Much ado about Sparrows

Since being mislead by the pale starlings last week, I've experienced a good bit more uncertainty - this time about sparrows.

It struck me that there was something slightly odd about a bird I thought was a sparrow. It spent a good long time sitting in the plum tree before finally feeding for a long while at the bird table - not too sparrow-like in itself.

Dunnock

It's the head pattern that troubled me, the rather dark head and white neck band and bib. Anyway google lens thinks it's a dunnock, which surprises me as there's not much flecking on the breast.  I wouldn't normally have much trouble spotting a dunnock.

I'm please to say that a female nuthatch has visited my new caged bird feeder several times over the past few days.  However it makes sure it lands so it's mainly obscured and flies off as soon as I point the camera at it.

Also still at it is the grey squirrel, so there must be more nuts buried somewhere under the lawn.

Where are my nuts?

The sparrow fixation continued when I finally got to Holy Island yesterday, on a day when people generally agreed not much was going on.

The first bird I saw was again motionless in a tree, as if resting, and appeared at first sight to have a yellowish sheen, suggesting perhaps a female yellowhammer or even an exotic warbler...  So I took more photos and tried to get closer.

Sparrow?

Sparrow

Yes, it's actually the same bird.  The yellowish tinge on the first bird is a trick of the low sunlight, the erect posture somewhat untypical and the apparently large beak an illusion.

After a quiet spell, I got another shot of a bird in a tree, largely facing away from me, wasn't sure what it was but thought "Probably sparrow."

Linnet

So google lens thought linnet - entirely possible.

There was however no mistaking the sparrows that decided to assault the remains of my coffee break.  Not many species learn to be so cheeky.

Definitely Sparrows

After the lunch/coffee break - I wasn't sure which - I got what were some quite pleasing results with the camera.

Heading towards the harbour, a call of nature diverted me to the nearby cliffs where a kestrel was hovering.  I tried to video it but it kept moving and then started hovering at more or less head height no more than five yards or so to my left.

Kestrel

So, if you like, I got a bird's eye view of a bird.

In the harbour area I caught up with another ring-necked plover and was particularly satisfied to pick out one of a pair of rock pipits from a well-camouflaged background.

Ring-necked Plover

Rock Pipit

Google lens however thinks the rock pipit is a corn bunting - oh dear, I don't think so!

But probably the best was this pale-bellied brent goose, because of how far away it was:

Brent Goose

You can't see much of the neck stripe because of its head position.  Incidentally that isn't blood in the water but the reflection of the paintwork from a nearby boat moored at the water's edge.

There was just the one.  However the chap at the crab sandwich stall (I was still hungry) reckoned there had been as many as 6,000 but most had gone inland.  Sure enough, when I ventured further towards the causeway, there were 20 or 30 more, including I think some of the dark-bellied variety.

Brent Geese

No Place Like Home

I haven't been out much lately and not at all to observe wildlife.

The weather at home was typically good while I was away and there were a few butterflies around for a few days on my return, although nothing out of the ordinary.  

It's funny how you suddenly notice something you hadn't registered before, in this case the white marking on the lower underwing of the red admiral.

Red Admiral

Peacocks and large whites continued to predominate until wet weather took over, plus one speckled wood that landed on the mahonia.

A couple of individual stories though:

This squirrel has turned up a few times, burrowing here and there, clearly in search of acorns he buried earlier.

Squirrel

Just after I turned the camera off, he found one and scoffed it all right on the path beneath the kitchen window.  No wonder I find so many oak saplings in the garden!

A few days ago, in not particularly bright weather and a temperature of 11C, it was a pleasant surprise to see a small butterfly land on one of my T-shirts on the washing line. 

Speckled Wood T-shirt

I thought it might be a small tortoiseshell but photos revealed it to be a speckled wood - perhaps unsurprisingly,
I've already noted how small some of them have been this year.

The strange thing was that, when I went out again after two or three hours to get the washing in, it was still there.

I disturbed it and you could tell it was having difficulty flying in the cold air, so I captured it and took it into the house to warm up a bit.

I've done this before with a red admiral that emerged one December, deceived by a mild spell.

Generally it's recommended to leave them for about 40 minutes before attempting to release them, but this one was up and away in about 15 minutes, so a pleasing result.

It's now at the stage where each year I wonder if one more last butterfly will appear on the buddleia now October is here.  With still a couple of sprigs remaining, I had hopes for today but the forecast bright weather only obliged in brief spells.

