf. At present I’m playing to a single-digit handicap, although my average would be about 12-16 over the years I suppose. I’ve always played with second-hand clubs and never regarded that as affecting my game at all. New clubs are expensive!

I’m a big bloke, but not trusting myself to put full (uncontrollable) swings on a ball, I don’t tend to smash balls down fairways – I’m not a long hitter at all. But considering my swing length is about half the length of most golfers, and the result is often very comparable (often favourably) – so why would I put a full swing on a golf ball?!

Not only that, but one of my British golfing heroes always was Sandy Lyle – who plays with a half swing too – I don’t doubt at all that I emulated his “swing” when I first started playing and it seems to have stuck. Without the skill, majors wins and fame for me of course!

 

I’ve been lucky enough to play on a few courses in England and Scotland. But never abroad and never by the sea on a “links” course (even though I’ve visited St.Andrews and marvelled at it (its also pretty-well where my Dad has retired back to now (a few years back)). Many of my playing partners have in the past remarked that I have a “Scottish links game” (low running shots, bump-and-runs etc) but that’s the only nod to links golf from me – I’d rather go rock-pooling by the sea than stare at a little white ball thank you very much (I’ve far better things to do on the coast than play golf).

 

I’ve also lucky enough to have watched many professional golf tournaments and indeed pro-celebrity tournaments. Other than both getting an albatross AND a hole in one on golf courses over the years, my other claim to golfing fame might be that I once let Jesus through on a golf course, who was playing behind me, but a little quicker than me (I was probably looking at fox footprints in bunkers knowing me!).

Of course, when I say I’ve let Jesus through on the golf course, I mean Robert Powell – but Robert Powell doesn’t have the same dinner-party anecdotal name-dropping gravitas as Jesus? Embellish when you can, eh?

 

I’ve mainly watched professional tournaments at Wentworth (I now live within a very short (car) drive of the famous West Course at Virginia Water).

My first trip to Wentworth was in 1985, to see the Whyte and Mackay (now BMW) PGA Championship with my Dad and another of my stepbrothers.

That’s when I first got to see (the sadly-late) Seve play – my ultimate golfing hero.

Not only Seve but two people who would become other home grown golfing heroes of mine – Sandy Lyle and Sam Torrance amongst many others (Els, Watson, Woosnam, VJ Singh, Olazabal, Garcia, Poulter, Donald, Rose, Faldo, Darren Clarke etc etc… I could go on all day with that list!)

I guess I’ve been to Wentworth a dozen or more times now and its (even more) beautiful neighbour, Sunningdale to watch professional golfers hit balls.

I’ll come onto Sunningdale in part two of this extended blog.

Very often in my twenties and thirties, a day at the PGA was pretty-well heaven for me. I’d go with a few friends or eventually Anna and we’d just poddle about watching superstars close-up for ten hours a day (watching professional golf is DIRT CHEAP compared to sayyyy… football matches for example) and drinking far too much cider in the sunny, beautiful “countryside”. What’s not to like?!

Cider on course, of course.A pointa zoider at Sunningdale, watching the seniors play their 2015 Open.

 

Talking of “sunny”…. I remarked to a good old mate t’other day when we half-set-up playing (we never managed it in the end) at my local course in the rain, that I’d never played golf in the rain before.

I suppose I must have but I cannot remember doing so. Possibly in a shower but not in constant rain.

A fair weather golfer I most certainly am!

He first replied that he had played "countless" rounds in the rain, which genuinely intrigued me (assumed exaggeration aside).

So I asked "why?!"

He replied "when you play with other people you have to book a tee time and so put up with the weather you come across [at your pre-booked tee-time]”.

A bizarre reply I thought, for a number of reasons.

As he knows (I would assume), the vast, vast majority of my golf has been played with up to three other playing partners, certainly not required any tee-time booking and even if it did, someone (not often me granted) would book a tee time on the day, often at the course itself and always on a dry (or even sunny) day. But even if someone did (strangely) book a tee-time in advance (with perhaps no thought to look to any weather forecast) and on the day of the proposed round, rain fell incessantly, we'd just not play. We'd postpone. You certainly don't "have to put up with the weather" at all, should you choose not to.

Admittedly, when I was playing golf with my fellow bakers (for a decade or so), we had the considerable luxury of being able to turn up to courses when “office monkeys” (of which I am now, sadly, one) were generally at work, so there were plenty of “tee-times” to be had, but there is very often no necessity to to book (set-in-stone) “tee-times” days in advance.

So no. I don't remember playing a round in the rain, but I certainly DO remember hitting balls  in the rain, on the recreation ground behind our house when I was a teenager. In the rain generally because that tended to reduce the number of dog walkers out on "the rec," who I had to avoid (or be reported!) whilst hitting golf balls around a public park!

My clubs were ancient with grips that were shiny (through wear) and sleek; and as I've never played with a glove, even just holding onto the club through a swing in wet conditions on the rec would quickly become very difficult. Maybe that has something to do with me not wanting to play whilst its raining? It's not that I dislike rain (like I certainly dislike wind... and I play a lot in the wind), I quite enjoy the rain very often when I'm out and about (I used to LOVE running in the rain for example) but keeping myself AND a set of clubs etc dry in the rain has never filled me with any enthusiasm.

I would also probably suggest that (as with the seaside) I have far better things to do in the rain than drag a golf bag around a park for four hours – but maybe that’s just me? I play golf to relax and look at wildlife. Both those activities for me are facilitated by being dry.

 

 

Golf has never infuriated me or frustrated me like it does to the more competitive types who take it (or their poor play) seriously. It relaxes me completely.

But sure, I do care (a bit) about my eventual score. Just not much.

I do like to hit the ball as well as I can (it’s remarkably satisfying, even for me, to hit a golf ball nicely) but I never cared too much about my “stats”* or whether I won or lost games. I don't really hit the ball that well really (most people I've played with over the years can hit the ball better than me WHEN they manage to hit it well - it's just that they don't manage to hit the ball consistently - whereas I at least hit the ball OK most of the time).

I also practiced a lot when I was younger. And not the long game - the scoring part of the game - chips, bunker shots and putts.

Most people who play occasionally regard the long game to be the most important (I guess it's at least the most impressive to watch) but it isn't the part of the game that really matters. Regularly these days I hit a driver off the tee, then one of four differing, specific wedges I have in my bag as an approach to a green and then a putter (if I'm lucky). My long, mid irons and fairway woods may get a handful of outings between them in one round, whereas my wedges get at least a dozen or more and my putter thirty or so outings. 

I think I’m probably the least competitive person I know (male or female) and that was my attitude (much to the dismay or frustration of many of my playing partners) in many of my past rounds. (I often beat them, without seeming to care whether they won or I did).

 

*I think I care a little more about my stats these days – I now play golf with a GPS App running on my Smartphone in the background, which logs all my shots – see screenshots below.

*EDIT - these screenshots were taken before my latest two rounds - a total of 18 holes played at a total score of +1 (gross). So my current stats are even better now.

 

 

I’ve not felt great for the last two days (nasty phlegm bug going round our house) but as soon as I walked onto the golf course yesterday, even though I wasn’t playing – I felt completely better. I know, I know, but there you go.

These days, peering into a computer screen all-day-long like I’ve pretty-well done since meeting my (now) wife (I turned my back on a very physical career when we met), the escape to the golf course is probably even more important for me.

 

Yes, I’ve played a lot of golf in the past thirty or so years but also hardly touched a club for the past seven or eight, since meeting Anna. This break from golf has coincided (understandably I think) with a career change (having less colleagues having the time to play golf with), a life change (having less time myself to play golf – there are other very important people in my personal life than just me and some friends these days), several location changes (so not really knowing about my local courses), and an extended period of poor general health (which meant I had no desire and even less actual capability to play).

In June this year I decided to dust down the “bats” and see if I could still hit a ball. I thought it would do me good to get out on a course again – I thought it would do my head and body a favour.

Two months later and I’ve played 10 rounds. That’s eleven rounds of golf in eight or so years then – and all but one of those in the last two months – and it HAS done me good.

A lot of good.

I’ve always been far more comfortable outside, in fresh air – and I’ve missed that hugely in the past few years since becoming “an office monkey”. I don’ t think I realised just how much until I started spending four or five hours on a golf course each week for the past couple of months – that time has genuinely, literally made me feel better – both physically and mentally.

All but the last of those ten rounds (in the last two months) I’ve played on my own (like I’ve alluded to earlier – pretty rare for me) whilst I’ve found my golfing feet again and used my time on the course(s) to relax, watch wildlife and escape from the grey drudge and red frustrations of office and work reality.

 

Next week I’ve been invited to play another local course by some of my current work colleagues, who know I used to play a bit and also know I’ve recently started playing again. (They’ve asked me for a few years now, but mainly due to poor health I’ve had to say no thanks, every time. I’m lucky I guess that they’re still asking me!)

I’m looking forward to next week – the boys are a good laugh and it will be nice to start playing again in a group, rather than ‘on me tod’ – although like I say, I’ve thoroughly enjoy playing golf on my own too – I see FAR more wildlife on courses that way.

 

All the above serves as a (lengthy – sorry!) background to the reason I’m writing this two-part blog, which doesn’t really involve talk of wildlife (although as I’ve said, wildlife is a HUGE reason why I started and continued playing golf).

 

Anna and I have been to a few professional golf tournaments during our time together.

Always at Wentworth.

Until yesterday.

Yesterday we decided to take ourselves and our two-year-old boy Ben on a ten minute train ride (Ben’s first wide-eyed train journey) to the famous Sunningdale golf course (Ben’s first time at a professional golf tournament too – a bit risky for a noisy toddler amongst precious golfers demanding silence!), nestled on the Berkshire/Surrey strip of Bagshot sand next to Wentworth.

The seniors (professional golfers over 50 years old) were (still are as I write) playing their Open Championship there, a week after the main tour played The Open (proper) at St.Andrews.

So it was chance for the three of us to escape to a quite stunning part of the world, grab some fresh air and a cider or two and watch some of the legends of golf hit balls around what some people describe as the best inland course in the UK.

I’ve walked round Sunningdale Old Course before, about ten years ago, watching an Open qualification round (with the likes of the Molinaris, Langer, Monty, Woosnam and Parnevik all competing) and I was keen to return –especially as we live so close these days.

 

So off we went. And we had a wonderful day.

 

My day walking around Sunningdale reminded me what I LOVE about golf and also what I really HATE about it.

 

And on that… I’ll leave part one of this blog; grab a kwarfee and start to pen part two…. See you there?

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) golf sunningdale wentworth https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/7/golf-me-and-stunningdale-part-one Sun, 26 Jul 2015 09:05:14 GMT
The Good Life? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/6/the-good-life Anna and I have something of a reputation (with her work colleagues, anyway) of being a bit "Tom and Barbara" from "The Good Life".

I can only presume that this came about because we used to grow our own potatoes (mainly) for a couple of years (my allotment-loving brother-in-law would disagree with me when I say - that was never worth the effort to me) and we’ve kept hens for years now – so provide her colleagues (mainly) with lots of nice eggs.

It might be also fair to say that I’ve half-avoided the rat race all my life and would dearly love to escape it (and the UK) properly one day (dreamed of it, most of my favourite books are tales of people who’ve done just that), but Anna’s colleagues don’t know me that well – so our Good Life reputation must be built primarily on our hen-keeping, I’d speculate.

But is keeping hens all pottering with a wicker basket through the daisies in the sun, up to the coop, to collect the day’s eggs? Or is it something else?

This will be a relatively short blog post today, a list - entitled:

8 reasons why you don’t really want to keep hens after all.

Or “The Good life”?

  Why?Why?

So…. Here we go then.

BEFORE you keep hens – what you will NEED is listed below – put a cross against any of the below and you may well decide that keeping hens isn’t “The Good Life” after all…

 

1 – Plurality & therefore space. You could happily keep one dog. Or one cat. But rather like goats (which are social animals and must be kept in numbers of at LEAST two). Hens need numbers to thrive. We have (had – I’ll come on to that later) four – that’s a good number to keep. Two is not really enough to form a healthy social structure or pecking order. You won’t have space for a dozen (unless you have a garden the size of a football field), but bank on keeping at least three – and whilst remembering that – apply that number to the points below. Times them all by three. Or four.

2 – Money. Keeping poultry isn’t expensive, not like cats and dogs again (with constant vets bills etc), but you’ll need to provide them with a half decent coop and run (not an Eglu, which seems to be all the rage these days – they’re awful things and DON’T give hens what they need to thrive). A nice-size run where they feel safe, sheltered and can jump and perch (get some height – very often overlooked by new hen owners). A stout coop in which they can lay and sleep. A coop that can be taken apart and cleaned regularly and a coop which is weather-proof.

Then you’ll need regular money for good food (my healthy girls eat about 1Kg of organic pellets each a week. Not a lot you think? Times that by four and you’ll be buying a 20KG sack of pellets every 5 weeks.

Finally you’ll need money for (lots and lots of) fencing, dietary supplements (lumpy apple cider vinegar to keep them peppy, poultry spice to keep them interested in their pellets, grit to aid their digestion and calcium intake). purple gentian spray for wound protection, vice to prevent hens pecking each other to death, detergents, insecticides (we use diatomaceous earth) and stout brushes to clean their home regularly, sacks of bedding for their coop (we use eucalyptus-soaked hemp – no sniggering at the back), hopper(s) for their food and drinkers for their water.

3 – Time. Again, hens aren’t like dogs (which are pathetic things in my mind – beasts that will simply pine and eventually die if not given constant loving-attention by their master(s)) but they do appreciate human company – certainly enough to be able to form healthy keeper-hen relationships with them. You must be top of their pecking order. Keep hens without a cockerel and you will effectively BE their cockerel – these hens will often crouch when you approach – effectively taking up the “mating position” as that’s what they are effectively doing – submitting to being mated – by YOU. Of course you won’t mate them – but they don’t know any different – that’s all they know instinctively.

You can put cats and dogs in kennels when you jet off to the Med for your two weeks in the sun – but there are no kennels for hens. Add to that the fact that whilst many kindly friends and neighbours will pop ‘round to feed your cat (if it’s not at a kennel) whilst you’re sitting at a Greek Taverna for a fortnight, those same people often baulk at sorting out your hens as well. That’s often a step too far for pet-sitters. So you’ll need to arrange something or think of something before you buy your pullets.

You’ll need to have time to regularly clean your girls’ coop and run, deep clean it often (as I did yesterday), time to clean their feeder(s) and drinkers and time to provide them clean, fresh, cool water every day or time to thaw their frozen drinkers in the winter.

Hens get up at dawn and if you’re keeping free range birds, they’ll loudly shout to be let out. You’ll need to be a lark then, rather than an owl. In the summer, right now in fact, I let my girls out at 5am. EVERY DAY. Weekend included.

4 – Wildlife in your garden. Keeping free-range hens (I’m talking proper free-range hens here, not just birds that have access to an enclosed run only) will decimate wildlife in your garden. Hens eat everything. Frogs. Newts. Mice. Voles. Dragonflies. Moths. Beetles. Worms, caterpillars, fledgling birds. EVERYTHING. The cat-haters who constantly (with nothing but anecdotal evidence at BEST) bemoan the damage that cats do to British wildlife population(s) haven’t got a clue. People who keep free-range hens know though.

5 – Your treasured plants. They’ll often be quickly destroyed by your “Good Life” hens. You’ll need to fence off pretty-well anything you want to grow for food. And much of what you’ll want to grow for looks or insects too – from seedlings (sunflowers, foxgloves, valerian etc) to pretty stout plants, which they’ll trample over and flatten whilst your back’s turned.

6 – The Mess. Anna and I are lucky in that we don’t EVER want to manage what I call a “Telly Tubby garden” – manicured lawns, perfect borders, that sort of stuff. If you want your garden to look pretty – don’t get hens. They’ll turn clay-soil lawns into muddy swamps in the winter with their scrabbling, they’ll construct dust bathing depressions into your borders and shady parts of the garden, they’ll flatten long grass, spread leaf piles everywhere and finally deposit large quantities of crap wherever they go.

Hen crap is pretty strong stuff. Sure, it’s not quite dog or cat shit in terms of sheer disgustingness, but it is stronger than both – it BURNS plants. Then there is there number two number two (as I call it), the incredibly pungent caecal sack deposits – orange/brown coloured foul-smelling viscous liquid. As soon as that’s produced – literally the second it’s produced, you know about it – from yards away. Again, hen crap isn’t as disgusting as duck crap, Duck crap is all mess and liquid whereas the majority of hen crap is solid – but mess there is when you keep hens. Lots of it.

7 – The behaviour. Some of Anna’s colleagues get all “gooey” when they hear about one of our girls getting broody. Maybe it’s the word “broody”? Who knows?  Let me explain what a broody hen does. And why it’s a right royal pain in the jacksie and not good news at all.

Occasionally (more so with pure breeds than hybrids) a hen will get “broody”. This means she stops laying eggs, and sits on her own and the other’s eggs (or no eggs at all in our case at present, the urge is that strong in one of our girls), for days and days.

She won’t eat properly, nor drink. She’ll vigorously defend her nest from other hens, denying them their normal egg-laying spot, and react aggressively to her owners –drawing blood from hands if allowed. She’ll lose condition. Quickly. In order to deal with this, you’ll need to get her OFF the nest (tread carefully – wear heavy gloves!), give her extended cold baths to cool her down (easier said than done with a big angry bird) and as I’ve had to do (and again now, as I type) deny her access to the nesting coop by segregating her from the rest of the flock. So you’ll need more fencing, another feeder and drinker, more shelter just for this daft, angry bird who thinks she’s been mated and her eggs (or now eggs!) will hatch if she sits on them for long enough.  Cute? No. Not in the slightest. I spent 5 days a few weeks ago bathing a broody hen and segregating her in a “broody enclosure” (which took some time to construct). I’m having to do the same now – something I don’t appreciate.

Pecking order. All flocks, small or large will form pecking orders – and do so quickly. You’ll have to get used to one girl being constantly picked on by the “bully”. It isn’t nice to see – but it IS quite natural.

8 - The blood, guts and eventual death. Modern hens, certainly hybrids like ours our bred to within an inch of their lives. They’re pretty hardy but they’re bred to be egg-laying machines and that’s about that. An egg a day for a year or two. This isn’t natural at all. Nor “The Good Life”. It causes all manner of problems – prolapses, eggs being laid or broken internally, shell-glands malfunctioning – a huge physical toll on these birds is the result. Of our eight or so hens we’ve kept over the years, only two have been completely healthy – the rest have had all manner of problems as they’ve aged. I’ve witnessed huge prolapses, severe frost bite, torn wattles, lots of blood, girls eating each other (once they see red they can’t help themselves – and the horrible thing is the girl being eaten appears to almost “accept it”). I’ve had the terrible sadness of finding one of our girls running around the garden in circles, bumping into things, completely blinded by a fatal stroke and making such pitiful, terrified screaming.

The two champion girls I’ve had (three I suppose) have given me great relief from what has sometimes appeared to be a constant onslaught of blood and guts – of distress, pain and eventual death from our hens. Of course it isn't constant - it just occasionally feels like that.

Now hen-keepers reading this might say well I’ve never seen any of that – it must be YOU (me) that’s doing something wrong.  I’d respond in the following way – either you haven’t been keeping hens long enough, or you haven’t been keeping hybrids or you’re just NOT WATCHING your hens.

Then of course there’s the eventual death. You’d take your cat or dog to the vets to be put down wouldn’t you? Or treated for an injury or illness. You’d be charged a couple of hundred pounds or more for the lethal injection and cremation with a cat or a dog – and you’d be charged the same for a hen. Vets don’t tend to treat hens’ illnesses or injuries though – it just isn’t as cost effective to the average hen owner (farmers) as treating a single dog. The best way to treat an ill hen – and the cheapest, is to cull it as humanely as possible. EVERY time.

But. Could YOU do that? You will have named your girls of course. Could you quickly break one of your chooks necks to minimize her suffering? Would you know how?  You would need to be able to, or I suppose, drive her to a willing vets, who will do it for you – but you’ll pay through the nose for that and driving a terrified hen in pain to a vets to die is hardly minimizing her suffering is it?

Finally, there’s the disposal aspect of culling one of your birds. DEFRA still have hens down as livestock (not pet), so you’ll have to abide by their "fallen stock" rules.

 

 

 

I think that had better be that for now, grapple fans – as I see my segregated broody girl is already causing havoc in the borders (I’ve run out of fencing and posts so had to risk a bit of damage to my plants).

If I can think of anything else to say on the subject, I’ll add to this post accordingly.

Before I disappear, if the eight points above have made you think, Christ, sod all that, we’ll not keep hens after all, then my job here is done. Keeping hens (like any animals) is a big responsibility – and if you’re not up to the job, you shouldn’t be doing the job.

So why does anyone keep hens? Why do Anna and I keep hens?

Ahhh… that’s another blog.

Basically…. They’re WORTH IT.  Definitely.

But right now, struggling with another aggressive, angry, arsey, broody hen, if you were to compare hen-keeping to “The Good Life”, I’d suggest you weren’t even close!

TBR

Hen in marigoldsHen in marigolds

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Hen hen-keeping hens poultry https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/6/the-good-life Sun, 28 Jun 2015 07:18:15 GMT
A golden goddess of the night meets a hairy-eyed thing from The Underworld. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/6/a-golden-goddess-of-the-night-meets-a-hairy-eyed-thing-from-the-underworld I’ve recently had my control box for my old moth trap replaced (for the second time – they’re not the most reliable of things in my experience) by the excellent people at Watkins and Doncaster.

I didn’t run a trap at all last year after my first trap broke at the beginning of the season, so it’s good to start bothering moths again this year – and see what’s flittering around the garden after we hit the sack each night.

 

We’re well into June now, rowing hard for July – and we’ve had a pretty good moth year so far – with more good nights to come looking at the long-range weather forecast (pretty uneventful really – settled(ish) and warm(ish) nights to come.

 

My moffy highlight so far this year has been a poplar hawk moth. No huge surprise really – we have a big, mature poplar in the garden and since we moved here almost four years ago, I’ve been growing three more of these trees – seeded from their “mother”, the eldest of the “children” being a stout, 15-foot tree already. When I was trapping moths in the garden two years ago, poplar hawk moths were relatively frequent discoveries each morning, but that doesn’t make this year’s specimen any less exciting – at least not in my eyes.

 

I adore evenings and nights down south at this time of year. The garden seems absolutely ALIVE in still, warm, summer evenings and nights here, with various beasties – both large (stag beetles, hedgehogs, hawk moths, bats) and small (all manner of smaller moths and insects).

Scotland might call strongly to me, but I’d miss the sultry, humid, still nights of Southeast England were we to head north – and miss the more “exotic beasties” also.

Oh sure, I am well aware that Scotland gets its own warm nights and its own “exotic” wildlife, but not in the same way as where I find myself living now and not with any similar reliability.

Scotland, for example, doesn’t get scarlet tiger moths, nor my favourite beetles (rose chafers and stag beetles), nor hardly-any (incredibly impressive) emperor dragonflies, nor any real numbers of a bee I love to watch in the summer down here, the big (Willoughby’s) leaf cutter.

Yes, it gets plenty of other stuff, but I do love my summer insects (and NOT midges!) down here in the warm, leafy “Home counties”.

 

[Some Scots might be reading this and be thinking: "aaahhh… but you don’t get golden eagles and pine martens (etc) down there". They’d be right of course, but I’d match your eagles and martens and raise you hobbies (in any numbers), yellow-necked mice and dormice, as a comeback.

Like I say, Scotland calls to me very strongly, but I’m a soft southerner really and England seems to offer my type of wildlife in greater abundance].

 

Last night was a good example of the type of evening I love down here. As regular visitors to this blog might know, we are lucky enough to have a successful, busy stag beetle ‘colony’ in our large, mature garden here. A colony dwelling in a system of rotting eucalyptus tree roots (the mature tree was taken down before we arrived – on account of it being a particularly silly tree to plant next to a house – they get HUGE, eucalyptus trees, annoying neighbours and destroying drains if planted in suburban areas.

I was in my element (again), rushing about the garden after the big stag beetles which emerged from our big woodpile (which I constructed over the buried eucalyptus roots). We get beetles leaving the colony each year (after spending perhaps three years under the ground as huge, juicy white larvae) and beetles helicoptering in – attracted by our females’ pungent (to beetles anyway) pheromones.

 

Anyway, back to moths… the whole (original) purpose of this particular blog entry after all.

 

Two highlights from last night (which incidentally, you CAN find in Scotland!).

 

 

One – The Lychnis moth.

Hadena bicruris.

 

Quite an insignificant-looking wee brown jobbie really – until you look closely.

This common moth is beautifully-marked and has a scientific name which means “Two-legged one of the underworld”.

The vernacular and scientific names of moths are often superb, really something else – so much more descriptive and interesting than birds’ names in general – it’s clear that the chaps (generally, not so-much chappesses in those days) who named our lepidoptera, were off their rockers!

 

Why is this little brown moth called “The two-legged one of the underworld”?

A breakdown:

A) Hadena – meaning of Hades. Of the underworld.  Most moths have superposition eyes which produce low-resolution images for the brain to make sense of, but perhaps up to 1000x brighter than the images formed by the apposition eyes of most butterflies (for example) and most other diurnal insects.

It’s just that the Hadena moths have HAIRY eyes.

Sure, many insects have hairy eyes (for a number of reasons (to protect their eyes from getting covered in food (dung, pollen) for example) or perhaps no reason at all) but the moths of Hades (Hadena moths) seem a little peculiar in this respect.

I know that the Lychnis moth larvae feed on red campion seed capsules but I’m not sure if the adults feed at all – perhaps someone can put me right on this.

B) bicruris – meaning two legs. Obviously moths have six legs, but I am told that the “legs” on this moth (the crus or cruris (legs) are meant to give a nod to the two different types of stigmata on the moths’ forewings – the elongate reniform stigmata and the orbicular stigmata – probably the most noticeable feature on this moth’s wings.

 

So…whether you like it or not (I do I think), the Lychnis moth has a scientific name meaning the “two-legged one of the underworld (Hades)”.

 

 

Two – The barred yellow.

Cidaria fulvata

 

Again, not an uncommon moth at all, but unlike the brown Lychnis above, the barred-yellow is a striking moth, albeit small. Burnt-yellow in colour, with contrast in markings.

Unlike the red-campion seed capsule-munching larvae of the Lychnis, above, the caterpillars of the barred yellow tuck into dog rose leaves. I suppose we’re lucky that we have both red campion and dog rose in our garden.

So, as I’m waffling on about classical nomenclature today, what does the scientific name Cidaria fulvata mean?

Fulvata first – derived from Fulvus, meaning tawny yellow or amber. The ground colour of this pretty moth’s wings.

I can only think of another “fulvus” animal, that being the griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus), although that is more tawny (at a stretch), rather than amber or golden but all that said, the fulvata in C.fulvata is indeed derived from fulvus meaning amber.

(Incidentally, Fulvo in modern-day Italian means reddish-blond or rufous too – knowledge of Latin really does help in modern-day life I think).

Cidaria is a different kettle of fish really – and another example of scientific nomenclature based on classical mythology.

Cidaria was an appellation given to the Roman goddess Ceres (goddess of agricultural fecundity) when she visited Pheneum (in Arcadia). Cidaria (Ceres) is often depicted wearing a wheat crown or tiara or “kidaris” (hence cidaria). I suppose, the markings on the forewings of the barred-yellow, could appear to look like a crown made of wheat (if you really screw your eyes up and take a puff of something strong!).

So… in short, the barred yellow has a Latin name which means “Ceres' tawny-coloured wheat tiara”.

 

Right. This blog was only meant to take a few minutes this morning, but after rambling on again for an hour or so, my stomach is screaming for porage, so there I’d better leave it.

 

Until next time, grapple fans.

 

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Barred yellow Cidaria fulvata Hadena bicruris Lychnis The Lycyhnis moth moths stag beetle https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/6/a-golden-goddess-of-the-night-meets-a-hairy-eyed-thing-from-the-underworld Sun, 14 Jun 2015 08:36:54 GMT
A swift blog for the end of May... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/5/a-swift-blog-for-the-end-of-may Regular readers (are there any?) of this blog might know my favourite bird is the swift  - I have been known to get a little obsessed by these superb beasties in years gone by – but I’ve not really mentioned them much this year it seems. At least not on my website…

Well… all my boxes were primed and ready come mid April – and on St.George’s Day (easy for me to remember… plant the tatties on St.Patrick’s Day and “start the screaming” on St.George’s Day) I started playing my edited, neighbour-friendly swift call.

 

SwiftSwift

 

Regular readers of this blog might also know that since moving here nearly four years ago, we’ve (my wife and I) only really had one very good year for swifts screaming and banging around our swift nest sites (both internal and external) – in 2013.

Last year I had very high hopes (after the previous year), but it was almost a complete failure for me – oh surrrre…. A couple of brief investigations (whilst my swift call wasn’t playing ironically enough) but other than that – nada, nowt, zippo, zilch.

Whilst it’s fair to say that I knew attracting swifts to our (post war) house at the very edge of a post war town would be far more difficult than when I did so in a very old house in a very old town several years ago, I was hoping that I’d have some success – at least a swift in a box or in the attic, either this year or last.

 

There are very few swifts around our house – and very few (historically) around the town to the south – but I do regularly see them over the house, at height and as I’ve written above – we had two or three months of intense swift activity (half a dozen birds at one time often) around our house in 2013.

 

I don’t seem to be alone in this regard though – in a position to report much reduced swift activity – even around breeding colonies. This seems (at present) to be a pattern in 2015 –affecting much of the country.

 

My old neighbour (who you migggghhht have seen on TV a couple of weeks ago (with me stumbling briefly around in the background), trying to attract swifts to HIS house, next door to my old “Swift Half”) has had a terribly disappointing year so far – and we KNOW there are MANY swifts in that area - they’ve been breeding in “Swift Half” for decades and Reading itself is a veritable hot-spot for swifts – loads of them.

 

Not just him either – people are reporting low return numbers or abandoned breeding attempts etc… from many breeding colonies.

 

But why?

 

What’s gone wrong this year?

 

People are citing the unseasonably cool (or at least unsettled) weather for pretty-well-the-whole-of-the-month as the most likely reason.

 

(I should point out here that swifts are no different from other species it seems, in that they seem to have an obsessive following (mainly male it goes without saying) who very often like to think they know far more about “their species of choice” (the swift), than any other interested person (whether qualified or not) – and almost go as far to announce as such on various online fora. These for a are often nasty places in general where egos are gigantic… and also very fragile – aggressive poo-pooing other swift watchers’ information and assumptions is constant on one forum in particular – and that’s why I tend to stay away from such websites).

As is often the case in life, the empty vessels make the most noise (such is the case on these fora) but occasionally one might be able to pick up a snippet of useful information if one avoids the inflated egos.

 

The useful speck of information gold in the sea of sand this year I’ve discovered is that the weather really does look like dealing swifts a poor hand this year.

I’ve not really thought it’s been that bad (at least not down here in Berkshire), but it would be factual to say that after a very nice warm, (hot even) sunny early and mid April, the jet stream, which seems to be buggered these days, took a dive south over Britain and has given us high winds, cool temperatures and regular rain since. We’ve had some sun too… some quite strong sun (I have sandal tans on my feet) but in general it’s been really quite cool for May.

 

So what does that mean? Surely swifts can cope with a bit of “coolth”?!

 

Not that well really, to be honest.

Swifts arrive back in Blighty between the last week of April and if they’re REALLY late the last week of May(ish) and they need to get going with egg-production almost immediately.

The young take a long time to develop and eventually fledge from the nest and if the eggs aren’t laid in May (early May if possible); they simply don’t have enough time to get going and get home.

 

So yes, it’s unfortunate that if the weather in May doesn’t really produce a lot of good food for the swifts, enough to catch for themselves AND enough to feed either two or three (in good years) young, quite often swifts don’t even bother attempting to breed. Perhaps they’ll start and then abandon the eggs.

Perhaps they’ll start and kick the eggs out of the nest as a result of stress.

Perhaps they’ll not even return to their traditional nesting sites –or only one of the pair will – not enough to breed… obviously.

 

2014 seemed like a pretty good year for the best birds of all, (a very warm, insect-rich May) but so far this year (and it’s nearly over already as far as swifts starting to breed is concerned), whilst it isn’t yet a complete disaster… it doesn’t look at all like a vintage swift year – all over the UK.

 

It would be an awful shame if that did turn out to be the case – for at least a couple of reasons.

One – swifts only have about four weeks each year to get breeding and laying in – miss that and that’s it for them. This is very different to most other birds of course – resident birds in particular. It just so happens that these four weeks this year haven’t YET been good enough in terms of consistent swift food production.

Two – in about 5 days (so about the 4th June onwards), the jet stream does finally look like looping north again – bringing a spell of warm, settled weather (at least temporarily)… but JUST TOO LATE.

 

 

What now then?
I suggest we all cross our fingers & toes and hope the swifts that have managed to produce eggs this year (and like I say, this year is not a complete wipe-out yet) get a nice long summer to raise their young successfully.

And let’s hope for a far “nicer” May in 2016.

Keep ‘em peeled though grapple-fans – swifts aren’t about to head off south yet (lots are being reported on the BTO website – more than last year in fact), but that’s because they’re feeding in flocks as a priority now, rather than sitting on eggs (a lot of them).

We still have about two months worth of beautiful, amazing swifts to gawp at arrowing across our skies before they DO bugger off in August(ish) and you never know… we may (often the case) still get young yearlings heading into the UK to prospect for breeding sites next year, before that happens.

 

We can also just thank our lucky stars that swifts get a few (quite a few in fact) chances to breed in their lifetimes.

If swifts were barn owls (which generally don’t live much longer than 2 or 3 years in the wild and tend to only try to breed ONCE in their lives – but ONLY if the environmental conditions are right – lots of voles, not a lot of bad weather (wind, rain OR snow), we’d REALLY be up the creek without a paddle.

 

So… it’s not ALL doom and gloom.

Never is for the best birds of all eh?

 

 

Fingers crossed now…

 

Cloud burstCloud burst

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/5/a-swift-blog-for-the-end-of-may Sun, 31 May 2015 16:31:36 GMT
Spring update. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/5/spring-update It has not got unnoticed (by me if no-one else) that I’ve not blogged for some time, so I thought I’d write a quick update, for my benefit in months or years to some (if for no-one else), as Spring is well and truly underway.

 

We’re hurtling towards summer now (it’s less than a month until the “official start of the season on “Midsummer’s day” and therefore also less than a month until the longest day and shortest night, so what’s been going on in my neck of the woods?

We’ve had a windy few weeks. Quite April(ish) in terms of weather, with a bit of strong sunshine (I’ve a sandal tan) but also a little rain and regular windy days.

I hear that May has been wetter and cooler than average, ‘though I personally wouldn’t have moaned about the weather this month – I think it’s been fine really – and the plants have certainly appreciated the sun and rain.

 

 

The garden is looking superb – especially the pond, which I’ve fenced off to promote good cover (long grass and thick buttercups) for the frogs, newts etc.

The pond-side cuckoo flowers have done really well this year and have their compulsory orange-tip butterfly eggs already laid on them, as do the border hedge garlic plants – which I always leave in place… purely for orange tips.

 

Large red damselflies are emerging from the pond in relatively good numbers (using my newly planted yellow flag irises as a launching pad) and are mating already, but I’ve not seen any azure or blue damsels yet, nor dragonflies – I’m expecting southern hawkers later in the year of course and hoping for a broad-bodied chaser or two any day now.

 

The pond sounds superb doesn’t it – but we’ve had our issues with it this year. We have quite a few male frogs with herpes – that’s nothing new here – but what WAS new is that we lost 6 (or more?) frogs to a mystery virus (perhaps “red leg”) which at first I thought would wipe out ALL the adults and perhaps many of the tadpoles and newts too. Luckily (touch wood) that doesn’t seem to be the case.

 

I’ve finally planted red valerian (alongside the old white) for any hummingbird hawk moth that floats by. Been after red valerian for years – a weed in many places and not often sold in garden centres. It’s jusssst about flowering now and so will soon join the (very) established white blooms.

Yesterday I also planted some herbs (sage, thyme and my favourites – oregano, marjoram and chives) under my newly planted buddleja bushes, which are coming on well. Together with the herbs (planted for us in terms of food, AND the bees) I’ve also managed to get two salvia plants in the ground (blue and purple) – which the bees already are thanking me for.

 

 

As for bees – we have a garden bumblebee nest in the woodpile and my newly-created bee hotel (an old tree stump drilled with many holes) has at least been taken up by one mason bee – I’ve drilled it mainly for leaf-cutters though, as we get lots of them here, far more so than red or blue mason bees.

I hope (expect?) the later leaf cutters will enjoy their new home and I’ll add a shop-bought leaf-cutter home today if I get time.

May bugs have appeared in the garden this month (of course) and have also been joined by our rose chafers – fantastic big metallic beetles which are a delight to watch (and hear) zooming around the garden to settle and feed on our photinia flowers – they seem completely addicted to photinia!

 

In the last few still evenings, the first of the big stag beetles have been helicoptering around the garden (we have a colony in a buried eucalyptus stump and root system in one of our large borders) – always a sign for me that either summer is upon us, or is coming soon!

 

The elephant hawk moth pupa that I’ve kept for nine months now is jusssst about ready to emerge I think – with a  few more warm days and humid nights, it’ll happen within a fortnight or so I’m sure… so I’m checking it each day now.

Most of the blossom is well over now (that goes for lilac, ceanothus, cherry and apple here), but we still have buddleja to look forward to of course and our copious amounts of golden rod (for the bees only!).

 

 

Swifts, like last year (unfortunately) have been regularly flying over the house, screaming in the last few days, but at height and not one has checked out my seven nest spots for them yet. I am really disappointed that despite me calling them down each year, they don’t seem to want to repeat their activity of two years ago, when two or three would buzz my boxes each day, all summer – in far worse weather. A re-think of tactics may have to be called for next year?

 

In other ‘garden bird news’, we have had a goldcrest (or goldcrests?) singing in and around the garden, constantly for weeks and weeks now. I have no idea whether that means they ARE breeding nearby or one goldcrest is desperately (still) trying to attract a mate – but if you forced me to guess, I’d suspect the latter. If they WERE breeding – the birds’ energy would be better taken up searching for food and feeding young you’d think – rather than announcing a territory, constantly?

We also have a male great spotted woodpecker visiting the ground beneath our big poplar, a handful of times a day. I have no idea why this is happening either – there are no ants nests there – unlike in our lawns which used to (not for a couple of years now) attract green woodpeckers.

The local starlings have fledged en masse (like they always seem to do) a few days ago. The surrounding tall trees and TV aerials are now often resonating with the harsh chatter of young, pale-throated starlings. This excites our local hawks which buzz them regularly.

A week ago now I managed a first – a sighting of my first (EVER) honey buzzard slowly flying across the sky above the garden at dawn. Honey buzzards are very poorly named, they’re perns really – kites and because of our omnipresent kites here, I at first thought this strange kite which looked a bit like a buzzard was in fact a strangely-shaped red kite (no forked tail etc).

Within a few seconds though, I realised what I was gawping at – and was very excited about the sight. Only something like half a dozen honey buzzards have been reported over Berkshire in recent years – one of them being “mine” a week ago.

 

 

Our hens are fine. Well… I’ve had to take drastic (cold bath) action with regards to ‘Ttila, our “boss hen” who became VERY broody indeed a week or so ago.

I’ve never seen a hen so broody – sitting on nothing (I took eggs away as soon as they were laid by the other girls), going for me and acting very aggressively.

So I segregated her for a few days, banned her from the nest boxes and gave her regular cold baths – that seemed to do the trick although she’s still a bit edgy with regards to me removing any eggs from the nest boxes – she doesn’t seem happy about that and I’d not be that surprised if she becomes broody again soon.

 

 

One really good bit of news this spring is the return of hedgehogs to the garden – after a gap of at least one year – perhaps two.

I dig tunnels under our fences to allow the local hedgehogs room to come and go, establish a normal-sized territory (up to two football pitches in area I hear) and meet other hedgehogs.

This has worked in the past here, but unfortunately the local foxes ate both our adults a couple of years ago. I thought that was that until a couple of weeks ago, when I went into the garden to put our hens to bed and heard the unmistakeable noise of a male hog “courting” a female.

This is really excellent news – for not only are hedgehogs in terrible trouble across the UK (down from c.30M to c.1M in less than 20 years), garden hedgehogs make excellent pest (slugs etc) removers too!

I’ve been videoing the comings and goings of our new hogs, but not seen them now for two nights – I do hope they haven’t been found by the local foxes again…

 

 

I’ll end with a little local (rather than garden) news.

I’ve not managed to keep my eyes on our local (barn and little) owls much this spring (I always find that a little easier in the winter), but I DO know that we have a pair of barn owls (at least a pair – the only time I did managed to get up to the farm to check on them… I thought I heard three or perhaps even four shouting at each other from two trees quite close to each other) present.

We also have a pair (at least) of little owls at the farm (I filmed them raising young in 2012 remember?) which only this morning on a rare (these days for me) dawn drive, I saw perched on their old cattle shed, next to a new owl box (which replaced their old on the same tree).

I know they’ve not bred in this box since 2012 (when I filmed them) – for the last two years they’ve been nesting and breeding in hollow oak trees nearby – but it certainly appears to the case that they’ve returned to their box this year.

If they run to form, I’d expect young to leap out of the box in the middle of June – I maaaaay try to get a photo (or video) or two… lovely wee things I think.

 

 

Finally… I made a brief TV appearance a couple of weeks ago.

Didn’t see me?
Aw well… you didn’t miss much! (I was still quite ill at the time and recovering from an appendectomy after two years of undiagnosed digestive issues).

I actually thought the film I appeared on (BBC2) was a nasty little film produced by a TV company that was looking to portray people who liked to watch wildlife in their garden as obsessive at best and downright weird at worst. Virtually everyone I know outside the “online wildlife community” were pretty unanimous in that view also.  Hey ho!

 

OK.

That shallot.

 

Catch you in June, grapple fans!

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Spring update TV barn owl bee hotel buddleia buddleja cockchafer cuckoo flowers elephant hawk moth goldcrest great spotted woodpecker hedge garlic hedgehog herbs honey buzzard large red damselfly little owl may bug maybug orange tip butterfly photinia pupa red valerian spring stag beetle update https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/5/spring-update Mon, 25 May 2015 07:17:25 GMT
Bittern by the bug(s). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/4/bittern-by-the-bug-s April.

The best month of the year?

Well… that’s debatable of course, but I’d say probably the most exciting.

 

My sandals & shorts have been dusted off and worn again – and I thinnnnk I’ve put away my beanie hats for 7 or so months once more. I always look forward to that time.

 

As described here, things are afoot. Things are moving. Things are appearing.

 

I’ve spent a few hours in the garden over the last couple of days, watching and listening, because at this time of year, you simply don’t know what you’ll see anywhere – at any time. For me, at least, it’s very exciting.

 

I spent my lunch break today watching the skies. Not so much for the first holly blue butterflies that today appeared in the garden (low), nor the shield bugs and drone flies that have been helicoptering around.

No.

Waaaaaay above them – waaay up into the fluffy clouds – watching dots.

 

Rather like hearing a rustle deep in the understory of woodlands down here (which 70ish% of the time will be a blackbird sifting through leaf litter and 29ish% of the time will be a grey squirrel), watching dots in the sky at this time of year round here will mean that almost invariably you’re watching soaring buzzards or red kites.

But occasionally…. Just occasionally… the dot will be an osprey. Or a swallow. Or a little later in the month… a swift!

I’ve been watching the soaring buzzards and kites all lunch time and it’s been a joy, even though none have been an osprey or a swallow.

 

To be fair though, I’ve probably maxed out on luck with unexpected or occasional sightings after last night.

 

At ten minutes past eight, I walked up our long garden to shut the girls (hens) into their fox-proof coop for the night. As I walked up the garden I was thinking to myself I wonder if tonight’s the night where I’ll see our first bat of the year (we have soprano pipistrelles and common pipistrelles each year hawking over our pond).

 

The girls seemed content, so I bolted their door and turned back towards the house – only to have a bat scream round the corner of a leylandii we have planted by the coop and rocket upwards in front of my face.

“SUPERB!” I thought. “They’re back”!

 

As I looked up to follow the tiny bat, I noticed a strange-shaped bird in the gloom, flying due north, over the house, at about 50 foot, heading exactly in my direction.

I immediately thought “now that’s a very strange, dumpy-looking heron” – but as it got closer, I realised that it was no heron, no grey heron at least.

When it flew over my head (like I say at about 40 or 50 foot only) it became absolutely crystal clear to me what this bird was – a BITTERN!

 

Now I’ve seen bitterns before around here. But only in the winter, and only in their preferred habitat of thick reed beds. And never flying.

 

To see a bittern flying, pretty-well at night, (well… deep gloom anyway), in April, at least 8 or 9 miles from a suitable habitat is preposterous, for anyone, including me.

 

Maybe there are 100 pairs of bitterns breeding in the UK each spring - but I have no real clue what this individual was doing flying over our garden at dusk. I assume it was migrating somewhere - but where exactly - who knows?!

 

I’m lucky I have very good eyesight; I’m lucky I often put myself in positions where if a bittern DOES fly over my head in April, I’ll probably see it; I’m lucky that I have a little bit of zoological knowledge to be able to recognise and identify these things (quite often) and I’m lucky that I am often painfully-aware of what’s going on around me (animal-wise, rather than human-wise, much to the frustration of any human companion I’m with), but even so…. a BITTERN?!

 

I’ve reported it onto the Berkshire birds website and I dare say there’ll be plenty of people reading that report that won’t believe me.

Those people will certainly be people that don’t know me at all, but hey ho.

 

 

I’ll end this brief blog by saying get yerselves outside and looking around, grapple-fans.

Really use your eyes - because you simply don’t know what’s going to appear in front of them, even perhaps after the sun goes down, at this time of year.

 

That’s why I regard April to be probably the most exciting month of all – at least for me.

 

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) April bat bittern common pipistrelle https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/4/bittern-by-the-bug-s Wed, 08 Apr 2015 13:27:36 GMT
Dung flies and the Pope's testicles. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/4/dung-flies-and-the-popes-testicles I was checking my newly-dug, newly-sanded, newly-manured buddleja bed in the sun this afternoon and was admiring not only my handiwork (it was solid clay, this border and took me many hours to sort by hand), but also the yellow dung flies dancing about the bed’s manure and hen droppings.

 

Suddenly, an almost neon-yellow dung fly flew in and alighted on a nice pile of poo. Oh surrrre…. I know the common name for this fly is the “yellow dung fly”, (or more aptly I think, the “golden dung fly” - I’ve always thought they’re more of a buff-yellow, an orange yellow, a dirty golden yellow) – but this was a radioactive custard yellow, this strange beastie that had just flown in.

 

I was convinced I’d found a new species, and so set about trying to photograph this bright yellow dung fly. This (of course for me) involved lying in the manure and duller dung flies, in my shorts and sandals, waiting for the one bright yellow beastie to come to my camera.

 

It took its time though. I am aware that the male golden dung flies are so-coloured and furry, but the females are far less furry, far less golden and far more… green, but this (obviously male (furry)) dung fly was getting mistaken for a female by the look of the duller males all jumping on his back, preventing him from lining up for his mug shot, courtesy of me.

 

Eventually he crawled over to my camera and I got a shot or two – thinking my old zoology tutors would finally be proud of me, as I put my name to the newest species of dung fly to be found in the UK. (I’d rather a mammal or even a fish, but a dung fly is better than nothing, no?).

 

Hmmm.

I should really have remembered that whereas the larvae of the golden dung fly eats dung, the adult flies feed on nectar and pollen as well as other insects, rather than dung.

 

A close look at my photo of this bright yellow dung fly’s head (and body) revealed that it was covered in bright yellow pollen – very probably from a pussy willow or similar.

My newly-found species and therefore newly-found fame would have to wait.

 

Incidentally, the scientific name for our golden dung flies is: Scathophaga stercoraria, which literally means (as far as I can make out): “dung-eating, of the dung (niche)” - oh to be a larval dung fly eh?

 

Now then.

I promised you the Pope's testicles.

Or the Papal bull(ocks), if you wish.

Please read on…

 

You might just have heard of “stercoraria” before?

I would assume so, if you’re a Catholic.

The Pope will have certainly heard of a stercoraria – or more exactly, the “Sedia stercoraria”, which literally translates as “the seat of dung”.

 

Looking a bit like a commode, the Papal “dung seat”, isn’t a commode at all, or even a “seat of dung”, but a seat (a throne if you will) where any new (male) Pope must sit, (I said sit!) without underwear on, and be touched up from beneath by the luckiest Cardinal of all (I’m sure they queue up for the role).

This rite of passage takes place to establish beyond doubt that any new Pope, pre-election, still had a ripe pair of dangly goolies and hadn’t been forced into self-castration, whereupon the lucky Cardinal would cry:

“Pontificalia habet et bene pendentes, dignum est papali coroni!”

(“He has pontifical equipment, they are hanging well, worthy is thy papal crown”).

You don’t believe me? Here you go.

 

 

There you are then.

A nice story involving dung flies and the Pope’s testicles. You're more than welcome.

 

What's that you say?

I see.

All I'd say in that case then, is that if YOU don't spend the occasional sunny afternoon lying in manure, thinking about the Pope's testicles like I did this afternoon... well all I can say is ...YOU'RE the weird one!

Have a lovely tea tonight, grapple fans.

 

TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Pope Scathophaga stercoraria dung dung fly golden dung fly testicles yellow dung fly https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/4/dung-flies-and-the-popes-testicles Tue, 07 Apr 2015 16:18:02 GMT
Querquedula doo. (My dame has lost her shoe). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/4/querquedula-doo-my-dame-has-lost-her-shoe Things are afoot, grapple fans.

Things are… happening.

Spring is springing and the cockerels are crowing.

Not just the cockerels either…

 

We’re getting perilously close to 21c (70f) down here (although I think Scotland has already hit that magic mark, briefly yesterday).

Today I’ve seen the first shorts being worn by people that weren’t jogging and also my first couple of cases of sunburn (forgetting perhaps that the sun is as strong now as it is in late September?).

The ground is warming up – and the grass has started growing (after the soil temperature reached and stayed at 5c for a few days).

The worms are turning – last night was one of those fantastic still, spring nights down here when a few minutes in the garden turned into a sound-fest from worms moving in the lawn, woodmice scuttling through the shrubs and hedges and migratory birds uttering strange plaintive nocturnal cries in the dark skies above.

I’m hearing these calls more and more now (it’s the right time of year for many birds to get going). I’m told these strange nocturnal flight calls come from water rails, or grebes, or wading birds such as golden plover, snipe or woodcock – I wish I knew which though – it’s fascinating to hear them at night overhead.

The birds mentioned above all tend to fly (and indeed migrate) at night, to avoid predators such as peregrines – although more and more these days, peregrines live in conurbations which are lit at night – and pick off such night-flying birds as a preference sometimes. It’s not uncommon to find woodcock and jack snipe (for example) to be the main source of prey at this time of year for our urban predators.

As for the garden birds - we have blackbirds sitting on a nest as well as blue tits building one in a box next door. The dunnocks are holding regular threesomes in our shrubs and I heard a goldcrest actually sing today for the first time this year - the courting seems to have started.

 

Our poplar trees had pushed out large catkins for a week or two now – and this week they’ve been joined by lots of fresh green nascent leaves, unfurling from the many, many buds – a treat to see.

Scurvy grass is flowering along our roads (and in our garden as it happens) and there are iris shoots pushing out of our pond as well as speedwell and dog violets in the garden.

Talking of the pond, it’s now full of frogspawn, which is, as I type, beginning to “hatch”, but still… each night we have a handful of male frogs “singing” from the inky pool – more in hope than anything else I guess – I’ve not seen a female frog in the pond now for a few days.

 

Bee flies are out and about, probing the primroses, and hanging motionless in the air from invisible wires.

The first of the dung flies have found our girls’ (hens’) droppings and are making hay whilst this sun lasts.

I’ve today seen my first mining bees and it won’t be long before my favourite bees (the “solitary” bees such as the red masons and leaf cutters) are out and about, to join their larger, zippier cousins, the feather-footed flower bees which have been out for a while now, along with their primary source of food here, pulmonaria.

 

Migratory and vagrant birds are being seen all over the gaff. Locally there have been sightings of ring ouzels, wheatears, swallows, ospreys and Mediterranean gulls, (to name but a few) and today I went to a local lake (my old stomping ground with my walking partner) at dawn to see a scarce summer visitor to our shores – a bird that I don’t actually remember ever seeing before.

The bird in question was a garganey. Anas querquedula. (Incidentally, Anas means duck in Latin, and querquedula literally means “softly quacking” - no… I don’t think I’d have named it like that either).

I was always going to go for a walk ‘round the lakes with my old walking partner during Easter anyway, as you never know what you’ll find in the mud at this time of year – from teal (check) to green sandpiper (check), so it wasn’t a “twitch” as such – before any of you start on me.

Pumpkin (my old walking partner) had found the bird first a couple of days ago on a solo walk, and after I identified it and reported it to the local bird club, I felt I at least had to go and have a wee look at it – as I’d not seen one before and only around 50-100 pairs are said to breed in the UK each year – common it is not. Seems like after I reported the whole world wanted to go and see it looking at THIS.

Well of course we found it – it really is a lovely wee bird – a bit bigger than a teal (incidentally, it is also known as a “summer teal”, (e.g. sarcelle d'été in France) on account of it being the ONLY duck species to come here to breed in the spring/summer (and head off again in the autumn, often to sub Saharan Africa – unlike most ducks which are either resident or winter visitors)).

Despite its querquedula (doo) name, this lone male garganey wasn’t quacking nor crowing like a cockerel this morning in the golden dawn mists, but because a female hasn’t appeared with this male, we don’t think it’ll stick around for much longer – it needs to find a duck to mate with… maybe then it’ll start crowing?

Querquedula do!
My dame has lost her shoe,
My master's lost his fiddlestick,
And knows not what to do.

 

Anyway..... I'm very glad it's April - I've already had reports of swifts in Marrakech!

It won't be long now!

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bee-fly blackbird blue tit dog violet dung fly early mining bee feather-footed flower bee frog garganey goldcrest green sandpiper poplar primrose scurvy grass speedwell teal woodmouse worm https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/4/querquedula-doo-my-dame-has-lost-her-shoe Mon, 06 Apr 2015 17:08:11 GMT
I'll be back https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/4/ill-be-back I used to have something of a reputation for taking (very) close-up photographs of tiny jumping spiders. They’re very photogenic after all, with a pair of huge forward-facing (anterior median) eyes making them look quite errr…. cute, in a Shrek’s Puss-in-boots sort of way.

 
Not this one though.
 
I was flicking through some very old photographs yesterday, looking at jumping spider snaps in particular, and found this one below.
I must have missed this shot back in the summer of 2008, when I took it.
 
 
I thought it was a tiny (normal) female zebra (jumping) spider that I had photographed – but look closer – one of her big eyes seems to be…. well…. GLOWING?!
 
 
This isn’t a “red eye photo” as such, produced by firing a flash directly onto a reflective retina – you’ll have trouble getting a red-eye shot of a spider’s eyes (one of a few reasons that doesn’t happen is that a spider’s eyes have a very different structure to our own), and anyway, the red glow clearly doesn't fill the entire viewable retina.
So either this spider has an ocular disease of some sort, is a new species of jumping spider… or is in fact a mutant (or robot) zebra spider, perhaps here after travelling back through time and here to kill her original nemesis (the human race?!). 
Just a thought.
There is one other record of a jumping spider photographed with a glowing red eye I've discovered - from Greece of all countries, but I haven't actually been allowed to see the photograph due to their Government restrictions on classified documents.
All I know for sure is that the investigating Greek scientists named it the "ανόητου Απριλίου spider".
 
I don’t take many photos of jumping spiders these days, (I don’t seem to have time to take many photos at all in actual fact), but I think I’ll be looking verrrry closely at any jumping spiders I see this year.
I suggest you do too…
 
 
TBR.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Zebra spider eye glowing glowing eye jumping spider terminator weird eye ανόητου Απριλίου https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/4/ill-be-back Wed, 01 Apr 2015 05:08:38 GMT
Have you got herpes? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/3/have-you-got-herpes Well… not specifically you –  I'd not have got your attention without the "you" and you’d probably already know if you had herpes… but do you know if your lovingly-created wildlife garden pond has ‘got’ Herpes… or Ranid Herpesvirus 2 to be exact.

 

 

What is Ranid herpesvirus 2?

 

In essence, Frog Herpes.

It doesn’t seem to be found in any other amphibians in the UK (yet) and you (as a human – you are human right?) can’t catch it either.

 

Not a lot is known about this disease, other than at present it doesn’t seem harmful to the affected frogs in the way that Ranid Herpesvirus 1 is (for example) which is oncogenic and produces renal adenocarcinoma in leopard frogs.

 

But more research (and therefore more data to investigate) is needed – to find out if this disease does harm our frogs, how is it spread, how quickly it is spread and can we stop its spread (if it is eventually deemed to be a threat to our dwindling frog population).

 

There currently exists a collaborative project (by the name of “Garden Wildlife Health”) between the Zoological Society of London(ZSL), the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), Froglife and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds(RSPB) which aims to monitor the health of, and identify disease threats to, British wildlife.

 

Garden Wildlife Health has produced an excellent fact-sheet on this amphibian disease, which should answer most of your questions.

You can view this fact-sheet HERE.

 

 

At present it appears that there have been very few submissions of diseased frog sightings to Garden Wildlife Health – just 6 when I last looked?! That can’t be right?

 

Well then….please go to your garden ponds now grapple fans (for this is the time of year when frog herpes is very visible as blue/grey warty lesions on the skin of the breeding frogs – see my photos below of a couple of frogs in our pond in Berkshire), have a peer around and see if you can spot any frogs showing clinical signs of this disease.

Grab a photo or two if you can (as evidence) and please start reporting your sightings to Garden Wildlife Health.

 

I’m often sceptical of “citizen science” (certainly in terms of very personally-subjective phenology records) but in this case, your records and photos of RaHV added to the Garden Wildlife Health database will be absolutely invaluable - so please get checking your frogs, grapple fans.

 

Many thanks.

 

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Rana Ranid Ranid herpesvirus 2 amphibian diseases amphibians animal disease common frog frog frogs garden wildlife health herpes herpesvirus https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/3/have-you-got-herpes Wed, 25 Mar 2015 15:38:46 GMT
Tomorrow's solar eclipse. Off on a tangent, or rather, a “secant”. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/3/tomorrows-solar-eclipse-off-on-a-tangent-or-rather-a-secant We’re hours away now from the partial (unless you’re in the middle of the sea somewhere, or in Faroe, in which case it’ll be total) eclipse – and I do hope that the skies clear over the UK tomorrow morning, to enable us to glimpse this rare beast.

My old neighbours (Pumpkin and his wife) are on Faroe tonight, looking for a clear sky tomorrow morning and even if that doesn’t happen, I rather think they’ve been treated to a spectacular Northern Lights show on their cruise north, thanks to one of the biggest solar flares to occur in decades, a couple of days ago.

Back to the eclipse and I think we’re due (down here) to experience around 85% toe-tallidee, which will be great if the forecast thick cloud does thin.

 

I certainly remember the August eclipse of 1999. Spoiled somewhat by cloud cover; a total eclipse brushed the SW corner of England on August 11th and headed off into Northern Europe shortly after.

I’m told the people gathered at Fistral beach, Newquay got a pretty good view, briefly, but elsewhere it disappointed due to the cloud.

At the time, I was sitting alone on a hill overlooking High Wycombe with my make-shift pinhole camera and got a half decent crescent sun going myself. Like I say, I remember it well.

 

I’m often gazing at the moon and/or night sky. I find it endlessly fascinating and a bit of a “humbler” to be honest.

Our moon, Jupiter and three of hersOur moon, Jupiter and three of hers

Harvest moon & JupiterHarvest moon & Jupiter

I remember one very romantic total lunar eclipse I watched from Aphrodite’s Rock off the coast of Cyprus in August 1989 at around 1am in the morning and I also remember watching a very rare (every 243 years) transit (‘gainst the sun) of Venus in June 2004 – that was absolutely spectacular!

I also (as some readers of this website might appreciate) like to take photos of such things, certainly planes in front of the moon if nothing else.

Fly me to the moonFly me to the moon Fly me to the moon tooFly me to the moon too

DreamscapeDreamscape

 

I’ll be watching the skies tomorrow morning, maybe with a camera (and filter) in hand, or more likely another homemade pinhole camera, but I’m really not sure the clouds will make it worthwhile.

 

It’s at times like this, that I start to think of photography, lunar photography in particular - and another possible photograph I’ve had in mind for a year or five –so please permit me to go off on a tangent, or rather a “secant” on this subject…

 

 

I’ve taken plenty of shots of planes in front of the moon over the 7 or so years I’ve been using a camera – and I’ve enjoyed the reaction those shots have been met with.

But what I’d really like is a shot of a satellite or space station in front of the moon – something like THESE? Perhaps THIS?!

WOW!

 

To take a photograph like those, of the International Space Station (ISS) in front of a nice well-lit moon, takes mathematical predictions though – not just waiting for a full moon to be rising in the right spot and living near enough Heathrow for many planes to take off “through” the moon.

 

I’ve often wondered how people actually took photos of the ISS in front of a moon and yesterday decided to google the question “How to take a photo of the ISS in front of the moon” to see.

I’m VERY glad I did.

 

I’ll keep this as brief as possible – but if YOU want to take a photo of the ISS flying in front of the moon, you’ll need:

a)    A camera with a long lens, or failing that a small telescope and a compact camera (on a phone even).

b)    To get onto the cal sky website.

 

 

 

I do have an old bridge camera with a long lens (I don’t have a long lens for my old DSLR) and I DID log my details into Cal sky last night – to see if that website could predict when I could expect an ISS lunar transit to be visible from MY location on the globe.

 

Basically you type in your preferred location details (Cal sky will work out your lat/long coordinates) and what you’d like to see –whether that be just any views of the ISS, or close fly-bys of other satellites or like me… a solar or lunar transit (along a secant) of the ISS, from my back garden (or as near as damn it!)

You can even sign up to email alerts from Cal sky so you automatically get notified of your chosen type-of-events without you even visiting the Cal sky website! It really is superb!

 

Right then.

So when IS my next lunar transit of the ISS from my neck of the woods?

Answer… May 17th. At About 8 o’clock in the morning. With a central line only about 2 miles from our house!  BRILLIANT!

(the three images below are screenshots emailed to me by Cal Sky and are copyright CalSky).

 

Ahh... hollllddd onnnnn… what might be the phase of the moon then? (‘I’d like a full moon ‘gainst a dark sky preferably, and bearing in mind 8am in May is VERY light and we have a New Moon now, almost exactly two lunar cycles before May 17th, so this doesn’t look good does it…)

No.

Unfortunately not.

The lunar phase on May 17th where I am is only about 2% (New Moon on May 18th) which means this particular Lunar transit of the ISS from my back yard will be invisible to be honest.

And that’s the ONLY problem with Cal sky predictions – they don’t take into account the phase of the moon.

 

That all said, I am chuffed to bits to have emails coming to me from Cal sky now – and will wait (with baited breath) the next ISS Lunar Transit (along its lunar secant) emailed to me, so I can get out there and finally get this photo that I’ve been dreaming of for so long!

 

 

As for tomorrow...

The vernal equinox and a partial solar eclipse on the same day!

It's gonnae be BIBLICAL!

Get out there to see it all and good luck with your clouds disappearing wherever you are, grapple fans and while you're waiting, it really is nice to watch these two (One) and (Two) videos of the TOTAL eclipse in Cornwall in 1999...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) ISS equinox lunar moon secant total eclipse transit vernal equinox https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/3/tomorrows-solar-eclipse-off-on-a-tangent-or-rather-a-secant Thu, 19 Mar 2015 15:38:11 GMT
Panzer. A nascent love affair? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/3/panzer-a-nascent-love-affair I thought I’d get a quick blog post in before the imminent apocalypse as an old mate of mine joked on twitter, reigns down upon us (“super moon”, eclipse AND equinox all due to hit around the same time) and I’ve been meaning to write this blog for some time anyway.

 

It’s not so much a wildlife blog though – just a(nother) car review  (no photos this time though) – but as my car is SO important to me in terms of seeing my local wildlife (it takes me to wildlife and provides a comfortable hide for me if I am waiting for wildlife), write this blog I will.

 

I was always going to sell my beloved “LAM” when I had taken her to 150,000 hard miles – I just got her to that figure, just got her to scrape her pre-sale MOT and that was that.

Some readers of this blog might know I’ve also been running an Mk5 Astra estate (1.8 Automatic) for 9 months now too. We bought it for one reason only when we knew my “LAM” was on borrowed time – it was absolute STEAL - about 9 years old and only 35K on the clock – being sold by an ex-colleague of Anna’s for only £1400! (Admittedly petrol automatic estates are hardly all the rage these days but a dealer would probably still look to get nearer £4K for that sort of car with such low mileage.

I took it (the Astra) to the New Forest last year for a family camping trip (with Anna’s sister and brother-in-law (and kids)) and slept in it, rather than our tent – it was a very quiet, very smooth, very big beast.

 

But – it was an Astra (I’m no real fan of General Motors), it was an automatic (no fun), the radio was terrible, the old boy (one previous owner only) who had it since new had scuffed every corner (and the tailgate) and worse than all that – this particular model (a traditional torque converter automatic) had two HUGE issues, the first of which I expected to a degree but the second I had NO knowledge of before I spotted something.

 

Issue one – if you buy a big, automatic (big heavy auto gearbox) petrol-fuelled estate (heavy), you’ll struggle with MPG. No matter how smooth and quiet the engine seems. When I struggled to get more than 19MPG (yes… that’s right… nineteen!) one fortnight (I manually calculated and documented all fuel consumption during its stay with me), the “Dreadnought”’s (as I called her) card was marked.

 

Issue two - I carried out my regular thorough checks on the “Dreadnought” one weekend and realised I seemed to have lost half my coolant.

Worrying about a leak, (although there were no obvious signs of an external leak) I researched coolant issues in this particular model (Mk5 TC auto 1.8 Life estate) and discovered a fault with this car (only these specific models) that really should have meant a recall from GM as soon as it was discovered – but GM took a gamble (allegedly) and hoped that uneducated customers would just foot the workshops’ huge bills out of warranty.

 

The basic fault with the Mk5 TC is the automatic transmission fluid is pumped around half the radiator (no separate oil cooler), as is the coolant, and the two fluids are prevented from mixing by separating them with a rubber seal – which is prone to break – regularly, often without warning.

If this is caught early enough, a flush through and a new radiator could suffice, but almost invariably these days (as people are quite removed it seems from their car’s ICE knowledge or thought or even regular checks), the Mk5 autobox loses torque rapidly, overheats and blows.

 

This is primarily because the coolant has mixed with the transmission fluid, and destroyed the bonding on the friction plates.

Like I say it can and does happen regularly with the Mk5 automatic cars, without warning, at any mileage (from new), at any time and if it is NOT caught – it’s a new gearbox, radiator, the lot – a HUGE bill (several thousands)… a write off basically.

 

As soon as I found out that I had lost half my coolant (I’m sure a lot of you reading this will know that the cooling loop of cars is basically a closed system, but that shouldn’t stop you regularly checking your levels), and the cooling loop(S) design of my particular car were really shoddily-cheaply put together by GM, I couldn’t trust the Dreadnought not to stop on me at any time, even though I couldn’t detect a significant loss of torque through the autobox.

 

Of course it might have just been a leak and we all know that you can find lots of issues with products “reviewed” on the internet and far less good stuff (the negative voice is the loudest voice), so this known issue might never have happened – but I couldn’t take the risk with my car.

It is an awful cooling design after all - and I now knew about it.

 

So. In a day, I sold my knackered (there was play in the rack, the tie-rods needed replacing, it suffered from atrocious battery drain due to a faulty DMF wire (I think) and alternator design, the list goes on…),  but beautifully-fun “LAM” and the hardly-touched, but thirsty and worrying (no fun at all) “Dreadnought”, for a VERY good price (all in, much, MUCH higher than I thought I’d get for the two as a job lot trade-in – he didn’t even LOOK at my cars or their history?!) and bought a new car from the same dealer.

 

I say new – ten years old, but new to me.

 

The car?

 

A ten-year-old, graphite-coloured Skoda Octavia 2.0Tdi Elegance Estate with 100K on the clock.

 

I had returned to my first love – Skoda!

 

I’ve probably blogged about my love of Skodas before, but I do think they are serious, serious motors since they became VAG-owned in the 90s.

If money was a concern, I’d look no further (when buying a new or second-hand car) than VAG other than Audi or Seat (probably Skoda as a first choice and VW as a second), South Korean motors (Kia primarily but also Hyundai perhaps), a Japanese car (almost certainly Toyota) or if I really, really had to do what everyone else does, a Ford (Mondeo only).

I’d not look further than that.  No point.

If money was no object at all, I’d buy a Mercedes. Each year. With an Alfa to show off in. And I’d look no further than that either!

 

Well... money IS a concern – so I bought my favourite car – a Skoda.  For a pretty decent price.

And an “Elegance” Skoda (like my old “LAM”) at that – so all the bells and whistles came as standard.

 

Bells and whistles?

 

Yes.

 

Dual halogen headlights.

Front fog lights. (I called these weasel lights on the “LAM” as they helped me spot weasels and stoats on my drive around the farm).

Auto-dimming rear view mirror.

Heated windscreen washer nozzles.

Heated wing mirrors.

Puddle lights.

6 CD auto-changer.

Parking sensors (audible warning AND visible representation on the dash computer).

6 spoke alloys.

Roof rails.

Cruise control.

Air conditioning AND dual climatronic climatic (yes… you heard right) control.

Bespoke boot floor divider, cover, hooks etc.

 

I think those are the main bells and whistles (I’m trying to remember off the top of my head), but I’m sure you get the picture.

 

Then there are the advantages of moving back to Skoda as far as I’m concerned;

I’m not a small bloke, in girth (these days) as well as height and length (legs!) and Skodas give me all the room I need.

In the “Panzer”, even a 10 year old “Panzer”, you can fit someone behind me pretty comfortably (which you couldn’t in the tiny, fun “LAM”).

There’s plenty of room for passengers in the rear and a HUGE boot.

 

It’s a diesel, which means I’m back getting around 60MPG if I try to drive very efficiently - and its a VAG diesel. German built.

 

The radio works well (ALL Skoda radios work well… not the same with Fords or GM cars – and little things like this make a difference).

 

It’s not pretty (like its new owner – function over form I suppose – like a gland or something!) so it suits me I think.

 

It’s not too quick, but it’s plenty quick enough and being the diesel (of course) it has plenty of torque – which suits me just fine.

 

I’d have preferred the 1.9TDi (like the “LAM”) which I still think is the best engine VW ever made – a real tank of a thing, if slightly unrefined and rattly. The “Panzer” has a 2 litre turbocharged engine, and although bigger and more refined (smoother, less rattly, quieter) than the 1.9 – I know it won’t last as long.

 

I am sure I’ll be changing the DWF (and clutch) before too long … and perhaps the turbocharger (I actually think the turbo is jusssst out of plane now as it happens – it sounds a bit like it is). I think the fact that the (one) previous owner changed the air filter every single year he had it (and serviced it each year) might have perhaps helped with the longevity of the turbo, but we’ll see.

 

I think the bushes (front) will need attention pretty sharpish too – but that’s only to be expected in a 100K mile car.

 

It’s a bit err…. lumpy at idle (I can’t inspect the plugs though sadly), a little “knocky” when warm (suspension almost certainly) and doesn’t jump off the line like the “LAM” did (which really upset BMW drivers next to me) but it’s a grand old lady and doing ok I think (I hope).

There will be other niggles probably – I’d not be surprised if a few electrical gremlins surface periodically (one already has actually, once only), but I really hope nothing more serious. If only I could afford a car that hasn’t done thousands and thousands of miles… one day!

It’s already nice to know I don’t have to carry around a battery pack in the boot like I did with my beloved “LAM” and nice to know I am back up to filling the car up every month rather than two weeks, if nothing else. But to be honest there are many things I enjoy about the Panzer – as soon as I test drove it and carried out a THOROUGH forty-point check a few miles from the dealer, away from prying eyes, it felt like “my car”.

The dealer was a little wide-eyed when I mentioned the state of the DOT4 reservoir to him, not to mention the fuel filter – all bargaining (bartering) points as far as I was concerned. He had it down as “in stunning condition” after all – and I regarded that to be a little rich.

But all in all … I thought she (the “Panzer”) needed a little TLC from someone who would care for her – and that someone was me!

 

I’ve only had my “Panzer” about five weeks now and already I’ve grown to really appreciate the auto-dimming mirror. I am getting to grips with her cruise control and at the times I drive sometimes, I think that will be useful too – it certainly works very well.

 

Her heated wing mirrors are a god-send at this time of year (as they were in the “LAM”), her radio and CD player are faultless, as is her very controllable, very effective dual climatronic system (I invariably want my side of the car cooler than my passenger’s side).

 

I’m less convinced by her puddle lights – but they give her an executive aura to soften her basic edges – something that I (ssshhh… don’t tell anyone) quite like in a weird sort of way.

I’ve not gone to work in a tie for years now, but I almost feel I should in this car with her puddle lights! Or if not a tie, perhaps a chauffeur’s cap and jacket!

 

She drives pretty well. Pretty smoothly. I hope that continues for a year or five.

 

She hasn’t yet been asked to do much of the stuff that “LAM” and I used to do, other than already help me with the annual local toad crossing.

 

I’ve not yet asked her to provide me shelter and warmth when I hunt for owls at the farm.

Nor asked her to help me find weasels.

Nor slept in her in the New Forest.

Nor provided me a mosquito-free environment after sitting watching nightjars in the summer.

Nor ferried the cats or hens nor logs nor lawn-mowers nor tools nor saplings nor piles of manure nor sacks of hen bedding and pellets around in her.

Nor even picked up pheasants or deer with her.

 

 

Soon enough though.

 

Soon enough.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Octavia Panzer Skoda Octavia car diesel estate https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/3/panzer-a-nascent-love-affair Wed, 18 Mar 2015 17:02:32 GMT
"If you're appy & you know it, snap your lands(capes)" https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/2/-if-youre-appy-you-know-it-snap-your-lands-capes

 

I’ve always been quite fond of landscape shots (or paintings for that matter) consisting of lone trees on a clean background.

This seems to be a peculiarity of mine – the current landscape shot of choice for amateur and indeed many pro snappers is of a bleeding rock in the foreground of a milky beach or lake and sky shot or similar. Do flick through any copy of “Outdoor Photography” in your collection, or on the shelves at Smiths – and count the foreground rock  (with water behind) shots – there will be many in each issue – there are always many!

 

Anyway… back to my lone tree shots.

 

Yes, I like clean, uncluttered landscapes shots with a lone tree in them somewhere. Even better if the photographer can take the shot with a rising moon or setting sun behind the tree.

But that would take planning.

Or a hell of a lot of waiting around. Months of waiting perhaps. Years even.

 

 

Step one would be to locate your lone tree of choice. I’ve been on the lookout locally for one since Anna and I moved across Berkshire.

Your tree really needs to be deciduous (to provide a skeletal silhouette in winter) and on its own (of course – nothing on the landscape nearby, or not obvious anyway) and preferably you need to take any lone tree photo of it, from the west(ish) or from the east(ish) (not north or south as then you’ll not have a rising moon or sun behind said tree, if that’s what you’re after).

Your BEST bet is to find a nice lone, deciduous tree on a bare landscape that you can shoot by pointing your camera pretty well DUE EAST at it (then you’ll have a couple of rising suns to choose from and more rising full moons behind the tree).

 

I’ve found a tree that almost fits that bill. It’s a little too big to be contained within a rising moon or sun, it’s a little too high (its on top of a very small hill) to grab a shot of it with a dark red nascent rising sun behind it (by the time the sun gets behind this tree from where I’m shooting from, the sun is very bright – even 2 minutes after “sunrise”) but I can shoot due West of it.

 

So – that’s step 1 completed. (Completed that several months ago to be fair).

 

Step 2 is working out WHEN (exactly when) a rising sun or a rising moon will be behind your subject (tree, building, rock formation etc).

Now you can do this (of course) by patient, repeated observation and guesstimates, or you can download a little “app” onto your smartphone or tablet, called “The Photographer’s Ephemeris”.

 

An ephemeris is simply a table or calendar or diary which gives the exact position of naturally-occurring astronomical objects and satellites (and these days, man made satellites often too) at any given time on any given year. For naturally-occurring astronomical objects and satellites, ephemerides can give you their position thousands of years in advance. VERY useful for many people – including landscape photographers.

 

The biggest part of any photograph I think is not the subject…. But almost always the LIGHT. The term “photograph” should give that away.

Landscape photography (in which I am certainly no expert or even have much experience) can be made or broken by good or bad light – and that is almost always a result of planning rather than luck.

This website (HERE) shows you what I mean.

 

Well, I’ve downloaded quite a few useful apps onto my android smartphone – one of them being “The Photographer’s Ephemeris”.

I originally downloaded it as I had in mind to take a shot of a little owl perched on a cattle shed gutter, but silhouetted by the full moon behind. I needed to know when the moon would be behind (from where I’d be with my camera) the owl’s perch then – exactly when.

I haven’t been lucky with that particular shot, as of course luck comes into play even if you plan to take a shot of a full moon or rising sun behind a silhouetted subject – especially in Britain – you need the sky to be clear!

I also downloaded it onto my phone to be able to predict when I might get a chance to shoot a plane in front of any full moon – something that regular readers of my blog(s) or old flickr account might remember. I used to do that via trial, error and lots of patience – but the app takes that hard work out of the equation!

Fly me to the moonFly me to the moon

 

Back to the lone tree shot and my Photographer’s Ephemeris App – on pinning our new 2015 wildlife calendar to the back door on the 1st January this year, I took an hour and using my Photographer’s Ephemeris App, wrote on our calendar exactly when (date and time) a full(ish) moon would be rising behind my lone tree in 2015 and also when the sun would be rising behind the tree. Lots of dates to play with – the first being this morning, at dawn (sunrise I suppose – which was at 06:53am).

 

A screenshot from my phone showing the App in play is below. (I’ve blurred out the grid reference though). You’ll see the lone tree – the yellow line is a line from my position (at the edge of the field) and the rising sun at 06:53am. There are many coloured lines on the display depicting sun rise and set, moon rise and set etc… but I’ve simplified the display for you in the screenshot below, to just show sunrise. You CAN work out height of sun also (from your position, i.e. above or below YOUR specific horizon level) but that’s another story.

 

Anyway… first chance in 2015 for a sun behind the lone tree shot today.

But I needed the sky to be clear of course.

AND IT WAS.

 

Now as I’m no expert in this type of landscape photography (or any photography to be frank) – and as this was my first attempt on the very first day I could attempt such a shot, I used today as a recce really. I only took my old bridge camera. Didn’t take a tripod. Didn’t take wellington boots (I should have as I had to swim through a cattle field to get the sun exactly in the right spot when it came up) and didn’t expect to get any shot really – just a lot of information which I could take away. Things like angle of sun climb at this time of year, how many minutes I’d get before the sun got too bright. Would a little cloud help to dull the sun? Where would the best spot for me to take the shot be exactly?

 

I managed to answer all those questions and get a shot or two.

Nothing spectacular and I think I may have to find another tree (it isn’t quite good enough in terms of being low enough or small enough) but it’s a start.

 

The shots are below. Like I say, nothing earth-shattering at present, but something for me to work on.

 

I actually (after this morning) DO think I need a little cloud (or even pollution!) in the sky to turn the sun red, I need a deer standing beside the tree, or I need to concentrate on  moon behind this tree shots, rather than sun. I also need to work hard on composition and framing rather than zoom right in. But hey… that was the whole point of this morning – to get all this in my head.

 

Anyway… that’s my app of choice at present - the Photographer’s Ephemeris – and that’s why I think it’s really useful to have in your photography arsenal – especially if you’re snapping lands(scapes).

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Photographer's Ephemeris ephemeris landscapes moon photography sun https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/2/-if-youre-appy-you-know-it-snap-your-lands-capes Fri, 27 Feb 2015 17:09:39 GMT
Patience, child. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/2/patience-child November dawnNovember dawn

View from the Ridgeway. Winter.

 

 

I don’t suppose I’m known for my patience. I certainly think of myself as a pretty impatient bloke. (NB. That’s a pretty-impatient bloke, not a pretty, impatient bloke!)

 

I spent May and June last year impatiently shouting and swearing at swifts for not even really bothering to check out my lovingly-created (at great expense!) swift boxes and spaces.

In 2012 and 2013 I spent three months (in each year) impatiently muttering obscenities under my breath at swifts for yes… checking out my swift spaces, but not venturing inside them.

Last year at least, the skies were blue for a great deal of time above our house and I also managed to turn the air in our back garden pretty blue with my impatience and occasionally, unbridled rage!

That’s certainly one example of my impatience with wildlife – I could give you many, many others!

 

At this particular time of year, each year, I become incredibly impatient with the world, the weather and our wildlife. It is an exciting time of year to get outside and watch wildlife – there’s LOTS going on – but my patience (or lack of it) is tested each February and March.

That said, this year at least, it’s good to note already that unlike almost all Februaries, we’ve not had that many commentators on various websites and newspapers expressing their utter astonishment that they’ve “seen daffodils flowering already” (“must be global warming” they say rather than finally, (Jesus wept… FINALLY) realising that many daffodil varieties are actually bred to flower in the winter – and have been doing so for years and years and years and years (you get the picture)).

 

Winter 2014-2015 is still with us (unlike winter 2013-2014 which never even made an appearance), and it will be for a month or so still, but I’m getting tantalising glimpses of its passing. It just needs to hurry up now!

 

For 4 or 5 months or so (November to March) our heavy clay garden becomes waterlogged (when the trees stop “drinking”) which means I put a fair amount of sharp sand down to enable me to at least walk on parts of it.

For two months (December and January) two-thirds of our garden remains in the shadow of our house and often frozen – but at least now, at this time of year, all but a fifth of the garden is now sunbathed. If only the trees would start drinking and the worms would start working the sand into the soil for me (as they do each year), then that would be a sodding (literally) start!

 

All my swift spaces are clean, tidy, checked in terms of cameras working in them and blocked in one case – as a pair of starlings had already started to nest in the spot they nested last year (our soffits). I know starlings need nest spaces too and indeed are undergoing a worrying population decline in the UK – but I’m going to give “my” swifts back that soffit spot this year as well as the other spots – internal and external boxes.

We’ve still got about ten weeks or so before the swifts return. Ten weeks?!  *Twiddles thumbs*.

 

We’ve had our first movement of frogs back to our pond a few days ago.

With us, many of our frogs (and we do have many left, even after our free range hens have taken and eaten lots) overwinter in our front garden, crawl under our side passageway door in February or March, jump along our side passage and get into our back garden pond that way.

The other night after finding my first big female frog  of 2015 in the side passage, I quickly scanned the pond with a torch and counted 2 big females and 6 croaking males – there’ll be plenty of others I didn’t see I’m sure.

Last year  (a much warmer winter of course) we had our first big “irruption” of frogs into our pond in the first week of March and the first spawn on the 6th – so we’re nearly there now… if only we’d just hurry up!

I do hear that people on the south coast (including my pal @wildlifestuff) have frogspawn now, so it shouldn’t be that long before our pond here, (in the southern county of Berkshire after all) will join that particular club.

 

Toads will also be on the move soon.

As I’ve blogged before here, a wet night with temperatures of at least 7c (or preferably 9c) from mid February onwards will send these lovely critters out of their winter woods en masse, back to their traditional breeding ponds and lakes.

If only they’d start moving now – I’ve had enough of winter!

 

Our deciduous trees and shrubs in the garden(s) are still skeletal. Oh sure… they have plenty of buds on the go – but my favourite tree here (our big poplar) only unfurled its first tiny, nascent leaves on the 16th March last year. That’s still almost four weeks away. Am I going to have to wait that long this year?

 

On my travels (locally mainly) I see many birds pairing up right now – and some even nesting.

On a brief walk yesterday afternoon in glorious sunshine, I watched two green woodpeckers (male and female) court around an obvious, favourite tree. House Sparrows, blackbirds, many waterbirds, pigeons and of course owls (which reclaim their territories very early in the year) are all starting to “move”.

If only they’d move a bit faster now. I’m bored of waiting!

 

The local foxes (next door to us, unfortunately) are still in full winter breeding mode with the vixen wailing like a bleeding banshee every other night. That particular sound literally screams “WINTER!” to me – but enough is enough– can’t she just put a sock in it now… and allow spring to take over?!

 

The first queen bumblebees of the year were clumsily bumbling around the garden in the sun yesterday (although I’ve seen the worker buff-tails all winter). A promise of warmer days and insect awakening. If only the furry gits would get a jog on now. That’d be nice!

 

 

You’ll have now come to the conclusion that I am not winter’s greatest fan.

You’d be right.

But most years I do try and make use of a few good things about the cold, dark months.

 

Each winter I try to take a trip up to the Ridgeway …

 

 

 

...between West Berkshire and South Oxfordshire, to make use of at least one good thing about winter down here – the fact that a good number of (northern) short-eared owls overwinter on the tussocky, scrubby gallops of the Ridgeway – the only time I really get to see these spectacular birds.

I saw plenty of grey partridge yesterday, up on my annual Ridgeway owl trip at dawn yesterday - plenty of corn buntings, yellowhammers, skylarks, red kites, linnets a raven and even a kestrel take a vole from right under our noses. I can still hear that vole squeaking in "terror" as it was carried away to a fence-post.

But no owls.

Oh I’m sure they haven’t left for the bleak northern moors just yet – but they were just huddled down in scrubland only accessible if you wander across the gallops – and I don’t like doing that for a number of reasons.

I don’t like to disturb (or flush) the owls at all, the gallops are private property anyway and to wander across them would at least be a civil offence if not a criminal offence. Lastly I don’t really want to put myself or any horses or jockeys in danger.

So I tend to rely on seeing these diurnal owls hunting from a distance each time I go up to the Ridgeway during the winter, or perching on a tree or post at the edge of the gallops (and the  photos below I shot of these owls, from a distance a few years ago).

 

 

None were giving me such a sight yesterday morning.

In that case, as far as I’m concerned then, they can all bugger off back to the north!

Maybe next winter when I visit them down here again, they’ll behave a bit better!

 

There were plenty of hares visible on the fields of the Ridgeway yesterday though – and all gearing themselves up for their boxing season – which pretty well starts now. I do like hares – beautiful things – and the mad March hare antics (very harey sometimes) is a delight to watch, if not a reminder that we’re not quiiiite out of winter’s grasp just yet.

Come on hares – ring the bloody bell will you? And get your seconds out of the ring!

 

 

Winter doesn’t officially end until the end of the third week of March and for me, not really until the Boat Race, Grand National and Masters golf tournament are done.

Then I can finally ditch my beanie hat(s) for 8 months or so and pull my shorts and sandals on.

 

I’ll wait. Because I have to wait.

Doesn’t mean I’m happy about it though!

 

*Pulls beanie hat over ears again and wanders off, muttering grumpily*

 

Temperature inversionTemperature inversion

View from the Ridgeway. In winter.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fox frog green woodpecker grey partridge hare kestrel linnet ridgeway short-eared owl skylark vole yellowhammer https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/2/patience-child Wed, 18 Feb 2015 08:16:57 GMT
Come fiendly bombs & fall on Slough https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/1/come-fiendly-bombs-fall-on-slough Gone are my wilder days of yoof. Days (and nights) when I would enjoying heading into taaaan centres to drink lots and hell raise a little.

These days I prefer to drink whilst sitting on my porch swing in my sump oil-stained dungarees.

I’ll be chewing some baccy with a little Dixie on the “wireless” at my feet and sneering with my two remaining stumps of teeth at any “towny” that walks by.

I’ll occasionally lean my head back and shout “GET ME MA GERRRN WORHMAN!” but otherwise, that’s about me.

 

Regular readers of this blog might know that we (my wife, son and I) live on the very northern edge of Bracknell, with countryside nearer to us than the town centre. I hear that will change in the next two years as they build an “urban extension” north of us, but that’s to come.

I rarely venture south into the town centre. Occasionally I have to, (like today, when I need to pick up a battery for the ‘pick up’) but not often. I am always venturing north into the countryside however.

To be in the fields and woods with the owls, badgers and stoats.

 

Living where we do, if you know this part of the world, you’ll also know that we therefore live about thirteen miles away from the centre of Slough.

 

Poor old Slough.

Since 1937 when Slough became the site of England’s first “industrial trading estate” proper and John Betjeman wrote his famous poem, it’s been the butt of many snide jokes. But the truth is it’s no worse than High Wycombe, or Bracknell, or even Reading or many other towns in this neck of the woods. They’re ALL pretty dire places to spend time, at least in the worst parts and industrial estates.

Slough was just the first round here. The model on which many towns were formed.

 

After John Betjeman’s death, his daughter suggested that he was always slightly embarrassed about his Slough poem, or at least the harshness of it in relation to Slough specifically. Betjeman was really rallying against desecration and modernisation in general.

I expect when real (Luftwaffe) bombs dropped on Slough a few years after he wrote the poem, he might have a felt a little awkward?

 

That said, I happen to agree with the poem’s harshness, albeit almost 80 years after Betjeman penned it. A pretty, beautiful, sleepy little hamlet, Slough is not.

I’ve strayed into Slough a few times in my life but try my best to keep away. Well away. Rather like Bracknell.

 

 

 

Yesterday I steeled myself and headed off to the Southwest suburb of Slough – Cippenham. (That’s right, Cippenham, not Chippenham).

I headed there for a reason.

 

Now Cippenham (Slough) has been around for a long time. Henry III had a palace there (some people still refer to it as “Cippenham Moat”) and for an awful long time the “village” consisted of nothing but a few houses and Cippenham Green, where the commoners’ livestock would graze.

 

Nowadays though – Cippenham is just an extension of Slough. It has an SL1 postcode even and has been extended massively over the years; just recently two new, large housing estates have extended this Slough suburb right down alongside the M4.

 

What has Cippenham got going for it these days?

Well… I guess it’s close to the M4 (it’s ON it), so you can drive to the West Country or London pretty easily?

It’s very close to Heathrow airport also. So if you want to (or need to) catch a plane somewhere – that’s doable too, relatively quickly. Of course you’ll have to check in several hours before your plane takes off as normal, only in Cippenham resident’s case, they’ll be sitting for hours in a departure lounge from which they can almost see into their front room back home.

There is what Government officials like to call “affordable housing” in Cippenham. For “affordable” read tiny, cramped, no garden (or postage stamp sized garden) that no-one really wants and set in areas that are undesirable for a number of reasons – please see below for these in Cippenham’s case.

Other than that… Cippenham (SL1) has not a lot going for it really. Not that I can see.

 

So what is the problem with Cippenham (SL1) then?

 

Well…. again, it’s right alongside the M4 (to the south). So you have the constant road noise (not so much the engine noise – as is often the case, traffic on motorways tends to be cruising rather than revving or changing gears) and of course the pollution – especially from diesel-fuelled freight.

Not only that, the vast industrial estate borders Cippenham to the north. More noise, potential pollution and freight.

 

It also sits on (or at least bordering) some pretty low-lying land – from both the River Thames and now the Jubilee river. Large parts of Cippenham are at risk of flooding from ground water rather than a flood directly from a fluvial source.

 

Then of course there’s the grand old lady of sewage treatment works on the other side of the M4 – no more than a couple of hundred yards from Cippenham’s most southerly dwellings – and upwind from them too – meaning Cippenham is constantly full of people complaining about the stench.

If it rains heavily, as with many STWs, sewage is (under licence) pumped out into local streams and ditches and this exacerbates the reek.

 

And then again, there’s Heathrow a few miles away. Planes leaving Heathrow on the “normal” runway (facing west into the prevailing wind(ish)) and heading North to Oslo, or Helsinki (or even Manchester or Renfrew in the case of domestic flights) fly low over Cippenham.

Even international flights to airports East of Heathrow, (places like Munich for example) will normally take off in the direction of Old Windsor (due West of Heathrow), turn north and start to about turn over Cippenham to head East towards their destination.

 

But even if German airlines are taking off from Heathrow and about turning over Cippenham to join a flight path towards Munich for example, they’re not dropping bombs over Slough these days are they?! They’re Lufthansa planes after all, not the Luftwaffe!

 

But.

There are bombs falling on Slough these days. Fiendly (not friendly) bombs.

Permit me to explain.

 

 

I drove to Cippenham in Slough yesterday  (maybe around 12 miles away from our house) at dawn to see if I could find the huge roost of ring-necked parakeets that spend each winter in this place.

Much has been written about these exotic birds – whether they should be culled or not, what damage they may be doing to our native birds and even how they came to be in the UK. (African Queen, Jimi Hendrix etc). For a very good summary of these birds you could do worse than read this web page – the best I’ve found.

 

Me? Personally? I’m used to them now, in the same way I’m used to red kites flying low over our house each day. We have parakeets in this area every day it seems – regularly in the garden.

I think they’re spectacular birds and quite welcome in the numbers they’re at, at present. They always remind me of my honeymoon in Sri Lanka – and those are nice memories indeed.

That said, they DO seem be exploding in numbers and expanding their range, albeit slowly – this may prove (very) problematic for our native, hole-nesting bird species – such as woodpeckers, jackdaws, pigeons, owls.

I think a cull of some sorts may well be inevitable – ‘though I’m not sure it would be particularly effective now.

 

I have watched a number of rugby matches at Esher rugby club over the years and before 2011 (when the club had to pull down their rotten poplars) up to 7000 parakeets would roost there.

On at least one occasion (probably more) the club had to close the footpath under the roost trees as the copious amount of guano that accumulated there was deemed to be a health hazard. I can understand why. 7000 parakeets roosting each winter there must have produced an almighty mess.

I never travelled to Esher to watch the birds, more so the rugby, but the winter roosts were always spectacular. I think the Esher girls’ side is still nicknamed “The Parakeets”, despite the birds having gone now.

Perhaps some of them have moved to Slough?

 

I arrived at the site before dawn with an aim to count the birds as best I could. Not in situ, but by taking photos of the entire roost and counting them on Photoshop later, by painting a bright green dot on each bird I could see on each photo (I stitched four photos together to produce a very wide angle landscape shot with the entire roost pictured) and using a manual clicker to aid me. Meant I didn’t have to remember what I’d counted up to – I do like my clicker!

 

The photos below are a pictoral representation of how I counted the number of birds in this roost. You'll not be able to make out any detail as this website will not allow HUGE pictures to be displayed. Each "photo" below is HUGE however, consisting of 4 photos stitched together to make each.

(Each green dot is a parakeet).

 

And the result? 1990 birds!

 And those were just the birds I could see from my (very poor) photos taken in the gloom.

Potentially there could be as many as 2500 birds in this roost.

 

Now parakeets are not quiet birds. Many people hate their loud, piercing, raucous squawks and whistles. They do seem to be constantly shouting at each other. In fact as I type here in North Bracknell, I can hear two or three parakeets constantly squawking and squealing at each other in the tall trees about 100 yards from the house. I don’t have to imagine what 2000 parakeets might sound like – I heard them at Cippenham yesterday morning. LOUD.

 

Then there are the droppings. The “fiendly bombs”.

As I’ve said above, Esher RFC had to close one of their footpaths at least once whilst the birds were there due to a glut of guano.

There is a bridleway running under the Cippenham roost. In fact as I photographed the roost yesterday, two joggers slid and slipped down that bridleway as quickly as they could. Talk about running the gauntlet! Running through piles of parakeet poo with more constantly falling from the sky above you.

If the birds remain there, then I can foresee an imminent bridleway closure for the same reason as Esher RFC’s footpath closure. There doesn’t seem to be any reason for them to leave – they’re in a lovely habitat – right next to the STW and M4 for warmth and light, right next to a watery habitat (parakeets seem to like being close to water) and close to many birdwatchers’ gardens – birdwatchers that put their favourite foods out for blue tits and goldfinches – but food that the bolshy parakeets will of course take instead.

 

Don’t get me wrong – for me it was a spectacular sight – seeing a roost of 2000 lurid green, noisy parakeets and for all I know, the people who have to live there, the people of Slough (and more specifically, Cippenham) might like the birds.

But I doubt the vast majority do.

 

The people of Cippenham already have the industrial estate, the M4, the sewage treatment works, the flood plain and Heathrow to contend with.

And now they have 2000 noisy parakeets each winter too, covering their footpaths in green goo.

 

I don’t know about you, but for many reasons (professional and personal) if we were to move house, my first check on finding something that might suit us would be a flood risk check in the area. Then a check for nearby STWs or dumps. Then a check for local industry (wrecker’s yards etc). But even I might not have considered checking any potential area for winter parakeet roosts (they’re noisy for quite a lot of the night for quite a lot of the winter).

Did Cippenham residents, certainly those who moved into the new housing estates know they were moving to a house a few yards from one of the biggest parakeet roosts in England? How would you know (unless like me, you have one eye out for these sorts of things)?

 

So…. Betjeman eventually got his wish anyway (even if he regretted his words being published).

These "bombs” are fiendly, not "friendly"though; and are more "dropping" (hur hur) rather than "falling" on Slough.

 

Poor old Slough.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Cippenham Slough parakeet ring-necked parakeet rose-ringed parakeet https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2015/1/come-fiendly-bombs-fall-on-slough Mon, 19 Jan 2015 10:14:53 GMT
Winter ducks - the stuff of myth and legend https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/12/winter-ducks---the-stuff-of-myth-and-legend I'm no fan of winter. Nor Christmas to be frank. But this dark time of year does have a silver lining or two if I look for them.

One of those silver linings is the arrival of our winter ducks - my favourites being goldeneye and wigeon - beautiful things to see (and hear!)

 

I took a dawn walk with my old friend Pumpkin Turner this morning at my old "patch" - a place called Fobney, a mile or two south of Reading, just off the M4 - hoping perhaps to see a sandpiper or two or a winter duck or three dozen?

I wasn't disappointed - four beautiful wigeon, two shoveler and five teal were floating around the small lakes on Fobney island - lakes that had been created to form a wildlife habitat only a few short years ago - and the wildlife had certainly taken to their new habitat.

I haven't got time to blog in detail about the ducks that we watched this morning, under a beautiful sunrise, but I will paste a piece below I first wrote about the wigeon two years ago on my "zoonames" website (that I've hardly had time to even get going what with a baby son to look after etc).

I hope you've had a very merry Christmas (not too merry though... I know you lot) and wish you the best new year ever.

TBR.

++++++++++++++

 

 

Wigeon

 
Wigeon
Anas penelope
[Linnaeus, 1758]
 
Now, then. The wigeon. One of my two favourite ducks  - the other being the goldeneye.

Why do I like the wigeon so much? I'm not sure to be honest but they're very pretty ducks and very impressive. I love the sound of wigeon also - all that nasal whinnying and whistling - they're great fun to watch.

The wigeon has a scientific name rooted in classical mythology - something I certainly appreciate (always have) and a subject that I'll return to many times I expect (especially when I start to explain the scientific names of our lepidoptera).

We've seen before that Anas means duck in Latin, but what does Penelope mean or where does the name Penelope come from - does Anas Penelope mean "Penelope's duck" and who, if that is true, was "Penelope"?

Penelope in classical Greek mythology was the wife of the hero Odysseus. Penelope was celebrated for her faithfulness and patience.
For the 20 years that her husband was away during and after the Trojan War (think Homer's"Odyssey"), Penelope remained true to him and helped prevent his kingdom from falling into other hands. 
Penelope's parents were Prince Icarius of Sparta and the nymph Periboea. 
Periboea hid her infant daughter (Penelope) as soon as she was born, knowing that Icarius had wanted a son. 
As soon as Icarius discovered the baby girl, he threw her into the sea to drown. 
However, a family of ducks rescued her. 
Seeing this as an omenIcarius named the child Penelope (after the Greek word for penelopsmeaning "duck") and raised her as his favourite child. 

I'm sure the wigeon was arbitrarily given the title of the duck that saved Penelope from drowning (it could have been any species after all), but that matters not I guess.

So.... the specific name for the wigeon literally means "the saviour of Penelope" and originates in penelops, as described above.


Maybe that's why the wigeon is one of my (if not my) favourite ducks - with a name rooted in classical Greek mythology and named after a character in one of my favourite stories of all time ("The Odyssey"). 

I've been lucky enough to visit the fabled home of Odysseus, twice (in fact that's where I proposed to my wife) and we hope to return one day. I may take my moth-eaten copy of "The Odyssey" to read once again, on the beautiful beaches of the green Greek island of Kephalonia...


Anyway.... I'm rambling.

The scientific name for the wigeon, a mixture of Latin and Greek, literally means:

"Duck  - duck (that saved Penelope in classical Greek myth)".

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) wigeon zoonames https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/12/winter-ducks---the-stuff-of-myth-and-legend Sun, 28 Dec 2014 11:04:35 GMT
The white stuff https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/12/the-white-stuff Regular (the two of you) readers of this blog might know that I follow our local little owls and barn owls. We live at the very northern edge of a large town but I hardly ever venture south, towards town, instead heading north into countryside, farmland and horse paddocks - more my type of habitat and an area rich with interesting birds and animals - at least interesting to me.

I feel incredibly fortunate that I have been able to locate and am able to watch at least three barn owls living not two miles from our gaff - not many people can say that I guess.

My weekend dawn drives relax me and give me an opportunity to ensure that the local critters (barn owls included) are still a) there and b) ok. 

The thing with these local barn owls is that they roost and nest in trees it seems, not in the boxes that have been put up for them. At least the owls that I watch tend to nest and roost in hollow trees, not boxes.

 

I've been mildly concerned about our nearest pair of white owls - as their main roost site  (a pretty tall bare tree stump) seems to have been bereft of "white stuff" (bird lime and obvious ghostly white owl appearances) for a few weeks now. In fact a pair of stock doves seem to have taken up squatters' rights to the owls' main tree of choice in recent days.

But I've only bee mildly concerned. There are a number of trees that this pair uses and barn owls in particular are known to be pretty mobile during the winter especially.

 

Another drive this morning, just before dawn then. Searching for white stuff.

Not a particularly cold night - no frost down here, but enough chill in the air to necessitate the heater being put on in the "cat" (my silent car). Magic FM on the radio and (of course!) a selection of Christmas pop songs filled the car with the heated air.

Not near their main tree as the local rookery noisily took off from the skeletal woods on the hill and all headed east through the wintery dawn skies en masse.

Not near their second choice tree as three fieldfares chacked their indignance at me and leaped out of a holly bush as I got out of the car to scan that site from a distance.

Not quartering over their preferred hunting field. Three roe deer in the middle of that field, picking at the winter crop and what looked like a couple of frenchmen skulking in the gloom by the far hedge. (Smoking gitanes of course and shrugging at me).

One more drive around the loop and then suddenly.... the white stuff.

In the light of my headlamps, a pale, spectral shape appeared briefly and floated silently across the country lane. I stopped the car and held my breath.

A hundred yards from the car, the white owl flew into a pollared oak tree that I had singled out two years ago as being a quite ideal barn owl tree - old, gnarled and clearly hollow in part.

I silently congratulated both the owl for finding that tree and also myself for finding the owl that found that tree and then...

another small, feathery ghost flew in to the tree from across the paddock.

Both owls! The missing pair. Located again. At a tree that I always hoped they'd find - off the road, safe from human eyes (most human eyes anyway), in a paddock a mile away from our house.

 

I guess the white owls have used this tree before I found it. It's probably been used many, many times by owls over the years - but this morning was the first time that I had seen the white stuff at the tree.

I am delighted that they are still around, delighted that I've found them again and delighted that they're in THAT tree - it makes keeping up with them far easier for me (for lots of reasons).

 

I'll be watching....

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/12/the-white-stuff Sat, 20 Dec 2014 08:46:11 GMT
"Grey" doesn't have to mean "boring"... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/11/-grey-doesnt-have-to-mean-boring I've not had too much time to blog recently what with one thing or another, but thought I'd very briefly put electronic pen to electronic paper (so to speak) today...

 

Whilst I suppose my blood is at least semi-Scottish (but hardly semi-skimmed I fear) and only days before I got together with my (now) wife I was perilously close to going "back" to Scotland to live and work on the shores of Loch Leven (as a baker), I've always joked about how "grey" Scotland is.

Seemed to me each time I crossed the border from England, everything would go grey.

The roads. Black in England... grey in Scotland.

The granite buildings.

The leaden skies.

The dreary food. (Think porage, haggis or the filling to a Forfar Bridie).

The people.

Even the crows turn grey in Scotland...!

(Apologies to any proud Scots reading this!)

Today I felt like I was back in Scotland...

 

It's been a grey day in southern England.

A dreich day.

I was working from my Reading office today, right on the banks of the Thames.

I strolled along the towpath on the way to the car and a duck caught my eye.

Not the omnipresent mallards, nor even one of the exotic escapees such as Carolina wood duck or Mandarin that frequent this particular stretch of the Thames, having broken free from local collections such as Beale Park.

Not even a tiny but spectacular teal that I once saw being harangued by the rampant, oversexed mallards at the same spot several years ago.

Something much duller than any mallard, teal, mandarin or wood duck. Well... at first glance anyway....

 

You'll recognise gadwall because of their grey, non-descript appearance (at least from a distance), white specula (wing flashes) but most of all their jet black backsides. At a distance (how you'll see them most often) they look like dull mallard ducks (rather than drakes) with a black arse.

They aren't rare at all but are often overlooked. 

A mistake.

And we Brits don't like stuff that's TOO showy and exotic do we? We often root for the underdog. Demure is sometimes very attractive, no?!

 

Now maybe it's just me, but I don't get to see many gadwall up close too often. They tend to be quite skittish and at the first sign of a human approaching, they turn tail and paddle off.

This afternoon in the grey mizzle over the Thames though - this particular gadwall walked calmly towards me down the tow path.

I've never had gadwall down as dull ducks. Every time I have been fortunate enough to see one up close, I've always stopped to admire their exquisite breast feather markings. These markings are almost unnoticeable at a distance, but up close they're something else.

I spent a good five minutes under the grey skies of drizzly Berkshire this afternoon, alongside the grey river Thames, in my grey trousers, with my fast-greying hair and with grey bags (too much staring at a monitor) under my grey eyes looking at a quite beautiful and hugely underrated grey duck.

I would have ordinarily perhaps taken a photo but I'm trying to start painting again at present (rather than take photos) so I didn't have my camera with me.

A shame - a close encounter with such an exquisitely-marked duck could have done with a photo really...

So instead I'll leave you with a couple of photos I took with my old bridge camera 5 or 6 years ago, of the "dull grey duck"...

Nothing dull about the gadwall. 

Nothing at all.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) gadwall https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/11/-grey-doesnt-have-to-mean-boring Tue, 25 Nov 2014 16:41:51 GMT
Fungi foray 2014 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/11/fungi-foray-2014 Just a quick blog, but a chance to say many thanks to my Sister and Brother-in-law, the BFG (The Bucks Fungus Group, not the big friendly giant), The Woodland Trust. the Natural History Museum staff and international celebrity! Richard Fortey for a super day in the woods yesterday, wummaging awound for fungi.

 

My sister and husband organise this brilliant foray every year and it's very well attended by many members of the Bucks Fungi Group as well as Natural History Museum scientists. It is the only one my wife and I (and son now) have managed to attend in recent years but it is always superb and yesterday was no different. It is in fact over-subscribed these days, so popular is the day!

Something like 50 people (there'd be A LOT more if there could be, but the Woodland Trust understandably have to keep the numbers down to a "reasonable number") met in the car park of the very pretty Penn Street Church (near Amersham in Buckinghamshire), were briefed by Paul from the Woodland Trust and then headed off (in three separate groups) into the woods and over the cricket pitch (waxcap heaven I hear) to see what we could find.

I know Penn woods very well, having spent nights there in my "yoof", watching woodcock rode around clearings and turtle doves nest deep within this huge wood. That said, I hadn't been back to this very pretty corner of Buckinghamshire in many years so yesterday was a real treat for me.

The famous palaeontologist and a friend of my sister, Richard Fortey was on fine form again yesterday, identifying each sample brought to him and speaking very knowledgeably about fungi in general.

One of the nicest things about this annual foray is the age range of people coming along - from toddlers (including my son Ben) to people in their 70s  - all just there to find some fungi and learn about these wonderful "animal plants" (my words).

My sister and husband also throw a brilliant fungi foray party (for all the foragers and even MORE people!) after the walk at their house a few miles away (after a quick cup of tea in the village hall), but we couldn't make it this year (hens and boy had to be put to bed) but I know from past experiences that that party would have gone on well into the night. My brother-in-law is a superb cook and would have used a lot of the edible fungi collected yesterday to make some rustic treats.

A selection of (pretty ropey) photos from yesterday can be found below.

The eagle-eyed amongst you might spot my Uncle Ruary ("Mr.Dragonfly!", who is becoming as famous as Richard Fortey these days!) and the REALLY eagle eyed amongst you might spot a midge taking off in one of the shots (I won't give you more of a clue than that).

All in all a lovely day strolling around a very pretty part of the countryside yesterday with fine company to boot. 

Many thanks again to my sister and brother-in-law for inviting us along!

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 2014 foray fungi fungi foray penn woods https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/11/fungi-foray-2014 Sun, 02 Nov 2014 07:34:36 GMT
Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2014. My personal "primal scream". https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/10/wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-2014-my-personal-primal-scream I was very critical of last year’s competition. Or more specifically, critical of the judges.

That blog post has become my most viewed blog post since I started writing some occasional wildlife-related thoughts on this website several years ago.

Many agreed with me it seems and I wasn’t alone in expressing my disappointment with the all-too-familiar winning images and all-too-familiar results in general.

I expect I might have ruffled a few feathers with my thoughts; and others who openly expressed disappointment in the choice of winning images also (I hear) feel that they had perhaps upset a few people.

No matter.

Let's try again.

Please note before reading this that the words below are my personal opinions only. Photography competitions are incredibly subjective in nature and what one judge likes, another will not.

I am not a wildlife photography judge. I am no art critic. I have taken a few wildlife photographs in the last few years, some of which have been quite successful in lesser competitions and some of which have divided opinion. I know my may around a camera (DSLRs and bridges) and know a little bit about set-ups and what kit and or techniques (both technical and field craft-wise) to occasionally get lucky and get a half decent shot – something that was (after all) intended.

Those are my only qualifications to write a critique on the biggest, best, most famous wildlife photography competition in the world – the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, run by the Natural History Museum in London. A competition (by the way) which I’ve never entered (as I don’t consider my photographs to be of sufficiently-high quality).

