Buzzard Attack !

The Harriers were kept very busy warding off a predatory Buzzard again this week-end.  It had presumably identified a very nice meal sitting in the Harriers’ nest, as the chicks still have not fledged.

The poor parents were beside themselves, constantly dive-bombing the Buzzard which stayed worryingly close to the nest site for quite some time. Fortunately, it gave up eventually.

A lone Cormorant has been a regular visitor to the lake recently and various types of deer entertain us most evenings. A pesky Peregrin got one of the plump Wood Pigeons last week – feathers all over the lawn !  There are now two nesting pairs locally, on Warton Crag and in Middlebarrow Quarry.

The weather continues to be gorgeous……………………….

June Up-date

I spoke too soon !   Not only has the weather been great since I posted, but two guests this week have seen an Osprey fishing in the lake.  Not sure if they saw the same bird each time, as two have been seen together at Leighton Moss apparently. This bodes well for the future…..

Our resident female Marsh Harrier has taken to spending more time away from the nest, perched on a favourite dead tree waiting for the male to return from hunting. When he does, she flies to meet him and he passes over the catch which she will then usually take back to the nest for the chicks. To be able to watch them do this tricky aerial maneouver repeatedly is quite amazing. Soon the chicks will be flying around the reed bed – can’t wait to see how many these clever parents have raised this year.

TTFN.

PS.  Martin,  your unidentified butterfly was almost certainly a Ringlet.

June 2011

Well, summer has never really arrived this year.  Nevertheless, most of our guests have found bright intervals to enjoy the area. The last few days have been rain-free which has allowed guest Martin Kessel ( www.kessel.co.uk )  to exercise his photographic skills to great effect. We think he was slightly taken aback to find he didn’t actually need to leave the house to get great shots of the nesting Harriers,  Buzzards, deer etc.    He was really lucky to capture some of the “action” when a marauding Buzzard took too much interest in the tasty meal presented in the Harriers’ nest and was aggessively seen off by the parents.   One photo in particular captured the action, with the Buzzard inverting to protect itself from attack from above ;  see -

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1795216843421.2096587.1329718438&l=0f3119ffe6

Martin now hopes to return to “capture” the young Harriers after they fledge in a couple of weeks, always assuming they stay close to the house, as they did last year.

The work we did to slightly re-design and re-plant the garden two years ago has paid off, with spaces filling in rather quickly. It seems to have been a blaze of colour for months now. This should continue for some time, with the Mock Orange and Poppies in particular about to join in. We took part in the Village Garden Open Weekend last week, to celebrate the village’s 200th Anniversary, and it seemed to have been a great success, raising over £2000 for Marie Curie.  Particulary appreciated seemed to have be the giant Hostas, Iris and Heucheras, but the star attraction was Granny’s giant African Violet.

Talking of flowers, the 100 year old Lady’s Slipper Orchid appeared again       (http://www.cumbria-wildlife.org.uk/ladys_slipper.html), having survived yet another attack after it flowered last year, and the new young plants in Gait Barrows from Kew seem to be prospering.  The Birds-eye Primroses,  close to the lake, don’t seem to have fared quite so well this year.    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primula_farinosa)

Finding the cospicuous black and yellow caterpillars of the Mullein Moth on our, err, Mulleins for the first time this year brought home just how delicate the balance is between surviving and not in the world around us, and how much wild life depends on what we do.  We would like to see more caterpillars on nettles in the area………….

That’s about it for the moment, except to say that Otter pug marks have been seen around the lake again – but no sight of the animals yet.  Also no sightings of the Osprey this year, but we have heard rumours that Natural England are thinking of building a nesting platform by the lake, the timing of which may be apposite, in view of what we have heard about the probable killing of  three  males at Rutland Water.

Spring 2011

The Marsh Harriers are back !  It is fabulous to watch their arial displays.  This morning there were four cavorting over the reed beds.  “Our” pair are already on with renovating the existing nest site, right in front of the house, with the female in particular diving in that unmistakable dramatic fashion into the reeds.  Can’t wait  for the femail to be sitting on her eggs and be fed from the air by the male.

We have had Siskins at the niger seeds most of the winter, but they now seem to have moved on. But replacements are aplenty, including early Swallows, Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs and an interesting ( and noisy) pairing of a Snow Goose with a Greylag.

Spring is bursting out all around and the triple blossom Cherry Tree by the house will look like a giant puff-ball for the next 10 days. The daffodils have been wonderful this year and the experts say the bluebells should be spectacular.

The lawmower has broken, so we have a deep green forest instead of the usual short sward, thanks to the last of our 20/10/10 !  Oh well, hopefully back to normal next week-end.

2010

Well, what a year 2010 was.

Birds had to be the highlights. The Marsh Harriers which have nested in front of the house now for 4 years produced two youngsters and it was fabulous to watch them learning to fly.  They stayed around the reed bed for about three weeks.

Then there was the Osprey.  A number of guests saw this magnificent bird catching fish in the lake……We are keeping fingers crossed that it will return in 2011, perhaps this time with a mate !

We tend to take for granted our regular local birds, which others might think of as scarce – Bearded Tits, Reed Buntings, Sedge Warblers, Barn and Little Owls, Water Rails etc, and we musn’t forget the Bittern – we were fortunate this year to hear it “booming” from the house in May and then, at the height of the cold spell in December, we managed to get a really good look at one down the road at Leighton Moss RSPB Bird Reserve.

On to other local natural wonders, we were thrilled this year to see the new arrivals of the Lady’s Slipper Orchid, a joint effort by Natural England and Kew Gardens to try to re-introduce a sustainable population in Gait Barrows Nature Reserve ( which is immediately outside our garden fence ).

Our regular group of  lepidopterists from the Upper Thames Valley had an excellent year, cataloguing everything they wanted to see, including Duke of Burgundies and High Browns.  Maybe next time they will glimpse the Netted Carpet Moth……

Once again we had wonderful weather in May and June, and then 6 weeks in a white, crisp winter wonderland to finish off the year – it doesn’t get better than that !

May I take this opportunity to say a big “Thank you” to all our guests, the overwhelming majority of whom make it a pleasure to be of service, and to wish one and all a happy, successful and healthy 2011.

Charlotte.