Missing dog fox

The dog fox didn't turn up for food last night, we have watched him feeding here for more than two and a half years since he played and fed here as a cub.

Recently he has carried food to his mate faithfully every night, while she is in the den with her new cubs. I am concerned for him, because I can see no reason for him not coming to feed.

Surprising behaviour from No-Tail the pigeon

I have often mentioned No-Tail the pigeon, usually when writing about other happenings but now there is a surprising change in his life.

He has been here for a number of years looking back through the blog, I seem to have first written about No-Tail on 8th January 2007 and his mate has been with him almost as long, he is never far from the garden and always nests within its confines. He can usually be found perching on one of the trees,resting or feeding on one of the lawns or feeding at one of the food stations.

He has always been with the same mate, clearly the tail is not part of the attraction with pigeons as he has none, as his name suggests. With no tail he not only looks different, but his gait is much more swaying than a normal pigeons and there is a subtle difference in the way he flies.

Each year No-Tail builds the nest, and his compliant mate dutifully lays the eggs, sadly they rarely have squabs because the squirrels usually find the nest and eat the eggs. They build another nest, lay more eggs and still the squirrels often find it. A few years back they did successfully breed but when the youngster grew up he was driven away.

In the surrounding countryside we often see huge flocks of pigeons, but the garden is kept quite clear of these by No-Tail. He is very territorial about his garden and other pigeon/s who visit are sent on their way without ceremony. Apart from when he drove away Broken Wing, this has until now been the only time we have seen an aggressive side to No-Tail.

Some weeks ago I wrote about a new pigeon in the garden, he/she was a very dirty and scruffy looking pigeon, who skulked about under the edges of bushes. The newcomer tended to stay away from No-Tail and his mate and they for their part ignored him. The newcomer kept as much as he/she could to him/her self, hanging around on the fringes, never pushing in, eating after No-Tail and his mate had finished. Over the weeks the newcomer looked less dirty and better groomed, definitely a lot less dishevelled.

I noticed that although he never joined No-Tail and his partner, he/she was gradually creeping nearer to them. They continued to ignore the newcomer.

One morning I looked out and was surprised to see all three pigeons feeding together. More surprises were to come though. Over the next few days the three continued to not only feed together, but also to roost at night near to each other on the same branch, they also perched together in the daytime.

Three days ago I looked out and saw only No-Tail and the newcomer feeding together, as I watched I saw No-Tail's partner fly down to join them. She was quickly set upon by No-tail, who drove her away to the far side of the lawn. Each time she tried to join them, No-Tail chased her away.

He would fly across to her landing on her back, she would extricate herself and move away, but each time she tried to move nearer the same happened. Eventually she flew right away out of the garden. Each time she tried to return, this behaviour continued, throughout Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, then she learned to keep away from the other two. The rolls are switched she now feeds alone when the other two are not around and perches night and day on a tree branch across the road.

No-Tail was so faithful to her for so many years, they were always together, feeding, grooming, billing and cooing, roosting and perching together, where one was so was the other and yet now they are as far apart as they had previously been close.

If anyone can scientifically explain No-Tails behaviour to his mate of many years, I would be interested to hear.

Busy Father Fox, Hungry Pheasant, and a Charm of Golfinches

I have watched unsuccessfully for the female fox, she has not turned up to feed, which makes me certain this is because she has now given birth to her cubs. This view is reinforced by the fact that the male instead of eating as usual is carrying all the food away, mouthful by mouthful, last evening he spent almost an hour and a half doing this. He is obviously taking it to the vixen who will not leave her cubs for the first two weeks of their lives.

The dog fox has shown such devotion to the vixen, he does not even eat himself, just appears to take all of the food to her. When the food is being prepared, he is already there on the lawn waiting for it to be brought out, as soon as it is he wastes no time in gathering it up and hurrying off with it.

It is another cold day today, the male pheasant, continues to come calling for his food two or three times a day and if there is none in situ, then he comes to the lounge patio doors and standing on the sill, pecks the window to let me know he is there. As soon as I stand up he is off and always reaches the kitchen window before I do!

He is not always so lucky these days though, as he has taken to sometimes waiting by the end conservatory door and pecking that, so of course I am not always aware of him.

