Crow rescue!

I got a call over the radio today from some of the House staff who had found a young carrion crow that had slipped through some railings and was trapped in the drainage tunnels in front of the house. I grabbed a net and went down to see what could be done and ended up crawling through the tunnels with fellow staff member Kevin to net the increasingly upset bird. I managed to get him and then put a large cloth over him to calm him down, then carefully picked him up and climbed back through the drain and through a window back into the house, and went to the outer courtyard to check him over and release him. Luckily there were no injuries and after disentangling his claws fromt he net, he flapped off to the roof with some very loud squawking. Successful rescue!

Today we also had a team go over to Sunnycroft, our sister property in Wellington, to set up the marquees, tables and chairs for their Summer Fete this weekend; meanwhile another team got stuck into clefting some oak to replace some of the park pale fencing around the deer park.

It has been a gorgeous week so far, weather-wise, and there has been a lot of opportunity to take photos so here are a few of my latest sightings:

A small tortoiseshell feeding along the River Tern

A female Banded Demoiselle

A Peacock caterpillar

Sunnycroft

The foxgloves are looking amazing all over the park at the moment

The elusive Attingham heron! I've been trying to photograph it for months but whenever I get close,
it flys away - this is the closest picture so far, taken down by the bridge near the Deer Park

Cinnabar moths feeding on ragwort