Author Archives: Hannah

My Patch – October 2017

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October was a little rubbish for Patch sightings. Unfortunately I had to work more hours than I would have liked at work and I’d been away for a week (more about that soon) so I hadn’t been able to get out and about. The nights starting to draw in hadn’t helped much either! I did on a couple of occasions see roe deer in the field though and there is definitely a white one in the herd but I am yet to get a photograph of it. 

October 23rd – I heard a Barn Owl screech. It was far to dark to see but it’s lovely to know there is still one in the area. 

October 25th – there are geese around, I can hear them but I haven’t seen them! Now I know some domestic geese have moved in to the house next door to the field’s owner, but it’s not them. There is way too much noise! To me it sounds like they are in a field on the other side of the river. I would guess at 50+ birds from the level of sound. 

October 27th – I had a day off work so headed up to my patch. It was a lovely autumn day. No sooner as I walked into the field did I spot a single roe deer over by the copse. A rather good start 🙂 I walked along the top edge of the field being careful as you can’t see the rabbit holes because of all the stinging nettles!  There is definitely a track through the hedgerow and into the field that’s being used by larger animals.  I will at some point need to get the trail camera into the field to find out what is about after dark.  Along the top hedgerow there were lots of small birds but most were too quick and nervous to hang around for me to see what they were. I did manage to identify a dunnock that sat for long enough to get the binoculars on it!  There is also quite a lot of litter about, mainly from farming I would guess, like twine and black bags.  

Walking down the side of the field next to the copse there is occasional fruit still on the brambles, but most is now gone.  I was surprised to see dragonflies darting around and also a red admiral.  Just round the bend in the field is a nest of leaves in the tree, it looks like a dray, a little further on I heard a rustling, when I pin pointed it, I found a grey squirrel in the trees of the copse watching me just as intently as I watched it! There was more rustling in the copse, I knew it would be roe deer by the noise, I could see two through the hedgerow.  Four woodpigeon were spooked and flew out of the copse.  I’m not sure why or what they were doing but there was a collection of flies on a tree trunk. 

Down by the river the birds are very nervous, they really don’t see a lot of people.  I thought or hoped I saw a bank vole, nope when I finally managed to keep it in sight it was a wren! I was surprised to see a little egret and two cormorants though! There was also rubbish in the river, not something I can do anything about as it is unreachable, in fact I couldn’t actually see where the edge of the bank is, it is so over grown.  It does make me slightly nervous, it doesn’t help that I’m short and have to move close to the edge to be able to see in parts of the river!  I heard a lot of noise and turned to see a red kite being mobbed by some carrion crows/rooks, it did drop something but I didn’t have the camera on them at that time to see what it was.  I was very pleased to see a bullfinch in the trees, I haven’t seen one here before.  

Walking back up the field I saw a wren and came face to face with a roe deer.  I had been walking in deer tracks, I guess I was on his path! We both just stopped and looked at each other.  I wasn’t going to move, I thought I’d let him do what he wanted to.  Of course I HAD to take a photo, but moved very slowly when I did.  He decided that his best route away from the strange creature that was in his path was straight across the field.  He moved a bit and stopped to check I wasn’t following and then ran off at full speed.  I do worry that if he had come face to face with one of the deer cullers that he would have been a very easy target 🙁 At least he’s 100% safe in this field.  In the distance I could see something on the floor – it was the squirrel 🙂

I spent a little time watching the garden birds: coal tit, blue tit, starling, chaffinch, great tit, goldfinch, dunnock, house sparrow, wren, magpie, long-tailed tit, robin and great spotted woodpecker.  I haven’t seen the collard dove with the broken beak since July. Hopefully it is still doing well. I have however been told that a sparrowhawk has been seen in the garden on occasion during the day. I’m yet to see him. 

My Patch – September 2017

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September is definitely showing signs of Autumn. There are more blackberries, the ivy is starting to bud and early mornings are seeing an increasing amount of mist and glistening spiders webs. 

Morning of September 7th before heading to work I heard a call I recognised but not heard on my patch before. A green woodpecker hopped along the fence of one of the gardens and up into the tree. I regularly see spotted woodpeckers but this was a first for here. There were lots of garden birds about this morning; great tit, coal tit, goldfinches and starlings. 

