At 8am this morning I was just fitting my lens to the camera body, when there was a commotion in the apple tree in front of the Information Centre. Out shot a Blackbird in one direction and in the other came a Little Owl. It landed in one of the oaks and I managed a couple of photos before it disappeared higher up in the branches.
It's an adult, and according to one birder on the UK Bird Identification facebook page, it's probably a female due to its scruffy brood patch on it's front....
I walked around the rest of the oaks and located another one.
I'm about 80% sure it is not the same bird....
It is another adult though, you can tell by the cream spots on it's head.
I was showing a couple of dog walkers my photos when one of the adult birds started alarm calling and I heard the distinctive 'hissing' sound from a juvenile.
However despite spending a good part of my morning hanging around the trees, I never did locate the juveniles.
But after their absence last year from the oaks, it really is great to see them back there.
I found three singing Chiffchaffs at the park today. Two were in the woods and not that visible, but the one below was by the river at the very top of a dead tree....
I had two brief sightings of Green Woodpeckers, and there was lots of 'yaffling' calls around the woods and copses. The Great Spotted Woodpeckers were a bit more hidden today but they could also often be heard. The male Kestrel was seen again flying to and from the same tree.
The warmer weather meant that a few butterflies were out.
A male Orange Tip....
and a female Meadow Brown...
Of course I did a bit of hoverating, and spotted three different species...
Volucella pellucens....
Helophilus pendulus...
and Chrysotoxum bicinctum
Along with the butterflies, the warmer weather had bought out some other critters.
Dock bug...
one of the Sicus fly species...
a Woundwort shield bug...
I think below is only a Bluebottle, but it was just so colourful....
and there were lots of these about in the nettles. Tentatively identifying these as a type of seed bug...
Also out in force today were the wonderful Scorpion Flies.
This one's a male with his bulbous tail end....
I was heading home when I spotted a large swarm of honeybees around the ivy on the top of the Secret Garden wall. There were thousands, and for a while I just stood back and watched them all. 15 minutes later they appeared to have settled down in to one large rugby ball shaped mass.
I have never seen this before, so was completely intrigued. I know that bees swarm when they are looking for a new nest site which is generally when a new Queen is about to be born, and the old Queen moves out.
There is a wild hive already in the stable blocks and they can be seen going in and out of the hole from the Secret Garden, but there are also proper kept hives nearby and I had seen the beekeeper early this morning. So I have no idea if this is a new swarm from the stable block hive or if the beekeeper has let one of his Queens go and she's taken thousands of worker bees with her.
I researched 'honeybee swarm' when I got home, and came upon this great website.....
It tells you everything you need to know about swarms, Queens, how they make honey, gardening for bees and much much more.
This swarm will probably be there for a couple of days. There will be 'scout bees' out already looking for a suitable nest hole.
Under that mass is one Queen bee. The Queens aren't strong fliers, hence she has probably landed in the ivy for a rest and the workers have surrounded her.
What a wonderful thing to witness.
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