So again – these are simply my personal thoughts only.

 

 

 

Right.

 

First the good news.

 

Finally, the competition organisers have added a couple of new categories – including the (MUCH needed) invertebrate category. The vast majority of wildlife on our planet has no backbone, so to omit the vast majority of subjects in an international competition for so long was beyond me (and others, as described earlier in this post).

Did the WPOTY management listen to our criticisms last year then? Perhaps. And perhaps it wasn’t just me and a few others that bent their ears. It matters not – the addition of an invertebrates category is a very welcome addition to this marvellous competition.

 

Secondly – there were some stunning images recognised and shown last night. If not winning images, some finalists.

My favourite images from WPOTY (in no particular order) might be:

 

“Winter hang-out” (an adult finalist in the mammals category).

The originality of this shot is something else. The blue hue. The eeriness. The fact that you have to work out what has been photographed. And then there’s the back story. For me – this should have either won the whole competition, or perhaps finished second (see below).

“Feral spirits” (an adult finalist in the birds category).

I tweeted about this shot when I heard it was (at least) a finalist. And I even contacted the photographer, Sam Hobson. I’m not sure I expressed myself very well (to him) but what I love about this photo is that anyone could take it – but only Sam has had the excellent vision and imagination to actually take it (not to mention the undoubted effort and hours involved).It’s utterly superb.

“Divine snake” (the adult winner of the reptiles and amphibians category)

Many people who know me and know what I like in terms of photography would suspect that I like this shot. A lot. The balls to include a lot of negative space in the frame and bold green colour are right up my street. Wonderful shot.

“Night of the deadly lights” (the adult winner of the invertebrates category)

One word. Beautiful.

“Sailing by” (an adult finalist in the invertebrates category)

Same word. Beautiful. (And also very technically-accomplished).

“Little squid” (an adult finalist in the invertebrates category)

Perhaps my favourite shot of all. For lots of reasons. One – the bold, clean simplicity of subject in jet black background. Two - the spellbinding beauty of the planktonic squid – composed of christmas lights by the look of it – it’s quite literally hypnotic. Three – there’s something a little alien about this shot. I think I might have called it “little alien” instead of “little squid”. I abhor science fiction films and novels but this (perversely) is science fact that looks like science fiction.  Four – The photographer took this shot whilst night diving in deep water off the coast of Tahiti. Look, I’ve done a spot of snorkelling with moray eels and sting rays in the Maldives, but I could see them in the crystal clear, SUNLIT, water. I think I’d probably not get into the ocean at night if I couldn’t see anything. I’d be too scared! The photographer deserves and gets my huge respect (and not a little jealousy!) for having the balls to take this shot! Five – it reminds me a little of my daily swims in rural Turkey a few years ago, when I was transfixed by a tiny, multi-coloured shimmering cuttlefish I found each morning in the same spot – hanging motionless under a buoy about a quarter of a mile from the beach. And I love this shot for reminding me of those swims. Yes – this shot (in my opinion) should have won the entire competition.

“A long line in legs (an adult finalist in the black & white category)

I honestly don’t know what it is specifically that I like about this shot. I just like it. Perhaps it’s the fact that the photographer has concentrated on form and texture and left out everything else. I think it’s a belter.

“Pauraque study”. (An adult finalist in the birds category).

Readers of this blog might know I have a soft spot for nightjars. I adore this detailed close-up.

“The Marsh at dawn”. (The winner of the rising star portfolio award.

Again - lots of negative space appeals to me personally. Michel D’Oultremont’s entire portfolio (with lots of negative space in each shot) is a treat for my eyes  - the “Marsh at dawn” is possibly my third favourite image in the entire competition

“Angle poise”. (Junior winner of the 11-14 age group category).

Once again – a superbly, clean image. An image rather than a photograph (there is a difference I think). Technically-superb and taken by a child! (If only I could have afforded £2000 worth of photography kit when I was 12 years old?!)

 

Yes – those images above are my favourites from the finalists and winners this year – they’re inspirational shots and shots (I think) that cement WPOTY as (still) the best wildlife photography competition around.

Despite the below....

 

 

You may have noticed I’ve not picked any lions, leopards or monkeys in my favourites (and again – those animals have all done well in this year’s results).

Not because I don’t like photographs of lions, leopards or monkeys, mind.

I think some photographs of lions, leopards or monkeys can be superb.

Not perhaps unique any more, but technically-brilliant, and as images (rather than photographs), very aesthetically-pleasing indeed.

 

A lions shot won the overall prize this year.

 

I personally find this lions shot  uninspiring and technically poor (for many reasons). Not to mention the photographer's accompanying note to be pretentious to the point of my skin crawling.

Don’t believe me? Don’t agree?

Let the photographer speak for himself then about his shot - he thinks he has produced a “primal” image – “almost biblical”.

His words, certainly not mine.

“Biblical”?!

What the?

I guess it might be “biblical” if there were a few half-chewed Christian legs lying around and a backdrop of a baying Roman crowd – but otherwise I think I’ll need the photographer to be quiet now and let me look at his photo without him whispering earnestly in my ear.

There should be no room in any art competition (be the medium photographs or paint) for the artist to comment on their own work.

Take the shot. Print it. Give the public some technical information if warranted, but otherwise let the public decide if its “biblical” or not.

A picture (in whatever medium) should paint a thousand words.  We need to get back to the pictures please. Very often photographers aren’t too good at words.

Time was, I thought that judges wrote a little comment on the winning photographs at the WPOTY (if not the BWPA), rather than the photographer.

The judge should explain to the paying public how THEY came to choose it as a commended or winning image

That’s how it was, how it should be and I hope how it will be for the exhibition.

I’d certainly be interested to hear the judges’ opinion this year, on this shot if no others.... rather than a false and pretentious soliloquy, penned by (in this case) the professional National Geographic photographer himself.

 

 

Anyhoo, horizontally-challenged (check the horizon on the photo - sure it's taken with a wide-angled lens but it is very lop-sided) photographs of lions aside...

Back to the good news...

 

I may buy a copy of the “little squid” to hang in our house – and that will make it the ONLY wildlife photograph on our walls, that wasn’t taken by me. (It will obviously make it the best picture on our walls by some way too!).

I will certainly visit the WPOTY exhibition at my sister’s Natural History Museum and have certainly been inspired to dust down my old camera again and perhaps try and take a few photos myself this year.

What's that?

Oh don’t worry...

I’ll ensure that they’re “biblical”....

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) WPOTY WPOTY 2014 Wildlife Photographer of the year https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/10/wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-2014-my-personal-primal-scream Wed, 22 Oct 2014 13:43:57 GMT
Summer ends today - with a glorious day. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/9/summer-ends-today---with-a-glorious-day "Astronomically-based Autumn" (based on the autumn equinox) rather than the "meteorological autumn" (based on the Gregorian calendar months) starts tomorrow this year, on September 23rd (rather than September 1st in the meteorological calendar).

So this means today was officially the last day of summer 2014.

What a superb summer and WHAT a glorious final day of summer we had today.

I haven't checked the jet-stream forecast for a wee while, but I heard a rumour today that this settled weather may continue for a while yet - fine by me.

  • I spent the last day of summer 2014 (today) in rural Hampshire at my forest base, where I watched nuthatches at very close quarters, as well as bold young mistle thrushes steal berries from low boughs above my head.
  • A single-lane country drive home on a different route (the A31 has been blocked all day after an accident) meant I got to drive through some stunning Hampshire countryside under cloudless blue skies. 
  • I watched six buzzards spiral over the farmlands below in an invisible thermal - the light reminded me of watching griffon vultures doing the same over Cyprus.
  • The leaves on our garden poplars are beginning to fall now, but still we've had no appreciable rain all month - the ground is rock hard in the warm afternoons, even though it is covered with heavy dew each morning.
  • A starling roosted in our eaves for the first time since it abandoned its nest there in June.I assume this was the male starling last night (it was the female that was killed in the late spring, during her second nest, which meant the male abandoned his three nestlings). It was a cool night at about 5c - I assume that is why the bird roosted "inside" for the first time in months.
  • Carder bees are still nesting in our compost heap - but they seem to be getting a little slower on the wing these days and regularly stop for "breathers" on the 8 foot oak sapling planted next to the compost heap.
  • We still have two or three pipistrelle bats hunting over the garden each dusk - wonderful things to watch and I guess they're making serious "hay" whilst this warmth lasts.
  • There is one leaf-cutter bee still visible to me in the garden - a dead female, upside down in her bamboo bee hotel. She'll be there until her body breaks down, next spring I assume and she is removed by another bee or a spider perhaps. A bit sad really - I do hope she managed to lay some eggs and fulfill her very short life's purpose.
  • Common darter and migrant hawker dragonflies (always the latest) are still hawking over the garden and warming themselves on strategic perches around the pond.
  • I checked "my" elephant hawk-moth pupa this afternoon after returning home from work. Other than last night, it has been so mild recently I was worried that we might have an adult moth emerging months early from its winter pupa. I'm glad to say that it looks very healthy and a bit wriggly - so all is well there I think. It's now in the shed... waiting for a warm April I hope.
  • My wife and I took our toddler son to a local park yesterday and two swallows floated by overhead - chattering to each other. The last swallows I saw in 2013 were on 24th September, so I wonder if these two "sky-jewels" will be the last this year?
  • I watched 50 or so house martins noisily fill the sky a couple of dusks ago. Wonderful to see. They'll all be migrating south now - ahead of the warm weather and continued food.
  • Big house spiders and crane flies continue to invade the house and giant slugs fill the lawns and borders at night. All giant because of the warmth this year and last winter.
  • Next doors adolescent foxes will, in the next few weeks set off from the den and their mother's territory to find territories new. I'll really have to watch out for our hens during this time.

Finally.... my normal date for hearing my first redwings overhead at night is October 10th - so I've over two and a half weeks before that happens. I wonder if they'll be a little later this year if the weather in Scandinavia and the harvest (of berries and insects) is as bountiful up there as it is down here).  Time will tell I guess.

 

So 'see ya' summer.

 

You've been SUPERB this year.

 

And hello there Autumn.

 

You've A LOT to live up to....

 

Crimson sunsetCrimson sunset

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 2014 summer summer 2014 summer ends https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/9/summer-ends-today---with-a-glorious-day Mon, 22 Sep 2014 16:39:03 GMT
A bridge too far? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/9/a-bridge-too-far We’ve all heard of “wildlife corridors” right? Areas of habitat to enable wildlife to disperse and continue populations over a wider area.

Or “toad underpasses”. Man-made under-road tunnels to enable toads to continue to use their traditional migration routes across a road, without being squashed in their hundreds.

Or under-fence tunnels for hedgehogs to move between gardens.

But what about “bat bridges”?

Have you heard of a bridge designed for bats, or for that matter anything that errr.... can fly, like a (durrrr) bird?

Heavily leucistic batHeavily leucistic bat

Why on earth would developers or conservationists be concerned with building a bridge for flying bats – are they really doing this?

 

The answer is yes. Developers ARE building “bat bridges” – and one has been erected a few miles from our house.

 

My wife, son and I live a few miles from Broadmoor. The (infamous) psychiatric hospital is being renovated and at the same time, almost three hundred houses are being built adjacent to the hospital as well as a relatively large “SANG” (a ‘suitable alternate natural green-space’). This large “SANG” is important as the whole area is also presently home to the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area (“SPA”); internationally important for its ground-nesting birds.

Not only ground-nesting birds it seems. The 150 year old hospital buildings are or were also home to (protected) bats – primarily brown long-eared bats and common pipistrelles.

 

Work on the dilapidated buildings started last year, but in 2012, before work commenced, as all bats are protected by UK law, ecological consultants tried to ensure the bats had moved out of the hospital buildings into specially-constructed summer nest and hibernation boxes put up in trees around the site.

The plan was to move them out, do the work, and then move them back into bat homes designed within the attic spaces of the new hospital buildings.

I’m not privy to how the move went (it’s a fenced, private development site slap-bang next door to a high security hospital), but one could presume it went well(ish) as two years on, there is a new construction over the access road to the hospital and proposed housing development. A “bat bridge”.

I should point out that this is a locked, secured, fenced, private building site located next door to a high security hospital. I haven't actually SEEN the bat bridge. But I know it's there. (Please work out for yourselves how I KNOW it's there).

There aren’t many “bat bridges” in the UK. You may have heard of (or perhaps seen) the bat bridges over the A11 (near Thetford in Norfolk), or perhaps if you live in Cumbria or Cornwall or Wales you’ll might have seen the odd one. The first UK “bat bridge” was constructed in 2002 across the A66 in Cumbria and as I write this, there are a couple of handfuls of these constructions across the UK.

The idea behind creating a bat bridge seems to make sense. If the development of a new road means a perpendicular (to the road) line of trees or mature hedge needs to be removed (which was the case for Thetford’s A11 and is the same for Broadmoor), it is thought that any nearby bats become disorientated on their nightly trips out to find food. Bats often use tree-lines or mature hedges as landmarks, along which they move in some numbers at well-populated sites. Bats can and do often fly some miles each night to find food – and use these tree lines or hedges as their own batty roads.

You can see the problem before I’ve written it huh? Take the “batty road” (trees) away, replace with a perpendicularly-sited human road (at a height of an inch or two, rather than dozens of feet high) and you’ve got a confused colony of bats on your hands and a recipe for lots of bats hitting car windscreens.

Bats tend to fly pretty low when hunting – and if you remove high landmarks (such as tree-lines) from their habitat – they’ll move low through the new environment - because they can.

 

So what to do?

Build a bat bridge of course – a simulated tall hedge or line of trees, across the new road. Basically a thick strip of netting(so bats can “see” it better via their echolocation and birds don’t fly into it and get caught).

Yep. The idea is to build a simulated tall hedgerow or tree-line across the road, where the old tree-line was. The bats think of the simulated tree-line as the old – and continue to fly at the height they always did - higher than the (new) traffic and therefore safe from the unyielding windscreens and bumpers rushing below.

 

Great stuff.

Even if some people don’t think so. 

(NB. These screenshots are from a "pistonheads" website (no.. me neither) and the Daily Mail. Don't kid yourselves that "Oh well... that's the Daily Mail readers for you". Like it or not (and I despise it ) readers of the Daily Mail form mainstream British views.)

 

 

So is it a good idea to build bat bridges?

 

These bat bridges aren’t cheap. The Dobwalls bat bridges cost approximately £300,000. (£150,000 per bridge). A couple of bat bridges built in Germany cost a reputed £375,000 – and a further £30,000 to see if they worked. The Porthmadog bat bridges cost taxpayers (via the Highways Agency) £500,000 as did the Thetford bridges (all allegedly).

A huge amount of money to potentially save some bats, no?

But hey…. The bats are protected species (all of them) and we should be looking after our wildlife, shouldn’t we? Especially wildlife that is “endangered” or “at risk” (population-wise).

John Golds, chairman of Norfolk Bat Group (when asked about the Thetford bat bridge), said protection of bats was a 'social responsibility'.

"We don't know if the bat bridges will stop them being killed in the air stream of vehicles but it's about having reasonable mitigation in the area, said John.

'It's not about saving every last bat, it's about maintaining the existing populations, we've got, as much as possible.'

 

So it is a good idea to build a bat bridge across a road then, if whilst constructing that road, the developers take down the ancient tree-line used by bats each night, which was running at right angles to the proposed road – and straight across it.

 

Well.

No actually.

It doesn’t seem like it is a good idea after all.

Permit me to explain…

 

In 2012, Leeds University carried out a detailed research project into the use (by bats) of bat bridges, gantries and underpasses.

They found that whilst bats used underpasses constructed under the (raised new road) at traditional migration paths (as long as they could fly at a height they had been used to (which meant raising the road, not building a bat underpass under the road, they all but completely ignored bat bridges and gantries stretched across the new road.

But hold onnnn a minute. Is that the only research that’s been carried out into the chiropteran use of bat bridges? Bats may eventually get “used” to the gantry and start using it as a “natural bat highway” after a few years.

The 2012 Leeds study IS the only in-depth study into bat bridges.

And it was pretty darned conclusive.

Even when the bat bridge was constructed less than 15m from the traditional bat nightly migration path, and even if the bat bridge had been in place for up to a decade – up to 96% of all bats (that is to say, the few remaining bats that hadn’t been killed by motor vehicles in the previous 9 years) ignored the bridge and flew low across the road, at the exact site of their ancient aerial path.

At the Dobwalls (A38) site of the (two) bat bridges, the Highways Agency stated that the structures were being used by “between eleven and seventeen bats a night”. Now if we don’t assume those bats will breed and maintain a future population of (more and more) bats – each of the eleven bats using the bridge each night will have cost the taxpayer up to £27,000.

In a nutshell… whilst bat bridges seem like a good idea – they’re really not.

Not at all.

 

The trouble for developers (and therefore the Highways Agency) is that bats stubbornly keep to their exact old paths. At a height they can fly at (low, if their old trees are removed). They’ll not even deviate by 10m left or right to cross the new road, even if a bat bridge is built so close to their old nightly path.

You might then argue that all bat bridges should be built at the EXACT spot of their old paths – that might help huh?

To be honest – probably not – and to get the construction site EXACTLY right (with very little guarantee of success indeed) would make the cost of the eventual bat bridge much higher than the hundreds of thousands of pounds they cost at present.

It’s not often I link to the BCT (not the most effective conservation organisation I’d “politely” suggest) but even the BCT (Bat Conservation Trust) doesn’t appear to think they (bat bridges) work.

 

Bat bridges are not the answer then.

And yet the Highways Agency (and developers) are still building them. The most recent being the “Broadmoor bat bridge” near me.

 

So what is the answer?

Three answers spring to mind – but all would be incredibly expensive (based on a pretty simple bat bridge construction costing £50,000+ on its own).

1 – Any new road that MUST cross an ancient line of trees which forms a bat migration route should be raised and a bat underpass should be constructed below, to enable the bats to cross under the new road safely and at a comfortable height they would use.

2 – Any new road that MUST cross an ancient line of trees which forms a bat migration route should be tunnelled deep underground at that point.

3 - Any new road that MUST cross an ancient line of trees which forms a bat migration route should be re-routed, to avoid such traditional bat paths.

In each of the suggested solutions above, the remit (save the protected bats) will probably be met. At a huge cost.

In the current situations, the remit (save the protected bats) will certainly not be met. At a huge cost, albeit at less cost than the numbered solutions above.

 

There is a fourth solution of course.

Sod the bats.

Build the road where you like and don’t even try to mitigate the effect on bats (deaths) by building anything batty (a bridge, a gantry or an underpass).

At least that’s free – and it seems like it has the exact result of building bat bridges after all. (That is the death of most of the bats anyway).

 

There is a lesson to be learned here.

A few lessons actually.

A. Most of Britain doesn’t give a hoot about wildlife. It’s depressing, but it ‘dee troot’ I’m afraid. And even if these people do ‘like’ some wildlife – it’s more likely to be dolphins and tigers and polar bears than toads or bats or other nocturnal “creepy crawlies”.

B. Don’t be fooled into thinking that’s all well in the bat conservation world, if you see these bat bridges on your car journeys around Britain. All is not well. These bat bridges are a “tick box” exercise, designed to (at least) placate conservationists. They don’t appear to work at all and need a LOT more research into design and exact locations before we should construct any more.

C. If we really want to conserve wildlife, (the majority simply don’t – see point A. above) we will have to pay for proper conservation. And pay handsomely. How about a 50% increase in your council tax. Just for conservation.  Or how about a doubling of your price of all your food in your shopping trolley each week? Just to ensure farmers can run an efficient, money-making business AND conserve wildlife. How about paying conservationists and research staff a real salary (rather than the pitiful wages they’re on now – several thousand times less than a city trader for example, whose day job (after all) is simply to gamble with other people’s money).

Perhaps I may have exaggerated the money aspects in point C. above, but we really do need to pay for conservation.

Perhaps not £27,000 for every bat in the UK but I think you get my drift….

Open your wallets please grapple fans…

Indian flying foxIndian flying fox

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Broadmoor bat bat bridge bat bridges bat crossing bat crossings bat gantries bat gantry bats bridge conservation crossing gantry https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/9/a-bridge-too-far Sun, 21 Sep 2014 14:37:47 GMT
End of THIRD year (garden wildlife) report. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/9/end-of-third-year-garden-wildlife-report As some regular viewers to this website might know - at the beginning of each September I produce a (historically lengthy) “End of year (garden wildlife) report”, as we moved to this particular house at the end of August – in 2011.

 

We’ve been here three years now & whilst this “End of third year (garden wildlife) report” is a little late (I should have written it over a week ago now – I’ll try and summarise a whole lorra activity as best as I can below… (I apologise in advance for the length of this blog post).

All photos taken by me.

 

Here we go then…

 

 

End of third year (garden wildlife) report.

September 2013 – August 2014 (incl.)

 

 

Weather.

 

Our year (running from September to August) started in unspectacular fashion with a settled, dryish, warmish September – but this was to change dramatically as the year pushed on.

By the third and fourth weeks of October (and into Autumn proper), the weather gave us a taste of what we might expect in the winter ahead – with some wild and woolly weather including a proper storm on the night of October 28th.

November was mixed, in a word. Wet and miserable for the first week or so but with a small settled spell around mid month, producing the first proper frost of Autumn on 13th of the month. The third week was cold and bright with ice on the car windscreen each dawn – little did we know at the time that this was about as cold as it’d get all winter.

The first two weeks of December were “weatherless” although mild for the month, but come the last two weeks of December and all hell broke loose.

The jet stream shifted to sit right on top of our and low pressure after low pressure battered the UK – with high winds and lots and lots of rain. Not cold though.

The first two weeks of January brought us little respite – and flooding became widespread over the SE of the country (as well as Somerset). An incredible start to the winter really – no cold temperatures, no frosts but massive amounts of rain and wind.

The month ended as it began with more heavy rain, deep depressions and flooding. So much so that January 2014 went down in history as the wettest January since records began with well over twice the average month’s rainfall recorded.

February started as January did. More deep depressions and more rain. The Thames flooded in February 2014. No frosts. No chance of snow. Incredibly mild but sodden and windswept. Because February was so wet as well as January – the winter of 2014 (Dec13, Jan14, Feb14) went down as the wettest since records began.

February ended in a mixed fashion, but still mild.

March came in mixed fashion but a bit of a change in the 2nd week of the month -  with warm, sunny, settled weather (19c) – at last!

The third and fourth weeks of March brought all types of weather – one very cold night on the 23rd/24th (the coldest night since last winter), hail, squalls, wind, sun, cloud and even a NE wind. Still no chance of snow though.

March ended with a beautifully mild, settled weekend and this heralded a settled start to April 2014 also, which started with a week of warm, dry, still weather – smog conditions prevailed over the E and SE of the country with Saharan dust being carried over the UK on very light southerly winds.

April’s second and third weeks were in the main, mild (hot even at 20c occasionally) and sunny. This was to end abruptly by Easter though - Easter Sunday brought rain and heavy thundery showers as did Easter Monday – humid, warm and heavy rain in the evening – beckoning in a sodden fourth week of the month with regular, long-lasting rain.

May started in a relatively cold (cool anyway) fashion but gave us a break from rain and we enjoyed a small settled spell again. On the whole, May was again mixed – pretty good really until the fourth week when once again, the rain gods started venting their fury on us - windy, cool and a lot of rain including hail and thunder. The back garden flooded and we had 3 days of constant rain to end the month. (It really did rain for 72 hours non stop at the end of May -  I don’t remember that happening before in my lifetime).

June arrived and with it the first of the really hot days of 2014. The first weekend of the month was very hot and very thundery but this built during the second week into a spectacular thunderstorm during the second weekend of the month – with torrential rain for 3 hours.

For the rest of the month we enjoyed hot (well… 24c) temperatures and high humidity. Not wall to wall sunshine – quite milky really, but pleasant enough.

July and no real change – certainly for the last three weeks of the month. Warm. Hot even at 30c once or twice. Very humid. Regular thundery activity around and hot sun – it felt like we were in the tropics for a large part of July – sticky, hot sun, warm and thundery.

The first week of August brought a little more cloud than July and slightly lower temperatures – although still around 26c.

Unfortunately for the kids that had broken up for the summer holidays at the end of July – by the second week of August, the settled weather had gone. A huge shift in the jetstream which had provided lovely June and July weather (in the main) meant we were subjected to regular heavy downpours in the final three weeks of August – with MUCH cooler temperatures than the previous 8 or 9 weeks and a lot more cloud also. For example – the third week of August saw a day where no-one in the UK saw temperatures above 20c – this was as cool as it had been since the first few days in June – a big change. Quite a lot of August certainly felt almost autumnal.

 

Weather summary (Sept 2013 – August 2014):

 

Uneventful autumn.

Warm, wild and woolly Winter and early spring.

Variable (and therefore) typical spring.

Early and mid summer – a return to the very warm, sticky, sunny, thundery summers from decades ago.

 

 

 

Garden wildlife.

 

 

Birds.

 

Summary:  A few new species arrive in the garden, but the story of the year has to be the almost complete lack of swifts’ interest in the homes I’d built for them – a real disappointment after the last two years’ interest. I hope 2015 provides more action and better results – I can’t do much more for my favourite bird of all.

 

Last swallow seen on 24th Sept 2103.

First redwing heard on 10th Oct 2013. (one day later than 2012 and one day earlier than 2011)

First fieldfare on 29/10/14

Lots of “garden” birds return to feeders in Oct (grey wagtails, greenfinches, long tailed tits, goldfinches, goldcrests, coal tits, great spotted woodpeckers, sparrowhawks etc).

Autumnal chiffchaffs appear in garden in Oct.
Hawks catch two goldfinches in November.

Big flocks of pied wagtails over house at dusk throughout the winter, heading to a communal roost in town about a mile away (I presume).

Starlings investigate internal swift spaces in January (both the attic and the eaves – and end up nesting in the eaves in early March).

Jays far more infrequent than in previous years.

Wren sings in garden for first time in two years in late February.

Lesser redpolls and siskins (both new spp. for garden) appear regularly on feeders in late winter.

Big movement of winter thrushes NE in 2nd week of March.

Courting peregrines over garden in early March.

Last redwing heard on night of 21st March.

First brood of 4 “eaves” starlings hatch on 6th April and 3 fledge on 1st May. Parents take two days off and begin second brood on 3rd May. All filmed.

Cock pheasant (new garden sp) flies low over my head through garden at  dusk late in April.

First swallows over house on 7th April.

First SWIFT over house on 3rd May.

First swift buzzes the house on 20th May… but this was going to be a huge disappointment for the season – unlike the previous two years, even though I saw swifts pretty-well every day over the house, they hardly seemed interested in the boxes. A few buzzes until mid June and that was that. A hundredth of the interest of 2013 and 2012.

Nesting blue tits hatch on 3rd and 4th May and fledge on 22nd May. All filmed.

 

Heron checks out pond in late May and a hobby dashes low through the garden at dawn on 29th May – a first IN the garden.

June and July quite quiet (birdwise) in the garden.

A young flock of nuthatches (new garden sp) bumble through the garden trees in early August.

Last swifts seen on 9th August – WEEKS earlier than 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Up to 18 young goldfinches regularly “bubbling” over garden in late August.

 

 

 

 

 

Insects and spiders.

 

 

Summary:  I think our third year here will be remembered by me as the year of the big beetles. Lots of insects all season of course (no winter to speak of) – but without a working moth trap this year I was forced to look at moths attracted by our back door light – so moths such as elephant hawks etc were absent for me this year – even though I suspect they had a great year.

Much activity from all our leaf-cutter bees also – which readily took to our bee hotels in numbers all summer – fun to watch.

But without doubt my entomological highlights this year came in the form of big beetles – we are lucky to have a colony of stag beetles nesting in our buried eucalyptus roots and I’ve never had a year like it for stags. Dozens and dozens in June – every evening for weeks.

Stags then and also the metallic green rose chafers which seemed to adore the sticky summer and our photinia flowers.

Yes – this year was the year of the large beetles here.

Stag nightStag night

 

Sept13  Lunar underwing, cypress carpet and large ranunculus moths all appear in side passage

22 spot ladybird seen for the first time in the garden.

 

Oct13  Digger wasp (Ectemnius gavifrons) stocking nest in back garden log on 3rd

Green and red carpet moth as well as Blair’s shoulder knot moth both appear mid month at side passage light.

Light emerald comes to side passage light at start of month (in warmth)

Green shieldbug on lilac in back garden on 26th

 

Nov13 November moth appears in side passage in first week of November. Apt.

Two male Feathered thorn moths appear in third week – one stays around in same spot for 10 days or so.

One late buff-tailed queen bumblebee flies through garden in the “warm” sun on the 22nd and 24th.

 

Dec13 Winter moth appears in side passage on 2nd. First for the garden

Large yellow underwing and angle shades moth caterpillars in side passage.

Re-appearance of one of the med.tube web spiders confused by the mild(ish) nights I guess, on 22nd December.

Mottled umber moth (new sp) comes into house on Christmas tree, as does a queen wasp and a 7-spot ladybird!

 

 

Jan14 Ichneumon wasp in the kitchen on 23rd

 

Feb14 One S.florentina reappears in side passage on mid month (incredibly warm for time of year) – followed by a second during the day on the 20th

One small tortoishell butterfly sunning itself in the warm sunshine on the back garden path on 16th – the first butterfly of the year.

First bumblebee of the year on the 17th – a queen red-tailed bumblebee through garden (no crocuses up yet so didn’t hang around)

2nd bumblebee of the year a queen buff-tailed investigating trimmed leylandii just before dusk on the 19th

3rd bumblebee of the year – a queen white-tailed in garden on 22nd.

Dark chestnut moth appears in bathroom (sheltering from overnight rain and wind) at end of the month.

 

Mar14  Fourth sp. of bumblebee of the year appeared in the garden on the 1st – a tree bumblebee queen resting on the grass under the apple tree near the (pigeon-squashed) crocuses.

5th sp. of bumblebee of the year appeared in the garden on the 7th – an early bumblebee by the crocuses and white valerian leaves.

First EVER (here) feather footed flower bees  (two males) appeared by front winter pansy hanging baskets in warm sun on 9th – thought I’d left them behind in Reading! GREAT NEWS!

The warm sun of the 9th also brought the first brimstone butterflies, the first peacocks, the first drone fly and marmalade hoverflies and also a few backswimmers making their way out of the pond it seems.

First mining bee spotted on dandelion in back garden on a warm Friday 14th as well as first tiny zebra spider near front door.

First Hebrew character moth of year above kitchen cupboards on 25th.

First pond skater appears on the pond on the 7th joined by two more by the 9th

At least 8 or so by the equinox.

First “proper moths” appear – a shoulder stripe on the 16th and a dotted border on the 17th – both by the side passage light.

Early thorn (1st generation) appears in side passage on 19th

Both false widows and S.florentina very mobile on night of the 17th

First honeybee of year (investigating catkins on poplar) on 16th.

First zebra spiders on walls on 16th

First small white butterfly thro garden on 16th

 

Apr14  More early thorn moths and Hebrew characters in side passage as well as the first early grey and first brimstone moths on the 6th.

Dark arches caterpillar and lesser yellow underwing caterpillar discovered on fence on 13th whilst planting sunflowers.

Mating red mason bees photographed in front garden on 14th

Mating red mason beesMating red mason bees

First speckled wood, red masons and holly blue in second week alongside first MALE orange tip in summery sunshine on 13th

First large caddis fly (Stenophylax permistus)came to back passage light on 20th

May14  Bumblebee nest spotted under blue tit box at the start of the month in the clay bank.

First (ever? For garden) 22 spot ladybird spotted by site of floxgloves (under leylandii nearest house) on May 1st

Brimstone moths everywhere it seems this year, along with twenty-plume moth and pine carpet coming to side light (no moth trap so far this year as bulbs don’t work).

Waved umber in kitchen on 7th

Willow beauty, garden pebble and shuttle-shaped dart all arrive in side passage on 13th

Cockchafers during the warm evenings and rose chafers during the sunny days (on the photinia flowers) in good numbers during third week.

Damselflies all emerging and mating in pond on third week, orange tip butterfly eggs on garlic mustard in garden in third week.

Beautiful demoiselles regular visitors to garden in 3rd week. Azure damselflies appear on the pond on 18th and first stag beetle of the year, unfortunately discovered alive (but with legs missing) in Berry’s beak.

First swift moth of the year in third week and first cabbage moth of the year on the night of the 24th.

First EVER scorched carpet moth to back light on night of 29th and also a PERFECT Poplar hawk moth! (photos for both)

Jun14  Biggest stag beetle night I’ve ever seen on the warm, still, humid evening of the 1st June. Up to THREE male beetles flying around the woodpile. One sadly eaten by our hens the next day.

By the 23rd June I had seen stag beetles pretty well each night since the 1st – a HUGE year for them – including half a dozen or so females (not so often seen)

Lots of honeysuckle sawfly larvae on honeysuckle on warm nights in June.

First light emerald moth of the year to the back door light on the warm night of the 5th/6th

First blood vein moth in bathroom on 10th.

First swallowtail moth and common emerald come to back door light on night of 10th

First buff ermine and small magpie moth in side passage in second week of the month

First dragon in the garden in 2nd week – a male BBC.

Megachile bees busy leaf cutting and building nests in the hotel in 3rd week.

Swallowtail moths in good numbers in side passage along with 2nd generation early thorns, riband waves, scalloped oak and heart and darts in last week of June.

First ringlets appear at end of month

 

Jul14 Leaf cutter bees still busy in their “hotel(s)” in first and second  and third weeks of July.

Common darter emerged from pond on 15th (accelerated perhaps by me clearing the pond the day before) and laying eggs by third week – liking the bamboo poles for perches.

First purple thorn in side passage on 15th. Another battered poplar hawk moth on front wall of house on 14th

First meadow browns and gatekeepers at the start of the 2nd week.

Big migrant hawker in garden conifer tops on for last two weeks of month.

Potter wasps dragging hoverflies into the woodpile dens all month.

 

Aug14  Anna finds an elephant hawk moth caterpillar in front garden on 8th-  put in tub with leaves and soil that afternoon-  it pupates a couple of days later.

Rhingia campestris (New sp for garden) on spear thistles after high winds in second week.

Leaf cutter bees still making nests in 2nd hotel during second week, though their activity was much less than last two months.

Grasshopper on marjoram still in front garden (been there for weeks) by 3rd week of august

Common darters over pond all month, migrant hawker regularly hunting over garden in August – right until the final day of the month (and beyond)

Chinese character moth (NEW SP) in side passage on final week.

 

 

Mammals.

 

 

Summary:  Not a whole lot to say here, after our local foxes ate both our male and female hedgehogs last year. We’re lucky in that our garden seems to be the only garden on the street (that I know of) that has two bats hunting overhead each night in the summer – I’m very proud of that fact.

But this year as far as mammals go will be remembered for the foxes that pupped next door and produced a summer of noisy bickering and fighting at dusk – the other side of our 6 foot larch fence – and just feet away from our four hens. I still don’t know how we have all our hens – we’re lucky I guess.

I suppose the only other mammalian “highlight” of the year was when I managed to pull my boots on, walk around for 20 or so minutes at dawn and realise there was a live woodmouse in my boot. Weird.

 

Fox recorded on trailcam at end of Sept visiting garden nightly

Fox still in garden in Oct  – think it has its earth just over Pip’s fence

Foxes heard screaming locally in third week of November in the still chill at night

Big fox seen running down the road just after dusk on a number of occasions – seems pretty un-phased by cars and humans.

TWO winter bats in FEBRUARY?! seen hunting around the farm during the mild weather on a couple of still nights (one by the Frost Folly horse paddock in the second week of Feb and one by the tall barn owl tree on the warm 16th.

First bat of the year reappears (to me) on the eve of the 15th March after a particularly warm (21c) sunny day.

LIVE WOODMOUSE IN MY BOOT on morning of 11th April. Walked around with it inside my boot for maybe 20mins!

Fox poo in the front garden seen on 2nd May and fox seen crossing the road outside the house (back into the school grounds on 3rd May)

Up to two bats regularly but briefly (unlike last two years) hunting around garden at dusk in May.

Fox family noisily playing in Pip’s garden next door in 3rd week of June evenings.

Next doors’ foxes (cubs) getting pretty bold and noisy – out before dark in 1st week of July.

On 15th July I noticed the adult fox with a debilitating open wound on her left rear flank. No cubs to be seen although Pip saw three cubs on 20th

One bat hawking over garden at dusk in first week of July.Two by the third week.

Two bats regularly hunting over back garden at dusk.

Pip’s foxes very noisy at dusk each night still and out by 20:30 by 21st July and 19:30 in August

 

 

Amphibians or reptiles.

 

 

Summary:  The biggest success story of our third year at the house – by some way. I dug a garden pond in March 2013, hoping to give a home to some of the many frogs that seemed to love our garden when we moved in (no pond in our garden then but plenty of undergrowth). I hoped for newts also.

Anna and I had a pond in our garden in Reading but even though there were frogs present there , no spawn was laid during our three summers there – and that was a huge disappointment. It was luckily balanced somewhat by a huge colony of palmate newts (50+) in our old Reading pond – so I was upset to leave them there and move to a new house with no newts and no prospect of spawn.

Our pond in our current garden which I only dug in about 18 months ago has been a spectacular success – with breeding frogs and newts this year – and if this year will be remembered for disappointing swifts, the balance this year for me comes from a superb year for amphibians in our garden.

 

Feb14 One pair of mating frogs in pond in warm sunshine on 22nd. BRILLIANT NEWS!

Right at the end of the month I think there were possibly over 6 frogs in the pond

The first big toad migration at Popes Meadow occurred on the 24th on a mild, wet night – I helped 16 toads in 5 minutes at the site.

Mar14 Large irruption of frogs into pond in first week of March (wet warm night or two) – up to perhaps a dozen frogs by the end of the first week (including a pair in amplexus rescued from the back door and locked together in the pond for three days and night.

TINY AMOUNT (c24 eggs) OF SPAWN APPEARS ON THE 6th. EXCELLENT NEWS!

Unfortunately two days later all that frogspawn disappeared mysteriously at night – kicked apart by frogs I suspect

Still loads of frogs in orgies and amplexus on night of 14th but still no more spawn.

On the 15th – A LARGE AMOUNT OF NEW SPAWN LAID! BRILLIANT!

Joined by another clump on the 16th!

Frogs incredibly vocal by the light of the full Lenten Moon – great news!

A fourth lump of spawn laid on 22nd though by that time its clear that the first lump “failed” (sank to bottom of pond) and possibly the third lump also. The second lump sitting below the level of the water was developing well though on Sunday 23rd.

I think there were either 6 or 7 clumps of spawn laid this year and the more and more I watched them in March, the more the majority seemed to be developing, albeit at different rates, including the first clump that sank to the bottom of the pond!

Does seem like at least 2 of our frogs are exhibiting classic signs of herpes (blue/grey lumps on dorsal surface).

Apr14 Most of the frogspawn appeared to hatch in the first week of April.

ONE NEWT (NEW SP in garden) seen in pond on night of 11th. Female smooth newt I think and possibly gravid. Superb news!

May14 Tadpoles doing well in pond in first week. Newt (female smooth?) still present.

By the 14th, I had spotted TWO male newts plus the female. There may be more?

Certainly at least three newts spotted during month (2 males 1 female)

By 29th May, largest tadpoles had sprouted hind legs.

Jun14 Froglets begin to look like frogs now (all four legs and disappearing tail).

Jul14 Cleared out blanket weed from pond on 14th and 29th-  plenty of tadpoles still there and newt efts as well as adult newts and one or two adult frogs

Aug14 Small frog in “new grass” by house and many many newt efts in pond – they’ve bred successfully – brilliant!

 

 

 

Plants and fungi

 

 

Summary:  This section is really for my records only – but to summarise, most flowering plants seemed to do so quite early this year – and produce a lot of fruit. The pond plants produced late (or no) flowers as I cut the foliage back dramatically in Autumn 2013.

 

Sept13 Leaves still on trees at end of month but beginning to fall.

Oct13 Fungi appear in third week (with rains). Pleated inkcap and shaggy inkcap in garden as well as brown mottlegills, bonnets and an unidentified purple-gilled fungus (NOT amethyst deceiver).

Also large clusters of common inkcap in front garden.

Nov13 24 large field mushrooms appear under large leylandii on first weekend.

Jan14 Lots of obvious “pre-blossom” on the photinia appears.

First spring bulb shoots appear in beds and around pond (snakeshead frits?!) in first week of the year

Feb14 The largest tree overlooking the garden – a very large (60’) ash tree in Mary’s garden was felled during my convalescence from appendectomy – a real shame.

Photinia flowers start to bloom – MONTHS early.

One crocus flower blooms middle of month.

Daffodils and crocuses well advanced above ground middle of month

Blanketweed unfortunately doing well in pond due to unseasonal warmth.

First knackered crocus flowers up in mud under sunflower hearts feeders in middle of month – joined by a clump of first daisies on front lawn at same time.

Mar14 Pulmonaria well into flowering by the 9th, as well as many celandines and the old woman’s grape hyacinths showing well.

Marsh marigolds in pond budding and poplar catkins well under way by 9th

First marsh marigold flowered on 14th in warm sun –joined quickly by the rest.

First mock orange leaves on rear shrub doing well by the 18th March (the front shrub may be struggling in the shade – no leaves at all by March).

First poplar leaves unfurling by the 16th –with heavy catkins.

First water hawthorn flower by the 16th.

Bought and planted oregano, marjoram and 36 Russian giant sunflowers on Sunday 23rd March, in the hailstorms.

Apr14 Poplar trees and rear mock orange in good leaf. Oregano and marjoram doing well. White valerian budding. Photinia still flowering rampantly but virtually lost all its leaves.

Ceanothus almost flowering by 7th April – and flowering well by the 12th

Still flowering into May

Honesty flowering well by compost heap by start of second week

9 sunflowers planted by west fence on 13th

ALL sunflowers planted by 19th

Almost all eaten by slugs by 26th

Two cuckoo flowers appeared in the pond-side “meadow” by the end of the month

First water lily leaf broke the surface of the pond by the end of the month

May14 Water crowfoot flowers well at top of pond in third week, with a dozen or more flowers

All blanket weed (pretty well) had disappeared by the 14th may, leaving the pond crystal clear and looking a picture. I assume this was a result of tadpoles and snails and daphnia eating it.

Ceanothus flowers over around the 18th May (5 weeks flowering!)

Joseph Rock trees flowering well by end of month

Jun14 House Mock orange begins to flower in first week – over (pretty well by July) Purple pond irises flower on 10th.

Rear mock orange flowers briefly in 2nd week of June – over by end of 3rd week.

Front privet hedge begins a growth spurt in the warmth of the 2nd week and flowers then too.

Lawn a sea of buttercups, white clover and heal all in 3rd week – unlike meadow which this year seems to be just grass mainly?!

Four or so sunflowers (only) seem to have “made it” and were approaching 6 foot tall in the 3rd week.

Sowed grass by house in 4th week of June.

Blanket weed back in pond by end of month (as tadpoles became carnivorous and didn’t eat it).

Jul14 Goldenrod jusssst starting to flower at end of 1st week – a slow process though – at end of 2nd week still not flowering heavily – but doing so by the very end of July.

Wild carrots start flowering in 4th week.

Sunflowers about 8 foot and forming a bloom.

Yellow loosestrife finishing by third week.

Aug14 Sixth water lily flower of season in first week. Water mint finally flowers as does the marsh woundwort (finally!)

Damsons fruiting well by mid August and fallen or rotten on branches by the end of the month

By the end of the 1st week, goldenrod beginning to turn – almost over by 21st – and over by end of month.

Field bindweed doing well over lower part of front of house.

All bar the “lawn sunflower” have flowered or were over by 2nd week of August.

Lawn sunflower flowers on 28th. At last!

Apple tree leaves start falling in high winds on final week of month.

Damsons that have been in the sun during the summer have turned purple and mostly dropped. Those more shaded are still green (but fat) and mostly on the trees.

 

 

 

Other garden-related shenanigans…

 

I had to dispatch two of our old hens (Conker and Trouble) in the spring of 2014 – one was quite sick (hens don’t often tend to “die well”) and the other although healthy was old, not laying and not ready to see her compatriot die and then accept new, young, skittish birds into “her coop”.

These were replaced within a few weeks by four VERY healthy new birds – all warren hybrids which have so far (touch wood) been our healthiest, happiest birds we’ve kept. Their names are (Chook) Berry, (Chook) Norris, (Hen) Solo and ‘Ttila (the hen).

 

 

Final summary.

 

As I’ve mentioned above, two great positives this year (the pond – frogspawn and breeding newts) and a stupendous year for our stag beetles.

One giant negative – the lack of swifts’ interest for the first year in three, in my lovingly-crafted swift homes.

A good year – made even better after February, when I had my grumbling appendix out, which finally meant that after two years of ill-health, I began to get my energy and enthusiasm back.

 

Onwards and upwards!

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 2013-2014 end of year report garden wildlife https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/9/end-of-third-year-garden-wildlife-report Mon, 15 Sep 2014 18:46:00 GMT
Encounters. 1: "The caravan". https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/9/encounters-1-the-caravan I really need to get on with writing my “End of (third) year, garden report” as September 1st marked 3 years for myself and my wife (plus son now) at  our not-so-new gaff.

I’ll write that when I get a chance.

But for now, a chance encounter at the weekend, or two chance encounters to be exact got me thinking along different lines. With that in mind, I’ll quickly begin a new series of blog posts, entitled: “Encounters”. You’ll understand why, should you choose to read on....

 

 

***********

 

 

Introduction to “Encounters”.

 

There may be some readers of this blog that know (by now) that I take great pleasure in taking dawn (and sometimes dusk) drives around my local patch of countryside (rural east Berkshire – horsey and farm country near Windsor, Ascot, Warfield etc...

Very often at that time of day (or night, during the short summer nights) I get to see wildlife that others may not. (They’re in bed whilst I’m out and about).

Yesterday was no exception.

 

I took my normal ring route on single track country roads through local farmland and stud farms and was lucky enough to chance across not one, but TWO adult stoats, crossing two roads about a mile apart, within 5 minutes.

Now sure, stoats aren’t rare animals, but like weasels (in fact many mustelids) you’ll do well to see one – let alone two individuals from separate families, a mile apart.

I stopped the car near the first stoat (which had bounced into the nearest hedge to get away from the car) and watched in delight (yes... delight) through the rear view mirror as the slinky little thing slunk back into the road behind my idling car and bounced around (excitedly?!) for a few minutes – right in the middle of the road.

After five minutes or so, it disappeared (on a wabbit hunt no doubt – there are LOADS round ‘ere) and I drove on, only to watch another stoat race across the road in front of the car, a mile further down my “route”.

 

I don’t honestly think I’ve ever seen two different stoats from different families in one day, let alone in 5 minutes – it was a great, chance wildlife encounter for me – and it got me thinking. What other wildlife encounters have I had in my life – encounters that will stick in my mind for a long time – perhaps forever?

 

Many times these encounters are chanced. That is to say I’ve not gone out looking for x and found x – ‘though that has happened of course too. Most encounters that stick in my mind have been purely as a result of being out there, in a spot that provided an opportunity for something to present itself to me. And being aware enough (eyes wide open, ears pricked) to pick up on these opportunities.

 

Many of my memorable wildlife encounters have been abroad, but many, many more have been here in the UK – and I thought I’d write about a few, in a series entitled “Encounters”, on this blog. I’ll begin with British encounters, see where I get to (how many stick out in my head) and then move onto the more “exotic?” encounters abroad. I’ll write about as many as I can (but only the really memorable ones for me) and I’ll do so in no particular order...

 

 

**********************************

 

 

 

Encounters.

1 – “The Caravan”.

I started playing golf in my teens. My father had played a lot but had given up the game due to a bad back, and had passed his golf clubs (and his father’s hickory –shafted rusty John Letters clubs) down to me. When my new “step family” moved into my family house in the mid eighties, my new step-brother was already playing golf, so in order for us to “gel” as “new brothers”, my mother and stepfather kindly bought us junior memberships to the local golf course  -so we could play golf together.

 

I think, rather like most “golfers” – my stepbrother at the time played golf to errrr... play golf. And that was that. Whereas I certainly started to play as it got me outside, into countryside of sorts and not only could I hit a ball towards a flag (the game after all), but I could also see many birds and beasties on the way.

 

Golf to me has always been about being outside and seeing wildlife -more so than trying to get a score – although I did try to score well... obviously.

 

I have never had a golf lesson (although I did used to practice chipping and bunker shots in the garden in my teens. I used to take a sand-iron (a VERY lofted club) and hit balls from the front garden (and road) into the back, OVER the house. What my poor mother put up with!

I’ve managed a hole-in-one and an albatross in my ‘golfing life’ – and played many courses all over England and Scotland – but always had one and a half eyes on the wildlife on every course I’ve visited – and  just half an eye on my ball....

 

I was about fifteen (1986 ish) and was playing golf at Hazlemere Golf and Country Club late one summer – early in the morning – VERY early (things haven’t changed on that score for me!).

I had just driven off the 18th tee and was walking up to my ball (in the middle of the fairway for once); when I had an “encounter” I’ll never forget.

I was perhaps fifty yards from my ball when I suddenly saw something that I at first thought was a rat bounce out of the woods on the left hand side of the fairway and head straight for my ball.

 

I stopped dead and immediately it became obvious that this was no rat. Firstly it was long, thin and sinewy, rather than chunky and round. Secondly it bounced as it ran (rats race, low to the ground). Thirdly (and most important of all) it was followed by a stream of similar, smaller, bouncing critters, in a line – all bouncing their way, nose to short(ish) black-tipped tails, across the fairway.

I knew what I was watching – a caravan of stoats! Adult (mother) leading the way and young (perhaps five of them) in tow.

Of course they ignored my ball, and bounced their merry way into the thick scrub on the right hand side of the fairway in what can have only been 10 seconds – although like many times like this –it felt like 10 minutes.

I had never seen a caravan of stoats before. And never have since.

 

Stoats and weasels are notoriously difficult to see, unless you’re lucky enough to have a family group grow up in your garden (you’ll be close to at least “semi countryside” for this to happen) or you chance across a family group exploring their immediate surroundings for the first time (and return back there to see them again – think a dry stone wall somewhere hilly).

Invariably (for me) my sightings of stoats and weasels had been (and still are) limited to one bounce across the road in front of my paper-round bike, (or now car on my countryside drives) so to see a whole family was something else.

 

“My” stoats were lost in the thick scrub before I knew it, I think I sort-of punched (bunted) my ball in the vague direction of the green and set off into the scrub to look for them – in vain though.

I can’t remember what I scored on that hole, or that round to be honest – it didn’t really matter. I’m not even convinced I actually finished the round to be fair.

The entire 3 (or so) hours for me were utterly dominated by the last ten or so seconds – and didn’t even involve me hitting a ball.

THAT’S why I played golf in my teens – and that’s why (even though I now play perhaps once a year instead of once a week) I still do.

 

And that is the first “encounter” in this new blog series – a memory brought about my two chance encounters with stoats in 5 minutes on Sunday gone.

 

 

Almost thirty years after “The Caravan” encounter....

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) stoat https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/9/encounters-1-the-caravan Mon, 08 Sep 2014 13:27:33 GMT
Unintelligent design? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/9/unintelligent-design [ Not so much "where I've been. What I've seen" in this blog post... but "Where I've been. Mentally.]

 

Let me be clear. Immediately.

I am no subscriber to the “intelligent design” club.

Nor the “creationism” club (I happen to think these two clubs are pretty-well identical despite the protestations from the Discovery Institute.)

In all of my wildlife musings and witterings I do try exceptionally hard to never use such phrases as “the natural order of things” (this is bordering on theism to me, theism and design in fact) and “balanced ecosystem(s)” (suggests strongly a static equilibrium – but that is only a snapshot of a very fluid system indeed – nothing static about it).

So... do I believe in God?

In a word.... NO.

But.

Let’s jusssssst for one minute say there IS a God. (Bear with me, grapple fans)

A creator if you will.

And this “creator” designed the world around us – including “all creatures great and small” within that world.

So. Did this god design his (her?) creatures with ‘intelligence’?

Or was it all a bit of a botched, rushed job as a result of “God” giving himself only two days to design and create ALL the earth’s creatures?

This is after all, the fundamental Christian stance – “On day 5 God created the fowl and water-dwelling creatures and on day 6 he designed all the land-based animals and human beings”

Do you think he might now regret not at least giving himself day 7 to look at what he’d gawn done and making some changes - correcting some schoolboy errors (instead of hanging his sandals up in a pretty self-satisfied manner... "and he saw that it was good" )?

 Let’s face it; he had all the time in the world didn’t he?  He made time after all. He could have at least spent one more day making sure everything “worked ok” before leaving us all to it? No?

 

Right.

Time to get to work...

If I was given the power to make three changes to any of the world’s animals as part of my own “intelligent design” internship (I expect a call any day now), they would be as below.... (Don’t worry... your chance will come)...

 

Number 1 – I’d re-wire swifts’ brains. I’d give them the ability to read.

 

SwiftSwift

Oh NOOoooo Doug. Not bleeding swifts again?

Yep – this is my go. You wait your turn.

Look... I think swifts are the best birds of all.

They’re fantastic.

But. (Come closer....sssshhhh)....  they’re a bit, errrr..... dumb?

I’ve had a fair amount of success attracting and filming nesting swifts at a couple of our (my wife’s and my) houses over the past few years – but (as you may know) I’ve struggled recently and at great expense (£).

I’ve designed and built a veritable plethora of swift houses at our new gaff, both inside the house (accessible through tunnels drilled through the attic wall) - and outside (with entrance holes in various spots on the boxes – on the side, bottom and front).

I’ve designed swift attracting CDs (calls from breeding swifts played in a suitable loop), and bought wireless, shower-proof speakers to play these calls from.

I’ve installed mini HD infra red cameras into these swift homes and spent days on the roof of our house ensuring everything they (the swifts) needed was in place – and right up their street.

I’ve probably spent about £1000 on swifts over the last two years and double that over the last eight or so years.

That’s how much I like swifts and like trying to help them.

Each year the swifts arrive at the end of April or beginning of May – and each year they steadfastly refuse to enter any of my boxes and breed. This year they virtually ignored our offerings completely.  [I nearly swore then].

Now this isn’t because my swift hotels are badly sited, nor unsuitable. Not at all. Au contraire, mes amis.

This is because swifts, quite simply, don’t know what’s good for them.  They’re dumb.

Swifts tend to occupy very traditional nesting sites, in pre-war buildings and are very loyal to those sites. They don’t like change and are slow to seek out and find (and accept) new nest spots. They have even been known to fight to the death over traditional, old, favoured nesting sites.

Oh sure.... they can be tempted to start nesting or indeed begin breeding in new spots (and ideal spots at that) but they need calling down from the skies (swift call CDs don’t half annoy neighbouring humans!) and even then it may be years before the swifts finally check out new pastures, if they do so at all.

You may be thinking here that I need some patience – and half the fun is the thrill of the chase – the anticipation of it all. You may be right of course – but I have a suggestion.

Instead of playing CDs of loud swift calls at the right time of day (before your neighbours have got up generally, in May and then again at dusk) to attract swifts in to your carefully-erected and sited swift homes – I’d suggest giving the swifts an ability to read.

Look. I’m not suggesting swifts should fly around with a copy of the latest Harry Potter under their wing, (they’d crash of course) – but if I painted the letters “S W I F T S” in black paint on the outside of my swift boxes – I would like them to see that word and therefore immediately recognise that the owner of the house was providing a suitable spot for them to nest in.

No need for CDs. Or batteries. Or expensive wireless, shower proof speakers (which incidentally have to be placed on the boxes, 6m in the air – which means an expensive ladder to consider also).

We’re informed that swifts need our help. In fact the only rear windscreen sticker I have on my car at present is Swift Conservation’s “I’m helping swifts – are you? Find out how at Swiftconservation.org”. And they do need our help – desperately.

I do love swifts and I AM trying to help them.

But come on now swifties – I’d like you to help yourselves too please – throw me a bone here for Pete’s sake!

So there you have it – my number one “change of design” would be giving swifts the ability to read.

 


Number 2 – I’d ensure all young turtle tasted revolting – poisonous even.

 

My wife and I have had the great pleasure of taking a few holidays in “turtle hot spots”. In fact after our last holiday (3 years ago) in rural Turkey, it dawned on us that we’d ALWAYS taken holidays with turtles.

Sri Lanka. Green turtles.

The Maldives. Ditto.

Greek Islands. Loggerheads.

Turkey. Ditto.

Turtles, turtles everywhere.

We all love turtles don’t we?

Of course we do... and that’s half the problem.

Turtles and tortoises are famously tasty. As (allegedly) are their eggs.

But they’re not just tasty to us – young turtles are a defenceless, slow-moving soft, fleshy, tasty packet of nutritious protein to pretty-well everything on their nesting beaches.

Turtles hatch from their beach-buried eggs and all head slowly and clumsily down to the sea as soon as they can. Very often they’ll do this at night (they get their bearings often by heading towards moonlight shimmering on the surface of the sea). A nocturnal first journey will save them from many predators of course (birds in the main) but mammals (jackals, foxes, dogs etc) will take them as will other predators – some crabs for example.

Quite often though, many turtles don’t hatch until dawn and have to run the (beach to sea) gauntlet surrounded by big-beaked gulls or frigate birds or corvids or any other manner of hungry predators.

Many “fledgling” turtles don’t even make it to the sea. What a waste.

Even if they do make it to the sea, they’re there for the taking for pretty-well any fish or seabird that fancies a bit of tasty grub. Everything wants a piece of baby turtle.

Turtles take approximately 3-5 years to become “juveniles” – dinner plate sized. These years are often called “the lost years” as little is known about them. From then it may be another twenty to FIFTY years before they become sexually active – ready to breed - if they’re not first snagged in trawler nets (for example).

I just feel sorry for the poor things.

It is estimated that only 1 in 1000 turtle hatchlings survive to adulthood.  I wouldn’t walk into any Victor Chandler and place a bet on a turtle. Not at those odds. No chance.

Whilst I appreciate that my wife and I might be slightly biased when it comes to turtles (and swifts for that matter) – I’d like to even up the odds for our delightful baby turtles.

I’d immediately make all turtle eggs taste foul (to anything that digs them up to eat – and that includes humans) and make the hatching turtles taste even worse – perhaps even to the point of being toxic –deadly to potential predators. This poison would slowly dissipate over the first half dozen of years or a turtle’s life, so that eventually they wouldn’t be toxic at all.

“But that would take away their charm wouldn’t it?” I hear you cry.

“Their ‘Aaah’ factor”.

“Their cute, defenceless, harmless nature”.

Again – you may well be right – but I don’t happen to agree.

My wife and I were lucky enough to be allowed to release some hatchling green turtles into the Indian Ocean on our honeymoon in Sri Lanka and the lil things were incredibly cute (yes... I said it... “cute”), flapping their way down the beach into the froth. I dare say if they were poisonous, they would have looked just as delightful – but perhaps not after you bit into one, granted.

You might also say that if young turtles were poisonous, they’d have hardly any predators and we’d soon be overrun by them.

Fine by me.

Dandy in fact.

 

Right. 

So.

1 - Give swifts the ability to read.

2 - Make young turtles poisonous.

That’s two down.

One to go then....

 

 

Number 3 – I’d make humans lay eggs... rather than stay as placental mammals

 

Look. I’m a bloke. And I don’t want to get all new-age man “Savage Garden” (“I believe that beauty magazines promote low self esteem” etc etc etc....) on yo ass, but come on.... really?

Laydeez, you’ll know far better than me of course, but I’d suggest the human female anatomy (or more specifically, the human female pelvic arrangement) is not a great piece of apparatus to deliver large-headed, long-limbed youngster effectively or efficiently or in a low(ish) risk way.

The (make believe) ‘intelligent designer’ really got this wrong, I’m afraid.

What I propose as my final change to the *cough* intelligent designer’s errors – is to ensure adult female human beings lay eggs instead of carry a developing foetus for 9 months and then deliver  (with luck) said baby in a long-winded, incredibly painful, very risky way.

Think of the advantages!

 There would be no restrictions (sensible or not so) on mothers during the care of her developing young – she could stuff her face with pate and shellfish and drink alcohol.

There’d be no back problems, no piles, no swollen ankles and no morning sickness.

If I ensured the human egg was the conical shape of a seabird’s egg (so as to avoid rolling off cliff ledges -something like a guillemot's egg in shape at least), prospective parents could just pop it on a high shelf under a suitable heat lamp (set to 'warm', rather than 'cook') and just turn it occasionally.

Birth would be pain-free and quick.

I am not saying it should be a big (ostrich-sized?) egg.

Something like a swan’s egg.

That sort of size.

I mean.... you could even buy (or hire!) a mini incubator to protect your developing egg(s).

 

Maybe the time from “laying” to “hatching” might  not take 9 months and you’d be left with a TINY baby when it did hatch – but that’s be fine – you’d just have to be a bit careful for a while.

And it would be a pain-free, stress-free, sheer delight for both parents – watching their egg (or eggs – I’m a triplet after all) hatch on the kitchen table.

I guess there’ll be some blokes reading this who took great pleasure in being present for the birth of their young and even looked on with great interest at the urrmmmm “business end” during the event.

I can certainly appreciate that, but I wasn’t one of those fathers. Sure I was in theatre with my wife (that’s the hospital rather than the London Palladium), but I stayed at the ‘safe end’ and don’t think I made a bad choice as it happens.

These days, very often at least, working expectant mothers don’t stop work until a few weeks before they are due to “drop”. Maternity leave proper is for the last month(ish) of pregnancy and for the first few months after birth generally – so that wouldn’t need to change.

Any disadvantages then?

Not that I can envisage.

Perhaps you’d have to ensure you lay your egg onto a cushion for example (although you could probably lay into your hands if you’re quick enough).

Nope.

It’s a win win WIN situation.

What I’m saying is that I think humans should be more like monotremes (think of the Echidna or the Duck-billed platypus) which are egg-laying mammals after all.

The trouble with that... is that a monotreme has a single opening (duct) for urination, defaecation and reproduction.

A cloaca.

That (In fact) is what “monotreme” means - from the Greek μονός monos "single" + τρῆμα trema "hole".

Hmmmm.... That wouldn’t be acceptable I’m afraid – the placental mammalian way of three “openings” is better. Clearly.

 So I’d not change that. We remain with three ducts!  We might be known as “trio-tremes”!

The only other drawback (perhaps) to turning humans into egg-laying mammals (but 3 opening “trio-tremes” instead of the one-holed monotremes) is that whilst egg-laying mammals (monotremes) do lactate in a mammalian way,  they tend not to exhibit nipples of any description, nor teats / breasts / udders  etc. (Forgive the basic language).

So that’s another thing that would not change. Not on your nelly. 

Again... I just happen to be a bloke and a heterosexual bloke at that... so it would be just the eggs thing.

Nothing else needs to change thanks.

The ‘boy (God) done good’ in every other respect there.

 

 

Phew.

We’re all done. (Finally!)

 

1 - Give swifts the ability to read.

2 - Make young turtles poisonous.

3 – Humans should lay eggs.

 

 

If you’ve managed to scrabble through the vast jumble of words above, firstly congratulations and secondly you may find faults with my choices. Many I expect. Especially with the last one?!  That's fine (I can see a few faults myself as it happens, but hey ho).

 

 

Now.

It’s over to you.
 

I am pleased to immediately bestow on you the supreme, omnipresent, paranormal power to change three “intelligent designs” in the zoological world.

You can do better than me I’m sure.

 

Have a chew on it eh?

Then, fill your boots.

I’m off.

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) musings https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/9/unintelligent-design Fri, 05 Sep 2014 16:32:45 GMT
BWPA 2014 - a few thoughts on some superb images https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/9/bwpa-2014---a-few-thoughts-on-some-superb-images Today (1st September 2014) is (was) the day that this year’s British Wildlife Photography Awards (BWPA 2014) were announced to the media and as is becoming traditional on this website, I thought I’d give a few lines over to my thoughts on the results - even though I should be out and about sky watching right now (I hear an Osprey flew over our gaff this afternoon).

 

Firstly, some people reading this might know I was lucky enough to be commended in the first three BWPA competitions (in 2009, 2010 and 2011) and having taken a couple of years off, this year  thought I’d submit a few images again – to see what the judges made of them – so I always had a vested interest in this year’s competition, unlike the previous two years.

The three (old) images of mine  (1) (2) (3) were shortlisted this year - but got no further – so I guess I’m slightly disappointed – but that disappointment has certainly been tempered by seeing some wonderful images shot by others that were commended – or indeed won their categories.

This is the 6th year of the BWPA  (not the 5th as Chris Packham suggests on the BWPA website) and it seems to go from strength to strength. One again, as last year, it is a real delight to see “new” names behind winning and commended shots (alongside a few old faithful admittedly – but nothing like the first three or four years of the awards).

There are some excellent winning (or commended) images this year – and I’ll briefly mention three which certainly caught my eye.... if I may..... after quickly saying many congratulations to all the winners (and commended peeps) in this years awards. Great stuff indeed.

 

*************************

 

In common with my own particular (or peculiar?!) taste – it’s often the quirky or stark or bold images that catch my eye (rather than a shot of an animal in front of an often detailed landscape. I seem to (personally) prefer more artistic images than perhaps “portraits”, where very often the subject is all and little thought is often given to the space within the frame. But that’s me.

 

With that in mind – my favourite shot from this year’s results (that I’ve seen at the time of writing) is the incredibly bold, stark, monochrome shot of the “window gnat” by Susie Hewitt.

I love its simplicity.  I love the fact that it is not a shot of an otter. Or a gannet. Or an eagle. Or a seal. Or a red deer. (Etc etc). It’s a tiny gnat for goodness’ sake. Brilliant.

It is as close to a perfect “image” rather than a “photograph” that I’ve seen in any of the BWPA competitions in its history I think – and I love it for that too.

 

My second favourite of this year’s winning (or commended) images breaks my normal habit of glazing over when I’m presented with a shot of (yet) another gannet. I often think of gannet photographs in wildlife photography competitions to be a bit “safe” or “clichéd” or “easy”.  Along with puffin photographs they’re often a bit too “penguiny” for me. They’re everywhere in wildlife photography competitions. Sometimes rightly so, but more often than not (for me) ... just another shot of our more impressive (or comical in the case of puffins) seabirds.

That all said, Ruth Asher’s “A life at sea” is a belter of an image – and contains loads of gannets (albeit is as pale dots sitting far below Ruth on the cliff top above).

Why do I like this shot? Lots of reasons – I love the moodiness of it. I love its power. I love the deep blue colour. I love the fact that the long(ish) exposure has created interesting movement and tone in the sea, rather than the clichéd mill pond, which long-exposure advocates seem to have fallen in love with. And I also love it because it has made me appreciate gannet photographs again – something I didn’t think I would in a hurry to be honest. It’s a huge, breathtaking image and I wish I’d been skilful to take it myself!

 

The third image I’ll briefly mention (a shortlisted image rather than a winning image), which caught my eye is one taken by a junior photographer (under 18). Just like last year when my favourite of all the winning or commended images was taken by a “minor”, Alice Smith’s “Who’s there” image is a belter.

I don’t tend to appreciate people naming their shots of wildlife “Peek-a-boo” or any similar hackneyed, ‘amusing’ captions. But heyyyy.... lighten up Doug – Alice is only 16 and if you can’t name your shots in an ‘amusing’ fashion at that age, then when can you?

But name aside, the shot is a real cracker. A really great (possibly chance) photograph, perhaps it was thought out and Alice lay in wait for days and days for the hare to sit at the top of this hill and then take the shot. Perhaps she did – but I doubt it. I rather suspect she went out with her camera and happened across the hare (she may have seen them there before and expected to see one but this shot does not have the close up, detailed qualities to suggest many hours in the field – more a brilliant use of limited time (I expect) and top-notch photographic nous to produce a beautiful, stark, simple, clean image. It takes me back to my local fields, with rabbits and hares belting around. I’ve been IN this photograph, it’s something I know and remember – it’s accessible to me – and I adore it for that. Sure, it might have been even better if the hare (or rabbit) was positioned a little further right in the shot, so it was looking into the shot – but I’m splitting hairs (hares) there.

I think it’s a great shot and again, wish I could take something similar. In fact, I probably could try at least and that’s what I like about it best of all – it’s very inspirational.

What with a few years of poor health (being sorted now I think) and a new house and new (first) baby boy, I’ve found little time or inspiration to go out taking photographs of wildlife for the last two or three years.  It’s photo’s like Alice’s that make me want to go out and maybe try to photograph wildlife again –  many thanks Alice.

A similarly inspiring shot has done rather well in the bigger, more prestigious (international) Wildlife Photography of the Year competition (WPOTY) run by the Natural History Museum. It’s a shot of several rose-ringed parakeets flying through a dark London cemetery (although by all accounts this shot took a lot of planning and was shot by a well-known, accomplished wildlife photographer – Sam Hobson) and it is spellbinding - as inspirational as Alice’s hare shot. (I’ll post my thoughts on the WPOTY competition when the results of this year’s competition are announced later this month I think).

In both cases (Sam’s parakeet shot and Alice’s hare shot) I doubt very much whether I can match their skill behind the lens and come up with images as striking as theirs – but I can possibly try – and that for me is half the reason behind following these competitions.

Aside from “that’s a nice shot of a wren/puffin/seal/dragonfly etc” thought when looking at the work produced by very talented photographers – it’s wonderful to look at images and be inspired by them – to get out there, to experience our wildlife for myself and maybe... just maybe... try and record it in an image or two, for posterity – whether that inspiration comes from seeing a shot of a gnat, a hare or even a gannet colony.

 

****************************************************************

 

NB.

I am well aware that in many aspects of life, I tend to march to a different drum beat to many others – and often revel in doing so. I dare say that my favourite shot (that I’ve seen so far) from BWPA 2014; Susie’s “window gnat” might be others’ least favourite image. Perhaps the same with Alice’s hare shot. But that’s the beauty photography which is art after all (or should be I think). It’s a subjective thing for onlookers, competitors and indeed judges.

I’m just relaying my personal favourites with this blog post. I hope (and celebrate in fact) that your thoughts and views won’t be the same as my own.

You’ll be wrong of course....   (unless you have the bricked toad as one of your favourites) but never mind eh?!

 

 

 

NB (2)

 

I’ve just realised that ALL three of my favourite images (that I’ve seen so far) from this year’s BWPA were taken by women. (Or girls I suppose in the case of Alice).

That belts the “wildlife photography’s mainly a male pursuit” (and geeky males often?) ball right out of the park.

Gender aside, all three were also taken by little-known (or indeed “unknown”) amateur photographers.

Good stuff.

 

 

 

NB(3)

 

Quick mentions to two acquaintances (I s’pose, rather than mates) of mine who once again have been commended for lovely, lovely photos…

1       -  Mark smith for his excellent urban fox photos. I especially love the photo taken from inside his car. And it’s a Mercedes car too – bonus points for that pal.

2       – Dave Pressland for his very arty (and therefore very much appreciated by me) close-up of a goldfinches wing.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) BWPA 2014 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/9/bwpa-2014---a-few-thoughts-on-some-superb-images Mon, 01 Sep 2014 16:13:19 GMT
The elephant in the room... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/8/the-elephant-in-the-room It’s the correct time of year.

Right about now.

To keep your eyes peeled for four large “eyes” wandering across your driveways, patios, pavements, paths etc.

For the time is right for elephant hawk moth caterpillars to start dropping down from their favourite food plants (willowherbs, bedstraw, garden fuchsias) in order to find a sheltered spot in which to form a pupa and over-winter.

 

Any time between July and September will produce many sightings of these chunky caterpillars, but this year - August seems to be their month of choice.

 

Twitter is laden with reports this week and my wife has found two big elephant hawk moth caterpillars in the last two days – one of them in our garden.

 

Now the elephant hawk moth is not a rare moth in the UK – but it’s a real belter – so luridly pink that it almost looks tropical in nature. The caterpillars (as I’ve mentioned) are invariably to be found in clumps of great willowherb, but the shocking pink adults only fly in the evening and at night – taking nectar from honeysuckle, petunias and the like.

Elephant eyesElephant eyes

 

Rather like its cousin, the  "dusk-loving piglet" (the small elephant hawk moth (Deilephila porcellus)) the (large) elephant hawk moth (Deilephila elpenor) was actually first given a porcine (not an elephantine) name. The caterpillar's front end was thought to resemble a pig's snout rather than an elephant's trunk as is it now.

Deile – dusk or the evening (Greek)

Phileo – To love (Greek)

Porcellus – piglet (Greek)

Elpenor - one of Odysseus' sailors turned into swine by Circe.

You see.... some pigs DO eventually fly!

 

Because it’s not a rare moth, it’s quite fun to provide a pupation home for a caterpillar if you find one in late summer or early autumn.

I’ve done that with the second caterpillar that my wife found today – it’s not difficult and if done correctly – you may even get to see a bright pink elephant hawk moth appear the following May (or perhaps late April if it’s a warm month).

 

You’ll need a sealable plastic container, preferably around 20cm deep. Some dry compost (NOT garden soil as this may contain centipedes which will OM-NOM-NOM through the pupating moth, lickety-split), a square of kitchen roll soaked in water and a regular supply of the caterpillar’s favourite leaves – great willowherb is a water-loving ‘weed’, is free and ubiquitous – or failing that – raid your neighbours’ fuchsia plants for their leaves!

 

Pop around 10cm of dry compost into the bottom of your large tub.

Drop a few fuchsia shoots and leaves in, or better still, willowherb.

Stick the wet kitchen roll square in, dig a small, vertical stick into the compost  also, carefully pop the caterpillar in and cover the tub with either a close-fitting lid, or come cling film, held in place with a stout plastic band.

 

There’s no need to provider “breathing holes” for the caterpillar as long as you remember to take the lid (or cling film) off for a short while each day.

 

If the caterpillar is still hungry and not quite large enough to pupate, it’ll happily munch through plenty of leaves but eventually, it will stop eating and look to burrow into the ground (whichever centipede-free substrate you’ve provided) to pupate.

 

So if your beloved ‘pillar disappears one day (or night), fret not – it probably has approved of your efforts and been big & fat enough to start the pupa-forming process.

 

Once this happens (late summer or early autumn) you really should consider putting the large container outside, somewhere cool (out of the sun) but sheltered from the rain and snow etc.

This will mean the developing adult moth should emerge at the right time of year, with all the other adult hawk moths. The last thing you want to do is trick an adult to emerge in February for example, by keeping it in a light, warm house.

 

If you’ve managed to follow the advice above, start checking your “moff tub” from my birthday (April 14th!) onwards and if you’re lucky, one day (as late as late May depending on the temperature at that time of year) you’ll get to see an adult moth climb up your stick (which you buried into the compost), pump up its wings and fly off into the evening or night.

Even MORE reason (should you really need one) to look forward to next May!

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) elephant hawk moth https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/8/the-elephant-in-the-room Fri, 08 Aug 2014 15:33:26 GMT
Napoleon, Rembrandt, the Rosetta stone, the first Crusaders and St.Swithun- a swift update https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/7/napoleon-rembrandt-the-rosetta-stone-the-first-crusaders-and-st-swithun--a-swift-update Today is July 15th.

July 15th 2014.

Eight years exactly since twitter was launched.

One hundred and ninety-nine years precisely, since Napoleon’s final surrender to the British Navy.

Exactly two hundred and fifteen years since the Rosetta Stone was discovered.

Precisely four hundred and eight years since Rembrandt was born.

Exactly nine hundred and fifteen years since the first Crusaders took the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

And precisely one thousand and forty three years since Swithun’s  (a bishop of Winchester for about 10 years in the ninth century) skeletal remains were transferred from an outdoor grave to an indoor shrine in the old minster in Winchester  - and he was venerated as a saint.  This was despite the fact that Swithun on his deathbed begged to be buried outside the north wall of Winchester old Minster so that the raindrops would fall upon his grave from the eaves above.

We all (don’t we?) know about the legend of St.Swithun’s (feast) day?

In case you don’t – whatever the weather is like on July 15th – that’s the weather you’ll get for forty days.

(Disclaimer – since records began around 150 years ago – this has never occurred – quelle surprise. But there you go anyway).

For me, the middle of July  means the best bird of all (swifts) are almost ready to leave us again; to head back to the Congo in the case of the adults, or to the Congo for the first time, in the case of this year’s young.

SwiftSwift

By the first or second week of August, the huge majority of swifts will have left our shores, although small numbers will still be seen flying south over England as late as early September.

So I reckon we have about three weeks left with the sight and sound of summer screaming around our skies. That’s all.

 

But what of “my” swifts this season, so far?

To be honest, 2014 has been the most disappointing year I can remember for “my” swifts”.

Regular visitors to my old website(s) or this blog might know that my wife and I moved out of Reading (a “swift stronghold”) three years ago (almost to the day) and took up residence in a house on the northern edge of post-war Bracknell – a town that has never seen good numbers of swifts, on account of it being too young.

Last summer and the summer before, despite far-from-ideal “swift conditions” we were treated to the sight and sound of a few swifts investigating our swift boxes and nest sites drilled into our attic, all summer.

I spent all winter gone putting up more boxes and fine-tuning my swift call CD (with which to lure them out of the skies with) and was expecting a great year around our house – perhaps even nesters, as they’d been really keen to investigate all the spots I’d prepared for them for the last two years.

But alas no.

Oh sure, I’ve seen swifts over the house every day I think, since late  May – although in far fewer numbers than the previous two years – but only TWICE (that I’ve seen) have they flown around the house quite deliberately investigating the swift call CD and nest boxes/sites. And only for a few minutes,

Compare with last year (and the year before) when there were hours and hours of full-blown screaming /banging/clinging onto the walls/pushing heads into soffits etc.

A real let down – a real shame.

So what has happened?

To be honest, your guess is probably as good as mine.

You’ll probably know that swifts don’t tend to breed in post-war buildings out of choice (too tidy, no nest sites generally) and nor do they breed until they’re three years old (or older).

Our investigating (prospecting) swifts of 2012 and 2013 were young, non-breeding swifts but it doesn’t look like they’ve returned this year. For whatever reason. Perhaps they’re dead? Perhaps they found somewhere better to nest for the first time (‘though I doubt that!)?

I’ll still play the swift call CD until August, to try and persuade any birds down to prospect as they leave for Africa, ready for next year (with fingers crossed) but I am sad to report that it might be a “clean start” again next year (to attract new birds to our house), rather than a nest or two in place as I had hoped for this year, let alone next.

When we moved here after filming breeding swifts in “Swift Half” in Reading, I let “followers” know that it might take me about 5 years to attract new nesting swifts to a post-war house. That’s about average really. Next year will be four years, so I’m still ahead of my own schedule – but really had hoped for better this year – MUCH better.

 

What of other swifts – how have they done this year?

Unlike the previous two summers, the weather conditions for UK swifts this year have been very favourable.

2012 was a washout summer if you remember (so breeding swifts failed to find enough food for their young in many cases – and many nests failed) and 2013 was not much better. Sure – the summer was quite nice when it eventually arrived, but by that time (June basically), the swifts had been here for a month – flying around in a bitter, bitter May – finding no food and not even starting nests.

There’s little doubt that the last two summers have meant swift populations have decreased more than just as a result of lack of food (pesticides etc) and lack of breeding spaces (tidy soffits etc).

Swift sightings this year were very “up and down” for May and June. More so than previous years. The British Trust for Ornithology’s “Bird track” data shows that even more than before, sightings of swifts are decreasing year on year –and they need our help more than ever.

I just hope that the breeders this year (birds at least three years old who have quickly found nesting sites) have had a good year. I suspect they have – as I’ve mentioned, the weather this season has been great for swifts. Not too hot. Not too wet. Not too windy. Not too cold.

With that in mind, I hope for a few more young, prospecting birds back to the UK in a year. Or three?

 

This all sounds rather gloomy eh? I’ll not lie – I’m truly disappointed with this year, in terms of “my” swifts” – but I do have a crumb of comfort to cling to. A rather big crumb as it happens.

Three years ago, my wife and I left “swift half” after filming two successful breeding attempts by swifts in our attic. That was 2011.

My neighbour at the time was as entranced by these birds as we were, and vowed to do all he could to provide nesting sites for swifts at his pre-war house a few yards away from “Swift Half” – and film them if possible.

I’m very excited to say that he has put swift boxes up and played the swift call CD - and he has had PLENTY of interest in and around his house all summer. I’ve been watching the swifts fly around my old house, “Swift Half” as normal (really good to see, as there’s been someone living in the old attic at “Swift Half” since we left and I couldn’t guarantee “my” swifts” would breed there again after we left).

But there have also been good numbers of swifts checking out my old neighbour’s house as I’ve said.

Swifts almost invariably like to nest in the same spot that they were born in – or VERY close by. This is why it’s quite important to provide a number of swift boxes (or nest sites) if you provide one. You’ll need them if you get lucky.

As I’ve said before, swifts don’t tend to breed until they’re three years old (ish).

So... putting these facts together, I’d put A LOT of money on the fact that the swifts prospecting around my old neighbour’s house in 2014 are very PROBABLY young swifts that were born in “Swift Half” in 2011 or 2012 or perhaps even last year.

It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if two of the swifts investigating my old neighbour’s house this year were the very same two young swifts that we filmed taking their great first leap of faith at the end of July 2011. Just three years old now. But the very same birds. Know also that these birds have been to the Congo and back and to Africa again and back again and perhaps once more in these intervening years  - and they’ve not stopped flying in that time. Not at all. Not once.

 

I’m so glad that the “Swift half” swifts (almost certainly) are still alive and prospecting themselves. That means a hell of a lot to me. They are such wonderful things – birds that as you know now, I have become VERY attached to – especially the birds that I actually filmed being born and fledging in 2010 and 2011. All the clips are still on Youtube, HERE.

And if my old neighbour’s hopes come to fruition next summer, it might very well be “my” little swifts of 2011 (or “Swift Half” swifts anyway, perhaps 2012 birds) that finally nest with him and his wife – a few years after they leaped out of “Swift Half” for the very first time.

I’ll be as pleased as he is if that happens. Absolutely pleased as punch.

 

As for me, and the new “Swift Half” (in waiting).

Well.... Napoleon might have surrendered on this day, July 15th, one hundred and ninety-nine years ago, but he was a cheese-eating surrender monkey after all.

There’ll be no surrender here.

I’ve done the hard graft and paid out all the many pounds necessary to give swifts what they should want.

All I need to do is keep going. Keep trying. Never give up.  Keep playing my swift CD, And one day, “my” swifts will be back with us...

Who knows – I may be surprised next summer (if we’re still here) and on the two-hundredth anniversary of Napoleon’s surrender – I might just be reporting on a new “Swift Half” nest.

Hey. I’m still within my five year prediction (even next year) aren’t I?

And nothing good ever came easy.....

 

 

For now though – we have maybe three or perhaps four weeks with the sound and sight of summer (swifts) all around us.

And then they’ll be gone for nine long months.

I intend to fully make the most of the next few weeks then.

Absolutely.

Cloud burstCloud burst

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/7/napoleon-rembrandt-the-rosetta-stone-the-first-crusaders-and-st-swithun--a-swift-update Tue, 15 Jul 2014 15:36:32 GMT
I bees see. (tee-hee). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/6/i-bee-see-tee-hee A strange title for a blog post you might think?

(You’ll just have to read to the very end of the post to understand).

 

 

 

At this time of year, it becomes pretty-obvious that whilst some might pigeon-hole (hur hur) me as a “birdwatcher”, I am not – nor have I ever been one.

 

Oh sure, I do like watching birds. They’re pretty obvious things to see - in general.

They sing, shout, squawk and of course fly .... and so make themselves pretty conspicuous.

But at the height of the summer, the more inconspicuous, smaller critters tend to grab my attention.

Heliophiles quite often. Like myself.

Whether that be dragonflies, bees, butterflies or perhaps even wasps.

Let's deal with bees briefly.

 

I suppose that if you asked many people to name as many “types of bee” as they could, they might struggle to get beyond “honey bee” and “bumblebee” but there are something like 270 species of bee in the UK, of which only one is a honey bee and only something like only twenty-one are bumblebees.

That leaves approximately two-hundred and fifty other species of bee in the UK – often known as solitary bees, or more correctly – non-social bees.

 

Now my favourite British bee of all is a tiny, beautiful, gold-coloured solitary bee (Osmia caerulescens) – the blue mason bee (see below)

 

but we have none nesting with us at our current home – so I’ve been instead watching some other, very specialised non-social bees in the garden for a week or so now – leaf cutter bees – or Megachile bees.

Leaf –cutter bees are great fun to watch.

 

They are so-called as the females cut little discs from leaves (and rose petals in our case) to line their nest cells with.

Air freightAir freight

 

About the size of a honey bee (maybe a bit smaller but ‘chunkier’) they can be seen during the summer months air-freighting bits of leaf and petal back to a “secret” nest.

If you get an exceptional view of a leaf-cutter female (without a leaf disc in legs), you may see that she has an orange or golden scopa (pollen brush) under her abdomen – this is quite indicative of leaf-cutters.

 

As I’ve stated, leaf-cutters are “non-social bees”. This doesn’t mean they don’t nest in groups (that’s why solitary bees is a bit of a misnomer), it simply means that each female builds her own nest independently of other individuals of the same species – even if they can nest in what appear to be “colonies” – especially if you construct (or buy!) a bee hotel for them to nest in. (See below).

 

Most leaf-cutter bees prefer to nest in existing cavities (in wood or masonry) but some, if pushed, will excavate burrows in the ground.

Each female bee will make something like 6 thimble-shaped cells within each nest cavity (dead, hollow plant stem etc).

Each nest cell will be lined (and enclosed) with leaf discs; and each will contain a food supply of pollen and sometimes nectar for the developing larva to feed on. The singular egg is laid onto this food source brought back to the nest by the female, before she seals the cell with more pieces of leaf and starts another.

The leaf-cutter bee will stick these discs of leaf and petal together (often rose leaves and petals) using a mixture of the leaf’s sap and the bee’s saliva.

The egg develops into a full-grown larva pretty quickly during the late summer.  The fully-fed larva then spins a silk cocoon in which it overwinters. 

Pupation will occur in the late spring & the resulting adult leaf-cutter will emerge from the nest from the end of May onwards.

As is normal in these cases, once the adults’ work is done, they’ll die.

Their offspring will never see them.

There will be no “parental care”.

ALL the bees’ gene-pool is locked up in these little leafy-cigar-like cells, ready to emerge as the new (ONLY) generation in late spring the following year. 

 

 

It is only the female that exhibits the orange scopa. Likewise it is only the female that cuts discs from leaves, using her mandibles.

It is a fascinating process to watch, I think – and very amusing.

She’ll select a leaf, (a fresh one often), land on it and quickly slice a scalloped or circular-shaped section from the leaf edge.

Invariably, like a cartoon character sawing a circle around himself on a wooden floor, the female bee will make the last cut, and leaf disc and bee will fall ground-wards together.

She’ll be holding onto it though, with all six legs – and like a miniature helicopter she’ll soon be climbing into the sky with her leaf disc – and heading towards her nest.

And that is exactly what these bees remind me of, with their air-freight of chlorophyll – helicopters lugging a bit of cargo around underneath them.

It’s clearly some effort. If you are lucky enough (like me) to have “colonies” in the garden each year to watch, you’ll notice that some leaf-carrying females have to stop and rest en-route to their nest.

 

There are, as I say, eight (I think) species of leaf cutter bees in the UK.

They are harmless (the females will only sting like all bees if you roughly handle them. You’d really have to squeeze leaf-cutter females for them to sting and males can’t (of course) sting at all.

All non-social bees are as (if not more) useful in terms of pollination (of our crops and flowers) as our more “famous” honey bees and bumblebees.

 

So yes… eight species (of leaf-cutter bee) there are - but probably only three species you’ll encounter regularly, (should you look), especially in the south of England.

 

These are:

Megachile centuncularis (deep orange scopa –scarce in Scotland and Ireland),

M. versicolor (orange scopa – widely distributed throughout the UK) and

M. willughbiella (golden scopa – common all over the UK and Eire).

 

You’ll see them (if you spend as much time as I do outside and look) from early June (after the mason bees have done their business, often) until late August.

But you can do better than that if you’re lucky enough (like us) to have a garden.

Attract them TO your garden.

Just take an empty tin can and fill it with  6 inch lengths of hollow bamboo poles, glued to the inside of the can.

String the ensemble up so that it faces south, catches the full sun (more important for leaf-cutters than mason bees) and ensure that it tips slightly down so that the tubes don’t tend to collect water, should it rain.

Or if you really can’t face all that work (like me!) garden centres sell “bee hotels” these days – for a few quid.

If you do the above - invariably you’ll have beautiful, amusing-to-watch leaf cutter bees carrying about bits of leaf all summer long in your garden.

A win for you and a win for the bees.

 

Easy eh?

 

Easy as ABC. (DE).

 

Or even...

 

“I bees see. (tee-hee)”…..

 

 

 

NB.
As is always the case, all photos on this site are mine. Please contact me if you’d like to know technical details.

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) leaf-cutter bee https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/6/i-bee-see-tee-hee Sun, 29 Jun 2014 14:59:19 GMT
"Tigers about the house"... a necessary evil? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/6/-tigers-about-the-house-a-necessary-evil I wouldn’t normally blog my thoughts on a television programme. Whether I thought it to be wonderful (Natural World’s “My life as a Turkey”) or perhaps less than wonderful (“Springwatch”, perhaps, nowadays).

I’ll break a habit briefly today though, as BBC’s “Tigers about the house” (which ran on BBC2 for the past three nights) has caused something of a “Twitter storm”.

Before I start - I do realise that some (many?) who make it all the way through my blog post below might strongly disagree with me. I have no truck with that. You're quite entitled to be wrong!

 

 

For those reading this who haven’t seen this heavily-previewed programme (yet?), “Tigers about the house” documented the hand-rearing of two Sumatran tiger cubs by Giles - an expat Brit now working in “Australia Zoo” (of Steve Irwin fame) as “Head of exotic carnivores” (think big cats).

As I’ve already written, the series was heavily previewed last week by the BBC with cutesy footage of fluffy tiger cubs rolling about a sitting room, ripping a sofa to shreds and feeding from a baby’s bottle.

Who could resist that?

Not me certainly.

I set the cable hard drive to record the series and was very much looking forward to it – as BBC Nature television programmes often seem to me to be worth the licence fee on their own.

 

We weren’t told during the previews that the series was set in Australia, let alone Australia Zoo but that became pretty obvious after five minutes or so, looking at the blue skies in the first bits of footage, the exotic trees and plants and Giles’ all-too-apparent Australian drawl, meaning that every statement he uttered, (as with most Australians), rose in pitch at the end of the sentence and ended up sounding like a question? (Deliberate question mark). But hey ho.

Steve Irwin has been dead for some time as we know. Killed at the end of the sharp-end of a stingray in 2006. But the “Crocodile hunter” as he became known, was a born communicator and his legacy lives on.

Even though he often divided opinion (I for one was less than comfortable about his methods of sensationalism and jumping on (or handling) anything dangerous – a method which caught up with him in the end) he certainly introduced many to the wonders of the natural world – certainly in terms of exotic, predatory macro fauna such as crocodiles, snakes etc...

I often use his catchphrases myself when describing my (far less exciting?) wildlife encounters. “Croikey! What an ippsaloot byooody” I’ll say if an elephant hawkmoth lands in my moth trap, for example.

He firmly believed that successful conservation began with sharing & broadcasting his fevered excitement for wildlife, rather than preaching to people – and I most certainly think he got that spot on.

 All too often these days “conservationists” glumly look down their snotty little noses at the “rest of us” & point their gnarly fingers at “us” in the name of green science or conservation. 

That just doesn’t work.

In fact it very often has the opposite effect to the one intended.

Please read this guest blog on Mark Avery’s website and then read my second long comment  (beginning "Brian") after it.

Many (most?) “Conservationists” are sadly lacking any character, any sort of “human skills” and are not in the slightest bit media savvy – ultimately very important in the conservation battle. Steve Irwin certainly did not fall into this camp.

But perhaps he shouldn’t have been quite so “hands-on” with the wildlife he showed to the world. Jacques Cousteau had that opinion (amongst many others) and let him know. It was a very unsubtle, unsophisticated conservation strategy for sure (and his knowledge of any bigger picture seemed basic at best) but there’s little doubt he has inspired many people into caring more for wildlife and that must be a good thing.

So....his legacy continues it seems. Perhaps all over the world, but certainly in Australia Zoo, just north of Brisbane.

Is that a good thing? Very possibly.

I’ll try and keep my thoughts brief. That might be difficult!

 

The first programme (of three) began by telling us, the viewing public, that one of Australia Zoo’s adult female tigers was heavily pregnant and about to give birth.

Giles Clark (the head keeper) was present at the (filmed) birth and within a few minutes of the programme starting, two male tiger cubs had been born (on the 22nd August 2013). These cubs were named “Spot” and “Stripe” by Giles, although now I see the zoo has changed their names to “Hunter” and “Clarence”. (Source: Australia zoo website).

“Spot” and “Stripe” were left with their mother for a week or three (the actual length of time was not mentioned on the television programme) and then removed from her. This was despite both cubs and mother appearing to be in good health. Suckling. No rejection. No threat to or from the other (segregated) tigers.

Giles suggested that because these cubs were “so valuable” (in terms of genetic bloodlines for breeding purposes), “to give them the best chance in life, it would be better to hand rear them at his house”, rather than leave them with their mother.

This mantra of “giving them (the cubs) the best chance in life” was repeated throughout all three programmes. I’ll come back to that.

No further explanation was given on the television show. No nod to any previous attempts. No comparisons to other rearing techniques. No research. No evidence at all to back up Giles’ words.

I had originally been expecting a mother die whilst giving birth, a poacher’s gun or a rejection situation to explain why two tigers were being hand raised in a suburban house, from the short trailers last week.

Nope.

None of that.

There was no poacher.

The mother was healthy, attentive and providing antibody-laden milk for her young (as any human mother will tell you – this is all very natural and very important in terms of the health of the young).

The cubs were healthy and suckling.

There was no sniff of rejection.

All seemed perfect.

So why remove the cubs from their mother then?

And why so early?

 

It was allegedly a “tough decision” (quote from BBC nature) but thought “best” for the cubs’ wellbeing – and it was completely glossed over by the television production team. But not by Giles it seems, off screen.

A “tough decision” it really didn’t come across as, on television.

Or if it was, the production team chose not to broadcast any hand-wringing or scratching of heads.

The tigers’ mother was led out for one of her daily walks through the local bush and the cubs were whisked away. When the keepers returned with the mother, there was precious little television time given to the mother’s reaction.

Giles suggested to the camera that “this happens all the time in the wild (predators take cubs etc) and the mothers just get on with it.”

Really?

Tigers of course are cats. Big cats. Mammals. Pretty high up in any evolutionary tree. Sentient mammals at that (despite the nonsensical, ignorant protestations of both devout humanists and religious zealots that often see man as: a) separate to beast and b) the only organism possibly possessing the capability of any sort of human-like emotion(s).

I suspect the mother did (of course) “get on with it” eventually (what choice did she have), but after what might very probably have amounted to an awful lot of “stress” and searching for her missing cubs. She was producing milk for her cubs. Her feline female hormones would have been all over the gaff.

You don’t, no.... you CAN’T just flick a switch in mammals and end all that in heartbeat.

You KEEP producing milk for a while.

Your hormones are still in “post-birthing” mode.

And you are very, VERY protective.

Sexual behaviour, birthing and rearing of young is invariably incredibly dangerous for most animals – and incredibly stressful. The most dangerous and the most stressful time of an animal’s (any animal’s life).

At that particular part of the life cycle both parent and young are at their most vulnerable. Even more stressful perhaps if all that effort and risk comes abruptly to nothing.

For no appreciable reason.

But we got no footage of the mother’s reaction (or lack of) at all. 

Either her behaviour on discovering her cubs would be needing milk but that they’d suddenly gone or changes in her physiological get up, her hormones, her milk production, and her swollen teats.

I wonder why not?

 

But the television programme could at now deliver what it promised us – footage of cutesy tiger cubs being reared in someone’s sitting room.

Only now (within ten minutes or so after the first programme aired), those of us more comfortable with critical thinking and less open to swallowing every piece of information (not) given to us in an unquestioning way, were getting worried.

Angry even.

Hysterical in some cases on social media sites.

 

The question remains.

Why were the healthy cubs removed from their healthy mother? And why so early?

 

Without a proper, protracted televised explanation (probably necessary to try to avoid any potential backlash on social media) many viewers reacted badly.

Understandable.

Predictable even.

 

Was the only reason behind the separation to give the cubs "the best chance in life"? The best chance of survival? In an interview with the BBC, Giles states that globally, a third of captive-bred Sumatran tiger cubs don't make it to adulthood. It was a pity that fact was missed during the broadcast of the shows.

But if anyone should know the facts - Giles should know.

That all said, I certainly watched the remainder of the first programme with a slightly heavier heart than I’d first anticipated.

Sure, it was delightful to see these two tiny tiger cubs play around with human possessions, roll around in front of the cameras, escape from their sitting room “den” and generally invoke lots of “Awwwwwws”...

So was another  reason behind the removal of the cubs from their mother? To get the maximum “AWWWWwwww” factor from the television programme.

Possibly?

Would footage of an adult tiger raising its cubs “naturally” would hold viewers’ attention, as much as footage of another khaki Bermuda-shorts-clad “Crocodile hunter” hand feeding tiger cubs with a baby’s bottle in his own sitting room? 

No is the probable answer.

Sad though that is.

I don’t think the television production company were after huge ratings particularly (I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on that) for their own benefit. 

But the programme has sparked  an upsurge in donations to tiger charities.

21st Century Tiger (a play on 20th Century Fox one assumes) are this week reporting a huge increase in donations as a direct result of the “Tigers about the house” television programme. They’ll not be alone.

So that has to be good, doesn’t it?

Of course it is.

But one wonders whether they might have received a similar upsurge in donations if the television programme concentrated less on “tigers about the house” as opposed to wild tigers in Sumatra – cubs, snares ‘n’ all.

When Giles did head off to Sumatra to see the conservation project that Australia Zoo had allegedly given over 1 million Australian dollars to in the last decade (no evidence of that either), the footage of confiscated snares, tiger skins and bones was truly horrific. That for me was the post powerful part of the programme, but for others I guess, it just added the cherry on the cake – and got them to pick up the phone or turn on their PCs to donate.

 

I don’t think there is much in any argument to suggest most modern day zoos don’t contribute massively to conservation projects, both directly and indirectly.

Australia zoo doesn’t spearhead any conservation project in Sumatra. It’s not setting up new reserves or protected areas. What it does is use funds raised by showing off its performing tigers to add to Sumatra’s tiger conservation coffers.

Performing tigers.

You read that correctly.

They perform to crowds each day. Leaping. Swimming. Splashing. Running. Climbing. For food. Or “enjoyment”.

Many zoological parks these days actively avoid that type of show. Animals are not to be trained to perform. You leave them alone. You don’t even enter their enclosure unless absolutely necessary. I think that’s the type of zoo I’m most comfortable with.

Australia Zoo is not that type of zoo.

But zoos (whether Australia Zoo or not) are not all about conservation or captive breeding.

Obviously not.

They’re businesses like any other.

They’re there to make money.

Be that though regional tourism, or gifts, or just the treat of seeing a wild animal that you couldn’t possibly otherwise.

 

Back to the programme...

In the last programme of the three last night, the cubs were re-introduced to the adult tigers at the zoo (they were too big to keep at home by then).

We noted that the television production team chose NOT to show any footage of the cubs being reintroduced to their mother. We don’t even know if that happened. That’s a shame.

Unfortunately things for “Spot” (“Hunter” now) took a huge turn for the worse with several pretty unsuccessful operations to save both his eyes – afflicted with a congenital cataract problem so the poor thing was.

Last night’s programme was real heart-in-mouth stuff. Awful for the cubs (who had to be separated) and of course “Spot” (“Hunter”) who nearly died in theatre and then even after a long, painful, solo recuperation, lost one of his eyes anyway. Even more heart-rending, powerful stuff for the viewing public though. The footage of the poor tiger cub stopping breathing on the theatre slab. Giles crying. The Disneyfied viewing British public were in a mess watching that. Including me!

Well. Eventually “Spot” (“Hunter”) recovered as best as he was ever going to do, and was reintroduced to his brother. Neither tiger will be released into the wild, but whereas “Stripe” (“Clarence”)  will head off in a year or so to other zoological parks to continue the captive breeding programme, cloudy-eyed “Spot” (“Hunter”) will spend the rest of his days at Australia Zoo, with badly impaired vision.

Best place for him I’d have thought. You KNOW he’ll be looked after, loved and cared for exceptionally well.

 

 

I’m no director of a zoo.

Or a zookeeper. (Though I was once offered a job at London Zoo).

Or an “expert” in conservation.

Or a big cat “expert”.

I’m not even that comfortable with zoos.

But I appreciate that they do provide at least one VERY important function other than captive breeding for “conservation” purposes.

They enable people, particularly young people, to see, in real life, close up, some amazing animals – and often that real life (sometimes even tactile) moment becomes embedded in a human brain – the zoo visitors are FAR more likely to become or remain interested in life other than human life and potentially get directly involved with conservation – or indirectly contribute hard cash.

Money talks.

Sad though that is too.

If you’ve never seen a tiger (other than on television), then there’s no problem is there?

You probably wouldn’t miss them if they were all snared.

Do you miss the Thylacine?

Do you even know what the Thylacine was?

It was known as the “Tasmanian Tiger” and became extinct in the 1930s.

But if you can SEE and perhaps even TOUCH the endangered animals in real life at a zoo or wildlife park (appreciate how wonderful they are and how they are indeed worth saving), then conservation has a chance.

That was Steve Irwin’s technique.

That is what Australia Zoo still believes.

I think they almost certainly have a point.

 

Look. I wish it wasn’t necessary.

I wish I had more faith in the human animal to do better without having to have “touching zoos” as a necessary evil.

But that’s what I think of zoos.

A necessary evil.

Most zoological parks have changed hugely over the last 50 years or so. The animals’ welfare and health is of paramount importance and most zoos do all they can to give all their captive creatures (great and small) a habitat that they might feel comfortable(ish) in.

I don’t doubt for a second that the tigers at Australia Zoo were (are) all in good health (apart from “Spot’s” (or “Hunter’s” now) congenital cataract problem.

I have no doubt at all that all the tiger-keepers do all they can for their captive cats and all the cats seem content at worst.

No. There’s no obvious issue with the welfare of the tigers at Australia Zoo.

I tend to think Giles and his team are doing a marvellous job and I for one, wouldn’t want anyone else to look after a group of captive-breeding tigers.

I also tend to think they probably know more about getting as much money pumped into other groups’ conservation projects as they can.

The best way to get as much money as possible.

The necessary evil way to get and hold attention.

And then money.

Lots and lots of money.

 

I would go as far to suggest that Giles and his team know far more about wallet opening (in the name of conservation) than do the chatterers and critics on social media sites, some of which were screaming for “the zoo to be closed down because it’s rubbish”, yadda yadda yadda.

There were tweets from outraged people from all over the UK during all three shows questioning the tiger expert’s decisions. (Like they knew any better). Citing Giles’ ego as the reason behind the cubs removal (do they know the man?) and worse.

 

Again - It doesn’t please me to admit that possibly the best way to save a species might be to sacrifice (so to speak) a few at a zoo.

It pains me in fact.

These tigers will never be released into the wild after all. They never could be. Despite what unqualified armchair conservationists think.

 

After giving this an awful lot of thought over the last two days, I rather think these “armchair experts” are drawing their own conclusions based on rose-tinted ideology and little else.

No experience in real-world conservation.

Certainly no meaningful big cat knowledge.

But worse than that...

Precious few human skills.

No manipulative, influencing or persuading skills.

Not much to go on at all really.

 

We have to be realistic about all this. We have to be pragmatic. Not sink in dogma.

We need to be pretty hard-nosed and thick-skinned.

Now that mankind has almost eradicated tigers... only man can sort the mess out.

And the more the better.

By media manipulation, or communication or proper management or conservation or protection or simply with cold hard cash.

And in big numbers.

 

Ideally I wish tiger conservation could be done a different way and I do wish the television production company could have better explained (given more time to Giles to explain) why he felt it was necessary to hand rear the tiger cubs rather than leave with their mother for the television show.  I actually think the TV production team missed a trick there - and instead of the inevitable twitter storm that followed the "no explanation", people might have been placated and given even MORE money to tiger charities.

But all power to Giles and his team as far as I am concerned.

 

 

 

Now all this might end badly for wild Sumatran tigers anyway (at current rate of decline, perhaps within a decade).

But Giles, 21st Century Tiger and all the others involved in front-line big cat conservation are certainly better-placed than me (or you?) to make that call.

I might have felt uneasy watching Steve Irwin and for similar reasons Giles Clark, although Giles seems more of a reserved Brit rather than an extrovert Australian "tigger" like Steve Irwin was.

But at least I appreciate that those two men certainly seem(ed) to know how to get people digging in the pockets – and that sort of human skill is (as I’ve said earlier in this post) sadly lacking in many of our glum, finger-waggling, dour, preaching “conservationists” these days.

Depressingly-so.

 

 

“Spot” and “Stripe” (“Hunter” and “Clarence” now at the zoo) might not be the most important Sumatran tigers bred in captivity “because of their wild blood-line” (as was stated repeatedly in the television programme).

But bloodline aside; they might VERY well be even more important than that – the two little tiger cubs that kicked off a real tiger conservation push in Sumatra  - perhaps even enough (eventually) to save their wild brothers and sisters.

They could indeed be the most important Sumatran tigers in the world right now. Not that they could know that of course.

And all because they were the stars of a heavily-criticised television programme called “Tigers about the house”.

 

Good luck to Giles and his team.

Sincerely.

 

TBR.

 

 

Footnote.

If you haven't clicked on several hyperlinks in the blog post above... please click on this one HERE.

It gives a behind the scenes explanation of Giles' decisions (early removal of cubs, reasons why they were hand raised etc...)

It should (perhaps?) silence the social media tweeps, calling for the zoo to close and also for Giles' head.

 

"Tigers about the house" was a must-see mini series.  Do try to watch it on i-player if you can.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) BBC nature BBC2 television tigers about the house https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/6/-tigers-about-the-house-a-necessary-evil Thu, 19 Jun 2014 08:40:29 GMT
A (proper) lunatic's night out....on Friday 13th https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/6/a-proper-lunatics-night-out-on-friday-13th Please note.

Both videos accompanying this post were shot by me on my mobile phone on the night.

(Please watch both to the end - they're very short).

I hope you enjoy this blog.

No nightmares please.....

 

 

It was Friday 13th.

 

I was alone, in the middle of nowhere.

As dusk ended a sticky, still summer’s evening.

But I was being watched.

In a maze of bracken, heather & birch, on the edge of a thick pine plantation and in the shadow of England’s most famous “Lunatic asylum”, unbeknownst to me, something had fixed me in its unblinking, unemotional, inky stare.

 

As the orange sun slipped below the horizon, one pair of shining black eyes became two.

Then three.

All fixed on me.

Intrigued with me perhaps.

An impudent mortal who had foolishly dared to gatecrash their secret gathering under June’s full moon.

The “rose moon”.

 

Only when the unearthly noise started did I turn to face my ghostly, fortean onlookers… and gasped at what I saw…

 

 

 

Now does that read like something out of a horror film?

A really bad horror film perhaps – but even though my above prose is a tad purple and somewhat flowery; all the above actually happened to me this weekend.

 

 

 

Regular visitors to this website’s blog might know that I’ve had a pretty bad couple of years, health-wise.

My wife and I have been living in our current house for nearly three years now - and I always had in mind to do what I did this weekend during that whole time.

But I had never managed to find the energy.

For the majority of these last twenty-seven months or so, for a variety reasons, I couldn’t have even contemplated such an idea – so bagged it and parked it at the back of my mind, for a more suitable time.

 

But this summer I have finally found my strength start to return. My energy levels are almost back to where they were before “the crash”. I still ache, my right hip is pretty-well knackered and I tire very quickly and often without warning still. Tire is an understatement – it’s more like crushing fatigue and very difficult for other to understand.

 

But I’m so much better than I was two years or even one year ago.

I'm nearly back to full health I think.

A real relief.

 

Last Friday, on the 13th June, I finally realised that I could finally do what I had wanted to do since moving to our present house – and to be fair… I couldn’t have timed it better, considering the site I wanted to visit.

Somewhere where many people would really rather not visit.

And certainly not at night.

On their own.

 

I had in mind (for three years now) to visit a large area of lowland heath, consisting of heather, bracken, gorse, birch and pine plantation.

Just a short drive from us.

But also slap bang next to the infamous Broadmoor “lunatic asylum”. (One really should call it a psychiatric hospital these days).

 

So.

The heathland surrounding the “lunatic asylum”.

A full moon (June’s “rose moon”) – perfect for lunatics.

A violent electrical storm predicted for later in the night - the stuff of horror movies.

Even the date fitted the bill.

Friday 13th.

 

 

I guess I’m lucky. I’ve not tended to attract that much trouble in the past and don’t tend to scare easily these days.

Larger than the average bear and blessed with the rugged good looks of Frankenstein’s monster, it would probably take a crazed psychopath to consider taking me on – but one might suspect that the “hospital staff” like to keep a close eye on these type of “patients” at Broadmoor. 

The towering walls, barbed wire and searchlights are there for a reason.

To keep the “patients” INSIDE. (You’d hope, anyway).

 

In my teens, twenties and thirties I’ve spent many, many nights in woodlands, alone, watching badgers or woodcock. I’ve spent nights in graveyards watching stoats and counting glow-worms. The dark and the noises of the night don’t tend to faze me much these days (nights).

That said - I think I would probably soil me shorts (so to speak) if I ever bumped into someone else like me wandering around a heath or wood or graveyard at night – but that’s very unlikely to happen.

Most people actively avoid these places after dark.

Especially those dark woods outside infamous “mental hospitals”?

 

Not me though.

 

Not on Friday gone.

 

I had waited YEARS for this night.

 

But why?

 

Why on earth would a sensible(*cough*) chap like me head off alone as night fell, to a large, dark, maze-like, boggy, heathery heath.

A heath festooned with half-buried tree roots to trip me at every step & thorny gorse bushes to tear my flesh.

A heath full of venomous snakes, huge, fearsome-looking stag beetles, clouds of mosquitos, biting midges & wasp spiders.

A heath overlooked by the foreboding, looming, infamous mental hospital.

As an electrical storm brooded above me and blotted out a lunatic’s moon.

Why?

 

 

One reason.

 

One reason only.