September 18th – I never like seeing shapes of animals on the road but when its next to my patch I dislike it even more.  It was a badger. This isn’t the first badger I have found in this spot, there was another in February.  I called the field owner to help me move her, we moved her from the road into the field to allow nature to take its course rather than her getting smashed to pieces by more cars.  Next year I want to try and get to know the badgers that roam around the area.  Thankfully there hasn’t been a cull here so they have been safe this year.  I do worry that if I get to know them and a cull happens next year I would loose new friends.  Of course I would try to protect them but unfortunately the land around the field has a different owner so there is little control.  

September 21st – Autumn colours are starting to show in the trees, the copse and the brambles and hawthorn berries seem to be plentiful in the hedgerows. I heard a buzzard calling in the distance that drew my attention behind me, 10 roe deer were walking down the edge of the copse. 

I had a companion again who came for another walk, he was helping with finding holes! I think it’s a new hole and belongs to rabbits which is slightly concerning though! Billy doesn’t go hunting, there is another cat however who does, he catches field voles! 

My Patch – August 2017

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August 4th – The starlings are growing, and becoming noisier by the day. They are becoming rather bossy!

There have been bananas put in the garden area and today there was a speckled wood feeding on them and 6 red admirals on the buddleia. 

August 7th – Tonight I saw ‘Strike’. A starling that was born last year, it has two white tail feathers so is fairly identifiable. Its good to know that he/she is still around. 50 swallows feeding over the field was a great sight. They have suddenly appeared but I think that is due to the rapeseed crops being harvested so they are now feeding over the remaining crop fields. 

August 13th – this afternoon / evening the farmer began to harvest the Wheat crop. 

August 15th – they have finished harvesting the 126 acres and are now bailing. Tomorrow I will be able to walk freely across the field. A buzzard flew up from a pile of straw into the copse; the first one I have seen since April. 

August 31st – Tonight I took my first walk to the river at bottom of field. Some of the path is a little over grown so I had to walk part of the way in the next field. I’m glad I did; as I came out from the trees a brown hare ran from the field back into the trees, it took me by surprise. The river is looking quite over grown and it is difficult to see into it. I might need to do a little tidying of the banks over winter just so there are some small paths to the river so it’s easier to see. At the moment it’s actually difficult to tell where the edge of the bank was so I had to be a little cautious. I did however see 2 mute swan, a moorhen and most surprising of all a kingfisher flew by 🙂 I accidentally discovered a rabbit hole when I nearly lost my foot down it! There are lots of tunnels through the vegetation that surround the field, I would guess most are rabbit, mice / rats. There are also some tyres and rubbish that needs collecting!

On my walk back 42 canada geese flew over 🙂

 

My Patch – July 2017

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I’m not sure where the last few months have gone! I fear the answer is spending far too much extra time at work. July and September are really busy and there is little time available for days off (though I did manage to squeeze in Birdfair 🙂 in August). Working later in the evening means little time to get to my patch unfortunately. Though I did manage a few short trips in July…

July 3rd – I took a short walk around the top end of the field encountering, 1 swallow, 3 woodpigeon and 11 starlings. 

July 12th – tonight there was a rabbit on the track at the side of field. I am yet to see a rabbit IN the field! 

July 17th – this evening I took a walk around the edge of part of the crop. I wanted to see what other plants were growing. I hadn’t gone too far from the house when Billy decided to join me, I always hear a meow before I see him! 

I found thistles, brambles, camomile and a few other plants and grasses that I am having problems identifying! A white plume moth, a red solider beetle and a red admiral. 

There are tracks through the crop that I’m guessing are either foxes, deer or both. 1 woodpigeon and 6 swallows flew over. 

July 19th – I was stood in the garden of the owners house looking again for any birds still nesting, when out flew a house sparrow carrying a feacil sac from under the roof tiles, I could hear the chicks chirping 🙂 There were also 15 Swallows over the field. 

July 20th – Roe deer and 3 swallows tonight. 

July 25th – The tree bumblebees appear to have gone from the facia board and I have seen the collard dove with the broken beak who is still feeding.

While looking out over the field from the gate 11 swallows flew by. I’ve started to notice that rooks and crows fly back over the field at dust to roost in nearby trees. 

My Patch – June 2017

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As you are probably aware, if you are a regular reader, June was dominated by 30 Days Wild. I didn’t actually do many of the 30 Days in my patch which I guess seems a little odd now I look back at it but the Wheat crop is still present and not passable.  

