Misty January

"Alba" the pigment-free pheasant

Continued clearing Rhodies and bramble on the wayleave yesterday - attempting to make space for a patch of meadow and possibly somewhere to grow more food. The wayleave runs north-south, and so gets the sun pretty much all day, which will be great for growing native fruits, nuts and berries. We cannot plant trees underneath, but we can certainly plant bushes - just need to work out a way to keep the rabbits and deer at bay until established.

New feeder "pockets" on the
fallen branch

After ferrying the hacked foliage over to the fire area, we moved up to the hive to make a few mods to the feeders and test out a method of getting the trailcam up high enough to monitor the Tawny owl box at a safe distance.
It was about this time that the shooting started - it sounded incredibly close and so I marched off thinking to myself how I might politely tell them to bugger off.  As I got closer it became clear they were in fact right on the border between ours and Bob and Rita's, so I suggested they might not have permission and they assured me they wouldn't be coming any closer, with a wave across the stream I trudged back to the hive. Only one more round to go they said and they would be done. We could hear the beaters coming down through the wood from the East and saw the odd bird break cover and make a dash for it across the wayleave towards the waiting line of guns. As the beaters got closer and closer the last remaining birds did the smart thing and all took off together, flying towards Rais on various flight paths with me stood beneath them, willing them to make it to safety. Most lived to see another day; only 23 days to go and shooting season will be over which gives us seven months of relative peace and quiet.

Male Great Spotted Woodpecker

Today's second session in the hive after some minor adjustments...
The light started better than it was last Sunday, but got progressively worse again throughout the afternoon. Thankfully the temperature was much better and I was able to sit without the heater on for quite some time.
I was also fortunate enough to see our albino pheasant again today. I saw her yesterday, on the run from the guns - thankfully today she let me shoot her with my lens instead.
Sadly I think one of my trail-cams has captured its' last image as I cannot seem to get it working again, despite drying it out and putting fresh batteries in it - at least this Great Tit found a use for it.

trailcam tit

Also saw a second tree creeper this weekend, fired a few shots off, but they were nothing special - it spends most of its' time with its' beak in the bark, so I have a number of shots of the back of it's head but not much more. Still a very pretty LBJ and one of my favourites.
In fact today was a day full of "almosts" ... I almost got a Nuthatch taking off, I almost got a woodpecker taking off and I almost got a Great Tit taking off - I'm going to blame the poor lighting of course - permitting me only a sluggish shutter speed, but it was good fun trying and of course there's always next time.

and so continues Rhodie clearance.....