Two weeks because I have not been visiting so much and there has not been much out of the ordinary going on.

On one of our regular Sunday morning walks we did see a very obliging Fallow Deer female that stood and looked at us and we returned the look and enjoyed the sight and it was there for a reasonable length of time, quite close, and then it trotted off. It more than made up for the damp, grey and wet weather. Apart from that the mammal spotting has been limited to one very brief appearance of a fox and one or two Grey Squirrel sightings.

With the wet weather I was hoping for a few fungi to appear, but so far I have only seen a few Earth balls and some nondescript yellowy brown small jobs. The wood can be quite productive and there is a page dedicated to the Fungi of Ninewells wood which covers all the different ones that I have seen, over the years.

The most significant event of the last two weeks, and don’t get too excited, is that I have moved a small pile of logs which is close to my hide. I set it up a couple of years ago and in its construction I included some lengths of black plastic drainpipe. Why? well as a refuge, hiding place/nest site for small mammals. I do occasionally see Bank Voles and Wood Mice. The log pile was located very close to one of the bird feeders so that when food got spilled then it would be easily available to any small rodents.  However earlier this year I relocated the bird feeder to another tree as the branch it was on had been starting to sag somewhat.

So I have now moved the log pile, incorporating the plastic tubes to a position under the bird feeder. Already the little birds are visiting and it is particularly used by the more ground feeding birds like the Dunnock and the Chaffinches. Chaffinches will visit the feeder but they do struggle somewhat, as do the Robins. I have never seen a Dunnock on the feeder. Maybe in the winter I will be lucky and get some Bramblings or even Crossbills. I do get Bullfinches, Siskins and the occasional Greenfinch visiting and of course sitting on an old log is much more photogenic than on a bird feeder.

The Buzzards have been fairly regular visitors along with the Magpies which still seem to be playing their ‘Dare’ game by trying to peck their tails. I seems that poor old Halfeye is the prime target of their activities. I keep trying to get some more interesting shots of the Buzzards, not just ‘Bird on a stick’ photos. I got a few of the Magpie attacks and some of the young one landing also one brief encounter between youngster and Halfeye, but what I want is two Buzzards in flight with their claws out opposing one another, it does happen , not often and you have to be ready and all set up and they have to be at a good angle. It will happen one day.

The adult male ( Mr Halfeye)  is a less frequent visitor and usually spends relatively little time on the ground, he seems to prefer to fly in, select an item of food and then fly off. In complete contrast is the young one who will spend ages on the ground, sometimes eating and sometimes just looking around.  I think there is only one youngster now, there were two earlier on  in the year, but now it is one. A magnificent bird, it perched on the ‘Special Branch’ last Wednesday and I took loads of photos.

That is it for this post, maybe some fungi next time?