Considering the height of the crop I was lucky to spot 3 Roe Deer running through the field on June 1st, I noticed them at the far back corner as they came out of the copse and managed to watch them for a short while until they ran out of sight. I walked down the track to the side of the field – there were some Rabbits feeding.  

June 4th The Blue Tits have Fledged, the parents are no longer going into the nest. Hopefully they have all fledged successfully.    

The Cuckoo was still calling on June 14th though I haven’t heard it since so I am unsure if it is still here of if it has started its migration.  

On June 15th I tried to get in the copse at the back of the field so that I could make my way to the river.  The stinging nettles are the same height of me so there was no way I was able to get through unless I cut them down.  In a way I am looking forward to later in the year so I can get around easier!

June 21st 10 Swallows were flying over the field and around the road.  

On the last day of June I encountered a very angry Starling! It is a young bird but it takes no nonsense and isn’t afraid to pull feathers out of the adult birds!  It sits in the bird feeder and goes for anyone that tried to feed.  Its defending the food so much that it seems to forget why its there in the first place! 

Collard Dove update – I have seen it in the garden, so can assume it is feeding enough to survive.

My Patch – May 2017

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An early start for work on May 6th meant I heard my first Cuckoo! I drive past my patch to get to work and often stop for a few minutes if I have time.  I have now heard the Cuckoo a few times and it appears to have got closer but I’m not convinced its actually in my patch yet!

I have concentrated more on the residential (my friends house and garden) part of my patch this month, the crop has now got quite tall and I am unable to walk amongst it.

May 9th I spotted a Collard Dove that looked a little odd, on closer inspection I discovered that it has a broken beak.  It seemed to be feeding but took longer to pick up food than the other birds.  I’ll be be keeping an eye on it to see how it does as I’m not sure there is anything I can do for it.

On May 10th I wanted to get some images of the Starlings taking food into the roof space.  They were visiting fairly frequently and also removing faecal sacs.  Then their behaviour changed, at first I wondered if it was my presence but I had stood and watched them before with no effect.  One of the adults was taking food to the nest entrance, calling and then flying to the top of the roof calling again, this pattern continued for the next 20mins I continued to watch.  Once it was getting dark I left but apparently the calling continued, I believe they were trying to call their young out of the nest.

May 15th I believed the Starlings to have fledged, although I hadn’t seen any! The adults seemed to be collecting nesting material again so I am guessing they are aiming for a second brood 🙂

I have also now noticed that there’s a Blue Tit nest under one of the tiles of the porch.  The parents perch on the telephone wire before darting in to feed the chicks 🙂 While watching the Blue Tits I heard a lot of bees. Looking up I noticed a slightly broken fascia board and realised the bees were going inside – Tree bumblebee’s.  I did mention it to my friend, he doesn’t mind bees so is letting them stay as long as they don’t cause any trouble! 

The end of May and the Starlings have definitely fledged – 14 in total!

30 Days Wild 2017 – Days 26 – 30

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Day 26 – As it was National Badger Week I decided to go out to look for the Badger again. I only found tracks this time, but in a slightly different location to where I saw it the first time. I’m slowly building up a picture of where it travels, hopefully as we head into the winter months and the tall vegetation dies back it will be easier to see where their sett is and hopefully observe them even more. 

Day 27 – After getting home late I was wondering what I was going to do today. Something flying caught my eye as I walked along the drive.  A White Plume Moth – it was overly obliging staying still to have its photo taken and I soon realised it was actually stuck on a thread from a spiders web. I soon freed it and it was on its way 🙂

28 – I was a little stuck on what to do tonight, all week I have been dog sitting for a friend for an hour or so and its knocked me off my path a little for what I had planned.  While looking for Ladybirds the other day I had taken notice of the leaves I was looking for them on.  Tonight I grabbed a torch and a macro lens on my phone and headed out into their garden, dog in tow to look at the leaves.  They look like micro worlds with field boundaries 🙂  

Day 29 – I finally managed to photograph one of the Swifts flying over home tonight 🙂

Day 30 – On my way home from work tonight I stopped at my patch to have a quick look to see what birds were about.  I sometimes use apps to help identify their calls when I hear something new or I’m not 100% sure I’m identifying them correctly.  I have a basic knowledge of some calls but I am definitely still learning.  When the season changes again and some of our current visitors leave for the Winter I’ll be learning all over again.

