Spurn Day 23

The game has changed. At 2.00 this morning I decided to investigate a lone oystercatcher calling. I knew there would be nothing of it, but figured it probably best checking. But there, at the far end of the pond was something shining in the torchlight. Initially I thought it must just be a can or something, but then it began to move. I therefore, moved closer to it in order to get a better view. Whatever it was it decided to clear off without a trace, no sign of it round the corner. Of course it was the long elusive fox, but why had only one Oyk been calling, and why, when I reached the site, was there still a Ringed Plover (Capable of flight) chilling on the shoreline? And where had the fox gone, it can’t have run that fast?

At 3.00 the same thing happened, only this time I remembered to check for tracks. After some searching I found one fresh paw print from a fox. But again, there were few birds calling and no obvious sign of distress from anything…

Besides that the shift passed without incident, though obviously the fox is a pretty big incident. There were not many birds around in the morning, probably because I had scared them all off. The walk back also produced nothing of any real note.

At 11 my slumber was broken by the reports that a clouded yellow was on beacon lane. Oh, how nearly I made it out of bed, but not quite and the next thing I know it was 2.00 in the afternoon. For the day I decided to head along the coast, to beacon lane, round to Kilnsea wetlands and then back down Canalside. It was dead, very dead indeed. Along Beacon Lane I got a few butterflies but nothing much. I recorded Speckled Wood, which is my first time here, and a few Wall Brown and a Painted Lady in full colour. Nothing out of the ordinary though.

-Speckled Wood

-Wall Brown

Along the walk to Kilnsea I had a bit more luck, with Avocet on one of the small ponds, also a Ruddy Darter along the path, but it was still very quiet. Not as quiet as actually on the wetlands. Below I have included a photo with all the birds on the wetlands in…

-Juv Lesser Black-Backed Gull

As if it needs stating, not much time was spent in there. I continued round to Canalside where there was little again. On the estuary I picked up Whimbrel, Black-Headed Gull and Dunlin, the latter being in small numbers as the tide was well, well out.

I returned to the warren having not really got much at all. Shopping and dinner followed but after that I headed up to the Seawatch hide to see what was about. It was a decent showing, but very on and off. There was decent passage of Sandwich and Common Terns, as well as a few far out Arctic Skuas, 2 of which were mobbing a Sandwich Tern. There was also Gannet movement out to sea, so a little more to get excited about. A weather front had moved in and so the Seawatching quickly dried up, the air becoming very humid with the odd rain shower. 

As a consequence the ponds were very quiet, and there was little on the way there. The cloud cover also made it feel very dark, meaning none of the waders could be identified, though there were obviously some dunlin and the Oyks out there.

The Daily Oystercatcher

This morning our Oyks spent most of their time calling at me as I checked relentlessly for the fox. It caused the young to frequently fly though, which they are getting good at now, and is pleasing to see. At one point the adult took them down onto the beach in order to try and get them away from me, but I came back round the beach in order to prevent disturbance to other birds, so that did not work too well.

In the evening it was too murky to really get them, but they could be seen snoozing on their little Crab Pot island. Snoozing that is until I disturbed them with my checking. Its going to be a long night for them I feel.

Species List:

Beacon Ponds: Little Egret, Mute Swan, Dunlin, Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Black-Headed Gull, Sanderling, Fox, Migrant Hawker

Walk: Avocet, Mute Swan, Mallard, Linnet, Herring Gull, Pied Wagtail, Black-Headed Gull, Sandwich Tern, Blackbird, House Sparrow, House Martin, Dunlin, Whimbrel, Snipe, Great Tit, Goldfinch, Wall Brown, Meadow Brown, Speckled Wood, Gatekeeper, Common Blue, Large White, Painted Lady, Red Admiral, Ruddy Darter, Migrant Hawker, Emperor Dragonfly

Seawatching: Gannet, Sandwich Tern, Common Tern, Arctic Skua, Common Gull, Linnet, Swallow, Grey Seal,

Uni Week 2

So week 2 in my new home comes and goes. This week was built mainly on fieldwork and so we were out in the field quite a lot.

