It’s early March (I can tell this from the using the angle of the sun to read the date on the calendar, an old trick I learnt some weeks back), and this can mean only one thing.  No, not that February has just ended (although of course it has).  Tag Team Wrestling season is about to begin.  So far the Pheasants have been early starters, although there are stories that the Hares have begun flexing some muscle.  The Crows are limbering up to take on the Buzzards, and this year we have a surfeit of Pigeons to act as referees.  Mind you, a Sparrowhawk is currently doing it’s best to clear the pigeons from the sky…

Curiously, most ‘reliable’ sources (books/online) suggest your sparrowhawk doesn’t do pigeons, preying only only smaller birds (tits/finches/thrush and I presume sparrows).  And they go on to suggest that pigeons are therefore taken by Goshawks & Peregrines.  Well, we do occasionally see Peregrines here, passing through on the travels to wherever they travel to, and Goshawks no doubt too from time to time.  But it’s not a Goshawk, and it’s not a Peregrine, and a light googling provides a lot of anecdotal evidence that your sparrowhawk will tuck into a bit of pigeon.  Books eh. 

The Skylarks are getting into their stride as well, so cask washing is beginning to take longer to do as we get constantly distracted by working out if we could attach a small camera to their feet and get some aerial shots.  And in due course we will be able to continue our experiments with swallows and coconuts (with a husk to grip of course).  We are hopeful that we will see a return of the Lapwing colony to the field outside the brewery (they nest in several locations on Greys each year), but there are tales from above that it may be sown with clover (amongst other things) in order to attract bees, so we will have to see.  On the down side though, we seem to be Barn/Tawny Owl free at present – but then again, now is the time they will be moving around looking for nests/mates, so you never know.  But we do have a Little Owl…  They are common enough round here, but this one has take a liking to the reed bed and its environs, and gives a slightly tropical feel to things when it starts shouting.

The reed bed has had its first full winter residents (except the Moorhens, which as a species seem obliged to inhabit anything that involves water and lasts longer than a puddle), as the Reed Buntings (if not others as well) have stayed put.  Hopefully we will have some more warblers (reed & sedge) returning over the summer.  Otherwise, it’s all finches & tits (long tailed, blue, great, politician, coal etc etc).

All in all we are gearing up for taking even more notice than before in what is happening around us this year.  And that is worrying.  Now I Am Become Bill Oddie, The Spotter Of Birds, as Oppenheimer once said. Or something…