Soil Hill: 29.07 - 12.08

To save with constant individual posts about Soil Hill trips with limited sightings I figured I may was well round them up in one long post at weekly intervals (Starting now) and so here is a quick round up of all that I've seen on the almost daily trips up to the hill. 

A quick note on the notable sightings. On the 7th August a Common Buzzard drifted over the hill. It started circling down over the Queensbury direction before flying low but directly over the hill towards Ogden and Thornton Moor, where it started circling again but continuing to drift of. On the 6th I headed up for an evening session where I gained a patch tick of Greenfinch with a flock of 5 birds associating with the small group of trees at the end of the track. A long overdue tick to say the least.

 On the 12th August I managed to get another patch tick. It was a very slow afternoon with nothing happening. It was then that I heard a distinct 'Spizz' call overhead and looked to see a Tree Pipit flying over. It alighted on a wall, so I rushed for my camera, but when I looked again it was gone. At this point a second Tree Pipit flew over calling and this seemingly was enough to bring out the other bird from the wall, and both birds continued flying south. No record shot there then!

29.07.2015

Species List:

Soil Hill: Wren, Kestrel, Mistle Thrush, Swift, Swallow, Stock Dove, Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Black-Headed Gull, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, 

30.07.2015

Species List:

Soil Hill:Carrion Crow, Swallow, Swift, Wren, Starling, Mistle Thrush, Kestrel, Meadow Pipit, Woodpigeon, Skylark, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Common Gull, Stock Dove, Linnet, Rook, Jackdaw,

01.08.2015

It is important to note that it rained intensively on this day, and I quickly gave up upon arriving on the hill

Species List:

Soil Hill: Meadow Pipit, Woodpigeon,

06.08.2015

Species List:

Soil Hill: Mistle Thrush, Linnet, Feral Pigeon, Dunnock, Greenfinch, Starling, Woodpigeon, Kestrel, Carrion Crow, Common Gull,

07.08.2015

Species List:

Soil Hill: Kestrel, Swallow, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Mistle Thrush, Woodpigeon, Wheatear, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Linnet, Stock Dove, Skylark, Feral Pigeon, Common Buzzard, Swift, Meadow Pipit, Dunnock, 

-Common Buzzard

10.08.2015

Species List:

Soil Hill: Lapwing, Starling, Woodpigeon, Linnet, Mistle Thrush, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Common Gull, Herring Gull, Pheasant, Skylark, Swallow, Magpie, Stock Dove, Wheatear, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Black-Headed Gull, Kestrel, Feral Pigeon,

11.08.2015

Also of note today was the first dragonfly of the year on the hill: a real nice male Common Hawker. Its just a pity it did not settle down for a proper photo.

Species List:

Soil Hill: Swallow, Goldfinch, Kestrel, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Dunnock, Carrion Crow, Black-Headed Gull, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Meadow Pipit, Magpie, Jackdaw, Skylark, Wheatear, Mistle Thrush,

-Common Hawker

12.08.2015

Species List:
Soil Hill: Feral Pigeon, Goldfinch, Carrion Crow, Woodpigeon, Swallow, Meadow Pipit, Tree Pipit, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Skylark, Stock Dove, Kestrel,

And that's it for Soil Hill. Other stuff has been happening, especially in the garden where we have had a nice garden tick of Willow Warbler. A nice yellow individual came and stayed for only a minuet or so, and most of that time was spent in bushes, but it was still and exciting sighting.

But not as exciting as when my dad went out one night to lock the garage only to come back saying there was a Common Toad near the pond. This is a garden tick and pretty special. Not bad going at all.

-Common Toad

Peak District Field Course

Day 1
For the first day we headed out to Burbage edge to do a 'plant survey' of a recently felled plantation. Of course there were a few birds about, including a couple of Peregrines blogging around the cliff and a good number of singing Siskins along the edge of the remaining plantation. The real bonus for the day was a Merlin that flew past the coach as we were pulling up. When I first spotted it I thought it was a swift, but it soon became clear it was a small falcon, which could only mean one thing. Merlin is my 192 species this year.

