This Morning (and a few from the last two weeks)

 This morning was dry, sunny and very windy. I walked to the hide and the walk there wasn't too bad as I was sheltered from the wind by hedges and trees for most of the way, but once on the viewing gallery it was horrendous. The wind made my eyes water, and holding the bins and camera still was difficult to impossible.

 

I took a few photos of three Marsh Harriers but wasn't happy with the quality. I tried a bit of video which was a little better but the wind just drowned out any other sound 😂😂

 

Other than that it was a good morning:

Kestrel over Southorpe

Treecreeper in Wassand wood

 

Song Thrush, Southorpe Road

Song Thrush as above

Brown Hare in freshly tilled field

Brown Hare with Mere as a nice background

Chiff Chaff at Weatherhill

Chiff Chaff as above

View to the West from the hide 

View to the East from the hide

We had a few misty, moody mornings a while ago that were more like autumn mornings than spring. Cool and poor visibility but lovely to walk in. 

A few more plants are growing through now but everything seems pretty slow for some reason - is it just me that thinks things should be a bit further on than they are?

Ground Ivy in flower 

Reeds coming through in the wood

The local mammals have been scarce (apart from deer of course). A couple of Otter sightings were very distant, mid-Mere, so pics were next to useless - but that doesn't prevent me from publishing one here 😉

Otter mid-Mere

Hare sightings have been curtailed by the ploughing activity over the last 10 days or so.

Brown Hare this morning, very few seen due to ploughing

Our garden hedgehogs have been seen every night, they activate the security lights as they toddle down the path past the patio doors so we get a nice view for a short while - the trail cam gets them though.

 

Hedgehog on trail cam

While on the subject of ploughing, over the past 10 or so years I have got used to winter crops being planted as soon as the year's crops have been harvested, so come spring the crops start to grow and provide cover for early nesting ground-nesting birds like Lapwing and Skylark. Yes, the wintering farmland birds like Linnet and Yellowhammer miss out on the seeds in stubble fields, but we can't have it both ways. 

 

This year we have had a change. After the crops were harvested last year the fields were ploughed, but they were planted with what looked like rape seed. This started to grow and got quite tall before the ravages of winter set in and killed it off. Not enough though because the fields were then sprayed with weed killer (which killed the surrounding grass as well). Ploughing has since commenced and nearly finished, followed by tilling and planting, but during the ploughing the tractors have disturbed the Lapwings that have taken to nesting in the local fields.

Lapwings disturbed by ploughing (distinguishing marks obscurred as the driver is not to blame)

 I noticed this morning that a strip of land has been left unploughed, but whether this is still to be done or is for the bird's benefit remains to be seen. Three pairs were in the fields but only one pair was present this morning.

 

to be continued - my dinner is ready!