Wildlife Corner

[Stanley]

Lovely Wendy, I love hearing them, such a lonely and haunting call.
I heard an owl on the Croft one morning this week
I watched two jackdaws on the roof of the house opposite yesterday. One was crouched down while the other carefully groomed the area just behind the head that obviously needed some attention. It was so gentle and caring..... Nice!
I heard the owl again this morning, this time down near the Corn Mill.

[PanBiker]

Our local Jackdaw pair are busy refurbishing their nest in the terracotta pots on one of the stacks half way down Ash Grove. There are three pots and I think they use two of them. Their third year now in residence, I have a direct view of their construction efforts out of our front window. Amazing how big a twig they can manoeuvre down the pot.

[Tizer]

Mistletoe is very successful here and grows in many types of tree. It's especially obvious at this time of year when the trees are bare of leaves. I took this photo in the local park last weekend.

[Stanley]

Ian. I once had a nest in my chimney and Phil Lawson and I got 3 bags of firewood out of it! Totally blocked! I have a cowl now.....
Harold Duxbury once told me that they had to clean out the flue of the heating stove at Gill Church every year.
Never seen that much Mistletoe in one place Tiz! Great pic.

[Tizer]

The apple orchards in Somerset usually have lots of mistletoe too.

[Wendyf]

Glorious spring sounds this morning as the sun was coming up. Curlews and lapwings all around plus frogs croaking in the pond.

[Cathy]

Sounds wonderful Wendy, it really brightens your spirit doesn't it. Enjoy your Spring when it arrives (properly).

[Wendyf]

It does Cathy. I have a feeling that we might still have some winter weather to come!

[Tizer]

Lawns are covered in flowering daisies here and the crocuses are wonderful. Many other plants are in flower that shouldn't be doing it until later.

[Stanley]

This good spell will turn colder towards the end of the week but even so it will be mild for the time of year.

[Wendyf]

I'm pleased I had the opportunity to listen to all those sounds in the early morning because from 11am onwards there was nothing but the constant roar of motorbikes!

[Stanley]

Off roaders? They can be a pest can't they......

[Wendyf]

No, just streams of them seeing how fast they can go down the "big dip" on Skipton Old Road.

[Stanley]

Ah! Side of the road in a gilet jaune pointing a hair dryer at them?

[Tizer]

Don't encourage her to do that, Stanley, it can have dangerous repercussions. When we lived in the village the police sometimes allowed villagers to use a device that showed the speed of cars to collect evidence in support of speed restrictions. Unfortunately it can end up with people thinking you're reporting them to the police and then they seek retribution by damaging your property or making your life a misery.

[Stanley]

I can understand that Tiz. What a lousy world it has become in some respects.....

[Stanley]

Lots of bird song yesterday, we aren't the only ones enjoying the warm spell!

[Stanley]

Lots of unseasonably warm wether to the South. I wonder if this will affect the date of the arrival of the swallows and swifts? If so, could a late cold spell be a danger for them? What date do we usually reckon for their return.....

[Wendyf]

Sometime in April Stanley.

[Stanley]

[Gloria]

Our swallows in 2017 arrived 4th April, gradually coming earlier each year from around early May in 1999. Last year it was 17th April.

[Tizer]

I took this photo the other day to show how abundant mistletoe is here. It's growing in an old hawthorn tree. There are no leaves on the tree yet, all the green colour is due to the mistletoe...

[Stanley]

I hope the Swallows get their travel times right.
That's an amazing pic Tiz for someone used to the late seasons we get up here in the Pennines....
I see that Met Office Spring has arrived...... The Vernal Equinox is on March 20th.... But these dates are always a bit of a joke up here. We don't get frost free until the beginning of June. However we are seeing signs of movement, daffs beginning to flower on the Green.

[Tizer]

The daffs here were flowering in January this year.

[Whyperion]

Quite a lot of blossom out too, normally the complaint for an early mothers day is that there are not enough daffs in bloom, this year will be later, most of the southern daffs will have passed bloom. For wildlife although the warm weather came early, it is probably (unless there is a severe northern wind or easterly into March) far enough into the sunlightable hours (or cloudy overcastness), for the warmth to be enough for early arriving birds to get an early brood in if the insect food is enough- which it should be. My tender plants didn't like the cold nights though, but less effected than last years freeze.
The blossom will probably get blown off by upcoming westerlies and stormy winds (down south), normaly the pidgeons strip it.