Yesterday was Valentine’s day and the hottest one for over 20 years. Today was equally warm as the sun shone on over 15,000 inspiring school children who went on strike in order to campaign for action on climate change. Amazing!
I started the day hanging out of our loft window watching the sun come up over the Chevin. It was from this awkward position where I also caught sight of two Starlings “hooking up” on the opposite TV aerial.
After that, I spent most of the day sat behind our living room window flitting between working on the laptop, drinking tea and photographing the birds visiting our feeders.
We’ve recently completed our Big Garden Birdwatch by the RSPB where we recorded all the species visiting the garden within an hour.
I thought it would be interesting to see how much more species appeared over a longer time. There was about a 20% increase in species diversity including a Siskin and Wren. Here’s todays tally. The tally represents the number of the same species appearing at one time (not repeated visits).
Goldfinch x8
Siskin x1
Coal Tit x2
Blue Tit x2
Great Tit x1
Dunnock x2
House Sparrow x4
Starling x2
Jackdaw x2
Robin x1
Wren x1
Chaffinch x3
Blackbird x3
Wood Pidgeon x2
Collar Dove x2
Not bad for a 5 metre squared yard, and is also despite the local cats’ best efforts to keep biodiversity down!
By 3pm my joints started to grown and I’d drank too much tea. I needed to get out in the sunshine.
I made it to Sun Lane nature reserve just as the sun was approaching the horizon line of the surrounding moors. The warmth had roused the midges as they danced in the last rays of sun. As I made my exit from the reserve something spectre like caught the corner of my eye. A Barn Owl! 😮
I rushed to the field boundary where I estimated this apparition had vanished and tucked myself between a tree and some bramble. Sure enough a gorgeous Barn Owl silently floated past me. I watched for another ten minutes as it hunted and danced between light and shadow.