In my initial 30 Days Wild post I said I had a few days planed out, not all of those have happened in June but I will do them in the coming month or two. I managed to visit 2 Nature Reserves (rather than 3), I completed a litter pick up on June 11th, I didn’t visit a new birding site but I did visit Stanton Park which was new to me. 

I always enjoy 30 Days Wild though some days I find more difficult than others. Having a full time job and a commute does make it difficult on occasion to complete a random act of wildness. I often see wildlife on my commute which could easily work as an act of wildness for the day, though it would get a little boring for you after a few days of hearing the same thing from me!

Some of my favourite parts of the month have been the unexpected sightings of Brown Hare, Barn Owl and of course the Badger 🙂 It really is a case of going out and exploring areas near you, you never know what you will find… 

30 Days Wild 2017 – Days 21 – 25

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Day 21 – I wanted to visit new places during 30 Days Wild, today I ventured to Stanton Park, Swindon; a 74-hectare country park and Local Nature Reserve. I headed out from the car park through the Great Wood. The first thing I spotted was a tiny froglet on the bark path, it only caught my eye because it moved when I got near. The Great Wood is quite an expanse of woodland, with some parts being quite dense.  I walked round the Leaf Trail and realised that most of the birdsong was coming from the edge of the woodland.  I walked on towards the lake, there were young Coots and Mallards with Swifts flying over, a Red Kite and Grey Herons.  On the path back to the car park there were many more froglets, unfortunately some had been trodden on!

Day 22 – I had some over ripe bananas left and rather than throwing them out I thought the butterflies would like them. The bananas ferment in the sunshine, the juices ooze out of slits I put in the banana skin which the butterflies will then drink. 

Day 23 – I managed to escape the office for a walk, taking the time to examine the plants shooting through the man made environment at work. 

Day 24 – Today there was a burst of little balls of fluff in the garden! The fledgling Long-tailed Tit’s have discovered the bird feeders 🙂  I have never seen quite so many of them in the garden before.  They all piled into the tree at once, feed on the fat balls, and slowly filter off again out of the garden.  They are often joined by the fledgling Blue Tits. 

Day 25 – After yesterday’s influx of Long-tailed Tits I thought it would be a good idea to complete a Garden Birdwatch to see what is exactly about at the moment and the numbers we are really getting. I was pleased to see a House Sparrow collecting a feather ready to nest again somewhere nearby.   I recorded my sightings for 30 minutes, there was no point in watching any longer as a Sparrowhawk flew through the garden and cleared it of all the other birds. I had wondered why we were low on Woodpigeon numbers, I guess they knew it was about!

1 Woodpigeon, 2 Robin, 1 Jackdaw, 3 Blackbird, 3 Blue Tit, 3 Goldfinch, 1 House Sparrow, 3 Rock Dove, 1 Dunnock, 1 Swift overhead, 1 Sparrowhawk!

30 Days Wild 2017 – Days 16 – 20

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Day 16 – Today before leaving work I crossed the car park to the lavender bushes to look for bees to do a Great British Bee Count.  My timed count produced two Banded white-tailed bumblebee’s collecting nectar.

Day 17 – My Mum decided she wanted to go and see the Bath Peregrines and do some shopping for her holiday. I was happy to go and see the Peregrines but a bit more reluctant about the shopping! I checked the webcam before we left and couldn’t see them, though hoped they would be around somewhere for her to see.  Thankfully as we were walking towards the Church I could hear them calling.  We had a brief viewing before they headed out of sight to the back of the nest box.  We headed off to do the holiday shopping which thankfully didn’t take very long so we could head back to see the Peregrines for a good hour afterwards.  There was much more activity with food being brought in for them and feathers raining down from the spire.  Once home I decided a relaxing hour in the garden listening to birds was required – with an ice cream of course!

Day 18 – Today I tried to photograph the Swifts that swoop down over the garden, I was unsuccessful! They would show up, do one fly over and disappear for the next half an hour! While I was waiting for them I topped up all the bird baths.  The fledgling Blue Tits seem to favour the ‘poppy’ to drink from, its sheltered by a tree and far too small for any of the larger birds to use.

Day 19 – I realised that I really haven’t seen any Ladybird’s this year! I waited for the temperature to drop a little outside and headed out into the cool of the evening to explore the garden specifically for Ladybirds.  I have seen lots of Ladybird larvae this year and found some more in the garden tonight.  The closest I got to an adult was an emerging Ladybird though.  I have never seen this before so was quiet exited to have found it, it was located on the underside of a Hazel leaf.