Species List:
Burbage Edge: Merlin, Kestrel, Peregrine, Siskin, Robin, Grey Wagtail, Great-Spotted Woodpecker, Meadow Pipit, Chaffinch, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Reed Bunting,

Day 2
Another day out in the field, but this time looking specifically at Insects around the Padley Moor and Surprise View area of the Longshaw Estate, and area I am very familiar with. Sadly we did not get to explore the actual moor where the birds are, but we did get plenty of nice things down in the quarry and around the car park. Sadly we had to kill a number of the insects we found for our assessed collections, which was a real shame (though not the big dragonflies and moths), as many casualties were Green Tiger Beetles, which are my favorites.

-Golden-Bloomed Grey Longhorn Beetle

-Stick Caterpillar

-Freshly Emerged Common Hawker

-Oak Eggar (Sadly did not sit still for a photo)

Species List:

Lawrencefield Quarry and Surprise View: Jackdaw, Meadow Pipit, Long-Tailed Tit, Common Buzzard, 

Day 3

Today we started our personal group projects, and my group worked on the Moor itself, so I could sit and watch the birds that I am used to on moors. One of the lads in my group had not seen cuckoo before and I was quite keen to find one for him, as they are pretty frequent on the moor here. Sadly, despite it calling frequently, I was not able to pick it up. I did get a lovely male Whinchat, and a few Stonechats, including a juvenile. It was difficult to try and remain focused on our assessment whilst trying to get stuff seen.

Species List:

Padley Moor: Kestrel, Common Buzzard, Meadow Pipit, Linnet, Carrion Crow, Whinchat, Stonechat, 

Day 4

While we crammed to finish off collecting the data for the project I got a few birds in, namely the Cuckoo finally gave us a flyby. Though breif it was decent, and more than enough to tell what it was. It landed in a tree further down the moor, before it took off again and entered the wood at the bottom. The Whinchat was still showing and singing, and one of the guys in the group picked out a Green Woodpecker flying down the moor, which was pretty nice to see.

Species List:
Padley Moor: Cuckoo, Green Woodpecker, Whinchat, Meadow Pipit, Siskin, Stonechat,

Soil Hell-Back Again

The weather was nice, today I once more made the ascent up the hill, to see if I could actually track down any birds. I managed a few, which is an improvement on Tuesday. Before I even reached the hill I spotted this lovely female wheatear on the wall along the side of the road. It was not a particularly flighty bird, as wheatears often are so I managed a few reasonable photos to record the fact that there were actually birds there today.

-Wheatear

But it was not the only bird, oh no! On the hill there were many meadow pipits and skylarks, a magpie, trios of woodpigeons and pheasants, which jumped out of the long grass at three different intervals and gave me 3 metaphorical heart attacks. There was a large flock of around 20-30 starlings on the mast and as I was leaving were washing themselves in the pool nearest to the mast.

Butterflies were a little down on Tuesday, there remained peacocks, whites and small tortoiseshells but only one small copper and the most abundant butterfly were meadow browns, most of which looked like they had seen better days; tattered wings and faded colouring.

-Small Tortoiseshell

Where the hill exceeded itself was in the dragonfly department, once more, with a record of 3 species! The most common of these was Common Hawker, of which there were at least four, possibly even 5, some having fights but each seemed to have its own pool, whereas on tuesday they had both been on the largest pool.

The top dog as it were on the main pool was quite keen on hovering for a few seconds at each spot, so I made the attempt to try and photograph it in flight. I have a couple of resonable efforts, but whenever it clouded over all dragonflies vanished, so I was eager to have a look round before the cloud became more frequent, for that reason, and the fact that the dragonfly moved and photographing flying dragonflies is hard, these were the only photos I managed that were any good.

