Male wheatear on Scout Scar Yes, Scout Scar again. This is lockdown. But it's a glorious spring and the shared experience has never been so rich and rewarding.
'People are looking at what is on their doorstep, and one can only hope that when this is all over they will re-evaluate their lives and how they live, and opt for a slower pace of life, to look, and see, and enjoy their own surroundings.' So wrote a friend.
The Land of Lost Content is here, if we look about us. It is not lost.
'People are looking at what is on their doorstep, and one can only hope that when this is all over they will re-evaluate their lives and how they live, and opt for a slower pace of life, to look, and see, and enjoy their own surroundings.' So wrote a friend.
The Land of Lost Content is here, if we look about us. It is not lost.
A chilly morning, cloudy and sometimes windy. Rona spied this handsome wheatear perched on a pile of limestone clitter and I photographed him. He was at some distance but the light was good. And he obliged by shifting his stance a little to show his mantle. Perhaps he's the same bird I came across a few days ago, it was close by.
It's good that stonechat are breeding successfully on Scout Scar after several years when they seemed absent. This male is the bird who has chosen a territory that straddles a footpath, so he and his mate spend time calling to alert their young to the presence of walkers.
Whenever I meet Kay, she tells me if she has heard the cuckoo, and where. Today, she asks about Mountain everlasting so we retrace our steps a little to show her and her sister the flowers. Kay spots a pinkish flower amongst the Mountain everlasting It's tiny, with a tight cluster of flower buds about to open. My images show it is Common milkwort, the same flower I found with Mountain everlasting yesterday on the escarpment edge. The flower is variable, through deep blue. purple, pink or white. Interesting that the species occur together.
For a better image of milkwort, flowers fully open, see blog Mobbed on Scout Scar 28 May 2018
Whenever I meet Kay, she tells me if she has heard the cuckoo, and where. Today, she asks about Mountain everlasting so we retrace our steps a little to show her and her sister the flowers. Kay spots a pinkish flower amongst the Mountain everlasting It's tiny, with a tight cluster of flower buds about to open. My images show it is Common milkwort, the same flower I found with Mountain everlasting yesterday on the escarpment edge. The flower is variable, through deep blue. purple, pink or white. Interesting that the species occur together.
For a better image of milkwort, flowers fully open, see blog Mobbed on Scout Scar 28 May 2018
Twice we hear a cuckoo call. One cuckoo, or two? Seeking to understand and interpret what I'm observing on Scout Scar, I asked a birder of repute for his thoughts:
'I think that most Cuckoos stay together as a pair so presumably successful mating can take place throughout the season. I would assume that once mating had occurred most of the eggs present would have been fertilized and the female would start to lay. Laying would take place over a period of time as the female needs to find enough nests in the correct stage of use by the host.
As Cuckoos have declined I think in some cases numbers have been overestimated. From my experience an area that regularly held 2 or 3 birds now often has only one. In the past all the birds could be heard calling at the same time but now even though you still here a bird calling it is only one bird moving between areas which held more. JH
'I think that most Cuckoos stay together as a pair so presumably successful mating can take place throughout the season. I would assume that once mating had occurred most of the eggs present would have been fertilized and the female would start to lay. Laying would take place over a period of time as the female needs to find enough nests in the correct stage of use by the host.
As Cuckoos have declined I think in some cases numbers have been overestimated. From my experience an area that regularly held 2 or 3 birds now often has only one. In the past all the birds could be heard calling at the same time but now even though you still here a bird calling it is only one bird moving between areas which held more. JH
RSS Feed