Sunday 30 May 2010

General (county) news - 30th May 2010

  • A Java Sparrow (escaped exotic finch) has been in Mr.T's garden all week. I think our local hawks will have seen it by now, and it will be lunch for one of them soon enough!
  • Club-tailed dragonflies starting to appear over Thames now.
    IN THE SPOTLIGHT
  • One of the Great-crested Grebe chicks that I've been following since they hatched has disappeared - maybe a pike I guess.

Swift half news - 30th May 2010

  • Heading helter-skelter into June now (the year is flying by eh - 3 weeks and the nights will be drawing in again!)
  • Malu has found the second blackbirds nest in the back garden (once again built in a spot where predators can take out the chicks with no effort at all - blackbirds don't half build their nests in terrible places). Over the last two days he's taken all three nestlings (by the look of them only 4 days old) and killed them all outside the back door. Again, there was nothing I could do about this. Malu 6 - 2 Yala is now the kill score.
  • Eighteen of my bee holes are now occupied with egg, pollen and sealed - a resounding success this year.
  • Woodpeckers drumming on large trees in and around Swift Half - very late to start displaying - I assume the male is just letting nomadic woodpeckers know that this is his territory (remember there were two males in the garden this winter, as well as a female), and that he has chicks by now, I hope, somewhere.
  • No dragonflies over pond yet, but blue damselflies have joined the red damselflies in the garden now.
  • Swifts still only incubating 2 (from 3) eggs...

Tuesday 25 May 2010

Swift half news - 25th May 2010

  • The female swift is certainly only incubating two (out of three) eggs now - the third has been unceremoniously pushed to the back of the nest space and left for two days now - but thats ok I guess - two swiftlets will be easier to raise than a trio, eh?
  • The moth trap is catching a few more moths now - with "The Coronet" moth being the latest newcomer to the garden. I'll leave the trap for a while now, as we're already 10c colder than the weekend, with a good breeze to boot.
  • A few starlings fledged yesterday, but the rest of the local starlings did today - what a commotion when I got home from work! Maybe a dozen juvenile fledglings and a dozen or so adults making a constant racket!
  • I found a large ichneumon wasp investigating the bee post today - so I took her photo.

ICHNEUMON

Sunday 23 May 2010

Swift half news - 23rd May 2010

  • Bit worried about one of our swift eggs (as I type this its at the back of the roof space - separated from the other two eggs). Swifts are known for kicking eggs out of nests though, so no need to be too concerned yet...
  • First hobby (falcon) seen from the garden this afternoon - the only bird to predate swifts...
  • SEVENTEEN of my bee holes have been fully bricked up by my mason bees now - ready to hatch next spring - I'm really happy about that!
  • Wasp beetle on the washing this afternoon, in the hot sun (its been a scorcher of a weekend!)
  • Catches in the moth trap remain pretty patchy - a "Treble lines (moth)" last night, two "shuttle-shaped darts" (moths), three Mayflies (don't ask me!?) and one flying ant!

General (county) news - 23rd May 2010

  • Anna and I spent the day in Surrey yesterday, watching the golf at Wentworth, and I'm pretty sure there's been no clouds at all over this part of the world for 3 days now...
  • The big "hatch" of damselflies has occurred at last - on the dawn walk this morning at a local nature reserve, it was difficult to walk through the clouds of odonates without feeling you were stamping on them! Mainly common blue damselflies they were.
    FLOWER POWER

  • Small copper butterflies out also - summer really hit this weekend, with temperatures up to 28c.
  • Still no great numbers of dragonflies as far as I can tell yet.
  • Pine trees shedding their pollen in great big yellow clouds.
  • As for the weather, it will be cooler from tuesday and MUCH colder (maybe up to 18c colder) the week following the bank holiday (a switch in wind direction to a northerly will do that for us).
  • First cuckoo heard today!
  • I think I've located a kingfisher nest site (in a drainage ditch in a very urban part of the Thames) but I've not investigated further or filmed it, as I've not got a shedule 1 licence and am more than a little concerned about the rise and rise of "enthusiasts" who are not licenced by natural england, filming and disturbing these birds...
  • Because the temperature has been so hot recently, all the local carp decided to spawn today...


SPAWNY GETS.

Friday 21 May 2010

General (county) news - 21st May 2010

  • First dragonfly seen on the Thames today. I think it was a female broad-bodied chaser, but I saw it from a huge distance and it disappeared into a tree. Maybe it was a squirrel then. (No.... it was a dragonfly!)
  • First large red damselflies seen over Thames also. The small and large red damselflies will soon dominate the shallows soon.

