SKYLARK SUE’S REFLECTIONS OF NATURE 

May 2014

Sedge Warbler at Cley Marshes



Avocet

May started on a damp, overcast note, though it was very mild. There was heavy rain in the evening of May 1st. The damp, overcast and slightly chilly weather continued for the next few days, but a trip to Norfolk on the 4th coincided with warmer, sunnier weather. My first trip to Cley Marshes was very enjoyable, there is a good visitor’s centre there, overlooking the vast area of marshland. Cley Marshes is Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s oldest reserve, and was purchased in 1926. Water levels in both pools and reedbeds are regulated to ensure the conditions are ideal for the birds, and the reed is harvested each year. By doing this, the reedbeds are kept in good condition. There are saline lagoons, grazing marsh and a shingle beach which attracts wildfowl, waders and other birds. Cley Marshes was hit by the December flooding last year; one hide was completely destroyed, and the sea water infiltrated the fresh water dykes and pools.

Shoveller

 

Female Gadwall



Oyster Catcher



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wall Butterfly

 

 

Heron

 

Marsh Harrier

We spent a long time watching a marsh harrier skimming and swooping across the marsh, and saw a skylark pouring out its unique trilling song as it rose high into the sky before spiralling back down to earth. There was plenty to be seen from the hide – we only had time to visit one, as we didn’t get to Cley till mid-afternoon. However, the avocets were beautiful and elegant, using their curved beaks to preen their plumage. Amongst the other birds that we sighted were shelduck, shoveller, greylag goose, black headed gull, pied wagtail, lapwing with chicks, mute swan and oyster catcher. A heron lumbered overhead. Glorious singing from the reed bed revealed a sedge warbler. It sung for a long time, posing between the reeds, which made it easy to get some photos – soften you hear the birds in the reeds but just can’t see them.  We also saw a Wall butterfly sunning itself on the grass.

Smew

Golden Eyes

Red Crested Pochard



Mandarin

As we drove into Pensthorpe reserve the following day we were welcomed by the call of a cuckoo, the first I had heard this year. Throughout the day the cuckoo called, often tantalisingly close but we just couldn’t glimpse him. It was a hot, sunny day and as usual there was plenty to see, including a smew that was carrying a large pebble in its beak.  On and around the lakes near the visitor centre were dozens of ducks including red crested pochards, mandarins, grebes, tufted ducks, golden eyes, pintails, Egyptian goose, coots and of course, the smews. There were also Canada and greylag geese. Wherever we looked as we walked around the reserve there was something to see – a male chaffinch in brilliant plumage singing from a tree top, a group of young long-tailed tits, their tails not yet grown,  a large cluster of young greylag goslings by the lake edge together with several adult birds, ladybirds, peacock and green-veined white butterflies. There were greenfinches, chaffinches and house sparrows by the feeders. From the hide by the scrape we spotted cormorants, lapwings and avocets. The wild flowers were stunning – in places the grass was just a mass of daisies, and there were speedwells, cowslips, stitchwort, red campion and many more.

Lapwing

Greylag Goslings

Young Long-Tailed Tits

Chaffinch



Ruffs

In the large, walk-in wader aviary, there were ruffs in full breeding plumage. These spectacular, showy birds had long fluffy feathers adorning their heads and necks, and were bowing to each other in what seemed to be a territorial display. Interestingly, the colour of the ruff’s plumage varied, and one was black, tinged with white, the other a bright chestnut. Both birds had beautiful markings on their plumage. Other birds in the aviary included black-winged stilts, black tailed godwits, bearded tits and turtle doves – the gentle cooing of the doves was soothing, and much more pleasurable to listed to than that of the collared doves, which are so common now.

 

Black-Winged Stilt

Black Tailed Godwit

Bearded Tit

Turtle Dove




Goldfinch

Trout



Young Starling

On the following day, May 6th, we called in to the Norfolk Lavender Farm to sit in the attractive gardens there. Chaffinches and goldfinches were calling, and in the river were trout. The weather was still warm and sunny, but it changed and became colder over the next few days. There was a young starling in the garden on the 7th; I always think that the youngsters are particularly handsome; very sleek, with a darker brown mark around the eye which seems to accentuate the elegance of the head, as opposed to the adults which always seem scruffy with their medley of pale dots, especially in their winter plumage.