Day 20 – on Day 15 I briefly saw a Badger so tonight I went back to the same location to have another look around. Driving down the farmers track I saw the back end of a Badger disappear into the hedgerow. I knew it was about, and it had headed to where I believe part of its sett to be. I parked at the bottom of the track and waited, hoping it would reappear. 40 minutes later it walked out over the track and disappeared in seconds. I was amazed to see it again. I’m looking forward to getting to know it better 🙂

30 Days Wild 2017 – Days 11 – 15

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Day 11 – June 11th was #2minutebeachclean and #2minutelitterpickup day run by beachclean.net. I headed out to a nearby road to do a bit of a tidy up, I took two bags with me thinking there wouldn’t be too much litter to pick up. I should have taken more! I cleaned a half mile stretch; there were cans, crisp packets, napkins, fast food boxes, bottles, car parts, sweet rappers etc I know some litter escapes from peoples bins etc but the majority of litter is dropped.  I wish everyone could understand the damage litter causes to nature.  How much effort does it really take to dispose of it responsibly.  I was talking to a friend about how much I had collected, when she was at school a fair few years ago they used to take it in turns go out on litter duty, I wonder if schools still do that today and if they do, does it make their students more aware of their surroundings?

Day 12 – was a wild day in a different sense. A day out at Longleat Safari Park! Seeing I have an extremely busy time at work coming up a couple of days holiday beforehand was required.  If I can get a day or two off then I always plan to do something a little different to keep my spirits up! It was a lovely sunny day at Longleat, warm but nothing like we have seen this week, which was a blessing as the A/C in my car is broken!  It was quite quiet too which meant starting the drive through at 10am was great as I could walk around the Wallaby’s and Lemur’s easily.  I decided to give the monkey’s a miss as I wanted to keep my car in one piece! Driving through and feeding the Red Deer was lovely, they are so friendly, although one did make me jump when she put her head in the window while I was looking the other way! They seem to understand ‘sorry I don’t have any food left!’.  I had a closer encounter than I was expecting with a Tiger, it wandered straight towards the car 🙂 Today was the first time I had ever seen the Hippo’s in the lake, on other visits they have been hiding in their field/mud hole.  

Day 13 – I had to take the car for its annual service.  I was planning to spend some time on the way back in Bath to try and see the Bath Peregrines.  I had meant to go and see them last year though I don’t go towards Bath very often.  The Hawk and Owl Trust installed a nesting box at St John’s Roman Catholic Church in 2005 where they have hatched young ever season since.   I had looked up on the website the location to view them from and headed to the opposite side of the river from Riverside Walk.  I had been watching them for a while when a crow caught my eye, it was carrying something but it wasn’t nesting material – it landed in a tree a few meters away, it was half a rat! A gentleman asked if I had seen a Peregrine, he worked for the Hawk and Owl Trust and was on the lookout for a fledgling that they had temporarily lost track of; they have been testing their flying capability and they are keeping an eye on them.  He was kind enough to tell me where one of the others was sitting, so I could get a closer view. It was lovely to watch a while, unfortunately I couldn’t stay longer as I had to head home.

Day 14 – Today was one of those ‘busy’ days.  Once I had left work I stopped by my patch for a short while and watched the sun setting.

Day 15 – I headed out for a walk/drive in the countryside.  I wanted to go to a Wildflower meadow to see how it was progressing this year, it is located amongst farmers fields so I have to drive as close as I can down one of the tracks and then walk the rest of the way.  I passed Goldfinches in a rape field feeding and then as I turned the corner towards the meadow a Badger ran across my path.  I must have startled it as it ran off very quickly which was such a shame as it would have been lovely to have watched from a far.  It was good to know it was there though, as a previous year I found what I thought was Badger latrines in a nearby field so hopefully they still have a sett nearby.  I will have to try and find it in the winter as I don’t think I would have much luck at the moment in the Maze fields!  The Meadow at the moment is predominantly grasses, I think it was later in the year that it flowered last year so I will have to keep checking on it.  I saw a bird fly over and although unsure of what it was, I think it was a Hobby.  On my route home I took a detour to the location I saw the Hare on Day 1, I was surprise to find one in the same field, I felt rather lucky 🙂