Tuesday
Went to Whiteley Wood to collect leaves. On the bird front there was a heron, one buzzard soaring overhead and a pair of robins having a real scrap

Wednesday
We went to the cemetery to collect leaves but there was not much there due to the poor weather. On the way back we went through the botanic gardens and there were ample, maybe 10 magpies all on the lawns, as well as wood pigeons and collard doves.

Saturday
I went on a walk with the Sheffield university bird-watching society through Endcliffe park to Forge Dam. We recorded a few interesting species, grey wagtail, sparrowhawk, buzzard, mistle thrush, long tailed tit, tree-creeper and nuthatch, and it was a nice walk

Sunday
Went for a walk with a church up on the borders of the peak district through some woods and round a reservoir. Butterflies were in abundance, with multiple Small Tortoiseshells and Speckled Woods. There was also a Common Sandpiper on the bank of the reser which was really nice to see. Besides that there was a sparrowhawk.

Garden Speckled Wood

Its happened before, but its not frequent so when a speckled wood turned up in the garden it was very exciting. It did not really stay for photos, so the best I could manage was this, on the bird table. Its not brilliant but it will do as a record shot for the second record

Angelsey day 3

Day 3 was a warm and sunny, but sadly rather windy day, and so I decided to go with my family to Plas Newydd, National Trust. I was dissapointed to learn that there was no pond on the site according to the map, though the site was next to the Menni Strait, so there way be a few costal birds. However, a quick look round the garden and I found the sites small pond, a small concrete affair.

  There was a small dead azure damselfly on the pond, but that was pretty much the only sign of life. However, after a quick look, I spotted a small black line moving along the surface of the water, similar to a pond skater. I tried to take some photos but it moved rather quick for a small insect and then made itself very difficult to photograph by hiding. I knew by then though it was a water measurer, which was the first time I have ever seen one.



-Water Measurer

I walked on to the bird hide, which was a walk along the seafront. Sadly I diddnt see anything really, which was dissapointing becuase the site had so much potential. When I got the bird hide I was dissapointed to find out that it was an open fronted affair with a view out to see, with no feeders or anything to help attract birds. However, out on the water there was a couple of cormorants

---It is now 2014, and reading through some posts one afternoon I have encountered this post. I have no idea what 17 year old me was thinking but this is quite clearly a pair of shags. This is the third time I have found cormorant labelled only for it to be a Shag. Its a pity I did not notice this at the time, as its a species I do not see very often. Had I noticed I would have no doubt taken more photos but sadly this is all I have---

-Cormorants Shags

However, some birds did appear, when a flack of long-tailed tits moved through the small clearing  in front of the bird hide. They were difficult to photograph, but I managed a few quick photos.

-Long Tailed TitWalking back round, away from the seafront and round the back of the garden I stumbled upon a less altered bit of the garden, where there were sections of grass covered with orchids, all common spotted. One of the orchids even had a six-spot burnet moth on it, it looked rather lovely

-Common Spotted Orchids

-Six-Spot Burnet moth on Common Spotted OrchidIt was in that section that all the wildlife seemed to be, as there were quite a few butterflies besides the burnet moths. The first butterfly I stopped to look at was a ringlet, though there were plenty of gatekeepers and meadow browns

-Ringletbut it was not only butterflies that were around, for despite the lack of water I managed to find a ouple of very territorial common darters defending a log, which they had both decided to perch on. I was quite surprised to say the least, as the local pool was completely dried up.

-Common DarterBut to add to the list of brown butterflies that could be found at the site, I spotted a speckled wood resting in a patch of sunlight, which allowed me to take some photos of it.

-Speckled Wood
After lunch we decided to go to the beach at newborough warren becuase the weather was still decent and as a big part of any holiday is spending time at the beach. Whilst swimming in the sea I diddnt see many birds, but there were some oystercatchers flying overhead, that were being horrendously blown off course in the wind.
  There were quite a few more interesting flowers though, as in one corner of the car park I spotted some pyramidal orchids, I only recognised them because I had seen them before on the isle of wight, but after a quick cross reference with my previous photos I decided that these probably were too. There were plenty of common spotted orchids too, as well as some sea holly.

-Pyramidal Orchid

-Common Spotted Orchid

-Sea Holly

So, not an overly thrilling day except for the botanical aspect, but overall a good day nevertheless.

