Thursday 10 November 2011

Too little too late! A hopeless case


The Safari went out with Wifey and Frank last night on his  pre-bobos constitutional and came across the tiniest little Hedgehog we've ever seen so late in the year. It wasn't much bigger than a tennis ball and probably weighed only about 100g, nowhere near the 500g s/he needs to be to survive hibernation and wake up next spring. Also seen for the first time since Bonfire Night was one of the Peregrines asleep on the tower. Earlier in the day, during the only five minutes of sunshine a Red Admiral fluttered its way through the garden.
Here's a pic of a big bruiser we took a while ago, at this size they have plenty of reserves to see them through their winter sleep.
Another odd sighting was recorded this morning. Looking out at the empty squirrel damaged feeders we saw a Dunnock hop up onto one and poke its head into the feeding port. In all our years of watching birds we can't ever recall seeing a Dunnock on a seed feeder before...is this something new or are we just not that observant?
Finding some dry bread in the kitchen we threw it up on the garage roof and waited for the inevitable melee. Surprisingly it was a couple of Black Headed Gulls that were first down and had scoffed the lot before the usually quickest off the mark Herring Gulls got a look in.

Unfortunately by lunchtime the sun is the 'wrong' side for getting decent pics of the gulls coming in although the SE wind did give the best angle of approach from our point of view.
The Red Admiral also put in an appearance at lunchtime as the thermometer hit the giddy heights of 13.5C aka hot for November!
Where to next? Not sure what tomorrow will bring.
In the  meantime let us know who's knicking the scram from under the noses of the big boys in your outback.
Late Edit - a small movement in the corner of our eye had us reaching for the bins - a male Blackcap. Now is this the  same one we had  a few days ago which does a circuit of the local area or is it another just movin on through?
 

1 comment:

Warren Baker said...

Good record of Blackcap Davo, must be an overwinterer surley.

Ive not had Dunnock at a seed feeder before!!