The Naturephile | Wildlife encounters out and about in the UK

Time 2021-01-12 08:03:13

Web Name: The Naturephile | Wildlife encounters out and about in the UK

WebSite: http://thenaturephile.com

ID:164518

Keywords:

encounters,out,Wildlife,

Description:

After my last post, my long time blogging friend, Scott, mentioned in a comment that he was reading a book set in my part of the world, viz the fenland of East Anglia. And that reminded me that during the Covid lockdown we ve beeen allowed to drive a few miles to exercise outdoors, and back in April I ventured over to a local fen for a walk with my camera.The Fens are a unique ecosystem characterised by lakes, reed beds and low scrub which create habitat for a wide range of wildlife and they re a great place to see flowers, birds, mammals and reptiles. It was a glorious sunny day when I was there and the wildlife was abundant, including this male reed bunting who posed beautifully for his portrait:Reed bunting (Dansk Rørspurv, Latin Emberiza schoeniclus)Cuckoos (Dansk gøg, Latin Cuculus canorus) were cuckoo ing all around the Fen it s apparently a good year for cuckoos here in the UK, and I heard one for the first time ever in the village a few weeks ago and bittern (Dansk rørdrum, Latin Botaurus stellaris) were booming. The bittern is a smallish brown heron which lives and breeds in reedbeds and is extremely rare in the UK, only 191 males were recorded in the UK by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) in 2017. Their booming call is an amazing sound and it can carry for over a kilometre. It s difficult to find a recording that really does it justice but if you click on the link this one hopefully gives you a good idea of what they sound like. Even though when they boom they re very disticntive and easy to hear, they re not easy to see unless in flight as they blend in perfectly with the background of the reedbeds. But one of these days I hope I can post one of my own pictures of a bittern to show you.However, one bird that is easy to see is the marsh harrier:Marsh harrier (Dansk Rørhøg , Latin Circus aeruginosus)The marsh harrier is another one of the British birds of prey whose numbers have recovered significantly since the 1960 s presumably after the pesticide DDT was banned, and this one is a male hunting small mammals or birds over the low scrub of the fen.The marsh harrier is a constant on the Fen, and it seems the bittern may be coming one too, which is fantastic. But the cuckoo isn t, they ve laid their eggs for the host species to rear and will soon be heading back on the perilous journey to the rainforests of sub-Saharan west Africa, hopefully to return to the UK next year to fill the spring air with their wonderfully distinctive call. 52.324087 0.030200 Following on from my last post when I mentioned the changes in behaviour of the local wildlife, since then there have been more birds relaxing in the garden. There have always been wood pigeons (Columba palumbus) round and about, and for several years they ve nested in my plum tree in the front garden, but this year, in the absence of most of the normal human intrusion, they ve been omnipresent. There are often at least two sitting atop the garden wall just relaxing,Preening wood pigeon on the garden wallGrowing on the garden wall is a wisteria, and you can see the purple flowers here. But what you can t do is smell the flowers.On a hot sunny day, for a couple of weeks in early May, the bracts of flowers, which are up to a metre long, fill the garden with the most intense and heavenly aroma. Interestingly though, the bees don t seem to be that bothered by it, but I love it!What I think are a pair of males have adopted a branch in the apple tree which they fight over I assume they re males, if they re females I imagine they d probably just take it easy and have a chat, but I guess it s that time of year.Woody wood pigeon perched on the fighting branch I can see why they like that particular spotBut a few days ago this one dropped down out the apple tree onto the grass and after lazily mooching about for a few minutes just hunkered down and did nothing for 20-30 minutes or so:Cooling off on the ground, and obviously not afraid of the local catsHe wasn t sufficiently relaxed to doze off like the dove in my last post and he stayed alert, but even so, I ve never seen one do this before. 52.258319 0.106315 I ve been working from home during these unprecentedly loopy times we re all living through. So while I m sitting reading next to the window I ve noticed the local wildlife has been behaving quite differently. The creatures frequenting my garden seem much more realxed than they normally do. I have a resident wren which I ve seen hunkering down to sunbath just outside the window, and that s unusual. Other birds that would normally flit in and out really quickly have also been taking their time, such as this collared dove which took time to enjoy the sunshine and generally take it easy yesterday.First off it perched on the back of a garden chair and had a really good stretch, wings extended and tail fanned:And after spending quite a few minutes just hanging around and enjoying the heat it drifted off for a little siesta And that would never have happened before the Covid-19 lockdown. So even though it s a pain for humans, it s wonderful that the rest of the creatures on the planet can enjoy a few months of quality relaxation whilst we re not terrorising them.Share this:FacebookTwitterLike this:Like Loading... It s Easter Saturday and the thermometer is reading 27 degrees C, it s a really beatiful day. Yesterday was the same and blossom is well underway on my apple tree, and maybe at least partially as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown my garden is being frequented by a stream of butterflies. Which makes me very happy! Some of them such as the comma (Polygonia c-album) and the holly blue (Celastrina argiolus) are regular visitors at this time of year:CommaHolly BlueBut there have been a couple of first sightings, both yesterday, which was great to see; the brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) and the orange tip (Anthocharis cardamines):BrimstoneOrange tipI love orange tips but they re really tough