Dorset News. (1 Viewer)

[Nina P]

I am not too sure where to out this information, so I'll report it under my local patch. Last night a flock of swifts swirled down from the north of the region, silently swirling and feeding as they passed, (nothing odd there) but this is the first time they have flown over my garden!!! Does anyone know if they are the first migrants to leave? as I believe they are heading south with purpose, as they were not screaming as they whirled about I was very intrigued!!
This weekend saw the surprise of a smooth snake in my flowerbed, slowworms at the bottom of my garden basking in the sunshine, I'm just waiting for the first adder to show itself, and grass snakes are commonplace, as they have a nasty habit of eating my dear frogs, but that's nature! there has been rather busy thrushes in my green and verdant patch, as the evidence of smashed snail shells show and this morning I saw four of them amongst the newly planted and watered borders, and around the orchard area. Eight blackbirds twenty greenfinches, countless sparrow family members squabbling, and a real ruccus with the chaffinch family, almost as bad as the starlings, the collared doves are still mating, Robin's gone quiet, but still puts in an appearance at the water feature, but the spotted flycatcher makes up with its acrobatic leaps into the air, (can't be enough of them as there are so many flies, we have to keep the windows and doors shut to keep them out) the housemartins have taken to the air this weekend, so that is the first brood up and off. The green woodpeckers are now returning to the garden, I thought that the greater spotteds had driven them away, but now both types are frequent garden visitors.
There was an adonis male fluttering around along with a comma and peacock butterfly, not to mention the whites of different groups, and there are a large number of moths, quit large and some of them set off the security light they are so big, but I admit to being ignorant of what ones we have. I hope that this will be of interest to some out there, respectfully Nina

:cat:

 

[Karl J]

Certainly is of interest. Good variety of info in there, nice one

A smooth snake ? Is that what it's called or is just a snake thats smooth ? Sorry ... may be obvious to some, but I've never heard the term before

 

[Nina P]

Smooth snake?

Yes Carlos, It is one of the three species of true snake but ony in Dorset, Hampshire, Wiltshire,Sussex and Surrey are they usually seen, and not very frequently, hence surprise at seeing it in the flower bed sunning itself, and though I have lived within these counties, I am lucky if I see one in five years, so to me that is a very special sighting. The slowworm is not a true snake and falls prey to adders, that is why I'm wondering when, not where I will see the adder, thus giving me a full quota of snakes.
Glad you like my "neck- of the- woods" and I hope many others will too, Nina.
:cat:

 

[Karl J]

.... interesting

 

[bristolbirder]

Hello Nina. Wow, what a garden, smooth snakes, adders, spotted flycatchers, woodpeckers. You really are very lucky.

My family and I will be staying fairly near to you in a couple of weeks in Lymington. Bet I don't see half of what you normally get in your garden!

Thanks for the report.

 

[Nina P]

You want to be here honestly!!

I love the space and would welcome visitors to enjoy all the delights of my garden with pleasure, and if you are this way, can I recommend Wimborne as a starting point, and head for Cranborne, Holt is a nice place, with a good Pub called the Old Inn, and there are many fields and moorland past there and to the right, lots of horseriders use the bridalways across the moors, there is a swan rescue place over that way too, so welcome to have a look, and deter the fireraisers, and loads of people pull up beside the road and watch the buzzards, and other raptors, we also have some linnets appearing along the roadside about this time of year, or cover the ground after dark and listen for the nightjars, really I think my part of Dorset is pure heaven. The fact that I'm a gardener first, and have a plant stall outside for the local school funds, means I get a lot of time to watch the Birds too, and I plant for nature and have a meadow type grassland within the garden, which I cut fairly short but not too short, thus I also have butterflies feeding on the nectar that clover and birds foot trefoil provide. Hope you do pay the area a good long look as there is so much to see. Nina.
:cat:

 

[bristolbirder]

Thanks for that Nina. We intend to do a lot of travelling around the area, although the rest of the family are not quite as keen on birds as myself, so hopefully I'll see plenty. Nightjars would be the icing on the cake.

