Spring is in the air and it's the time of year that young peoples fancy turns to love.
We have a new neighbour just a few fields away.
Can you see the new home? It's that mass in the tree just right to centre.
I saw our new neighbour today.
Yes - it's a buzzard! And she's nesting! Near our house! Within binocular range!
As you can tell I'm very excited.
Last year there were a couple of buzzards that hunted over this area and it was great to see them back earlier this morning. It was then I spotted our new neighbour, as she and one of the others went head to head (or talon to talon as birds of prey tend to); I was lucky enough to see her land and that's when I saw the nest.
I'm hoping we'll get to know her better over the summer.
Then to top it off this lovely landed by the pond in the back field.
Although neither Jean-Luc or I are real birders but we do go bird watching every so often; in fact we went to a local nature reserve a few weeks ago. We took the binoculars but not the camera 'cos small birds rarely stay still long enough for amateurs get a decent photo.
So of course we saw one of these.
It's a stoat in its winter coat, or Ermine. The cute little guy ran around in front of the hide for about 15 minutes (plenty of time to get a decent photo IF we'd taken the camera - Doh!); digging for mice and generally causing concern to the nearby long tailed tits, who kept bobbing around and alarm calling.
How did we know it was a stoat - oh that was easy 'cos weasels are weasily recognised and stoats are stoatally different. Ta Dah!
How did we know it was a stoat - oh that was easy 'cos weasels are weasily recognised and stoats are stoatally different. Ta Dah!
It was a real highlight to the day - along with the delicious hot cross buns we got from a local bakery we found. :-)
We have buzzards at the far side of the fields across from the house here. I love it when they wheel and cry over ahead. I've never seen a winter coated stoat though and I'm so envious.
ReplyDeleteI've written about birds today too :)
I love your birds post - great mix of exotic and local. I did do a small dance of excitement when I saw the buzzards - and then did embarrassed wave to neighbour who saw me at the window - our best birdwatching window is in the bathroom! Yes we have binoculars in the bathroom. :-)
ReplyDeleteWe love watching the birds too and have binoculars handy for a good look too. I love the stoat..he is so cute. We have weasels here but I don't think we have a stoat. We also have hawks here that nest near by. It is just amazing how they build their nest so strong.
ReplyDeleteBirdwatching snacks are always excellent aren't they. How wonderful that you have a buzzard nesting nearby. We have two crows building a nest that we've been quite excited by, a buzzard is even better! Lovely to see the heron too. We had one land in our garden, very briefly, a while back. It flew off as I was running round the house screaming, "HERON, HERON".
ReplyDeleteHow you must have kicked yourselves to have left your camera behind.... And the trouble with that weasel/stoat joke is that while I have always managed to remember it, I never seem to remember the real difference between them!
ReplyDelete