to track and photograph because they seldom settle. But when they eventually do settle and close their wings the underside has the most exquisite green lacework which also functions as perfect camouflage, they re virtually invisible when they sit tight and don t move.One other treat I ve had whilst working from home during the Covid-19 lockdown is my resident wren who appears just outside the window at least once a day and just occasionally sings his heart out. It s amazing how so much lovely song emanates from such a tiny bird, and at such high volume! I ll try to get some wren pictures in the next few days and post them here.In the mean time have a lovely Easter weekend and stay home and stay safe! 52.258378 0.106290 Share this:FacebookTwitterLike this:Like Loading... Over the last year and a half or so I ve been working with a group of people from my village to try to limit the development of our Green Belt land. Green Belt is undeveloped green space encircling built up areas which has legal protection from development in order to limit urban sprawl and provide places where people from towns and cities can go for relaxation.One of our areas slated for development is Buxhall Farm, which is around 300m from where I live. It s in the Green Belt and I ve posted about it s wildlife on numerous occasions. On the face of it it s a flat and boring piece of arable farmland with little value for wildlife. Or so you might think. Closer inspection shows that it s home to many species of birds as well as wildflowers, butterflies moths, mammals etc. All you have to do is look Linnet (Linaria cannabina, Dansk: tornirisk)All the picures here were taken on Buxhall Farm over the Easter weekend from 19th to the 22nd April and at the end of this post is a full list of my sightings there from that weekend.The linnet is a red listed bird in the UK which means it s of maximum conservation concern. This listing is usually due to falling numbers which is often the result of habitat destruction. Linnet are present at Buxhall all year round and breed there.Dunnock  (Prunella modularis, Dansk: jernspurv)The dunnock isn t red listed yet. It s a common sight round here and it has a rather lovely song, and some interesting mating habits.Skylark (Alauda arvensis, Dansk: sanglærke)The skylark is red listed due to declining numbers, largely due to intensive farming methods. I spoke to the farmer earlier in the week and he told me that he leaves wide field margins to encourage the wildlife and farms his land accordingly. So hats off to him, it shows that it s possible to make a living from the land without destroying all the wildlife.Female reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus, Dansk: rørspurv)Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella, Dansk: gulspurv)Over the last three winters there have been flocks of around 50 yellowhammers (also red listed) at Buxhall Farm and this is an important number of these lovely birds. They are one of those iconic farmland/hedgerow species whose numbers have plummeted in recent decades, also due to intensive farming methods, but we still have a healthy population in my neck of the woods.Peacock butterfly (Inachis io)All in all I saw at least 7 species of butterfly. There were many whites, but only one species that I could identify as it flew close and slow, but there were probably large whites and green veined whites too, both of which I see there every year. Butterflies are a very good indicator of the health of a habitat so to see so many species so early in the season was wonderful.Long tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus, Dansk: halemajse)Long tailed tits are normally fliting from tree to tree in small flocks but this time there were only two and they seemed local to a particular tree, suggesting they re a breeding pair using it as a nest site.Small tortoiseshell butterfly (Aglais urticae)Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis, Dansk: stillits)Land designated Green Belt has historically not been developed to retain those green areas for local people to get away from the city. But under current planning legislation an authority can simply take land out of Green Belt and develop it as it pleases. Combined with the massive curtailment of funding from central government to local authorities there s now intense financial pressure for those authorities to try to develop an income stream from the land they own. It s perfectly understandable that cash strapped councils need to raise funds but I don t think this is a good way to do it, but it s what s happening around my village and what we are trying to minimise.The full list of sightings on Buxhall Farm between 19th-22nd April 2019:Species                 NumberGreat tit                    1Blackbird                 5Greenfinch               1Skylark                     17Wren                         4Dunnock                   4Yellowhammer        4Long tailed tit          2Carrion crow            3Goldfinch                  8Rook                         21Starling                     2Reed bunting           8Corn bunting           2Whitethroat             2Swallow                    2Magpie                      2Blackcap                   1Linnet                       1Blue tit                     2House sparrow       3Buzzard                    1Robin                        1Wood pigeon           3Collared dove          1Songthrush              1Green woodpecker 1Kestrel                      1Chaffinch                 1Butterflies:Peacock                    2Small white              1Holly blue                 1Orange tip                1Brimstone                 1Speckled wood         1Small tortoiseshell  1It s a really great place for wildlife and I hope we can help to ensure it remains as very well managed farmland and doesn t get destroyed by developers building houses.Share this:FacebookTwitterLike this:Like Loading... Following on from my little rant about crap marketing by a well known purveyor of sports equipment at the end of December last year, I thought I d check and see if the same gloves were still on sale and if so, whether the sales pitch had changed.Imagine my disappointment to find that the offending text was still in situ in an unabridged form:Designed for standing at post on big game drives in cold weather. Also suitable for hunting migratory birds.Either they didn t actually pass on my comments to the relevant people within their organisation, in which case they fibbed to me. Or they did, and it got lost in the ether in which case they re incompetent, or they did and then decided not to change it, and in that case they re scumbags.Suffice to say I shall be voting with my feet and my credit card and source my sports kit elsewhere. Bastards.But that s enough of that and I hope a picture of a spring butterfly will lighten the mood a tad This is a holly blue (Celastrina argiolus) which is usually the first butterfly I see in springtime when it emerges in March/April; after which it disappears for a while. But it has a second emergence in June August (the technical term  is bivoltine ), and this image was taken in the summer in my garden. And it makes me smile when idiot marketing people conspire to ruin my day!Share this:FacebookTwitterLike this:Like Loading... I try to avoid too much political comment and opining in this blog, but just occasionally I stumble across a piece of corporate loopiness which makes me spit feathers and has to be commented on . So apologies in advance, but here goes.I ve never had much respect for marketing, it seems to me it s simply a way to convince gullible people to part with their hard earned cash for something they don t need and may not even want. And today whilst looking for some gloves I came across this description for a pair of convertible mittens on the website of an internationally well known purveyor of sports equipment: Designed for standing at post on big game drives in cold weather. Also suitable for hunting migratory birds. Also suitable for hunting migratory birds. Really?! I m sure I won t be alone in finding this piece of marketing nonsense completely bonkers. Will someone really read that and think to themself I must buy those because if I don t I ll be less well equipped to shoot a willow warbler ?And to illustrate my point, here is a small selection of our migratory birds:Migratory bird 1 waxwingMigratory bird 2 fieldfareMigratory bird 3 short eared owlFrankly, I d rather have cold hands.But in the interest of fairness I must point out that I contacted the company to voice my disquiet and they came straight back to me to say they had passed on my concerns to the relevant people within the organisation. So now I m waiting see if anything changes . I ll let you know what transpires.Share this:FacebookTwitterLike this:Like Loading... Last year I went to Rutland Water to see osprey, but the real stars of that day were this pair of great crested grebe (Podiceps cristatus, Dansk: toppet lappedykker) performing their courtship ritual.Many birds have sophisticated courtship displays and the grebe is one of them. They paddled away from each other then turned about and paddled rapidly together:And when they met they reared up and neck sparred after they had both reached down into the water and plucked a beak full of weed to offer as a gift to their partner.I d never seen this display before and paddling furiously to stay high in the water this pair put on a terrific display of mutual weed waggling.And it seemed to pay off as they were still paired up after all the frenetic courting activity The ospreys were magnificent but this humble pair of grebes stole the show!Share this:FacebookTwitterLike this:Like Loading... Driving around the countrside at this time of year the hedgerows are full of red haw berries and rose hips, which in turn means that they re full of our Scandinavian visitors, redwing and fieldfare. But every now and again, when the winter weather s particularly brutal  in Norway we get a visit from the most spectacular visitor from that part of the world, the waxwing Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus, Dansk: silkehale)Last year, they were here making the most of a long hedgrow full of rosehips, at least it was full of rosehips when they arrived, but after a couple of weeks the hips were somewhat diminished.A pair of waxwing harvesting rosehips on the Cambridge Science ParkI think of these birds, with their prominent crests and beautiful colours  as being our birds of paradise and there are few that I enjoy photographing quite as much, and not least because they also have a distinctive song, particularly when they are singing together in flocks.And the inevitable consequence of a diet consisting solely of bright red rose hipsShare this:FacebookTwitterLike this:Like Loading... A couple of weeks a go I was on an early morning train heading out across the Fens near March in Cambridgeshire where I saw a group of 30-40 cranes in a field next to the train line. I ve only ever had one fleeting glimpse of a common crane in the UK before so it was properly exciting to see such a large group of these statuesque birds. So much so that two days later I drove to the vicinity of the first sighting to see if I could find them again. And after a little driving around this is what happened 14 common cranes (Grus grus, Dansk: trane) These 14 birds were part of a group of 19 that flew right overhead and it was a quite incredible sight! According to the BTO the common crane is amber listed after being hunted to extinction four centuries ago. It has recolonised East Anglia naturally since 1979 and according to the Weekly News from BirdGuides a record 54 pairs of an estimated 180 birds were counted this year in the UK.After this sighting I headed on to the Ouse Washes where this group formed part of a larger group of 40-45 birds, so I saw approximately a quarter of the UK population. They were too far away to get a photograph but captivating to watch in the distance through binoculars. They were a mile or so off to the left and straight in front, several miles away, was Ely Cathedral:Which even though it was made by humans is also a majestic site on a sunny morning across the flat expanse of the Fens.Share this:FacebookTwitterLike this:Like Loading... Privacy Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

TAGS:encounters out Wildlife 

<<< Thank you for your visit >>>

Wildlife encounters out and about in the UK

Hot Websites