Wiltshire Warrior Dragon

I too am saddened by Tim Brooke-Taylor's passing. Thanks, Futtocks, for mentioning I'm sorry, I'll read that again. Yours is the first comment about his death that I have seen which does so. It really was great radio comedy. Altogether, after three..."My name is Angus Prune, and I always listen to I'm sorry I'll read that again, my name is Angus Prune and I never miss..."

Osprey sightings are now occurring with some regularity in Hampshire, as they arrive from Africa and head north up the country. Some opt to hang about for a few days, typically at an inland lake where the fishing is probably pretty easy, or at the estuary of one of the rivers emptying into the Solent or Southampton Water. So, remember, look up!

| suppose it was bound to happen any day now. Hampshire's first cuckoo report of the year; it's from near the M3 at Farnborough this morning.

Thanks for an interesting perspective, Longboard. Beyond me, to the south-west, I am not sure how far they have got either; that was in the back of my mind as I posed the question initially. There was a plan to introduce them into an urban setting, on Tyneside, but I cannot recall whether this has ever happened.

In the late 1970s, my the fiancée (now wife) and I were spending a few days with my mum in Bristol. We had an epic day out while there. We rose early and headed to central Wales. Eventually, in the late afternoon, on a back road in the hills a little inland from the west coast, we achieved our ambition. Soaring above us was the UK's rarest resident bird of prey...the red kite! How times have changed. The other day, looking at the daily list of Hampshire bird sightings, I was struck by no fewer than nine reports of red kites at or very near to the south coast. They have progressively spread southwards from the Chilterns project. OK, they still merit a mention in the opinion of those reporting them to the Hampshire website, but for how much longer, I wonder. They are a bit like little egrets in that respect, except the egrets didn't have a helping hand from the RSPB. it set me wondering. Do any readers/contributors to this thread live in a locality with doesn't have red kites? Are there any such areas of England now?

You mean Keighley has a better part? Only kidding; I like the place. My wife is less enthusiastic, but then she is from Skipton.... I am reminded of that spoof, Art Deco railway poster, with the caption "Keighley. That scary place on the way to the Dales"!

Brimstones seem to be the first ones around here (ie South Wiltshire) yesterday, I too saw a peacock. I see reports today of the first swallows in Hampshire - a couple of solitary birds.

For those of us who read the Asterix stories in English, much credit must go to Anthea Bell, who translated them, with great thoughtfulness and wit, from the French. She died about fifteen months ago. Her brother was Martin Bell, the 'man in the white suit' who famously became the independent MP for Tatton. Her son was Oliver Kamm, a leader writer and columnist for The Times, who also takes a much more relaxed approach to both written and spoken English than many, explained in his Accidence will happen.

I have just taken our dog for a walk along one of the country lanes out of our village. I had the pleasure of the added company of a peacock butterfly for about a hundred yards, as it kept flitting along in short bursts beside us. This is the first of that species I have seen on the wing this year, though brimstones are getting more common day by day. In the garden, the bullfinches were very vociferous yesterday; we had at least three calling simultaneously. For such a boldly and brightly coloured bird, their call - though distinctive and hence easily recognisable when you have taught yourself it - is really very thin and insipid.

The sand martin reports certainly are true, LW. Today's reports from Hampshire include about 60 over the lakes just north of Romsey and about 100 just inland from the Solent. To be honest, I think this is about right, time-wise, for them. Remember, they are the first of the four hirundine species to arrive in the spring. House martins will be next, and indeed, the first are also being reported in Hampshire, albeit in penny numbers so far. After that, it will be swallows, and then finally swifts at about the beginning of May.

The seasonal hirundine (martins/swallows/swifts) influx is well under way. As ever, sand martins are first, and now coming into the south of England in increasing numbers.

Thanks, Futtocks - good, gloom-dispersing stuff!

There are reports today of a sand martin flying over Fishlake Meadows, the water area just north of Romsey in Hampshire. Apparently there was also a large hatching of flies there too. No doubt these two occurrences are not unconnected! As Gubrats rightly said the other day, "it's warming up".

