Look Who came to dinner tonight.

I watched two Peregrines this afternoon, It was slightly strange encounter for a couple of reasons. I was with another birder and neither of us were convinced that we were watching a pair, or even a male and a female. One stayed resolutely on it's perch while the other did a series of flights. In fact at one point I thought there were two in the air, but hadn't seen the one leave its look out post. the one that was mainly flying was also unusual, in that it had its legs down all the time, although they didn't look damaged and it did land in view once, and look quite OK.

This guy never left his look out position while I was watching

This bird spent most of its time flying but did land in view for a short while.

The "flying bird landing"

The lookout bird from another view point

Life as normal below as four Cormorants go by.

And the breeding Fulmars circle the cliffs.

The look out bird did turn round for a while.

You can just see the legs extended.

I has been suggested that the extended legs represent a threat display, That is a possiblity as it seemed normal when it had landed.

It has be markings of a mature adult.

A strange view with it flying straight towards me.

The plumage on this bird looks immaculate.

Cruising along the cliffs.

Look Who came to dinner tonight. 

Look Who came to dinner tonight. Our frequent diner this year has had a quite short, square brush shaped tail, so I was surprised to see a slightly longer pointed tail when I looked at table one tonight. 

  Our regular customer wasn't long in joining us. As our new client tucked into chicken and rice she carried on as usual with her peanuts.

I suspect that these two are regular companions as there was no bickering or pushing and shoving as often happens when more than one arrives.

Our regular remained to the end and proceeded to "hoover" up any dropped Sunflower seeds from the feeders above.

The Duck and Fox

I had a look at the pond,through the window while I was trying to judge the size to answer a question from a frog enthusiast.

I was surprised to see two of our local Mallards, from the Village Pond were paying a visit.

Visits are a regular spring "thing" but I hadn't seem them arrive this morning. I had to go outside and have a quick word with them. 

  Two Mallards in the pond for a morning can wreak havoc with the pond and with the frog spawn. I do enjoy them in the garden, and I guess their pond is such a miserable place, with no vegetation, they probably find it more interesting.

 After a few words they took the hint and left for their own pond. Later in the year she normally brings her ducking up to see us.

We had two visitors this evening. First a Badger came to tuck into a peanut supper. I was a little surprised that he chose these before the bones and bits we'd put out in case our other visitor arrived this evening.

This beautiful fox has visited a few times but he is very jumpy and difficult to photograph. I did manage one using flash through the open window but he wouldn't come close. It did allow me to use ISO 400 but with just the camera flash it was a bit of a push.

 These were taken using the garden lights and ISO 16000 at 1/20th sec. I haven't yet worked out how to train him to stand absolutely still.

Not the greatest picture, but given it was through glass and the settings as above I was pleased with the result.

Midnight Rambler

I'd been playing "Let it Bleed" tonight, my favourite Stones album, and one of the tracks is of course "Midnight Rambler"

I've been putting some peanuts out at night and most disappear by morning, but after I've gone to bed. Tonight I got to see the badger that paid us a visit.

A wanderer returns

Yesterday I had a short sea watch at St Margaret's Bay, late morning. Short because when the rain arrived not only was the visibility poor but it appeared all the birds disappeared, possibly they settled on the sea? In 40 minutes the passage of Kittiwakes was impressive, about 800 birds all moving S (into the wind). Just two parties of Scoter, the first 8 Common Scoter and one Velvet Scoter (m). The second 5 Common Scoter. The only other thing of interest were 9 Adult (or near adult) Med Gulls, difficult to see small back tips way over the sea, and four 1st year Med Gulls. A few Gannets were around, but they appear not to be on a definite movement, but probably feeding in the shallows. Another look at the sea today started with me approaching a small bird standing in the car park.

When I got close enough to get the sun out of my eyes I saw that it was a Robin, and not some waif or stray blown in off the sea. It was probably a local bird, making use of a lull ion the dog walkers to pick out a few crumbs dropped on the ground. the sea wasn't quite empty but with the wind moving from S to W everything was further away. The number of Kittiwakes had dropped although there were a few passing a long way out. I saw just three Common Scoter and one Great Crested Grebe on the sea. Two Skuas were chasing something a very long way out, I suspected they were Pomarine Skuas but they may well have been Arctic, which sometimes appear quite deep chested. In the Bay I had a close look at three ages of Mediterranean Gull. As it was high-tide many of the Rock Pipit that are along the shore at the bottom of the cliffs had come into the Bay and I counted at least eight (damn things wouldn't stay still). 

Only the adult Mediterranean Gull was in range for a distant photograph. The other two, a juvenile moulting into first winter and a second year moved along the Bay and I lost sight of them.

 We'd been a bit worried about our most regular Badger, "Old One Ear". We hadn't seen him for four days, and he's been regular as clockwork for a good while now. Our other three recognisable visitors had all been in, but not him. I'm happy to say last night, and again at the moment he's been back.