If I see a nice looking house with a plant stall outside I'll knock on the door!

 

[Nina P]

By all means, there are also pots and troughs on the bay roof, full of plants, if you really want to see nightjars, drive through Uddens drive off the Ferndown by-pass at about 5am, this month you should see them sitting in the road, at a distance their eyes look like coke cans glinting inthe full beam of headlights, get closer and they look like pigeons sitting in the road, but they rarely take off so be careful, as they believe they are invisible, you can get extremely close this way, but they nest alongside the by-pass on the roads that the sunseeker rallye use every year as the forest part of the rally.
I had to drive very carefully through this road when I worked the early shifts, and this next week is the most likely time to see them before they get wise to traffic as they will be this years young, specially in the humid heat that we have just had but thunder is due anytime now and that is the weather that sees them on the road, good luck in finding them, Nina.

 

[Nina P]

Report on the swifts update.

The Swifts are definately leaving as they were no longer flying and screaming around the cottages near the Drs surgery this morning, where they were breeding in large numbers. It seems too early fot them to be migrating, and it also answers my first question, they must be the first to arrive as I'd suspected, and therefore it follows that they should be the first to leave, but it seems all too soon....
The swallows are still here though and the housemartins are still flying in and out of their nest on the house, and the little "madam" has not been able to snatch any of them by sitting on the gutter and lieing in wait, that is a definate bonus, Nina.
:cat:

 

[bristolbirder]

Always seems sad to me when the Swifts depart. As if summer is over and I haven't had my summer holiday yet!

I noticed that the Swifts have started to disappear here last week after the heavy rain. Despite some bright days there are nowhere near as many about now as there were. One more week and they will all be gone. Let's hope they can all safely return next spring.

 

[Nina P]

summer over?

I do not like to think that summer is over yet so I'm looking at the swallows now and their little chiruppping twittering song that is my first indicator of the arrival of summer and as long as I hear them I refuse to think of summer waning, and they twitter on sometimes until october here, and that makes summer last for me. The housemartins are the last to leave and they can stay until well into november, and I often wonder if that is the reason they seem to suffer so from the adverse weather, and the losses so high. perhaps I'm wrong and they just start late and continue for as long as they dare, and therefore seem to have low numbers on arrival, could be just arrive as they leave in dribs and drabs. Nina.
:bounce: :cat:

 

[bristolbirder]

No Swallows or House Martins for me around here although there is a village and small town nearby where they can be found. On the rare occasions that I travel through them I have noticed, this summer, a noticeable drop in numbers. From different reports that I have read they were late in arriving this year but locally there does appear to be fewer birds.

Have you noticed a reduction in numbers Nina?

I console myself, however, with daily visits to my seed feeder from at least 2 pairs of Bullfinches with their young. The adults have been visiting daily since the winter whereas, previously, I had only ever seen 1 Bullfinch in the garden in the previous 20 years!

 

[Nina P]

housemartins in decline?

The housemartins here this year, seem to have just about held their numbers in as much as there have been the same number of nests, and at one time there were two pairs trying to share the already occupied one on my home, so although there seemed to be a decline there was a sudden influx very late this year, bringing up the numbers eventually. The fact that this year they have susessfully raised one brood that have now fledged, and the next brood are on the way, I will await the migration session before saying if this has been a successful year, as there are still the weasels to cause another failure, and the female kestrel who has been the downfall of previous years breedings. So far so good though.
I have a pair of bullfinches that still show up from time to time, and the yellowhammers and chiff chaffs still can be heard, the greater spotted woodpeckers are still chrruping around and the greenwoodpeckers have started laughing, so there is rain in the offing, the thrushes seem to have suddenly increased in number but I never saw them with young but there are so many now that early in the morning there seems to be an enormous amount of tapping, and this morning my garden was full of snail shells, almost every stone had smashed shells around it, and my wooden stepping stone has a load of shells too.
Just over a week ago I was watering the garden and where I had watered half an hour before was this thrush, and the only way I knew it was there was by this knocking on wood sound, which made me look for what was making it, there was this rather brave bird using my wood for smashing the snails shell, needless to say I watched with great interest. I felt elated, Nina.