-Common Hawker

As I said, I moved on from the main pool to the other pools, where today there were dragonflies. The two male black darters from tuesday had moved to another pool, or possibly a different pair, and here there was no common hawker so they were easier to approach. I got some decent photos of them, a soil hill record shot.

-Black Darter

I made my way round the other pools and found only common hawkers on others beside the 2 main pools. Therefore I returned here when the sun came back out and spotted 2 male Common Darters, which is a new record for me at this site. Having said that, until tuesday I had never seen a dragonfly here, so its not saying much. These darters were not keen to land, as darters often are, so I only got a record shot of it one flight.

-Common Darter

I made my way back to the black darter pond but the sun had gone in and they were not there. There was however, my first female dragonfly of the site, a female common hawker which was ovipositing in the pond, indicating that there is obviously a population here, and this is not some freak event of individuals been blown in.

-Female Common Hawker

So another exciting installment of events on the hill, which has once more excelled itself.

Soil Hill

It was a pleasant enough afternoon so I decided to wander up to soil hill to see what was going on. The warm air temperature had brought out the butterflies in force. On the way up I found Small Copper, and various whites. Once at the top I also found Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell and Meadow Brown bringing me up to a reasonable butterfly total for the walk.

-Small Copper

-Small Tortoiseshell

-Green Veined White

It was at the main pond on the track that I got my biggest shock of the day. As I approached I noticed two large black insects hovering next to the side and immediately recognised them as black darters, which I was not expecting. They were then joined by a large but very fresh male Common Hawker which was hunting the ponds edge. I had not expected any dragonflies up here, and these were the first I have ever seen, so to find 2 species was something of a pleasant surprise.

-Male Common Hawker

-Male Black Darter (1 of 2)

As for birds, the main group of wildlife I had expected to see, they were sadly very lacking, reduced to flushed skylarks and meadow pipits that refused to stick around. I only managed to find one Meadow Pipit which did not fly away.

-Meadow Pipit

On the way down though I spotted a very large group of starlings that moved around landing on the pylons that were up there.

-Starlings

On the whole it was a very good trip, and found some lovely wildlife, even if it was lacking a little on the bird front.

Dorset Holiday-Day 9: Hartland Moor

So today was our last full day in Dorset, and once more it was about 30 degrees, perfect weather for walking around the heathland. Since it was a Monday, there was a reasonable bus service and so made my way down to Hartland Moor. This is a large moor with hides and bogs, directly adjacent to Stoborough Heath that I went to on our first full day and had a really good day.

It involved a bit more walking to than Stoborough had done, and the hides were on the other side of the reserve, so when I made it there I devised a plan of action. The reserve was set around a small hill called The Great Knoll, so I decided to walk around this to get to the hide and then come back round the other side. I started in the boggy area, but quickly found a lack of path leaving me rather stranded. I found that I was surrounded by Four Spot Chasers and Keeled Skimmers as well as some Broad Bodied Chasers. 

As I made my way through the bog to the various patches of trees. As I made my way I flushed some large woodpecker sized brown birds, which when I eventually caught up with them turned out to be Mistle Thrushes, a new species for the holiday.

-Mistle Thrush

But maybe some of the woodpecker sized birds were woodpecker sized because they were woodpeckers, as I found when I flushed a lovely adult Green Woodpecker

-Green Woodpecker

As I made my way through the bog, I noticed a random section of fence with a life raft on it, and I rightly assumed that this must be a view point to the bog with a section of dry land. I therefore headed to that spot by the driest route that I could see, which involved following the tree line and resulted in me spooking a Sika Deer, which once more jumped out and surprised me!

-Sika Deer

When I made it to the fence I saw that it looked over a large shallow pool where there were many dragonflies and damselflies. There was one Emperor Dragonfly which was relegating most other dragonflies to the banks, this included Keeled Skimmers. 

