birds

A Nature Weekend and Bird Watching Challenges

Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

This weekend we decided to relax a bit and get out and about in the country. This was partly down to my musings about bird watching. My wife wanted to do some walking, as did I, rather than cycling this time around. The two things – bird watching and walking – immediately made me think of the marshes near us. Haven’t been there for years and what a surprise! It’s always been a lovely place to walk, now it has been taken over by a wildlife trust and they have made some great improvements – including installing some bird watchers hides.

After that, we went to a local woodland park that used to be a gunpowder mill. I have never been there – tough Rachel and the kids have. Again I was pleasantly surprised.

Anyway here are a few pictures of the day – and I am hoping there some ornithologists or keen birders out there who might help identify some of these.

Trying to capture swallows! Rare to see them these days and so low as well.
An oystercatcher? Or a lapwing? anyone know?
Again – what are these big black birds? There are some other angles later on. I think they may shags? Or are they just geese? I need a better telephoto lense.
I know this one! A heron in the reeds 🙂

A Bird Resurgence

Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

As you might have seen from my last post I have been watching birds! Not exactly bird watching in any real sense but as we have been driving around, walking and cycling all about our little village I have been noticing the birds more and more.

Now I don’t know if it’s just me but there seems to be a bit of a resurgence in the number of species.

I used to bird watch when I was a kid – I had the eye spy books on both British birds and their eggs! I have forgotten most of it, never really paid it much attention after hitting puberty!

But when my oldest son was starting to show an interest in wildlife I thought it would be a good way to fan those flames, and it rekindled an old love for me.

This was a few years ago and when we tried it seemed we saw very little variety, just sparrows, thrushes and blackbirds. That didn’t really interest a five-year-old much and it got dropped a bit.

However this year I have noticed a change. We have seen all kinds of the kind that I used to get excited about – especially the more colourful ones. We have seen pied wagtails, chaffinches, goldfinches, blue tits and even a few woodpeckers. Today, while out cycling, at the top of the hill we saw a large bird of prey soaring and being mobbed by crows or ravens. I couldn’t tell you what it was – I would hazard it was a buzzard – but was big!

I wonder if there are any ornithological experts out there who could tell me whether this is really a trend or is just I am opening my eyes properly for the first time in a long time?

All pictures are from pixabay.

Bouncing Frogs and Manic Birds

Scott Andrew Bailey2 Comments

It’s been a strange week. I have taken some time off. Partly because the kids are on half term. Partly because a week today I start my new job so not sure when I will next be able to take time off for a while. Partly because we are still reeling a bit from the news that my wife is facing some serious surgery. Finally, because our youngest, having been diagnosed with ASD, and the mainstream school he was at being unable to cope – he has changed schools and went for his first day there today. So We have had to support him in this – and his brother who now has to cope with the fact that his little brother won’t be at school with him.

For someone with ASD it had the potential for disaster. He has had so much change in his life already, now he has been taken away from all the friends he made at school and has to face a long journey on a minibus with strangers to go to a much larger – but admittedly better – school. He managed admirably on his first day. Time will tell what the effects will really be. At least he will get proper attention now. He has gone from a class or 29 to a class of 6! With 4 teachers!

But all that’s just life. There were some oddities during this time off.

The first was late one night when we awoke in the middle of the night to an awful racket outside our window. It was a bird giving an alarm call and going totally mental. We looked out the window and I caught a glimpse of a cat slinking away with a dead bird in its mouth. I feared that it had got one of the noisy bird’s chicks. My wife – who can’t stand to see an ant hurt – raced out in her nightie to try to find the cat – all in vain. But the bird was still making a racket. So Rachel turfed your’s truly out of bed to go and take a look. After hunting around and finding nothing for ages I finally discovered another cat lurking in the shadows. After shooing it away the bird was finally silent. All kind of weird but ever since every time I go out the front door the same bird flies down to a nearby fence and sings at me. Rachel is convinced it is saying thanks for trying to help.

We must have weird wildlife around here as it gets stranger. A few days later while cycling back from the park with the kids, we saw that one of our neighbours was giving away a mini trampoline. One of those with a bar to hold on to – for toddlers really. We snapped it up. Our youngest loves nothing more than to bounce. On beds, on my back – anywhere! Well, that night we started to prepare our living room for some DIY (painting). This – against my protests – turned into actually doing the painting and went on to 3am! Once we finally got to a stopping point I went out into the garden to put some stuff away in our shed to find – I swear this is true – our resident frog jumping on the trampoline!

The frog – actually a whole family – appeared a few years ago and can be seen quite often in the garden at night. This is especially odd as we don’t have a pond! Nor do any of our immediate neighbours!

I just wish I had it on camera.

Oh well, back to work tomorrow. Three more days then a job of ten years comes to an end. Will be very strange.