The best news is that it's finally stopped raining! Heres one of the greenfinches waiting to be fed just outside the nest. I hope that this is the one that we rescued.














Theres been another brood of dunnock and of blue tits in the garden too this week.
A southern hawker dragonfly has been hunting in the garden and also in the sky, a minimum of 6 pipistrelle bats. I hope the bats are using my bat boxes.
After the death of one of the woodmice I've seen 2 at the same time, to confirm that there are actually more than just one. Jill also found a dead common shrew on the lawn.
No sign of the owls or green woodpeckers for a week now.
This morning I found that the spotted flycatchers down at the railways seem to have had 2 successful broods.

Brockholes quarry

I managed a stop for a wee gander at brockholes quarry today, on my way back from Preston. At the first path to the main pool, I saw my first banded demoiselle damselflies of the year, and many azure damsels too.















There is still a fantastic array of wildflowers, including bird-foot trefoil, meadow cranesbill and early orchid.
Every ragwort plant seemed to have cinnabar moth caterpillars feeding on them. I also saw a bird cherry ermine moth on one of the ragworts.




















The water level in the quarry pools was very high due to the seemingly endless rain we've had...
at the main pool I found

30 canada geese
countless coots
many mallard
1 moorhen with young
Mute swan pair with 4 large cygnets
3+ sedge warblers singing in the reeds
swifts, swallows, house martin and sand martin all feeding over the pool.

.......over the wooded bank to
pit no 1, I found

A family of Jays calling from the young trees,
a female pheasant exploded from the long grass into the air with 6 young....giving me a heart attack in the process!
24 adult mute swans!
another 35 canada geese
countless coot again
circa 20 lapwing on island
circa 10 oystercatcher
1 grey heron
1 juv green woodpecker on ribble walk path
A few common darter dragonflies - this pic is the female, the male is red.














1 gatekeeper butterfly (a years first for me) amongst many speckled wood and meadow brown butterflies

I took Treakle up to lower barrow lodge for a walk this morning. A sparrowhawk flew over (towards our feeders!) mobbed by swallows, just as we were leaving. There are now cinnabar moth caterpillars to be found on the ragwort, a yellow wildflower, scattered around the wasteland at the printworks.

The 2 pairs of coot on the lower lodge appear to only have raised 1 chick each this year. Plenty mallard with young of varying sizes. I wonder if our brood from last week has ended up here? Its a bit of a long walk even for our far-wandering female. I saw a male reed bunting in the field next to the lodge, I think this is another "patch first" for me.

I was staring out the attic velux windows when I heard the distictive call of the green woodpecker again! I went out and searched and found 2, an adult and a juvenile. The didnt breed here, but must have nested nearby.




















I noticed a little damage to the dead oak in "owl corner" the last time I spotted the greenie. This time, I'm sure the damage was caused by them.




















These to chucks of dead wood are 5 feet long! I also noticed a day-flying bat (probably a pipistrelle) up in the corner. Small bats live under the bark of such dead trees and this one may have lost its roost to a rowdy feeding woody!

Heres the only pic I managed of the green woodpecker.















Also noted today - bullfinches calling from the hedgerow and plenty meadow brown butterflies in the field.
Havent seen the owls for a few days now.

Chick update

Havent seen the ducklings all weekend. I'm sure the females walkabout with the babies is to throw predators off the scent. I'm sure they are fine and I'll see them again. The young greenfinches are still being fed by the parents regularly but its still impossible to see how many in the nest. Hopefully the one that we fostered for 24 hrs is still doing well.

Greenfinch chicks and ducklings

I've had 2 friends visiting for the last 3 days, but I was still keeping an eye on the wildlife around my patch. On Monday, I found a small hatchling on the driveway under the "Leylandii" conifers. It was still alive but I didnt fancy its chances of survival. I got the ladders out and dug around for its nest but there are many nests dotted around this hedgerow and I couldnt find an occupied one. The chick was so underdeveloped that we couldnt even ID it. Dunnocks, robins, greenfinches, chaffinch, song thrush, blackbirds and collared doves have all nested in this thick tree over the years.
We kept the chick warm and fed it tiny worms for 24 hours. Then I got out the bigger ladders and started looking again. As soon as I got up about 9 feet up, a greenfinch flew straight at me. I found a shallow-cupped nest with 4 or 5 other similar sized chicks. I dropped our chick in with them and watched as the adult returned. She seemed to accept it, so I hope its ok. It must be the first greenfinch to spent 24 hours indoors, eating worms instead of seeds!

On Tuesday I saw a Juv/female redstart in the back field. A patch first (my patch covers the garden and most of Barrow) for me and I even thought it was a black redstart at first, as I only managed fleeting views. The owls refused to show themselves to Ricky and Marjorie (my visitors), but we did find that our female mallard now has 7 chicks. Shes been walking around, with them following, and has covered quite a distance. She started up in "owl corner", then 300m down the brook to the front pond and even in the back pond and patio.

Here they are -
(Click photos to enlarge)

Green woodpecker present for a second day. I got better views today, and it appears to be a juvenile. It is not too heavily streaked, but doesnt have a very defined "moustache". The long tailed tit family has been joined by a wren family up in "owl corner". Impossible to count but at least 6. Heres one of the adults...















The flying ants have flown from the colony in the greenhouse. Ants dont seem to cause any damage to the chilis, sunflowers or tomatos, so we just let them be. The spiders benefit in the greenhouse and an enterprising robin has been feasting on flying ants too, hopping in and out of the greenhouse to get its fill.

Another patch and UK2007 tick today. I heard and then saw a Green woodpecker in the "owl corner". Both owls present as usual, a goldcrest singing and a family of long tailed tits feeding.
Several Peacock caterpillars feeding on nettles in the "butterfly patch"

Heres Treakle! ( I think he's only been on this blog once before). Happy to be out in the only sunshine we've seen for more than a week. The good weather was shortlived, but at least we got out for a bit of bike tyre wrestling.

(as usual, click on photos for bigger view)




































I went to check on the tawny owls also, Treakle distracts them for me, while I sneak up. You can see the owl looking down at Treakle in the first picture, and watching me in the next. The owls dont seem too bothered by sheep, horses and even dogs below their tree, but dont like me getting much closer than this.....







































I watched a carrion crow kill and eat a baby rabbit yesterday. Proves they dont eat only carrion eh? It was more efficient at the killing and eating than the sparrowhawk that I videoed last week. But not so good at the initial attack, it saved some meat for its young too.

Also yesterday, 2 moths -1 "orange underwing" and 1 "dark arches"