December 2009 - Lakeside: Stonechat

Monday 21st: Snow fell again yesterday on top of the snow that has already frozen. Finished work at lunchtime until New Year's Eve so what better way to spend the afternoon than visit the Lakeside in search of the elusive Siberian Chiffchaff.

It always seems a degree colder down by the water and today was no exception...it was FREEZING! Plenty of waterfowl about on the lake:Pochards, Coots, Canada Geese (of which there were many), Mallards, Tufted Ducks and 30+ Mute Swans. Below is a video taken with my camera of a family of Mute Swans; the cob and pen together with four cygnets. This appears to be the only Mute Swan family that is still together.







Well I tramped all over the snowy island and around the lake looking for the Chiffchaff but I guess it has departed the area. Well that's the name of the game, you win some...you loose some! But slogging through the snow, I came upon a rather flighty Stonechat as can be seen from the videos below. I followed it all over the island until it finally flew northwards, away from the lake. It's a pity I just had my camera to take video and not the camcorder.







On my way back to the car, I saw this female Reed Bunting feeding on tiny crumbs of bread dropped in the snow by people feeding the ducks. How it can see white bread crumbs on the snow is one of life's great mysteries.

December 2009 - Sparrowhawk terrorises House Sparrows

Thursday 3rd: From about lunchtime today until 4:10pm, the Sparrowhawk (I would think that this is the same individual that has visited the garden these past few occasions) resided in the garden, killing and eating two House Sparrows and preventing any bird from feeding at the feeders. It was only at around 2:30pm that she caught the first male House Sparrow. She did not kill the Sparrow before she began to pluck it. So some viewers may find the video footage upsetting. This is nature in the raw! The Sparrowhawk then caught a second Sparrow at about 3.45pm, just as it's geting dark. Again she didn't kill the Sparrow before plucking it! We've since trawled the internet and found that Sparrowhawks in common with some other small birds of prey, do not always kill their prey before plucking or eating it. Finally she departed the garden at about 4:10pm in the gloom of dusk.

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December 2009 - Sparrowhawk returns!

Saturday 5th: The Sparrowhawk came back for a return visit to the garden this morning. The raptor returned on three other occasions during the afternoon. While it was here, the bird would repeatedly fly down to the ground from its perch and try to catch a mouse. On its second visit a hapless mouse was caught and killed by the raptor. The first time we saw the Sparrowhawk was about 10:50am. In all probability it had made earlier visits but as we had a sleep-in, we don't know for sure. While it was here, as one would expect, the surrounding area was devoid of any other bird life but for a squirrel. At first the Squirrel was apprehensive but very quickly just ignored the Sparrowhawk. Though he was chancing his life by repeatedly getting close to the bird, he would get a monkey-nut and stroll past the Sparrowhawk and up a tree. I suspect that the Sparrowhawk would not unnecessarily attack the Squirrel unless he ventured too close and risk injury.