December 2013
The month started with
the call of a tawny owl in the chestnut tree early in the morning.
With the dawn comes the first visit of the great spotted woodpecker
(GSW). The male usually arrives before the female. He uses his beak
like a nematic drill and chisels off chunks of suet from the block
that hangs from the feeding station. Suet seems to be his preferred
choice but he sometimes will hammer away at the peanuts for a while
when the suet runs low. He then flies to the nearby telephone pole to
either clean his beak or is he stashing some of the suet in the poles
crevices. He is followed by the female who does not touch the suet
but always sticks to the peanuts.
Later in the month I
noticed that there were in fact two male GSWs in the garden as one
was pecking at the apple tree while the other was on the suet.
I counted as many as
eight goldfinches feeding at one time. Two usually sit on the Niger
seed feeder whist the others jostle for position with the
greenfinches on the seed feeders.
The finches also forage on the
ground for the spilt seed and bits of suet and here they are joined
by the chaffinches, blackbirds, sparrows, robins, and a couple of
collard doves. These birds can also be found visiting the table where
they pick at the suet nibbles. Interspersed among all these species
are the tits who dart between all the feeders picking at what ever
they can get before darting off to the safety of the nearby bush. I
have seen great, blue and coal tits.
In an hours count of
the individuals visits that each feeder type received it was the
table with the suet nibbles that had the highest number of visits;
the peanuts came a close second. The goldfinches like to sit on the
Niger seeds for up to 15 minutes at a time. I suppose once you have
got your place you don't want to give it up.
A rather glossy male
pheasant ambles through the garden on a couple of occasions and a
solitary swan flew over.
On the 29th
which was a sunny Sunday I noticed a pair of sparrows defending the
nest box above the garage. Male was outside and the female was
inside.
Mammals
A squirrel comes into
the garden and snuffles in the grass as if he is looking for some
tasty treat that he buried there in better times. The other mammal
that has been spotted in the garden was a slim black cat. However in
the local area I have seen as many as three roe deer together in the
fields and some more squirrels in the woods.
Other sightings
A flock of redwings and
fieldfares sit in the trees around the farm and in the winter wheat
field at the side of the Travelodge. It is not easy to get a good
picture of them because they take flight as soon as they see you,
only to land just out of reach.
I have not noticed any
corvids entering the garden although they do inhabit the area
surrounding it. I did notice some rooks harassing a pair of buzzards
that had the cheek or bad luck to land in a tree that they were
perched in. The buzzards made a quick retreat.
In Scotland I found a
dead cuckoo ray on the beach. I have walked that stretch of beach on
many occasions and I have never seen one before.
There was the more
usual sightings of redshank, oyster catchers and eiders.
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| Redshank |
 |
| Eiders female and male |
Average temperature 7°C
Total rainfall 52mm
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