Andrew & Cherry at Mousehole were told recently of a sighting of a Harris Hawk near Spence’s Cross, doubtless an escapee. It reminded me of a wonderful hawking experience day the family arranged for my 65th birthday at Leeds Castle in Kent where I enjoyed hunting with one in the afternoon. What a great experience that was!
They also told me that their holly berries have now been almost stripped bare by flocks of blackbirds and fieldfares which have now turned their attention to the apples. Then they had the joy of watching a stoat frolicking in their veg patch which is distinguished from a weasel by a longer, blacktipped tail. Like us they have also noticed the hordes of pigeons massing together in huge numbers ahead of the coming colder weather.
In the meantime Common Buzzard numbers feeding on earthworms in the field opposite where we live peaked at a grand total of ten. Mind you, they were still in competition with so many gulls, although it was noticeable how they did not get too close to one another.
The project to record the flora and fauna of the parish has continued albeit at a slower pace and I now have over 2,000 listed. This autumn having been so incredibly wet has been excellent for new fungi, the most recent of which were Stag’s Horn fungi, which are also known as Candlestick, Candlesnuff or Carbon antlers which are tiny finger-like tendrils. Other fungi spotted have been turkeytail, sulfur fungus, sulphur tuft and before anyone asks, no I am most definitely not a fungi expert so would never even stop for a moment to wonder if they are edible.
No two years are ever the same in nature and this year has been no different. I mentioned earlier in the year the adverse impact our dreadful spring had on moth activity and how so many species just did not appear. Eggs did not hatch out into caterpillars and this led to nest failures when newly hatched birds starved to death, as we witnessed in one of our bird boxes. This past autumn has been very different with incredibly mild night time temperatures which lasted well into November. Now I was witnessing freshly hatched moths appearing at least a month later than they ever should and it
will be interesting to see if this trend continues. It has been noticed for quite some time now how many species, and I am not just writing about moths, are expanding their range ever northwards and I am recording ever increasing numbers of migrant moths which have come across from Europe or even in some cases much further afield.