 

Nightjars.

 

I knew there were probably nightjars there.

 

 

Now I had never seen a nightjar.

Never even heard one.

But they’ve always been a creature that I’ve held a certain fascination for.

 

Strange.

Reclusive.

Mysterious.

A bit spooky perhaps?

Certainly unique.

Creatures of the night.

Rarely seen (or heard – unless you’re prepared to do what I do/did).

A bird of course, but almost more like a giant bat, crossed with a toad and a moth.

Dark birds of ill-omen.

Steeped in dark folklore.

Known by many names – the “goatsucker”, the “fern owl”, the “flying toad”, the “churn owl”, the “corpse fowl”, the “night hawk” and the “moth owl” to name but a few.

Utterly fascinating.

Rather like swifts.

At least I’ve always thought so.

 

 

Our nightjar is a summer visitor to our lowland heaths.

They’re on the “red list” as far as avian conservation is concerned as they are scarce (c.4800 males in the UK a few years ago) and are very choosy about their breeding habitat – lowland heath with felled conifers and lots of bracken.

They tend to arrive here in Mid May, if you’re lucky you may hear them courting and displaying in June and they’re gone in August.

 

Their generic scientific name of Caprimulgus literally means “goatsucker” (Capra: goat; Mulgere: to milk) as it was thought for hundreds of years that these uncanny, eerie birds found food by sucking on a goats’ teat.

In Germany they’re known as a “Ziegenmelker” which literally means “Billy-goat milker” (not nanny or female goats mind, male Billy goats… the mind boggles!)

 

Many cultures around the world associate the nightjar with the arcane. Often said to be lost souls, it was also said the incessant churring nocturnal call (produced by the males) will turn those humans unfortunate enough to be walking nearby, utterly mad.

 

You’re unlikely to see a nightjar unless you stumble onto a female sitting on eggs in a clump of bracken on the ground.

Their plumage is a delight of cryptic camouflage – they simply look like dead logs, despite being almost as large as a collared dove – you would literally have to step onto a nightjar before you noticed it.

 

They are crepuscular in nature (hawking for beetles and moths at dawn and dusk) and this is when you might see them – if you go looking for them. They use their excellent vision (large shiny black eyes which reflect like cats’ eyes if torchlight hits them) to locate their flighty prey in the gloom and hoover it up with their large, reptile-like pink mouths. Very much like swifts.

 

Can you see why I find them fascinating now?

 

 

So I headed off to the heath. Alone on Friday evening– in a bid to finally hear and perhaps even see this big, beautiful, bird.

Arguably the most “fortean” of all our birds.

 

 

I certainly was alone in the shadow of Broadmoor on Friday night.

Alone in terms of human company anyway.

 

It was a sticky night – the dor and stag beetles & moths were flying and the air was thick with humidity after another scorching day.

I was on edge, partly through anticipation and also because my wait was occasionally punctuated with startling noises.

The loud bark of a deer behind me in the black woods, the occasional drop of large pine cones onto the carpet of pine needles around me - and the effect a fox had on my heart rate, erupting from a nearby bracken thicket as it did. The night was playing scaredy-cat with me.

But I was there for a reason.

 

 

Nightjars being scarce and protected, I had to ensure I was very careful with my behaviour on the heath. I had slowly found and carefully settled down into a clump of mosquito-infested heather, overlooking a large area of heathland – in the vain hope that I’d see a bird. Or at least hear one. I was silent and still, just like the evening - despite the midges and mosquitos intent on drinking my blood.

 

 

The big-eyed birds had certainly seen me first.

They had been watching me.

Undoubtedly.

 

It was only when I heard the unmistakeable protracted churr start up behind me in near darkness that I realised they were already there.

 

Like a cicada gone berserk.

 

My heart leaped and started beating in time to the breakneck speed of the nightjar’s call (30-40 notes per second it is reckoned) – and I turned my head to make out two silhouettes in a dead tree about 100 yards from my heathery hide.

And as I watched, another male nightjar danced over the heather in front of me like a giant black moth and wing-clapped.

 

What a beautiful sound!

What an incredible sight!

 

I slowly (but very excitedly!) retreated under the canopy of a large Scots pine to avoid any chance of disturbing these incredible creatures and listened to these birds for a good half an hour, before it really was too dark to see (or even find my way off the heath – the full moon had been hidden by the gathering storm clouds by then and the first few drops of rain has begun to fall).

 

Twenty minutes later, I was back in the car, having left the “corpse fowl” to it, on their dark heath.

I drove past the hulking shape of Broadmoor, grinning maniacally as the first murmurings of the night’s huge thunderstorm (to come) rumbled deeply overhead & the dark sky began to flash periodically with sheet lightning.

It was all I could do to resist throwing my head back and giving a large “MWAH AH AH AH AAAAH!” as I drove home.

 

 

 

A Friday 13th to remember.

 

A real lunatic’s night out.

 

And I shall certainly return.

 

Would you?

LightningLightning

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) nightjar https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/6/a-proper-lunatics-night-out-on-friday-13th Sun, 15 Jun 2014 15:00:27 GMT
My little LAM. A sappy obituary. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/6/my-little-lam-a-sappy-obituary (Please note in the blog post below, ALL photos (as always on this blog) were taken by me. All were taken from the car (with a remote trigger) or of the car).

 

 

As I mentioned on social media the other day, I have bought a new (old) car, which means the marriage between one of the loves of my life, my old Skoda and myself is now, coming to an end – something which actually makes me quite sad.

 

Contrary to some peoples’ impression of me, (generally people who have first met me in the last 10 years or so  - I took my driving test later than most), I’ve always loved cars and always been interested in them. I love driving and I suppose get quite attached to possessions (including cars now) that have served me well. I do also tend to refer to vehicles (be they boats or cars etc...) as females (like many others, there’s a sensible reason behind that – at least I think so).

Some may think that’s silly. Understandable I guess – cars are just bits of metal, plastic and glass I guess. They aren’t living are they?

 

 

I suppose I know a little about cars (a general interest given to me by my father I assume, who was in the motor trade all his working life) and I chose the Skoda very carefully.

As part of the VW group for a good few years now, the 2003 Skoda Fabia 1.9 TDi “elegance”  hatchback was (as far as I was concerned) always a pretty canny choice for a run-around.

With one of the best VW engines around (still is I think) the 1.9TDi (which was put in EVERYTHING for years) and top of the range Fabia trim (“elegance” means heated seats, air con, rear parking sensors etc), it was always going to be reliable AND fun.

Oh sure, she was a 2003 diesel, so she rattled a bit. I called her my little LAM. A small hatchback but with LOADS of room inside for her new 6’2” driver (much more so than comparable Polos or Golfs) and a big engine in such a small car.

The performance figures weren’t legendary, but I am still averaging over 50MPG in an 11 year old diesel with her – and I tend to drive quite aggressively. As with all diesel engines, low rev torque was always fantastic – even if you ran out of revs pretty quickly.

 

 

Well... my little LAM has nearly done 150,000 miles now. I doubt whether I’ll take her to that magical figure, but I think someone will. (I almost hope I do to be honest – just another 2500 miles to go which as far as my average miles per month is concerned is only another 2 months ish).

She probably has up to another 75,000 miles in her (often the beauty of these diesel engines) but she has developed a few niggly faults which are quite common in older VW group cars (polos, golfs and fabias especially) and it’s heart in mouth time these days each time I take her for the MOT each February.

 

The main issue she has (she always has) is a tendency to at best trickle charge the battery thanks to a faulty alternator, or more likely a dodgy DFM wire. This is a VERY common problem in older VW group hatchbacks – and means the battery drains very quickly (as its not charged efficiently during any run).

I have to run her each day, and quite hard, in a bid to get some sort of charge into the battery and even then, especially in winter when car batteries drain quickly and hold less charge anyway, she struggles to find enough charge to get the starter motor turning as well as everything else. The everything else specifically (in my LAM) means the electrical motor for the power steering – very often a warning light comes on after starting  - and that is enough to fail an MOT it seems? There’s nothing wrong with the power steering of course – you just turn the motor off, turn it off again (like all IT geeks will tell you) and 9 times out of 10, the whole car is charged – enough to ensure the power steering comes on as planned also.

But the fix is quite expensive. If I’m right and it’s just the DFM wire, then that would be expensive enough (with labour factored in) but the alternator might be inefficient by now too.

Then there’s the fact that the bushes have all been replaced twice, but the suspension is still old and complaining a little.

Add to that the fact that the 12V power supply fuses regularly and the electric windows occasionally do what they want (another common problem on older fabias I hear).

Then there’s the far side headlights which always seem to be the ones that blow – in this age and model of car, you need hands half the size of mine to slip a bulb out from between the very forward placed battery and the cover to the light cluster. I have managed it twice, but only by ripping the back of my hands to shreds and putting my back out once. (I daren’t take the battery out as I’ve lost the radio code years ago).

Her exhaust is going.... it’s not seriously corroded, but think it will need replacing in a year or two, I can definitely feel some give in the clutch these days and I’m pretty sure most of her filters are filthy. I can “hear” that is probably the case.

Finally, my little LAM doesn’t half squeak and bounce on the road. She has a bit of a road rash, but that’s only visible if you put your nose on the bonnet or front bumper. The driver’s seat springs are pretty knackered now and as I’ve said, the suspension is pretty old and tired plus there’s a little play in the rack (but I can’t feel that yet through the steering so we’re ok for now).

All in all – and I could potentially spend over a thousand pounds getting all these niggles sorted this year – and that would make her a write off really, even though, like I’ve said, I think someone could possibly get another 75,000 miles or so from her (that’s at least 5 years good driving).

I’ve made her sound like a right dog haven’t I? But that’s certainly not how I’ll remember her.

 

 

She was the first car I actually owned (you always look back to your first (anything) fondly don’t you?!), she’s been a real trooper, never let me down mechanically and she and I have seen many, many things together over the years.

 

She’s acted as a mobile hide for me as we’ve both watched barn owls and little owls. She's given me opportunities to take different kind of shots from the "cockpit". (The last of the series below was taken in the Hindhead tunnel using a longgggg exposure as I drove through): 

She’s taken me across fields to rural sluice gates; I’ve driven her through snow and ice (she’s always been sure footed), fords and floods:

 

She’s seen many, many sunrises with me, witnessed the famous Burnham beeches autumn colour spectacle:

and carried my owl ladder without complaint or fuss. She’s provided light for me to watch fox cubs play on local country roads and shelter (and warmth – I’ve loved her heated seats!) for me when clouds burst above my head when I was photographing local wildlife:

 

She’s idled along with me as I’ve picked up toads from the local toad crossing each February or March :

and swerved around rabbits, pheasants and pigeons with no issue at all. She’s also ferried my son around also – to nursery or to our family walks in the countryside as well as belting out “banging toons” from my iPod or from the (excellent) radio – ‘toons’ from the New Christy Minstrels, through Capercaille and the Charlie Daniels Band, through Barry White and Kool and the Gang... all the way to the Velvet Underground, Whitesnake and ACDC.

 

I’ve had (touch wood) no accidents at all in her. Not even a scuff. The closest I’ve been is when we ran over a dead badger on the M4 at dawn one day, which had been frozen solid (by ice and rigormortis) which loosened her drip tray a little. There was one other time outside Sunbury when a BMW driver (isn’t it always) decided to turn slowly across my line of travel, which meant we had to violently accelerate and swerve hard  - but rather like when I jumped out of a plane once and my parachute didn’t open properly – I always felt I was in control. My LAM did exactly what I wanted, at the exact time I wanted her to.

 

Then of course she was a lot of fun to drive. A hell of a lot of fun. Many people look at Fabias and automatically think of old “gunters” behind the wheel, incapable of driving quickly or safely and not blessed with a good all round vision. 

It was often a surprise for fat, chauvinistic BMW and AUDI drivers when that old gunter turned out to be me behind the wheel in a car blessed with a pretty big (but subtly big) engine that could very often outstrip them and outdrive them.

We’ve witnessed at least two wide-eyed, slack jawed BMW drivers on our travels together – both tediously hell bent on teaching this assumed old boy in his old Skoda a lesson.

Both backed down when I lowered the electric window and gave them a look of steely contempt.  Most of these aggressive, male German car drivers seem to be compensating for something I think. I wonder what?!

 

Sure, she was never a Ferrari. But her gearbox was a delight (as far as old diesel gearboxes go), her clutch was just right, as was her steering and I could throw her around like a go cart. She certainly had more poke than most people realised – and she still does.

 

I love being in control of a car. I love selecting gears – I love the feeling of control (and to quote that walking turd Jeremy Clarkson briefly) POWER.  The greatest driver I’ve ever known was my father. He once drove me across the entire Scottish borders and demonstrated how to drive quickly and safely without going near the footbrake. Just selecting the right gear at the right time and making use of engine braking. It was very impressive and I’ve since learned to do the same quite often. I am often bemused and amused by the drivers ahead of me leaning on their brakes in top gear and only selecting a lower gear when they eventually grind to a halt. I like to think I drive better than that and treat my car(s) better. I’ll miss my manual gearbox massively in my new (old) car and will have to drive my wife’s car regularly to get that feeling of control back.

Back to my LAM. She was a canny choice and a fun choice and if money was no real object I’d probably look to something similar in the future – just something a little bigger, like an Octavia or even a Superb. Of course if money was no object at all I’d look to a new(ish) Landrover Defender with a Jaguar F type or an Alfa Romeo as a run around!

 

My father-in-law remarked a few months ago when he looked at my LAM parked in front of the house that “you’ve looked after your car well Doug haven’t you?”

I guess I have. I might drive quite aggressively in her, but I’ve always treated (and driven, dare I say) her well, kept her clean and looked after her, and as I type (touch wood) I’ve had no incidents in her, other than a small chip in the windscreen when a bolt from a lorry ahead worked loose on a dual carriageway in Hampshire and smashed into my LAM’s windscreen.

 

And now, as her time with me comes to an end.... I know I’ll miss her.

Dreadfully I think.

I do love driving. I adore hitting the country lanes at dawn each weekend with her and just driving. I take great pleasure from the whole driving experience. Whilst I know it is for many others, for me driving is NOT just getting from A to B.

I enjoy the experience. I really do. Even in an eleven-year old diesel Skoda!

 

I take delivery of my new (old) car tonight. A big estate car that’s only two years younger than the LAM, but unlike my LAM, this new (old) car is a petrol-fuelled Vauxhall with automatic transmission. It also has a smaller engine (just) than my LAM and is heavier. ON the upside, it has FAR more room (it’s an estate after all), will start even in the coldest winters, unlike my LAM which needs some help occasionally and the recent MOT certificates have no advisories at all.

All that and the fact that I’m getting it for a steal to be honest. I’m getting it for possibly less than I’d spend on getting my LAM back to how she should be. Put it this way – if I don’t get on with this new (old) car, I could probably sell  it for over double what I’m buying it for – it’s that much of a good deal.

But.

The new (old) car is a bit of a lump. A heavy, grey, slow lump. Dull as dishwater (I mean REALLY dull) with automatic transmission (not much poke and limited overtaking capability at least compared to my LAM) and pretty thirsty when it comes to petrol also.

 

Now - I’m no spring chicken any more. And I have a wee son to ferry about, safely and in a dull, uneventful fashion. So maybe this is the right time to effectively buy a big grey bus. And I’m sure the bus will do me proud and grow on me.

 

And as for my little LAM.

Well.

I might run her until her tax runs out (August) but then very probably it will be time to say goodbye.

I took her on a drive yesterday around her old stomping ground - and really did feel quite sad about ending our time together.

One thing that popped into my head yesterday -

She has never seen the sea you know.

Maybe before I send her off to the great big Skoda graveyard in the sky, I’ll take her to the seaside.

We’ll see....

For now, I think the first verse of Sinatra’s karaoke classic sums up my feelings for my LAM and this is how I’ll end this post....

 

“And now.

The end is near.

And so I face.

The final curtain.

My friend.

I’ll say it clear.

I’ll state my case.

Of which I’m certain.

I’ve lived.

 A life that’s full.

I’ve travelled each

and ev’ry highway (especially the A329M, M4 and M3)

And more.

Much more than this.

I did it..... myyyyyyyyy waaaaaaaaay......”

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) RIP Skoda obituary https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/6/my-little-lam-a-sappy-obituary Tue, 03 Jun 2014 14:54:04 GMT
Stag night. (I've been.... THUNDERSTRUCK!) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/6/stag-night-ive-been-thunderstruck Sometimes I feel incredibly fortunate.

Sure, I love being outside, do like my wildlife and do try to make our garden as “wildlife-friendly” as possible, within the limitations of keeping day-time wandering cats and free-range hens. (The hens are the issue with wildlife-friendly gardens by the way, rather than the cats, but that’s a topic for another blog post).

 

I try to provide habitats for many things. Be that nesting birds including swifts (of course), nesting mason, bumble and mining bees, food plants for big moths and a pond with pond-side meadow for many, many aquatic and semi-aquatic organisms.

 

These habitats are developing. They’re work in progress (we’ve only been in the house with this large garden less than three years as I type), but they’re progressing well. Very well in the case of the pond which I dug in last February – that is a real success in our garden.

 

But sometimes I get lucky.

 

Very lucky.

 

We bought this house and large garden in the summer of 2011 from an old widow who wanted to downsize.

It’s really nothing special – a 1953 built ex council semi-detached on the northern fringes of Bracknell, very close to large swathes of Berkshire countryside. I fell in love with the garden straight away – it had huge potential, and after giving the house a cursory glance over (and survey) we did the deal. For me based on the garden alone!

 

We’re discovering things in the garden every year and realised pretty soon after moving in that there was  a large rotting eucalyptus stump buried in the clay borders (its ALL clay our “soil” – Monty Don banging on about how poor his soil is in Hereford knows nothing about poor-draining clay soil!).

 

I was brought up in the chalky Chiltern hills of South Buckinghamshire, where stag beetles were far more thin on the ground  than in the more London clay soils and it wasn’t until my wife and I moved to a tumbledown house in clay-based South Reading several years ago that I even had set eyes on a stag beetle.

Stage beetle on Anne's hand. READING. 2010.

 

Now I know a little bit about wildlife; know that stag beetles (the gurt big ones, not the lesser stag beetles) love buried rotting wood and also know that they prefer clay rather than chalk substrate.  See the distribution map of stag beetles HERE.

 

I was very sad to leave our old house and garden in Reading and wondered if we’d left all the wonderful wildlife behind – including the stag beetles.

 

Would this rotting stump buried in clay soil 10 miles away from our last house provide us with the ultimate British summer-time beetle - the incredible stag beetle?

 

I didn’t have long to find an answer to that particular question – the summer of 2011 showed us that there were stag beetles in that stump – both lesser stag beetles AND gurt big stag beetles.

 

Wonderful news!

 

Since that summer three years ago, my wife and I (and soon my son I hope, when he’s old enough to stay up through a summer’s dusk) have been treated to yearly sightings of these majestic (and I use that word majestic very carefully) beetles.

Stag beetle on my hand. Bracknell. 2014.

The battle I have with these beetles is to protect the developing grubs (they’re underground for 3-7 years before they develop into flying adults, a part of their life cycle that only lasts a few weeks) from our free range hens.

 

Our hens LOVE to scrabble in the borders – and you can imagine what they thought of this rotting pile of buried wood – stuffed it seemed with large, juicy stag beetle grubs.

 

Last year I cut down a large, mature hornbeam in the front garden because it had been dead since we took on the house and also to provide better access for swifts to my swift boxes on the gable end of our semi-detached.

Instead of binning or burning the resulting pile of turkey-tail fungus-encrusted logs – I carried them into the back garden and piled them all on top of our buried eucalyptus stump and roots.

 

This has had the effect of creating a lovely wildlife habitat and shelter for all kinds of wee beasties AND protects the buried stump below from the attention of our hens.

 

It’s worked magnificently I think – but the only reason it has worked as far as the stag beetles are concerned is that they were there in the buried, rotting stump before we moved in. I doubt the old widow even knew they were there – but I thank her for not getting rid of the stump. She’s done us proud in this respect at least.

Last night Anna and I were treated to not one, not two, but THREE male stag beetles flying clumsily around our log pile and eucalyptus stump.

This warm spring (unlike last year remember?) has brought out the big beetles in numbers it seems – we’ve had many cockchafers in the garden in May and also daily visits by the stunning rose chafers.

But the stag beetles knock those chafers into a cocked hat I think.

 

The adult male stag beetle (9cm) can be up to twice as long as for example a common pipistrelle bat (4.5cm), although admittedly the bat has much longer wings and is a master of the sky, whereas the beetle is awfully clumsy in the air.

 

They’re pretty fearsome-looking beasts with their huge “antlers” but docile as you like – gentle giants for sure – but looking like that, you can imagine they’ve picked up many reputations over the centuries and many names.

 

My favourite name for the stag beetle is the “thunder beetle” – it was thought they used to summon thunder and lightning (emerging on humid, still, warm, summer nights, you could understand why I guess).

 

The adult males fly in noisy, clumsy circles around their territories (our wood pile in this case) on warm, still early summer evenings in the SE of England (mainly) and last night was no exception down here.

 

I was rushing about the garden with two cameras and a torch, as male stag beetles bumbled noisily and clumsily around my head, crashing into the fence occasionally or into our border plants.

I was almost oblivious to the bats flying around the garden with the stag beetles and certainly oblivious to the giant mosquitoes which I see today have covered my legs (it was a “short shorts day” yesterday here) in very itchy bites.

 

I should point out that in the covering photo to this blog (heading the blog and posted again below); I had not “posed” the stag beetle. We had rescued it from our conservatory (it had flown in there by mistake), popped it on the garden table and it immediately adopted a very aggressive/defensive stance. I took a photo, it dropped down onto all six legs, opened its elytra (wing cases) and took off like a helicopter piloted by a drunk to continue its territorial flights.

Stag night

 

I got a few photos (as you can see by this post) and a video HERE (taken with my phone) – please watch to the end to see this beetle take off from the fence – and very nearly smash me in the face.

(Both it and I were fine by the way – thanks for asking).

 


Well. I was certainly thunderstruck yet again last night by these thunder beetles (which gives me a chance to link to my favourite ACDC track – a track that “fits” these beetles nicely!)

 

And I hope we continue to be thunderstruck for many years to come.

 

 

 

 

 

Footnote.

I see the BBC Wildlife Magazine this month  (Kate Bradbury in this instance) has produced a great piece on these beetles, with the help of “bugman” Richard Jones so if you want to find out more about these superb beetles, please buy a copy now (it’s the  “Summer Special” BBC Wildlife with the red-eyed tree frog on the cover.

 

Alternatively, click HERE or  most certainly....HERE!

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) stag beetle https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/6/stag-night-ive-been-thunderstruck Mon, 02 Jun 2014 08:38:46 GMT
TV or not TV. That is the question. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/5/tv-or-not-tv-that-is-the-question There was a time in the past when television schedulers and production companies provided far fewer programmes of interest in the ‘summer’, anticipating that perhaps the Gurt Bwitish public would be outside, sunning themselves under milky, blustery skies or incinerating sausages on barbecues, instead of being slumped into a sofa, fat cat on lap, mug of PG tips in hand, watching yet another detective or costume drama on the Beeb.

 Incidentally, that (barbecue) is the correct way to spell the word. “Barbeque” (commonplace these days on pub car park blackboards etc) would be pronounced “barbeck”, and that just wouldn’t be the same.

Even though the weather in the southeast of England for the last week or so hasn’t exactly been “summery”, if TV companies are still running to “seasons”, I suppose the summer season has now started on our goggleboxes?

But I’m not sure.

I’m not sure because:

 a) I don’t know if the old seasonal “rules” still apply these days to TV schedules &

b) The live footage on our old portable TV in the conservatory (from various nest cameras in the garden and house) means there would be little on the box to interest me more than the ACTUAL stuff happening in our back garden and being filmed by me, LIVE.

Why would I spend any of my free time watching a miserable soap opera (“leave it aaaaat Phil. Eee ain’t werf itttt”) or another blummin cookery show (who on earth do celebrity chefs think they are?!) on the box when there’s so much more drama, intrigue and action in the birds’ nests / pond / sky / garden in general right now.

And like I’ve mentioned, I have set up a few live video feeds from birds’ nests straight into our old conservatory portable TV, for a privileged insight into the birds’ nesting behaviour.

Of course, I do watch some TV programmes. I’ve recently upgraded our cable TV package to include all sky sports. For good reason. At least I think so.

For someone like me, the summer also means a lot of sport on the box. Even the home nation rugby summer tours are televised on SKY over the summer, so “my” rugby season is 12 months long, give or take and then there’s the golf, tennis, Canadian dwarf-tossing championships etc... So I will get my “fix” of TV... even if it’s almost all sport coverage (minus the football world cup this summer – I’d rather watch my toenails grow than watch that televised prima-donnas’ cheat-fest).

But back to the nests and the weather! (I’ll leave the Poplar hawk moths, the cockchafers, the rose chafers, stag beetles, tadpoles, herons, kites, fox cubs, barn owls and little owls for another post....)

 

Weather for the last few weeks.

I’ve said before (I’ll no doubt say again) that blogs which dwell on weather tend to bore me rigid. But this month at least, the weather deserves a mention as it has been a little topsy-turvy. A little up and down. And that has had a definite effect on my wildlife sightings.

May will go down on record as being very wet. Certainly for the SE of England. MUCH wetter than normal. Perhaps the wettest in some parts of SE England for decades. But that doesn’t tell the whole story.

Up until the third week of May, the weather down here was pretty good. Often very sunny and warm. I know I spend much of my free time outside, peering at the sky or into undergrowth, so I often have a sun tan from April to September and this year is no different. Then the third week of the month arrived and all changed.

The jet-stream “broke” (AGAIN!) and we’ve had a strange set of fronts coming in from the east. We’ve had bucket loads of rain, hail and blustery winds. In fact for five out of the last seven days (as I type) we’ve had pretty-well constant rain.

A wee look at the jet stream forecast suggests (despite hysterical headlines in the usual rags – the Express, the Mail telling us we’re going to have a 6 week heat wave (from Mid May they both said)) the jet stream looks pretty broken until mid June at the earliest. Oh sure we’ll get the odd nice warm, sunny day, but the general picture for now looks unsettled. At best.

 

Swifts.

Regular visitors to this blog will know of my obsession with swifts. I will attempt not to bore you too much on this subject (I know, I know), but I should give you a quick update on these magnificent birds.

I was hoping for nesting swifts this year, and have provided 7 nesting spots, all with mini HD video cameras inside and after the last two years of having prospecting swifts each day in the summer, checking out our house, I thought we had a good chance this year of getting a prospector to actually nest.

Not so I’m afraid.  I’m pretty disappointed to be honest.

I’ve played my swift call CD (expertly edited by my father-in-law) dawn and dusk and we’ve had a few swifts knock around the area for a while, but no serious prospecting let alone nesting.

Around the 20th May, a pair of swifts did seem rather keen to check out the noise coming from the CD player and even screamed back at the recordings a few times. But unlike the last two years, where we had two or three screamers and bangers (alighting on our walls), we have had nothing on that level yet.

For sure we’ll get no breeders this year – almost all swift eggs are laid by the middle or end of May, but I really hope we get some serious prospecting again in June, when younger, non-breeding swifts prospect for nest sites next year.

If we don’t get that, I fear my “swift clock” will have to be restarted. When we moved to this town 3 years ago, I predicted that it would be five years before I got “my” swifts back nesting with us. Even though things seemed to be progressing ahead of schedule for the last two years, the lack of serious prospecting this year has meant that I think it may STILL be ANOTHER 5 years before I get the best bird of all back with us. I’m not sure if we’ll even be in the same house, or town, or area of the UK by then.  So it’s pretty depressing really.

That said, of course I’ll continue to play the CD, cross my fingers and hope for more activity and “better” weather in June. I see a couple of swifts over the house most days still, but this year has been a weird one for swifts and sightings of swifts.

The weather this May means the swifts have been coming and going much more than normal. Swifts generally arrive and stick around if the weather suits them (and doesn’t constantly knock their insect food out of the sky) but this month the swifts have been moving around a lot. Avoiding the downpours. They have been feeding elsewhere a lot of the time – and potentially prospecting elsewhere also. Further north and further west I’d think.

Anyway... enough (for now) on swifts. What about the real activity in nest boxes? The “success stories”?

 

Starlings.

This year, in April, pair of starlings took up residence in my soffit swift nesting space, despite me insisting to them that they really shouldn’t. I gave up after a while, figuring I’d provided enough spots for swifts should they arrive and the starlings promptly left me a “box of chocolates” all over the patio (as a thankyou present I guess) and promptly bred.

I had (still have) a mini HD video camera recording all activity in the soffit nest – and Anna and I witnessed the hatching of four starling eggs and development of the young.

Mid-way through development, the smallest chick, the “runt of the litter”, died (it was out fought for its parents’ attention and offerings of food), got trampled and cr@pped on, and eventually was dragged out of the nest by the adult female and thrown to the patio below.

Three nestlings were successfully raised from then on – and all three fledged several weeks ago. A good result I’d say.

It took the parents less than two days to start again in the nest. Starlings often have multiple broods in a season, especially if they get off to a good start and this occurred in our soffit this year.

A HUGE second nest was built on the first nest and the female duly laid more eggs. At least three eggs hatched (difficult to be sure because of all the nesting material in front of the camera lens) and the parents fed all the young for about 8 days.

Then suddenly an abrupt end.

After the wettest May day for many years here (constant rain for 20 hours or so), it was clear that the 8 day old nestlings weren’t a) making any noise b) moving in the nest c) being visited by the parents with food.

So what had happened?

A few days investigation led me to believe that the adult female died suddenly on that very wet May day.

How?

Who knows?

Perhaps she was nabbed by one of the local sparrowhawks. Or a cat. Perhaps she had been cleft in twain by a model helicopter’s rotor blade or flown into a window pane at speed? Or perhaps she had simply expended so much energy in breeding this year, got soaked through and utterly exhausted - & simply dropped dead.

What was clear though is that she died and the developing young, still pretty featherless, weren’t warmed by her on one night, or fed by her. The adult male would not have brooded his young overnight and probably returned to the nest in a confused, agitated state (as much as starlings can be confused and agitated), and stopped (on his own) trying to feed nestlings that were either dead or dying.

The dead nestlings are still in the soffit (I should remove what’s left come the autumn I guess) and the adult male still sits on next door’s rooftop TV aerial,  singing rather quietly. Very sad.

But at least the pair managed to successfully fledge three young this year. Starling numbers have crashed spectacularly over the past 10 years or so (no-one knows why), so they need our “help” every bit as swifts do.

All in all though, a bit of a sad end really to a good start to these birds’ breeding season. And all this hidden story we were privileged to watch on a portable TV from inside the house. Without a mini cam in the soffit space we’d have had no idea what went on in our roof, from April until mid May this year. We’d have missed the whole thing. The successful first brood and the sad second. All of it.

Now there are some people (perhaps reading this?) who might (I doubt it) see a starling sing quietly on a TV aerial and think nothing of it. It’s just a bird. Who cares what type? Who cares about any life story associated with that bird? Who gives a monkeys?

What an incredibly dull approach to (other) life I’d say.

 

 

Blue tits.

My sister and brother-in-law kindly gave me a blue tit box for a birthday present a few years ago. With another mini camera inside! (I’m not obsessed or anything – honest guv!).

I nailed it to the back wall of the garden (a row of garages) and hoped that something would take a fancy to it. But nothing did for a couple of years.

Until this year.

Our hen run is located at the back of our large garden, next to this wall of lock-ups, and in April this year it became obvious to me, when letting our free range hens out each morning, that a pair of blue tits had become very interested in the tit box.

Long story short and my wife and I were treated to a constant live feed of blue tits nesting, piped into our conservatory control centre portable TV (where all my mini HD video cameras’ cables lead) – a real treat for us, as my wife wanted to see the inside of a blue tit nest ever since they first nested with us, when we moved back out of London into a two-up two-down rented house in the middle of Reading some seven or so years ago.

Our “wall blue tits” this year were up against it though. I had sited the box pretty poorly to be fair. Accessible for cats slinking along the lock-ups’ asbestos roofs behind the garden, and to squirrels, and to woodpeckers (I hadn’t put a metal plate around the entrance hole to deter these pretty, piebald predators).

So my April and May were spent erecting makeshift chicken wire predator fences along the garage roofs and shooing away any cats, squirrels and woodpeckers. I had to make “fence alterations” each night (as the local cats became quite determined to break my defences) and to be honest, after the 6 nestlings inside the box started to peep peep peeep noisily; I didn’t give them much hope.

I figured that eventually a cat would just sit by the box (or ON the box), the parents would abandon.... and that would be that.

The local male great spotted woodpecker was becoming determined too, with each day the nestlings grew and made more and more noise. I couldn’t watch the box all day of course (I was at work!), but I did my best to repair any damage done by his dagger like beak which was regularly hammering around the box.

I knew pretty-well exactly when the tits would fledge, if they made it that far. On the 22nd or 23rd May. (It’s always around 20 days for blue tits to fledge, from hatching).

And so it happened. On the evening (yes... evening) of the 22nd May, five of the six tits all fledged in an hour, as dusk fell. I actually missed that moment as my wife and I were having our tea and I’d written off a fledge at that time of day.

But fledge they did, or all bar one anyway – leaving the smallest, runtiest nestling all alone in the box on the night of the 22nd/23rd May.

Now for many years I always thought of myself as a pretty stoic sort of person, especially where wildlife was concerned. I sigh each time Simon King (or whoever) chooses to give names to animals or birds that they film. The constant anthropomorphising of animals (often by TV conservationists) makes me quiver with shame and I’ve always rejected that path to arouse a nascent curiosity towards wildlife in others or young,  perhaps budding biologists.

But this tiny blue tit, all alone in the box, did pull at my heart strings.

Its brothers and sisters had gone. All it had known for the last twenty days was a small, dark box, with a round hole of daylight ahead, surrounded by 5 other blue tits and being visited by its parents with food.

Suddenly it was alone. No siblings around. No visits from the parents. In fact, no sign nor sound of other tits, parents or siblings.

I started to wonder what (if anything) was going on in its mind. Do blue tits have a “mind”. Or is everything instinctive?

I watched it for a good two hours in the box that night and hoped the parents would return at dawn the next morning, to lure it out of its shelter with the offer of a tempting caterpillar.

The next morning came and I needn’t have worried.

Back came a parent and the last blue tit, the smallest, least developed blue tit hopped out of the box into a small bush nearby. It clearly had trouble flying and I watched as it fluttered around on the ground – tiny and pretty helpless still.

When the runty fledgling fluttered into our chicken run I had to act quickly. I try not to “play god” with wildlife, but our hens are hardly natural British predators (they’re jungle fowl originally after all) and rushed into the run to rescue the tit. If I hadn’t have acted that way, our hens would have CERTAINLY pounced on the poor thing and torn it apart – they’re like bleedin’ dinosaurs, hens – and will happily wolf down frogs, mice and small birds (as well as every single insect they can).

The tiny tit, not much bigger than a squash ball sat on my index finger and I popped it on a high branch of a cherry tree. I retreated and hoped the parents would hear it and still feed it. They did of course, and it wasn’t much longer before the little runty fledgling had hopped onto the garage roofs and out of sight.

Later that day I was keen to know what had happened to it and its siblings and spent a lot of time in the garden listening for them and watching trees and bushes. I know very well that day old fledglings don’t tend to go too far (they still need to be fed by their parents as well as practice flying – and do both quite noisily).

I was absolutely delighted to see all six fledglings, including the runt, fly back into and around the garden and be fed by both parents – something I’d been quite worried about – I hadn’t seen nor heard the young for almost a day.

I never thought I would have reacted that way – with such delight (and something akin to pride I think) at the sight of these little, yellow balls of fluff peep peep peeping around our garden. Maybe parenthood has changed my outlook on such things? Perhaps.

A week has passed since the runt fledged and I’ve seen them once or twice since. Not six young any more (I guess a few succumb to magpies or cats etc) but it still delights me to see them back. I think I’ve become a big softy!

It’s very different with swifts (I know much more about swifts nesting behaviour than blue tits, strange though that may sound as everyone seems to have been watching blue tits nest for years now).

Swifts get their young to fledge by leaving them in the nest for a day (no food visits at all), returning at dusk, completely ignoring the insistent squeaking and wing fluttering of the young, whereby the young birds get the idea pretty quickly and leap out of the nest.

This is a HUGE leap for them though. Much more than passerines (perching birds). When a young swift takes its first leap from the nest, it has to learn to fly, eat and bathe in the air, all alone. There is NO parental care at all. No mother to feed it. No father to guide it back to sub Saharan Africa for the winter. It must find its own way there. They’re little machines, swifts. Which makes them all the more fascinating for me.

But there’s no chance for any “emotion”. The adults return. Ignore the young. The young leave and that’s that. They’re gone. For perhaps two or three years of CONSTANT flight. If they are lucky and survive that long (2-3 years) they should find their way (ALONE) back to the nest site in which they were born, and they MIGHT then bump into any of their siblings and perhaps much older parents. But that’s that. Quite incredible.

Tits on the other hand – well.... yes, our box of blue tits this year were very different, took a lot of effort from me and are probably still causing the adults a lot of effort!

A real privilege (again) to watch. At least for me and my wife.

 

 

Now of course through all of this... all of the starlings’ successes and ultimately sad failure, through the blue tits' trials and tribs, through the constant frustrations of attracting swifts to our house - I could have watched TV instead.

"Man vs Food" maybe.

Or "Celebrities do cake baking". Or "knitting". Or "falling off a diving board".

Or "Strictly Pop factor on ice got talent (get me out of here)".

Or another maverick cop bucking the bent system in downtown Philly.

ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

 

There really is no comparison is there, grapple fans?

 

Footnote.

Thanks to Mike and all at Handykam for providing me with all my min HD video cameras over the past few years. 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) blue tit starling swift tv weather https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/5/tv-or-not-tv-that-is-the-question Fri, 30 May 2014 15:44:31 GMT
Sound familiar? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/5/sounds-familiar All photos in the blog below were (of course) taken by me, but not on the morning I describe.

 

 

 

Sound familiar?

 

Bill Oddie states that he hears 90% of birds before he sees them.

Now anyone who knows me personally might also know what I generally think about Bill Oddie, but I do know what I think he meant by that assertion. Either that or his hair (I’m just jealous of course) gets in his little eyes.

But what with “Dawn Chorus Day” falling on Sunday morning (just gone), I thought I’d write a blog post on the subject of birds and sound.

This (and certainly my previous) blogging forum concentrates almost entirely on vision – “Where I’ve been. What I’ve seen” and I’m always banging on to people about using their eyes properly. LOOKING at things, rather than just SEEING.

But what about listening too? Rather than just hearing.

There are a few birds I’ll hear almost invariably before I see them. A list of obvious examples might include:

·      Redwing (“tseeping” overhead in the night sky before appearing as if by magic on fields and in gardens the following morning) 

·      Kingfishers (often surprisingly-well-camouflaged in their azure and orange garb, until they take off and fly low and quickly down a river, announcing  their flight as they go, like a tiny intercity train with a high-pitched  and short-lasting “eeep”! This is for me the most obvious example of a bird I’ll almost always hear before I see them. There are very few kingfishers I’ve seen in my life without hearing them first – in fact I’ve often surprised people I’ve walked with along rivers by suddenly stopping and announcing: “there’s a kingfisher coming soon.... watch”..... and a few seconds later, one flies by. If I was deaf, I’d have great trouble seeing even a fraction of the kingfishers I see with normal hearing. 

·      Great spotted and Green woodpeckers – the green woodpecker’s laughing “yaffle” is very well known, but the great spotted woodpecker’s abrupt “CHIP! CHIP!” is equally as telling there’s a woodpecker around.

Young great spotted woodpeckerYoung great spotted woodpecker

·      Long tailed tits and goldfinches constantly seem to talk to each other in the air (and on perches) and I’ll often hear them before I see them

·      Almost ALL warblers (from Chiffchaffs to Nightingales) have marvellous, very distinctive songs (especially the glorious nightingale of course) and will be heard sometimes at the complete expense of seeing them, hidden within a thick patch of brambles perhaps.

·      Swifts (I can’t write a blog post without mentioning these birds eh?). From the last week of April into early May I’ve regularly heard small parties of swifts announce their British arrival overhead with their screaming before I see them.  I rush outside (if I’m not outside already) and scream my joy back to them! THEY’RE BACK!!! SwiftSwift

 

 

There will be plenty of other examples and it’s probably fair to say that I hear many birds before I see them.  But one can also often tell what birds are up to by listening to the type of call.

At this point I should point out that there is a difference between the call of a bird and its song. Song is often a long-winded melodious series of notes, used for attracting mates, courtship and announcing a territory. Calls are MUCH shorter in length and can be for a number of purposes – staying in contact with others, (redwing migrating in the dark, long-tailed tit feeding parties, geese in flight) or perhaps alarm calls (the fast “TIKTIKTIKTIK!” of robins and wrens when a cat or predator gets near).

We often think of songbirds as producing very pleasant, somewhat tuneful and certainly melodic sounds. Of course in reality, these birds are not striving for “beautiful” or pleasant sounds. They’re all shouting at each other. It’s a risk singing, especially when you’re potential prey to any number of things. The song birds are shouting to prospective mates that they’re strong and fit – and will mate the feathers off any interested hen birds (and thus produce strong fit young too). They’re also shouting to other males that this is their territory – so back off. It’s actually quite aggressive behaviour really – nothing “beautiful” or “melodic” about it – that’s just a human concept. Even the eye-popping clarity of the nightingales’ songs are pretty aggressive, shouty vocalisations really.

There are very few birds with no obvious audible “voices”. Storks, pelicans, some vultures and that’s about that. Almost all other birds can and do speak to each other. Sometimes constantly it seems.

I think this is another reason why I find birds of prey so special. Unless breeding or courting (or growing up in the nest), they often tend to be quiet. Very quiet. They need to be. Particularly the ambush predators – it’s no good announcing your presence to your prey if you’re an owl or a hawk. These birds one sees before one hears. And if you’re a mouse or a small passerine, if you see the owl or hawk at close range, before your fellow potential prey items have had a chance to shriek an alarm call – you’re too late.

I say one tends to see the avian ambush predators before one hears them but if you learn to recognise alarm calls of various birds (and various types of alarm calls of the same bird) you can hear the predator’s presence (as announced by its prey) before you see it.

Rather like announcing “there’ll be a kingfisher along in a second”, I’ve often delighted (and annoyed in equal measure.... especially if I’m involved in a serious conversation outside) people by suddenly stopping, looking around and announcing “hawk”! Very often a few seconds later a hawk will dash by and people wonder how I can predict something like that.

It’s surprisingly easy to do – you just have to have one ear on your surroundings – after a while you’ll learn to immediately recognise the specific alarm call of  (for example) a few starlings as they spy a hawk and mob  it.

Around Reading and now a few miles further east, I’ll hear other birds’ “hawk” calls before I announce and then see a hawk and as far as red kites are concerned, even though they’re not ambush predators and common in our neck of the woods, the local jackdaws and carrion crows have very specific “KITE!” alarm and mobbing calls which are a dead giveaway

if you haven’t already spotted the kite soaring above your head...

I remember when I lived in the centre of Reading for a few months, the local pigeons (woodpigeons, town pigeons and collared doves) fed in numbers on the small recreation ground behind our terraced house. These relatively large birds tended to ignore the hawks and kites flying over the town – but they ALL quickly spotted the town peregrines flying overhead  and shrieked at them and leaped into the air when a big falcon (not the male (tiercel) generally) flew over.

I think the peregrines seemed to enjoy “buzzing” the columbines on the ground and on leaving their town centre perch (on the brown Thames tower opposite the station) and invariably heading west to the lakes at Theale for lunch, they stooped over our small recreation ground and the pigeons below all reacted accordingly as one.

That was the only reason why I first realised there was a peregrine presence in the town centre and a peregrine presence in the recreation ground behind our house – it was obvious that the pigeons were reacting to something that presented a threat – something other than kites, buzzards and the small hawks and falcons. It could only be a peregrine. And so it was.

 

So I guess it pays to “open your ears” as well as your eyes when out and about. Especially where birds are concerned.

 

 

What about “Dawn Chorus Day” then?

Often I regard my unavoidable consistency of getting up before 05:30am as a curse, inflicted on me after a couple of decades of varying shift (including nights) work, bakery hours and a seeming inability to stop my brain annoyingly clicking into gear the very second I wake up.

Sometimes I think of it as a blessing though. I love the dawn, I am very comfortable in my own company, I don’t suppose I’ll ever get lonely and if I’m outside I’m never bored – plus invariably I get the first few hours (or last few hours I guess) of wildlife and birds all to myself. Most humans tend to go to bed late rather than get up early. I’ve always been a little.... er..... “different”.

So I guess it tickles me when “birders” (“birdwatchers”) set their alarms for, sayyyyy 4am to get up once each year for “Dawn Chorus Day” to listen to the incredible sound of song birds in full voice, belting out their mating calls before the sun comes up. I can’t remember when I last set my alarm. Years ago I guess.

You can imagine then, I OFTEN get to hear the dawn chorus. One might expect perhaps I get a bit blasé about it all. But would be a false assumption. I am often and still blown away; overwhelmed by a good dawn chorus.

I think one of the best places to experience a truly unforgettable dawn chorus is in a large wood, at the edge of a clearing or a ride. The cacophony of song before 0530 a.m. on an early May morning, before the wakening humans have drowned it out with their cars and activity is one of those things that I think must be experienced. And not just once in your life – each year if possible – at least once!

Local bird watching groups (often affiliated to the RSPB) have cottoned on to this and very helpfully set up “dawn chorus walks” before dawn on each “dawn chorus day” these days – a mate of mine went on one such walk on Sunday gone and thoroughly enjoyed it – being shown a garden warbler singing for the first time in his life is something I doubt he’ll forget in a hurry.

But being the grumpy old sod that I am, I often avoid walks like this (I hear and see a lot more when I’m alone – always have... always will) and don’t often find organised days and walks fit in with my life. So I made a little time free for my own “dawn chorus day” the day before the official day this year.

I didn’t go anywhere particularly special. Didn’t head off to woodland clearing. I just went up to the local farm, to check on the little owls (as normal) and made an effort to listen rather than just look.

It was a beautiful dawn on Saturday. The farm is less than three miles from our house and the drive along a couple of single track country roads only lasts a few minutes.

Rabbits scattered into the thick cow parsley-lined verges as I drove by, the omnipresent magpies, jackdaws and cock pheasants leaped from the tarmac and head-bobbing woodpigeons walked along the battered fence posts, nodding at each other over the dark banks of hedge-side bluebells.

I parked the car in “my” lay-by and got out. In the distance I could see the familiar shape of our male little owl silhouetted on top of the cow shed gutter a few hundred yards away from where I stood.

Then I put the lights out.

My lights.

I closed my eyes.

And stood there.

And listened.

Just listened.

 

I could hear at least two whitethroats scratching out their noisy warble in the bramble hedge alongside me, like little DJs.

A great tit shouted “TEACHER. ER TEACH. ER TEACH. ER TEACH!” from high up behind me (in an old gnarled oak tree).

The smallest wee bird with the voice of an opera singer drowned out the other birds for a few seconds with its inbuilt amp set to 11 – I’m always amazed by the vocal prowess of wrens.

As I stood there I could hear the chattering of the rookery in the large oaks half a mile away and a pair of jackdaws flew over my head in the cold air, “CHACKING” as they went.

A cock blackbird must have realised I presented no threat and began its deep, fruity song on top of a bush further up the country track and I could hear a robin “tictictictic” its disapproval from beneath. Maybe it had spotted a weasel near its nest – or maybe it just was sulking at the richness of the blackbird’s voice above?!

Two jays started screeching from a small copse a little way away. Perhaps they’d spotted a fox slinking around the copse, or even a stoat.  As their voices rose, deep within the little owl (or cow) field ahead of me, a cock pheasant croaked its abrupt “COUGH”. There’s always a pheasant or two in this field – often red-legged partridges too, but their voices are far more subtle and hard to hear.

I could also hear a cock chaffinch belting out its particular song. Bill Oddie was spot on here, when he likened this birds’ call to a fast bowler coming in to bowl. That’s how I always remember it.  In fact I could hear two chaffinches trying to out-sing each other.

Above all of this though, more uplifting than everything was the constant singing of parachuting skylarks, belting their little chests out from a height in the sky – way above the crop fields surrounding me.

Time was (when I was a lad, just beginning to “get into wildlife”) that this beautiful noise meant spring was here – and although it’s still not a rare sound, it’s certainly getting less common.

I opened my eyes – and there were the whitethroats, the great tit, the wren, the blackbird, the robin, and the jays in the distance, with the rooks on the horizon. I could see one of the chaffinches perched on top of a hawthorn bush. I turned around and caught a glimpse of the pair of disappearing, wheeling jackdaws, and peering into the sparkling (lit by the orange sun trapped on the horizon) field ahead of me, I could just about make out a cock pheasant’s head, surrounded by sparkling, dew-covered dandelion clock heads.

But I couldn’t see the skylarks. They were too high in the sky. I could still hear them though. Little belters.

 

OK. So it wasn’t a brilliant dawn chorus. I was in the wrong spot for that. But it was more than good enough for me. A lovely start to the day.

I needed to warm the car up a bit (it’s an ancient diesel with a pretty poor battery charge rate) so I glanced over at the little owl again one final time and got back in the car. She needed a battery-charging drive around the countryside of the Thames valley.

So I turned on i-pod shuffle (connected to the car tape deck (no CD player in my car!)) and selected Whitesnake’s “Here I go again” to begin the drive.

I would belt out my own dawn chorus on the drive by accompanying Mr. David Coverdale on lead vocals!

I smiled. There’s no accounting for taste I thought, drove off and started to sing ...

“Well I don’t know where I’m going. But I sure know where I’ve bin....”

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) birdsong dawn chorus https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/5/sounds-familiar Tue, 06 May 2014 16:17:10 GMT
My less than swift, swift set up... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/4/my-less-than-swift-swift-set-up Just a very quick post today grapple fans - a few words on my swift spaces set up with a couple of days left before I tend to see my first swifts...

 

This year I have provided SEVEN spots for swifts to nest in - should they deem "chez nous" suitable...

The photo below shows the gable end side of our house (a semi detached ex council house with a huge garden).

Before I go through all seven spaces with you.... see if you can spot seven spaces for swifts...

Can you see all seven swift spaces?

 

 

 

Scroll down to see them all numbered (and explained briefly).

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Ok.

In order...

 

#1 - When we had our soffits and fascias replaced, I immediately cut an entrance hole at the bottom of one. Swifts checked this spot out last year but starlings are currently residing there - with the fledglings due to set sail in 6 days or so...

 

#2 - A handykam cedar swift box. Gawd knows why Mike doesn't advertise these on the Handykam site - they're very good. Note the vertical entrance hole on the wall of the box.

 

#3 and #4  - A double berth habi-sabi swift box, customised by yours truly, to look like brickwork with a white fascia below. Horizontal entrance holes adjacent to wall at base of box.

 

#5 - As soon as we moved in to this house (almost 3 years ago now), I immediately diamond cut a large entrance hole through the exterior wall into the attic space. I got inside the attic and built a shelf and constructed a swift box (made from clear acrylic) on the shelf. I lined the foot-long entrance with plumbers plastic piping and carpeted it for swifts' claws to get purchase. I then screwed a flue plate onto the entrance hole (onto the wall) and bolted a small piece of birch onto the bottom half of the plate - again for swifts to get their claws into and cling onto. This entrance hole therefore is set into a vertical wall and leads into an internal, self-constructed, large space for swifts inside the attic, with easy access for photos/ringing etc should any birds choose this spot.

 

#6 and #7 - See #3 and #4 .... this again is a customised habi-sabi swift box.... but this time the entrance holes are once again in the white base of the box, but set away from the wall - in the air so to speak.

 

 

Right.

That's all I can do now in terms of providing swifts spaces to nest.

The whole set up has taken me months of work and I'd estimate about £1000 of moolah (every space has a handykam HD camera inside and each of those cameras costs about £70 each for starters!)

 

I know a handful of swifts have been seen locally... but I wouldn't expect to see any until midweek at the earliest here.

As SOON as I do... I'll set the swift call CD playing on external speakers and then cross all my fingers and toes.

 

I said in August 2011 it would be five years before I got my favourite birds back nesting with us... and this summer will be year three (or to be accurate, just the third summer I've attempted to get swifts to choose our house to nest in/on. 

Unlike our old house in old Reading, swifts have NEVER nested in this part of the world (the buildings here, built in 1953 are too young... just) but we have had had swifts prospecting around our house now for the last two summers (thanks to my swift CDs) so even though I said 5 years.... maybe this year is the year I get "my" swifts back.

Maybe.....

 

Fingers crossed and look to the skies....!

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/4/my-less-than-swift-swift-set-up Mon, 21 Apr 2014 16:05:19 GMT
Putting my foot in it. (innit). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/4/putting-my-foot-in-it-innit Like everyone I expect; I’ve stepped in or on lots of things over the years.

Some nice things.

Snow-white coral sands on Maldivian beaches, for example.

But some not-so-nice things too.

 

I’ve stepped in or on plenty of dog faeces in my plimsolls when I was a boy (I think that issue is generally improving since my childhood –  I remember regularly digging dog crap out of the treads on my trainers will a table knife - and retching all the way through the process).

I’ve stepped into a freshly torn-open frog with my bare feet (in the dark) when I was single and had my own flat.

I’ve stepped on a queen bumblebee once and been stung for my lack of attention.

I’ve stepped on a rusty nail that went straight through the sole of my shoe and into my foot. That smarted for a while, I can tell you.

I’ve even managed to accidentally step onto a hedgehog in Turkey once! It didn’t react well – poor beggar.

And I know it’s not just me. Before we were married, my wife and I briefly lived in Tottenham. We were walking across the Tottenham Hale retail park one “hat” summer’s day, in trekking sandals (no socks) and my wife did something she couldn’t repeat if she’d tried a thousand times.

She somehow managed to put the rubber toe of her sandals down hard onto the very edge of a dropped Kentucky Fried Chicken sauce pot and burst it. The wee pot exploded and emptied its entire contents of sticky, lurid, stinking “BBQ sauce” not under her protected (by the sandal’s rubber sole) foot but instead all over and in between her exposed toes.

Ah yes...... Tottenham.  Or “’nham” as I often refer back to it,  whilst staring into the middle distance with tortured, bloodshot eyes that have seen things that just shouldn’t be seen, you know?

 

Anyway. Everyone steps in things they shouldn’t every so often right?

It’s common.

 

But I’ve not once had what happened to me this morning happen to me before.

And to be honest, I doubt whether it will happen again. Now I know better.

But read on if you like. I’d be interested to know if the below has ever happened to you?!

 

 

This morning, I awoke groggily. I shook the semi-naked dancing girls from their deep slumber around the room and staggered downstairs to fix them all strong Bloody Marys.

As I went, I managed to unhook and retrieve most of the assorted items of frilly underwear that had been carelessly tossed into the chandeliers the night before.

The half dozen or so empty bottles of Jack Daniels, the bottles of Bollinger, the needles, pipes and associated paraphernalia could all wait as I shooed the goats and alpacas (all covered in brightly-coloured paint?!)  from the hallway and outside.

I didn’t know how on earth the huge blue peacock (tail fully-fanned, proudly) had got into the marble-floored drawing room or where indeed it had come from...  but I ignored it as best  I could as I searched for Worcestershire sauce for the Bloody Marys.

 

Not really.

Sadly, my life isn’t as rock and roll as that.

Well.  At least. Not any more. (Cough).

 

 

No.

This morning, as usual, I got up, had a shower and got dressed.

Put my boots on and laced them up.

Switched the kettle on for a cuppa and put the ‘TV’ on in the background to let the news wash over me.

Went outside with my cup of tea, checked the bird-boxes and slug traps.

Made sure all camera cables were dry and the tadpoles in the pond were still there.

 

And stopped.

 

There was SOMETHING in my boot.

 

Or was there?

 

My right boot that was tightly laced on.

 

Nahhh.... I thought to myself.... you know how it is.... you’re lying in bed and you feel a tickle on your foot or something and you’re CONVINCED it’s a spider.

But it never is.

Is it?

It’s just your foot relaxing or twinging.

You know.

 

So I carried on doing what I was doing...

 

Topped up the bird feeders and put a bag of rubbish in the bin.

Went back inside and made another cuppa and a bowl of porage.

Sat on the sofa for a few minutes watching Breakfast TV.

Ate my porage.

 

And then.

 

WO! There it is AGAIN.

 

There IS something moving around (or trying to?) in my right boot.

 

I’m SURE of it?!

So I scrunched my toes around against the inside of my boot – attempting to crush the spider. I know that was cruel, I just didn’t have the energy or time to unlace my big boots. Although we have a colony of false widow spiders AND spiders called Segestria florentina on the walls of our house (both are known to give rather painful bites if provoked), it was FAR more likely to be a house spider.

I gave a scrunch of my toes and there was no more movement in my boot. I had obviously killed it with my toe movement or perhaps I’d imagined the whole thing. I’d see later when I took my boots off I guess.

I thought nothing more of it and finished my porage in front of the box.

 


NOOoooO!!!!

 

IT WAS STILL ALIVE! WHATEVER IT WAS.  Still alive INSIDE my right boot!

 

 

Right.

That’s it I thought.

You’re history. Whatever you are.

 

I unlaced the boot (a pretty long-winded process with my size 14 clodhoppers) and took it off.

My boots are long so I couldn’t see inside the toe bit...  but I didn’t think to tip the boot out – to see what fell out of it.

No.

I put my hand inside.

Carefully....

 

Very V E R Y   S L O W L Y and V E R Y  C A R E F U L L Y...

 

E  E  E  E  A  A  S  Y......

 

I held my breath (I didn’t want a spider bite, not from the spiders round ‘ere!)

.

.

.

.

.

 

My fingers touched something.

 

Something big. (A Brazilian wandering spider perhaps?)

 

Something hairy.

 

I yanked whatever it was out and immediately dropped it to the floor.

 

It raced under the sofa.

 

I turned my phone onto “flashlight mode” and pulled the sofa away from the wall.

 

And there in my old brown beanie hat  which had fallen behind the sofa (I had wondered where that had gone) was sitting not a spider..... but a woodmouse!

 

You know, I had probably been walking around in my boots for a good twenty minutes with that poor mouse squashed right up against the side of my boot. I have very wide size 14s – there would not have been a lot of room in my boots for a mouse. Poor thing!

This story ends with the mouse being released back outside where it scampered away, apparently none-the-worse for its rather cheesy experience.

A photo (taken with my phone) of the mouse climbing out of my beanie hat can be found right at the end of this post.

 

The moral of this story?

Hmmm...

Even in the UK it’s probably best to check your boots before putting them on. And if you forget & discover there IS something inside your boot next to your foot, it’s certainly not advisable to wriggle your toes around trying to kill the unfortunate beastie. I mean what a way to go?

No.

The advice would be to immediately take off your boot and NOT put your hand inside (like me) but to tip it out, outside.

That’s what I’ll do from now on, anyway!

 

 

Footnote.

I was going to call this blog post “Mus in boots”. Or “(Apode) mus in boots”.

But that would have given the game away straight away.

Nah. You deserved better, grapple fans.

Happy Easter.

 

TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) woodmouse https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/4/putting-my-foot-in-it-innit Fri, 11 Apr 2014 15:23:32 GMT
Less than a month to go... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/3/less-than-a-month-to-go Regular visitors to this blog will know how I feel about swifts.

 

I was due to make an appearance at the International Swift Conference in Cambridge this spring, but alas my unreliable health has forced me to pull out of that event – something I had been looking forward to for some time. Perhaps I’ll make a future conference, but in the meantime, I wish all delegates who are lucky enough to attend, an enjoyable few days. As for my health, I’ll be hoping for a “swift” (hur hur) recovery this year.

 

SwiftSwift

 

Some people visiting this blog (or indeed website) having followed me from my old blogs – Blue-grey and Theblackrabbitwarren might remember that I have had a little success in filming the nesting behaviour of my favourite bird of all.

 

If you don’t know about (or didn’t see) my in-nest video clips of nesting swifts - all the clips can be found on my original you-tube channel here.

My many clips there include rare footage of a swift ejecting another female’s eggs in her beak. I haven’t seen another clip showing that anywhere on the web.

 

In July, all that footage will be three years old – my wife and I moved from that particular old beautiful house  (which we named “Swift Half”) on the southern outskirts of Reading just after the swifts left - three years ago this August.

 

Today we live on the northern outskirts of Bracknell – a post war town not reknowned for its nesting swifts (swifts invariably, naturally nest in pre-war buildings) unlike the far older town of Reading.

In each of the three properties we lived in Reading, we had nesting swifts, but I would suggest for every 100 swifts there are in Reading, there are perhaps 2 in Bracknell. Perhaps not even that.

 

Because of my fascination and love for swifts, before I had even laid a carpet down at our “new” house, I was keen to measure up opportunities to provide any passing swifts a few spots to investigate and maybe even nest – one day.

Of course we moved in August and all our British swifts had pretty-well gone by then, so I had nine or so months to start providing nesting spots for them high up on (or in!) our house.

Nine months.

I started work immediately therefore! In September 2011. A month after they had left Britain and eight or so months before any were due to return!

 

 

By the time May 2012 had arrived, I had drilled through the attic (external) wall with a diamond cutter, lined the foot long hole with a plastic pipe, erected an internal swift box (made from thick clear acrylic sat on a shelf screwed to the internal attic wall) and provided an “entrance for the swifts to get into (and out of) my attic swift box.

My thoughtful wife had also bought me one of Handykam’s excellent cedar swift boxes for Christmas 2011 which was quickly screwed into the wall by the eaves.

 

As well as those two nesting spots for swifts, I took the opportunity to cut a wee downward-facing hole in our newly replaced PVC soffits (the old wooden ones were rotting and full of old squirrel dreys), so any pioneering swifts could investigate our soffits also. I’m not sure my wife was too keen on me cutting a swift hole into our new soffits, but I made a neat job of it and she knows how important this fantastic species is to me.

 

I installed Handykam mini HD cameras in the attic space and the cedar box and we were all set to go by January 2012.

Or were we?

 

Not really.

You see… swifts are not the most intelligent of birds and don’t tend to find new spaces to nest very easily. As I’ve mentioned before, they naturally tend to nest in old houses (pre-war) in spots and sites that have been used by swifts for years and years. They will find “new” nesting spaces near traditional nesting spaces, by screaming (quite literally screaming) around traditional nesting sites and either trying to nest in a traditional nest site in an old building, or whilst investigating that site, happening across another space in the brickwork, under the eaves etc very close to a taken, traditional site.

 

There are NO traditional, long-used nesting sites where we live – this part of the town was built in the early 1950s and swifts have never nested here.

So…. Unless I attracted passing swifts down from the sky to investigate our house – there’d be no swifts ever nesting with us.

 

Luckily, swifts are relatively easily-fooled birds and can be attracted down to a house with a simple set up.

In 2012 I had an old mobile phone with a “swift call” MP3 as a ringtone.

I set that ringtone playing on repeat, placed the phone on top of the cedar box and played a loud swift call as soon as I saw swifts flying overhead.

There are many other ways to play swift calls near your swift boxes to persuade swifts to investigate them – I’ll come onto that – but that’s all I had at the time.

 

But did it work? Did we have swifts nesting with us in our first year in our new house?

The short answer is no.

Oh sure… the swifts flew around the house all summer long (it wasn’t a great summer in 2012 if you remember – a superb spring, but it started to rain in June and didn’t let up until all the swifts had headed back to the Congo).

Swifts had a terrible summer in 2012. A sunny, warm spring had them all pushing out three eggs (they seem to “know” whether to only lay two if conditions are not right), but by June, when swiftlets were hatching, there was too little airborne food for the adults to catch for themselves let alone for their young and many many swiftlets died. As did adults to be fair.

 

Our visiting swifts had been attracted down by my phone belting out the calls made by “screaming” and banging “swifts” but they couldn’t seem to find any of the nest spots I’d constructed for them and understandably were keener to try and surf the storm clouds, looking for scarce food.

Cloud burstCloud burst

Now this is not unusual; having swifts take a long time to find new nest sites.

I realised after we had left Reading that it might take a few years (I speculated five) before I got my favourite birds back nesting with us in our new abode. And that would be after I had spent much money and more time making our first bought house (that’s how I could drill through external walls and cut away soffit boards) “swift friendly”.

Even if I played swift calls from our roof at top volume all summer long, every summer and gave the birds a dozen places to nest  - it still might take five (perhaps more) years for the lightning swifts to locate a spot in/on our house and start to breed there.

 

In the “off season” (August 2012 to April 2013) I was often to be found in the garden, peering up at the un-used swift nests, calculating how I could make them easier to find.

I made a new entrance to the attic box, fitted another Handykam camera to the soffit space and downloaded new MP3 swift calls to my knackered old phone.

 

So what happened in 2013 then?

 

Well… in a reversal of 2012, the spring was bitter. Vast areas of the UK were pretty-well frozen until the last week of May (when a mini heatwave hit if you remember) and then the summer was pretty good. The “best” summer we and the swifts had had for a decade I’d say.

But… alas, back when the swifts arrived en masse, in May, there were virtually no insects around, so by the time they decided to nest in their traditional spots, they cut down the number of eggs they laid, or gave up laying at all that year, such was the scarcity of food.

 

I was playing my swift call at dawn and dusk all summer long again (early in the summer to attract potential nesters for that year, late in the summer to attract potential nesters for the following year).

Swifts were investigating the house all summer long again (see the photo below) but no swift ever totally entered one of my swift spaces. A quick head in, look around, fly away was all I got. A lot of screaming around the house – a lot of swift landings under the gable end of our house – quite a lot to be hopeful for next (this) year but no nesters.

(Those are tree bumblebees in the photo above by the way - they've nested in our roof for the past two years).

I’d been at the game two full swift seasons in 2012 and 2013 – our avenue was ringing to the sounds of screaming swifts all summers long – for the first time ever I expect, but I had no nesting swifts.

 

We come on to the present day now.

It’s nearly St.George’s Day. April 23rd is traditionally the day I tend to see my first swift over Berkshire. A little earlier than most people admittedly, but then again most people don’t spend the last week of April peering, narrow-eyed into the skies, on the lookout for those sickle-shaped wings.

What have I done to increase our chances of filming nesting swifts in the off season this year?

A hell of a lot to be honest. It feels like I’ve been doing little else but building new swift spaces since October last year. Of course I’ve been doing other things – filming little owls, watching barn owls, digging frog ponds in the back garden, making improvements to the house and garden, bringing up our new son and of course…. working. I’ve had my appendix out in that time and even though my health has improved markedly since two years ago, I do still have to take things very easy.

 

The main work I’ve been carrying out during this year’s (swift) “off season” is purchasing, building, customising and putting in place a “habi sabi” swift box or two.

You can find my very detailed review of this flat-pack double berth “swift hotel” here.

To be honest my review might have been written a little prematurely, (before I’d even put them in place let alone had any swifts nesting in them). If I had time (after this monster blog) to write a new review, I would… but I really don’t have that time.

All I’ll say for now is look at my comment(s) after the review, or below – would I buy a habi-sabi swiftbox again? I doubt it to be honest – I think I could now design and build a far more attractive, watertight, custom-fit box.

I’ve spent months (quite literally) customising the boxes, priming them, painting them (several coats), covering them in  textured brickwork-effect waterproof paper, purchasing nesting rounds, fitting cameras and sealing them with three types of sealant (both inside and out) including a join coat of German carbon-fibre mastic.

Finally I’ve scaled the heights of our house in high winds, on a bouncy ladder, with a very heavy SDS drill (our house seems to made of diamond coated bricks) to fix under the gable end.

 

(I’ve of course got cameras in the boxes and tacked 20metre cables to the pointing to “control” (the portable TV in the conservatory).

Why wouldn’t I buy a habi-sabi swift box again?

A fair few number of reasons….

 

1 – I was extremely careful putting the box(es) together, but the material they use to form all surfaces of the box is too brittle and too weak. I broke the first roof without even trying.

2 – The boxes even when properly assembled with extreme care and caution are not waterproof. This is a design fault – pure and simple. I won’t bore you with the details here, but take it from me that if you get a heavy rain storm, the design of the boxes is such that rain runs down into a hole in the roof (there are 6 to fit the roof to the box), pools and eventually runs into the inside of the box. I have got around this by sealing all roof holes with acrylic sealant – though waterproof mastic and roofing felt would have done the same trick I expect.

3 – The boxes are FAR too expensive for what they are – basically just four pieces of recycled material which you assemble yourself. £100? Come off it.

4 – The fixing baton (for box to wall mounting) is poorly-designed and not reliable. Again I have solved this by screwing two metal plates onto the baton which slip into the corresponding baton on the wall. If you require details or help on any of these points above, please email me.

5 – 51% (own habi-sabi) maintain that the boxes are easy to paint and easy to clean (just whip the roof off). Let me be clear – I painted the first box unassembled.  I had to really. Big mistake. Then assembly becomes impossible. My advice is to assemble and then paint, even if that isn’t ideal (it wasn’t for my set up). As for whipping the roof off quickly – if you do that, you a) never had a waterproof roof anyway (see point 2 above) and b) you will split the roof like I did.

You MUST waterproof the roof somehow (I used a mixture of German mastic and acrylic sealant) and then the roof is fixed ON.

6 – The base is badly designed also. You allegedly can switch the base around to have the entrance holes either by the wall or away from the wall. This can be done in the same manner as “whipping the roof off”. You’re getting the picture now aren’t you? Whipping the base off to switch the entrance hole position will mean a) you haven’t got a waterproof or white-painted base (both unattractive to swifts) and b) you’ll split the base, just like you did the roof.

7 – Replacement roofs or bases cannot be ordered on their own. No. You will need to buy a whole new expensive £100 box. A box that NHBS have now decided to withdraw from their catalogue. I wonder why? I’ll let you know when I find out.

7 – See point two again. 51% are a design company that have branched into bat, bee and swift box manufacture. I hope the bee and bat boxes are more waterproof than the swift boxes they make! Boxes for wildlife that are NOT waterproof are….. yep….. NO use to wildlife at all.

 

 

That all said, I will road test the boxes this year (that’s the Handykam cedar swift box and the habi-sabi swift boxes). I’ve certainly invested waaay too much time and effort (and money) to not give them a go – and the massive improvements I’ve made to them might help me attract a swift or two, perhaps one that investigated our house last year to nest with us.

 

How will I call the swifts in this year?

Unfortunately my knackered old Sony Ericsson (unsmart) phone carked it last year (pushed out into the rain I’m afraid) so I’ve leaped into the 21st century this year.

I’ve bought two showerproof wireless speakers and a remote control – so I can control the volume and power to the speakers from 7m below on the ground.

The transmitter is plugged into the stereo inside and each speaker has a receiver in it, which works up to 50m away from the transmitter I hear.

I have two swift call CDs ready to be played on repeat mode from the stereo inside – so we’re all set then?

 

Not quite.

I have no idea why the only two swift call CDs (one from the excellent swift conservation and another from the continent) have wonderful loud recordings of swifts – but in 30 or so second bursts, which don’t fade in and fade out but stop and start abruptly.

That might seem a little harsh as a criticism.

Maybe.

But my old phone’s swift MP3 calls faded in and out. Neighbours thought nothing of it – it just sounded like birds to them.

With this new stop start recordings, believe me it sounds like a house or car alarm and only because its stop start – rather than fade in and fade out. It’s clearly a very man-made recording rather than a more natural sound.

I hope any visiting swifts are lured into the boxes this year in double quick time as I don’t fancy my neighbours will want to listen to my swift call CD for more than a day or two (unlike the last two years).

 

 

I think I’ve jussst about bored you enough now.

 

As I type, I have five spots for nesting swifts (one habi sabi double berth box, one Handykam cedar box, one internal attic space and one soffit space which starlings have already taken).

All have Handykam cameras set in them, all of which are connected to the control TV in the conservatory.

The swift "car alarm" CD is ready in the stereo and the wireless speakers are on standby. Not literally on standby but you know what I mean.

Everything has had a dress rehearsal or five. And finally the habi-sabi swift box is waterproof.

 

 

The beautiful, fascinating, incredible swifts are probably still around the Congo now, fattening up for their journey north to breed in Blighty. They’ll stop off in Liberia (they all do) for a pit stop, but when they set off in earnest, it’ll only be a week or two’s travel time for them.

My sister in Paris will probably notify me when her “martinets noirs” arrive there, and then it’s only a matter of a couple of days perhaps, before my eyes spot them dashing through our skies with their quick, bat-like wing beats.

 

And as soon as I do spy them, the CD player will go on and I’ll be glued to the skies around our house, or I hope…. The portable TV in the conservatory.

 

If they do nest again with us this year, it’ll only be a gap of three years, swiftless so to speak – and I’ll consider buying a DVD recorder to put some clips back on this site.

And if they don’t nest with us this year?

Well…. I already have plans for new design swift spaces on our house for next year….

 

 

 

Cross your fingers grapple fans.

St.George’s Day is less than a month away…

 

It's exciting isn't it?

 

Hurry back now… my little dark beauties!

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/3/less-than-a-month-to-go Thu, 27 Mar 2014 15:21:53 GMT
"Hashtag Spring". https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/2/-hashtag-spring We Brits don't half like to bang on about the weather don't we?

One could reasonably assume it's because our particular "brand" of weather is so changeable and unpredictable (despite the millions and millions vainly pumped into forecasting it by various bodies including the oft-derided Met Office).

It's fair to say that this winter has been pretty extreme, even in terms of our unpredictable weather patterns - we've now officially had the wettest winter since records began - and it has been very mild to boot. Then of course there's been the howling gales, storms and floods.

I try not to blog too much about the weather - I find reading blogged weather reports (of what weather we've just had) particularly dull and often inaccurate - but I'll make an exception today as I find myself (once again) more than slightly exasperated at the talk of Spring in the middle of February.

It seems to happen each year.

 

Again, right now, twitter is awash with people suggesting that spring has sprung. Yes - "#spring" is the flavour of the day it seems.

People are reporting bumblebees flying (I have tweeted that I've seen three species in the garden already for example - the red-tailed bumblebee (almost invariably the first 'round 'ere, the buff-tailed and the white tailed)), butterflies sunbathing (again... I've seen a small tortoiseshell on our path), catkins blossoming, caterpillars are a crawling, daffodils and crocuses flowering, birds singing - so Spring must have sprung right?

Right?

Our survey said. WAH WAAAAH!

WRONG.

 

Regular visitors to my blog will know I've explained (on more than one occasion) the differences between meteorological seasons  (which we all tend to use, myself included) and the more strict (correct) astronomical seasons.

As an example, depending on how you look at it, Winter either runs from Dec 21st to March 21st (astronomical winter) or Dec 1st to Feb 28th (meteorological winter).  Whichever way you look at it, we either have a month left of (astronomical Winter) or a few days (meteorological Winter).

 

Can all these people hashtagging "spring" on twitter really have forgotten that last year (2013) we had a relatively mild winter and then a bitterly cold, frrrreeeezzzing Spring?

Down here in semi-rural southeast Berkshire, we were frozen solid until pretty-well the last week of May 2013 (well into Spring by any reckoning and virtually into summer if you like me and most others regard "Spring" to be March, April and May (the meteorological Spring).

Our "Spring" last year gave us snow, ice and bitter winds - for virtually the entire season - so much so that many early breeding birds (owls especially it seemed, suffered greatly last year). 

Do these "hashtag springers" not remember that as the swifts arrived for their three month sojourn in Blighty last year, at the start of May, there was hardly an insect in the sky?

No.

I guess not.

 

Now admittedly, the Spring of 2013 was as extreme as the Winter of 2013/14 it seems (for virtually opposite reasons) but I for one, am not ready to write off winter and go running towards Spring with a daffodil clenched between my buttocks until AT LEAST APRIL.

 

Oh sure. The further into the year we get, the less likely we are to experience bitterly cold temperatures / snow / ice like we did last year - and last year might have just been a blip (so to speak) but I'd rather think of the winter of 2013/14 as having not begun yet, rather than we're suddenly catapulted into Spring by the middle of February. There's a decent chance that we won't get a "Winter" (proper) 2013/14 but there's also a chance that the "hashtag springers" will be eating their frozen hash browns, sorry hashtags in March, April or even May as they did last year.

 

For the record - I hope we don't get a proper winter now (I hate the snow and cold) - even though I well know cold snaps are important for plants especially - they need their period of dormancy - as do many other forms of life. But I'll wait and see what happens if you don't mind rather than stumble blindly towards #spring and end up plummeting over an icy cliff in mid April.

 

 

For the record also (for Guardian readers  - who seem to be leading the charge of the light brigade into #spring with regular readers' photos proving #spring has sprung):

 

1 - Many species of moth caterpillars are very active in mild winters - especially the noctuids. I don't remember a winter when I haven't seen several Large Yellow Underwing moth caterpillars for example - as a(n ex) macro photographer, these large larvae were often the only thing to photograph in the darker months.

2 - There are many daffodils bred to flower earlier and earlier in the year. A daff flowering in February does not signify the start of spring.

3 - Bumblebees and butterflies which overwinter as adults (red admirals etc) are often seen on milder days as late as December and as early as January. Nothing particularly untoward there - even if I've seen three species of bumblebee queens now, so early in the year.

4 - Wildlife is reactive - NEVER proactive. Wildlife reacts to warmer, longer days, rather than proactively predicting spring. This is why birds (for example) are so often caught out by our unpredictable weather. Blue tits will begin nesting as a reaction to caterpillars which have reacted to a few warm days in early Spring. Then WHAMMY! Along comes a three week cold snap in April (for example) and the early nesters fail. The amount of guff on wildlife websites suggesting that the cows have all stood up or the robins have started nesting which means they're forecasting the weather for the next few days or weeks is incredible. 

5 - It's important to remember point 4 above, so I'll reiterate it. Wildlife reacts to weather. It doesn't (and can't) predict it.

6 - Citizen (phenological) science is all very well, but is open to huge errors, is incredibly unscientific and needs to be rigorously carried out for decades before any semblance of relevant pattern might unscientifically reveal itself. Basically.... if you have a full time job which involves you to take your eye off the first flowering primroses, or first swallow arrival over the channel even for a few hours, your phenological citizen "science" is utterly devoid of worth.

 

 

I've just read this blog post through and I know it comes across as a) a bit of a rant and b) pretty darned gloomy!

So I do apologise for pouring water on your Arab (sorry hashtag) Spring, but pleeease.... do remember that  (of course) we're still in February and even though we all crave a little (more) warmth and a little sun.... we have a few weeks to wait before we can start to write off the winter...

 

TBR

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) spring https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/2/-hashtag-spring Sun, 23 Feb 2014 13:27:34 GMT
How do YOU relax? (owls). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/1/how-do-you-relax-me-owls “How do YOU relax?”

That was a question put to me by two prospective managers at a job interview I sat through almost seven years ago.

At the time I thought it was a strange question to ask.

Certainly to ask in a job interview.

I don’t regard it as strange now.

I regard it as quite an important question.

 

If memory serves me correctly, I think I answered along the lines of “I take photographs” (I had just bought my first camera then) “…and sometimes I like to draw”.

 

But that’s not really how I like to relax.

 

 

My father is a pretty impressive both physically and mentally. A big man with a big personality.

He can be (or certainly could be) pretty fiery and I remember a powerful, bold clay sculpture he created 40 or 50 years ago that sat on our mantelpiece at home during my childhood.

He has returned to Scotland now and amongst other things, he paints watercolours.

Landscapes mainly.

 

I’ve never been that into watercolours, (I’ve blogged on this website before that I’ve often found them apologetic, slightly insipid, weak, twee).

Now my father’s watercolours are very good, but I wouldn’t have expected him to choose that medium for his art.

I asked him once why he chose watercolours. Why not the bolder oils or clay or acrylics or wood?

He looked me very carefully in the eyes and said very calmly:

“This is how I relax. I find painting with watercolour relaxing”.

I don’t think I understood then.

I do now.

Absolutely.

 

But whilst my father might have passed some of his artistic ability down to me and my eldest sister, I don’t relax by painting. Watercolours or not.

Not yet.

 

I do relax by disappearing (literally disappearing (melting into)) into the countryside. Generally alone (sometimes with my wife now I guess) and I just listen and watch the wildlife around me.

As I’ve told a few people recently, the(ir) camera (and the(ir) photos) is (are) almost irrelevant.

It’s the moment that counts, the actual sight and sound of the wildlife around me (or them) – not the fact that I’ve (or they’ve) managed to capture anything “on film” generally – although I still do occasionally try.

 

My local disappearing acts, now, at this time of year, are centred on our local owls I suppose.

 

Sure… swifts are my one true avian joy but there’s something absolutely fascinating about owls and anyway, the stupendous swifts have not been in Berkshire for 6 months now. Instead they’ve been in the Congo for that time and won’t be back here for three months or so.

 

 

Owls are… you know. Different.

Rather like  two of my favourite other birds, nightjars and (of course!) my swifts, owls don’t seem the same as other birds and they’ve appeared that way to us humans for hundreds if not thousands of years.

Throughout human history the owl has been looked upon with fascination and awe. 

They’ve been both feared and venerated, despised and admired & considered wise and foolish.

Owls abound in Greek and Roman mythology and English folklore is littered with superstition regarding these birds.

 

 

 

There are ten (I think) species of owl on the British Ornithologists’ Union “British List”, (a strange list of birds detailing every species that has been seen in Britain).

Should there be anyone reading this who would like to hazard a guess at all ten species, I’ll only reveal the full list of ten at the very bottom of this lonnnnnng post.

 

Until then, I’ll briefly deal with my personal experience of four of the six species that can claim to be on the “practical British list” – owls that one might actually have a chance to see these days.

 

This list comprises of the Short-eared owl, Tawny owl, Little Owl (introduced), Barn Owl, Eagle owl (re-introduced) and Long-eared owl.

I’ll write about the first four of this list.

 

 

Short-eared owl.

 

All owls are stunning in my view, but the short-eared owls’ faces take the biscuit.

An owl that often can be seen hunting during the day (or at dawn and dusk – making it at least partially crepuscular) it therefore has yellow eyes with a smaller pupil than the darker-eyed barn and tawny owls – very nocturnal in nature both of them.

Short-eared owls look like they’re wearing heavy mascara close up.

Beautiful things.

I had never seen a short-eared owl (I don’t tend to go “looking for specific birds” the way “birders” do and find northern uplands to be dark, treeless, soul crushing places) until I moved back out of London in the “noughties” with my soon-to-be wife.

Short-eared owls tend to breed on northern uplands (but even they can’t hack those soulless moors during the winter) so fly south and overwinter on southern heaths and rough ground. I had been told of a spot (by an old boy who certainly knew his stuff) within twenty miles of Reading which held two dozen or so short-eared owls.

That particular site has been virtually annulled by “birders” and “twitchers” and “bird-racers” now, thanks to the nascent inability (or unwillingness) of the online world to keep bird reports out of the hands of selfish, unthinking “birdwatchers”.

I heard that weekend after weekend during recent winters; the owls had their winter headquarters inundated by “birders” trying to get their glory-shot of these beautiful things.

The owls are still there I hear.

But in far fewer numbers than they were.

This was not due to climate change or having their habitat built on.

It was due to the short-sighted “birders” that so often complain about lack of habitat or climate change, upsetting (en masse) these sensitive birds.

A real shame – and food for thought for anyone who calls himself a “birder”.

 

I was also once fortunate enough to find a short-eared owl quartering over flood meadows at my local “patch” when Anna and I lived in Reading a few years ago. I was out on one of my walks on the look out (and “listen-out”) for barn owls and winter waders (snipe and woodcock).

I think I am still the only person to have ever recorded (perhaps even seen) a short-eared owl in that particular piece of land – but it was only there for a day. Luckily I was lucky enough to photograph it from a distance, with a prominent local landmark in the background, in case any county-recorder needed proof (I got the feeling they did need proof – something I absolutely agree with).

 

I do know of another site within a short(ish) drive of our house in southeast Berks these days, where I could find another good population of short-eared owls overwintering down south, but I don’t feel the pressing need to see them at present. I don’t need to be part of the “weekend Swarovski gang” right now (nor could I afford to be!), so I’ll leave these owls to the anoraks and just hope they give these pretty-faced owls enough space.

 

 

Tawny owl

 

My first memories of tawny owls (like many) were the “twoooo-oo-ooohs” and “ewweets” heard in parks and woodlands (I grew up in the Chiltern Hills) on most nights.

Aged around ten, my paper-round brought me into contact with these stunning creatures (the prettiest owls of all I think, in terms of plumage if nothing else).

I often used to take the front light off my bicycle handlebars to shine up at wide-eyed tawnies in a big tree at weekends. That was only after I had spent the penultimate dark hour of Sunday morning cramming encyclopaedia-sized Sunday Times newspapers (with multiple supplements) into the cigarette packet-sized letterboxes of the residents of leafy, north High Wycombe.

 

A little older and I became a member of BBONT or “Bucks, Berks & Oxon Naturalists’ Trust) as it was then (BBOWT now) and badger-surveyed a few woods for them.

I’ll never forget surveying a mixed wood in the deepest, darkest Chilterns one summer’s day (middle of the day) and watching a tawny (that I’d probably inadvertently disturbed at roost) fly slowly, deliberately and silently through the green canopy ahead of me to find a more peaceful spot to get some shut-eye.

In common with barn owls at least, the silent flight of a tawny is really quite eerie – unlike the wing clapping pigeons and even the tiny birds like blue tits, which beat their wings so quickly they make much more noise than a big owl.  

That tawny remains the only tawny that I’ve ever seen during the middle of the day.

 

I spent many evenings (and nights) during my teens and twenties badger watching (I still feel very, VERY, much “at home” in woodland, even at night) and on many of these badger watches, I was treated to tawnies perched a few feet from my still, silent form.

 

I have even managed to capture tawny owl on trail cameras, twice. Once when I set the trail camera in place to record little owls (see below) and once (I’ll come onto this) when I set it in a spot for barn owls. It is not at all common for a wild tawny (a creature of woodland mainly) to be captured on trail camera away from its nest.

Unlike other species of owls (again… which I’ll come to in a second), tawnies aren’t reknowned for their reliance on a particular perch on a tree – just the tree itself and you (of course) need to point your trail camera at a specific perch if you want to capture an owl on your footage – you just have to hope that your owl alights on that perch to be filmed.

 

I do think tawny owls are perhaps my favourite of our British owls.

Maybe other people might say the ghostly barn owls (I can see why) or maybe short-eared owls, but look closely at a tawny (at a falconer’s exhibition for example) and marvel in its quite spectacular plumage.

 

 

I think I still have my one tawny owl feather (with soft trailing edge which gives the owl its silent flight) in my old golf bag in the shed. I hope so. I seemed to give up golf when I became married! I’ll check later.

 

 

Little Owl.

 

Regular visitors to this website will know I’ve been following the local little owls for a couple of years now  ("Operation noctua") and have been lucky enough in that time to get some half-decent photos and some pretty HD impressive video clips of these funny little frowners.

You can see my video clips of little owls here or on you-tube also.

With ALL my video clips please manually select a quality of 1080pixels for maximum HD sharpness.

I’ll not go into all my to-ings and fro-ings regarding our local little owls as you can also dip into my blog archives to get a flavour of what I and they have been up to together during the past two or three years.

 

 

A non-native small owl of course, is the little owl, but unlike many other introduced species, the little owl seems to fit right into our British ecosystems without causing untold damage.

My first encounter with a little owl was again in the Chilterns, on a large piece of barely (barely not barley) used farmland.

 

I was listening to and watching pretty yellowhammers on a suspended phone cable which led to the old farmhouse when I heard a noise I hadn’t heard before. Sounded a bit like the plaintiff mew of a cat –but there just couldn’t have been (a cat), sat in the small copse (formed in and on a Second World War bomb crater) where the mew appeared to come from.

A protracted investigation resulted in the little owl bounce bounce bouncing away from me over the fields and I was very pleased to have seen such a bird up on “my” farm. I guess that was over 30 years ago now. (I’m errr…. 31 now. Cough).

 

Little owls are funny wee things.

Their facial plumage always makes them look like their fiercely staring at you or frowning with their huge yellow (hunt in daylight just as much as night like short-eared owls) eyes and pale “mono-brow”.

 

 

Very often little owls will go after beetles and worms – and can certainly scamper over the ground like little sprinters if they spy a juicy annelid. (See the scampering in the video clip below).

 

Owl watch - 23rd March 2012 - 6 clips into 1

 

By the way, if the worm tries to escape (you would, wouldn’t you?) , occasionally the determined little owl will pull and pull  and pull the worm from its earthy retreat … and if successful, out pops the worm with a “thrup” and over topples the owl onto its back.

I’ve seen this happen three times now, so I don’t suppose its rare behaviour.

Just rarely seen.

 

My closest encounter with a little owl occurred on the Mediterranean.

Anyone reading this who’s been fortunate enough to take a holiday on the Med (and is interested in anything else than just trying to get a tan) will know that there are plenty of little (and scops) owls in and around Mediterranean villages.

 

I remember in 1989 when I was holidaying with my twin sisters in Pissouri village (near Paphos in Cyprus), we spent an evening in a crowd of villagers, necking wine and noisily Greek dancing at a grape festival in the village square as a little owl bobbed up and down on one of the taverna’s roofs overlooking us.

It was like it was enjoying the festivities with us (of course it wasn’t!).

 

But that wasn’t my closest encounter with a little owl.

That came on the green Greek island of Kephalonia nearly twenty years later.

 

My fiancée (then) and I were in Kephalonia in the late nineties.

We had rented a villa (well… a bedsit with a balcony really) at the top of the hill between Argostoli (the island’s capital which has a fisherman’s café which serves the best fish and lemon potatoes I’ve ever tasted by the way) and Lassi.

 

I was, as is usual, up each morning at 4am (more on that below), sitting quietly on our balcony, in the dark, with a mug of coffee and a packet of Regal cigarettes.

Just watching the twinkling lights of the Lassi strip below on the coast.

My “me time”.

 

On the first morning of our two week holiday, there I was, at 4am with my coffee and cigarettes (I’ve stopped smoking now by the way) and PLOP! A ball of fluff alighted on the balcony rail, not 5 feet from me in the darkness.

I couldn’t make out any detail of my feathered friend – it was just silhouetted against the moon’s reflection in the Mediterranean our hillside villa overlooked. But I knew it was a little owl.

I remained motionless, with my cigarette curling up smoke from the ashtray to my side – and only after about twenty seconds, the owl suddenly realised it wasn’t alone and launched back off into the darkness.

 

After that, each morning I sat there, with my camera set on a tripod and a radio trigger in my hand, hoping that the little owl would return and I’d get a super shot (for my then fiancée, now wife) of this wee thing sitting on the balcony rail.

It never returned.

 

As for Britain, well I happen to think the our farmland or managed land (little owls preferred choice of habitat rather than scrub or forest) would be far poorer without these “fierce little scamperers” – but I hear they’re not doing as well as we all thought they might be doing…. I do hope that changes.

 

 

Barn Owl.

 

I’ve blogged about barns owls quite a few times before on this website, so I’ll avoid repeating myself. You can read a couple of those blogs here but especially HERE.

 

They are stunning creatures, that’s for sure, and I am so spawny to have at least three (occasionally) in my local patch of countryside to gaze at.

Even though I’ve written (above) that tawny owls are perhaps my favourite British owl, I can certainly understand why if one was to poll the British public on what their favourite bird was; many would perhaps say a barn owl would be – far more than would say a tawny I expect.

 

Barn owls are schedule one birds, meaning that they are protected by law at all times, in every month.

This is especially important protection for barn owls as they have been known to nest in most months of the year (if the winter is mild enough for example), but many people still consider the “danger of disturbance period” to be their more traditional nesting period of May to July perhaps.

Truth is many owls have re-established relationships or paired up very early in the year and a disturbance pre-nesting (February say) might be just as damaging as a disturbance in May.

This is one of the reasons I still report my barn owl sightings to the county recorder but only in a confidential (not a publicly visible) fashion.

 

Now I’m quite well known for shooting videos and taking photos of little owls, but I am always very conscious of the law regarding such actions when watching the local barn owls.

Little owls are non native and not schedule 1 birds.

Not so with barn owls.

I tend to leave my camera and trail camera in the rucksack or car when I’m getting to know the local barn owls – I certainly have no desire to disturb them as just the sight of these owls is a real treat – I feel incredibly fortunate to have them so close to our house.

 

Regular visitors to this website will know that I delight in taking pre-dawn or dawn drives and walks around my local countryside. Two decades of bakery work and other shift work have saddled me with an unfortunate ability to generally refuse sleep after 04:30am – even on days off.

I haven’t used an alarm clock in years.

 

There is only one advantage to this particular curse – it means I invariably get the countryside and the wildlife to myself before and during dawn.

Humans don’t tend to do dawn (they much prefer dusk) and wildlife certainly takes advantage of that.

 

I have spent the last two and a half years getting to know the countryside around our house very well around dawn – and I have little doubt that these hours I have put in have made all the difference when it comes to seeing the three species of local owls (tawnies, barn and little), getting to know their habits and indeed filming little owls with a static trail camera.

 

To that extent I have found three barn owl roosts locally (all in gnarled old trees) but tend to keep my distance and try to ascertain their habits – their preferred perches, their preferred hunting meadows, when I’m likely to see them, when I’m not likely to see them, etc etc…

 

Little owls are relatively easy. They have favourite perches for a week or two, then move on and find another favourite perch. And very often these perches are in direct sunlight – little owls love to sunbathe (see video below).

 

Owl watch: 11th March sunbathing owls

 

All you need to locate little owls and their favourite perches is a keen set of eyes and a little patience.

 

Tawny owls are far more difficult.

Sure there are more of them, but they are nocturnal birds (dark eyes), far more arboreal and hidden from view if not from our hearing.

Please watch my clip below for my first accidental video clip of a tawny owl, taken with a little owl set up trail camera.

 

Owl watch - Tawny drops onto new barn

 

Barn owls are the “middle owl” for me. Hardly any of them around, but when you are lucky enough to find one (or three!); they often seem to have favourite perches and are often forced to hunt at dawn and dusk (as well as in the inky nights). Barn owls are also pretty easy to see at distance too of course, providing you don’t mistake them for a weird white gull (I did once).

 

The most annoying thing about following barn owls’ movements is that they are incredibly transient birds, especially in the winter. Barn owls in the UK are at the extreme northern edge of their range (they don’t really do rain, wind or snow) and need to move around just to keep finding food (voles invariably), food enough to survive.

Very often round here, I’ll be keeping tabs on a couple of owls during the winter, only to find one buggers off for a month and the other moves to a different part of the farm.

It’s never dull with barn owls.

They don’t half keep you on your toes.

 

This weekend (just gone) I located my third barn owl roost, locally.

I had been trying to locate this roost for some time, having had nightly sightings of this particular owl at the farm and finally I happened across its tree (I saw it leave the hole in the tree from my car).

 

This was a result in itself, but it also meant I could perhaps leave my trail camera near a perch which I knew this barn owl used, about a mile away from its roost.

Schedule one birds must not be accidentally or recklessly disturbed by “birders” or well-meaning (honest) “photographers” (purely after their glory shots) “at or near their nest or roost”.

A black LED trail camera carefully hidden in a bush a mile away from the owl’s roost would not contravene this law (the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act).

 

So on Saturday afternoon I hid the trail camera by this barn owl’s perch (it has about three favourite perches that I know of) and hoped.

I hoped, but didn’t expect much.

 

I returned to collect the camera at dawn – and I had been lucky enough to catch the barn owl on the perch, a number of times (as early as 6pm and as late as 2am) but not only that – I had also captured footage of a big tawny sitting on the same perch (at a different time to the barn owl of course)!

 

Quite often with wildlife photography and sometimes trail camera work, one has to be exceedingly patient before getting anything of note “on film” – even after putting in months and months of preparation and knowledge-building, as I have with these owls.

So to get such a result on the first night of “barn owl cam” was something else!

 

I’ll not post the video clips here yet.

Why not?

In common with many Bushnell trail camera video clips, if you’re lucky to have had the camera trigger in time (Bushnells have a diabolical strike rate) the  actual quality of any footage is appalling (I’d NEVER recommend anyone buys a Bushnell trail cam despite what others might say), but the photos below are stills taken of the barn owl (first) and tawny owl (second) on the same perch, from the same trail cam.

NB. I have a week off at present and will be returning with the trail cam (or another model) to try and get better quality videos of these owls at night, so watch this space.

 

 

 

I’m very conscious that I’m lucky enough at present to have superb eyesight and pretty good “awareness” of the wildlife around my local countryside.

My wife shares my eyesight I think and I know my eldest sister and father are similar.

Add that to the fact that I like nothing more than losing myself in my pre-dawn wildlife drives or walks and have spent weeks if not months being fortunate enough to really get to know or local owls.

 

There is only one small problem with all this.

Even though I am very happy alone (I don’t do loneliness) and also tend to see more alone, I’d really like to share my knowledge of these owls.

That said, having had bad experiences of “birdwatchers” with the local short-eared owls (see the start of this post) and also last year here with the local barn owls, I tend to not trust the people who used to email me regularly and ask if I could help them see these owls.

I’ve had to apologise to quite a few “birdwatchers” over the past two years and explain to them that due to the actions of a few of them, I wouldn’t be able to help them.

If they wanted to see barn owls, then they’d have to look for themselves I’m afraid. (They wouldn't have much success I would think... they tend not to share my eyesight or awareness).

But to stop the emails and to try and protect these owls, like I’ve written above, I’ve stopped making my barn owl records public.

 

But you know... I still do want to share these beautiful sights.

As a biologist (or at least as a person who read zoology at university) I regard the purpose of life to be to be to continue life. Very simple.

But as a “human being” if someone was to ask me what I regarded the purpose of our life to be, I’d probably suggest something along the lines of:

“The purpose of life is to share one’s life, with friends and /or family”.

And that’s all.

Nothing else.

(You can make of that what you will… I can’t really answer the question!)

 

One of my strongest and happiest childhood memories was sitting in my father’s car, as he drove ‘round the local countryside (the Chilterns) as well as parts of Scotland.

The wildlife we saw on the country roads held me spellbound.

 

These days, 35 odd years on, I always seem to be the only one up at 04:30am – my wife is certainly asleep at that time, as is my 14 month old son.

So sharing these sights and experiences (with people who don't label themselves as "birders" or "twitchers") is difficult.

 

But.

I hope that one day….

Maybe within a few years?

My son might like to take a drive with me around the local countryside and spot the owls and local beady-eyed beasties with me.

 

Rather like my father (I expect).

I’d love that.

 

Until then, I’ll keep keeping tabs on our local owls alone.

 

 

 

Now.

Regular visitors to this website may know that my health has not been the best for the past couple of years, for reasons which I might blog about as soon as I feel comfortable doing so.

All through the dark weeks and months over the past two years, the local owls have been a source of huge comfort to me, especially during the seasons away from the summer, when my greatest British wildlife delight, my swifts, are gone.

 

Stupid I know, but when my wife becomes a temporary “owl widow” (“are you off to see the owls again?”), she knows I’m getting my fix of the wild - and it’s healthy for me and her.

When “my” local owls are around, I get the feeling that all is well with the world.

I know it’s daft, but that’s how they make me feel.

 

Yes.

You may be different.

You almost certainly are.

You may relax by watching the snooker on the box.

Or by cooking.

Or by reading “whodunnit” novels.

Or by painting watercolours perhaps.

 

But this is how I relax.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Footnote.

 

The photo below is of a Scops owl. Like little owls, the Med is full of these wonderful wee owls.

As the sun goes down, Mediterranean trees become sources of strange, rhythmical frog-like calls. But these aren’t frogs – they’re the beautiful scops owls.

I shot the photo below in my favourite holiday destination in the world.

You can read about that place (should you want) here. But please keep its location a secret. Anna and I never want it to change!

 

 

TBR.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final footnote:

 

For those who wanted to try to guess the ten species of owl on the BOU British list… they are:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keep scrolling down….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tawny owl

Barn owl

Short-eared owl

Long-eared owl

Little owl

Snowy owl

Tengmalm’s owl

Hawk owl

Snowy owl

Eagle owl

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl little owl owl relax relaxing tawny owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2014/1/how-do-you-relax-me-owls Mon, 27 Jan 2014 13:03:12 GMT
Garden species (lazy) count 2013 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/12/garden-species-lazy-count-2013 At the start of 2013, after seeing an old blogging pal (Jane Adams @Wildlifestuff) suggest that she was going to see if she could find 365 species of organism in her garden during the year…. I thought I’d do the same. Or at least similar.

 

Now Jane is "Mrs.Bioblitz",  (bioblitz is where you spend an hour or a day in a spot and try to ID to species level everything that you find) but I knew that might be a bit difficult for me this year. I think if I had spent a day in the garden this year with hand lens and my field guides, I might have made the magic 365 figure, but as it turned out, I didn’t get close to the 365 mark – primarily because I didn’t actually search for or really investigate (ID wise) anything – I relied on obvious macrofauna in the main for my figures – lazy I know, but a new son and my ongoing poor(ish) health meant that was all I could do this year.

 

Whereas Jane (and others) included plants in their garden count, I chose to ignore them (another reason why my final figure is waaay lower than it should’ve been) – I relied on animals and fungi only for my count. (Fungi are neither plants nor animals in my book).

 

I also decided to count all animals (including birds of course) that I saw (and identified to species level) OR HEARD from the garden – which explains a few things like Cuckoo appearing on my list. There was no cuckoo in the garden in 2013, but I certainly heard one from the garden.

 

I’ve almost certainly forgotten to record many things I’ve seen throughout the year, and not even begun to scratch the surface of identifying and counting some very common animals in the garden – things like snails, slugs, beetles, flies, worms, woodlice etc…

 

Yes. I have little doubt that if I actually pulled my zoological finger out and tried to ID EVERYTHING in the garden,  I’d have made 365.

 

But. As it stands, my lazy, rather half-hearted count (when I could be bothered or remembered) stands at a pretty impressive 216 species. And like I say, that included no plants and very few groups of numerous species in the garden like worms, beetles (the most numerous of all), snails and flies.

 

Maybe next year I’ll be a bit more energetic and really try to ID the really wee stuff – and who knows….. maybe double my total from this year?

 

 

The full breakdown of the 216 species is as follows:

 

Insects – 147 spp. (and of those, 83 were macro moths, 10 were bees & 12 were butterflies).

 

Insect highlights: Small elephant hawkmoth, elephant hawkmoth, ruby-tailed wasp, ashy mining bee, poplar hawkmoth, rose chafer, lesser diving beetle and southern hawker (dragonfly).

 

 

 

Birds – 41 spp.

 

Bird highlights: Jay, green woodpecker, swift, buzzard, fieldfare, grey wagtail, pied wagtail, goldfinch.

 

 

 

 

Mammals – 6 spp.

 

Mammal highlights for me were the pair of hedgehogs (unfortunately one was eaten by the local foxes) and the two pipistrelle bats that hunt over our garden (no-one elses it seems) each summer dusk.

 

 

 

 

Fungi – 10 spp.

 

Fungal highlight being the shaggy inkcap that appeared overnight in the garden during the autumn, and the large group of huge field mushrooms that fruited on the back lawn late in the autumn rains.

 

 

 

 

Arachnids – 11 spp.

 

Arachnid highlight was I guess my favourite sp. of jumping spider, Marpissa muscosa  (or the “fencepost jumping spider”), which tends to favour the south of England.

 

 

 

 

Amphibians – 1 sp. The common frog. I was hoping for newts, but may have to wait for them I guess.

 

 

The full list of species I bothered! to record can be found below…. Remember this includes no woodlice, worms, tiny beetles, small flies, snails, slugs, millipedes etc…

 

So not  a bad number I think!

 

 

 

Critter

Type

Large yellow underwing larva

Insect

The Chestnut

Insect

Buff-tailed bumblebee

Insect

Honeybee

Insect

Brindled plume moth

Insect

Dark chestnut

Insect

Dotted border

Insect

Hebrew character

Insect

Drone fly

insect

Double-striped pug

insect

Angle shades caterpillar

insect

Peacock

insect

Common wasp

insect

Comma

insect

Red-tailed bumblebee

insect

Common carder bee

insect

Tree bumblebee

insect

Brimstone butterfly

insect

Seven-spot ladybird

insect

Red Admiral adult

insect

Large (Cabbage) white adult

insect

Tawny mining bee

insect

Feather-footed flower bee

insect

Small diving beetle

insect

Pond skater

insect

Hawthorn shieldbug

insect

Early bumblebee

insect

Bee-fly

Insect

Holly blue

Insect

Early thorn (moth)

Insect

Speckled wood

Insect

Ashy mining bee

Insect

Red mason bee

Insect

Orange tip

Insect

Lime specked pug

Insect

Large red damselfly

Insect

Cockchafer

Insect

Brimstone moth

Insect

Poplar kitten moth

Insect

Poplar grey moth

Insect

Poplar hawk moth

Insect

Angle shades moth

insect

Heart and dart moth

insect

Flame carpet

insect

Yellow-barred brindle

insect

Buff ermine

insect

Common marbled carpet

insect

Shuttle-shaped dart

insect

Grey dagger

insect

Rose Chafer

insect

Cabbage moth

insect

Silver Y

Insect

Thick legged flower beetle

Insect

Wasp beetle

Insect

Flame shoulder

Insect

Willow beauty

Insect

Clouded silver

Insect

White ermine

Insect

spectacle

Insect

Small elephant hawk moth

Insect

Lesser diving beetle

Insect

Lesser stag beetle

Insect

Coronet

Insect

Rosemary leaf beetle

Insect

Common blue damselfly

Insect

Common earwing

Insect

Common backswimmer

Insect

Peppered moth

Insect

Varied carpet beetle

Insect

Amblyteles armatorius

Insect

Red ant

Insect

Black ant

Insect

Greenbottle

Insect

Bluebottle

Insect

Volucella pellucens

Insect

Heliophilus pendulus

Insect

Dark arches

Insect

Harlequin ladybird

Insect

Gasteruption jaculator

Insect

Wormwood pug

Insect

Azure damselfly

Insect

Flesh fly

Insect

Common emerald

Insect

Green oak tortrix

Insect

Golden variegated tortrix

Insect

Lunar yellow underwing

Insect

Fanfoot

Insect

Blue-tailed damselfly

Insect

Dot moth

Insect

Swallow-tailed moth

Insect

Gatekeeper

Insect

Ringlet

Insect

Banded demoiselle

Insect

Ruby-tailed wasp

Insect

Marbled white

Insect

Shoulder-striped Wainscot

Insect

Cypress carpet

Insect

Broad bodied chaser

Insect

Riband Wave

Insect

Setaceous hebrew character

Insect

Garden carpet

Insect

Elephant hawk moth

Insect

Common footman

Insect

Heart and club

Insect

Bird cherry ermine

Insect

True Lovers knot

Insect

Least carpet

Insect

Buff arches

Insect

Mother of pearl

Insect

Copper underwing

Insect

Nemapogon clematella

Insect

Scalloped oak

Insect

Large emerald

Insect

Purple hairstreak

Insect

Cinnabar moth

Insect

Phoenix moth

Insect

Pale prominent

Insect

Willoughby's leaf cutter bee

Insect

Brown eye white line

Insect

Yellow shell

Insect

Small blood vein

Insect

Southern hawker

Insect

Twenty-plume moth

Insect

Chequered fruit tree tortrix

Insect

September thorn

Insect

Canary-shouldered thorn

Insect

Dusky thorn

Insect

Sallow kitten

Insect

Straw underwing

Insect

Broad bordered yellow underwing

Insect

Yellow tail

Insect

Knot grass

Insect

Orange swift

Insect

Iron prominent

Insect

Miller

Insect

Central-barred sallow

Insect

Hornet

Insect

Common darter

Insect

Lunar underwing

insect

Large ranunculus

insect

22 spot ladybird

insect

Ectemnius gavifrons (d.wasp)

insect

Blairs shoulder knot

Insect

Green and red carpet moth

Insect

November moth

Insect

Winter moth

Insect

Feathered thorn

Insect

Woodpigeon

Bird

Mistle Thrush

Bird

Blue tit

Bird

Robin

Bird

Magpie

Bird

Jay

Bird

Carrion crow

Bird

Starling

Bird

Feral pigeon (dove)

Bird

Black-headed gull

Bird

Jackdaw

Bird

Coal tit

Bird

Ring-necked parakeet

Bird

Great spotted woodpecker

Bird

Collared dove

Bird

Dunnock

Bird

Redwing

Bird

Fieldfare

Bird

Blackcap

Bird

Pied wagtail

Bird

Goldfinch

Bird

House sparrow

Bird

Blackbird

Bird

Long-tailed tit

Bird

Great tit

Bird

Goldcrest

Bird

Wren

Bird

Grey heron

Bird

Herring gull

bird

Green woodpecker

Bird

Swallow

Bird

Buzzard

Bird

Kestrel

Bird

Swift

Bird

Cuckoo

Bird

Chiffchaff

bird

swallow

bird

canada goose

bird

Grey wagtail

bird

Greenfinch

bird

Sparrowhawk

bird

Grey squirrel

Mammal

Fox

Mammal

Hedgehog

Mammal

Woodmouse

Mammal

Common pipistrelle

Mammal

Bank vole

Mammal

Channel web spider

Arachnid

Silver-sided sector spider

Arachnid

Common false-widow

Arachnid

House spider

Arachnid

Zebra spider

Arachnid

Fencepost jumping spider

Arachnid

Enoplognatha sp.

Arachnid

House jumping spider

Arachnid

Walnut spider

Arachnid

Segestria florentina

Arachnid

hydrachna sp (red water mite)

Arachnid

Orange peel fungus

Fungus

Horse mushroom

Fungus

Pleated inkcap

Fungus

Shaggy inkcap

Fungus

Meadow puffball

Fungus

Common inkcap

Fungus

Brown mottlegill

Fungus

Common stump brittlestem

Fungus

Common bonnet

Fungus

Field mushroom

Fungus

Common frog

Amphibian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 2013 garden species count https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/12/garden-species-lazy-count-2013 Sun, 22 Dec 2013 13:30:11 GMT
The wonderful world of moth antennae https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/11/mothsd We've been visited by a pair of male feathered thorn moths this past fortnight. These moths fly late in the year and now seem reluctant to leave the shelter of the passageway by our back door.

They're pretty wee things - each displaying a set of rather impressive feathery antennae.

In fact, the males' antennae gave these moths their scientific name (colotoise (beautiful (mis.)) pennaria (feathered)) and their common English name of Feathered thorn.

I took a few photos of these moths (concentrating on their antennae) below (all photos are mine) and thought I'd write a quick few words on the amazing moth antennae.

