Around Appleton - The River Thames

While my mum was away I went down to the river Thames.

Swan

Baby Moorhens

Buzzard

Red Kite

Not Appleton - Basking sharks and seals

My mum went away for the weekend to Penzance in Cornwall to snorkel with Basking sharks.

My mum also saw some seals

Lazy birdwatching

We took photos from the kitchen window today because it was raining after school.

There were a lot of birds on the feeders because the insects don't come out in the rain.

I saw 3 Egrets fly over the garden but I didn't get a photo of them.

Baby blue tit

Collared Dove

Great spotted woodpecker

Jackdaw

Baby blue tit

Day 9 Robin's nest

The baby Robin's have now got their eyes open. We think there are 6 babies. The adult is taking in lots of insects.
This video was taken with our CCTV camera that we bought from Maplin's. We have it balanced on a stick in front of the nest, but the adult Robin keeps landing on it and knocking it.

BTO -  British Trust for Ornithology.

We registered with the BTO to record nests.
We were sent cards to fill in with the details of habitats, nest sites, number of eggs, number of chicks and how many chicks fledge.

Mum's challenge

Today mum set me a birdwatching challenge. I set my hide up in the garden and put different bird food out.
I put out peanutts, seeds and bread. I waited for an hour after tea and saw these birds.

Greenfinch (x2)
Robin   (x9)
Dunnock (x9)
Rook (x2)
Dove (x3)
Great tit (x3)
Blue tit (x2)
Pigeon (x6)
Jackdaws (x4)
Magpie (x3)
Great spotted woodpecker (x1)

Robin's nest update Day 7 

  

I love badgers

Again we used my trail camera to film the baby badgers playing.

This is the badgers favourite tree, they like to stand upright and scratch their claws on it.

One thing we noticed was that the badgers kept sniffing at the trail camera then backing away, so it must have smelt strange to them. Although on badger did try to chew the cable we tied it to the tree with.

Again, sorry I can't get this to play on an ipad.

Summer Solstice

Yesterday was the summer solstice, the longest day. This made it hard badger watching as it took ages to get dark.

When the badgers finally came out, we saw the babies for the first time this year. We watched the babies rolling, bitting each other, chasing their mum and scratching a tree. They have grey fluffy fur.

Mum badger

The badger on the left is standing on it's back legs

baby badger

These badgers are so funny when they fall down the hole.

While waiting for the badgers we walked around the field, we found an egg on the ground, we think it's a thursh egg and saw some Roe deers.

Thursh egg

Muntjac deer

Jackdaws V Crow

We have a Crow that visits our garden everyday looking for food.

We also have a family of Jackdaws that live in a chimney two doors away.

These two Jackdaws appear every time the crow appears.

They will not let the crow into the garden and they take it in turns to dive bomb the crow

Robin's nest update

The chicks hatched on Tuesday

Day one


Today, they still have their eyes closed. The chicks should open their eyes between 5 and 8 days.
The adult is spending half its time feeding and half sitting on the nest.
We think there are six or seven chicks.

These photos were taken today - day 3

This Dunnock was having a bath in our bird bath today