Swallows.

[Omanyra 2,518]

Scotlands the place for cuckoos now..

[neil cooney 10,416]

I'll presume that big storm ye had will knock the swallows back a few days as it came from the South but Spring is definitely here as I seen Tadpoles yesterday.

[king 11,984]

I worked in a sand and gravel quarry.

And loads of sand martins were nesting in the vertical sand face about 5ft from the top.use to spend my break time sitting behind the cabin watching them great site to see.must of been 50 to birds there.

The quarry was on Cannock chase.

And a few times a week when tracking the dozer about a mile to the sand pit.about half a dozen deer would be walking the road ahead.

[Tiercel 6,986]

I'll presume that big storm ye had will knock the swallows back a few days as it came from the South but Spring is definitely here as I seen Tadpoles yesterday.

Seen tadpoles about three weeks ago, only just hatched but definitely tadpoles. The earliest I have ever seen a Swallow though is April the 10th.

 

TC

[neil cooney 10,416]

That was early Tiercel. The ones I seen were only just hatched (is that the correct term ? LOL) as I've been looking every day.

What's nice is that the spawn is in a new pond which you don't see too often. I put buckets of spawn into a nearby pond last year so hopefully it's a result of that.

There were some Mallard on it this morning but didn't have a duck on it all Winter .

[peterhunter86 8,627]

Ive seen plenty of spawn the last few weeks.theirs a field near my mothers house thats alwaya water logged but never seen frog spawn in it but every summmer thier does be thousands of tiny frogs in it

[neil cooney 10,416]

There's a lad after saying on the angling forum that he seen 2 Swallows yesterday.

Looks like the storm didn't slow them down.

[Tiercel 6,986]

Seen my first Bumble bee this afternoon, it was in the shed looking for a place to make a nest.

 

TC

[peterhunter86 8,627]

Seen my first Bumble bee this afternoon, it was in the shed looking for a place to make a nest.

 

TC

 

Ive seen a couple the last few weeks

[Nicepix 5,650]

I spotted a Hoopoe yesterday while out mole trapping. That is really early for round here. They are such a funny bird to watch and not one you would think could migrate such long distances. We had a pair nesting at the bottom of the garden last year and raised two chicks.

[dytkos 17,819]

Seen spawn and a bumblebee on March 9th

 

Cheers, D.

[Nicepix 5,650]

I heard a cuckoo yesterday evening. I've been off fishing near to Marans in SW France for a few days and the area teems with cuckoos in season owing to its marshes and fens. There was a flock of about 20 egrets in the next field and three cranes, we call them grue, got up and with hardly a wing beat took a spiral path to several hundred feet on a thermal.

 

About 7 o'clock I was watching a sparrow hawk giving flying lessons to one of its young. It was so funny; the parent was trying all it could to coax the fledgling into flight but it just hopped from one branch to another just like a harris hawk does when its following the owner. Eventually it got in the air and after a bit of panic flying managed to get back to the nest site. Then it went off again, doing laps around a stand of trees, getting braver every time. This went on for about forty minutes and while watching the hawks I heard a cuckoo in the distance. It chimed three times, enough for me to be sure it was the real thing.

 

Then bu99er me if this afternoon I didn't see a female cuckoo flying near to the road about 200km from Marans, near to my home. They are everywhere!

[Tiercel 6,986]

I heard a cuckoo yesterday evening. I've been off fishing near to Marans in SW France for a few days and the area teems with cuckoos in season owing to its marshes and fens. There was a flock of about 20 egrets in the next field and three cranes, we call them grue, got up and with hardly a wing beat took a spiral path to several hundred feet on a thermal.

 

About 7 o'clock I was watching a sparrow hawk giving flying lessons to one of its young. It was so funny; the parent was trying all it could to coax the fledgling into flight but it just hopped from one branch to another just like a harris hawk does when its following the owner. Eventually it got in the air and after a bit of panic flying managed to get back to the nest site. Then it went off again, doing laps around a stand of trees, getting braver every time. This went on for about forty minutes and while watching the hawks I heard a cuckoo in the distance. It chimed three times, enough for me to be sure it was the real thing.

 

Then bu99er me if this afternoon I didn't see a female cuckoo flying near to the road about 200km from Marans, near to my home. They are everywhere!

What month / months do the sparrow hawks breed in that area?

 

TC

[Nicepix 5,650]

 

I heard a cuckoo yesterday evening. I've been off fishing near to Marans in SW France for a few days and the area teems with cuckoos in season owing to its marshes and fens. There was a flock of about 20 egrets in the next field and three cranes, we call them grue, got up and with hardly a wing beat took a spiral path to several hundred feet on a thermal.

 

About 7 o'clock I was watching a sparrow hawk giving flying lessons to one of its young. It was so funny; the parent was trying all it could to coax the fledgling into flight but it just hopped from one branch to another just like a harris hawk does when its following the owner. Eventually it got in the air and after a bit of panic flying managed to get back to the nest site. Then it went off again, doing laps around a stand of trees, getting braver every time. This went on for about forty minutes and while watching the hawks I heard a cuckoo in the distance. It chimed three times, enough for me to be sure it was the real thing.

 

Then bu99er me if this afternoon I didn't see a female cuckoo flying near to the road about 200km from Marans, near to my home. They are everywhere!

What month / months do the sparrow hawks breed in that area?

 

TC

 

According to the books April - July. That said, the same books claim that nuthatches nest at the end of April and only have one brood. Yet the three pairs that visit our bird table were commuting to and from every few minutes from from the end of March last year and again at the end of April, indicating that they had two broods, one a month earlier than is reported.

 

The thing that got my attention with the sparrow hawks was their calls. I'd heard the sort of call you get from marsh or estuary birds, but not quite as melodious or haunting, A bit like a pub singer doing Enya. Then I noticed the female sparrow hawk flying along a tree line and calling the same way. The chick had come outside the nest, about 100 metres from where I was. She was calling it out.

[fat man 4,741]

I think the most Cuckoos I heard in a whole Summer was two. We just don't get many in Ireland.

Your living in the wrong area,loads about us down here in the bogs.