Thursday 28 February 2013

First Cuckoo of Spring...

Almost the end of February and things are moving....
I heard a Cuckoo as I walked back from checking the post...
fortunately there was none as it would have ended up on the ground.
It was most likely passing through on its way North...
but nice nonetheless!!

Also GrusGrus are saying that large movements of Cranes are occurring in Gallicanta...
so keep your eyes open!

And just now [19:13] we've seen the Barn Owl hunting over the meadow in the evening dim!
I went out to get a better look and followed it over the bief into the field next to the potager...
at which point I had to check my eyes...
something else white was moving...
yes!
There were two, wheeling around each other...
and then they separated and one came back across the meadow...
the otherhunting over the fields either side of the road...
too late now to get them to use the barn owl box...
or the owl slot...
they'll have found a nesting point... and it must be near!
We'll keep you posted.

Until then, here's another of my brother's Barn Owl pictures to keep you entertained...

Nick took this at Sculthorpe Moor near Fakenham in Norfolk
The Sculthorpe Moor flickr site is well worth a visit... 
Nick took this picture on February 8th.

Tuesday 26 February 2013

The Eagle has landed...

Well, that's what the birds on the feeders by the house might have thought....
Woke up this morning to a covering of snow again...
and the sight of that Long-eared Owl [Asio otus] Hibou Moyen-duc here again...
normally I don't look out of the bedroom window early...
haven't got my eyes in!
But Pauline groggily asked "Is it still snowing?"

Perhaps I should more often...
the Long-Eared Owl was perched on part of some willow brash that I'd left last year....
nice, I thought, it's still around.
It flew off towards the dead willow....
almost a silhouette against the white.
It struck... in the snow.. and flew on with something.

I came [sorry...was dragged]down to feed the cats....
job done... went to re-vamp some old coffee...
look out of window to see something large fly past toward the cherry tree feeders...
something about that shape, the "jizz",  said...
that wasn't the Kestrel....
no....
it was.........

Wozzat? {Excuse the quality... I still hadn't got me eyes adjusted}
Just scanning...

just perched.. and I got that shot before it flew off again.
The most amazing thing to me was that the small birds...
mainly Siskins and various Tits...
happily carried on feeding...
as if they knew it wasn't looking for them as food.

This shot shows how close...

It was on the left...
 But in taking that last shot, I notice that the feeders are getting low...
I'll trudge out in the snow in a few minutes...
when I have cocooned myself in warm, weatherproof clothing...
and refill the feeders....
the field one is totally empty!

The field feeder is towards the bottom left... and look,  there's a Jeremy flying in!
Now is not the time to stop feeding the birds...
it is time to put out extras!

A small party of Reed Buntings [Emberiza schoeniclus] Bruant des Roseaux are here...
foraging in the willow nursery area...
one of the few areas of bare ground...
they'll come under the house feeders.

These are either females, or still in Winter plumage.

And the Pheasants are right by the house...
under those feeders...
except the cock who...
hanging around on the opposite side of the millstream...
is desperately trying to attract one of them...

Look at me... please look at me... I'm the greatest... look at my pretty colours!
Here... look at the other side!!


Go on...
he looks good against the snow, girls...
despite the silly posturing.



Sunday 24 February 2013

Crashing owls all round...


"Oooops! Crashed again!!"

We were treated to another Barn Owl visitation yesterday evening...
it crashed in front of the kitchen window.

Actually...
it didn't crash... the picture above shows it mantling its prey...
that is, shading it from view by spreading its wings out and around the prey.


Two more pictures of mantling the prey.


It tore its prey, probably a vole, apart before swallowing each piece...
in contrast to this morning's visitor... more of which later.

Have you finished it?
Yes... if you don't mind?

The Barn Owl [Tyto alba] Effraie des clochers stayed around for quite a while as dusk fell...
this is the first time we've ever seen a Barn Owl in daylight!
It was wonderful to watch as it glided across the meadow...


back and forth, hunting methodically...
it struck a couple more times whilst we could still see it...
but I'm sure it hunted for a while after.

Strike two...
Oooops... not quite!      Pounce...

Aha! Got it!!

If that guy's still watching... I'll eat elsewhere!!


