Thursday 12 June 2014

There was a family of Magpies playing in the bushes at the northwest corner of the bridge. One of the young ones was waving an empty peanut shell around ...


... and another was picking up and dropping a stick.


When this simple game became boring, it flew off and tormented a squirrel.


The male Little Owl was on his usual branch.


But shortly after I had taken this picture there was a cry of fury from the tree, and when I went over there was a Carrion Crow sitting on the branch. There was no sign of the owl, who I think had flown into his hole to protect his surviving young, of which the crow has already eaten at least one.

No one managed to find the Tawny Owls today.

The young Great Tits are still chasing their parents to be fed, but are maybe beginning to think of coming directly to the hands of people feeding their parents. This one eyed me carefully from a bush, but in the end didn't come out.


The eldest Canada goslings are already beginning to grow flight feathers. Here you can see them still wrapped in the blue packaging that protects them as they emerge.


Growing these big feathers seems to make them itchy and irritable, and they were doing a lot of preening.

Here is a very bad photograph, for which I apologise, but it is very hard to take a close-up of a minute creature running rapidly for cover.


I think it is a female wolf spider carrying a white egg sac attached to the back of her abdomen.

6 comments:

  1. Hi Ralf
    I just can't seem to find the little owl, would you be able to explain where he is?!
    thanks very much
    Adam

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    Replies
    1. Go to the southeast corner of the leaf yard. There is an old chestnut tree next to it. Look from there to the next chestnut tree up the hill, and from that go on to the third chestnut tree. This is the Little Owls' nest tree, and the male owl's favourite branch is on its northwest side.

      More easily, look for someone with binoculars gazing upwards, and ask them.

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    2. thanks Ralph, I'll have another go. I have scanned those trees a few times but not managed to find him thus far; is he out most of the time in your experience?
      thanks
      Adam

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    3. At the moment he's usually out when it's sunny.

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  2. Was your spider near water? I think it is a Pirate Wolf spider, Pirata sp. I love your photos of young magpies playing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it was a few feet from the edge of the lake, and moving from the water to the shrubbery. Many thanks for identifying it.

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