Watched a charm of goldfinches in the birch tree this morning, they were still there when I went back over an hour later.

Pregnant Fox

Put food out for the foxes as usual last night, however only the male turned up. During the last week they have both been here every evening as always, and on occasion a third fully grown other fox has joined them, although if he turns up it is usually after the other two have left, when he spends ages gleaning every last morsel he can from the grass.

Lately the regular female has become irritable with the male and driven him away if he comes too close to her. She drives him away either by backing into him and pushing him away with her rear end or by a real show of bad temper, turning on him irritably, making angry sounds and driving him back.

I have noticed her spreading girth and look forward to seeing her cubs, although we may have to wait until August to do so.The evening before last, her abdomen looked very swollen and last night she did not come for food, so I think her cubs must have been born.

I shall watch for her this evening.

The Spring Garden

Another bright and beautiful morning, when I rose from my bed this morning there was a very pretty covering of snow resting on everything, now the sun is strongly shining and where the warmth hits the snow, the green shows through. I thought I would walk around the garden but it is far too cold and uncomfortable to do so, as there is a strong wind blowing.

 I hurried indoors and standing by the kitchen window looking out on the back lawn was fascinated to notice how quickly the snow was melting, as it melted, tiny water droplets were left hanging from the tips of the blades of grass. These droplets were wonderful as they moved in the wind and with the action of the sun on them each one became a sparkling natural diamond, which shone with every colour of the rainbow sharply and strongly defined within, and magically changing from one hue to the next repeatedly.

I spent several moments watching these sparkling treasures, and reflected on the fact that I have no diamonds, but then I don't have the worry of losing them either and these natural ones suit me best anyway. How lucky we are to live in this beautiful natural world where there are so many treasures to be found and enjoyed every day without ever having to worry about them.

Yesterday I did manage to walk round the garden, while the sun was briefly shining. I noticed small groups of white violets blooming under one of the magnolias and was pleased to see a new great tit nest in one of the boxes. The end garden is looking so pretty, daffodils are now blooming and the crocus put in last autumn have been amazing, each bulb has given between five and seven flowers and a couple have even managed eight. What great value! Incidentally I learned an interesting fact that crocus are a member of the iris family.

 The miniature iris bulbs planted at the same time as the crocus, have also bloomed and although they only sport one flower per bulb, the flowers are very long lasting with exquisite markings, so more than earn their place in the spring garden.

There are hundreds of helleborus and snowdrops all in full flower, that have been there for many years. The helleborus come in many shades of both pink and white and have seeded prolifically over the years. Under the magnolia soulangeana  and skirting the periphery of the tree is another type of helleborus, these have smaller flower heads which are green and edged with red. Over the years they also have spread but only around the outer edge of the tree and now form quite a pretty edging to that part of the garden.

The snowdrops have formed large tightly packed groups, which must be split and replanted this year or we may lose them to the dreaded red spider mite.

The primroses which in our garden are mostly primula vulgaris are amazing, they have flowered throughout the whole of last year and are now putting on a grand show.

Caught sight of this early Brimstone butterfly resting in the sun.

The Magpies and the Sparrowhawk

What an amazing morning, so many birds in the garden, wrens, feeding and displaying robins, many blackbirds, a beautiful song thrush collecting nesting material on the bank, great spotted woodpecker on the silver birch, green woodpecker on the grass of the back kitchen lawn,No-tail the pigeon and his partner and while I was still spotting birds an amazing happening occurred.

It was breathtaking and so quick, a female blackbird was feeding on the lawn when suddenly and swiftly a sparrowhawk hurtled toward her, as this was happening two magpies who had been at their usual lookout post in the ginkgo biloba tree dive bombed the sparrow hawk who was almost upon the blackbird.

The sudden assault upon the sparrowhawk by the pair of magpies, threw the bird of prey off balance, he was momentarily turned upside down and a wing brushed along the grass as he righted himself . He quickly regained his balance and flew off --- not as fast as he had flown in though!

This was so sudden that as he flew away the female blackbird was still on the grass, but she quickly scuttled into the undergrowth of a nearby border. The magpies chased the sparrowhawk out of the garden and returned to their roost in the ginkgo, as they settled, so the sparrowhawk returned and the magpies once more gave chase out of the garden and into the orchard at the end of the garden. The sparrow hawk continued to be mobbed by the two magpies and quickly realised defeat and flew away.

