SPOT THE BEE FLY UPDATE 1ST DECEMBER 2021
Only a couple of contributions this rime so have added a few of mine. First up is from friend Alan Meeks again who continues to film his friendly garden fox. Alan has set up an infra-red lamp in his garden and has been videoing the fox, and at the beginning, a hedgehog, for some time now. He places a bowl of doggie biscuits randomly for the fox to find and is either holding the camera or has it set remotely. He has sent me a selection of ‘frame grabs’ from one of his latest recordings. The last in the selection below seems to indicate some contempt by the fox in finding the bowl empty! Thanks for these Alan.
Next up we have some nature observations from Philip Thompson:
“Natural Garden Notes.
No acorns this year. Pigeons have now eaten ALL Holly berries. N So what are animals going to eat December to April?
November 28th - Up early, to melt ice in bird bath.
Blackbirds & Thrush were first to spot bird feeder cleaned and provided this Autumn (about 4 hours). Everyone else knew within 24 hours.
4 local squirrels are already fighting over who is allowed to bury my peanuts in my lawn. Blue-tits establish pecking order.
Male Robin is wearing himself out fighting off ALL small birds (including Pigeons) from our bird feeder as he is certain they are his. One other Robin flew past without deviation, and was chased at full speed out of our garden. Even Magpies are looking scared. 2 Jays keeping an eye on us. Not sure how long Robin can keep this up. days, weeks or months? Philip”
Thanks Philip, we are still awaiting the arrival of the Redwings, they have usually arrived in October to strip the berries from the holly and our cotoneaster, so far we have seen only two. In the meantime, as you are experiencing, the pigeons are having a hey day!
Our contribution follows our first visit to Lavell’s Lake at Dinton Pastures in over 2 years, we made our way to the hide and were lucky to see a Great White Heron, a Little Egret, and a Grey Heron all together. I managed a distant photo of them. We then witnessed the Egret catching a large Perch which it was unable to swallow despite best efforts! The Swan was also doing its best to attract our attention by splashing about in the sun and then drying itself at the edge of the scrape.
That’s it for now, please try and keep them coming, - don’t forget the web site and we look forward to seeing many of you ‘Zooming’ tomorrow evening to watch our President’s presentation, - here’s a reminder of the link: Join Zoom meeting for CNHS https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8944797838
Regards to all, Mike and Jenny