Page 31 - Frittenden Parish Mag - June - 2021

Views Birds

Stiles... leg movements when negotiating stiles. I Chicks

should like to thank whoever authorised
this change. It makes life for us ‘oldies’
can we keep so much easier. However I do have an and
‘Oliver Twist’ moment from time to time:
upgrading them? Please Sir (Madam) , I want some more!
Some stiles are very wobbly and unsafe. Challenges
Roy Latham
Others which were decrepit over Rebecca Brown
two years ago have been replaced or
Like all of us, my movements have been refurbished with higher crossbars than
restricted during the Covid lockdowns. before. I wonder if it might be possible to Last month I wrote about the pair of Despite the long cold spring, there are
I have also been restricted for a longer have a work party that could lower these nesting blue tits that we have been active nests and fledgelings everywhere
period for other reasons and I have for higher crossbars or replace with more watching via our nest box camera. now. Robins, wrens and blackbirds have
just over 2 years been unable to walk kissing gates. Yesterday it took me nearly Well I’m delighted to say that in early been especially quick off the mark and
safely across our lovely fields, thus 15 minutes to get over one of these stiles, May eight of the nine eggs hatched. their fluffy, brown chicks are already
restricted to road walking. However I (much to the bemusement of Paul Hopes Since then the parents have been leaving the nest, after which they hide
have recently been able to resume my cows and calves!) and it was a painful busy feeding their hungry chicks in hedges and bushes awaiting yet
passion for walking our footpaths with experience for me. and the care with which they do so another meal from their exhausted
their magnificent vistas.
I wonder if many other ‘oldies’ ( or is illuminating. If one parent brings parents. Most adult garden birds will
One thing I have noticed is that we now disabled people) have a view on this? in an insect that is a too big, it is then lay a second clutch of eggs, and
have fewer stiles, with several replaced by carefully held out to the other and perhaps even a third - and so the nesting
metal kissing gates. For me this as been a Comments to: between them they pull it in two, before season will go on until August.
godsend as arthritis severely restricts my frittendenparishmagazine@gmail.com giving both bits to the lucky chicks. We are fortunate in the parish to still

From the kitchen Breeding is tough for a female blue tit. have the most notorious ‘parent’ of all
She has built the nest on her own, laid
visiting us - the cuckoo! Cuckoos spend
of the Old Dragon. a large clutch of eggs, and then pulled only a few weeks in the UK, arriving in
We can offer you a large range out some of the down from her stomach April/May and leaving for central Africa
of homemade preserves, jams, to create a ‘brooding pouch’ - an area of again in June. Sadly their numbers have
marmalades, chutneys, sauces bare skin which allows her body heat to declined by 40% in the last 20 years.
and curds. arm the eggs. The male brings her food Although their migration involves
Free from preservatives. We from time to time but she also has to flying over the huge Sahara desert, it
use locally sourced fruit and find her own. And when the chicks have seems that the real losses are the result
vegetables whenever possible. hatched, they will need up to 100 meals of drought, fire and habitat destruction
each, every day! So the parents of our at their stop-over sites in Europe,
Call Jenny & Tim anytime chicks will be trying to find hundreds especially Spain. So we must enjoy
on 01580 852 468
of insects a day for their little brood… their lilting calls now, whilst we can.

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