As you can see it was a handsome bird in good plumage...
whether or not it is a new bird that has rapidly come into the territory vacated by the one the Buzzard ate...
or the original one that's been present all the time...
the latter being unlikely as the average lifespan is only four years...
but it might be, as this is a fairly calm area, all told.
They can survive in the wild for up to 12 years.
I have put some general Barn Owl facts about survival at the bottom.

Strike three by the dead willow...
It also ate this elsewhere!!



This morning's visitor was a Long-eared Owl [Asio otus] Hibou Moyen-duc [which we've had here before]...
I saw it first while I was feeding the cats...
it was sitting on one of the fence posts of the potager, quite near the snow covered road.

First sighting... what's that?
It's an Eagle Owl... er... perhaps not? No... it's a Long-Eared Owl

It then moved to the weather station...
now is this why I'm having to replace the wind-speed whirly?...

I think it has got another vole? It ate one before it flew here...


...before taking up temporary residence, close to the field feeder, near the faux-gatepost in the dividing tree line... both Pauline and I were surprised to see the the small birds on the feeder seemed to be totally blasé about it...

The orange base to the primaries can be seen here...
The above four shots were taken through the big telescope... but hand held. [see note below]


whereas they scatter if the Hen Harrier comes through...
like it did yesterday morning...
[or the female Kestrel, who has recently taken to attacking in a Sparrowhawk fashion.]

 Hen Harrier coming through yesterday morning...

I cannot now remove the major part of the dead willow as it and the Barn Owl began using that as a hunting perch...
as does the Kestrel...
and, probably, as the wood is of little calorific value, it is better to leave it there as both bench and seat for us....
and highpoint perch for the raptors.
So I'll just tidy the top up so that I can maintain the ground around it and let it rot away quietly...
providing also food for the woodpecker...
a breeding place for beetles...
and a hiding place for other insects and arthropods.


As I type [6PM] the Long-Eared Owl is still hunting the field...
and it doesn't bother tearing the voles it catches into pieces...
three or four jerky gulps and they're gone!!

I missed getting that on film...
as well as a threat display, very early on by the road, as the Kestrel came and hovered over it...
I was looking down the 'scope both times...
no time to get a camera!

The threat display was magnificent...
I had the owl in the scope and saw the Kestrel appear...
the owl leaned forward as if to take off...
and, while looking at the Kestrel, and remaining hunched forward....
slowly spread the wings to display only those bright orange feathers at the base of its primaries.
It was all the warning not to mob that the Kestrel needed...
it stopped hovering and flew on into the walnut.
The owl resumed it position on the post...
but "ears" up...
alert...
for further attack.

As well as not cutting the big willow apart, I shall be erecting a faux-fence line, straight down the length of the big field, using posts reclaimed from the riverside as I clear the barbed wire...

Cold and snowy it might have been, but we've been treated to a wonderful display by the local fauna!



---------------------------------------------------oo00OO@OO00oo-----------------------------------------------

Average life span for a wild Barn Owl:
Due to the following dangers and environmental factors, wild Barn Owls do find it very difficult to thrive...
the majority of young owls will sadly perish within their first year.
Harsh or severe weather conditions such as prolonged rain & snow can have a great effect on the Barn Owls ability to survive. Many die from starvation under severe conditions. They simply struggle to find prey.
Motorways, busy roads & railways, loss of grassland habitat & hedgerows,
the loss of suitable roost & nest sites, [for example old buildings & barns being converted into dwellings like at La Forge],
a shortage of natural tree hollows due to removal of old trees to "tidy up" the environment all effect their survival.
The life span of a Barn Owl in the wild can average anywhere from 1-5 years, the average for a mature adult being four.
In a more protected & safer environment a Barn Owl, including captivity, can live up to 20-25 years.
And some ignorant or plain misinformed gamekeepers still shoot Barn Owls!!

The majority of this paragraph was gleaned from:
The Barn Owl Centre's website
and Wikipedia's Barn Owl page

---------------------------------------------------oo00OO@OO00oo-----------------------------------------------

Because of the very low light, all the above pictures were taken at 1600 or 800 ASA... this is why they are grainy... the sensor has to act like high-speed film to grab a picture.
The colour differences are also down to colour balance setting between the Pentax Optio and the Pentax K7... and no time to re-set!!
The "dodgy"scoped pix, that I hand-held, exhibit vast differences in exposure and in some cases vignetting... it involved holding the camera in one hand... focusing the 'scope with the other... holding the 'scope, camera and tripod steady with the third.... and pressing the shutter button with... the fourth!!

