I stood in the conservatory just before 7am this morning, sipping my tea and watching the bird feeder activity, when there was a sudden explosion of movement as a female sparrowhawk shot in from the field, across in front of the feeders and up over the trellis…… my only real memory is of heavily barred underwings and a fanned tail as she swerved expertly across the feeders… then she was gone! I am not sure if she caught anything, but there was a lot of alarm calls in the air after that encounter! Such amazing hunters.
The fox feeding station has been busy tonight with Fern and the cubs appearing and then Flynn later on!
The cubs are so big now, it is difficult to tell them apart. It is their behaviour that helps. Bill is big and bold and chases off all, but Flynn from the food. Tess is still a little smaller and has less black on her legs and Marvin (who I think may be a female!) feeds happily with everyone and has black socks.
I took some screen dumps from the i-catcher tonight as I realised I have not put any up for a while and these cubs are pretty much full size now!
The evening started with Fern ….
Then Tess appeared…. she always greets Fern by coming low to the ground and wagging her tail furiously… she seems very pleased to see her… The shot below shows Tess in the foreground…. as big as Fern now! Yu can see only her feet are dark.
These two disappeared for a while and then Flynn appeared. He seems to only appear when the rabble have gone!
… and finally, two hedgehogs appeared… had 4 there the other night!