Herring Gull

Greter Black-Backed Gull



Pied Wagtail

The 11th -14th were spent in Devon, though sadly, there wasn’t much time for bird watching or seeing much of the countryside, except through the windows of a train. Bird-sightings were limited to herring gulls, black-backed gulls, pied wagtails and a large group of feral pigeons! The pigeons and wagtails were at Dartmouth, and the gulls at Paignton and Torquay.

Feral Pigeons

A Handful of Snails!



Robin Bathing in the Ball Fountain

May 17th, a warm day, brought plenty to see in the garden, such as a brood of young great tits, venturing onto the feeders. There were also starlings, robins, blackbirds and collared doves. One robin was bathing in the ball fountain. We had noticed that the plants are becoming severely attacked by slugs and snails. Feeling around the rim of just one large pot revealed a handful of snails which were carefully placed under a hedge some distance away, but no doubt they will soon be back. We have noticed that the slugs and snails are particularly prevalent this year, presumably due to last year’s wet weather which encouraged them to lay thousands upon thousands of eggs.

The 18th was another warm day. As well as the vast quantities of snails and slugs, there are also masses of cuckoo spit. It seems to be on every shrub. Cuckoo spit is produced by the larvae of the froghopper beetle; it produces the frothy bubbles from its rear end, and these give it protection until they turn into adults. The following day we were pleased to note a wren in the apple tree. We do get them in the garden from time to time, but they are so secretive, moving about under the plants, that often we just don’t notice them.

Buttercups at Hatfield Forest

Female Mallard



Mute Swan

On May 20th, we visited Hatfield Forest, not too far from us in Essex, and where we go regularly as readers of this blog will know. As we entered, driving past the meadows, we saw that they were a mass of buttercups – just golden yellow in all directions. They seem to be in flower slightly earlier this year, presumably due to the mild winter and spring. Sightings on the lake included a mallard and her brood of ducklings, Canada geese and goslings, mute swan, coots and moorhens. Chiff-chaffs and a cuckoo called, and there were masses of ladybirds – unfortunately, many were the harlequin type with their pink legs and larger size.

 

Mallard Ducklings

Canada Geese Goslings

 

Caterpillar to id

Dog Rose



Harlequin Ladybirds and Cardinal Beetle

 

Harlequin Beetles

Red Admirals and brimstone butterflies were around, as were damselflies. Amongst the other species seen were jackdaws, pheasants, scorpion fly, cardinal beetle, blue tit and squirrels. We found a hairy caterpillar near the path by the lake, which needs to be identified. In the barn near the café, swallow were nesting. Dog roses were coming into bloom. Back home, amongst the garden birds was a handsome great tit on the nut feeder and a robin by the ball fountain.

Plantain

 

Great Tit



Slugs Climbing Up the Window

On the 24th, we noticed that several slugs were climbing up on the outside of the dining room widow, They were the thin, white kind of slugs, as opposed to the large brown, black and leopard slugs we normally see in the garden

Red Admiral

Bumble Bee on the Coreopsis

On the 25^th of May, a trip to the garden centre provided a couple of good sightings. The first was a handsome red admiral butterfly investigating a bright orange coreopsis plant. I think that red admirals are one of my favourite butterflies. I love the contrast between the velvety black and the scarlet and white trim. We decided to buy the plant, seeing it was so attractive to insects. As soon as we put it in the garden, a bumble bee, quite literally, made a beeline for it!

With an Asian Brown Wood Owl



Tawny Owl

The other sighting was not just one, but a batch of owls, there to raise funds for a local owl rescue centre. I was allowed to hold an owl, and chose Gizmo, a magnificent Asian brown wood owl. His marking were beautiful, and the cream ‘eye-brows’ highlighted his face. Other owls there included a barn, a tawny, an eagle owl, white-faced scops and a little owl. Back home, there was a young wren in the garden.

