Animals and kids

2018-03-05T12:07:00.001-08:00

A strange continuous buzzing noise caught my attention. I then quickly got my camcorder and film this encounter. Two bumblebees mating. The strange thing is that they seem to be from different species. It it also quite funny to listen to the male's noise as the pitch of its noise gets increasingly higher. He looks like he is having fun but I don't know anything about their mating patterns. Sorry the quality of the video is not the best but hopefully you will still get to enjoy it.

Fish - Starting a pond

2017-09-03T14:03:00.000-07:00

I would like to write about our pond fish, not for the benefit of any of my readers but simply because I would like to keep a record of it for myself.
We started our pond in 2013.
In the garden of our newly purchased property, we found a disused water tank covered with a layer of flint stones. It was originally used as a water reserve in the event of fire as fire engines would not have been able to reach the property which is located near the end of a narrow lane.

So, we got to work, We opened the tank ...

...emptied it, cleaned it...

...and filled it with water. We then bought one water lily (at £15 the plant, it had to be only one!) and 6 water hyacinths (they were on special offer, 6 for £6, I think)...

The exciting moment was when we purchased 6 comets ( comet goldfish)...

... and let them free into the tank.

Things did not seem to go well after that. By the autumn, the water lily and the hyacinths had died and we saw a heron at the edge of the tank. From that day onwards, we never saw any fish and concluded that the heron had eaten them all.

What a disappointment really after all our hard work....

Wildlife at Bletchley Park - Heron spying on cygnets

2017-06-13T14:33:00.000-07:00

As we went to visit Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes, we stopped by the pond to eat our sandwiches.
The grass by the pond was busy with wildlife. Ducks and their babies, swans and their babies and even an opportunistic heron hoping to get a tasty snack....
The keeper said that the heron would happily eat a duckling but as I was filming, I saw the heron get closer to the two cygnets which were swimming at the edge of the pond with their mother.

As the heron gets closer, you can see the female swan opening her beak and telling it to keep away from her babies. But it ignore her so she goes for it and scares it away.

I hope you enjoy this small clip:

Rescuing a lamb with its head stuck in fence

2017-02-14T12:40:00.001-08:00

Before I tell you my story about the silly lamb, I would like to give some information about sheep, information that I have learnt just living next door to a field.

Every year around Easter time, the farmer brings his ewes and their newly born lambs to the field at the back of our house. They spend the whole summer there feeding on the grass. Then, in autumn, when the lambs are nice and fat, they are taken away from their mums to be slaughtered. The ewes are left on their own in the field for two or three weeks, after which time the farmer brings the ram. They will stay together until just before winter arrives.
So, now let's get back to my story!
Sometime back in August 2015, we heard a lamb crying on, and on, and on.... Hearing sheep is not an unusual occurrence as these animals are quite vocal, ewes and lambs regularly calling each other day or night.
But, on that occasion, the noise was a constant pitch and seemed to come from the exact same place.
Having found a dead ewe in the river a few weeks earlier, we assumed that another ewe had died and her lamb was crying for her.
As we climbed over the fence to investigate, we saw a lamb across the field with its head stuck in the stock fence.
As we were approaching, the lamb seemed a little agitated but then, it calmed down. It could not go anywhere anyway.

Have a look at the video clip below to find out how we managed to free the lamb.
What the clip does not show (because I stopped my camcorder too early!) is that the lamb then ran up to its mum and vigorously suckled milk from her.
This lamb is so big that you can mistake it for a ewe but seeing it suckling just prove that it is just a baby.

King Fisher stealing my fish

2017-01-04T13:09:00.001-08:00

I was looking at the garden through my kitchen window while on the phone to my mother-in-law when I saw an unusual bird sitting on one of the small branches of our apple tree. I had never seen such a bird in my garden before. How beautiful!
As I was describing it to my mother-in-law, the bird flew down to the pond and retrieved one of my fish!!It then sat on the edge and hit its head on the stone before flying away.

Suddenly, that bird was not beautiful anymore... You thief!!

Red kyte eating

2016-11-06T01:41:00.000-08:00

I caught a female red kyte on top of an electrical pole eating a small rodent (mice or vole), On the video below, you can see her pull the flesh off its victim with fur flying around them.
After her meal, she peens herself and then has a little rest. This video was taken in January 2016.