I'm out tomorrow and most of Friday, so I suspect that's it - unless of course we get a prolonged spell of Mediterranean weather before Bonfire Night...

Bees but no Butterflies

Foraging in the garden and a visit to Wallington Hall Walled Garden have produced a fair selection of bees but not much in the way of butterflies.  The occasional orange tip and green-veined white has turned up but mainly on trips out.  The big question is what has happened to the speckled wood? I reckon my confirmed total for Spring was two when normally I would have expected to see scores.

In the garden tree bumblebees and carder bees have been fairly consistent while the red mason bee has been much less in evidence.  More common than in previous years have been garden bumblebee and early bumblebee, turning up fairly regularly.

Garden Bumblebee

Early Bumblebee

I've continued to tangle with the odd nomad bee, of which this is an example:

Nomad Bee

Nomad (underside)

I've seen these before so not uncommon. I'd hoped the all-red and black underside might be a clue, but it seems to get me no further.

Red-tailed bumblebees have started to turn up and at Wallington, I got a nice view of a red queen:

Red-tailed Bumblebee Queen

Also there were a few white-tailed bumblebees and one or two that had a break in the abdominal stripe, meaning they could have been broken-belted bumblebees.  White-tailed have also been spotted in the garden.

White-tailed Bumblebees

Wallington provided me with a first damselfly of the year - a common blue.

Common Blue Damselfly

More of a puzzle amongst the honeybees was this. Eventually I came to the conclusion it was a late-appearing buffish mining bee.

Buffish Mining Bee

On the way to and from Wallington I heard and saw several yellowhammer, and tried unsuccessfully to take a photo of one on the way back.  Notably I did not see a single bird of prey and only heard one skylark.  At one point I thought I might have heard a grasshopper warbler but couldn't be certain.

In the garden there have been no noteworthy birds apart from a brief appearance by a woodpecker , but there is an obvious reason for this:

Grey Squirrel

A pause in the action...

I'm not too sure why but I've seen remarkably little of note recently.  Perhaps the mild weather has meant that local birds are still finding plenty of food without visiting my garden.  Also I'm maybe just not so tuned in to looking out for birds above as more in the habit of looking down for bees and butterflies.  That's not to say there aren't plenty of interesting visitors stopping off on the Northumberland coast and makes me think that I must time my visit to Holy Island a little later next year.

Having failed in an attempt to see the subalpine warbler at Tynemouth on a bike ride two weeks ago, I thought things would change in the garden when I started putting out suet balls again but there was virtually no response when I hung them in the same location as last year.  Even yesterday I noted there were still a couple of bees around but various attempts to find an ivy bee have failed and only produced wasps.

One more promising note is that, for the first time in a while, I have seen an occasional coal tit coming to the feeders, and a robin has started to investigate the suet balls.  Otherwise it's been hedge-to-hedge jackdaws with the occasional blue tit, great tit or dunnock.

A brief walk at Chopwell Woods two days ago produced the usual - i.e. virtually nothing heard or seen apart from three grey squirrels.  

I had been lined up to go on a U3A visit to St Mary's Island today but had to cancel because of a domestic issue.

Slightly better was a bike ride yesterday.  Having got to Hexham without finding in the countryside except a rabbit and a big roost of chaffinches near the Tyne, I decided on a detour via Whittle Dene Lakes on the way home.  Here, alarmingly, two waters were closed because of blue algae, which seems remarkably late in the year.  However, there were a few cormorants, a single lapwing in flight and a kestrel hunting as well as a few canada geese and tufted ducks.

Unfortunately none of these resulted in a successful photo.

Which reminds me that I did very nearly get a good picture of a young kestrel perching in a nearby tree  last Tuesday - until it saw me! 

Damselfly Dilemma

It's official.  I'm withdrawing the peanut feed from the garden for the time being.  Not only is it impossible to locate it anywhere so that the large birds and ubiquitous squirrel don't snaffle the lion's share of the food, I don't want it hanging from the plum tree encouraging the birds to have a go at what looks likely to be a promising harvest this year.  Further, it's starting to be suggested that removing them hinders the spread of avian flu, which is already hitting the Northumberland coastline.

I did a quick run up to Alnwick on Thursday and we spent some time again going through the meadow by the River Aln.  Red-tailed bumblebees were quickly to be seen as were the expected meadow brown and ringlet butterflies, though this time no skippers and no whites, which have gone a bit scarce generally when I've been out and about.

