Well, as you may have noticed, I visit the wildlife hide close to my home EVERY month. I am documenting life around the hide and the changing landscape all throughout the YEAR. I started in June 2020 - and only skipped August for a short Holiday break. UP till now I visited four times with a stake-out of 10-14 hours per visit. In Summer I stay for more hours due to the long days of daylight. In Winter the days are short and therefore I can stay longer in bed before taking off!
My observations till now are quite conclusive. In June and July the diversity of birds is quite high, including fledgelings that are still cared for by their parents. In September when autumn sets in, the bird diversity drops. Birds might migrate to warmer countries or just become more shy when their young have taken off to fend for themselves.
Red squirrels are always present, 2-3 individuals. They differ in their fur color and I can keep them apart. One young squirrel "carries" a red-black fur and two of them are actually red brown. They are quite fearless despite birds of prey in the area. Squirrels are very, very fast and agile, not an easy prey, not even for northern goshawks and sparrowhawks! They are actually good swimmers and I have countless images of them imitating a submarine! Yes! I am also amazed about the way they use their furry tail during their jumps to navigate towards the landing spot.
Birds of prey and a kingfisher appear now and again to hunt or bathe. Then I get really excited. I stop breathing... keep my posture to get the birds to relax. Then breathe again. On my last visit the kingfisher got spooked within minutes, possibly due to a sparrowhawk mostly preying on the bunch of great tits hanging around. Better luck next time! So I focused my attention on the jumping squirrels from the water surface. What a Challenge! And I succeeded! Wheeeehoooo.