'Twas wonderful fun!! We now need to repaint the white walls... they've turned blue!!

Thursday 21 February 2013

Can spring be far behind?

At last we have had some weather that permits us to sit outside with a cup of tea in the afternoon, to hang out some washing, to do some tree work in the meadow.

After lunch yesterday* we were doing the first of these when an unmistakable braying was heard.
Cranes!#      

The moon provided a good backdrop to the last pictures.

A small flight was coming along the ridge opposite our house, between the Aigronne and Claise valleys. Tim "rushed" into the house to get his camera, as fast as he could go while wearing "the wrong trousers" - chainsaw protection - while I kept an eye on the flock, which was heading into the wind and not progressing terribly fast.

A bit blurry... I had the camera on Manual focus and forgot!
 
Tim fired off as many pictures as he could as the flock swirled around to follow the Aigronne, and I looked at them down the wrong end of Tim's binos (dammit - I'll get used to them one day).
Tim reckons he can count 52 birds in the group - much easier with digital cameras!

Better this shot... but still not the best I've taken! But you can count them...
 
Now to report the sighting to the LPO Champagne-Ardennes group which is coordinating records of crane migration in Europe and parts south and east.


For another rarely seen, large, migratory bird please follow this link to Niall & Antoinette's "Chez Charnizay" "erm? Non- Grue" post... and they saw grues yesterday, too! And got some smashing pix!!

# Crane (Grus grus) Grue cendrée

* Wednesday 20th

Wednesday 13 February 2013

We've been (w)ronged!

Winter in a rural area is always a time of movement...
our meadow, as you can see from the previous post's pictures, is not a good place for an underground...
or even undergrowth...
existence.
As I type I can see an ever growing molehill appearing beside our Viburnum...
a mole is a rare critter this side of the bridge, but they aren't equipped with gills, so a migration is demanded...
just hope it doesn't damage the roots.

It is bigger now!!


But that would be nothing to the damage that has just been done to our electrics...
especially the phone line...

A rongeur... most likely a rat...
has got into the space between the two floors and had been visiting our cellier to scavenge...
in the first instance potatoes... until we moved them to safer, reasonably rodent proof place...
it wouldn't respond to a live trap...
baited first with a hunk of spud...
then with chocolate...
the latter irresistible [allegedly]...
whilst I have been trying to discover where it was getting in.

I blocked off the access from the barn... again!
It is the major point of weakness...
the place where the barn wall was breached to bring the services into the house.
This is probably the original point of entry...
blocked once, and the soft limestone  at the side now dug away!
But, due to the design of the house, they could have a route in via the loft!!

Still we had visits...
and heard scratching in the walls...
aaaaAAARGH...
the night time scratching...
not conducive to a good rest!

And it had been visiting the cellier....
I blocked holes that I found with some scraps of the hemp insulation that is between the plasterboard and the original wall....
that showed me two places where the rat had got in again by its disappearance.
I blocked those off more permanently...
so I thought...
and then we lost the 'phone line and my thoughts turned to the damned ex-Christmas tree that had been planted outside the front door of the longére many, many years previously...
the 'phone line runs through that tree....
close inspection showed a branch pushing down on the cable between the post and the house...
nothing to do but wait for the engineers...
and for me to remove the branch and let the cable run loose again...

Or, so I thought...
I had gone over to the longére yesterday to open up the grenier so that they would have easy access when they arrived...
and the 'phone rang... WHAT!!
It was  one of the engineers...
so it wasn't the cable into the house...
that meant it wasn't their problem, but ours...
and that means money...
but they have the necessary test equipment...
and wire, too!

I busied myself getting other points accessible...
like the point of entry of the cables into the house...
yes, you've got it...
THAT point of entry...
the entire fuse box and house cable run is there too!

Having cleared the corner so that I could remove the section of worktop just there, I looked up at the back of the cable run and saw that, like the Alien from John Hurt, something had exploded from the back...