-Keeled Skimmer

There were quite a few damselflies around too. Today was probably my last chance to record southern damselfly or it would elude me for another year. On this pool they were lacking. There were a few damselflies around, mainly Azure and Common Emerald Damselflies.

-Emerald Damselfly

From this 'fence' I could see another at the base of the Knoll, so I headed over in that direction for the most part on dry land. However going by dry land led me away from where I wanted to be. There was a ridge in front of me with a long thin pool between me and the ridge. On this pool there were Keeled Skimmers and Black Darters, which were a great addition to my dragonfly species for the holiday. They were more flighty that I would have expected from a darter and so my initial photo was not very good.

-Black Darter

I found a narrow part of the pool and jumped onto the ridge. From there I could see that over the ridge was a quite large pool with some areas of extensive aquatic vegetation. Here there were a lot more damselflies, including Large and Small Red Damselflies. It seems odd to think that until a week ago I had only ever seen one of this species and now I was taking it for granted.

-Small Red Damselflies

I wandered around the pool and there were some more flighty black darters but only Azure and Common Blue Damselflies, no southern. I therefore set off round the northern side of the Knoll on an actual footpath which was a relief. As I set off I noticed a Common Buzzard soaring overhead, presumably using the more than ample thermals.

-Common Buzzard

Around 300 meters round the knoll and I came to an area of open Birch woodland and Gorse and it was here that I spotted my daily allowance of that wonderful heathland bird the Dartford Warbler. There was a large group of them and I got some great views as they flew around me, and I even got some nice photos. However, it happened to be one of those times in life when it just goes wrong. I was watching the warblers when my phone went off. I had it on loud so that I could here it in my bag if it went off, since nobody texts me but if my family needed me they would be able to get me. It was my mum, reminding me to put on a hat. There are no words, especially when the hat was already on my head. Needless to say, once the photo went off I saw no more warblers.

-Dartford Warbler

I reached an area of more bog and here there was extensive cover of Round Leaved Sundews, some of which were even in flower, the first time I have seen this plant in flower. Please note though that the yellow flowers in the photo are not sundew flowers, they are the smaller white flowers.

-Round leaved sundews

I made my way round and found another pond, this time with more tree cover, though it was fairly quiet on the wildlife front. I made my way back to the path from this pond and there suddenly seemed to be birds everywhere; Stonechat, Dartford Warbler and Linnet, though they all flew off as soon as I noticed them.

-Linnet

I made my way round until I saw a path come off from the circular path round the Knoll. It seemed to be heading off towards where the hides were. Therefore I went along this path and found another pool, with deep wet sedge all around it. This pool had the usual dragonflies but once more one Azure Damselflies, though the most exciting thing at this point as a lovely bold male Stonechat singing from a gorse bush next to the pond, though it then moved on.

I then made my way down the path and onto the main path which the hides were on. It turned out to be a pretty pointless trip. I disturbed a handful of lizards but did not see what kind they were, and I also got reasonable views of Meadow Pipits but that was about it. I made it to the hide but it just looked over the heath and the footpath ran in front of it as well as behind. Needless to say, I did not see anything while I was in it.

The way back down the track provided a bit more, with good views of Linnets and a Golden Ringed Dragonfly hunting along the path. As with all these southern golden rings, if they landed they would not let you get close. As a result, my photo record with this species this holiday remained poor.

-Golden Ringed Dragonfly

I made my way cross country back to the pond where I had seen the stonechat. On my way there I found Small Red Damselfly at another small pond with the fence like structure and life ring. I took some more photos to increase my record library of this species. I had a look to see if there were any other Zygoptera ad found a Common Darter female. 

