Barn owl at dusk

On Monday afternoon this week we visited friends whose land borders on West Moor near Muchelney. The area has suffered severe flooding recently and many of the fields are still under water. As a result they have been getting some interesting birds closer to the house than usual. These have included lapwings and, the reason we popped over there, Barn Owls. This is especially pleasing as they have put up a barn owl box as part of the Somerset Wildlife project to install a box in every parish in the county.

Anyway, after a walk to the bottom of their garden and a short wait we were rewarded with the sight of a beautiful owl flying over the field and landing on a post where it sat and posed for us. My pictures are rather dark, but then it was 4 .30 pm on a dull day and it was 100yds or so away so I was quite pleased.

I had an email from someone else who said they had seen two barn owls very early in the morning alongside the A303. I think the flooding has meant the more barn owls are being pushed off their usual hunting grounds also, their feathers are not wateproof so they can't hunt when it is raining hard, hence they take every opportunity to hunt when it is dry even in daylight.

 

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Snowdrops brighten a dull day

The mild weather is encouraging Snowdrops to flower early this year and whilst not unheard of in early January, the display on the bank near the entrance to CME is lovely to see.

A range of varieties of Snowdrops have been planted on the bank, all carefully labeled, and it will be interesting to see the order in which they flower and for how long the display will last.

The first are Galanthus atkinsii and / or colossus. I'll be watching out for which flowers next.

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Almonds in Combe?

If you are walking around the lanes in the next few weeks and think you can smell almonds, (some might say vanilla) you are probably going passed a locally common wild flower called Winter Heliotrope. It started flowering over Christmas, slightly earlier than some years due to the mild weather and will continue for a few weeks to come, unless there is a hard frost, which usually kills off the flower, though it is a perennial so will return next year.

It was introduced from North Africa as an ornamental ground cover plant in the early 19th century, which perhaps explains why, despite the fact it is a winter flower, it is not very hardy. It escaped and naturalised but despite being dioecious (having separate make and female organisms on different plants.) only the male plant occurs in GB.

This is what to look out for, especially along the verges in the Clayhanger area.

Happy sniffing!

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Gulls on the Tower

The peace and quiet in SSW during my morning walk on Friday was disturbed by the raucous calls of a cheeky pair of Herring gulls sitting atop the church tower. It seems that we are getting increasing numbers of this quarrelsome species inland and they regularly try and nest on old buildings such as the Old Rectory and the church. Unfortunately they often harass other birds and can block up gutters with their nest material but I thought this made an amusing picture with the weathercock lording it over them!

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Goldcrests Galore

In an earlier post I mentioned that there were more Jays around than usual this year due to an influx from the continent as a result of a poor season for acorns. As the season has progressed it has become apparent that other food sources are short on the continent, which means we can expect more vagrants to arrive over the next few weeks.

One species already arriving in good numbers are the tiny Goldcrests. It may seem amazing that they migrate across the North Sea to our milder shores but they do and I have been noticing them around our lanes regularly in the last few weeks. They are often heard before they are seen, with their very high pitch contact calls sounding a bit like a lisp. If you hear them, look out for a tiny bird moving almost mouse like through the trees. Perhaps because numbers are higher than usual they seem to be fighting off others to protect a food source once they find it. As a result they can often be seen chasing each other when they meet up! ( Of course they could be pairing up, but I suspect, with the cold weather approaching, they are more interested in feeding). This tiny bird has to eat its weight in food daily to survive cold periods and feeds constantly in the short winter daylight hours. The cold winters of 2009 and 2010 decimated the native population though they recovered well last spring.

This morning I saw a pair, along with a small family group of Long tailed tits, as they flew out of SSW and into a small tree in Stantway. They did not stay long enough for me to get any pictures of them, dashing off to the next feeding post up the hill.

 

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Day by the sea

Had a great day on Sunday 18th November with the South Somerset RSPB group at Dawlish Warren Nature Reserve. Brilliant weather, blue skies and sun all day, no wind and good birding too!

We met at 10.30am timing our visit for high tide in the Exe estuary as the views from the hide overlooking the estuary are best for the birds which come to feed on the mud then.

We walked through the reserve through the dunes, alongside the golf course, spotting a pair of beautiful Stonechats en route to the hide. The mud was just exposed as we arrived and we were delighted to see plenty of birds busily feeding, or in some cases just hanging about resting before fore mud was exposed. This estuary is protected as a reserve by RAMSAR and is home in the winter to thousands of waders and wildfowl.

It is also a good spot for interesting vagrants from America and most of the group were very pleased to be able to see the Bonaparte's Gull which has been hanging around, using the wooden groynes to rest up. On the day we visited ther was a lot of disturbance as the weather encouraged more people than usual for the time of hear to walk on the beach. Fortunately, this who did not see it at the beginning of the morning caught up with it feeding along the shore towards Langstone Cliff later in the afternoon.

Birds seen from the hide included Oystercatchers, Curlew, Redshank, Dunlin, Turnstone, Little Egret,Shelduck and Red breasted Merganser. or a full list see the group website.

Unfortunately I did not take my camera along so have no bird close-ups but used my phone for some views. See below.

Exe estuary looking upstream from Dawlish Warren

Looking towards Exmouth from Dawlish Warren

Exmoor ponies used for grazing

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Rainbows over Combe

The weather recently has been very varied. The autumn colours of the leaves seemed to be late in turning and I took this picture through a spider's web in late September which showed how green everythign still was.

Since then there has been plenty of the usual rain, with a little sunshne, which, when combined produced a wonderful double rainbow, like this one last week over the centre of the village.











We have also had snow this week, (but that melted too quickly to capture on film this time), very early for the season, but maybe a promise of what we have in store for the rest of the winter!

One thing to note, due to the poor summer weather this year is that the natural food for the birds is not very abundant, with few berries on the Hawthorn and few spare fruits on the crab apples and other fruit trees, which could spell a hard time for our wildlife over the winter.


Crab apple 1

Compare a picture above, of the crab apple tree in the churchyard this year (1) with the same tree below,  last year (2). The latter was bowed down with fruit but this year the few apples that are there are very poor specimens. So, a gentle reminder to keep those bird feeders topped up!

Crab apple 2