 |
raynevillage.info |  |
 |
| HOME | < LAST MONTH | NEXT MONTH > | RETURN TO WILDLIFE | FEEDBACK |
Country Matters August 2003
The pair of Green Woodpeckers nesting in our garden ash tree had what we thought was one male youngster. Paul Fairhurst found this on our drive late one afternoon and when I arrived it was climbing up the side of a fence. I did not think it wise to leave it at the mercy of foxes and cats overnight so I put it back in its hole. The next day I was filming the parents feeding it in the nest when the mother called the youngster out and it climbed up the tree and flew off. Much to my surprise the other parent then brought food to the nest and while it regurgitated the food out popped another head, that of a female. I had only seen the dominant young male bird at the entrance hole so his sister obviously had to take second place at meal times. Two days after they departed the nest Wally Waite found two very wet Green Woodpeckers on the ground near the school playing field. He picked them up and got them to fly off with their parents. I was downhearted when hearing this news but since then we have had a visit to the garden by a pair of youngsters, hopefully ours.Vic Carson, Hance Lane contacted Syl and I with a problem. The martins’ nest under the apex of his house roof containing four half grown young martins had fallen to the ground. Vic took the lid off a tit box and after padding out the bottom, put the young in and, leaving the top off, we screwed it up where the nest had been. Vic phoned two days later and said the parents had not returned to feed the young so it seemed that we had not been successful. Then he phoned again two days later to say the parents were back and feeding the young. It made all our efforts worthwhile to see the parents feeding their young through the small Tit entrance hole. Most young birds do not survive for long in the nest if not fed. But some such as the Swift can. The Swift parents faced by bad weather will fly off for some days. The young go into a state of reduced metabolism until their parents return. It would appear that martins may also be able to do this.
The problem with being conservation minded is trying to be nice to all the flora and fauna. When I was picking gooseberries recently there was a young Blackbird inside the fruit cage and while I watched it flew up and grabbed a loganberry in its beak then by dropping back to earth it hoped to pull the loganberry off. It had not learnt the trick from its parents properly yet so every time it grabbed a berry it only managed to remove part of it. After watching it spoil several berries I intervened and tried to drive it out of the cage whereupon it disappeared into the raspberries no doubt reappearing to continue it’s training after I had departed. We have a large number of Blackbird nests in the garden and the parents are well fed every day by the food I put out for the pheasants the smaller birds. Every year we are repaid by the blackbirds eating our soft fruit and cherries. This year I did finally keep them from the cherries but foolishly left them for a few days before picking again. All that was left were the stones attached to the stalks. The wasps had decided they were ready for harvesting and had descended in force. It is no consolation that the Sparrow hawk takes many of the young blackbirds to feed its own brood. I could make a pie but according to the rhyme it needs four and twenty blackbirds and plucking that number does not appeal.
We have a deer fence round the garden, which is reasonably successful except it does not keep out the Muntjac. I have found that walking round the garden and saying out loud that our freezer needs topping up with venison works for a while as deer being intelligent do understand English unlike the pigeons. The pigeon having been well fed in the morning by my largess then sit around cooing at each other all day. Not needing to seek food they then spend their time pecking at my vegetables. I now know where the term pigeon brain comes from, as despite my making clear my love of pigeon breast pate they have not taken the hint. But I’m supposed to be writing a wildlife piece for the editor not the cookery section so perhaps the pigeon are safe until they start on our winter greens. I have just seen our hare rush by, no wonder the pinks have no flowers this year. We are always being told to learn to live with the wildlife, perhaps it’s the wildlife that needs educating.
Wildlife Reports
Phil Monk, Smithfields, has Stock Doves in his garden and has seen a pair of parrots flying around.John Norton, two juvenile Sparrow Hawks at Haverings and many thousands of Painted Lady butterflies down the track from Pound Farm House.
Wendy Moss Kidder Road, had House Martins returned to nest on their house after 15 years absence. Mass migration of Painted Ladies through Rayne on Saturday morning, 19th July. Numbers were certainly into 6 figures.
To Top of Page
For corrections or changes, please email :-