WILDLIFE WEDNESDAY

Wildlife Wednesday 30-6-2021 from the Meadow Hide

By Peter Hanscomb

It’s another Wildlife Wednesday , and today I’m flying solo at the Meadow Hide. The meadow seems to change daily and the canopy of hogweed covering the whole meadow now has another layer of cornflower blue Meadow Crane’s-bill , which is a member of the Geranium family. The meadow really is starting to blossom into a multi coloured carpet of purple , red , blue and yellow flowers and provides a really relaxing and calm environment to spend a few hours watching and photographing wildlife.

With the Greater Spotted Woodpecker juvenile now able to feed itself it seems it’s now time for another feathered mother to find enough food to feed her youngsters , this time it’s the Blue tit. It has been a real pleasure this spring to watch and film the young Robins , Woodpecker and now Blue tits. One of our aims later in the year is to install a few bird boxes ready for next year.

It’s been a good day for smaller woodland birds today at the hide. Most of the regular gang made appearances including the Blackcap , Robin , Blackbird and Great tit. We had a few of our less frequent feathered friends visit including Song thrush , Bullfinch and Goldfinch but the star of the show surely has to be the fairy common Blue tit mother and fledglings.

The paddling pool has been really popular today. Our resident rat pack thing it’s their “manor” but today they have had to share with most visitors either drinking or having a quick bath in the pool , including our previously shy male Blackbird.

Guest book

Mammals – Brown Rat , Rabbit

Birds – Blue tit , Great tit , Chaffinch , Robin , Dunnock , Blackcap , Blackbird , Pigeon , Greater spotted woodpecker , Chiffchaff , Goldfinch , Bullfinch , Song thrush , Crow , Wren

Birds of prey – Buzzard , Red kite ,

Others – Tree bumblebee , Speckled wood butterfly , Red admiral butterfly , Peacock butterfly

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