Feathered thornFeathered thorn

 

Male moths often have large feathery antennae - especially those in the saturniid, bombycid, and lasiocampid  (such as the lackey below) families. The feathered thorn is part of the Geometrid family, but exhibits large feathery antennae also.

It's a handy way to tell butterflies and moths apart - butterflies have thin, clubbed antennae whilst moths have thin, unlcubbed antennae and some male moths have these superb feathery antennae instead.

Why are they so impressively-feathered though? What's the point of all that surface area?


Just that.

Surface area.

The male moth is only after one thing generally..... a mate - and with a large set of feathery antennae, he can sniff out a female moth's pheremones from kilometres away. In fact so powerful are his olfactory senses, it borders on supernatural. Some male moths have 60,000 olfactory receptors on their antennae - and can pick up a single molecule of female moth pheremone in a cubic yard of air - up to 11km from the female emitting these pheremones.

Using both antennae  "smelling" as much air as possible on the large surface area of his feathery antennae - the male moth can tell in which direction the female is and flies off to find her.

We can't smell these moth pheremones, but the male moth certainly can - at ridiculously low concentrations. Makes sense to have this sort of sense really, if you fly at night and can't see or hear any prospective mate, eh?

 

But that's not the sole purpose of these antennae.

Nope.

They're multifunctional!

Flies have specialized structures called halteres behind their wings. These fly "gyroscopes" beat at their wing-beat frequency (approximately 100 times per second) and also have special touch sensors that sense changes in flight.

The halteres constantly send messages through neurons to change flight muscles and wing motion to alter where the fly goes.

In a nutshell.... this is how flies fly. At least with a certain amount of control and stability.

 

But moths use their antennae in the same way - as halteres or gyroscopes. To provide flight stability.

 

 

 

 

When placed under a microscope, a moth's antenna looks like a string of beads. Most of this "string" is covered with hair-like odor detectors used for locating food and mates.

The joint where the antenna attaches to the moth's head is very flexible and has special touch sensors that control the position of the antenna and tell the brain about antennal movements.

When the moth is flying, its body bobs up and down with each wing beat, just like humans do when we walk.

The touch sensors at the base of each antenna report this regular bobbing to the brain.

This regular signal changes when the moth encounters in-flight turbulence that could send the moth off course. When this happens the moth makes a course correction and stabilizes its flight pattern.

There have even been experiments carried out with moths antennae - when one would be damaged or even cut off  - and the moth would have trouble flying and crash into walls. Reattaching the antenna(e)  (with glue!) and the moth's flight skills were returned magically.

 

This research is being used to look at designing small gyroscopic vibrating antennae for tiny robotic autonomous flying machines the size of birds. (I kid you not). At present we can make gyros for large passenger planes without too much fuss, but we are some way short of making gyros for tiny planes.

 

 

 

Moths figured all this out a long time ago.....

 

Note.

All the above photos are of the male feathered thorns this week.

The shot below is one I took of a male lackey moth three and a half years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/11/mothsd Sat, 30 Nov 2013 19:26:24 GMT
Everyone should have a patch https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/11/everyone-should-have-a-patch To borrow a term oft-used in “birding” (grrrrrr) circles, I thought I’d blog on the subject of (local) “patches”, after hearing over the weekend that a barn owl has been seen in an area of farmland behind my childhood home.

Ask a “birder” (grrrr) what their “patch” is, and they’ll not blush and point to the back of their pate (as described before on this website, anyone describing themselves as a “birder” is invariably male (and dull as dishwater to boot)) but describe an area of land often close to their home, where they spend a lot of time watching and often ticking bird species. They know their local “patch” very well and in many instances could probably tell you how many bird spp. they’ve ticked off in their “patch” from memory.

As mentioned, this behaviour seems peculiar to “birders” but I’ve often had a “patch” of my own during the last 35 or so years, just that I’ve never limited myself in the patch to “bird spotting”.

That said, very often birds are more noticeable than mammals, reptiles, amphibians  or insects (obviously) so when I think back to my ramblings around my local “patches” bird spp. figure strongly  - and a bird sp. at an old patch of mine is the reason I’m blogging on this subject after all...

 

 

For many years (at my childhood home and also well before I learned to drive and got a car) my main “patch” (please click to see the location) was limited to an area of mixed farmland dotted with small woods, a couple of recreation grounds, two tiny ponds and a few rough pastures just north of our house in (south) Buckinghamshire.

I grew up in Hazlemere, south Bucks, with High Wycombe on our doorstep. My country cousins all thought I was pretty “urban” compared to them, (living on the western fringes of the rural Cotswolds as they did) and I guess compared to them I was. I enjoyed the many benefits of living near a large town (mainly more than one pub to choose from when I became legally entitled to drink), a few more shops around, a cinema, a sports centre, that sort of thing – not to mention a few more opportunities to grab a paper round for pocket money or even a Saturday job (I washed cars at a local petrol station – and earned more then than I do know if you break it down to money per hour (the tips were GOOD!)).

That all said, almost all of my time was spent not in the town a mile south of us, but in the countryside 100 yards north of us, even if that relatively small patch of countryside  (9 square miles roughly) was ringed by a little SE England urban sprawl.

This “patch” was known as H7 for some time, by local planners. It might still be for all I know. The whole area was under constant threat of being lost under a sea of new houses and an A404 bypass – although thankfully, nothing like that happened – mainly (I suspect) due to various pressure groups’ protests.

It was there that I first became very interested in wildlife. I watched badgers in “dingly dell” on the patch, spent evenings calling in foxes (with my “startled leveret” squeaking), gazed at little owls, nesting kestrels, listened to the constant noise of displaying skylarks in the spring and summer, flushed grey partridge from stubble fields, marvelled at the huge flocks of hirundines and swifts in May (it was undoubtedly then that my lifelong fascination with swifts was born) and tracked weasels, muntjac & stoats in the snow. I searched for fungi in the autumn, collected frogspawn and went on the hunt for long-tailed tits’ nests in the spring.

You couldn’t take a car ‘round the patch (but I was without licence anyway), nor even a bike – so all my wanderings around this area of countryside were on foot. I heard and saw FAR more on foot than I’m sure I would have done driving ‘round the edge or even cycling over the footpaths (I was into (road) racing bikes then, not chunky-wheeled mountain bikes or even bmx’s like a few of my pals).

My old home “patch” was a source of great comfort to me. I grew up in a large family and whilst my family life was more “interesting” (let’s be polite) than many of my friends, I often liked to give myself some space and disappear into my “patch”. I was invariably alone and the area was not particularly well used by dog walkers, so solitude and peace & quiet was easy to get up at the farm.

When my sister died (I was about 16 at the time) I relied on my patch for days and days. It was a very quiet place for me to get over the shock of everything, alone. I’ve stopped returning to my old patch each year on her birthday (I always like to remember birthdays rather than the day someone died), but I did so for a number of years.

Reading the above out loud makes it sound that it was a place of sadness for me, for grieving or thinking – but whilst that was true, I also derived huge pleasure and enjoyment in my “patch”. I felt very comfortable there; all the sights were delightful to me and the sounds also (I spent months and months alone in the woods at night, listening to the nocturnal world come alive whilst the humans settled down in front of their TVs). I am of the opinion that I had a pretty privileged childhood (even though we were not in any way rich) and I look back now and know I thoroughly enjoyed the vast majority of my “yoof”.

When I was single and baking for a living, still living locally (but not at my childhood house which had by then been sold) I used to work nights and sleep the days off in the long grass, next to the fox earths. I was a strange chap I guess. A deep mahogany colour during each summer, and extremely knowledgeable about all the wildlife there in my old patch. No-one knew that area better than me.

Never did I see a barn owl on this patch though.

Not once.

In twenty-odd years.

And if one had been there... I certainly would have seen it.

 

These days, 20-30 years on, I very occasionally look on the Bucks bird news website to see what “birders” are reporting in my old “patch” and by chance yesterday noticed that someone has been watching a barn owl in the pastures at the old farm!

Now I thought the area always seemed pretty good for barn owls (quite a few old sheds dotted about, as well as ancient tree hollows with a few good scrubby pasture fields. I guess if anything the area wasn’t big enough to support more than an owl or two, but like I said, I never did see a barn owl at the old farm. Admittedly at that time (late 70s, 80s and the first year or two of the 90s) barn owls were not a common site anywhere – and whilst they still aren’t (I saw my first near Inverness of all places in 1987 and waited about 20 years before I chanced on one again near Reading) they are in slightly better shape now than back then.

So I am absolutely delighted that this most beautiful of owls has been seen a handful of times in my old patch. Not only that, but the old patch has been bought (at least in part) by the “Grange Fields Trust” and seems to be going from strength to strength, wildlife-wise.  I do happen to know the skylarks have disappeared from the area (and also their wonderful song also) but yellowhammers seem to be returning (they disappeared for a while too) so it really isn’t all bad news at all....

I also know very well (after watching three barn owls in my local area these days) that this particular species is incredibly transient at the best of times, so I wonder how long the barn owl will stay at the old patch... but for now, I can enjoy the feeling that a beautiful barn owl is softly quartering around a place that still remains very special to me – my old “patch”.

 

 

 

I left behind the old “patch” above many years ago and was “patch-less” for a time I guess.

Eventually I moved to London briefly to move in with my wife (girlfriend at the time), before moving back into the Home Counties in 2007 (Reading in Berkshire) and I suddenly had a new patch to explore.

This new “patch” I called “Fobney”.  (Again please click to see the location). A large area of flood plains just to the south of Reading, running alongside the Kennet and Avon canal with plenty of gravel pits and fishing lakes dotted around the area.

I only lived in that part of the world for a handful of years, but it was there that I walked a new “patch” at least twice a week – often more.

Highlights in this new “patch” were, I guess, barn owls, mandarin ducks, woodcock, snipe, roe deer, kingfishers and an otter – all fantastic things to see right on my doorstep – not to mention peregrines, wagtails, herons and all manner of waterfowl.

The really unexpected highlight at Fobney though, came when I least expected it – during the winter of 2010. I was on a ramble up the tow-path and across the flood meadows, on the hunt for the local barn owls in the gathering cold, wet gloom one December afternoon.

I clambered through a thorny hedge (better to keep any barn owl from seeing me) and scanned a large flood meadow next to the recycling centre (dump to me and you). No barn owls there that night – but instead a beautiful short-eared owl quartered over the rough tussocky grass not 50 yards from me. A wonderful sight and all the better because I would never have expected such an owl to stop off in south Reading (many “shorties” come down south in the winter, from their northern, upland breeding grounds, but our “local” shorties all seemed to gather on the Ridgeway gallops south of Oxford, rather than spend any time so close to the delightful, sleepy little hamlet called Reading.

I’ll never forget that winter’s afternoon in Fobney, or many other times spent walking that particular patch with my walking partner at the time, Mr.Pumpkin. (An old family friend who I lived next door to for a couple of years).

Fobney has been “regenerated” now, by Reading District Council and the Environment Agency –and I hear it’s probably better than it ever was I hear. I hardly ever get over there now (due to various health woes and the fact that we’ve moved again and now have a kid to look after), but Fobney was certainly my second real “patch” and will always have a spot in my warmest memories.

 

My wife and I (and our son and hens and cats) now live almost exactly 10 miles due East of our old gaff (“Swift Half”) and therefore 10 miles away from Fobney. So do I have a local patch these days?

Well of course I do!

 

My current “patch”  (Again please click to see the location) is large area of “horsey” countryside north of Bracknell, in South east Berkshire (we live pretty close to Ascot and several polo clubs so there are horse paddocks all over the place in the local countryside).

I have the privilege of owning a car these days and because of that, I tend to visit many, many more sites in the countryside now than I did without car – places far away from our home on the northern fringes of this pretty crappy post-war town. Anna and I (and now our son) visit the New Forest or the Ridgeway or local forests, gravel pits and Chiltern chalk hills. We walk along the Thames and regularly visit a delightful area of lowland heath near Broadmoor. We get about a bit – but my current “patch” is where I go to alone, the most often – and begins about half a mile from our back door.

The “patch” itself is a large, sprawling area of farmland and horsey farms (paddocks really) north of Bracknell and has far less access than the other patches I’ve described on this blog – I tend to drive around my current patch rather than walk it (and therefore probably see less I admit), but walk it I do occasionally.

Once again, my current “patch” gives me great comfort and huge pleasure. I couldn’t tell you (like the “birders” (grrrrrr) mentioned above) what my “tick list” is on my current patch but I could show you where to find all manner of lovely things to gawp at. Hidden from most, but not from me these days after two years of exploration.

I can tell you where the little owls are, where the barn owls roost, where you’ll have a great chance of seeing a stoat or three, where you’ll invariably find the green woodpeckers, which fence post the pale buzzard likes to sit on, which fox earth is being used at the time, where the swallows’ favourite telegraph wires are, where the bats like to hunt and where the pheasants all roost.

As described before on this webite, when my doctors allowed me to run, I ran through my patch every day and this is when I often saw lots of wildlife – be it a barn owl in a tree hollow or a stoat dragging a rabbit across the country lane, or the little owls dancing about  on their cattle shed of choice.

Regular visitors to this website will know I managed to photograph and film the family of little owls last year (they had a worse year this year and have moved down the road somewhat) and I often take a dawn drive through the patch on Sunday mornings – to keep my beady eye on all other beady-eyed things in the patch.

It’s predominantly a  mixed (cattle and arable) farmland patch again (like my first patch but unlike Fobney) so a lot of the suspected farmland spp. are here – skylarks remain here, roe deer, foxes, stoats, weasels, tawny barn and little owls, kestrels, buzzards, kites, all manner of passerines and small mammals and plenty upon plenty of rabbits and foxes. Then there are the red-legged partridge and ring-necked parakeets which add a certain je ne sais quoi to the mix. I have a very helpful farmer who allows me access to certain parts of the farm to watch the wildlife and film occasionally – as a working farm run by Syngenta, the farmer (farm manager he’s called there) is very keen to present a very green front if at possible – difficult at many times for syngenta I appreciate. But the farm does seem particularly green – with land set aside for and deliberately planted with wild flowers, a pond which is managed very well and plenty of wildlife for my wildlife fix needs.

Like I say, I derive huge pleasure from this patch and have got an immense amount of pleasure from my other patches throughout my life.

For me (at least), it’s really important to have a spot in the countryside if possible where I can relax and breathe – and watch all the fascinating things in this world that AREN’T human.

A patch doesn’t have to be in the wilds of the highlands or the rural Cotswolds or somerset levels. My patches have all been very close to large towns in the SE of England (in fact Reading is a city in all but name I guess and for a year or two my “countryside patch” was limited to just a semi-deserted recreation ground behind our first rented house in Reading where I watched damselflies, woodpeckers and the odd peregrine,

I certainly need a “patch” I think, to slow down the frenetic life we all seem to live these days.... and I’ll not change any time soon.

Just don’t limit it to bird spotting eh?

There’s more to see than birds.

If you take the time to stop.

And look.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) patch patches https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/11/everyone-should-have-a-patch Mon, 11 Nov 2013 17:15:46 GMT
The "charming" bird. By Keats, Raphael, Vivaldi, Linnaeus, Christ, King Harold & … me. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/11/the-charming-bird-by-keats-raphael-vivaldi-linnaeus-christ-king-harold-me I’m of course talking about the (European) goldfinch.

What – you didn’t work that out from the clues?

Read on then.

 

I’m posting this blog about the goldfinch as we are overwhelmed with these beautiful, bold finches in the garden right now – and as always they provide a very welcome splash of colour and noise as we head into the dreich days of winter.

 

As a strange (I’m sure) boy, interested in worms and moths and birds... it was years and years before I saw a goldfinch. These finches were not common garden visitors thirty years ago (or even twenty) but in recent times they have boomed in terms of numbers and are seen in many gardens up and down the land these days.

Along with long-tailed tits (and many other spp.) the goldfinch sticks a resounding two fingers (or feathers) up to those people who insist the UK’s domestic cat population is decimating garden birds – there is absolutely no evidence at all to suggest that is happening at all.

I digress.

Goldfinches were originally known as “thistle finches” because of their feeding habits – although they tend to prefer the prickly Dipsacaceae (teasels) to Asteraceae (thistles). It always tends to be the male goldfinches who feed on teasels though (rather than the females) as the males' longer beaks provide a better tool for extracting the hard-to-reach seeds.

Not only did thistles give the goldfinch their old vernacular name, but also their scientific name (Linnaeus 1758). Fringilla (or now Carduelis) carduelis (carduelis) is derived from the Latin for thistle – carduus.

So. Carduus is the Latin term for a thistle (hence cardoon, chardon in French), and Cardonnacum is the Latin word for a place with thistles.

This is believed to be the origin of name of the Burgundy village of Chardonnay, Saône-et-Loire, which in turn is thought to be the home of the famous Chardonnay grape variety.

 

Goldfinches were also known as “King Harold’s bird” here in England. Visitors to this site from outside the UK might like to be reminded that King Harold was our last Anglo Saxon King here, who lost the Battle of Hastings to his Norman Conqueror, William in 1066. A French arrow pierced Harold’s eye – there was probably a bit of blood to his face – and that is how the crimson-faced goldfinch got its old English name.

 

Across Europe though, the European goldfinch is often known as a symbol of Christ’s “passion” (the last bit of his life, including his crucifixion) because of the birds’ habit of feeding amongst thorns. Not really thorns mind, spiky-leaved thistles, but hey ho, the whole thing is a fairy tale after all. A goldfinch is said to have plucked a thorn from Christ’s crown on the cross, whereby a drop of blood fell on the bird’s face – and there it remains.... forrrrevvvver morrrrre.

I guess the most famous reference to the goldfinch being a religious symbol is Raphael’s Madonna del cardellino (Madonna of the goldfinch) of 1506, where the viewer is confronted with the sight of John the Baptist (rather than Joe le taxi) presenting the babbby jeeezus with a goldfinch as a forewarning of what will befall the saviour, one day.  There are plenty of other examples of the saviour bird cropping up in paintings throughout the renaissance period.

 

It was indeed years before I saw a goldfinch (even though the garden we had at our childhood house was huge –and regularly had lesser spotted woodpeckers and spotted flycatchers - hell, I had even seen Scottish Crossbills, Capercailles and Crested tits in Scotland before I saw a Goldfinch in England) but throughout my teens and indeed twenties after I left home, I didn’t see that many.

I took a week in steamy Singapore once and of course saw thousands of goldfinches there (and other birds such as zebra finches) crammed into tiny cages in the bustling back streets - all for sale of course.

I happened across another caged goldfinch on holiday in Mallorca ten years or so later – at our favourite restaurant in Port de Pollenca – “Simbad’s”. (Do check out their paella if you’re ever up in that neck of the woods). Goldfinches are kept in cages all over the world, and often crossed with canaries to provide the ultimate caged songbird. Their beautiful song is their undoing I’m afraid, in many cases.

 

 

When I moved back out of London with my then girlfriend (now wife) a handful of years ago now, we took a tiny house in the centre of town, next to a recreation ground, under an avenue of large lime trees. I used to hear the occasional twittering of goldfinches overhead and decided to tempt them down from their lofty perches.

You know, I always thought niger seed was over-sold for goldfinches (or any bird for that matter) so I filled up some feeders with sunflower hearts and waited.

It took a few weeks, but sure enough, the goldfinches eventually found the seeds and for the entire time we were in that tiny house, with the tiny garden (6’ wide), we had a pair of goldfinches to watch from the back window.

Each table at my & my (now) wife’s wedding was themed to either a bird or a bee (the wedding breakfast theme was “the birds and the bees” in Darwin’s home town of Shrewsbury – well… for a zoology postgraduate and a biology teacher the wedding was always going to be somewhat animalian! On each table sat one of my photographs of either a bird or a bee and the goldfinch took pride of place on table number 1 (if memory serves me right).

 

I sit here now, five or so years on, in our first owned home, 10 miles east of that tiny garden, and more than a dozen of these striking birds are fluttering around the feeders – it’s quite a sight and provides some much needed energy, colour and sound to the darkening, cold, wet garden and sky. The collective noun for a group of goldfinches is a "charm". I can see why.

 

But this is goldfinches all over to me. They always seem “happy” – they twitter to each other, in the manner of a little burbling, silvery stream – they’re constantly burbling to each other overhead and now are doing so in large(ish) winter flocks.

Of course once on feeders, they start to hiss and squawk and shout to each other, but guess where there’s a silver lining, there’s also the cloud.

 

Goldfinches remind me a lot of the Mediterranean. Not just because I’ve seen them a lot out there in Kephalonia, Cyprus and Majorca. But they have that Mediterranean light about them and that depth of colour – that happiness. Well. Maybe it’s just me – but at this time of year I am lifted from my darkening moods by the tinkling sounds of the goldfinches and their flashing yellow wings.

Actually, it clearly isn’t just me.

I’m hardly what you might call a “culture vulture” but I recognise that and am trying to teach myself, slowly.

Now not that I would in any way compare myself to the geniuses that are Vivaldi and John Keats, but both found a little time for the “thistle bird”.

Vivaldi was clearly captivated by their tinkling song and on his “Il gardellino” Concerto number 3 in D major, he attempts to mimic the goldfinch with a flute. Have a listen here.

Then there’s John Keats and in one of my favourite of his poems, “I stood tip toe upon a little hill” he waxes lyrical about them:

“Sometimes goldfinches one by one will drop.

From low hung branches; little space they stop.

But sip and twitter and their feathers sleek;

Then off at once, as in a wanton freak:

Or perhaps, to show their black and golden wings.

Pausing upon their yellow flutterings”.

 

Keats’ words (especially “as in a wanton freak”) sum up these beautiful, adaptable, successful, striking, joyous birds magnificently – and I am so glad that we have these birds with us in our garden here.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) carduelis goldfinch https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/11/the-charming-bird-by-keats-raphael-vivaldi-linnaeus-christ-king-harold-me Thu, 07 Nov 2013 16:11:12 GMT
Society of Wildlife Artists – 50th year exhibition. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/10/society-of-wildlife-artists-50th-year-exhibition Yesterday I was fortunate enough to have the great pleasure of being invited to the private viewing of the annual Society of Wildlife Artists annual exhibition by an exhibiting artist, Brin Edwards (more on him later).

 

This year is a special year for the SWLA - it’s the charity’s 50th year of existence and to commemorate that, a hardback book had been published, called “The Natural Eye” – available to buy here.

 

The SWLA also managed to bag a hero of mine (and many, many, many others) to open the exhibition yesterday – Sir David Attenborough.

 

Now I had forgotten in my haste to invite my wildlife-loving sister and brother-in-law that they were “friends” of the SWLA anyway and had been to many of these private viewings over the years, but invited them I did anyway (they already had tickets!) and off we toddled to the Mall Galleries next to Admiralty Arch in London, after a quick bite to eat (a little bit of whitebait for me) at the Ship and Shovell pub below Charing Cross Station yesterday.

 

I guess this “wildlife blog” has now temporarily turned into some kind of bastardised review website, but whilst it is (temporarily) in that mode – my thoughts on the SWLA, it’s artist members, yesterday and Sir.David are incoherently rambled by me below….

 

I briefly used to live and work in London (when I first met my (now) wife) but don’t tend to get up to “The Big Smoke” much these days. Quite deliberately so – it sets my teeth on edge. It’s not my natural habitat (much more my sister’s who works at the Natural History Museum) and it was quite an effort for me to return (silly though that sounds I know).

 

I did spot a hare in a distant horse pasture on the way up to London on the train, between Egham and Staines – and smiled briefly, before the train rumbled slowly past the Young Offenders Institute at Feltham which permanently sits under a dark cloud and my smile disappeared.

 

 

Anyway…. Enough of the journey. What was the exhibition like?

 

 

I’d never been to a wildlife art exhibition – only wildlife photography exhibitions – but have always been interested in art (especially wildlife art of course) and have had a couple of drawings published by Collins (for the birds of bucks book many years ago – pencil drawings of a whinchat’s head if I remember correctly). So I was very much looking forward to seeing all the art. It did not disappoint.

 

Sir David Attenborough opened up the exhibition magnificently – I’d not seen him in the flesh before and even though he clearly is pushing on a bit (that’s a polite understatement) his professionalism and thoughts were incredibly well-put, succinct and very powerful.

We’ll need a national day of mourning when Sir David Attenborough disappears for sure - as my brother in law said – he is irreplaceable.

Sir David is speaking when the photo below was taken and I am very visible in the shot (look for a sky blue pair of shoulders mid distance and to the left of the shot).

 

What of the artwork though?

 

 

I have pretty strong opinions about art – that is to say paint rather than pixels (or film) – and tend to like “arty art” rather than realism.

If it’s realism you’re after… take a photo.

That said there is some realistic artwork I am amazed by – it clearly takes immense skill to paint something so realistically it looks like a photo from a distance.

But.

In the main…. I tend to like my art all “arty farty” and certainly leaning towards impressionistic rather than realistic.

I like having to explore a painting – the light, the colours and the shapes – how does it make me feel – and why it makes me feel that way.

I like bold paintings made with bold paint strokes (and very often big square brushes), vivid oils and a lot of impasto work.

One of my favourite artists is Arthur Maderson, an Irish impasto expert (who doesn’t paint wildlife). His light on water (rivers) impastos are so incredible I could gaze at them all day (honey…. If you’re reading this, you know what to save up for - for a big birthday!)

 

I tend also to shy away from watercolours. I find them a little weak. Insipid. Apologetic. Twee.

My sister gave me food for thought on watercolours though. She said “Yes… but very often there’s a freshness to watercolour”. I went round the exhibition yesterday searching for “freshness” in watercolours and of course she was spot on (she has a very good artistic eye my sister) – there is indeed a clean quality to many watercolours – a real freshness. Maybe I’ll put watercolours back on my “in” list!

 

Brin Edwards was the artist that sent me invitations to the SWLA private viewing after I’d waxed lyrical about his work on a wildlife website forum. I’d also (as it happens) poured a great deal of water on many other wildlife artists (both SWLA members and not) whilst singing Brin’s praises.

I find an awful lot of wildlife art twee beyond belief.

Every feather on the bird is perfect and drawn with such detail – all power and strength and vision and feeling is lost in the anal desire to recreate every teensy weensy detail and it leaves me stone cold generally.

Alastair Proud’s work is like that – incredibly detailed and very realistic – he is immensely skilled for sure, but his beautiful paintings of eagles soaring over glens intrigue me for less than a few seconds generally.

 

Add all that to the fact that there’s an awful lot of wildlife art out there depicting otters playing in seaweed or bears lying on an ice-flow or badgers leaving their sett for the night.

 

Blurrrrrgh.

 

That’s not the dirty, bloody, raw, impressive, powerful, moving, fascinating wildlife I know and love.

That’s a twee representation of what the artist thinks is wildlife (you might as well paint a picture of some dogs playing poker as far as I’m concerned rather than  try to depict the actual character of your subject) – although to be fair, rather like wildlife photography – it’s the bears and badgers and otters that sell, rather than a dove being torn apart by a hawk or a caterpillar being devoured by a cuckoo.

 

I think I prefer wildlife that’s been painted by someone who knows a little about his or her subject and hasn’t relied on Walt Disney to teach them their zoology. There’s more of that around than you’d think, you know…

 

A lot of wildlife art is too fussy for me also – too shackled to as many wee marks as possible on the canvas – my eyes get lost in all this mess. I think some artists forget when to put their brushes down and STOP. A huge skill in oils and acrylics I think (you can fuss over them for ever as an artist) rather than watercolours (you tend to only get one go at getting a watercolour “right”).

 

People who know me from wildlife photography circles might know I often like to take very “clean” images and images with quite a lot of negative space. There’s no need to fill the frame or canvas with one’s subject – in fact that often decreases the strength of the final image – I think this is often overlooked in wildlife art and photography.

 

Back to Brin Edwards.

His work is very inspiring and very recognisable indeed – as he uses very vivid colours (some of which are a little strange I admit) and blocks in light or reflected light on water with immense skill and confidence.

He is very capable of drawing life-like detailed work also (in fact that’s how he started in his art) but I love the fact he leaves detail behind these days (often) and concentrates on light and colour. And yet the “character” of the birds he paints shines through. I spent a good 5 minutes gazing at his drake shoveler painting yesterday, amazed at how he’d got the cock-sure shoveler “look” just right, with big bold block painting – a real feat.

 

I got talking to Brin at yesterday’s viewing for some time - and picked his brains on a lot of topics – a gentleman - and he’s certainly inspired me to take up a paintbrush again – for the first time since my Art ‘O’ level. (I got an ‘A’ grade in case you wondered - but that was a LONG time ago!)

 

Nick Derry won two awards at yesterday’s viewing. Another artist whose work impressed me massively at the Mall. Not as much as Brin’s work admittedly (it’s a little messier and more confusing to my eyes) but very VERY impressive and certainly not twee at all.

 

 There was a lot of good stuff on show yesterday but also a whole lot of twee chocolate-boxy type art. Good for children’s books but that’s about all really.

There was also a fair amount of guff too.

I won’t go into the guff, or what I regarded as guff, here (I’ll start ranting if I do) but I’ll give you one quick pointer – Darren Rees.

 

One thing that struck me about yesterday’s exhibitors in the main (or the exhibition itself anyway) was the lack of HUGE art – 6 foot by 8 foot canvases – show stoppers. I was left wondering whether that is a deliberate ploy by the SWLA – to only really exhibit small or smallish work. Sure there was a very large and realistic painting of a black-headed gull dancing across a wet sand bar but that was all as far as large paintings were concerned.

 

Brin did explain to me the fact that the SWLA council were very conscious of NOT having one artist’s work dominate eye line, so I guess it is a deliberate ploy by the SWLA – a shame I think. Most of the paintings were very similar in size and most were “small”.

 

 

Look.

I’ve waffled on for waaaay too long again.

 

If you are into your art and into wildlife, I’d thoroughly recommend a quick trip to the Mall galleries to view this SWLA 50th year exhibition.

 

I’ve certainly been inspired to put down the camera and lenses for a while and see what I can do with a canvas a pencil and a few oils over the next few months or a year or so – it’ll probably all end in tears but who knows?

 

 

 

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 50th year David Attenborough London Mall Galleries SWLA exhibition wildlife art https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/10/society-of-wildlife-artists-50th-year-exhibition Thu, 31 Oct 2013 18:34:01 GMT
A few thoughts on the Yeti. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/10/a-few-thoughts-on-the-yeti No.

Not Bigfoot.

The Skoda "Yeti" (and other cars).

I don't really want to turn this "wildlife blog" into a car review site, but I've been thinking of the Yeti as a perfect car for my wildlifey life and thought I'd post a blog on the subject.

Still interested? Well please read on....

 

 

I tend to enjoy driving around the local countryside (especially the back roads north of Bracknell, lined by horsey-stud farms close to the polo clubs around Windsor and of course Ascot race course, in a crepuscular fashion.

Why?

To keep my beady eyes on all other things with beady eyes – owls, foxes, rabbits, deer, stoats, weasels, partridge, kestrels, sparrowhawks, woodpeckers...that sorta thing – and at dawn especially (rather than dusk when humans tend to still be around) – these beady-eyed beasties tend to be more visible to me sat in my 10 year old go-cart.

I often use the car as a mobile “hide” also  - from which to take photographs or get pretty close to wildlife – there’s little doubt that many animals (birds included) really do think “four legs (or wheels!) good, two legs bad” as Orwell wrote in “Animal Farm”.

 

At present I have a 2003 Skoda Fabia. Uninformed people still take the mickey out of Skodas, but as part of the VW group now (has been for over a decade), the truth is Skoda is a pretty good car these days – very good some might say.

When you buy a Skoda, you’re getting a VW on the cheap. Maybe slightly cheaper built also (and less frilly in many cases) but a pretty good choice all things considered.

Top Gear presenters (deary me) might still shake their heads and call us Skoda drivers “tightwads”, but that’s a bonus as far as I’m concerned – being disliked by people like Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond. I’ve never been a badge snob – like the AUDI and BMW drivers that litter our roads these days. Admittedly, Skoda doesn’t tend to concentrate too much on looks – fine by me – I’m inside the car not driving from the outside, gazing at it.

Add to all that the fact that my little Skoda has a tank of an engine. The best engine that VW made for a long, LONG time – the 1.9 TDi – which never lets cars down – and also the fact that my wee Skoda has“elegance” trim (top of the range for Skoda – meaning things like heated seats, parking sensors, alloys etc).

The simple truth is my car is faster than the cars owned by most of its “knockers”, Faster, cheaper to buy, cheaper to run, less depreciation, cleaner, greener, more efficient, has more poke, more mid-range grunt, more torque, cheaper to insure, cheaper to tax and is cheaper to service. It also is better equipped than their cars, has more legroom, more headroom more boot space and is (some might say) more “fun”.

 

It’s a good car yes, but it is knocking on bit (10yo this year) and has does well over an eighth of a million miles, although that’s the other good thing about the VW 1.9Tdi – it really should be good for a quarter of a million miles like many diesels.

I’ve always been interested in cars and chose that Skoda very, VERY deliberately. I’ve never regretted it – but am tentatively looking around for a replacement soon. That’s if I manage to keep my job – I’m fighting for it again for the fourth time in 6 years right now.

Because we now have a kid and I have a RIB (to take shots of ducks on lakes) I might need something a little bigger than a Fabia-sized car. Also - I like to drive around bumpy farm tracks and back roads, cross fords and park on wet, grassy knolly kerbs or at the sides of fields, I might like to look for something a little higher off the ground but I’m certainly not convinced I need 4x4 as:

  1. I don’t live on a farm or on a mountain track and
  2. I don’t think 99% of my drives would be better or safer having 4 wheel drive.

 

So I’m tentatively looking for a replacement motor then.

Disregarding situational constraints (you might NEED a 4x4 or estate for example)... there is only one set of rules when starting to look at cars as far as I’m concerned (if you don’t fancy taking your purchase down to the mechanics every two weeks).

Buy German (or German group) or Japanese (or possibly South Korean these days with Kia) – that is if you don’t do what everyone else does and buy a Focus or Mondeo (the ONLY Fords worth considering because they’re VERY good – especially the Mondeo).

 

So.

To summarise, whilst I’d personally like to run a big Jaguar (maybe an old XJS or new F-type or maybe an old Landrover Defender – I don’t have money to burn at Garages sooooo...... –

  • Ford Mondeo or Focus. (Steer clear of Vauxhalls... always playing Ford catch-up)
  • Any VW or Skoda (steer well clear of BMWs or Audis – they’ll immediately show you up as a bit of a turd – quite a lot of a turd in fact)
  • Most Mazdas (very good if a little plasticky) or a Honda if you really have to (but really only the old S2000 is any fun –anything else will mark you down as having more than a few liver spots on your hands)
  • South Korean Kias if you really have to have an MPV. The Sportage only.
  • And.... NEVER, EVER anything French or Italian or Spanish. That’s NO Renaults, Citroens, Peugeots, Fiats or even Seats (yep... part of the VW group also, but nasty little things).

 

Me?

My choices would be pretty limited to a Skoda Yeti, Octavia (estate) or Superb (estate) (who thinks of these names!?) or a Mazda 6 tourer. Or if I had a lobotomy before I made a choice – a Mondeo estate (like everyone else).

 

Now. I had to take my old go-cart into the garage this week for a big service – so I chose a YETI as a courtesy car to drive around in whilst the old girl was being patched up – primarily to give the Skoda crossover a thorough test drive.

This being a courtesy car is a pretty basic YETI – a 2013 2.0 CR TDi (not “SE” trim, not “elegance” trim either) – so no parking sensors, heated seats or anything frilly really, but what did I make of it?

 

My thoughts are summarised below and I hope there’s maybe one person out there in a similar situation to me (apart from fighting for their job every 14 months) who might be somewhat interested in this short “review”....

Pros.

  • GREAT engine. The successor to the brilliant 1.9Tdi.
  • Loads of room (it’s not quite an MPV but the cabin is very spacious).
  • Good driving position for someone my height (6’2”) – really really easy to get in and out of (NB. that has shocked me how much easier it is to get in and out of rather than a “normal” car – so much better for old backs and knees), a nice window ledge to rest your right arm on (all you old Defender drivers will know what I’m talking about).
  • Pretty smooth.
  • Pretty quiet for a big diesel.
  • Good radio.
  • Pretty pokey (floor it and you’ll know you’ve floored it)
  • Good value still. Just.
  • Plenty of optional extra toys on higher end models (SE and elegance).

Cons.

  • Driving position - Even though I described it as a pro above – because you are seated higher and closer to the windscreen than a Fabia for example, if you’re over average height, the rear view mirror seems to be stuck to the middle of the windscreen rather than at the top. If you want to look left through the main windscreen, you need to duck down in your seat and look under the rear view mirror – not ideal at all.
  • Windscreen – again, because of the driving position, the screen is constantly steaming up heavily in conditions where the ambient outside temperature is less than about 15c. It makes a heated front windscreen on a YETI a MUST. Luckily heated front windscreens are not confined to Fords these days although you’ll pay a few hundred quid for this as an extra on the Skoda range.
  • Water ingress into cabin. - Like a lot of vehicles with roof bars, you have to be careful with the YETI. If it has been raining (but its dry when you start your drive) and you wind down the windows when you set off – the water collected on the roof bars will all drip off (as the vehicle tips a little when you get in the car) and all rush in through the window when you open it and set off. This might seem trivial when written – you won’t think so if it happens to you – every time you forget you have roof bars and no “gutter” to send the water somewhere other than the arm rest or your arm each time you open the window!
  • Ride – It’s a little wallowy really. Not that surprising for a tallish car with softish suspension – maybe more supportive seats would help, or maybe more sporty suspension (although that would limit its appeal to those people who think they’re weekend off-roaders)
  • Clutch. Like most modern cars the YETI’s clutch biting point is much higher than my old car. In traffic my left leg gets more of a workout in any modern car – something I guess I’ll have to just accept these days!

Summary.

I liked the YETI. I liked it a lot.

I don’t care that it looks a bit you know.... “Postman Pat”.

I don’t care that people might still take the proverbial out of it (and me) because it’s a Skoda.

I am not convinced it knows what it is though – it isn’t really an MPV. It isn’t really an off-roader (certainly not the 2 wheel drive models anyway). It isn’t really an estate. It isn’t a cruiser. It isn’t fast enough to be considered anything like sporty (there’s no VRS YETI unlike the pretty sporty VRS Octavia). It suffers a bit from all this – it’s very much a compromise – a little of everything but not a lot of one thing.

If I was to buy a YETI rather than an Octavia (or even Superb) estate – I would have to get a 2.0TDi version – probably SE or Elegance Trim and insist on a heated front windscreen (to avoid having to have the noisy blowers on constantly). Oh.... and a panoramic sunroof too, but I do like sunroofs.

All that would make it a bit expensive really -well... certainly not the great value that Skodas are clinging onto, but there we go.

 

I guess I’ll have to test drive the Octavia next – maybe when I know the job is safe (or not) but for now I’d give the YETI 7.5/10.

 

FURTHER THOUGHTS after a couple more days with the Yeti (30th October 2013)

 

Rear view mirror positioning.

You'll have read above that I am concerned with the low position of the Yeti's rear view mirror. I'm not alone it seems. On the basic trim models (CR and SE) many people have complained about the lack of visibility through the windscreen (especially on long left hand bends or when looking left at a junction) with the mirror so low.

I tried lowering the seat a little to avoid this issue - which helped - but defeated the object of the yeti's higher driving position really - and I would now regard the mirror position as dangerous.

But. There is a solution - buy the £65 optional extra of "automatic lights" or "tunnel lights" or buy a Yeti in Elegance trim. This has the result of the mechanics (or robots!) glueing the mirror where it should be - at the top of the windscreen with a sensor in the mirror to turn on the headlamps when it gets dark (in a tunnel or at dusk).

Sorted.

 

Headlamps.

It struck me this morning on a nocturnal owl drive that unlike most modern cars, the Yeti has ONE bulb (on each headlamp) serving dipped beam and full beam lighting (unlike the two bulbs in most modern cars).

So?

Well.... in most modern cars, you drive around on dipped beam and then when hitting an empty dark bit of country road (say), you complement the dipped beam by ADDING the full beam (by turning on a different bulb). You are then driving with full beam AND dipped beam.

On the Yeti though, when you turn full beam on, the dipped beam disappears.

So?

Not a lot really.... but on full beam, you lose the spread of light in front of the car (for 15 feet or so) - sure... you'll get a nice full beam lighting up the road way ahead, but the 15 foot or so in front of the grill will be a little errr.... dark.

So?

It's just different - that's all. It's a little unnerving driving with two bulbs instead of four and driving through a dark spot right in front of your car - but if you really are unnerved by it - probably best to switch on the fog lamps also when selecting full beam in dark, empty roads. Not ideal at all really - or perhaps investing in better halogen bulbs when selecting your yeti (at a cost of course).

 

 

YET MORE THOUGHTS (after a couple more days extensively driving it). 2nd November 2013

 

Visibility from cabin.

The Yeti's only real downfall now I think. But a BIG issue.

I've mentioned the rear view mirror placement on basic spec models (DANGEROUS) - but it's fair to also say that visibility through side windows at junctions is atrocious. Sit at a T junction at anything other than 90 degrees in the Yeti and you'll be moving about in your seat desperately trying to peer through the large pillars and seats to see if there are any cars coming. It isn't easy believe me.

Now I'm 6'2" (so not a giant by any means) and even though I tend to have car seats pushed back as far as they'll allow - I still had huge problems lookig right and left at junctions  - this issue would be even worse if you're of more average height and your seat is a little further forward in the cabin.

 

Visibility at night (through windscreen).

More issues I'm afraid. Again I should point out at 6'2" this is a personal issue but you'd need to be 5'10 or under to have no issue with what I'm about to describe.

At night the bright dials on the dashboard are clearly reflected at the top of the windscreen. This is not a head up display type reflection - it's a bright, upside-down reflection of your dials, all over the top of your windscreen - produced because the hood over the dials is not deep enough in the Yeti.

If you're of average (or shorter) height, this will not be visible to you - but if you are anything over average height, be prepared to have your field of vision reduced at night by the dial reflections in the screen (and the low rear view mirror and large pillars and seats!).

For a tall crossover, built with a good driving position and all round vision in mind, these are serious issues for the Yeti some might say. You'd obviously be sitting lower down in an Octavia (or "normal" car) which would make the driving position less favourable - but you'd get far better all round vision - bizarre I think.

 

Headlamps again.

After a few nights using the Yeti it's fair to say that the headlamps are pretty dire. If you are to buy a Yeti I would absolutely recommend upgrading to better spec halogens before the car leaves the garage. You might not believe this - and choose the standard bulbs. But you'll be ordering better ones soon....

 

 

Final summary and thoughts vs an Octavia (for example)

 

Look - I still love the Yeti - its a bit "different".

It's well built. It ticks lots of boxes.

It has a great engine and can come with many toys.

It also is EXTREMELY comfortable.

But - it does have a major issue in visibility from the cabin, night and day - and for a crossover (where cabin visibility should be perfect) this is a big deal indeed. A deal breaker some may say.

 

Would I buy one (rather than an Octavia Estate say, which is faster, more economical, has more space and better visibility?)

Only (perhaps) on the basis that the Yeti is more comfortable.

I've not test driven an Octavia yet (I know the figures however) and the Octavia only loses out to its crossover cousin on comfort.

It beats the Yeti in all other ways....

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) review skoda yeti https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/10/a-few-thoughts-on-the-yeti Tue, 29 Oct 2013 09:21:10 GMT
M31, a chicken crossing a road, lunar planes and LIGHTNING. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/10/m31-a-crossing-chicken-lunar-planes-and-lightning I first took a photo with a “proper” camera in my teens – an old Olympus OM10 – complete with a wind-on film and manual adapter….

 

What was the first subject of my nascent interest in photography? Not a bird or a badger but actually the Andromeda Galaxy sitting in the night sky high above the recreation ground behind the house where I grew up.

 

Since then I’ve had far more years when I haven’t had a camera (only really started photography again a handful of years ago) but the Andromeda Galaxy still remains the “furthest away subject” I’ve ever photographed – but only by about 16,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles.

 

I actually don’t have that many photographic ambitions (or non-photographic ambitions to be fair). Maybe it would be nice to get a really nice, clear shot of a swift leaving a nest for the first time (I think that will come), maybe a digger wasp taking a hoverfly back to its nest (I haven’t the patience to wait for that it seems), maybe the captain of my beloved Bristol Rugby Club lifting the Premiership Trophy one day (NO chance!).

 

Have I realised any photographic ambitions? Well…. I did always want to take a photo of a chicken crossing a road – and my champion layer Couven helped me with that job.

 

Why?Why?

 

I have always wanted to take a photo of a plane in front of the moon (NOT photo-shopped like most of those shots you see on “tinterweb”) but I have done that quite a few times now

Fly me to the moonFly me to the moon

– and again very recently – so now I guess I’d quite like to shoot the ISS (International Space Station) in front of the moon (do-able I think with a little help and a lorra lorra luck (weather-wise) maybe), but that’s about it really – like I say – I tend to just photograph what I see and don’t tend to have lists to shoot or ambitions as such.

 

 

But.

 

 

We all LOVE a good old thunderstorm don’t we? With lightning. You know… REAL (bolt) lightning – none of that sheet lightning guff.

It gets your heart going and reminds you just how small you are - well…. it does me anyway. I have always had in mind to eventually get a bolt of lightning or two on film (or sensor!).

 

This week I made good on that ambition. Just.

Not really in the way I had envisaged – I had imagined perhaps that I’d be lucky enough one day to shoot a famous vista (the Post Office Tower in London or the Forth Rail Bridge) in an electrical storm, being struck repeatedly by blue bolts of crackling electricity.

No.

It didn’t really happen like that.

 

I have a half-decent knowledge of basic photographic techniques I think now. I know how to photograph lightning, given the chance. A basic set up might be locate the area of the sky where the bolts are occurring, select a pretty wide-angle lens, manual focus to jusssst below infinity (infinity doesn’t work on most lenses), and run off multiple exposures of sayyyy 30 seconds at quite a low ISO, from a tripod. Of course you have to shelter the camera from the rain also – best really to photograph a distant storm (rain in the distance also) rather than one right on top of you.

 

I was watching the final of “Bake off” with moy woyf last Tuesday when suddenly all hell broke out in the skies above. It wasn’t because one of the contestants (Ruby) actually smiled (the phrase “looks like a smacked dog” wouldn’t do her justice), it was because a very short-lived, narrow band of thunderstorms were moving across the country and were at that moment right over SE Berkshire, where we live.

 

That was the end of “Bake off” as far as I was concerned.

 

Out came the camera, off came the 70-200 lens, on went the 10-22 lens (set to 20mm and manually focused just to below infinity as described above), and out we went, me, my camera, a tripod and a cardboard box to prevent the camera getting drenched – as it was pi…. precipitating down very heavily by then.

 

I took three exposures of the sky, each thirty seconds long and in that 3 minutes (in my old 40D the camera takes another 30 seconds to “write” the photo onto the CF card after each 30 second exposure) I got thoroughly soaked.

 

But it was worth it I think – I DID get a shot of two bolts of lightning from one exposure – by the fourth time I opened up the camera’s shutter it was clear the lightning at least was over and I needed to get dry again!

 

The result is below. Like I’ve said, not quite what I’d envisaged for my first ever lightning shot, but not too bad really - next time I’ll endeavour to be more prepared and proactively PLAN a lightning shoot eh?

 

Insane bolt.

 

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) lightning https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/10/m31-a-crossing-chicken-lunar-planes-and-lightning Sun, 27 Oct 2013 05:42:59 GMT
WPOTY judges – a removal of blinkers is called for? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/10/wpoty-judges-a-removal-of-blinkers-is-called-for I’m generally not given to critiquing the quite excellent (& world-reknowned) Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, owned (these days) by BBC Worldwide and the Natural History Museum.

 

I’m not given to critiquing it as it generally throws up a huge variety of stunning wildlife photographs, taken using a range of techniques by a huge range of international photographers, photographing a good variety of fauna and fauna.

 

Almost invariably it is a delight to see the winning and commended images each year.

 

It still is a delight this year - and I am not going to spend the next few minutes dissecting the actual images (well…. I’ll pick out a few of my favourites) but I will, if you’ll allow, level a criticism or two at the judges this year.

 

Yes, yes, I know. Wildlife photography competitions are pretty subjective in nature and what one judge likes, another will not – but I really think this big competition has taken a step back this year, unlike its smaller, poorer British (only) cousin, the BWPA which I reviewed a month or two ago.

 

 

There were around 43,000 images submitted to the big Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition this year – a huge number of images by any reckoning – and especially as rules stipulate that judges must be able to investigate the photographers’ RAW images (as well as JPEGs or TIFFs), in order to lay their beady eyes on the “original” shot – not so with many other competitions.

 

43,000 images and yet the same show-stopping subjects walk away with the spoils again.

 

Again. I’m not criticising the actual images themselves – they are belters – all of them.

 

What I refuse to believe though is that out of the 43,000 entries, the judges couldn’t find ONE image of an insect good enough to commend or have win a category.


Not one?

 

Really?

 

In fact, of all the commended and winning entries, only one depicted a creature that didn’t have a backbone (the spider shot).

This begs the question (for me at least) - do the WPOTY judges have a backbone between them?

 

So….all bar one of the entire commended and winning images (displayed online at least) were of vertebrates. That’s a tiny percentage of the world’s fauna walking away with top dog honours. A real shame I think.

 

And of these vertebrates, we also got the same few vertebrates winning or being commended time after time (very often as in previous years, but a little more markedly-so this year).

You know….

Elephants, Amur leopards (or tigers), lions, bears, dolphins, crocodiles, birds of prey, macaques and ibex.

 

Now I suppose with categories like birds, mammals and animal portraits (not confined to vertebrates admittedly this one), you’ll get a few thousand vertebrate shots submitted, but there were plenty of other categories (creative visions, endangered species, black and white, animals in their environment, world in our hands etc…. that I might have expected to see a smattering of invertebrate shots included in the prize winners – maybe more than one anyway.

 

It’s also a little strange to have the only invertebrate shot winning the bird behaviour category. But maybe that’s just me being picky. (I happen to think that this shot, although showing me something I didn’t know is the worst shot (composition-wise) of the entire set of winning / commended images).

 

 

So why are big-backboned animals winning time after time?

 

Who knows?

 

Maybe these attractive animals bring in the punters. Rather like the Panda being the WWF’s weapon of choice, maybe elephants and lions are the WPOTY’s equivalent.

 

 

I delighted in the fact that the superb leaf-cutter ant shot won this prestigious competition three years ago – it was a stupendous shot, fully deserving of overall winner and a refreshing change from all the fur and hair which has dominated this competition recently.

 

I also happen to know that there are thousands upon thousands of “macro” or invertebrate photographers spending hour after hour in the field shooting the wee, but just as (if not much more so) spectacular insects and arachnids and entering these shots into competitions – which in many cases will reveal to exhibition visitors a slice of life that they didn’t know about or hadn’t seen (or appreciated) before.

 

But for this year at least, we will have to settle for shots of big cats chasing prey again, or elephants at watering holes. Magnificent shots yes, but I expected a little more from the best wildlife photography competition of them all.

 

Maybe next year….

 

Just in case any macro or invertebrate photographer is reading this and is dissuaded from entering their shots into next year's WPOTY competition (why bother if lions and tigers are the only subjects that the judges seem to favour) - I'd suggest the opposite you know.

This is a call to arms to all wee beastie snappers. Keep trying for that elusive shot of your favourite jumping spider leaping onto a fly (the technology exists to to take those shots now as does your patience I'm sure). Keep searching for that one-in-a-million shot of a digger wasp flying back to its nest with a sedated hoverfly in its grasp. Keep shooting the spectacular mini world and get your entries in for next year. You will only be ignored if you allow yourself to be ignored!

 

 

NB.

For the record and before I get accused of sour grapes by anyone who didn’t make it through my entire blog post above - as some people reading this might know, I have never entered this competition, at least…. not yet (my photos simply aren't good enough), nor did I enter the BWPA this year and nor (to be fair) have I taken many photographs of wildlife this year (too busy with young son) – I write all this as an interested observer, that’s all.

 

Please also note. The standard of the winning and commended images is truly amazing again – I am certainly not criticising the quality of the published images in this blog post - just the refusal of the judges to shed their blinkers….

 

My favourite images in this year’s crop are (in no particular order):

 

Little bird, big water  by Alessandro Bee

Snowbird by Arto Raappana

Fish-eye view by Theo Bosboom

Resurrection by Marsel van Oosten

 

Wonderful shots indeed.


Why don’t you choose your own though?

 

 

 

 

EDIT 17/10/13:

I'm clearly not the only one who thinks like this...

 

Matt Cole blogs the same.

As does Richard "The bugman" Jones.

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 2013 WPOTY https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/10/wpoty-judges-a-removal-of-blinkers-is-called-for Wed, 16 Oct 2013 08:22:20 GMT
The habi-sabi swift box. A detailed review. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/10/the-habi-sabi-swift-box-a-lengthy-review  

This will be the first review (of anything) on this blog - and probably the last also. I don't tend to review anything unless I think there's really something to it.

However, on the occasion of seeing quite possibly the last of the house martins in 2013 (fifty or so all flying south in a great big chattery flock in morning murk above the house today) I thought I would review my latest purchase for my beloved swifts..... the habi-sabi swift box.

The same review will (I hope) shortly be published on the excellent nhbs website if approved, here.

 

 

 

 

The habi-sabi swift box.

A detailed “first impressions” review.

By Doug Mackenzie Dodds

 

 

 

Introduction.

As swifts’ traditional nesting sites are being lost (as we change our wooden soffits and fascias with close-fitting plastic replacements or re-point our brickwork & re-tile our roofs) their numbers have crashed over the UK over the past couple of decades.

Swifts tend mainly to choose unimproved, pre-war buildings in which to nest; ignoring new-builds in the main as there is rarely any provision for nesting swifts incorporated (deliberately or accidentally) into modern houses and buildings. This is not the same in a few countries on the continent but sadly our governments and planners here are slow to catch on.

The sound (and sight) of screeching swifts dashing through our towns for only three months each year epitomises summer in Britain, but unless we provide more nest sites for them now, very soon British summers will be bereft of swifts.

How can we try to ensure this does not happen? It’s easy really. We can provide nesting sites either by leaving small holes under eaves or in fascias and soffits or by building or buying bespoke swift nest boxes.

Just a quick note for those not sure whether they might like “dirty birds” nesting on or in their house and spraying droppings everywhere.... swifts (unlike swallows and martins for example) are very clean nesters. Droppings are pretty solid, contained inside the nest site and are almost invariably eaten by the adults.

 

 

Now I’m lucky in that I have had swifts nesting in natural nest sites in pre-war houses that I’ve lived in. I’ve managed to even stream video-clips of our nesting swifts onto the web, before my wife and I moved to a post-war (1953 to be exact) town two years ago. Swifts have not nested in any great numbers in our current home-town so it’s a challenge to get them to investigate the houses here to nest.

 

For the past two years (including the wash-out summer of 2012) I have ensured there are places for swifts to nest under our eaves, designed and built my own internal swift palace in the attic of our house – I had to drill through the attic wall to provide an entrance/exit for the swifts (with my wife’s permission of course) and put-up a great cedar-wood swift box given to me by the self-same long-suffering wife for Christmas.

I have also (and this is the important bit) “called in” the swifts that fly over by playing a looped CD of swift calls from the roof – without this the swifts would not even investigate this particular part of our home town.

 

 

During the summers of 2012 and 2013 we have had up to four swifts check out our eaves and boxes on a daily basis, because of the swift call recordings I’m sure. Mainly around dawn and dusk (when most prospecting is carried out) but also throughout the day.

With areas of post-war towns that have never had any significant swift-nesting activity it might well take a few years (maybe five or so) before swifts choose to nest with you  -  it’s a good test of patience – as these birds, although magnificent to watch, are not the cleverest it seems!

That said, I am hopeful that the best birds of all will nest with us again next year, but to really do ALL that I can for them, I needed one (or two) more boxes right at the gable end of our 1953-built house.  Now I could probably design and build one, but upon investigation at timber merchants and DIY stores, any such design would prove very problematic and pretty costly - in terms of time and money.

 

Then I happened across the habi-sabi (from “51% studios”) double berth “rapidly-deployable” swift box, made from recycled material, on the nhbs website (which you can also view (if not buy) on the swift conservation website HERE).

I thought it looked pretty good – and pretty simple to assemble. It also looked very user-friendly – I could position the swift entrance holes up against the wall or out on the other side of the habi-sabi box – this looked like a very good feature indeed – and unique to the habi-sabi box. No other swift box that one can buy incorporates this incredibly useful feature.

So I bought one and it arrived yesterday.

Of course, the swifts have all disappeared back to the Congo for the winter now, but I will make some adjustments to the habi-sabi box and put it up in place during the winter – ready for the swifts’ return in late April or early May next year.

 

The below is a detailed review of the habi-sabi swift box (the above was a long introduction to demonstrate why I bought the box and what my experience of breeding swifts is.

 

First thoughts on the habi-sabi swift box:

  • It’s extremely quick & easy to assemble (took me 5 minutes – the enclosed instruction booklet is for once, a joy, (apart from one misprint whereby the ceiling flat-pack piece of the box is labelled the floor and vice-versa)). The swift box itself is a quite beautifully-simple design to be honest – it needs no tools other than your hands to build it (and a drill to fix it to a wall) and when built, looks great.

 

  • It’s allegedly weather-proof (absolutely imperative), has a low mass (so you don’t need huge great bolts to fix it to an external wall), solid (it won’t fall apart) and has excellent thermal properties (better than many types of timber or ply of course) – so any nestlings won’t tend to fry in hot summers.

 

  • You can customise it as you (or the swifts) see fit. This is a very useful design feature (as described above). When prospecting, swifts will often cling to external walls – this is the only swift box on the market right now that allows you to place the entrance holes of the box right up-against the wall – right next to prospecting “screamers” and “bangers” (swifts). Of course if your friendly-neighbourhood swifts prospect without clinging to walls – then you can also provide entrance holes away from the wall. I can’t say enough about this – when attracting prospecting swifts to a new location, this design feature is unique right now in the UK... and immensely useful.

 

  • You can paint it to extend its (long) shelf-life, have it blend in with the brickwork of external design of your house, or better-attract swifts. As I am not putting my box under existing soffits at the front or back of the house, but instead putting it up on at the apex of the brickwork gable end - I will cover mine (for example) in brick effect sticky-back-plastic but paint the bottom white, to resemble a white soffit. Swifts like something to aim at, but not something that just looks like a wooden box bolted onto brick work.

 

  • It provides plenty of room for two pairs of breeding swifts to nest. This might not be important at the start of the swift-attracting process, but if you are successful in getting breeding swifts in one of the boxes - because swifts prefer to breed in groups, prefer to breed where (or at least very close to the place that) they’ve been raised themselves and are extremely territorial about scarce nesting spots – you will need another “berth” soon. This double-berth box at least eliminates that issue. (It’s well known that if you put up one swift box, you probably should put up two to try to avoid nasty territorial battles in years to come).

 

  • Tiny IR cameras (sold all over the internet) can easily be attached to the internal walls of the habi-sabi swift box, if like me you have experience of and are keen to film any breeding swifts.

 

  • The box itself can be easily fixed to the wall in one of two ways – with an enclosed two-piece baton (half of which is meant to be attached to the flat-pack swift box already – NB. This isn’t the case, but is no big deal), or by two long screws in ready-made wee brackets at the edges of the swift-box.

 

  • Unlike other swift boxes available on the internet, the box cannot be “opened up” in situ. Once the box is up, the box is up. This would only prove problematic for two groups of people I suspect. Bird ringers who wish to ring the nestlings just before they fledge or web broadcasters/film-makers (like myself) who haven’t securely fixed any wee camera in place before the swifts arrive and the camera’s position alters over the course of the season. The advice there of course would be to be absolutely sure any cameras are rock solid before any birds arrive (and out of the way of the swifts which will enter the box at speed eventually).

 

  • The box could do with the addition of two milled “ nest forms" glued onto the (internal) floor of the box. Or even two rings of thick cord/rope to provide the swifts a base on which to start gluing their sticky saliva and feather nests together. It’s well known that these milled wooden nest forms (available from John Stimpson HERE) might make the difference between swifts nesting quickly.... or not. I will buy two cheap nest forms from the internet as a separate exercise to maximise my chances of a swift uptake of this box.

 

  • The instruction book advice on locating the box is highly commendable. Many people might like to site their new habi-sabi boxes under their soffits – and in an awful lot of cases this would mean the entrance/exit holes of the box are less than 5m from the ground. Swifts need a clear flight-path to their box, which should not be facing the prevailing weather and should be at least 5m above the ground. You really don’t want to see a young fledgling swift make its leap of faith at the end of July / early August, only to crash into the ground (and die invariably) as a result of you putting the box about 4m above the ground. Fledgling swifts need that 5m to find their maiden wings – and the habi-sabi instruction book reminds you of that important fact.

 

  • It is not particularly cheap – you could probably make one for less – but as far as value for money is concerned, looking at all the pro’s above – I think it’s certainly worth a little more than your more normal., standard, wooden swift boxes on the market right now. It’s a very clever design which probably would have taken me all winter (if not a lot longer) to come up with myself.

 

 

Summary of review.

As far as solid, light, weather-resistant, green (made from recycled material), easy-to-assemble, double berth, customisable swift boxes go.... this is the only one on the market (that I know of, at time of writing).

‘51% studios’ doesn’t seem to throw a lot of money at advertising ‘habi-sabi’ products it seems, but I’m very glad I chanced upon this swift box.

 

The proof will be in the pudding of course – will the dashing swifts use it in years to come?  I really don’t see why not but that’s for the future I guess.

Right now...

 I would thoroughly recommend the (51% studios-made) “habi-sabi swift box” without any hesitation at all.

 

Purchase yours from nhbs HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) habi-sabi swift box review https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/10/the-habi-sabi-swift-box-a-lengthy-review Wed, 02 Oct 2013 17:12:57 GMT
The devil urinates in 2 days. Be warned. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/9/the-devil-urinates-in-2-days-be-warned Now that we've passed the autumnal equinox, the superb (if you enjoy dry, warm weather) summer of 2013 is officially over and we are now into autumn proper.

So wat gwan at the moment then? Anything of note?

 

You'll be hard pressed not to notice the abundance of berries and soft fruit adorning our hedges and bushes this autumn. The brambles, firethorn and rowan have gone mennnal (just to name three). Last winter was an excellent "waxwing year" in the UK - we had many of these great little birds flock over from the continent as the berry crop had failed there (same with jays actually, as the continental oaks had not done that well either). The strange thing is last year, the UK berry and acorns had a bad year - so the waxwings and jays had to fight for their scran even here.  If the continental acorns and berries fail again this autumn and the waxwings and jays all come here en masse - they'll have a veritable feast laid out for them!

I've started running again (against the quack's orders but hey...) and on my runs I'm constantly passing people plucking blackberries from country roadside hedges and dropping them into ice cream boxes. The hedges are indeed dripping with fruit at the moment.

Get them soon though.... before the devil pisses on them. (NB. some say its the 10th October when Old Nick urinates on the brambles, but I would be pretty choosy after Michaelmas mesel, as agreed by most (that's 29th September or in 2 days after writing this post!)

 

Wat (else) gwan?

 

Well. The swifts have all gawn orf, but there are still swallows and martins about. They're on the move though. I see the odd one flying high and hard south over southeast Berks at present but many thousands are heading south and west before the big push across the Channel and Med.

I hope I still have up to two weeks before the hirundines have gone - and by that time (the second week of October) if I listen really carefully after dark, I'll probably hear my first thin "tseep" of the arriving winter thrushes - the redwings (and later the fieldfares). Last year I heard redwings and saw swallows on the same day in Berkshire.

Talking of birds, we have had the first autumnal visitors in the garden  - three chiffchaffs today (three together) and a young goldfinch without its striking head colours yet. There is talk of red-backed shrike and ruff at local "birdwatching sites" and as I've told you, ospreys are well and truly off now.

 

But wat (ELSE) gwan?

 

I've dead-headed the invasive goldenrod (great for the bees but so vigorous) now that the flowers have died. In fact in our garden there is a distinct lack of floral colour now. I've mown the grass for the last time this year? (maybe?) but the daisies have pretty-well gone, as has the clover and wild flowers in my "meadow". The white valerian has finally joined the foxgloves in "droopsville" and even the last water lily flower isn't opening properly on the pond's still surface.

That all said, the ivy (and we have a LOT of ivy) has flowered now - but although I check it as often as possible, the ivy bees haven't quite found it yet. Ivy bees are generally confined to the south of England at present, but they're moving north (they've been seen in Reading, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire this year) so I am hopeful that maybe this year these stunning wee bees check out our garden to refuel.

More guff on insects - I found my first 22-spot ladybird in the garden this week. I say first, I mean first of the garden -22-spots have always been my favourite ladybird. Why? I have no idea. I just likem!

The first of the autumn moffs have been appearing in numbers also - lunar underwing and large ranunculus to name but two.

The biggest insects numbers this year seem to be provided by the crane flies (if you want to be all grown up about it) or daddy-long-legs if you (like me) don't. They're EVERYWHERE this year,aren't they?! I get into the shower each morning and three drunken floaty things dance over my nose. I go downstairs and open the pantry (its a cupboard really, but you know... what the hell) for the morning porridge and two more dance out - trailing legs as they laboriously try to work out how to fly properly. I let the hens out of their run and they spend the next few minutes rushing across the lawn picking off the helpless DLLs. They are everywhere...

 

The leaves are still on the trees although they're turning QUICKLY now and falling more and more. Unlike last year we're not expecting a riot of autumnal colour this year - the summer was too hot and dry for that. Our apple crop (in the garden) looks good, although we really need some rain now - to swell the fruit, or even the winter thrushes might pass them over.

 

I am making final winter arrangements in the garden right now. I've found a brilliant double berth swift box to put up in the winter (to weather before next spring). I've covered the large compost heap, just in case a grass snake or two decides to overwinter with us and I've created the beginnings of a huge chicken-proof leaf pile for all kinds of wee critters (but frogs mainly).

 

Now to go blackberrying. You know. Before the devil does his stuff.....

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) 22-spot ladybird blackberry bramble crane fly daddy long legs large ranunculus lunar underwing swallow https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/9/the-devil-urinates-in-2-days-be-warned Thu, 26 Sep 2013 15:53:31 GMT
After the boys of summer have gone – the annual report. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/9/after-the-boys-of-summer-have-gone-the-annual-report After the boys of summer have gone – the annual report.

 

Ask anyone around my age(ish) to name as many “summer pop/rock songs” as they can and many might mention the ex-Eagles’ Don Henley and his “Boys of summer” from 1984 – still one of my favourite songs.

The strange thing is that if one listens to the lyrics: “Nobody on the road. Nobody on the beach. I feel it in the air. Summer’s out of reach” (etc etc) ... it becomes pretty obvious that the song has very little to do with summer – much more to do with the passing of summer (or time), entering autumn (or middle age) - and a questioning of the past.

For me though, the “boys of summer” are my favourite birds of all.... swifts (even though I’m sure they’re boys and girls of course) and now we’re into September, it does seem the (avian) “boys of summer” have indeed gone back to the Congo.

We’ve once again had a hot, sunny week this week (until today – Friday 6th September 2013) and even if summer isn’t officially over (it may get warmer and sunnier again next week), for now it feels like it.

I saw three swifts pass over the garden on the 29th August this year and even though I’ve not failed to see my last swift of the year in the first week of September since moving to this house two summers ago... I certainly think those three swifts overhead on the 29th August may well be my last of this particular year.

It’s a very sad time of year for me, as I’ve mentioned before – and combined this year with the beginning of the unscientific, senseless and politicised badger cull & the fact that I’ve very recently discovered one of our adult hedgehogs dead next door (eaten by foxes I think – and at present EVERY single hedgehog counts) – the end of meteorological summer 2013 is weighing pretty heavily on me at present.

That all said, I can console myself with the fact that we’ve had the best summer (in terms of sunny, warm weather) since I started properly dating my (now) wife in 2006 and it seems like moths, dragonflies and butterflies have all had a great 2013, unlike the dreadful year they had last year. I have another year of attracting swifts to the new “Swift Half” (our house) which will mean a year closer to them nesting with us – and I can spend the winter designing and building a new swift hotel for the “boys of summer” to investigate next May.

So now that the boys of summer have gone, I’d like to take this opportunity to produce an “end of year report” for 2012-13.  For those that don’t know, I document sightings of interest each year (or have done for the past two anyway) from September 1st one year to August 31st the next, in the garden and within a mile of the house – and my annual end of year reports pretty-well coincide nicely with the departure of the best birds of all, back to Africa.

Unlike last year’s (first) lonnnnnggggg annual report, this will be a far more succinct report, based mainly around new species recorded in the garden or neighbourhood - and notable differences between 2011/12 (report number 1 last year) and 2012/13.

I’ll try my best to avoid phenological references as much as I can* for a number of reasons – the most important being in general, amateur phenology is about as unscientific as one can get (sorry Tony) and if it even approached being scientifically rigorous, one would need to carry out phenological recording (and NOTHING else) for multiple decades before one could even begin to investigate patterns and trends. I simply haven’t got the time  (or the inclination) to even begin such a project. * I’ll make the odd phenological reference however – mainly with regards to swifts (of course!)

 

Please also note, this report is primarily aimed as a reminder for me in years to come, so as such may be bulleted and brief in parts…

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction and garden work completed in year 2.

 

Anna and I moved into our current house (our first owned) two years ago to the week. A year ago I wrote a long, detailed wildlife report and this is the second, after our second year here.

  • I’ve put up a cedar swift box (with camera) supplied by the excellent HANDYKAM and very kindly given to me for Christmas 2012 by my beautiful wife.
  • I’ve dug in a wildlife pond (rigid shell to avoid being punctured by herons’ beaks or cats claws – and planted native pond plants therein.
  • I’ve planted a mulberry tree (kindly given to us by my cousin Richard to celebrate my son’s birth on December 1st 2012) as well as two Joseph Rock Sorbus saplings (given to me by Anna for my birthday 2013).
  • I’ve taken down the dead whitebeam in the front garden, and created a log pile in the back garden from it – adding to the buried eucalyptus roots in which we know we have a stag beetle colony.
  • I’ve severely cut back the two leylandii nearest the house, to allow any prospecting swifts clear access to nest sites in the gable end of the house and also to allow more light into the garden.

 

 

 

Weather from September 2012 to August 2013 inclusive (a brief summary).

 

  • Unlike 2011-2012, this year (from September 2012 to August 2013 inclusive) brought us a very cold spring (we were frozen until the middle of May 2013) – so everything was a little late off the mark.
  • We also were treated to the warmest, sunniest, driest summer since 2006 (at least) with a prolonged heatwave in July. This mainly arose because the jet-stream sat over northern Scotland in the summer of 2013, unlike the last 7 or so summers when it sat over northern France.

 

 

Wildlife summary (in general by scientific class).


Insects. Arachnids. Other invertebrates.

 

  • Mediterranean tube web spiders now reached four in number (at least) in the side passage outside the back door.
  • Bad year for ladybirds here with only 14-spot ladybirds showing in any number at all.
  • Red Mason bees and Willoughby’s leaf cutter bees have taken over the bee hotels in the garden in large numbers.
  • Still hornets present – in fact one was attracted to the moth trap in August 2013
  • Tree bumblebees have nested in the roof again.
  • Wasps have produced a subterranean nest in the spoil heap by the back wall (a result of digging out the pond in February).
  • The “good” weather has meant that I’ve been able to run the moth trap pretty-well all summer (until the transformer broke at the very end of August), meaning I have recorded around 60 new spp. of moth in the garden this year – highlights being Poplar hawk moth and small elephant hawk moth.
  • My first ever rose chafer flew through the garden on a hot June day this year and stag beetles revealed their presence in the garden again like last year (really chuffed with that still).
  • Three new species of butterfly in the garden this year including purple hairstreak, marbled white and ringlet.
  • Dragonflies (once again) didn’t really appear in earnest until August (even with my new pond dug) with a broad-bodied chaser (briefly), followed by a common darter then finally, a pair of southern hawkers.
  • No obvious flying ant days this year.
  • No constant whining of midges all summer (as there was last year in the garden due to the constantly wet conditions).
  • Other new spp. for the garden included Ashy mining bee and my favourite sp. of jumping spider – Marpissa muscosa (the Fencepost jumping spider).
  • For a complete list of new spp. observed in the garden this year, please see table at the end of the blog post.

 

 

Amphibians. Reptiles.

 

  • Dug in new pond in late February / early March 2013 to provide breeding opportunities for the numerous local frogs and (with luck) newts eventually, as well as an amphi/herpe “home” in thick foliage by the pond. (corrugated iron sheet).
  • Still suffering from one of our cats bringing frogs into the house – I have little doubt that the frog population must have decreased this year (even with the addition of the pond).

Birds.

 

  • Last swift of 2012 seen flying over house on 1st September
  • New sp. in garden in October 2012 – Chiffchaff.
  • Redwings started arriving in mid October 2012
  • October 2012 in general saw the garden fill up with birds again, including coal tits, goldcrests and goldfinches.
  • Jays returned in late November 2012, peaking at FIVE in the garden at one time in Spring 2013.
  • 2012/13 was a BIG waxwing year – I visited a 70-strong flock 2 miles away all winter.
  • I also spent the winter following our local little owls (which returned to their traditional breeding site as early as January 1st 2013) and a barn owl which roosted in a hollow tree at a nearby farm. The barn owl would pair up in the spring, which gave me real hope for a successful owl year. Unfortunately neither the little owl pair, nor the barn owls bred successfully – a sad end to summer 2013.
  • We were visited by a lone fieldfare throughout the snow of January 2013 – but that bird was killed and eaten by our big female sparrowhawk before the month was out.
  • New garden sp. in January’s snow – two pied wagtails.
  • The new pond was visited once by the local grey heron. It now has a handful of ponds to stalk, in the neighbourhood.
  • First swallows were seen in the sky on 23rd April 2013, followed by the first swifts on 7th May 2013 (very late for me).
  • First ever cuckoo heard from the garden at dusk (21:45) on 2nd June 2013.
  • We had a blackbird hatch two from four eggs in the poplar tree but the nest was raided by an unseen avian thief before that nest properly got going. Main suspect was the visiting great spotted woodpecker, but it could have easily been a magpie or jackdaw also.
  • Juvenile green woodpecker drinks from the pond in July’s heat.
  • Last (3) swifts of the year (as mentioned at the start of this blog post) on 29th August 2013 – they’ve been screaming ‘round the house pretty-well every day since mid May in 2013 – attracted by my swift calls no doubt – but not one has fully investigated one of the three nesting spots I’ve created for them yet, even though they’ve been VERY close. I have high hopes for them to do so before too long – I hope next summer?

 

Mammals.

 

  • One adult fox snuck into the garden in broad daylight in the spring of 2013 – but I chased it out after it tried to get out via the hen run. No hens (or foxes) were hurt.
  • One “teenage” (young) fox snuck into the garden via the hedgehog tunnel in the summer of 2013, at night (captured by trailcam) but didn’t stay more than 10 seconds.
  • Clearly the local foxes have bred successfully and are very noisy in surrounding gardens (and the school’s grounds) each night, but there is little evidence other than the above, of the foxes regularly using our back (hen) garden.
  • I put in a hibernaculum in the Autumn of 2012 after hearing a lone hog crashing through next door’s garden one night – and dug tunnels under all our fences to connect at least four of our gardens for the local hog(s?).
  • Within hours, the hog was exploring our garden – and within days it had set up home in our hibernaculum. I’m not sure whether it hibernated with us – but come late spring it re-appeared in the garden again.
  • At the height of summer, TWO hogs were captured courting on trailcam – it became obvious then that our original hog was a female and the new-comer was a male. Could we expect wee hoglets soon?
  • Unfortunately not, as in August 2013, I made the sad discovery of a hog pelt the other side of our Fence (in our lovely neighbour Pip’s garden). I can only assume it was had by a fox.
  • I have cleaned out the empty hibernaculum, put a camera inside and when I set up the trailcam in the garden for the autumn, I desperately hope that we have a hog left…. Time will tell I guess, but this  hog story started so well…. And for now has ended so sadly.
  • On a more positive note, I still derive great pleasure from the fact that we have at least one (sometimes two) pipistrelle (common I think) bats hunting over and through OUR garden each dusk during the summer – the only bats I can see in the “hood”.

 

Plants. Fungi.

 

  • We grew no sunflowers nor cornflowers this year (unlike last), preferring instead to leave that plot to seed naturally. What a result! Campions, poppies, salad burnet, wild carrot – a great success.
  • ½ the large plot of lawn was left to “meadow” again – another great success with hundreds of creeping buttercup flowers appearing, then later in the year hundreds of clover flowers and birds-foot trefoil.
  • No clustered bonnets (AT ALL) unlike the constant outbreaks last year, but horse mushrooms and orange peel fungus instead.
  • Most blossoms and flowers appeared later than normal due to the cold May – the apple blossom didn’t really appear until the third week of May on its “ON” year – many hundreds of apples formed in 2013, unlike last year where there were maybe only half a dozen in total.
  • The polar flowered around my birthday and started to unfurl its leaves around then also.
  • The pond plants all flowered throughout June.
  • Goldenrod (a late flowerer always) started to flower around the end of July.

 

 

Hopes for next year

 

Owing to my continued poor health, even though I managed to do a fair amount this year, there’s still a whole lot more to be done.

I intend to dig out the vast majority of both borders and fertilise with local horse manure. The aim is to plant a great deal of insect-pollinated plants such as red valerian, buddleia and tobacco plants (for moths mainly I admit – the bees already have their invasive goldenrod!)

I also intend to spend this winter (2013/14) designing and erecting a new 2-berth swift hotel to be screwed into the apex of the roof before they return next May.

 

 

Summary.

 

2012-13 was a really good year for the garden, a “settling” year and a year for the pond to bed in. We’ve had a great year for insects (especially moths and dragonflies) and some promising signs re. hedgehogs.

The swifts have been buzzing around the house all summer – attracted by the swift call lure – and they surely will be breeding with us soon…..

Roll on year three!

 

 

 

 

Below is a table showing all “new sp.” that I’ve noticed in the garden for the first time this year (from September 2012 to August 2013 inc).

 

 

Organism

Type

Month

Notable because

Setaceous Hebrew Character

insect

12-Sep

New sp

Light Emerald

insect

12-Sep

New sp

Commmon Marbled Carpet

insect

12-Sep

New sp

Blair's shoulder knot

insect

12-Sep

New sp

Lunar Underwing

insect

12-Sep

New sp

Hedgehog

mammal

12-Sep

New sp

Chiffchaff

bird

12-Oct

New sp

Common marbled carpet moth

insect

12-Oct

New sp

Red Green carpet moth

insect

12-Oct

New sp

Grey pine carpet moth

insect

12-Oct

New sp

Harlequin (succinea) ladybird

insect

12-Oct

New sp

Herald

insect

12-Oct

New sp

Silver-sided sector spider

arachnid

13-Jan

New sp

Common false-widow

arachnid

13-Jan

New sp

Orange peel fungus

fungus

13-Jan

New sp

Pied wagtail

bird

13-Jan

New sp

The Chestnut

insect

13-Feb

New sp

Brindled plume moth

insect

13-Feb

New sp

Dark chestnut

insect

13-Feb

New sp

Double-striped pug

insect

13-Apr

New sp

Angle shades caterpillar

insect

13-Apr

New sp

Pond skater

insect

13-Apr

New sp (arrived in pond on 21st April)

Feather footed flower bee (female)

insect

13-Apr

New sp (on pulmonaria on 21st)

Eary nesting bumblebee

insect

13-Apr

New sp (on garden flowers on 21st)

Early thorn

insect

13-Apr

New sp (arrived to back light on 23rd)

Ashy mining bee

insect

13-May

New sp (killed by cats) on 2nd

Muslin moth

insect

13-May

New sp (moff trap on Monday 27th)

Poplar grey moth

insect

13-May

New sp (moff trap on Monday 27th)

Cuckoo

bird

13-Jun

New sp heard from back garden on night of 2nd at 21:45

Poplar hawk moth (adult)

insect

13-Jun

New sp (first appeared in moff trap of night of 2nd/3rd)

Flame carpet

insect

13-Jun

New sp in moff trap on 5th

Yelllow-barred brindle

insect

13-Jun

New sp in moff trap on 6th

Shuttle-shaped dart

insect

13-Jun

New sp in moff trap on 7th

Grey dagger

insect

13-Jun

New sp on wall by moff trap on 8th

Rose Chafer

insect

13-Jun

New sp (and first I've EVER seen) flew through garden on 8th

Cabbage moth

insect

13-Jun

New sp in moff trap on 9th

Thick-legged flower beetle

insect

13-Jun

New sp on wild circular meadow flowers on 17th

Wasp beetle

insect

13-Jun

New sp on wild circular meadow flowers on 17th

Clouded silver

insect

13-Jun

New sp in moff trap on 21st

White ermine

insect

13-Jun

New sp in moff trap on 21st

spectacle

insect

13-Jun

New sp in moff trap on 21st

Lesser diving beetle

insect

13-Jun

New sp in garden - 2 lovely big beetles in pond by 27th

Backswimmer

insect

13-Jun

New sp in garden -at last one in the pond on 29th

Common blue damselfly

insect

13-Jun

New sp in garden - 2 by pond on 29th

Horse mushroom

fungus

13-Jun

New sp in garden  - reached max size under conifer on 29th

Azure damselfly

insect

13-Jun

New sp in garden - 2 by pond on 30th

Blue-tailed damselfly

insect

13-Jul

New sp in garden - 2 by pond on 11th

Broad bodied chaser

insect

13-Jul

New sp in garden - first dragon of year through on 7th

Gatekeeper

insect

13-Jul

New sp in garden on 13th

Ringlet

insect

13-Jul

New sp in garden on 13th

Marbled White

insect

13-Jul

New sp in garden on 13th

Banded demoiselle

insect

13-Jul

New sp in garden on 14th

Riband Wave

insect

13-Jul

New sp in garden in moff trap on 13th

Garden carpet

insect

13-Jul

New sp in garden in moff trap on 13th

Elephant hawk moth

insect

13-Jul

New sp in garden in moff trap on 6th

Common footman

insect

13-Jul

New sp in garden in moff trap on 6th

Heart and club

insect

13-Jul

New sp in garden in moff trap on 6th

Dot moth

insect

13-Jul

New sp in garden in moff trap on 12th

Bird cherry ermine

insect

13-Jul

New sp in garden in moff trap on 13th

True lovers knot

insect

13-Jul

New sp in garden in moff trap on 13th

Least carpet

insect

13-Jul

New sp in garden in moff trap on 14th

Mother of pearl

insect

13-Jul

New sp in garden in moff trap on 14th

Buff arches

insect

13-Jul

New sp in garden in moff trap on 14th

Copper underwing

insect

13-Jul

New sp in back bedroom overnight on 16th

Dun-bar

insect

13-Jul

New sp. In moff trap on 24th

Large emerald

insect

13-Jul

New sp. In moff trap on 26th

Snout

insect

13-Jul

New sp. In bathroom on 22nd.

Marbled beauty

insect

13-Jul

New sp. In bathroom on 23rd

Purple hairstreak

insect

13-Jul

New sp. In privet hedge when I trimmed it on 27th

Cinnabar moth

insect

13-Jul

New sp. Flying over "circular meadow" briefly on 27th

Pale prominent

insect

13-Jul

New sp. In trap on 26th

Nemapogon clematella (a fungus moth)

insect

13-Jul

New sp. In bathroom on 26th

Alba water lily

plant

13-Jul

Second flower done by 26th - third on its way

Brown eye white line

insect

13-Jul

New sp. In moth trap on 25th

Fence-post jumping spider (male)

arachnid

13-Jul

New sp in the bathroom (on sink,  at bedtime on 30th)

Yellow shell

insect

13-Aug

New sp by side passage light on 1st

Small blood vein

insect

13-Aug

New sp by side passage light on 1st

Southern hawker

insect

13-Aug

New sp Female rescued from Arrack on 4th

Dusky thorn

insect

13-Aug

New sp in moth trap on 10th am

Canary-shouldered thorn

insect

13-Aug

New sp in moth trap on 10th am

September thorn

insect

13-Aug

New sp in moth trap on 10th am

Broad bordered yellow underwing

insect

13-Aug

New sp in moth trap on 11th am

Sallow kitten

insect

13-Aug

New sp in moth trap on 11th am

Straw underwing

insect

13-Aug

New sp in moth trap on 11th am

Orange swift moth

insect

13-Aug

New sp in moth trap on 17th am (dark female var.)

Walnut spider

arachnid

13-Aug

New sp fattest female ind I've ever seen on coop on 18th

Central barred sallow

insect

13-Aug

New sp in moth trap on 26th

Miller

insect

13-Aug

New sp in moth trap on 26th

Iron prominent

insect

13-Aug

New sp in moth trap on 26th

Common darter

insect

13-Aug

New sp (finally!) on pond yelow flag iris leaf on 27th

Red water mite (hydrachna sp)

arachnid

13-Aug

New sp in pond seen on 26th

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/9/after-the-boys-of-summer-have-gone-the-annual-report Fri, 06 Sep 2013 10:11:59 GMT
British Wildlife Photography Awards (BWPA) 2013. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/9/british-wildlife-photography-awards-bwpa-2013 My thoughts.

 

 

I was fortunate enough to be successful in the first three British Wildlife Photography Awards (BWPA) (2009, 2010,2011) where I was highly commended for shots of a feather footed flower bee, a large white (both macro shots taken with my old bridge camera) and a shot of our late tom cat with a fledgling in his mouth (taken with my old Canon 40D).

I did enter in 2012, was shortlisted but got no further (a bit of a come down for me I guess!)  and had no time or inclination really what with many other things going on, to enter this year (2013).

 

Today(2nd September 2013) the BWPA 2013 winners and commended shots were announced in the press and I thought I’d blog a few thoughts on this year’s class results (for what its worth).

 

Firstly – some general thoughts:

 

  1. I seemed (accidentally!) to be part of the original “BWPA clique” that seemed to win or be commended year after year, and whilst some of that “clique” still clearly exists (Alex Mustard for his underwater shots, Danny Green for his mammal shots, Andy Rouse (for whatever he shoots – in this year’s case two hare photos), Neil Aldridge for his photojournalism series) ... this year it’s EXTREMELY nice to see winning photographers this year that a) are not professional and/or b) not particularly well known in these circles.
  2. Whilst it is nice to see new names in the winning circle – it’s also nice to not see the same old names (or not all of the usual suspects). Most of these were professionals and there were many of us (in the original clique and also not) who strongly felt that the professional images were of no better quality than the amateur submissions but always seemed to take top honours. More than a little strange when it happened more-often-than-not (at best) and more-like-constantly many might have said a couple of years ago.
  3. Subjects seem to be a little more varied this year than previous years also – which is so refreshing. I haven’t seen all the winning/commended shots yet, but so far I haven’t seen one winning photo of a prostrate seal at Donna Nook, let alone half a dozen ... or the same old shots of coots fighting. There are a few constant favourites of course like deer & badgers (and tompot blennies seem be in fashion right now) but it’s nice to see winning images which contain subjects other than swans, coots, seals etc...
  4. Kit used may have varied a little more this year also. (I’m not sure how it couldn’t to be honest, after previous years). I’m talking lenses here mainly, but BY FAR the most popular lens used in the winning circle for the past few years has been the Canon 500mm f4 then the Nikon 600mm equivalent. These are professional lenses mainly (over seven thousand pounds each – and that’s before you start thinking about a multi-thousand pound camera body to attach to the multi-thousand pound lens) and almost certainly the most useful lenses for wildlife photography (in terms of image quality if nothing else). But in the hands of teenager “owners” who won their categories, one did begin to wonder if it was the richest photographer who won awards (or the photographer with the richest parents), as opposed to the best. The two are NOT linked by the way. There do seem to be more shots this year where composition and lighting seems more important than “getting in close” - and that must be a good thing.
  5. The cheesy titles some photographers give to their images are a little nauseating these days (and pretty unoriginal now to boot). The "peekaboo deer", "here's looking at you" etc.... Compared to the much larger, much more prestigious NHM Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards where the shots are very plainly-named and appear far more professional thus.

 

(All the above are my personal opinions only).

 

 

The standard of photography has remained pretty consistent from year to year I think (good) – and this year seems similar (in the main). There are  (of course) a few winning photos in the mix this year which, like all the other five years, have one scratching one’s head and asking oneself “WHY?”, but this is the nature of nature photography competitions – what one person sees as a pretty average shot, another person (or a judge) may fall head-over-heels for. Certainly my three commended images in 2009,2010 and 2011 weren’t my best – by a long chalk, in my opinion (but the judges clearly disagreed with me).

Year after year I’ve seen so many disgruntled entrants pouring scorn on the winning images (after failing to win or be shortlisted/commended themselves) – in fact I’ve been on the receiving end of that sort of bilious criticism from a particularly jealous losing entrant (no names no pack drill “T.H.”) twice now -  so I’ll not bother to go down that road and even start to criticise what I (personally) regard as pretty non-descript shots this year.

 

I would, however, like to take a quick opportunity to briefly mention my favourite shot from this year’s winners’ circle.

 

“Great tit in flight” by Joseph Amess (aged 15) is a stupendous shot.

It’s rightly won the top dog honours for best image from a teenager (or 12-18yo anyway) but I think it could’ve and should’ve won the overall prize also (if that was allowed).

Now I don’t know if Joseph had the dreamy end result in mind when he shot his great tit against the sun – but if he did, the man (boy!) is nothing short of a genius.

Even if he didn’t deliberately set out to achieve such a mesmerising finish, his technical expertise is superb, that’s for sure – as is his timing and compositional structuring.

I think Joseph’s shot magnificently demonstrates that we don’t all need multi-thousand pound lenses and full frame cameras to achieve quite remarkable wildlife photographical results. We don’t need to be photographing wildlife for a living to pick up awards. We don’t all need to don dry suits and scuba gear to photograph conger eels and gannets off our coasts to win photography awards. We don’t need much else than to have a little knowledge, a little interest, patience and a lot of imagination & flare (not to mention skill) to produce something which I think knocks seven bells out of all the other shots in the winners’ exhibition this year.

 

Brilliantly well done Joseph – an incredible shot...  which I am both amazed and (re)inspired by – so much so that maybe if I get lucky and get a little time, I may try to enter the BWPA again next year... although I’ll not get a shot as nearly as stunning as Joseph’s great tit. For what it’s worth Joseph, (not much…. I’m not a judge!) your shot is streets ahead of any of Andy Rouse’s hares Joseph, or any of Alex Mustard’s fish.

 

So thanks again Joseph.

 

Thanks for inspiring me to get my camera out again.

 

 

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/9/british-wildlife-photography-awards-bwpa-2013 Mon, 02 Sep 2013 15:53:31 GMT
One reason to stop the cull https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/8/one-reason-to-stop-the-cull  

You want ONE reason (there are many more) why this cull should stop?

 

Firstly - look at this Youtube clip recorded from C4 news two nights ago (27th August 2013). You only need watch 10 seconds of Owen Paterson (I'll spare you the chance of bringing up your tea). Watch the head of DEFRA explain the purpose of these culls between 04:30mins and 04:40mins.

Quote from Owen Paterson at 04:30mins:

"No. The purpose of this cull is to show that shooting by trained marksmen under very carefully-controlled circumstances is humane and effective".

Now read this news report from the BBC (taken from the BBC website yesterday, 28th August). Particularly the paragraph preceding the map of the UK.

Missed it?  I've copied and pasted the paragraph for you:

"Farming Minister David Heath admitted in correspondence with Lord Krebs that the cull would not be able to statistically determine either the effectiveness (in terms of badgers removed) or humaneness of controlled shooting".'  

        

 

 So.... On 27th August, the head of DEFRA states that the cull is to demonstrate humaneness and effectiveness.... and less than a  day later, his liberal democrat farming minister stooge writes that this cull can demonstrate neither

 

 

Staggering.

This cull needs to stop and stop now.

And if we can't stop it now, let us remember these repulsive politicians come the next general election and vote them out for good.

They seem to think they are "in power" in Government.

Not the case. They're not even in control, let alone power.

Let's prove it to them.

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) badger cull https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/8/one-reason-to-stop-the-cull Thu, 29 Aug 2013 16:16:20 GMT
Before this weekend, the last time…. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/8/before-this-weekend-the-last-time Red-crested pochard.

 

Before this weekend, the last time I saw a “wild” (or at least feral) red-crested pochard, rather than a sad individual that had had its wings clipped in a waterfowl collection was in the highlands of Scotland, almost thirty years ago.

At that time I was about 13 years old and then a member of the now defunct “YOC”, the RSPB’s Young Ornithologists’ Club – on a YOC holiday at Aigas Field Centre, near Beauly, Inverness.

Us “YOs” were being driven to or from a black grouse site, or a crested tit site (or wherever) in the Aigas minibus, when we spotted a red-billed duck in the middle of a wee loch down below the pine-lined road.

We all jumped out of the minibus and agreed on the identification - and also reluctantly agreed that this individual had almost certainly escaped from a waterfowl collection somewhere in the highlands of Scotland – possibly very close by.

But…. At that point, at that moment, the red-crested pochard (drake as I remember) was free from its collection fences and diving happily in a highland loch….

That was almost thirty years ago like I say.

 

Yesterday though, my eagle-eyed wife (we make a formidable team) spotted four strange ducks, two with red beaks, on a large, quiet, swampy fishing lake in rural Berkshire, just off the Kennet and Avon canal, as we pushed our 9-month-old son along the sunny, midgey towpath in his pushchair.

It felt like we were in the Everglades at one point – such was the look of the lake and its flooded vegetation and tree roots (see photos below).

We didn’t have our binoculars with us, or me my camera, but I didn’t need a close look to identify my wife’s ducks. These were clearly red-crested pochards, two males (with strikingly red bills) and two duller females.

 

I am aware that these birds tend to hang out and breed on the near continent (especially Spain and France) and there are a few birds that have escaped from waterfowl collections here in Blighty and have set up shop (so to speak) in quiet lakes and gravel pits.

But you’ll do well to see any…. anywhere here in the UK.

These birds have been reported in the area that my family and I walked in yesterday, but not so for two months now. So I informed the county recorder – I think he’ll be interested they are still together, still in the area and still at large.

I wonder if they’ll breed next year?

A lovely treat to see these striking birds again a few miles from our house in Berkshire, so long after I saw them last – and some pretty ropey photographs taken with my old FZ50 bridge camera can be seen below…

 

Hummingbird hawkmoth.

 

Before this weekend, the last time I saw a hummingbird hawkmoth was on the most wonderful holiday I’ve ever taken, in rural Turkey two years ago (to the day almost), described here.

I had seen them at our garden in Reading when we lived in that town, but only very briefly as they darted over our rampant honeysuckle plant that had taken over the roof of the decrepit garden shed.

Today however, my wife pointed out a large buddleia bush on the Kennet and Avon canal near Sheffield Bottom and I stopped stock still as I immediately saw a hummingbird hawkmoth darting between the purple buddleia flowers.

These are wonderful moths – not particularly rare in the south of the UK – and as they fly by day, there’s always a chance we’ll see them nectaring around long-stemmed flowers such as tobacco plants, jasmine, valerian etc.

I grow white valerian in the garden, specifically to attract these moths – and next year I hope to add a large red valerian bank, together with some tobacco plants, to really make our garden irresistible to these great little moths.

It’s a strange coincidence I guess that last night, one of my twin sisters (I’m a triplet for those that didn’t know) texted me from her new garden in Chicago – to tell me that she had just discovered hummingbird hawkmoths (as well as (ruby-throated) hummingbirds) in her new Chicago garden.

I do love these moths and this afternoon’s sighting was another lovely treat for both me and my wife.

I post a terrible photo of the buddleia flower and the blurred moth below (taken with my old bridge camera).

 

Osprey!

 

I’ve saved the best for last.

Before this weekend, the last time I saw an Osprey was on holiday in Mallorca, about four years ago, to celebrate my father-in-law’s 60th birthday.

Anna and I disappeared for a day from her family and drove down to the S'Albufereta Natural Reserve from our villa on Carrer de la Gavina in Port de Pollença, Mallorca.

There we saw all kinds of birds including mating black-winged stilts, a marsh harrier or two and a very grumpy-looking osprey sat on a low post in the tidal mudflats.

 

Before then, the last time I’d seen an Osprey was on the same YOC holiday at Aigas Field Centre described above under “Red crested pochard”.

It was about 1984 and I had the good fortune then to watch seven beautiful ospreys fish over Findhorn bay on the Moray coast.

Since that day, Ospreys have been my favourite bird of prey – and by some way.

But that was almost thirty years ago – and whilst I’ve kept my peepers peeled in Berks over the last few years at migration times, hoping to see my favourite bird of prey drift over in a blue sky – nada….

 

Until today.

 

I wasn’t on the lookout for ospreys. Why would I be?

As I pushed our son along the sandy Kennet and Avon towpath in rural Berkshire this afternoon, marvelling at the many emperor dragonflies hawking over the Himalayan balsam in the warm sun, I again stopped stock still.

A big bird of prey leaped from a high willow branch over the corner of the “red-crested pochard fishing lake” (see red crested pochard entry above) about 50 yards from me - and flapped low across the water, displaying a very brown back and wings that were very un-buzzard-like.

I watched, thinking that it must be a buzzard, but after a few seconds, realising that it just wasn’t – I let go of our Son’s pushchair and put our binoculars to my eyes – could it be? Could it possibly be?

The answer was a resounding – YES.

This was a stunning osprey I was watching – and as it turned to gain height, its underside and head came into view properly – there was no mistake.

 

This osprey was in the RIGHT place it seems – on its way back from breeding here in the UK (I assume?) to Africa for the winter – a lake brimming with big carp and tench and surrounded by many other fishy lakes…. Osprey heaven!

 

Well…. I didn’t even put my old bridge camera to my eyes to take a (record) shot of my favourite bird of prey – I was just overwhelmed to see it at all  - especially such a close view, with my family and in our home (at present) county down south.

 

 

I think I’ll be back to Osprey heaven this week (I have a week off and hear the weather will be good all week) but do I fancy my chances of seeing a wonderful osprey here again this week?

To be honest I doubt it…. But you never know...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Theale 1 hummingbird hawkmoth osprey red-crested pochard https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/8/before-this-weekend-the-last-time Sun, 25 Aug 2013 17:58:58 GMT
Three blues do not make yellow. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/8/three Even though I enjoy watching birds, as I’ve mentioned (once or twice before), I’m no “bird watcher” or worse still…. “birder” (a moniker which makes my skin crawl).

The fact is I like watching birds, but I also like watching moths, mammals, dragonflies, reptiles, amphibians, trees, fish – I just like being out in the countryside peering at wildlife.

But.

Until yesterday, I’d never set out deliberately with a specific butterfly in mind to see.

I’d never been “butterfly hunting” before.

 

Yesterday and that all changed as my wife and I took our wee 9 month old son, who had experienced his first hour of nursery away from his mother an hour or so earlier (and cried like a…..) up the Thames valley to a secret hill to go butterfly hunting in the sun

 

Now, I’m big and ugly enough to admit that whilst I do know a little about moths (having run a garden moth trap for a number of years now), I know very little about plants (I read pure zoology rather than biology or botany (or even ecology)) and not much more about butterflies – so I was always going to be out of my comfort zone so-to-speak, on this hill.

 

I had heard that a beautiful yellow butterfly called a “clouded yellow” had been seen at least once on a National Trust reserve called “Lardon Chase” on top of Streatley Hill, above Streatley and Goring on the Thames.

Clouded yellows are immigrants (don’t tell the Daily Mail) and I’d never seen one before, so I thought we’d have a short drive up the Thames and a little walk in the glorious weather, looking at the view and for clouded yellows….

 

 

I’d never been to Streatley before, but as I drove us up Streatley Hill, I was immediately reminded of Porlock Hill in Somerset (a stop off on the way to our old surfing trips in north Devon), such was the steep incline. In fact both were mentioned in a recent Guardian piece on the UK’s top 10 cycling hill climbs.

 

We parked the car and set off – not knowing what to expect really (other than a beautiful view of Streatley, Goring and the Thames below) - throngs of people picnicking? Crowds of lepidopterists bouncing around the calcareous chalk meadow with their nets? Stampeding cattle?

 

 

I’m always left disappointed with “birdwatchers” or “birders” (as they gleefully refer to themselves as).

Nasally-voiced men with chips on their shoulders seems to sum them up quite nicely – always a bit sneery if you’ve not got a £2000 “scope” over your shoulder and always talking a language of their own:

“I dipped out on that yellow-bellied sapsucker Nigel”.

“Yeah Tim, but spose you saw that gropper before it was taken out by the sprawk”.

Yawwwwwn.

 

After yesterday, (admittedly not a huge amount of experience) – I’d say lepidopterists put ornithologists (or “birders” I guess) to shame.

 

My wife and I sauntered into the large, grazed expanse of Lardon Chase, perched above Streatley under a beautiful blue sky and hot August sun.

I immediately spotted some clumps of marjoram and thought I’d walk carefully through them on my lep-hunt, camera round ma neck, poised!

 

I looked up occasionally and there always seemed to be a chap or chappess in a hat, smiling widely, maybe carrying a net, maybe just a camera like me, clearly on the butterfly hunt also. Admittedly these butterfly folk were on the old side – almost certainly retired, but they all looked so happy and friendly.

 

I caught sight of a blue butterfly and inched towards the ground to photograph it.

An old dear in a hat with a butterfly badge on it tiptoed towards me.

The butterfly flew away (my fault – I quickly learned these blue butterflies are VERY flighty) and the butterfly woman and I struck up a conversation.

 

I explained to her that my family and I were hoping to see a clouded yellow, but these blue butterflies were very nice to see in the meantime.

With a face etched into a permanent leathery smile, the old dear kindly explained to me what I should be looking out for (which species and how to tell them apart) and whereabouts in the large meadow might I find which butterflies.

She even gave me very handy tips on how to photograph the more hyperactive butterflies (the Adonis blues!) and showed me a photo or two she’d taken on her very nice camera.

Now as it happened, I was using my old Panasonic FZ50 bridge camera to take photos of these butterflies – the old lady giving me tips was using a full Canon 7D – a bit like my 40D only more expensive and better.

If she was a “birder” she’d have sneered at my wee bridge camera (not knowing what camera I had at home, or any of my photography success with both cameras) but of course she was no “birder” and was quite delightfully helpful.

 

During our ramble around the lovely Lardon Chase, full of field scabious, marjoram and horseshoe vetch, I managed to see (and photograph) three different species of blue butterfly, thanks in the main to the first butterfly lady that helped me out – but also one or two other “smilers”.

 

The first were common blues (see photo), the second were the larger, chalkier chalkhill blues and finally, after a little searching, some quite stunning Adonis blues (see terrible photo below).

I even had a beautiful male Adonis Blue land on my elbow when I was attempting to take a photo of one of its competitors on a vetch flower!

 

All three of these blue butterflies have scientific names rooted in classical mythology (as do all blue butterflies and many other lepidopteran species). The silver-studded blue which I happened across in a local lowland heath last year is no different, being named after the all-seeing, hundred-eyed classical giant, Argus Panoptes.

 

For quick reference – the three blue butterflies I photographed yesterday and the meaning of their scientific names can be found below (with hyperlinks to mythology sites if you’d like to find out more).

 

Common blue.

Polyommatus icarus

 

Polyommatus - Many eyed (an epithet of the all-seeing, hundred-eyed giant Argus, protector of Io).

 

Icarus – Son of Daedalus who provided wings for him, so he could escape from Crete. Wings were held together with wax, which melted when Icarus flew too close to the sun – so he fell into the Agean and drowned.

 

Chalkhill blue

Lysandra coridon

 

Lysandra- daughter of Ptolemy I. “The emancipator”. Queen of Macedonia.

 

Corydon was a shepherd in Virgil’s “Eclogues”.

 

 

Adonis blue

Lysandra bellargus

 

Lysandra- daughter of Ptolemy I. princess of Egypt.

 

Bellargus – beautiful Argus (the all-seeing, hundred-eyed giant and protector of Io).

 

Even though my wife and I peeled our eyes (of considerable strength!) for any fleeting glimpse of a clouded yellow butterfly  - we left Lardon Chase without our original quarry being found – but extremely happy that we’d had a lovely walk on the Berkshire/Oxon border in quite beautiful weather, surrounded by stunning, fluttering little sapphire butterflies and equally delightful lepidopterists.

I’d even watched one of my favourite birds hunting for a few minutes – something that I’d not seen for over two decades! Now I grew up with spotted flycatchers hunting from our back gate, but haven’t seen one since I left my childhood home. That was a lovely treat for me yesterday, in case I needed one, surrounded by butterflies.

 

This to be fair, was just my introduction into the world of butterfly hunting – a lovely world where people wear shorts and sun hats and are smiling, bouncing ‘round flower meadows with nets and cameras and no egos at all.

Maybe it’s because the butterflies are out in the summer.

Maybe it’s because, rather like my uncle (Ruary) of The Dragonfly Project (geek of the week) fame, the “insect-lovers” out there always seem fun and good natured – much more than eccentric I think.

 

 

No, three blues don’t make a yellow…. But that didn’t matter in the end.

 

You know, I think we’ll be back to Streatley….

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Lardon chase Streatley adonis blue chalkhill blue clouded yellow common blue https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/8/three Wed, 21 Aug 2013 16:09:47 GMT
Shooting shooting stars. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/8/shooting-shooting-stars The annual Perseid meteor shower reached a peak last night, so I thought I’d try and get a photograph of one or two, as the skies were so clear and conditions seemed perfect.

 

I woke around 2am (don’t ask), stumbled downstairs and boiled the kettle – kick arse coffee was in order.

 

Outside and I set up the camera on a tripod, and started shooting. I’ve done this sort of thing before (in fact the first photo I ever remember taking was of the Andromeda Galaxy from the recreation ground behind our house when I was a teenager, with an old Olympus OM10 (film camera).

 

Now of course, it’s all gone digital – which means setting up the camera on manual, a high ISO equivalent (maybe 800 or 1000), a large aperture (maybe f4) a manual focus set to far distance (but not infinity) and a shutter speed of perhaps 30 seconds, with mirror lock up if you’re feeling all techy (though I just prefer to hold my hand in front of the lens when I press “FIRE”, then remove it, to negate camera shake due to the shutter opening abruptly).

 

So there I was, at half two, sitting in the garden, taking 30 second exposures of the night sky.  I knew where the radiant  (where perseid meteors all seem to emanate from) of the perseids was (between Cassiopeia and Perseus), so the only real decision to make was where exactly to point my 10-22 lens (set at about 14mm to take in quite a lot of the night sky).

Did I point it quite far from the radiant – hoping to get a long-tailed streaky meteor? Or nearer the radiant, maximizing my chances of recording a meteor on film (or sensor I should say) but lessening my chances of recording a long-lasting, long-tailed meteor?

I chose the latter in the end – to maximize my chances of recording anything of interest on the camera sensor.

 

Now.

One trouble with digital photography, especially digital photography like this (long exposure), is that the camera takes the shot (30 second exposure let’s say) and then the camera effectively shuts down, whilst it “writes” the data to the SD card or in my case, with my Canon 40D, the CF card.

 

For every 30 seconds of the camera recording the night sky above it, my poor old 40D shut down for 40 seconds afterwards as it wrote the digital data (which makes up the photo) onto my CF card. This meant for every 80 or so seconds I was out there taking photos, I could only record 30 seconds of night sky activity – which meant I had only a 37.5% (approx) of recording a Perseid meteor, even if my camera was pointing in the right direction. Not great odds, but dems da breaks with a camera as old and cheap (now) as mine!

 

For the first hour and a half or so, it seemed like EVERY time my camera shut down to write the photograph onto the CF card (a photograph with no meteor in it), a gurt big hyowge meteor streaked across the piece of the sky I’d just photographed 30 seconds earlier.

To be honest it became silly for a while – my odds were bad, but not THAT bad – I reckoned I could put up with missing 2 or 3 meteors whilst the camera was “busy”  - I’d get the 3rd or 4th – but time after time, the camera was “busy” when the sky lit up with long-tailed meteors.

It got so silly in fact; I became quite sulky – sitting out there in the cold, with my hat on and one of our cats purring deeply on my lap. Even the local tawny owls seemed to be hooting their derision at me. It's not as if I could even smoke (Hamlet style), as I've stopped all that months ago now (though boy do I still miss it).

 

Finally, as the cat decided I wasn’t being interesting enough, so slinked off to investigate the hedgehog crashing through the borders, I did manage to record one Perseid meteor on the camera’s sensor.

It wasn’t very bright. It wasn’t very long-tailed and it flashed in the sky for less than half a second. But my camera’s shutter was open at the time – and the photo below is the result.

 

I eventually saw dozens of meteors. Most quite faint, but maybe 8 or 9 which were very bright indeed – but only got one on camera.

Was it worth it? Yes - very much so I think (just once a year!)

 

I sit here now, typing this blog with blood-shot eyes and another dark coffee steaming by the computer monitor.

There’s no sound from the bedroom next door or my baby son’s room – so I guess I haven’t woken anyone during my nocturnal ramblings.

 

Off to work in an hour and a half. I wonder if I’ve got time for forty-winks before then….

 

Zzzzzzzzz…..

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) annual august meteors night perseids photography shooting stars https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/8/shooting-shooting-stars Tue, 13 Aug 2013 04:14:25 GMT
The annual (post aestivation) lepidopteran reminder. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/8/the-annual-post-aestivation-lepidopteran-reminder Everyone knows what "hibernation" is. Right?

A period of dormancy over the colder months, to conserve energy and ensure (well, that's the plan) survival.

But what about a period of dormancy over the hotter or perhaps drier months, for the same reasons (to conserve energy, avoid dessication and try to ensure survival). What's that called?

The answer (if you don't know) is "aestivation". Aestas in latin meant summer and hiber meant winter.

 

Aestivation is more common in arid, hot environments - and in these, many animals such as snails, frogs, insects and even some mammals such as the fat-tailed dwarf lemur aestivate to either avoid heat or lack of water.

 

It's less common here in Blighty - but even here, some animals that may be sensitive to heat and drought may aestivate over the height of summer and emerge again in August.

The dotted rustic moth is one such aestivator  although this moth aestivates during August often - as is the moth I caught in my moth trap last night (for the first time this year) - the broad-bordered yellow underwing (BBYU - see photo below).

The BBYU is a large moth with boldly-patterned underwings - and it will fly during June but often aestivate over any hot July - to reappear in August, when theoretically temperatures drop a little and there may be a bit more moisture around.