"Old One Ear"

 "Old One Ear"

 This is one of the younger boars who now seems a regular and he's becoming less worried about being photographed.

In fact he's quite happy to have a sit down while he eats his supper with me just a few feet away.

It's feeding time at the Hidden House

Another rainless day in the driest September on record. I had a walk around the Undercliff at Kingsdown today. It's a place that always looks as if there should be a good bird there, and to be fair there has been for some, (Crested Lark, Pallas's Warbler) but not for me

There were a couple of Wheatears, making the most of the warm weather to hunt insects along the sea wall.

This one even obliged to show why my book of bird names has the alternative of "White-arse" for his handle. I was also pleased to see a Clouded Yellow, but as is often the case with this species, it declined to land for a picture and just flew on it way.

 This evening Pam and sat down to watch feeding time at the badger refuelling station. The little chap on the left is, I think, one of this years off-spring. It doesn't show so much from the photos but he really is a lot small, and looks much less muscular than the boar on the right. This one is still very handsome looking, and show few scars and signs of battle. He also has two proper ears.

Soon after these two put in an appearance old one ear arrived. I spread the peanuts out tonight to try and reduce squabbling over the plate and it mostly worked although there were one or two "professional" fouls going on.

 As you can see the new kid on the block isn't shy and gets on with rooting out the food, Old One Ear looks as it he's urging me to throw some his way, while the handsome boar at the back is just a bit more wary of coming forward.

Skipping Along

The buddleia is out and there's been a small invasion of Red Admirals out side my mothing conservatory 

There's no plant better at attracting the best known group of garden butterflies, Red Admirals, Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshells and Painted Ladies, and there's no plant easier to grow.

Red Admiral

other butterflies, like this beautiful Marbled White (a member of the Browns not whites!) need more specialised plants to thrive, and the chalk grassland along the cliff top at Bockhill is just right. There are a couple colonies between the monument and hope point and at the moment they're at there freshest, and can be seen on the top of Knapweed flowers and occasionally one of the Pyramidal Orchids that have done so well this year.

 There are plenty of Skippers around at the moment ant the test is to get a good enough view to separate the Small Skippers from The Essex Skippers. They are very similar, but the black tips to the underside of the antennae distinguish the Essex Skippers. I think the one above is a Small, although both occur in the area.

Large Skippers are much easier, they are of course a bit larger and they have a sort of faint chequered pattern on the wings as opposed to the very pain wings of the other two.

There are a lot of Burnet moths around at the moment and those that I saw seemed to be Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnets, not the better known Six-spot, that may be around a little later.

As I walked along the cliffs, just down from the monument this Herring Gull was calling continuously circling above my head. I didn't take much notice as I was looking at the butterflies at ground level.

I was pretty surprised when there was a loud swoosh as it dived just above my head. A stunt it repeated several times until I'd moved on about 50 m. I can only assume it had a young one concealed just over the cliff top.

There were a lot more Large Skippers as I walked along, often chasing each other or any other butterflies that entered their air space. This one's sharing its landing strip with a Meadow Brown.

This is a female Meadow Brown, the males lack the orange patches on the fore-wing.

We've been getting several Badgers coming to feed, but two seem to be the most regular.

This one and the picture above is the little female that's been visiting all year, although we're yet to see her with any offspring.

This is a smallish male, and I've mentioned him before, He's got one ear more or less missing, although how this happened is unknown. He's also pretty beaten up on his hindquarters, with a rather tatty top to his tail, perhaps due to fighting. He is the boldest when it comes to food. A couple of times I've heard a thump on the window, either when I'm late putting the peanuts out, or if he's a bit late and an earlier visitor has already eaten them. Tonight I was watching the news when I heard a bump and he was there. I opened the door and refilled the plate and although he did back away while I did filled it up he was only about o foot behind the plate. The other day I forgot to close up my conservatory early and when I went out to do it he was in their opening op the box with the sparrows fat balls in it. That was before it was very dark, so I need to be a bit more careful.

Silver Service

A bit of a breezy walk along the cliff top was certainly bracing! The wind rather kept to birds down and I saw very few butterflies.

On a ledge, near the monument, a Herring Gull was sitting on its' nest, It will be interesting to was when the eggs hatch, situated on a narrow ledge with about 100 m drop  below.

After the winter bunting flocks had dispersed it is good to see that at least one Corn Bunting has a territory near the cliff top. In the old day it was usual to see Corn Buntings using hedges as song posts, but now, with so many hedges gone a large plant of Fat Hen has to do. In addition there was a Yellowhammer singing just beyond Hope Point.

As I said butterflies on the wing  were scarce today, so when I saw a blue I was pleased to find that it was an Adonis Blue. The black veins extending through the border distinguish it from Common Blue.

I try to provide the Badgers a good standard by giving them their peanuts on a nice silver plate. I'm not sure how much he appreciates this silver service judging by the tip he left me last night!