Sadly it’s looking like the male parent swan could have eaten rat poison as someone was seen baiting it a week ago and there was a definite rat problem before but we’ve seen none at all in the past few days.  It’s not yet known whether it was done by an official, or a well meaning individual but my cousin’s a district councillor for our parish and is making enquiries.    She’s also trying to locate the body of the swan to get it examined.  

The mother and nine cygnets are still doing well, as is Penny but she’s still keeping well away from the family.

Originally Posted by: KevBrads1

 

Nor sure if it is the same owl but it was very close where I spotted the one above

 

SHOW EXTERNAL IMAGES

Originally Posted by: DEW

 

Be careful what you post! Someone recently got suspended from Facebook for an owl video which referred to "white chicks"

A habit obscure and unsavoury

Held the Bishop of London in slavery.

Amidst screams, shrieks and howls

He  <phrase deleted> young owls

In a crypt he'd equipped as an aviary.

Roger

Not about birds but don’t know where else to put this!  

We had a small weasel or stoat on our garden today.  I think it was a young one as it was quite small.  I wrote on here that we’d had one a couple of years ago and thought it was a one-off rare sighting but now it seems not!  It is unusual though because although we’re a small market town surrounded by countryside, I don’t live directly next to countryside and have houses on all sides.  

We have a lot of trees and shrubs around us and some big gardens but there is no ‘corridor’ to fields and lanes.  A stoat or weasel would have to cross a couple of roads to get here and I doubt it would do that during the day, so I can only think there must be a family of them in someone’s garden.  

Originally Posted by: Caz

Not about birds but don’t know where else to put this!  

We had a small weasel or stoat on our garden today.  I think it was a young one as it was quite small.  I wrote on here that we’d had one a couple of years ago and thought it was a one-off rare sighting but now it seems not!  It is unusual though because although we’re a small market town surrounded by countryside, I don’t live directly next to countryside and have houses on all sides.  

We have a lot of trees and shrubs around us and some big gardens but there is no ‘corridor’ to fields and lanes.  A stoat or weasel would have to cross a couple of roads to get here and I doubt it would do that during the day, so I can only think there must be a family of them in someone’s garden.  

Hi Caz. Weasels and stoats will use rat and mole tunnels, drains and underground voids and can climb well too. When we had a resident stoat at our last place I saw it inspect nearly every bird box we had put up and even saw it up on our cottage roof. They don't hang about - they seem constantly on the go.

I'm sure you know the mnemonic for distinguishing weasels and stoat.

For the benefit of those who do not...

A weasel is weaselly recognised and a stoat is stoatally different.

R

Originally Posted by: Bertwhistle

Hook with Warsash nature reserve, S End of Southampton Water.

5 black-tailed godwits, 6 little egrets, oystercatcher, dabchick, goldcrest, lesser black-backed gulls, grey heron, a flock of Canada geese and a Dartford warbler (heard by me and my son, seen by my son, call confirmed with app. 'Chirp'.

Sounds good, Bertie. Lincolnshire seems to be well supplied with spoonbills this year, plus occasional storks and common cranes. Not that I've driven to see any under lockdown. Maybe soon. Swifts are being reported at the coast, moving south - they've all gone from here.

You might enjoy listening to this:

BBC Proms - Proms Plus - Birds - BBC Sounds - listen

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000l23m

The BTO Cuckoos are on their way south too, with Valentine making his way across the Sahara to Mali when i last checked.

https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/cuckoo-tracking-project

Roger