October

had my first ever Calderdale october swallows this morning, 2 sat on wires near the Bradshaw tavern. Also a chiffchaff singing and a jay at north dean woods, as well as some stunning fly agaric. Also saw a speckled wood and small tortoiseshell. What kind of october is this?

Isle of wight day 5-freshwater and Ventnor

Today my family were headed off towards freshwater, so i decided to tag along and visit Afton marshes while they were canoeing. The website said that there were lots of dragonflies at Afton marsh as well as water voles. I know which out of those two I believe more!
The weather was decent, but as I walked through the first half of the reserve (the path doesn't actually go through the reserve in this bit) I didn't see anything, except a couple of gatekeepers and a red admiral, so I was pretty disappointed.
However in the other half of the reserve the path went through the reserve a lot more which meant it went close to the pool where I suspected most of the dragonflies would be. I was disappointed that as soon as I entered I found myself enclosed by woodland, this was not on the map.
A jay alighted on an overhanging branch which cheered me up. There was a river going alongside the path, but there were no plants in it due to the shade presented by the trees growing either side.

-Jay
I was bitterly disappointed as I finished the circuit around the reserve, as there were only a few spots where the sun actually broke through the trees. I couldn't even see the pool that was supposed to be there, but I decided to take a another walk around, to see if i could lift the disappointment.
Luckily there was a lift for the disappointment as i casually walked around for the second time I heard a rustling by my feet. I stepped back to find about 50cm away was a water vole on the waters edge.
I was surprised to say the least, normally water vole records relate to one occurrence used to draw tourists in, but it appeared that this site did actually have them, well it did and they were quite bold it appeared.
I tried to get a few photos but sadly there was a lot of vegetation in the way. It went about 20 seconds later, obviously not trusting this still feature that kept making ominous clicking noises (the camera)

-water vole

A bit further on, the place that looked best for dragonflies, an open area with a very small water body i found my first butterfly for the day. My first one this year, but sadly not a new tick. The last time I was on the isle of wight the only butterfly I remember seeing was a holly blue, so it would have been a shame to not have seen one on my return to the island.

As it happened that was not going to be the case as I managed to find one in that area, feeding peacefully as i got some photos for the records.

Holly blues are possibly the easiest to I.D because they have blue outsides as well as insides, and they have limited outside patterning, which is why they are some of my favourite butterflies.

-Holly Blue
Just a bit further on I spotted something else worth watching, an adorable family of baby wrens. I guessed they had just fledged because they still had very obvious gapes and were still being attended to by an adult. They were very cute, as all baby birds are

-Baby Wrens

It was still a bit of a disappointment but the many wonderful things I had seen made me feel better, there were other things around too including unusual bees and lots of speckled woods.

-Unusual Bee

-Speckled wood
I left Afton marshes feeling good, especially about the water vole and headed back to the car. We were at a loss as to what to do for the afternoon, so we decided to go to Carisbrook priory. There wasn't much there but in the garden i spotted a green woodpecker whizz past and also there was a chalk-hill blue in a patch of long grass.

After tea we decided to go to Ventnor to try and track down some crickets. Last time we were here we kept hearing loud crickets and then one night we found one, an absolute monster, a great green bush cricket, but back then I had no camera and so was unable to get a photo. This time i intended to get it right and get a photo.

The problem with these crickets is that they sound close, but are actually about 10m away in the opposite direction. My Brother and I walked along the bank of the cliff listening, and searching with the flashlight. We walked the whole length of the car park at the east end, where they are best found, without any luck, but they continued to sing at us. As we were walking back i spotted an ominous green shape reflecting from some distant light perched on a dock.

I took a quick photo and then checked it, to find out that it was what I had hoped it would be.

-Preliminary record shot of great green bush cricket
My Brother and I climbed up To get better photos, but sadly the steepness of the cliff made it difficult to get decent shots, so we decided to bring it down to where it would be easier. We took it to some plants on the car park, and once we finished with it took it back.

It was a very impressive specimen, the best I have ever seen, and very co-operative too, so I managed to get some degree of reasonable photos, showing off the bright colours and all the other features that make this species so special.

