Monday 5 October 2015

A Wild Week


Last week was a great week for watching the wildlife in and around the garden at the glorified shed.

It all got off to a great start on Monday evening when I spotted movement in the apple tree. Nothing unusual about that, you may think, but there was something different in the type of movement that I was seeing, so I decided to take a closer look. And what did I see? A female sparrowhawk commandeering a branch of said tree as a plucking post. I managed to get quite a good view and was even treated to a low level fly past when I was able to view the bird in all its glory. And so my week of wildlife wonders began.
And of course I've been seeing the usual herons,
egrets, lapwings, moorhens...

On Tuesday the sun was shining brightly and I paused to enjoy a morning coffee in the garden. Then what should come swimming down the river? A seal. Now I’d seen seals in the river before, but had previously only enjoyed brief glimpses, but this latest visitor proceeded to put on quite a show. It swam up and down for some time, poking out its head or gently arcing back into the water. At times I could see it swimming just below the surface – it was a real treat! I managed to spot the seal (or maybe a different one, who knows?) a couple more times during the week, and am eagerly keeping my eyes peeled for further sightings.

On Thursday I spotted a beautiful, blue dragonfly desperately trying to escape from a spider’s web. I managed to rescue it and watch it slowly regain its strength before disappearing – that was my good deed for the day!

Finally on Saturday morning, whilst the rest of the family were still in bed, I was enjoying an early morning coffee when I heard I strange tapping noise. I glanced out of the window and was treated to a view of a great spotted woodpecker diligently hammering the wooden bee attractor that hangs on the apple tree. It then proceeded to remove the internal bamboo tubes one by one and fling them on the ground, before sticking its head in the resulting space to have a good root around. Finally it flew away leaving a pile of sticks on the ground, which would have caused a great deal of puzzlement had I not seen what had actually happened.

Well, that was last week, what wildlife treats will this one have in store?

STOP PRESS! We have a usable bathroom although there is still cosmetic work to be done before I bore you with a photo of our creation!