Instead there were a couple of damselflies, one of which I immediately recognised but couldn't remember the name of - a banded demoiselle.  Another damselfly was in the same area displaying a completely different colour scheme and I spent a while trying to identify it.  It turns out it was simply a female banded demoiselle - though in this case it's the monsieur not the demoiselle who sports the wing band.

Banded Demoiselle

Banded Demoiselle (f)

It is however clearly the lady that has the better camouflage.

A Cold Snap

The fine weather at the end of March was not to continue and occasional snowfall and hailstorms meant that summer species have since been slow to emerge.

Snow was still on the ground in patches when I cycled up to Parkhead on the Waskerley Way last weekend, naively hoping to see the odd bumblebee queen or butterfly.  Instead there were plenty of skylarks on the way plus a few lapwing in semi-display mode and a grouse was clearly audible on the moors.  One thing that was surprising is that I was sure I heard a cuckoo calling on the fringe of Consett on the way back. It seemed remarkably early although there are odd records of them turning up in late winter in Southern England.  Turning into my street at the end of the day there was a single buff-tailed bumblebee queen.

In the garden, the dunnocks have continued to help somewhat in getting rid of some of the nyger seed from the bird table and a squirrel has been taking some of the peanuts that seem to have become less popular with the birds.

Dunnock

Squirrel

The other day I thought I might have spotted my first non-bumblebee of the year but it turned out to be a hoverfly, probably a drone fly.

Drone Fly

Today was similarly quiet when I went on a bike ride to the Princess Anne Park near Washington Centre.  On the way back it perked up somewhat.  Chiffchaffs were singing everywhere and there were a small number of buff-tailed bumblebees lclearly looking for nesting sites.  At one point there were even some rather strange-looking cows wandering along the side of the track.

Cow

Staying at home..

Just I was starting to relax a little bit I got Covid and annoyingly could not accompany Alex and Vicki on their visit to Leighton Moss where they got good sightings of marsh harriers and booming bitterns.

I had to put up with more modest fare in the back garden.

Quite amusing was the antics of this squirrel, which attempted to shin up the plum tree but was put off several times when the chicken carcass that was on offer started to flap around in a threatening manner.  Then followed a period of unsure meanderings on the decking before it managed to pluck up courage again.

Squirrel chickens out

Almost immediately afterwards, a male blackcap turned up in the tree but I failed to let it settle before getting excited and it was off again straight away.

A couple of days before this had happened two male nuthatches visited the feeders together, which struck me as slightly odd but they also departed sharply, as did the jay that briefly landed on the back fence.

One more consistent visitor has been a thrush who has been showing some interest in the results of my garden tidy up.

Thrush

I'm thinking it's a song thrush.

So far there has been no sign of any bees or butterflies.

I should get out more but of course it's not advised.

Out for the Ducks

Last weekend during the storms I was convinced I'd seen a white butterfly flattering past my front hedge.  The temperature was 11C but there is no evidence to suggest any whites appear in January so I guess it must have been a leaf.  There have been no surprises on the feeders apart from a female nuthatch turning up on the suet nuggets.  Nuthatches have not been seen here for a while.

One thing that did "turn up" was an explanation for the burrowings in my plant pots and for the fact I occasionally find an acorn or an oak sapling in them.

Grey Squirrel

Malcolm and I decided on a walk from Amble Dunes to East Chevington, which should have produced more interesting bird sightings.  The main thing saw was this dead ray, which I think may be a cuckoo ray although rays are not exactly a speciality with me and the spots have faded.  

Cuckoo Ray

I was expecting a lot of stonechats at least but all we actually got was a heron just south of Druridge, a couple of passing goldeneye as East Chevington Pond and some usual wader suspects as the tide went down on the way back.  

However I was pleased to manage as much as nine miles with the aid of my long-neglected walking sticks and very much enjoyed the concluding ice cream at Amble!

A recent bike ride only produced some audible skylarks and a fleeting bullfinch.

Sometimes the answer lies nearer home and a quickish visit to Killingworth Lake to check out the ducks yesterday proved more successful.  The main interest was reports of scaup and I did manage to see a few although it was hard to distinguish between the juveniles and the many young tufted ducks.  It was also nice to see some pochard again and get a close-up of a male goldeneye.

