Tuesday 12th March

Hooded Crow

In the last few weeks I've taken a bit of a break from my fitness and nature-related activities for various reasons, notably to have a long weekend in the art galleries in Vienna.  On the last day there I was however pleased to spot a couple of hooded crows grazing in the Volksgarten and one got near enough for a snap on the mobile phone.

Here the odd red kite is still hovering around at low altitude and a grey squirrel hopped along the length of my garden fence one day.  I was in the garden myself during the unseasonably warm weather at the end of February but, unlike others did not see an early butterfly.

There was a slightly strange sight yesterday when I came through Medomsley in the car.  Two roe deer stood out on the horizon of a large field of cabbages, immediately causing me to wonder if deer eat cabbages. I suppose they probably do.

Yesterday it was back to normal with a trip to Shibdon Pond with the U3A group.  I got there early to find a large number of gulls and only a few other common species showing, but it just goes to show how useful it can be to be in a group.  Someone pointed out a couple of gadwall that were briefly visible and one hawk-eyed member spotted a group of snipe on an island near to the hide.

Snipe

 They were so well camouflaged, it took a few of us some while to spot them and it was hard work getting a view in the camera. A pair of shovelers and one of shelduck also showed up in due course to add to the mallards, coots and moorhens.

A walk to the Nature Reserve on the far side of the lake proved a little disappointing as we only saw a few teal, some tits and a bullfinch.  This was similar when I visited last autumn, so perhaps summer will be a better time to visit.

I did however see a very large bumblebee in flight (garden or white-tailed) and suspected it might be a queen. It's certainly the right time of year. Flowering early was this blackthorn although those in the know said that the unusually large flowers show that it is an introduced version that could interbreed with the native variety. Very sinister!

Non-native Blackthorn