 

As I've written, I caught my first BBYU of the year last night - and this little aestivating mothy friend of mine has given me my annual reminder to enjoy what's left of August now, because Autumn will be on its way in a few short weeks...

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) aestivation broad-bordered yellow underwing https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/8/the-annual-post-aestivation-lepidopteran-reminder Sun, 11 Aug 2013 06:17:29 GMT
Çırali - Heaven IS a place on earth https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/7/-rali---heaven-is-a-place-on-earth I didn’t originally want to write this review – as I wanted to keep this secret place to myself and my wife, after visiting a couple of years ago.

My wife has just given birth to our first child, and this meant we didn’t get to return to our favourite destination last year, so I thought I’d write some thoughts anyway.

We will return though – and very soon I hope.

 

 

 

 

Almost exactly two years ago, after a particularly nasty, emotionally-draining twelve or so months, my wife and I decided we needed a fortnight away  - away from everything – phones, television, computers, radios – everything. We needed to step off the merry-go-round for a little bit; take time out to stop, gather our thoughts and look after each other.

 

My wife being a biologist (a teacher by trade) and me a zoologist (by qualification at least) wanted to find a coastal, rural retreat in the hot sun somewhere – surrounded by wildlife and little else.

I spent several weeks researching such places on the internet. I looked at places in South America, Africa and Europe – but finally decided to book a fortnight’s break with Responsible Travel in the quiet Turkish coastal village of Çıralı, nestled between the feet of two pine-clad rocky spurs which tumble steeply down into the Mediterranean from the high mountains of the Lycian peninsula behind.

It sounded like heaven – and I couldn’t find one bad review (or even remotely negative review) about the small, peaceful Çıralı beach resort name of Arcadia, that I booked a chalet at for the full two weeks.

 

 

On 14th August 2011, my wife and I put the cats in a kennel, left chicken-sitting instructions with our kind neighbours and flew to one of Turkey’s very busy airports – at the sprawling resort of Antalya. We knew we’d be picked up at the airport and driven an hour and a half south – away from the tourist shops and swimming pools, away from the loud bars and loud tourists  - and indeed that happened on arrival. With each mile we were driven along the coast, the scenery became more spectacular and less populated – white rocky cliffs and racing green pines met a royal blue sky and a silver Mediterranean – we were entering heaven it seemed – and heaven just went on and on.

 

Eventually, we turned off the main drag and headed through a pine-covered, steep gorge towards the sea – down into Çıralı. This dusty road is actually a dead end, so traffic was minimal into or out from the village.

Upon arrival at Arcadia (II) – we were shown into our Polynesian-style, thatched, wooden chalet, which went by the name of “Gül”, which means ‘rose’ in Turkish.

 

The air-conditioned chalet was superb – and I really mean that.

Beautiful wood, clean as a whistle,  a lovely big bed with clean white linen (which would be replaced regularly throughout our stay), a huge bathroom with a large, spotless power shower, a spare bed, ample storage, a lockable safe and even a spare bed. There were solid mosquito blinds over the door and windows also – although we didn’t realise at that time – we wouldn’t need them as there were no mosquitoes at this lovely resort! There was even a hammock outside the chalet and a coffee table with two comfortable chairs on the sun-balcony. Heaven!

 

My wife and I ensured we were unpacked, then walked around our piece of the tiny resort, to get our bearings. We literally gasped at the beautiful surroundings – the resort is set between orange groves and a farm, between Çıralı beach itself and the foothills of the Taurus Mountains behind. Little orange trees and pomegranate bushes were everywhere, thick-scented jasmine clambered up the chalets, whilst hens and tortoises (yes…. tortoises) wandered around the gardens. Best of all though – even though our chalet was at the edge of five others – we couldn’t hear anyone else at all – no screaming kids, no blaring radio – nothing but a gentle breeze rustling through some miniature palms.

 

The rest of the resort beckoned, as did the beach a few hundred metres away, although “resort” is probably the wrong word to use here – Arcadia (I and II) consists of some superbly-appointed chalets, and a quite beautifully-laid out al-fresco eating area really - and that’s all.

We wandered along the beach and it became obvious that Arcadia was at the quiet, northern end of Çıralı beach. A mile further south along the beach and the sun-loungers and parasols were set out in banks of a hundred but here at our end of the sand (and shingle) beach, there were more wire cages protecting buried loggerhead turtle eggs than sun loungers. Wonderful.

 

My wife and I had carefully chosen a fortnight at Arcadia when we would have a very good chance of seeing the hatchling loggerhead turtles make their way to the sea – after their mother had hauled herself ashore (with dozens of other huge female turtles) several months earlier, to lay her buried treasure. This was a real treat to watch each morning – although one had to be patient with the crowds of (mostly German) tourists at dawn, who were running around recklessly, nearly squashing unseen turtles in their unbridled enthusiasm to find another baby turtle.

 

As soon as the sun came up well over the horizon after dawn; and the tiny turtles had been helped into the warm sea, the northern end of the beach became deserted again – bliss!

 

You’ll see plenty of reviews of Arcadia (I and II) on such websites as “Trip-advisor”. You’ll read about the huge breakfasts with cheeses, olives, bread and fruit (not to mention scrambled egg and never-ending coffee!)

You’ll read about the resort’s free range hens (which are everywhere), cats and tortoises

You’ll read about the superb evening meals at Arcadia, sat in opulent surroundings on the edge of Çıralı beach, watching the moon rise out of the sea.

You’ll read about the pensions on the road into Çıralı, and the quiet, family-orientated bars and cafes/bistros/restaurants which serve marvellous local produce and refreshing cocktails and beers.

You’ll read about how quiet and peaceful it is at Arcadia, and Çıralı in general. At Arcadia itself, music and bright electrical lights are banned near the beach at night, as both could disorientate the loggerhead turtles.

This makes for a magical atmosphere after dark – with only the sound of hushed conversations and a gentle see breeze rustling the thick evergreen foliage interrupting the calls of the local scops owls with cicadas providing the rhythm section backing.

Scops owl

 

This is what I wanted to quickly mention – the incredible wildlife around Arcadia.

 

My wife and I had been told there wouldn’t be much to do at Arcadia – at least not in terms of bustling noisy bars, discos, nightclubs, theme parks etc…

But that’s exactly what we wanted – “nothing (like that) to do”.

Now, you don’t have to be a biology teacher or a zoology graduate to see the wildlife around Arcadia – it’s everywhere!

 

If you don’t like your holidays quiet, you don’t like them peaceful, you can’t handle being away from your phone or the television, you don’t really “get” wildlife – then Arcadia and Çıralı are not for you. If you are the opposite of the person/people I’ve described above, then read on my friends….

Of course. There's PLENTY to do and see at Arcadia!

Cirali dawn

 

 

Yellow-vented bulbuls are ever present visitors to the thatched roofs at Arcadia II and they are joined by low-flying, chittering swallows which chase the awakening insects each morning.

Cicadas announce your walk down to the lark-filled beach after breakfast, and of course you’ve already seen dozens of baby turtles hatch and struggle into the Mediterranean before you ate.

Cicada

You decide to take a dip in the bath-temperature gin-clear water and as you swim out to the buoy, you pass a small ray and a large turtle – these are the only other things in the water with you it seems – the beach and indeed water seem so quiet!

Loggerhead turtle

You reach the buoy and under its anchoring rope, you see through your goggles a beautiful iridescent, shimmering cuttlefish which you gawp at for a minute or ten (you lose track of time).

 

The morning passes in a haze of relaxation. You’re joined by a handful of other Arcadia residents on the resort’s sun loungers. You read your holiday novel, you flick through your Turkish phrasebook, you take a dip every thirty minutes or so…. Just to see if that beautiful rainbow-hued cuttlefish is still there…

There’s no noise other than the sound of the sea, gently moving the pea-shingle around.

 

Afternoons – maybe in the hammock back at the chalet, under the shade of an orange tree,

or maybe a doze in the air-conditioned chalet which has been cleaned thoroughly whilst you were taking breakfast or watching cuttlefish.

Perhaps you’d rather wander around the locality – there’ll always be something to see after a light snack at a local café.

I stumbled across beautiful multi-coloured dragonflies, large, green pamphylian lizards and birds such as wrynecks and all types of shrike – woodchat, great grey and even masked, on my afternoon ramblings.

 

The heat of the afternoon is slow to make way for night – but when the sun eventually drops behind the mountains and the swallowtail butterflies disappear, a different magic fills the jasmine and orange-scented air.

Wolves (or more likely feral dogs I suppose!) start to howl from the rocky foothills a few miles away, Moorish geckos start to appear from cracks in the chalet and chirrup to each other – watching wee flies with bigger and bigger reptilian eyes,

hedgehogs start to bumble across the just-watered lawns and best of all – the hummingbird  and levant hawk moths start to feed on the jasmine – such a beautiful thing to see – and regular as clockwork at Arcadia.

Night comes as soon as the local bat colony empties from a school roof  (a magnificent sight indeed) and its time for the night chorus to start again – with the scops owls and cicadas leading the way – magical.

 

Of course, you now have a choice – do you eat at Arcadia again, or cycle into town to try another meal somewhere else. We probably ate our evening meals at Arcadia for seven nights (you have to try the Gilt-head when it’s on – sublime!) and other establishments in the village for the other seven nights – everyone is so friendly and relaxed – it’s like stepping back in time.

 

 

You’ve eaten now, and its time to head back to the chalet for a good night’s sleep.

It’s now that you realise that because there are not many lights in the village or resort, the stars above are revealed in all their glory – and you marvel at the Milky Way arching across the jet black sky above, as a little owl calls to its mate on a telegraph pole by the dusty track.

 

That is Arcadia (all credit to Serkan) -  and my wife and I have decided we need never look for another holiday destination again.

 

We have found heaven –  and it is indeed a place on earth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Arcadia Cirali Turkey beach Çırali https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/7/-rali---heaven-is-a-place-on-earth Mon, 29 Jul 2013 18:26:16 GMT
In the night garden (video) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/7/in-the-night-garden-video Just a quick blog post this morning to share some news.

 

Regular readers of my blog will know that I provided tunnels under our boundary fences last autumn, after hearing a hedgehog in a neighbours enclosed garden – and also provided a hay-stuffed hibernaculum for the wee prickly beastie.

 

Within a few hours of me providing the hog highways under the fences, the spined-one entered our garden and took up residence in its new hibernaculum (winter place of hibernation). Whilst videoing it on its nocturnal ramblings however, it became clear that it had a cock eye (its left eye) and was indeed very much alone (it seemed) but I didn’t know whether it was a male or a female hog.

 

 

After one of the coldest springs ever, I wasn’t even sure if our hog had survived its period of dormancy- but lo and behold, a couple of weeks ago, I heard it and then found it (saw it) rummaging around my newly created stag beetle woodpile (we have stag beetles also here). It was certainly the same hog – as in my videos of it pushing a fallen bird feeder around the garden (to extract the peanuts contained therein) its cock eye was clearly visible again.

 

Now then.

The news.

 

Last night, after one of this year’s local fox cubs (more like a teenager now I guess…. off to claim its own territory pretty soon) broke into our garden for the first time that I know of (watch out hens!), we had another “new visitor” explore the garden – a second hog!

 

The two hogs met and I managed to film the resulting behaviour (very luckily) on my infrared trail-cam.

 

Watch the video below and you’ll see our hog (with the cockeye – it doesn’t reflect any infrared light) get approached by the new hog (with two shiny eyes). Our hog lets out this repetitive indignant grunting or hissing at the new hog.

 

One could be forgiven for thinking this is aggressive, territorial behaviour – and I suppose it is somewhat aggressive – but to me this looks far more like typical hog “courting” – the male approaches the female – and the female has NONE of it for some time – often very vocally as in my clips.

 

Generally however, the male circles quite cautiously and slowly – this does not appear to happen with our hogs, so there is a possibility that these are two females bumping into one another for the first time I suppose.

 

MUCH more likely though is that our original cock-eyed hog is indeed a noisy female and the new visitor last night is an inexperienced male – on the prowl for perhaps his first mate.

 

 

Well…. I hope these two “git it awwwn” – and don’t start acting like picky pandas. Hedgehogs have suffered a big decline in the UK over recent years and a few more prickly snufflers rummaging ‘round our gardens in this neck of the woods will help out a little, I guess.

 

Just shows what you can achieve by providing tunnels for hogs under your fences, a hibernaculum for hogs and a little drinking water in periods of heat like we’re experiencing presently….

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hedgehog https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/7/in-the-night-garden-video Sat, 20 Jul 2013 05:25:28 GMT
For forty days it’ll rain nae mare....? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/7/for-forty-days-it-ll-rain-nae-mare Monday, (July 15th) was the date on which we used to feast for St.Swithun – a Bishop of Winchester in the mid 800s.

On his deathbed, Swithun asked to be buried outside, where “ubi et pedibus praetereuntium et stillicidiis ex alto rorantibus esset obnoxious” (where it [his corpse] might be subject to the feet of passers-by and to the raindrops pouring from on high).This dying wish was granted, and for a hundred years or so, his grave remained outside.

On 15th July 971 however, his skeleton was moved to a shrine inside Winchester Cathedral – legend has it that the (dead) Saint was not that happy about this move – so he commanded the heavens to open – and it poured down.

This legend does not seem particularly (cough) watertight  however – more likely is that the weather lore surrounding St.Swithun’s day (at the height of summer on July 15th) is borrowed from (much earlier legends) continental saints’ days during summer.

The proverb does have its feet grounded in a fair amount of sense to be fair. Generally-speaking, by the height of summer, the jet-stream over the North Atlantic will have settled(ish) into one of two patterns – either 1) slap bang over the UK (or even a little south of the UK like last year) where it becomes a “rain-maker” for the summer (like last year) or 2) to the north of the UK and in this case, warm air from the Azores is dragged up over northern Europe and we get a hot, sunny summer.

No prizes for guessing where the jet-stream is situated this summer then.... yip..... over northern Scotland, which means the Azores high (pressure) has been allowed to build up over much of the UK and produce a steaming hot, sunny summer heatwave which is 11 days old already – and started just a matter of days after the wonderful Met Office predicted that we may have up to another ten years of miserable summers, like the last seven or so. You’ve gottae love those poor sods at the Met Office – as soon as they predict something – the opposite often occurs.

 

So.... what have I seen recently, in this Azores high summer of 2013?

I’ve been pretty busy digging out more swift nesting sites in the soffits, fascias, eaves and even walls of our house. I’m under strict instructions from Anna not to a) compromise the structural integrity of the house nor  b) compromise the house’s eventual value by providing nesting spots for my favourite bird  - and I think in those aims I’ve succeeded.

We’re lucky enough with the weather being as it is down here that whilst it’s dry – I can leave the swift call (on my old phone) out all day in the house gutter – important at this time of year if one is looking to attract swifts for the following year, as during July and the first part of August, yearling swifts and young birds (bangers) are banging into prospective nest sites for following years – at any time of day – unlike earlier in the season, where birds intent on nesting this year banged into prospective nest-sites at dawn and dusk primarily.

We have had up to four prospectors (“bangers”) investigate the calls and house pretty-well every day during the season and certainly during July – so I am hopeful that we may have the best birds of all back nesting with us next year (the first time ever they will have nested in this part of our post-war town) and I’ll try to film them like I did back in Reading a couple of years ago now....

Our one nest this year – a blackbird’s nest in the poplar tree has unfortunately ended badly. I was filming the nest since discovery, with a remote camera –the hen laid four blue eggs and incubated them for ten days. On the eleventh day, three eggs hatched but during the night, a mystery assailant took out all three nestlings.

One might be forgiven for assuming a cat had done the dastardly deed, but I had originally covered the trunk of the tree in silver foil to dissuade feline investigations (cats HATE foil) and there were no claw marks in the foil after the nest had been lost.

Chief suspect as far as I can ascertain is the local great spotted woodpecker, who uses that poplar tree many times – the nest was certainly raided in clinical fashion – very much pointing to an avian predator I think. Sad, but then again I’m told 90% of all blackbird nests tend to fail.

I think that was her second brood of the year – I don’t know whether the first was any more successful – and I’ve already noticed her starting her third attempt in next doors’ garden, right by a fence – silly bird – I rather think that is doomed also!

Other sights (and sounds) of this particular hot summer have been a couple of pips (either common or soprano – I KNOW both spp. roost in the area) are noisily flying ‘round the garden each dusk. Yes... you read that right.... bats being noisy. I know, but its true – I can hear these wee mammals  - I assume it’s their wings I can hear flapping or they’re communicating  to each other with an audible (to me) call.

We have our old hedgehog snuffling noisily through the garden foliage each night - and rolling a fallen peanut bird feeder across the lawn. I had originally thought we had foxes back in the garden doing this peanut feeder rolling – but after setting up a trailcam in the garden last night.... the culprit was identified as not a fox, but our determined hog (which I’d not seen at its hibernaculum or anywhere else in the garden for weeks and weeks – I’m glad it’s still alive!

I’ve also managed to run the moth trap each night for what feels like weeks now – very different to last year when I couldn’t run it due to it invariably raining each night. I’ve had great success this year so far, with the nocturnal lepidopteran highlights including small elephant hawk moth, elephant hawk moth, poplar hawk moth, swallow-tailed moth, bird cherry ermine, white ermine, common emerald, light emerald, common footman, buff tail, beautiful hook tip, herald and true lovers knot.

These sights (or sounds) above are pretty-nocturnal in nature – what about the days?

Well.... the bee hotels have been inundated with Willoughby’s leaf cutters (see photo below) and the odd Osmia mason bee also –  a real success this year – and proving attractive to the parasitic ruby-tailed wasp also –  very nice to see.

Air freight

I’ve sited the hotels above the goldenrod which the bees adore (but hasn’t even flowered yet) and all the bamboo tubes in the hotels will be full in a few days!

Anna and I have bought and planted a few foxgloves in the garden this year – these have proved very popular with the bumblebees, including the tree bumblebees nesting once again in the roof above the foxgloves.

The garden (yellow) loosestrife has flowered very well this year (unlike last when it was flattened by heavy rain) but no sign of the elusive yellow loosestrife bee just yet.

In the pond the large white Alba lily has flowered once (and is about to again), the frogs are just about coping with having one of our young cats fish for them each day and the purple and yellow irises flowered successfully in June.

I’ve left a good third of the garden a no-mow area and that has been a great success this year – with wild carrot, creeping buttercups,  birds foot trefoil, heal all and clovers all blooming brilliantly – which of course all the mini beasties love. I’ll not mow that part of the lawn until the middle or end of August now.

How long will this heatwave last? For another week I think, at least, but the popular press suggested it might last all August – if that happens, then we’ll be comparing 2013 to 1976 I think. Let’s wait and see…

 

I do hope anyone reading this is having as good a summer as us here – and please, during this hot spell...remember to put a little water out for your hedgehogs...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) blackbird buff tail common footman elephant hawk moth frog hedgehog herald leafcutter bee poplar hawkmoth small elephant hawk moth st. swithun summer swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/7/for-forty-days-it-ll-rain-nae-mare Wed, 17 Jul 2013 15:29:58 GMT
The dusk-loving piglet https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/6/the-dusk-loving-piglet I’ve been meaning to blog for some time (it’s not like to me to miss commentating on a “super moon”, a solstice, the beginning of summer, “midsummer’s day” amongst other things), but.... well.... ach, you know.

Yes-indeedy… Since I last put sausage-fingers to QWERTY keyboard, we have indeed had a “super moon” and a solstice, the beginning of (meteorological) summer on the 1st June and (traditional) “midsummer’s day on the 21st June. Summer is getting shorter and shorter at only 42 days long these days eh? The weird thing is that strictly speaking -summer began on the 21st of June as well as it being midsummer’s day on the same day. Confused? Yep. Me too.

I wasn’t convinced by the “super moon” to be honest – it allegedly appeared to be noticeably brighter and larger than most full moons (as it was as close to us in orbit terms as it will be until next August), but I had a peep at it on “super moon night” and it looked pretty darned normal to little-old-me.

 

So...  with Glastonbury starting today and me NOT there this year (of all years…. when the Stones are playing) … where have I been and what have I seen on my recent wanderings?

 

It’s fair to say summer has well and truly arrived in the last few weeks.

Then left again.

Then arrived once more.

Then left.

You get the picture ...I know.

 

Anna and I went up the river, well.... the canal really..... to look for hobbies on one of the better days in the last month. Hobbies for those that dont know are pretty little falcons with a brick red undercarriage, here during the summer in good numbers. These dashing birds like to catch dragonflies and sometimes even hirundines and swifts.  We managed to see one, picking off mayflies I think, rather than odonates – as summer does seem to be a few weeks late this year after a cold end to spring.

The local badgers that live a mile from our house in a new housing estate (yes... you read that right) are doing fine it seems, ‘though unlike last year when two sows in the group produced cubs (uncommon – it’s normally the dominant sow only that produces young), it seems like there are no cubs this year. They’ve quite obviously heard about the cull and thought to themselves “why bother” this year.

The local little owls seem to have taken over their old nest box again – I’ve not been up to see them as much as last year, but I would expect to see young owlets fledge soon, if I do return to see how they’re getting on.

The barn owl pair are shacked up in their hollow tree – again, I’d expect to see (or more probably, hear) the hissing young if and when I get up to the farm to check on their progress.

We have a blackbird’s nest in the garden which I have a wee Handykam camera trained on 24/7 – once again in a completely daft spot, low down in the poplar tree. The hen bird has laid four eggs over the last four days, but because the nest is very vulnerable to cats, I’ve taken the desperate measure of wrapping the trunk of the tree in tin foil. I’m assured cats don’t like tin-foil....

We have swifts regularly checking out the house at dawn and dusk (attracted by my swift call I’m sure) but as yet, no bird has investigated either of the nest spaces. I will need to build a final space or two during the winter to ensure ensnarement next year!

 

The garden has certainly come to life – the lawn-left-to-meadow has produced copious amounts of creeping buttercup flowers as well as field clover, forget-me-not, heal-all, salad burnet, poppies, white campion and birds-foot trefoil. The yellow loosestrife has flowered also – although I’ve still to see its bee of choice – Macropsis europaea grab the floral oils from within the hundreds of bright yellow, plasticky-looking flowers.

It won’t be long before all the invasive Canadian goldenrod has flowered – a weed really – but the bees flock to it, so I’ll leave it in the ground for now – where it can join the foxgloves we have planted.

Talking of bees, the bee hotels have been well received in the garden, with red and blue mason bees all taking up residence – and we clearly have a good-sized tree bumblebee (B.hypnorum) nest in the attic, under the eaves.

 

I’ve run the moth trap more this month than in the whole of last year, but numbers of moths (and spp. of moths indeed), have been pretty low.

There have been only two or three real moth highlights – a poplar kitten (see below) and two hawk-moths.

Poplar kitten

Of the hawk-moths, firstly (see below), I managed to trap a great big (grey) poplar hawk-moth (no great surprise there as our garden must reek of poplar “juice”)

 

but then, only a couple of nights ago – I trapped one of the most spectacular moths in Britain – a small elephant hawk-moth – Deilephila porcellus. (see below).

small elephant hawk moth

Much smaller  than its more common cousin, the elephant hawk-moth, the small elephant hawk-moth is even more shocking pink if that is possible  - you’d swear it was a tropical moth if you didn’t know any better.

The small elephant hawk-moth comes to honeysuckle, tobacco flowers and red valerian very often – but we only have a tiny amount of white valerian in the garden, so this was a very unexpected moth for me.

This moth, rather like its larger cousin, has a thick, fleshy larval stage (caterpillar) that looks like it has two eyes and a pig’s snout which is in fact a retractable head. This “snout” also looks like an elephant’s trunk – which is why these electric pink moths are named after elephants – it’s their caterpillar then, that we refer to as being elephantine – not the adult moth.

Likewise, as I’ve alluded to above, the end of the caterpillar also looks a little like a little pig’s snout (complete with eyes) – and this is the root for the small elephant hawk moth’s scientific name of Deilephila porcellus.

Deile – dusk or the evening (Greek)

Phileo – To love (Greek)

Porcellus – piglet (Greek)

Thus, the small elephant hawk-moth’s scientific name quite literally means the “dusk-loving piglet” – the adults do tend to fly at dusk, like their hummingbird hawkmoth cousins.

Incidentally – the elephant hawkmoth itself (Deilephila elpenor rather Deilephila porcellus above) has a specific name derived from “Elpenor”, one of Odysseus’ sailors, who was turned into a swine by the magical nymph “Circe”. You can begin to see then I’m sure, that whilst we call these pink moths “elephant” hawkmoths, they were originally likened to “pigs” rather than elephants.

I think I prefer the pig comparison myself, although when you’ve seen these pink elephants, you might be forgiven for thinking you’d drunkenly hallucinated, so lurid in colour are they.

 

Whilst I’m rambling drunkenly on about impressive insects, it’s also nice to see plenty of impressive beetles in the garden this summer – plenty of cockchafers are humming about the garden (and dropping into the moth trap most nights), I’ve caught sight of a huge metallic-green rose chafer fly past the house in a the blue sky, we have a couple of very impressive golden, lesser water beetles in the flourishing pond and a week or so ago, in the humidity before the solstice, I was lucky enough to hear and see a couple of ma-hu-sive male stag beetles helicopter noisily through the garden in the gloom. We have a small colony of these fearsome-looking beasties in a partially buried, rotting eucalyptus trunk in the garden, so it’s nice to know our hens haven’t dug up their grubs on their free-ranging scrabblings through the flower beds.

Finally it was nice to see my first large odonate the other day – a large blue male emperor dragonfly patrolling the flood meadows near my Thames-side office. I hope that we get a few hawkers and chasers in our new (this year) garden pond soon....

 

Well....I’m sure there is plenty more to tell, but I’ve written enough for now. We have just over 5 weeks before all the swifts start to pack up and leave for the Congo – I hear there is an “Azores high” weather system building in the eastern Atlantic and there are plenty of more things to look out for this summer.

I feel a (heathland) nightjar pilgrimage coming on you know....

Have a great July, grapple fans - & make the most of it eh?

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) deilephila porcellus hawk moth moth poplar hawk moth poplar kitten small elephant hawk moth https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/6/the-dusk-loving-piglet Fri, 28 Jun 2013 21:18:10 GMT
"Rhino horn tea" https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/6/-rhino-horn-tea In a couple of months, my wife and I will have been married for five years - and thanks to the generosity of my cousin Richard, we had the incredible luxury of honeymooning in Sri Lanka following the wedding, in August 2008.

I fell in love with the island and its spectacular wildlife - and decided to enter the BBC Wildlife Travel writing competition this year,  using a moment from our trip to Sri Lanka, a moment which I still recall vividly, as the subject for my entry.

Well.... this month's BBC Wildlife mag is now out, with the results of the competition printed within. I didn't win, nor was I even commended or shortlisted. But the winning entry was truly excellent - I stood no chance!

Reading my entry back to myself, I am hardly surprised I failed to win any plaudits for my writing - the whole essay reeks of flowery purple prose to be fair - unecessarily so  - and it's bereft of any humour. It's all a bit earnest (which is unlike me generally in my witterings about wildlife). I should point out here that I didn't actually apologise to any lizard in Sri Lanka - I just took its photo. Maybe I should stick to photography and leave writing for those people who can actually string a sentence or two together....

 

Annnyyyywaaaay....

 

In case you would like to read my entry into this years competition - please keep reading.

But keep a bucket handy for any sudden urge to vomit eh?

 

Back to normal on this blog (where I've been, what I've seen) soon enough.

 

TBR.

 

Rhino-horn tea.

 

By Doug Mackenzie Dodds

 

 

We had spent the beginning of our jungle honeymoon in a colonial-style mansion in the humid southwest of the island.

There we woke to the calls of purple-faced bear monkeys, babblers and bulbuls;  lazily spending our afternoons watching pink dragonflies dreamily skim the pool as we lounged under sultry skies.

Dusks meant the surrounding jungle reverberated to chants from the nearby Buddhist temple – a sound which seemed to beckon into the orange sky, streams of fruit bats flapping towards their nocturnal feeding grounds.

Only then did the tree-frogs begin their dusk cacophony, backed by geckos on rhythm-section, whilst clouds of glowing fireflies jumped en masse to the jungle beat.

We sipped iced Arrack and smiled.

 

Sri Lanka is a wildlife-lover’s paradise – the island’s tropical animals slap you in the face as soon as you leave Colombo – and keep on slapping.

Wonderful of course, but my wife and I wanted to search for a more elusive animal – hidden in the mysterious cloud forests.

Our planned weekend in upland “Tea Country” was to provide that opportunity.

 

 

Saturday arrived and with every mile we travelled into the highlands, the air thinned and cooled. We drove through vast, misty, tea estates and gawped at the huge, old tea factories.

 

Nurawa Eliya, the capital of “Ceylon tea” is a bustling, vibrant city, but money made here from the powerful tea estates sits uncomfortably alongside desperate poverty.

We were ushered past beggars and lepers before arriving at the safe enclave of the very British 19th Century hotel.

That afternoon my wife and I sipped “high tea” from snow-white bone china cups on the manicured hotel lawns, perched above the championship golf course and excitedly planned the next day’s quest.

After an evening malt or two by the crackling log fire, we retired to our luxurious double bed – which had been warmed with a hot water bottle.

How very British! How delightful!

 

The peacocks woke us and our forest guide Nadeema met us in the oak-panelled billiard room.

“Cloud forests nearly disappeared – tea instead” Nadeema explained.

“Last two hundred years, ninety-five percent forest gone” he said.

I knew these forests are or were home to many species of endemic amphibian and reptile – most of which were only discovered and named in the twenty-first century – it suddenly seemed to me that we British were in an awful rush to make money from tea. Our excitement at the prospect of finding our enigmatic animal was joined by pangs of fresh guilt.

 

Leaving the hotel grounds we made our way along the path towards the steaming forest.

Imperial pigeons boomed in the canopy above and tailorbirds shouted their indignation at us. Ceylon white-eyes flitted in and out of bushes and canary-flycatchers danced excitedly nearby.

 

As we entered the forest proper, damp, darkness and an eerie silence smothered us. The path disappeared under roots and foliage & the canopy closed over our heads. The sun was climbing with us, but we couldn’t rely on the beams of sunlight finding the few gaps in the leaves, so we turned our torches on.

 

For hours we climbed over huge mossy roots, through tangled waxy-leafed branches and scrambled over slippery waterfalls. It seemed like we were climbing back in time – back into the Mesozoic Era.

Eventually Nadeema stopped stock still and turned to us with wide eyes….

 

“No torch now” he whispered, putting an index finger to his lips.

He slowly pointed ahead and our eyes eagerly followed the line of his finger – we craned our necks and peered….

 

From the murky gloom she watched us with her prehistoric eyes.

Our straining eyes soon met her hypnotic gaze – and we froze.

The world stopped.

We had finally found our quarry.

 

The female Rhino-horned lizard remained motionless and flattened herself to a branch.

She was magnificent.

Hidden in the cloud forest.

On the edge of existence…. and extinction.

We were transfixed and felt utterly privileged to see her.

Stood in rare, pristine lizard habitat in the highlands of Sri Lanka, frozen by a “Rhino-horn’s gaze”, I remembered what Nadeema had said in the hotel.

Sorrow washed over me and I whispered an apology to her, on behalf of our forest-felling forefathers.

Seconds later she turned tail and in the blink of an eye she scuttled away – back into the dark shadows of her dwindling forest home.

 

 

On our walk back to the hotel my wife and I realised we had changed.

We’ll criticise the Far East’s illegal trade in rhino horn for their “medicinal tea” and rightly so.

Nowadays though, each time we adopt this lofty stance, we remember our beautiful Sri Lankan lizard.

We Westerners have ourselves destroyed many “rhino-horns” in the race to make our own tea of choice.

 

Much smaller rhino-horns, admittedly.

 

But rhino-horns nonetheless….

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) BBC Willdife travel writing competition entry Rhino-horned lizard Sri Lanka honeymoon https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/6/-rhino-horn-tea Sun, 02 Jun 2013 12:08:18 GMT
We made it (and so did they). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/5/we-made-it-and-so-did-they It has been a fair few weeks since I blogged  - poor health and incredibly busy work to blame.

Those weeks have seen us leap out of a stubborn winter and pretty-well straight into summer – at least it felt that way last fortnight or so and over the bank holiday weekend just gone.

 

The trees have suddenly leafed, ash is blossoming like I’ve never seen before, cherry blossom is rampant, as is white and blackthorn – and the flowers on the ground look like they’ve not flowered in years, such is their display this year.

Everywhere I look there are seas of gorse, dandelions or cowslips, forget-me-nots or daisies – spring has most certainly sprung – and with real gusto this year – I’ve already mown the lawn twice – unlike last year when it was too wet to mow.

I think we’ve had all of the expected bumblebees visit the garden in the past three weeks  (including the tree bumblebee which loves our ceanothus) even though there have only been daffodils, a few crocuses, some dead nettles and a little pulmonaria flowering in the garden so far – the invasive goldenrod is what they’re really after, but this wont flower for weeks yet....

The beautiful solitary bees have awoken also – preceded (as always) by the furry little bee-flies hovering in sunny spots on warm afternoons. We’ve had several species of solitary bees including leaf cutters, red mason bees, feather-footed flower bees,  early mining bees and an ashy mining bee – a species that I’ve never seen before.

What about the moths and butterflies?

Well.... holly blues, commas and brimstones (butterflies) have been fluttering around the garden for a fortnight or so now, joined by orange tips, peacocks, red admirals and a lone speckled wood last week – but moths have been thin on the ground so far – just the odd Hebrew character, the odd pug and a brimstone (moth) or two. Surprising really, as the days have been very warm – but then again the nights have been pretty cool and I’ve cleared an awful lot of vegetation out of the garden, and with it some moths I expect.

Other creepy crawlies that have appeared in the past fortnight or so include zebra and wolf spiders, nomadic and cuckoo bees, spider-hunting wasps and a few seven-spot ladybirds.

In the past month I’ve filled our new pond with rain butt water, and planted native plants into it. In turn we’ve had the odd small frog or two take up residence as well as a good dozen or so pond skaters - and many small diving beetles.

The pond will grow and grow as the year unfurls I’m sure, watched intently by the local heron which has already been investigating – on the lookout for frogs, newts and carp I expect (no luck so far – and there never will be re the fish!)

Whilst we’re talking of birds – all the winter thrushes have disappeared now, at least from this neck of the woods, though I do hear there are still some waxwings in Scotland. They’d best get a jog on if they want to bag prime breeding sites back in their Scandinavian homelands I reckon!

The blue tits that like to nest next door have started building their nest again (same bird box as last year) and our new pond is coming in handy for the hen blackbird who is lining her nest cup with mud in another neighbours garden right now.

The omnipresent woodpigeons and collared doves are doing their best to breed of course in every tree in the neighbourhood it seems.

I’ve not seen a jay for a week or three (maybe because I haven’t been feeding them their monkey nuts recently, but also perhaps because they’re now putting their efforts into breeding rather than feeding – garden sightings of jays do tend to drop during the breeding season, for obvious reasons).

The local little owls have bagged their next box (actually a barn owl box) like last year, but I can’t film them at present as their field is full of bullocks at the moment  - not particularly helpful as far as wildlife photography or videoing is concerned!

Best news of all re birds is the fact that the local barn owl that I watched survive the winter now has a mate in his tree.

I made this discovery only a handful of days ago as I drove past the owl’s tree more in hope than in expectation – and TWO round white faces peered down at my car. It was all I could do not to end up in the drainage ditch!

I’ve been back since.... well.... back to within about 400 yards and with my binoculars, got such a good view that I could a) see the difference between male and female owl and b) therefore tell which gender owl I’d been watching all winter – the male....

I’m really hopeful these owls breed – barn owls dont tend to breed very often in their life (maybe a maximum of three times), but the signs look good – its certainly a male and female sharing a tree – and I don’t suppose they’d do this if they weren’t intent on breeding.

Will we get hissy owlets soon? I do hope so – the only issue I think they’ll have is that their tree is RIGHT next to a busy country road. Now I know most drivers won’t notice the wee white faces peering down to their headlights from twenty feet up a tree or so, but a few might..... and then there are the cars to be avoided..... Good luck barn owls  - I’ll be watching from afar.

I suppose I should finish this blog post by saying that whilst I’ve seen swallows on their traditional telephone wires nearby for a fortnight or so – and I’ve had the swift CD blaring out of the side of the house for ten days now  - it was only today (7th May), this morning at around 7am, that I saw my first swifts of the year.

It sometimes feels like I base every year around these stupendous birds - I think that would be a fair assessment, certainly after leaving London and moving back to the home counties.

Virtually every year I see my first swifts of the year on the 23rd April or just after – certainly before May anyway. But not this year. I know the pair that I used to film and webcast in Reading arrived back on the 27th (I miss them terribly) but as yet I STILL haven’t seen any over Bracknell – the worst town in the UK for swifts it seems! The two swifts I saw this morning were chasing each other through a clear sky over Sunbury on Thames.

EDIT. At 1900hrs tonight (7th May), two of the best birds of all danced high over the house in a still-blue sky – completely ignoring the fool below with his camera and the CD of swift calls blaring up from the eaves of the house far below of course….! (Very poor photo below).

I did manage to attract the interest of a few “bangers” and “screamers” (swifts) last year by playing them their swift CD in late May – but such was the terrible weather last year, I’m not sure if they will return this year   - I do hope so and to that extent I’ll continue to play my swift calls until June and then again from mid July to tempt the departing swifts to investigate also.... The cameras are in place, just need some pioneering swifts to start nesting in a post-war ex council house in a post-war town now!

 

So.... we made it - and so did they (the swifts).... at last.

 

Roll on summer.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) ashy mining bee barn owl first swifts pond skater spring swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/5/we-made-it-and-so-did-they Tue, 07 May 2013 18:32:01 GMT
Its been a long time, been a long time.... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/4/its-been-a-long-time-been-a-long-time Its been a long time since:

 

a) I've blogged. (Nearly a month).

b) We've had any sort of warmth in the air (almost exactly a month).

c) I've seen our local barn owl (over a month).

d) I've filmed our local, breeding little owls.

e) We've had any sort of warmth in the air (have I mentioned that already?)

 

What a March eh? (See the comment to this blog post).

I've deliberately avoided blogging during last month, for one reason really - it was so pigging miserable and the temptation to droan on like everyone else about the cold would have made me even more miserable I think.

But yesterday changed all that - that nagging easterly calmed for a day, the sun came out (it is British Summer Time after all now) and the frozen plants and animals took a breath.... a deep breath.... we haven't broken the planet just yet it seems!

 

Oh sure.... waxwings are still around, as are fieldfares. There are still winter ducks and sawbills on local gravel pits (goldeneye, wigeon and displaying black-necked grebes I hear). But spring HAS to come eventually.... and it does seem now we are approaching the middle of April, it is stuttering into life.

You get the feeling that if we blink or look away for a second in the coming month, we'll miss it - and we'll end up in "summer" without realising it. It was therefore nice to notice the first dronefly in the garden yesterday and the first mining bee of the year - little things.... but important to me! (Yeah yeah.... I do have a "little mind").

 

My beautiful swifts are but three weeks away (in fact I heard some were seen in Spain and Paris this past week) - and the first sand martins have arrived - only to find there's b.all food for them here (one poor individual made it back to its traditional local nesting bank this week and died of hunger and/or cold - there'll be more like that I fear).

Life tries to push on though and the local pair of little owls are enjoying their ritual mutual groomage sessions on the roof of their barn. I've filmed all last week and at the end of this blog, you can watch the footage (please, as normal, maximize the embedded player and check the quality to its the highest setting for smoothest playback). Think of this footage (containing more than two surprise visitors) as the first "Operation noctua (twoooo)" clip - which I actually started on the 1st day of 2013 - after all... that's when the pair of owls returned to stake a claim to their favoured breeding site.

The local pigeons and doves are laying and the blue tits are re-investigating nest boxes after stopping for a few weeks...

The sun is out again as I type this morning after my traditional Sunday dawn drive around the local countryside. The celandines are out, the daffodils are finally finding their flowers and the crocuses look great.

No.... I've not seen our most reliable barn owl for over a month - in fact I thought two stock doves had taken up residence in its tree. But today in the most glorious dawn sunshine (well.... after dawn really at 07:31 exactly), the beautiful owl showed me it was still around and flew alongside my car, back into its tree. A lovely pick-me-up.

I doubt if it will be breeding - barn owls have a very short breeding life (we're talking a season or two normally), but I'd love it to stick around - the local countryside feels a little lonely without it these days.

 

Well.... I hope April brings us more warmth, some blossom - and maybe a leaf or two if we're really lucky.

Its been a long time, been a long time,
Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time.
Yes it has.

 


 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl celandine collared dove crocus daffodil drone fly fieldfare little owl mining bee operation noctua (twoooo) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/4/its-been-a-long-time-been-a-long-time Sun, 07 Apr 2013 10:40:06 GMT
The most beautiful wild mammal in Britain? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/3/the-most-beautiful-wild-mammal-in-britain Regular readers of this blog will know I am besotted by swifts - and although I'd hardly describe them as beautiful (young, developing swifts are actually quite repulsive to look at for example), I do find them utterly fascinating - incredible little things.

But speaking of "beauty"... what would YOU say is the most beautiful wild animal in Britain?

 

Many might look to butterflies for their animalian beauty - peacock butterflies perhaps, or painted ladies?

Some might suggest the bright moths are the most beautiful animal in Britain - the shocking pink elephant  hawk moth  (my own photo) is very striking for sure, as are most of the larger, showier tiger moths perhaps.

My Uncle would probably suggest to me that the odonates (dragons and damsels) are the most beautiful, wonderful things in the British zoological list - they are wonderful for sure.... but beautiful? Nah.... not for me.

Other insects that some might consider beautiful might include the jewel wasps (my own photo) - they are certainly a spectacular (if tiny) sight to see.

How about some of our beautiful birds?  The kingfisher, song thrush, barn owl, jay, spotted woodpeckers? Some might suggest swans are our most beautiful birds (in their opinion), or perhaps yellow wagtails, mandarin ducks, bullfinches, goldfinches, blue tits or yellowhammers?

And what about out our amphibians? Do you consider toads to display a somewhat latent beauty or the lovely markings on the belly of a smooth newt to be your cup of tea?

How about our shy green lizards and striking snakes - do you think they are our most beautiful animals?

My guess is most people might choose a land-based colourful butterfly or bird when asked to quickly name a beautiful British animal, or maybe a furry mammal.

I don't know what animal I'd consider to be the most beautiful in the whole of the British list of kingdom Animalia, but I think I'd have no doubt if asked what I would consider to be our most beautiful British mammal.

No.... not the badger....

The roe deer.

 

We have 6 (I think) species of deer in the UK, with only the roe and red being true natives.

I could take or leave most of our deer I think (including red deer - I just don't see the fascination with these animals), but roe deer.... they are truly something else in my opinion.

They are just perfect to me - so elegant, athletic and graceful.  Everything I'm not!

Perfect big, fluffy ears (thats more like me!), perfect black noses, such wonderful fur - I really love to see roe deer when I'm out and about.

 

 

So it was a sad morning this morning, when I caught sight of a pair of fluffy ear tips sticking up from a roadside ditch just before 6am this morning (in the headlamps - I have VERY good eyesight). I immediately realised this deer was not well.... sitting in a shallow ditch by a road - but I was on my way to check on the local barn owls - so vowed to return after the owls had roosted for the day.

Two hours later, return I did, and unfortunately did find the deer again, in the same ditch that she was in when I drove by two hours earlier. I assumed she had been hit by a car during the night and had hobbled into the ditch, whilst the other deer she almost certainly would have been with at the time, had left her.

It's always something of a dilemma for me, this sort of thing - wildlife rescue. Is it ever worth it? Perhaps I guess.... but probably not for deer - once a leg is broken, that's pretty-well that for the poor beast.

But this was a roe deer - the most beautiful mammal in Britain - I had to do something, even if it meant putting her out of her misery as quickly as possible....

 

So I called the RSPCA - who were (as usual.... I have no idea why many people dislike the RSPCA) very helpful indeed.

I looked at the beautiful (but very folorn now) doe roe and she looked back at me. I took a photo (maybe I shouldn't have) and retreated to my car to wait for the RSPCA officer.

A little while later the officer turned up and we lifted the doe out of the ditch to check if anything could be done.

I'm afraid not.

Even though the deer appeared unscathed at least "on top", the poor girl had a pretty smashed up rear (near side) leg, and was in a pretty bad way (stress, shock, call it what you want) and she was "humanely dispatched" by Phil, the very efficient RSPCA man with a bolt gun and a pithing rod.

Phil looked at me and said there was really nothing we could have done - and "was I ok"?

I looked at him and said.... "I'm fine - much better now that she's not suffering".

But I didn't tell Phil that I've always personally regarded these particular deer to be stupendously beautiful and it was a real shame to me.... a tragedy indeed that this particular doe had her life ended in such a manner.

We talked for a while about the area, the barn owls and the badgers and then I went home for breakfast and Phil went to another job a few miles away.

And the doe laid still now... back in the ditch.

I'm not often saddened by stuff like that.... but today was very sad indeed....

 

 

You know... there's to be a deer cull soon enough (backed by strong science) and whilst I'll not particularly miss the hundreds of muntjac round here, I do hope the cull doesnt take too many beautiful roe deer away from my dawn weekend wanderings....

The most beautiful mammal in Britain.

By miles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) deer roe https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/3/the-most-beautiful-wild-mammal-in-britain Sun, 10 Mar 2013 14:50:58 GMT
"Are we nearrrly therrre yet"? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/3/-are-we-nearrrly-therrre-yet I was going to blog about the pond that I have dug into our garden in the last week, or the swift box that I've finally drilled into our roof..... but after the wildlife drive I had 'round my local patch this morning, I thought I'd focus this particular blog post on today, tomorrow and the week ahead....

"Are we nearrrrly therrrre yetttt?" is a well-known phrase for parents (and others!) all over the UK - generally uttered by impatient kids on the back seats of cars, being driven cross-country to go and visit (maybe) Great Aunt Brunhilda (or someone similar).

I've been thinking "are we nearly there yet" to myself for a good three weeks now - as my patience with winter and the lack of warmth is starting to wear a bit thin now - especially after the last ten days, when we've sat under miserable lead-coloured skies and biting winds...

This time last year we were baking in pretty-well a month-long heatwave - the start of the errrr.... "drought" *cough*. Don't you remember?

This year though - and we all seem to be waiting..... waiting for spring to spring from the depths of February and get us all positive again about the coming year.

 

The local barn owls have been living off meagre rations for the past few months - although I have watched one of our local owls catch two voles with remarkable ease over the last two weekends on my dawn drives (I went out as usual pre dawn this morning).

They will want the ground and air to warm up - hunting becomes a lot easier for them when their rodent prey start to move around freely.

 

The local toads had already moved to their breeding ponds by this time last year (Anna and I help as many as we can each year – ‘though I rather think it will be me on my own in 2013), but this year the vast majority of toads have stayed stubbornly in their woods – waiting for night time temperatures to hit at least 5c (9c is more like it for our gold leaf eyed friends) before they migrate en masse back to their breeding ponds – crossing roads as they go.

 

The crocuses and daffodils were all but out last year – and attracting multiple species of bumblebee in the warmth of March – I had seen four species of bumblebee by March 2nd 2012 – as I type a year later, I’ve seen one queen buff-tailed bumblebee briefly and one honeybee – with not a crocus or daffodil flower in sight just yet in the garden.

 

I have seen our first queen wasp of the year however (earlier than last year) – crawling on our 3 month-old son’s window ledge. (I removed it of course); and I have had a few moths visit our outside light – a herald, a chestnut, a dark chestnut, a brindled plume and a dotted border. I should set up the moth trap I guess….?

 

The grass seed I’ve sown around the landscaped pond is certainly waiting for a bit of warmth – anything over 6c and that’ll begin the germination and growth…. 

 

There is a little blackthorn blossom out in towns at present – but you have to look very hard to find it – its waiting also…

 

The robins are certainly getting eager to breed – as are the local goldcrests it seems – I had a pair of very showy goldcrests display to each other in the garden (just feet from me) as I dug the pond into the soil last weekend.

Our lone jay (for 18 months now) has suddenly become a pair for the first time in our garden at least - it does seem like the birds are g....getting r....ready!

 

Of course the local tawny owls in the wood near the house are impatient little beggars and are already undoubtedly sitting on eggs (as are some local blackbirds intent on having multiple broods this year) – and the feral pigeons sat on our roof are always mating it seems. Every time I look up to the roof (to admire my new swift box)…. Yep. There’s another pair of fornicating doves on the aerial…

The local foxes are bickering their courtship fights behind the garage at the end of the garden but our garden hedgehog hasn't clambered out of its pit yet this year - though I think it might this week (keep reading....!)

 

It’s still cccc….c…cold though eh?

Even though dawn is (mercifully) getting earlier and earlier, I drove around the patch this morning with the heated seat on full blast (the first time I used the heated car seat I forgetfully thought I’d had “an accident” mid-drive).

 

Talking of drives, my morning’s (twice-weekly) wildlife drive was possibly the best ever.

Not only was I treated to the sight of one of our local barn owls hunting right by the car again before disappearing back to its diurnal roost at about 06:30am – as I sat watching the barn owl, a lovely hare lollopped across the road in front of me.

Yessss…. I know hares aren’t native to the UK, but they might as well be these days and I hardly ever get to see them round ‘ere.

Such interesting animals – so full of character and all undoubtedly waiting for the first bit of warmth to hit their fields, for then they can begin their mad March hare antics.

I’ve only ever seen one hare before in this neck of the woods – a year ago – at EXACTLY the same spot.

A wee check on the little owls (post-hare) and all seemed well there – though I’m sure the last ten days (compared to the same ten days last year) has meant the pair is a little further behind in their breeding year at present.

 

A glance across the bare(ish) grey fields and a flock of frenchmen (red-legged partridge) seemed still to be in their winter coveys – waiting for spring to break them up into pairs again to nest and lay their clutches.

 

A glance across the neighbouring farmland and a treat of four of what I (personally) regard the most beautiful UK mammal to be, roe deer, all standing watching me. Such beautiful, elegant creatures.

One buck with velvety antlers pushing up towards the early March sky, with four does behind him. Lucky fella!

 

Finally, as I turned a corner to go home – five or six dozen fieldfare – all pointing into the wind on a bush just beginning to bud. The bush is waiting for spring and I got the impression the fieldfare were too…. for their journey back to Scandinavia to breed (in colonies) themselves….

 

We’re all on hold it seems.

Waiting for spring.

Surely it’ll arrive soon?

 

The Met Office and most of us think of the beginning of Spring as the 1st of March – but we really have a few weeks to wait before Spring officially starts (on the 21st) ….. or do we???

 

Well……

Someone allegedly reported a swallow over Merseyside yesterday (wishful thinking perhaps?) and I hear on the grapevine that this week is going to be markedly warmer and spring-like than the last two.

Monday looks sunny and mild(ish - half the temperature of the same day last year though - but it's a start) – and the wind is even going to change direction this week – it’ll be a blessed relief eh? to have a warm wind for a change, rather than the bone-aching nor’easterly we’ve endured of late.

Of course, winter can still spring a surprise return and bite us on the backside (remember the April snow of a few years ago)…..

 

But the answer to the “are we nearrrrrly therrrrre yet?” question is yes, grapple fans. We certainly are!

 

 

My advice to anyone reading this blog in the UK, is to take Monday off work (if you can!) wake up nice and early – play yersel a few good rounds of Vivaldi – then head off into the countryside – join the March hares, the migrating toads, the happy owls, the blooming crocuses, the sleepy bees and the sprouting seeds – and be there for the very start of Spring 2013.

 

Mind if I join you?

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl blackbird blackthorn brindled plume chestnut crocus cusp daffodil dark chestnut dotted border fieldfare fox hedgehog herald jay little owl new pond red-legged partridge roe deer spring swift box tawny owl wasp winter https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/3/-are-we-nearrrly-therrre-yet Sat, 02 Mar 2013 16:18:45 GMT
Hawk versus pigeon. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/2/hawk-versus-pigeon There's so much going on in the garden and in the local countryside at present (not to mention the night sky)...

I'll come onto all that as soon as I can.

But for now - just some photos of a (female) sparrowhawk that killed a woodpigeon right in front of me as the sun set today, whilst I was on my drive to check on our local barn owls. This is the second pigeon this hawk has killed in three days.

She's good.

She's VERY good.

 

(NB. Some viewers might  (I guess) maintain that this bird is a male sparrowhawk, not a female. Not so my friends.... the sunset was pretty spectacular round here today and the dull plumage of the female is glowing in an orange setting-sun sorta light - apart from the fact that this is a woodpigeon she's sitting on -  which males would find too much to handle almost invariably).

 

For more on sparrowhawks, click HERE.

 

No more words necessary with this particular blog post, other than the last shot was taken (with a flash, in the dark) after I had been to see one of our local barn owls leave its roost...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn kill owl sparrowhawk woodpigeon https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/2/hawk-versus-pigeon Mon, 18 Feb 2013 19:01:50 GMT
Owls and other birds https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/2/owls-and-other-birds "Operation noctua (twooo)" might have started on January 1st this year, but I've not reported on the activities of our local little owls (or many other local birds) for some time now - so thought I'd give a brief update.

 

Little owls.

The pair are still around - not so much on their "winter shed" (of last winter) but already on their "breeding shed" (of last season).

Very often I've been up in their neck of the woods and I've seen at least one adult in the box entrance, perched as lookout on the nearby shed roof or on a nearby fence post.

Twice I've been up to "owl-ville" and had the pleasure of lovely views of these wee birds, fly right over the car or perch right next to the car as I've been on the lookout for their larger, more impressive barn owl cousins.

I'll certainly not give weekly "Operation noctua (twooo)" updates as I did with "Operation noctua" last year for a number of reasons.

1 - A new son takes quite a lot of my attention and efforts at present.

2 - Barn owls have made their presence very apparent in "owl-ville" and I'm hoping they'll breed this year on site too.

3 - I really want to concentrate on my favourite bird of all again this year, swifts. I'm really hoping that with the swift box and attractor call CD, I can get these superb birds breeding at our house again this year.

That all said, I will endeavour to give regular(ish) reports on the local little owls in "Operation noctua (twooo)".

 

Barn owls.

At least THREE individual barn owls have "appeared" in "owl-ville" this winter - and I've located three separate trees in which they roost during the day.

If, on my dawn or dusk runs or drives I don't see at least TWO separate barn owls these days, I feel somewhat disappointed - I'm almost tripping over them at present.

Barn owls suffer at least as much as other birds in cold winter weather, if not a whole lot more so - and they've had it pretty rough this winter with rain, wind and snow.

I'm keeping my eyes on them (from a distance) and absolutely delighted to say that they (all) seem to be doing well at present.

 

"Garden birds".

Goldfinches have rediscovered the sunflower heart feeder that I've moved in the garden recently and I'm glad to say that we were visited by a wren again at the weekend - the first wren I've seen in the garden for months.

The male blackcap that bossed the bird feeders during the snowy, colder weather seems to have gawn orf.

The local starlings, house sparrows, woodpigeons and feral doves are omnipresent - as are blue tits, coal tits, dunnocks, great tits and blackbirds.

Our goldcrests are less frequent visitors as are the long tailed tits - but the jackdaws and jays (two jays for the first time since moving in) are daily visitors.

I hear waxwings may be on the move again - a small population has re-appeared a couple of miles away at a new housing estate, but I've not seen any fieldfares in the garden (or redwing) since the last fieldfare was nabbed by our regular female hawk. I do hear redwings pass over each night again though and there are fieldfares tchacking to each other in the large ash tree in next door's garden relatively regularly.

 

I'm not out in the garden much at present - primarily because its a boggy mess and always seems to be raining now (apart from today -when it snowed), but I have been keeping one eye on other local bird life.

My wife, son and I went for a walk 'round a local lake this weekend and it was nice to see my favourite duck of all (or drake I suppose), the male goldeneye escorting his harem of chocolate-dipped hens around the sleety grey lake.

The goldeneye drake was the sole reason why I bought my little inflatable boat a couple of years ago, (I had in mind a few photos), and even though I named it "Mandarin" as that was the first bird that I saw in the boat on her maiden voyage on a local backwater, I do look forward to the day that my son and I can paddle out on a lake and marvel at the spectacular ducks. Several years before that happens I expect...

A lake-side little egret provided the only other splodge of brightness on yet another gun metal miserable day.

I've also been fortunate enough to locate a roost of goldfinch in a tall, thick laurel hedge near my Reading office on the Thames. When the weather was really cold, this hedge contained about 60 birds - but today we were down to maybe half that number.

I always pay them a visit before settling down to paperwork just after dawn and if I'm lucky (like I was today), I'll get to see them all leave en masse together - chirruping their mediterranean joy into another sleety sky.

"Be it dry or be it wet, the weather will always pay its debt" is a mantra that I think rings true a lot of the time (if only by the law of averages), so I'm fully expecting a bone dry March (like last year) or April (like the few years before), so I can finally start some work in the garden and get that pond dug in - which has been upturned like a gurt big plastic monolith on the sodden ground for months now.

 

Roll on spring....

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn black blackbird blue cap coal dove egret feral fieldfare goldeneye goldfinch great house jackdaw jay little owl redwing sparrow starling tit woodpigeon wren https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/2/owls-and-other-birds Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:49:54 GMT
Alba https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/1/alba Regular visitors to my blog might jusssst about remember the time last June when I discovered a roosting barn owl on my daily runs through the countryside.

Well.... my health seems to be getting better and better and although my dobby (doctor) suggests I should build up to running three miles again (rather than dive straight in again), I am still pounding the countryside where owls be, albeit at a more leisurely rate at present - and still looking out for barn owls as well as this year's family of little owls.

I was looking out for barn owls anyway (as I've seen "our" little owls return now)

This week I found one.

To be fair - it found me - I was driving back from my acupuncturist, feeling like a battered old pincushion when Tyto alba (the barn owl) leaped from a roadside ditch and flew across my car headlamps, over a bare hedge and into a field.

I'd found alba* without even trying!

Since that evening last week, I have established exactly where this individual owl roosts - not in its old hollow tree but a more substantial tree about 1/4 mile away -and have established exactly when it prefers to leave its roost each dusk and returns each dawn. It has been a delight for me to welcome this stunning creature back to the countryside so close to our house.

Barn owls are notoriously transient during the traditional non-breeding season - they go where they can find suitable food (voles mainly) and suitable weather conditions (often) to find that food - so I have no idea just how long this particular owl will stay in this particular tree. I obviously hope it continues for some time as it is a glorious sight to watch this white owl take to the air for a night's hawking or silently fly back to its roost for its daily slumber.

"Silently" is the operative word in the paragraph above. All barn owls (and tawnies) seem to make no sound at all when flying. It's really quite eerie. (That's eerie, not eyrie). Jackdaws will be flying by in huge flocks at this time of year, making a racket with their wings if not with their "tchacking" en masse, blackbirds will be doing their normal hysterical crepuscular cartwheels, pigeons will be wing-clapping and magpies will be cackling on telegraph poles.

But the barn owl will be silent. At least (generally) at this time of year and when (like this one seems to be) it's on its own.

"Magical" is an oft-used and overused adjective in wildlife-watching circles. I'm as guilty of that as most (if not more so).

But watching a silent barn owl at dusk or dawn, for me at least, truly is magical and I feel very privileged to be able to do so at present.

 

 

*Tyto alba is (indeed) the scientific name for the barn owl.

Tyto is derived from "Tuto" (Greek for "owl"). I assume the fact that the Latin word "Tutor" meaning "watcher" or "protector" (rather than a "wise" person, like an owl is often thought to be in folklore) is merely a coincidence.... but maybe not.

Alba on the other hand does dip its feet in Latin - and is derived from "Albus"- meaning "white".

 

The word "Alba" first appears in classical texts (Ptolemy - Greek - "Alba" and then later in Latin translations, "Albus") - and often referred to as the British Isles as a whole, but based on the Indo-European stem for "white". Whether those swarthy Greeks and Romans thought of us Brits as pallid and therefore "white" is a question that will remain unanswered I guess (at least by me). Maybe ancient Britain was covered in snow for long periods of time? Who knows?

After about 900AD, Gaelic-speakers used "Alba" to refer to the Kingdom of Scotland, or the Picts originally - Rìoghachd na h-Alba actually means "Kingdom of Scotland" - so this is why you may see Scottish (car) bumper stickers with a Lion Rampant on them and the word "Alba" proudly written underneath.  Incidentally, I think (I may be wrong) that the SFA have "Alba" printed on shirts these days, although the SRU are still being persuaded that might be a good idea.

Anyhoo. Tyto alba does not really mean the "Scottish owl", but more like the "White owl" (although you could strongly argue that the snowy owl, Bubo scandiacus (which means the "Scandinavian (eagle) owl") is more obviously white.

 

 

The barn owl (or "white owl") here in the UK is at the most northerly edge of its (comfortable) range.

Populations crash when there is lying snow or there are long periods of bad weather.

I've had the pleasure of seeing the most northerly pair of barn owls in the world (at the time) outside Inverness many years ago, but truth be told, they're far happier on the warmer continent.

Do keep your eyes peeled for the "white owl" this winter. They're not common but quite widespread and I defy anyone not to be entranced if they do happen across this ghostly, pale, moth-like bird hawk and dance silently over a tussocky field near them.

 

Please note.

Barn owls (like kingfishers and MANY other species) are schedule 1 birds. (Read the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act).

I am constantly amazed by the sheer number of photographs of schedule 1 birds appearing on online fora - where the photographer clearly has no specific schedule 1 licence - images that seemingly go unpunished most of the time (if not virtually all of the time). I should take this opportunity to point out that if "the authorities" prove a reckless disturbance of a schedule 1 species, the offender will be fined several thyzand pyndz or find themselves in prison for a few months.

If you have no schedule 1 licence - it is ILLEGAL (or ill-owl?!) to recklessly disturb (deliberately or accidentally) the bird(s) at their nest or near a nest site at ANY TIME of the year - by photographing them (or by any other activity).

If you have no schedule 1 licence, you very probably have no (or not enough) idea what effect your bid for a good photograph of this bird will have on your "quarry" - will it leave its roost or nest or nest site and not find another (and not breed or worse, die), will it abandon its eggs? You probably won't know.

 

Now, there will be a few reading this that will wring their hands and profess their innocence (or supposed "knowledge" and "love" for the birds) and explain, with wide-eyed certainty, that the photographs they took with their noisy DSLR will have had no effect on the schedule 1 bird they photographed. 

Sometimes that will be the case, but many more times, the photographer will have disturbed the bird without even knowing it.

In the case of kingfishers (for example) most people won't have  clue where the bird that they're chasing up and down the river is nesting or where it might intend to (the nest hole itself may well be hidden by an overhanging river bank).

Some photographers won't even know what a nesting bird behaves like or when it nests, where or how often in a year.

 

Your best bet by far is to leave well alone and leave your camera at home.

Do the bird a favour, watch from a large distance and don't even risk accidentally disturbing the bird you are so delighted by.

This is true for all schedule 1 birds and especially for barn owls; which in theory can nest (and have nested) in most months of the year if conditions are right.

 

Whilst it seems clear that this particular owl is not nesting at present (they rarely do before May)... I care not. It may find a mate and choose to nest at the site of its winter roost. That would be fantastic!

So I (STILL) do all that I can to avoid disturbing this barn owl - I watch from a distance and take no photographs.

I'm not even convinced the barn owl even notices I'm even watching it silently from afar, with freezing hands and misty-lensed binoculars.

Do the same.

Please.

 

 

 

Please click here to discover how our barn owl population did last year in the UK.

Please click here to learn about schedule 1 species and what steps you'll need to take (via Natural England) to obtain a specific schedule 1 licence to photograph a species of schedule 1 birds.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/1/alba Sun, 13 Jan 2013 15:39:20 GMT
When did you lose yours? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/1/when-did-you-lose-yours A blog post not so much about wildlife today, but about technology (or planes to be specific)... with a little (linked) footnote about my feelings regarding wildlife.

Before I met my wife (Anna) I had only taken two flights in my life - one shuttle from Heathrow (I think then) to Renfrew (to explore the highlands) and one long-haul from Heathrow (certainly) to Singapore (for a holiday won by a pal in a raffle - we ended up in the most famous hotel in the world, "Raffles", of course). Our family never took a holiday abroad (we couldn't afford to) so I never had a need to get on a plane.

Since meeting Anna and eventually marrying her, I've been lucky enough to fly a little more often. We've flown to Kephalonia twice (I proposed on our first holiday to that Greek island), Chicago (for one of my twin sisters' wedding), Sri Lanka for our honeymoon (thanks to the generosity of my cousin Richard, where we MUST return as all kinds of wildlife there just smashed me in the face every single day), the Maldives (incredible marine life) and to rural Turkey (possibly the most relaxing holiday we've experienced with stunning wildlife also).

So in my entire life so far - I've boarded a plane (that will take off and go somewhere) only eight times. Whilst I appreciate that is more than many, compared to many others (including my family and extended family) its nothing at all.

I'm certainly no "jet-setter". Nor, indeed, am I a "plane spotter", although planes have always fascinated me. Like many small boys (of my and previous generations I guess), I delighted in making Airfix model Spitfires, (De Havilland) Chipmunks (the plane my father learned to fly in at RAF Leuchars), Messerschmitt 109s and Lancaster bombers when I was very small. I have also been lucky enough to visit Duxford a couple of times. The first time I went to Duxford I remember clearly snooping around the inside of a (De Havilland) Comet (the world's first production commercial jet liner) and a French Concorde (what a beautiful plane - I don't half miss Concorde).

I've been lucky enough to have seen (and been interested in) some unforgettable sights from the planes I've flown on - and indeed the small prop plane I was lucky enough to parachute out of over Silverstone a few years ago.

Singapore (and her harbour) from the air at night is spectacular and the Maldivian atolls (from the air during the day) would blow anyone's mind. The sight I most remember from a plane however occurred on my flight to Singapore. I don't tend to sleep on planes - they're FAR too exciting (I'm glued to the "Indiana jones style map" on the screen on the seat ahead of me or peering out of the (often too frosty!) window). 

Whilst flying to Changi airport (Singapore), as we crossed northern India, I peered out of the window and saw the snowy line of Himalayas to the north in the gloom (incredible) and watched, fascinated, as the monsoon thunderheads flashed purple and blue below us in the Indian dusk sky. The in-flight map suggested our pilot was attempting to avoid the bigger storms by detouring around them (to avoid excessive turbulence I guess) and I spent a good hour or so transfixed and amazed by what I was seeing and feeling (the turbulence was probably quite bad - I have little experience to compare).

I used to get very excited when seeing Concorde in the sky and these days, living (and working up until a few months ago) so close to Farnborough meant my heart would start racing if I heard the incredibly distinctive Merlin engine of the Supermarine spitfire in the sky. Watch this clip entitled "goosebumps" and see if you get those "goosebumps" like me! I've never been to any airshow (perhaps I should?!) but on my trips to the Highlands, I used to love seeing the Swedish SAAB jets scream noisily along Glen Lyon (I don't suppose the buzzard liked it - but I did!) and I am still occasionally curious as to where the plane that I'm looking at (leaving contrails high in the sky - my own photo) has been or where it is going.

Anna and I have lived pretty-close to Heathrow all the time we've been together and at present we live about 20 miles west of Heathrow (and teensy bit south). A few years ago I took this photo of a plane flying in front of the moon. It was well-received on line (most photos like that are photoshopped it seems but mine was not edited at all - that's what I saw) and I speculated that I'd like to know where that plane was going (it had just taken off from Heathrow about 30 miles to the east of our house at the time) - find out who was on the plane and sell them the photo - informing them that THIS was THE PLANE they flew on.  I rather think that in this day and age, to make any (serious) money from photographs - you need to appeal to the very human ego, rather than just take photos of birds or insects - that's not personal enough (generally) for most people to consider buying. So if you take photos of animals and birds - take photos of people's pets instead. If you take photos of ducks - take photos of the scullers on the misty dawn river instead (and then sell them the photos - I think they'll buy - although I've not had time to try that yet).

A friend called Darren (cheers pal) suggested I should (in future) check out the desktop flight radar website to find a plane I'd (just seen).

I haven't had much time to really check out that website in the last few years - up until last night, which (finally!) brings me to the point of this blog post.

 

Since moving to our house a little over a year ago, I've noticed that each weekday evening (or night I suppose) there is one plane that clearly has just taken off from Heathrow and flies very low over our house at 22:00hrs (give or take). Same plane sound, same time, same route. All the other planes follow different routes - but not this one. I've always wanted to know where this thing is going.

So... last night I made it my business to click on the flight radar website and find out.

Of course, the wind has changed over Blighty in the last day. The prevailing westerly (or sou-westerly) has flipped and we now have a gentle easterly (and with it the possibility of snow or at least sleet and much colder temperatures to that we have experienced of late).

Rather like birds, planes "prefer" to take off and land INTO the wind, so instead of this 10pm plane taking off on a route originally pointing west from Heathrow and flying over our house 20 miles away, it is taking off pointing east, to the North Sea at present (and not flying over our house).

But, because the flight radar website is so good and I know pretty-well exactly when this plane takes off from Heathrow each weekday night - I clicked a few buttons and am pretty sure that the 10pm flight over our gaff (when the prevailing wind is right) is a Qantas flight to Australia.

I may be wrong (I'll wait for the wind to change again before knowing for sure) but that's what it looks like to me.

Incidentally - whilst attempting to find out what the "10pm plane" was I had a great deal of fun watching flights from Geneva, Madrid, Mumbai, New York and Oslo all line up north of us and west of Heathrow to land. I cannot recommend the flight radar website enough - it's incredibly accurate and (although a waste of time I guess) really fascinating. Click here to visit the website and have a play around with it - you can even get a (virtual) cockpit view from the plane you're watching far below!

Now you may not find that at all fascinating - it's just another plane travelling somewhere after all - and living so close to Heathrow, I must see them all the time.

Well.... yes I do (see them all the time), but very occasionally I look at a plane and mentally strip away the metal fuselage in the air but leave the passengers and seats in place - and hey presto! It has turned into the best rollercoaster ride in the world - and (in this case) the longest - all the way to Australia!

Rather like my very childlike fascination with wildlife (if I see something I'd like to know what it is - & what's the point of it, what does it do, where does it go?) my (mild) interest in planes is pretty similar I think.

No... I'm no "plane spotter" but nor am I a "bird spotter". I'm just interested in what I see - I'm very thankful for my excellent (at present) eyesight and never forget to "use my eyes" as much as I can.

It's a very basic, child-like thing (all kids are interested in looking at moving things and finding out about them - especially animals).

It's something I haven't seemingly grown out of - and nor do I intend to in a hurry...a big kid is how I guess I'll remain!

Planes, animals, birds.... I'm just interested.

 

Footnote.

You know, when someone asks me "When did I become interested in birds or wildlife?" I generally respond along the lines of:

"Like you (I guess), I was pretty-well born with this curiosity (or fascination or interest). But unlike you, I've never actually lost it.

Tell me....when did you lose yours"

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) planes https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/1/when-did-you-lose-yours Sat, 12 Jan 2013 07:20:34 GMT
"Operation noctua (twoooo)" starts today. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/1/-operation-noctua-twooo-starts-today The first "Operation noctua" (where I followed a pair of local little owls breed successfully and raise two young) last year, ended on 15th October 2012 - and that was pretty-well when the owls (all four of them) disappeared.

They've therefore been "gawn" for eleven weeks (give or take), on autumn and early winter jaunts around the countryside.

That is.

Until today.

I hoped the owls would be back at their breeding site this year.  But I've got to admit I didn't expect BOTH adults (I assume) back so early in January.

Traditionally little owls lay claim to their territory pretty early - often it's the adult male that returns to guard a treasured breeding spot and he woos (or twoooos) his fancy bird in after a week or three. If the female appreciates the male's efforts, she'll then take over most of the guarding of the nest site - months before nesting seriously begins. (Last year regular readers of this blog might remember our local female little owl seeing off kestrels, crows and stock doves before she took up squatters rights to her owl box and laid two eggs).

Well... tonight, after a beautiful new years day and on a wee drive round the local "patch" just after the sun set (on a barn owl hunt as it happens), I thought I'd check on the little owl situation.

Lo and behold - one little owl at the entrance to the box and another adult perched on its breeding barn roof.

THEY'RE BACK!

So I am starting "Operation noctua (twoooo)" a little earlier than anticipated - on the first day of 2013 as it happens.

My health is still not 100% (I was in bed half of the day today after a terrible night's sleep last night) but MILES better than last year when I hardly had the energy to go and see the owls, let alone photograph them or video them.

So despite having a bonny new baby (and a wife!) to look after, I am hoping that I will be able to find much more energy (if not the time!) to follow our superb little owls this year....

HD video clips and photos to come later in the year of course (I hope) - give me a chance to ascertain exactly what's going on in their (the owls)world right now won't you (I don't want to spook them, even this early in the year).

Watch this space, grapple-fans.

TBR

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Athene noctua Operation noctua twoooo little owl owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/1/-operation-noctua-twooo-starts-today Tue, 01 Jan 2013 17:08:11 GMT
Flashes of yellow in a blue sky https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/1/Flashes-of-yellow-in-a-blue-sky A little drive this morning on a beautifully clear New Year's Day (what a pleasure it is to see the sun rise again) and an explosion of waxwings over Berkshire.

A couple of hundred back in north Reading and still a good six-dozen or so at a spot just a couple of miles from our house.

Thanks to Mick (who originally found the birds here some weeks ago and who I met today - admiring these birds like me).

Just a few photos below of the hundreds I took this morning of these very approachable winter visitors.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) waxwing https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/1/Flashes-of-yellow-in-a-blue-sky Tue, 01 Jan 2013 10:52:03 GMT
...we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/1/-we-ll-tak-a-cup-o-kindness-yet Well grapple-fans.

We made it.

A new year and a half-promise of far more settled weather from the forecasters as the jetstream has pushed north for a while.

A friend on twitter (if they're reading this they'll know who they are) has given me a nice wildlife idea for this year.

Obviously I have swifts to get nesting and pond to get digging (amongst other things) but I'm going to try and record 365 different species (of animal) in the garden (or house) over the next twelve months (native or non-native for me though, unlike my friend's original idea of purely native creatures).

I won't document them all here (well.... I may at the end of the year) as I don't have that much time on my hands any more, what with the new addition to the family n all.

 

I will briefly mention the first species of the year I'll record though. As it came as a bit of a shock.

Quite a large shock in fact.

 

If there's anyone out there reading this who regularly visits this wildlife blog, they may remember that I discovered a couple of large, black, green-fanged Mediterranean tube-web spiders (Segestria florentina) living outside our back door this summer.

These large spiders do seem to have a rather nasty, aggressive reputation. The species even made headline news this year. They will bite if provoked hard, the bite may well smart a bit AND they move very quickly and CAN and DO jump. I think you'd have to provoke them very hard to get them to bite you but its probably fair to say that they are one species of spider that you probably wouldn't want in the house. On the wall outside the house, sure. But not inside the house.

I thought they were still there on the exterior wall of the house, to be honest.

No.

One little (or not so little as it happens) lady of the night had QUICKLY MOVED.

Moved INSIDE the house.

Crawled through a BEDROOM WINDOW (which, like many windows in our house, is often open).

And waited there, on the wall, in the dark, behind the PC, six eyes gleaming in the glow of the flickering modem.

 

 

I arose at silly-o-clock again and went to turn the computer on - turned the light on and saw her there suddenly - I knew immediately what she was (and where she'd come from).

Now... I may be fond of watching wildlife. My wife has berated me more than once for hatching moths in the spare room (or conservatory at this place). I've even created a swift nesting palace in our attic by diamond-drilling through the wall and I'm particularly fond of the (very cute) jumping spiders often found on ceilings in our houses over the years.

BUT.

I draw the line at LARGE spiders. Be those spiders "House spiders" or gurt big, black, green-fanged Mediterranean tube-web spiders. Especially those LARGE spiders that can ...... JUMP!

She had to go.

 

You know, if you shout (loudly) something short and sweet at a giant house spider (Tegenaria sp) it often stops stock still. Try it if you see one racing across your kitchen floor - shout "STOP!" at it - invariably it will. (I'll not bore you with the physiological reasons behind this (sensory hairs, vibrations, self-defence etc...)). These arachnids don't tend to speak English of course, so you could shout "BOO!" at it if you like, or "HEY!" - as long as you shout loudly and abruptly enough - they should stop their racing - enabling you to grab a pint glass and a piece of card with which to put them outside.

That's the KIND technique I use for large spiders.... a cup or pint glass placed over their legs (if they can fit - one nearly didn't once), and a piece of card slipped under them - and then you can carry them outside  (rather than stamping on them inside).

Its my "cup of kindness" approach. (You may remember that each "Auld Lang Syne" you sing from now on).

 

I took my "cup of kindness" to this large female Segestria florentina on the bedroom wall this morning (an empty, dry pint glass this time) - and knowing how quickly members of this species can move (REALLY quickly) I quickly placed the pint glass over her, 'gainst the wall.

And then she JUMPED.

She leaped (in the blink of an eye) from the wall and hit the back of the (horizontal) pint glass, without touching the sides. She leaped with such energy that she made quite a loud noise as she hit the back of the pint glass! I've never seen such a large spider (in the UK)jump at all - let alone that far.

I'll be honest... when she jumped, I did too!

By jumping to the back of the pint glass though, she had done me a favour and the surplus Christmas card was slipped across the pint glass opening and I took her outside to our back (south-facing) garden wall.

 

Well....

I've never heard of a Segestria florentina INSIDE someone's room. Outside on a south-facing wall, sure... but not INSIDE the smooth-walled bedroom?!

And I've never seen a large spider JUMP before (our larger British spiders just tend to run)

But with my "cup of kindness", this beautiful (if pretty scary-looking) spider becomes species #1 on my 365 species in a year list.

 

Happy new year all.

Sleep well tonight....

 

TBR

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Segestria florentina https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2013/1/-we-ll-tak-a-cup-o-kindness-yet Tue, 01 Jan 2013 06:38:28 GMT
Seventy-one. How apt . https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/12/seventy-one-how-apt Those of you that know me (or my wife and son) might appreciate the title of this (very short) post this morning.

Those that don't will not "get" the title at all...

 

I drove all of one and a half miles (maybe two I guess) around the extreme northern edge (where we live) of Bracknell at dawn this morning to see if I could see the local (and growing) waxwing visitors which seem to like our favourite local boozer.

These Scandinavian visitors have been chowing down on roadside-rose hips all week in the rain.

Well... found them I did (after a few circuits) and counted them too, I did.

Easily the most waxwings I've ever seen at one time - and a very apt number also..

Seventy-one.  I have TWO reasons why that number is particularly apt for me and my wife and son share one of those with me.

(Count them if you like.... but to save you the bother, I counted them in photoshop... Seventy-one there are).

Maybe when we go shopping later (weekly trudge round the supermarket made bearable only by the peregrines perched overhead on the disused office block), the three of us together can see these waxwings. Then, if my son decides he likes wildlife (and birds) as he grows up, I can tell him that he's already seen waxwings in his home town.... when he was but a month old.

Lucky fella.... it only took me 40 odd years!

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) waxwing https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/12/seventy-one-how-apt Sun, 30 Dec 2012 10:11:51 GMT
December silver linings https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/12/december-silver-linings As described (a little) here, this December (and this whole year in fact) has been a particularly wet – so wet in fact that if we get the anticipated rain before January 1st 2013, we will have just been through the wettest calendar year on record.

Even if we don’t get the predicted rainfall in the last few days of the year, 2012 will go down in history as one of the top five wettest years recorded in the UK.

 

I tend to find this time of year (in any year) pretty miserable for more than a couple of reasons which I won’t detail here.

I certainly am a “boy of summer” – I massively look forward to the spring and summer each year - and when my beloved swifts leave us during August, my mercurial nature (it often seems to be either 100% with me or 1%) nose-dives as I ummmm “look forward” to another dark 6 months.

December is a dark month – often cold, wet and bare. One leaves for work in the dark and returns home in the dark and me… well I hardly even have the time (or light) to check on my girls (the hens) during the “working week”.

 

This year in particular though, we had no summer (nor spring really).

This winter has therefore hit me quite hard.

 

March was beautiful (and quite warm) and August wasn’t terrible, but that was that as far as warm(ish), sunny(ish) long(ish) days were concerned – we’ve seemingly been stuck in the worst October or November day all year.

 

Unlike bears and hedgehogs though, I can’t hibernate through these dark months so it’s important (for me and possibly many others I feel) to try and think of at least one silver lining if all that seems obvious is a gurt big black cloud though (a metaphorical black cloud or an actual black cloud).

 

So as December’s late full (or “cold” or “wolf”) moon appears today…. what are my personal winter (wildlife) silver linings to get me through this December?

 

  1. It’s not cold. We’ve barely had a series of hard frosts as I type. (Bound to change I know, but 14c in late December is pretty darned balmy (if not barmy)).
  2. We’ve had no lying snow, nor frozen pipes and cars. (Ditto).
  3. All the water butts are nice and full.
  4. We’ve had a lovely arrival of lots of birds - large numbers of fieldfares, redwings, jays, goldeneye, bitterns and, best of all again, (so soon after 2010) waxwings.
  5. The barn owl that takes its repose in a hollow Oak a few miles from our house has returned – always nice to see.
  6. The little owls had a successful breeding season on the nearby farm and will soon be back to reclaim their rights to the owl box (a matter of weeks if not days now).
  7. The Mediterranean spiders that hide in their tube-webs inside our side passage (outside our back or “side” door) have stubbornly refused to hide for any period of time (unlike most cold winters when they’d disappear for weeks if not months). Even though my wife might not agree - a glimpse of their iridescent green fangs is a reminder of sunnier, warmer days for me.
  8. The bird bath hasn’t needed topping up at all (just cleaning).
  9. Our squirrels have (mysteriously?!) left – leaving the bird feeders to their intended recipients (I’ve not seen a squirrel in weeks now).
  10. This year’s winter skies are pretty spectacular. Skudding purple clouds with the odd low shaft of brilliant sunshine spotlighting a kite or an egret ‘gainst a brooding background, double (if not triple) rainbows, and regular “moon-bows”  make for more interesting viewing and photographs than gin clear blue skies devoid of skeins of geese or rattling winter thrushes and tinkling waxwings…
  11. Any local bird species at the northern edge of their usual range (think barn owls and Dartford warblers) may well have a more “survivable” winter than recent years – I hope that balances out their dreadful breeding season earlier in the year.
  12. The daffodils in our back garden have already peeped their heads out of the ground. A constant reminder that spring will come sooner than I think.
  13. We have a hibernating hedgehog in the garden – I’ve never had that before.
  14. We have our first (lovely rigid) pond to dig into the garden this winter so that we can look forward to a wildlife bonanza in the years ahead.
  15. The clearing of the temple, sorry, garden, happened this year despite my ill health and my wife’s pregnancy, so we are free to get planting and landscaping in earnest during the first few months of 2013, if all goes “swimmingly”.
  16. The girls (hens) have had a super, large, roofed run kindly built around their old coop by our old (Reading) neighbour – so there’s little chance of them getting wet, frozen, snaffled by the local fox or diseased this winter.
  17. My health does seem to be improving (I say that very tentatively) so I am actually considering wildlife at present (for the first time in 9 months) and projects for the season and new year. I am genuinely ecstatic (and very thankful and relieved) that I am NOT waking up wondering when the crippling nausea and constant aches would strike as they have done for the vast majority of the year. I hope it lasts…
  18. My gorgeous and thoughtful wife has very kindly bought me a super cedar swift box made by my friends at “Handykam” (DO take a look at their products – they’re the best in their field) and I am champing at the bit to get it (the swift box) installed under our eaves this winter – in the hope that my favourite birds of all take up residence in their des-res in May. Not long now before the devil birds are back!
  19. My in-laws (two generations) have very kindly bought me a veritable plethora of wildlife gardening books, a replacement macro lens (for my moffs) and a blue tit box (Anna’s favourite bird) which I can’t wait to use.
  20. Finally…. Last but CERTAINLY not least…. We have (as you know I’m sure) a new son born this winter. I can’t wait to introduce him to the garden and local wildlife, in the genuine hope that he will love being outside as much as I do (or he won’t see me much as he grows up!) … and if that is the case, then with his eyes (as well as mine and my wife’s eagle eyes) we’ll ALL get to enjoy even more of the great outdoors in years to come.

 

 

 

So.

Just the twenty December silver linings then …

You know what?

This “miserable December of 2012” really isn’t that miserable at all is it?

 

Quite the opposite in fact.

 

 

 

TBR

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) December full moon rain https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/12/december-silver-linings Fri, 28 Dec 2012 06:11:14 GMT
...Long to rain over us... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/12/-long-to-rain-over-us So.

Here we are.

Christmas Day.

And yet more of the wet stuff will fall on us today I hear (although Boxing day looks far worse at present).

I "grew out" of Christmas pretty quickly but I am very much looking forward to making this time of year as magical and special for my newborn son as I can remember it used to be for me before I turned 8 or 9.

Christmas for me (in the very early years) meant saving my pocket money for a month or so and buying the whole (large) family a half pound of humbugs from the local sweet shop. (I didn't know what "Bah humbug!" was in those days and thought that was quite a nice present to give my sisters and parents).

Christmas also meant snow was on its way in my childhood. It rarely snowed before Christmas but often did in January or February which was always a LOT of fun. I'd always be up first (I still am.... why do you think I am writing this at 6 in the morning?) to check for fox footprints in the garden...

Now of course, snow is just a pain in the backside to me, but once again, I do remember how incredible it all looked to me as a child - and fully intend to give my son that same feeling should it snow in the next few years.

 

Of course, this year there's no snow yet or any real chance of frosts - all we've had is seemingly incessant rain and temperatures in the teens.

The water butts are all overflowing, the garden path is submerged in parts, the lawn is a squelchy clay bog will pools of standing water liberally dotted over its surface, the fence has been a shade darker for weeks it seems and the sun hasn't made more than a feeble appearance just before it disappears below the horizon for what feels like an eternity.

"The drought"

Compared to other parts of the country though, we've got it easy. I drove through atrocious M4 spray in the dark t'other day to pick my sister and American family up from Heathrow and it was not a pleasant experience. I then dropped them off in the western Cotswolds (very close to Tewkesbury) and deadly standing water puddles were all over the country lanes. In fact at the start of our journey, Reading services had been closed because of rising flood waters.

The south west has been hardest hit again with severe flood warnings and evacuations taking place, though there have been hundreds of flood warnings all over the country and this doesn't look like ending soon.

So no.... it doesn't feel very Christmassy. Not to me.

But Christmas it is and I will shortly take a drive 'round the countryside near us to try and find a sprig of holly with berries on it (that the thrushes and waxwings haven't got to first) for the Christmas pud (my favourite part of the Christmas meal.... Sure.... turkey is fine and inoffensive.... but it isn't exactly going to set your tastebuds on fire is it?!)

 

The presents are ready to open under the tree. (We have millions of presents this year thanks to Ben's arrival at the beginning of the month now combining with my wife's birthday on Boxing Day as well as her father's birthday today).

The tree is bedecked with sparkly white lights, silver tinsel and a gibbon hangs from the top (closest thing we have to a fairy in the house... much better than a fairy I think).

The cats have got their turkey treats for lunch time and the hens have got their corn Christmas lunch coming too.

The bird (the turkey that is, not a hen) will go in the oven at 7am and we will eat as the Queen's pre-recorded festive message is played to her *cough* grateful subjects I expect.

I guess I'm patriotic at sporting occasions (although I was brought up to support Scotland at rugby and rugby football) but I've never been a monarchist.

Whilst I appreciate that the Queen (in particular) and some of her family do bring a vast amount of money into the economy through tourism and retail (Prince Edward mans the tills at "Pound Land" Reigate these days don't you know), the idea of bowing to anyone (other than your judo opponent), let alone someone born into their "lofty position", seems absolutely bizarre to me; bizarre and archaic.

Its traditional (the monarchy) of course and I guess I should appreciate that, having had a few conservative tendencies before this current government drained me of most of them; but bear-baiting and witch-hunting is traditional also and I, personally, could well do without the royal family.

I certainly have no need to hear about the Queen's horrible anus (or whatever she wants to burble at us this year).

 

I'll nip outside in the rain during "the speech" to ensure the all the birds are fed in the garden (especially the jay) and give the girls (hens) their Christmas meal and tell them they're safe from the kitchen table so there's no need to worry.

They (the hens) won't understand of course, but it's the thought that counts after all.

 

SOoooo...

Have a merry Christmas with whoever you're spending Christmas with and stay as safe and dry (ha!) as you can in these floods.

 

 

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Christmas rain https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/12/-long-to-rain-over-us Tue, 25 Dec 2012 06:48:10 GMT
More waxwings https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/12/more-waxwings Apologies for the quality of these photos. Despite being a sunny winter dawn, this flock of thirteen waxwings have found two rowan trees laden with berries, in the shadow of a large office building 4 miles from our gaff.

At this time of year, these rowans will never get direct sunlight (in permanent shadow thanks to the office block), so I had to crank the ISO up on the camera  (even then they're still dark images) - and of course I only have a 200mm lens.

Lovely to spend an hour in the company of these birds this morning anyway. Such a treat.

Yep.

I can (one day) certainly tell my son that he was born in the waxwing winter of 2012....

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) waxwing https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/12/more-waxwings Sun, 16 Dec 2012 10:56:11 GMT
Another waxwing winter https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/12/another-waxwing-winter First things first; apologies for not blogging recently - my beautiful wife gave birth to our first child a little over a week ago - a baby boy - and I've been somewhat busy since...

Right... onto wildlife.

Bohemian waxwings were beginning to be reported over a month ago in Scotland and the north. These avian winter visitors last came over to Blighty in numbers only two years ago (the cold winter of 2010) and I wrongly assumed it would be half a dozen years or so before they irrupted into Britain again, from their Scandinavian strongholds.

(Bohemian) Waxwings breed in northern forests and breed late - timing their reproduction to coincide with the small fruit season in Scandinavia. After breeding, they tend to stick around the northern climes, stripping fruit trees such as rowan if the fruit can still support a large population of these birds.

Every so often though (historically every half a dozen to a dozen years or so) the berry crop fails on the continent and the birds set off in relatively large numbers to our more temperate climes, where berries don't tend to fail.

As I've said, the last of these irruptions (spelled correctly - an eruption is an explosion OUT - an irruption is an explosion IN) occurred in 2010 but once again, the continental berry crop seems to have failed and in our Bohemian friends have come - in numbers.

Because they irrupt into Britain from the north and east (Sweden, Norway etc) they first tend to show up in the Shetland Islands, Fair Isle, and down the east coast of Scotland and northern England.

Please click here to watch a super video of a boy hand-feeding waxwings on Fair Isle.

When the birds have stripped the rowan, pyracantha, cotoneaster, holly and hawthorn there - they move further south and west - this is happening now.

We have a problem (however) Houston.

Like the jays, which irrupted into the UK from the continent in October (as the acorn crop failed on the continent also), which have failed to find a plethora of acorns here, due to the lousy spring we experienced in 2012 our acorns and indeed our berries are in relatively short supply - at least compared to 2010 when rowan and cotoneaster were heavily laden. These northern visitors are going to struggle to find enough berries in Blighty this winter it seems.

Surrre..... there are berries around (ornamental pyracantha produce copious amounts of berries each year it seems and some rowans have bloomed well... but many of our berry bushes flowered during a wet April and didn't set fuit this year, or not as much as normal anyhoo).

The more northern plants and bushes - many in Scotland and Yorkshire for example, which flowered during a "heatwave" in May fared better and this is where many of the waxwings will have most joy I guess.

That said, these Bohemian vagabonds are right now all over the country - stripping trees and bushes with great aplomb. They were mentioned as an "and finally" story on BBC Newsnight t'other night and they are all over the papers at present, with the more sensationalist rags predicting a "glacial winter" as the waxwings are here....

The Bohemians

Waxwings are suburban visitors more often than not here in the UK as our rowans, cotoneaster and pyracantha are more often than not ornamental shrubs which (for example) line supermarket car parks and suburban gardens and avenues.

They can be relatively tolerant of humans gawping at them as they feed - tending to find a safe, high vantage point in small flocks, trill to each other (they have a lovely call) before flying down to their chosen rowan tree for a feeding frenzy and then seeking refuge on their high post again - repeat until all the berries have been eaten and they move on.

Waxwings have a reputation for being beautiful. Something I don't really see. They do have a lovely tinkling trilling call but I rather think they're attractive rather than stunning birds. Approximately starling sized, they are pinky brown in colour, with an obvious crest, a little mascara and a black throat. The secondary feathers on their wings have waxy tips (hence their common English name) but its their tail that is very special - fringed with silky yellow ends to their tail feathers.

Their scientific name Bombycilla garrulus literally means the "chattering silk tail" (garrulus - the same as jays as it happens, only the waxwings have garrulus as a specific name, whereas jays are generically chattering.... and Bombukos - Greek(ish) for "silk" and Cilla modern Latin for "tail")

Compare them to our great tits (for example) or great spotted woodpeckers, or kingfishers, or magpies, bullfinches, goldfinches or yellowhammers (as more examples) and they (to me at least) can appear quite dowdy. Our starling is far more beautifully-marked at this time of year than the visiting Bohemians I think - at least in bright sunshine where its spotted, iridescent plumage shines in the winter sun.

But its always a great pleasure, a thrill even, to marvel at the Bohemian waxwings - and that's just what I did briefly yesterday on the way back from a baby errand in Reading.

I had heard they (waxwings) were in the area (not 5 minutes drive from our gaff on the edge of Bracknell) and I packed a camera into my shopping bag - just in case they were still there.

I was in luck - in the gorgeous, cold, crisp, cloudless, winter sky, were eight winter vagabonds - all perched on the roof of a house in a new build housing estate - eyeing up rowans in the drive below.

Now I don't particularly like pointing lenses at peoples' houses (roofs, chimneys or windows) and I wouldn't appreciate that sort of behaviour myself (if I was ever lucky enough to have waxwings perch on my roof and a large, monstrous-looking, unkempt, bestubbled bloke started taking photos of our place, even if he did only have a relatively short 200mm lens!), but I had to get a shot of these lovely wee birds...

Sometimes I wish I had a longer lens for my camera, but on beautiful winter days like yesterday, marvelling again (so soon after 2010) at our vagabond waxwings - I didn't care at all.

You know..... there are some good things about winter after all and if our baby boy continues with his (rude) health and grows up to be at all interested in wildlife.... I'll tell him that he was born in the waxwing winter of 2012...

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) waxwing https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/12/another-waxwing-winter Wed, 12 Dec 2012 07:55:17 GMT
The goose is trying hard to get fat https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/11/the-goose-is-trying-hard-to-get-fat Christmas but a month away and….hark! are those “herald angels” singing in the far distance?

To be honest, it’s a little difficult to tell at present, what with the roar of the gale force 9 winds and incessant heavy rain battering the window panes and pavements.

The wild and woolly weather has certainly taken all but the most stubborn of leaves from the trees (its often the leaves right at the very tops of the trees that cling on I’ve noted) and brought in a few winter visitors to our supposedly mild and welcoming land.

 

I’ve (for a while) resisted blogging about waxwings’ (and the winter thrushes’) arrival with us recently – as I’ve been waiting to see my first waxwing of the year (there are hundreds and hundreds being reported from all over the country).

Well… I’ve not seen my first waxwing yet and I think Surrey and Berkshire are the only counties left in the entire British mainland to have not had confirmed static sightings of these Bohemian beauties (waxwings) this season, although they still are mainly to be found in the north and east of England and Scotland.

2010/11 was our last “waxwing year” when the berry crop failed in Scandinavia and thousands of birds crossed the North Sea to feast on our Rowan, Pyracantha and Cotoneaster. Normally we might not expect another year like that for up to a decade, but it seems that the berry crop has once again failed in the continent and along with jays (acorn crop failure) and bramblings (beech mast crop failure), we can expect a bumper show of hungry birds over this winter.

Of course (as I mentioned in another blog post I think), I don’t see that many rowan berries or cotoneaster berries or beech masts or acorns round our neck of the woods either (forget the crop failure on the continent) so I’m not sure just what our visiting feathered friends will actually be eating this Christmas.

 

I have seen my first fieldfare though – flying hard across the wet road, slate grey sky and horizontal rain last weekend, as Anna and I drove around the local farm looking for the little owl family. The little owls are hiding very well it seems – maybe they’ve finally spread their stubby little wings and flown to pastures (quite lidddderally “pastures”) new. I’m sure the adults will be back in a month or two to reclaim their territory from interested kestrels, crows and stock doves.

I’ve also heard my first fieldfares over the garden. We’ve had our cat-proof rigid pond liner delivered in the last week and I was just getting it into the right spot (ready to be dug in soon) under spitting stormy skies (again) when I heard the familiar clack-clack-clack of our bold winter thrushes, arriving from the north.

Their daintier red-winged cousins are still (of course) arriving in good numbers. Yesterday morning, as I de-steamed the car at 6am, under in a misty sodium streetlight glow, the air seemed to be full of “tseeping” redwing, mocking the blustery conditions. (The “tseeping” call heard from redwings at night on migratory journeys is a contact call after all, so when the conditions are blustery, they “tseep” more often to keep track of each other in the noisy dark).

 

I took an opportunity in an hour (or so) of dry, bright weather last weekend to check on the local barn owl’s roost (a hollow tree trunk which a single barn owl roosted in for a few weeks in the spring).

I wasn’t expecting to find an owl (or any signs of one to be fair), but a barn owl has certainly roosted in this hollow trunk since I last checked (after the barn owl left us in the summer).

Two fresh pellets were obvious (I couldn’t see right inside the hole though), and I suspect the barn owl is an occasional visitor at least – I will have to check more often…

 

Talking of white birds – an image burned into my mind this week sums up my recent thoughts on nature and the current seasonal weather.

It’s this time of year I think the sky is often at its most impressive. Unlike the rather dull pink or orange dawns and dusks of summer, in winter we can have bright yellow and purple sunsets (or dawns) with black clouds, blue skies and orange haze all in the same part of the sky. Add to that the large flocks of geese (or gulls or starlings or pigeons or finches or thrushes!) in such a multicoloured changing sky and there’s always something to gawp at up above it seems. Often I think (when the weather’s changeable at this time of year) that I seem to be stuck in a Peter Scott Painting.

 

During a lunch break from work t’other day, I drove through standing water and dual-carriageway tyre-spray to a local supermarket to pick up a round of sandwiches for lunch.

As I sat at a set of red traffic lights at the entrance to the supermarket, I noticed a white shape behind the blurry red droplets of water on the windscreen.

I wound down my window and watched as a beautiful snow-white little egret flapped across the dark grey urban sky, not making much progress against the wind as its long dark legs and dirty yellow feet stretched out behind it.

The droplets on my windscreen turned green and I drove away, but the snow white egret in the dark grey sky stayed with me. I can picture it vividly still now.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl fieldfare little egret little owl rain redwing wind https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/11/the-goose-is-trying-hard-to-get-fat Fri, 23 Nov 2012 18:49:03 GMT
The beeches explode https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/11/the-beeches-explode This morning was a morning to remember if there ever was one.

Apt in a way it was also "Remembrance Sunday" - where we can spend a couple of minutes (at least) silently giving thanks to our fallen soliders.

I'll also take 30 seconds on Remembrance Sunday to remember my sadly-dead tom cat - (the) Malu (monstah), who was only 2 years old, poor lad, when he choked on a kibble and died in my arms in 30 seconds flat exactly a year ago. A very bad day for Anna and me.

 

 

I drove back to Burnham Beeches at dawn. A cool, frosty, crisp dawn, with low mist clinging to the chilled fields and the sun rising into a clear sky after 7am.

It was one of those mornings I get every so often, when no matter how bad you might be feeling physically (and I've felt much MUCH better), it feels like you're in some kind of Disney cartoon on a morning like this - and you are forced to feel better in a strange, inexplicable way....

I took the back roads to the most famous beech woods in England - and drove slowly under a red kite, sitting proudly on a bare (long) dead elm tree - forked tail pointing down to the roof of my car as I drove under it.

I scattered anting green woodpeckers as I approached the woods and the omnipresent jays clattered into the yellow-green oaks round every blind bend it seemed.

As the golden foliage enveloped the steel blue metal of my little car, three treecreepers flew across my windscreen and immediately started climbing the beeches in front of me. (I've not seen more than one at a time until this morning).

I parked the car in a rutted peaty puddle (the rangers are not keen to open the carparks until after 8am which means I'm not keen either - to wait and then pay them for my time and to park) and wandered around the enchanted forest - marvelling at the colours on show  -  2012 will certainly go down as my most memorable autumn foliage display for as long as I can remember.

I must have had the entire woodland (over 500 acres) to myself this morning as the sun came up - and when I had become virtually drunk on the spectacle, I left - driving under a fluffed-up female kestrel at the spot that I'd driven under the red kite an hour or so earlier.

 

This autumn is not only going to be famous for the autumn colours though.

Waxwings are flooding into the country this year (it looks like it could be better than 2010 in terms of waxwings in the UK)**.

Jays, siskin and brambling are alll doing the same - as are redwing and now fieldfare.

If you haven't already stocked up your birdfood for winter, please do so - as these birds are on the move en masse for one reason only - their foodstuffs (be that berries, acorns or masts) have failed in the continent - so they've come to good ol' Blighty to feed.

I contacted the BTO t'other day as I am a little concerned that the birds' food has failed here n all - hardly any acorns or berries as far as I can see - or masts for that matter.

Well... the BTO haven't contacted me back yet, so all I can suggest is do what Anna and I did yesterday - if you can afford some bird food - some varied bird food - go get some now!

Autumn is GO!

 

 

 

 

**Berkshire (where we are) still has yet to se its first waxwings of the year (many other counties have had good numbers already) but I'll keep ma eyes peeled and hope to see some soon...

 

NB. The photo accompanying this post was not taken at the magnificent Burnham beeches but opposite our house about 15 miles away from the woods...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Burnham beeches autumn foliage beech green woodpecker jay kestrel red kite treecreeper https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/11/the-beeches-explode Sun, 11 Nov 2012 13:48:13 GMT
Fish or fishes? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/11/fish-or-fishes Having been back to the local supermarket (under the roosting peregrines) to pick up yet more fish (it is one food at present I can't do without it seems), a series of fishy thoughts entered my dancing cranium.

Are we looking at fishes or fish on a fish(es) counter?

 

If one haddock is a fish – what then, are two?

Are they haddocks?

Because you have more than one, do you now have two fishes (or two fish)?

 

During my A level biology lessons and then zoology lectures at university, I was always told that the plural of one type (species) of fish (like a haddock) for example is the same as the singular (fish), whereas the plural of more than one type (species) of fish is actually fishes.

Of course I didn’t believe my learned superiors at the time (no change there then…. I can hear my parents sighing) and remember clearly heading to the zoology library at university to hunt down books which would prove them wrong – the plural of fish isn’t fishes is it – it’s fish!

 

No real surprise then when in every piece of zoological literature I could find, my lecturers were indeed proven to be very correct indeed (at least from a zoological terminology perspective).

 

 

I have one fish. I have one haddock.

I have two fish. I have two haddock.*

 

I have one fish. I have one haddock.

I have two fishes. I have one haddock and one herring.

 

What about a “fish counter” then?

Unless your fishmonger just sells haddock (or herring perhaps), there will almost certainly be more than one species of fish in his icy display – so should we then call this a “fishes counter”?

 

No. Not really. Not unless you are bordering on the clinically insane in terms of pure, unadulterated (and incorrect as it happens) pedantry.

 

Common parlance would have this as a “fish counter” as we are treating the word “fish” as we would “meat” for example, or “fruit”.

 

“I say old bean, you’ve bought rather a lot of ‘meat’ from the butcher this morning”

(rather than)

“I say old chap, you’ve bought rather a lot of ‘fruits’ from the greengrocer this morning”

 

 

NB. I’ve briefly mentioned greengrocer, but dinna fash yersels, I won’t even begin to write about the famous greengrocers’ apostrophes (or plurals) here. (carrot’s  50p/lb anyone?)

 

 

Actually.

While we’re on the subject of retailers –

 

TESCO.

ADSA.

MORRISONS.

WAITROSE.

ALDI.

CO-OP.

ICELAND.

LIDL.

J.SAINSBURY.

 

When we shop at Asda or Morrisons or Waitrose, or Aldi or  “The Co-op” or Iceland or Lidl … we go to Asda or Morrisons or Waitrose or Aldi or “The Co-op” or  Iceland or Lidl.

We don’t (you’ll correct me if I’m wrong) go to Asda’s or Morrisonses or Waitroses or Aldi’s or  “The Co-op’s” or Iceland’s or Lidl’s.

 

So why then, when we shop at Tesco or J.Sainsbury, do we push our sticky-wheeled trollies ‘round “Tesco’s” or “Sainsbury’s”?

 

Sainsbury’s I can just about understand – as the parent company is J.Sainsbury PLC with one of its subsidiaries being “Sainsbury’s supermarkets ltd” but I have no idea why we refer to “Tesco” as “Tesco’s”.

We don’t refer to “Esso” as “Esso’s” for example, or “Costco” as “Costco’s” (for any Americans reading this). Or do we? Do you?

Maybe it’s just me being borderline spectrum material but I will never go to Tesco’s – I’ll go to Tesco instead.

 

 

Right.

Where were we?

 

Ah yes…. fish. (Or fush for anyone north of the border).

 

You’ll have noted I’ve placed a large asterisk next to the word “haddock” above, when I refer to two haddock being two haddock  (rather then two haddocks for example).

 

It would seem that in the case of an awful lot of  fishes (or bony fishes anyway) the plural of a type of fish is the same as the singular –

For example –

Cod, haddock, trout, salmon, monkfish, mackerel all don’t tend to change when we refer to them as plurals.

I’ll have four trout and three mackerel (rather than I’ll have four trouts and three mackerels).

 

But there are quite a few fishes where plurals are more obvious – and these often (for some inexplicable reason, at least to me), come from fishes with cartilaginous skeletons – such as rays, skates, sharks.

 

“I’ll have two skates please, meester feeshmonger” (rather than “I’ll have two skate…” – whereupon the fishmonger may well hand you a pair of jackons and say “well I’m not stopping you”).

 

 

It’s a veritable fishy linguistic minefield out there grapple fans.

Stay cool.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fish peregrine thoughts https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/11/fish-or-fishes Thu, 01 Nov 2012 14:34:53 GMT
All Hallows' eve(ning) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/10/all-hallows-eve-ning I'm sure that Hallowe'en did begin its life as a pagan celtic festival Samhain (pronounced sawh-in) and I'm sure that even though us Brits (even us Brits with more than a little celtic blood coursing through our veins) consider it to be a north American festival these days, there's no doubts it began its life in Ireland and Scotland centuries ago.

Guising still happens on Hallowe'en in Scotland, Ireland and the USA (trick or treating in England) but I can't be doing with it personally.

I actually find the notion of it disgusting - my parents never banned us from guising (or trick or treating) but we never went - we found the idea of demanding sweets from our neighbours (or we'd flour and egg their car) beyond our respectful comprehension I'm happy to admit, so we never did go trick or treating.

But.

We did have our own type of fun on Hallowe'en.

I clearly remember hiding in the garden after dark on 31st October, when I was a boy, sometimes with a mask on, or sometimes a bed sheet - and scaring the living bejayzus out of any group of kids who were foolish enough to walk up our dark drive.

My sisters and I turned hosepipes on trick or treaters. The hose was pushed through our letterbox from the inside and if someone knocked on the door dressed as a monster, we'd soak them.

We made "treats" for the jolly japesters - in the form of nice jammy sandwiches (laced with tobasco and hot english mustard) and all in all we'd have a hoot on Halloween - ruining any trick or treaters nights.

I'd still do the same now to be honest if I could be bothered.

Like I say (and you can call me grumps or scrooge - I care not a jot) - we wouldn't have dreamed of demanding sweets from our neighbours or we'd play a "trick" on them. We were brought up too well and maybe in too middle class a fashion (if that exists).

 

But, consider it to be celtic in origin or north American (they do seem to particularly love celebrating Hallowe'en in the states - but then again, ask any white American whether they're American or not and most of them are only too keen to prove how Irish/Scottish they are - I guess its just an extension of that), love it or hate it, its here and here to stay.

My wife and I will get visited tonight by ugly, warty orcs dwarfs and goblins (thats without their costumes on) and we will duly not answer the door. I will move my car if it looks like it will be egged and I am seriously considering my old hosepipe trick tonight.

Yep  - I can't stand our modern day notion of Hallowe'en and I don't care what you say.

But.

I did drive to a supposedly satanic sight yesterday just before dawn to revel in the other-worldly mysteriousness of an enchanted forest when the year turns and winter starts to draw in.

On the 29th October at around 8pm here in Blighty we had our October full moon (the "Hunters moon") and very often at the end of October (until the middle of November really) the local beech trees all tend to glow for a couple of weeks before shedding their multicoloured leaves before December hits us.

We are lucky enough to live near one of the greatest of the UK's mixed deciduous woodlands - the HUGE (540 acres) Burnham Beeches in south Buckinghamshire.

This quite beautiful area (beeches, oaks, birches, conifers, small heaths and ponds) has always held a fascination for me - and many, MANY others it would seems.

It's famous for a number of reasons, many motion pictures and television programmes have been filmed within the woods themselves and its always had something of a dark reputation - something I am very comfortable with I think.

Since being exposed to the film "Watcher in the Woods" in the early 1980s, (thanks Dad) and since spending months in woodlands all night on my own (surveying badger setts) where any deer bark was a werewolf, any fox scream was someone being murdered and any twig snap was someone about to get you - I've almost forced myself to actually really enjoy being out and about in the dark (the pitch dark sometimes) on my own. I don't believe in ghosts (at all) I should hasten to add, even though I could possibly whiten your hair with two unexplained "ghost stories" that have actually happened to me...

I've always maintained that graveyards are fantastic places to be after dark if you love wildlife -because thanks to the plethora of graveyard horror movies given to us (mainly from America again) in the last 50 or so years - you're almost certain to have the graveyard to yourself after dark. Animals do very well in the grounds of churches - if I want to watch weasels or stoats or even glow worms - the best places I know are almost invariably graveyards.

Yep - I love dark places at night.

Dark, creepy places.

I guess I'm lucky that I'm 6'3", heavily built and hardly look like a victim, so I haven't courted much trouble after the sun has disappeared generally, wherever I am. (People tend to run away from me screaming!)

I am very much at home in woods. Large woods. Woods that you can get lost in. I find them magical places - full of life - non-human life. Its why I am dreadfully depressed by mountains  - no trees!

