Pleased to tell you the Bourne Barn Owls are back in their box!
Follow their story. 🦉🦉
https://www.lenpicktrust.org.uk/owl-project/ 

Eat your heart out, Tracey Emin! 😁

Sadly there has since been a webcam failure on this site and this will be unlikely to be fixed during the 2024 nesting season.

 

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Webcam: Watch the ospreys at the Loch of the Lowes on a beautiful morning. 😃
https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/watch-wildlife-online/loch-of-the-lowes-webcam/ 

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Saving the world's largest flowers - Rafflesia
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26134821-100-saving-the-worlds-largest-flowers-in-the-philippines/ 

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First two chiffchaffs and plenty of brimstones yesterday and Thursday.

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A Brimstone here too today - plus local ravens calling from a nearby tree. A wren has occupied a nest box in the woodshed! Trail camera is out.
Female sparrowhawk perched in garden yesterday.

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First bluebells seen in flower today, in the Hilsea Lines (former fortifications of Portsmouth, now a Nature Reserve); well out, so have probably been in flower for a week.

These are the dates of first bluebells seen - not systematic as they were recorded on different walks and therefore subject to micro-climatic factors. Take them as a general indication of the season. 26/3/07, 26/3/08, 20/4/10, 29/3/11, 14/3/12, 24/4/13, 9/4/14, 12/4/15, 27/2/16, 21/3/17, 11/4/18, 21/3/19, lockdowns 20 & 21, 25/3/22, 1/4/23, 24/3/24. Note the very late 2010 and the very early 2016.
 

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Just had a pair of English Partridge explore the garden! Not see them here before. Correction - my ID was contradicted by our trailcam - they were "Frenchmen".

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Just had a pair of English Partridge explore the garden! Not see than here before.

I get a pheasant every now and then but a partridge would be very special

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I get a pheasant every now and then but a partridge would be very special

Sadly I misidentified them - they were "Frenchmen"!

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Webcam: Watch the Ospreys at the Loch of the Lowes on a beautiful morning. 😃
https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/watch-wildlife-online/loch-of-the-lowes-webcam/ 

The male has joined the female at last - love is in the air. Click on link above... and enjoy the weather in real time.

Meanwhile the BTO's satellite-tracked Cuckoos will be starting their journey back to the UK.
BTO's tracked Cuckoos are on their way north.
https://www.bto.org/cuckoos 
 

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It looks a sunny morning there compared to the dreich start here.

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Bourne Barn Owls now have 3 eggs! Camera working again - for now...
https://www.lenpicktrust.org.uk/owl-project/ 

 

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Meanwhile, detective work to find out what happened to a small puffin colony not far from here. Rats are my theory.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-68735103 

 

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Badger caught on garden camera trap on 6th, Hedgehog on 7th at 01.33 and 22.13hrs! 😁

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I think you could well be right.

Locally, any islets where we suspect rats, it's easy to check using pencils dipped in chocolate. Rat gnawings are quite distinctive.
I host the Puffincam on the island of Burhou, just North of Alderney as I have clear line of sight for the images to be transmitted then onward to the interwebbie!!

https://www.alderneywildlife.org/wildlife/webcams/puffin-main-cam 

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This amused me
Newly discovered Australian beetle almost mistaken for bird poo

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-68622828 

But the serious suggestion is that the beetle is mimicking a dead insect decomposing with mould covering it, thus discouraging a predator looking for fresh food.

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This amused me
Newly discovered Australian beetle almost mistaken for bird poo

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-68622828 

But the serious suggestion is that the beetle is mimicking a dead insect decomposing with mould covering it, thus discouraging a predator looking for fresh food.

It's a remarkably common strategy! A taster:
https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/heres-looking-at-poo-the-weird-and-wonderful-species-that-look-like-faeces 

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Bourne Barn Owls now have 3 eggs! Camera working again - for now...
https://www.lenpicktrust.org.uk/owl-project/ 

 

4th Egg seen today! 🦉

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Have watched PUFFIN CAM.. Saw puffins rafting and some flying around the holes.
Watched for a few years now. ARTDEMOLE. Also when another Wild About Britain site was still active.

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Have watched PUFFIN CAM.. Saw puffins rafting and some flying around the holes.
Watched for a few years now. ARTDEMOLE. Also when another Wild About Britain site was still active.

Have you tried the link I gave to the Loch of the Lowes Ospreys? Worth watching for the Scottish weather too!
https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/watch-wildlife-online/loch-of-the-lowes-webcam/ 
 

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