Earlier in the week Gail and I had a walk along the quay by the estuary. It started off overcast, but warm, with a light westerly wind, and later on the sun made an appearance to brighten things up.
I've mentioned before, that a few pairs of Swallows nest in some of the boat wrecks out on the mud of the quay. As we were walking along, a female Sparrowhawk flew low in front of us, and a male Sparrowhawk joined it, and seemed to be mobbing her. If this was the case, I can only assume that she wasn't his mate, and he was attempting to drive her out of his territory. However, the effect of two Sparrowhawks whizzing along the quay was to put all the Swallows up, and there were at least 14 - 15 individuals in the air, so a few more than the 2 - 3 pairs that I think are there!
As we expected, there was nothing out on the mud, other than four Shelducks. A few Oystercatchers, 32, flew down river, and a calling Whimbrel remained unseen.
On our way back along the quay, we decided to see how many species of plants we could identify. I have to point out that neither Gail and I are what you would class as competent botanists, and our plant ID leaves much to be desired. However, we did identify at least 35 species of flowering plants, including species like Hedge Mustard, Dove's-foot Cranesbill, Common Chickweed, White Stonecrop, Ribwort Plantain, Sea Beet, Smooth Sow-thistle, Birds-foot Trefoil, Kidney vetch, Lesser Trefoil, Herb Robert and Wood Forget-me-not (probably an escaped garden variety). Nothing rare, but I don't think we did too bad.
After we'd walked along the quay, we went to check on the Ravens, and it was pleasing to note that they had fledged at least one young, as we observed at least one youngster out of the nest being attended by its parents.
Last Friday I was back on my client's farm in Bowland carrying out the second breeding wader survey with some friends/colleagues from the RSPB. I don't know the full details of the whole survey, but on my patch, I found out least 5 pairs of Lapwings, 3 - 4 pairs of Curlews, 3 pairs of Oystercatchers, a single Redshank and a pair of Snipe demonstrated by a bird drumming over my head for several minutes. Brilliant!
Whilst surveying 'my' fields I found a pair of Lapwings with two chicks, and with my thermal imaging scope, it was easy to find the two chicks to ring them.
As last time, I recorded several singing Willow Warblers, at least eleven, and two Cuckoos were singing as well. I had three Ravens fly over me heading to the fells to the north of the farm, and a cracking slate-blue male Sparrowhawk carrying food. I also had a Song Thrush carrying food, and a few Lesser Redpolls and Siskins were moving around. Three Sedge Warblers were singing from the wetland, and the two Swifts that I had were my first for the year.
At weekend, Gail and I checked our boxes at our good friends Robert and Diana's farm near Garstang. Out of 30 Tit/Tree Sparrow boxes we had four occupied by Tree Sparrows (eggs/small young), six by Blue Tits and six by Great Tits. We checked the Kestrel box and there were five warm eggs, but it was less good news from the Owl boxes. The three Tawny Owl and one Little Owl boxes were all occupied by Grey Squirrels! In the future, we are going to experiment with blocking the entrances to keep the Squirrels out, and unblocking them in the new year when the Tawny's, in particular, are back on territory.
We had two singing Blackcaps in the woodland, two Chiffchaffs and a Willow Warbler. The only raptor we observed was a Buzzard being mobbed by two Ravens, and a pair of Moorhens had six young on the pond.
It's more boxes later in the week for Gail and I, back to our Pied Flycatchers in Bowland, so I'll let you know how we get on.
I'd never heard of the term 'jet zero' (sustainable aviation) before, until reading April 2023's British Wildlife. Apparently, former transport secretary Grant Shapps, pledged last year that the UK's aviation sector would be green by 2050, and said that "guilt-free flying is within our reach". However, this possibility has been quashed by the Royal Society. In Net Zero aviation fuels: resource requirements and environmental impacts, they have concluded that the production of 'sustainable' aviation fuel would require "enormous quantities (around half) of UK agricultural land or renewable electricity" just to maintain flights at today's levels. Less flying is what is required me thinks!
No comments:
Post a Comment