:cat: B

 

[bristolbirder]

Nina. It really does sound as if you live in paradise! What I would give to have a garden like yours in such a wonderful part of the country. Maybe you could share some of it's delights by posting a few photos? It may give a few pointers to others on how to manage and maintain a good wildlife garden. :t: B

 

[Nina P]

unable to post picture

Bristolbirder, have spent over an hour trying to post picture without sucess, but if you can let me know an email address to send you a couple of pictures with pleasure, unfortunately my PC will not reduce the size to post here, and I'm not eaufait with PCjargon to work it out right now, so will have to wait for help to arrive to show me how to do it. Nina.

 

[Nina P]

Hope you like it bristolbirder...

Hope you like it bristolbirder, and if you can do what I can't then by all means post it here. I ended up four hours trying to reduce the size but still can't find the way so I will have to wait for my daughters new husband to enlighten me, although I have taught myself how to do so much on this thing, but I get confused with all the icons and thumbnails and all that jazz, I asked questions in all the most roundabout ways I could think of but still to no avail, that I ended up last night with very little sleep for having stayed in the one place too long, so today I must not be here too long or my wheelchair will be winning, and I don't want that to happen:- I'm too young to be there yet...., but I know it is on the cards, so I keep fighting.
If I don't who will keep up the garden then?
You may see how closely packed the planting is, but the idea is to have something of interest to see at all times of the year, and to give the birds shelter and protection at the feeing stations. there are some fairly large pink hebes where the little birds dive first before alighting onto the bird bath and table close to the pond so anything trying to creep up will get rather wet. works too! Nina.
:cat: B

 

[Malvolio]

Swifts are amongst the latest spring migrants to arrive and are also just about the first to leave (though cuckoos and male shorebirds/ waders leave early as they have no parental duties).

Most Swifts do not arrive until May and most have left by mid-August. A sudden disappearnce of your local swifts does not necessarily mean they have migrated though, the adult birds will travel hundreds of miles to find suitable feeding areas when the weather turns bad in their breeding area. As the adults may stay away for days until a bad weather system clears away the young go into a state of torpor until they return.

MV

 

[Nina P]

Thanks Malvolio, that is very useful information, and so this years swifts arriving before the housemartins was a one off then? I know the swallows were here before the swifts, by about a day too, I appreciate the news, cheers.
This is a picture of my unseen from the road view of the open space behind my home, and the only way to pinpoint it would possibly be by air, but airspace is protected by airport, so here goes, courtesy of bristolbirder, with my grateful thanks:-
B

 

[Surreybirder]

Very nice, Nina! You are lucky living in such an idyllic spot... and close to all sorts of other nice areas, too!
I agree with whoever (above) said that cuckoos are one of the earliest 'summer' visitors to leave.
I saw a dunnock feeding a cuckoo that was about 8 times as big as itself earlier this month... while it's lazy (cunning?) parents were already enjoying their summer hols in Spain or somewhere! I'm working on an article on cuckoos which I hope to put on my web site eventually.

 

[Nina P]

swifts over head!!

I wonder if the swifts overhead have arrived with the farmers slurry wagons, trundling up and down our road, as the neighbours are complaining about the sudden increase of flies in the houses, but that is all part of living in the country, and comes with the territory. I'm used to the complianers as my father was a farmer and the complaints when muckspreading, were so bad that the ministry made us spray the stuff with perfume which in my opinion made it worse not better, but the powers that be were not in agreement so we had to oblige. Have you smelt the rooster pellets when they are wet? there is no complaint anyone can make at that now, and that is unperfumed!!!! Nina.:bounce: