When to Watch Wildlife has been a link on my blog for some time now… almost pre blog listings! This is a website from someone clearly passionate about wildlife. Peter has done a fantastic job with his site. I can completely appreciate how much time and dedication it must be to keep current. He has great info, photos and numerous useful links.

When I started blogging I was a bit wary of the whole comments thing and chatting to bloggers. I can’t imagine why now!! However, at that time I enjoyed email exchanges with many enthusiasts… including Peter. So… it is with great pleasure that I’d like to return the favour and welcome Peter into the blogging world.

Peter from When to Watch Wildlife is now blogging at Wildlife Wanderings. In his profile he describes himself as “a wildlife enthusiast with a background as a professional ecologist.” Peter lives in the South West of the UK. His inaugural post, just a few days ago, describes a visit to the wetlands of the Somerset Levels.

Jodi at Bloomingwriter has been encouraging established bloggers in our friendly blogging community to help promote new blogs and support new bloggers as they start out. With only one post under his belt I would like to promote Peter’s new blog… I’d say interesting postings are guaranteed here!

I would agree with Jodi that a great way to support new bloggers is by leaving comments. If nothing else then at least you know someone has read your post. Now… you can probably guess what I’m going to ask now. Yep… it would be great if you could pop over and leave a comment on Peter’s new blog. Sorry, I’ve been there already 😀

Oh… just a quick word to Peter and other new bloggers. If you leave a comment…. they will come 😉

In order for people to find your new blog it’s a great idea to browse other blogs in the same field as yourself or ones that interest you. Ah… but how do you find them… it’s a big blogging world out there!

My tip would be to follow links from the comments that you find interesting yourself. They will usually take you to the profile of the blogger. From there you can visit the blog and others that this blogger follows too. Then, find a post you like… yep… leave a comment and start the whole process all over. Watch the time of course 😀

I’m sure Peter won’t mind that I add another couple of wildlife updates here. As I’ve mentioned previusly, other bloggers are seeing hedgehogs out and about now. I’ve been taking regular photos from inside my hedgehog house. I’ve had no sightings here yet. However, the image above was taken this morning and shows enough movement inside to suggest a hedgehog was in it last night! Excellent 🙂

My last posting told the story of the female Osprey recently returning to her Scottish nest for the 20th time. For those who read this posting early I did update it with a few more facts later. I rushed posting that one.

Looking at the live Osprey webcam this morning and I see there is some news from the nest. All isn’t looking to good at the moment for this elderly female… she really does need her mate to arrive ASAP!!

The latest dairy entry on March 29th reads:

“High drama on the osprey nest over the last 48hrs here at Loch of the Lowes. No, it’s not the arrival of ‘our’ male unfortunately, but yet another intruder osprey! A second female has been landing on the nest, and looking rather too comfortable on it. She is easy to recognise as she is very large (at least the same size as our female) and very very dark in plumage, with a distinctive black ‘cap’.

The resident female has been frantically mantling (standard defensive behaviour) but all her anger seems not to be having much effect on the bold intruder. Do we have a serious rival for the nest? Can our female hold on to her nest without her mate to back her up? Only time will tell.”

Oh dear! I decided to give the centre a quick phone call to ask if he has arrived today before posting this. I was told no, not yet and that the second female is continuing to take spells of sitting on the nest. That’s nature I guess and I’ve seen similar with the blue tits in my nestboxes.

I did consider avoiding advertising the weather outside… we’ve snow again! Spring is temporarily cancelled… its cold out there and there is hurried activity at the bird feeders at the moment. I can’t imagine that the snow and winds will be helping the male Osprey find its way back. I just hope he gets back in time. It’s two against one at the minute… shame.

It’s also a shame to think that hedgehogs were out and about last night. The ground was snow covered… cold slushy stuff at that! Before going to bed I looked out the window and did convince myself that I could see a set of footprints in the snow that didn’t belong to a cat. I doubted the hogs were out on such a horrible night. By the image in my hedgehog house they must have been!

The photos above were taken in my garden on March 30th 2010.