Back to winter

Orange has seen its coldest spell this winter after a few months of quite dry and warm conditions.  There’s even the possibility of snow tomorrow and there was some small hail today.  That makes hunting difficult as not many birds come out and forage in weather like this.  But these adult birds are resilient and can go for several days without food if necessary. It’s a quite different story if there are youngsters about as they need food several times a day.  Fortunately, by the time eggs hatch, the conditions have usually ameliorated and, of course, there are more young (and unwary) birds around as prey.

Diamond has been doing her ‘I really don’t like starling act’ to the dismay of Xavier, who is doing his best!  I think he brought in a grey shrike-thrush (larger, and we assume, tastier) this week, which was much more favoured, but here she is rejecting his starling offering.

 

   You can keep your filthy starling, thank you!

And here is the link to the video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQWQit3mW0U&t=13s

You might be wondering when eggs are due.  Here are some previous dates of 1st eggs:

2018: 20th August (Diamond)

2017: 26th August (Diamond)

2016: 28th August (Diamond)

2015:  31st August (Diamond)

2014:  3rd September (Swift)

2013: 27th August (Swift)

2012: 17th August (Swift)

Interestingly, while Swift’s eggs got later each year, Diamond’s are getting earlier.  So if we focus on Diamond’s trends, we could have eggs quite soon, possibly even next week!  I think I had better ask Scott to turn on the nest chat soon.

For those in southeastern Australia, rug up and keep warm this weekend.  Plenty of indoor jobs that need doing!

Cilla