2016-10-13T13:58:00.000-07:00

December 2015, food is getting scarce so a bird feeder full of peanuts is a great treat for this jay.
See the video below to view how this jay collects and hides its peanuts.

Animal rescue - Robin freed from green netting

2016-03-30T07:49:00.002-07:00

This little chap was going to be a small snack for magpies.
Luckily the excited noise of the magpie drew my attention to this lucky robin and I managed to get to it before it got attacked.
It was freed within minutes using a small pair of sewing scissors.
I know I should not have green netting in the garden but it is a way for me to protect plants from rabbits...

Below, you can watch the whole rescue which I filmed from a tripod.

Animal rescue - Robin freed from green netting

2016-03-30T07:49:00.000-07:00

Below, you can watch the whole rescue which I filmed from a tripod.

Weasel hunting for baby rabbits

2016-02-03T11:56:00.000-08:00

As I was walking past my lounge window, I noticed a weasel running around outside on the lawn, eagerly looking for something. I went outside and found a very small rabbit hopping on the lawn several meters away from the weasel. What caught my attention was how small it was. They don’t usually leave their den that young. It was so small that it was still unsteady on its legs. Had it been forced out of its den by the weasel?? I also found another baby rabbit a few meters away, possibly a sibling. That baby rabbit was not hoping, more like crawling on the grass. I realised later than it was a head injury. I did not interfere and left it alone (the other baby rabbit and the weasel had disappeared by that time) as not to upset the parents. Throughout the rest of the day, I kept checking on the baby rabbit from a distance, hoping that a parent would come and rescue it. They never came and the baby eventually died a few hours later. That’s when I found out that it had a very small wound on top of its head below one of the ears. The inside of the ear was bleeding. I wondered if it could have been pecked by a magpie?? But this is just speculation. I simply don’t know what happened. Could you guess what happened??

Green wood pecker Dad and Son

2015-12-18T15:16:00.000-08:00

Two green wood peckers were on my lawn on hot July day. Dad was showing his son (the son has a spotted grey coat and its head is not as red) how to pick ants off the ground. You will notice in the clip below that the bird has to scratch ants off its face a couple of times. You can also see them panting. This is to keep them cool.
Eventually, they came near the house, right next to the window, in search of some well needed shade.

Tiny wild rabbit

2015-06-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken in my back garden. You don't usually see rabbits out and about at such a young age. My guess is that it was the mother's first litter as females are very protective of their very young and do not let them out of the den so early.

Rightly so because soon after I took the picture, the rabbit's sibling was attacked and killed by a magpie.

Blue tit in a cage

2015-06-11T13:27:00.002-07:00

I have a couple of nice pictures of a juvenile blue tit I would like to share with you. It was standing inside a squirrel-proof peanut feeder. Which of the three is your favourite?

Young red kites quarrelling and flying around

2015-04-10T14:34:00.001-07:00

This was taken in June. A view from my back garden. You don't usually see so many red kites together so I am assuming there are siblings practising their flight. They quarrel like siblings too. ;-)

Baby chaffinch feeding and being fed

2015-03-19T15:48:00.001-07:00

Some chaffinches are picking up seeds fallen on the ground from the bird feeder. A great place for the parents to bring their newly fledged offspring.

The video below shows some baby chaffinches, still unsteady on their feet, picking up seeds while waiting for their parents to feed them.

A feeding lesson

2015-02-09T12:13:00.001-08:00

In May this year, I noticed a female Great Spotted woodpecker teaching her young ones (one male and one female) how to fetch food for themselves. While still feeding them directly, she would also gather pieces of peanut from the bird feeder and place them in a small crack between two branches in our apple tree for them to get.
Have a look at the clip below. You will also notice that she gently pecks the young birds on the head to tell them to fetch the food themselves.
You can also see one of the babies trying to eat from the bird feeder but not very successfully.

Some clips were filmed from indoors and some outdoors. The outdoor clips have slightly better image quality and you can also hear the babies being fed. They sound like a squeaky toy. The funny thing is that the adults sound just the same themselves.