Pochard

Goldeneye

Scaup

At Killingworth the gulls, ducks, geese and swans are often found close to the bank at the West end because of the number of people who feed them.  Whether this is a good idea is another thing.

Monday 8th March

Recent paucity of nature news can be blamed on poorish weather and continuing lockdown, hopefully better is soon to follow.

A slightly bright nore has been offered by several appearances of a male nuthatch in the garden and, on one sole occasion that of a woodpecker.  Yesterday I planted some wild flower seeds at the back of the garden as it is only now that frosty nights are starting to look less likely.  Part of the thinking here is that the copious amount of garlic mustard that used to grow in the same area hsn't yet appeared.  Maybe I was too radical when knocking it back last summer.

I've done a couple more walks in Chopwell Woods, whose main success lay in finding further routes that avoid the heavily-used car park and ice-cream van.  During the first one, there was at least some birdsong to be heard and evidence of jays in the trees, but that was all apart from a grey squirrel, the odd robin and a single wren.  Last week the second one was a return to the baffling near total absence of birds.  I can't understand it.  You'd think among so many trees there'd be treecreepers and even a crossbill or two.

One thing I did come across on the way in was a heron on nearby farmland.  This evokes the question I wondered about often in Dumfries.  Why do herons visit farmland in winter - to seek out worms and insects or because of fishmeal compost?

Heron

This one is obviously next to some flooded land but I can't imagine it would hold fish and it seems to be looking elsewhere.

More interesting was a visit with Malcolm to check out some of the lakes maintained by Wansbeck and Cramlington Angling Club during a brief warmer spell.  Walking up to Milkope Lake there were a good number of skylarks in the fields.  They were flying low in pairs rather than soaring alone and it looked like this was some sort of pre-mating activity.  On actually reaching the pond, a good number of people were fishing and catching small stuff.

On Horton Lake nearby, one elderly angler took about half an hour to land a near 6lb bream on fine pole tackle and a visit to Brenkley Lake established that it had recently produced a 19lb carp.  We've taken out membership and I hope to report on some fishing activity before the end of the month.  I had wondered if it would soon get warm enough for butterflies to be seen early but the weather quickly deteriorated over the weekend

A bike ride the Monday after started in mist temperatures of 3C rather than the anticipated 9C but at least led to the sighting of a group of tree sparrows huddling in a tree,  I was out riding again today in warmer but windy weather and did get a closer than usual view of some tufted ducks at Bradley Pond on the way home.

Tufted Ducks

Friday 4th September

Some of the Naturewatch group did an informal walk around Bolam Lake last Wednesday.  Perhaps relieved to be out again, there was more chatting than spotting.  Apart from tits, we did see a treecreeper and heard a buzzard but that was about all and the main feature was perhaps the scenery in the early autumn sunlight.

Bolam Lake

It was surprising that, apart from a number of mute swans there was nothing on the lake at all in the way of ducks or waders.

A ramble around Chopwell Woods with Malcolm on Sunday wasn't very revealing either.  We did see five speckled wood butterflies and a (probable) common hawker but his dog found a corpse at one point and smelled of maggots all the way to the local pub.  I thought I saw a slightly different carder bee but the camera proved otherwise.

Since I have reflected how frequently you think you have seen something possibly unusual and get the camera out in evidence, only for the target to disappear before you can capture it.

On a bike ride to Belsay during a windless day I was a bit surprised to see a couple of buzzards.  The one on the way back seemed to have red on its tail.  It settled nicely in a tree within camera range and I was wondering if it might just be a red kite, which would have been interesting so far north.  All I can say is that it behaved much more like a buzzard in making its departure.  

The only other thing of note was a grey squirrel scrambling across the road between two farm fields.  A little bizarre.

Similarly in the garden a very slight and slender white butterfly with few dark markings rested on the plum tree and I started to wonder against all the odds about a wood white.  However it flew off strongly, unphotographed, and was almost certainly just a small white.

Unfortunately, the buddleia is now almost devoid of blossom and it remains to be seen whether it can produce any more sizeable blooms.  So this may be the last small tortoiseshell to visit me this year.

Small Tortoiseshell

A booted warbler, a species of which I had never heard was reported at Whitburn Country Park a few days ago, so I decided to take a brief trip out there, well aware that it would probably have departed.

It had.  However as soon as I entered the park, I did see a wheatear, which obligingly posed on the sign at the entrance.