 

 

 

Robin

 



 

Sawfly Caterpillars

 

Young Blue Tit

 

 

Young blue tits were about on the following day, hanging from the feeders, and they continued to come to the garden for the rest of the month as did young great tits. There was a robin, too, and a clutch of sawfly caterpillars on the red currant bush. On the 29th, as well as the tits, garden sightings included dunnock, robin, blackbirds and collared doves, and, along with woodpigeons, were the main species spotted on the following two days.

Young Great Tits

Dunnock

On the whole May proved a mild month, though there were some wet and chilly days. June is forecast to be warm. We shall see!

A Tranquil Stretch of Water at Hatfield Forest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SKYLARK SUE’S REFLECTIONS OF NATURE 

April 2014

 

 

 

The blossom has been spectacular this month - red crab apple

 

 

A misty start to April 1st

 

 

Blackthorn

April started very warm; although April 1st began mistily, the temperature rose to a surprising 74 degrees F. A trip to Hatfield Forest, Essex, on the 2nd, though initially cloudy, soon developed into sunshine and blue sky. It was noticeable that many of the spring flowers and shrubs were already in full bloom. Blackthorn was thick with its white starry flowers, while plenty of primroses, celandine and violets were around, too. Various butterflies were on the wing, including a peacock sunning itself on a log, and the water was churning in the small lake with frog activity.

Celandine

Primroses

Violets

 

Peacock butterfly sunning itself on a log

 

On the main lake there was plenty to see. Joining the usual mallards and geese were a group of tufted ducks, and there were also the great crested grebes, coots and moorhens. Chiffchaffs were calling, and one was perched high on a branch so I was able to get a view of this often secretive bird. Green woodpeckers were cackling noisily. It was a beautiful spring day.



Frog activity in the lake



Chiff chaff

Great crested grebe

Tufted duck with moorhen in background



Sparrowhawk's pellet

On the 5th April we discovered what appeared to be a sparrowhawk’s pellet by a hedge just outside out front door, and the next day we discovered another, or part of one, which we dissected. It seemed to be a mix of feather quills and small bones, but we were intrigued to know where the sparrowhawk been perching. It must have been low down, as the hedge is only a few feet high. By now the weather had changed; it was damp and gloomy, though soon warmed up again – the 9th was really warm and sunny.

White crab apple blossom

Robin enjoying a bath in the fountain

On the 10th I watched a robin taking a long and very splashy bath in one of our fountains. We have three, but the birds seem to like best of all one that is shaped like a ball with a shallow indented top where water bubbles gently before flowing over the sides to collect in a larger, shallow bowl. Other birds were around the garden including a dapper dunnock on the bird table, and I was pleased to see a speckled wood butterfly near the plants by the pond. The blossom is looking very pretty now.



Dunnock on feeder dish



Cherry blossom

Marsh marigolds

Blue skies and sunshine were the order again for the next day, the 11th. The greengage, nectarine and plum blossoms are fully open; they have been out for quite a while. The pink cherry blossom on the tree near our front door is glorious – thick and heavy – especially looking wonderful against the blue sky. The red and the white crab apple blossom, as well as the white suffused with pink blossom on the apple tree, is beginning to open. I think there will be a good display this year. I have noticed that there is a plethora of dandelions alongside road verges, and also on our small lawn. Such cheerful flowers, and their white fluffy seed heads are so delicate. We also have a thick crop of bright yellow marsh marigolds around the pond. A look into one of the small wildlife ponds at night revealed some smooth newts, but still no sign of frogs. Last year we saw a couple, but, unlike a decade or so when the garden was thick with frogs, now they are a rarity. There seem to be lots of magpies around; driving along one road recently I counted at least eight in a stretch of about a hundred yards. There are some making a lot of noise in the oak tree across the road from us, too. No doubt they will be nesting there again.

This mallard had 22 ducklings!

