The Curious Owl: A sideways look at British wildlife

We have a bungalow on the Isle of Arran and our garden goes down to the beach. The other day I was sitting in the lounge reading and looking out the window, when I noticed a movement at the bottom of the back garden. It was an otter, strollng up our garden from the beach. I shouted for my wife to come, and we both saw the otter come right up to the full length windows, put it's snout up against the glass and peer in. It was about four foot from me! It then disappeared towards the front of the house as I believe the holt is about 400 metres away. No camera ready! Two hours later it returned and my wife managed to get a rear view as it disappeared back down to the shore.

Is it unusual for otters to do this?

I could post loads of things on this blog but will refrain from doing so. Instead I am going comment on something I know little about; the Common Earwig. I thought I’d post something about Earwigs as they never seem to make it into mainstream discussions and seem to have a stigma around them. Once when I was traveling and in need of some reading material, I picked up a second hand book that had been written by an Englishman who had been in the forces during the first part of the 20th century. The book gives accounts of his experiences around the world and there are a couple of chapters that talk about the creatures he saw and befriended in the various camps. In one chapter he talked rather affectionately about ‘the much despised and, for some unknown reason, feared earwig’, a subject matter that the ‘late King Boris of Bulgaria’ was also passionate about. He goes on to elaborate about the maternal skills of the female Earwig and states that once the brood has hatched she will often march them in two rows, in the manner of soldiers, signaling them with her antennae, left, right and forward. This image always stayed with me and is somewhat kinder than most of the things I saw on the web when I googled them tonight. “How do you kill Earwigs? Is it true Earwigs crawl into your ears when you are sleeping and eat your brain? I have noticed that there are no toads in my garden and I believe this is as a result of having lots of Earwigs in the garden - an imbalance. Earwigs are eating all my plants in the garden.” I personally can’t remember the last time I saw a live Earwig (I think it was actually over 20 years ago!) and apart from the author mentioned above, I have never heard anyone say anything positive about them. I think it would be good to start a positive thinking campaign about the misunderstood creatures that many people seem despise.

I've always wondered about the old wives tales about the weather and nature - like cows lying down and swallows flying low when it's going to rain. How reliable are they?

Collared doves.

Last year a pair of Collared Doves nested on the front of my house on my

satellite dish. they produced 8 broods totalling 10 chicks through to

October. They have been around in my garden all year. Rebuilding the nest

just after christmas and have been sitting in it since the beginning of this year. Yesterday Sunday 23th January, both doves were in my garden. Being the nest is just outside my bedroom window I looked and found at least one healty chick in the nest about week old.

Seems early in the year for a new life is it?

Is this unusual?

Wonder how many chicks I will get this year!