So I skipped off to Burnham Beeches just after the Hunters' moon yesterday before dawn, just before Hallowe'en to revel in my more-than-a-little-pagan tendencies.

She (the wood) looked magnificent yesterday at dawn, although I think we still have another ten days to go before the beech leaves are at their orange/yellow best.

Burnham Beeches is long associated with druids, paganism and even satanism. Its not hard to see why really. Scary, creaky, creepy dark woodlands. Huge gnarled twisted tree trunks. Impenetrable holly bushes and brambles. Foxes (and victims?) screaming under the dark canopy.

The (in)famous nutter David Icke has even suggested in his book "The biggest secret" that Edward Heath (former PM of the UK) took part in Satanic rituals in Burnham Beeches -where he and his freemason illuminati would change into ten foot reptiles. (click here and then CTRL and F - search for "Burnham" and you'll see what I mean).

Burnham Beeches is allegedly riddled with secret manholes and subterranean chambers, CCTV cameras and hidden tunnels - uh huh.

It certainly holds a Hallowe'en fancy dress party each year  - if you fancy going this year you'll have to get your clogs on - it starts in 15 minutes...

 

All nonsense aside, I can certainly appreciate why some people find woodland terrifying - during the day let alone the night. I'm just lucky I'm not one of them and thoroughly enjoyed prowling around one of my favourite woods yesterday morning.

All photos accompanying this blog post were taken at dawn yesterday morning in the infamous, pagan, spooky, satanic, beautiful Burnham Beeches.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Burnham beeches Hallowe'en Hunters moon https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/10/all-hallows-eve-ning Wed, 31 Oct 2012 16:53:50 GMT
Snow ends BST. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/10/snow-ends-bst It snowed here yesterday morning, for the first time in a little over 8 months (since the 10th February 2012 to be exact).

Not enough to settle of course, but pretty stonking flakes for a few minutes - proper snow, not sleet.

I took a little walk around what I refer to as my "Enchanted Forest"  (hundreds of acres of scots pine and birch a few miles from our gaff) to look for 'shrooms in the sunshine that followed the blustery wintery shower.

No particularly interesting fungi (a few sulphur tuft, the odd fly agaric but that was about it), but I was fortunate enough to bump into a late (very late) migrant hawker dragonfly over a hidden pond in a clearing in the wood.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing to be honest - there I was, wrapped up against a Siberian wind (albeit in the sunshine by then), in a rugby beanie - and down from the surrounding pines, buzzed a big male migrant hawker dragonfly. Even though I very much suspect he was on his last legs (I've never seen a large dragonfly after snow in a year), he did look rather resplendent in his blue and green garb.

I made a mental note of this enchanted pond (well off the beaten path - something that I very much appreciate) and will return to see what other wildlife this hidden corner of the wood brings.

 

On my way back to the LAM (Little Agricultural Machine (my car)), I happened across the head (and a few flight feathers) of a female Great spotted woodpecker.

There's pretty well only ONE thing that could do that to a woodpecker round 'ere - and that would be a big female sparrowhawk (her smaller male companion would be too small to take out a determined and armed woodpecker).

I suspect the hawk killed the woodpecker and a fox played with the carcass.

I've found plenty of dead birds in my countryside wanderings (including woodpeckers) but until yesterday I'd never found a woodpecker's head. Bit macabre really.... Not very "enchanting" at all - bit too "Blair Witchy" for me, especially with the weird wicker figures lashed to the occasional pine in this particular dark part of the forest.....

 

The clocks went back last night (I abhor this annual tradition) - so I waited half the morning it seemed, for the shops to open so I could line the supermarkets purse with my hard-earned moolah again and make sure I have food for the week...***

Both male and female peregrine were in situ on the decrepit office block a mile from the house - I have no idea where they'll bugger off to when they eventually pull that "carbuncle" down.

***My wife left to go and stay with her parents for a few days at 10am (in the midlands) so I took a long drive through my favourite not-so-local woods and forests to inject a little colour into the drab day.

I pulled up to a junction in the LAM (at Ufton Nervet if anyone knows it) and once again, a large male migrant hawker swooped down in front of my windscreen.

Its lovely to see these big impressive beasties - but I can't help wondering what sort of a mess of a summer (like us) they've had.

I really hope next year gives us "better" weather than this.... because I think its not just us humans that feel like they need a summer now  -  just as BST ends!

And I pondered this thought as rather than the motorway, I took countryside back roads back to the house (all 17 miles of them), scattering cock pheasants into the ditches and hedges as I went...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fly agaric migrant hawker peregrine pheasant sulphur tuft https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/10/snow-ends-bst Sun, 28 Oct 2012 17:09:36 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 34 - the end for now... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/10/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-34---the-end-for-now I thought with a week off work last week I could spend some time stalking and photographing our local little owls, but due to my health problems returning with avengeance last week, that alas was a no go.

I'm sure I'll be back to fighting fitness soon (I'd better be!) but for now, all I'll say is this will be the last post on "Operation noctua" for this year (this breeding season anyway).

I am very lucky indeed to have had the time (and permission) to follow these beautiful wee owls - they're still around, I may get a shot or two over the autumn and winter, but for now.... so long to "Operation noctua"....

 

I have a sneaky feeling that early next spring, I'll be back with a new "Operation noctua" and a year's experience of these birds under my belt.

(I was going to say that "they'll be back".... but as they haven't left the site yet, it's more of a case of "Operation noctua" will be back!)

 

How am I gonnae fill my time over the winter with no "operation noctua"?

I think "Operation glandarius" might keep me busy...

 

Thanks

TBR

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/10/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-34---the-end-for-now Mon, 15 Oct 2012 14:57:54 GMT
The jays of our lives (Allelujah for the alula) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/10/the-jays-of-our-lives-allelujah-for-the-alula All jay photos are my own.

 

 

I promised some time ago that I'd write a wee blog post on my second favourite birds of all... the jays - and now I'll do just that if I may.

 

Yes.

I admit.

Swifts are the best of all birds. Not the most beautiful or dashing (kingfishers probably would take those titles), nor the most obviously impressive (think peregrines, golden eagles etc...), nor are they the sweetest birds in Britain (oh I dunno... think robin or goldcrest or long-tailed tit).

But they are the most incredible birds we are lucky enough to have visit us in the UK each year. They're my number one (and they should be yours too... I'll have no debate thanks!)

 

But.

If swifts take the number one spot... what about number two (or three)?

Well... number three for me has always been the wagtail family - be they grey, yellow or pied / white. I'll blog about my fascination with them some other time.

Always at number two for me are jays - or more specifically - the Eurasian Jay... Garrulus glandarius.

Jay 2

 

A few jay facts to get you thinking...

 

  • The jay's scientific name of Garrulus glandarius literally means "chatterer of the acorns". (Particularly apt as they are birds of oak woodland through and through).
  • Jay 1
  • They belong to the crow family (Corvidae), and indeed were originally called placed into the Corvus genus by Linnaeus, but the corvus genus now contains only "true crows" such as ravens and rooks. The old world jays have two genera of their own - Garrulus and Podoces. ( NB. American "blue jays" are "new world jays" and share their generic name of Cyanocitta with Steller's jays only). 
  • Jays are thought to be one of the most intelligent of corvids - if not THE most intelligent.
  • Jays were systematically shot in the 19th century for hat feathers and to protect young birds of other species (jays don't just eat acorns!)
  • Jays are the most flashy of the corvids - with pink colouration, a showy crest, a black "mo" (ustache), a snow white rump and the most recogniseable UK feather of all - their bold blue/black/white alula and primary coverts.
  • Feathers
  • Their striking barred "alula" feathers were (you can imagine) the most HIGHLY prized of all feathers for hats in the 19th Century.
  • The alula feathers are also known as the "bastard wing" feathers.
  • Jays routinely bury up to 5000 acorns each autumn.
  • This means that our British jays combine to bury almost 2 BILLION acorns across this *cough* green and pleasant land, mainly in October.
  • Jays are generally pretty wary... (you might be too if you'd been shot for decades) and its often difficult to get decent *cough* jpegs of these beautiful crows.
  • Jay peg. (Thangyew thangyew I'm here all week)
  • Jays eat a wide variety of foods (young birds, fish (yes.... fish) and newts, small rodents, cockchafers roosting on oaks, tortrix larvae, peanuts, scraps, seeds, berries...) whaddever they can get their big black, notched beaks on).
  • Jays are still "game birds" and can still be shot (legally) to protect other birds' young, but they have increased their population markedly over the past decades.
  • Jays are reknowned for their very loud, raucous shriek (in fact their welsh name, 'Ysgrech y Coed' literally means "shrieker of the woods") but they have a huge repertoire of calls from soft warbles, to whistles and are exellent mimics. If they find a tawny owl roosting in the open, they'll mob it - and imitate its "twoo" (or "twit").
  • Jays are mostly sedentary birds (non migratory) but occasionally, when acorn crops fail across vast swathes of land, they'll booger off en masse to find a better crop elsewhere.  This is known as "eruptive migration" and last happened in northern Europe in 1983, when huge numbers of jays crossed the north sea after the continental acorn crop failed. (It failed here too... but the jays didn't know that at the time - they're not THAT clever!).
  • This year (2012) seems to be another year when "eruptive migration" of jays from the continent seems to be occurring.
  • I've been lucky enough to "train" a pair of jays when I moved out of London to suburban Berkshire some years ago (see photo above) - and now I shall endeavour to do the same again at our new gaff  - see below.

 

 

Jays routinely (more and more) can turn up in urban, suburban and rural gardens in the UK - on the lookout for any food on offer.

Jay 3

These visits tend to peak during the breeding season (May-July), tail off as the birds start their autumn acorn caching runs and then peak again in the winter - if you want to see jays in your garden.... buy a few bags of monkey nuts, shoo away the pesky squirls and pies and you'll soon have a jay or two I reckon...

 

With that in mind, I am launching "Operation glandarius" today (as "Operation noctua" is now closed for the dark months).

Basically.... I have some monkey nuts, some string, some nails, a few pots and old boots and fully intend to see just how clever our daily visiting jays really are.

I'll trailcam some of the antics (if the jays play ball) and maybe get a photo or two n all... but unlike "Operation noctua", I'll not post weekly reports - I'll only blog on "Operation glandarius" if the jays meet my expectations... from time to time...

Now come on jays.... I've given you the big build up......

Jay portrait

More to come soon I hope.

 

TBR.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) jay https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/10/the-jays-of-our-lives-allelujah-for-the-alula Mon, 15 Oct 2012 14:54:50 GMT
In the night garden https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/10/in-the-night-garden Black pig

I've always been a bit of a night owl. Not so much clubbing and partying all night (all that gubbins disappeared with my yoof and bakery shift work), but watching and listening for our nocturnal friends - be they bats, toads, owls, deer, mice, foxes, stoats, otters, woodcock, moths, nightjar, slugs, snails or badgers...

I used to take myself off to local woods an hour or so before dusk, not only to watch badgers, but also to have that incredible feeling wash over me, as the day slipped away... and the night creatures stirred in the wood.  The blackbirds would finish their hysterical cartwheels as the sun disappeared, the pheasants would noisily cough up to their roosts and silence would prevail.

Until.

I'd start to hear the rustle of a bank vole or shrew in leaf litter, the scream of a vixen, the hoot of an owl, the bark of a deer or the snuffling of a badger or hedgehog.

I use the word "magical" far too often I guess, but I was always hypnotised by dusk in a wood - the strange thing is when I went to the Glastonbury festival for a good number of times in the 1990s, I got the same feeling as the sun slipped behind the tor and the strange half light of dusk enveloped us. They say the best festival slot for a band is at dusk - I can well believe that - perhaps its something primeval in us all?

 

My trailcamera is set up in the garden each night at present - mainly to keep tabs on our one-eyed hedgehog.

The hog is certainly incredibly busy each night (building up its fat stores for a hibernation I guess). It tends to leave the hibernaculum anywhere between half-six in the evening and half-ten (last night about quarter past ten) and to's and fro's all night - returning to its den a good half dozen times before retiring for the day just before 5am at present).

Last night the trailcamera picked up a wee woodmouse too - nice to know there is at least one mouse that visits the garden (or lives in the garden) after the mousy carnage that I often find at the bottom of the stairs when I get up in the morning...

Hogwatch - 11th Oct 2012 - A.Sylvaticus drops in

There's bound to be other critters to-ing and fro-ing in our over our garden during the night.

I know we have at least two common pipistrelles which favour our garden over our neighbours it seems.

I know the hedgehog is now basing itself in our garden and returns from its various garden nightly odyssey each morning.

I know we have woodmice near the chicken coop and frogs in the amphi-home (near the soon to be constructed pond).

I know we have hundreds of huge garden slugs, intent on eating any plant I put into the ground!

I know we have a multitude of moths and insects (including caddis flies for some reason), which presumably feed the bats.

I know we have a family of foxes living under a terrapin at the primary school opposite - at least one of which visits us occasionally.

I know there are tawny owls in the large oak tree a few dozen yards from the back of the back garden, by the old park.

And right now, I know we have the winter thrushes arriving in numbers overhead in the dark.

 

But.

I wouldn't be suprised if a lot more happened that I don't know about - each night.

 

 

In the night garden.

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) caddis fly common pipistrelle fieldfare fox garden hedgehog moth night redwing slug tawny owl woodmouse https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/10/in-the-night-garden Thu, 11 Oct 2012 13:23:13 GMT
Roundup - hogs, thrushes, jays.... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/10/roundup---hogs-thrushes-jays I'm pretty sure I heard a redwing "tseeping" overhead at night on the 26th September. If that is indeed the case, that will be my first September redwing ever - arriving less than a week after summer has officially ended.

But if that isn't the case (I must have misheard a "tseep" in the night sky I guess), they certainly started to arrive (and "tseep" above me in the night sky) in earnest yesterday.

It's almost always the second week of October when I hear my first winter thrushes arrive (invariably the redwings, followed by the fieldfares a fortnight or so later.

 

I'll not write about the larger, bolder fieldfares just yet (I may do so when they arrive) but I will briefly mention the smaller redwing.

As I've mentioned earlier, I tend to hear my first redwing of the winter in the second week of October.

They start to arrive en masse around then, most often coming from Scandanavia, where they've bred earlier in the year (quite often on the ground or in a very low bush).

The first you'll notice of them is their migration call - a thin "tseep" made in the sky at night, to keep track of each other. When you hear your first thin "tseep" high above you overhead, you'll KEEP hearing it (whether you like it or not) until April(ish).

You can then proceed to bore your friends and family rigid and tell them that the bird you all heard has just flown in from Scandanavia (or Iceland if you live on the extreme west coast of England). They'll probably pretend to be bored but secretly wonder how on earth you know that -froma  thin "tseep" in the night sky.

You know that because nothing else makes that sound after dark at this time of year.

Oh surrre..... some of our waterbirds and waders (grebes, woodcock etc...) fly after dark, but they don't sound all "tseepy" like the redwing do...

 

The redwing's scientific name is Turdus (thrush) iliacus (flanked) which I guess is pretty apt.

The red (burnt thick marmalade) colour extends right under their wings however. In actual fact the "under-arms" of a thrush is a very good way of telling one species from another if they're flying and silent...

 

Very defined white flash underwing - fieldfare

Larger white underwing (less defined) - mistle thrush

Brown underwings- song thrush (not so common these days - a terrible shame)

"red" underwings - redwing.

There are better ways of ID'ing thrush spp in the air, but if you have an ipod in your ears (and you can't hear them) - the above is a good rule of thumb.

 

Looks like I was the first to report these pretty-little thrushes this year in Berkshire (I managed to beat the retired gentlemen of leisure who do now else but "bird" it seems) and I will probably hear redwing until the first week of April - potentially two weeks after the fieldfares have gone.

 

 

So... thats the thushes part of the blog post title out of the way (redwings are arriving NOW and fieldfares will do so in a few days)

What about the hog?

First the good news - our hedgehog seems intent on spending each day in the hibernaculum Anna and I hastily erected for it. This can be verified by the fact that each morning between about 0330hrs and 0430hrs, the lil beggar shuffles into the box - only to re-emerge after the sun has gone down (between 1800 and 2000hrs). I know all this because the owl bushnell is at present trained on the hedgehog home.

Now the bad news - the trailcam picking up the hog's movements each night emits IR light from its LEDs. These make nocturnal creatures' eyes shine like lamps on videoclips - including our cats eyes, little owl eyes, fox eyes and of course, hedgehog eyes.

Well.... it would..... normally..... but its clear from watching the footage of our hedgehog that I've managed to record that our hog has only one good (shining) eye - its right eye. The left eye is dull as dishwater.

It shouldn't bother the hog - even at the best of times they have dreadful eyesight.

 

Ok... that's thrushes and hogs out of the way. But what about the jays?

As described last week, there is DEFINITELY a jay eruptive migration occurring over the UK at present -especially the eastern side of England.

Sure... at this time of year we will all see more jays than in the summer as they carry out many caching missions (burying acorns for winter storage) but last week a flock of over 650 was seen flying off the north sea over Norfolk.

Beautiful birds... and of course I provide them with monkey nuts each day in the garden! (Sometimes these fall to the magpies, but I can't win 'em all).

 

Sorry this week's report is a bit patchy - I'll try and do better next time...

TBR

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) hedgehog jay redwing https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/10/roundup---hogs-thrushes-jays Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:03:56 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 33 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/10/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-33 Nothing to report this week  - apart from the usual - two owls still in place.

I may try and stalk the wee things this week (week 34) - we'll see what the weather brings...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/10/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-33 Tue, 09 Oct 2012 13:26:22 GMT
Autumnal movements begin in earnest https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/10/autumnal-movements-begin-in-earnest Everything seems to be on the move right now as Autumn heats up (or cools down I s'pose).

Feathers

The jetstream is bouncing around all over the gaff, giving us pretty blustery conditions, skudding clouds and fast-moving showers / bright spells.

 

The winds are taking the leaves off the trees (though I’m hoping that many leaves do remain for now, as this summer’s / autumnal weather should mean this year’s autumn colour display might be stupendous).

 

The hedgehogs are scampering around like little citroens, trying to cram their stomachs with worms, slugs and beetles before sensibly retiring for the winter, in their hibernaculum.

 

The video below shows our garden hedgehog investigating its newly-dug hibernaculum watched by one of our male cats. (Another trouble with owning cats I guess).

 

Hogwatch 1st October 2012 (with cat)

 

The house martins and swallows are on the move south in large numbers right now (I’ve seen dozens today on my drive to Kent and back and many over the house in Berkshire also).

 

The winter thrushes are arriving – I heard my first redwing a few days ago and I expect to hear more this week. (Listen for the thin “tseeps” high above after dark).

 

Lastly (but certainly not errr... leastlyjays seem to be moving in very large numbers this autumn (you’ll have seen them everywhere I expect).

Jay 1

I’ll write a wee piece on jays at the weekend if I have time, as after the swift, these glorious crows are my second favourite (British) bird of all.

 

This year, for the first time since 1983 it seems, plenty of continental jays are arriving in the UK in large numbers. This is thought to mean their acorn crop has failed elsewhere and is known as “eruptive” diurnal migration.

Jay 2

Consisting of mainly young birds, the jays will attempt to find plenty of acorns (and other food here) before heading back to whence they came (the extreme northern European lands) in the spring, leaving our own sedentary jays to wonder what on earth just happened?!

 

Do keep your eyes peeled for our continental jays (though you won’t have to keep ‘em peeled for long like I say – they’re everywhere right now!)

Jay 3

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) autumn hedgehog house martin jay leaves movements redwing swallow wind https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/10/autumnal-movements-begin-in-earnest Tue, 02 Oct 2012 16:06:52 GMT
The zoological pleb. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/10/the-zoological-pleb The former United Nations*cough* “Peacekeeper” *cough* and current (but for how long?) Conservative “Chief Whip”, Andrew Mitchell MP has (as you’ll know) created something of a storm in a teacup recently  (“Gategate”) when allegedly calling a Policeman a “f*cking pleb” at the gates of Downing Street.

 

On account of this, I thought I’d write about “plebs”…. Zoological plebs… but we’ll come onto that… grab a cup of tea and a penguin and take a seat.

 

Where was I?

Oh yes….

 

He has since ‘apologised’ to the Policeman in question (the inverted commas are intentional) but always denied using the word “Pleb” itself.

 

What does Pleb mean anyway and why (if a Tory MP uses the word publicly), might its use jeopardise their position in the Government?

 

I used to use the word “Pleb” all the time.

At school.

I had a free education, albeit at a (privileged?) Grammar School after taking the twelve plus exam in Buckinghamshire.

As Grammar schools went, my secondary school had something of a rough-tough reputation and was mainly metalwork, woodwork and football orientated.

We didn’t study Latin or Greek and I was the only one to vote for Classical history when we selected what period of history we’d like to study for our ‘O’ level. (We ended up studying the “Repeal of the Corn Laws” and ‘Splendid isolation” which I begrudgingly trudged through wearily).

 

Yet… if my friends did something wrong in my eyes, I’d call them a “Pleb”, without thinking. I’d often call them something else far more offensive (which I won’t type here but if you grew up in the 70s and 80’s you’ll know which words I mean).

I was also called a “Pleb” many times by my friends, or often something far worse!

 

“Pleb” was the least offensive of all our schoolboy cusses. I don’t think any of us actually knew what it meant at the time. (We should have studied Classics after all, eh?)

 

 The shortened word “Pleb” is derived from the Classical Roman “Plebeian”.

Classical Rome was basically divided into the Patricians (the ruling elite) and the Plebeians (the non aristocrats).

In Roman times the Plebeians were not without power –many became wealthy and influential, but I guess they were always looked down on by the Patricians.

 

These days (certainly when I was at school), “Pleb” meant “div”.

Incidentally… do you know where the term “div” or “divvy” originated from? It was UK prison slang for the slowest of the inmates, whose day job it was to put cardboard dividers into boxes. They were the “divvies”.

 

No-one took offence to it and I meant no real offence by saying it. “Pleb” was used by us all at school and we left it at the school gates when we left after our ‘A’levels.

 

Or at least most of us schoolboys did.

I guess some didn’t.

 

The Rugby School (a very posh fee-paying Independent School for any Americans reading this) boys obviously took the word with them when they swanned off to Oxbridge.

 

You get the distinct impression that the current Tory Government is stuffed full of wealthy, arrogant public schoolboys who know exactly what the word “Pleb” actually means (or meant) and consider many of us as the lower classes – the commoners, the people without an expensive upbringing … the “Plebs”.

That is why a Tory MP calling someone a “Pleb” is a bit of a dumb thing to do really. Conservatives are desperate to throw off their elitist image and a public outburst like that puts them back decades.

 

Wellll…. I don’t know if Andrew Mitchell used the word at all, let alone deliberately.

I don’t know if he lied about it afterwards or whether he knew what the word actually means (or meant). 

 

I don’t really care that much.

 

It got me thinking though.

 

I know of one (and only one) British animal with a Latin name of “Plebejus”  (or these days “Plebeius”) named after the Plebeians of ancient Rome.

 

The only one I know about is Plebeius argus

(There are other zoological “Plebs” in other parts of the world, but I know of only the above in the UK).

 

Plebejus was the (generic) name Jan Krzysztof Kluk gave to a quite beautiful blue butterfly which is quite rare (or very localised anyway) these days in the UK.

We call it the “Silver-studded blue”, although it was for some time called the “Lead blue” as the male’s wings were more of a gun metal sorta blue than many of its more vivid bluey, “gossamer-winged” or Lycaenidae cousins.

 

This summer I was lucky enough to watch my first "British Pleb" (Silver studded blue) on a local lowland heath (on which they flourish) and quite a beautiful butterfly it was too.

If you’d like to know more about this gem of a butterfly, please click here.

 

 

Why did Kluk (and then William Kirby) call this genus of blue butterflies “Plebejus” or “Plebeius”?

I have no idea to be honest. (I’m not sure there is another genus named after the “Patricians” of Rome for example).

 

But these blue, gossamer-winged butterflies are found all over Europe, “Plebs” they are and “Plebs” they may well be for some time.

 

 

 

OK. You now know where the generic name stemmed from – but what about the specific name - Argus.

 

I’ll cut a long story as short as I can here as I’ve already waffled on for too long today.

 

In classical Greek myth, Zeus had taken quite a fancy to a daughter of King Inachus, the nymph Io – and wanted to indulge in a spot of carnal passion with her.

On realising that his wife Hera had become suspicious of his errr… extra marital interests, Zeus immediately changed the river King’s nymph-daughter Io into a white heifer.

Hera was not fooled – she immediately demanded the heifer (Io) as a gift and charged the “all-seeing” hundred-eyed giant Argus Panoptes to keep his eye(s!) on her and let her know if Zeus turned up.

Eventually Argus was slain by Hermes (at the request of Zeus) but Hera placed the giant’s hundred eyes on the tail of her sacred bird – the peacock as an act of commemoration for the all-seeing giant’s service to her.

The peacock to this verrrry day (boys and girls) has a tail which is adorned with the eyes of Argus.

 

Incidentally, the above story will also explain the scientific name for the peacock butterflyInachis io. (named after the river king and his nymph-daughter which Argus’ eyes protected).

 

 

Hmmm…. I’ve gone off topic again.

 

Why does the “Silver studded blue” have argus as its specific name?

Several “blues” have links with argus.

The “Brown argus” (for example), the “Northern brown argus”, the “Adonis blue” (Lysandra bellargus), the “Mazarine blue” (Cyaniris semiargus)… even the “Holly Blue” (Celastrina argiolus).

Why?

Look at many of our blue  butterflies (and argus’) underwings and you’ll see Argus’ all-seeing hundred eyes, rather like the peacock’s tail.

And that (you’ll be glad to hear) almost concludes today’s lesson on the rozzers, politics, ancient Rome, Greek myths and classical (scientific) zoological nomenclature.

 

Eh?

What’s that?

Why is the giant retailer “Argos” named after the all-seeing giant Argu(o)s panoptes?

Purely because Richard Tompkins (the founder) came up with the idea whilst on holiday in Argos, Greece…  and these days “Argos” is an ummmm… all-selling giant rather than an all-seeing giant.

 

 

Anyyywaaay …. To briefly return to (and end on) Andrew Mitchell’s alleged tyrade against the “plebeian” Police officer a few days ago.

 

If I was the Police officer at the gates Downing street who Andrew Mitchell had called a “F*cking pleb”, I might looked down at my blue uniform (complete with silver buttons) and have quipped back to theWhip :

“Sir. When you say ‘Pleb’, I trust you are cleverly comparing me to our very own Plebeius argus. The all-seeing silver-studded blue butterfly – in which case I will take that as a mighty compliment indeed”….

 

“Now gerrof your bike Patricia; and walk through the other gate like every other f*cker has to do”…

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Plebeius argus Silver studded blue gategate pleb https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/10/the-zoological-pleb Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:21:58 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 32 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-32 Again, not that much to report here  ( EDIT... other than the best photos I have of any of these birds at the end of this blog post) - two owls are still on their "winter barn" (I think two have left).

I was gonnae try and take a few close-up shots in the morning dawn today (as they were perfectly lit up as the sun rose yesterday), but despite being a clear night last night (the night of the "Harvest moon" this year), it has since clouded-over here and the shot wouldn't be worth getting I think). EDIT - sun came out as soon as I wrote the above, so I dashed back up to "owl-ville" and a couple of resulting photos taken from the car hide are posted at the end of this blog post).

Never mind - I hear we may get a little sunnier and warmer again in early October (next weekend onwards by the sound of it) and as I have a week off work then - maybe I'll get a chance then to grab a close up dawn shot of our owls....

Two photos for the blog from yesterday - one of the pair of owls in the morning:

 

and one of a single bird at sunset last night (taken through a hedge):

 

EDIT - Neither of the above photos (taken yesterday) tell the viewer what its like to really stare down an owl though.

I sat in the car by their shed for 30 minutes (only) this morning, having hastily erected a camera on a 6 foot tripod under their favourite perch about 80 feet from the car.

The camera was connected to a radio remote - the trigger being in my hairy mit in the car.

Half an hour later and one of this year's young birds flew onto its favourite perch and I started snapping.

74 (SEVENTY-FOUR!) photos later it had had enough and so had I, so I retrieved the camera, it flew under the shed roof to hide (and roost) and we all lived happily ever after...

The stare

Wild little owl (on favourite winter perch)

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua best photos little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-32 Sun, 30 Sep 2012 06:27:05 GMT
"The harvest moon". https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/-the-harvest-moon Today, this morning (at 03:19am to be exact), the moon became "full" (exactly 100% - despite appearing to be 100% to us here in the UK for at least a night or so previous) and as this is the full moon nearest to the Autumnal equinox (a week ago here in Blighty, this year) - traditionally it is known as the "Harvest moon".

The Harvest moon doesn't always fall in September  - if the nearest full moon to the Autumnal equinox falls in early October - THAT is the "Harvest moon" (although this cannot be later than 11th October). This happens about once every four years in the northern hemisphere.

Now...If the "Harvest moon" rises on the same night as the Autumnal equinox night (i.e. Autumn begins with a full moon)  - this moon wouldn't just be called a "Harvest moon".... no..... it would be a "Super Harvest moon".

This last happened two years ago (September 23rd 2010 - previous to that it happened in 1991) and it just so happened that the "Super harvest moon" rose in a part of the sky that Jupiter happened to rise in also - of course I had to try and get a shot. That is the photo reproduced here and below.

The next "Super Harvest moon" (a full moon rising on the first day of Autumn in the north) won't occur for another 17 years (2029) so if you missed it two years ago, you have a wee wait yet...

 

Harvest moon & Jupiter

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) harvest moon https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/-the-harvest-moon Sun, 30 Sep 2012 05:48:05 GMT
Shakespeare's "urchin". https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/shakespeares-urchin  

Shakespeare referred to our (modern day) hedgehog as an “urchin” and a “hedge pig” in a handful of his plays and our spiny gardeners’ friend was also mentioned in the bible ("scholars" think (little more than people studying fairy tales in my mind)) in Isaiah 34:11 when “dee lawwwd swore furrrrrrious revenge on dose peeps who dissed his church” (or something).

 

The curious spined-mammal (in a zoological order all to itself these days I think, but all those years ago, when I read zoology, I think it shared a zoological classification (at least order-wise) with shrews and moles.

It matters not really – what is clear that the hog is an omnivorous, small, spiny placental mammal and is (in the main) thought of with great affection by the British public.

 

Over 5000 spines (modified hollow hairs), possibly 500 fleas (hedgehog fleas don’t tend to bite humans) and a hidden tiny tail (3/4 inch long), with a snuffly wet nose and stubby wee feet, causing no harm to most of us (admittedly they do seem to cause a problem for some ground-nesting birds in some places where generally they’re not native), it’s not hard to see why they rate as one of our favourite British animals.

 

When I first became interested in finding out all I could about many of the species we share Britain with, hogs were plentiful and hardly shy. Bumbling, clumsy things, snuffling through leaf piles at the bottom of the garden or under hedges – it wasn’t hard to find them, by sound alone if nothing else.

They’re not exactly rare these days, but its clear that “Miss Tiggywinkle”  is suffering something of an alarming decline in numbers, here in Blighty. (Information and scientific evidence here).

 

Why?

Well… no-one seems to know for sure and it probably stems from a number of reasons … but it would appear that our tendency to neaten our gardens (especially our borders with solid walls and impenetrable fences) means hogs are often trapped in an area far smaller than they would prefer – I’m not talking about finding food here – I’m talking a little more carnal than that.

 

Hedgehogs find our gardens irresistible - plenty of juicy slugs and beetles to eat, very often  a good amount of shelter and very rarely badgers to turn them inside out and devour them. Left to their own devices they will wander about at night, pretty freely, exploring a good number of gardens on their nightly rounds – ten gardens wouldn’t be out of the question.

 

But…. start introducing slug pellets to a few gardens (which, like most toxins will migrate up the food chain eventually) and wall off (or fence off) a few of those gardens and you’ll begin to appreciate the hedgehogs’ issues.

 

Toxic food (poisoned slugs), unhealthy food (bread and milk which is STILL left out by “caring” wildlife-lovers, even though all it succeeds in doing is upsetting the hog’s stomach and lowering its immunity (for the record almost all adult wild mammals are lactose intolerant)) and a lack of mating opportunities if walled or fenced into a small number of gardens means poor ol’ spikey is in a spot of bovver. I don’t suppose our ever-increasing traffic has helped much either. (“Why did the hedgehog cross the road?” “He wanted to see his flat mate”.)

 

What can we do about it?

 

Well….

I was overjoyed to hear a hog snuffling through our neighbours’ garden a couple of nights ago. I thought I had heard a hog earlier in the week but forgot about it – but last night on closer investigation with a torch (sorry neighbours!) my hopes were confirmed spectacularly - a big, healthy-looking adult hog – clearly visible on their lawn in the torchlight.

 

Now… regular readers of this blog might know that Anna and I have recently fenced our entire back garden but I was careful enough to dig a few hoggy-holes under the fence for any wandering snuffler to get through if they so chose.  Unfortunately I dug no hog-sized holes under the fence which adjoined our nearest neighbours (we have three gardens alongside ours on our eastern border  - we have a large garden!)

This is because I looked at their impenetrable garden and rashly concluded that there could be no hogs there.

 

How wrong was I?

 

I have no idea how long that hedgehog has been in their tightly enclosed, fenced garden or indeed whether there’s more than one. I doubt there is more than one and I suspect the hog has been there for some years.

 

So what then….

 

Holes.

 

More holes.

 

Hog highways if you like.

 

Certainly under that part of the fence in order for it to escape into our garden if it so chooses (I can promise it huge quantities of slugs to eat) and more holes in other parts of the fence for it to wander into other gardens as well  -  with any luck stumbling across a member of the opposite sex for it to have a chance to procreate – the “purpose” (if you want one) of a wild animal’s/plant’s life is to “further life itself” after all (although not just their own genes, admittedly).

 

 

I dug the first hog super highway at around 6pm yesterday, in around ten minutes – and you’ll see from the embedded video clip below (please enlarge the embedded viewer to fill your monitor for smooth playback) that only about 5 hours later, the hog DID INDEED use my “hog highway” – what a speedy (and easy) result!

 

Hog watch - 29th September 2012

 

The “hog next door” came through the tunnel at 10:46pm last night, wandered ‘round our garden and almost exactly (to the second) an hour and a half later (at 12:16am this morning) wandered back next door (to the MUCH smaller, tightly enclosed garden there –where possibly it has spent years alone - they can live to around 7 years old if there are no predators or cars around to gerrem.

 

It is a wonderful result for us here at the “Old MackDodds Farm” – and all I have to do now is dig a few more holes under the fence (leading to all FOUR gardens which border our huge garden) so our spikey wee friend can possibly get around a bit and potentially even mate.

 

It will be looking for a suitable spot to hibernate in the next month or so though – I am sure it will hibernate next door (I assume its been doing that for at least a year now if not five), but I may dig in a hibernaculum if I get some time this weekend and see what ‘appens….

 

A lovely wee beastie – which should help with all the slugs in the garden and fingers-crossed, may provide even more hogs and therefore more enjoyment (from Anna and myself) next year and the years ahead….. and all because we’ve opened up a hog highway and will open up more in the months ahead.

 

 

The message is simple – help hogs by digging hoggy highways under your fences and walls. Get your neighbours involved (I will this weekend!)

 

It works – it really does – as this blog and video (above) demonstrates.

 

 

TBR.

 

NB. For more information on British hedgehogs and how YOU can help, please click this link and read up on the subject on the British hedgehog preservation society's excellent website.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) HD video clip first garden hedgehog trail camera https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/shakespeares-urchin Sat, 29 Sep 2012 06:09:26 GMT
Autumn officially begins (with a first appearance of one of the Blairs) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/autumn-officially-begins-with-a-first-appearance-of-one-of-the-blairs As mentioned more than a few times this year on this blog (here for example), Summer doesn't officially end until the 20th September - and Autumn doesn't officially begin until the 21st September.

Well... we're three days into Autumn now and up until the Sunday gone (two days into Autumn but twenty-three days into September), we had only had about 6% of our average rain totals for the month (of September) even though the month itself was over 75% through.

Yep.... September 2012 has been bone dry down here, but Autumn arrived and changed all that....

I can tell Autumn has arrived with a bang, not just because our water butts have suddenly all filled up, but we've had our first leylandii-loving moth arrive to our outside light last night - a "Blair's shoulder knot".

Not rare in the south of the UK - and not even rare as far north as Cumbria these days (even appearing in scotland since 2000), after not even being a British species until the 1950s - it has done very well for itself in the past 60 or so years....

[NB. It is called "Blair's shoulder knot" as the famous (in lepidopteran circles anyway) entomologist Dr.K.G.Blair first discovered it on the Isle of White in 1951. Since the Monterey Cypress and Leylandii (cross between the Monterey and Nootka cypresses) were introduced in huge numbers to the UK, this formerly mediterranean moth has taken to our shores in numbers also - one could even think of this moth species as THE most successful mothy colonist in Britain - all because of our introduced cypress trees. I should point out that the dark marks at the base of the forewings of this moth are known as the shoulder knots.]

It does seem to love suburban gardens, especially those with leylandii and ornamental cypresses in... and tends to fly from late September until December kicks in... a REAL sign of Autumn, at least for me...

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Autumn Blairs shoulder knot https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/autumn-officially-begins-with-a-first-appearance-of-one-of-the-blairs Mon, 24 Sep 2012 16:41:18 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 31 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-31 Hardly anything to note this week, apart from the fact that I'm pretty sure now that ONLY two owls are still in place at "Owl-ville", three miles from the house.

I don't know whether both original adults make up the two owls, or one adult and one youngster - very difficult to say. But I've driven by a few times this week again and once again NEVER seen more than two at any one time (if there were more than two around I'd have seen them).

My next period of annual leave falls in the second week of October - maybe if my health allows, I'll sneak up there with my radio remote camera operator (batteries replaced today) and see what I can do photo-wise...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-31 Mon, 24 Sep 2012 16:13:32 GMT
"Hop dog". https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/-hop-dog Whilst walking round the business park in which (for my sins) I work at present, I happened across this little chap(pess?).

A larval Dasychira pudibunda.

 

Not something that trips off the tongue, so I’ll give it a couple of its many other names if you like.

 

This is the “Pale tussock moth” whose caterpillar (as found today and seen in the photos here) was often known as a “Hop dog”.

 

“Hop-dog” because hop pickers in the days before mass insecticides etc… used to find these yellow-green hairy beasties munching their hop leaves.

Of course, nowadays, these beautiful moth larvae are more likely to find refuge in the non-sprayed woodlands and hedges of the UK, rather than hop fields.

 

Dasychira literally means “hairy-hand” and “pudibunda” literally means “shame-faced”, “blushing” or “bashful” - so this striking beast could be called the “shame-faced hairy hand”… I guess.

 

 

Tussock moths whether they be Pale Tussock moths, Reed Tussock moths or Dark Tussock moths all belong to the  Lymantriidae faimly of moths.

Whilst the adult tussocks themselves do not feed (they’re only interested in mating) the caterpillars are voracious feeders -  sometimes able to strip whole forests of leaves. Lymantria means "defiler", (of trees in this case) after all.

 

Our (English) vernacular name of “…. Tussock moth” clearly describes the hairy caterpillar’s hairy tussocks along its dorsal side – many of these caterpillars look like they have tiny wee shaving brushes on their back.

 

Pretty to look at for sure (stunning in fact) but plenty of these aesthetically-pleasing larvae possess “urticating hairs” (rather like nettles or tarantulas) which if broken over a bare piece of human skin, do have the ability to produce a bit of a rash if you’re prone to that sort of thing.

 

Everything about the Shame-faced hairy hand screams “DON’T EAT ME” to birds and it is far from rare because of that…

 

A little stunner I’m sure you’ll agree and I’ll keep one eye on this for the next few weeks – I’m pretty sure it will be looking to climb a branch (or piece of wood) and pupate soon – to emerge in May as a dull adult.

 

It’s so often the way with moths – bold, bright caterpillar will mean a drab adult (and vice versa).

 

Anyway…. A lovely thing to find outside work this morning – they’re on the hoof now…. So use your eyes…

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) British Dasychira pudibunda UK caterpillar hairy caterpillar hop dog pale tussock moth pale tussock moth caterpillar https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/-hop-dog Wed, 19 Sep 2012 16:44:29 GMT
Apathy + inaction = 33% less UK badgers https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/apathy-inaction-33-less-uk-badgers A summary for those "convinced" by Government spin.  Click HERE.

 

 

This (I hope) will be a one-off post.

Today, Natural England have begun the process of issuing licences to farmers and landowners to begin culling one of our most enigmatic, beloved native British mammals, the badger.

Despite decades of rigorous scientific research (which I have contributed to many times since I was a teenager) at the cost of dozens of millions of pounds to the UK taxpayer, which have categorically proven that a cull of badgers is ineffective and economically unviable, the cull begins today.

At least a third of ALL our British badgers will needlessly die in this "experiment" - with no long term reduction in the prevalence of Bovine TB predicted by ALL leading scientists, including Government scientists.

This is madness, pure and simple.

 

I urge any readers of this blog to swot up on the most recent scientific research here.

There is one phrase in the last paragraph (which I've copied and pasted here) which might need highlighting in case you missed it....

"...though badgers were a source of cattle TB, badger culling can make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control; in Britain. Indeed, some policies under consideration are likely to make matters worse rather than better".

 

Make no mistake... this is our land-owning Tory Government trying to appease their land-owning friends and nothing else.

There is nothing scientific about this cull. Nothing humane. Nothing even resembling common sense.

Whilst the problem of Bovine TB is a huge issue for all of us (not just farmers), this cull will not arrest the spread of bTB - it might even make it worse.

I urge any reader of this blog to please sign the e-petition HERE and write to your local MP immediately (see template letter below).

We CAN stop this, but we are running out of time - and if we don't stop this, the culling looks likely to be increased and ongoing...

 

ACT NOW PLEASE.

Not tomorrow.

NOW.

 

Many thanks

Doug Mackenzie Dodds BSc Hons Zoology.

 

May 2012 Badger cubs (and fox cubs!)

 

Template letter to your MP below (please copy and paste onto a word document and post to your local MP):

__________________________________________________________________________________

(YOUR ADDRESS)

                                                                                                             

 

 

 

(YOUR MP)                                                   

House of Commons

London

SW1A 0AA

(DATE OF LETTER)

 

 

Dear (NAME OF MP),

 

 

As one of your concerned constituents, I am writing to urge you to oppose your Government’s proposals for a licensed badger cull in England. Trials of the ‘controlled shooting’ method are due to get underway in Gloucestershire and Somerset imminently. After these trials the Government will decide whether to roll out further trials to ten new areas each year. At least a third of all our UK badgers will be needlessly slaughtered in the coming months – the vast majority of which have no TB infection whatsoever.

 

 

Whilst I recognise the issue of Bovine TB is a terrible burden on our farmers and the UK economy, the overwhelming scientific evidence (spread over decades at the cost of dozens of millions of pounds to the taxpayer) has concluded that a cull will not be effective in tackling bovine TB and could make matters worse due to the ‘perturbation effect’. 

 

 

Vaccination, biosecurity measures and accurate testing procedures have been scientifically proven to be the most effective means to tackle bovine TB.  The injectable badger vaccine is already in use by landowners, including Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, who have produced a report on their first year’s findings. A number of other Wildlife Trusts and the National Trust are also deploying the badger BCG vaccine. A vaccine for cattle is also in development, but even when development is complete its use would be prevented by EU legislation.

 

 

Instead of proceeding with cull of a “protected” native mammal, that would probably make the bovine TB problem worse, I urge you to press the Government to pursue the following as a matter of priority:

 

  • Support landowners to use the injectable badger vaccine;
  • Secure change to EU legislation to permit a cattle vaccine;
  • Continue to develop an oral vaccine for badgers.

 

 

Yours sincerely,

 

(YOUR HAND WRITTEN SIGNATURE)

 

(YOUR PRINTED NAME)

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) badger cull https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/apathy-inaction-33-less-uk-badgers Mon, 17 Sep 2012 18:02:18 GMT
Reddy or not. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/reddy-or-not We've had a lovely week of warm, sunny weather (in the main), down here in the south of the UK, although strong winds over the last couple of days have started to take some of the leaves off the trees now.

That's a bit of a shame really (we could do with less wind) as this autumn was (is still?) shaping up to be quite spectacular in terms of foliage colour - the reds, oranges and yellows of autumn.

What with the wet, dull spring and most of summer, our trees have invested a lot of energy this year into producing lots of leaves full of carotenoids and of course chloroplasts (in a somewhat futile quest to photosynthesise at full speed) and that weather combined with a warm, sunny late summer means those leaves are full of sugars and might be that way come the first killing frosts.

When the leaves' chloroplasts begin to break down in the autumn, the chlorophyll contained within begins to change colour firstly (from green to red) and also the orange, yellow and brown carotenoids are unmasked - and we get a spectacular fireworks display of various colours during our autumns.

So yes.... we could do with a little less wind for the next fortnight or so really - to keep our trees in leaf and all "sugared up" for autumn proper!

Speaking of colours, especially red, I've had a bit of a "red weekend" so far.

Yesterday began with a dawn drive around the local countryside as the sun came up in a very clear sky. I was saddened to see the big, beautiful dog fox, a red fox to give it its full name (which I'd seen many times whilst watching the owls at the farm) had been kit by a car during the night and had died on the road.

I normally don't particularly care much for foxes (we keep chickens after all) but seeing this big, proud red fox, with his huge tail, lying prostrate on the tarmacadam choked me a little. He was certainly the best-looking (most healthy-looking) largest fox I've ever seen - with no trace of mange or battle scars and he was always a muscular (not lanky) son of a gun. I guess the vehicle must have given him a (very hard) glancing blow as lying on the road he looked in perfect nick still (apart from a wee trickle of blood from his mouth).

A real shame.

One of one hundred thousand

I took a photo of the fox (he was so beautiful even in death, how could I not) and returned home. Upon putting my front door key in the lock, I stopped and watched a pair of robins ("redbreasts") fight noisily on our front lawn - we have quite a few robins at our gaff - delightful wee birds which follow me and the hens around (if we're digging) - looking for worms and grubs.

Robin

As the sun rose into the sky and the whole of Berkshire warmed up, I found myself in the garden surrounded by red admiral butterflies and commas (butterflies) feasting on the rampant ivy flowers. At one point we had over a dozen red admirals and half a dozen commas all on one battered ivy-clad damson tree - the most butterflies I've ever seen at one time in our garden. (PLEASE keep your ivy and nettles - they're SO important to our insects - far more so than buddleja for example!)

 

 

Seeing that beautiful red fox lying on the road, with a little blood trickle issuing from his mouth, the red admirals and the robin (red breasts) got me thinking about colours yesterday (my brain is like a darter dragonfly sometimes - a ruddy darter in this case!)

 

Why do we call the fox (our fox here in the UK) the RED fox? It isn't red at all!

Similarly, what is RED about a robin's breast and is a "Red Admiral" truly RED?

There's more of course!

Does the "Red-backed shrike" look like it has a RED back to you or is it more of an orangey brown and are the redwings' flanks RED or a deep burned orange in colour.

Is the "red grouse" really RED?

Does the "Red-breasted merganser" really have a RED breast, is the "Red kite" not more of a dirty orange colour, what is RED about the neck of the "Red-necked phalarope", is the "redstart" RED or orange and what about those partridge legs.... you know the ones (by now!).... those RED legs of the "red-legged partridge".

In all the above cases (bar the partridge legs which really are an amazing shade of bright red), I would suggest (even though I know colour is beautifully subjective) that better names might go along the lines of:

Russet fox , Robin (orange breast), rust-backed shrike, dark-flanked thrush (redwing), mottled grouse (red grouse), speckled merganser, orange-tailed kite, rusty-necked phalarope and orangestart.

Now you may look at all the birds above and actually see RED, rather than orange or a rust colour - and thats the beauty of colour -everyone sees it differently, but I defy you to see anything red about a red fox or robin's breast!

It does seem to me that many of the vernacular or common names of our British birds (in particular) have been somewhat poorly given. Moths on the other hand are generally named quite beautifully (at least in the vernacular sense) - and correctly! Think "Scarlet tiger moth" or "Ruby Tiger". How about the "Orange swift", the "light orange underwing" or even"Crimson underwing".

 

Of course, some of our English-speaking vernacular names for animals do stem from their classical (Greek and/or Latin) scientific names - but many don't.

I won't go over all the examples above, but I will briefly (I hope!) discuss yesterday's beasties which got me thinking about the colour red....

Vixen

The Red fox. (Vulpes vulpes).

Latin scientific name means "(true) fox (true) fox".  One can only assume the "Red" part of the English moniker is to distinguish our rust-coloured fox from ohhh... I don't know.... the swift fox maybe? The Arctic fox? The Bengal fox? Our fox is in no way shape or form RED, but rather like the robin below, I guess our (red) fox was so-called before we had many words for colours other than red, floating around our collective consciousness...

 

The robin ("redbreast") (Erithacus rubecula)

Scientific name means "Robin red". ("erithakos" meant "Robin" in ancient Greek... and "Ruber" meant "red" in Latin). The robin had always been called the "Redbreast" up until the 15th century when it became fashionable to attribute more "human names" to birds (in particular) - and Robin seemed to fit the bill (or beak... only waterbirds have bills).

In the sixteenth century, the word "orange" as a colour started to become used commonly - named after the newly-discovered and cultivated fruit of the same name. That's right, the orange colour was named after the fruit (not the other way 'round) - and the word orange is derived from the sanskrit  नारङ्ग nāraṅgaḥ "orange tree".The Sanskrit word is in turn borrowed from the Dravidian root for 'fragrant').

Before this word "Orange" (derived from "Naranja" see above) was introduced to the English-speaking world, the colour orange was referred to as ġeolurēad (yellow-red).

In a nutshell then, we refer to the robin's breast as being RED because when we started to name our birds, we had no word for orange!

This might explain quite a lot and go some way to half explaining the other poor vernacular names of the birds I listed above?

 

 

The Red Admiral (Vanessa Atalanta).

Greek scientific name meaning "Vanessa" (the girls name possibly derived from "Phanes" (pronounced FAN-NESS a Greek mystical divinity) and "Atalanta" a Classical Greek heroine (of which I'll mention in a bit more detail later). Many people think that the vernacular "Red Admiral" is derived not from its lady-like scientific names of course, but from the Royal Navy's "Admiral of the Red" or "Rear Admiral". I can see why this is though to be true - look at the Rear Admiral's flag, but generally the butterfly's "Red Admiral" name is more commonly thought to be a corruption of "Red Admirable". Nothing naval about it at all.

Still doesn't explain the word RED though does it? I spppose the Red Admiral's wing stripes are on the red side of orange, but look very closely and you might just agree with me when I say they are orange really. Not red.

Is this down to the fact that (like the robin above) the vernacular name for this butterfly came about before the word "Orange" was used in common parlance. Possibly but I am big and ugly enough to appreciate that when many people see a red admiral, they do indeed see red and not orange.

 

Now then.

The "Atalanta" Greek specific name is a great scientific name for this butterfly I think. Now the below may not be true (but I've always held this opinion, so please don't tell me it's wrong!

If you know your Greek mythology, you'll know Atalanta was a mythological Greek heroine who would only marry a man who could beat her in a footrace (I've shortened the story somewhat).  Atalanta was swift of foot and no man could catch her in a run; no-one that is until Hippomenes came along. Hippomenes asked the goddess Aphrodite to slow Atalanta down and Aphrodite responded by giving Hippomenes three irresistable golden apples. When the race began, Hippomenes rolled these juicy golden apples along the ground to the side of Atalanta and so irresistable were they that Atalanta slowed down to grab them. Hippomenes caught her and she was beaten and thus married. All down to Aphrodite's sweet golden apples you see.

But what has this story got to do with the butterfly?

You've probably got the picture by now, but Red Admirals often enjoying feasting on fermenting dropped fruit (such as apples) - so I've always thought that the butterfly was really nicely named after the Greek heroine who was lured to her marriage by following apples also.

(Like I say, I might be wrong in thinking that, but its always been a nice story for me to remember!)

 

 

Annnyyyyywaaaay..... I've rambled on for far too long this morning - I really just wanted to write about yesterday's RED (or orange!) day and mention the vagueries and subjectiveness of colour whilst  discussing the origin of the names of three of our "Red" animals which I watched yesterday.

 

Colours eh?

My wife has always maintained I'm on "the spectrum"!!!

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fox orange red red admiral red fox robin robin redbreast https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/reddy-or-not Sun, 16 Sep 2012 08:22:46 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 30 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-30 Nothing much to report from this sunny, warm week.

I've had the trailcamera in the garden (not on the owl shed) but I have driven by our family of little owls a few times and seen two owls again, on the same (winter) shed each time. I think we have two owls now (not four) but can't be 100% sure. I can only assume two have moved on.

I will have a week's annual leave before too long - and if my health allows and any pond digging doesn't take too long, I'll try and get up to owl-ville with my stills camera for a shot in the sun before I don't get the opportunity again...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-30 Sun, 16 Sep 2012 05:38:51 GMT
September starts and brings... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/september-starts-and-brings ... warm sunshine,  glorious days, cool (very dewy) nights and a spectacular night sky this year.

The photo accompanying this blog post (and also below) shows our moon alongside Jupiter and three of her larger (Galliliean) moons (and a little camera flare, which for the first time ever in my photography, adds something to the final image I think).

Our moon, Jupiter and three of hers

I took the photo (using a 200mm lens only and a 4 second exposure) at 0430hrs BST yesterday (Saturday 8th September) as the half moon lit up the glorious night sky very well. The pleiades, Hyades, Orion (my "winter constellation"), Jupiter and Venus don't half look pretty before dawn at present...

A week into September now and warm sun all the way so far (there'll be a little temporary breakdown early this week, but nothing much to speak of really).

This has brought out the dragonflies again (emperors, migrant hawkers and common darters in the garden, demoiselles at work), bats (common pips in the garden each night at dusk - regular as clockwork) and at least one more species of proper summer moths in the garden.

Last night I set up the moff trap for the first time in a while and caught my first Setaceous Hebrew character moth in our garden. The Hebrew Characters are quite interesting (well.... I think so anyway) as earlier in the year (before summer starts really) it's the (non setaceous) "Hebrew Character" that appears in moff traps in the south of the UK, but come late summer, especially warm late summers (August, September this year for us) the non setaceous moth disappears and its only the "Setaceous Hebrew character" that is flying.

(What I'm clumsily trying to say is that you know summer hasn't begun in the south of the UK when Hebrew Characters are flying. You know summer is well underway when the Hebrew Characters disappear and the Setaceous Hebrew characters are flying.

On these moths, whereas I love moths names (the most interesting in kingdom Animalia) and can (sort of) appreciate why the Hebrew Character was so-named (it's forewings do look like they've had the hebrew letter "Nun" stamped on them) - the Setaceous Hebrew Character is one of those very poorly-named moths in my view (like the "Willow beauty" moth which is far from beautiful in my eyes).

Firstly the Setaceous Hebrew Character's wing marks don't look like "Nun" or any other Hebrew letter and secondly, as far as my ageing eyes can tell, the Setaceous Hebrew Character is no more Setaceous (bristly) than any other moff... I must be missing something I guess....

 

What else?

Well... it looks like starlings and jackdaws have started to form their winter flocks, I managed to see two hobbies yesterday high over the farm (won't be long now before they're gone also), we've had our first real leaf and apple falls of the year (though we have a way to go on that score) and I noticed yesterday a very young female great spotted woodpecker check out the garden (we've had GSWs before but I've not noticed young until Friday of this week). Our larger sunflower heads have lost their petals and drooped, but three or more mini sunflower heads have miraculously appeared on two plants to see out summer (well.... the "golden rod" and buddleja have stopped floweing now, as have the cornflowers).

Our S.florentina (did you notice this species made headline news this week when Noel Gallagher found one in his suitcase... or something!) is still in place.

 

This morning I finally got a few photos of the local swallows who seem to prefer the horsey farmland a couple of miles away from our house and the old-skool telephone wires on which to perch. I'd meant to get a few shots of these very pretty birds in the spring when they arrived, but never got round to it. They're all lining up to leave now.... (a sad time of year for me).

Now of course the young have fledged and in the first photo below, you'll see two young (the second photo shows an adult with its longer tail, deeper scarlet throat and no trace of yellow gape). (That's the moon behind the swallows by the way).

 

 

few house martins and other swallows have been flying south, high over the house in the sun (the swifts have either gone now or over the south coast).

Summer is nearly over (did I cut the hedge for the last time yesterday), but not quite yet....

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Jupiter S.florentina banded demoiselle common darter common pipistrelle dew emperor dragonfly first leaf and apple falls glorious end of summer great spotted woodpecker hobby house martin jackdaw migrant hawker mini sunflower heads moon setaceous hebrew character starling swallow https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/september-starts-and-brings Sun, 09 Sep 2012 06:03:39 GMT
“Operation noctua” end of week 29 – another surprise visitor. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-29-another-surprise-visitor About six weeks ago, just after both little owl fledglings had fledged I noticed I had recorded HD footage of a surprise visitor to the owls' favourite barn at the time. You'll have to watch the video to find out what I'm talking about if you don't know already...

This week (six to seven weeks after both our little owls had fledged), I reclaimed the trail camera from their "winter barn" (it has been there a week now) and found I'd recorded footage of another surprise visitor.

Please press "play" on the embedded player below and enlarge the player to fill your screen as usual (click the box and arrow at the bottom RHS of the player) - that way the playback will be the best quality and jerk-free).

Owl watch - Tawny drops onto new barn

I'm not talking about the large flock of jackdaws at the start of the clip of course, but the tawny owl at the end.

Now I might have hoped for an accidental* clip of a barn owl on that barn (*I'm after little owls of course with all these clips) as I've watched them hunt and roost within 300 yards of this little owl barn but I'd never have expected a tawny owl to show up on the barn (Generally more of a woodland bird specialist, or mature tree specialist anyway).

What a lovely surprise!

NB. The little owl in the gloom at the beginning of the clips is one of this year's young - whereas the owl peering under the corrugations in the sun near the end of the clip is one of the parents.

 

I've still not seen more than two owls at any one time any time I've gone up to see them this week (and I've gone to "Owl ville" pretty-well each day in week 29. For the majority of the week I thought they had dispersed as I didn't manage to see ANY owls at all - though with a bit more detective work I've since ascertained that far from using this one perch as a favourite (where the trail camera is set), they use the whole area of BOTH their summer and winter sheds - thats about the size of two tennis courts - so getting video footage now might be a bit challenging....

I'll not put the trail camera on the shed for a wee while and see what happens this week...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) HD video Operation noctua jackdaws little owl tawny owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-29-another-surprise-visitor Sun, 09 Sep 2012 05:05:36 GMT
An “Indian Summer”? (In Marks and Spencers). https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/an-indian-summer-in-marks-and-spencers  

The first fortnight in September looks to be shaping up quite nicely (in terms of weather) at present.

A high pressure system has finally drifted up from the Atlantic and western continent, the skies are blue and the thermometer is breaking 20c easily every day at present – something that (as I’ve said) looks set to continue for some time this month.

There’ll be the odd breakdown of course, but it certainly looks like our “summer” has arrived in September this year.

 

Sooooo… there’ll be the inevitable media reports of an “Indian Summer” of 2012 any day now (if there haven’t been already).

 

But it is an “Indian Summer” in the most-oft-used meaning of that phrase?

 

Cough.

I hate to be a killjoy yet again, but to answer this simply – i.e. are we having an “Indian Summer” this year – wellll…… the answer is an emphatic NO.

 

 

So what is an “Indian Summer”?

The phrase is North American in origin (in Europe such a phenomenon has had different names – see below) but it was almost always used to denote a period of above average temperatures for a good number of days (a week or more) AFTER the first killing frost of the year.

If an “Indian Summer” did occur in any given year, it would not begin before that first killing frost, generally at the end of September.

 

It is widely used these days as a prolonged period of “summer-like” temperatures, occurring in the autumn, usually between late September and mid November (even though I’ve pointed out in a number of previous posts on this blog that strictly speaking, autumn falls between September 21st and December 20th….)

 

In Europe, (as I’ve briefly mentioned), any “Indian Summer” was originally known by a variety of names depending on what country it was felt :

 

  • France and Italy and the UK (until the American phrase took over): St.Martin’s summer (ending on November 11th (St.Martin’s day)).
  • Spain: Veranillo de San Miguel (St. Michael’s summer)
  • Wales: St. Michael’s Summer (St. Michael’s day begins on Sept 29th)
  • Much of Eastern Europe and Belgium: “Old Ladies’ summer” (named after the white spiders found during such a warm period – thought to be witches in spider form).
  • Bulgaria, Belgium and Hungary: “Gypsy Summer”
  • Sweden: Brittsommar (October 7th is Britta day in Sweden.
  • Germany: “Goldener Oktober” (speaks for itself).

 

 

 

In all of the above, autumnal warmth cannot be described as an “Indian Summer” (or “St.Martin’s/St. Michael’s/ Old Ladies’ Summer) unless it falls in Autumn – i.e. not before the fourth week of September has started and we’ve had at least one killing frost. Generally speaking, “Indian Summers” occur in October.

 

We’ve sorrrrt of approached one frost late last week (but no-one suffered from anything like a killing frost) and we’ve only jussssst begun September – so…. no. This is not and never could be described as an “Indian Summer”.

 

Once, when I was a baker, I took myself camping and surfing on the north Devon coast in the last week of September (the only week available for me to take off as leave that year). It must have been about ten years ago (before I got with my wife, Anna). My fellow bakers (and manager at the time) scoffed at me for “not going abroad” but I didn’t see a cloud all week, the daily temperature reached 28c/82f every day and I returned from Devon in the first week of October, looking like I’d been to the Med for a month.

Now THAT’S an Indian Summer!

 

Yes, I know that the Met Office (and most of us, let’s be frank) have the autumn months down as September, October and November…, but I guess that’s another reason why we probably shouldn’t.

 

Autumn doesn’t begin for another two and half weeks.

 

Parliament might have reconvened, the schools might be open for the new year butttt….we are still in summer.

 

So all we are experiencing is a nice, warm, sunny, settled period of late summer weather. Nothing “Indian”, “saintly” nor indeed “old lady-like” about it.

 

That said, if you really are desperate to have an Indian or St.Michael’s summer…  pop down to M&S with a bottle of San Miguel in your hand and a feathered Sioux war bonnet on your head…. and set up camp in the swimwear section.

 

We’ve all been there eh?

 

(Ok. Just me then).

 

 

 

Footnote: I do realise that anybody reading this from the good ol' U.S.of A. won't have the foggiest what "the foggiest" means or for that matter what I'm on about when I write about "M&S", "St.Michaels" etc...   (I do apologise, its a British thing).

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Late summer warmth https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/an-indian-summer-in-marks-and-spencers Tue, 04 Sep 2012 15:43:04 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 28 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-28 Because I thought I'd continue "Operation noctua" for a wee while (whilst owls are still visible) and because there's been a bit of harvesting (and sowing by the look of it) at the farm over the last two weeks (meaning owls have been a bit hard to come by) I've reset the trailcamera on one of their favourite barns this week.

The trailcamera has been in place for a few days and I hope to keep it there until the end of the week (I know the weather is set pretty fair for at least a week or so, maybe two).

I've been up to check the owls two or three times this week - and the situation is the same as it has been for a while - each time I go up, I see two owls (at least one young and at least one adult - I can't tell if the birds are the same individuals each time I go up there so all four owls could still be on site for all I know).

The fields have fallen quiet again I think, after the recent flurry of activity - so it will be interesting to see if I have any HD footage when I pick up the trailcamera at the end of week 29 - I hope it's still there and it's recorded a little something for me.... but no clips this week (gone) as the camera was being replaced at the time...

Fingers crossed for a good report at the end of week 29 eh?

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-28 Mon, 03 Sep 2012 13:12:14 GMT
The last of the best? Part 2. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/the-last-of-the-best-part-2 A little over a week ago (on the 23rd August 2012) I described here, how I thought I'd seen the last of my favourite birds of all this year (the best).

With a chill in the air on Friday morning and leaves starting to turn yellow (and drop in some cases) - yep, I thought that was it.

But noooo..... I took an hour or so to myself (and the cr@pping hens and vomming cats) in the garden yesterday afternoon (Saturday 1st September) and as the mercury rose quite well in the afternoon - so did the buzzards (three over the garden, kites (ditto), dragonflies (two - a darter and a hawker of some kind) annnndd.... THREE more swifts!

Last year I saw my latest ever swift over the UK on September 3rd from exactly the same spot (in our garden) and I thought September swifts would not be repeated for me. But I managed it again yesterday and even got a very poor photo of one of them in the muggy, heavy skies above me yesterday.

Will there be any more I wonder? I know there are a few being reported from all over the country, but it does seem like I am the only one recording (and indeed reporting them) in Berkshire right now (and have been for a fortnight or so)....

Farewell my little, dark, screaming beauties - see you next year, when I shall have TWO swift boxes to tempt you down....

 

(Now.... I wonder if there'll be a part three to this post before long....?)

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/the-last-of-the-best-part-2 Sun, 02 Sep 2012 07:21:43 GMT
The longest end of year report you'll ever read. Put the kettle on! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/the-longest-end-of-year-report-youll-ever-read-put-the-kettle-on  

 

 

End of year wildlife report - our first year in our first (owned home).

 

 

I promised a first year report at the beginning of September 2012 – so here it is.

Please note I have concentrated on the house itself and gardens of course, and only briefly mentioned the surrounding areas which will be dealt with in a separate blog entry.

 

 

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Introduction.

 

Anna and I picked up the keys to our first (bought) home together on August 9th 2011 – our third wedding anniversary (exactly), but went on holiday to wonderful wild Turkey in that summer and didn’t actually move house until 1st September 2011.

We were moving from “Swift Half”, a lovely detached hundred-year old ramshackle house at the edge of southern Reading (eight and a half miles away due west as the crow flies) to a post-war (1953-built) semi-detached ex council town house with a very large back garden and countryside less than half a mile away from the house itself.

 

“Swift Half” had blue tits nesting in the rotten eaves, as well as house sparrows and of course my favourite bird of all, swifts each year (which I filmed and webcast for two years).

 

The garden was huge but very overgrown and played host to an old fox earth, a muntjac (once), a couple of hedgehogs, plenty of insect life (attracted by the honeysuckle and mature damson blossom) and of course damselflies, dragonflies, frogs and a large collection of palmate newts (potentially over a hundred) in the small pond.

 

Bird life was always good at “Swift Half”, with tits and finches all arriving for food – as well as daily hawks, omnipresent kites, the odd rare garden visitor such as a pied or grey wagtail, a family of great spotted woodpeckers, jays, a heron visiting the pond and the occasional buzzard / peregrine / egret overhead.  We even had a hawfinch visit once in the spring – a bird I’ve not seen before or since. Best of all though were the (already mentioned) nesting swifts for three months each year.

 

We also had lots of butterflies, woodmice, my favourite bees and wasps (blue mason bees and ruby-tailed wasps) and rats (not so sought after) so any new garden we were going to take on would have an awful lot to live up to….

 

Would it even compete with the incredible wildlife to be found at “Swift Half”?

Well…. I think it already has – and please read on to find out just why I think that…

 

 

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The location, garden itself and the lie of the land…

 

 

Our new house lies in an old council estate (now wholly privately owned – all the council houses were sold off in the 1990s) at the northern edge of a post-war town in Berkshire.

 

The area itself is very “standard”… not particularly affluent, (nor not so) and whilst the “delights” of the town are but a 15 minute walk away south, my real delights (real countryside) are probably closer to that, to our north – maybe ten minutes walk at the most.

 

The front garden of our new house is relatively small and south facing - in estate agent speak “laid mainly to lawn” (moss and red anthills I’d say instead) bordered by a low privet hedge with a large dead hornbeam threatening to lean onto the front corner of the house, and a ceanothus bush against the front side of our outbuildings (where most might have a garage perhaps).

 

We don’t have a drive (yet) and park on the road outside our house when we can (and parents aren’t picking up their snotty little screaming kids from the school opposite). The benefit from living opposite a school is that you are never overlooked in the evenings, or weekends or school holidays – so whilst some might say living by a school is noisy – I’d say the reverse is actually the truth, especially when all your neighbours are octogenarians (or pushing that way) – our garden is very, very peaceful when we are at home - a real sanctuary!

 

Open the side door (when we’ve unlocked it from the inside) – and you’ll walk through a side passageway,  pass two outbuildings on your left (full of fridges, golf clubs, tools etc…) and our back door (kitchen) to the right.

 

Then you’ll walk into the back garden proper. 40 feet wide and 110 feet long. Running north (looking from the house) but also facing south (as it slopes gently back down to the house from back of the garden to the house itself). So we have a north-pointing, south-facing garden to be exact…

 

The old lady that we bought the house from was clearly no gardener, and whilst the majority of the back garden was “laid to lawn” (thick moss mainly), both borders were horrendously overgrown with woody shrubs and rambling roses that has been left for over fifty years (shattering the cheap panel fences on both sides).

 

At the back of the back garden (at the top end or northern end) is situated a row of brick garages – although all you see from the garden is a brick wall with garage roofs on top. These garages were completely covered with up to 15 foot of overgrown woody shrubs again when we moved in – so much so that we were “missing” 600 square feet of garden when we moved in - a bigger area than most people’s gardens in totality!

 

The rear garden has a decrepit “lean to” by the house and outbuildings and several mature trees  - three large leylandii and a large hybrid poplar dominate the garden, but there are also other trees and shrubs including a nice photinia, a gnarled apple tree, a flowering cherry (two in fact) and several ash and damson trees.

 

The garden certainly had potential when we moved in – it just needed a little, no… a LOT of TLC and thought if we were to make it secure, neat(ish) and wildlife friendly.

 

 

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The work we’ve done in the garden throughout the first year.

 

I spent the winter designing and building a “swift palace” in the attic of our new home (drilling through the wall of the attic to give any swifts access to the attic itself, as I knew I’d really miss our nesting swifts since moving from “Swift Half”. More on this in the wildlife report below…

 

Because of the lie of the land (above) a south facing garden down to the house, because it has become clear that there’s plenty of flint and rubble under the heavy clay soil and because of the fact that our “soakaway” which flooded repetitively in the autumn of 2011 was not a soakaway at all, but a broken and un-mapped surface water drain, our first job in the garden was to fix the drains.

 

A lot of the bottom of the garden was dug up with a mini digger shortly after moving in (in a wet October) and this damaged the lawn for most of the year – in fact for a few months we had no option to cover a third of our lawn with orange plastic builders’ fencing to prevent us or our hens damaging the lawn even more..

 

We also replaced the leaking gutters, soffits and fascias, and in doing so, had no option but to destroy at least one large wasp nest and several squirrel winter dreys (no problem with that – I am no grey squirrel fan).

 

I took hand and power tools to the garden’s overgrown shrubbery and cut pretty-well everything down to the ground – twice.  I’ve always wanted my own wildlife garden and a garden populated by “old woman’s” lupins and roses really does nothing for wildlife (although she did have quite a lot of invasive yellow “golden rod” flowers which the bees adore – more on that later) – I needed to start afresh and give the saplings and struggling trees some air and light.

 

We’ve completely re-fenced the back garden in a nice brown larch (no panels – feather edged timber and arris rails) and in the process got our neighbours to severely trim back their half-century old rhododendrons and honeysuckle which had both smashed through the fence panels, encroached a good 6 feet into our garden and started to throttle our mock orange tree.

 

Sure, in the process of all this cutting down and neatening up we’ve lost a lot of cover  (the garden is a tiny bit less private than when we moved in , but it’s still incredibly private and quiet for the area)  -  but we can grow that back and unlike the previous owner of the property – manage it properly!

 

The main cutting back has been at the rear (top) of the back garden with bush after bush (horribly twisted and knotted up) cut down and roots taken up – back breaking work which has taken a lot of time this year   -  but as described earlier, we’ve gained a lot of land this way.

 

My old walking partner kindly built our hens a proper, full height hen run (so important to give poultry like hens height) in the spring of 2012 and this has been nicely situated in the very NW corner of the garden   - its back wall being the brick garage wall and it even has a clear roof to keep our birds dry.

As I type we have also just turfed and landscaped around the coop – the whole area was swamped in uncontrolled, untended, uncared-for climbers, ramblers and impenetrable bushes a few months ago.

 

We’ve also already planted some herbs, strawberries, sunflowers, wild flower mix, cornflowers, white valerian a buddleja and two oak trees (one very small given to us by my old walking partner - and one 7 foot sapling which has already produced two acorns).

 

I’ve mown half the lawn to Welwyn garden city (have you ever been there – the weirdest place I’ve ever visited in the UK!) standard  ½ inch length and kept the other half as a more “wild meadow” area (which turned into a sea of long rye, buttercups, self-heal, white clover and dandelions at various stages throughout the spring and summer).

 

I’ve now earmarked out a spot for a small pond (8 foot by 6 foot roughly) in the meadow (I miss my newts!) and I’ll try and get that in before the end of the year, so we can fill it with water-butt water over the winter and early spring.

 

 

So…. After a year of work in the garden (bear in mind my health has not been good this year and Anna’s not been involved in a lot of this work (for reasons that I hope to make obvious soon enough) we are left with a garden with far less foliage in – but MUCH more potential to turn it into a real wildlife haven (although we’ve hardly been short of wildlife in the garden already, as you can read below…)

 

 

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Weather at our new house over the last year – a summary.

 

After a relatively dry summer, significant rain came in the autumn – filling our newly installed water butts and flooding us a few times before we carried out necessary surface water drainage works.

 

Then followed a dry, relatively warm winter, with just one or two nights of any significant snow at all in early February (which hung around for the best part of a week due to a cold snap where daytime temperatures struggled to get above 0c for a few days).

February soon warmed up significantly though.

 

March came and remained hot, sunny and dry throughout the entire month. Because of a distinct lack of rain over the past two years (not sunny so much as just not a lot of replenishing rain during winters) water companies nationwide imposed hosepipe bans for the spring and early summer of 2012.

Of course, as soon as the water companies had banned the use of hosepipes, it rained constantly for the next three months (pretty well) making the three month period of April, May and June 2012 the wettest three month period since records began.

 

The last week in May 2012 was hot and sunny to be fair, but from early April to mid July, the pattern was one of rain at Atlantic low pressure after low pressure being whipped over the middle of England by an unseasonably* southern tracking jet stream.

*I put this asterisk by the word “unseasonable” as more and more these days (in the past few years) the northern Atlantic jet stream does seem to slip far further south than was ever the norm and sits over southern UK. Some climatologists regard this as an inevitable consequence of climate change – but that has yet to be categorically proven.

 

As the schools broke up for the summer holidays in mid July 2012, the weather improved again finally and we got (in the main) a few pretty settled, warm weeks with more sun than rain over the SE of England and temperatures again reaching 30c from time to time.

 

 

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Wildlife highlights (taken from my daily records)

in the garden – (generally by scientific class).

 

NB. These are just recorded highlights taken from my spreadsheet record – It’s fair to say I’ve not been in the best health for much of the year and owing to a very wet spring, I’ve not been out and about in the garden nearly as much as I’d have thought – so these highlights represent a fraction of what actually is present I’m sure…

 

 

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Insects, spiders and other invertebrates

 

Considering we’ve pretty well cut down all the old, throttled shrubs and most of the flowering plants in the garden since moving in, leaving just the mature trees, a few flowers and the lawn, we’ve not done too badly for insects.

 

Red admirals, speckled woods and large white butterflies were present from September 2011 (when we moved in) and we had to destroy at least one common wasp nest in the soffits in order to get the house re-guttered.

Wasps (queen wasps) were present until November in the garden and the red admirals to a similar time of year.

 

There’s been at least one hornet (probably two) fly through the garden last autumn (I’m unreliably told they nested next door) and a few shieldbugs spotted (mainly when I cut back all the shrubs at the back of the garden) including green shieldbugs, a squash bug and a hawthorn shieldbug - surprising as there are no nettles, no docks and no hawthorn in the garden as I type.

 

The first moth highlight of the first year came in our first month here – a silver Y moth, attracted by our side passage light at night – and we’ve had a few more silver Y’s lured by the moff trap in late summer.

 

Ladybirds have been thin on the ground this year – but we’ve had plenty of seven spot ladybirds (which love the ceanothus) and quite a few harlequins.

 

There are many anthills (red ants and black ants) in the front and rear garden which the green woodpeckers enjoyed before we started 2012 and our first bee highlight came on Anna’s birthday in 2011 – a queen buff-tailed bumblebee patrolling the borders (must have been a warm boxing day in 2011!). She patrolled the garden throughout the Christmas and New Year holiday…

 

Right at the end of February, as the weather turned very warm (over 20c in February is some temperature) and we got our first sightings of three more bumblebee queens  -  white tailed bumblebee, red-tailed bumblebee and tree bumblebees, which swarmed all over the ceanothus when it flowered. I assume the tree bees nested pretty close to the house, but I never saw the nest itself.

 

Also in very late February, the hibernating seven spot ladybirds “woke up” and began mating and we got our first and second moff highlight record of 2012 – a grey shoulder knot (emerging from hibernation) and a dotted border moth in our side passage (attracted by the light there – I hadn’t used the moff trap by then).

 

The red-tailed bumblebees enjoyed our March crocuses and our first queen wasp of 2012 appeared in the first week of a hot, sunny March.

 

March also brought our first Hebrew character moth (side passage light again) which our new kittens loved chasing around the garden – poor moff!

 

On 9th March, after almost two weeks of hot, sunny weather, I set up the battered moff trap and immediately caught more Hebrew characters and common quakers in the newly erected chicken run (to protect the moffs from our cats).

 

The first butterfly of the new year (2012) arrived in the middle of March, a comma, which was joined a day later by the first brassy mining bees and small leafcutter bee, in the very warm, sunny March.

 

Red admirals were not long behind the commas, with the first drone fly and the first tawny mining bees – beautiful to find, such striking bees.

 

The first brimstone butterfly of 2012, the first (male) feather-footed flower bee and the first bee-flies all appeared the last week of March 2012 as did the first tiny zebra spider, the first cabbage white and the first orange tips – these beautiful butterflies would dominate the garden for some time in the warm, sunny early spring.

 

On the 1st April we got our first (of many) holly blue butterflies and our first female (black) feather-footed flower bee, which our boisterous male tom kitten, a Bengal called “Arrack” quickly killed and ate.

 

The first (of many) honey bees arrived in the first week of April 2012, as did the first (of many) speckled woods.

 

In the middle of April (well into the turned, rainy, cool weather) the first and only recorded nomadic bee was seen (Marsham’s nomadic bee) as was the first yellow-legged mining bee plus my first ever garden cream spot ladybird (something I never saw at “Swift Half”).

 

By May, the tree bumblebees were all over the rampant ceanothus blossom and the first of the Brimstone moths were being caught in the moff trap, on the rare dry nights and the first of the fourteen spot ladybirds were making their presence known to me.

 

At the end of May, as the weather suddenly turned very hot indeed (and very sultry to boot), stag beetles both male and female erupted from the rotten wood buried in the garden -  a real treat to see and present in the air and on the ground for a few weeks.

 

It was during this week also that our first (and only as I write) swarm of relocating honey bees moved slowly through the garden to disappear down the road and set up home somewhere unknown to me – quite a sight and sound (thousands of bees all on the move together).

 

This week of hot, sultry weather also brought the first ruby-tailed wasps to my attention, another hornet, my first ever “urban” jumping spider, the first mint moth and the first unidentified dragonfly (very possibly a common darter).

 

It wasn’t until early July that I saw my first common carder bee, checking out our “left meadow” and sown meadow” and my first ever “yellow-faced nectar bees” doing the same.

 

On the 20th of July as the weather became sultry again after a few more weeks of cool rain, we had our first flying ant day – inside the house! (They had nested in the sitting room window frame!)

 

At the end of July, when temperatures nearly exceeded 35c, I set the moff trap up again and caught my first Swallowtail moth at our new house, which was joined by our first (of many) scalloped oaks during the warm nights.

 

During the hot days at the end of July we had our first ever (garden) Meadow brown butterflies as well as our first gatekeepers.

 

Right at the end of July, the garden played host to our first “king of hoverflies” (Volucella zonaria) and it wasn’t until the second week of August (months later than I would expect) that I caught sight of our first peacock butterfly in the garden.

 

By August, the weather had become a little more settled and the honeybees and striped drone flies were swarming all over the the remaining golden rod.

It was at this time that we started to get visited (every day) by large dragonflies, including one female emperor dragonfly (which Arrack caught and killed again), migrant hawkers (I think) and common darters – which seemed to love to hawk around our midgey garden.

In fact the midges were so numerous in the more humid evenings that the air seemed to whine with their sheer numbers!

 

Come the middle of August and my first ever Splayed deer fly appeared in the garden and attacked me as I mowed the grass.

 

At the middle- end of the month I had replaced the bulb to the moth trap and set it up again in the coop for a few nights.

This produced an Old lady moth, orange swift moths, a knotgrass, a beautiful carpet moth, dozens of brimstone moths and a few broad-bordered yellow underwings amongst others.

 

Finally, right at the end of our first recorded 12 months at our (not so) new house, I saw a nice robber fly on the ageing sunflowers and was startled to discover a large black-bodied, green-fanged Mediterranean tube spider (Segestria florentina) living in our side passageway ceiling, we also had my first male oak bush cricket spend the night on our landing ceiling and a young(ish) woodlouse spider crawled along our bedroom skirting board on its futile search for prey.

The woodlouse spider (like S.florentina, the Mediterranean tube spider also recorded at the house this year) is one of the very few spiders in the UK that do at least have the capability of biting humans should the need arise (if they are roughly handled by a ham-fisted human). The bites from both wouldn’t cause more than a little “injection pain” but it does seem that in our new gaff, we are attracting the more “bitey” of my spidey friends….!

 

 

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Amphibians and reptiles

 

As soon as Anna and I got the keys to our new abode (and I immediately ran through the house to explore the garden properly of course!) it was clear that we had an awful lot of common frogs hiding in the overgrown borders of the large garden.

 

What we didn’t know at the time was that there were (are still) two ponds in neighbouring gardens - one in the next garden to the east and one two gardens away to the west.

Between these ponds lay our untended old garden, full of cover and thick leaf litter, so I guess it should have come as no surprise that dozens and dozens of frogs lay in wait for ourselves plus of course our cats and hens to discover.

 

Frogs in fact were the first and most numerous animal to be reported on my “wildlife highlights spreadsheet” throughout our first year at the house (September 2011 to August 2012 inclusive) with over 50 entries. (50+ days). Frogs of all shapes and sizes.

 

Unfortunately many of these frogs were to die as a result of firstly our lovely original tom cat “Malu” (who sadly died very unexpectedly after choking on a kibble a couple of months after we moved in), then Yala (our original long-haired female cat) also three of our hens (“Conker”, “Trouble” and our original girl “Couven” who I had to despatch due to her failing health in the summer of 2012) and finally our two young Bengal kittens “Arrack” and “Elgin”.

 

Anyone reading this who keeps proper free-range hens will know that they are like little dinosaurs – and take great delight when finding frogs – before chasing each other round the garden and ripping the frog to bits.

 

The cats all like playing with helpless frogs of course also – many a time during the past 12 months I’ve got out of bed at dawn, to find a dead frog at the foot of the stairs or a kitten tossing a squealing live frog in the air in the sitting room.

 

We re-fenced the back garden in the summer of 2012 and found a load more wee froglets on the eastern border.

Right until the end of this first year, I found myself still rescuing tiny froglets from the kittens and Yala (who even brings frogs into the garden from over the garages, as a present for the kittens) and placing them very gently under the sheet of corrugated iron I have placed in a patch of thick vegetation and which I now use as my “amphi-home”.

 

Each time I water under the corrugated iron (frogs are not like toads – they need to keep their skin moist) I’m glad to say that they seem to appreciate being there (they stay there) and I’m hoping with a pond dug in before the end of 2012, very close to the “amphi-home”, the frogs will have somewhere else to hide and breed….

Of course I hope for newts with a pond also…

Let’s just hope the resident heron keeps away…!

 

As for reptiles, well…no surprise that I’ve seen none in the garden as I write, but now that I’ve provided a nice, warm, sheltered compost heap for them (connected to our neighbour’s slightly wilder heap with a snake tunnel under the fence) next to what will be the site for our new pond – I really hope for grass snakes and slow worms in the years ahead – well… I can dream can’t I?

 

 

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Birds

 

If I could have taken three bird species with me when we moved from “Swift Half” eight and a half miles due east, I’d have had not hesitated to say Swifts, Jays and Sparrowhawks.

Luckily all three were present at our new house at various times of our first twelve months there, although I haven’t managed to get the investigating swifts to nest yet (see below).

 

The first bird highlight record I have on my 12 month spreadsheet is of sparrowhawk – and we have at least one pair (both male and female) visiting us regularly (probably every day), thanks in the main to us feeding passerines at various times of the year and most of our octogenarian neighbours doing the same, also.

 

In the first few days of living in our new house I had also spied a couple of kestrels in the air around the house (though they weren’t to stick around).

It wasn’t long before I had heard jays in the locality (alarm calling from the school’s grounds).

 

In the first week of September 2011 I watched swallows and house martins all migrating south over the house after their breeding season in the UK and on 5th September 2012 I bore witness to my latest EVER swift in British skies – flying pretty slowly and quit high, due south again.

At the time, this was the latest ever swift I’ve seen in the UK by about four weeks – and an incredible and delightful surprise visitor, welcoming us to our new house after our holiday in wonderful Turkey when I thought I’d seen the last of the UK swifts of 2011!

I kidded myself that it was one of our breeding swifts from our old house coming to say goodbye and thanks (of course this was not the case!)

 

The swallow and martin migration continued throughout September (peaking at the end of the month with dozens of martins and swallows heading south over the house in large flocks) and by that time I’d also heard green woodpeckers yaffling in the large trees surrounding the very old recreation ground a few hundred yards north of the garden (along with the occasional hoot or scream of a tawny owl or two at dawn at the same location), and mistle thrushes cackling in the large fir trees outside the school opposite the house.

 

It was September when it first became obvious that our town (and environs) played host to a healthy population of rose-ringed parakeets – which were to enter our garden before too long, to feed from the apple tree (apples and bird feeders) in several afternoons throughout our first twelve months and it also became obvious that red kites, though not as numerous as over “Swift Half” were pretty-well daily visitors over the garden.

 

As well as kites, I heard buzzards mewing in the air occasionally and saw the first buzzard from the garden in the middle of September. I continued to see buzzards throughout the year, with up to three soaring above the house once, but these sights (of buzzard/s) were not particularly common and often limited to warm sunny days with nice thermals. If we have a warmer, sunnier 2013 I would expect to see more buzzards from the garden I guess.

 

By early October the local rooftop jackdaws had become obvious to me as permanent members of the locality and I was hearing a chiffchaff (overwintering I assume) singing (strange?) in a neighbours’ garden to the east.

 

On 11th October during the afternoon I witnessed the last of the hirundines (swallows) pass south over the house on their way back to Africa.

I wouldn’t see them again for 6 months or so – and on that very day (or night to be exact… on the 11th October 2011) a few hours after I watched our last swallows leave, I heard our first winter visitors arrive – the definite night time tseep of a migrating redwing. I am not sure, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen swallows leave the UK on one day and that very night hear redwings arrive.

 

11th October marked the start of the redwing influx and over the next few nights I began to hear dozens of these pretty wee thrushes arrive at night.

 

Malu (our sadly departed tom cat) kindly dispatched a hen blackbird in the middle of October, to make way for the arriving winter thrushes…

 

A handful of seemingly very tame robins were making their presence known in the garden by October (I have a feeling the old lady we bought the house from hand-fed them) and gaggles of grey geese  and Canada geese passed over just after dark most night, all heading north a mile or two, to their overnight roosting fields.

 

The last two weeks of October brought our first angry flock of magpies which were very upset with our resident hawk – a beautiful chestnut-coloured female sparrowhawk - certainly the most stunning female hawk I’ve ever seen.

 

The last two weeks of October also brought me my first garden record of a female great spotted woodpecker, “chipping” from one of our old damson trees, ‘though I had heard these piebald woodpeckers for some time in the ‘hood.

 

At the end of October (a warm month dry month in the end, which turned very wet (though still warm) at its close) the female hawk killed a town pigeon in next door’s garden (our neighbours feed the town pigeons every day, which gather on their roof invariably – good for hawk watching!) and Malu killed an older hen blackbird – almost his swansong in actual fact – but not quite…

 

When October turned into November I had decided to lure our local jays into the garden with their old favourites - monkey nuts – and within a day, both jays and magpies (unfortunately) were taking the bait (and burying them all over the gardens).

 

Collared doves started to appear in the garden about this time (ghastly things) and in the first week of November I recorded our first delightful wee coal tit – which I was soon to discover was a pair (of tits) – really good news (probably my favourite of the “true tits”).

 

Chaffinches and blue tits came to my attention as “wildlife highlights” in early November (though they’d been present since we moved in to be fair) and on Saturday 12th November, our beloved Malu monster (our longish-haired famous tom cat (I’d become quite well known in photography circles since my photo of cat and blackbird in which Malu’s eyes stole the show)) gave his last present to all of birdkind.

 

It was on this day that a local female hawk took one of the group of starlings from our and next doors’ feeders and held it under its talons outside our conservatory. Malu immediately (rather foolishly I suppose) ran towards the hawk, which flew off – as did its relieved prey, the starling, which the sparrowhawk left behind.

Our dear Malu’s last act of note therefore was to save a starling from being plucked alive by one of the local hawks…

 

The next day, on Sunday 13th November, Malu died in seconds (suffocated) after getting a kibble stuck at the bottom of his windpipe (right at the junction of the trachea) - a terrible blow for both Anna and myself after two years of bad personal news for us both, during which “Malu monster” was a real source of comfort, especially to Anna.

 

Our first visiting fieldfare were seen on the 15th November – these migrating flocks became quite a common sight over the garden during the winter – large rattling thrushes with white underarms. Very often they used the large ash at the end of the garden to perch, group and take stock.

 

By the third week of November, both Anna and I had noticed our first goldfinch on the sunflower hearts feeder – a singular bird at first, but this wouldn’t last long.

 

As the weather grew colder and wetter at the start of December, small groups of goldfinches squabbled over our feeder, the local rooftop jackdaws became a little bolder and started to take fat from our hanging coconuts and there was evidence of another female hawk kill (this time a collared dove) under our apple tree.

 

Our first wren became apparent in the first week of December – skulking around under the feeders and by the end of the second week of December, our first long-tailed tits and first goldcrest (all flitting about near the feeders and also in the large conifer) were nice garden highlights to record.

 

December was a pretty wet month (very wet at times) and on the 11th of December we picked up our two new kittens (“Arrack” and “Elgin”) to replace poor “Malu” and give “Yala” some company.

A combination of having a very level-headed older cat and a lot of effort from myself and Anna – breaking the new cats in over a good month meant we avoided a lot of the cat introduction issues – in fact because of our slowly slowly take on the introductions, we had no issues at all to be fair – Yala was very interested in her new house mates, and chose to sleep with them when all barriers were eventually removed.

 

Come the middle of a wet, warm December and we were treated to the sight of our first PAIR of green woodpeckers (both male and female) anting in the garden on separate days. I had seen evidence of this behaviour in the lawn in the autumn (and had heard green woodpeckers around the ‘hood) but this was proof positive that we had anting green woodpeckers in the garden – lovely to see and something we never had at “Swift Half”.

 

By the start of January, whilst the weather was still warm, clearly the days were short and large winter flocks of long-tailed tits became obvious in the garden and I saw my first grey heron fly over the garden around this time also.

 

By the third weekend of January I had seen our first winter thrushes (both redwing AND fieldfare alight in our garden itself – all in the prunus tree at the very back of the garden – our apple tree at the front of the garden had produced an awful lot of red apples in its good year so I assume they were after those hundreds of fruit).  Both species we didn’t have at “Swift Half” so this was a nice surprise.

 

Our first (male) blackcap appeared in the honeysuckle in the first week of February and the local collared doves began to mate pretty-well incessantly at this time also (like pigeons and doves tend to do, almost all year round).

 

The redwing never seemed to feed on our dropped apples though – but by the middle of February we had at least one fieldfare (that I saw anyway) eating apples from our lawn.

This coincided EXACTLY with our first snows of any significance – which covered everything with a couple of inches of snow which sat around for a while due to day time subzero temperatures.

 

The middle of February also brought us another surprise visitor, a large rook (definitely a rook, not a carrion crow) that tended to hang around our garden and our eastern neighbours’ gardens – I still have no idea why this bird, primarily a flocking crow of open countryside, hung about on its own in a relatively suburban area?!

 

A herring gull (first for the garden and not at “Swift half” either) alighted on our television aerial in mid February and within a few minutes of our eastern neighbours (that’s our neighbours to the east and not Mr.and Mrs.Chang from Singapore you understand!) putting up their north-facing blue tit box on the wall of their house (attached to ours), two blue tits were investigating! (I found out much later in the year that our cats killed all the young blue tits from this nestbox on the day they fledged – I’m not sure whether they got them all, but certainly they had more than one… ).

 

Right at the end of February I saw two fieldfares chase each other around our garden (one definitely had the “dibs” on our apples) and Yala caught a great tit in our neighbour’s garden which she gave to the kittens as a plaything. She certainly seemed to be acting as their “mother” (of sorts).

 

As February turned into March and the weather grew very warm (for the time of year) magpies started to build their domed nests in tall bare trees visible from the garden and the redwings started to migrate back to Scandinavia on the last night of February - the 29th as it was a leap year - the “tseeping” of night-migrating thrushes could be heard throughout March until the third April when I assume they had pretty-well all gone by then.

 

BY the middle of March, a pair of woodpigeons had begun to nest in the large conifer in the garden (though they eventually were to be put off by “Arrack” climbing that tree and disturbing their efforts!

 

Starlings were also beginning to nest in the front soffits though I put them off by blocking their entrance hole with tightly squashed chicken wire - we were looking to replace the rotten gutters, soffits and fascias after all, so this was a necessary tactic to try and get the starlings to expend energy nesting elsewhere rather than waste a lot of energy nesting in a site already ear-marked for destruction.

 

By the middle of March (the 15th to be exact) I had a day when I hadn’t seen or heard fieldfares in or above the garden for the first time in exactly four months – they had departed maybe a couple of weeks earlier than the latter redwings.

The middle of March saw a pair of blackbirds begin to attempt to nest in our photinia bush (doomed I’m afraid with three cats around) and next door’s blue tits start to nest properly in their wee nest box.

 

Unfortunately (I suppose) the cock blackbird was to meet its maker at the feet of our large female hawk before the nest properly got underway and I didn’t see any blackbirds attempt to nest in the garden again.

 

The hot, sunny March meant good thermals and it became the best month of the year (by far!) to watch buzzards (often in pairs or trios) soaring in the blue skies above our garden.

 

On April 6th (in the first month of miserable weather) a pair of robins began to nest in my old green nest box which I’d nailed to the old damson tree in the garden and ensured it was covered in some of the thick ivy which climbed up the trunk of the tree.

Over a period of five days the hen laid five eggs (one per day) and by my birthday, she was sitting on five eggs – which hatched two weeks later and we had a family of growing robins in our tree – very nice!

 

Our joy lasted only four days though as at the grand old age of 4 days, (ten days before they were due to fledge) whilst Anna and I were at work, an unseen predator (almost certainly avian in nature due to the lack of obvious disturbance of the nest) took all five hatchlings – I suspect a corvid (jay or magpie) or possibly a woodpecker or a hawk. At a push I suppose one of our (bastard) grey squirrels could have been the culprit – I guess I’ll never know.

 

On the 27th April I saw my first house martins of the year above the house, heading west and also my first of my favourite birds of all, high above the house at dusk – my beautiful, dark, screaming devil birds - the SWIFTS!

 

I had carefully built my favourite birds a home in our attic (with entrance hole drilled through the attic wall) to try and attract these fantastic birds to nest with us, as they had at “Swift Half” for three years before we moved.

 

Unfortunately I (nor the swifts) had any idea that 2012 would be bordering on catastrophic for them in terms of breeding success.

 

As they arrived at the end of April, there was nothing but incessant rain in the air.

I saw my first swifts on the 27th April as I’ve written above, but it was almost two whole weeks later when I saw the next lot. IT wasn’t until 12th May when the rains stopped for a day or two that a good number of swifts began arriving - joined by two swallows (quite rare to see these from the garden this year).

 

By the middle of May in the last few years, our swifts were already breeding – but in 2012 they’d hardly arrived and when they did, all they found were cool temperatures, driving rain, high winds and hardly any food at all.

Basically, the whole of April, three weeks of May, the whole of June and half of July were cold and wet with high winds.

 

Of course, the weather did occasionally, briefly pick up from time to time, briefly, and I watched parties of swifts regularly hunt around our road and investigate my “swift attractor CD call” and gutters when the early morning weather did allow from 28th May, all spring and early summer until the end of June (although twice in late July they “said goodbye”).

 

That said, it was no surprise at all to hear about large numbers of swifts migrating back to Africa at the end of May, after failed breeding attempts.

2012 will certainly be the most terrible year I can remember for swifts (worse than even 2007 for example) which this superb bird will really struggle to recover from (if it isnt struggling enough already!).

I can only desperately hope for better conditions next year and enough warmth and light for a couple of swifts that investigated our gaff this year – to actually nest here next year!

 

In the second week of May I was lucky enough to see the first of the hobbies arrive – both flying north at speed.

 

In the second and third weeks of May the local young starlings had erupted en masse from their nests (have you noticed how they all appear at once?!) and our kittens killed at least one poor-flyer – their first avian kills at about 7 months old.

 

Bird highlights for the rest of the “summer” were restricted to my swift sightings (or no sightings) and it became clear that for the last ten days of July, my favourite birds were all heading home (if they hadn’t gone already).

 

It was desperately unfortunate that just as summer effectively started (middle of July for a few weeks) most swifts were leaving, having failed to breed at all.

Large(ish) numbers of screaming swifts could be heard and seen high above the house at dusk in the last two weeks of July – all heading south and as I write, I finally saw my (probable) last two swifts of the year, both together, at height, flying south over the house at around 1700hrs BST on August 23rd, in darkening, cloudy skies pre-empting the rain forecast for Reading festival and August Bank Holiday weekend.

As I said, if I hope for one thing in our second year at our house, I hope for a better year for swifts and a couple of nesters would make me a very happy boy!

The final (new or at least first) bird species I saw (or more properly – heard) in our garden was a pair of bullfinches at the end of our first 12 months at our new gaff. I was typing away at the computer like I am now – and the unmistakeable (to me anyway) “pyoo… pyoo” of a pair of bullfinches wafted its way through the open window to me. I saw them not (they didn’t stay long) but I think they were calling from our biggest conifer – anyway… a new species for the garden and another species that I never recorded at “Swift Half”.

 

 

 

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Mammals

 

We had foxes regularly in the garden at “Swift Half”, but as we keep hens, that was one garden mammal I might have appreciated leaving behind at our old place.

Of course, foxes being foxes that was probably never going to be the case and lo, so it transpired.

 

We had already introduced ourselves to our new (human) neighbours by the time we moved in properly at the start of September 2011 – and informed them that we kept (quiet, clean!) hens. To a man (and woman) they all said: “Well you’ll have to be careful of the local foxes”, so we knew what was in store I guess.

 

Within a fortnight of us moving in, I found a ripe red fox turd (black cherry) on the front lawn and heard two young foxes bickering playfully in the school grounds opposite the house.

 

At the start of our second month at the house, I had seen a fox race through our back garden after dark as I supped a tea on the back lawn.

 

All through October 2011 I set the trail camera in the garden with a little bait occasionally (a suspended frankfurter) and got a few clips of at least one fox entering and exiting the garden.

 

Rather like the foxes at “Swift Half” though, our new foxes did not seem bothered about the hens.

Strange, but I guess that urban foxes (or semi-urban foxes in our case) are pretty well fed – they don’t have to resort to tunnelling under chicken runs for a meal. Well… I hope that’s the case anyway!

 

The local vixens began their winter mating screams on 6th January 2012 and I’m pretty sure all the local foxes have bred successfully this season.

 

More interested in the hens seemed to be the omnipresent woodmice.

We have a feed bin in which we store some hen basics including purple gentian spray, worming powder, some bedding and of course sacks of layer pellets (staple food) and treats (mealworm bird seed  - more commonly given to wild birds).

 

Woodmice found this stash within a month of us moving in and whilst the only woodmice I saw for months at the house were unfortunate individuals brought in by the cats (and then eaten by the hens very often), I did catch a lucky glimpse of one bold mouse in daylight hours at the end of July 2012.

 

This particular mouse was stealing spilled feed from the roof of the coop, (over three feet from the ground), inside the large chicken run my old neighbour and I built to house the much smaller coop.

As soon as I turned up, the wee mouse legged it – but I bet its there most nights - for in the new chicken run no cat can get…. Clever little mouse!

 

We had no grey squirrels for the three years that we lived at “Swift Half” (although I hear they are there now that we’ve left) but we have had no such similar luck at our new place.

 

I am told that grey squirrels used to build winter dreys in the old wooden soffits at our house – and after replacing the rotting wooden soffits with shiny new plastic jobbies, the nesting material that fell out of the old ones suggested that indeed was the case.

 

I know we’ve had at least six different individual squirrels in the garden since we moved in – one even was cheeky enough to start building a summer drey in our biggest, thickest, most ivy-clad damson tree, but we do have squirrel proof feeders, our cats love chasing them and touch wood, we’ve not seen a squirrel actually in the garden for a couple of months now.

 I have absolutely no idea how that’s happened (I guess the cats help as does the fact that I (unlike our neighbours) haven’t fed the garden birds since last winter) but its good news!

 

I still hear the occasional grey squirrel making its angry hissing noise from nearby big trees – but I think and hope we are squirrel free now – at least for a few months!

 

The only other type of mammal (I think!) we’ve recorded in the garden in our first twelve months at the house has been bats – I’m really please by that.

 

I knew that the primary school opposite the house had a bat survey carried out in the spring of 2011 (a mandatory procedure for the school when it announced that it wanted to carry out some building work on site) and on reading the report (before we moved in) I had gleaned the knowledge that common pipistrelles and soprano pipistrelles were present in the area.

 

On our second night after moving in, Anna and I saw two pipistrelles hunting very low over the back garden – in deliberate hawking circles. It was as if they knew our garden was a good hunting ground (that will be the midges and moffs at that point, over quite damp, untended gardens!)

 

I didn’t record these bats as highlights for long though and after a month of seeing them in the garden, they disappeared from my “wildlife radar” until a hot, sunny March (13th) woke them from their winter slumbers – and they appeared again in the garden.

 

As I’ve written before in this lonnnng report, the weather this spring and some of the summer has been pretty poor – and bats were pretty rare sights in the garden at dusk until the weather improved considerably at the end of July.

 

It was at this time (the last day of July to be exact) that I also saw something I hadn’t seen since I was 16 years old in the highlands of Scotland - a (large) noctule bat flying very characteristically high and straight over the garden – a wonderful sight and something we certainly didn’t see at “Swift Half” (though to be fair, we did have the view of a white bat from our old place – much rarer than noctules!

 

During the twelfth month (August 2012) I regularly watched at least one, often two pipistrelles hunting very low over the garden (a foot or two above the grass often!) and decided to try to grab a photo or two, to see if I could tell whether they were soprano pipistrelles, common pipistrelles or something else.

 

Both bats seemed to be roosting to the north of the garden (not in our roof or outbuildings – but I’d already checked that before fitting new gutters, soffits and fascias).

 

I’ve always wondered where bats roost and I guess (a huge guess mind) that these two pips roost in the old, thick trees which line the old recreation ground a few hundred yards from our house, due north (where I also hear the owls and green woodpeckers).

That might make sense, but to be fair, they could be roosting in the old garages which border our garden to the north – there’s certainly access for them under the corrugated iron roofs and the garages are hardly used at all. That might be a better guess?

 

It was great fun to watch the bats around dusk during August 2012.

I noted with interest that on catching a large prey item such as a moff, the bats would slow down markedly after getting the prey in their gobs – almost to the point of hovering whilst they masticated the unfortunate insect.

 

I did get a few photographs during August and because of their quite dark faces I think (though I’m not sure as their fur is quite light in colour) that these are common pipistrelles.

 

Without a bat detector (too expensive) I will just have to get better photographs of our bats’ tragi and faces to ascertain for sure that they are 45kHz common pips rather than 55kHz sopranos…

 

I guess there are shrews and the odd vole in the garden (something to loom forward to seeing over the coming years) and I’ve dug hedgehog holes under the fences (especially at the rear of the garden where our nearest neighbours have pretty wild gardens) – I’d love to have a hog or two bumbling around the garden, that’s for sure. I can hope….!

 

 

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Plants and fungi

 

This may well be the strangest section in this year report as a lot of what I write about here will be reports of our garden plants (not particularly wild), buy hey ho – this is for my records in the main so might provide me interest by comparison over the years ahead.

 

Many of my “wildlife highlights” which I recorded on a giant spreadsheet throughout the twelve months came from the animal kingdom in the main  - kingdom plantae and of course the strange fungi (midway between animals and plants) even less so. I did record a few of these highlights though – and will endeavour to run through a choice few for my records below.

 

 

I’ve described the plants, shrubs, flowers and trees we found at our new house at the start of this ridiculously long year report and I’ll reiterate again, that we have cut right back most of these plants and shrubs.

 

We’ve taken quite a few out of the ground to be exact, but we’ve left the more mature trees, the yellow bee flowers and planted a couple of oak trees, a dozen sunflowers, a few herbs, a wildflower patch, a buddleja and many, many cornflowers.

Much MUCH more planting to follow in our second spring at the house I think!

 

First up and it’s fungi I want to mention.

The old lady who lived in a shoe, sorry, who we bought the house from, had cut down an old eucalyptus tree in the eastern border several years previously (and a willow in the back flower bed as it happens).

In both cases the work to remove the tree had not gone on underground – so in both cases we have been left with a rotten root system (and partial trunk) under the soil.

Not ideal you’d think and maybe not at all – if you’re not into looking at stag beetles and fungi!

 

Within three week of Anna and I moving in, hundreds and hundreds of clustered bonnets appeared overnight (quite lidddderally) on the rotten eucalyptus trunk and roots.

 

These clustered bonnets (“gurt” big groups of them) also appeared in the old compost heap (which we’ve now moved to turn into the herpe-home) and around the foot of the large, mature poplar tree at the rear of the garden.

 

Strange things these bonnets, they seem to virtually appear overnight, spore, die back, only to return en masse about ten days later.

This cycle lasted from the middle of September to the middle of November in 2011 – it will be interesting to see if the same thing happens this year (2012).

 

At the start of October 2011 a small group of glistening ink caps appeared under the dead tree in the front garden – these were to appear sporadically throughout the autumn also – but if you like fungi (as Anna and I do!) its always nice to have your own fungi in the garden – to let you know when to disappear on further-flung fungi forays in local damp woods!

 

The leaves on the trees (especially the poplar and apple) lasted much longer than I’d originally hoped for – into November if memory serves me right and the bumper crop of small red apples hung about on the apple tree for much of the autumn and indeed winter in a few dozen cases!

 

December was quite warm and because our front garden faces south (as does our back garden, even though it points north as described earlier), we even had a few daisies push through the warm lawn and flower in late December!

 

On 21st February 2012, as the wintry weathery was pushed away to reveal a hot sunny March to come, our first crocus flowers in the back garden lawn (of many, white and purple, planted by the previous owner obviously) appeared, to the delight of the queen bumblebees which found them within a day or two.

 

At the start of March (on the 2nd to be exact) the first of many daffodils pushed their way through the lawn also, in large clumps.

(Rather like the crocuses, its clear that the previous owner of the property liked her daffs and crocuses – I’ve never been keen on daffs personally – rubbery things and a horrible pale yellow colour to boot).

I may not be too keen on daffodils, but at least they act as harbingers of warmer, longer days when we’ve all had enough of bare trees and leaden skies!

Many of our daffodils came up “blind” this year (i.e. no flower heads) – I hear that was an issue nationwide in 2012, but I know not why.

 

On the 10th of March 2012 (well into the hot, sunny month), I noticed our first garden celandines and also the first showing of our hybrid poplar’s male catkins.

 

A day later and one of the repulsive “old woman’s flowers” (a purple garden primrose) flowered in the eastern border of the back garden. I hope I’ve dug that up now (or the fencers did). I am no fan of what I call “old woman’s gardens” – you know… full of huge, brightly-coloured roses, lupins, pansies and the like – give me as many anemophilous flowers as entomophilous for sure but leave out the bedding plants – that’s the stuff of Chelsea, not for me.

 

This purple monstrosity was joined by a few god-awful domesticated hyacinths by the middle of March – another thing to get rid of before spring 2013 if I have my way!

 

By the 18th of hot, sunny March, common dog violets started to appear in numbers in the front lawn (now THAT’S more like it!) and by the 23rd of the month, the first poplar leaves were unfurling on our largest tree – earlier than I expected and a brilliantly uplifting sight for me.

 

The first blossom of our largest cherry tree started to appear on the 23rd of March also (in what was to be a terrible year for blossom all over the country – we basically had none (or very very little) apple blossom for example) and next door’s sticky horse chestnut buds were appearing and a magnet to the eagle-eyed parakeets…

 

On the 27th of March our damson trees first managed to push through a few bit of weak blossom (we thought they were dead before that happened!) and on the 29th, some more old woman’s flowers (in this case a pink mini tulip) pushed their way through the increasingly warm, hard soil.

 

Even our gnarled old apple tree (which I thought traditionally flowered and “leaved” late) showed the first signs of leafing on the final day of March – a few days before the wet weather set in for a few months.

This might explain why the apple tree produced very little blossom and therefore about a fiftieth of the fruit it produced in 2011.

I’m told by my far more knowledgeable wife (in matters plant anyway!) that apple trees often have “years on” and “years off”. If that is the case (and my wife would know best for sure) then 2011 was an “apple on year” for sure (for our tree at least), whilst 2012 was an “off year”.

 

By the 4th April 2012, Anna and I had started to use our conservatory as “Plant nursery” (of sorts) and our many cornflowers and sunflowers had started to push their way through their potting compost.

 

Dandelions and cat's ear (Anna’s pet hate unfortunately) were much in evidence in the front garden in April, which the mining and sweat bees loved and by the 20th April, the blue ceanothus started to flower at the front of the outbuildings.

 

On St.George’s day 2012 (23rd April), bang on time, a handful of large “St.George’s day mushrooms” appeared almost overnight around the old compost heap. They may well not return in 2013 as I’ve moved the heap.