Wheatear

This is apparently a pretty typical appearance for an autumn female.  As an advert it was though totally misleading, as it was the only bird of I managed to see in the park apart for a couple of pigeons.  Still, it was the only one this year.

Sunday 2nd August

I got out fishing on Killingworth Lake on Wednesday.  I enjoyed the experience of fishing a waggler for the first time in many years, though incompetence through lack of practice meant success was limited.  I managed to land three roach in the course of the afternoon when I should probably have had at least double that.  Several fish were missed or lost on the way to the net.  Barbless hooks seem to make it easy for smaller fish and the size I started with was probably also too small.

Unfortunately the lake is shallow where fishing is allowed and after teatime the swim was heavily invaded by swans happily eating up all the bait and I gave up earlier than planned.

The Catch

I got talking to a lad who was there for the night carp fishing and told me he had once caught a terrapin there.  There is photographic evidence to prove his claim is believable.

Terrapin

The weather forecast was that summer was due to take place on Friday so after slogging around the tennis court in 28 degree heat, I decided to have another run to Hamsterley Mill to see if I could get a better view of the purple hairstreaks.

Typically the weather had turned back to murk by the evening but the warmth was still there and there was a good deal of activity in the 'hotspot' at the second bridge.  This time there were about twenty sightings as they whirled around like mad things.  One settled momentarily on an ash right next to the bridge but did not open its wings and moved on pronto.

I don't think I used it at the time but this video I took last year shows what it's like trying to spot them in flight:

i checked out another spot and saw one more, by which time it started to rain. Once again I came ohome early.

There was a bit of rain again and precious little sun yesterday when I rode to check the meadows at Elswick and Derwenthaugh for commom blues and burnet moths.  No success, but equally interesting to note that bird's foot trefoil has disappeared at Elswick when there was plenty of it last year.  At Derwenthaugh there was none where it was last year but plenty of it further up the field.  I'm a bit puzzled as to why that should be.

It's still slim pickings on the garden buddleia.  A couple of small tortoiseshells have shown up, as did a rather ragged little comma.

Comma

As well as an increasingly bold grey squirrel, the woodpeckers continue to feast on the peanut feeder, in the most recent case a juvenile, judging by its extensive red pate.

Woodpecker

Monday 13th July

To be honest this is a bit of a non-report, in that for a change, none of the things I was hoping for came about.

Last Wednesday I tried fishing Dissington Pond, but this time legering sweetcorn and worm feeder in the hope of bream or tench.  Conditions weren't wonderful as temperatures had dropped and the wind was from the East.  So I wasn't surprised not to catch but it did seem strange that I never got the merest touch of a bite, not even a liner.

However not much else was taken and towards the end another guy helpfully commented that the venue is 'hard work' on the feeder.  One factor I did notice was that the water is remearkably clear considering there is a farmer's field next to it. You'd have thought there might be a bit of algae around.

It went little better on Saturday when I again cycled to Stocksfield looking for white letter hairstreaks and the best I saw was another fine red admiral.  Again it really was not warm enough or sunny enough to expect much success.  I did at least take a look round the trees at Stocksfield Hall Enterprise Park and found there were a lot more elms there, some of which weren't to my inexperienced eye wych elms. So at least another area to search.

Yesterday I decided to check out Little Waters and Killingworth Lake as possible fishing venues.  Little Waters has clearly been neglected over the years and only two swims looked vaguely fishable.  The Lake is an obvious venue.  It has the reputation of being hard to fish and the most-used swims are a fair hike from the car park, inspiring me to order a tackle trolley.  I'd be interested to see how hair-rigged prawn would work as a possible novelty item, perhaps while trying for tiddlers on the short pole.

Small Tortoiseshell

No fish were taken while I was there but I did see a nice small tortoiseshell, a species that is clearly back in numbers, and managed a detour to my sister's where she showed me her impressive garden.

In my own garden there has been little new. Red admiral and green-veined white have been sighted.  A couple of visitors have become increasingly bold, namely a woodpecker, which I now think to be a juvenile, and the grey squirrel (pretty sure it's the same one) that shows increasingly little fear when I see him attacking the bird nuts. I managed to capture one such attack on the camera.  What I didn't notice at the time was the unperturbed blue tit feeding off the fatballs right nearby.

Monday 23rd March

In spite of the increasing threat of the evil coronavirus I have managed a couple of worthwhile trips out.