She had them swimming two by two



Canada geese

Male chaffinch amongst the pussy willow



Mallards - note the vivid blue wingflash of the female

On the 15th April I was back at Hatfield Forest on yet another warm and sunny day, though the breeze was a little chilly by the lake. The air seemed filled with the laughter of green woodpeckers, but I only glimpsed one, some way off in the grass. The male chaffinches were in full colour, a magnificent deep pink, and singing lustily, and there were the usual jackdaws strutting around. One was sitting high up in the trunk of a tree near the hole in which the birds were nesting last year. A grey squirrel was searching for food, and a grebe was diving. Perhaps the highlight of the day, however, was a female mallard who had no less than 22 very young ducklings. At one point she had them swimming two by two behind her as they crossed the lake. I wondered how many would survive, what with the cormorants, herons, gulls and pike, all eager to take a duckling.

Just a glimpse of a yaffle - green woodpecker

Grey squirrel

The warm weather continued, and by now the crab apple blossom was stunning. Hopefully, there will be a good crop this year, unlike last year when an invasion of lackey moth caterpillars badly destroyed much of the leaves and buds. The invasion happened in May, so maybe one will occur again, this year. There were plenty of birds around, including robins on the feeder.  It was really warm and sunny on the 16th, too. It seems very strange, however, that none of the nest boxes have been used this year. For decades we have had blue tits nesting in the garden, and it’s sad not to see them bustling around gathering nesting material and feeding their young.

Young robin



Young robin and parent bird

The temperature dropped quite a bit by the 18th – it was the mid-60s, warm for April but there was a chill wind.  A young robin was in the garden being fed by an adult, it seemed a bit early for young robins, but then, due to the exceptionally mild spring, everything is more advanced than last year.  The next two days saw a more dramatic temperature drop – on the 20th the daytime temperature went down to 52 degrees F. On the following day, though, it soared again, to the low seventies. This was a beautiful, warm and sunny day and once more the robin was bathing in the garden. On a trip to Ely, I noticed that the oilseed rape was in full flower and crops seemed to be everywhere – just field after field of yellow. It’s an odd, harsh shade which to my mind doesn’t suit the British landscape, and I much prefer to see the fields full of light blue flax.

 

The naturalist Chris Packham had been broadcasting from Malta, where he went to observe the regular custom of hunting migratory birds that fly over the country. The reports were fact-filled and moving, and hopefully will raise awareness of the dreadful carnage of birds, many of them on their way to Britain. I have written a separate blog about Chris’s efforts.

The warm, sunny weather continued throughout the rest of April, with just the occasional shower, though a visit to Berkshire on the last day of the month was made through torrential rain and a thunderstorm. We had hoped to see red kites as we knew they were in the area, but all we saw was a heron perched rather incongruously on someone’s roof!

Oilseed rape

April 2014 proved to be a mild month with less rain than is usual – during the period the 8th – 19th, there was no rain at all in our part of Essex. Temperatures for the majority of the month hovered around the high sixties or even the low seventies, the coldest day being the 20th when it was wet and overcast, and just reached 52 degrees F. There was only around an inch of rain for the whole month. Compared to last year, this year’s apple blossom was open almost three weeks earlier. I wonder what May will bring?



Malta Migration

Malta Migration Massacre

 

Most of you who read my wildlife blogs are interested in the world of nature. You enjoy walking in the woods, watching the birds and listening to their singing. But what if there were no birds? What if we could no longer enjoy the sight of swallows swooping low over the ponds in search of insects, watch the sickle-winged swift soar high in the sky overhead, or hear the definitive sound of spring – the cuckoo? We would lose our summer. Sometimes, we might not even be aware of the swallows twittering around the barns or gathering on the telephone wires; they are summer’s background sounds – but we would soon miss them if they weren’t around. Yet each year, the numbers of our migratory birds are decreasing, and although there are many factors to take into account, one major finger of suspicion points directly at Malta. Malta is an idyllic Mediterranean holiday isle, destination for thousands of British tourists each year. Malta is also a place where thousands of birds, many on their way to Britain to breed, are shot.  Birds affected include kestrels, ospreys, cuckoos, bee-eaters, swifts, marsh harriers, purple herons, swallows, golden orioles and pallid harriers. There are many others.