Swift half news - 21st May 2010

  • Third egg laid today! (I'm sure that will be all now).
  • First damselflies (male and female large red damselflies) seen on garden pond this afternoon in quite sultry, sunny weather - thats over two MONTHS later than last year - and the same day as I saw a them (and the first dragonfly of the year) on the Thames today also (see General (County) news post later tonight...)

Thursday 20 May 2010

General (county) news - 20th May 2010

  • High temperatures and high humidity meant the insect life boomed into the air today with the martins, swifts etc... reaping a glut.
  • The swans nest that I photographed on my flickr account came under attack from a dog last night - the cob was injured, but all six cygnets remain. For now. Thanks to Joanne from Swan Lifeline for this information (and the information that the mother of the cygnets is seventeen years old - the father is her "toyboy!"
  • Still no damselflies - am I missing something here?!
  • We're expecting very high temperatures over the weekend - maybe as high as 28c (its 24c at 7pm as I write this!)


SWIFT? NOT HALF.

Wednesday 19 May 2010

Swift half news - 19th May 2010

  • SECOND EGG LAID TODAY! (Both nicely visible at back of roof space now...)
  • 14 mason bee holes in my bee post have now been plastered up by the female bees and left for next spring.
  • Moth trap last night catches a "shuttle-shaped dart", a "muslin moth" (see photo below) and a "setaceous hebrew character". Catching a S.H.C. formally means it's summer don't you know - an explanation of that rather bold claim can be found on my flickr site.
  • Yet more bad news on the cat front - Malu (our male kitten) seems to have responded well to his uveitus drugs (he's now off them and touch wood his left eye seems normal again) but now Yala (the female) has what looks like a terrible infestation of ear mites (I think). Her fur from below her ears has been scratched away and is so raw we've had to put her in one of those conical collars (which has made her the most miserable confused cat in the world). I will take her to the vets tomorrow to see what they say...
  • On a lighter note - first elderflower bloom bloomed today. This year we will make elderflower champagne with the crop.
  • Potatoes doing well. 15 plants up (I think the chickens and foxes have done for a few plants though).

Male Muslin moth.
MUSLIN ON MY FINGER

Monday 17 May 2010

Swift half news - 17th May 2010

  • Finally - we have our first SWIFT EGG!!! (I am expecting two or three in total).
  • Anna and I are very pleased!
  • We should (as suggested above) get either two or three eggs in total (I hope all will be visible on the webstream, though the first egg is only just on the screen, so I'm in the lap of the gods re. viewable eggs now!
  • Incubation is carried out by both male and female (not that we can tell them apart) and the eggs should hatch (if we get better luck than last year!) in between 18 and 25 days.
  • Both parents bring insect balls to the young and they will be ready to fledge in between 36 and 57 days. This seems like a long window (blue tits for example all fledge in a three day window generally, after hatching), but the swifts are completely dependent on the weather and insects flying.
  • If it gets colder and wetter again after any eggs have hatched, the developing swiftlets have a trick up their sleeves - they can virtuallu go into a torpor - heartrate and movement will all decrease to virtually nothing, until they get their next meal - most birds can do this, but none as well as the swiftlet!
  • Right then. Even though Anna and I were virtually two weeks out with our predictions of when the first egg would be laid, we feel somewhat justified in that the last two weeks have been pretty darn cold for humans, let alone swifts, so we'll recalculate as below...
  • Anna thinks the first egg will hatch on June 11th.
  • I say June 13th.
  • Anna thinks the first chick (if we are lucky) will fledge on July 26th.
  • I say July 28th.
  • Bear in mind also, that if we are very lucky, and we get two (or even three!) successful fledglings - when they DO eventually leave our roof for the first time, they may well not land on solid ground (or should I say solid roof) again for TWO YEARS!!!
  • Once again, on writing the above, I am reminded just how incredible the humble swift is. My favourite bird of all.
  • Lets hope for a good, successful year - all viewable right here, at TBR news -the home of "Swift Half"!

Sunday 16 May 2010

General (county) news - 16th May 2010

  • A dawn walk around a local nature reserve turned into a veritable safari - with breeding ringed plover strutting up and down a lakeside shingle bank, redshank preening on the same lake, a roe buck running past us (same reserve) and a lovely grass snake. Maybe summer is on its way?

TASTING THE AIR

Swift half news - 16th May 2010

  • Good news as far as the previously-shed-nesting robins are concerned as today I saw at least one juvenile robin bouncing about on Anna's car roof (I thought they had been nesting in the front ivy and it looks certain they did now - successfully)
  • We're expecting temperatures to reach the dizzy heights of 24c by friday (and then of course it will rain) but really good news for our swifts (who still haven't given us an egg yet).

