Author Archives: sarahthurlbeck

If you came across this bright yellow bird in a hedge you could be forgiven for thinking that someone’s budgie had escaped. You would not hear “Who’s a pretty boy then”, as this bird gets the reputation for cheeping “a little bit of bread and no chee…eese”. It is the yellowhammer and I’ve been hearingContinue reading “Hedgerow Beauties”

As well as keeping my eye on the buzzard chicks I’ve also been seeing a family of wrens in the wood and the other day I was delighted to see a deer and her fawn. First, here are some pictures of Jenny Wren tending to her hungry fledglings. She may be Britain’s second smallest birdContinue reading “Woodland Families”

Visitors returning to the Isle of Coll each year get called “summer swallows” by the island residents. Unfortunately this year we have not been able to migrate there for summer but thankfully nature is not in lockdown. This year our swallows returned in April and have paired up and got busy with the nesting season.Continue reading “Summer Swallows”

The kestrels I photographed in the tree hole last week have fledged! Here are two of the siblings sitting on a branch, waiting for their dinner. Their cries for food gave them away, although we had seen a kestrel flying over the field. As a parent approaches they cry out for food, and one seemsContinue reading “Kestrels Out and About”

A few weeks ago there was an explosion of common blue damselflies around the ponds and meadows. They will have come from eggs laid in the water the year before which hatch into larvae which live underwater until fully grown. Once adults the larvae climb out of the water onto stems and shed their skinsContinue reading “Damsels and Dragons”

Blackbirds and starlings just love the birdbath in my neighbour’s garden. They don’t like mine as it used to have a model bird in the middle and even though that’s been sawn off it still leaves an uncomfortable stump. So I pointed my FBL (flippin’ big lens) out the top window and aimed it downContinue reading “Bath Time”

The last time I posted pictures of Buddy and Holly, the buzzard chicks, was two weeks ago. Look how much they’ve grown! They have changed from fuzzy white alien looking creatures to larger winged raptor chicks. Here are the before and after pictures; My friend Alison and I went up to see how they wereContinue reading “Buzz Babies”

I’ll start with the happy surprises. Today I was walking along a tree lined field boundary and I noticed lots of white bird droppings at the base of a tree, I followed the white splatters up the trunk to a hole and saw some wee dark eyes peering down at me! At first I wonderedContinue reading “Surprises and a Shock”

Here is a selection of photos of swans and cygnets from a variety of locations and times. Both pairs of local swans are doing well with their six cygnets each, and they have been going about exploring, feeding and preening. I was recently concerned when I couldn’t see any signs of the swan family anywhereContinue reading “Swanning Around”

On Monday I discovered a dipper’s nest, not where I might have expected to see one. It is built into the arch of an old railway bridge over the river, not in the river bank itself. I read that dippers build nests out of moss onto rocky outcrops. There was a lot of activity fromContinue reading “Peek-a-Boo”