Friday 5 August 2016

Looks like....

Hooray.....hopefully, now I have re-computered I can get on with this blog....

1030 - 1200 Sunny, 10% cloud cover, WSW f2-4, slightly chilly Autumn is well on the way, having had Sand Martins over the its two weeks ago, Cuckoos having, mostly, left...and Swifts seemingly disappeared too....the first migrating Sedge Warblers have been ringed over at Cuckmere valley....lots of birds though still have young in the nest as well as recently fledged....

Today I saw a recently fledged brood of Wrens....all gingery and bright yellow gapes with the adults click a clicking in the scrub near by. Not a huge amount to report really. 130+ Greylag and 60+ Canada Geese were noisy on one of the pits. 40 or so Black-headed Gulls were near by. The immature Buzzard was still calling with an adult calling back from some trees. The other raptor was Kestrel.

On the way in to the pits I pass this field....a few short weeks ago it was full of what some people would call 'weeds'...I would refer to them as seed bearing plants.....various thistles and other plants....all of them having just but grown to fruition...


....then along comes the farmer....the last I saw, about two weeks back I suppose, mid insect breeding time, he was out there spraying everything....killing the plants and the insects, affecting two groups of birds in one....now...he has removed everything.... ...as well as the above destruction of various flora and fauna...


...this is what is left of one of the Great Lettuce plants....he obviously decided to take a trip along the lane side of the hedge of the field above and chop down anything and everything...luckily he didn't do a great job and some of the plants have survived, still being attached and flowering... On the more positive side....I found these, possibly, Ruddy Darters, attached and laying eggs in this ever decreasing puddle...


Sometimes its about being in the right place....as I stood watching over one of the fields along came this Painted Lady and settled at my feet....

1 comment:

  1. Bloody farmers!!
    Same thing is happening here at Pittswood Graham. I've had enough of it now, i'll probably stop watching my patch at the end of the year.

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