Cute Animal Christmas Song

23/13/11

Sat doing my massive pile of work at my desk when I could hear birds outside in the garden.

Looked outside and there was a flock of about 12 blue tits and great tits.

Then I saw a nuthatch on the neighbour's fence! As I focused my binoculars on it another one came and sat next to it.

It made me happy for the rest of the day :)

18/12/11

Last Thursday my boyfriend and I went for a walk around the "moors" near his house (It's more like peat land)

We saw:

• Swans
• BH gulls
• Coots
• Jay
• Fieldfares
• Redwings
• Robin

Yesterday I was doing fieldwork and had a great view of a green woodpecker! It had the sun behind it though and I didn't have my binoculars, but it was close. I'm surprised by how big they are.

I did field work again today and saw lots of flocks of tits (again, forgot my binoculars, why don't I learn?). I could only pick out the long tailed tits.

I also saw two roe deer jumping over a fence. The forest I'm doing my fieldwork in has sandy tracks, so I like looking out for the deers' tracks. Also, since I went to South Africa in September, I now find myself looking for tracks, signs and poo! I actually found IDing ungulate poo in Africa really interesting, and I became more interested in learning about the blesbok, tsessebe, waterbuck etc than the big characteristic mammals. 

Also while out surveying today I came across the coolest thing. There was a group of people training huskies, but they were training the huskies to pull them along in tricycle looking things instead of sledges. I've never seen it before, I thought it was amazing. I was also surprised by how strong and fast the huskies are (and noisy!).

Furthermore, when I pulled up at the car park this morning, a group of cyclists were leaving and a man from the group let me have his day parking ticket for free! (worth £4). I thought that was so kind of him :)

My boyfriend has been at his uncle's house today and said they had a blackcap in the garden! I wasn't aware we can get them here in Britain in winter, but apparently more are staying in gardens rather than migrating. 

13/12/11

During a break in the rain and our assignment writings, my boyfriend and I went for a walk this afternoon. It was overcast overhead and a cold wind, but this didn't deter us. We walked over some fields near my house and around the local reservoir, which is very popular with the local anglers. We saw:

• A kestrel hovering over the field where the police helicopter lands. It's a great field because it has lots of tall grass, great for small mammals. I wish I brought my camera (I didn't because it looked like it was going to rain) since the kestrel looked very dramatic silhouetted against the gloomy sky with dark rolling clouds and the rolling hills behind it. (My boyfriend's impression of a kestrel by flapping his arms about like crazy was also highly amusing and photo worthy). 
• Great tits and blue tits.
• Tufted ducks, which I love to see, since I only see them on the reservoir in the winter.
• Lots of coots
• Mallards
• Mute Swan
• Great crested grebes
• Black headed gulls. There are lots of them around the reservoir. 
• I heard a flock of gold finches and then saw them fly over.
• I also heard but didn't see a great spotted woodpecker and a green woodpecker. 

One thing that did upset/bother me on the walk is the amount of litter in the small woodland at the side of the reservoir. I didn't know if it had came from the road nearby or if it was the children who play in the woods, but either way, it made me think about how there needs to be an increase in education for people to appreciate and care for these areas. 

11/12/2011

It's been a long weekend out in the cold recording path usage again for my dissertation, but I am almost half way through the data collection now. Last night after a full day out, I went to my boyfriend's house, where I was treated with sparkly wine, a delicious meal (with chocolate pudding afterwards!) and a chocolate chilli bubble bath. After surveying today it was an hours walk back to the car in the pouring rain. The cup of tea and marmite sandwich when I got to the car was luxery, as well as the long hot shower when I got home. Anyways, over this weekend I have seen:

• A jay just outside my village. I have never seen them around this area before, it's always exciting to find a new species on your home turf. It was sat in a tree with a magpie.
• Kestrels of course. I do lots of motorway driving. 
• Great spotted woodpeckers. 
• Bullfinches.
• A dog chasing a herd of what I believe to be roe deer. I wasn't very happy the owner had let it off the lead and out of his sight (although it certainly provides me with something to write about in my dissertation with dogs causing disturbance to wildlife!) but I helped the man find his dog, which he then sent into the forest again to spook more deer! I also saw many other signs of deer such as droppings and footprints in the sandy tracks. It's amazing how a deer can be right next to you in the forest, but you can't see it through all the vegetation!
• Flocks of tits and a goldcrest. 
• A chirpy robin. 

09/12/2011

Hello all!

Yesterdays winds caused my internet to die, but I called BT and thankfully they fixed it :)

The weather got pretty extreme yesterday, the bird table looked like it was going to topple over. It was amusing watching a blue tit clinging on to the bird feeder and swinging around, although I did feel sorry for the poor thing. The other blue tits were all taking shelter and snuggling up in a willow tree in next door's garden, along with the one dunnock that likes to hang around.

Apart from that I haven't seen anything unusual, just the many kestrels I usually see on the drive to uni and back. Today, however, has been a happy day. I now have a month off for Christmas :D But lots of work to do! :( I'm just hoping the weather will not be so extreme this weekend while I'm doing my field work.

04/12/2011

Oh no -Snow! Well, only a sprinkling this evening, but I was hoping for a snow free winter, like in the 90s when I was a child and actually wanted it to snow. Now I usually have to commute 25 miles to uni or to do field work it is not welcome. Although on a positive note, it does bring the birds into the garden.
 Anyways, today I was doing field work again. I saw:

• Bull finches.
• A flock of tits consisting of coal tits, blue tits, long tailed tits and gold crests.
• Lots of soggy kestrels sat in the rain on the way home
• A TAWNY OWL :) I've never seen one so well before, but as I was driving home (in the dark and snow) one flew out infront of my car at the bottom of my estate, and landed in a tree lit up by the street lights. I pulled over to look at it and it sat staring straight into my car.  I usually hear the owls when laying in bed at night, so it's great to finally see one. 

03/12/2011

I've spent today standing in Sherwood Pines collecting data on path usage for my dissertation. The trees were wobbley and scary. But I have seen:

• Blue tits
• A coal tit feeding from pine cones
• A falcon of some kind, I think it was a sparrowhawk
• A kestrel hovering over the road so low it was only just above the height of the cars
• A great spotted woodpecker fly across the road
• Many squirrels feeding in the forest
• Black headed gulls flying high above.

Autumn

02/12/2011

Today I have seen:

• A small flock of blue tits on next doors feeders.
• A fat wood pigeon eating the seed off of my bird table.
• 3 mistle thrushes on the neighbour's roof tops fighting against each other, which I sat and watched instead of doing my dissertation.
• A stoat that ran across the road on my way home.
• A buzzard, again on the way home, perched on top of a tree and silhouetted by the sun.
• A kestrel hovering above the fields by my Gran's house. 

Extinct Animals 20th Century!