Just one swallow.

I know the saying " one swallow doesn't make a Summer" but after this passed winter the sight of the first one was pretty wonderful! Now we hope all the others will soon follow.

Bleasdale Fells Restoration Project.

In glorious sunshine this weekend the helicopter has been busy carrying hundreds of bags of heather brash up onto the Bleasdale Fells. This is part of the work being carried out as part of the project to protect the peat moorland.

The successful early morning Spring Brown Hare Walk was almost finished when the helicopter began its second day of transporting the bags, rounding off the walk with quite a spectacular finale. 



 

 

Star Gazing and Bird Watching.

Last night we braved the cold and spent some time "Star Gazing". A friend brought his new smart telescope and set it up on the cottages car park.
We had some splendid viewings of Jupiter and its moons, Pleiades (The Seven Sisters) and The Constellation of Orion. We always knew that we were lucky to live in a "dark sky" area and it was a real treat to view them in more detail.
While we were doing this the recently arrived oyster catchers were very vocal.
Robert saw lots of snipe while out field working this morning.

Curlew Calling

As I went out into the garden this morning to feed the birds the sun was trying to shine and the snowdrops were looking lovely. Then to make the day even more special I heard my first Curlew of the season and it's even giving a better weather forcast for the half term holiday.

Garden Visitors in Winter

As it's some while since I contributed to The Bowland Blog I should make a New Year effort and get back to it and note the winter visitors in the garden. The song thrushes are still making daily visits for the berries on the holly tree and lately have begun to come to the Cotoneaster by the house. The nut and seed feeders are busy with a variety of tits and the greedy woodpecker.The pheasants,blackbirds and robins are always grateful for the house food scraps but this morning they had competition from a stoat that came and decided to make off with a full piece of gingerbread It didn't stay to eat with them but it carried it away at great speed, it was sporting its white coat for the winter.The garden goes very quiet when the sparrow hawk visits.
Looking over the hedge and down the field I have been noticing more heron visiting the lake usually just one or two but while pegging washing out last week there were three. This caused a bit of a spat I was surprised to see them having a go at each other. As I am sitting at the computer my eye has been taken with a group of feeding birds and if I'm not mistaken I think we have visiting lapwing.....
Yes we have! I got the binoculars out just to make sure my eyes were not deceiving me.
We now have regular sightings of the barn owl hunting as we drive down the road, it makes a lovely site. The new woodland has become good habitat for it.

Stoats and Toads

We have recently had a very playful stoat visiting the garden.
 In Spring we had guests staying who came in one day to tell me about seeing a stoat rolling an egg accross the road as they drove home from Chipping. At the time I said they were lucky to have seen this happen as I had heard of this but never seen it myself. A few weeks ago as I drove through the other side of Chipping village on my way to Whalley I too saw a stoat rolling an egg accross the main road. I ask myself "is this a common event or are the stoats in Chipping EggHeads" ?

Yesterday after Robert cut the hedge he decided to trim some of the ivy on the garden wall as it was hanging over the path and it was giving us an extra shower each time we brushed passed it. As soon as the offending strands of ivy were removed there were three small nests in a row, all within a few feet of each other at between five and six feet from the ground. All were empty of birds but to his surprise the third one contained a rather disgruntled toad.

Pied Wagtails and Swallows

One afternoon last week I managed to spot where the wagtails had been taking all the insects that they were collecting on the garden. They were busy feeding their young in a nest site that has in other years been used by the Grey Wagtails in the wall of Brook House. Barrie Tyrer called and he took the pictures, thanks Barrie.
After my worries that the swallows were very late in arriving this year they seem to be doing very well rearing lots of young with nests in four buildings. It's the first time they have used the verandah on the summer house.