The weather continues to be torrential rain so the last few days have been a case of nipping out when the rain stopped for a short while. I have kept a check on the Barn Owls during the rain and floods, and the adult has been getting out as much as possible, but for the bulk of the past few days it has been stuck in the roost. It looks like two of the three chicks have fledged, as far as I can see there is now just one remaining, unless there is another hiding in the very back of the nest that I cant see. When the rain stops the chick has been screeching for some food and the adult has been doing its best in the wet weather, last night it was forced to hide in a tree near the road as the rain suddenly poured down, sadly it was just too far away to get a decent photo, but i did manage to get a quick few shots as it came back over the lake with what looked like a meadow vole in its talens.
At home the pond has all but doubled in size with the volume of water thats been put down, but it still remains quiet for birdlife, we have never seen so few birds on the water in all the time we have lived here. At best there is a single Dab Chick ( Little Grebe ) and maybe a Moorhen, the Grey Heron visits every few days and the Herring Gulls appear every now and again. The Swallows seem to have left with just a few left hunting with the Sand and House Martins but even their numbers are starting to drop.
We hope that the other resident birds will start to reappear, but its oddly empty at the moment, maybe an effect from the bird flu, or a response to the very wet weather and seasonal changes, only time will tell. Looking back to this time last year the pond had a pair of Mute Swans, Teal, Mallards, Golden Eye, Tufted Duck and Cormorants all regulaly here.
Today the weather seems to have broke and the forecast is for sunny weather so hopefully I will manage to get out a bit more, watch this space.
