Nature Notes
The honey-buzzard is a migratory bird which is very similar in appearance to the common buzzard (which are numerous in the parish). Being in the right place at the right time, Rag, whilst driving out towards Market Drayton in early August, caught site of a buzzard –lik...
A rare vagrant turned up in gardens along Woodhouse Lane out along the Bellaport Road at the end of April. Ken and Trish, at Mere Farm, reported a Hoopoe feeding in their garden and in that of a neighbour. This is a special sighting as not many of these birds are seen...
By the middle of April the better weather finally arrived and with it lots of wildlife activity in and around the village. Spring wildflowers – Wood Anemone, Cowslip and Primrose – have been in full bloom and the Damson trees, of which there are many in the village, ar...
The meteorological conditions, of what became a long weekend for many, have not been seen for perhaps seven years. The thick snow, very cold nights and bright sunshine of the 11th and 12th December were both a delight and an inconvenience. For our local wildlife it was...
Fieldfare and redwing are now to be seen all around the village. Flocks of these winter visitors from
northern Europe have migrated to the UK to avoid the harsher winters found on the continent – and what a welcome sight they are in late Autumn. Numbers will slowly inc...
20 August to 19 September 2017
Autumn seems to have started a little earlier this year. September can often produce very summery, warm weather. My impression this year is that we’ve had more unsettled, windy and showery weather – albeit not exactly cold.
It is a t...
20 June to 19 July 2017
It is certainly proving to be a relatively warm, dry summer so may be the oak/ash rhyme will prove to be accurate after all?
Everything is getting a little quieter now, as the bird song diminishes significantly (the breeding season is over for mos...
20 May to 19 June 2017
Despite a surprisingly windy spell in early June, the weather has mostly been quite pleasant and has been extremely warm and sunny over the last couple of days. The prevailing dry weather is pretty good for nesting birds (particularly those in op...
Norton Nature Notes 20 April to 19 May 2017
Spring has now well and truly sprung and everything around us in the gardens and in the fields and woods is growing at a prodigious rate. A pretty dry period has ended recently and the rainfall has helped plant growth.
From wh...
20 February to 19 March 2017
Spring is well and truly underway and although we continue to have inclement weather (more to come too, undoubtedly) the days are lengthening and this is triggering plant growth and the start of the breeding season for many birds. The massiv...