A peculiar and disappointing year this this year. It started well with displaying over the nestwood in March. Actually had five in the air together one morning, the three intruders being seen off very quickly by the resident pair. I couldn't find a new nest this year, and it looked like the nest from 2011 was going to be used. It had been added to in size and there were a few feathers around the top...both good signs.
During an early season visit both birds were flying around the wood and calling to one another, which again was a positive sign. Slightly disturbing was the discovery in some trees near the nest, of the most bizarre thing I've ever found. It was like something out of the Blair Witch Project. Someone had cut turfs and made a bed, with a pine bower over the top, and laid out the bones of a deer into the vague shape of a human skeleton... very weird to say the least!
Possibly some twatty forester's idea of a joke, or part of a satanic ritual. I'm not really bothered which, but why next to my nest? Of all the places weirdos can do stuff, they always do it near where I want to be. I found a Nightjar day roost on Ashdown a few years ago. I took a couple of pics and returned the next day to take more. When I got there I found a massive fat girl tossing off an old man, right where the bloody Nightjar had been. Anyway........long story short. a subsequent visit to the Gos nest later on in the season to count the chicks, was fruitless. They'd not used the nest. Whether they were disturbed by nearby tree felling or by Satanists, I don't know. It's not all doom and gloom though, as a week or so ago I had an evening walk and heard one juvenile calling, though I couldn't see it. So they nested somewhere thereabouts and raised at least one youngster, making at least thirteen fledged in the last five years. A second pair a couple of miles or so away have also fledged at least two youngsters, a male and a female. Looking good for next year so far.
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