Lapwing

The next Naturewatch trip (cancelled) would have been to St Mary's Island so I decided to take a lone bike run there anyway via Holywell Dene, as I had never visited the Dene before.  In fact the best sighting proved to be a number of lapwings on the edge of some flooded land at East Holywell. Unfortunately they weren't displaying.

Just a few minutes later a volley of long-tailed tits landed in a hedgerow, making me realise that they aren't turning up in large numbers in the garden any more.  Instead of the lightning mobhanded visits over the winter, they are now turning up in ones and twos and staying rather longer.

There was a tree sparrow on the way out of the Dene near Seaton Sluice but at St Mary's Island the tide was high, so that there wasn't much to see apart from a few cormorants hanging out to dry. I suspect in any case that walking through the Dene would be more productive as the cycle track doesn't follow the burn very closely.

A couple of days later I was gazing out of the bedroom window when a chiffchaff turned up in the silver birches behind the garden.  Of course both camera and mobile phone were sitting downstairs.  They were also out of reach when a raiding grey squirrel came right up to the back doors and took a drink from the old sink that used to serve as a herb garden.

On Saturday, I decided to visit the quiet (n.b. self-isolation now a priority) Linton Lane Reserve in Northumberland and was really quite impressed with the variety of ducks that turned up on the two ponds, including tufted duck, wigeon and male and female pochard as well as little grebe, great-crested grebe, cormorant and teal.  I was particularly pleased with the pochard, as I haven't recorded seeing one for seven years!

Male Pochard

Tufted Ducks

Wigeon

Reed Bunting

I was just about to decide I had exhausted what was on offer when I noticed that reed buntings were turning up to feed, which they did on several occasions.  Then another chiffchaff (possibly two) occurred in the trees to the right.  Having again missed the photo opportunity on two or three occasions, I waited about three quarters of an hour for a reappearance, which didn't materialise...

Although it was boggy and the Eastern hide had been seriously vandalised, I liked the Linton Lane ponds.  While quite productive, they are narrow enough to allow reasonably easy identification of the birds, a contrast to some venues where your eyesight and binoculars are left struggling to pick up vague shapes half a mile away.

Then yesterday I got another surprise when, in spite of the cool temperature, the first peacock of the year landed on my garden fence.  This time I did at least have my mobile phone at the ready!

Peacock

Thursday 19th December

There have been one or two spontaneous nature occurrences over the past few days.

On a trip to Morpeth I had a bit of time to spare and caught up with a goosander among a group of gulls being fed at the edge of the river .

Goosander

Last Friday I was cycling back along the Derwent Valley from the gym and it was a bit of a surprise to see two bullfinches and two jays before anything more mundane turned up. There was also a grey heron above the fish pass near Winlaton so I suppose that shows it must get used, even though I've never seen any sign of fish in the Derwent and only ever one angler.

On Tuesday I finally managed a long-postponed trip to the hide at Clara Vale, which I found after some faffing to be very near the cricket pavilion i use in the summer. I wanted to check whether rumours of a kingfisher being there/not being there were correct.

As soon as I arrived, the kingfisher arrived on a lone branch just ten metres or so in front of the hide. It hung around while I fumbled with the camera and I was still fumbling when it landed briefly in a willow just to the left of the hide window.

For the next half hour or so it rotated around the pond at different points and you could see it splashing into the water to catch a tiddler.  Just as it was starting to get dark it again perched in front of the hide and I finally got the shots I wanted.  Just before I packed up it flew towards the hide.  I momentarily thought it was going to fly in my face before it veered off into the woods to the right.  As I got ready to leave I could actually see it front on through the side window of the hide - almost as if IT was observing me!

Kingfisher

Yesterday there was an amusing game in the garden. Grey Squirrel appeared again but instead of making for the sunflower hearts feeder, he started trying to dig up bits of the lawn.  I gradually realised he wanted to hide some nuts. The lawn was quite frozen so he had no success until he started at the bit where I had dug in the rescued buddleia. Just before this, one of the thuggish local jackdaws started paying attention and following him around. Eventually the jackdaw sneaked up while he was digging and gave him a nip on the tail before fluttering off towards the decking.  Grey Squirrel seemd deterred by this and retired, whereupon the jackdaw moved in and started pecking into his hidey hole.  As I didn't see any nuts being buried or retrieved, I suspect there was no victor in this little contest.

It's not only around the house that there have been a lot of squirrels.  I saw at least a dozen on a short walk in Chopwell Woods this morning - plus literally hundreds of wood pigeons.