Leaves 'n' stuff

Here's a brief digest of my wildlife experiences over the past couple of weeks...

• Enjoying beautiful Japanese maple leaves still on a tree at The Lodge
• Saw a Stoat climbing about 30 feet up a big pine tree right outside my office window. It seemed totally at home and scampered up as happily as any squirrel. I suppose this must happen more often during the bird breeding season, but it was new for me...
• Also in Stoat News, I saw my first garden Stoat, trying very hard to catch birds
  
• Acquired a dead Long-tailed Tit (which had flown into a car and broken its neck), now in residence in my freezer. I wonder how much it would cost to get it stuffed?
• Celebrated six years of ringing at Beeston last weekend by catching the first Redwing for the site! That was after about 30,000 Redwings were counted over Sandy in one day. Sadly I missed all that
  
• Watching squirrels carrying sweet chestnut cases - covered in big spines! - around. They must really like the contents to put up with the spikiness...
  
• Tawny Owls quite vocal at the moment - sounds like there's a female in our big ash tree. Wonder if she roosts in the hole used by Jackdaws in spring?
• One of the Great Tits we ringed in the garden in August has been found dead, just down the road, after crashing into a window, while one of 'our' Greenfinches has been caught three miles away, by Del who rings here!
  
• Awaiting the annual invasion of Harlequin ladybirds trying to get into our house...
  

photo taken with Canon EOS 30D