 

A day later (24th April) the first (and pretty-well last) apple blossom appeared through the incessant rain.

 

By the middle of May (12th) our prunus tree had started to push through its first (green at this stage) cherries – there were to be quite a few fruit in the weeks ahead which the pigeons seemed to relish – and on that same day (12th May) I took the brief opportunity (a dry day!) to mow the lawns for the first time in 2012!

 

Wild (I think) forget-me-nots flowered in the rear flower bed at the end of May, which mint moths seemed to enjoy (no mint in the garden at that time!) and by the end of May, the blue ceanothus had lost its flowers (and its tree bumblebees therefore) after a few short weeks (about three) of rampant activity on the very blue bush.

 

A month later (and after two more months worth of rain) and the heavily-scented mock orange (Philadelphus) in the back garden had blossomed magnificently. I’ve since had to cut that plant right back (for the fencing to happen) but I’m happy to say it lives on!

 

By 23rd June our flowers which we’d (Anna had to be honest) nurtured from seed in the conservatory since March and planted outside a month or so later had begun to flower with poppies and the first two cornflower heads appearing first.

 

Right at the end of wet, wet June (I’d not mown the grass in a fortnight or so) and we saw our first (wild) bird’s foot trefoil flowers in the front lawn and our first white clover flowers in the meadow part of the back lawn (I’d decided by then to leave half the back lawn as more of a “meadow” than a closely-cropped more formal garden lawn, which produced nice results throughout the flowering season.

Many, many buttercups appeared in this “meadow” part of the lawn also.

 

Come the 1st of July and this meadow was now full of white clover and purple “self heal” flowers – which the insects loved of course.

 

July moved slowly (and wetly) on and by the 5th our yellow garden loosestrife (horrible invasive old woman’s stuff of no interest to pollinating insects) had pretty well lost all its flowers after ten days of rampant flowering and getting hammered by rain!

I’ll certainly endeavour to replace these flowers with red valerian or something far more insect-friendly (though less spectacular I’m sure) for next year.

 

The third week of July saw summer arrive finally and as it did, our first sunflower burst out of its 8 foot high stem – we were to have about a dozen big sunflower heads throughout July and August – but none of them lasted more than a fortnight and soon drooped.

We’ll collect all the seeds of course, but I can say that our sunflower year has been very successful at our new house – unlike our old neighbours a few miles away to the west whose sunflowers were plagued by slugs and hardly flowered at all…

 

August came and our inherited “golden rod” blooms were at their best and covered in honeybees and drone flies. I know I shouldn’t keep golden rod (thanks to my good wildlife pal Jane for getting this flower identified for me by the way), but the bees adore it so much that I think I will.

 

Anna noticed that our wildflower meadow mix had now produced my preferred clover (wild pink clover) and that was targeted by our carder bees I’m glad to say, as the cornflowers, poppies and sunflowers all started to droop away pretty quickly.

 

 

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Wildlife we’ve gained since moving or that we’ve (temporarily?) lost

 

NB. This section contains only animals and fungi (things we can’t plant in the garden) There may be species I’ve missed, but not many I think.

 

 

Gained:

  • hornets
  • beautiful carpet moth
  • hawthorn shieldbugs,
  • red ants,
  • dotted border moths
  • “urban” jumping spiders
  • meadow brown butterflies
  • cream spot ladybirds
  • striped drone flies
  • splayed deer flies
  • Mediterranean tube spider
  • oak bush cricket
  • green woodpeckers
  • herring gull
  • jackdaws
  • fieldfares
  • clustered bonnet fungi
  • glistening ink cap fungi
  • St.George’s day mushrooms.
  • Common pipistrelles
  • Nesting robins
  • Rose-ringed parakeets
  • Grey shoulder knot moths
  • Developing stag beetles (as opposed to beetles that just dropped in once)
  • Nesting starlings
  • Tawny mining bees
  • robber fly
  • bullfinch pair (heard)
  • One noctule bat above garden!

 

 

 

 

(Temporarily?) lost:

  • nesting swifts (though they will soon I’m sure)
  • Palmate newts
  • hawfinch (though that was a one-off at “Swift Half” certainly).
  • hedgehogs (though I only saw them twice at “Swift Half”)
  • muntjac (though that was a one off at “Swift Half” also).
  • Pied wagtail
  • A few moth spp. including elephant hawkmoths and buff ermine moths (though I’ve hardly set my trap up yet at our new place).
  • Nesting blue tits at our house (though these are clearly visible from our house, but nesting next door)
  • Nesting house sparrows
  • Most pond wildlife (including broad-bodied chaser and black tailed skimmer dragonflies) (that will change after I put the pond in!)
  • Some butterfly spp (inc brown argus, painted lady and small copper (but this year was terrible for butterflies and I suspect none of the above were at “Swift Half” this year either).
  • blue mason bees (my favourite bee… but some drilling for them in the winter will get them here I’m sure)
  • Red Mason bees
  • chiffchaff (though I only saw that twice at “Swift Half”)
  • Rats (and I hope it stays that way!).

 

 

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Hopes for the next year

 

Now that we’ve destroyed all that we intend to destroy (pretty well) in the way of plants and foliage in the garden, we can start to build up a much more wildlife-friendly (but also user friendly) garden and stop peering at lupins, roses and pansies etc…

 

I’ll get the pond dug in before the autumn I hope, and landscape around as it I go – eventually ensuring that we have plenty of plants in and around the pond such as purple loosestrife, yellow flag iris, marsh marigolds, bulrushes and lilies.

 

The “herpe” and “amphi” homes I constructed in August 2012 are situated beneath the lilac and a large damson tree, at the edge of the long grass “meadow” in which the pond is located, so I’m hoping for great things from that.

With any luck lots of frogs and newts from the two nearby ponds, and maybe a grass snake or slow worm from next door’s old compost heap (I’ve provided snake tunnels to connect our compost heap and our neighbours).

 

With a new pond should come far more insect life and therefore our bats might increase in number as might our visiting birds, looking for a bath, a drink and maybe an insect snack or two.

 

As for boxes - well…. I’ll hope that next year, our swifts have a better year (weather-wise) than this year and take up residence in my attic swift box (HD camera already in place).

I’ll also put up an external box in the early spring – I am desperate (more than anything else) to have nesting swifts back with us, but am realistic enough to suggest that it maybe a year or five, even with favourable weather and a repeated decoy call to attract them in like this year, before we have my favourite birds of all nesting with us again…

 

The three passerine nest boxes in the garden will have to be better hidden and probably surrounded by chicken wire to prevent raptor / corvid / squirrel / cat attack. I may actually take them down next year and concentrate again on the pond, plants for insects and swift/bat boxes.

 

As for insects – well… now that Anna and I are learning more and more each day about flowers for insects, we’ll set to work asap in the new year providing lots of bee friendly plants and we’ll start by preparing the horrible soil with masses of local rotted horse manure and a mini digger.

 

I think we’re looking to grow a thick pyracantha or ceanothus hedge along the back wall and cover the western fence (at least) with clematis and / or hardier jasmine.

We’ll turn our “meadow” into a proper meadow full of wild flowers, grow plenty of flowering herbs along the eastern border and combine with buddeja and lavender.

We’ll ensure that our mock orange does well again – surrounded by red valerian if I get my way  - which would go someway to grabbing any wandering hummingbird hawkmoths and pull them into the garden.

Nothing for looks – all for the books (insects).

 

Dragonflies should increase markedly next year also, with a fresh pond in the garden, although it might be a year or three before we have adult damsels and dragons coming out of our pond after breeding.

 

I’m hoping to set up the moff trap much more next year (I’ve only used it a handful of times this year) to see what moffs we have in the garden.

What with the large poplar (and a few poplar saplings) I’m really hoping for a few poplar hawkmoths next year.

Maybe if I get a few ornamental tobacco plants in the ground and we finally get a Spanish plume summer (you know…. like the ones we used to have?!) then maybe I can even dream of a convolvulus hawk moff – or maybe that’s going a bit far?!

 

I’m proposing to start a permanent log pile in the western flowerbed also – to be constructed over a rotten eucalyptus stump which is already underground in situ and already holds big stag beetles.

This log pile might also go some way to keeping any jasmine or clematis root system shaded and moist also – something they both thrive on.

 

I’ll add to the mason bee holes in the back wall and provide more holes (smaller – for my favourite wee bees - the blue masons) in a fence post or two and see what happens.

 

I’m certainly expecting more butterflies (earlier too) – but to be fair there couldn’t hardly have been less this year.

 

What about mammals?

I’ll certainly put a bat box up under the eaves this autumn (if I’m not too late already) and hope to increase our bat count significantly, but as for other mammals – I can’t say I’m that bothered at present.

The family of foxes living under the school buildings across the road can stay on that side of the road as far as I am (and our hens are) concerned!

 

Badgers cannot get into our garden (what with the wall and the fact that no badgers live within a mile of our gaff – and even those badgers would have to cross about half a dozen busy roads in the opposite direction to nice fields and countryside – not going to happen.

 

That said, I have dug wee hedgehog holes under our new fence and would love a hog or two crashing around the garden after dark next year.

Maybe my proposed log pile (mainly for the stag beetles already here) might attract hogs into our garden – it all depends on our neighbours really – for unlike birds and bees, poor old hogs need gaps in fences to get from garden to garden…

 

Big hopes then and a lot of work to do to try and ensure this happens. Then all I need is a dollop of luck!

 

 

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Summary.

 

We’ve had a good start to our new garden nature reserve with quite difficult ground to work with (heavy, flinty anaerobic clay) and overgrown, throttled, unmanaged borders. Considering my poor health for five months (as I write) and Anna’s temporary inability to help (for other reasons which I’ll write about soon enough) we’ve carried out a lot of work in 12 months and seen a lot of “tings”.

 

If I get just a half decent pond in now and nesting swifts then I’ll be a happy boy – but I’m actually hoping for a lot more than that with a lot more work….

 

Roll on year two!

 

TBR.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) end of year report https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/9/the-longest-end-of-year-report-youll-ever-read-put-the-kettle-on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 23:01:00 GMT
Blue moon? Is is time? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/blue-moon-is-is-time Friday 31st August 2012 – and we have a “Blue moon” reported in the press.

But what does a “Blue moon” actually mean?

Is this moon actually blue in colour?

Is tonight’s full moon actually a “Blue moon” in the strictest sense?

 

Photo 1:

Moon taken very low over the horizon at dawn this morning, a few hours before full "blueness" (of the moon) sets in.

 

 

We all (should) know what the phrase “Once in a blue moon” means.

Yep. Something that happens very infrequently – an example might be a hawfinch appearing in one’s garden. (It did once, for me!)

 

During a “Blue Moon” the colour of the moon changes not a bit (in case any one reading this wondered about that briefly) – it’s still cream in colour.

 A moon with a blue hue would only really arise (quite lidddderally) if the sunlight being reflected back to earth (from the surface of the moon) is refracted by copious amounts of dust thrown into the earth’s atmosphere by a very large volcanic eruption on earth.

 

So… a blue moon is not blue in hue. That’s the first point to clarify I guess.

But what about the timing of a (not so) blue moon?

 

 

Every 29.53 days, our moon undergoes a complete phase cycle (full to new to full).

Our (Gregorian) calendar though is based on our position around the sun not on the lunar cycle.

Since 29.53 days is pretty close to the average days of any of our calendar months, we tend to only have one full moon in each calendar month – but every 2.7 years (regular as clockwork) we have a calendar month with two full moons contained within.

The first full moon in this calendar month has to occur on the 1st or 2nd of the calendar month for a second to occur 29.53 days later (clearly) – and August 2012 provided a first full moon on the 2nd of the month and another full moon tonight – on the 31st of August.

 

So that’s why many consider this second full moon of August 2012 to be a “Blue Moon”.

 

But is that strictly true?

 

Well…. I hate to be a killjoy (and I use this modern definition myself, so I’m shooting myself in the foot with this post really)…. Not really. The second full moon of August 2012 is no blue moon, not if we use the original meaning of the phrase.

 

Originally, a “Blue Moon” was based on the farmer’s seasonal year. We’re going back many, many, many moons now, but often the farming year ran for 365 days (as now) but from Winter solstice to Winter solstice (December 22nd to December 21st generally), not as we base our calendar now (January 1st to December 31st).

This way of measuring a year was always known as a “Tropical year” (measurement of time).

 

I’ve mentioned this once (or twice!) before on this website’s “wildlife blog” but even our definition of seasons has changed over time. These days, most of us (even the Met Office) tend to think of the seasons as below…

 

Winter: 1st December to the last day in February (28th or 29th)

Spring: 1st March to the 30th May.

Summer: 1st June to the 31st August

Autumn: 1st September to the 30th November.

 

You’ll see this is easy to grasp and based around our Gregorian calendar months – but it’s quite arbitrary really.

 

The original definition of the seasons was also based on our relative position to the sun, but in a far less arbitrary fashion as below:

 

Winter: Winter solstice (that day when the sun appears at its (measurable (lowest above the horizon at noon – around December 21st or 22nd in the northern hemisphere) to the “Vernal equinox” (March equinox when very roughly speaking the sun is above the equator exactly and the length of the day is equal to the length of the night – around March 20th or 21st at present for the northern hemisphere).

 

Spring: Vernal equinox (as described above) to the summer solstice (the day when the sun appears at its highest above the horizon at noon – around June 20th or 21st these days).

 

Summer: Summer solstice (as described above) to the autumnal equinox (September equinox when very roughly speaking the sun is above the equator exactly and the length of the day is equal to the length of the night – around September 20th or 21st at present for the northern hemisphere). The confusing thing for us these days is that our “midsummer’s day” (June 21st) actually marks the start of summer by the old definition (not the middle!) and I’ll not even go down the road of why the period of time known as “British Summer Time (BST) starts in the fourth week of March in the UK (the start of spring in old money) and ends in late October (a third of the way into Autumn in old money)…

 

Autumn: Autumn equinox (as described above) to the Winter solstice (as described above).

 

NB. All the above and dates of full moons are summarised at the end of this blog post in tabular fashion for easier reading!

 

 

So…all “tropical years” had four seasons (of course!) and most had twelve full moons – but occasionally there was a (tropical) year with thirteen full moons – meaning one of the seasons had FOUR full moons, not the normal three.

 

The third full moon in a tropically-measured yearly season which had four full moons in it was referred to as a true “Blue Moon”. (The fourth full moon was not called a blue moon as if it was, the other names for full moons at that time, e.g. “The moon before Yule”, “The Lenten Moon” etc…, would not sit correctly placed in the year).

 

We really think of a “Blue Moon” these days as the second blue moon in a modern day calendar month (rather than the third in a tropical year season) due only to a mistake in interpretation of old farmers’ almanacs, carried out by an amateur astronomer called James Hugh Pruett just before the second world war. A misinterpretation or a mistake. That’s all.

 

 

Of course, times, they have a changed and it’s pretty difficult now to ascertain exactly when a (true) ”Blue Moon” is occurring – rather than the modern definition of a “Blue Moon”.

 

I’ll use the modern definition of a “Blue Moon” because it’s very easy to work out which moon will be “blue”. The second full moon of August 2012 is “Blue” (tonight’s full moon) and next up will be the second full moon of July 2015 (2.7 years between the two).

 

Even though this modern definition rankles with the “true blue” conservatives amongst astronomers, we must all remember that the way we measure time is a very human, arbitrary concept and changes relatively frequently – so we should be able to call a moon “Blue” by either definition I think - as long as we appreciate the differences between the two.

 

It’s rather like us celebrating the end of the old millennium on December 31st 1999 and the start of the (new) millennium on January 1st 2000. Now, if you want to be really pedantic about it, we should have celebrated the start of the new millennium on January 1st 2001 – but where’s the fun in that?

 

Photo 2:

Moon taken with plane taking off from Heathrow, 2 days before "maximum fullitude" (or "maximum blue-age").

 

 

Figure 1.

A comparison of modern-day seasonal dates (general view) and traditional approximate dates for the same seasons.

You can see that these days, we have all our seasons starting and ending three weeks earlier than we traditionally did.

 

 

 

Season

Start date (approx traditional dates)

End date ( approx traditional dates)

Winter

1st December

(21st December)

28th/29th February

(20th March)

Spring

1st March

(21st March)

31st May

(20th June)

Summer

1st June

(21st June)

31st August

(20th September)

Autumn

1st September

(21st September)

30th November

(20th December)

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2.

A comparison of “modern day Blue moons” (second full moon in a calendar month) and “traditional Blue moons” (third full moon in a tropically-measured season which contains an extra (fourth) full moon).

 

 

 

Modern Blue Moon definition

Traditional Blue Moon definition

March 30th 2010

November 21st 2010

August 31st 2012 (TONIGHT)

August 21st 2013

July 31st  2015

May 21st 2016

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) blue moon https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/blue-moon-is-is-time Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:23:49 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 27 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-27 As described last week, I did manage to set up the trailcamera again on the owl's "new" shed - and left it there for about 5 days, to see wat g'wan in owl-ville.

Unfortunately, last week was when the farmer decided to harvest the barley (the field in which the new shed stands) so all week gurt big traccers thundered up and down the the owl's new field, cutting and bailing. No issue from me of course (the farmer has to harvest after all and was kind enough to give me access to his land at the start of the year, which I'm still massively appreciative of!)

That said, the owls were good enough to give me a few clips of HD footage during the week and I've spliced the best clips together on the clip below. As normal, when playing this clip, please expand the embedded player to fill your screen for best, most detailed, smooth, jerk-free playback.

The camera is pointing due east unfortunately, (right into the rising sun which burns a little footage clarity out in one or two clips) and the owls do seem to prefer to use this particular look-out perch at dawn (I was hoping they'd use it more at sun-down giving a nice detailed glow to the owls with the sun setting behind the camera - but that may of course all change now as the harvest has finished - we'll see).

As for which owls are actually visible on this clip - well in at least two clips, two owls are visible perching together (you'll have to look hard though as they are perched in a line, with one in front of the other (one almost hidden).

I think (its just best guess now though) that one is a youngster (more fluffy head still) and one is an adult (the owl partially obscured) with a more rounded, smooth head - I may be wrong there but that's what it looks like to me.

The last clip in the set-of-clips below shows an owl at dawn on Friday gone (at 06:18am) - I rolled up to take the trail camera down about 5 minutes after this clip was recorded (before work on friday gone).

Owl watch August 2012 - new barn for young owls

Because I am using the trail camera to monitor our sick cat's urinary habits in a litter tray overnight at present, I will be unable to put the trail camera back in place before next week (first week of September), but that I certainly intend to do as I'd like a little more footage before the year is out and I do hear whisperings that the first fortnight in September looks quite nice and settled at present....

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) HD video Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-27 Mon, 27 Aug 2012 08:37:56 GMT
"Because the night..." https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/-because-the-night "Because the night" was a song (that I like) originally recorded by Bruce Springsteen in the late '70s, but dissatisfied with it, the Patti Smith Group released it instead in 1978 (so that might explain the slightly strange title of this blog post I guess).

What with the "Mars rover" being all over the news recently, the fact that Neil Armstrong died last night at the age of 82 (about 43 years after his "One giant leap for mankind" and also the fact that when I rose well before sparrowfart today, Venus and Jupiter were VERY impressive in the eastern night sky, I thought I'd pen a few words on the night.

I've carried out plenty of shift work in my working life so far (although thankfully those days (or nights!) seem to be a thing of the past now my hair is turning grey!) I've also had more than a passing interest in classical mythology (I suppose my parents gave me that interest) and have always been fascinated by the night sky, the moon, planets and why and how the stars were named.

 

I'm certainly no expert (I was "working" at night after all, not "star-gazing" all night) but I can name quite a few stars in the sky, know roughly when the major meteor showers occur and enjoy peering at planets, other galaxies, the Shuttle (when it was flying) and satellites (such as the ISS) from time to time.

Yes... Venus (especially) was very impressive as the "Morning star" before dawn this morning and as skies were clear and I was up and about, I thought I'd take a few photographs.

I'll leave the first photograph with just the compass points and horizon marked on the image below - see if you can name any of the points of light on the image below and then scroll right down to the bottom of this post to see the same image where I've pointed out the more well-known of them for you.

NB. If the image here isn't large enough for you, please click HERE and then once more on the image itself to see it full size.

Of course, here in the light-polluted south of the UK, most of the stars fade into a sodium orange glow but I remember seeing incredible sights such as the "Milky Way" in all its glory from the Highlands of Scotland, not to mention the nebulae around Orion's dagger and the Andromeda Galaxy. Similarly on holiday in rural Turkey last summer (where lights where banned at night due to the danger of confusing nesting turtles), the view of the night sky there was spectacular.

But it's still great fun (I think), teaches you a lot about classical mythology and indeed science if you investigate further and also reminds you of just how small you are really  - how unimportant you are - indeed, how irrelevant you are in the grand scheme of things! I can think of many people (both "famous" and not) who could do with remembering that occasionally!

 

Well... as my mother once said to me when I waxed lyrical about the stars and planets one night when I was a young teenager: "Yes...that's all very well Douglas, but you have to live on the planet we live on" (I think she had had a bad day) - there are other reasons to get excited about the night - especially if you like wildlife.

Many, many animals are nocturnal and the best time to see them is at night or during dawn and dusk. It always was a magical feeling for me, sitting still in a wood before dusk and hearing the wood literally crackle into life as the sun slipped below the horizon. Blackbirds would sing their sun-down song and as soon as that had finished, the owls would start calling up the moon, mice would start to move about, deer, foxes and badgers began to emerge as human noise fell away...

Even in our garden (and yours too if you're lucky enough to have one) there's plenty to see and hear after the sun goes down.

A walk around the borders with a torch will reveal tiny crab spiders (see photo above) huge orange slugs, earwigs and worms (which quickly disappear back underground when the torchlight falls on them). At this time of year you may well see giant house spiders on the outside walls of your house (invariably males on the hunt for willing females), and bats can be seen to start their nightly feast.

If you have a moth trap like me, you'll be amazed at the sheer variety of beautiful insects (especially moths) that can be caught at night- and a quick dip into the world of moths will mean that you will come to quickly realise that these insects with such a drab, boring, brown reputation (when compared to the butterflies for example) do not deserve that reputation. They are FAR more colourful, numerous, interesting and well-named than our rather limited dull (in the main) butterflies.  You may be lucky enough to live near a glow-worm site and their neon green abdomens always blow my mind!

Then, of course, there are the strange sounds of the night. The terrifying (before you realise what they actually are!) roars of the muntjac down here or fallow/roe deer. The even-more terrifying screams of the mating winter vixens. The strange cries overhead of passing birds - birds which you've never seen before (or so you think - invariably these are water birds such as moorhens and grebes which tend only to fly distances at night), the thin "tseeps" of night-migrating redwing in the autumn and early spring and then of course the hisses, hoots and screams of all our owls.

NB - if you live in a more suburban area, these sounds might be joined by the distant wail of police sirens or worse still the noisy throb of "copper choppers" but heyyy... we can't have everything our own way sometimes eh?! (The police were actually sent to investigate me once - as a report of a large, strange man wandering around a graveyard got to them once, years ago. Needless to say I was watching weasels and glow-worms and not grave-robbing or whatever they had in mind to charge me with! I won't even go into details of the night when they stopped me with a sack over my shoulder at night and demanded to know what was in the sack. (It was a couple of dead badgers that had been run-over, that I was collecting for the MAFF!))

I love the sun, but I love the night also and thoroughly enjoy being out in it - it's a secret world which we can gain privileged access to if we want - all we need to do is look and listen!

 

Right....

Here's the image of the night sky again (this time with the main stars and planets visible in the shot) names.

Again, if you have trouble viewing this (it's too small) click HERE and then once more, click again on the image itself to see it full size.

I'll not go into the names of the stars on this post (Capella was a she goat fed to the baby Zeus for example) - a google search on the names will provide you all the (really interesting) information you could possibly want on these names and classical mythology.

All I will say is that if you would like to explore the night sky further and you have an i-phone or (like me) an android phone, then I can't recommend enough the "star-gazer" app for these devices. I taught myself basic astronomy (or at least a basic understanding of what I could see in the night sky) with a text book and paper star maps - no such need these days with a GPS-enabled phone  -  now how wonderful is that!

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Aldebaran Betelgeuse Capella Castor Jupiter Pollux Venus dawn night night sky https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/-because-the-night Sun, 26 Aug 2012 06:58:18 GMT
The last of the best? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/the-last-of-the-best Up until 30 minutes ago, the last of the best birds of all (swifts) I had seen this season were on the 1st August (over three weeks ago).

My favourite birds of all (the best birds by miles) have had a catastrophic breeding season here this year with pretty-well incessant rain, wind and no food for months (the whole of April, the first three weeks of May, all of June and half of July).

Many tried to breed and gave up after laying eggs (there was not enough food around to feed the adults let alone any young), many didn't even try to breed and went back to Africa within a few weeks of arriving here. This is a very rare event - and I thought 2007 was bad for the greatest birds of all.

Well... after a swiftless sky for three weeks, I have just seen two brave swifts high above the house, in darkening skies (we're due more rain for the bank holiday weekend (but to be fair, we've had very little since the schools broke up for summer)) - both heading south together.

Very often its the northern breeding swifts that one sees heading home last in late summer over the UK (for obvious reasons), so I expect these two have come from a couple of hundred miles north of us in Berkshire.

The latest swift I've ever seen in the UK was here over our house in Berkshire last year, on September 5th  - I wonder if (after this terrible year for them) I'll see any more swifts over our house before the end of next April when they return?

I hope so, but somehow I doubt it.

Good luck flying home my little dark screaming beauties and hurry back next April - surely it can't be as bad next year as this?

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/the-last-of-the-best Thu, 23 Aug 2012 16:51:18 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 26 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-26 Well.... this was going to be my last "Operation noctua" report for the year (as 26 is both my and Anna's lucky number and is engraved on both of our wedding rings)... but I think I may push on for a week or two yet.

I still haven't managed to go and see the owls as much as I'd have liked recently (what with one thing or another) but each time I have driven the three or so miles to their patch, I've been rewarded with views of at least two of these strange wee birds.

Yes.... as described before, they (all?) seem to have decamped from a) their nest box and b) their spring shed and set up residence in the male's winter HQ - an identical cattle shed (silage shelter) across the single lane track from their breeding tree.

A pair of stock doves might well have taken over their nest box (I've seen one sitting in the entrance to their box and one sitting right outside a number of times). Little owls are VERY messy nesters - I expect the inside of their nest box will be incredibly smelly soup right now - but maybe our family are less messy than most little owls and the stock doves fancy a second (or third) brood now that the owls have left their box. (Pigeons and doves are pretty-well all birds that have multiple broods in a year, unlike the owls which will put all their energy into breeding once a year).

The farmer has moved his black cattle into the little owl breeding field (where the box is) and this means I'll not be able to access that field easily any more - at least - not in the day time. The cattle will spend the rest of the summer and most of the autumn in this field I expect, munching on a lot of nice green grass  - then they'll be moved inside come the cold weather and feed off the silage collected at least twice so far this year from the same field.

I have reinstated the trail camera on the owl's preferred cow shed now - where they seem to be spending a lot of their time. I have no idea if the trail camera will survive this move, or pick up anything of interest - we'll see.

If it does pick up any half decent footage, it will be interesting to see if I can still tell the differences between young owls and adults - and I will upoad any HD clips here of course....

The photo below was taken this morning and shows a youngster I think (but to be honest it could just as easily be an adult) sunbathing in the morning sun.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-26 Sun, 19 Aug 2012 10:35:41 GMT
Mediterranean weather reveals our Mediterranean spiders... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/with-mediterranean-weather-comes-mediterranean-spiders It has been very hot and sunny for a few days now (the lack of rain will continue to next weekend I hear) and I've been in the garden a bit this week. I've also been spying a (not so eensy weensy) spider emerge from the ceiling ouside our back door (we have a covered side passage outside) for the past week or so - but until last night, just regarded it to be a pretty bog standard Amaurobius fenestralis (one of our "hackledmesh weaving spiders") but on closer inspection last night, it became pretty obvious to me that this was the (far more interesting) six-eyed, green-fanged mediterranean tube web spider or Segestria florentina.

Originally found in the mediterranean region only, up until the 1990s, the only records for this large green-fanged spider were at ports such as Bristol and Falmouth - but our increasingly warm winters (did I just write that?!) due to climate change (I think I may have been bitten by this spider last night?!) means this mediterranean spider has moved and is spreading north rapidly.

You'll still probably happen across it in the south of the UK (MAP), but it has been recorded in Sheffield now, I'm reliably told.

It will bite if handled roughly with bare hands (but not unless) and the bite is said to be pretty uncomfortable for a few hours - like a deep injection (which you'll see on your hand well after the spider has gone). I should reiterate here that rather like a wasp sting, the spider will only bite if massively provoked - and unlike wasps, spiders aren't attracted to jam sandwiches at picnics - so these spiders present no threat to anyone - they just LOOK like they do!

How would you recognise one of these spiders?

1 - Are you in the south of England (as I write in summer of 2012)?

2 - Is the black spider large and half concealed in a "silken tube" in a wall?

3 - Does the spider have pretty obvious green shiny chelicerae (fangs)? (see my close up photo below)

Answer YES to ALL of the questions above and you'll know you're looking at Europe's largest segestriid (six-eyed (most spiders have eight)) eye to eye (to eye to eye etc... etc...)

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Segestria florentina six-eyed spider tube web spider https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/with-mediterranean-weather-comes-mediterranean-spiders Sun, 19 Aug 2012 06:31:45 GMT
Fox moth cat wasp spider? (Purple haze) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/fox-moth-cat-wasp-spider-purple-haze It might appear from the title of this post that I have suddenly developed an incurable case of zoological tourettes.

Not so. You'll understand more if you take the time to read on...

 

Yesterday as Anna went to the school where she teaches biology (to see how her pupils had fared in their "A levels"), I dropped her off and had a wee walk around our local lowland boggy heath. Sadly I have missed the nightjars this year and the emperor moths, but I dont want to miss the annual pink bloom of heather nor the dragonflies - so I set off, cameras charged to see wat g'wan in the bog.

Heather and pine

I primarily had adders in mind as I tiptoed through the pink heather and pine cones - but saw none. Even lifting up the herpe homes (corrugated iron pieces scattered on the edge of the birch and bracken) provided a handful of slow worms - no grass snakes or adders anywhere (but I KNOW they're there somewhere!)

Fox moth caterpillars were around though. Easy to identify - large black hairy caterpillars with gold/orange coloures stripes and a grey fringe. They do like heather and I guess August is a good month to see them.

Whilst taking photographs (above) of the fox moth cat, I also spied the largest fly I've ever seen - so large at first I thought it was either a carpenter bee (those of you that have taken hot foreign holidays will know all about huge black carpenter bees!) or a huge bald, shiny queen bumblebee.

It was neither of course, it was in fact a huge Tachinid fly - the largest parasitic fly we have in Blighty by all accounts - double the size of a large blue bottle blowfly. It lays its eggs in the soft, yielding bodies of oak eggar moth caterpillars AND fox moth caterpillars - you can guess the rest (see photo and explanatory text under Saturday 25th July 2009 at this website).

The heather was beginning its late summer show in some style as I continued around the heath and as I was very careful about where and how I put my feet down - it wasn't long before I saw a wasp spider on a web made between clumps of shocking pink bell heather.

The wasp spider is one of the spiders in the world that incorporates stabilimenta in its web - now there's a word to remember for all you balderdash fans. Debate rages on as to the purpose of such web decorations - if you feel the urge to find out more - please read this!

There were odonates flitting over the peaty waters of course and a lovely large female sparrowhawk chasing an unfortunate young (speckled) green woodpecker across the sea of pink  - it was a real pleasure to spend a few hours on the heath, in the summer holidays - and see not a soul. Pretty well the only sounds I could hear were the indignant chats of the fledgling stonechat families, the odd green woodpecker yaffle (they love their heathland ants do the woodpeckers) and the crackle of the electricity pylons.

Purple haze

Bliss!

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Tachinida grossa birch bracken fox moth green woodpecker heath heather lowland pine pink purple slow worm sparrowhawk stonechat wasp spider https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/fox-moth-cat-wasp-spider-purple-haze Fri, 17 Aug 2012 09:21:22 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 25 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-25 The penultimate "Operation noctua" report this year as it's fair to say, what with one reason or another, I've  not been able to spend nearly as much time up at "owl-ville" this breeding season, with the family of little owls as I would have provisionally anticipated back in early spring (or even late winter).

Anna and I have taken two brief drives up to the owls in the past week - and both times we have seen two little owls (the adult male and one youngster I think) on the adult male's winter roosting shed.

I am still thinking of leaving the trailcam in place for a few more days for week 26 (on the winter roost) - we'll see how that progresses - I'll recce the proposed new site before the end of this week.

Full final report (week 26) coming soon - and a full review of our little owls' breeding season, 2012.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-25 Mon, 13 Aug 2012 08:45:00 GMT
End of the Olympics... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/end-of-london-2012-end-of-summer The weather has been great for the last few days - in fact, to be fair, it's not rained much at all since the schools (and therefore my teaching wife) broke up for their summer holidays.

This has coincided quite nicely (or maybe not I guess.... read on) with the London Olympics which like much of the UK public, Anna and I have been glued to each evening and occasionally all day! There's something quite perverse about sitting in a front room watching the best athletes in the world compete in glorious sunshine less than 30 miles from you - especially for two people (like Anna and myself) who love being outside - much more than most. Maybe it would have been better if it had rained all fortnight - then I'd not feel as bad sitting inside with the glowing goggle box on! Hey ho - it's been a fantastic Olympics (right from the opening ceremony) and what a great fortnight team GB have had. I am very much looking forward to the closing ceremony tonight...

Of course I have managed to crawl out of the house once or twice this week, blinking into the sunlight like an ancient troglodyte.

Anna and I have had our entire back garden fenced properly. This clearly is the first time this has ever happened at this house (built in 1953). Our house had been lived in by one family (or one woman for the last ten or so years) since the mid '50s and our western neighbours had lived there since 1953, so the inevitable border dispute reared its grotesquely blinkered head on more than one occasion. Never mind, my patient, clever, beautiful wife had made the peace (I just couldn't be bothered with the morons) and we now have a beautifully-crafted 6 foot tall feather edged larch fence surrounding our garden. Now that we can see our borders - the whole potential of this very large (120 foot by 40 foot with half a dozen mature trees) garden has revealed itself to me - I will be able to create a wildlife reserve in my back garden I think!

I have dug a few hedgehog holes under the fence (though I don't really anticipate ever seeing one here - but you never know) and spent yesterday constructing a shelter for our frogs (we have dozens as our neighbours have a pond and until recently, large parts of our garden were very shaded (3 foot of leaf litter depth under thick foliage) and incredibly overgrown. I also built a spot for grass snakes.

Firstly the frog home - this consists of a piece of corrugated iron laid down on grass surrounded by small bushes. The iron will catch the sun, but also keep a little moisture. It should go some way to protect any frogs from our cats and hens (which LOVE to catch and eat frogs). I have already seen many tiny wee frogs around the corrugated iron sheet.

The grass snake home is a little more complicated, but not much! We have a frame for our compost heap (grass cuttings) which is basically our old chicken run (waaaay too small for hens - more suited for rabbits really). I've put this in a spot which would catch the afternoon sun by our new fence and ensured there are a few "snake holes" under the fence for any passing slow worm or snake to gain entry to the snake des-res (or compost heap). These holes under the fence lead directly to our 3rd and 4th neighbours' gardens on the eastern border -the "wilder gardens" in  "the hood". (We have one neighbour to the west and three to the east - its just our garden is so long - it is the equivalent of three to the east).

All our neighbours are 80 or so years old - and its incredibly peaceful in our garden - and very private too with the mature trees meaning we don'f feel overlooked at all, even though our house is a semi detached bog standard 1953 built ex council house.

The garden extends due north from the house (120 foot like I've said) but actually slopes down towards the house (due south) - so in actual fact we have a south facing, north-south aligned garden.

I have thought of blogging a detailed, step-by-step report of how our "wildlife garden" is progressing, but I think I'll take a few pictures now and again for personal records and leave it at that. We have had ownership of the property and garden now for just over one year (370 days to be exact) and are only really getting to come up with firm ideas of what we'd like to do with it. A pond is a definite plan - and I'll probably look to dig one in before the end of the year and fill it over the winter with water-butt rain water.

I have been documenting "wildlife highlights" (and weather notes) in the garden since 31st August 2011 and at the beginning of September this year (2012) I will blog a "first year report" of garden notes.

 

That's a little background then (or a lot of background I guess) but what have I been seeing recently?

You know.... it feels quite strange to me at present. We've had a lovely summery week of weather (lots of sun, 28c, high humidity) but everything I hear or see smacks of Autumn. Strange.

Our two remaining hens (Trouble and Conker) have been helping me clear areas in the garden and move the compost heap (herpe home) and we have been followed around the garden by robins. I have heard our local robins begin to sing their plaintiff autumnal songs in the last week (there is a definite change in song for robins as the year progresses in case you'd not realised it - many songbirds stop singing as the breeding season starts or nears an end, but the robin changes its tune from bubbly warble in the spring and summer to a quite sad song as autumn begins).

We've had our first apple drop (hardly any fruit this year due to a terrible blossom season) and our first leaf drop in the stiff breezes yesterday. Bearing in mind we didnt lose our large poplar leaves until well into November last year  - mid August does seem a little early to begin to lose leaves?

The sunflowers have large drooping heads which are losing their yellow petals daily and long-tailed tits have already formed their autumn /winter flocks of 8 or 9 or so. One such flock visited our damson trees yesterday evening.

Even the grass (both our "meadow" part of the garden which I cut for the first time yesterday, and our more "formal lawn") hasn't seemed to have grown much in the past three weeks - very autumnal.

Don't get me wrong - everything is still green and quite lush (after the spring and early summer rains), but there does seem to be an autumnal change afoot, despite the town pigeons mating on our roof, the second coot broods on local rivers and one or two very young robins (no red breast, just speckles) hopping on and off our new fences...

 

Summer is still here though - as I spent yesterday mowing lawns and watching a beautiful migrant hawker hunt* for a good two hours over the garden I was set upon by a female splayed deer fly. These are horseflies - eeeevil things with the most psychedelic eyes imagineable. They are often found near heaths or bogs, damp meadows and water - I have no idea where this one came from though.

*It was very amusing (at least to me) to watch this big dragonfly chase dandelion seed heads through the garden - thinking they were insects (food of course for the dragonfly) before realising they were not lunch at all!

Once in Scotland, I ran a competition with a few friends I'd gone on holiday with (a YOC holiday to Aigas) - to see who could stand a horsefly biting their hand for the longest time. I was about 15 at the time. I won the competition and lost the scar (a red dot) on my hand only about 15 years later! I thought about grabbing my first ever photograph of a horsefly's eyes yesterday as it settled on my arm and prepared to bite - but I though better of it and shooed it away! (NB the Splayed horsefly is often known as the "blind horsefly" as shooing it away tends to have no effect - when it wants a bite - it becomes absolutely tunnel visioned - even if it dies getting a meal!) 

There are more and more mosquitos in the garden now also, but mercifully the clouds of whining midges seem to have gone.

There are more butterflies around than there has been for some time - the peacocks have finally arrived (months late), there is always a holly blue dancing in and out of the damson trees, a few speckled woods under the poplar and borders and the odd meadow brown on the lawn. Then of course there are the gatekeepers taking nectar from the yellow bee flowers and buddleja - and joined there by plenty of honey bees and striped drone flies - very nice to see!

The garden's first common darter dragonfly appeared in the early evening yesterday but didn't stay long (that will change when I get my pond dug) and taking of insects, on my travels to see our local little owls this week I happened across a lovely furry white ermine moth caterpillar  (black, unlike the white adult) - lovely to see.

I have not seen (nor heard) swifts for over a week now (although I know Anna saw some in Kent last weekend). I still hope to see one or two before the end of my week off - and I do remember that last year I saw my latest ever swift in the first week of September, over our garden - although last year was VERY different to this year for British breeding swifts....

 

I hear the weather is due to change again this week - bands of light rain and much cooler - but I hope that my week off will present me with more opportunities to get outside and see wat g'wan, after the Olympics has finished!

I actually don't think summer 2012 is over yet - I clearly remember camping in Devon six or seven years ago, during the very last week of September - the entire week was set at 28c / 82f - I saw not a cloud in the sky all week and was surrounded by flocks of  migrating swallows and martins - so lets hope for an Indian summer again this year eh?!

 

Oh.... before I forget.... if the skies are clear for you tonight - might be worth sitting out in the garden for an hour or so and looking up into the night sky (for those of you that know the night sky - look around the constellation Cassiopea). The perseid meteor shower reaches a peak in the next few nights - and these are often pretty reliable showers to watch...

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) common darter coot frog gatekeeper holly blue long-tailed tit meadow brown migrant hawker mosquito peacock robin speckled wood splayed deerfly town pigeon white ermine moth caterpillar https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/end-of-london-2012-end-of-summer Sun, 12 Aug 2012 08:58:59 GMT
"Should I stay or should I go"? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/-should-i-stay-or-should-i-go This might as well be the summer of 2012 singing this blog’s title, not Joe Strummer of the Clash.

 

March 2012 – and we had virtually a whole month of clear blue skies and temperatures well into the 70s (Fahrenheit). (Summer arrives early).

April 2012 – and the heavens opened. The wettest April on record. (Summer departs)

May 2012 –  still wet for the first two and a half weeks but a lovely hot, dry week to end the month  (summer returns again).

June 2012 – very wet (summer departs again).

July 2012   - mainly wet and changeable but 5 days of hot sun mid month (summer returns again) before the jetstream wiggles south again – and wind rain and flash floods make a comeback as summer disappears again – or does it?

August 2012  - Starts wet and windy, but I hear that we are due a little summery weather in the next week…. Will summer return again (briefly)?

 

 

As I’ve mentioned in a few recent blogs, hospital appointment going to plan, I should have a few days of free time from the end of this week – and will endeavour to blog a little more on what I have seen recently.

 

For now though it’s fair to say that this week has been relatively mild, a little drizzly (though not nearly as wet as everywhere west and north of us in the UK who have suffered quite a bit again this week I hear) with periods of quite nice warm sun – not too bad at all really.

 

Anna took a very brief trip down to Kent to see her sister, brother-in-law and nieces and saw a few swifts, very high in the sky, all migrating SE it seems.

As for me, the last swifts I have seen this year (as I write (I’m sure I’ll see one or two on my week off)) were half a dozen or so over our old house “Swift Half” 9 miles away from a new gaff – all seemed like they were hawking but also migrating at the same time.

 

We have had our rear garden re-fenced over the past fortnight. It’s a very large garden, which is not flat at all (at any point) and the previous owner (and neighbours) had let the borders completely overgrow  with half a century of shrub and honeysuckle growth. This has not been a small job!

 

The garden now looks a lot neater – and more like “our garden” rather than the old lady’s garden who we bought the house from.

 

I can now begin to appreciate the lie of our land, our borders, where I can plant trees, shrubs and bee-friendly flowers. Where I can site the pond etc….

 

We may have left it too late this year to really start soft-landscaping the back garden – but we now can at least see what needs to be done….

 

 

I’ve kept my eyes at least half open on my meanderings around the SE of England over the past week or so – the damselflies and dragonflies are out in force now – common darters and demoiselles especially around Reading and the Thames.

Midges seem to be everywhere at dusk these days also – its really pretty mild at present considering we are now in August.

 

Moths seem to be enjoying these warm nights also – I identified a “Canary-shouldered thorn” moth in my old neighbour’s moth trap last weekend (a beautiful moth) and there are plenty of Willow beauties, Scalloped Oaks and Brimstone moths coming to our windows or outside light at night at present.

 

I attempted to set my moth trap up again last weekend – but realised the fluorescent bulb had broken – so I will need to procure another to see what moffs we have in our garden at present.

(I naturally expect our moff count to go up and up with each new plant we stick in the ground here – its fair to say that the fencers have taken down almost all of our summer growth, which we expected, but of course this will have depleted our wildlife a lot this year….)

 

Talking of our plants (or at least those that remain) – we now have seven good sunflowers up and flowering, the tallest being about 8 and a half foot high.

The honey bees and bumblebees (mainly buff-tailed but also tree bees, white-tailed and red-tailed) do love our sunflowers – and if one looks at the sticky flower heads at night with a torch, one can see each flower head covered in earwigs!

 

The hundreds of cornflowers we’ve grown are also attracting their fair share of hoverflies and honey bees – which also seem to enjoy all the white clover that’s come up in our large patch of “meadow lawn” (unmown lawn which has come up in heal-all, buttercups, dandelions and white cover (as well as long ryes).

 

I even managed to catch a glimpse of one of our local wee bats this week  - hunting very low (almost within cat claw striking distance – certainly well below my head height). I know the primary school opposite us surveyed for bats before commencing their extension last summer (I’ve seen the results) so I know our bats (there are occasionally  two) are pipistrelles but I know not whether they are common or soprano pips. (I wont know unless I buy myself an Ultrasonic bat detector!)

 

Bats have been thin on the ground (if you see what I mean) this year – because of scarcity of prey I guess – so have butterflies ( we have had a few meadow browns this week, a few large whites, a speckled wood or two and one gatekeeper and I saw my first peacock of the year only two days ago – weeks and weeks later than normal).

 

 

I do hope summer does stay for a little longer during my time off work and I’ll endeavour to get outside and make the most of my time off (health permitting).

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) banded demoiselle buff-tailed bumblebee clover" common darter common pipistrelle cornflower gatekeeper honeybee large marmalade hoverfly, meadow brown, red-tailed bumblebee speckled wood sunflower swift tree bumblebee white white-tailed bumblebee https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/-should-i-stay-or-should-i-go Wed, 08 Aug 2012 13:23:43 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 24 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-24 Again, just one visit to see our local little owls again this week but a brief visit which resulted in at least seeing both young owls.

 

One young owl was sitting in its place of birth again (the nest box) - activity which I’ve not seen for a month or so  (but of course that doesn’t mean to say it hasn’t been happening – I’ve just not seen it).

 

The other young owl was sitting on its father’s winter roost (the western cattle shed as opposed to the eastern cattle shed where I filmed all my HD footage of the owls, very close to the nest box).

 

When I approached the young little owl flew away strongly – very unlike its first flights a few weeks ago, when to be fair it could hardly get off the ground.

 

All in all  - very nice to see both young owls (for they are pretty-well owls now rather than owlets…. although they still have quite dark heads which do look visibly different to the adults) flying strongly and doing well.

 

 

After a hospital appointment on Thursday this week I then have a week and a bit off work, so I hope to see the owls a little more in the next two weeks…

 

We’ll see eh?

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/8/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-24 Mon, 06 Aug 2012 07:30:00 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 23 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/7/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-23 Another somewhat depressing week as far as the owls and myself were concerned – me still suffering health-wise  and having to concentrate on a sick (and eventually dead) hen - and the owls still suffering from pretty woolly weather – albeit a little warmer than it could be with the jet stream sitting on top of us once again, after its brief sojourn in its normal summer position over Scotland.

 

I have been to seethe owls once in the past week – and for the first time since I started following the family over 6 months ago, I found two little owls on the “winter shed” a few hundred yards from their “summer shed” and oak tree nest box.

 

It is almost impossible to tell the adults apart (ie which is the female and which is the male) now that they have finished breeding for this year, but I still would pop a little money on the fact that the male took over his old winter HQ and has now been joined (probably pretty briefly considering we’re racing into August already) by one or both of his offspring.

 

Two adults successfully raised two young this year at our local farm, but I’ve not seen three owls (let alone four) in many weeks now. That said, for one reason or another, I’ve not had the time to continually be up in their fields, watching them.

 

As I said a few weeks ago, if both fledglings still live, they will be very fast approaching the time where they will either fly off and set up new territories on their own or one may even fight off their own father for their present territory (very doubtful).

 

If neither (little) little owl has left the present family territory by the end of September (or maybe October), they will start to fight ( over a  dwindling food supply) and be forced apart.

 

I have a week off in about ten days – maybe then I can find a little time to watch our young family of little owls start to grow up, get more and more confident and think about dispersing. I hope so…

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/7/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-23 Mon, 30 Jul 2012 17:38:00 GMT
Couven. RIP girl. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/7/couven-rip In case anyone reads this who knows me, knows that my wife and I keep hens and knows our "hen history" (our two original "girls" , "Couven" and "Cutlery" were both Bovan Goldline hybrids, bought from poultry supplier in the heart of England.

"Cutlery" died about 18 months ago (I had to despatch her) and today had to do similar to her sister, "Couven".

It's fair to say that both of our original girls had the best life we could give them (proper free range hens, eating all manner of beasties as well as their layer pellets), but both had their lives cut dramatically short by unseen health issues.

Unfortunately both became desperately ill (through being of very poor stock from a supplier that I certainly will never return to (We use a much more local poultry supplier these days, who hold really healthy free range hens. In case you're interested, their website is HERE.) and ended their days in a pretty undignified fashion (in different ways).

I won't go into any detail regarding either bird, because to read details would be very distressing for many people I think.

 

All I will say is that "Couven", like her sister "Cutlery" gave myself and Anna all kinds of wonderful times and memories (and not just us - our neighbours, family and friends too) and we gave them the best life they could possibly have.

Anna and I will miss Couven (like her sister) greatly.

 

 

Thanks Couvs - Rest in peace.

You're out of your misery now and scrabbling around with Cutlery in the great big vegetable patch in the sky.

 

Doug.

Hen in marigolds

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Couven RIP hen https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/7/couven-rip Sun, 29 Jul 2012 10:00:00 GMT
Wild things. You make my heart sing. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/7/wild-things-you-make-my-heart-sing I got up extremely early again this morning (before dawn) as I had another blood test to be done (ongoing investigations into my health problems) and so worked from home until about 1500hrs.

Today (I hear) is meant to be the end of summer for us now... well... we've had a handful of beautiful days so we can't complain (can we?!)

With that in mind, this afternoon after I'd done a days work at home, I trundled down to our local lowland heath to bask in my favourite time of the year in my favourite habitat  - lowland heath on a very mediterranean day.

Anna (my wife) and I had decided at the beginning of the year that we would not be taking a holiday abroad this year for the first time since 2006, a decision based on many reasons, but boyyyy..... am I missing the mediterranean sun (and habitat) this year - what I'd give for a fortnight at our holiday base last year - the very hippy (no tv, no music, no electric lights allowed after dark) cirali beach in Turkey.

The whining of cicadas, the repetitive hooting of the scops owls, the heavy scent of jasmine and orange in the air, the geckos chirruping to each other, the levant and hummingbird hawkmoths darting around, the plaintive howls from the wolves in the nearby Taurus mountains.... oh I miss it dreadfully!

Never mind. It was sunny here this afternoon (our first sunflower has suddenly bloomed eight foot in the sky in the back garden!), so I thought (like I said) I'd get down to the most mediterranean place I know nearby and see wat g'wan down dere. I needed a bit of cheering up - I'v been feeling waay too low recently.

 

With this sunny week and after all the recent rain, the boggy heath has exploded into life

The air was thick with dragonflies of all shapes and sizes - four spotted chasers, black tailed skimmers, broad-bodied chasers, common darters , brown hawkers, and emperor dragonflies were all busying themselves - fighting, mating, hunting - fantastic to see.

A lone hobby cruised by overhead (they (as well as crossbill and sparrowhawk) nest in the nearby Swinley Forest - and regularly take down dragonflies from the heath - one of the only bird species quick enough to do so).

Young stonechats chinked their alarm at me and I watched a couple of young nightingale dance in and out of the heavy scrub at the edge of the peaty bog. (Dartford warbler are around at the site also, but today I saw none).

A movement in the peaty water below the boardwalk I was standing on caught my eye and I watched in amazement as a grass snake (or water snake or yellow-collared snake (call them what you will) swam across the pool I was standing over, with a good-sized frog in its mouth.

The frog was clearly still alive,  but not for long - and I watched as the snake swallowed its unfortunate prey whole, right in front of me.

Grass snakes are pretty common really, but its not often one is lucky enough to see one catching and eating its prey.

There are adders on the heath also, but again, I saw none today - I think they actually might have been sheltering from the later afternoon sun, rather than basking in it as it was incredibly warm again this afternoon at around 30c.

 

I walked on and a blue butterfly made itself apparent low down in my periphery vision - in amongst the heather which is just turning a glorious purple.

I stalked the little beggar (as best I could) hoping that it would be a silver studded blue which I know exist in a colony at a heath about two miles away from where I was standing at the time.

An examination of one photograph on the screen of my camera made my heart leap -yes - I was watching a butterfly I've never seen before - a superb silver studded blue. (These are not common at all - and only exist in very specialised habitats in the south of England mainly - Dorset and Hampshire being their "strongholds" (if you can call them that!))

I'll certainly be back to see if I can find any other silver studded blue butterflies  -  such pretty little things.

 

I walked on a little further, to another peaty bog surrounded by bell heather and realised that I was being watched from about 20 yards away - a pretty large common lizard was sitting at the edge of the boardwalk, eyeballing me! I got down on my belly and crawled towards it, trying not to spook it before I could get a shot for posterity - it obliged pretty well!

Needing some water, having been out in the sun for a couple of hours, I turned back towards the car and as I made my way through the heather, birch, bracken, clouds of blue-tailed and red damselflies erupted from the vegetation around me.

I could hear a young family of green woodpeckers calling each other from the wood I walked around and closing the cattle gate behind me, watched as a young roe buck pronked away into the shadowy heavy undergrowth.

 

A friend of mine told me today that her local nighjars are still churring (in Dorset) and I know we have 'jars at this heath also - I wonder if I'll have time to return tonight, to see and hear this incredible bird....?

 

You know, when I feel low, I feel so lucky to only have to go to a place like my local lowland heath - to really make my heart sing again.

 

I am a lucky boy.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bell heather black tailed skimmer blue brown hawker common darter common lizard, damselfly" emperor dragonfly four spotted chaser frog grass snake green woodpecker hobby large red damselfly nightingale roe buck silver studded blue stonechat sunflower tailed https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/7/wild-things-you-make-my-heart-sing Thu, 26 Jul 2012 17:31:00 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 22 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/7/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-22 Just two very brief visits to “Owl-ville” last week means I’ve only been up to see our local little owls for the grand total of about 10 minutes in two weeks now, or maybe 15 in three weeks.

The weather was truly appalling again last week (as it has been for all bar a fortnight or so for the owl family) but at last at the weekend (just gone) the owls could perch in the open for extended periods of time and indulge in an activity that many birds (especially little owls) enjoy – sunbathing.

 

I have little doubt that after my brief visits this week, the adult male (or at least one of the adults – no doubt at all) has taken to roosting in his winter roost three hundred yards from the “summer house” and nest box – he’s been in his winter spot both times that I’ve been up there this week.

 

The only other owl I’ve seen this week is one of the youngsters (I was going to call it a chick or fledgling, but that all passed some time ago to be fair - they’re full size now, the youngsters) sitting on one of the “summer shed” gutters in the sun, three hundred yards (or so) away from its father on the “winter shed”.

 

I’ve not seen more than two owls this week (doesn’t mean to say the other adult and other youngster have gawn orf – just means to say I’ve not seen ‘em because I’ve not been physically healthy enough to go up there and wait for hours to get a full picture of what actually is happening up there at present.

 

I would not hesitate to suggest that all four owls (both youngsters and both adults) are ALL still hanging around the same field still (unless they’ve been knobbled by a car – pretty well the only thing that would kill them in a second – and they do get close and low to the country lanes around their field).

 

That would be dreadfully pessimistic though -  like I say, I’ve been in their field for a grand total of a dozen or so minutes in three weeks so I’m not in the position to get a true picture of what all the owls have been up to recently – my guess is they’re all still there, and within a month or so, the two youngsters will fly off to set up new territories of their own – maybe in the same large farm, maybe a little further away – wherever there is food and suitable nesting places.

 

I keep saying this, but maybe I can get up to the owl field a little more this week to see if I can see all four owls.

 

Until then… everything seems fine at owl-ville, Berkshire, and when owl-ville is fine – all is well with me….

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/7/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-22 Mon, 23 Jul 2012 17:46:39 GMT
Hens and dragonflies in our week of high summer https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/7/hens-and-dragonflies-in-our-week-of-high-summer High summer.

 

As predicted well over a week ago now, the jet stream has “wagged its tail” and now we are sitting the “correct” side of this atmospheric phenomenon – at least for a few days.

If you are reading this in the South and Southeast of the UK, you will (undoubtedly, by now) know that we are set to bask in temperatures expected to reach 30c (well over 80f) and sunny skies all week. Until Friday.

Friday onwards – and it does look like the jet stream tail might wag again, returning us to cool, unsettled, showery conditions -  but I hope this doesn’t mean we are thrust back into months of record-breaking rainfall like the summer so far. I really do!

 

So…. Make the most of this week, for Friday and this weekend (coming) will see a change again.

 

 

Dragonflies.

 

Anna and I did manage a quick trip down to our local boggy lowland heath (and moor) yesterday to see if the dragonflies were finally out after this dreadfully wet, insect-free summer.

I am delighted to say that they were indeed out and we spent a good hour watching common darters, emperors, brown hawkers, broad-bodied chasers and four-spotted chasers race around the peat.

These dragonflies were the first I’d seen this year, other than the female emperor which Arrack (our most beautiful Bengal tom cat) gave me as a present on the lone sunny day at the beginning of June!

 

There are a few swifts floating about too, in this warm weather (which has produced a brief boom in their midge prey) although I saw a few dozen of my favourite birds clearly migrating back to the Congo, screaming dots hundreds of feet above me in the blue sky as I mowed the lawn on Saturday morning. The swift migration south (as I’m sure I’ve mentioned many times) is the saddest time of the year for me (if I really had to pick one).

 

 

Hens

Hen in marigolds

At present, I’m afraid our eldest hen (Couven (the hen in the photo) – at 3 and a half years old) is suffering a little.

As seems to be the case with poultry (and I’ve had a little experience now) one minute they seem fine  - the next their comb drops and they appear so ill – sitting there with their eyes closed, feathers in an unkempt state, offensive yellow or watery faeces – they just look so miserable.

 

Hens can live for up to a decade if very lucky, but if from poor stock (as her and her sister were originally – remember my favourite hen, “Cutlery” spent half her life sick), then very often health problems tend to be quite apparent after three years or so – and whilst they can be managed a bit – very often its sadly just delaying the inevitable.

 

 I had been giving this particular hen anti-inflammatory as well as antibiotics for about a week   - which seemed to have done the trick - but she’s back to being pretty poorly now – this may very well be the end of our eldest girl (and last remaining of our two original birds) – I hope not, but fear that this may be the case.

 

If we do decide that enough is enough for our poor girl, then it will be a sad truth that less than four years after getting two kittens and two pullets (young hens) which we adored so much, we will be left with only one of the original animals – the female kitten (now a large, fluffy cat) called “Yala”.

That might suggest our animal husbandry isn’t up to much – but sometimes these things just happen – “Malu” (my beloved tom cat) suffocated in seconds after choking on a kibble and it seems like our two original hens (incredibly friendly birds – much more so than our two later additions) were from very poor stock.

We could have reasonably expected both cats to reach fifteen years (I hope Yala still does) and both hens to make ten – ( a combined total of 50 years  - we’ll be lucky to make 20 combined years now and half of that hopeful figure will be from Yala)  but that’s how the cookie crumbles I guess.

 

If Couven is not with us for much longer, then I will have to consider seriously whether to give our two remaining birds to a deserving home and start afresh.

 

Why?

Why not keep the two remaining chooks without having to “start afresh”?

 

The answer is pretty simple really – our two original birds (Couven and Cutlery) were both “Bovan Goldlines” (that’s the hybrid type) and incredibly friendly (especially Cutlery who used to walk around the garden with me, perched on my shoulder). I adored them both, but Cutlery was my girl!

 

When I had to kill Cutlery (due to really quite nasty health issues) I had to get at least one more hen to replace her to keep Couven company. (Hens are very social animals and do not do well on their own).

Anna and I made the deliberate choice to get TWO new pullets to replace Cutlery – so if one died (or Couven died) we wouldn’t suddenly be left with one bird again.

Conker and Trouble were our two new hen’s names –Trouble being a large (black) Pepperpot hen and Conker being a (russet coloured) Columbian Blacktail.

 

I had never experienced a pecking order situation before with my two original girls, or anything else than friendly behaviour really. There was no pecking order between our original Couven and Cutlery – both from the same shed (near Hook Norton) and seemingly happy to eat from the same bowl at the same time. They almost seemed like true sisters and Anna and I honestly did love them dearly (especially Cutlery who was a sweetheart) even though that as pretty pragmatic scientific-types by nature (Anna and myself) we are well aware of the dangers of “getting too close” to one’s pets, let alone “Pet farmyard animals”!

 

When I introduced the two new girls (Trouble and Conker) to the old girl (Couven) there was battle royale immediately (quite normal I now know). Couven stood her ground pretty well but there was only going to be one winner for the head of the pecking order – and within minutes, Trouble (the big black Pepperpot) had taken control of her two new housemates.

Couven in fact was relegated to third (and last) place in the pecking order, after moulting shortly after all three birds were put in the coop for the first time.

 

Since those days (18 months ago or so now) and certainly since Anna and I bought our current house and moved, our old girl has slowly separated herself from the two others – she seems not to get on with them really and would prefer to spend time sitting with myself and Anna, if we stayed in the garden for any length of time.

 

It’s not like they bully her – they havent been anyway – and Couven always has been far more physically impressive than her smaller housemate Conker, just that she didn’t really like them too much!

 

Couven was always a little less “approachable” than her sister Cutlery, but since we moved, she has become far more approachable and seemingly far more dependent on Anna’s and my company. Very often the old girl would perch outside the back door and peer at us through the cat flap – she and her sister always did like coming into the kitchen at our old place.

 

You know…. If I didn’t know any different, I’d suggest that Couven is still looking for Cutlery (the last week of Cutlery’s life was spent inside our old house, in a box) – or at least still misses her and needs our company (Anna and myself) to at least reassure her that everything is ok.

Of course, the above sentence is pure poppycock, but it does feel true sometimes!

 

Conker and Trouble (our two new(er) birds) have never been in the same league as Couven and Cutlery as far as friendliness is concerned.  The only reason I can pick them up at all is that they squat if you catch them off guard (most layers that are actually laying eggs do this – in fact its often a way one can tell whether a bird is laying or not, but you have to be quick to get them to squat – once they are up and running, they’ll probably not squat again!)

Both Conker and Trouble are fast, aggressive birds, fit as fiddles, very vocal and to be honest, could take or leave their human owners I think. The feeling is quite mutual!

 

Even though this is very “Disney”…. I do miss my friendly, gentle, fun, inquisitive girls. (Couven and Cutlery).

 

Maybe pet hens that are a little less cute and friendly are the most ideal of all pet hens though and I should thank my lucky stars eh?

 I’ll certainly not be as upset when the time comes to kill Trouble and Conker as I was when I had to kill poor old Cutlery and as I might be when I might have to do the same with Couven.

 

But I can’t help feeling that despite all that, I’d like the dun back – the friendly hens back again. (Of course – I may have just got lucky with our first two – and no hen will be as friendly as the original girls – but I doubt it – if I start again fresh, with healthy Bovan Goldlines.  I have little doubt that putting new hens in with old has created a pecking order which has altered all the birds’ behaviours, the two new girls have become more aggressive and couvs has become friendlier to Anna and myself – and far more passive.

 

I’ve waffled on far too long now about our hens – but I think there may be a few changes afoot pretty soon…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) broad-bodied chaser brown hawker common darter emperor four-spotted chaser hen summer swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/7/hens-and-dragonflies-in-our-week-of-high-summer Mon, 23 Jul 2012 17:45:09 GMT
Summer to arrive next Sunday? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/7/summer-to-arrive-next-sunday April  - the wettest April ever.

Parts of May - pretty bleedin' wet n all.

June the wettest June ever.

July- shaping up to be one of the wettest Julys ever.

What about the coming August?

 Better?

MUCH better if you give any credence to jet stream forecasts of more than a few days.

 

If you do think the jetstream can be forecast over a week in advance - then from next Sunday onwards (22nd July, or the first Sunday of the UK School summer holidays), we may be in for a bit of summer after all this year.

Through the tunnel

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?

Maybe!!!

 

Until then though, we are in for more low pressure systems flinging themselves at us from every which way - just as this week has seen yet more driving rain turn our lawn into a quagmire and fill up all the drainage ditches in the surrounding countryside yet again...

 

What have I seen this week (other than water on windows and windcreens)?

Well... in the two sunny moments this week, I did manage to see a comma (butterfly) sun itself on a bridge over the stream at work (I've hardly seen ANY butterflies this year in all this rain), plus a banded demoiselle on a bramble, overhanging the same stream.

I've hardly seen my facourite birds (swifts) all week but I have heard two pass south at height  - I think the majority of them have gone - WEEKS early. (On that subject I have heard some bad news re swifts from my father up in Fife this week also. He has swifts nesting - but not this year - they never returned at all this year - very worrying but quite common it seems in this terrible summer of 2012 - I guess we were lucky to have any buzz our house this year!)

There's been a few bees in the garden - carder bees and what I would call nectar bees  (or yellow faced bees) mainly - and the cornflowers, poppies and even the buddleja is beginning to flower now - is it right that most flowers are THREE WEEKS behind schedule because of this dark, cold, wet summer?)

I watched a growly spitfire (WWII plane) display low over Reading  (beneath the gun-metal grey skudding clouds) yesterday, as it flew towards Farnborough Air Show no doubt - which was lovely to see (and hear!)

Then this morning, before entering the local Waitrose for another weekly shop, Anna and I watched bemused, as high above us, on the disused and abandoned office building in the middle of our town, a lone peregrine (female) falcon sat, completely surrounded by town pigeons - one of which on the same ledge as her?!

I've never seen anything like it before - a big female peregrine allowing her lunch to sit beside her? They (the pigeons) must have known she was not hungry....

 

Anyway. Fingers crossed for a HUGE change in the weather after the week ahead.

You heard it here first...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) banded demoiselle carder bee comma cornflower nectar bee peregrine poppy swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/7/summer-to-arrive-next-sunday Sun, 15 Jul 2012 15:42:19 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 21 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/7/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-21 Only one visit to owl-ville this week - just after dawn this morning.

Three owls (one of the parents and both young) all sitting on the wall under the cattle shed roof, all looking at the floor intently - beetle hunting I 'spect.

Nothing else to report this week - they're all still in their field, clearly.... and trying their best to avoid this ridiculous summer rain...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/7/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-21 Sun, 15 Jul 2012 15:23:44 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 20 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/7/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-20 Another gloomy, cool, damp week for our little owl family – and once again, I’ve not been up to their “hood” more than twice all week (due to my fortnight off running, poor health and wet weather).

 

That said, Anna and I did drive up there on Thursday evening and saw all four owls (both young and both parents) sat on perches in the field an hour before dusk – so all seems ok at least. Both young were perched together on their favourite shed gutter, one of the parents was perched on top of the shed and the other parent was perched 200m or so away on their “winter shed” – where I watched the male all winter before he was joined by his “laydee” at the start of spring.

 

My guess is the adult male will be more comfortable in his winter roost now  - more space, less demands on him from his prodigy and he will possibly often get to catch his own food rather than have it taken from him.

 

My second guess is that the family is (incredibly slowly admittedly) moving apart. As I’ve mentioned before, the two youngsters will have to learn how to fend for themselves completely before the autumn is truly upon us – and by that time they should be looking to set up new territories of their own.

 

My third guess (pure speculation)  is that all four owls will spend another month (maximum) together, slowly getting on each-others’ nerves more and more, until both young fly off (separately I would say) to take a field, roost and potential nest site of their own.

 

So…. I think I have a month left seeing all four owls regularly (if and when I get up there) and then I will be down to occasionally seeing one owl for months – but very possibly nowhere near the nest box.

 

I really will try and get up to “Owl-ville” during the rest of july, to try and get a half decent photo two (to add to my only two half-decent photos so far), but unless both my health and the weather improve dramatically and quickly, I’m not promising much I’m afraid.

 

I’ll do what I can, but until then, all I can say is that it was lovely to see all four owls in their field on Thursday evening – all seems well in the world to me, when the local owls are ok – silly I know!

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/7/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-20 Sun, 08 Jul 2012 04:56:11 GMT
2012 – The avian annus horribilis https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/7/2012-the-avian-annus-horribilis It’s now official.

The last three month period (April, May and June 2012) has been the wettest April, May and June period since records began (around 1910).

But you don’t need me to tell you that do you (don’t you bore of blogs and bloggers that tell the reader what the weather did yesterday where they were  and that’s about all).

You will know all to well (if you live anywhere in the UK other than the Hebrides) that after the warmest, driest March ever, the weather has pretty-well turned to dumping unrelenting sheets of water on us – and so it will continue into this weekend with more flooding predicted north of Birmingham.

You know all this of course – but do you realise what effect all this wet has had on our birds in the UK this year?

April, May and June are very important months for most of our feathered friends – the most important three months one could legitimately argue. It’s when the vast majority of our birds attempt to breed.

This year, for many of our birds, the entire 90 day breeding season has been rained off.

The BTO is getting reports of breeding birds failing everywhere –  tits, bunting, larks, chats, pipits, swifts, barn owls, reed warblers, kestrels and other raptors – Dr.Dave Leech (head of nest recording at BTO) has stated this has been the worst breeding season he has ever seen (he’s probably the most qualified man in the UK to make such a statement).

Dr.Leech studies a reed warbler colony in Norfolk and he has witnessed the adult birds try up to four times to build a nest and raise young – but each time the nest is blown down. “It’s never-ending” says Dr.Leech and “very depressing”.

 

What of my favourites – the swifts then?

Not good I’m afraid.

Bodies such as Swift Conservation are hearing many reports of failing nests (there are nowhere near enough nest sites anyway) with adult birds rejecting their own eggs from nests because there is not enough food in the skies to feed adults and young this year (this is recognised, documented behaviour in times of very wet, cold weather).

Adult swifts are being found wet and exhausted on the ground in numbers (swifts must keep airborne to feed and feed to keep airborne).

In some areas, swifts are missing entirely – and some seem to have started to head back home (to the Congo with the cuckoos) already – having given up this year it (at least) seems.

As regular readers of my stuff will know, Anna and I have moved away from our old pre-war house where I filmed and webcast breeding swifts for the past two years – I have no idea how that family is getting on this year, but I do hear from my old neighbours (who did see the swifts after Anna and I pointed them out whilst we were there) that they haven’t seen any swift activity this year.

I have no idea whether that’s because the swifts haven’t been as “obvious” in the sky around my old house before roosting (they’re just diving into the roof quickly to save energy) or they really aren’t there at all.

At our (Anna and myself) current location about ten miles from “Swift Half”, screamer swifts (non-breeding young swifts) have been very interested in my swift call CD since the middle of June it seemed (although I don’t think any found the entrance to my “Swift palace” in the attic) but I’ve not seen these half dozen birds for a few days now. Not heard them either. I wonder if they’ve also all just thought sod this for a game of soldiers – and set off back to Africa.

 

We have had something of a brief respite today (Thursday 5th July) though. A little sun and a lot of (sudden 26c) heat got me looking skywards during my lunch break – and I was delighted to see a few swifts zipping about in the sky, screaming to each other and making the practicing F18 Hornets (actual plane in image today) and “Patriots” over Farnborough (which admittedly are very exciting and noisy) look positively cumbersome in the heavy sky.

There are still swifts about of course, just not as many as I'd have liked to see during July and not as obvious!

All dreadfully depressing for Dr.Leech, me and many, many others in the UK who love our summers, love our birds and love our swifts.

 

 

Let’s just hope for our sakes that this broken bleeding jet stream fixes itself so we humans at least get a bit of a nicer late summer in August or September.

 

As for the birds – no such change will do them any favours this year – all we can hope for is 2013 is a little more kind to them –especially the beautiful swifts….

 

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) breeding season rain swift weather https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/7/2012-the-avian-annus-horribilis Thu, 05 Jul 2012 16:38:10 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 19 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/7/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-19 Hardly anything to report this week as my health problems have meant I have not run through owl countryside since Monday and yesterday was the first (and only) time I've driven by to see the owls all week.

I did see them yesterday though - both owlets on the gutter of their barn, in the midday wind - and I am reliably told by a local contact that both parents and owlets are still doing well on site...

I have no idea whether I'll be able to find the time (and effort) to get up to their field for a few photographs before they all bugger off for the autumn and winter - we'll see eh?

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/7/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-19 Sun, 01 Jul 2012 15:29:02 GMT
Flash floods again – it must be Wimbledon fortnight… https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/flash-floods-again-it-must-be-wimbledon-fortnight To be fair, the rain (and there’s been plenty of it again in the midlands and north of the country) hasn’t really affected SW19 yet and anyway, these days the club has an all-singing all-dancing (all lighting and air-conditioned) roof, so there’s always at least one live game being played – until 10pm if necessary. This also means no walking, talking living corpse (Cliff Richard) singing in the rain on centre court which I can’t tell you how pleased I am about…

Yes, there’s been plenty of rain, flash floods and giant hailstones oop narrth, but to be fair, down here, we’ve just had wishy washy drizzle, a little of that Saharan sand-laden “heavy splatter-droppy dirty summer” rain (which gets your car covered in muck) and one day of 100% humidity and 28c temperatures (yesterday).

Today though (as I type) – and we’re back to type (so to speak) – middle of the year (the longest days of the year) and lights are on and its like the dead of night out there  - all very depressing and all too common it seems in 2012.

The jetstream has become well and truly stuck over middle of the UK at present (about 300miles further south than it should be) and in common with the summer of 2007 (remember those floods anyone?!) we are experiencing a cool, wet, blustery summer  - although to be fair, every summer since 2007 has been quite similar in terms of jetstream position.

Of course the local frogs are probably quite enjoying this damp weather - lots of nice lush vegetation, plenty of insects and plenty of moisture. Our kittens dragged in yet another squealing frog last night (which I rescued from under the sofa at dawn today). By my records, thats over twenty-five our cats have taken since August 2011 (although I've rescued many) and probably another twenty or so that the hens have had (and most of them they've eaten). 

Let me be clear here - cats are no threat to long term population sizes of garden birds (no matter what anecdotal evidence the less-than-scientific "Disney crew" excitedly spew forth in one's direction) but they are seemingly a real threat in our garden at least, to moths, butterflies and amphibians...

 

Our summer cuckoos have pretty-well all left now (it feels like they have only just got here eh? But I don’t think I’ve actually heard one for a month or so now) – so they won’t have seen a spring or summer in the UK this year!

The raiding parties (or what I call the raiding parties anyway  -  most others call them  the all too-firework-like “bangers” and “screamers”) of swifts have certainly arrived from Africa now.

These are yearling swifts, or young non-breeding swifts certainly – all making a bit of a nuisance of themselves to be fair and screaming at (and banging into) occupied nest sites on recce missions for next year’s breeding season.

I’ve been playing my swift call CD most days again (at dawn and dusk) and Anna and I have watched up to half a dozen swifts become very interested in our street and our house in particular.

I really hope a one or two find the entrance to my “swift palace” and remember it for next year – a big ask, but if you don’t ask you don’t get eh?!

It will be three weeks or so before the adult (or yearling) swifts in our skies are joined by this year’s fledglings – and only about a week after that and the vast majority will be gone for another 9 months – can’t believe that time is coming so quickly really….

 

Well… that’s all very depressing – is there anything worth grinning about at present, or anything to look forward to?

 

Well… three or four weeks, maybe six I suppose and all the heather on our local lowland heath and moor will turn a beautiful purple – something I’ve missed for years as I’ve always been on holiday somewhere hot at the time!

I’m certainly looking forward to that, as am I to the odd steamy evening in July or August when I might have time to visit the same moor at dusk and keep my eyes peeled for our mysterious local nightjar….

Then there’s always the tennis – on tv right now. I have played a bit of tennis in the past (that’s probably something of an understatement really, but we’ll leave it there) and always enjoy Wimbledon fortnight.

 

So yes…. with heather and nightjars and Wimbledon - There’s always something to grin about, even in this miserable dark summer!

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) frog jetstream.wimbledon swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/flash-floods-again-it-must-be-wimbledon-fortnight Sat, 30 Jun 2012 04:19:13 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 18 - both owlets on three HD video clips https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-18---both-owlets-on-three-hd-video-clips A mixed week weather-wise, with quite a lot of sun (compared to many recent weeks) and an awful lot of rain once again. June is certainly shaping up to be one of the wettest ever Junes I think.

I've managed to record about an hour's HD footage of BOTH the little owlets' activity on top of their barn this week and spliced together some footage into three short clips below.

It's great to know that the owls have had a successful breeding season and also good to know that two (not just one) owlets have fledged. This week (Week 18) was the first week that both owlets appeared outside their nest box and explored the surroundings - very often together.

I've seen both owlets raise hell by bouncing through hedges close to passerines nests and also take beetles and worms from under their shed. Its nice to see their parents bringing them food also - at the start of the second clip below, one of the adults has brought them wht looks like a vole (the first time I've seen any of the owls with prey larger than a huge earthworm!)

They (the owlets) still look a little clumsy in the air (although to be fair, adult little owls with their rotund appearance and undulating flight hardly are reknowned for their swift-like aerial agility!) and can be differentiated from their parents by their slightly smaller size and fluffier head - but they are looking more developed (and more "adult) day by day.

These two little owlets need to be fully independent by the Autumn - and start to set up their own territories by then - if they stick around after the autumn, their parents will probably not tolerate their presence (that is if their parents are keen enough and able enough to keep the territory from themselves).

I expect though, that all summer, our little owl family will remain pretty-well together and even though I might not try and get more HD video footage - I might try for a few photographs, if I ever get time....

Until then, I hope you enjoy the three clips below - and watch out for the surprise visitor in the third clip!

As usual, please enlarge the embedded video player to fill the screen (for smooth playback) and set the video quality to 1080HD (not auto HD) at the bottom of the embedded player for much more (full HD) detail.

Explanatory text can be found before each clip, so you know what you're watching.

 

 

18th June 04:09

One owlet just before dawn after a wet night

18th June 12:09

Adult which flies away and one owlet

18th June 12:41

Both owlets exploring barn roof

18th June 12:46

Both owlets exploring barn roof

18th June 21:42

One owlet on barn roof at dusk

18th June 22:34

Same owlet still on barn roof after dark

Owl watch 18th June 2012 both fledglings

 

 

 

 

 

19th June 13:27

One adult with small mammal (vole?) prey

19th June 17:27

Both owlets on roof – one attempts to hide…

19th June 17:29

One of my favourite clips of both owlets

19th June 18:16

A short, clumsy landing from one of the owlets

19th June 19:18

Both owlets watch a plane and one gets scared

19th June 22:17

One owlet calls for company after dark

Owl watch - 19th June 2012 - both fledglings

 

 

 

 

 

 

20th June 06:58

Both owlets on roof in low sunshine after dawn

20th June 09:37

A surprise guest on the roof… from France?

20th June 11:42

An owlet gives the trail-camera an inspection

20th June 11:54

One adult and one owlet

20th June 12:05

My favourite clip of both owlets in the sun

20th June 13:30

An owlet sunbathes and falls asleep?!

Owl (and partridge!) watch - 20th June 2012

 

 

NB. I assume the owlet at the end of the clip above is sunbathing and falling asleep whilst doing so? Most birds sunbathe (as a source of energy when food supply may be low and also to move feather parasites onto parts of their plumage from which they can easily remove them) and I have watched little owls seemingly thoroughly enjoy their sunbathing (much more so than many other birds) - but if you can think of any other explanation for the final part of the clip above - please let me know.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) HD video Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-18---both-owlets-on-three-hd-video-clips Sun, 24 Jun 2012 08:28:38 GMT
The longest day and a few short thoughts... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/the-longest-day-and-a-few-short-thoughts Well gang, we made it. Just.

Today (June 21st) marks the longest day of the year – and as I write this (at 7am), looking out of the window, it might as well be the shortest day – its dark outside, raining heavily (again) and everybody has their headlights on. Bear in mind the sun has been up for a good three hours…

 

A quick glance at the jet stream maps (and forecast) suggests we are still well and truly stuck in the “winter weather pattern” and this looks unlikely to change significantly until early July at the very earliest….

 

I wonder how all the hippies, pagans and druids gathered at Avebury and Glastonbury coped this morning, being unable to see their earliest dawn!

 

We have had a couple of nice days this week mind, well…. at least one, and just as I cut the lawn again lat night (my job shackles me to weather forecasts and I am unable to mow our mossy lawn if it is damp), many of the local farmers were mowing their lawns for silage, their tractors being followed by kites and buzzards, looking for disturbed prey in the cut grass as I ran by on my daily three-mile run.

 

On yesterday’s run, I witnessed something that I rarely see and it reminded me that I am regularly dismayed by contemporary science, or more pertinently, many contemporary “scientists”.

 

 

So what did I see?

 

Nothing particularly special – just a buzzard hovering (like a kestrel) over a farmer’s field as he cut it for silage.

 

But buzzards can’t hover can they (say the “real scientists”).  Oh sure, they can “wing hang” (face the wind and hang motionless in the air with wings outstretched) but they can’t actually actively produce lift by flapping their wings and hovering like a kestrel!

 

The answer (and many people who spend a lot of their free time in the countryside, looking and listening will say the same thing) is that buzzards can and do hover like a kestrel – the real scientists may not have witnessed this, but many of us lesser mortals* have.

 

Now admittedly, they flap their wings and hover in a very untidy, clumsy fashion, with their legs often hanging beneath them (rather than tucked up neatly like a kestrel’s) – and they can’t seem to hover indefinitely like a kestrel either – maybe 30 seconds and then they have to wheel away – but make no mistake, buzzards can and do hover like a kestrel if they need to and conditions are right.

 

  • Many scientists will tell you that is nonsense and buzzards cannot “hover” (but they can and do – ask any farmer).
  • Many scientists might also tell you (if asked) that terrapins are not breeding in our rivers and lakes – but I’ve seen it (or if you don’t believe me, ask any fisherman).
  • Many scientists were of the firm opinion that black swans were “out of kilter” with the timing of our seasons and therefore would not be able to breed here (they are a southern hemisphere bird naturally) – wrong again.
  • Many scientists would let you know that kestrels cannot and would not catch adult rats (as the rats are too big and powerful) – but once again, I’ve seen this regularly and (I assume) if I have, others have also.

 

The list above is hardly exhaustive but shows a common problem with modern science (or more pertinently, many contemporary scientists).

 

Many scientists seem incapable of accepting any information without seeing the evidence for themselves. Now that would be fine (science equals evidence after all) if they were open to the possibility of something happening without them having witnessed it for themselves, but that particular mindset seems rarer and rarer these days.

 

If scientist A does not witness (and document) event X for themselves, scientist A states that event X cannot possibly have happened – flawed logic at best – an arrogant, blinkered stance to take at worst and one (like I say) that seems all to common in the scientific world these days.

 

 

 

 

NB.

For the record (and for those that don’t know) – I am a zoologist by qualification (having gained a half decent degree from a very well-respected, old university twenty years ago) and also having sat the original (harder?) “O” and “A” levels in the mid ‘80s.

I would not, though, class myself as a “scientist” these days (let alone a “real scientist”) as I am probably more “qualified” in the bakery trade than modern scientific procedure (I worked as a craft baker and a bakery manager for a decade).

 

I only regard myself as an amateur naturalist (in Gerald Durrell speak) and I suppose I have quite a lot of experience in the field now, as almost all of my free time has been spent outside, since I was a lad. An amateur (field) naturalist with an academic, scientific qualification. That’s all.

 

I now work in the largest environmental organisation in Europe (although I am not carrying out scientific work for them) but I am certainly surrounded by people who would regard themselves as “real scientists” at work.

Admittedly those “real scientists” are running after me with pitch forks shouting “Heresy! Heresy!” most of the time, but there you go….

 

Contemporary science does seem to be beset with issues (and not just PR issues)  – and some of my previous heroes (Dawkins etc…) and people who possibly should know better (Packham  etc) are doing nothing for the cause – quite the reverse in fact.

 

The sentence above might intrigue you. How on earth could I criticise the nation’s favourite wildlife presenter Mr Chris Packham or indeed a stalwart of old school (and brilliant!) evolutionary biology, Richard Dawkins)?!

 

I’ve not got time to blog more on this now, but will endeavour to find time to do so soon…

 

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) buzzard red kite science scientists summer solstice https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/the-longest-day-and-a-few-short-thoughts Thu, 21 Jun 2012 16:08:28 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 17 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-17 Not too much to add here other than its clear the little owlets are exploring their immediate location now.

Twice I've run past their field, twice I've heard a commotion from the trees and hedges bordering their field, twice I've investigated and twice I've been met by an indignant, stary-eyed little owlet which promptly bounced (very characteristic undulating flight)  away followed by the mobbing blackbirds, chaffinches etc...

The weather has been pretty poor all week (in fact it blew the trailcam over once), but I hope to retrieve the camera again after this week and may have an HD video of our growing owlets then. Fingers crossed eh?

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-17 Sun, 17 Jun 2012 09:38:41 GMT
Urban peregrines https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/urban-peregrines I remember when I first became interested in wildlife (and birds I s'pose, in particular), I could only dream about seeing a peregrine, or a red kite or a barn owl. Even goldfinches were a rare treat.

On the other hand of course, I was tripping over other birds such as song thrushes, lesser spotted woodpeckers (in our large garden) and cuckoos.

These days and the song thrushes are a rare treat for me, I've not seen a lesser spotted woodpecker since I moved out of the house in which I grew up, I might hear a handful of cuckoos a year if I'm lucky but conversely, red kites are hourly visitors over our garden, I can see barn owls all year if I look hard enough, goldfinches are omnipresent on garden feeders and even peregrines can be found in most of our large towns and indeed cities.

Lets get one thing straight though. Falco peregrinus (literal meaning "wandering falcon") has a common English name of "Peregrine". Not "Peregrine falcon" no matter what Springwatch tv presenters say (for that matter springwatch the "Great spotted woodpecker" is just that.... not the "greater spotted woodpecker".

Peregrines are peregrines in the same way as kestrels are kestrels (and not kestrel falcons), hobbies are hobbies (and not hobby falcons), merlins are merlins (and not merlin falcons).

Generally speaking (at least in the UK) falcons are female birds (hens) of the Falco genus whereas tiercels are the male birds (cocks).

Thus if you refer to a peregrine as a falcon, you are immediately referring to the hen bird - which is fine.... as long as you're sure.

 

When Anna and I lived in Reading (as we did for the past 5 or so years) I was delighted to see an urban peregrine stoop at the feral pigeons feeding on the small recreation ground behind our terraced house. I later learned (and saw for myself) that this peregrine was one of perhaps three or four roosting regularly on the tallest office block overlooking the old station - one can still see peregrines in the centre of Reading pretty-well each day if one occasionally looks up (it amazed me that very often the most impressive bird of prey in the entire world was perched or flying above the residents of Reading heads  - and they had no idea).

Now we live at the edge of Bracknell and I'm glad to say that the tallest (disused) office block in this god-forsaken town (its worse that Slough I think) seems to be the home (or at least roost) to two more urban peregrines.

I was doing a spot of evening shopping at Waitrose last night and I watched both the tiercel and falcon fly in and roost on the top floor of this ugly eyesore - good for nothing apart from providing a lovely tall man-made cliff for the height-loving peregrines.

Of course, the office block provides homes (and nest sites also) to a good number of feral pigeons - what more could an urban peregrine want?! Height, shelter and plentiful food...

 

Like I say, many (if not most) of our larger urban areas have peregrines now. They set up home on office blocks, power stations, pylons, cathedrals, churches, art galleries, tower blocks - anywhere with a little height. Far from being rare these days, they have adapted magnificently to urban sprawl and the banning of DDT - a real success story in the raptor conservation world.

They have even changed their behaviour to suit their new environment - country peregrines would roost and sleep during the hours of darkness, but urban peregrines use the glow from street and building lights to hunt at night - and they do this quite deliberately.

Many of our birds (especially (and unfortunately!) our less common or water birds like corncrake, snipe, golden plover woodcock and grebes) tend to move in the air at night often. Grebes,woodcock and corncrakes tend to only fly at night (you'll hear grebes occasionally fly over at night - especially if you know what to listen for!). The urban peregrines watch these pale-bellied birds light up at night because of the orange street light pollution and take them as prey.

 

You know, there are plans afoot to take down the disused office block in the middle of Bracknell on which the peregrines roost.

I am torn here, because the blessed thing can be seen for miles, and is an awful advert for our (current) town - but at least the peregrines like it.

I returned at first light this morning to get a few photographs of one of the birds which had clearly roosted on the building overnight.

 

Anyway.... it was quite delightful to see these magnificent birds so close to our new(ish) house again. I thought I'd left them in Reading, but should have known better!

 

What else have I seen (or not seen as it happens) this week?


Firstly, our local barn owl has deserted its hollow tree roost which is a shame. I hope it has not been hit by a car and has simply found another roost for the time being. (Barn owls, I think, are the most transient of all our bird species when they're not breeding).

More swifts have been checking out the roof of our new(ish) house this morning (like last week also). This gives me great hope that we may have nesters next year or the year after, which I can film again.

Arrack (one of our bengal cross kittens) today brought home a beautiful male  emperor dragonfly (the first I've seen all year). Unfortunately I was too late to save the insect - but once again I am reminded of the fact that everyone seems to be concerned about cats preying on garden birds (whose numbers in general are increasing year on year) but no-one seems concerned about cats preying on moths, butterflies and dragonflies (MUCH more worrying for me).

After yet another damp squib of a week with high winds for most of the time, I hear from Tuesday onwards we may get something a little more settled - not high summer or anything and there'll be some flies in the ointment, but perhaps better than we've had for weeks now.

Looking at the long term jetstream forecast, I personally can't see anything settled, nor any chance of any Azores high creeping over the UK until July at the very earliest....

Aw well....

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl emperor dragonfly peregrine swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/urban-peregrines Sun, 17 Jun 2012 09:32:59 GMT
"Operation noctua" week 17 update - HD video of owlet fledging https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/-operation-noctua-week-17-update---hd-video-of-owlet-fledging I have had my trail camera on the roof of a barn in the same field as the little owls' nest box (in an old oak tree) since Sunday gone.

Sure, we've had some pretty woolly weather since then (wet and windy), but after photographing one of two (at least) owlets at the next box at the weekend - I wanted to see whether they would leave the relative safety of the box this week and start flying.

Plenty of dangers lie in their field (and beyond) - large crows, foxes, even buzzards I suppose  - and the odd red kite - the owlets will have to find their feet (so to speak) and become fully independent by the autumn - if they get that far.

 

I went up to the barn this afternoon (just before the rains started again) to retrieve the trail camera and as it happens I did disturb one of the fledglings (they HAVE learned to fly.... just) under the shed.

As I approached the shed, the little owlet hissed at me and flew very clumsily onto a roof beam (just making it there with a lot of scrabbling and flapping) and then just glared at me like only little owls can.

I flew up my "packaway" ladder, grabbed the trailcamera and got out of the field as quickly and quietly as I could. I'm sure the owlet will be fine as I noticed it flutter back down to the ground as I sat in the car reviewing the results of the trail camera.

It (very possibly) was picking off wee beetles from the ground under the shed - quite a large proportion of little owls' diet is beetles (see the first part of the embedded clip!) and I dare say it was beginning to learn to hunt for itself. I'm sure at least one of its parents was around and I trust the second owlet was in the box still.

I do wonder are there just two owlets or will I see three like last year?

 

Anyway.... I am delighted to say that at least one of the two (at least!) owlets DID leave its box just after lunchtime today and join one of its parents on their main perch, the cattle shed, about 50 yards from the tree nest box in which the owlet was born a few weeks ago - and if you watch the whole of the embedded clip below (please enlarge the embedded viewer as normal to get a jerk-free playback), you'll see this owlet in HD quality, from this afternoon.

The clip was made by splicing together three clips from the week-

Clip 1 from Sunday (in the sleet??!!!) showing an adult spying a beetle and grabbing it.

Clip 2 from yesterday (Weds 13th) showing an adult coming out of its hidey hole for a spot of well-deserved sunbathing.... and.....

Clip 3 from today (Thurs 14th June) showing one of the owlets on shed with one of its parents.

 

I'll put the trailcam back in place sometime this weekend and see if I can get some footage of more than one owlet....

 

Until then, enjoy!

Owl watch 14th June 2012 - first owlet flight!

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) HD video Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/-operation-noctua-week-17-update---hd-video-of-owlet-fledging Thu, 14 Jun 2012 19:01:53 GMT
Less of an enigma now? (Perhaps) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/less-of-an-enigma-now-perhaps My favourite bird of all.

The swift (of course).

I have had to write off any chance of breeding swifts this year in my "swift palace" (built in our new attic over the winter) as all breeding swifts in the UK are certainly here now and well into their breeding season.

But.... I do know a little about swifts (some of you may know) and I do appreciate that whilst the breeders are breeding, parties of late-arriving birds can be seen at present in our skies  and these birds can often be seen screaming 'round our houses in the early morning and late evening, "buzzing" breeders' territories and nest sites.

These small parties (maybe 3 or 4 birds maximum) of young, non-breeding swifts (I've always referred to them as "raiding parties") are checking out nest sites or potential nest sites for future years.

This also happens in late July, when swifts tend to fledge and begin thinking about their track back to the Congo for the winter.

Before they leave, good numbers of swifts seem to feed up and recce the surrounding land for nest sites for their return in 9 months time.

 

I haven't had my swift call CD playing all day for a few weeks now (its been terrible weather, all breeding swifts are here and breeding and the raiders hadn't arrived, or so I thought).

I have today off work and on finishing a morning run, I noticed two swifts checking out a house up the road (I've seen this before but perhaps not in such an urgent fashion).

I raced upstairs and popped the swift CD on at full volume (Anna is at work today, so it didnt disturb her!) and within minutes three or of four swifts were checking out our soffits, fascias and gutters (though NOT the entrance to my swift palace, which I've installed on what I refer to as the "gable end" of our house (just above the *cough* "upper paddock").

As I've mentioned, these birds will be what I call "raiders" although a better term might be "prospectors".

I'm pretty sure that a pair of swifts breeds a few doors up the road and I'm beginning to get more hopeful now that some interest has been taken in our house, that in future years (maybe next year - who knows?) we will have our own swifts back with us -  the new palace and HD camera is already in place for when that happens....

 

 

One further point to note about swifts, whilst I'm on the subject....

 

Two years ago, BTO scientists fitted swifts with tiny geolocators to track their migration to and from Africa and the UK each year.

Some pretty impressive results are now in and mapped and the study makes for fascinating reading (particularly if you are as obsessed with these wee birds as I am!)

 

I was particularly interested to note that:

 

a) The first swift migration map was produced by a swift named "A320" which is also one of my main roads to work each day.

b) Swifts can make their spring migration from west Africa back to the UK (5,000km) in as little as 5 days!

c) A large proportion of swifts actually do overwinter in the Democratic republic of Congo (I wasn't just making THIS up!)

d) Before heading to the UK in earnest, some swifts seem to "refuel" for a good week, in Liberia.

 

Swifts are beautifully enigmatic but this BTO study is shedding some fascinating light on the little-known migratory habits of this amazing bird.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/less-of-an-enigma-now-perhaps Thu, 14 Jun 2012 08:16:08 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 16 - owlets on show! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-16---owlets-on-show As predicted several times over the course of the last few months, the owlets have appeared bang on time (I predicted by the middle of June) and I managed to get a few sneaky photographs this morning in the soft, overcast light.

Ready to fledge

I thoughts I first saw one of the owlets appear at the entrance of the nest box in the evening of 6th June (last wednesday of week 16) and tweeted that thought (on twitter).

It was difficult to tell though (in very poor light and some distance) and it was only when Anna and I went up to the farm to collect barn owl pellets (for her biology lessons (she's a biology teacher for anyone who doesn't know)) that we became pretty certain that little owlets were on show.

I watched the box (the nest box that is) for a few minutes this morning and realised very quickly that the owlets were becoming very inquisitive about the "outside world".

One was pretty-well constantly stood at the entrance of the nest box as both parents quietly sat on the shed roof 50 yards or so away (taking no notice) and another owlet (there are at least TWO) bounced up and down in the box behind the dominant young bird, in a desperate bid to join its sibling at the entrance (with no luck - there's only room for one owl at the box entrance).

 

I made a decision to :

a) reinstate the trail cam (with a view to get some HD footage of the owlets should they actually leave the box proper and go and perch with their parents on the shed

b) Try for a quick photo of one of the young by rigging up my SLR with a radio remote and hiding in the long grass 50 yards or so away.

I didnt have to wait long - maybe ten minutes - up popped one of the young, I got a few precious photographs and then quickly, quietly took down the camera and moved out of the field.

Within five more minutes, the young owl (or a young owl anyway) was back at the box entrance, so I was confident I'd not unduly disturbed them.

 

Well.... as I've said, the trailcam is in place (I'll leave it there for a week maybe) but I am absolutely delighted to report this morning that after four months of watching this owl family (since early February), that we have at least two young owlets - and delightful they are too...

 

Ready to fledge

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fledgling little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-16---owlets-on-show Sun, 10 Jun 2012 09:12:19 GMT
Bad hare day https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/bad-hare-day The chances of seeing an early summer seem to have stalled somewhat this week, with quite a bit of rain (over 50% of the average for June in the first few days of the month) and now some pretty stormy, gusty winds.

 

The wildlife seems to have quietened down a smidge n all – I’ve seen both adult little owls on their shed, but the urgent hunting and calling seems to have gone – and I’ve not seen or heard our screaming swifts for a while.

 

It’s at times like these I wonder how on earth our wildlife (especially some meat-eating birds) manages to find food. Owls can’t hear much in all this racket and birds like swifts and swallows must struggle to get their airborne prey into their gobs I shouldn’t wonder?

 

After my penultimate run this week (yesterday afternoon) I did spend ten minutes or so watch a mixed flock of hirundines swarm over a field of barley, picking off flies (and the like) that I think had been blown off the row of large oak trees upwind of the birds. AT least I think that’s what they were trying to do (I don’t know how successful they were).

 

These very strong winds and high(ish) rainfall totals are a little unusual in the UK in June –and have done a little damage I’m sure.

 

Anna and I planted an oak tree (kindly given to us by my old walking partner) in our large back garden at the start of the week – and a wee branch has already snapped off that – and I’m pretty sure (like I said) there’ll be some nestlings that have probably perished in the week down here, due to the fact that their parents have not been able to forage very well.

 

This morning on my dawn run I once again ran through a stiffish breeze, dodging the little branches that had been ripped from the roadside oaks and checked out the local wildlife as I ran.

 

The barn owl was still in its tree (I still find that a bit strange - a single barn owl roosting in a tree in the breeding season IN a breeding barn owls territory), the newly-fledged buzzards were testing their wings against the wind and orange sun, the partridge shuffled through the edge of the barley field - and, as I stampeded towards them, panting like an enraged buffalo, the rabbits all skipped into the brambles, (well… you would too, wouldn’t you!)

 

A first for me on this morning’s run though was a beautiful brown hare (Lepus europaeus), sitting in the road next to the tree-surgeon’s country yard.

Now, I may be known in some (photography) circles by my moniker “The Black Rabbit”, but truth be told, I’m not that fond of rabbits (unless they’re in a Kephalonian casserole).

I much prefer hares. To watch (and eat as it happens).

 

One of my earliest childhood memories is my father preparing (skinning) and jugging a hare on our kitchen table – I can even remember the smell!

 

Now, I’ve not eaten hare for years and years, but probably wouldn’t pass up the opportunity if it presented itself to me again – I do remember liking the taste the last time.

 

Apart from eating them, hares are great fun to watch. They seem more intelligent than their smaller, chunkier, cuter cousins (rabbits), they seem oh I don’t know…. wiser, more capable, better at pretty-well everything – running (they are our fastest mammals reaching speeds of up to 45mph!), fighting, hiding, you name it.

I find them much more fun to watch than rabbits -   with their lanky appearance, deeper reddish-brown pelt (rather than the grey-brown of wabbits) and their beautiful black and white tail.

 

Of course, like rabbits, brown hares are not native to the UK (having been introduced by the Romans) and to be frank, I’ve not been overly concerned about the declining (brown) hare numbers in the UK over my lifetime.

 

Maybe I should be concerned though. I do really appreciate seeing them in the wild (I loved seeing one this morning on my run).

 

Yes… I think the UK would certainly be a duller place without our brown hares and being very much a lowlander, I personally would appreciate not having to trudge up those depressing black mountains in the highlands to try and see our only other species of hare, the Mountain hare (Lepus timidus, our only truly native hare).

 

 

 

Hmmm….maybe I should join the Hare Preservation Trust

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl brown hare buzzard house martin little owl rabbit red-legged partridge swallow https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/bad-hare-day Sat, 09 Jun 2012 07:27:10 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 15 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-15 Not much to add here after a what feels like a week of drizzle and cool temperatures.

Still no fledglings visible in the little owl field, but both parents still around.

I still think we'll see owlets by the middle of June... (I see Dorset Wildlife Trust's little owls have gawn already)

 

The video below shows one of our adults chowing down on a particularly impressive Lumbricus terristris on the barn roof right at the start of week 15 (when the sun shone and the rains stayed away... remember those heady summer days?!).

 

Owl watch - late May 2012 - the early bird...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-15 Tue, 05 Jun 2012 17:24:51 GMT
Would jubilee vit - the transit of Venus https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/would-jubilee-vit---the-transit-of-venus Do you remember June 8th 2004?

Do you remember anything special about it?

Maybe you were married then or celebrated someone's birthday or anniversary?

Maybe you passed your driving test or started a new job?

Maybe you had your ex-fiancee's name removed from that drunken tattoo on your left buttock on that day?

 

Me?

Well.... I remember it  for sure - but for none of the reasons above.

 

I was unmarried at the time - I hadn't even had a proper date with my wife-to-be in the summer of 2004 (that came the next year if I remember correctly, on June 2nd).

I was living in Buckinghamshire, in an "HMO" (a House of Mixed Occupancy) made up of a couple of pals and two of their sisters and me.

I was baking for a living, in a tiny craft bakery a few miles away and nothing much was happening in my life.

 

But on that day (eight years ago) I do remember sitting out in the back garden, with a piece of card and a set of binoculars - and I clearly remember projecting the very clear image of Venus passing across the face of the Sun through the binoculars onto that piece of card in the garden.

I was watching the UK's last transit of Venus and intend to do so again at around 0500hrs (BST) tomorrow morning, if this blessed drizzle ever clears.

If (like me) you have no trouble getting out of your pit nice 'n' early on summer mornings (whether working or not) I'd probably suggest you try and (SAFELY!) catch a glimpse of this transit as its the last one you'll see. EVER.

Why do I think it's worth seeing?

Because it (kind of) reminds you that your particular existence means b*****-all in the grand scheme of things - it reminds me to not be so arrogant or self-satisified  - it takes anyone down a peg or two - its pretty mesmerising really and quite healthy I think, (to occasionally be forced to appreciate one's true position in the cosmos). 

 

So.... what about The Diamond Jubilee then?

Well.... I'm no monarchist (I balk at being "ruled" by unelected Germans and Greeks in the main) but I'm no republican either (I certainly see the Royal family's worth to the UK economy for example and regard the whole deal as immense value for money).

That all said, Anna and I watched most of the festivities over the weekend on the TV (we didn't go down to London) and it was very nice to see so many people having such a nice time in the name of our Queen.

The highlight of the weekend for me was this afternoon's fly past by the Lancaster, Spitfires and Hurricane.... especially as the River Pageant flypast was cancelled on Saturday due to quite atrocious weather.

The lowlight of the weekend was the BBC's truly awful coverage of the weekend - the flotilla in particular.

Fair play to her (she's pretty ancient after all) for standing up for the entire inane proceedings in the wet- but she clearly hardly smiled at all during the flotilla (in fact she scowled through most of it - not that I blame her for that), but the quite appalling TV presenters did try (every 30 seconds) to tell us (again and again) how happy she looked.

Lets not be silly. She didn't seem to enjoy herself at all - unlike her husband -good old Philip - who DID beam all day long - and unfortunately ended the weekend in hospital with a bladder infection. Poor bloke.

Annnywaaaay... the Jubilee did seem to take an awful lot of traffic off the roads today - which was very nice indeed.

On my weekend (of sorts!) run today, I didn't see one car in the countryside - but I did see plenty of wildlife - a beautiful roe doe (with hidden young I assume), the local barn owl and little owls (still to fledge), a pair of very underrated pied wagtails (which eventually got off the road as my size 14s pounded towards them), a very noisy green woodpecker, a red-legged partridge which set my pace for me for a hundred yards or so (running up the road ahead of me, looking round occasionally before diving into the roadside cover) and a big female sparrowhawk with some unfortunate passerine in her talons.

I like four day weekends  (and so does the wildlife) - so thankyou Ma'am for that at least...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Diamond Jubilee Transit of Venus barn owl green woodpecker little owl pied wagtail red-legged partridge roe deer sparrowhawk https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/would-jubilee-vit---the-transit-of-venus Tue, 05 Jun 2012 16:15:08 GMT
Use your eyes (1) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/use-your-eyes-1 I have been quite well known (over the years) for uttering the phrase "use your eyes" more regularly than most - in fact my first blog was subtitled "Use your eyes" as were my first four photography portfolio books.

I have never forgotten how fortunate I am to have excellent eyesight and rather like my maternal Grandfather before me, am most interested in donating to human charities that deal with eyesight issues.

I think I picked up the "skill" to use my eyes (properly) from my father during our country walks when I was growing up (I guess he showed me what to look out for and how to look - his eyesight was excellent also) and now that I am married, I am also lucky enough to be married to someone who uses her eyes as well as I do. In fact, on the rare occasion that I miss things - my wife always sees them and tells me - I rely on Anna's sight as much as my own these days if not more than my own very regularly...

It amazes me how many people (this goes for virtually everyone) go about their daily routine and see NOTHING. They might as well have no eyes at all. It also amazes me how many people notice nothing, look at nothing nor use their (very often excellent I'm sure) eyesight at all.

They'll not notice the peregrine sitting high above them on the city tower, nor the fox trotting alongside a roadside hedge a hundred yards away, nor the lizard basking on that sand dune a few yards away from their feet - nor the hare's ears pricked and alert in the long grass in the field which they walk their dog, nor the huge-eyed jumping spider watching the procession of ants across the fence post on which they lean.... they'll notice nothing around them.

Is it because they're not interested in anything around them (other than the 6 feet surrounding them and any human standing within that bubble)? I doubt it. At least I hope not, but thats the impression I get sometimes...

Well.... before my eyesight deteriorates (as it surely will like everyone else) and before Anna's does too, we'll keep looking and seeing and noticing and thank our lucky stars that a) we still can and b) we still DO.

 

A good example of this (using eyes) occurred yesterday, as I warmed down after my (now) daily run through my favourite bit of local countryside.

I had just run three miles and as I walked towards the car, stretching my limbs, I approached an old tree stump (oak I think) that sat road side and which I'd run past at the start of my run almost half an hour earlier.

I knew there was a hole in the stump, about 7 feet off the ground, so I thought I'd peep in (as best I could) and see if there was anything "interesting" therein. You never know do you and you'll not find out if you don't look...

I walked in the middle of the road (the highest point of most roads) and got on my tiptoes to peer inside the hole.

And a barn owl peered back at me from the darkness!

I moved away pretty sharpish (I had no desire to disturb the owl or make it take fright nor flight!) and once again thanked my lucky stars.

Now I could have done what most people would have done after my run and walking down that lane. Got my stopwatch out, fiddled with my ipod, looked down at the tarmacadam or my feet, gazed at my car 300 yards away - taken NO notice at all of anything even remotely interesting happening around me - because hey... I know that road well and I don't need to look do I? I didnt need to look at that tree, let alone IN the tree.

Its no wonder that most RTCs (Road Traffic Collisions in "Police talk" (they've deliberately stopped calling them RTAs or accidents)) happen within a mile or two of one's home address - the drivers simply aren't looking (or seeing) at that point -  they've seen it all before haven't they? 

 

I rose very early at dawn this morning to go for another run and see if the owl was still roosting in this roadside tree.

I am very pleased to say it is still there - and if I time it right, I may be able to pick up some nice fresh barn owl pellets for Anna's biology classes again (I have furnished her with a few pellets from owls over the years and she's only just told me they've run out....)

 

But what is this owl doing there?

Firstly I should point out that the barn owl is roosting in a tree not half a mile from our little owl nest. That shouldnt really be a problem for either species though - more of an annoyance if they bump into each other but thats all really.

I do hear that this particular farm has a pair of barn owls nesting in one of the (several) barn owl boxes on the estate. I haven't seen a box (other than the box our little owls have "procured") nor any barn owls during my runs around the farm.

It is breeding season at present  - so either this is one of the breeding owls, roosting away from its developing chicks during the day (very possible) or its a "nomadic" (single) owl that has strayed a little close to the breeding barn owls on the estate and is roosting in the roadside tree to keep out of trouble (less probable but plausible I suppose).

I'm not about to take any photographs of this owl yet as a) I don't know what its doing roosting there and we're still very much in breeding season and b) barn owls are schedule 1 birds (as are kingfishers for all you "wildlife photographers" out there who ignore the law).

 

It's lovely to know though, that well within a handful of miles from our house, we have breeding tawny owls (saw one at dawn this morning during my run), breeding little owls AND barn owls - but you'll only see them if you.....

 

USE YOUR EYES....

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl use your eyes https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/6/use-your-eyes-1 Sat, 02 Jun 2012 06:16:58 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 14 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-14 A very short, belated weekly update from owls-ville Alabama as I've already given two owl-related updates during the week here and here.

We've had a stonking week weather-wise down here (high 20s all week, hardly a cloud in the sky all week) and the owls do seem more urgent this week.

They've also put up with three days of heavy farm plant making silage in their field this week  - in fact I have video clips of one of the owls on the barn roof, watching very indignantly as yet another hyowge noisy tractor passes underneath.

But put up with it they did and both owls are still there - although its probably been a little too hot for their favourite past time of spring - sunbathing.

One of the dutch little owls eggs has hatched (one of three eggs) this week  - you can still follow that family live on the internet here.

 

As for our owls - well.... the trail cam is back in place and I still think at least one egg has hatched in their nestbox and I still hope to see fledged owlets within a fortnight.....

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) HD video Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-14 Mon, 28 May 2012 17:35:30 GMT
Wentworth rounds off a hot week https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/wentworth-rounds-off-a-hot-week Even though I am still suffering from a mystery malaise, Anna and I managed to go to the PGA Championship at Wentworth yesterday (as we tend to go each year and now we only live about ten miles away from the famous golf club.