-Great green bush cricket

so it was a great green end to a decent day!

cambridgeshire day 1

We arrived the previous night, Our destination, Maidenhall on the Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border. The Campsite was decent, hidden amidst predominantly coniferous woodland, the only catch was that there were no facilities, so we were going to have to use the ones in the caravan. For our first morning my we decided to go and look at Maidenhall, the local town. What makes Maidenhall famous-well nothing really!! There's a Big RAF place just outside the town but aside from that it resembles pretty much any other english town, only without any big name shops. There was only a Sainsburys that was a typical shop. Behind the Sainsburys was a river, quite big really and on it were the usual assortment of ducks (mallards) with some Canada geese and a couple of swans. There was a bridge across the river and on the other side there was more of a wildlife area. There was an area of marsh behind a line of trees and around the pond there were some Banded demoiselles.

-Banded demoiselle
There were only males in the pond area, but on the river there were a few more species of damselflies such as the Azure on the riverside vegetation.

-Azure Damselfly
Where we turned around there was a golf course and on it were a large number of blackbirds, but also there was a grey wagtail, which was quite nice to see.Walking back from the golf course My dad spotted a giant beetle crossing the path, I took some photos and after some identification we reckon that its a lesser stag beetle.

-Lesser Stag Beetle

On the way back we spotted some female banded demoiselle, Although I thought that they were beautiful demoiselles because of the lack of bands. Never mind! I wont be making that mistake again.

-Banded demoiselle (Female)
when we were almost on the town side of the river I spotted another type of damselfly, a blue tailed, this one is a normal mature specimen.

-Blue tailed damselfly
Back at the campsite we had time to kill, as we were back before lunch. I decided that after lunch I would go into the wood opposite and look at the apparent nature reserves there. In the leaflet the nature reserves apparently had stone curlew, woodlark and white admiral! The whole point of us coming on this holiday was to see stone curlew so it would be great to see them without even going to weeting heath, and on the first day. During Lunch we were visited by some squirrels. Unfortunately they were grey.

-Grey Tree Rat
So After lunch I set off, I won't deny it, thinking of stone curlew, The wood was mostly coniferous but there was no wildlife-at all. I eventually reached the nature reserves which were actually only about 200m squared a piece, and ultimately lacking in any form of heathland wildlife. I spotted a jay in one of the reserves, which so far have been the birds of the holiday. We had one in the morning and it just sat in front of the caravan. At the far side of the first reserve there was a path leading out of the reserve and into the neighbouring fields. I was still filled with stone curlew thoughts and the fields made me think that maybe they may be in the field. I wandered around the edge of the Field and reached a small pond. I glanced around and spotted a few damselflies but also a Hornet. sadly it landed way out of view, so I didn't get any photos. I double backed on myself to try and get back to the path. As I almost reached the path, I spotted a deer coming out of the woods and enter the Field. I tried to follow its progress so i could get closer to it but it kept dipping out of sight. Then, The deer popped up next to me! It just came out of the crops and looked at me, about 1.5m away from me. In a moment of absent mindedness I grabbed for the camera and it scarped but I managed to get some shots of its back end as it ran away. They always tell you that the back is vital when I.d'ing deer and as it so happens that was the case this time. The fact that the deer has a significant tail tells me that it is a muntjack-which is a first for me. At the time didn't know what kind of deer it was because my mammal book was at home so i remained ignorant to the true identity of the deer for the whole holiday. But it was the first new species of the holiday!

-Muntjack Deer

After it scarped away I followed round the rim of the feild. However the farmer came down in his car and told me that I was trespassing... so I had to make my way back into the wood pretty sharpish. When I did I found a speckled wood butterfly, which is my first for the year.

-Speckled wood

So no stone curlews and no woodlarks but still enough to be happy with. After tea we went to the another river away from the campsite to sit and see what came. There was quite an influx of unusual wildlife. The river I hould say was one of the fens and there were barges moored up all along the dock we were sat on. Naturally the first birds we saw were mallards, but then a common tern flew down river and started fishing in front of us. Then a kingfisher flew by and rested just up stream. We also spotted a jay (Told you they were the birds of the holiday!) and on the way back there were some red-legged partridges in a feild. so overall, a great start to the holiday.