 

Chris Packham with a swift killed by hunters

This April, naturalist and television presenter Chris Packham, together with three colleagues, is working on an independent, self-funded project to raise public awareness of the plight of Malta’s migratory birds. With the support of Birdlife Malta, the team will produce a series of videos depicting their findings as they infiltrate the hunting grounds. Chris states, ‘It will not be pretty. The species killed include many UK favourites and rarities and the hunters are infamous for being confrontational and violent. I don’t care, this is not a holiday. It’s an attempt to bring this forgotten issue to a wider public attention and then to offer a couple of ways in which the viewers can actually do something to effect positive change.’

 

Little Bittern

The problem is that Malta has a controversial exemption from the EU Birds Directive – a ruling which aims to protect all European wild birds and the habitats of listed species – and this exemption allows hunters to shoot a limited number of turtle doves and quail during the spring migration. Malta is the only country in the EU that has a recreational spring hunting season, but the hunters are ignoring the restrictions and killing other birds that are meant to be protected. Sadly, even the ‘allowed’ turtle doves, whose soft call once resonated across our land, are now so rare that their numbers have dropped by 95% in the UK. Not all the Maltese people are hunters of course – the large majority wish to see migrating birds protected and they oppose spring hunting, yet successive Maltese governments have failed to bring the illegal killing of birds under control. So, each year in spring over 10,000 hunters cluster on this small island to ‘enjoy’ their sport.



This Montagu's Harrier was too badly injured to save

 

Montagu's Harrier

Amongst the birds that Chris Packham came across this week was a swift that had been illegally shot, no doubt winging its way back to Britain. Swifts can live for twenty years and during the course of their lives fly millions of miles from Africa to their breeding grounds in Britain and back again, unfortunately passing across Malta on their journey. He also watched a hunter with dogs and noticed that one of the dogs was carrying a little bittern in its mouth. When the hunter saw that he was being watched, he hurried off, leaving the bird behind. Little bitterns are exceedingly rare in Britain. The team found another rarity, a magnificent Montagu's harrier, which had been shot. This was another stunning individual that will never effortlessly circle our skies again. The Montagu's, a female, had her wing shattered at the joints, and sadly, had to be euthanised. This particularly harrowing episode of the video diaries perhaps puts into perspective more than anything else just why we must all try to get this horrendous and barbaric practice banned. In Britain, a Montagu's is hailed as a rare and spectacular sight, yet to the Maltese hunters, it's just another flying target.

 But why do the hunters kill the so-called protected birds? It could be because they regard them as trophies; sadly taxidermy is becoming popular once more, and the birds’ stuffed bodies can be sold for a lot of money to collectors. One hunter pointed out that younger men ignore the rules and take pot shots at anything that flies. It’s good target practice. The Maltese hunters are against Birdlife Malta – they believe they are interfering with Malta’s birds. Yet they are not – the birds are not exclusive to Malta, they belong to Africa and Europe, too. Many of these shot birds would have been making their way to breeding sites across Britain. Each spring Birdlife Malta seek out injured birds and take them to a vet in the hope that a few, at any rate, might be saved, but very few recover enough to be released.

 

Another problem is that the hunters are unfair. Recently, over the holidays, local people were camping on one of the few public spaces in Malta. The hunters insisted that the police moved them on so they could shoot uninterrupted.  Hunters have also wrecked bird reserves on the island by chopping down hundreds of trees and polluting lakes with oil. They have even broken into the reserves to shoot the birds sheltering there. Few of them have been caught.

 

So, how can you help? You will find the video diaries and many more details if you visit:

http://www.chrispackham.co.uk/    .

 A letter or email to your local MEP would bring the matter to their attention, and if we all do this, then just maybe the laws will be properly enforced in Malta.  You can find your MEP here: www.europarl.org.uk/en/your_meps/list-meps-by-region.html

 

You might like to donate to Birdlife Malta, to help them in their fight against the hunters:

www.indiegogo.com/projects/stop-spring-hunting-on-malta

As Chris Packham points out, the bird life in Malta is stunning and it could attract thousands of bird watchers to view the spectacle each year. But the vast majority of bird lovers won’t go while there is a possibility that the birds might be shot. Would you?

 

Pictures provided by and copyright of Chris Packham