The little owls remain in the same area and I have been seeing them almost daily. There were at least 2 fledged young up to a week ago (you can see a couple of my very amateur pics here)
Yesterday (Monday) there was a Mediterranean gull feeding in the arable field alongside commoner gulls and hordes of jackdaws and a few rooks & carrion crows. Today there were in excess of 50 rooks there – surely a record count for this area?
With the crop having been harvested, the field by Aldcliffe Road has become an all-you-can-eat buffet for birds. It seemed to be mostly pigeons with some gulls and rooks/crows (?) until a couple of days ago, but now the geese have discovered it. Are they greylag or pink-footed geese, please?
Whilst scything pathways through the thickest of the Big Meadow rush this morning we put up snipe on three occasions, two of which came from channels we had already cut.
The crop was finally harvested yesterday (12th Aug) after an abortive attempt on Friday.
Here is Jonathan’s message
Greetings All,
There’ll be a volunteer session at Fairfield Orchard, Flora and Fauna this
Saturday, August 12th, starting at 10.00am and finishing at 1.00pm or
thereabouts.
Tasks for this occasion include:
* Repair the Alder Pond bund (if the moorhen chicks have moved on).
* Continue strimming the Fauna path edge.
* Remove bindweed and goose grass from selected sections of the Pads
footpath hedges where the coverage is high on new saplings or newly laid
hedge.
* Continue the scything work (just where depends on progress by the
scything groups in the meantime).
* Cut back overhanging vegetation along the track down from Sunnyside Lane.
And that’s all for this occasion,
Best wishes