13 August 2024 : Wet and grey day with rain and wind, but ended bright for the last few hours
Nothing happening during the day, so when the weather cleared I decided to take a quick walk and leave the Owls for another day, maybe check on the progress of the chicks tomorrow ( see earlier blogs for details ). There wasn’t much flying tonight and the pond was empty, not even the resident Heron could be found. This isn’t unusual this year, looking back on the past couple of years, the pond has always been busy at this time, but not so now. The water has been very quiet this year, we would normaly have had Gooseanders, Tufted ducks, Golden Eye, Teal and lots of Mallards visiting but this year apart from one early brood of Mallard chicks, and some early Gooseanders, we’ve had nothing visit apart from the Otter, the bird life has been very sparse, even the Mute Swans have been absent for a couple of months now.
The natural thought is that this is due to the tail end of the Avian flu epedemic but I’m not so sure it isn’t down to the very odd weather we have had this year changing the movements of the birds, even other local ponds are empty of birdlife. I know its effected our bee hives, which have struggled to get out and forage, so they are very low on honey stores to see them through the winter thats coming.
Only time will tell if the birds return, lets hope they all come at once later in the season, but for tonight it was Swallows rather than pond birds. All the young Swallows are now flying and feeding themselves , flying low over of the grass fields and coming to the pond only to drink. I spent a while just watching them land on the power lines for a rest, looking very bright and colourful in the evening sun.
Further afield the Hares were about, but they were very nervous tonight and despite my best efforts I just couldn’t creep up on them, I followed two around for an hour and never got very close before they were up and off ! Still it was nice to get out after a wet day and the forecast for tomorrow is much better so hopefully I’ll get over to check on the Barn Owls.