-Small Red Damselfly

I continued to make my back to the pond next to the path. Once there I once more started to look to see what was about. It seemed to have quietened down rather than got busier and no matter how many damselflies I checked they were all Azure. I followed a Four Spot Chaser into the wet sedge meadow. Once I got there I lost the chaser, but spotted another damselfly landed in the sedge. Before I even checked I knew that it would indeed be a southern, and when I checked the photos I had taken to be double sure it was confirmed that I had indeed settled my score with this species and finally been able to tick Southern Damselfly. Once I started looking, following the one I had found around I found a couple of others, including a pair in their mating position. I gathered loads of photos to try and record every angle of the species for my library, but really I would have been content to just savor the moment of finally ticking this species after the disaster on Angelsey last year. 

-Southern Damselfly

I was well choughed with finally finding one, and then finding more. I decided to leave them for now and explore the rest of the reserve and come back when I had finished, since I had noticed that I only had about an hour before I would need to leave for my bus. 

I continued round the knoll as had been my plan and found another pool with the fence like structure in front of me. However, as I drew nearer I noticed that it was actually the same pond I had started my circuit at, and that left me feeling really confused. My 180 degree walk round the knoll had turned into a 300 degree walk. I therefore decided to climb the knoll to see if I could see anything on top, namely dartford warblers.

On my way up I found some metal tins for reptiles, though there were none under any this late in the day. The top was a bit of a disappointment, as I did not really see anything. On the way down though I found a female Keeled Skimmer that had taken on a Small Heath Butterfly and was sat there munching this butterfly was quite a size. However, the dragonfly was not keen to share its dinner with my camera and so my only photo, below was not that good.

-Female Keeled Skimmer feeding on Small Heath

Having finished quicker than I thought up on the top, I made my way back round to the southern damselflies but stopping off at the pond before reaching it. I walked down the ridge to see if I could find any Black Darters and was successful, but the wind had picked up and the perch it was sat on did not stay still so my photo was not really as good as I wanted it.

-Black Darter

There were also more Small Red Damselflies, though this time it was a slightly menalistic version, as some of its body was black, adding a little variety to my photo library.

-Small Red Damselfly

Once finished there, convinced I had seen all I could, I made my way back to where the Southern Damselflies had been. Luckily it did not take me long to track down one and continue my appreciation of this species. I also took some some more photos...

-Southern Damselfly

You will notice that on the bottom two photos the damselfly is having its lunch, which I only noticed afterwards when I looked back at my photos.

I then had to leave the damselflies to make sure I caught my bus. On the way out I called off at the boggy section to see if there was anything going on there. There were the usual dragonflies but then I spotted that one of those I had assumed to be an emperor was not actually and was a hawker. I spent as long as I dared trying to photograph it in flight but only managed one excusable photo for identification purposes. Those purposes showed that it was a Common Hawker, my first of the holiday, which added to my dragonfly list.

-Common Hawker

I did not have to run for my bus, only wait about 5 mins. The journey back was none eventful, as I decided to go by train from Wareham to Moreton rather than try and get a lift. Besides, I had found that buses here were as expensive as trains, so why not use the train.

Back at the caravan site I went for a shower to wash away my weariness. However, even that did not finish my wildlife day as soon as I came out of the shower I spotted a very pretty moth on the radiator. I headed home for the camera and then returned to take some photos for i.d. Turns out that this is a Buff Arches Moth, which I have not seen before.

-Buff Arches Moth

As I sat up to leave once I had photographed the moth I spotted another moth on the light, but this one needed no introducing, Common Footman its odd that a day flying moth would be sat on the light of a shower block, especially since the light was off, so it had obviously been there since the light was on. I moved the footman since I could not really get a good photo from where I was and where it was. I was a worried that as a day flying moth it might just fly off but no, I was able to move it outside and get some reasonable photos.

I am familiar with common footman, and it is one of my favorite moths, though I have only ever seen it once before, at Pottric Carr .

-Common Footman

I left the shower block two moth species richer than I had arrived. But it seemed a fitting way to end the day and our time in Dorset, since tomorrow we were leaving for Fareham. I had still one reserve on my visit list, and that would wait for tomorrow, when my family were at the tank museum.