WonderfulWildlifeUK

Bright at first then clouding over, 3°, light ESE. Apparently snow is on the way.......but don't hold your breath! Little change from Wednesday bird wise. The 2 Stonechat still present and quite a few Fieldfare, a few Redwing, at least 4 Song Thrush and several Pied Wagtail and Meadow Pipit on the hill. A Little Egret , 2 Jay , a Green Woodpecker and 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker (both drumming) , a few Yellowhammer and 2 Reed Bunting . 3 Teal also present out at Lollingdon. Per Tony Williams and a female Blackcap in his garden regularly. 10+  Red Kite over the allotments along Station road today and a Little Egret seen out at Lollingdon. Per Bill Nichols. A male Blackcap in Phil Dysons garden feeding on Callicarpa berries recently. 100+ Corn Bunting at the roost on Cholsey Marsh and a Sparrowhawk present early this week. Per Ed Munday. Mammals: Roe Deer .  Male Blackcap (courtesy Phil Dyson)  Callicarpa berries (courtesy Phil Dyson)  Stonechat

A sunny day clouding up later, 4°, light W. After yesterday’s snow that did not materialise there was quite a hefty frost overnight and stayed cold all day. Did not venture out, things to do but an eye kept on the garden. A Merlin flew across Cholsey Marsh this afternoon. Per Bill Lester. A Raven flew over the garden late afternoon heading north. The usual stuff in the garden today with 2 Nuthatch , a Treecreeper , a Coal Tit , 4 Long-tailed Tit , 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker , a Song Thrush , 4 Moorhen , 2 Collared Dove , 2 Stock Dove with the male frequently displaying to the female. Several Greenfinch , Goldfinch and Chaffinch . Both Blue and Great Tit , Blackbird , Woodpigeon , Dunnock , Robin and Wren . Several Redwing in the meadow and 2 Mistle Thrush and a few Fieldfare overhead. after 50+ years of living in Cholsey Tony Rayner has seen his first Nuthatch and Treecreeper in his garden recently! A great photo of a Treecreeper by Alan Dawson. from

Main image:  By Claudia Bonney, Avon Wildlife Trust Wildlife Champion I will never forget the first night in my new house seeing a mother hedgehog and her three babies walking across my lawn. What a surprise to discover a healthy population of wild hedgehogs happily living in my city garden here in Bishopston, Bristol. read more from Avon Wildlife Trust blogs https://www.avonwildlifetrust.org.uk/blog/wildblog/2019/01/30/mrs-tiggywinkle-leads-hedgehog-way

Cloudy, 3°, light S. 2 Stonechat still present on the hill and 2 Raven flew south and approx. an hour later 2 flew north (possibly same 2). A Yellow-legged Gull in field out at Lollingdon with 6 Lesser Blackback Gull . Quite a few Fieldfare and Redwing around and several Reed Bunting , Yellowhammer , Pied Wagtail and Meadow Pipit . 2 Kestrel flew west over the hill and being harried by a Red Kite . A Little Egret also seen out at Lollingdon. Have noticed a lot of Jackdaw activity around our end of the village with several groups exploring chimney stacks on houses. A Muntjac Deer feeding next to the garden this afternoon.  Stonechat  Raven  Little Egret Muntjac Deer from Cholsey Wildlife https://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/2019/01/before-rain-snow.html

Looking through the camera footage this week, at YewView, I have recorded more fox footage than I have in a long time! We usually capture the foxes feeding at the feeding station, then occasionally we see them passing through the other cameras. This week, they have been showing quite a lot of interest in one of the badger setts on site. Sadly, they are looking at the set that does not have internal cameras…. This is the first time I have filmed both dog and vixen… I hope they are thinking of taking up residence, but I wish the’y go in the camera sett!   Last week, I managed to get the otter cam up and running again. I recorded 4 visits this week…. It’s not only otters around this area though. Once again, the foxes were checking this holt out…and it is quite a squeeze!   and this very fat mink seems to think it is taking up residence! Our tawnies have not changed their habits. The female (I think) is still in the main box every day during daylight hours. I think she ha

Every year, I look forward to taking part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch and this year is no exception. It is great to be part of this, the biggest garden wildlife citizen science project in the world and it is providing us with valuable information about how bird species are changing in our gardens. This year celebrates the 40th anniversary! Big Garden Birdwatch actually started out as an event for children? Back in 1979, the RSPB joined forces with BBC’s Blue Peter and called on children to let the RSPB know what birds they saw in their garden. Over the last 40 years, the Big Garden Birdwatch data has highlighted declines of house sparrows and starlings. These birds have dropped by an alarming 57 and 80 per cent respectively in gardens across the UK since the Birdwatch began. I remember lots of house sparrows in the privet hedges around my home in SE London, when I was a child. Starlings were also very common visitors. Here in Lichfield, I rarely record starling visiting and this

As many of you will know, I travel up to the Shetland Isles each year for a week, to guide with Hugh Harrop and ‘Shetland Wildlife’. It is one of the weeks in the year that I most look forward to and I still can’t believe that I have the privilege to work with Hugh and share these beautiful islands with our guests. My link to Shetland goes back many years, when I met a very special friend via a wildlife platform online. Paula Moss and I met on a wildlife chat forum and quickly became friends as we shared wildlife stories and images from two very different locations in the UK! As our friendship grew online, it soon became clear that we were going to have to meet and lovely Paula invited me and some close friends (all keen photographers) up to Shetland to stay with her! Despite constantly telling my kids never to meet up with people you meet online, I flew all the way to Shetland to stay with someone I had never actually met in the flesh! Pete, Ian, Neil and I spent the most amazing

I’ve been making a conscious effort, since January 1st, to notice nature in the grey bleakness of the city in winter. One morning last week, buttoned up against the irrepressible sleet and the bitter cold, I was walking fast through an industrial park in South London, having deposited my car at the mechanic. Following my […] from James Common https://commonbynature.co.uk/2019/01/26/winter-walks-in-the-city-by-frances-jones/

Cloudy, 11°, light W. A milder day today and somewhat quiet out. 2 Little Egret seen today, with one close to the village and another approx. 1km away towards Lollingdon. Apart from those it was just the usual Redwing , Fieldfare , a couple of Corn Bunting and Yellowhammer , Meadow Pipit and Pied Wagtail . from Cholsey Wildlife https://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/2019/01/little-egretsagain.html

2019 celebrates the 40th year of the RSPB  Big Garden Birdwatch and the survey weekend is nearly upon us! During the weekend of 26-28th January everyone in the UK the chance to take part in one of the world’s largest Citizen Science event and it is expected that over half a million people will take part this year! There were nearly half a million results submitted last year and over 6.76 million birds were spotted in gardens and green spaces across the UK. This year’s event is likely to attract even more people to count even more birds, providing a valuable snapshot of the national population of garden birds. If you haven’t registered yet, you can do so, via the RSPB website, by clicking the link below: Results from 2018 showed both winners and losers in the garden bird population and changes could be attributed to weather conditions and how successful the breeding seasons were for those species. House Sparrows and Starlings kept their number 1 and 2 positions respectively with the