Friday 14 May 2010

General (county) news - 14th May 2010

  • Bigger hatches (eclosures) of mayflies on the Thames today, due in part to a slight change in wind direction from north-easterly (for the last two weeks) to a sou-westerly. We may see the heady heights of 17c over the weekend, and up to 70f (21c) briefly by mid week next week I hear!
  • Black swan cygnets all hatched now.
  • Great crested grebe young growing well.
  • Common terns over Caversham weir this morning at dawn, courting with the male catching fish for the female.
    IT'S FRIDAY...
  • Horse chestnut blossom in full swing.
  • Bluebells dying back now in our woods.

Swift half news - 14th May 2010

  • Carnage in the garden this afternoon as finally Malu (our male kitten, who is now off his uveitus drugs at least temporarily) raided the blackbird nest in the honeysuckle, killing three of the four hatchlings. The fourth I put back (I have no idea why to be honest) and as I type this, the hen is back on the nest, with the sole surviving chick underneath her. I give it zero chance still...
    THE DOWNSIDE...
  • Another buzzard overhead - mobbed by two omnipresent crows.
  • Couven & Cutlery (our two hens) decide to make their new dust bath in the kittens latrine - we are a little disgusted by that (and will have to watch for parasite transfer I suppose) but hey ho, there you go.
  • Still no swift eggs or damselflies in the garden.

Thursday 13 May 2010

Swift half news - 13th May 2010

  • I hope you were watching our swifts at 17:40hrs today (UK time). Both swifts brought in a large downy feather each - to add to their growing scrappy pile of nesting material - but no eggs as yet still.
  • Yala catches her second woodmouse
    YALA 2-0 MALU (iii)
    (goes 2-0 up against Malu, who comes off his uveitus drugs tomorrow. We'll see how the little gibbon goes, but his eye looks completely back to normal anyway. Whether or not the uveitus re-appears due to a more serious underlying illness - only time will tell).

Wednesday 12 May 2010

Swift half news - 12th May 2010

  • Three of the four blackbird eggs in the honeysuckle have hatched - the fourth is imminent I think - but I still think eventually these wee birds are going to be tea for our cats unfortunately.
  • A new species of bird in the garden today - a Whitethroat (a summer warbler - gone back to Africa come the autumn). A really nice find - and I'm convinced now that the mystery bird I saw drinking from the pond last summer was also a whitethroat now. I wonder if we'll get our hawfinch back - a real stunner - seen once last year in one of the damson trees.
  • The swifts brought back another big fluffy down feather (from a pigeon again I think) to their nest space in the roof. No eggs yet though...

Monday 10 May 2010

Swift half news - 10th May 2010

  • Malu had another visit to the vets today, and as he has responded so well to the first two days of his steroids etc... (he's bench pressing 200 kilos as I write this), we are hopeful that the uveitus was caused by a trauma and nothing more serious. He'll finish the course of drugs and then we must just hope...
  • Hen blackbird still on eggs (Malu hasn't got her yet).
  • Still no swift egg but it is still pretty parky here, with our north-easterly breeze stuck in a rut.

Sunday 9 May 2010

Swift half news - 9th May 2010

  • Bad news regarding our male 9 month-old kitten, "Malu". I noticed a haze to his left eye on friday gone and Anna and I took him to the vets on saturday. He has an internal inflammation of the eye -not caused by an external source (bee sting, stick in eye etc...). This probably is anterior uveitis and in extreme cases can lead to blindness in the eye or even loss of the eye. Very often this ocular inflammation is caused by a more serious internal problem in the cat - feline leukaemia, feline immuno-deficiency problems, cancer or something more mundane like toxoplasmosis. The real trouble is that in about 75% of cases of anterior uveitis, the underlying cause is never diagnosed. Not good news then I'm afraid to say. His eye does seem to be responding well to three sets of drugs though, but I am well aware that we could be just treating the symptoms with these drugs, rather than the cause. Fingers, toes and everything else well and truly crossed.
  • First (two) strawberry flowers out this weekend (so I planted four more strawberry plants and re-furrowed all 21 potato plants (even though only 11 are showing at present) to errr... celebrate).
  • Both swifts seem to be spending longer and longer in the roof, at least in the morning.

Friday 7 May 2010

Swift half news - 7th May 2010

  • Both swifts still in roof - its a real shame that the camstreams footage any viewer sees really is terrible quality compared to my direct link to the roof space. I put what I see on the computer next to the embedded camstream footage (on this site or the camstream site) and the quality just does not compare - I can see every feather detail on the swifts - but on the camstreams feed - its so much softer and blurry. You get what you pay for I suppose - and this camstream site was free!
  • Malu (male kitten) has done something to his left eye - bloodshoot, bit squinty - we'll call the vets tomorrow morning if it doesn't improve overnight.
  • 14 bee holes sealed now, and 14 bees still visible in other (unsealed) holes in the bee post - like I've said before - an incredible success this year!
  • Very small (juvenile) newt seen in pond for first time tonight.

