At least three Quail have been calling in hay meadows adjoining Green Lane, Bonsall Moor since the 23rd June. I could hear two this morning but the birds were some distance apart and it was difficult to be certain how many birds were calling.
They have occasionally been visible with a bird calling briefly from on top of a drystone wall this morning. This evening it was thought that there could be as many as five males calling.
I presumed that this Stoat was feeding its own brood from a nest of, what I guess are Field Voles, as it made the same journey five times. Each time carrying a vole to the same area on Beeley Triangle.
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| Stoat carrying Field Vole |
The grass was still wet from last nights rain so the Stoat looks slightly bedraggled but was a lovely pale lemon yellow below and reddish brown above. As usual it moved very quickly but fortunately it paused and looked at me just before going in to the grass.
A scarce mammal on Beeley Moor, I'll be keeping an eye out for its offspring.
I made a brief visit to Chatsworth last week but saw neither Oystercatchers or Common Sandpiper so I was pleasantly surprised to hear Oystercatchers calling as I walked along the river this morning. I was even more surprised to see 5 birds flying circling in the sky, a record count for me locally. As I put my camera up to take a photo I saw that they were mobbing a Red Kite.
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| Oystercatchers mobbing Red Kite |
I saw them again a little latter when two of the birds were displaying to each other. Impossible to know whether these are new birds or if two of them are the original pair, will have to wait and see if there is a breeding attempt.
A Common Sandpiper was also feeding along the river raising the possibility that it is one of a breeding pair.
Although this is only my first week back after a three week absence I was hoping to see more evidence of Goosander breeding but a female seen today is the only bird I have seen, maybe they have had more success on the Wye?
Common Sandpiper
I've been abroad for several weeks so today I was keen to catch up on the progress some of our breeding birds have made. The Pied Flycatcher on my last post, on the 19th May was using a natural nest hole and I was particularly interested to see if they were still around as most of the local Pied Flycatchers use nest boxes, some of which I put up with Alan Stewardson more than a dozen years ago but they are still in use!
The Pied Flycatcher incubates its eggs for around 15 days and it takes a further 15 days for the young to fledge, its 26 days since I last saw the male so if they had just started egg laying the young birds could still be in the nest.
I had to wait a little while but first the male, then the female turned up at the nest to feed the youngsters which must now be very close to fledging.
The nest hole in a Silver Birch looks to have been excavated by a Great Spotted Woodpecker.
I also made a visit t Youlgrave and a Common Quail calling close to Harthill Pond was unexpected and the first time I have heard one there.
Pied flycatcher -male