Another hot day, not a cloud in the sky but quite a blustery easterly (which kept the pros' scores up and kept us nicely warm rather than hot) meant we had a lovely day out, taking it very easy in the sun and watching the professionals ply their trade.

We are both lucky that neither of us suffer unduly from hayfever (I never have) which was just as well, because the stiff easterly was whipping through the pines - and great clouds of pollen were covering all the 20,000 spectators who came to see the golf.

On walking to the 1st tee from the car park at the start of the day, we watched a hornet patrol a drainage ditch alongside a fairway (the first I've seen in 2012 (the hornet that is, not the drainage ditch).

Strangely .... I often tend to see hornets at national sporting events. I remember walking up to Twickenham many years ago to watch a league final and I spotted a hornet on the back of a Wasps fan's jersey. I wasnt dreaming or drunk - there really was a large live hornet on the back of his jersey. I stopped him and told him - but he didnt believe me (nor would I to be fair!)

Other wildlife highlights of the day included two hawker dragonflies (unidentified though I suspect Brown Hawkers) a huge black ant nest (onto which Brett Rumford mis hit his drive on the 12th - he got a free drop  - something about ants not being in the Royal and Ancient Rule Book (I should write to St.Andrews!)) and a lovely view of a woodpecker nest.

This woodpecker nest was situated in a pine copse, low down in one of the pines, right at the spot where almost all the spectators grab a bit of lunch, a beer and go to the lav. If you know Wentworth west course, the copse is  at the ring of the 8th, 9th and 10th holes.

When the woodpecker(s) built this nest, the copse must have seemed like a dream spot for a nest - but 4 weeks later, just before the single (I think) youngster fledged, 80,000 people turn up under your tree for a burger, over four days!

The single youngster in the tree was calling constantly - and to be fair the adult male didnt seem to mind all the crowds surrounding his tree - he regularly came back to his noisy youngster to give it some grub (quite literally) of its own.

 

If you saw any of the golf over the weekend - you may have heard our young woodpecker - it was still calling (and very clearly audible as I watched today's coverage).... but true to form, hardly anyone on the course seemed to notice it - and nor did any of the commentators...

 

 

I juggled the garden's needs (chicken coop clearout, hedge trim, grass cut) today with the Monaco Grand Prix (dull) and the final round of the golf (dull).

During my time in the garden I saw our garden's first ruby-tailed wasp (my favourite wasp of all), our garden's first "downy" jumping spider (Sitticus pubescens) -a new jumper to me that, so I'm well-chuffed to have spied it chewing up a greenfly on our patio and the second hornet of the year (after yesterday's Wentworth individual), a mint moth (first of the year) on our forget-me-nots and a common darter  (another first) through the front garden as I trimmed our hedge.

I hear the weather will get slowly worse all week. Shame.... I'm getting quite used to the humidity, dragonflies, hornets and jewel wasps!

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) black ant brown hawker common darter downy jumping spider great spotted woodpecker hornet mint moth ruby-tailed wasp https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/wentworth-rounds-off-a-hot-week Sun, 27 May 2012 17:36:52 GMT
The Shard and the stags https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/the-shard-and-the-stags I worked from London on Thursday this week, from a top floor of Millbank Tower, next to Tate Britain on the Thames in central London.

 

I knew the view would be stupendous (our floor of this building sits high above the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and the London Eye, right on the banks of  the Thames and the whole of London was laid out below me  (from Post Office Tower to St.Paul’s Cathedral) – an amazing site.

 

This part of the blog might have little to do with wildlife (there was a heron standing near Lambeth bridge if you really must have wildlife!), but I wanted to mention my day in London as I’ve always been fascinated by iconic buildings (especially in our capital city).

 

The “gherkin” always struck me as a brilliant bit of architecture and on boarding my train to head into the big smoke on Thursday morning, I realised (with some excitement) I would get to see the newly-built “Shard” building for the first time.

 

I used to live and work in London a few years ago (when I first met my wife) and even though I appreciate one feels “in the centre of the universe” in the city, I didn’t enjoy my time in London town – a filthy, overcrowded, unfriendly city, bereft of woodland and made bearable only by having hundreds of the best pubs in the world – which I do miss quite a bit!

 

I don’t get back to London much these days (my choice really – like I say, I’d rather not go into the centre of my home town, let alone the centre of London) but I did appreciate seeing the Shard on Thursday.

 

When my train pulled into Waterloo, there was a fair bit of clingy cloud in the air. Every other building in London sat below this layer of cloud (which was soon to burn off, granted), but The Shard’s top 30 floors disappeared into the cloud layer – an amazing sight.

 

To put this new building into perspective, it’s the highest office building in Europe, sits 50% higher than 1 Canada Square (Canary Wharf) and the John Hancock Tower in Chicago (which Anna and I have been lucky enough to climb) and is pretty-well exactly the same height as the Eiffel Tower.

 

It’s another superb bit of architecture and looked absolutely fantastic under the clear blue skies of central London on Thursday, when the cloud lifted…. More buildings like this please all you architects out there!

 

 

The whole week has been hot and sunny over much of the UK this week – and until today (Friday) with very little wind to speak of.

A stiff easterly has picked up today, but before this happened in the humidity of last night, the stag beetles in our garden suddenly all went bananas – as if a “stag beetle switch” had been tripped.

Stag beetles are almost entirely limited to the SE of England (they seem to be kept in very localised areas such as Hampshire, Kent and parts of Berkshire by avoiding chalky soils – they much prefer clay soils.

 

I’d never seen an adult male stag beetle until Anna and I moved to Reading some years ago. We rented a house, whose owner had piles of buried rotten wood in the overgrown garden and thus inadvertently (I’m sure) created the prefect conditions for these impressive-looking beasties.

 

I had no idea we had stag beetles in our new house a dozen miles away from the old Reading house, but we also have buried, rotten wood in our large garden - and this was crawling with female stag beetles at dusk last night.

 

It wasn’t just females though – in flew the males well after dark  - to see a male stag beetle fly is one of those British wildlife events you really shouldn’t miss – one would think it would be impossible for our largest beetle (by some way) to get off the ground and take to the air to find a mate.

 

But get off the ground they do and last night was no exception.

 

This hot weather is set to last a wee while longer, but now that the winds have got up, I expect the stag beetles will be crawling rather than flying in the nights ahead.

 

Might be worth checking your piles of rotten wood though anyway – especially those of you that live in Berkshire, Kent and Hants…

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) The Shard stag beetle https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/the-shard-and-the-stags Fri, 25 May 2012 18:07:40 GMT
"Operation noctua" - week 14 update - have we hatched eggs? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/-operation-noctua---week-14-update---have-we-hatched-eggs Still a month away from the (official) start of summer, but you’d be forgiven for thinking its July now – what with it being light at 5am, not getting dark until well after 9pm, gin-clear skies above and the thermometer hitting 27c this week….

 

It always takes a few weeks after the blackthorn lines the hedges with a snow-white covering of flowers before the hawthorn takes over with white flowers of its own.

Yesterday evening I took a long walk around the main little owl field, to take in the hawthorn - and it was glorious to enjoy the warm, still air and listening to the birds warbling in the white hedgerows.

 

The air is now also thick with fluffy sallow (or goat willow if you prefer) seeds – many of our brooks and slower-moving watercourses have a covering of fluff on them at present as the water moves downstream and “The Cut” (the nearest brook to the owl field) is no exception, with large chub taking the odd mayfly or drowning sedge fly (of which there are hundreds).

 

I eventually sat down on a large log at the edge of the owl field and gazed along a field of bright yellow late-flowering oil-seed rape to watch the insects that all had suddenly appeared this week in the heat (after the rain!)

There were St.Mark’s flies, midges, blowflies, all manner of craneflies, a beautiful demoiselle fluttered by (the first I’ve seen this year) and male orange tip butterflies patrolled the hedge I sat by – on the hunt for their females.

I sat there , brushing robber flies from my exposed arms and as I did, the local bells began to peel at the village church about half a mile away.

I assume this was a practice session for the bell ringers (not because the noise needed more rehearsing (heaven (quite literally) forbid)  – just that 8:30pm on a Tuesday night is a bit of a weird time to call the villagers to service I would have thought.

 

Shortly after the church bells started, an insistent male cuckoo started to call repetitively from a nearby thicket.

 

It was a lovely evening, sitting in the warm setting sun, listening to cuckoo and  the church bells (good name for a band that, “Cuckoo and the church bells”!) and brushing sallow fluff from my shirt – it was all peace and quiet then eh?

 

Not really.

 

The owls were out

And about.

And asserting their presence in a very obvious, urgent fashion.

 

Their field is a field of long grass, containing three ancient oaks (one of which holds their nest box) and their favourite perch (an old decrepit cattle barn).

Granted, the grass in the field had been mown to the ground that afternoon by a big Massey, a farm hand and his very friendly jack Russell (called “Patch”) and the field must have looked very different to the two owls last night.

 

Little owls tend to eat a lot of invertebrates generally – beetles, worms, moths etc… The big mow of their field will have uncovered plenty of these crunchy (or slimy!) treats and the owls certainly seemed to be hunting with renewed vigour last night.

 

But there was more- they were incredibly active and often flying back to the nest box, to dip inside and then back out again a few seconds later and they were incredibly vocal.

 

Does this mean eggs have hatched inside that warm box? I would say yes – almost definitely.

 

The owls were vigorously defending their territory also – you might remember my old clip of the female kestrel mobbing the male little owl - well…. last night, the avian dominance league was turned on its head.

 

One of our little owls flew across an entire field (and my head as it happens), shrieking like an owl-possessed, in order to chase away a lazy low buzzard from the neighbouring field. Quite a thing to behold – a bird not much bigger than a tennis ball, chasing off a bird the size of a buzzard.

Whilst one owl saw off a buzzard, its mate wasn’t taking any grief from a carrion crow which had settled on the barn.

Normally, the owls hide when buzzards and crows are about – but the crow was shown the metaphorical door (in no uncertain terms) last night as well as the buzzard - quite a turnaround for our wee owls!

 

Of course, blackbirds being blackbirds and dusk being dusk, more racket was provided by the local thrushes doing high-volume cartwheels around one of our little owls – but the owl had a go back – and again, it was the cartwheeling blackbird that gave up in the end, rather than the owl.

 

Yep.

Something has changed in the owl field – and if I had to put money on it now, I’d suggest eggs have hatched, the female has returned (after incubation the female tends to feed up on her own for a while, to regain her strength, whilst the male brings food to the hatched young) and both adult owls are now feeding their young.

 

I’m not going to look inside the box (no matter how tempting or brief any look), but that would be my current guess right now and I think I may be seeing owlets fledge a little earlier than previously thought.

 

I have replaced the trail camera on site to record some of this frenetic activity (I hope) and get owls used to camera again before owlets fledge soon….. so I hope to present another clip or two here before too long.

 

Its all getting rather exciting now…. Keep watching this space!

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua beautiful demoiselle buzzard carrion crow chub cuckoo hawthorn little owl robber fly sallow https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/-operation-noctua---week-14-update---have-we-hatched-eggs Wed, 23 May 2012 19:51:52 GMT
"Operation noctua" week 14 update - noisy active adults https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/-operation-noctua-week-14-update---noisy-active-adults A quick update from the little owls.

Today was a belter of a day (weather-wise) and I thought I'd stop off at "owl-ville" to see wat gwan.

It was great to see both owls out and calling each other, hunting (for beetles under their shed), preening and generally acting very well indeed thank you very much.

I assume the female left the eggs this afternoon as the box was hot enough (thanks to the warm midday sun) to not need her body heat all day long, incubating the precious eggs. That's a dangerous assumption, but one I think I'd put money on at present.

I've not heard the owls so vocal either - I could clearly hear the female call the male from two hundred yards away, for some time.

 

Now I hear (TODAY) that another relatively local pair of little owls have already fledged their young - so maybe ours will fledge their young much earlier than I originally thought also....

Time will tell.

Anyway..... just wanted to give a quick update and a little bit of good news on our owls...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/-operation-noctua-week-14-update---noisy-active-adults Mon, 21 May 2012 18:59:35 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 13 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-13 Week 13 rather like 11 and 12 I'm afraid - limited time to go and see what the owls are up to, but this week I've only seen one owl once  - and I've managed to drive (or run) by four or five times.

I still think the female is sitting on eggs and the male is banished for a while but I guess I could be wrong and one of the owls has been killed.

I doubt it though - maybe if I feel a little better this week and the weather does improve - I'll get to spend a little more time watching these birds after work and see if I am correct about the hen sitting on eggs in the box.

Remember - a very good 24/7 live little owl cam can be found here - the last time I looked at this (Dutch) site, the hen was still sitting on three white eggs, virtually all day and all night...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-13 Sun, 20 May 2012 13:21:02 GMT
Summer "nights"? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/summer-nights On Friday 18th May I'd noticed that the air had become a little warmer of late, a little humidity had crept into the sky and the Thames insects had reacted accordingly - May bugs and Mayflies were all in the air - dancing over the still swollen river or fresh green tree tops nearby.

Our kittens were transfixed by a low-flying bat in the garden at dusk on Friday evening - it did seem like a change (from the weeks of rain, hail, cold temperatures and wind) was (is) in the air.

Yesterday, to make the most of the change in feel of the weather, after sitting in the garden with the hens for a couple of hours, watching courting swifts scream and dance above the house, Anna and I went for a little walk around one of my favourite British nature reserves yesterday afternoon  - it was still, warm if a little on the muggy side, dry and cloudy - its so much nicer when the wind stops!

As soon as we had parked the car and headed through a hedge into the reserve proper, Anna and I were treated to the sound of a nightingale belting out its unbelievably pure song from a hawthorn thicket.

I am very lucky really - even though we've moved about 15miles from this particular nature reserve, I used to do a little voluntary work here and then became well aware that the reserve has a really healthy nightingale population during the summer - so healthy in fact that birdwatchers from up to a hundred miles away are said to get their annual "nightingale fix" at the spot.

If you've never heard a nightingale sing before, you're really missing out.

I admit, I (personally) find many songbirds beautiful to listen to - the deep, fruity overtones of a blackbird on a tv aerial, the way the tiny wren can belt out its song of such volume, even the messy warble of the humble dunnock - so I might be biased - but if you do get the chance to go and listen to a nightingale sing - then take the chance!

For those of you that won't get the chance (or won't take it), you could always click here - but its really not the same as being there...

 

What else did we see on our little walk yesterday? Plenty of swifts, swallows and sand martins (which seem to be re-discovering the sand martin bank I helped redig out a year ago), a nuthatch, a hobby drifting by at height and a garden bumblebees' nest (which was half-dug-out by a badger by the look of it).

 

So.... is the weather due to change then?

The answer in one word.... YES.

You might remember that a month ago (almost to the day) I mentioned that the rest of April and May was forecast to be very cold (for the time of year) - and unseasonably wet. A month on and we've had weeks of rain, cool temperatures, hail, there's been snow in the north, tornados in the midlands - so I'd say that particular forecast was pretty accurate although I admit.... the last week of May (upcoming) is set to be very warm.......

What of this change then?

Well.... the jetstream has been buckled around Britain for a good 6 weeks now - but seems to have changed again now.

This week will be markedly warmer than of late (up to 25c by Thursday 24th May maybe).

Summer may not officially begin for another month (again, virtually to the day) but the "nights" are belting out their songs from the hedgerows and looks like the weather is set to respond.... for at least this week anyway...

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) badger bat garden bumblebee hobby may bug mayfly nightingale nuthatch sand martin swallow swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/summer-nights Sun, 20 May 2012 13:12:14 GMT
Three badger cubs and four fox cubs HD video https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/three-badger-cubs-and-four-fox-cubs-hd-video After five (days and) nights of leaving the trailcam by the badger sett, last night (or rather in twenty very productive minutes very early this morning) I finally managed to get a few clips of the new badger cubs....

They really are something else.

In this spliced clip, the three badger cubs are preceded by four fox cubs and their mother (check out those bitten nipples).

It's all go for the large mammals round here....

May 2012 Badger cubs (and fox cubs!)

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) HD video badger fox https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/three-badger-cubs-and-four-fox-cubs-hd-video Tue, 15 May 2012 20:39:10 GMT
The youngsters appear https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/the-youngsters-appear Whilst my ongoing health issues limit my outings at present - and the weather remains changeable at best (apart from a cracking weekend, which I’ll come to in a minute), I’ve not had as much inclination or time to get out and about and see wat gwan around me in the local countryside as I’d have ideally liked.

 

I had reports that our local badger sett has produced three cubs this year and the foxes that are based in an earth very close to the badgers have also produced (at least) three boisterous young also.

 

I’ve left the trail camera sett-side for most of last week and managed to film three adult badgers, two adult foxes, three fox cubs, one badger cub (I think) getting chased by a fox and a muntjac doe (plus the obligatory rats and woodpigeons!)

You can watch the spliced video clips by clicking on the embedded player below, but as usual with my embedded clips, once you’ve pressed play, do enlarge the player for a jerk-free playback.

May 2012 Badger watch (and other mammals) early May 2012

I will endeavour to put the trail camera back in place some time this week, with a view to getting some footage of the very adorable badger cubs which I know are above ground now and quite large really.

The foxes do tend to boss the area though and the badger cubs seem content (at present) to play in the scrubby background (out of shot) or feed elsewhere. The sound from the clips I’ve recorded also suggests that the badger cubs are mainly foraging out of shot of the trail cam – if anyone is reading this that has experience (like lucky old me) of watching newly-emerged badger cubs at play – they’ll know as well as me that they are quite noisy wee critters – always chattering to each other and there is none of this recorded on the trail cam.

 

What else other than badgers, foxes and muntjac then?

 

Well… I keep bumping into the local pair of red-legged partridge whilst out and about. Red-legs and our native partridge (the greys) are quite predictable during the breeding season – when they’ve paired off for the year and found a suitable field in which to breed, they pretty-well stay put in that same field for the season. I’ve seen the pair but no (nidifugous) young as yet, so I assume the hen has probably not laid eggs just yet.

 

The swifts are pretty-well all here now (although saying that, our original female only returned to her nest in our house on 18th May last year), so I’m still playing my swift attracting CD at top volume when I can – though no joy yet and no swifts have found my swift palace in the attic.

 

I have seen and heard parties of calling swifts over this part of Berkshire and whilst none are nesting in our new house this year, I did predict that it might take a number of years before they did so.

 

We have just had a glorious weekend (weatherwise) after what feels (and indeed IS!) weeks and weeks of rain.

I took a lovely drive through the countryside on Saturday and Sunday morning and it was an utter joy to see swallows flying around barns and telegraph wires in rural Berkshire, rabbit kits scattering into hedges from single track country lanes and buzzards mewing in blue sky thermals above me.

I took a walk down my favourite country lane and it was clear from the indignant tutting from the bramble hedges either side of the lane, that blackcaps and whitethroats were both nesting nearby – fresh over from their winter in Africa no doubt.

 

Our garden starling population fledged over the weekend. It always tends to be this way with starlings – one day there are NO young – the next and ALL the local nests spew out their dusty-grey young at once.

Unfortunately the young fledglings are not the best at flying – and whilst one of our kittens took down one unfortunate individual (whilst its parents screamed their distress in a tree above the carnage), the local magpies have been picking off many of the others.

 

My solution would be (of course!) to kill the magpies (they are game birds after all and are not in any way shape or form declining like I’m reliably told starlings are), but as soon as anyone suggests killing any birds (corvid or not) the Disney wildlife crew in the UK collectively throw their hands in the air and howl their hysterical, uninformed derision.

 

It was also very nice to watch a hobby fly pretty low over the garden at the weekend. Stunning wee falcons these  -  probably the most aerially adept of all birds of prey (and the only bird of prey that is agile enough to catch hirundines and dragonflies in flight – no mean feat!)

 

Finally I have managed to mow our lawns and uncovered plenty of red ant nests in the process – might explain why green woodpeckers do seem quite fond of our garden! The mining bees made the most of the sunshine (which as I type has disappeared in a day of drizzle today) and spent the weekend investigating potential nest sites in the newly hardened and shortened lawn and I’ve noticed red mason bees start to nest also.

 

Finally (well…. at least over the weekend) it felt like we really were in May (proper) with that fresh green bushy foliage look that only May brings – and I do hope that the end of the month brings warmer temperatures – I’d love to go to our local heath to go nightjar-hunting and then we have the dragonflies to look forward to…!

 

Bring on summer…..

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) badger blackcap buzzard fox hobby magpie muntjac rabbit red ant red-legged partridge starling swallow swift whitethroat https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/the-youngsters-appear Mon, 14 May 2012 17:45:13 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 12 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-12 As in week 11, I've hardly been up to see the owls this week (what with one thing or another) but the two times that I did go up to see what our big-eyed fluffy friends were up to, I saw nothing or one of the owls (the male I assume) sunbathing on the barn roof.

I still assume the female is in the box on eggs which will hatch in a week or two - and I hope to be back in fighting form to watch any owlets if and when they leave the box...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-12 Mon, 14 May 2012 17:37:35 GMT
Stoats are like buses... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/stoats-are-like-buses You wait for ages (in my case YEARS) to see stoats and then suddenly they all come at once.

After my post-work run today, I was once again treated to my second sight (in ten days) of an adult stoat racing across the country lane that I was warming down on, with a rabbit kit in its gob.

Ten days. Two stoats with rabbit in gob. (I've NEVER seen a stoat with rabbit before in my life).

 

Was it the same stoat I hear you cry?

 

No. Even though they were less than 1/4 mile apart - both stoats were clearly hot-footing it back to young with the rabbit - and both were heading at speed in completely opposite directions.

 

Now if only I had my camera on my runs!

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) rabbit stoat https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/stoats-are-like-buses Tue, 08 May 2012 17:34:38 GMT
Swifts, badger cubs and a hobby. https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/swifts-badger-cubs-and-a-hobby As spring moves sluggishly on - the wildlife does its best to cope with the cool temperatures, frost (this morning) and constant low pressure and rain (or threat of).

I noticed a strange falcon flying quickly, very high above our house this afternoon. I say strange because kestrels fly lower generally and peregrines are chunkier (with short tails). The falcon was little more than a dot, high in the sky, but a lifetime of peering into the sky (wasting my time many would say) has enabled me to pick these things out occasionally....

I immediately thought "hobby" and my terrible photo (enlarged by about 12x to see any detail at all) confirmed a russet-coloured vent area and heavy mottling on the chest and underwing. Hobby indeed - and the first I've seen from the garden this year. A nice treat for me, but not for any swifts - as the hobby is the only bird (in the world) that occasionally is quick enough to catch a swift (or more probably a swallow!)

Talking of swifts - getting terrible withdrawal symptoms from my lack of swifts in our new town (despite my CD calling them in), I drove to a large gravel pit about 15 miles away and spent a lovely afternoon watching dozens of my favourite birds hunt low over the water.

I was joined by an old boy with a camera  - also bewitched by these birds and we spent a very amusing couple of hours trying to get shots of these avian missiles.

Not much joy I'm afraid, but two shots can be found at the bottom of this post.

As for the badger cubs - it looks likely from CCTV footage, that the local badgers have indeed raised three cubs at the sett - and all three seems to be parading around above ground already.

They are very big and bold cubs it seems (although its difficult to tell as the CCTV footage is so poor) - and I set the trail cam up on site at lunch today, with a view to getting some half-decent HD video clips of the new family.

Watch this space!

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) badger hobby swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/swifts-badger-cubs-and-a-hobby Mon, 07 May 2012 18:10:44 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 11 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-11 Due to the ongoing recent poor weather and my lack of tip-top health, once again, I've not been following the owls as closely as I'd have liked this week.

Though (as usual now) I have completed a few "drive-bys" and noticed both owls together a couple of times - which is something I've not seen for a week or two.

The ritual pair-bonding doesn't last long though - and before too long the female is back in the box, on eggs I swear now.

If I had to guess, I'd say the eggs would hatch in a fortnight.... but it'd be a complete guess.

I'll be watching for any owlets to appear (in mid June I'd guess again) and return with camera and trail cam...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/5/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-11 Mon, 07 May 2012 17:55:04 GMT
The starling and the stoat https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/the-starling-and-the-stoat It's not often I come home to find an adult bird in the house, seemingly unharmed, with all windows closed.

At our last house, it happened once, with a blackbird that had fallen down a chimney into the open fire (not lit I should add) and couldn't get out again.

Today, I walked into the kitchen after returning from work to find an adult starling staring down at me from the top of the kitchen cupboards.

Now at present, we don't have an open fire - indeed we have a closed chimney (although I hope to change that eventually) - and all windows were closed all day (Anna and I were at work) so I can only assume one of the spostles (cats) brought this bird in?

 

But what about the stoat?

Again, it's very rare for me to see any mustelid that isn't a badger out in the wild.

Occasionally I'll happen across a mink or even an otter and the last time I saw a weasel or a stoat is when I watched in amazement as a "caravan of stoats" (five...nose to tail) all bounced across the 18th fairway at Hazlemere golf club as I finished an early morning round of golf there..... when I was seventeen years old - thats a LONG time ago!

Today as I warmed down after a run by walking half a mile or so up a country lane, I watched a stoat carrying a rabbit kit in its gob across the lane and into the undergrowth right in front of me!

There are dozens and dozens of rabbit holes lining that particular country lane so I'm not surprised the slinky little mustelids are around, making quite a lot of hay I'm sure.

A real treat though this afternoon and a rare treat at that.

 

You know, to see such sights I think you need to be either a)in the countryside a lot and or b) very lucky.

I'm sure I fall into category b!

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) rabbit starling stoat https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/the-starling-and-the-stoat Mon, 30 Apr 2012 18:14:17 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 10 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-10 An "end of week report" a day later than normal thanks to the weather, my health and my ongoing efforts to attract high-flying swifts to our attic.

Ten weeks down now and I'm convinced the female owl is sitting on eggs like THIS owl in Holland.

The male has been banished (I think) to other perches whilst she incubates and today I saw him in broad daylight some distance away from the box, on a wooden fencepost as I went for a run through the local countryside.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that I have now got a half decent photograph of the female little owl exiting the box.

I took this photograph with a radio remote control system as I hid in the long grass some 50m away from the box, but let it be said, the ONLY reason I attempted to get this shot at all was I have put in almost three months of watching the owls - and I think they are getting pretty used to me being around now.

I should also point out that as soon as I got the shot and the female set off hunting at dusk, I immediately packed up shop and retreated to the car - and watched both owls behave as though nothing had happened.

I am not ever going to advise taking photographs of any birds at their nest site without weeks and weeks of watching and learning (like I've done with these owls) or indeed a schedule 1 licence for specifically-protected birds such as barn owls or kingfishers...

Onto week eleven now then, with (like I say) our female owl on eggs.... I'm sure....

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-10 Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:59:54 GMT
Why is the swift the most impressive bird of all? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/why-is-the-swift-the-most-impressive-bird-of-all So why do I consider the common swift to be the best bird of all? Better than kingfishers, ospreys, eagles, peregrines, jays, wagtails, swans, goldeneye, owls... better than them all....?

Swift

 

 

  • They’re generally the last of our summer visitors to arrive (so when swifts arrive, we know summer is almost upon us – I have always been in love with summer).

 

  • They’re generally the earliest of our summer visitors to depart (we only get them for three short months each year and we can’t even see them for three quarters of our year – so we need to make the most of May, June and July here in the UK!)

 

  • Swifts have come to share their summers with us (almost all swifts are reliant on human dwellings (built mainly pre-war) for nest sites. We therefore feel linked to swifts and their annual breeding cycle.

 

  •  Adult swifts tend to be monogamous and the pair use the same nest site for years. There is a very human aspect to this behaviour and is very endearing to us pappy humans.

 

  • When a swift fledges (leaves the nest for the first time), it will spend up to three years in constant flight (eating, sleeping and smoke-bathing on the wing) –and only ever touch down on a firm surface when it returns to its place of birth (or very nearby if that site is occupied) to breed itself.  In those three years, the young swift might have flown the equivalent of fifteen times the circumference of the earth – without landing once! This permanent flight is completely unique to swifts –no other bird species can even approach such a feat.

 

  •  Swifts have been known to live for twenty years. In that time (due to the fact that they can’t perch or walk with any strength and are in the air permanently, unless breeding) a swift might have flown around 3 million miles. That’s around 120 times around the entire earth – in one short lifetime under its own power.

 

  • Swifts do almost everything in the air including eating. A typical swift will eat up to 100,000 small aerial insects each day by catching them in its open mouth. Try and do the same – try running constantly for a day, eating peanuts by flicking them into your open mouth whilst running.  Now trying running for three years, doing the same.

 

  • In order to avoid bad weather (rain, wind and anti-cyclones) swifts often fly into the wind at speed, to break clear of the bad weather in the quickest possible time, in order to continue to feed in better weather. Invariably in Britain (during wet summers) this can mean our adult swifts may be nesting in our houses, but feeding over the middle of France or Germany – returning each night to feed their young. No other bird does this or could even contemplate doing this.

 

  • If the adults are leaving the developing nestlings alone in the roof for long periods of time (travelling up to 600 miles away for the food) the young swifts have a survival strategy of becoming semi-comatose (vastly decreased heart beat and temperature) whilst their parents are away – again… a unique strategy to any bird species.

 

  • Swifts have been known to fly at speeds of 130mph. Only the Alpine Swift and peregrine are faster (and the peregrine is considerably slower in level flight - until it “stoops”). All other bird species must roost when sleeping. Swifts just climb to 20,000 feet and sleep on the wing...

 

  •  Swifts have exceptional eyesight – flying at dusk quite regularly and occasionally hunting at night - when almost all other birds have already roosted.

 

  • Because of their strange appearance (almost reptilian close up with their huge pink gaped mouths but tiny beaks), shrill screams and uniqueness, swifts appear in much folklore. They have been known as “Devil birds” or “Devil’s bitches” for hundreds of years and little was known about them for most of that time – in fact it was thought they hibernated in (British) mud through the colder months…

 

  • I am not aware of any other popular species of British bird with such a loyal following. Robins, blue tits, swallows, kingfishers always top polls of ones favourite bird here in the UK but only swifts have dozens of blogs and websites to their name.

 

  • Personally, since I learned to recognise the shape and sound of a swift in the summer (I must have been 7 or 8 years old I guess) I have been enthralled by swifts. They never used to nest inside our pre-war house when I was growing up, but I knew the streets they did nest in – and I used to cycle to those streets every day to see and listen to the mysterious Devil Birds. I am lucky enough now to have had them nest in the past three of our (my wife’s and my) houses in Berkshire. We have recently bought our first house in post-war Berkshire and I am desperate to attract my favourite birds of all back to nest with us. It might take a few years, but I am confident that one day, Apus apus will be back with us again.

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/why-is-the-swift-the-most-impressive-bird-of-all Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:57:49 GMT
The best bird of all is back! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/the-best-bird-of-all-is-back It is with much joy that I can report my favourite bird of all is back in our skies for three short months again this summer.

As I sat hunched in front of the computer, busy with little owl photographs, my darling wife Anna spotted a swift high above our house at dusk last night. As soon as I confirmed her ID, the computer was off and I spent the rest of the dwindling light in the garden watching THREE swifts hunt high above our house.

The day the swifts return is the best day of the year for me - bar none!

Swift

The last day I saw a swift in 2011 was September 5th - high over our house, heading south - by far the latest I've ever seen one (normally I don't see them in the UK after the middle of August).

Almost invariably I first see them back again around or just after St.George's Day (see table below). This year, however, the weather has been so atrocious during the last couple of weeks of April that any sky watching recently has meant eyes-full of rain and the high winds have meant that any insects rising in the still warm air (for the swifts to feed on) have been few and far between - meaning the small numbers of swifts that have made it over here pre-May have been feeding in very small numbers over bodies of water (or over the continent where the weather is marginally better at present).

 

First date of personal swift sightings in Berkshire, UK
Date Year
2007 25th April (nesting in our first floor flat)
2008 27th April (nesting in our rented two story flat)
2009 25th April (nesting in our rented ancient house, "Swift Half")
2010 23rd April (nesting again in "Swift Half")
2011 23rd April (nesting again in "Swift half")
2012 27th April (although back at "Swift Half" on 24th I hear)

 

Coupled to all that, this is the first year in six years that I've been living in Berkshire and NOT had swifts nesting in our house. Anna and I have moved from Reading 6 months ago, to a post-war-built town a few miles away and its fair to say that swifts will not have found many nesting spots in our town ever.

I do hear my old "Swift Half" swifts (which I filmed, webcast and documented for the past two years - full rundown with videos HERE) are back in situ, which gives me as much pleasure as it does frustrate me I guess. I miss our swifts terribly - much more than I thought I would when we moved.

Some readers of this blog might know I've spent the winter designing and constructing a "swift palace" in our attic (I can now that I actually OWN a property rather than rent one), which does have an HD camera feed and a suitable entrance /exit from the outside wall.

But.... as I've said before, swifts will never have nested in this part of our town before (if indeed anywhere in the town) so I've got my work cut out for me to get them nesting with us. If someone put a gun to my head and demanded to know how long it would take for me to attract a breeding pair to our attic, I'd say 5 years.

But.... if I didn't attempt to attract them to our attic this year (by belting out CD of breeding swift calls from the roof), that five years would just be delayed a year.... so started I have.

I will play the CD (if the neighbours don't mind) most of May (our original female didn't show up in the UK until May 18th last year) and then again in July (when most of the breeding is done and birds are looking for suitable nest sites for next year).

I am determined to get them breeding in our attic as I am completely bewitched by these birds - in my opinion they make all our other birds (be they eagles, kingfishers, hawks, birds of paradise, peacocks)... ALL other birds appear completely unimpressive.

Why do I say that? I'll write an explanatory blog soon enough (maybe tomorrow if this miserable weather continues all weekend).

I'm ardly reknowned for being into pappy juvenile romanticism but I've always liked this little story from a girl called Abbie Hart, first published on Edward Mayer's excellent "Swift Conservation" website:

SWIFTS by Abbie Hart aged 6 years and 1 month

"Once there was 2 poorly swifts and then my Mum saved them and made them better. 

She let them go, but one of them couldn't fly. 

And then she made it better and she let it go.

They ate lots of insects and waxworms. 

They were happy.

They played with their friends in the sky and they flew past every day, so we knew they were better.

But they went to Africa for the winter where it was warm.

All the time they were thinking about us.

They wished they could have more waxworms.

They were too happy now. 

They will come back in April or May.

We will be happy when we see them again. 

And, if they come back in May on my Mum's birthday, they might be happy.

And, they are good at flying now - they used to not be.

And it's good to fly, because everyone wants to fly.

They fly even when they are asleep and eat little bugs in the air. 

I love the Swifts so much, they will come back soon because it's nearly Spring.

 It's good when it's Spring.

The Swifts are always happy, they love it.

They just love drinking and they are black.

They love us and my Dad is making a nest box for them.

My Mum says that they are her favourite bird, but they're just my second favourite.

My favourites are Long-Tailed Tits and Sparrows and the beautiful Swifts".

 

Well.... I'll explain what I find so enthralling about swifts soon enough, but for now I'll leave you with one of the poorest photographs I've taken - of the first swift of 2012 that I've seen - first spotted and pointed out by my my beautiful (eagle-eyed) wife as she gazed out of the window (on a swift watch) whilst I sat in front of the computer, downloading little owl photographs...

Thanks honey....now if you can only attract them into the attic!

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) swift https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/the-best-bird-of-all-is-back Sat, 28 Apr 2012 10:33:00 GMT
"Operation noctua" week 10 update https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/-operation-noctua-week-10-update As regular visitors to this site will know, I've taken a week off work to a) try and photograph the local little owls, b) try and attract my favourite birds of all (swifts) to our new house and c) start to throw this vile lurgy I have at present.

Unfortunately, the weather is not playing ball with any of the above, but on hearing that we'd get a mostly dry day today (at least) I thought I'd stake out the owls and see wat gwan in their field.

I did take my camera up (on radio remote) and placed it on top of their barn - they do like to sunbathe and I'd thought I'd hide in the long grass 30m or so away (in my ghillie suit) and wait.

Well.... a couple of hours later and covered in flies, I retrieved the camera because the owls weren't playing ball. That said, at least one was in the box (a further 30m or so away, but hidden from me by a tree trunk) and I can at least confirm that the owls have taken possession of the box itself (no kestrels or stock doves appeared this morning) and at least appear to be breeding.

I have not seen more than one owl at any one time during the past week (up until now I've almost invariably seen them together) but I regard this as a good thing. If the female is laying, she'll be incubating each egg immediately (in the box) and the male will probably be banished somewhere else for now...

I am pretty confident that somewhere below the black opening of the box (see photo below), there is a female owl, hopefully laying and incubating as I type...

Watch this space.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/-operation-noctua-week-10-update Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:42:25 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 9 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-9 Because I've not been very well for a while, I've not had the energy to keep tabs on our local little owls this week, other than drive by twice in the last two days to see what they're up to.

Unfortunately I've not seen either owl once in those two brief visits.

But - that's not necessarily bad news. It's about now that the female should be in the box laying eggs and the male will be taking up different perches, knowing that his bird (for want of a better word) is busy with his genes.

A wonderful website to watch the live to-ings and fro-ings of a pair of little owls (via a live webcam) can be found here. I've watched it for the past few years and as I type, the female has already produced one egg. This is a dutch pair of little owls (or as dey shay in da nedderlandsh.... "Little owlsh") and they may have laid a little early maybe (I was thinking the first week of May might be more like it), but the website might give a reasonable indication of what my local owls might be up to in any given week.

As described, here, if my health holds up and the thunderheads stay away, I will attempt to sit with our owls this week (hidden in the long grass) to grab a photo or two... (if only to change the accompanying photo to each of these "Operation noctua" blogs, which is in actual fact a Scops owl, not a little owl).

Watch this space...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-9 Sun, 22 Apr 2012 14:46:33 GMT
First cuckoo of the year (plus bluebells) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/one-day-to-go One day before I should see my beloved swifts again over this neck of the woods (or towns more specifically with swifts) so I thought I'd give a quick update of what I've laid my eyes on this week quickly, as I am bound to miss everything for a few days as I walk around with my eyes and ears firmly trained on the sky above...

Swifts - As I've just mentioned above, they'll be here this week I think (we have a pretty rotten low pressure system over the UK at present, but at least we are dragging in westerly winds because of that, not northerlies). Two swifts have allegedly been seen hunting over a gravel pit about 18 miles from me (as I type), by one of what I call "the silver twitchers" ( long-retired gentlemen who have spent the last ten to thirty years of their lives walking around Berkshire clutching a pair of binoculars), but us "workers" will have to wait a day or so yet before the best birds in the world make themselves very obvious!

I expect they'll be back in "Swift Half" (my old house) tomorrow or the day after and I will spend this week trying to attract a pair into my newly-built "Swift palace" at our post-war house 12 miles or so from the ancient and crumbling "Swift Half". I don't give mesel much of a shot, but you never know....

Robins - We have a female robin sitting on five or six eggs in my old bird box in the garden at present. She's been sitting for seven days, so I predict another seven before the eggs hatch next Monday. Then the fun and games begin as the shouty chicks will attract the attention of our cats...

Pigeons - we also have nesting woodpigeons. Their eggs hatched this morning.

Cuckoo - I heard my first cuckoo in Binfield Heath just after dawn this morning. I'll not write to "The Times" (as is traditional here in England) as I'm sure many people must have heard one before me this year.

Bluebells - As I posted here, a couple of weeks ago, many people (myself included) were worried about the bluebells not really doing much this year because of all the heat and lack of rain. Of course, I needn't have worried. Since then we've had cool temperatures and plenty of heavy thundery showers - and finally the bluebells have arrived (bang on time to be fair I suppose). Granted, I've seen better displays - but I photographed many in my favourite bluebell wood of all this morning, in deepest darkest Oxfordshire.

Bluebells (abstract)

Butterflies - Many orange tips (a female in the garden this morning for the first time I know about), many holly blues and a few speckled woods in the garden right now - dodging showers.

Waterbirds  - I worked in Reading on Friday and after work walked up the river to get me bonce shaved. Nice to see baby coots, ducklings and goslings bobbing about on the river. Its easy to breed early if you're a waterbird (rather than rely on terrestrial sources of food for your young). All you need is the river to remain unfrozen and you're away. This is why (in general) water birds breed earlier than their more terrestrial cousins.

Deer - I've run a lot this week, mainly around Broadmoor (dodging loonies) and everywhere I run I seem to run into roe deer. They don't hang around on seeing my panting plum-coloured face though - a leap or two and they're vanished into the bracken.

Badgers - I've not had time to visit the local badger sett in months I'm afraid. If they've bred successfully (I hope so), the young will be out of the sett for the first time any day now. With the recent rain they'll have plenty of food n all (worms).

 

This week I'll be doing my best to kill my camera in the hail and rain as I sit on top our roof doing swift impressions (I reckon I'll make the national news by Thursday) and lie in the owl field trying to grab a photo if I'm lucky). I'll try and visit the badger sett too...

That all depends on my general health of course (still nowhere near 100%), but with a week off, I think I'll chance my luck.

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) baby coots bluebells cuckoo ducklings female orange tip goslings pigeon robin roe deer https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/one-day-to-go Sun, 22 Apr 2012 14:36:28 GMT
Snakes in the grass https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/snakes-in-the-grass I was going to blog today on a few different subjects (see blog above for those) but as I stumbled across a meadow of snakeshead fritillaries on a riverside run during the week, I thought I'd write soley about these beautiful and rare wild flowers in this entry.

Snakeshead fritillaries have been recorded in the wild in the UK since 1737 (strangely late for a "native" flower) but have been known to be cultivated as a garden flower since the end of the sixteenth century. This had led to some debate as to whether this plant is strictly native or an escaped alien - but many people do maintain their status as a native plant - and one of our more beautiful and rare plants at that.

I am trying to run two miles a day at present to burn off this dreadful lurgy I have (as well as pretty-well limiting myself to a caffeine-free, gluten-free, red meat-free, alcohol-free diet) and it was on one of my short runs at dawn last week that I ran past a meadow full of snakeshead fritillaries.

They're not a plant I've ever seen before (despite living near one of their reputed strongholds - the Thames valley, specifically the Oxfordshire Thames valley) but they are a very distinctive plant indeed, so I immediately knew what they were (rare that, for me to know immediately what a plant is.... a botanist I am not).

I vowed to return with a camera - and that I did this morning, to photograph them as the sun rose above the river (Thames).

Snakeshead fritillaries have beautifully chequerboard-marked flowers in purple (or white with purple watermarks) and flower at the same time as bluebells generally (in April). Their latin name (Fritillaria meleagris) literally means fritillary which is spotted like a guinea fowl and their common names include "Frog cup" or "Leper lily" (as the flower heads are said to resemble the bells which lepers kept around their necks in parts of the midlands, sorry, middle east).

The native flower is famously on show in Cricklade and celebrated once a year on Fritillary Sunday in Ducklington (near Witney).

Now I was jusssst about in Oxfordshire when I spotted my fritillaries in an uncultivated flood plain - and I feel very lucky for having done so.

NB. All photographs were taken by me in the secret flood meadow at dawn this morning.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) snakeshead fritillary https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/snakes-in-the-grass Sun, 22 Apr 2012 14:02:59 GMT
An extremely cold May forecast? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/an-extremely-cold-may-forecast April 2011 was the driest and warmest ever (if memory serves me correctly) whereas April 2012 looks like being one of the wettest since records began.

The jet stream has moved once again and I'm afraid the five week forecast looks pretty grim. I should point out here that I generally give very little credence to monthly or seasonal weather forecasts (especially from the quite dreadful Met Office) but a monthly forecast based on jet stream position combined with solar activity and lunar influence is generally more accurate.

Now Piers Corbyn might be no meteorologist, nor climatologist (he's an astrophysicist) and he may be a thorn in the side of those climatologists who base their entire lives around AGW (Anthropogenic (ally accelerated) Global Warming but there's no denying that many of his short(ish) term weather forecasts for Britain and Ireland make the hundreds of millions spent by our "Met Office" seem like taxpayers money very poorly spent indeed. I should know. I work alongside many Met Office forecasters... (or used to, before I escaped).

It does seem as if the jet stream (the main infuence governing our weather (NOT climate)) has settled into a spot where we might expect a cold May  - with the slight possibility of snow in the north and east of England.

Wait and see time I guess...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) cold May forecast https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/an-extremely-cold-may-forecast Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:53:24 GMT
"One swallow does not a summer make..." https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/-one-swallow-does-not-a-summer-make One swallow does not a summer make….

This quote is all too oft attributed to Aristotle, but in fact the great philosopher was quoting Aesop (of fable fame) who first coined the notion in his fable “The spendthrift and the swallow” some 250-300 years earlier.

Of course, whether or not Aesop ever existed at all (as a singular man) might well come in for some debate, but because I was brought up on Aesop’s fables (and adored them as a lad), I’d personally like to think he did grace our planet, around 600BC.

I saw my first swallow of 2012 on Tuesday (17th April) whilst driving up to Hatfield for a meeting. This is much later in the year than I normally would expect – often in very early April or even as early as the last day of March a couple of times…

Swallows are pretty little birds, flitting “happily” through the sky and often calling to each other. In the same way that goldfinches invariably remind me of the Mediterranean with their optimistic chattering and flashes of sunshine yellow, swallows too, remind me of warm days in Greece.

However, this first swallow (at Hatfield) was flying low through gun metal skies and skudding clouds – Aesop or Aristotle was quite correct when noting that one swallow does not indicate summer’s here yet.

In fact, April looks very unsettled now (until at least the end of the month) with heavy showers, hail, thunder and blustery winds. Not at all like the last two hot, dry Aprils.

 

Swallows aside, we’re only a few days away from the traditional date of catching sight of my first swift over this neck of the woods - St.George’s Day (or April 23rd).

Swifts may not be as glamorous as their cousins (the swallows and martins) but they are much more impressive – completely unique in fact.

Some of you reading this post may know that the European Swift is by far my favourite of all bird species – and I’ve taken a week off work from 23rd April to:

a) Try and shake this nasty illness I have presently

b) Go sky-watching for my speedy little avian friends (although I am more likely to be blinded by hail and rainbows this year)

c) Attempt to attract a breeding pair into our attic (though I think this will take a few years).

 

 

 

One swallow might not summer make, but one swift means we’re getting there….

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) swallow https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/-one-swallow-does-not-a-summer-make Wed, 18 Apr 2012 17:59:55 GMT
The world's gone yellow... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/the-worlds-gone-yellow

 

After a blood test this morning I decided to go for a run through the swamps and gorse. (I dont know if the blood test will show me whats wrong with me, but I rather think I've got away with too much for too long so now I HAVE to get back in shape).

As I jogged over the heath and peaty swamps, the Broadmoor test alarm went off, as it always does on a Monday morning at 10am.

Round 'ere, it sounds like the Luftwaffe have been spotted or something on Mondays at 10  - the Broadmoor test alarm is that loud and spooky...

That said, if it was a real alarm - and someone really had escaped from the high security *cough* "hospital" *cough*, the dog walkers on the heath this morning would have pretty quickly got out of my way - being confronted by a huge red-faced, wild-eyed man, running though the swamps (away from Broadmoor itself), panting heavily with a bandage on his arm, as the Broadmoor alarm blared all around would probably scare a few people!

As I drove back home, it suddenly occurred to me that in the last week, the whole world's gawn all yella like.

The oilseed rape is in bloom, the dandelions line grassy road verges, the Hawaiian Tropic-scented gorse is blooming as is garden forsythia.

The bee pictured above by the way is the Yellow-legged mining bee (Andrena flavipes) on a dandelion outside the house this morning.

See.... even the bees knees are turning yellow....

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) dandelion forsythia gorse oilseed rape yellow legged mining bee https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/the-worlds-gone-yellow Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:17:53 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 8 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-8 As described here, I've not been up to much this week, so there's not a whole lot to report owl-wise.

I think I've driven by twice though, and have seen one of the owls on the gutter roof, with one in the box entrance, so they're still there - and I'm pretty sure as soon as this cool April has turned the corner, eggs'll be laid.....

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-8 Sun, 15 Apr 2012 16:43:05 GMT
Bored of Titanic? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/bored-of-titanic I think I mentioned that I was born in mid April some time ago on this blog, on April 14th to be exact - forty one years ago.

It just so happens that on that date one hundred years ago, on her maiden voyage, RMS Titanic hit an iceberg  (at around 2340hrs BST) en route to New York and sank on 15th April (at around 0230hrs BST), killing 1500 oddcrew and passengers.

So.... 100 years ago (59 years before I was born) RMS Titanic hit an iceberg - and there's been nowt else to watch on tv all week it seems.

I'm under the weather at present so forced to watch tv and I'm bored of the bleedin' Titanic!

April 14th (apart from being my birthday) just so happens to have a far more interesting story attached to it.

On the very day RMS hit an iceberg (on April 14th 1912), an amateur coleopterist (beetle scientist) by the name of E.C. Bedwell, found a pair of unassuming tiny wee beetles in a Moorhen nest in Potters Bar (in south Herts).

Not particularly world shattering you might think?

Well....the beetle had never been seen before..... and has never been found since. ANYWHERE.

Species from the family of beetles to which The Potter's Bar beetle (scientific name of Aglyptinus agathidioides) belongs to are invariably found in the Americas.

So what on earth was this Hertfordshire moorhen doing sitting on a pair of them?

 

Experts have ruthlessly torn apart countless north London moorhens & swans nests in the last hundred years (so I'm reliably told) in the vain hope of finding another one of these tiny brown insects - but to no avail - the only record is in a case in the bowels of the Natural History Museum so it seems (under my sister's feet who is a zoology manager there).

 

It just so happens, (if I can get out of my sick bed on Tuesday), I will be driving past Potters Bar on the way to a meeting in Hatfield (rock and roll eh?)

If you're in the area and see a rather big chap up to his proverbials in the Mimmshall Brook on Tuesday, fllinging bits of reed from waterhens' nests, you'll know what I'm looking for then, eh? and this weekend, spare a thought not for a boat which sank, but the mysterious and utterly unique "Potters Bar beetle".

 

What else have I seen this week (apart from Titianic programmes on tv) - well... my favourite horse race of the year fell on my birthday again (it often does).

Anna (my wife) and I have a very good success rate on the National, winning on Numbersixvalverde (2006), Silver Birch (2007), Comply or Die (2008) and Ballabriggs (2011) before yesterday. Anna's "Shakalakaboomboom" did finish the race but we won naff all I'm afraid.

Apart from that (and a robin sitting on five eggs in the garden), just gloriously impressive April skies - huge great dark clouds in blue skies  photographers dreams - just a shame I'm not up to much at present...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) April skies Natural History Museum The Grand National Titanic 100yr commemoration beetle ill robin https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/bored-of-titanic Sun, 15 Apr 2012 16:36:43 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 7 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-7 As described here, this week has brought a realisation upon me that there is more to see in the surrounding fields, heaths and woods than little owls - so I've not filmed them at all this week and given them a little space.

That said, I have driven by pretty-well every day and made sure all is ok in "owl-ville"- all does seem to be ok.

There seems to be a distinct increase in interest in the owl box now though, rather than just the shed - which is about right (overdue some might say) and points to the fact that this pair of little owls will almost certainly attempt to successfully breed again this year.

During the first six weeks of "Operation noctua", both adult owls seemed intent on roosting in the shed - and only appeared to show a lasting interest in the box* when the box attracted stock doves and kestrels.

Now though, there is almost always one of the owls (the female I assume) on the tree where the box is situated or in the box itself.

This is good news and I've not seen either of the kestrels or doves this week - the little owls have won that battle it seems.

I have a week off in a fortnight - and although the week will be mainly spent in the garden, attempting to call my favourite bird of all into my newly built swift "des res" (I've not written about that quite deliberately yet), I will find time to sit with the owls and see if I can get a photo or two.

But.... and this is important to remember... I hope that the female owl will begin to lay eggs in a fortnight or so, and to that extent - this is the crucial period for them - I must not disturb them too much now....

The poor photo below, taken from the edge of their field shows the shed they have been roosting in and their box (the triangular structure in the tree), with the glorious (white) blackthorn bush showing so well in the field behind - like it is all over the countryside at present.

There are also both little owls in the photo - small I admit - I'll not tell you where they are - find them if you can....

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua blackthorn kestrel little owl stock dove https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-7 Sun, 08 Apr 2012 17:36:01 GMT
Deer roe deer - the bluebells? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/deer-roe-deer---the-bluebells I just happen to have been born in mid April, coinciding nicely with the appearance of bluebells in our British woods (a very British thing bluebells - half of the world's bluebells are to be found on our islands)  - Anna and I have taken to an annual bluebell pilgrimage around or just after my birthday each year.

Those of you that read this blog who know me might have realised by now that I am a huge fan of woods and forests. I may have a fair amount of scottish blood in me, but I am no highlander - a soft southerner or at least a lowlander is what I am really. Give me lowland heaths and woods rather than mountains, heather and the midge-infested Caledonia any day!

Down in what I call my natural habitat I can find toads and badgers, foxes and weasels, nightjar and deer, dogs mercury, fungi and bluebells....

Well... I have read that because of this year's strange dry winter and spring, bluebells are appearing early in 2012 and unless you live in the wetter north of the country, the annual display is somewhat strangled by the dry ground.

I decided to take my weekly drive through the local countryside a day earlier than most weeks (it's a long weekend after all) and see if the best bluebell wood that I know of had anything popping out of the ground yet...

On the way I came the closest I have ever come to hitting a deer with the LAM (my Little Agricultural Machine - my car) - a muntjac that seemed intent on commiting suicide by choosing to amble across the empty road just as my car steamed into view.

It's a while since I performed an emergency stop for real (since my driving test to be exact) but that action was necessary in the gloomy drizzle before dawn this morning and I missed the deer by no more than a couple of inches.

I'm pretty glad I did miss it - I've noticed that my nearside fog light has cracked and fogged (but still works) last week and the muntjac would have certainly taken out the other (offside) foglight as well as the headlight and bumper I have no doubt.

(I should point out here that I might have been a lot more worried about the deer itself (rather than the car) if the deer had been a native roe deer. Muntjac are hardly worth worrying about in my opinion).

I arrived at my bluebell wood in the gathering light and as an indignant cock pheasant exploded from the brambles beside me as I walked to the wood I surveyed the ground foliage for my annual treat. (The wood is the same wood that Anna and I used to go toad-rescuing at).

Well.... it seems to be true - lots of bluebell leaves and little else. Oh sure, the flowers are showing, but in far less numbers than I normally see (maybe about 10% of normal) and the experience was a little underwhelming to be fair.

Am I early? (Normally we'd visit in late April). I hope so, but I have a feeling like I mentioned at the top of this piece, that this year's displays down in the south of the country will be poor. Very poor.

 

In need of a colour fix in the dark grey start to the day, I thought I'd check on a local oilseed rape field on the way back home (I have a photo or two in mind when the blooms are at their showiest).

As I climbed out of the car and looked for future vantage points, two dark, elegant, leggy roe does stared at me from maybe 50 yards away, before about turning and pronking gently away into the hidden valley. Lovely beasts, roe deer - so much more elegant and proud than the stubbier, stockier, noisy barking deer that I'd nearly flattened an hour earlier....

Blurbell wood

 

Please note - the accompanying photo (above) to this blog is of the bluebell display last year. Taken at dawn and made somewhat abstract by moving the camera down as I took the shot at dawn, it's an image that sums up bluebell time to me - unfortunately that feeling might not be around this year. I just hope I'm early and the heady sight will appear at its normal time in a fortnight.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) bluebells muntjac roe deer https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/deer-roe-deer---the-bluebells Sat, 07 Apr 2012 07:03:09 GMT
Spring stutters into life https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/spring-stutters-into-life Well... the weather is on the cool side again (after an incredibly warm March) but the lanes are lined with white blossom and spring does seem to be stuttering into life again.

After spending a huge amount of time recently watching and filming the owls it has become clear to me that I do need to lay off "Operation noctua" for a while, or at least cut back in terms of time spent up with the owls, because there is so much to see and do at present - or will be shortly. I will still keep track of the little owls of course (I'd love a decent photo and see if they breed successfully this year, like last, but I really want to give them a little space and remember there are other things in life, other than owls!)

Anna and I are lucky enough to live very near a badger sett - the cubs (I hope!) will be appearing above ground within a few weeks - and that I can't miss. We are also lucky enough to live near a beautiful south-sloping (quite rare) lowland heath with hobbies, nightjar, dragonflies, lizards, adders and emperor moths all present (not to mention a whole host of other heathland wildlife such as silver-studded blue butterflies and mining bees).

I promised I'd visit this heath very regularly this year (as I missed the purple haze of July when the heather turned a magnificent colour last year as we were in Turkey, watching loggerheads and scops owls).

So Anna and I toddled off down to the heath at lunch today to see what was about - I'm glad we did!

Firstly, in the typical April weather of a brief blast of warm sunshine followed by a dark cloud) we found basking common lizards and slow worms (adders were our main quarry I admit, but they'll wait for now!)

Secondly, we met a couple of local moth experts who were searching for Emperor moths - which they'd found (and photographed superbly) a few minutes before we stumbled across them (the experts that is, not the moths).

Now I've known since moving to our present abode a few miles away, that Emperors were to be found on this heath, but I am not in any way shape or form an "Emperor expert" so the knowledge these two chaps imparted on us was gratefully accepted.

Well... we may have seen one male Emperor whilst with the entomologists (difficult to tell as it flew by pretty quickly - it may have been a peacock butterfly) but we'll be back (or at least I will!) next weekend to see if I can see the most incredible of all British moths - and the only British silkmoth to boot....

 

News from closer to home (the back garden!) is that we have a pair of robins nesting in one of the bird boxes I put up in some ivy a few weeks ago. I'll not put a camera in the box as I've got that in the new "swift des res" which I've been building all winter.....

 

More on Emperor moths next week I hope.

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) common lizard emperor moth robin slow worm https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/spring-stutters-into-life Fri, 06 Apr 2012 18:12:45 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 6 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-6 Another warm (for the time of year) week but all change now as the blocking anticyclone drifts off into the north Atlantic, meaning a return to cold air and northerly winds for the owls - maybe even a little cloud and drizzle?!

One of the owls definitely seems to be taking much more of an interest in the nest box now (the female I assume) with the male on guard on the barn still...

In the spliced clips below, the very last clip shows the male (I think) do his meerkat impression from the top of the barn and then he flies to the other corner of the barn (out of shot) at 16:34hrs on Friday gone.

Anna and I were watching him at the time, from the side of the field about 250yds away. He was on "alert" as a big fluffy buzzard had just drifted past the barn, quite low, and settled on a fence post 100 yards or so from the owl barn.

The spliced clips below also show the first night time clip - albeit out of focus as the little owl was stood no more than 2 feet from the trail camera at the time - and with this trailcam (as described before) the subject needs to be at least 6 feet away (I think) to be focused properly.

Nice to see a midnight owl clip though, out of focus (or not!)

Owl watch - 30th March 2012

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) HD video Operation noctua buzzard little owl night https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/4/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-6 Sun, 01 Apr 2012 17:44:39 GMT
British summer due to end on Saturday? Or is it? https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/british-summer-due-to-end-on-saturday-or-is-it A few days ago, I blogged to celebrate the (official) start of spring.

Then, I blogged to celebrate the start of BST (or British Summer Time).

Today I blog to suggest that the last two weeks with a pretty constant day time temperature of 20c, warm sunshine and light winds will end this weekend - and that (of course) means our summer is over...

I'd not normally link to any Daily Mail report (lazy journalism at its worst) but read this for yourself - and you decide....

See what I mean?

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) warm fortnight ends https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/british-summer-due-to-end-on-saturday-or-is-it Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:08:33 GMT
"Operation noctua" HD video update https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/-operation-noctua-hd-video-update Just a quick post from me, as promised, to show a few more HD clips of the pair of little owls that I'm following at the moment.

All the below footage was shot last weekend (23rd to 25th March 2012) using an HD trail camera.

As usual, please enlarge the video player by clicking on the box and arrow at the bottom RHS of the player (after pressing play) for a smoother playback.

You can see all my HD owl video clips here.

Owl watch - 23rd March 2012 - 6 clips into 1

 

Owl watch - 24th/25th March 2012

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) HD video Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/-operation-noctua-hd-video-update Wed, 28 Mar 2012 15:20:26 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 5 - HD video of kestrel mobbing owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-5---hd-video-of-kestrel-mobbing-owl This “end of week report” this week is a day later than normal, primarily because last week I had the trail camera in place for three days and three nights; due to the start of BST yesterday, I had to wait until gone 20:15hrs before retrieving the camera (after dark) – and upon retrieving it, I found it had recorded over 80 (eighty) short clips of the owls.

 

So…Anna and I took a little time last night to look over the clips because the vast majority were so good (showing the pair together etc…). It’s fair to say I have some lovely footage from the past week that I will upload in four clips during the week ahead, starting today with the best clip of all recorded so far (I’ll come to that in a mo).

 

As described here on my more general blog, we’ve had another very warm sunny week (after any thick early morning fog burned away) – and regular viewers to this site will know by now (I’m sure) that our owls do like to soak up the sun (that’s the advantage of watching little owls (as opposed to other owl spp) – little owls like to sunbathe and can (and do) hunt at any time of day or night.

 

The trail camera clearly has trouble “triggering” during periods of low light (or no light) – probably because the owls themselves at 20-odd cm tall (only) do not represent a big enough moving heat source to trigger the trail camera’s passive infrared detector. That and the fact that these wee owls are nippy little errr…. beggars.

 

That’s a shame however, as I’ve spent quite a few dawns watching them catch the first orange rays of the rising sun and I assume they perch on their cattle shed at night also – but it’s a part of their daily (or nightly) routine that I will not be able to record with the trail camera in its current setup.

(Trail cameras in general are designed and marketed for large animals such as deer for hunters in America rather than wildlife-watchers in the UK, although some amateur naturalists have managed to modify their cameras in order to record small animals or birds at much closer range (a  few cm rather than a few metres)).

 

It’s a drawback to UK wildlife watchers that I’m told Bushnell (my trail camera manufacturer) have acknowledged at least and I would certainly welcome a more “small wildlife trail camera” rather than the model I have at present.

 

Not to worry – with my current trail camera I am managing to record some marvellous footage from a reasonable distance (about 7 feet in my current set up) so I can hardly complain.

 

 

This week, the owls have clearly been (still) battling both stock doves (not so much of an issue) and kestrels (much more of a problem) for ownership of the nest box. This problem is hardly improved by both owls’ tendency to roost and sunbathe in or on the cattle shed roof, rather than in the tree nest box itself, 20m or so away.

 

It’s strange really. There I am, watching the little owls battle with a pair of kestrels and a pair of stock doves for box-nesting rights – I’m very much “on the owls’ side” but I shouldn’t be really.

Kestrels are native birds that have declined in numbers over recent years (buzzards are now allegedly our most common bird of prey here) and stock doves are a native bird also – yet I’m siding with the french interlopers (little owls) that wouldn’t even be here at all (in the UK) if they weren’t accidentally introduced in the 21st century….

 

(It actually feels very strange to me sometimes, when watching the owls. I’m sat at the edge of their field, often in the car (used as a hide) watching red-legged partridge shuffle through the long grass or coughing pheasants do the same, whilst rose-ringed parakeets screech overhead and rabbits flash their cottontails whilst disappearing into the hedgerows.

NONE of the above are native animals in this country, yet they all feel normal and native to us these days.

 

Anyyyywaaay…. I digress.

 

The owls clearly are still battling hard over rights to their box. I have watched the tiercel (male kestrel – only the females are strictly speaking “falcons”)  enter the owl nest box a number of times - only to be chased off by one of the owls (I assume the male owl, but I could be wrong) and yet the clip below (which I am so incredibly fortunate to have recorded) shows the female kestrel at least is not taking the owls’ presence lightly.

 

I have watched this female kestrel mobbing the local pair of buzzards also, but until looking at the clip below, really thought the owls had the upper hand in this particular kestrel versus owl battle.

 

Watch the clip below and you’ll see the pair of stock doves fly by first, followed by one of the owls at high speed, followed by the female kestrel – in angry mood.

You’ll do well to see anything though really – it’s all over in (quite lidddderally) a fraction of a second, so I’ve slowed the footage down at the end of the normal speed clip, to 10% speed, just so you get an idea of what you’ve just seen.

 

 

Please bear in mind also that these trail cameras have a response time of around 3 seconds (not good for quick-moving small wildlife) and the only reason I managed to record the owl and kestrel at all was thanks to the slower moving stock doves triggering the camera a few seconds before the birds of prey screamed into shot. How lucky am I?!

 

I should maybe point out here that the kestrel should not kill the owl(s) – rather like the owls, the faster raptor’s diet mainly consists of small mammals (voles etc) and insects, rather than large prey.

Both little owls and kestrels occupy similar ecological niches, although I might expect kestrels to take more small mammals and little owls to take more worms and moths.

 

This female kestrel seems like she’s just mobbing the little owl and is quite possibly a little “owl disappointed” in her mate, who seems to be bossed by the little owls…

 

NB. As usual (for smooth, judder-free playback of these clips) please enlarge the embedded video player by clicking on the box and arrow at the bottom RHS of the player, after pressing "play".

 

Owl watch - 25th March - kestrel mobbing owl

 

As I said at the start of this (long) update, I have managed to record quite a lot of footage last week of the owls, which I’ll upload during this week – a spliced clip a day if I get the time…, because it won’t be long before the owls mate and the female disappears into the box for long periods, to properly lay claim to the nest spot and start to think about laying a clutch of eggs (I hope!)

 

More about a provisional, expected timetable for the owls season ahead - later this week or next…..

 

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) HD video Operation noctua kestrel little owl stock dove https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-5---hd-video-of-kestrel-mobbing-owl Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:18:20 GMT
British Summer Time (BST) begins... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/british-summer-time-bst-begins Just a few (4!) days after spring officially begins - and today (Sunday 25th March) we all put our clocks forward.... as British Summer Time (BST) begins. No... I don't make the rules.

Nor will I mention that "Midsummer's day" here in Blighty is always three days after the summer solstice (June 21st) and the summer solstice is officially the start of summer. Whoops - I just have.

So that makes summer... what.... 6 days in length in the UK - actually.... thats pretty accurate most years, so I guess it's right after all!

Anyway... we are now officially keeping time to BST and its always a great joy to suddenly have long evenings thrust upon us - I'm typing this at 7pm and its still very light indeed oot there.

Spring / Summer / Whatever seems to have been with us for some time to be fair. We've had yet another glorious week of weather (fog each day to start and then very warm sunshine with no wind to speak of) and we are due at least one more I hear.

This is nice for now, but the badger cubs due out of their setts in a few weeks will REALLY struggle if they or their mother can't find juicy worms because the ground is too hard.

Summer does seems all around though, even if we are just into spring. The early trees (our poplar and lilac) are budding beautifully - many leaves have appeared on both this weekend, the blue tits are busy dragging moss into their nest box next door, I've not seen great tits or chaffinches so dapper at present, the first mason bee (a male feather-footed flower bee) appeared on the ground ivy in the front garden this afternoon, preceded by the first bee-fly and the first two house-jumping spiders appeared in the house today....

I've even cut the front lawn (and planted strawberries, rosemary, lavender, thyme and mint) whilst Anna has seeded cornflowers, sunflowers and a whole array of meadow flowers ready to transfer to our new "wild flower meadow" come the summer proper.

Less than a month before my favourite birds of all arrive. (Those of you that know me will know full well what that bird is!)

Then it'll be summer! (Well.... summer will only be two months away.... officially....)

The photo below is of the cattle shed this morning at dawn, with a little owl being filmed by my remote camera (stuck to a dummy telephoto zoom (a bit of guttering) at dawn on the first day of "BST"...

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) BST bee-fly blue tit chaffinch cornflowers feather-footed flower bee house jumping spider lavender lilac little owl meadow-flowers mint poplar rosemary strawberries sunflowers thyme https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/british-summer-time-bst-begins Sun, 25 Mar 2012 18:10:03 GMT
First day of spring https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/first-day-of-spring Just a tiny wee post today to celebrate the first day of spring....

 

The skylarks are all singing their parachute melodies over the owl fields (good luck larks!)

The chiffchaffs are all now chiff-chaffing in the bare, budding trees.

The moon is new (well.... a day off being new).

The honeybees are out (as are their two-winged dipteran mimics - the drone flies - Elgin (our smallest cat) found and ate one in front of me today).

Winter is indeed over -  (even though some winter thrushes remain - I watched a fieldfare this afternoon, rattle over the owl field).

Long live the spring!

(Photo taken today as I watched the owls just before dusk).

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) chiffchaff drone fly fieldfare first day of spring honeybee new moon skylark https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/first-day-of-spring Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:45:49 GMT
A lesson learned (twice?) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/a-lesson-learned-twice Quite a few years ago (a good decade or so before I picked up any sort of camera in anger) I visited the Natural History Museum in London to see the "Wildlife Photographer of the year" winning shots being exhibited.

My favourite shot being shown that day was this one - a great reed warbler singing in the dawn sunlight - each note forming a trail of breath in the cold still air.

That shot has remained with me ever since -I'd love to capture something even remotely similar and although now, I have the technical know-how to get such a shot (and the kit, one could argue), the shot of a song bird singing, in which you can see its song, has eluded me.

I was up at the owl field at dawn on Sunday (gone), knowing full well that at dawn, robins sit on the gate where I park the car and pour out their fruity little warble for all to hear (and see, if the air is cold & still enough and the sun has rised just above the horizon).

But I went out without my camera thinking I wouldn't need it.

I chose..... poorly.

Not five minutes after I pulled up, a cock robin sat on the frosty gatepost not 6 feet from my car's open window and sang to the rising run  - each note forming a breathy squirl in the air. I had my singing songbird, I had its song visible in the still air. I had all what I had waited for years for - but.... my camera was two miles away.

Lesson learned you'd think?

Hmmmm.....

 

 

 

I've always (also) had a soft spot for red-legged partridge after seeing them in the countryside on my bike rides when I was a lad.

Oh sure, they're not native birds, but there was always something exciting about them - quite amazing plumage, but not that easy to see (generally hidden by thick grass or crops). I've certainly never managed a decent shot (photo) of one and I've not seen them for long periods in my life.

I'm lucky now, in that we have a small covey of red-legs in the fields surrounding the owl field. I can see eight (almost always eight) very regularly at present - and that may continue until the farm crops have covered them. But they're canny birds - always out in the open in the middle of the field - and they can spot me coming a mile off...

 

This afternoon, after work, I drove back to the owl field, to see if they'd managed to regain possession of their box.

As I pulled into the layby in order to watch the owl box, I noticed a "frenchman" on the gate post. The same gate post that my breathy robin sang so beautifully on at the start of the week.

The partridge jumped off the post when I pulled up next to it, but didnt go far - it just pecked around the new grass in the field, maybe 30 feet from my car.

I felt confident enough to open my drivers side window and watched in amazement as after about 5 minutes, it jumped straight back onto the gate post it had left when I pulled up and just looked at me - distance from my eyes to its -  maybe ten feet!

I had a beautiful red-leg, in full, fluffy breeding plumage, so close, I could see the silhouette of my car reflected in its eyes - I had my perfect partrige photo (it was even appeared to glow in the low orange sun)..... but I had left my camera at home a couple of miles away....

So.... You tell me.

Have I learned my lesson yet?

 

Take your camera with you. All the time.

Everywhere....! 

 

 

NB. I should point out here that in general I am not advocating taking one's camera everywhere - in fact quite a few people I know might tell you that in many cases I actually advise against it. Its healthier sometimes to leave your kit alone, be it binoculars or camera and go out and rely on your hearing, your eyes and even your sense of smell. There's no pressure to be technically minded, there's nothing to break or fog up and you'll enjoy the experience just as much - even more so possibly.

That way of thinking was brought home to me whilst on honeymoon in Sri Lanka. Anna and I were at quite possibly my favourite place in the entire world - Yala National park in the very arid SE of the island, bouncing around in a landrover, looking for leopards.

Well.... after a day if searching, we eventually found one, a leopardess which "slunk" quickly across the dusty trail about 100 yards from our jeep.

I had just taken up photography at the time (2008) and had my first ever digital camera on me. Whereas Anna saw the beautiful big cat with her own eyes, I can honestly say, I only saw it through an electronic viewfinder (my first camera, the Panasonic FZ20 only had an electronic viewfinder).

Oh sure.... I got the shot for posterity. (see below). But I never saw the leopard. Not with my eyes...

So.

Whats the lesson to be learned?

Take your camera with you - and turn it on if and when you have time.

Easy eh?

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) camera red-legged partridge robin https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/a-lesson-learned-twice Mon, 19 Mar 2012 18:49:05 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 4 - spliced HD video https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-4---spliced-hd-video In the main the week has been foggy in the mornings then sunny, still and warm (very warm on a few days), with rain arriving at the weekend.

I managed to get up to see the owls late in the week (on the warmest, sunniest day when I thought they might be sunbathing) and found both owls sunbathing on one barn, two red-legged partridge sunbathing on top of the other barn and both kestrels dustbathing near the second barn - the local birds have obviously enjoyed this warm, dry week.

The (slightly) worrying thing about our owls at present though is that they seem intent on allowing the kestrel pair to gain rights to their owl box. I watched the male kestrel enter the box at dusk this evening and remain there for a good half an hour (with his good laydee watching from the perch nearest the box) - as both little owls sat on the nearby cattle shelter, seemingly concerned by doing nothing about the kestrels.

It was only when a pair of buzzards flapped through the field that the kestrels left the box, in order to mob the bigger raptors...

So... are our owls going to give up rights to the owl box and nest elsewhere (the cattle shelter?). There seems no room at all (or much shelter for that matter) to nest in the cattle shelter, so I doubt it - but if they do want to nest in the owl box, they'll have to start to put up a proper fight for it....

 

The clip I've embedded onto this blog post is made up of four clips spliced into one - clips which show mutual preening, wing stretching and even defaecation.

As normal, please enlarge the embedded video player (box and arrow at bottom RHS of the player) for a much better, smoother playback.

 

Owl watch - 11th and 12th March combined

 

It won't be long now before (I hope) our owls mate and the female starts to take a very active, more prolonged interest in her box, disappearing into it (I hope) more and more, rather than roosting in the cattle barn with her mate.

She'll have to fight off the constant attentions of the pair of stockdoves (and kestrels) though - both are not giving the owls much space...

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) HD video Operation noctua buzzard kestrel little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-4---spliced-hd-video Sun, 18 Mar 2012 06:00:00 GMT
Garden bats, butterflies and bees (first of the year) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/garden-bats-butterflies-and-bees-first-of-the-year The warm week (18c again today) has seen the sudden appearance of the three "B's" in our garden -

Yesterday (after the fog and cloud had cleared around lunchtime) I watched the first butterfly of the year bounce quickly through the garden - an early comma butterfly (always one of the earliest to appear as many overwinter as hibernating adults).

Last night I watched a pipistrelle (common or soprano - I don't know which but I do know both roost locally thanks to a past bat survey in the 'hood) fly over the house at dusk - the first bat I've seen all year.

Today, the even warmer sun produced the first mining bee I've seen in 2012 (and positively identified). A brassy mining bee - link to an old photo of mine here. Brassy mining bees are great fun to watch - miniscule but very territorial when they find a source of nectar - always attacking each other! I do love my mining and mason bees - I must drill them a bee post soon...

I hear the weather is due to get wetter over the weekend - shame - I'm getting used to this dry warmth...

 

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) brassy mining bee comma fieldfare pipistrelle redwing https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/garden-bats-butterflies-and-bees-first-of-the-year Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:55:58 GMT
"Operation noctua" - HD video update - sunbathing https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/-operation-noctua---hd-video-update After replacing the camera (and giving it a little more elevation to allow the PIR (passive infrared) to work) I retrieved it yesterday afternoon after a day in situ and found I had recorded another 45 (40 second) clips of our owls - so I'll upload a few this week.

All diurnal birds like to subathe from time to time and our owls (being noctunal, diurnal and crepuscular) are fond of a little sunbathing also it seems - the clip below will prove that.

If you listen very carefully to the first part of the clip, you'll hear the pair of kestrels (that are intent on stealing the owls' nestbox) calling to each other.

The kestrels are persistent but as yet, thanks to the stout defence from the owls, unsuccessful in their mission.

As before, please enlarge the video player (box and arrow at bottom RHS of embedded player) for best playback.

Owl watch: 11th March sunbathing owls

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) HD video Operation noctua kestrel little owl sunbathing https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/-operation-noctua---hd-video-update Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:29:37 GMT
"Operation noctua" end of week 3 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-3 Well... I was expecting to delight anyone reading this blog with more HD clips of our little owls as I had the trail camera back in place all weekend and have been watching the owls from the side of their field for a few hours during this time.

But alas, the trailcam has failed again (I'm not Bushnell's biggest fan it has to be said), so I've reset the trail cam and will check it again tomorrow afternoon (I think in my haste to breathe some life into it this morning I've replaced it at an angle, which will make for drunken clips if I get any at all).

It's a stressful time setting the trail cam. It's no mean feat, lugging a 15' ladder across a wet field and getting the camera in the right place on top of a large cattle shed. Either the dog walkers are watching, or the owls are! With most birds, one could reset it at night - but not with owls. So why can't I reset it during the day then? Because these are little owls - this species is often perched out in the daylight - and our two owls love to sunbathe it seems.

Anyway, reset it is - and I'll straighten it up after work tomorrow and hope the owls are taking 40 winks elsewhere.

It has been a stunning day here today, with temperatures up to 18c (higher in the sun), no wind to speak of and I spent a good few hours today watching these owls. As an orange sun rose behind the local church before 7am this morning, both owls were defending their next box from a new pair of interlopers - a pair of kestrels.

The stock doves seems to have given up the ghost for now, but not so these kestrels. In one hour this morning, I watched the falcon (female) catch a vole and eat it whilst the tiercel (male) mated her - not the politest birds it seems - then the tiercel caught and ate a vole himself and both tried to lay claim to the owl's nest box. The owls weren't having it though and one of our little owls decided to fly through the falcon and stand sentry inside the box opening whilst the falcon looked on helpless! Brave little things those owls! I can only assume that if the kestrels keep up the box dispute, at least one of the owls will start to roost inside the box for now, rather than both owls roosting in the cattle shelter (where I video them) 80 yards or so away. In fact I am amazed this hasn't happened already!

Its a shame the trailcam didnt record any clips over the weekend. There was a wedding at the church on Saturday and I was in the field watching both owls in front of the trailcam with church bells ringing in the distance - would've been nice to get that "on tape". As would it have been this morning when the kestrels were screaming to each other and both owls were watching them right in front of the trail cam again.

Never mind  - we'll see what clips the trail cam gets in week four and you'll be the third (after myself and Anna) to see any results!

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua kestrel little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/-operation-noctua-end-of-week-3 Sun, 11 Mar 2012 18:18:28 GMT
Dogfight under "no weather skies" https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/dogfight-under-no-weather-skies I’ve been working all over the southeast of England again this week and after Sunday’s rain (it rained all day but even that only provided about 12 mil of rain) we got a fair old hammering on Wednesday.Our “pool car” had just been washed the day before, but after I drove it to and from Ware (Where? That’s right, Ware) on Wednesday, it looks once more like its been through the Amazon and back, with ferocious driving rain and spray most of the day.

That seems like the only decent rain we’re gonnae get for a while though; I see in today’s Daily Mirror (so it MUST be true, huh?) that Helen Chivers (good  name for a weather forecaster?) has forecast a month of warm, dry weather until Good Friday at least.(I should point out that to me at least, a weather forecast of  more than three days in the UK is generally about as accurate as a Bristol rugby stand-off kicking conversions in front of the posts – i.e. not at all accurate).

We’re still having trouble getting regular frosts though (of any significance) and to that extent, it’s obvious that the grass is growing and the brief arrest of spring plant development has finished. The March full moon made a brief appearance last night, but you'd have been hard pressed to see it, what with the "no weather" layer of cloud we have sitting above much of the UK at present. As I blogged at the time of the February full moon (the "Boney Moon" remember), maybe I should point out my favourite name for the March full moon - "the moon when eyes are sore from bright snow" (Sioux - there may be a few Sioux names for full moons this year on this blog, as I find them amusing). Please also note the photo accompanying this page on the home page of the blog is not of a recent moon - its a shot called "Fly me to the moon" I took some time ago.

The third species of moth I've identified this year in our (not so new now) garden appeared at the beginning of the week - a "Hebrew Character". These moffs are always quite early in the year and are replaced by "Setaceous Hebrew Characters" come May and June.

I’ve stumbled across a gurt big rookery (or more exactly a “jackdawery” (a bit like Jackanory but with more bird mess) in a local copse. There must be 500 birds all vying for breeding space and mating rights – quite a sight to see in this week’s sunsets.

I’ve also noted that the cock wrens are beginning to belt out their songs from the local hedgerows this week – always amazing to me how such a tiny wee bird can produce such a fortissimo song.

Anna and I watched the local kestrels mating again this week (that’s twice in a fortnight now) and the pair of stock doves once again pester the little owls for box rights (more on the “operation noctua” posts on this blog).

The winter thrushes are still around, as can be seen (and heard!) from the chattering flocks of fieldfares taking off into the wind from from tall, bare oak trees or the odd thin “tseep” of night-flying redwing on the hoof back to Scandanavia.

More highlights from my “eye-peeling exercises” this week included a very impressive little egret fishing in the Blackwater through my office business park (its virtually always a heron down there but occasionally the normal morphs into a snow white little egret – always a nice bonus).

Whilst on my pre-work cigaroony on the banks of the Thames at Reading, before 7am this morning I was treated to the sight (and sound) of a pair of kingfishers engaging in very vocal courtship flights up and down the river, flying within two feet of the dark water surface, shrieking to each other - a nice thing to see before work.

Finally, (today as it happens) I was walking through Reading during my lunch break and if I am working in Reading, I always find time to walk past the Thames Tower (opposite the station) to peer for peregrines and black redstarts (in the summer) high above the dingy streets.

Today, myself and an old friend and colleague were treated to -  a) the sound of the tiercel (male) calling in the bigger falcon (female) to the top of the tower and then  -  b) a pair flight ensued as both birds screamed around the building at height, putting all the feral town pigeons in the air.

It didn’t finish there though. If anyone is reading this blog that knows Reading (and its wildlife), they’ll know that Reading has many red kites (being pretty close to a re-introduction site in south Oxfordshire).

I’ve always considered red kites to be pretty masterful in the air – taking the mickey out of mobbing crows as they tend to do, with a tail flick here and a primary twitch there.

Under the leaden skies of central Reading this afternoon though, the peregrines made an absolute mockery of the kite – showing it up to be almost cumbersome in the air. The peregrine tiercel in particular took to harassing the larger raptor and when it had decided that it had reminded the kite (enough) who was the king of the skies, it folded its wings back and shot away like a laser-guided missile. A very impressive sight that was once again completely missed by the hundreds of people milling about on their lunch hour, down below….

 

You know, I swear the vast majority of Brits tend to either a) only be interested in themselves or their own little impenetrable bubble  or b) tend to waddle through life with their eyes tightly closed……..

 

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[email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) fieldfare full moon hebrew character jackdaw kestrel kingfisher little egret peregrine red kite redwing wren https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/dogfight-under-no-weather-skies Fri, 09 Mar 2012 17:03:18 GMT
"Operation noctua" End of week 2 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/-operation-noctua--end-of-week-2
  • If there's anyone out there who visits my website regularly, they'll know that I've already uploaded a fifth HD video of one of our little owls preening on its cattle barn roof from last Sunday, but for anyone else - you can see the 40 second clip below (please enlarge the video player by clicking on the box and arrow tab at the bottom RHS of the embedded player, for a much smoother-playing clip).
  • I've left the owls alone this week, but have been up to watch their field from a distance, most days this week.
  • There's no doubt they are a breeding pair, they seem to appreciate the sun (are out preening in sunshine in the middle of the day very often) and are very tolerant of another large illegal fly-tip (looks like a professional house clearance) at the edge of their field.
  • We're due for a mixed week, weather-wise, so I'll maybe not put the trail camera in place again until I can be confident of a day or so of sunshine and at that time, will possibly detail (here) my predicted timing of events in these owls' breeding season....
  • Keep watching this space...
  • Owl watch - 26th February - preening
  • ]]>
    [email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/-operation-noctua--end-of-week-2 Sun, 04 Mar 2012 13:52:12 GMT
    A warm week ends with a day of sleet https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/a-warm-week-ends-with-a-day-of-sleet
  • As predicted here, we've ended a fortnight of warm, sunny (spring-like) days with a day of cold rain - indeed as I type this, looking out of the window with a good few hours of "wet" to go - it looks far more like sleet or even snow that's falling.
  • I wouldn't normally upload a satellite image of this weather front, but this is the most rain we've had for weeks, so thought I'd upload an image to remind myself of what rain looks like on such a satellite image...
    • Anna and I have picked up another dozen or so toads this week (on the return to their breeding ponds) and this morning before dawn, upon realising that it had been raining for an hour or so, I drove the 15 miles or so to the toad crossing that Anna and I used to visit each March to help the toads.
    • As I had thought, the toads were all lined up at the "toad barrier" (a small plastic fence that prevents the majority getting onto the busy road), most in amplexus - and I ferried 62 across the road.
    • In order to do this, I had to climb over a fence myself into a private wood (not generally recommended, grapple fans) and this morning I bumped into the security guard there. I walked up to him and introduced myself and realised I was speaking to an old mate - a nice bit of luck!
    • Plenty of frogs moving in today's wet weather also - our kittens brought in two frogs last night (which I rescued from them before I set off "toading").
    • Not much else to report right now, other than I bore witness to a female sparrowhawk kill a collared dove on the river Thames at Caversham (Reading) on Friday gone and spent my lunch half-hour watching her devour it (at very close quarters - she cared not at all that I was within twenty yards of her, watching with much fascination).
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    [email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) collared dove frog rain sparrowhawk toad toad crossing https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/a-warm-week-ends-with-a-day-of-sleet Sun, 04 Mar 2012 13:42:56 GMT
    "Operation noctua" - HD video of adult pair together https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/-operation-noctua-----hd-video-of-adult-pair-together
  • As I mentioned earlier in the week, I have left the owls be this week, to ensure I don't spook them too early in the season.
  • That said, I did manage to get up to the farm today, (albeit very briefly) and found both adults sunning themselves on the barn roof - a favourite activity of theirs it seems - a big advantage of following little owls (as opposed to tawny for example) - little owls emerge during the day and night!
  • For now, a penultimate video from last Sunday (26th February) - of both adults together on the barn roof.
  • Please enlarge the video player by clicking on the box and arrow tab at the botttom RHS of the player, to ensure smooth, jerk-free video.
  • I'll upload one final video from last weekend tomorrow, of our male bird (I think) preening.
  •  

    Owl watch - pair of owls (both adults)

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    [email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) HD video Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/-operation-noctua-----hd-video-of-adult-pair-together Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:00:00 GMT
    Three weeks to go... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/three-weeks-to-go---
  • Do you consider the first day of spring to be March 1st? (i.e. winter is Dec,Jan,Feb - spring is Mar,Apr,May - summer is Jun,Jul,Aug - autumn is Sep,Oct,Nov?)
  • You'd not be alone - meteorologists have packaged the seasons into four three-monthly equal-sized quarters of the year - and it seems to fit, right?
  • Strictly speaking though, the temperate spring does not "spring" until after the vernal equinox (March 21st), so we're three weeks away yet, even though we've been basking in very spring-like temperatures for a fortnight now.
  • Spring falls between March 21st and June 21st (strictly speaking) - although I don't know too many people who consider themselves in spring time on June 19th!
  • Summer falls between June 21st (summer solstice) and the 22nd September (the autumnal equinox).
  • Autumn (strictly-speaking) lies between 23rd September and 21st December (the winter solstice)
  • We're in winter between 22nd December and 21st March.
  • So.... no. We're not in spring for three weeks yet  (no matter how much people bleat on about the daffodils coming up early yadda yadda yadda...*) - and during the latter part of the weekend coming and into next week - we'll be reminded of that (you heard it here first.)
    • Right now though, it certainly feels like winter is on the way out. The sun is out yet again, queen bees are thick with crocus pollen (see photo above), queen wasps are out and about, buzzards are (as I type) soaring in the blue sky above, calling to each other, kestrels are mating, the toads are still moving en masse (we rescued another half dozen the other night), we have our first proper daisies of the year in the lawn, the magpies are building nests in bare trees (you can just about make out their buds), supermarket car parks and woodland paths are carpeted with dropped catkins, ladybirds are emerging from their suspended animation and I've seen (and identified) the first three moths* of the year at our gaff.  
    • The first *moth of the year (here) was a lone male "Grey shoulder knot", followed by a lone male "Dotted border" (see photo below) and a lone male "pale brindled beauty". I've reclaimed my moth trap for a spring and summer of new discoveries I hope.
    • Yet, I was down at the south coast this week (working) and with a thick blanket of dark cloud and a biting sea breeze - it certainly felt like mid winter down there as I watched the winter-coloured sanderling pick their way in and out of the flotsam and cormorants mate on the groyne markers off Bognor beach.
    • So - as I've suggested already - make the most of this afternoon and tomorrow - because by Sunday and certainly by Monday, it will feel far more like winter again - breezy, much colder, rainy - even sleety!

     

    • * For the record - toads and frogs start to breed in the winter (always have), many daffodils bloom in the winter (always have), the first moths of the year always emerge in the winter, hares box in winter, blackbirds, pigeons and many water birds breed and nest-build during the winter (always have), the first queen bees and wasps always appear before the spring - you know... this list could go on and on. Most of us have been culturally led up the garden path by being taught to associate these events with "spring" - but in reality these events are all winter events and only mean winter has not long to go. That's all!
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    [email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) dotted border first moths of year grey shoulder knot pale brindled beauty https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/3/three-weeks-to-go--- Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:37:44 GMT
    "Operation noctua" - An HD leap - on leap year day... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/2/-operation-noctua-----an-hd-leap---on-leap-year-day---
  • I was going to upload an HD video (recorded on Sunday 26th) of both our adult little owls on the roof together, but as it's "Leap year day" (February 29th), I thought I'd instead upload this clip below...
  • Please enlarge the video player by clicking on the box and arrow tab at the bottom RHS of the video player for a "bigger, smoother viewing experience"!
  • Owl watch - on LEAP year day

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    [email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) HD video Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/2/-operation-noctua-----an-hd-leap---on-leap-year-day--- Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:11:26 GMT
    "Operation noctua" HD video 2 https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/2/-operation-noctua--hd-video-2
  • Another HD video clip recorded on the (sunny) Sunday 26th February 2012 - only about an hour and a half after Anna and I put the trail camera in place!
  • Owl watch 26th February 2012 (2)

    • NB-  please enlarge the video clip (box and arrow bottom RHS of video player for smooth viewing).
    • I'll upload a few of these clips this week (I've removed the trail camera for the time being to give the birds a little peace and quiet).
    • There is one worrying thing about these clips though   - nothing was recorded after 1539hrs on Sunday 26th - quite literally not a dicky bird - even though that we know (we watched them from the side of the field) that the owls were still there after 1800hrs on the same day and all night.
    • Has the trail camera got a problem?
    • Never mind for now.... lets enjoy these HD clips whilst we can.
    • I will probably upload a clip of both adult owls together on the roof tomorrow night...

     

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    [email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) HD video Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/2/-operation-noctua--hd-video-2 Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:07:18 GMT
    "Operation noctua" first HD video! https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/2/-operation-noctua--first-hd-video- Just a quick post tonight, in somewhat breathless excitement...

    I've managed to record HD video footage of our local little owls with my trailcam - about 30mins in total, including one of the pair jumping on the camera, a little flying, some preening, a spot of scran and even the pair together.

    Owl watch 26th February (1)

    I'm over the moon and so excited with the spring coming up fast....

    Just one clip tonight - more, (many more?!) to come I hope.

    Thanks

    TBR

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    [email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) HD video Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/2/-operation-noctua--first-hd-video- Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:55:45 GMT
    Nearing the end of "the tunnel" https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/2/nearing-the-end-of--the-tunnel-
  • The tunnel of winter that is, not the "Hindhead tunnel" (photo taken this morning before dawn).
  • I'm afraid I'm not one of those people who find winter particularly enjoyable, from a wildlife perspective. Sure, we get some lovely winter wildfowl in (the goldeneye being worth the cold temperatures), some birds are easier to see in trees bereft of foliage and if we get snow, I can follow various critters' tracks if I'm lucky.... but give me summer any day.
  • This week has been quite remarkable (as the late David Coleman might have said) in terms of warmth and sunshine - we've sat at double the average February day time temperature all week with very little cloud to speak of in the main.
  • The trees are a month or more away from getting their first small leaves, the bluebells are more like two months away, but we have daffodils and crocuses popping up all over the shop right now.
  • The first flowers of the year have given me my first sightings of three species of bumblebee in the garden already this year - Bombus lapidarius (the red-tailed bumblebee), B.lucorum (white-tailed bumblebee) and even a queen B.hypnorum (tree bumblebee).
  • It's lovely to know that even after moving house (and therefore garden) we still will have tree bees bumbling around our "oasis".
  • I've yet to see a butterfly this year, but I'm pretty sure red admirals (at least) will be on the wing in these balmy late winter days and the dipteran flies have started to appear around our hens' droppings.
  • Our pesky garden collared doves have been mating constantly for some time now (nesting in our leylandii) and Anna and I watched the local kestrels mate this evening in the little owl field.
  • You certainly can tell when spring is 'round the corner when great spotted woodpeckers begin drumming - and that is happening now too.
  • But we still are officially in winter time - I watched our little owls t'other day and through the owl field marched a determined army of winter thrushes (both fieldfare and redwing) on the lookout for worms I'm sure (easy to get at in these unfrozen days at present).
  • We'll have much colder days (and nights) I assume, before we gambol joyfully into spring, but until then, I am very thankful for these unseasonably mild days and nights - and the old weatherlore saying of "March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb" seems more apt for February this year...
  •  

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    [email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) collared dove fieldfare great spotted woodpecker kestrel red-tailed bumblebee redwing spring tree bumblebee warm late winter white-tailed bumblebee winter https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/2/nearing-the-end-of--the-tunnel- Sun, 26 Feb 2012 18:12:00 GMT
    "Operation noctua" (end of week 1) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/2/-operation-noctua---week-1-
  • The dummy camera has been in place almost a week - and after a brief period at the start of the week when I thought I'd spooked our owls, introducing an alien object right on top of their roost site (I didn't see them for a few days), I can report (with some relief) that they clearly "don't give a hoot" about the dummy camera. All is well.
  • Last night Anna and I watched both owls on top of their roost, a metre or so from the dummy camera and tonight (after the England Wales rugby match) I took great pleasure in watching both owls act completely normally in their tree and by the dummy camera.
  • We have had another glorious day here in the south of England - virtually unbroken sunshine, temperatures double what they should be for the time of year and a gentle breeze.
  • At dusk tonight under the waxing crescent moon (slap bang next to Venus in the evening sky) both adult owls were hopping about in their tree, preening, fluffing up their feathers and looking rather dapper.
  • These are very good-looking little owls (even though I say so myself) and like many other birds are doing rather well this winter. The ground has hardly been frozen at all, worms are easy to get to (not often I can say that in February) and rodents are in plentiful supply also (as are beetles and the first moths in this very warm end to winter).
  • I have decided to put the trail cam in place sooner rather than later, as I need to build up a picture of when these owls emerge from their roosts, when they return - in order for my to be as successful as I can when replacing the dummy camera with a real camera in the months ahead.
  • The issue I still have though, will not leave me.
  • Professional photographers with their huge lenses and time to spend days out in the field would regard "operation noctua" as a piece of cake. But little old me, with limited time and only a small (200mm) lens, will have to work hard to get the photographs I desire.
  • If I had a huge lens I would have no need to use a dummy camera (the only reason I am using one is I will eventually have to get my little lens very close to the birds). If I had a huge lens I'd have no need to get within a couple of metres of the birds - and in that respect, the shutter sound from the camera would not disturb the birds. But in my case, my camera needs to be with the birds and any shutter sound will sound like a rocket going off to these highly-sensitive owls.
  • But.... I can't do anything about that (needs must) and therefore I will just have to put all the hours in I can to acclimatise these beautiful wee owls to me and my camera...
  • I really hope the effort pays off - and should I be lucky enough to get some half-decent shots of these owls in the spring (and owlets with luck), god help anyone who suggests (once again!!) "Your photos are good - you must have a really good camera!"
  • Nothing winds me up more than that statement these days.
  • It's nothing to do with any camera - its hours and weeks and months and years learning about the subject and getting in the right spot at the right time 99% of the time - and in the case of the owls - spending weeks and weeks trying to get the birds used to me and my kit.
  • This is true for many people who take photographs of wildlife and truer still for amateur wildlife photographers (like myself) who balance a separate job (if we're lucky) with far inferior kit to that used by professionals.
  • That is why I am always delighted if a photo or two of mine is/are recognised alongside professionals' work - and as I've tried to explain above.... the camera has very little (if anything) to do with it.
  • Anyway - back to the owls and as you will have read - all is well..... "Operation noctua" is still a "goer" and the two beautiful little owls I watched preen tonight have filled me with hope for the coming season.
  • I will probably put the trailcam in place sometime this week and (fingers crossed) have a short video or two to blog sometime soon....
  • Thanks

    TBR

    ]]>
    [email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/2/-operation-noctua---week-1- Sat, 25 Feb 2012 19:34:00 GMT
    Toads migrating now. (Commentary in detail) https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/2/toads-migrating-now--- Our “Common” toad (Bufo bufo) suffers from a pretty unflattering image in the UK – more so than its cousins, the Natterjack toad (Bufo calamita), which many people have not even heard of, or the “Common” frog (Rana temporia) I have no doubt.

    Folklore suggested that handling toads would result in their “warts” (the larger of which are actually paratoid glands at the back of their heads) being transferred from amphibian to human. (Of course warts are caused by a virus, not bufotoxin, which is secreted from the toads’ glands if highly stressed).

    In medieval times, the toad was considered to be a demon in disguise.

    Toad crossing (2)

    Kenneth Graeme’s “Wind in the Willows”* depicted “Toad of Toad Hall” as rather a conceited, thieving, impertinent chap (although good-natured and jovial I admit). He was self-destructive, dishonest, aimless and had inherited all his vast wealth. Even though he was not one of the baddies in Graeme’s 1908-penned tale (reserved for the weasels of course), he hardly was portrayed as a “good guy” – toads never are!

     

    Toads have long-been associated with witchcraft, either as ingredient in alchemy or magick potions:

    “Toad, that under cold stone

    Days and nights has thirty-one

    Sweltered venom sleeping got,

    Boil thou first i' th' charmèd pot.

    (Witches’ chant in Macbeth)

     

     Toads were also considered to be “familiars” (animals believed to possess magic powers such as the ability to change their shape or form).

     

    Many people regard toads as ugly, warty, poisonous, quite repulsive crawly creatures but we Brits do tend to favour the big-eyed fluffy, furry, impressive-looking or cute animals – and we probably have people like Walt Disney to thank for that.

    Many have consigned our amphibians, reptiles, spiders and insects to the “weird animal enclosure” of their thoughts on British wildlife – animals that they instinctively react to with an “Urrrrrgh!” rather than an “Ahhhh” or an “Oooooh”… but these weird animals are invariably the most fascinating.

    Our amphibians, especially toads, need a little PR help then I think….

     

    I’ve always rather liked toads – but then again, I’ve always found damp, broadleaved woodlands and the animals that they conceal, quite literally enchanting.

     

     

    Firstly I should point out something that you might not realise.

    If you are ever asked for the differences between a toad and a frog, you might want to don a flak jacket (for the inevitable hail of pedantry bullets shortly to come your way!)  and state: “There is no difference. Toads are frogs”. This is in fact biologically correct – toads are indeed frogs, or at least they both belong to the order Anura (meaning tail-less in Greek).

    If your questioner would only grasp the finer points of biological classification, then we’d be fine eh?

    “What are the differences between True Frogs and True Toads?” Now that’s a question a zoologist can answer!

    There are many differences of course, some of which are detailed below.

    Toads (our largest amphibians) are notoriously difficult to see, or find – unless you take a little time to find out a little about these unassuming little crawlers. Up until I carried out a little personal toad-specific research, I’d only seen one in my entire life – under an old ghillie hut next to a salmon pool (actual photo of the pool) on the river Lyon in the highlands of Scotland. (In fact it was this encounter more than any other in my life that made me determined to photograph wildlife, at least as a hobby).

    Toads are not rare though, or particularly endangered, although they have declined in numbers in recent years for reasons we’ll come on to.

    Both frogs and toads spend an awful lot of their life history away from water and ponds, very much so in the case of toads, which are far more tolerant of dry conditions than frogs.

    Toads spend most of the year in gardens, hedges or woodland, hidden in leaf litter or under stones or logs (or flower pots!). They hibernate over the coldest winter months and emerge en masse in February or March to crawl (they prefer to crawl rather than hop like frogs) their way back to their traditional breeding ponds - in huge numbers. In fact the annual late winter / early spring toad migration is the largest animal migration (other than birds) in the UK.

    The troubles for the toads comes about because their migration routes are ancient, adhered to each and every year and have been so way before roads with cars separated their woodland habitat from their old breeding ponds.

    Very often these days, our toads have to negotiate a strip of tarmacadam and very unforgiving car tyres, before they can mate in their ponds – as such many many thousands of toads are killed by motorists each and every year as they slowly crawl across the roads – this being the prime reason for their decline over recent decades. Toads always carry out this migration at night, often starting around rush hour.

    The organisation froglife has mapped many of our well-known “toad crossings – you can find your nearest crossing using froglife’s interactive map, here. (NB. The map’s balloons are very accurate – zoom in and you may well see the woodland which the toads leave in late winter AND the pond in which they are attempting to breed again – the piece of road separating the two is where you’ll see the toads in late winter – sometimes hundreds or even thousands of them).

    At both sides of these road “toad crossings” you might see the a toad crossing sign on a roadside lamppost - a red bordered triangle with a painting of a black toad in the middle.

    This is a clear sign that you are about to cross a well-known toad crossing. The amusing? fact about these signs is that when the AA carried out a poll to find out what motorists thought these road signs represented, many motorists thought that they were being told a french restaurant was nearby! A joke I assume, along the lines of putting “Jedi” next to religion of choice on a census form – many thousands do this each census time…

    Sometimes a toad tunnel will be built under the offending road, to allow the toads to cross underneath the road – but these are very often ignored by the toads – partly because the tunnels get flooded or are too warm / too cool as opposed to the ambient temperatures.

     

    But when exactly is the best time to find (help) toads cross their roads; you may well be asking (not being able to spend each February or March night by a road side!) 

    Well… this is the easy part….

    When the temperature reaches about 8 or 9c at night, and there is a little moisture in the air, all adult toads are overcome by the desire to mate and so then (and only then) begins the migration back to their traditional ponds. So this can be predicted by you, with great accuracy – start weather forecasting in February each year, wait for a night time temperature of 9c and a little drizzle or rain - almost without doubt, you’ll have predicted the start of the toad mating migration.

    Think 6pm as a start time and 6am as a finish time in February, but of course, you don’t have to be there for all twelve hours!

     

    Very often these conditions do not occur until March, but not this year - as described on Monday, this week (Wednesday onwards) was perfect for our crawling friends – and so it came to be.

     

    Anna and I went out for the last three nights – not to our usual site (a huge migration between Henley* and Marlow, where up to 10,000 toads leave a small woodland and cross a busy road to reach an old pond about ½ mile from the wood), but to a very local “toad crossing”, a mile away from our house, where there are still hundreds of toads crawling deliberately across the (much quieter, single track) road to reach a couple of old ponds.

    * In fact the ancient toad crossing that Anna and I used to visit each year (before we moved miles away) is very close to “Toad Hall” near Henley on Thames and very close to Kenneth Graeme’s Cookham, where he wrote “Wind in The Willow”.

    The weather this week has given the toads the ideal conditions to begin their deliberate pondward crawl and so we’ve managed to pick up a few dozen on our trips, safely putting them on the correct side of the road and therefore minimising the risk of them being squashed by Pirelli or Goodyear before they’ve had a chance to spawn.

    To be fair the chances of them being squashed on this particular road is pretty minimal (unlike the much busier Marlow-Henley road), but we’ve seen a few casualties whilst picking up the luckier individuals – squashed by a security guard who drives up and down the road and cares not for the smaller, less obvious things in life it seems, nor for species other than our own (a quite dreadfully dull point of view which I will probably never begin to understand).

    Toads for sure, are not the prettiest animals (in a classical sense), but their eyes have always appeared pretty to me. Gold leaf is how I’ve often described them – bright as a button and orange/yellow in colour with a horizontal pupil – really quite beautiful to look at. They are harmless (unless you resort to licking them like the ancient South Americans did, looking for a hallucinogenic fix), are very endearing (not at all jumpy like frogs), not slimy at all (much drier than frogs) and have a very sweet set of calls (more pleasing to my ears at least than the harsher, more vocal frogs).

    They have the most marvellous camouflage and can vary their skin colour depending on the most common substrate in their particular, specific habitat. Even their “warty” skin (from a functional perspective), is very well done! Let’s face it, glands per se, are not meant to be beautiful – just functional.

    Most predators do tend to avoid eating toads after they’ve popped a toad in their mouth for the first time, although hedgehogs and grass snakes don’t seem to mind their “bitter” taste…

    Toads are more mysterious than frogs, more enigmatic, are a little set-in-their-ways in terms of rigidly following ancient migratory routes, even if that means crossing motorways these days -  but they’ll always sum up the enchanted forest to me.

    If you can help our mysterious, magical toads with their bright gold-leaf eyes then please do so. They’ll not thank you, but you’ll get a great sense of actually doing something to help one of our most wonderful, enigmatic wild creatures on their annual odyssey – they won’t bite (they have no teeth!) nor will they give you warts. It’s so easy to do – just follow the notes above each year – and always ensure that you are safe on the road at night. Wear a bright jersey or coat and carry torches!

     

    To borrow (or paraphrase) from a blog of a fellow (local) wildlife enthusiast:

     

    “There’s one antidote to gloom and despair that never fails: the wildlife that got us all going in the first place. It’s brilliant, beautiful, bewildering, intriguing and inspiring. We’ll probably do a lot more good if we spend more time outside engaging with it, rather than inside reading about or watching things (on tv) that make us angry….”

     

     

     

     

     

    Go on…

     

    Grab a bucket, grab a torch and go help your local toads……!

     

     

    Thanks

     

    TBR

     

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    [email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) migration toad toad crossing https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/2/toads-migrating-now--- Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:39:52 GMT
    Toad crossings active from midweek... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/2/toad-crossings-active-from-midweek--- Toad crossing

     

    • Just a little note from me to anyone viewing this blog  - regarding toads.
    • Toads will have all they need (wet and warmth) to start their annual migration along ancient breeding paths between woodland and ponds, from midweek (this week) onwards.
    • We're due a little rain on Wednesday and temperatures look to soar after that.
    • Please locate your nearest toad crossing here and go and help our lovely toads from Wednesday night onwards...
    • More on toads when I've been to our local toad crossing and helped a few again myself...
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    [email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) toad toad crossing https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/2/toad-crossings-active-from-midweek--- Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:01:22 GMT
    "Operation noctua" begins... https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/2/-operation-noctua--begins---
  • Each time I've driven the couple of miles (or so) from our house to check on the little owls recently, I've been rewarded with seeing the pair together - so I thought today I'd speak to the farm manager and begin my little owl photography project - "Operation noctua".
  • The farm manager and I spoke again this morning and he has very kindly given me access to the two fields that the owls tend to stick to at present. One of the fields has three mature oak trees  - one of which contains the barn owl box which the little owls bred in last year (before I was a local myself) and seem intent on doing so again this year.
  • Operation noctua will be a long-winded project - even though little owls are not schedule 1 birds, i.e. not protected under law (primarily because they are not native UK birds), I do not want to unduly disturb them or jeopardise any breeding attempt, just because I'd like a photo or two - my main desire is to follow the family and get a photo or two if I am lucky.
  • Because of the above, I drove up to the box today, and placed a "dummy camera" on top of the cattle shed roof the owls like to perch on. The cattle shed itself (one of two) is forty metres or so from the owl box. This dummy camera ( a black torch taped to a small length of white guttering will introduce an unfamiliar object to the owls, with a view to replacing it with my own camera (with me nearby in my ghillie suit, with my radio remote trigger in my hands after a month or so and when I get some time to spend hours in the field.
  • I hope the owls aren't spooked by the dummy camera  -  if I get the feeling they are, I'll remove it immediately and think again.
  • The reason I am being so cautious with these owls is a) I want them to breed,  b) the owl box is in a tree in the middle of a field with no appreciable cover nearby - the only place I have to hide from these owls is behind a large tree trunk - not ideal for me but very good for the owls.... and c) I only have a 200mm lens to take photos with - almost all professional willdife photographers these days have a socking 500mm or 600mm lens - which enables them to take photos from distance - I don't have that luxury -I have to get within a few metres of my quarry....
  • So..... my little owl project, "Operation noctua" was launched today. Fingers crossed I'll get to follow these lovely wee birds all summer....
  • ]]>
    [email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) Operation noctua little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/2/-operation-noctua--begins--- Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:05:29 GMT
    Owls paired up https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/2/saturday-18th-february---pairs-of-hooters
  • I thought I'd take a dawn drive this morning, to check on our local owls, as I knew my car had to have its MOT today and wasn't 100% sure I'd have it back for tomorrow morning (it passed with flying colours of course, my little LAM (Little Agricultural Machine) so I needn't have fashed mesel...).
  • On the owl front - both adult barn owls greeted me at the barn owl box (two big white round faces peeping at me from the entrance of their box) and both adult little owls greeted me at their site (one on a cattle shed next to their box and t'other in the box itself).
  • Both pairs are still winning the "battle of the boxes" then (the barn owls vs the jackdaws, the little owls vs the stock doves).
  • I will not be photographing the barn owls as they are a schedule 1 boyd and to do so would be breaking the law but I still hope to photograph the little owls as they breed (I hope) this spring....
  • Both the pairs of owls (little and barn) are roosting together in different barn owl boxes - another great example of what the barn owl trust and the Hawk and Owl Trust (Anna's and my owl charity of choice) are doing.
  • So - in summary, both the local "pairs of hooters" that I am watching this year are doing well... very good news.
  • Go on..... adopt a box today!
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    [email protected] (Doug Mackenzie Dodds - Images) barn owl little owl https://www.dmackdimages.co.uk/blog/2012/2/saturday-18th-february---pairs-of-hooters Sat, 18 Feb 2012 18:33:28 GMT