I found this episode particularly interesting because I wrote once before about the attack and subsequent killing in the garden of a female blackbird by a pair of magpies, and yet for some reason they appeared to be defending this blackbird.

Spring flowers and foxes

It is a grey misty morning and very cold. Yesterday it rained, the first rain for some time with the result that today everything looks so much fresher and greener.

Filled the bird table this morning, three blackbirds and a robin were waiting , great tits and blue tits quickly turned up. The miniature iris planted last autumn are blooming and along with the crocus, snowdrops and primroses they make the border at the end of the garden very pretty. Many narcissus are standing tall, their buds fattening up. The poached egg camellia, is covered with many hundreds of buds and is a promise of much beauty to come. The viburnum bodnantense is still flowering as it has been for many months it is a great shrub for winter gardens, has a wonderful perfume and doesn't mind being hard pruned to keep it small enough for small gardens.

While watching the foxes feed last night I couldn't help noticing how heavy the little girl looked and I feel she must be pregnant, I look forward to the autumn when we shall have the treat of watching her cubs at play. We have followed these foxes from when they were tiny cubs and the two fox regulars who never miss a night feeding here are the only two left from the last litter who played in the garden. It would seem to be true that very few foxes make it to adulthood. It was sad to see one of our regular foxes killed on the road nearby recently,she had grown into a beautiful adult, a few months earlier I had seen the same thing happen to another of our night time visiting foxes. I think traffic probably accounts for more fox deaths than any other method of their dying.

The badger continues to visit although we don't spot him as easily as the foxes, because his/her visits are not as regular.

I was sad to hear of the proposed deer cull as these creatures have given us so much pleasure, perhaps ours will be lucky and escape the cull.

The Clever Magpie.

A very cold day, it is minus two degrees. The water in the bird baths is again frozen and the birds move between them searching for fluidity, within a few minutes of replacing the water it is again frozen. Almost always these clever little creatures end up at one of the ponds, taking refreshing drinks and baths.

It was interesting this morning to watch the magpie fly down to one of the bird baths to drink, no sooner had he realised it was frozen than he set to work on one corner, chipping away with his strong beak until at last he had broken through the ice and was able to slake his thirst.

I have often admired the admirable and clever behaviour of these birds and here was yet more evidence of their intellect. This was not a quick or easy task for him, but he stuck at it for several minutes until he had chipped enough away for his use.

While watching the magpie the sun appeared, it is now shining brightly, the birds are singing and although it is very cold it has turned into a glorious morning.

Fighting Pheasants

Watched a territorial dispute between two male pheasants this morning, it was very protracted and was already in full force when I glanced out of the window and noticed it, I continued to watch until it ended seven minutes later.

There were no females in the vicinity so that was why I thought the dispute was territorial. I found it interesting to watch, there was much bowing of heads and circling each other. At no point did either pheasant turn his back on the other.

There was much wing flapping and many points of attack when both creatures would rise up in the air facing each other and with feet pushed outward toward the other. This seemed to be the point of contact and this would happen in mid air. At no point did their feet lock together.

Neither pheasant seemed stronger than the other and in all the time I watched, it was only the feet that ever came in contact. Usually after the attack the birds landed, but sometimes they would rise higher in the air. It was interesting to watch these large seemingly unwieldy birds return gently to earth, unruffled after their attacks on each other. Although it wasn't always so, there were times when they were clearly unbalanced and would sink ignominiously to the ground --- wings spread, tails upturned, feet still pointing upward, landing on their derriere in a very undignified manner and then struggle to regain their balance and composure, before starting all over again.

Throughout they were a mirror image of each other and in the end it looked as if a truce had been called, for suddenly it was over. Each one turned away from the other and slowly majestically, head held high strolled off in opposite directions.

When I watched this event I didn't have my camera to hand, however a few days later I again watched the same pheasants disputing territory in the field at  the end of the garden. This time I did have my camera with me and was able to photograph the happening. Note in the bottom picture under the top bar of the fence can be seen a pheasant still in mid-air, while the other one is about to land unceremoniously on his derriere.