We have been away for a couple of weeks. Whilst it is exciting to go and see the wildlife of another part of the world, it is certainly always lovely to be back home again.
Of course we left plenty of trail cameras quietly monitoring the goings on in the meadows and the wood in our absence. In fact there is quite a photographic backlog to work our way through.
We are yet to visit the wood to see what we have there, but here are the highlights from the meadows.
Although it is another month before the Badger cubs might be expected to come above ground, we are thrilled to get a sneak preview of them when their mother decided to move them to a new sett:
These two photos are about six minutes apart and so it is probably safe to assume that these are two separate cubs being moved.
Here are a couple of daytime photos of lovely healthy foxes:
And Green Woodpeckers always do things a little bit differently from other birds:
The female Sparrowhawk has been photographed at the pond:
In these photos above, you will notice the defences that we put down in the wild pond in an attempt to provide some protection to the frogs who were being eaten in vast numbers by a Grey Heron. Well, the Heron continued to visit while we were away although much less regularly now that the spawn laying frenzy is over for another year:
We see that it also visited the hide pond and helped itself to some frogs there as well:
It would be great to see a bit less of this bird.
Finally, the Parakeet that has been flying around the meadows for a few months has now been confirmed as an Alexandrine Parakeet – the bird ringer managed to get some photos of it and so we now know for sure. Although the shot of it below doesn’t show the diagnostic red patches on its wings, it does show the much heftier bill and wide black marking on its neck. It is also a much larger bird that the Ring-Necked Parakeet:
We have returned to the meadows to find that glorious spring has arrived. Looking forward now to going to the wood to see what has been going on there…