General (county) news - 7th May 2010

  • First Mayfly seen today - no big "hatch" (or "eclosure") yet though -we still have an easterly or north-easterly wind.
  • No damselflies / demoiselles on Thames yet.

Thursday 6 May 2010

Swift half news - 6th May 2010

  • Last night both swifts spent the entire night in the roof space and this afternoon, both came back for 30 minutes or so, but as I type this, only one is in the roof. I trust the other is around and ok - the only things that can take a swift are the weather (no food) or a hobby (pretty well the swift's only predator). EDIT (20:56) BOTH swifts back now...
  • Talking of birds of prey, this afternoon provided a three species bird of prey afternoon from the back garden at "Swift half" - with kites, a female sparrowhawk and a male kestrel all seen within one hour.
  • A new addition to the birdtable - one of the local jackdaws had a go at the monkey nuts - must have learned that trick off the jays (which the nuts were successfully, originally put out for).
  • Had to drag Malu off the blackbird's nest in the honeysuckle this evening - the hen is still sitting on four eggs - Malu will get them in the end - I still think thats pretty well inevitable.
  • Anna (6th May) and I (4th May) both wrong with timing of first swift egg then -no swift eggs in space as yet!
  • No odonates (especially damselflies) over pond yet - incredibly late this year.

Wednesday 5 May 2010

General (county) news - 5th May 2010


  • First real hatch of sedge flies on the Thames this morning.

  • First really good numbers of swifts overhead (I counted 15 or so over Caversham Weir, Reading, at 7am)

  • Pair of terns now over Caversham Weir.

  • All Black Swan cygnets now hatched (eight in all I think, from two separate adult pairs).

  • Coots broods hatching also.

Swift half news - 5th May 2010

  • GREAT NEWS TODAY! At 19:30hrs we had our second swift in the space with our first - mutual preening etc... we have a PAIR! Looking GOOD!
  • Eight (of about twenty) mason bee holes in my bee post are now sealed by the adult female bees (and have eggs and pollen sealed behind a mud door) - I've had wonderful success this year with my bee post and am so pleased!
  • My swift webcam has been broadcasting for exactly 1 week now and as I type this, has received 1006 hits in that week!

Monday 3 May 2010

Swift half news - 3rd May 2010

  • Our swift got up very late today - maybe around 10am, and bad news - sparrows are moving nesting material into the swift roof space. Not much material granted, but there's certainly a little turf wars going on...
  • Next door neighbours' vixen was out late this morning also - around 8:30am, and the girls (our hens - Couven and Cutlery) were a little twitchy. Cutlery is still having trouble producing decent eggs, but she managed a reasonable one this morning, and both girls took an extended dust bath this afternoon.
  • Both (quite large) fox cubs seen in neighbours' garden at 9:15 tonight - quite bold they were...
  • 5 potato plants above ground now.
  • Hen blackbird still sitting on her (doomed) eggs in honeysuckle.
  • Cold week ahead (northerly wind) - may put the breeding/hatching/growing back a bit.
  • The mason bees in my post are really busy though - plenty of pollen brought back to the holes by the bees this morning. I think we'll have a full compliment of eggs in bricked-up holes by june at this rate - at present I have 5 holes all bricked up with pollen and egg in (to hatch next year) and twelve occupied holes (I can see the bee inside the hole) ready to be bricked up soon I hope). Wonderful stuff - my bee post is unbeelievably successful this year!

General (county) news - 3rd May 2010

  • Bank holiday monday here today, so I took the opportunity to get up at sparrowfart (4am) and drive to my favourite bluebell wood, near Nettlbed in Oxfordshire, in time for the sun to rise.
  • Unfortunately the sun didn't really rise - very overcast, very flat light, but I got some half decent shots anyhoo.

  • I CAN THINK..
  • Also in the wood were a roe deer, maybe half a dozen muntjac (landing all over the place (in joke)) and a tawny owl.
  • In my opinion, the bluebells are not as prolific as last year.

Sunday 2 May 2010

Swift half news - 2nd May 2010

  • The swift that spends the nights in our roof (we still hope that its a female) is spending more and more time in front of the camera - and the local house sparrow population are giving her quite a lot of grief. They had months to move into the hole though, and chose not to, so I have no idea why they are so insistent on sitting by the roof space entrance and shrieking constantly!
  • I'm still going for a May 4th first egg, Anna May 6th...
  • First potato plants appear above ground this week (three weeks after planting on April 10th).
  • First bit of proper rain over this weekend - yesterday evening and this morning especially.
  • Off to my annual bluebell pilgrimage in an adjoining county tomorrow at dawn, weather permitting...