Breaking wildlife news from Chez WWD...! A small newt, under cover of darkness is making its way across the concrete paving stones of our back garden patio, just outside the French windows (or whatever we should call such fenestration post-Brexit...but let's not go there!) luckily neither I nor the dog stepped on it when I took her out in the garden for a few minutes. I wonder whence the newt came and to where it is going!

Plenty of daffodils out in South Wiltshire, and the snowdrop flowers are already just about over. The first primroses are out too. I enjoyed reading of your frog activity, Padge, as I haven't seen or heard any frogs yet, either in the garden or in the New Forest. My wife and I are just back from one of our almost daily dog walks in the New Forest (We have a Catalan sheepdog - what else, as a Dragons' fan, could I realistically have?!) Two signs of impending spring (and it is sunny, if windy, and about 8C today) were in evidence. First, the small, local population of ravens was definitely a bit more vociferous than previously this year. Second, a caterpillar ambled across the pathway in front of us! I am no butterfly/moth/caterpillar expert, but, looking at the internet since coming home, I wonder if it might have been that of either a drinker moth or fox moth.

I've a horrible feeling you could be right, Ivans82. I suppose waxwings are a species that come here in very variable numbers from one winter to the next; I believe it is called an irruption when they migrate across here or elsewhere in continental Europe in very large numbers, but I am not aware that bramblings are equally erratic. And, as I say, the lack of fieldfares and redwings is really strange. I suppose the positive for them is that they have not faced the challenge of a long migration flight. When I lived in a village called Embsay, on the southern edge of the Dales, I remember coming across a dead redwing once on a narrow lane out of the village where I was walking the dog. It was very early for the species for the species to have got here - about the second week of September. I thought how ironic it was that it had managed the perils of a flight across land and sea, only, I presume, to be hit by a passing car in a Dales country lane.

I'm still looking out for any large flocks of fieldfares and redwings in and around the New Forest. I cannot recall seeing more than about a dozen of either species at the same time. I suppose this could be good news; they have not required to come here to find the right temperatures and food. I'm just not sure.

I successfully carried no fewer than twelve yokes yesterday...back from the supermarket...and the egg whites surrounding them!

Fully agree, longboard. I saw one flying over Salisbury city centre the other day. It probably lives out on the water meadows made famous by the Constable picture of the cathedral.

What a lovely sight that must have been, Ullman. I used to see yellowhammers all the time in the byeways of South Durham, when we lived up there. They just don't seem to be around my part of Wiltshire in any great numbers.

Ten thousand 'thank you's, JohnM! I know I am just a grumpy old sod who gets more cantankerous by the day, but I cannot understand the current obsession with the 'pre' suffix, of which 'pre-order' is probably the commonest and possibly most absurd example. I have also heard, and seen in writing, of a sportsman suffering from 'a pre-existing injury', which I can only imagine is one from which he was suffering before he was suffering from it. That said - and to be fair to ckn - he didn't begin his comment with "So.."!

Talking of hogs (which Gubrats was..sort of!) we have reached the time of year when pigs are set loose in the New Forest (in the local jargon, depastured on the forest, or something like that), in the hope that they hoover up the acorns before the ponies eat too many. Apparently the ponies like them, but they can make them very ill or, in extreme cases, cause their death. My wife, daughter and I came on a delightful pig group yesterday at Eyeworth, including (I think, but I'm no porcine expert!) Tamworths, Gloucester Old Spots and Wessex Saddlebacks. Great to see!

Interesting moment at about 6.30 this morning, when I let our puppy out in the garden. Our oak tree was playing host simultaneously to three species of bird that move up tree trunks (and in one case down them too!) to get at bugs in the bark - namely nuthatch, tree-creeper and great spotted woodpecker. I saw the first two and heard the third.

Earlier today, my wife was reminded of the beauty and brutality of nature and how they can be juxtaposed. She looked out into the garden and was delighted to see a humming bird hawkmoth (about the third spotted here this summer) A split second later, a bird - possibly a nuthatch, but moving too quickly to be sure - dashed out of a nearby bush and snaffled the moth!

This thread took eleven years to get to page 338