Tag Archives: Bath Peregrines

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 🙂