An 'ole...

So I took that cover off... and yessss!! Bingo...
the rongeur had been there...
and had chewed the phone line to bits at the distribution block...
I took the cover off the cable run to give them access to the phone line...
and discovered that, down at the bottom, greater havoc had been wreaked...

It sat here while it gnawed, and gnawed!
Well nibbled... but nothing severed!
But at the bottom... havoc! [New hole to barn is visible at the left!]
This is the Ethernet cable.. still passing data... fortunately!
It is a 60 metre continuous run!

As you can see from the above pictures, it had nibbled at the shielded Ethernet cable linking our computers between the buildings, as well as totally destroying the the phone cable just there...
it had also had a go at the power lines to a plug socket and a light...
somewhere!!

Insulation stripped... now repaired!!

As much as I hate using something like this, the poison is now down and waiting!!

Overnight, nothing has changed...

I will spend the morning re-insulating the intranet cable with clear nail varnish, before wrapping it again with some cling film and then kitchen foil to re-shield it...
then I will split some 'gain' as a covering and fix it over the two cables...
then I might be able to start on the things that I was intending to do yesterday!!
Like making nestboxes...

The "smell chequer" wants me to replace "rongeur" with "Roger"... 
as in "we've been Rogered" perhaps!? 
APT!!
---ooo000OOO000ooo---

Other observations.....
We've now had 115mm of rain this year.....
but earlier today the Hen Harrier gave a fly past and the valley's Great White Egret was hunting frogs in our meadow.

Monday 4 February 2013

Takin' a rain check!

I decided just now to see how much rain we'd had so far this Winter....



October our machine recorded 84.6mm...
November it registered 87.6mm...

I've got to move trees from here...
...to here! I'll not need to water in, then?

But there was less in...
December at a meagre 70.5mm
And so far in 2013 we have had 84.0mm.
Of which 22mm fell on Friday the First of February...


That makes a total of...
326.7mm...

most of it falling on ground that was already sodden...
with no time for the water to drain away before the next bucket emptied itself!
32.67cm equates to almost...
thirteen inches!!

Grazing meadow... or proto lake!!


February Filldyke it is then....
with a further 20mm forecast before St. Valentine's Day!!

Sunset over Lake Favier
I've added this next bit after answering Susan's comment...

Lake Favier stretches from Gatault...
the "grazing meadow" picture above...
almost to ours...
one kilometre of flood plain...
where people are growing Winter Wheat!!
That has meant the destruction of a water meadow habitat...
and added further pollution to the river system!

Overstuffed raptor...?

Yes, yet another raptor post...

Her usual vantage point over the potager... the walnut tree.

I saw a different type of behaviour from our local Kestrel yesterday morning.
She wasn't on watch like this in the Walnut tree...
she was on the ground in the potager...
just standing there...
then she stamped a bit...
I thought she'd decided to hunt for insects on the ground...
and was trying to disturb them...
but she then took off with a vole in her left claw....

So what... well, it was very odd!

This was where she flew to from just left of the picture.


Odd, yes, mainly because she flew low...
very low...
and for only a few yards...
before settling on a pile of old tomato plant stems that we'd set aside for burning.

She stood there for a moment...
looking around...
checking the area.

A closer picture of the blighted tomato stems.

She then she swung the vole forward and dropped it on the pile...
she "mantled "... ie: spread her wings over the kill to shield it from others.
I was expecting to watch her eat it....
but no!

What she did next was something I've never seen before....
she poked it, head first, down into the pile....
"hiding" it.

The hidden Field Vole.

And she then flew up into the walnut tree and took up watch.

Back on her normal vantage point.

I can only think that she had recently eaten her fill, spotted the vole and took it before anything else could... with the scarcity of prey around... and decided to cache it for later.

This is not something that I have heard that raptors habitually do...
but Shrikes are renown for creating "larders"...
so why not the raptors as well?

Given the fact that we saw the male Hen Harrier hunting in the field next door later....
I think her decision was a good one.
The only problem with this sort of hiding place...
it can only be short term.
Unless she came back to it whilst we were out...
night scavengers...
fox...
fouine...
badger...
Jerry...
will probably sniff out and scoff her snack!