Wildlife with Hugh

In my previous post I wrote about a wren that had taken up delivering food to a nest box occupied by great tits. This dynamic continued for the duration of the nest’s active period. It became increasingly apparent that we were down to a single great tit parent. The male was nowhere to be seen. The female great tit was still regularly bringing food to the box, and the wren once or twice sang revealing it to be a he. Therefore the box was being tended to by a female great tit and a male wren! To recap, the chicks of the great tits hatched on 28 th April and on 6 th May the wren starting bringing food in and taking away the faecal sacs. For a full 9 days the wren tended to the nest, and throughout this period the wren wrestled with a continuing issue; he wanted to bring food in, but sometimes the female great tit was already in the nest! At 9.1 grams for a wren versus 16 grams for a great tit, he was significantly outsized. Plus the tit’s sharp claws and relatively strong be...

Well, it has been a drama filled spring in the wildlife garden, so much so that it’s hard to know where to start. We began with typical benign developments of blackbirds, robins and blue tits nest building. The blackbird in a hedge, robin in the garage, and the blue tits in a nest box. The first twist to the tale was after a while of nest building by the blue tits a pair of great tits cast their gaze towards the same box. It culminated in quite the scrap between the pair of blue tits and the pair of great tits. Unsurprisingly the larger great tits won out and usurped their smaller cousins.

Exploring areas within walking distance of our houses can turn up unexpected finds. These finds will obviously vary depending upon the location and time, and that is all part of the enjoyment and wonder.

While the human population is on lockdown the natural world continues to the beat of its own drum. Appreciating what is in our immediate surroundings is now an even greater boon to anyone with an interest in wildlife.

I don’t tend to keep lists. I do however write up a species list of each type of bird seen and heard during the guided events, which I then send to the attendees. These lists are growing into quite a repository of information and I have looked into the data on the events between May 2019 and February 2020.

In late January, before the wettest February on record, I led an event around the ever interesting and bird-filled Farlington Marshes.

The real cold weather visitors have been thin on the ground this winter. It has been pleasing therefore to see a nice flock of fieldfares at Medmerry recently. On a recent farmland survey we recorded around 140 birds, and during a wetland bird survey a smaller flock was seen. This latter group were most obliging and we enjoyed fantastic views of these attractive thrushes.