A brief glimpse .... and then it was gone

 It's often the case that the briefest of glimpses of an animal are the wildlife encounters that stick in the memory. Here are three recent chance encounters, that lasted only for a few seconds

I saw something moving in the grass under some young oaks, but couldn't quite make out what it was ..... and then this magnificent jay, with its exquisite blue wing feathers, flew up into the branches. It paused for a couple of seconds and then was gone

I'd been watching this kestrel hovering and stooping along the sea cliffs near Hawthorn Dene on the Durham coast. I lost sight of it then, as I drew near, it flew up from the grass with a small mammal in its talons and disappeared over the edge of the cliff

I was walking through Auckland park in Bishop Auckland, along the edge of what must once have been a broad ditch, when this hare that had been lying low leapt up from almost under my feet and dashed away into a hawthorn thicket.

Long term project ...

There is a saying amongst foresters that 'you should plant as though you are going to live forever'. Sound advice, since most forest trees have natural life spans that far exceed ours - provided that the trees can survive hazards like rabbits, fungal diseases, deer, climate change, gales or developers building more out of town shopping malls.

For any tree planting enthusiast who takes a really long-term perspective and wants to leave a natural legacy, now is the perfect time to plant an oak tree........ 

.......... because acorns germinate almost as soon as they fall from the tree, producing a sturdy white root that spears down through the leaf litter and continues to grow through the milder days of winter. Then, in spring, the first leafy shoot appear. So pot up a few germinating acorns now and a successful start for the seedlings is almost guaranteed. 

It's a 'mast year' for oaks here, with thousands of acorns on the ground. Most will be eaten by pigeons (I once found a dead one with 23 in its crop), deer and mice but the lucky ones might be carried away by a jay from the shade of the parent tree and buried for future use when food is scarce. The jay will probably forget where it cached its winter food supply - and all the while the buried acorns will be sending down those roots, ready for the start of their first growing season. Come to think of it, jays probably give more oak trees a good start in life than we humans do.

Call That a Warble?

There we were, sitting under a hedge in the afternoon sun on the Norfolk coast, listening to the dulcet tones of willow warblers and the like, when out of the bushes came a rasping sound that I can only like to a piece of machinery in the seconds prior to seizing up. It took a long time to locate the culprit, but it eventually revealed itself......

.......... and I think ( with a bit of help from Keith) that it's a  whitethroat ........

.... but then, if I was a bird with a voice like that I'd want to stay hidden too.

I feel on more secure ground with this one - a raucous jay that took exception to our presence in Holkham NNR (of which more later)