Passionate about wildlife
The annual renewal continues. Recent visits to Longham Lakes have been delightful. The air over the lake has been thick with insects and returning swallows, house martins and sand martins. These birds perform amazing aerial acrobatics as they change direction at high speed to feed on the insects.
On the lake itself and on its banks family groups of Canada and Greylag geese and goslings feed on the vegetation. Cute.
The woodland area near home is accessed by passing through an open area of grassland known as By-the-way field. There is a metal gate to enter the woodland. At this point the gravel footpath crosses a bridge over what might generously be called a stream, but probably more accurately, a ditch. This is a great spot to linger a little, to look and listen. The bright sunshine so evident just a few steps back is now shaded by the canopy and branches of tall trees. It takes a second or two for the eyes to adjust.
One of the first birds to be seen and heard here will be the Great tit, Parus Major to give it its latin name. It has a bright yellow breast with a black line running down the centre. The black continues up to its head. There is a black cap and collar, with white cheeks. The back is olive green and the wings are grey / blue with a thin white line.
“It rained and it rained and it rained. Piglet told himself that never in all his life, and he was goodness knows how old – three was it, or four? – never had he seen so much rain.”
Winnie-The-Pooh, A.A.Milne, Chapter 9 …in which Piglet is entirely surrounded by water
Storm Christoph wasn’t too bad for us personally, although there were heartbreaking pictures on the news of its impact in other parts of the country.
But today the rain stopped and the sun came out. The birds returned to the feeders.
The Blue tits visited and sang whilst performing their acrobatics. I think I prefer US name Chickadee to the UK Tit, even though it probably would only apply to our Willow tit or Marsh tit. It’s so much more genteel.
Anyway, here is a Blue tit in our garden enjoying the sun.
Stephen's Wildlife 