Ten Lined June Beetle

2014-12-05T13:02:00.000-08:00

This cream coloured stripy beetle was found twice outside my front door this summer. Its antenna open up like fans. Isn't it beautiful?

Chicken scaring away pheasants

2014-11-24T12:40:00.000-08:00

My hen, Willow, used to hate when animals entered "her" garden. Many times, I saw her scaring away grey squirrels, magpies and particularly pheasants. Below are a series of pictures showing her in action.
You see a male pheasant escorting his females. They like to come here to eat the seeds fallen from the bird feeder and take a bath in my hens' self-made mud baths.

The females are cleaning themselves under the male's watchful eye

The female in the middle has just shaken herself and you can see a little
cloud of dust behind her

Willow has seen the unwelcome guests and slowly makes her way towards the male...

... picking things off the floor as if nothing was wrong.
But, the male looks worried and walks away.

Willow gets ready to pounce

She is going after the male which quickly runs away

The attack was successful as the male has disappeared.

Silly Willow!

Great Spotted Woodpecker feeding its young

2014-11-07T11:49:00.000-08:00

Below is a small clip showing a Great Spotted Woodpecker feeding its young in our back garden. This was taken in June 2013.
A few written comments were added which I hope you will find useful.

Don't you think it is a bit like going to McDonald's for a quick take out?

Parenhood

2014-10-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

10th May 2013. I was walking around the garden when I noticed a small ball of feathers hidden in the grass, only a couple of arm lengths away from me. I could have stood on it!
It stayed still very quietly, just breathing. It was a baby black bird that had only just left its nest.

I moved away hoping that its parents would be nearby. They were. In fact, there was also another baby black bird hidden in another part of the garden, 3 or 4 meters away. The parents were kept very busy picking up worms and insects and flying from one baby to the other.

Then, a magpie arrived into the garden. I am not sure if it had realised that there was a very tasty snack for it lying low in the grass or under a bush but Daddy blackbird did not take the chance and bravely tried to distract the magpie away from his fledgling. This annoyed the magpie which would retaliate. In the clip below, I managed to capture the key moments of that special day. Unfortunately, just as I switched off my camcorder, the black bird flew into the magpie at such speed and with such force, that the magpie lost its balance, fell on the ground and remained dazed for a couple of seconds. The magpie had had enough at that point and flew away.

Do pigeons have smelly armpits??

2014-10-05T01:35:00.001-07:00

You may have already seen wood pigeons lift their wings high up in the air on a rainy day. It seems a good way to wash their arm pits!
Below, I filmed a wood pigeon in my garden taking advantage of the rain to clean itself. It also takes advantage of a plastic container floating in the pond to get its body that little extra wet. Have a look!

Nuthatch in the garden

2014-09-29T14:36:00.001-07:00

As you can see in the first few seconds of the clip below, these birds are very fussy eaters on the bird feeder and therefore throw a lot of seeds on the floor to get to the ones they like best.
Last June, I noticed a baby nuthatch hidden amongst the leaves of the apple tree, pruning itself while patiently waiting for its parents to feed it and I would like to share these few moments with you in that same clip. Enjoy!

Young wrens waiting to be fed

2014-09-13T15:26:00.002-07:00

This was a lucky encounter for me! I heard and then spotted a couple of baby wrens hidden in my hedges waiting for their parents to feed them. You can also see the parent collecting insects for them.
These birds are very small, a little smaller than a blue tit. Their tail looks like a small lolly pop sticking up.

Juvenile black bird eating a Bramley apple

2014-09-06T14:41:00.000-07:00

In the wild, birds can't eat apples until the autumn when they are ready on the tree, so it is quite a treat for our feathery friends to get to eat them at other times of the year.
This clip was taken in May. The bird you see in the clip is a juvenile black bird who took a fancy to my apples. It would be one of the first animals to come and eat the apples I would put out every morning. As you can see, it just loved them!

Squirrel-proof peanut dispenser

2014-08-16T23:44:00.002-07:00

We bought a squirrel-proof peanut dispenser that was put to the test by one of our resident squirrels. The squirrel ended up frustrated and angry. Is this cruelty to animals?? What do you think?